Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Top of the Stack, October 2026

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Top of the Stack, October 2026 · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the podcast where I
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorder as I step out of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: my door and deliver an episode to you while I
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: walk around. I'm Brendan Reilly. Well, greetings listeners. It's a
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: lovely day here in suburban Chicago. It is August 2nd,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: my first podcast recording since the Month has begun, so
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: that means it's time for a board game espresso triple shot. No,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: it means it's time for the Top of the Stack.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: For those of you new to the podcast, Top of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the Stack is an episode in which I talk about
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the games I played in the last month and then
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: think a little bit about the games I'm going to
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: play next month. It's a delightful way to start the month.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: So as a reminder, the Top of the Stack is
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: an episode... It's a title I swiped from the podcast
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: of Nonsensical Gamers, so if you're wondering about what that means,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: it's a metaphor. The idea is I've created a stack
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of games that I want to play. The games on
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the top of that stack are the ones I'm trying
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to get played this month. Sort of a self-goal thing.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Lots of stats, lots of lists. It's a great episode.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: This is also the chance to urge you to share
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: with me what games you have been playing. Over on
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the Pick Up and Deliver Guild, number 3269 on BoardGameGeek,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: We often have people creating top of the stack posts
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to share the games that they have played in the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: last month. So with that in mind, let's jump right in.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Monthly stats to begin. I had 63 plays of 48
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: different games last month for a total of 628 plays
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and of 249 different games so far this year. Lots
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of fun progress in playing those games and playing games.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: My shelf of opportunity is My goal was to get
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: it down to about 50 games, less than 50 games
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: this year. I started at 83. At the beginning of
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the month, I was in September, I was at 103 games.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I'm down to 102. Progress. My collection size, however, went
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the other way. It was at 651 games. It's gone
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: up to 656. So not really making progress on that front.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: My most played game on the table was chess because
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: somebody brought a copy of chess to toggle and they
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: were a new toggler so they were looking for people
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: to play with. So I played three games of chess
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: with this person. We played best of three, I think
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: it was called the Fisher random variant where you take turns,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: you change the order of the pieces in the home
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: row of the board. You each have the same order
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: but you get to pick You take turns drafting pieces
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and putting them in the home row. So it was fine.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: We played best of three with a timer, a five
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: minute timer running. And I won two of the three.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I don't think because I was a better chess player.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I think I just played more cavalierly and made him
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: eat up his time. So it was fun. I also
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: played Baron Park twice on Board Game Arena and once
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: on the table. It's always fun to return to Baron Park.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: It's always good. I really need to play it a
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: few times with people who've played it a fair amount
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: so that we can bust out the monorails and the grizzlies.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Because when you have all the modules in there, the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: expanded version of Baron Park is actually pretty robust and interesting.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: So I need to do that. So that was my
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: most played online game, also at three. All right, so
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: my top of the stack. I had four games on
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the top of the stack. I always consider it a
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: success if I play three of them. I only played two,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: so it was not a success. And one of them
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I got in just under the wire. I played literally
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: on September 30th. The two games that I got played
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: this month were Recall and Messina 1347. Both were successful
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: plays at Toggle, which is nice. And then the one
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: more game was Tekenu Obelisk of the Sun, which is
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: a game I have not tried yet. And then I
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: also had Ardor Survival, a solo game that I thought
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I might have a chance to play, but did not.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: get that done either. So two of the four, I don't,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I've only had one month, two months, June and July
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and January, January, June and July. So it's just the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: J months apparently where I successfully play three or four
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: of the games that I set out to play that month.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Isn't that funny? So I played a number of games
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: for the first time this month. I will give you
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the list here. Some of these games I will be
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: reviewing in upcoming episodes. Or, you know, giving first impressions anyway.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: So we have HeroQuest, Apothabakery, Mysterium Park, Scrap Racer, Giants
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Moving Tiny Furniture, Back to the Future Dice Through Time,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: The Refuge, Terror from the Deep, Rebirth, and Rumble Nation.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Lots of good games there. Oh, and Recall. I didn't
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: put Recall on that list, but I did play Recall
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: for the first time right there at the end of September. So,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: ten new games this month. Lots of them good. I'm
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: happy to share that Not too many stinkers in the bunch.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I did try three expansions this month. I got to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: play Elder Sign, Omens of the Pharaoh, which I've already
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: talked about on the pod, although I don't think I've
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: published that episode yet. We'll have to see. Sushi Go
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Party Chef's Edition, which is like the newest expansion for
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Sushi Go, and if you have regular Sushi Go or
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: have Sushi Go Party, this is just a whole bunch
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: more cards with different scoring conditions so if Sushi Go
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: is your thing there's lots more you can get and
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: then I got to play King of Tokyo Godzilla which
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: essentially is just King of Tokyo with the correct standees
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I mean when you play King of Tokyo it really
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: feels like Godzilla the board game but they didn't want
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: to pay for Godzilla now they have a Godzilla version
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: anyway it's fine King of Tokyo is not my favorite
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: game I find it kind of dull so it was
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: fine I enjoyed my time playing with the people who
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: were playing, but not a game I generally would choose
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: to play all that often. Ah, so the last time
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I played King of Tokyo was 2022. King of Tokyo
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Godzilla was in 2026. So it was four years dusty.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: So the games I got out of dust were Sushi Go,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Century Golem Edition, Big Book of Madness, and King of Tokyo.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Each of those, Sushi Go was two years dusty. Century
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Golem was one year, two months. Big Book of Madness
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: was one year, three months. And King of Tokyo was
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: about four years. I haven't done the date on that
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: exactly because I wasn't tracking it. But yeah, lots of,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I like to dust off games when I get a chance.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Something like Sushi Go, it's funny because it, or Big
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Book of Madness, those both feel like games I played yesterday,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: but it's been over a year. So as you know,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to get all 50 of my top 50
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: games from played in over the course of two years,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and I'm not doing a great job on that. Well,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I'm more than half. I'm at 37 games now. I
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: was at 36 coming into the month, but I played
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Messina 1347, so I'm at 37 now. These last 13
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: are going to be very difficult to get played, and
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I guess if I wanted to achieve my goal, I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: need to get three or four per month. No, four
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: or five per month. If I get four per month,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I'll get 12. There's 13 left, so I need to
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: get four or five per month. That's one a week
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: of my top 50 games. And some of these games
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: are beefy. So it seems unlikely that it's going to happen,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: but I'll do my best. So Messina 1347 was really
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: fun to play. I played it a fair amount online,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: but it was nice to get to the table, move
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the pieces around, do your best. I had a good game.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I made a mistake about three turns out from the
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: end that cost me enough points that I didn't win
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the game I don't think I'd have won anyway, but
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I would have been in spitting distance, whereas I ended
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: up in a distant third, which was fine. It was fun.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I really like a game like that. I love the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: tension of, oh, man, this one bad decision cost me
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the game. That's wonderful. Rather than one bad dice roll
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: costing me the game or something like that. So I
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: like that a lot. The games I have left to play,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: in case you're curious, Terraforming Mars, Through the Ages, Vampire,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: The Eternal Struggle, Star Wars Rebellion, Pandemic Legacy, Agricola, Matainai, Cerebria, Anachrony, Mosaic,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: A Story of Civilization, Twilight Imperium, Anno 1800, and Evacuation.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I should get a couple more of
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: those played, but I don't think I'm going to get
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: that many played. On my 10 for 10 goal, I
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: played one game. The Messina 1347 counted as a Vladimir
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Suchy game, because it is one. which puts me at
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: six of his games played this year, doing pretty well,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: versus Martin Wallace. I've done two or three, if you
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: let me double dip one of the games, because that
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: was also a new top 500 game and a game
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: that was on my shelf before 2025. So this one
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: game fulfilled several of the requirements, but that's cheating. I
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: did not get any miniature painting done yet. this month.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I've been meaning to do that. I would like to
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: do that. Just haven't gotten back to it. On my
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: shelf of opportunity, I removed Mysterium Park. This one's interesting.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: because I have played a lot of Mysterium, and in fact,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: my brain feels like I have played Mysterium Park because
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I've used it in class a couple times, and I
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: have it in my board game club, so I know
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: how to teach it pretty well, but I've never actually
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: sat down and played it until this month. So, having
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: played it this month now, I have removed it from
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: my shelf of opportunity. Giants Moving Tiny Furniture, Recall, and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Apothebakery are all games that were on my shelf of
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: opportunity that are no longer there. I also removed Elder
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Sign Omens of the Pharaoh from my Expand Your Shelf.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: It's like the shelf of opportunity of my expansion material.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: And finally, my collection size. I have not, I did
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: not get rid of any games this month. I should
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: have brought some to Toggle to sell, but it's probably
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: better that I didn't because almost no games sold at Toggle.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Just wasn't, wasn't a robust selling situation. But I have acquired,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I did acquire a couple games in September. I got
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: a copy of the Sherlock Files for my school. I'm
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: using it in one of my classes, so I bought
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a copy of that. I picked up Camel Up at Goodwill,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and that's, that game's really fun. I like the racing
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: aspect of it, and that's just a delight. And then
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: at the toggle event, I got two games for free
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: from the free table. I got the Battle at Kemble's
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Cascade and Unbroken, and I bought one game, Too Many Bones.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I bid in the auction just like everybody else, and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I tended to my bid, but I wasn't overly vicious
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: about it, and Had someone else bid in the last minute,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: I would not have overbid them. Because I didn't... I
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: was running the auction, so I didn't want to be unfair.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: But no one else bid. I'm the only one who bid.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: So I got to buy Too Many Bones for $ 20.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Now Too Many Bones is a game I've been oogling
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: for a while. I keep hearing about how good it is.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: It looks really neat. But it's very expensive. So I've
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: held off buying it. And I'm excited to try it
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: now that I picked up a copy. That's Too Many Bones.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: which brings my collection size to 656 at the end
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: of the month. Yikes. It's getting too big. I keep
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: saying that, but it keeps getting bigger. So that leads
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: me to the question of October. What am I playing
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: in October? For new games on the top of the stack,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I'm putting Joan of Arc, the Orleans Draw and Write.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I like Orleans a lot. And so hopefully I'll get
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to try this one out. It's from Reiner Stockhausen. I
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: think it uses a lot of the same material. but
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I presume it's a little bit different. I haven't even
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: opened it, but I like Orleans. It's a top game
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: for me, so I buy all the stuff they release
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: for it, including the Draw and Write game. I put
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Too Many Bones on there right after I got it.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Excited to try that. And then I have Mosaic, A
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Story of Civilization. This is a top 50 game that
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I'd like to get played this month, and I, in fact,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: have arranged to play it, so I'm pretty confident I'll
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: get that one done. And I put Tekenu, Obelisk of
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the Sun back on there so that I could really
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: give myself time to maybe get that achieved. Future Brendan here.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Upon getting home and remembering that it's spooky month, I
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: decided Takenu Obelisk of the Sun is not the ideal
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: game to play at this time, so I've swapped in
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Arkham Horror 3rd Edition instead. So it was a fun
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: month for gaming. I'm looking forward to October, but it
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: was a delightful chance to play games. Well, I'm just
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: about at the library, so that's probably it for me today.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I want to say thanks for joining me on my walk.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to tell me what you've been playing
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: this month, head over to BoardGameGeekGuild3269 and share on the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: top of the stack thread. I don't remember if there
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: is one for September there yet or for October there yet,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: but if not, you could start one or someone else
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: will start one soon. If you would like to reach
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: out to me directly, Wombat929 is my username there on BoardGameGeek.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Or you can email me, Brendan, at RattleboxGames.com if you
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: want to reach out to me directly. Finally, I'd be
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: happy to play some asynchronous games with you. I do
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: that over on BoardGameArena and Yukata.de. In both places, my
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: username is Wombat929. That's where you can get a hold
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: of me, and I'd love to have that chance. All right, well,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: thanks for joining me on my walk today. I hope
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: your next walk is as pleasant as mine was. Bye-bye.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by Rattlebox Games. Bye.