Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Top of the Stack, May 2025

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Top of the Stack, May 2025 · 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 step
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  out for a walk and deliver an episode to you while I stroll around.
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  I'm Brendan Riley.
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  While greetings listeners, it's May 2nd and I'm having a lovely walk here in suburban Chicago.
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  It's Friday and we've got the weekend ahead.
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  Looking forward to it, but I have some grading to do so I'm not, I'm not foot loose and
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  fancy free.
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  I'm however very, very excited tomorrow is the Chicago area no ship math trade in which
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  I am going to be giving away something like 20 games and getting something like 20 games
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  in return.
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  Very exciting to have the prospect of new games on the horizon.
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  Can't wait for that.
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  It is currently May 2nd and it's the first chance I've had since the new month rolled
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  around to do an episode for you since it's only the second day of the new month.
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  That's right, it's the new month and it's time for a report that means it's time for
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  a top of the stack.
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  If you need the podcast, top of the stack is a monthly segment that I do at the first
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  episode of each month in which I talk about the game plays I've had since last time.
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  I did this.
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  Once a month I check in, I share some stats, talk a little bit about what games I've been
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  playing, what games I want to play next and go from there.
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  So let's jump right in.
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  April 2025 or 2025.
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  First final monthly stats.
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  I played 59 plays of 38 games for a total of 286 plays of 137 different games so far this
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  year, which is good, but not on pace for a thousand plays.
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  I like to have a thousand plays in a year, not on pace for that.
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  That's okay.
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  My shelf of opportunity started the year at 64 games.
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  I have whittled that down.
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  I've been consciously chunking or chipping away at it.
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  I'm down to 62 games.
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  I was at 63 at the beginning of the month.
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  I played one game, so I went down to 62 and now I'm going to totally screw that up by getting
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  a bunch of new games tomorrow.
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  My collection size has not changed.
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  It was 620 games before I started at the beginning of the month and it was 620 games
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  at the end of the month.
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  Pretty good.
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  Not getting any new games.
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  My most played game was bomb busters.
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  We played four plays of that on the table and my most played asynchronous game was through
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  the ages with three plays.
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  Top of the stack report.
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  As a reminder, top of the stack is not only the name of the segment, but also the name
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  of the games that I want to play in the next month.
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  If you think about all the games I might play, being in a metaphorical stack, I pick out
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  four games and put them at the top of that stack with the goals playing at least three of them
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  in the month.
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  If I play at least three of them, it's considered a success.
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  I have to tell you that because I certainly didn't achieve it this month.
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  This month I achieved one of the four.
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  The one that I did play was Ponzi Scheme.
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  The three I did not play were Hollywood 1947, Space Freaks and Glory to Rome.
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  Hollywood 1947 is the biggest whiff because I certainly was in a space where people were
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  playing it.
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  I wanted to let other people play if they had a chance at the table filled up.
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  That's the perils of being the faculty advisor at a college board game club is that you
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  might not get to play a game.
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  That's okay.
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  So they had a fun time, but I didn't get to play it.
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  So Hollywood 1947 not played Space Freaks.
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  This is a game that shows up on my top of the stack about once a year.
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  I've had it for a long time.
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  Never gotten to play it.
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  About maybe my son would play it with me sometime this month, but he decided not to.
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  And Glory to Rome, that one fell by the wayside as we took up a project at board game club,
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  which I'm so glad we did.
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  We labeled all of the games in our cabinets and we organized them so that they're easier
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  to find in approximately 70 to other games that are like them.
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  It's much easier to search our cabinets now.
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  They feel organized.
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  It's great.
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  But we basically spent two weeks doing that and played hardly any games except for the
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  game of organized the cabinets.
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  So it was a good thing to get done, but I did not get as many plays at board game club as
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  I normally would.
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  Oh, well, such is life.
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  It was still a good time.
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  First place this month.
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  Coming into the month, I had 31 new to me games played so far and I got to try a few more.
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  I tried The Gang.
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  Actually I got to play this in two different settings.
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  So I played it several times.
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  The game is a cooperative trick-taking game that's all the rage that's nominated for
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  for cooperative game of the year on board game geek awards this year.
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  I don't know how it's going to win, but I know it's nominated.
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  Next is Knarr. K-N-A-R-R.
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  This is a really clever little set collection game where you are accumulating cards and trying
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  to build up your ship and game points that way.
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  I thought it was really good.
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  I'm certainly looking forward to playing it some more.
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  It's a great half hour game.
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  I think if you have time.
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  I played Civolution.
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  I think I talked about these either.
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  I definitely recorded the episode where I talked about Knarr and Civolution.
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  I'm not going to talk about them in two great of depth except the evolution is the big
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  box Stefan Feld game.
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  Chalk a block full of different options and possibilities about which I think I feel
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  more nostalgic positivity than I felt in the moment.
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  And I played Blood on the Clock Tower, which is a large scale social deduction game
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  kind of in the neighborhood of Werewolf, but a bit more elaborate.
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  It was pretty fun.
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  And I played Ponzi Scheme, which was okay.
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  I mean I could see some interesting options there, but two of the four people playing it
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  didn't like it at all.
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  And so it wasn't going to work for us to enjoy it.
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  So that one didn't go over very well and I can't imagine that I'm probably going to
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  play it very many more times or ever again, even just because it was fine, but not that
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  compelling.
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  So those were the new games I played this month, five of them putting me at 36 new to be
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  games tried this year.
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  I did not try any expansions in April.
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  So that category has zero.
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  I came in with 10, left the month with 10 out of the dust games.
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  A game gets dusty metaphorically if it's been a year or more since I played it.
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  So a game that I've brought out of the dust is one that I've played before, but it's been
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  a year or more since I played it.
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  If I get it out, I dusted it off.
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  It goes on this list.
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  Coming in, I had played 21 dusty games so far this year.
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  I added five more this month.
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  Escape Curse of the Temple was two years 11 days dusty.
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  This is an excellent real-time cooperative game in which you are trying to get out of a temple
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  by rolling dice really fast, finding gems, making your way out of the temple.
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  It's high-tension speed game with lots of shouting, lots of noise.
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  It's a lot of fun.
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  Escape Curse of the Temple.
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  Love that one.
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  Next up was last year, two years 19 days Last Will, Last Will, two years 19 days dusty.
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  This classic Vladimir Suchy game has just a delightful premise.
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  It's Brewster's Millions.
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  You're trying to spend all your money.
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  I did talk about this one recently.
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  I recorded it recently.
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  I don't remember if it's come out yet.
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  Or it's coming out soon.
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  I want to talk about more detail, but it holds up.
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  So pretty good.
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  We played Globetrotting.
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  This is from our friends at R2I Games.
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  I say our friends because literally I am friendly with the designers.
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  I got to play an early prototype of this at our game club and I've known those guys for
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  a long time.
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  Globetrotting is an interesting light game with a very elaborate physical presence.
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  You are literally drawing lines on a globe as you plan vacations.
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  It's pretty interesting, but it's definitely the kind of game where like if somebody has it
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  and they're like, "Hey let's play this.
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  Sure I'll play it."
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  But it's very light.
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  It's a very light sort of balance in game.
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  It reminds me of Trek 21.
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  If you're familiar with that game, that's probably the closest I can think of although
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  the gameplay is not really that similar, but it's a similar weight like you're resolving
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  some things and it takes about 20 to 30 minutes and at the end you've collected some points.
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  It's honestly in weight, it's a lot like Canvas as well.
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  That was their niche.
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  They have done a really good job releasing a slightly heavier game with Frommage which
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  has gotten a lot of buzz lately.
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  I don't know.
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  I haven't had a chance to play that one yet, but Globetrotting was interesting.
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  It's been two years, ten months and eleven days since I played that one.
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  And finally Quacks of Quedlinberg or if you were going to go buy a new copy right now,
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  it's just called Quacks.
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  This is a Wolfgang Warsh game from about eight years ago I think and in it you play potion
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  masters brewing up potions and trying to score points by brewing up the best potions.
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  It's a pushy luck game and a bag builder so as the game goes along you're able to buy
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  these chips that go into your bag and then when you're brewing your potions you're adding
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  more ingredients to the potions and trying not to bust.
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  It's a cute little game, lots of fun.
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  I really like the art.
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  I don't know.
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  I guess when you refresh a game you want to make it look like a new game so changing the
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  title I guess makes people like it more.
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  I think the original title was hilarious and delightful but whatever.
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  No one asked me.
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  But we had a good time dressing off.
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  That was two years, seven months, and three days dusty Quacks of Quedlinberg.
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  And finally I did want to call out I had one notable play this month.
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  A notable play is a play of a game that I have some reason for calling your attention to.
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  In this case I played a game of Fantasy Realms which was three hundred and forty five days
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  dusty so it was twenty days shy of being a year so it wasn't dusty yet but it was almost
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  dusty and I thought I'd point it out.
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  Fantasy Realms always a good one.
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  One of the goals I have this year is to try to play, well this year and next year between
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  the two years since last time I updated my top fifty list is to try to play every one of
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  the games in my top fifty on the table.
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  This is an ongoing challenge and I think if I'm going to say a game is in my top fifty
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  games of all time I should be making an effort to play it in that time.
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  So that's what's going on there.
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  I did manage to play thus far I played thirteen of my fifty of my top fifty games on the
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  table and I managed to, I played Orleans again which doesn't do anything for my list but
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  I like to mention when I, you know, some of my top fifty games get played more often.
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  And then the Castles of Burgundy is another one that I really enjoy but haven't had a
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  ton of opportunity to play on the table but I did get an opportunity to play it recently.
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  So my wife and I played it, we had a good time and I think she won which was frustrating
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  because this is the first play we've had where she had played and I played so we were going
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  to box top it which means that she has the first win in our box top.
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  So I'll be seeking a rematch soon but that means I've now played fourteen of my top fifty
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  games.
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  If I play one a month I'm doing pretty well.
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  Particularly now since we're in April and I've already played fourteen of them if I play
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  one a month is enough.
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  I need to play two a month.
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  So by the end of April ideally I would have played eight so I'm a little ahead of the
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  curve but gotta stay on that.
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  The other challenge I've set for myself is a ten for ten lists.
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  Of course I do mine a little weird.
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  I have ten categories and I'm trying to achieve each category very well.
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  I've achieved forty six of my hundred plays which is pretty good.
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  I would like to be a little further ahead than that because as the test time goes on
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  it gets harder and harder to achieve those last few so I really want to try to get those
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  done early nonetheless.
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  The only two that I move forward this month, bomb busters became the second game or the
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  third game that I've played five times on the table.
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  This is a special category where normally a play cannot go into my ten for ten and count
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  for more than one category so like I have magic games and I have colorful games so if I
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  play a magical game that is has a mostly red box I can't count both unless I play it twice
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  but the five plays on the table one those are those plays can count again.
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  So if I play a game five times on the table and it still meets other requirements for my
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  ten for ten that's okay because I'm meeting the five on anyway.
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  Bomb busters we played three times on February twenty third and like I said four more times
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  on the eighteenth of April which puts me over the five.
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  Meeting bomb busters is the third game that I've played five times on the table.
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  One of the categories is trying to play games that have been on my shelf of opportunity
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  since before twenty twenty one.
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  Ponzi Scheme is one of those games and so by playing it I'm now up to three games out
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  of the ones that were on there that early.
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  Next up is my painting challenge.
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  I have not touched a paintbrush in a while for my board game minis which means my painting
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  challenge has not changed.
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  I want to paint my my goal still is to paint my my unlocked frost haven minis to paint
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  my cerebra minis and then where I to finish all that then finish the Nazis that came with
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  the Hellboy game but there's a long way to go on those things.
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  My shelf of opportunity log my shelf of opportunity as I mentioned before is not improving dramatically
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  because I keep getting new games but that's all right so it's at sixty three plays.
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  The one game that I got off of my shelf of opportunity this time around was Ponzi scheme.
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  So overall a good month of game playing.
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  I'm looking forward to playing more games soon.
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  Okay so but generally it's been a pretty entertaining month.
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  So the last thing to talk about is what I am planning to play in the coming months.
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  So the next month is May and I picked one game that I am getting and three games I'm
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  getting right or three other games.
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  So the one game I'm getting one of the games I'm getting is called Sorcerer City.
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  This looks pretty cool.
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  That's one of the most games I'm most excited about trying of the games that I'm getting.
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  So excited to try that.
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  I have a game called Badass Zombie Killers that I've been trying to get rid of and I would
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  like to try before I get rid of it.
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  It looks like it'd be pretty easy and simple to play.
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  I'm hoping my son will play it with me sometime soon.
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  I have a game called Fallen Angel that's been on my shelf for a while.
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  It looks pretty neat.
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  It's well rated.
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  It's dice worker placement.
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  I think if I learned the rules, I could probably get a play of that in and it would be pretty
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  interesting.
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  So Fallen Angel.
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  And then I always like to put one of my top 50 games on my list.
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  So I put Pulsar 2849, the Vladimir Suchy game that I haven't played in a while, but is
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  a delight.
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  So I'd love to get that to the table.
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  So those are my goals for the coming month.
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  I'm looking forward to getting all of the new games I'm going to get from the math trade
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  and checking them out and figuring out where they're going to go on my shelf.
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  I'm looking forward to reorganizing my game shelf, which I'll probably do in June because
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  I'm getting 20 new games in and I also got rid of 20 games.
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  So there's a lot of space and things that need to be moved around a bit to make them
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  fit.
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  And generally, I'm just looking forward to shifting into summer mode.
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  I've got two weeks left in the semester.
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  A ton of grading to do between now and then, but I think it will be a delightful month.
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  So what?
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  Did you play in April?
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  I had over to Board Game Geek Guild 3269.
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  The most consistent place, kind of conversation we have over on the guild is when we talk about
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  what we've been playing.
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  So I hope that you'll join us over there.
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  Let us know what you plan to play next month, what you played last month, and so on.
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  If you'd like to reach out to me, the most reliable way is to send me a geek mail message on Board
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  Game Geek.
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  wombat929
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  I also have an email, Brendan at rattleboxgames.com, which I do check just not as consistently.
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  So either of those would be a fine way to reach out.
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  I'd also love to play a game asynchronously with you on Board Game Arena or yucada.de.
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  In both of those places, my username is also, "Wombat929."
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  So head over to one of those and drop me a line.
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  Well, that's about it for my walk today.
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  Thanks for joining me on my walk.
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  I hope that your next walk is as pleasant as mine was.
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  Bye-bye.
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  Brought to you by rattlebox games.
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  [Music]