Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Risk & Roll 2000; Drones vs. Seagulls; Survive (revisited); Castle Combo

Transcript

Risk & Roll 2000; Drones vs. Seagulls; Survive (revisited); Castle Combo · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you pick up and deliver the podcast where
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I pick up my audio recorder as I step off
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the train and deliver an episode to you while I
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: walk home. I'm Brendan Riley.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Well, good afternoon, listeners.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It's a chilly but lovely day here in suburban Chicago.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: The weather is in the low twenties or high teens,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and when the breeze is blowing, it feels pretty dang cold.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: But the sun is also out, and so I'm navigating
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: my way home such that I'm in the sun as
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: much as possible and enjoying talking to you. Because of that, well,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I thought I would take take this opportunity to talk
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: about some games with you along the lines of my
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: favorite kind of episode, The Board Game.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Espresso Triple Shot. Order up for those of you need
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: to the podcast.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: The Board Game Espresso Triple Shot is a short review
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: episode in which I talk about three games I've tried
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: for the first time recently and talk about my impressions
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: of them. I will also talk about one game that
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I'm either revisiting, getting out of the Dust, or I'm
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: playing an expansion or something like that. So you've got
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: a little taste of four games here in the next
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: ten minutes fifteen minutes or so, so let's just jump
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: right into it.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Eh.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: The first game I want to play or talk about
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: is a game I've only played online. I played it
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: on board game Marina. It is apparently a game you
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: can buy for the table as well, but I feel
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: like I played enough of it to be able to
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: give you my first impressions. And this is Drones Versus Seagulls,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: published in twenty twenty two by Chevre Edition. The designers
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: are Leo Blanden and Delphine Robert, with art by Roman Lubierre.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Drones Versus Seagulls is.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: A battle line style game where you have a series
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of control points and you are playing cards to try
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and win control of them. Each player starts with the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: same set of numbered cards. Either you have seagulls or
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: you have drones, and what you're trying to do is
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: have the cards. The battle points in the middle have
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: this sort of control icon that says whether they're controlled
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: by you or your opponent. It's always a two player game,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and if you play a card to a station and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: cause that station to change control, you then get to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: activate the power on that station. And this is where
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the meat of the game lies is in trying to
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: build up a chain of special activations such that you
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: get to the point where all of the stations belong
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to you. Now, there is a draw mechanism where if
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you play a certain number of cards and neither player
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: is able to swing all of the stations toward them,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: then there is a resolution where you get to lock
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a station and it can't be changed anymore, and you
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: go back and forth a little bit. But most games
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: of it that I've played do not end with that
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: draw mechanism. Instead, they end with one player shifting all
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: of the stations to their favor. One of the things
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: that makes the game interesting is that with the right
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: combination of moves, you can shift a significant number of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: stations in one turn. There are stations that let you
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: play another card, there are stations that let you move
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: cards around. There are a number of different ways that
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: you might conceivably make a switch a station switch allegiance.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So I played several games of this with Gabriel. Hey
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Gabriel regular listener Proofpad is his username. When you make
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: your first move in the round, sometimes you only get
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: one or two stations to point your way, or the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: opponent seems to only have one or two, you feel like, yeah,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I'm fine, and then you come back and you've lost
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the game because they had a really good string of
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: combinations that let them flip everything your way. So we
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: both sort of grew into several games of this we played.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: We both sort of grew into a sort of deeper strategy.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: But every now and again you'd have a game where
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: like you take one turn and the other person wins
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: because you missed a key combination or you didn't really
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: think about how things would work if they managed to
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: flip two or three in the same turn. Over all,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed the plays of this. This definitely is a
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: game that if I had a copy, I would play occasionally,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and I'll probably I would imagine, every now and again,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: we'll just do a run of plays of drones versus
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Seagulls on board game arena. But in terms of long
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: term play, I can't see this being one that I'm
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: gonna play over and over and over again, add infinitum,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: like I do with Rezarkhana or other games. It's just
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the because the seven or so station cards that you
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: have are all the same, The game feels very tactical
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and very.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Samey from play to play.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: In that regard, it's a good It's a really good
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: two player game that sort of lands in the same
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: niche as something like battle Line and uh is fun
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: a little while, but probably not super long term, at
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: least for me. That is Drones Versus Seagulls. Next up,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I have an old game that I would put in
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the novelty category. We played because Rob found a copy
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: at goodwill. I wanted to give it a try. This
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: is Risk and Roll two thousand. This is a game
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: published by Hasbro. It appear at first glance maybe it
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: feels a little like it's got the risk ip attached
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to it, but it doesn't. The risk comes from a
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: push your luck element, and the two thousand comes from
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the fact that it was published in nineteen ninety nine.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine they kept it in production for a
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: really long time after that original print run. When I
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: looked on board game Geek just to remind myself how
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the game works, the description says it takes the old
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: game of the old Dice game of five thousand and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: updates it. So this is a repackaged game based on
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: a parlor game or a public domain game called five thousand,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: which is not something I've ever played before. As far
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: as push your luck dice games go, it's fine. The
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: ideas you roll the dice and you get some points,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and you can any turn in which you roll the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: dice and you get some points, you can stop and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: bank those points, or you can roll again to try
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to get more points. If you get to a point
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: where you have earned points with all six of your dice,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: then you cannot stop. You have to roll at least
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: once with the all six again a seventh as a
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: new roll, and assuming you get some points with those
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: that new roll, then you can stop. Of course, if
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: you bank the points, then you're allowed to stop before
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: you use all six dice. So to push your luck game,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: you're trying to get points and bank them or push
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: your luck and get more points by using all the dice,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: but then you have to hope that you do well.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: It's fine.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Not something I'm going to seek out to play again,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: and I can't imagine it's going to become a regular
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: staple for us, but it was amusing while we played it.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: That's Risk and Roll two thousand, uncredited on Hasbro, perhaps
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: because it is a classic dice game. For my flash
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: game of this episode, I played Survive the Island, which
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: is a twenty twenty four game. Wait a second, Brendan,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: how can you play a twenty twenty four game and.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Call it a flashback.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: It's because it is a re publishing or a repurposing
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: of a classic game from nineteen eighty two.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: This is Survived the Island. The old game was called.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Ser was called Survive Escape from Atlantis, so this is
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: called Survive the Island now. It is a slightly different
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: IP or a slightly different packaging, but it is essentially
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the same game. There might be a few tweaks to
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: it here or there. I will confess Survive Escape from
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Atlantis is not a game I played very many times,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: so I don't have the rules down one hundred percent.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: But in playing Survive Escape the Island, it felt so
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: much like the original game that I wondered why they
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: changed the IP now. The main reason is, even though
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: it's the same designer Julian courtland Smith, they have new
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: art from Lena Cosette and it's published by a different publisher, Zygomatic.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: The old one was published by Stronghold Games for a
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: long time and had been published in a different form before,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if Stronghold Games let the license
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: lapse or if Julian Cartland Smith felt a revitalized version
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: was necessary to reignite interest in the game. But that
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: is the new game that's available. I played it on
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: board game Arena, not in person. But it's essentially the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: same as Survive Escape from Atlantis if you've never played
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: either game. Essentially with the way it works is there's
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: an island and you have a bunch of people on them.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: The people have secret values. There are points that you
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: will get if that person survives. There are these little boats,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: and so you want to get your people onto the
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: boats and get the boats to these docks, and get
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: your people off the boats onto the docks, and.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Then you score them.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Getting in the way of that is there are monsters
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: sea monsters of various types roaming around in the water,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: causing trouble eating the survivors. The value of your different
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: workers is hidden, so you know how much your little
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: escape person is worth, but the other players don't, so
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: they don't know whether the person you put on the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: boat with them is really valuable or not. So there's
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: an element of trying to hide your motives, trying to
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: eat each other's people, because on your turn you're going
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to move a couple of your people, and then you
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: get you draw a tile, and that determines which enemies
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: you get to maneuver, and meanwhile the island in the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: middle of the board is disappearing. It is a fun,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: really aggressive game. Like I said, I've played a number
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: of times. It is about what you'd expect so that
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: survive escape the island. My last game we've talked about
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: today is Castle Combo. This game seems to be lighting
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: up the review landscape. It is a twenty twenty four
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: game from Gregory Grard and Matthew Russel with Stephanie Escape
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: art from catch Up Games. This is a tableau builder
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: with a drafting mechanism. There are two rows of cards
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you're drafting from, and on your turning a draft of
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: card and put it in the tableau. Like a lot
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: of card builders that have come out recently, something like
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: for a Shuffle or Fantasy Realms or more recently Far Away,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: every card or most of the cards have scoring conditions
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: on them, and what you're trying to do is build
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a tableau where the scoring conditions play off of each
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: other and you score points, You have money to manage,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: you have these keys, which are kind of a second currency,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and then you have the whole sort of back and
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: forth of trying to make your tableau worth the most points.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: It's a really solid game, very playable, very easy to
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: engage with, pretty quick, probably on a second play. On
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the first play, it was not quick, but we were
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: all new to it and so we were trying to
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: figure out how it worked. Overall, really solid game. Honestly,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: it was fine. It's not a game going out of
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: my way to buy or play. If someone invites me
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: to play it, I will, but it felt a lot
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: like a lot of those other games with a theme.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: I didn't really care for it that much.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: The art is pretty cool and I'm happy to have
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: gotten to play that, but generally, Castle Combo was just fine.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: I've seen I've.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Heard a number of reviewers who are really enthusiastic about it,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and I don't get that. Like, I feel like it's fine,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't seem to to me. It doesn't do
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: much new.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Beyond what those other games I mentioned did.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: So that's my take on Castle Combo, which was fun
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: but not groundbreaking. Well that's about it for my time today.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I've reached my house, so let me know what you've
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: been playing. You can head over to board game be
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Guilt three two sixty nine and share your thoughts there.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I'd love to hear what you think of these games
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I mentioned today, or what games you've been playing new
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me on.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: My walk today.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Up your next walk is as pleasant as nine less
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Bye bye.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Brought to you by rattle Box