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2015 Look Back · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:05
  Welcome to pick up and deliver at the podcast where I pick up my audio
• 0:07
  recorders, I head out for a walk and delivering episodes two while I stroll
• 0:10
  around. I'm Brendan Riley. Well, good afternoon, Well, good afternoon,
• 0:23
  listeners. It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago, and I'm out
• 0:26
  for a walk. It's a break between work sessions today I am going to
• 0:30
  be talking a little bit. I was looking through some recent episodes and trying
• 0:34
  to figure out what I might want to do for this one, and I
• 0:37
  realized it's been longer than I intended I tried to do. I was going
• 0:41
  to do one of these like once every ten or fifteen episodes, and we're
• 0:44
  like thirty now since I did a look back. For those of you who
• 0:49
  don't remember the segment. Basically, this goes to something I do every year,
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  which is I sort of pick out my top ten or top five game
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  from a year ago and talk about why they're my top five. And I've
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  been doing this since I started the podcast. But I started the podcast about
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  five years ago, which means that before that I wasn't doing a top five,
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  at least not for a podcast audience. So what I've been doing is
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  I started this thing called a look back, where I look back at a
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  previous year and I do a top five for that year of the games I've
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  played. So the last one I did was for twenty sixteen. You can
• 1:26
  find the link in the show notes. And so now I'm going to be
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  doing twenty fifteen. So my methodology here. I went to Board Game Geek
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  and I do an advanced search, and I searched all the games made in
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  twenty fifteen or published in twenty fifteen. Then I sort them by Board Game
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  Geek rank, so the highest rank game is at the top of the list.
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  And then I scrolled on and I record every game in the Board Game
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  Geek top ten thousand ranked games that I've played. I make that list.
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  Then I go through that list and I win to it down to a few
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  games I want to talk to you about here talk about with you here on
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  the podcast. Now, the other thing that I do as part of that
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  ordering is I exempt a couple of games from the list. So one of
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  the rules is if the game is in my top fifty, I do not
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  talk about it as part of the top games. I mean, I'll mention
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  it but basically, sometimes when I do this, if I'm going to make
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  a top five or even a top ten list, most of the games on
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  it are already in my top fifty that happened more recently than this one.
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  But even in twenty sixteen, five of the games that I was most interested
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  in, I've already said they're in my top fifty of all time, so
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  it's not surprising they would be at the top of the list. That's true
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  today as well, So I'm not going to talk about these games. You
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  can find my discussion of them in a variety of places, but here they
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  are. We've got tri carry On, Pandemic Legacy Season one, Through the
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  Ages, a New Story of Civilization, and Matyni. Those four games are
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  games I'm still playing regularly. They're still games I love, and they would
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  be the top my top four choices for twenty fifteen. So that means I
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  have eleven more choices in my top fifteen from twenty fifteen that I want to
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  share with you today. I had a pretty strong and long list of games
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  that I played it played from twenty fifteen, and a big chunk of those
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  are games I'm pretty fond of, so I have quite a bit to talk
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  about with you today after those fifteen, but we'll just bop through it.
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  I'm probably going to talk about a game more right now if it's one I
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  don't recall talking about recently on the podcast. If it's a game I've talked
• 3:27
  about recently, then I won't talk about it much. I'll just say you
• 3:30
  remember that game. And generally what I do in the show notes at rattlebox
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  games dot com I tag every episode. You can go to the show notes
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  and you'll find each game that I talked about tagged in the show notes,
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  and if you click that link, it'll take you to a list of all
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  the episodes where I've talked about that game. Okay, so the next game
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  almost should have ended up in the exempted from top fifty because up until the
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  last time I did a top fifty, this game was in my top fifty.
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  And this is Elysium. Elysium is a card game from Matt Dunstan and
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  Brett Gilbert. It's got a really interesting card selection mechanism and really interesting gameplay,
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  and it's still pretty novel. There aren't a lot of other games I've
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  played that do what it does, but it's really good. The downside is
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  it can be pretty slow because all the cards have different stuff on him.
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  You kind of have to read them all and so whenever the new cards come
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  out, everybody has to sit and read for a bit. So that's the
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  downside, but pretty neat that's Elysium. My number six game is Time Stories.
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  This is still near the top of my list. I still say this
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  game is great. Some people thought that the later chapters weren't as good,
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  and I'll admit they weren't quite as good as the first couple chapters, but
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  they were still really good. It was still a great experience. Now,
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  part of this might just be that I had an excellent Time Stories group and
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  so when we played Time Stories, we had a great time with it,
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  so that makes it. I may be biased, but I still I love
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  that game Time Stories. Number seven is a classic board gamers party game,
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  and this is Code Names. Code Names is still a game that I play
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  regularly with my students, with other gamers. It makes its way onto the
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  table quite often with good reason. So Code Names. Yeah, it is
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  a puzzle game, and I'm sure you're awesomne with it. My number eight
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  game is Mysterium. Misterium is a kind of supernatural clue solving game, good
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  for spooky season, So maybe we'll play it during the spooky season this upcoming
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  a couple of months. In the game, you are one players is a
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  ghost trying to give clues to a bunch of paranormal investigators. We're trying to
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  solve the ghosts murder. It's a fun idea and it's fun to play,
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  so I recommend if you haven't had a chance, Mysterium. Next up,
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  we've got Isle of Sky. This is the first one I'm gonna talk about
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  with any kind of depth. Well, none of these will be tons of
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  depth, but the Aisle of the Sky is an Alexander Fischer game. In
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  fact, it might have been the first one I played. I really like
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  it. It is a filler level game with an auction mechanism that are a
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  I don't know, pricing mechanism that I think is really neat. So in
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  the game, you get three tiles and you have to price them, and
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  then the way you price them is by putting money in front of them or
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  are onto them to say how much how much you want to charge for them.
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  Then your opponents can choose to buy the tile from you for the amount
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  that you've designated for that tile. So if they want the tile, they
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  can buy it for you from that price. If they don't want the tile,
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  then you pay the price that you put on that tile for that tile.
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  So it's a really interesting balancing act that because you might have a tile
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  that you think somebody else wants, so you want to price it high.
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  But if you price it too high, then you're stuck buying it and you
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  might not actually want it. It's a really I like this mechanism a lot.
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  It's really neat when you then you place the tiles in your display and
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  there are a variety of different scoring mechanisms that you're using. I think I
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  mentioned this a couple weeks ago in the context of Nemalia. The game from
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  the new game from I Think All Play. Isle of scott has a really
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  interesting scoring pattern as well. There are a series of four different i think
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  five different scoring objectives and each round a different combination of those will score,
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  and you can see from the beginning what that scoring order is going to be,
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  so you can decide which ones you want to concentrate on if you want
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  to. It's not entirely dissimilar from Cartographers if you're familiar with that one,
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  but it's a little I think it's a little better. That's Ale of Sky.
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  This game is The Bloody End. This is a game I haven't played
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  too many times, but I think it's a really neat game and the art
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  is incredible. In the Bloody End, you are a murderous family of hoteliers
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  who are murdering and robbing some of your customers and just you know, providing
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  good customer service to others. You're bribing your way through the town to keep
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  the law off off of your back or to keep the to get help with
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  your work, and you have to find places to bury corpses, which is
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  I think a funny a funny element of the game. It is a really
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  dark theme, obviously, but a fun little euro with multi use cards and
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  tough decisions throughout. That's The Bloody End. Next up on the list.
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  That's perhaps the most tenuous introduction, in part because I've just played it the
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  once, so rating it this high about all the other games I've played from
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  twenty fifteen is maybe bold, but it was a dang good game and I'm
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  really glad to play have played it and looking forward to playing again. This
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  is Argent the Consortium. Argenta Consortium is a very volatile, in your face
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  worker placement game in which you're placing workers to try to win influence with different
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  leaders of the school so that you can get elected chancellor. Your workers are
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  all little wizards and they each have a different kind of power, and so
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  when you place them, then they're all going to attack each other before the
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  worker placement spots resolve, and that makes for some really interesting player maneuvering during
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  the game. You also have these cards that will give you sort of let
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  you amplify different things that you can do, and the different locations that you're
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  going to have different things that they give you. And there are something like
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  fifteen different possible or ten different possible things that the leaders might be looking for,
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  but only five of them are in play in any given game, and
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  so or maybe there's fifteen and there's eight in play, I don't remember exactly.
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  But it's a really interesting back and forth as you're trying to figure out
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  which things that you could be doing will get you influence with the leaders.
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  So definitely exciting game. I really want to play it again. That's Argenta
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  Consortium. Bring Out You're Dead as a game I've played a lot. I
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  haven't played a ton in the last couple of years, but it's a really
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  good one. In this game, you are you work in a graveyard or
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  you're trying to bury your family who have all died in the plague. You're
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  trying to get them the best spots in the graveyard. There's a little bit
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  of pushing your luck where you're bringing out corpses when other people are and if
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  you feel if the grave diggers cart gets full, then your family's bodies just
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  get dumped in the river. There are points for different jewels that you can
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  get, and points for different spaces that you can take. It's goofy and
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  fun and has tiny little coffins as one of the components, so well worth
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  a checkout if you get a chance bring Out You're Dead. Next up,
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  it's Potion Explosion. This is a game I really enjoy playing. I like
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  the physical manipulation of the board. I like the puzzle that emerges as you're
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  playing. Yeah, I think this one's a really fun one. It's pretty
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  light but really fun to play, and I'm glad I have a copy Potion
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  Explosion. It's sort of like if if you're not familiar with that one,
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  it's sort of like be Jeweled one of those sliding puzzles, or that one
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  of the puzzles where you're matched three. It's like a match three puzzle as
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  a board game. Next ut Prodigals Club. This is a Vladimir Succi game.
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  It's the sequel to Last Will and can apparently be played with Last Will.
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  I keep saying I'm going to do it. I haven't found the time
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  yet, but at some point someday I'll play both of the games together and
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  he will be glorious. In Prodigals Club, you are a the scion of
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  a wealthy family, but you don't want to be and so you're trying to
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  throw away all the all the good stuff you have. You're trying to go
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  broke. You're trying to not get married, you're trying to and you're trying
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  to not get elected to parliament. Are you're trying to destroy your reputation,
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  not get elected to parliament, and go broke. You can play with any
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  two of those three, but I think the game is really fun with all
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  three, which is how I've played. And finally, dead Man's Draw This
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  is This is a tough one picking in the fifteenth game in this list,
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  Demonstra was a great push your luck game where you're flipping cards and then using
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  the cards to do things. It's just enough grit in the actions that you
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  take when you're doing things that it feels meaningful. But it is also pretty
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  light and easy to teach, so if you're playing with new people or playing
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  with people who haven't played this kind of game before, it's a really simple
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  one to get into and a lot of fun. That's dead Man Straw.
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  All right. So I have three more lists. I'm gonna buzz through these
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  real quick as we're wrapping up here, but I wanted to share these with
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  you. Five favorites from twenty fifteen. Five games I really like that I
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  don't own. Stronghold second Edition is a great two player massive dueling game.
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  I owned it for a long time. I only played it twice, and
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  one of my good friends has it, and he's the one I played it
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  with both times, so I got rid of my copy, figuring I can
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  probably play with him now. He might have gotten of his copy two in
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  which case of them were out of luck, but so be it. Another
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  two player dueling in that I really like is a Raptor. In Raptor,
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  one player plays scientists trying to capture some Vlass raptors, and the other player
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  plays a Vlass rap and her five babies. It is a great I don't
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  know what you call it. Read read your opponent's mind game. You're trying
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  to figure out what card they're going to play, they're trying to figure out
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  what card you're going to play, and the benefit that comes out comes from
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  the interchange between those two cards. Really good. It ended up falling to
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  the I need more shelf space and I just don't play this very often.
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  Game Callum. The other three are games that I have never owned, but
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  I've played a few times, and I like Ash's Rise of the Phoenix Born
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  is a great two player or a multiplayer card dueling game with a neat dice
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  system. I really like that and would enjoy playing it more. Blood Rage
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  is, of course the Eric Lane masterpiece I had for a little while.
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  I had mid Guard, which is the earlier version of that, and Blood
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  Rage is It's a really interesting game, very fun. I'm not good at
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  it and so it's never crossed my trans and I think if I came across
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  like cheap copy twenty bucks or less. I would probably buy it because it's
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  a really good game and I do enjoy playing it. Occasionally, I'm just
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  not good at it, but that's blood Rage. And then finally The Gallerist.
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  The Gallerist is the game I like. I didn't like it. It's
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  probably it's on the bottom half of my Vataliserta games that I've played. I
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  don't really like the theme very much, but from a mechanisms perspective, it
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  is everything you would expect from a Vitaliserta game. So really happy to try
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  it when I got to, and definitely put it on my games. I
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  like five favorites I don't own. I identified three games from twenty fifteen that
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  I would really like to try. I'm sure there were more, but you
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  know, especially in the first say first say three hundred games on board game
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  Geek, I identified a few of them like, oh, that's a game
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  I'd like to try, and those are Kingdom Death, Monster, Food Chain,
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  Magnate, and Forbidden Stars. Now, Forbidden Stars is a game I'll
• 14:54
  probably never get to play because it is out of print. So if you
• 14:58
  didn't buy it when it came out, You're not going to get to buy
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  it, and food Chade Magnet frankly sounds too mean for me to have it
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  be a game I want to play regularly, but it would be a game
• 15:07
  I'd be interested in playing once or twice because it's just because I've heard it's
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  so good and I feel like I ought to have played it. And then
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  I'm not going to elaborate on them, but there are a few honorable mentions
• 15:16
  games from twenty fifteen I do like that I was not able to include on
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  this list for a variety of reasons, but I did want to mention them
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  at least, and they are Favor of the Pharaoh, caste Leon, Broom
• 15:30
  Service, Fury of Dracula, Between Two Cities, Shakespeare Mission, Red Planet,
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  Big Book of Madness, and Epic PvP. Any one of those games
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  could have on a different day made my top fifteen for the year and are
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  all games that I enjoy, And all of those are games that I still
• 15:50
  own as well, so very happy to play any of those if I get
• 15:52
  a chance. Well, thanks for joining me on my look back to twenty
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  fifteen. What games would you say are the top games for you of twenty
• 16:00
  seen head over to board getting gekill three T six nine. You show your
• 16:02
  thoughts there. I hope that you had a pleasant walk, and I hope
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  your next walk is this pleasant times bye walk, go bye. My number
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  eleven game is probably the Oh my gosh, somehow my entire neighborhood is just
• 16:36
  full of beeps and bloops and engines and a man brought two by rattle bogs.