Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Rhino Hero Super Battle, Suburbia, Antiquity Quest, Dungeon Petz (revisited)

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Rhino Hero Super Battle, Suburbia, Antiquity Quest, Dungeon Petz (revisited) · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you, pick up and deliver the podcast where
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I pick up my audio recorder as I step off
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the train and deliver an episode two while I stroll home.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Brendan Riley. Well, good afternoon, listeners, it's a lovely
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: day here in suburban Chicago. Well it's only four thirty pm.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: It really does feel like I should say good evening
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: because it's already starting to get dark. I can see
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the moon pretty clearly. I imagine sunset is in like
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: half an hour forty five minutes or something. So it
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: feels pretty dark or getting dark earlier than I would
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: have expected because it's four thirty in the afternoon. But
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: that's okay, because I'm here to talk to you about
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: board games. It's time for a board game Espresso Triple Shots.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: The board game Espresso Triple Shot is a mini review
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: episode in which I talk about three games that I've
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: played recently for the first time. I also include usually
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: one game that is a return from something old or
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: an out of the dust game to add a little
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: bit of spice into the conversation. That's what I do
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: in a board Game Espresso episode. As a reminder, these
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: are all games i've played maybe once or twice, so
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: they do not carry This does not carry the way
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: to review, more like a first impressions segment. Well, the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: first game I want to talk about today is one
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I played back in September. This is rhino Hero Super Battle.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: So Rhino Hero is a game that I've played a
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: number of times. We have a copy at my house.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: That is, it is a card game and you just
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: have like one little mepo and what you're doing is
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: building up a tower and moving the mepal from space
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to space and trying not to be the one who
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: knocked over the tower. At some point, Haba, the company
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: that releases the game, released a new game called rhino
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Hero Super Battle, in which there are several characters who
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: are all fighting for dominance, and you are trying to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: decide trying to win the fight by getting higher on
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the tower than anybody else. There's also dice rolling, where
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: if you land on the same level of the tower
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: that someone else is on, you roll dice and if
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: your number is higher than theirs, then they get booted
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: off and fall down a layer. So that's pretty cool.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Rhino Hero Super Battle is designed by Scott Frisco and
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Steven Strump with art by Ties Schwartz, and it was
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: published in twenty seventeen. So in this game, like I said,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: you're building a tower. In Super Battle, there are multiple
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: players with multiple little pieces, and then there are these
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: little monkeys that hang from the tower as well. The
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: whole idea of the game is that you want to
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: defeat the other players and you have to constantly be
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: adding to the tower. So there's an interesting balancing element
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to it. Although frankly, unlike regular Rhino Hero, which I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: find the balancing actually is pretty tricky. I feel like
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Super Battle the balancing is a little more stable, which
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: is nice because then you don't have to worry so
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: much about a shaky hand or a awkward movement knocking
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the whole tower down, although that is certainly something that
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: can happen. Knocking the tower down is part of the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: game of Rhino Hero super Battle. The main difference in
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the two games is that each player has their own character.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: In the original Rhino Hero, it's more like Jenga, you're
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: trying to not be the one who knocks it over.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: In Super Battle, you have your own character and you're
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: trying to get your character as high as possible while
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: also not knocking the tower over. It's a fun game,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and I think it's more fun than Rhino Hero. So
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: if you have the option to play either one, I
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: would recommend Rhino Hero A super Battle. On the other hand,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Rhino Hero A Super Battle comes in a fairly large box.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I would say, maybe eleven by seventeen and two inches thick,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: because it's got a whole bunch of fairly big pieces.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: By contrast, Rhino Hero the original game comes in a
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: little two deck box, something along the lines of Sabatur
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: or the original Guillotine. So those sort of simpler ways
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: of that simpler way of delivering the game works in
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the favor of Rhino Hero, but otherwise generally I would
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: say Rhino Hero Super Battle is the more entertaining game.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Check it out if you get a chance. Next up
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: is a twenty twelve classic which I picked up at goodwill.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: This is ted Alsbach's Suburbia. Suburbia is a game that
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: was designed, like I said, a long time ago and
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: has existed for quite a while now. It is sort
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: of the original tile placement augmenting Bonus's Neighbor League game,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: which ted Osbach I would say refined and perhaps perfected
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: in the Castles of Mad King Ludwig, which is definitely
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: feels like another run at the suburbia formula in the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: same way that often Martin Wallace games feel like different
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: passes on the same idea, or Uve Rosenberg makes multiple
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: passes at the same idea. In terms of theme, just
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: You're each player is trying to build their own suburban
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: paradise in which you are managing the mix of population
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and resources. Basically, the way the game works, you have
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: every tile you put down gives you resources or population,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and the oscillation back and forth between the two is
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: really important because if you get enough population but not
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: enough resources, then you start to lose your reputation, which
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: are your points, and the vice versa is true. If
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: you get a bunch of resources but not enough population,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: then you are underperforming. You don't get as many points
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: because the reputation comes from people moving into the city.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: For the most part, the game in buying tiles from
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: a market and placing those tiles into your city, and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: each tile has different things that it does. Sometimes it'll
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: give you a bonus, sometimes it'll give you a power,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: sometimes it will give you an endgame scoring condition that
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: triggers when you hit the end of the game, and
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: often those endgame scoring conditions are based on the other
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: tiles that you have in you game. One of the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: things I like about Suburbia that actually exceeds Castles of
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Mad King Ludwig for the most part, is that in
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Suburbia there's an emergent narrative that is in some ways
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a sarcastic engagement with the question of suburban infrastructure. In
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: other words, there are elements in the Suburbia game that
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: reward you with points for building a suburban, a sort
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of classic American suburban neighborhood. For example, you can get
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: a power plant and that gets you a bunch of
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: money and the potential for more population. But if you
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: put it by any residential or commercial area areas, people
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: get upset with you. You can put it by industrial areas,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: or you can put it by water. Similarly, in this
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: one I found particularly galling. You could build housing projects,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and those lose you points if they're near anything other
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: than the power plant. So as soon as you put
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the housing projects near residences or commercial areas, the people
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: in those places get mad, which fits the suburban ethos
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: very well, but it's a really grim narrative and kind
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of upsetting. Actually, I mean it makes sense, it is
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: consistent with the idea of suburban architecture and suburban planning,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: it's still really dark and kind of a bummer. Overall,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed Suburbia. It was a good time. I like
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the way the tiles work together. I enjoyed the scoring,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: but I spent most of the game just saying to myself,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: h not as good as the Castles of Mad King Ludwig.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: And as a point, which like, okay, well if that's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the result every time, when am I ever going to
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: pick Suburbia Overcastles of Mad King Lubig Because they do
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: feel like so similar that if I feel like playing
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: a game where we're going to buy tiles and build
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: a thing, we could play Castles and we wouldn't have
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: to bother with Suburbia. Again. So, while I did enjoy it,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: and I thought some of the narrative emergent properties were interesting,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: not enough to keep it. It's on my sale pile
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: now and yeah, so that's Suburbia from twenty twelve by
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Ted Alsbach. Now they have released it in a couple
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: new editions. I don't know if the super fancy Deluxe
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: edition is more fun or if the updated second edition
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: is better somehow, but I think I have. I got
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: one of the older ones and it works just fine.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: It's really it's a good game, very fun, just not
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the best fit for my collection, so out it goes.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I did manage to dust off a game that I
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: hadn't played in a while, and this is Dungeon Pets
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Dungeon Pads. It was an early euro game that I
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: purchased and is one of the first games where I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: played it with my wife and she's like, ah, this
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: is too complicated, even though I think the theme is hilarious.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: In the game, you are a bunch of little imps
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and you have started a business raising pets to sell
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: to dungeon lords who will use them to populate their
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: evil manners underground. The pets are all adorable monsters with
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: cute little horns and little eyes and spikes and stuff,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: so they look like a tiny monsters, but they're just
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: very cute. In the game, you are raising these monsters
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and you have to keep them fed. You have to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: keep them safe, and you keep them safe by containing
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: their physical aggression and containing their magical aggression and feeding
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: them and cleaning up their poop if they poop too much.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: You also need to play with them to keep them happy.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: And basically each monster can take one vault of any
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: given type, but if you give them more than one
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: of that, they disappear or they die. So if a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: monster has one sadness already, I can't remember, sadness might
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: be the one where you can have up to half
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of their age in sadness, So if they're four years old,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: you could have two sadness and not have them die.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: But pretty much anything else, they'll disappear if you get
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: a second one or even a first one, Like if
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: you have a monster and it gets too much rage,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: then it breaks out of its cage and runs away,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: which will make you lose the game or lose that monster.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: The game is also full of these different buyers who
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: want to come and buy the monsters, and different ones
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: like different things, so you're when you're when the buyer
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: is there, you're trying to show off the monster and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: show that they do the things. So like, there's a
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: farmer who likes monsters that poop, so if you make
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: your monster poop a bunch of times while the farmer's watching,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: then he'll pay more for your monster. That sort of thing.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: There's also a sort of four h club style show
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: for the monsters each year or each round, and you
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: can win points by doing well in that competition, or
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: hilariously by helping judge the competition yourself, which it turns
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: out you do well when you're the one filling out
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: that judging for him. Last I mentioned this a number
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: of times on the podcast, but it is my favorite
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: rule in board gaming. It's very funny. In the game,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: there's a meat market. You have to feed your pets too.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Of course, in some of the meat meat there's also
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: the market where you buy infant pets. You don't breed them,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you raise them, So you buy infant pet pets at
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the market and then you raise them to sell to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: dungeon arts. Well, the pet market has infant pats ages one, two,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: and three, and if you have a pet that exceeds well,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: maybe it's ages one and two, and then if the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: pet exceeds age two, then they're removed from the game.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: In the rule book it says they go upstate to
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: live in a farm. In an unrelated note, add a
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: meat to the meat market. I think that is very funny,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: really amusing clever rule building. It's easy to remember that rule.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: You'll never forget it because it's very funny, and it
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: also creates sort of hilarious emergency emergence stories. So that's
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: a treat. Dungeon Pets it's a little old twenty eleven
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and it shows when you go to play it. There's
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: some stuff in it that just feels out of date.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I imagine if they designed that game today and released it,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: it would work a little bit differently. But it is
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a delight and I do enjoy it quite a bit.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I do have the Winter Festival adaptate or add on,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: but I haven't played it. I don't think or if
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I did, it's a long time ago, and mostly I
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: play this game online. It's available on board game Arena,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: you know, or it's maybe a yukata. Either way, it's
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: a really solid implementation of the game and very fun.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Dungeon Pets is from designer Vlada Chivato was published by
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Czech Games Edition. And Oh, how dusty was it? That's
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the question you have for me, isn't it? You want
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: to know how dusty the game was? Of course, by Dusty.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I mean long had it been since I played Dungeon Pets.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Dungeon Pets was one year, eight months, and twelve days, Dusty.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: So the last game I have to talk about today
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: is Antiquity Quest. Antiquity Quest is from designer Jessica Buck
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: and Harris or Desica Beck and Harrick Harrison Beck, with
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: art by David Beck and April Scott. The publisher is
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Grandpa Becks Games, a cute little publisher of a number
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: of different small games. Grandpa back being the patriarch of
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: the whole endeavor and available by telephone. They give you
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: his phone and email in the rule book and they
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: say if you want to call him to ask questions,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you can do so, which I think is fun. Antiquity
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Quest is essentially a sort of elaborate rummy game in
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: which you are building up sets of cards and trying
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: to get the most points but also get rid of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: your hand, as I recall. To be honest, I played
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: this again in September as well, and I have forgotten
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: some of the details, but it essentially feels like a
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: slightly more elaborated version of a classic card game, and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: it works pretty well in that way. There's the theme
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: or the suits are all around different kinds of antiquities,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and the premises that you're trying to find these antiquities
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: and save them from a museum, and of course somebody
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: else is trying to get them for private collections, and
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: you should not do that too much. So Antiquity Quest
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: is a good time. I enjoyed it quite a bit,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and I am glad to have played it. We decided
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: to keep it around. We had a good time with it.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure how long it'll stay around or how
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: often it will come out. I think it will be
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a game that will play with in laws because it
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: is relatively easy to explain and there's enough going on
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: that it's interesting. I think it will be a solid
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: game with that group. I may also bring it to
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: my game night occasionally. So that is Antiquity Quest from
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. Uncle Beck or Grandpa backs games. Well. That
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: brings me to the end of my walk today and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the end of this board game. Espresso Triple Shot, thanks
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: for joining me on my walk today. I hope that
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: you've enjoyed yourself. I would love you if you came
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: over to board game Get Killed three two sixty nine
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and shared a little bit about what you've been playing,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: because then I'll know and that will make me happy.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Until next time, thanks for joining me. I hope your
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: next walk is as puzzles as mine was. Bye bye,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by Rattle Box Game