Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / My Top 50 … by Art (part 10)

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My Top 50 … by Art (part 10) · Pick Up and Deliver

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to pick Up and Deliver, the podcast where I
0:05
Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorder as I step out for
0:07
Speaker 1: a walk and deliver an episode to you while I
0:09
Speaker 1: stroll home. I'm Brendan Riley. Well, greetings listeners. It's a
0:23
Speaker 1: gloomy day here in suburban Chicago. The cloud cover is
0:27
Speaker 1: low and the wind is blowing, and I'm recording this
0:30
Speaker 1: episode number six and ninety nine of pick Up and
0:33
Speaker 1: Deliver again. I recorded this episode a couple days ago
0:39
Speaker 1: intending to post it, and I got home and I
0:42
Speaker 1: took my podcast, my phone that I used to record
0:46
Speaker 1: this podcast on out of my pocket, and I went
0:48
Speaker 1: to hit stop, and as I was hitting stop, the
0:51
Speaker 1: battery died, and when I turned it back on, it
0:54
Speaker 1: had not recorded anything. So somehow, I don't know whatever,
0:58
Speaker 1: so recording loss. So I'm trying again, so hopefully I
1:02
Speaker 1: can stay fresh and exciting. I gave it a couple
1:04
Speaker 1: of days, so I did not quite finish. By February,
1:07
Speaker 1: we have this episode, and there's one more in the season.
1:09
Speaker 1: These will come out Saturday and Sunday, so February second
1:12
Speaker 1: will be the end of season seven. I'll probably take
1:15
Speaker 1: a few days off and then we'll start season eight,
1:18
Speaker 1: so looking forward to seeing you there. For those of
1:20
Speaker 1: you new to the podcast, welcome. It's a weird time
1:22
Speaker 1: to be joining, but glad to have you here. What
1:25
Speaker 1: you are listening to is the end of a ten
1:27
Speaker 1: part series I've done here at the end of season seven,
1:29
Speaker 1: in which I reveal my new Top fifty Games of
1:32
Speaker 1: All Time list. But instead of revealing it in order
1:36
Speaker 1: of least favorite of my top fifty to most favorite,
1:39
Speaker 1: I've ordered them by art, so I'm talking about them
1:42
Speaker 1: in the order in which I enjoy their art. I
1:46
Speaker 1: think that's fun. So that's what I'm doing here, and
1:49
Speaker 1: today we are I'm revealing my five favorite art games
1:53
Speaker 1: of my top fifty favorite games. I'll also be talking
1:56
Speaker 1: about where these games come in on my top fifty
1:58
Speaker 1: list and what I think of them, which is that
2:01
Speaker 1: I enjoy them a lot. All right, here we go,
2:05
Speaker 1: let's get started. So my number five game in terms
2:08
Speaker 1: of art in my top fifty list is Coimbra Combra.
2:12
Speaker 1: The art is done by Chris Quilliams. Ironically, they did
2:15
Speaker 1: not hire Miguel Coimbra to do the art. Miguel Combra
2:18
Speaker 1: is probably best known in board game circles for having
2:21
Speaker 1: done the art for Seven Wonders. I'm glad they didn't.
2:23
Speaker 1: I think the art in Seven Wonders is very nice,
2:26
Speaker 1: but I don't think it holds up to the art
2:28
Speaker 1: in Combra. Chris Williams does a really great job of
2:31
Speaker 1: presenting a very distinct and interesting looking style. It's got
2:36
Speaker 1: a kind of cartoony flavor to it. It feels very cosmopolitan.
2:40
Speaker 1: The colors are all bright and vibrant and lovely. I mean,
2:45
Speaker 1: the Combra is just a beautiful game to look at.
2:47
Speaker 1: When you look at WHOA, I want to see that
2:49
Speaker 1: they pick this great color scheme oranges and teals and
2:53
Speaker 1: purples and gray, and they resonate throughout the board, throughout
2:59
Speaker 1: the board, throughout the map, throughout the cards. I love
3:02
Speaker 1: the design on the cover. The picture of the city
3:05
Speaker 1: of Combra itself is beautiful. I said cartoon. It is
3:09
Speaker 1: definitely line art. It's sort of abstract and geometric a
3:13
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm not really a visual art person in
3:16
Speaker 1: terms of like, I don't know how to describe it
3:19
Speaker 1: necessarily other than the words I'm using here, So apologies
3:23
Speaker 1: to people who actually know enough about art to be
3:25
Speaker 1: able to deploy the right genres or the right styles
3:29
Speaker 1: to be able to say what this is. In particular,
3:32
Speaker 1: I love the way that Quilliams does the portraits. When
3:35
Speaker 1: you're playing Combra, you are recruiting these various patrons and
3:39
Speaker 1: dignitaries from around the city to support your important works,
3:43
Speaker 1: and you succeed at that by earning points for the
3:51
Speaker 1: different things that they give you. There are a number
3:54
Speaker 1: of different tracks to keep track of, and those are
3:57
Speaker 1: tracked with very distinct colors. There's a really inches color
4:01
Speaker 1: drafting element where you're rolling these dice, and the dice
4:04
Speaker 1: provide you points with which you're buying cards, but that's
4:06
Speaker 1: also how much you have to pay for the cards,
4:08
Speaker 1: so it's sort of a bidding thing. But then the
4:10
Speaker 1: color of the dice you draft will also provide you
4:12
Speaker 1: income later and that's important as well, so you have
4:15
Speaker 1: to think about both the color of the dice and
4:17
Speaker 1: the use of them. It's a fascinating and really interesting mechanism.
4:22
Speaker 2: Now.
4:22
Speaker 1: Coinbra is a game I played off and on a
4:25
Speaker 1: variety in a variety of times. I played it a
4:27
Speaker 1: couple times when it first came out in twenty eighteen.
4:30
Speaker 1: I think it was number thirty seven on my top
4:33
Speaker 1: fifty list in twenty nineteen, and then not having access
4:36
Speaker 1: to it because the person who I know owned it
4:39
Speaker 1: moved away or stopped coming to my game club. Hey Chris.
4:43
Speaker 1: But then I picked up my own copy sometime since
4:45
Speaker 1: last time I did my Top fifty, and I was
4:47
Speaker 1: reminded just how amazing that game is. Wow. I just
4:51
Speaker 1: saw somebody who really wanted to turn left quickly in
4:55
Speaker 1: their Accura. I was just reminded how amazing this game is.
4:58
Speaker 1: I love the interplay of the different kind of drafting
5:01
Speaker 1: that you have to do. I love the way that
5:04
Speaker 1: the different tracks develop different kinds of income. I love
5:07
Speaker 1: the different scoring conditions you're trying to achieve, managing, and
5:11
Speaker 1: all of that is in play with each other because
5:13
Speaker 1: you're started racing to see what the other people are doing,
5:16
Speaker 1: You're competing for cards. The bidding is very interactive. I
5:20
Speaker 1: really like Combra a lot. I think it has a
5:22
Speaker 1: lot going for it. Combra is my number twenty nine
5:26
Speaker 1: game of all time. Like I said, it was not
5:28
Speaker 1: on my list in twenty two, but it's up eight
5:32
Speaker 1: spots since when it was on in twenty nineteen, it
5:36
Speaker 1: was number thirty seven. So that's Combra art by Chris Williams.
5:40
Speaker 1: My number twenty nine game of all time, right, My
5:43
Speaker 1: number four game of all time when ordered by art
5:46
Speaker 1: is Wingspan. Wingspan has a bunch of different artists, Anna
5:49
Speaker 1: Maria Martinez Jaramillo, Natalia Rojas, Greg May, Beth Sobel, and
5:56
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Hargrave is also credited as an artist, so I'm
5:58
Speaker 1: not sure if any of the birds pictures are hers,
6:01
Speaker 1: or if there's some other art elements that she included.
6:03
Speaker 1: Wingspan is, of course a beautiful game. When people talk
6:06
Speaker 1: about Wingspan, it's the first thing they talk about. And
6:08
Speaker 1: when I got Wingspan several years ago, my wife and
6:11
Speaker 1: I we just thought it looked fun. It seemed like
6:13
Speaker 1: a good thing. My in laws spent some They have
6:16
Speaker 1: a lot of bird feeders and stuff, so I thought
6:18
Speaker 1: they would enjoy playing it. And it was only after
6:21
Speaker 1: we started playing it, and really about a year ago,
6:23
Speaker 1: that my wife and I became avid birders. And now
6:27
Speaker 1: it has this whole secondary level of reinforcing another hobby
6:30
Speaker 1: that we already really enjoy. We have this thing now
6:33
Speaker 1: where we have a sharpie and we put a little
6:35
Speaker 1: star on any card that we draw that is a
6:38
Speaker 1: bird that we've seen on our birding outings, So that's
6:42
Speaker 1: really fun to kind of have this secondary level we're like, oh,
6:45
Speaker 1: we've seen this bird. That's really fun. The art is
6:48
Speaker 1: done in a style reminiscent of classic bird portraiture Henry
6:52
Speaker 1: Audubon sort of famously, I think Henry famously made a
6:57
Speaker 1: particular style of art of bird art art famous, and
7:01
Speaker 1: that's kind of the style that these pictures are done in.
7:05
Speaker 1: The graphic design is really elegant, kind of minimalist. They
7:10
Speaker 1: have a slightly hand drawn font the use for the cards,
7:15
Speaker 1: which has kind of a slight hint of comic sands
7:19
Speaker 1: to it, but it isn't it isn't cloying the way
7:23
Speaker 1: the comic Sands is. I think that the graphic design
7:26
Speaker 1: generally works really well, but it's I mean, it's the
7:29
Speaker 1: pictures of birds that makes this game so compelling to me,
7:32
Speaker 1: and they're so beautiful and they're so well done that
7:35
Speaker 1: there's really no stopping this game from making it onto
7:38
Speaker 1: my list. If I were just making a list of art,
7:40
Speaker 1: it would still be right near the top. But on
7:43
Speaker 1: my top fifty list, of course, it's going to reach
7:45
Speaker 1: toward the top, and that's why it's my number four
7:49
Speaker 1: game in terms of art. In terms of gameplay, Wingspan
7:53
Speaker 1: is my number thirty one game of all time. That's
7:55
Speaker 1: down nine spots from twenty two. In twenty two something
8:00
Speaker 1: particular to critique about it. It hasn't gotten worse or anything.
8:05
Speaker 1: I haven't I can't say that. I thought the Asia
8:08
Speaker 1: expansion did a lot for it. I did like the
8:11
Speaker 1: two player variant thing. They have this Yin Yang board,
8:15
Speaker 1: which we played with a couple times. We thought it
8:17
Speaker 1: was fun, but I think ultimately we're so used to
8:19
Speaker 1: playing Wingspan two player anyway that altering it to play
8:23
Speaker 1: with this board felt more just like an amusing side
8:27
Speaker 1: thing rather than the real game. But generally we really
8:30
Speaker 1: like having more birds to play with. We're definitely in
8:33
Speaker 1: for the rest of the expansions. You know, they're going
8:35
Speaker 1: to do an Antarctica one, and they're going to do
8:38
Speaker 1: a I think they haven't done Africa yet, so Africa
8:41
Speaker 1: and Antarctica are the other two continents that they have
8:44
Speaker 1: to do. And actually I can't remember if it's South
8:47
Speaker 1: America also because I think the original one was just
8:49
Speaker 1: North American birds. So they actually have a lot of
8:52
Speaker 1: expansions left to do. But I Imagine that. Imagine that
8:55
Speaker 1: it's getting difficult to find new design space in to
9:00
Speaker 1: work in, which is probably why they're also spreading out
9:03
Speaker 1: a little bit. They've got finn Span and worm Span,
9:06
Speaker 1: both of which I didn't really need either of those
9:09
Speaker 1: in our collection. Wingspans plenty for us, and we love it.
9:12
Speaker 1: So that is Wingspan, my number thirty one game of
9:16
Speaker 1: all time, my number four game when you organize by art.
9:21
Speaker 1: Next up, my number three game of all time when
9:24
Speaker 1: organized by art, is Arkham Horror the Card Game. Arkham
9:28
Speaker 1: Horror of the Card Game has many, many credited artists,
9:32
Speaker 1: so I am not going to read the names here.
9:35
Speaker 1: Like many sort of collectible card games, it has a
9:39
Speaker 1: whole fleet of artists who have a art directive. Arkham
9:44
Speaker 1: Horror of the Card Game is perhaps the most prominent
9:47
Speaker 1: of a variety of games produced by Fantasy Flight Games
9:51
Speaker 1: that fall into a category of games they call the
9:53
Speaker 1: Arkham Files, which all have similar art style. You can
9:57
Speaker 1: see this going back all the way to something like
9:58
Speaker 1: Elder Sign or Arkham Horror second Edition. I think they've
10:02
Speaker 1: refined that style and expanded it. They've added lots of
10:05
Speaker 1: different kinds of characters and Arkham Horror the card game
10:08
Speaker 1: is the best demonstration of this. They do reuse some
10:11
Speaker 1: art that they've used in other properties, they also produce
10:14
Speaker 1: a ton of new art, and some of it, like
10:16
Speaker 1: a lot of it, is really compelling for helping shape
10:18
Speaker 1: the characters. If you look at the images on the
10:21
Speaker 1: character cards give you a lot about how the characters act,
10:25
Speaker 1: but it's really the card art, on the spells and
10:28
Speaker 1: on the different events that just breathe so much life
10:31
Speaker 1: into this game. There's a card called decoy that depicts
10:35
Speaker 1: like this dummy being ripped of hard by like a
10:37
Speaker 1: giant millipede that is so creepy I almost can't stand
10:41
Speaker 1: to look at it. I find it really compelling. There's
10:43
Speaker 1: a card called Shriveling that shows this like person being
10:46
Speaker 1: turned into a skellet, like burned alive and turned into
10:49
Speaker 1: a skeleton, and they're shrinking down and it's amazing, very compelling.
10:53
Speaker 1: This is when I play Arkham Horror of the card game.
10:56
Speaker 1: I get drawn into it by these cards so much
10:59
Speaker 1: so that some of the story ends up being very funny.
11:01
Speaker 1: Right Like I think I mentioned at one point when
11:04
Speaker 1: I played a character named Nathaniel cho one of his
11:07
Speaker 1: cards that he comes with is his brother who is
11:10
Speaker 1: a support ally and in the image his brother is
11:12
Speaker 1: in a wheelchair. And so when we were playing the
11:16
Speaker 1: Law the Forgotten Age, I think it was called or
11:19
Speaker 1: something like that, and we ended up like in the
11:21
Speaker 1: deep in the jungle being hunted by alligator men and stuff,
11:24
Speaker 1: and then Nathaniel Cho's brother in a wheelchair would show up.
11:27
Speaker 1: It was just it was very funny, this idea of
11:30
Speaker 1: making the art work. But overall, the feeling created by
11:36
Speaker 1: these different visual images enhances dramatically. A game that is
11:41
Speaker 1: very much a storytelling game like Arkham Horror would not
11:44
Speaker 1: be fun if it were just mechanics for me, because frankly,
11:48
Speaker 1: the it's far too swingy, it's far too luck based.
11:51
Speaker 1: But when you tie the mechanisms that you're doing to
11:55
Speaker 1: a really compelling story, which the elements that are happening
11:58
Speaker 1: in the game are compelling, and then also like every
12:01
Speaker 1: single thing you do is tied to one of these
12:04
Speaker 1: cards that has a little bit of compelling art on it,
12:07
Speaker 1: you get this like really involved feeling in the story,
12:10
Speaker 1: and I think that makes for a very fun time.
12:14
Speaker 1: And so it's it's not hard for me to really
12:16
Speaker 1: come to see why Arkham Horror of the Card Game
12:19
Speaker 1: stands out for me in terms of art, and I
12:22
Speaker 1: suspect given what I've just said, you can also see
12:24
Speaker 1: why it stands out for me as a game itself.
12:26
Speaker 1: In fact, Arkham Horror of the Card Game is is
12:29
Speaker 1: not only my third favorite game in terms of art,
12:32
Speaker 1: it is my third favorite game of all time. I've
12:35
Speaker 1: already mentioned Brass Birmingham being my second favorite, says my
12:38
Speaker 1: third favorite. Arkhamhore of the Card Game is just a
12:42
Speaker 1: very compelling experience, very rewarding, really fun to explore the
12:49
Speaker 1: stories that they've developed, really fun to build your own
12:51
Speaker 1: character and have them evolve over time. In between each mission,
12:54
Speaker 1: you get to upgrade the cards, and that gives you
12:57
Speaker 1: access to stronger powers. So as the as the missions
13:01
Speaker 1: get harder, your character gets stronger, or you know, you
13:04
Speaker 1: suffer trauma and so your character has these cards in
13:07
Speaker 1: their deck that give them flavor and you're like, oh,
13:10
Speaker 1: now I'm haunted by that memory again and it slows
13:12
Speaker 1: you down. Or it's just such a well made game
13:17
Speaker 1: that involves such really interesting stories and interesting experiences that
13:22
Speaker 1: I really have a good time playing it. I've played
13:25
Speaker 1: through all but one of the expansions that we have.
13:28
Speaker 1: I haven't played through the Harvest Festival yet, but I
13:33
Speaker 1: really do enjoy it, and I'm glad you have gotten
13:35
Speaker 1: it to the table as often as I have, looking
13:37
Speaker 1: forward to doing it many many more times. So that's
13:41
Speaker 1: Arkham Horror the card game, my number three game of
13:44
Speaker 1: all time, and my number three game when you organize
13:47
Speaker 1: things by art, and I'm number two. My number two
13:50
Speaker 1: game when organized by art is Everdell Everdell. The art
13:54
Speaker 1: is done by Andrew Bosley, and it is a fantasy
13:59
Speaker 1: game with a world full of cute anthropomorphic forest animals.
14:06
Speaker 1: You've got squirrels and moles and foxes and lizards and frogs.
14:13
Speaker 1: You have some creepy looking things like spiders and some
14:16
Speaker 1: of the expansions. The overall aesthetic could sort of most
14:21
Speaker 1: easily be described as like red Wall. These look like
14:24
Speaker 1: little creatures who are living their sort of medieval europe lives.
14:28
Speaker 1: They're farming, they're running little shops, but they've also got
14:32
Speaker 1: like steam powered shovels, and they seem to have a
14:36
Speaker 1: little bit of technology. But it's not certainly not contemporary modern.
14:39
Speaker 1: It's sort of fantastical medieval without the unpleasantness of the
14:45
Speaker 1: plague or anything like that, at least not that I recall.
14:48
Speaker 1: The gameplay is very compelling as well, but a big
14:52
Speaker 1: part of it just has to do with the art
14:55
Speaker 1: that you're doing. Obviously, the box cover is a huge
14:58
Speaker 1: piece of it, and they've done several and every single
15:01
Speaker 1: box cover is really beautiful. It was consistently a challenge
15:05
Speaker 1: for me to remove the boxes and put them away
15:08
Speaker 1: and just put everything into the main box or we
15:10
Speaker 1: didn't end up getting the Everdell Giant Collection box and
15:13
Speaker 1: that has everything in it, but again doesn't feel doesn't
15:18
Speaker 1: show off all of that beautiful art because you just
15:20
Speaker 1: have the one box cover now, but it's still quite lovely.
15:25
Speaker 1: The character cards and the location cards are really the
15:29
Speaker 1: place that the game shines the most. But everything in
15:32
Speaker 1: the game has this forest village feel to it and
15:36
Speaker 1: has a really compelling, unified look. So the board itself
15:41
Speaker 1: is a kind of forest with these little paths and
15:49
Speaker 1: and like there's like a stream, and then I think
15:52
Speaker 1: it's also reasonable to think of the components as also
15:55
Speaker 1: part of the art. So they have these lovely different,
15:57
Speaker 1: lovely wooded mepals with these different shapes, and they have
16:01
Speaker 1: nice little tokens with different resources which make for a
16:07
Speaker 1: very compelling experience, and generally I think they result in
16:12
Speaker 1: a really fun mix of environment and atmosphere that makes
16:16
Speaker 1: just a very pleasant gaming experience. It's really nice to
16:21
Speaker 1: play Everdell. The characters are really nice, the art is
16:25
Speaker 1: really nice. It's beautiful. But then there's also the gameplay itself.
16:31
Speaker 1: And for the gameplay, Everdell is my twenty first favorite game.
16:35
Speaker 1: That's down eight spots from number thirteen in twenty twenty two.
16:40
Speaker 1: Part of that is that the shine has worn off
16:42
Speaker 1: a little bit. My wife and I haven't played it
16:44
Speaker 1: as much, but it is a really compelling game. The
16:49
Speaker 1: card play is really neat. The it's kind of a
16:53
Speaker 1: magic trick when you go to play it, if you
16:54
Speaker 1: haven't played Everdell. You start the game with only two workers,
16:58
Speaker 1: and in the first round those two workers you use
17:01
Speaker 1: them and maybe you do one or two other things. Sometimes,
17:03
Speaker 1: if you're really good, maybe you have three turns fee
17:06
Speaker 1: like five turns, and then you have to take your
17:08
Speaker 1: prepare for the next season turn where you get your
17:11
Speaker 1: workers back and do a bunch of stuff. But if
17:13
Speaker 1: you're new to the game, or if you get bad
17:14
Speaker 1: card draw or whatever, a bad mix. You might also
17:16
Speaker 1: just want to rush to the next season because there's
17:18
Speaker 1: stuff you get to do each season. You might end
17:21
Speaker 1: up with like three turns and then it's the next turn,
17:24
Speaker 1: and that could feel doesn't always feel great, but by
17:27
Speaker 1: the end of the game, you're taking a whole bunch
17:29
Speaker 1: of turns on your turn. Not only do you get
17:31
Speaker 1: more workers as the game goes along, but also you
17:34
Speaker 1: start to learn how to combo the cards, and playing
17:37
Speaker 1: a card is an action, playing a worker is an action.
17:40
Speaker 1: And then some of the cards have like a thing
17:42
Speaker 1: you can do that also takes an action where you
17:44
Speaker 1: get to do a free thing, and so there's often
17:47
Speaker 1: cascading effects. But unlike some games where the cascading effects
17:50
Speaker 1: make your turn take longer, like cuput Regny, for instance,
17:54
Speaker 1: as you get towards the end of that game, you
17:56
Speaker 1: know you get to take two actions, but each of
17:57
Speaker 1: those trigger four or five more actions, and you're getting
17:59
Speaker 1: all this stuff and doing all these things. In Everdell, generally,
18:03
Speaker 1: those cascades don't happen that much while you're playing. Instead,
18:07
Speaker 1: like you do a thing and it opens up several options,
18:10
Speaker 1: so on your next turn you have several options that
18:12
Speaker 1: you can do based on that thing you just did,
18:15
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like that cascade is delayed turn
18:17
Speaker 1: to turn to turn, which means that when you're good
18:19
Speaker 1: at the game, you end up taking a bunch more
18:21
Speaker 1: turns than other people. And that is one of the
18:23
Speaker 1: weird dynamics of Everdell, is that you don't all finish
18:27
Speaker 1: the game at the same time. You keep going until
18:30
Speaker 1: The way the game works is divided into these seasons,
18:32
Speaker 1: and you keep going until you pass, and when you pass,
18:36
Speaker 1: you then reset, you get your workers back, and then
18:38
Speaker 1: you start the next season. But a lot of games
18:41
Speaker 1: where you would pass at the end of a round,
18:44
Speaker 1: like Orleans or Terraforming Mars, once you pass, if other
18:49
Speaker 1: people are Resarkana, once you pass, then you sit there
18:52
Speaker 1: while other people take their turns till they all pass too,
18:55
Speaker 1: and then you all go onto the next round together. Well,
18:57
Speaker 1: in Everdell, when you pass to go to the next season,
19:00
Speaker 1: you just start next season on your next turn, and
19:03
Speaker 1: so if other people are delayed, you're ahead of them
19:06
Speaker 1: in terms of the seasons, which actually can give you
19:08
Speaker 1: an advantage sometimes, and there's a balance to be weighed there.
19:11
Speaker 1: If you're behind on that timeline. On the other side
19:14
Speaker 1: of it, it also could mean that you finish and
19:17
Speaker 1: your opponents have a bunch of turns left before you
19:21
Speaker 1: get to do the final score and everything, So that
19:24
Speaker 1: part's a little wonky, although I think i'd have to check.
19:29
Speaker 1: Most of the game, it's very self contained scoring wise,
19:32
Speaker 1: so I think once you're done you can probably figure
19:34
Speaker 1: out your score even while other people are still playing. Yeah,
19:37
Speaker 1: because most of the endgame goals, like the end game
19:41
Speaker 1: goals and things, you actually have to claim with on
19:43
Speaker 1: your workers, So if you finish the game, you've used
19:45
Speaker 1: your workers and you can't claim them. Then, thinking back
19:48
Speaker 1: to the art again, the way that the characters are
19:50
Speaker 1: drawn is a very consistent style, which isn't surprising. It's
19:53
Speaker 1: one artist. They're beautifully done, they have a unity of feel,
19:59
Speaker 1: but also they generate this story. You have a village
20:02
Speaker 1: where you have a shopkeeper and the shopkeeper is able
20:05
Speaker 1: to benefit every time someone else moves into the village.
20:08
Speaker 1: And you have a farmer and their partner who live
20:11
Speaker 1: on a farm together and they get and you have
20:13
Speaker 1: a judge, or you have a king, and all of
20:16
Speaker 1: these different things in your little thing that are developing,
20:19
Speaker 1: gives you a little story that makes for a really
20:22
Speaker 1: entertaining experience from a thematic standpoint, but the game itself
20:26
Speaker 1: is mechanically very robust as well. So, like I said,
20:30
Speaker 1: it's down eight spots from where I was in twenty
20:32
Speaker 1: twenty two, mostly just because it's not the shine has
20:35
Speaker 1: gone a little bit, but I really really like it still.
20:38
Speaker 1: That's Everdell, my number twenty one game of all time,
20:42
Speaker 1: my number two in terms of art, which brings me
20:45
Speaker 1: to my number one game of all time, both for
20:49
Speaker 1: art and for gameplay. If you've been keeping track, you
20:52
Speaker 1: probably figured out what it is, but I won't keep
20:55
Speaker 1: you in suspensing longer if you haven't. It's Android Netrunner.
20:58
Speaker 1: I hate to be a record on repeat, but Android
21:02
Speaker 1: Netrunner is really the best game ever made, hands down,
21:06
Speaker 1: full stop. There you go. In terms of art, I
21:09
Speaker 1: don't have the artists credited here because there are many
21:11
Speaker 1: artists similar to Arkham Horror the card game, and in fact,
21:14
Speaker 1: Android has an even more complicated history in terms of
21:16
Speaker 1: its art now because since Fantasy Flight quit officially producing it,
21:22
Speaker 1: the volunteer group NISSE, which became Null Signal Games, has
21:26
Speaker 1: taken up the property and continued producing things for it,
21:31
Speaker 1: and frankly the art is close to as good or
21:34
Speaker 1: as good as the art was before. So like Arkham Horror,
21:37
Speaker 1: the art and Android Netrunner builds a story. The individual
21:42
Speaker 1: runners and individual corps give you a sense of what
21:46
Speaker 1: those things are in the world. The event art is
21:51
Speaker 1: particularly compelling because often it tells you a little story.
21:54
Speaker 1: It helps you understand a little bit about what's going on.
21:58
Speaker 1: Often it features characters from other cards. So you might
22:02
Speaker 1: have a character from one card who shows up in
22:04
Speaker 1: another card, and so you get this little story between
22:06
Speaker 1: the two cards. The name of the card will give
22:09
Speaker 1: you an event. The graphic design is really strong for
22:12
Speaker 1: a game that's as complicated as it is. The graphic
22:14
Speaker 1: design helps you a lot understand what cards are and
22:17
Speaker 1: where they go and what they're doing. You can learn
22:19
Speaker 1: to identify what kind of card it is by looking
22:21
Speaker 1: at it, even without having to read it. Android Android
22:25
Speaker 1: Netrunner was always a very welcoming game in terms of
22:29
Speaker 1: the people that were depicted. It's much more likely to
22:32
Speaker 1: pick people who don't look like straight, white, heterosexual folks
22:37
Speaker 1: that they have a variety of look and feel to them.
22:41
Speaker 1: Sometimes there are clear indicators in the game that they're say,
22:44
Speaker 1: not straight or often the people depicted are not European
22:48
Speaker 1: in descent, and the game creates this very robust world.
22:53
Speaker 1: It's a dark world because it's a cyberpunk inspired place
22:58
Speaker 1: where corporations run every everything and life for regular people
23:02
Speaker 1: is pretty crummy. But sort of embedded within that is
23:06
Speaker 1: this adventure of these characters pursuing aggression against the corporation
23:12
Speaker 1: or these corporations trying to accomplish their goals. And then
23:15
Speaker 1: you have the art for all of the AI, all
23:17
Speaker 1: of the computer stuff. So part of the idea of
23:20
Speaker 1: Android netrunners that you are going into a computer world
23:24
Speaker 1: like the William Gibson novel Neuromancer or similar things like that,
23:27
Speaker 1: where you are going into a three D computer generated
23:31
Speaker 1: world when you are hacking or whatever. And so often
23:35
Speaker 1: there are like the intrusion countermeasures, the ice the corporations
23:40
Speaker 1: deploy have like personalities, they'll be named after things, and
23:43
Speaker 1: so you have the renderings of these sort of robots
23:47
Speaker 1: or bugs or walls and all the stuff that is
23:51
Speaker 1: part of the defense of the corporation servers. And then similarly,
23:54
Speaker 1: the hackers have like you know, drills or animals that
23:58
Speaker 1: will attack or also it's afferent stuff that is connected
24:01
Speaker 1: to what the theme of what the card is. So
24:05
Speaker 1: there's a kind of making literal of metaphor in the
24:08
Speaker 1: art of the computer programs that's really fascinating and I
24:11
Speaker 1: think conveys the spirit of the game really well. So
24:14
Speaker 1: the art and Android Netrunner is impeccable. And I've talked
24:17
Speaker 1: many times on this podcast about why the game of
24:20
Speaker 1: Android Netrunner is second to none. I'm not going to
24:23
Speaker 1: dive into that again here except to say that if
24:26
Speaker 1: you haven't ever played it before, it's a really great experience.
24:30
Speaker 1: In Android Netrunner, are you play as either the corporation
24:35
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish your goals or as a hacker trying
24:38
Speaker 1: to steal the goals from the corporation. It's in an
24:40
Speaker 1: asymmetric game, so all of the points for the game
24:44
Speaker 1: are in the deck controlled by the corporation all of
24:48
Speaker 1: the so the hacker's job is to break into the
24:51
Speaker 1: deck and steal the points. The corporation's job is to
24:53
Speaker 1: protect the points and try to score them before the
24:56
Speaker 1: hacker can steal them. It's a really great back and forth.
24:59
Speaker 1: There's a lot of trying to read the other player
25:01
Speaker 1: trying to bluff. There are thousands of cards, so you
25:04
Speaker 1: can build really interesting decks. It was originally designed as
25:08
Speaker 1: an LCG, so there's no chasing of rayres. Yeah. I
25:11
Speaker 1: can't say enough good things about it. I have played
25:13
Speaker 1: a little bit recently because I got the starter pack
25:17
Speaker 1: for Null Signal Games. I haven't dived fully back into
25:20
Speaker 1: the game. It's very involving, and I'm not sure I
25:22
Speaker 1: want to just because it's so good and it eats
25:25
Speaker 1: up so much time. But boy, I like it. But
25:28
Speaker 1: as I thought about my Top fifty games, every time
25:31
Speaker 1: i'd compare this game Android Netrunner to any other game,
25:35
Speaker 1: I'd be like, yeah, Netrunner is better, no question. So
25:38
Speaker 1: if you haven't had a chance to try Android Netrunner yet,
25:41
Speaker 1: I encourage you to do so. It's a great game.
25:44
Speaker 1: I love to play it, and it remains my number
25:47
Speaker 1: one game and has been since twenty seventeen. So that
25:52
Speaker 1: brings me to the end of this episode and the
25:55
Speaker 1: end of my top fifty list. Well, I hope that
25:57
Speaker 1: it was enjoyable for you. If you'd like to share
26:00
Speaker 1: your thoughts on it, head over to board Game Get
26:01
Speaker 1: Killed three, two, six, nine and share your thoughts in
26:04
Speaker 1: the forums there. I would love to chat with you
26:07
Speaker 1: about what your favorite game is and perhaps arrange to
26:10
Speaker 1: play it on board game Arina or something similar. Okay,
26:14
Speaker 1: we'll have one more episode to go from the season.
26:15
Speaker 1: We'll kind of wrap up with episode seven hundred and
26:18
Speaker 1: then get set up for next season. Thanks for joining
26:22
Speaker 1: me on my walk today. I hope your next walk
26:24
Speaker 1: is disclosed is mindless.
26:26
Speaker 2: Goodbye.
26:47
Speaker 1: Brought to you by rattle Box