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My Top 50 … by Art (part 8) · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to pick up and deliver the podcast where we
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorder as I step off the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: train and deliver an episode to you while I walk home.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Brendan Riley. Well, good afternoon, listeners. It's a chilly
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: day here in suburban Chicago. It's not freakishly cold, it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: probably high thirties, but it's windy and it's still winter,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: so I'm still bundled up, but I'm still happy to
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: be talking to you. Well, it's time for yet another
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: fun day of talking about my top fifty. We're down
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to three episodes left, so we're talking about numbers fifteen
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: through eleven of my top fifty board games organized by art.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: In case you just happen upon this series right now,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: i'd recommend you go back a few episodes and listen
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to the whole thing. But basically, the last few uppisodes
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I have been revealing my top fifty games of all time,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: but instead of revealing them by order of preference, I'm
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: revealing them by order of my preference for their art.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So that's what's going on. Let's just jump right in.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Shall we Number fifteen on my list of top fifty
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: games by art is the Lost Ruins of Arnak. Lost
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Ruins of Arnak is a worker placement and deck building
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: game with track and a little bit of I don't
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: know board. I mean that's what the work replacement stuff is.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I guess it's kind of a weird hodgepodge of different things,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: but it's a hodgepodge that works together really nicely and
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: makes four really interesting interactions. There's a lot of trying
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to squeeze one more resource into a thing to do
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: one more thing, and then that'll give you another resource.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I like it quite a bit. It is really hard
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to catch up. It's very much a winners, keep on
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: winning kind of game. It's not unheard of that you
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: could catch up. But most games I've played, the person
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: who's in the lead by say round three is probably
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: gonna win. It's very rare that I've seen a dramatic
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: change of position after about that point. Now, maybe this
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: is maybe that's not as true in games among really
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: much more experienced players. I can't say that I'm all
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: that experience. I probably have less than twenty plays logged
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of this game, and I only have like three or
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: four on the table. So take that grain of salt
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: for what it is. I haven't talked about the art
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: at all. I love the art in this game. I
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: think it is beautiful and evocative and strange, but also
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: very clear and communicative. The graphic design is sharp and
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: easy to understand, like this is one of those games
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: where I almost never have to look up a symbol,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and if I'm in a situation where I do have
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to look up a symbol, most of the time there
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: is a text communicating a thing as well. Say. The
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: only place where that does isn't always true is the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: assistant tiles in the game. You could get these assistants,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: and those are small and so they just have a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: depiction of what they do. And there are a few
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: icons on there that I have to look up, but
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: generally that's pretty rare. Almost everything else I can understand
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: the icons and play pretty smoothly. But the place's game
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: really shines is the board and the cards. So I
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: love the board. The board is this sort of elaborate, weird,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: fantastical place where you and the other archaeologists are journeying
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to find this lost city. And then the cards are
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the big tiles. I mean, the cards are fine. I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: like the art on the cards, but it's actually the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: tiles that I'm thinking of, because the tiles have the guardians,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: So each time you go to a new fancy place,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: there's these guardian tiles that get put out that are
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: these weird kind of land of the Lost monsters. They're big,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: some of them are kind of dinosaur like or giant insects.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: They're all slightly weird and really just very well crafted,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: carefully drawn, beautiful art. So the art in Lost Rooms
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of Arnac is beautiful, which puts it right near the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: top of my list as a game. I have it
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: at number thirty four, so it's more than halfway down
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: my list. I really like it. It's very good, but
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: not quite very very top tier, but still a game
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: I really enjoy. I'm happy to play it at anytime.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I do have the cooperative expansion, which I haven't tried yet.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: I love the first expansion they came out, where you
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: get more new you get a different deck of starting
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: cards and a special power. I think that adds a
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: lot to the game. I really much prefer the game,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and it also changes the scoring track so it's not
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: quite as vicious, which I think gives makes it more
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: likely that someone's going to be able to catch up,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and I appreciate that. So that is Lost Ruins of Arnac.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Next up, number fourteen is Baron Park. Baron Park is
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: my fourteenth favorite art in the game. Now, some of
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you who know the art in Baron Park might be going,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, Brennan, and this is just another Vincent
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Tray standard euro art style. Yes and no. Yes, because
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the people look like the characters from Agricola or any
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: of the other sort of cartoony style games that Vincent
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Jutray often would do. But he's also got the bears,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and I love the bears in this game. I love
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the way that the enclosure tiles look with the different
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: bears sort of sprinkled in there. I love that the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: way the bears are depicted in the rule book and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: in the larger spaces. I like the little bear statues.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I love the art and design of barn Park. I
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: think it is really really well done for what it is.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: It has the right tone, the right feel. Each time
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I play the game. I love looking at it as
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I'm building it, but it doesn't get in the way
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: of the gameplay. This maybe isn't the pictures themselves aren't
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: one the way that say Lost Ruins Varneck are. But
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the perfection of connection between art style, design style, and
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: gameplay is hard to beat when you're looking at Baron Park.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: So that's where Baron Park sits for me. When you
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: add in the Barren Park expansion, which for some reason
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: they called the Bad News Bears Expansion, it's a terrible
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: name for it, you get these monoorails that you build
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: in the zoo, which look really cool, and you get
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the bigger Grizzly tiles which look really cool. So overall,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Baron Park is just a perfect package for me. I
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: think it's really good and I'm really happy to have
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: it at number fourteen in art. For gameplay, it's at
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: number forty, which is down fifteen spots from position twenty
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: five in twenty twenty two. Weirdly, in twenty nineteen it
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: was at position forty again, so it went up and
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: came back down. I think it went up because of
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: the bump of the expansion. It went down again because
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I haven't really played it that much. I really like
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: this game. It is It is one of those games
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that ebbs and flows in terms of my getting to
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: play it, and it is something I would like to
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: get out and play again. And it is in my
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: top fifty for sure, but it's down at number forty.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: That's Barren Park, designed by Phil Walker Harding. Next up
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: number thirteen in my list of top fifty games by
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: art is The Hunger Now. Hunger is a new entry
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to my gameplay experience. I first played in October when
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I was out in Rhode Island. Actually I played it
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: in Connecticut, but I was out in Rhode Island. And
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: it's just I love the art style in the game.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: If you go look at board game Geek or at
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: a shop and just look at the cover art, the
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: way that the people are drawn just is really cool.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: It's line art illustrations of vampires and villagers. They're very evocative.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: There are these animal familiars that you can get that
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: all look really cool. Some of them are cute, some
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: of them are kind of scary looking, but they all
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: look really neat. I love the way the board looks.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: It's very readable but also very thematic. It looks like, yeah,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: this is the sort of the Transylvanian countryside. I like
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the different styles of the different characters, the variety and
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: how the characters look the little details that they put
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: into the different characters, each piece of it perfect. I
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: love the art style on the cards. The cards are
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the main thing for me looking at the cards. I
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: love the way that the characters are drawn, and it
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: fits very well with what you're doing in the game.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: The one knock, I would say some of the other
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: games I've been talking about, I think the graphic design
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: is really good. The one knock on this game is
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: that I think that there are so many different things
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: that can happen that the symbols get a little bit
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: out of control and they're a little bit difficult to parse.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I don't find myself having trouble with them all that much,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: but I have found that as I'm talking to people,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I really have to be very clear about how to
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: read the iconography so that we're all clear about what
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the different characters do, because as a deck building game,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of the cards do a lot of different
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: things and it's hard to tell what they are from
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the ic alone. That said, overall, I love the style
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of the game, and I like the graphic design a lot,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and I like the art on the board. So for
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: all of those reasons, the Hunger is my number thirteen
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: game when I organized by art. Now, in terms of
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: my top fifty, it's pretty remarkable of the game that
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: came out in October is already in my top fifty.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: But I really really like it, and this is my
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: number forty one game, so it comes in just under
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: barn Park. I think that I like the satisfying nature
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: of accumulating the different scoring tiles. The cemeteries have all
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: these different scoring tiles and you can get a bunch
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: of them. I like the way that the different characters
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: you might put into your decks score differently at the end,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: but you're also getting points as you accumulate them. And
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: then I love the push your luck aspect, especially the
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: all or nothing when you're playing on the expert mode,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: where if you don't get back to one of the
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: last four spots, you just burn up and you get
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: no points at all, which happened in my last game
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and it was hilarious. It can be very frustrating, of course,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: but that's part of the fun of the game, is
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out how far to push your luck
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and hoping that you'll do better, and if you do poorly,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: sometimes that comes to get you. It's great so all around,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I really like The Hunger. I'm looking forward to playing
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: it more in the future. I did pick up the expansion.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I haven't cracked into it yet, but probably one or
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: two more plays at the base game and I'll be
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: ready to mix that material in because it looks like
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: it's one of the more of the same expansions. You're
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: not getting a whole bunch of new mechanisms. It's just
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: it adds more stuff to the game. That's The Hunger
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: from Richard Garfield. My number forty one game number thirteen
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: in order of art. All right, My number twelve game
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: for art is a game I don't own and probably
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: never will own a legitimate copy of, but I have
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: print and played my own copy. This is the deluxe
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: redesign of Glory to Rome. Glory to Rome is the
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Carl Chuddick masterpiece. I really like innovation, I really like MATINAI,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: but there's something very special about what how Glory to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Rome works. It seems to be the foundation on which
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: all these other games are compared, even if I like
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: some of them better. The thing that went made it
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: go from being an interesting game to being a masterwork
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: for me is the very beautiful graphic design that was
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: done by a fan and then used as the core
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: of the reprint, which is what I used to make
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: my copy, and I will buy a copy if they
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: ever reprint it so that they can get their money.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Glorid Rome is a fantastic game. So not only is
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the art I mean it's very minimalist. It looks very
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: much like if Ikia sold a game. This would be
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: a game for Mikia. And you can see how when
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: they made Matainai they were going for a similar art style.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Matain I went with a more origami look, whereas this
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: one is more geometric. It's very distinct, like it's hard
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: to it's hard to sort of make clear, like how
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: distinct the art feels in this game, like you can't
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: help but notice it. And while sometimes you want the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: art to blend it in the background, in this case,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I think it's really compelling and for a great package.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: So for me, again, unity of design, unity of purpose.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: The art in the Glory to Rome Special Edition is
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: number twelve on my list. In terms of gameplay, I
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: have Glory to Rome at number thirteen. This is a
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: top tier game for me. I find the card play
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: really fascinating. I love the follow mechanism. It's really swingy,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: so it's not a game where you can be like, oh,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I definitely am gonna be able to very carefully plan
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: my strategy and definitely win. Sometimes you just get screwed
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: because of the cards. But there is a huge amount
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: of player interaction. You're watching other players trying to figure
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: out when they're gonna call the action you want to do,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: and you're saving up cards so that you can follow them.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Some people will build a massive engine. The last game
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: of it, I played two of the players build these
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: massive engines, but then I won because I was actually
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: focusing on banking points instead of because the engine does nothing.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: You have to earn points in different ways, and that
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: was It just worked out really well. It's very compelling,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: really innering. This is the game I definitely want to
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: play more. I have owned this game for a while
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: my print and play copy, but I had not played
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: it until a year or two ago. Since I've played
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: a couple times, and every time I played I like
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: it more. This is a top tier game for me
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and one that I'm looking forward to playing lots more
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: in the future. And I hope that if they ever
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: republish it, I will be able to buy a copy
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and support the designers. This is Glory to Rome. My
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: number twelve in art, my number thirteen on my top fifty.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: And finally, the last game for this episode, number eleven
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: in art is an Acrony. An Acrony is a work
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: replacement game with beautiful art. I'm gonna put my paper
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: away here, so I'm going to share it is my
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: number thirty game altogether, down twenty two spots from number
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: eight previously. I'll talk about that in a minute. Number
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: eight was its highest position thus far in my top once.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: So the art in an Acrony is this sort of ethereal,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: wispy design for the civilization. It reminds me a little
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: bit of the Tartists itself. You see these like lines
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: of power emanating sort of electrical feeling to it. But
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you also have these sort of weird giant statue heads
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: that are everywhere, and you have futuristic looking devices and
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: civilization kind of buildings and such, and then you have
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the characters who feel, you know, pretty straightforward, but they
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: give flavor. I will say an Acrony is one of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the few games where I bothered to read the art
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: book that it came with, and that gives us a
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: lot of flavor about the culture and also give some
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: more images. It's just the miniatures and the art and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the play style all meshed together really well. You can
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: get a lot of sense of what different groups are
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: like based on the art and the play style and
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: all together they just it works so well. I love
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the art in an acrony, which is why it puts
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I put it at number eleven In terms of gameplay,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: I haven't had a lot of chances to play the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Expansions yet, and so the game has slipped some in
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: my estimation compared to other games of its ilk. I
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: imagine if I had a few table games in between
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: now and next time I do this list, it'll probably
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: boost back up. It is a really fun game, and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I have a lot of fun every time I play it.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I just would like to try the Expansions, and I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: guess having failed to do that, it's also put me
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: off the game a little bit, which is why it's
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: down to number thirty instead of being up like by
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: number eight, which is where it was last time. But
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: it's still a great game. I still love it and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: i'd happily play it whenever I got the opportunity. That's
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: anacrony from mind Clash Games. Well, that brings me to
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the end of my number fifteen through eleven of my
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Top fifty games by Art. We've got ten more to go.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Those will come out in the next few days, and
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I look forward to sharing them with you. If you'd
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: like to comment on this, head over to board game
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Gigil three two six nine. We're having a conversation and
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: a thread called top fifty by Art or top fifty
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: something like that. Join us revealing the games that you
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: like and why do you like them. Well, thanks for
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: joining me in my walk today. I hope your next
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: block is as pleasant as mine was.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Bye bye.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Whereas this one is more geogrammic, geometrical, geometric, this one
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: is more geometric. Brought to you by rattle Box