Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / My Top 50 ... by Art (part 4)

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My Top 50 ... by Art (part 4) · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to pick up and deliver the podcast, or I
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorder when I step out of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the door and deliver an episode to you while I
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: walk around. I'm Brendan Riley Well Greedy's listener. It's a
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: chilly day here in suburban Chicago, although not as chilly
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: as the past few days have been. This is the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: first day in maybe four or five days where the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: temperature hasn't been like feels like negative something like a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: couple of days ago. It feels like negative twenty. For example,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the high yesterday was two, or the high two days
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: ago was two. So so the time I'm sure, being
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: in the mid twenties, which feels like fifteen, actually feels
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: kind of nice so or at least nice enough. They
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: can get out for a walk, which is good because
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I haven't had any exercise for a couple days. So
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: in that regard, I went to so I had to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: go for a walk. I have to return the book
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to the library anyway, and I thought while I'm doing that,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I'll record a podcast for you. That's why it's time
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: for the next step in my top fifty games, as
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: revealed an order of the art I like for those
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: of you who are coming in new This is a
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: weird place to come in New You should come back
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: a couple episodes ago. But the quick and dirty of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: it is, I'm slowly revealing my top fifty games as
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: renewed here in twenty twenty five. Last time I did
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: this list it was twenty twenty two, and in so doing,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I am just for a low variety. I'm revealing that
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: top fifty list in order of the art in the
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: game rather than anything else, like how much I like
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the art in the game. So let's jump right into it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: This episode will be revealing numbers thirty five through thirty
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: one of my top fifty games in art and this one.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: This next one is one of those games where some
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of the art is really good, some of it is
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: really terrible, but the game is amazing. This is Vampire
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the Eternal Struggle, the only collectible card game in my
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: collection as well as in my Top fifty. This is
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a game from the early two thousands that was created
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: actually late nineties, I think, created by Richard Garfield, designed
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: to answer the question of magic. Being primarily a two
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: player game, Vampire the Eternal Struggles, set in the world
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: of Vampire the Mass Grade is primarily a multiplayer game.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It's an excellent card game with okay art. Some of
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the art in the game is really very compelling. Some
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of it feels very dated, like it looks a lot like, Oh,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: this game was definitely made in the nineties, and then
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the graphic design on the game definitely feels like it
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: was made in the nineties. It's very functional, but it
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: is very particular in its style, and it hasn't aged
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: great now. I fully admit I'm way out of the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: meta on this one. I haven't played this game in
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: a very long time, but this game still holds a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: deep place in my heart. I played a lot of
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: games of it back in the day, and I really
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: really like it, so it has stayed in my collection
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and stayed in my thoughts even if I don't play it,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and in fact, I still consider it my number fourteen
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: game of all time. That is up six spots from
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, when I rate it my number twenty
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: third game of all time. I guess it's grown in
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: my memory in time, which is kind of a funny
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: thing to have happened, but there it is. Its highest
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: was in twenty seventeen I had it at number five
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and it's really good. I just haven't played it in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: a long time, so it is slipping some. Although it slipped,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: it actually slipped backwards. It went up in my estimation.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if I'm getting more jaded or
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: more nostalgic or what. But since twenty twenty two, I've
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: come to admire it more. I guess that's Vampire the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Eternal Struggle, the collectible card game. Now, this game has
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: been continued by the I can't remember what they're called,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the Sabbat. It's like an online group of people who
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: have been continued making cards and continue to host determents and stuff.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: There are still people who play it today. It's still
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: a game I would enjoy playing at some point, but
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I only have time to get into so many games,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and if I'm going to get into a game like
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: that again, it's a netrunner. So Vampire the Internal Struggle
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: may just stay in my memory for a while, but boy,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: it's a good game designed by Richard Garfield. All right.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: My number thirty four game in terms of the art
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: is Through the Ages, a news story of civilization through
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the Ages. Is an amazing game with again kind of
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: mediocre art. Some of the art is really good, some
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of the art is not. It's very photorealistic, so that
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: works in its favor, but it's also just representative. It's
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: very functional. But nobody plays that game and goes like, oh,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: now that I've got this great art, this really gets
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: me excited for having canons. It is also very Western centric,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: so like canons are European canons, the riflemen are European riflemen.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: A lot of the technology is Western technology, particularly once
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: you're in the Modern age, So there is a bias,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I guess, in the sociology of the game, which has
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with its art. Like I said, the
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: art is very presentative. It's good. It's even very well done.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: You can tell who things are like when there's a
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: person depicted, they are clearly the person they are, at
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: least for people in the modern era or even in
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the Renaissance era where we have portraits of them that
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: have been painted. The art is fine. The gameplay itself
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: is amazing. Through the ages is and my number nine
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: slot that's five up from twenty twenty two when it
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: was fourteen, and it is currently as high as it
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: has ever been in my estimation. This is the game
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I've played literally hundreds of times. I think that it
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: is endlessly interesting. The ebb and flow of gameplay is
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: really pretty cool, and I love the way that the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: game forces you to balance how you're spending your energy.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I recently played a game of it where I didn't
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: put any energy into military, and that's another one that's
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: going on right now. I don't think I'm going to
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: be able to recover, but I spent There was a
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: game a while ago where I got far enough behind.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: It was a four player game, and I just was
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the punching bag for the rest of the game. I
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: pretty nearly resigned. I think I mentioned this in the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: discussion during the Top of the Stack. But it's an
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: incredible game. There's always lots to do, There's lots of
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: stuff going on. It's very thoughtful and one I really enjoy.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I do enjoy it a lot online. I haven't played
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: it very much on the table because it takes a
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: ton of time and a lot of table space, but
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I do have a copy and I would play it
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: on the table at some point, I think if I could.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: That's Through the Ages, a new story of civilization. Nextcept
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: we have Agricola. Agricola is my number thirty three game
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: in terms of art. I like Agricola's art a lot.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Clemens Franz has a very specific style. Either you like
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: it or you don't. Some people think it's too cartoony.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I think it's just right, and it's kind of it
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: feels like Uve Rosenberg because so many Clement Juve Rosenberg
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: games have Clemens Franz as their artists.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Oh there's a.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Little Dannny Wood, hear it. It's chirping away here in
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: this tree. Cutie pie, all right.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I like the kind of cozy looking people. I like
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the way that Clemens Franz draws the different farming implements.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: They're wholesome and cartoony, yet they explain what they are,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and you can tell what they are pretty well. There's
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit of life and flavor in them. There's
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: like a gricle of tiles, for instance, that have board
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: games on the tables in the little house, that sort
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: of thing, which is very cute. Just all in all,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Clemens Franz is a top tier art game artist for me,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: so it's not surprising that I would like him. This
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: is one of those games where people think, you know,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: they could say I like that art or I don't
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: like the art. It is really good for what the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: game is, but again it's not, you know, I think
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: probably it's not until we get in the top twenty
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that I'm going like, oh, this art is amazing, don't
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I don't think the art in a Griclea is amazing,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: but it's really good and the purpose really well.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: So that's Agricola.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: In terms of my top fifty by favorite, it is
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: at number twenty five, which is down fifteen slots from
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: ten in twenty two. The highest it was was at
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: number four in twenty fifteen, so it's been slowly slipping
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: since the beginning. Nothing against it. This is another game
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I've played dozens of times. I don't know if I've
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: cracked hundreds yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if I've
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: got over one hundred playing online. It is endlessly variable
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and interesting. The combination of cards that you get and
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: trying to make those work is always really a good challenge,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and the never ending problem of feeding your people makes
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the game challenging and fun in the way that a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: lot of work replacement games have stopped being or are not,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: which is why Agricola remains so high in my estimation.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: That's number twenty five out of my top fifty, number
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: thirty three in the top fifty by art. Next step
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: number thirty two on my list of art is a
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: game where I think the art is really compelling most
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: of the time, but some of it is really bad.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: And this is Ghosts and Juan Bouza's cooperative game about
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: fighting ghosts in a village. It's sort of if the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Seventh Samurai were recruited to fight ghosts instead of bandits.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: The premise is relatively simple. You have us here, a
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: bunch of monks, and you are defending this village against
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: these ghosts, and you get very limited turns to try
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: to defeat them in very limited resources. You can use
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: these dice, but if you're relying very much on the dice,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: you're probably in trouble. It's kind of the way I play.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: It's good. I rarely win it on easy. I think
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: one time I've wanted on normal. I'm not good enough
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to win it on like Super hard or whatever. But
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the art is very compelling. It's this kind of wispy
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: line art cartoonish style, but with a creepy Japanese vibe.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: The ghosts vary from creepy to downright horrifying, and overall
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the game it's just very compelling. From an art standpoint,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: it's good, but there are a few misses here and
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: there on different cars. As a game, it's really good. Now,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: what's weird about ghost Stories is that it's kind of
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: haunted my collection for the entire time I've been doing
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: the podcast. In twenty fifteen, ghost Stories is number thirty
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: seven on my list. It's number or sorry, number thirty eight.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: It's number thirty seven now, so it's moved up one
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: spot since twenty fifteen. The weird thing is, even though
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: this podcast has been haunted by ghost Stories, if you
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: go back and listen, you'll see that I mentioned the
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: game actually quite a bit. It hasn't been in my
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: top fifty. I think, you know, there's just other things
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: that have come up. I've stopped, I haven't focused on
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: it very much, and so since twenty fifteen, ghost Stories
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: has been absent from my top fifty list. But it
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: recently returned at number thirty seven, one spot up from
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: where it was in twenty fifteen. So maybe this is
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I did play it a couple times in the last year,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and so it sort of brought it back into consciousness.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I've also played a number of other cooperative games where
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I keep thinking, like, no, this is good, but it's
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: not as good as Ghost Stories. And so maybe that
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: constant reference in my head to this older game has
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: kept it in my consciousness and in fact moved it up.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: At least.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm going to say to explain the fact
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: that it's number thirty seven now when it's been absent
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: since twenty fifteen. On my list, that's ghost Stories, my
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: number thirty two in terms of art, and finally, my
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: number thirty one game in terms of art is Siderial Confluence.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Now Here, I am talking about the revised edition from
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: wiz Kids. I don't know who published the original edition,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: but the original edition had basically no art at all,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: or very little. The revised edition has Quanschai Moria art
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and it is great. And I will say part of
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the reason it's that thirty one and not higher is
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: that while I love the box cover and I love
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the portraits of the aliens on their alien cards, there's
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: really no other art. I guess the planets are depicted,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: but those are just globes with different geographies. Nothing else
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: has art. Because the game is so text heavy and
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: symbol heavy, you really have to be able to see
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: that stuff well. The game does not have a lot
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: of room for art, and the graphic design is very
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: simple because its to be easily legible from far away.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: But as a result, then again no room for art.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: You have to make the symbols big and the words big,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: and so while Sideiro Confluence is really compelling both to
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: look at and to play, the art is good, but
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: not great or really good, just not much of it,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: and so it can't get higher than number thirty one
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: on my Top fifty games as organized by art. That said,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Saideiro Confluence is a really fun and weird experience, but
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: it's not a game. I get to the table all
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: that often, and I often choose other things instead of it,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and so with those things in mind, it has remained
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: toward the bottom of my top fifty list, squeaking in
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: in fact, at number fifty.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Last time I did the list, it was number twenty
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: nine in twenty twenty two, which means it dropped twenty
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: one slots this time. But given the number of new
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: games I've played since then, probably three hundred. It's not
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: surprising that it hasn't stayed at the top. I'm really
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: pleased that it did stay in though, because I think
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: this game is very special and real weird, and it's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: a game I would like to play more often. That's
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: sideial confluence my number fifty game number thirty one in
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: terms of my art. Well, that is five more games
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: it revealed and explained, and I hope that you enjoyed
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: hearing them. If you head over to Board Game Geek
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Guild three two sixty nine and look at the top
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: fifty chat form, We've got a lively discussion with a
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: number of members of the board of the pick Up
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and Deliver Guild talking about their top fifties. I'd love
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: to hear what you think both of these five I've revealed,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: of the thirty of the top one hundred that Gabriel's revealed,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: of John's new list, or tell us some of your
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: favorite games. You can do that all over on Board
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Game Geek and Guild three two sixty nine, find a
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: link to that in the show notes for this episode,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: or just go to boardgame geek dot com, Slash guild
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Slash three two sixty nine. You can also reach out
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: to me. I'm Brendan, I'm Wombat nine two nine on
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Board game Geek or Brendan at rautabox games dot com
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: if you'd like to email. Well, that's about it for
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: me today. I hope that you are enjoying this top fifty,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and I hope that you are able to get out
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: even if it's very cold where you are, as it
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: is where I am, and if so, I hope that
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: your next walk is as pleasant as mine was.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Bye bye.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by rattle Box