Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Revisiting ‘Episode 224 – Paper Tales, The Isle of Cats, & Everdell – Pearlbrook’ (400 Back)

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Revisiting ‘Episode 224 – Paper Tales, The Isle of Cats, & Everdell – Pearlbrook’ (400 Back) · Pick Up and Deliver

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  Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the podcast where I pick up my audio recorder as I head
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  out, step out my front door and deliver an episode to you while I walk the dog.
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  I'm Brendan Riley.
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  [Music]
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  While good morning listeners, it's a cloudy, slightly rainy looking day here in suburban
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  Chicago. It's the kind of day where you can tell it's going to rain but it's not raining
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  right now. In fact, it has rained earlier in the day. Ground is wet and there's lots of
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  puddles and such but it isn't raining right now and it isn't supposed to rain any time
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  in the next, say, a couple hours.
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  So from that perspective, it's a great time to walk the dog because I am not getting
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  rained on. There are still plenty of cicadas. I don't know if you can hear them but
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  so we'll see how long it takes me to get dive bombed today. Hopefully it doesn't happen
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  too quickly. Well for today's episode, I thought I would talk. It's been a little while since
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  I've checked out the past. I looked at the past so it's time for a 400 back. Today I decided
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  I would do an episode of my Look Back series. Look Back series is where I check my archives
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  and I look 400 episodes back which is roughly four years ago to see what I was doing in
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  the podcast at that time and comment on the material that appeared there. So 400 episodes
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  ago would be episode 224 because if I'm counting right, this is episode 624. This might be
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  625 in which case, oops, but whatever. I'm doing the... Oh no, it is 625. Shoot. Well, whatever.
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  So I'm looking at episode 224 which was a shooting from the hip triple shot. For those of you
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  newer to the podcast, I used to call my quick review segment, "Shootin' from the hip triple
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  shot." 'Shootin' from the hip' referring to the old phrase meaning that you are answering
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  off the cuff. You're saying something without thinking too carefully about it. It comes from
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  an old like a gunslinger term or that if you shoot from the hip your aim isn't as good
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  but it's a quicker reaction. Having said that, at some point in the last couple years I
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  decided with gun violence getting so extreme in the United States, I didn't really want my
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  theme to be about just a gun metaphor. Didn't feel like I really needed to use that as my
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  way of shaping what's been going on. So instead, I'm now calling it a board game espresso
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  triple shot. It's still using three shots and now it's... "Have a little coffee and talk
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  about what happened last night or recently." Ooh, lady with the dog update. I don't know
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  if you recall the last couple episodes or at least the last episode. I mentioned seeing
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  a woman walking with her little dog in a backpack that she's carrying on her front and I see
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  her today walking. I'm really curious where she goes every day with the backpack dog. I
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  don't know. I guess I could ask her but instead I just enjoy walking her. Today she doesn't
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  have a regular backpack on only her dog backpack or dog front pack. So, 224 is a board game
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  triple shot episode in which I talked about three games I played for the first time recently.
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  And apparently at that point I wasn't classifying expansions and out of dust games separately
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  because the episode was about Paper Tales, the Isle of Cats, and the Everdell Pearlbrook
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  expansion. So I thought today I would reflect on those three games a little bit and the place
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  they have in my collection to sort of let you see how it's evolved over the last four
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  years. So to start with paper tails, Paper Tales is a filler-weight drafting game that punches
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  above its weight class in terms of the decisions you're making. It's an interesting drafting
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  game where you are assembling a tableau and scoring points but it plays in like half an hour.
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  That said, it didn't really land all that hard with my family and so it suffered the
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  ignominity of leaving the collection because I didn't have room for it, more than anything
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  like I didn't like it. But it wasn't getting played and such is the way of things. So I don't
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  have paper tails anymore but I thought it would be interesting to just talk a little
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  bit about what kind of drafting games I do have. Which games would I play where I am a
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  drafting mood? So here I am talking about drafting in the pick and pass variety. There are
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  of course multiple ways that you can draft. There is drafting from a market. There are lots
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  of games that do that but the pick and pass variety I find is the most direct correlation
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  and still the gold standard bar none winner for me in that category is 7 Wonders. I
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  love 7 Wonders. I love seeing it on the table. I love playing it. I think it's endlessly
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  interesting. I don't even have any expansions for it. I just think it's an actually,
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  excellently crafted system that's really fun to play. But I do have some other pick and
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  pass drafting games that I think are equally interesting or good. So I thought I would
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  talk about those a little bit. If you want something on the lighter end, of course, sushi
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  go is the winner of that category. Sushi Go being like the subtitle of it on the box
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  is "the pick and pass game." So if you're trying to teach someone this mechanism without having
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  to spend a lot of time on it, sushi go would be the way to do it. This is a game that is just
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  about that mechanism and it's a much lighter version of the model than 7 Wonders which
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  involves a fairly complicated scoring scheme and is a real challenge for a lot of players.
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  The middle ground of between those two and a game that I think is pretty dang good is
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  it's a wonderful world. It's a wonderful world. I think when I reviewed it, I said something
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  like it solves the problems of 7 Wonders which in retrospect, yeah, no, it doesn't. It has
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  its own issues. It's own way of wrestling with the questions that Seven Wonders tries to
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  answer. The big thing that I like, it's a wonderful world doing that 7 Wonders doesn't
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  is it has multiple ways for you to use the cards. 7 Wonders, if you get a hand of cards
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  you don't want, you're kind of stuck. I guess you can turn in for money but that's poor
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  substitute for a card that's really useful. In, It's a wonderful world, all the cards are
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  presumed to serve a money purpose or a construction purpose. There's a bit more utilitarianism
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  there and it's interesting to have to make that decision. 7 Wonders, it always feels
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  like a letdown when you have to turn in a card for money. It's a Wonderful World that's an
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  expected part of the mechanism. So I do like that part better. Trying to think if I have
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  any other games where you're drafting your hand. I guess the beginning of Res Arcana has
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  some picking past drafting but one, you don't have to do it that way. That is the way I prefer
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  to play but it's also not central to the play of the game. Like it is a crucial part building
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  a little machine from the cards you draft is a crucial part of the game but ultimately
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  that's not what the game is about. So those are the three I can think of at the top of
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  my head. So yeah, that's Paper Tales is no longer in my collection but I still do have at
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  least three picking past drafting games that are all pretty darn good. Oh maybe the fourth
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  one I'll say is Between Two Cities which is an excellent game I think where you are trying
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  to build a little city. Actually two little cities that both score as many points as possible
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  and you get the score of the lower valued one when you get to the end. So it works out
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  really well. I love it. Alright so that is Paper Tales. Next up is The Isle of Cats. The
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  Isle of Cats is a game I came to sort of sideways the first time I played it I wasn't
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  I saw people playing it and I don't think I was that keen on it but I saw a couple other
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  reviews I thought oh this actually might be a good fit for our family and the theme is
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  right up my alley in terms of being about it's right up my alley in terms of being about
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  kitty cats on pirate ships that's a really fun theme and that actually now they think about
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  it that game also has picking past drafting. It doesn't feel like that's the only thing
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  mechanism that's just part of it. Actually a lot of people criticize that part of it I
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  think that's a crucial an interesting part of the game but whatever. Yeah Isle of Cats is
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  like since then they have come out with a number of expansions and I did go in on the Isle
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  of Cats big box and got a couple of the expansions that way. So we now have all the goodies
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  for Isle of Cats. I think I didn't get there was one level of premium upgrade I did not
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  get that seemed excessive to me so I skipped that but the other stuff we have gotten and I
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  do enjoy and so the three expansions that we've had that we've had there's new ships and
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  I really like this one because it adds a little variety to the gameplay if you've played
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  a bunch of times the ship it's the same ship every time right so you're wrestling with
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  the same question to you go in the front and try to complete a couple small rooms or
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  you go in the back and try to complete a bigger room you know the the tile placement challenge
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  is the same in each of those boards well in the new ships expansion then there are a couple
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  different ships that you can choose from and so then there's just a bit more flexibility
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  in terms of what the game feels like you know any game that you're going to play a bunch
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  of times sometimes we'll get a little stale or at least it will it will feel like you
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  kind of understand what the choices are for different pieces and then it's a different
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  kind of an interest but if part of your interest is novelty having the board be the same
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  every time it's counter to that so having a couple different options is fun.
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  We also have the kittens and beasts expansion and the new arrivals which is just like more
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  cat cards or a variety of different cards to go into the deck but the kittens and beasts
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  I really like both of those the kittens are these tiny little one or two spot cats that
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  you can get that add a bit of variety to the procedure though they're very cute and then
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  they have the beasts expansion which you have some big cats and they score in different
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  ways and so having both of those available I don't I generally wouldn't recommend playing
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  with both of those at the same time I think they don't I think they add it adds a little
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  too much craft then you're keeping track of too many different things but picking one
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  of those to play with on any given game day is pretty fun.
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  You know I think I love cats has also just held up really well to plays over time we do
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  have a number of other sort of polyomino shape games we've got Patchwork if we want a two
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  player experience we've got Barenpark which still remains a favorite night I think
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  actually like Barenpark better than the Isle of Cats particularly if if you're using
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  the expansion but the general vibe of the isle of cats is really particular I love the
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  artwork on it and frankly I have I got Isle of cats draw and write and I don't like it as much
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  well one my wife doesn't like it as much so that's a huge no thank you and I do really like
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  the grid of cards selection mechanism and I do like the roll and write aspect of it I'm
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  not going to get rid of it and I'm looking forward to playing it smart that said I definitely
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  like the isle of cats better like if I'm going to do that I want to I want to pick up the
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  tile with a cat I don't want to draw the cat and so that distinction is really crucial.
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  I do however it said we did get the drawing right game at first I had because he did a
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  print and play version of it during covid and I had put all the stuff for that into our
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  isle of cats set so if we wanted to play the drawn right game we could just using the regular
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  Isle of Cats set it is nice to have the separate game and separate box if you want to take the
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  drawing right with us it's easy to do but in terms of polyamano games the isle of cats
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  is still among the top that I really enjoy that said I have really enjoyed the other
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  Phil Walker Harding tile placement games particularly I do like Llamaland as a very entered alternate
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  to Barenpark in terms of having the option of getting getting those games played giving
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  a little variety that one activates in a little different way it asks you to think about
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  things in a different way and I think from those perspective it works really well.
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  So that's the Isle of Cats Frank West is the distributor there city of games I believe is the name
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  of his publishing company.
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  Alright finally in episode 224 I did a brief review of our first experience with Everdell
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  Pearlbrook and since then more expansions have come out we've acquired all the expansions
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  we have the Everde'l big box which holds all of the stuff and becomes really elaborate and
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  interesting when we are playing Everdell.
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  I do like having the huge variety of expansions available I think Everdell is best played with
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  one expansion at a time I think if you try to mix in more than one expansion it gets a little
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  overwhelming the Pearlbrook expansion is really nice because it just adds one more worker
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  who can only go to this one space and adds cards that go there and things that go there
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  it adds one more currency gives you the flexibility to do that or you can kind of ignore that which
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  actually works really nicely because sometimes if you could play Pearlbrook with a newer player
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  and not get too overwhelmed that's I really like that about Pearlbrook is it is relatively
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  self-contained and there's not a whole lot extra going on when you play it over some of
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  the more elaborate expansions.
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  That said I have yet to dislike one of the Everdell expansions I enjoy all of them for a variety
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  of things that they do so I thought I would go through them a little bit and talk about
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  them now I'm not a huge expert in the Everdell expansions I've played them most of them but
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  I don't remember all of them in great detail until it's time to play them and then when
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  I get them on I look at them like oh yeah that's the ones that one so if I'm making
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  mistakes feel free to head over to boardgamegeek guild 3269 and let me know in the comments
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  but I'm sort of being upfront about the fact that I don't remember them all perfectly.
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  So the first one we played was Bellefaire or after Pearlbrook so Pearlbrook is the one that
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  has it has the Pearl board it has the ambassador which is a little frog shape and it has the
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  pearls which is a separate currency that you can use in a variety of ways.
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  What's up they have oh and so it also has like these treasures that you can get they have
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  to buy with pearls and the pearls themselves are worth points so that's the that's the
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  ebb and flow of that.
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  Bellefaire is adds a variety of different scoring conditions but also changes the tree you
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  take the tree out and you put in this other thing as well so it adds a little bit different
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  flavor.
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  It's something else I think Bellefaire maybe is also the one that gives individual player
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  powers and we haven't really used those yet so that is the expansion we've explored least
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  of the ones we've played.
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  We'll also say Mistwood we haven't played at all so there is an expansion called Mistwood
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  I believe a significant part of it is the solo engine which we haven't tried but we
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  haven't played Mistwood.
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  We have however played Spirecrest and I really like to Spirecrest it has two modules one
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  you get these giant meeples or you can and those have a special effect when you place them
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  more importantly they are just giant meeples that the your other meeples can ride or your
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  other pieces can ride and they come with a little plastic saddle so you actually put your
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  other piece on the giant piece and ride around it's very cute so I really like that from
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  a table perspective.
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  But then more importantly Spirecrest also comes with this really great traveler module and
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  the way that works is you have this little traveler at one point during your turn you can
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  pay some resources and have the traveler move forward and when they do they get some
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  resources they draw some cards they reveal some things and it just adds this extra flavor
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  to the game gives you a little boost for doing that but it also adds a little variety
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  to there is also a weather portion that changes place slightly so this sits in like with the
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  Isle of Cats expansions I was talking about where just gives you a little bit different
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  stuff to think about and to try and create some variety there I really like that that's
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  a Spirecrest and then the newly fixed expansion I really like it's got a train that comes
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  into Everdell station and the train again adds another way to get resources but then you
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  also get these sort of bonuses and that really elevates the game I think it makes I really
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  liked newly when we tried it we've only tried it the once but I think it's an excellent
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  addition to the game and I'm looking forward to playing that more.
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  So I guess we haven't tried Mistwood we also do have the big box and I think the big box
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  is a mixed blessing on one hand it's nice to have everything sort of contained in really
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  nice pieces and really nice organizers but on the other hand it's huge and does have some
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  downsides it makes it harder to take the game with you because it's huge and unwieldy but
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  it also adds to setup because it's got all of this stuff that said it adds to setup because
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  you have all this stuff and that would still be true if I just had the expansions of their
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  individual boxes I suppose if I kept them all in their individual boxes then it could be
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  like ticket to ride where we want to play ticket to ride Africa we grab the ticket to
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  ride box and the Africa box and all the other stuff just stays on the shelf we don't have
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  to bring it with there's this one you have to bring it with and if I want to go somewhere
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  with my copy of Everdell either I have to make sure I have a car and I'm not going to
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  be walking too far because of this giant box or I have to do some sort of negotiated
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  repackaging before I leave where I put stuff in and then I can see myself one it's not
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  really set up to do that two I could totally see myself leaving one set of things that I
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  really need in the box because I forgot them so I don't think I would do that which means
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  it's slightly less portable that's my reflections on the Everdell big box and that ends my
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  reflections on episode 224 your current 400 look back. Well I'm curious to know
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  what do you think of those changes, how do you play any of these games, please let me know
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  over on boardgamegeek guild 3269 are you can drop me an email Brendan at rattleboxgames.com
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  I would love to hear from you and share my thoughts on what you are what we're doing that brings
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  me to the end of my walk so I want to say thanks for joining me on my walk I'll your next
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  walk as pleasant as mine was bye
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  (upbeat music)
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  - Brought to you by Ronald grandparents.
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  (muttering)
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  (spooky music)