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In today’s episode of Board Game Impact. Jack Johnson Bruce Talk through all those games that they got for the holidays but actually getting them played as well as other games from their collections. And then they dig into that new wingspan expansion the European expansion so stay tuned for that and so much more. Welcome to board game impact. My name is Bruce Brown. This is Josh and here board game impact. We are providing and breaking down gaming experiences that we’re having through educational lens passionate for this Hobby for you and your game groups benefit so so that sounds like something of interest to you make sure to just click subscribe. We do have that that phone or other device still in your hand so in this episode. We’re going to be doing something cool So in the last episode we were talking about all the fun Games we got from the holidays and now that we’ve had a little bit of time and our students have been trickling back. We both work at universities. We are able to now get to you playing those games. That’s really cool but I just wanted to do a quick call out. Josh didn’t tell you I was going to do this but I just want to. If between this episode launching in the next episode after this one I’m going to be going through what’s called my qualifying exams for my PhD program. So if you can just give me some like good good vibes. I greatly appreciate that so I worked fulltime education but I’m also part time working on the PhD. Besides doing this so that’d be a great help. Please absolutely absolutely bruce in and you have all the well wishes of of myself. My family and I’m sure the listeners so I I know what a a hectic time and pain that can be so best of luck to you and I’m sure you’re gonNA knock it out of the park Braschi at that so with that being said I was able to cram in some games to play Josh. You’re able to play a bunch of games as well and I’m really looking forward to playing games after the recall. Vague actually have a game night scheduled that night to decompress. So Josh Ron we kick it off with. What have you been playing? What’s going on sure so so? Unfortunately I have not had a chance to get any of the Games. I received for the holidays through the table as of recording. Miss Definitely have some Packed away in my game bag for this weekend that that I’m GONNA force upon some unsuspecting expecting Members of my game group but the game that I wanted to talk about. Because it’s it’s another one of those gains that I kickstarted a while back. I believe back in April Came in right before the holidays and actually spent a good chunk of time over. The holidays is playing Against my wife and that is a Rome by Red Raven game so for listeners. We actually talked about Rome when it was being kick started back in April Around about that time and Rome is a smaller game name by Ryan Lockett of Red Raven Games in which you are collecting people To into your village or your community The way you’re doing is each character in front of you has like a little tetris. Symbol on it. And when you activate that person you put those tetris pieces on land masses that are out in front of you that make up the game board when you fill up one of those Three by two grid is each card when Cardis filled whoever put the most pieces on it Gets that card and on the backside of it is actually a new villager. That you you add to your village and they have a new kind of tetris symbol. That they can use when activated really neat little puzzle game We’ve only played it to player. Plays pretty well at two player. I think it would probably play better with three to four. which is how it’s designed to play I But a really really really neat little game you know it takes probably thirty minutes or so so we can knock out one or two Two or three games in a evening just sitting around and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it. That’s I mean rooms a great game I did not back in on kickstarter and honestly I kind of kicking myself for that but I did play this at. BG and went up to the Red Raven Games booth and the Demo were was there with Ryan while they were also working on some stuff for sleeping gods Getting that ready more play testing.
That’s their new. Kickstart is going to be coming out soon. Baron was a lot of fun. One thing you didn’t talk about Josh that I found really cool about it though. Was the equipment cards you can kind of purchase and I had one. I had a hammer at one point and then I had soared which meant that. I could replace hammer time people and what that meant is I could get rid of one of their control tokens and put in one line instead. it’s now it’s cool. There’s a lot of cool little layers of that puzzle going on. Yeah yeah there. And there’s The the kickstarter edition came with a little mini expansion. which which we actually haven’t started yet that involves Some little Jim Tiles Als So whenever you activate your character you also have your little personal gym Mat. And you place. Jim Tokens on it. And and whenever you fill up a section that that counts for a gym you’ll get some additional victory points so I didn’t talk about the the artifacts because we actually just got around to Adding those in one of the things I really like about it Is it’s it’s a very easy game to teach and get into because you can kind of break it up into little learning chunks. You can have just like the very short introduction game then you add in the artifacts the new ad in the gym mats. And there’s a couple other little mini Like modules that you can throw in there as well so and having a lot of fun with it it’s a really nice little light game To play at the end of the night I didn’t realize you can layer that stuff out. That’s just I just love games that do that ad actually some really good ted talks on how their original Super Mario Brothers did that through their game design. I might put a link to put a link to one of those in the show notes that we can check that out because it’s a really cool to talk about graphic design and influence on people. So unlike you josh. But that’s really exciting about Rome That’s really cool. I didn’t know Red Raven game spoiler to talk about in this one. Dan Except commenting on ones you. Maybe you played maybe but all of my games are games. I got from the holiday season. I did have that opportunity. I’m Gosh I’m looking forward to hearing your opportunity to impose them on. Other people had the opportunity to impose them because I was also trying to get them played. ‘CAUSE ’cause I know I have this hiatus coming up of focusing in on this qualifying exam because it’s important but the first one I’ve been able to play was is actually quite lindbergh gotten stable a number of times I brought it to a pub and played it with some friends. There played it at home and played it another another game day down. Houston so quacks is put out. By North Star Games would designer Wolfgang Wash one the Kenner spill the Sierra so the Gamer game of the year a couple years ago in two thousand eighteen so big deal taxes are really fun little bag building game in which. You’re trying to push your luck by drawing among these little tokens out of your bag until there’s one token that you do not wanna see it’s a little white ones and when you have a certain amount of those potion overflows and your you done busted and it takes place over nine rounds and so you start out with not being able to do much and then all of a sudden you have a ton and then you’re trying to play the lottery game of am I going to draw. Draw one of the things I don’t want I think going to draw one of the things I do want even though it’s like one in ten The so it’s fun really fun game to play Josh. I know you’ve played this one too. Yeah no quacks is a great game. I picked up quacks a couple months ago and have gotten into table a couple times. It’s not the most deep or complex games but it’s a ton of fun I mean just that pusher luck aspect of You know I am. I GonNa pull the next thing that I need or can I you. You know I’ve got a one in four chance. What do I think I can do it? You know and then when you do bust it’s this kind of I write. Everybody in the table is getting into it and having a good time I think is a great game Really really well designed and just a fun fun little thing thing to do and it doesn’t you know for a game that plays over nine rounds. it it doesn’t take that long. No it’s easy I think this is a great addition to anybody’s collection and I’m really glad that you’ve been enjoying it. Bruce have been really enjoying it and everyone’s having a lot of fun so excited about that Speaking of fun one other fun things even sure so.
I played a lot of games with my wife over the holidays. That’s kind of what we what we do. And we have some downtime so This is actually a Christmas gift from last year. So twenty eighteen I got this gift left and it had sat in shrink or pretty much an entire year. Well before I finally convinced my wife To to sit down and give it a shot and that’s Jaipur By Asthma Day Games and Jaipur is a two player game. It is a game about trading in the Middle East like all games but This one because it is a two player game you are. You have cards out on the table and you’re picking up cards and you’re trying to set collect Different types of cards. That will then be able to play which will earn you points and then if you have a large enough collection you’ll earn some additional points. You play three three rounds and best of three wins You know again eight short light game But I ah I honestly think this this may be one of the best two player Games. It’s out there. I know Bruce. We’ve we’ve talked a lot about war chest and talk doc. Both on and off the podcast. Those are I think will always be my go-to games but I definitely think thank Jaipur is something. It’s not quite as intense and strategic. There’s definitely some strategy to it but it’s a little bit lighter in a little bit more fun and easier to just kind of toss down and play a couple of games. Yeah I agree with you on that Jaipur is a game. Actually put right there with patchwork another player game. Both of those games are games. If we’re going to my wife and I and we’re going to like a game cafe Austin or somewhere else and we don’t have that long and we just WanNa grow up like a cup of coffee or a beverage and hanging out for just a couple of quick minutes just to like D. could de-stress before going more shopping or things like that. That’s one of the two games that I would pull down off the shelf for some of those quick but it’s engaging you feel fulfilled at the end of it so it’s cool. I’m glad you finally got it off the shelf. Shame yeah it was really funny. We we played a couple rounds While we were at her family’s house in Connecticut and as we were packing she’s she turned to me and said. Did you put that game in your carry on. Because I want want to try and play it on the plane if we if we’re sitting next to each other Dang some bold. Yeah Yeah so we were. There was an aisle between us. We didn’t get a chance dance too but I thought it was pretty funny because my wife is not that into gaming that that she is Wanting to get something onto the foldout foldout tables of a of an airplane. Yeah I mean that’s a good sign. You played in the aisle. I don’t know how the airline people would be happy about that. Probably not not notice stewardess might have been a little upset by that one. Yeah that’s a great sign that this game has had that kind of impact for her. That’s really cool. So Josh I’m going to ask you a question Do you WanNa talk about the game that you and I both of the plague or do you want me to talk about the other one. You know I’ve been holding off on that one. Yeah because I think we’re going to go on for so let’s talk about the other one. I and listeners. This is us it’s like. Hey let’s negotiate negotiate right now. You’re authentically US okay. So the other game that I know you have not played because you and I have some different gaming preferences references along this vein over. I think you’d like this one a really do because it’s different This was another holiday gift again. All of my games are from my list but I got to play Star Affairs of Catan. Sustar Fares of Catan is big bigger box than base Catan. Yes sellers of Catanha’s Papa. Ah By catan studios but this one’s in space. It’s really cool. It’s a it’s a bigger board. It’s actually three by two puzzle. Piece board with Gaps missing you’ll put different planetary systems or open space or trade spaces but it’s not like base Catan except for for you roll the dice and you take the resources if you happen to have a settlement or in this case a colony or a spaceport adjacent to a planet that gives XYZ Swazi Resource and if you roll a seven and you have more than seven cards in your hand. You lose half your hand. Run it up rounded down. I’m sorry besides is that.
That’s really where the comparison between regular Catan Star Affairs of Catan is like that’s like they diverge urge from there and this one is really cool. You got these little spaceships that you can actually mount on your little ships on your little colonies. It’s called a colony ship and sail them around. So you’re not building routes where the routes are permanent. No you’re really just ship sending a ship off into the galaxy but you also have these out honestly like seven inches tall big plastic pieces. That are your quote unquote mothership and inside of it. It’s got five five little beads and to show your movement. How far you can move your shake your ship and turn it over and in the little bottom where the essentially the rocket part would be would be to shows two balls in those two balls you look at the colors and that tells you a fast? You’d go the cool thing it adds in though is there’s one one black ball in everybody’s ship if that blackball gets shown on when you have a role not role but shake your ship for your speed. Then you actually get an the vent and there’s an event deck with these decision trees so even counted or merchant. Choose between zero and three resources that you’re going to give them from your hand. Depending on how many resources you give we’ll give a different result and but there’s also cards say you’ve the same thing of even counter merchant agent choose between zero and three things but surprise. It’s actually a space pirate after you’ve made your choice and do you want to attack. Yes no and so. You’ve got decision. Entreaties of yes no and based on your decisions different things happen to you or around you or to all the other players so brought it a lot. More interaction between between players sometimes a little bit of stress because of the events that come out but I had a lot a lot of fun because you can jump around the galaxy and Some cool things happen though not going to spoil for people. This isn’t a full review but it was a really cool experience. I don’t know the game. We’re going to bring to game nights at a pub because there’s a lot of stuff but I’ll definitely GONNA be having some game nights house again or if we’re doing a one at somebody else’s house I’ll be brains that there’s a lot of fun I’m curious. What do you have any quick questions about it yet? So Bruce Their coal thing so a I like the decision tree aspects I think storytelling pulling in a game is really amped up for me a lot. I like that that piece being added in We’ve talked about it on the show. Oh a couple of times now so Catan is not my favorite game But this does sound significantly different To a point that I may be willing to give it a shot. There is one question that I think may make or break. This for me runs. Yeah are their spaceship. There are no space sheep. Well then I can’t play this game. Bruce I know there are there’s carbon there are goods which is like the most coveted one because they have a better trading ratio there’s what is it crystals jet jet fuel and I’m forgetting the other one right now? Sorry there are no space sheep. Yeah I think he’s going to have to be a hard past. Yeah that makes sense I get it I get it. There’s no spaceship that’ll be an expansion. We’ll see yeah apparently so. This is a reprint reprint. It did come out in one thousand nine and it’s notorious for having the same motherships but they were dilapidated and the duct tape them together together. They were known for having some expansions back in the day. So we’ll see if they do a spaceship expansion. Just for you Josh. Well Bruce. I’m glad that it sounds like you’re enjoying growing this You know perhaps some day down the road you’ll you’ll convince me to give it a shot I do love a space theme So so you might be able to sucker me on that one. Yeah and I will just in summary. This game created stories and experiences of stories. He’s where it’s not as much like. Oh Yeah I had fun playing that. It create memorable create a memorable experiences. So that’s where I’m really excited about a four. Yeah so with that being said the one that we’ve been kind of holding off on talking about because this is something that you and I both played you and I both own now and your wife likes it. My wife loves it They both love it. We all love it. And so I’m GonNa let you do the ensured that because it’s one heck of a leader Schorr if you’ve been a listener for a while now you’ve probably guessed that we are going to talk about wingspan ban Specifically though Wingspan with the European expansion which came out towards the beginning in November or shipped for the beginning of November Bruce mentioned in our last episode that that his wife picked up up a copy of this expansion for him for for the holidays.
I couldn’t wait that long. I pre-ordered heard this the second stone. Meyer said that it was coming and and jumped jumped on that one immediately. So Bruce. Let’s start with your reaction. I think we we know what my reaction to this is going to be but you tell me what were your thoughts on this expendable on wingspan as itself. And then. What do you think the expansion adds to that? Sure so it. Quick summary Wingspan. If you haven’t played wingspan had just won the Kenner Spiel. This year for two thousand nineteen so congrats to them and end soon. Meyer and Elizabeth Vargas for designing this amazing game for her first design. Wingspan is a game in. which you’re going to have a hand of bird cards and you’re going to spend resources to play those birds onto your tableau either into your forest your grasslands or your water area that being he said you’re essentially trying to build an engine building an engine building game through playing your birds and the different types of birds all synergise off of each other and it’s really cool? You have some carnivores that do things like feed on things. If certain resources are out or you have birds words that can kind of hop around from different areas or birds. That are going to do things when other birds do things or laying. Different amounts of eggs and the number of exit or on a card are indicative of how many exit bird lays in the wildlife like they actually worked with Audubon society on this. Like it’s crazy. The amount of work that went into into this game that being said I really enjoy wingspan to begin with. And I definitely think it’s a game. Everybody would really really enjoy. Enjoy that being said. I was because I played it so much because I played it so much. It was kind of getting Samy a little bit. I’m for me because the goals would be kind of the same every time Those kind of things so the new expansion added in a whole new stack of bird cards new goal cards cards as well as new end of around tiles. That have nothing to do with the amount of birds and how many eggs they have on their cards as well as some new birds that you can delay sideways to cover up. Two spots seeking a power more powerful engine with less birds. Some birds that eat other birds. That’s the thing is Kinda okay cool. I had a lot of fun with this Josh at a lot of fun with the new expansion I think the changing I was most excited for and it approved for me the new end of round scoring opportunities. Blue this thing into a whole new echelon for me because it no longer focuses on eggs on cards more eggs and certain types of ness it. It made me made everybody at the table. Diversify A and look at different things and brought so much new life into this besides these other cool bird. Cards and personal goals. So that’s like the nutshell feeling and then we can talk about more about some of the stuff. So yeah what do you think about that. No I think you really hit the nail on the head with a couple of different things So Wingspan is hands down my number one. Game of Twenty Nineteen I absolutely adore this game. It is Just just everything that I’m looking for in terms of just as they light relaxing fun game that I can play with anyone at anytime. The European expansion just added more to love. I would agree with you that I played this game a lot. Probably more than almost any other game in my collection except for maybe tear forming. Bring Mars at this point. And that’s a lot I I’ve only played it in for a year. Now and I’ve I’ve kind of been constantly gently. Bring it back to the table so the base game comes with a ton of bird cards but it does become a little samey. The lot of them have similar powers and similar abilities and so you can kind of identify by based on your starting hand.
This is the strategy that I’m going to take for this game adding in these new not just new cards hards but new mechanics and new ways of looking at bird cards. I think really brought brought some new life and some new interesting decisions in to how I played this game. Might my favorite part of this was the the inclusion of birds that scored or had their ability trigger at the end of around. Yeah I thought that was a absolutely absolutely wonderful idea of of how to expand without you know the thing I love the most is. I didn’t have to teach anything new. You know the one thing that I had to teach that was new is I have to teach one more type of bird card. You have these blue new cars that trigger at the end of the round versus the other cars trigger at different points. It’s a two second edition to my spiel teaching teaching this game. It is an expansion that I can play with someone who’s played one hundred times and its expansion that I can play with someone who’s never played before for and that’s kind of what we did We we got this out while we were home. visiting my wife’s family and played with My Wife’s brother and his partner who neither of them really play a lot of games they play some but not not too many and had never played wingspan before and they picked up on the expansion. They wouldn’t have known that there is an expansion if we hadn’t told them that this is new to us. And and you know I think that is the sign of an exceptionally good expansion of something that brings joy to people who’ve been playing for a while while also being accessible to people who have been playing for for however long and so- Josh. I don’t know if you know this but actually listen to a Jamie Steinmeyer. The owner of CO owner of Stoneware Games does a weekly Wednesday ten. AM Central Standard Time. facebook live five and one of the most recent ones he actually talked about the expansion. And so when you talk about Josh I think you hit the nail on the head of. It’s not teaching anything new. So so the fact that the end of round if you’re using the friendly variant of the end around scoring that color is blue which is the same color is on the card. So it’s like Oh this makes sense so if you’re teaching somebody it’s the colors match. That being said a really cool mechanic or thing in the game is the personal goal Oh cards have a percentage of cards in the deck. It’s tells you. How many cards in the deck correlate to that Goal Elizabeth worked really really hard on the expansion so that with the new cards that were added in kept the percentages from the base game percentages the same so because you add in a whole stack of like a ton of new cards the odds on your personal gold cards from the pre expansion base game are the same like they? Didn’t you don’t have this. This is an expansion that was not originally designed from the GECKO but they put their heart and soul into it to make this like this is now part of the base game. And it’s just going to be as approachable as everything else. No I in that was I. I didn’t listen to that interview or that You know stone. Meyer Update I believe is how he he defrays those. Maybe something different anyway But I was aware that they had worked really hard to keep those percentages the same. I think that that really shows just how much of a passion project this is for them. no I think this was a really really really wonderfully done expansion agenda and and I if if you’re listening to this and you like Wingspan go get the euro expansion. Now go back and listen onto our last episode as about his his wife’s experience with the MS RPM and the same thing is happening with wingspan. Still still to this day were a year in and Wingspan still sells out within a day of a new print run and they just cannot keep up with it so so pay attention to the. RPG’s wingspan should MS RPM around fifty five to sixty dollars I believe The euro expansion expansion should Ms Rpm on twenty five.
Don’t go spending seventy dollars on the expansion or on the base game. My wife accidentally gently did that because there’s Amazon third party and she didn’t know because it was sold out so josh like yeah you’re right now but let’s actually gets back to the focuses episode. This was not a wingspan episode but but now listeners. If you can’t tell like we a lot of fun playing this thing and it’s done a lot of cool things for our game groups and for us and there’s so much that’s good and so much to love that being said Josh any of one more game on your list for about today but after that got to cut you off. Yeah now and I and this one. This was a last minute addition here that I just wanted to give a shout out to We mentioned Elizabeth Hargrave and I actually Just received her second game. which is a Tussey Musi? I believe his house pronounced. The thing is dusty musty. I’m not sure By button shy games and this is a really really neat little by little. I mean it comes in a pack the size of your Wallet Business Card Holder. Yeah Yeah which button shy games? That’s their whole thing is is games that you can fit in your back pocket And Tussey Musi is just the the little kind of collection game It’s got one main mechanic which is an I cut you choose mechanic. Meaning whoever’s turned his draws the top two cards of the deck looks at them puts one face up and one face down and offers the choice to the next player in clockwise. Quiet Order of. Would you like the face up card or the face down card. Each card is a flower and each flower will score differently based off. It says so as you are playing through. You’re just collecting a bouquet of flowers. I really enjoyed it. Elizabeth loved it. I think this is is another one that she did a really good job with. I think we’re seeing the rise of a of a pretty good game designer here and and I just wanted to give a shout. aww That last minute addition to seamlessly if you T. U. S. S. I. E. Immu S. S. E. IF YOU God WanNa go look that up and listeners. Of course remember all the Games we talked about on the show are in the show notes. So don’t hesitate to look down there but we made a promise to you that we’re gonNA keeping these episodes short Josh with that being said any quick wrap up things for our listeners now once again listeners. Thank you all so much for joining US letting us be a part of your gaming experience in really hope that that listening to us talk about our experiences Help you make some interesting game choices or give you an idea about what maybe sounds good for your game group but once again thank you so much we we always appreciate being part of your experience. Yeah and so We hope that listening to us is helpful information for you and your game group Because that’s why we’re doing this. We love giving back to this hobby. We love helping and hearing from listeners on our thoughts different games and the experiences were getting to have so. If there’s any gaming experiences that your really curious about make sure to email us at board game impacted gmail.com or send us a message on all the social media things or tune into any of the livestream that I’ve been doing over on Youtube Dot com slash board game impact You can find all those things and more on their patron so patriots dot com slash. Forgive impact Andrew just hope that you enjoyed this episode and we look forward to talking to you in another two weeks after I get through this qualifying exam. so with all of that I’m just go out have a lot of fun gaming and go make a positive impact on the world
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