Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Gartenbau, Haven, Burn the Fort, Orleans Invasion (expansion)

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Gartenbau, Haven, Burn the Fort, Orleans Invasion (expansion) · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to pick up and Deliver the podcast where I
• 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.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: While I walk home. I'm Brendan Riley.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Well, sometimes it takes a little effort to get back
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in the swing of things. I was looking today and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: it looks like I published the episode of the podcast
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: that I worked on last on Friday, I think on
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the podcast feed, but I didn't publish it on our website,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: so I apologize if you were looking for the game page.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I am now recording another episode. We'll see when this
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: one gets published. I have to be a little more
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I have to get in the swing of things again
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: now that I'm teaching.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Just takes a little bit more careful thought to figure
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: out how to make all this work.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Well, nice to talk to you today. It's time for
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: a board game Espresso triple Shot. For those of you
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: new to the podcast and espresso, a board game Espresso
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Triple Shot is an episode where I pour some metaphorical
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: coffee for us to share and we listen to three
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: podcast We talk about three games I've played recently for
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the first time, and then usually one other game that
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I played either that I dusted off, or sometimes, as
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: with today, an expansion I tried for the first time.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: So that's the idea.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: These are sort of in the neighborhood of reviews, but
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: think of them as first.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Impressions, right.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I haven't played these games long enough to have or
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: often enough to have a review of them yet. Instead,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: it's just an idea of the game, and here I
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: am to share it. So for the first game I
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: want to talk about. This is the second to last
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: game in the July spread of games. I have two
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: left and then we'll get into the August games.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Today, So this is Gartenbau.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Garden Boo was published by twenty fifth Century Games, with
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: designers David Abelson and Alex Johns behind the wheel.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I did not write down the names of the artists.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: My apologies.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Gardenboo is a lovely little plant themed game in which
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: you are raising plants. The game has a circular board
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: with a variety of different icons on the board and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: these plant cards.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: That you could pick up.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: The idea of the game is that on your turn,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you're going to move your piece certain number of spaces.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I forget if it's been a little while since I
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: forget exactly what determines when you need to move your piece,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: but you're gonna move your piece around the circular board,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: and then you're either gonna take cards, take tiles of
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: these different plants, or you're gonna take resources, which you
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: use to pay for the bigger plants and for the tiles.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Then in the space in front of you, whenever you
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: take these tiles for plants, which are called seedlings, you're
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: gonna lay them out in a grid, and then in
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the grid you're putting different kinds of plants next to
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: each other.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: It's got a kind of domino.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Feel too, that the plants tiles are doubled, and so
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: you're sort of paying attention to which kinds of plants
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: you're taking and where you're placing them as a way
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: of coordinating which plants you're going to grow. And then
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: sometimes you can also take these bigger plants that will
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: cover up the smaller ones if they have the right pattern,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: and then you.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Get more points for the bigger ones that you've taken.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: All in all, it's a sort of set collection game
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: with a relatively simple economic element where you're gathering the resources,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: so there's an efficiency element and a race element to
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: it as well, as you're trying to get these plants
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: before your opponents do. There's a little bit of tactics
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: in terms of deciding which tile to take, and there
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: are some resources you can spend to kind of jump
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the line so that you don't have to take the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: next tile. You could skip around to the different side
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: of the board and take a tile that's better for
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: your process. Overall, it was a pretty good game, definitely
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: the category of happy to play, don't need to buy
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: for me. If somebody else suggests this, or if you're
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: looking for a plant themed tech collection game that would
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: be good for a variety of skill sets in gaming,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: both people experienced and relatively new, this one.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Would be a good one to pick up.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I've only played it once, but it does feel like
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the kind of game that will be pretty much the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: same every time you play it. I'm reminded a little
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: bit of some Jay Alex Kevern games like World's Fair
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety three, in which the mechanisms allow for interesting
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: tactical decisions, but the game is pretty much the same
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  Speaker 1: every time. So I but again, I've only played it once.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Maybe it does reveal different things as you play more.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: There might also be additional cards or modules that we
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: didn't mix in. It wasn't my game, so I didn't.
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  Speaker 2: Explore the box as thoroughly as I could have.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Nonetheless, well worth a try if you get a chance,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and perhaps a buye if you're somebody who's really into
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: plant themed games.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: That is garten Bau. Next up, I want to talk
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: a little bit about Haven.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Haven is a game published by Red Raven Games, from
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: designer Elf Siegert and.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Of art, of course by Ryan Lockett.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Now, if you don't know Red Raven Games, Elf Siegert
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: is I think a copy editor for them, but he
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: also does development work and occasional game design.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: They've published a number of his designs.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: From Red Raven, and I would say I am generally
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: mid on Red Raven games.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: In general. I usually think they're fine.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I have never I have only bought a couple of them,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and neither of them has stayed in my collection for
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: very long.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: I think I owned Eight Minute.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Empire Legends at one point, and I owned Dingo's Dreams
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: at one point, both of which moved on. Dingo's Dreams
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: actually was an Elf Siegert game. Is an Elf Siegert game,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and I did enjoy it, but again it's one of
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: those games that's fine but not exceptional. Haven is in
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the same boat. This is an area control game just
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: for two players. And in the game, you are either
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: playing as nature or as the city, and you are
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: trying to develop your factions control of this fantasy world.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: There are these elemental creatures whom you are trying to
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: get favor with, and that favor will help you gain control.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I will be honest, I don't remember a lot about
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: how this game played. I went and looked at I
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: went and looked up the cards and stuff, and it is,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: as I remember, quite beautiful. But the gameplay just did
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: not stick in my head. And I thought about like
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: taking a little extra time and going and reading a
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: detailed description of the rules, or even downloading the rule
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: book and looking at it. But I thought maybe the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: fact that I can hardly remember the gameplay a month
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: after I've played it also speaks to my experience of
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the game, which was it was fine.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I remember thinking it was reasonably.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Fun and that if I got a chance to play again,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I probably would, but once again, not a game feel
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: driven to play, and obviously somewhat forgettable for me in
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: terms of the gameplay. Not to say it's bad, but
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: it didn't.
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  Speaker 2: Click for me.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I will say the person I played it with had
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: had it for a while and he had not had
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: a chance to play it either, So when we played together,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: we were playing it in terms of evaluating whether it's
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: something he wants to keep or not. And he also
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: decided he didn't need to keep it. It was going
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: on his seller trade pile, so I guess that speaks
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: to it. It was fine. I didn't actively dislike it, certainly,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I remember we both said, oh, that was fine. This
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: might be one of the places where being somebody who's
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: been in the hobby as long as I have, or
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: as into the hobby as I am, the sort of
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: game the game, the games that are fine end up
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: being less exciting because I've seen enough fine games, which
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: is an interesting issue to have. You know, if this
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: is a game where the theme or the art really
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: appeals to you, it might really grab your attention. The
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: gameplay appeals to different people in different ways, and this
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: one might appeal to you. So I would recommend trying
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: if you get a chance, but certainly isn't coming into
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: my collection. Even as if I had told my friend, oh,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I'd really like this, can I have it, he probably
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: would have just given it to me rather than putting
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: it on a cellar trade pile. So that's even by
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Elf Siegert and Red Raven Games.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Next, I want to talk about a expansion that I
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: got to try. So, as you know, one of my
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: favorite games is Orleons.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Which is a bag.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Builder, a bag building game where you are drawing tiles
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: from a bag or these sort of discs and using
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: them to do things, and then they go back in
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the bag, and you're buying more discs which go into
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the bag, and you're getting rid of discs and it's
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: a great delight. They have released a number of expansions
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to Orleans, which I have slowly been acquiring but haven't
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: really been playing very much. And now I've been making
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: a bit more effort to try them out. One of
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the big box expansions is called Orleans Invasion, and it
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: actually comes with I think four different modules, but the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: title module, the big one, is the Invasion module. And
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: what this does is it basically turns Orleans into a
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: cooperative game instead of competing to accomplish things. You as
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a group have a list of goals that the entire
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: group needs to work together to accomplish, and if you
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: don't accomplish them by the end of the game, then
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: when the invaders show up, the Orleans region is not
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: ready to repel them and you lose. It's an interesting
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: twist on the game that I think is a lot
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: of fun because it demands sort of a little bit
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: of coordination, but still lets you have the fun of
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: building up your engine, so to speak, and making the
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: most out of the game. But it also challenges you
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: to work with one another and talk things through. I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: really like it, and it made for a nice twist
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: on the usual Orleans formula. As I said, I haven't
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: tried any of the other modules yet, so I can't
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: say how they affect game. But I have picked up
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the Trade and Intrigue module and more recently the Orleans
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the Plague, which is the third module, so I have
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: a variety of different options for next time that I
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: want to play. Those are both expansions. I also still
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: have the original Invasion mod expansion that has different modules
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I haven't.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Tried yet, so a lot of variety available.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: In Orleans if I'm looking to try some of those
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: additional things, and I'm hoping I'll be able to because
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: now that Orleans is in beta are alpha testing in
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: board Game Arena, I've started playing it there and I'm
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: hoping to get to play it a few times or
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: quite a bit there so i can really get my
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: feet wet with Reiner Stockhausen's amazing game Orleons, currently published
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: in the United States by Capstone Games and published by
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: DLP Games in Europe. Finally, the last game that I
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: want to talk about today was a game I picked
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: up at gen Con and we got a chance to
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: play it, and I went back and picked up another
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: copy to use in my board game class. This is
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: a game called Burn the Fort. Burn the Fort is
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a cooperative game designed by a Native American indigenous creator
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: named Klee Banali, who was working on a game that
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: would help people learn about the history of the nineteenth
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: century in Middle America and the way that colonizers pushed
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: out the Native people whose.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Land they were taking. The game is a cooperative game.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Each player takes on the.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Role of a real historical tribal chief who are leading
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the Native Americans in their resistance against the white colonizers.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: The way that the game has a kind of pandemic
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: feel to it, in that you have a ongoing and
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: accelerating set of tasks that you have to resist and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: some positive things you have to pomplish in order to
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: win the game. That you have to accomplish both the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: positive things, which involve acquiring resources and trading them with
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: one another, but then you also have to work against
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the oncoming invasion, which just gets worse and worse and
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: worse as the.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Game goes along.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: There are a variety of ways that you can do
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: this resistance, one of which is burning Conastoga wagons, and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: then ultimately you're working up to attacking the fort itself,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: which you have to do before the Transcontinental Railroad is completed,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: otherwise you lose. The game is really effective, it's very moving.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: There are these cards called the Colonizer cards that depict
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: real events from the history of interactions between white and
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: colonizers and Native American people, and generally they are pretty unpleasant.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: So it's a good, thoughtful game about the resistance movement
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: that really challenges and expect you know, helps you understand
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: how difficult it would have been or was to resist
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: this oncoming wave ofzation. One of the things I find
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: particularly affecting as a white person is the way that
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the game helps put you in the experience of the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Native American folks, just you know, the tiniest sliver to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: give you a little bit of a perspective of the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: overwhelming odds and the terrible luck that consistently happens. There
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: was a great moment when we were learning the game
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: at gen Con where the woman who was explaining the
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: game to us, who is of indigenous heritage, and maybe
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I couldn't I was not clear on the relationship. I
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: know at least one person at the booth was from
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Cleveland Ally's family. He apparently passed away last year, which
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: is it's too bad he didn't get to see the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: success of his game. But there was a person explaining
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the game to us, and it was me and like
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: three other middle aged white guys. And then she was
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I would say, mid twenties Native American woman explaining the game.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: And there's this great moment where she says, and this
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: is where the game strikes back at you. You draw
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a colonizer card, blah blah blah. And I had this
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: great moment of cognitive recognition in which her intended meaning
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: I think was this is how the game is difficult.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: The game, the puzzle of the game, the challenge of
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the game is when you draw these colonizer cards.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: But there was an extra.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Frison of secondary meaning which I didn't get the impression
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: that she was intending, but it was there nonetheless, which was,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: this is how the game speaks to you person of
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: white heritage, or helps educate you about the experience of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: my people. So that when she said this is how
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the game strikes back at you, it felt a little
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: bit like she's saying, this is how the game strikes
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: back at you brandan white person, which was very effective frankly,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and I think it's a.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Really useful tool.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: It reminds me a little bit of Freedom the Underground Railroad,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: which I will confess I haven't played, but the effect
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: is similar as I understand it in terms of helping
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to build a sense of empathetic agency.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Through the experience of gameplay. It's really affecting and.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I recommend you play it if you get a chance.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: It's called Burn the Fort. You can look it up
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: if you google Burn the Fort. Board game They have
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: a whole website about it, and I think you can
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: order it, although I think they're doing a reprint right now.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: So that is my third game that I get to
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: talk about today, which brings me to the end of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: my Board Game Espresso episode. What games have you been
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: playing really lately? Head over to board game geet Guild
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: three two sixty nine and share the games there. You
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: can contact me by sending me a direct message there.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Wombat nine two nine is my username. You can also
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: email me Brendan at Radomoxgames dot.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Com and I'll get back to you when I can.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me in my walk today.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: I hope your next walk business Pleasant Mind, was Wellbye.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Brought to you by rattle Box