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Episode 48 – 2020 Holiday Wishlist

Tis the season and Bruce & Josh talk about their holiday wishlists. In addition Bruce and Josh share some reflections on 2020 to be thankful for and well wishes for the start of the new year.

Specific Games Discussed:

  • Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition (WizKids)
  • Twilight Imperium 4th Edition: Prophecy of Kings Expansion
  • Warhammer 40K Battlezone Manufactorum Sanctum Administratus (Games Workshop)
  • Memoir 44 (Days of Wonder)
  • Animal Adventures: Dungeons & Doggies Volume 1
  • Star Wars Unlock (Space Cowboys)
  • Maracaibo (Games Up)
  • Tapestry Plans & Ploys Expansion (Stonemaier)
  • Warhammer Warcry (Games Workshop)
  • Yokohama (TMG)
  • Tawantinsuyu (Board and Dice)

Contest – https://gleam.io/yNVv8/kicking-off-2021-30-mm-giveaway

Secret Giveaway code “ALLIANCE”

To learn more about Board Game Impact you can:

Audio Transcript (Generated by AI)

00:00:18 – 00:05:01

hello and welcome to another episode of board game impact as always. This is bruce. And i’m joined by ho ho ho. This is josh and we hope that no matter where you’re listening to this from that you are able to celebrate the holidays. Whichever those are we just happened to have this music for this but no matter what holiday you choose to celebrate. Or don’t we’re just so thankful to get to have these winter seasons together and spend time together and just come together as friends and family and all this time and we had two thousand twenty has been a heck of a year so coming together whether virtually things like that. It’s really important so we encourage you to do this. And that’s why we’re gonna do this episode so josh. What are we doing for this episode. Well bruce for this episode. We’re gonna talk about what are the games. We are hoping. Make it under our tree this year. Exactly so for us. Josh do both and our families both do celebrate christmas but regardless it’s really just the spirit of giving and so that’s why we thought this would be cool just here what things we’re looking forward to but in this different vein of light and so i think it’s important to start us off not with what we want. But how do we ask for it. And by the way real quick if this is your first episode of ward game impact first. It’s a very different than normal. The second of all what. We are biweekly. Podcast on gaming and joshua both work fulltime in higher education and we apply those educational lenses to our gaming experiences to break them down for the benefit of union game group. That sounds like something of interest to you like. Make sure to subscribe. And if you wanna learn more about us and see like behind the scenes stuff you can also head over to board game. Impact dot com to learn that or check out the patriots patriot. Patriots dot com. Such him back but with that being said josh. How the heck do we even tell people about what we want for the holidays or birthday. Whatever what do you do so this is really challenging for me. And i thinks probably something. That’s challenging for a lot of gamers out there especially if you are interested in things revolve around gaming and you have family that may not really understand or be involved in the hobby So one thing that that my family does. And it’s just become our thing. Is we have each of us have an amazon wishlist that is shared with the rest of the family that we can ask things to as we go generally personally i would prefer to send people other places you can find places games cheaper. It different online retailers It’s nice to support. Local game stores all those types of things but we just find because my family is a little bread out that it is just a little bit easier to just have that amazon wishlist. If people want to go looking other places and find a deal or support local businesses in their areas. They are welcome to do that. But that gives everybody kind of a starting point at least What about you bruce. Yes so so. Just let me just clarify that so you send them a list of potential places. They could get a gift card to end or an amazon wishlist now. Is that an independent amazon wishlist. Like do you have one. Does your significant other have one or is it like your family wants this combined wishlist. I’m just curious so for us. Yes so i didn’t mention this. Oh for my in laws. Generally prefer to Have one or two smaller things that they give to us to open on christmas morning but for the most part we do they do a gift cards calm and so i give them a handful of places that i would be interested in having a gift card to they wanna make sure that the money they are spending is going to something that’s going to be put to use in something that we’re going to love and cherish As much as a gift from them will be that in their mind Us being able to go and spend their money the way that we would want to Is just what makes them feel good for for my family. It is an independent list. Ob now certainly.

00:05:01 – 00:10:03

There are things on my wishlist. That are for both my wife. And i and i’m vice versa. With her as well but Yeah generally speaking we view. The holidays is a pretty independent. If we want something together we usually buy it for each other or we buy together and so the holidays tend to be a much more individualized thing in our household. Sure and thank you for clarifying that. As it’s i think it’s just important that we acknowledge those things and because that’s we each celebrate these things differently right so for me since you asked. I do it completely different so for me. I actually use a the same google doc. I’ve been using it for like three years. And what i do. Send it out about a month and a half ahead of the holidays where it’s constantly updated like so if there’s something like yeah i’d like that especially essentially starting about six six months before the holiday season i kind of slow up my buying habits except for certain things i know. I’m not going to ask for certain things for the holidays of family member. But these things that i could open or celebrate with these things and so i break that up into like things game things and then other things and i actually list out so i’ll list the game the most important thing for me though with family because this is a hobby area and it’s specialized just like if somebody was into sports. The prices can vary wildly on things like amazon. And stuff like that. Just to call that and i’ve seen some price gouging over the years and actually you have a story about this last year my wife got me and expansion and she bought it on amazon and it was a early copy of it and somebody price gouge her and we were shopping in austin at a game store. And she’s like honey. Can you go to another store because they have what i bought you. I didn’t realize that. I paid like double and a little bit more. Ms rpm. and so. I’m going to return that one online and then pick one up here. I’m like yeah of course on. I’ll just hide. Go to another store and you can hide it in the car just very transparent honest since then. I do like how much you should pay for. This thing. I want is ms rpm. Or what is a good price. So i put that kind of in parentheses next to each of the things. Because i don’t. I don’t want my family members to be out those things and so that’s something i would encourage if not just kind of gives some recommendations or like tell significant other of like. Hey because i send it to like my wife my mom my dad everybody in the list of of them so they all talk so that way they don’t buy the same thing and so you can also do it that way. That’s something that i’ve actually lived and learned the hard way just out there. Yes i think. That’s a really good idea and i think that’s really important. Also recognize that A lot of times family may not necessarily know what they’re looking at Our loved ones may not necessarily be as invested in this hobby as we are and so The way we usually get around that is My family are instructed to communicate with my wife. Purchases of board games to ensure that a i didn’t buy it and forget to take it off my wishlist because that has definitely happened before and be that the price they’re paying is a fair and reasonable price. Oh i got a scolding last year. I will say that from my wife. Luckily nothing happened. But i had the same list on my like holiday list. Did on my. Bg want list for my secret. Santa and she’s like that could have caused problems. Bruce and so. I no longer do that. I bet the lists on the front end of that. This is one more warning out there. But yeah so we’ve all got our own ways. I’m curious listeners. To hear from you like hop on over to our facebook page or shusen email board game impact jimoh dot com like. What do you do to let family. Your friends know what you want for birthdays holidays. We’d love to hear it’s different and we could share that later. So josh what are you hoping for. What’s on your list. Well so first and foremost. I wanna start off with actually something that i’ve already received because we’ve been talking about for the last month and a half or so And that is the bg secret santa. And so my gift from my secret. Santa came in not too long ago as we are recording. This and i am thrilled and over the moon. And i realized after the fact that i did the same thing bruce And this was on my amazon list.

00:10:03 – 00:15:13

So i had to go back and correct and hopefully caught it before anyone else noticed or purchase at twice but i ended up with a copy of america cabo A game by game up workshop. Sorry games up Yeah workshop Designed by alexander fister And i am over the moon about this. This has been at the top of my wishlist for quite some sat down and started learning it the other day Great western trail which is another of alexander pfister’s games is very similar in style And and kind of general design and is one of my all time favourite games. So i am really really excited to get this to the table. as just taking that that kind of great western trail mechanic of traveling around the board Collecting resources and delivering them and taking it out of the wild west with cattle driving in great western trail and putting it into the caribbean with sugar and spices and tobacco as your goods that you’re trading your absolutely. Yeah yeah will i. This is definitely one of those that that is going to live in game bag until it gets played out because it is. I think it’s just alexander. Fister does amazing amazing work. And so i’m really really excited to to give this one. A shot seems a little bit on the heavier end from great western and that is might put some people off because great western is not a light game by any means But definitely something that. I’m excited to get to the table. Well sweet and i look forward to. Obviously you have it. And so i look forward to hearing out on upcoming episode. Iv a great senator start with the weirdest thing on my list. If that’s okay with you and So i’m going to start as you know listeners. Especially from the last episode. Last two episodes talked about like me getting really more into miniatures and painting and things like that this is more of the miniatures and painting slash may might be fun dean session. I wanna do at some point at some point. Like i don’t even care if i don’t actually play session of this. I just think it’d be really cool. And so that is. I want to get from steam forge games animal adventures dungeons and doggies volume one. So what this is josh. Have you heard of this. I have not there was a delay. There is a hesitant. Delay there josh. You’re like what is this. So what this is. They did a kickstarter. A couple of years ago. I think and they essentially made a campaign for if you were dogs and cats in like dnv type of realm with like wizards and all kinds of stuff and so this one. I’m pulling it up is the first volume they did. There’s five volumes now and so there’s also like there’s cat wants to by the way but i’m pulling it up. Sorry i needed to pull back up. So this is. The one that can contains cornelius. The golden retriever. Wizard federick the to allah rogue sir see. The saint bernard cleric spent. Lana the beagle barbarian flint the blue heeler ranger and wait for it. More gain. the dash hound saucer sorcerer. So yeah i’m excited. I’ve i want this real bad. I have seen these miniatures. I did not know there was a game associated with these miniatures. I just thought these were cute. Miniatures that people could buy as companions in your dvd campaigns. It’s almost like a like a five supplement like the kind of tweak the rules type of thing that’s what it is. This is absolutely adorable. I strongly encouraged listeners to go and look this game up because now you have a me wanting to find this and get a copy of this bruce so the thing about this just for full transparency on this set so first of all i was born and raised having golden retrievers growing up like we had a litter of golden retrievers when i was in kindergarten and then we started having dachshunds. Because that’s what my mom had growing up and right now as a recording this penny my longhair miniature dachshund is laying on my lap and she’s on my lap for every recording and then a friend another couple here in town they have a blue heeler.

00:15:13 – 00:20:00

And so i kinda wanna paint this up and surprise them with a d. thing at some point and i’m going to paint it up like their dog for the blue heeler so it’s kind of fun. Yeah that’s the weirdest thing on my list. That’s that’s definitely weird. But definitely super hugh and i love the idea of painting them up for your for your friends to to see their dog in a miniature Swashbuckling form. Yeah yes josh. What about you. What’s what’s the game on your list like or game or other thing on your list that you don’t already have because you haven’t even started haven’t even started my wishlist here so kind of inspired by our last couple of episodes and conversations that we’ve been having kind of your investment in war hammer Listeners to our last episode or recall i mentioned in passing warcry Which is a war hammer. Age of sigmar kind of small skirmish style tactics tactical miniatures game and being interested in that and so having done a little bit more research into the game into the system. All those type things. I’m pretty in on this right now. This idea of getting a warcry band together. And i really think it’d be a lot of fun. I’ve identified my band. I wanna try vs cipher. Lords really kind of interesting like almost egyptian style or not egypt like kind of mediterranean. I guess yeah these. Are there shirtless like it’s too hot. Yeah yeah i. it’s that. Is that like ancient mediterranean like greek slash egyptians. Dial mike characters just have a really cool design and an aesthetic that i really enjoy So i’d love to get us out of these. Paint them up so that way We can we can get together and do a little warcry action here at some point. Bruce old josh. I cannot wait. And honestly i love the fact that you didn’t even bring it up to me until we live recording for that episode. So i did a lot of research since then. Josh and you’ve really like you’re scratching. Which for me of this war cry. I have these big books for forty k. Or hundred forty k. That’s the sci-fi one of the big army for now i’ve been working on and warcry. I love the fact josh that it’s like simple cards with a picture of the mini of what this looks like theoretically because he can paint it different theoretically but the stats are just on the card with symbols representing them. Like you don’t have to consult a book really for anything. Like i bought the warcry book and most of its just lore and like different types of arrangements to explain the cards more layouts for like terrain So i’m really excited josh. And there’s a reason that there’s no warcry on my list and that is because i’ve already purchase to war bands and some terrain. Because i see this as the way that i’m going to be able to get people who haven’t played miniatures games or gotten into painting and stuff. I see this as being something so easy for me to teach that. I bought two four bands. So that way i can have someone come over when it’s safe to do so and play and so i’m want to say thank you for telling me about this and also i hope that you get your war banned under said tree. Yeah yeah i. I’m really excited. I one of the reasons that interested me in the first place is because this is definitely i think just looking over at reviewing it Learning more about it. This is definitely the thing that is most easily accessible and easy to get into. Yes and so. You don’t like you said bruce you don’t have to spend days learning this. Massive expansive rule sat you. You really can sit down and learn and play a game in an afternoon. I think you can do it faster than that. Because there’s the becca scott video that does it about twenty minutes and so i’m very excited. Thank you josh for introducing me this and if you’re curious listeners the to war bands i have purchased are the storm casta terminals and the night haunts if you wanna look into this but continuing the war.

00:20:00 – 00:25:08

Hammer games workshops area josh. I do have something on my list. And that is. I have the war. Hammer forty k. Battlezone manufactory sanctum administrators Now what the heck that is besides trying to make it sound. Fancy thanks games workshop. It’s a three story building. That’s like a ruins type thing. I want that because it. It’s the one extra piece for the terrain set that i got That i don’t have a but then be. It’s just something cool that i’m like. Do i really need a three story thing. But i think having it come as a present from somebody and getting to build that and paint that we’ll just make it meaningful and so that’s why i put it on my list because i did want to have something on there that would be meaningful for family and things like that to give into this thing that i’ve been dedicating a lot of time to and it’s been really filling my bucket but terrain something. That’s going to be out there for like every time i play and i want them to feel that they actually invested in something that there’s utility and for me so yeah that’s that’s why that’s it’s it’s pretty cool looking building thing josh. Ever look look it up or listeners if you look it up yeah that’s my list for that going wild with this war hammer. Stuff bruce. yeah. I mean a lot of this terrain stuff. I think it’s really really cool looking. And i think he can really do some amazing stuff. I’m in space right now. Where i have no idea where i would put this thing. Because it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a setpiece for show. Yeah i would love to see this sitting in your game room bruce. Thanks those little shelves and salvio the put it there but the reason why by the way i’m not as using random terrain and things like that games workshop did something really clever with the terrain and same thing goes actually for the workout crane josh by the way for the forty k. Terrain i have these things called data cards that are designed for this many battlezone manufactory room type terrain that actually adds rules into the game to make it like you’re interacting with a building that exists in that world which i think is a super clever in cool and so since i had nothing for terrain. I’m like i’m going to invest. So i have the other parts of it. Yes that’s going on there. But i feel like nia. Throw board game out here. How about that josh. I think that’s a good idea. That’s a good idea. I’m going to go completely different going to go to a simple card base thing and that is something that i would like to experience with. Do with my wife. I would love to get the star wars. Unlock game from space cowboys. So if you’re not familiar with the unlocked series. Unlock is a series of escape. Room escape room game but it’s all cards. Use an app on your phone or ipad whatever to interact with it because a little puzzles and things. I’ve never done an unlock. But i’ve heard time and time again that they just keep getting better and better and better. And i’m a huge star wars fan and this one. It’s like thirty bucks and includes three different unlock games and all of them are star. Wars themed so i know like one is takes place in space one takes place on most like tattooing. I don’t know. And i think the other one takes place on a ship which is pretty cool. And i’m intentionally avoiding spoilers on this. Because i don’t want to spoil anything for listeners Because there’s an escape room but all using cards and so. That is something that i would like to experience because he takes about an hour and the best thing about the unlock games from. What i’ve been told is you can do it. And then in these like harder fiscal times you can then hand that off to a friend and they can do their own little thing because it doesn’t have anything that’s consumed that i know of but in all the other ones of unlock series. They haven’t had that yeah. I think i’ve not done any of the unlocked games. I’ve played a couple of the exits And i really really love exit games. And i love going to escape. Rooms during non lockdown cova times. But i think this would be a lot of fun so yeah it looks like he have three different options. Which i think is a really cool way to kind of make it worth your this. This is definitely. I overlooked this because of the price point. It’s thirty five dollars for herb on sale. Sorry is thirty five dollars And and i thought that was a little bit pricey for a one time play game.

00:25:08 – 00:30:00

I had not realized that was three different games in one box. So pretty. Cool bruce Yes there’s like ten bucks a game. Which means i’m doing it with one other person it’s five bucks a person to play it but if i had a group before four it’d be two bucks and fifty cents. Which is nothing comparison to like paying to movie and things. So what’s the game on your list. So let’s kind of take it another different direction from light little card game to something real big beefy and one that i am one thousand percent going to butcher the name of so we’re gonna give this a shot here to want to see you. I think that’s pretty close. I think that’s right. It’s it’s the inconsideration -ation game designed by Sorry it’s the inca empire is the tat Subtitle for it designed by david churches. One of my favorite designers has designed trichem and anachronistic both of which are among my favorite games and also worked on a few other games. That i really really love being published. This year by board and dice was released in october of this year. And this is another in those line of Zolkin tayo to walk-in k. New these t based games Lamed games And and this one while so david turkey had worked on some of those other games previously. But this is his first time designing a game in this series by himself and i think this looks really really interesting. Really cool incredibly complex when look at this board. you’re looking at. It is a five sided tiered. Step up With a whole bunch of symbols on it and and really really funky looking symbols And the idea here is that you are taking actions that are becoming more powerful. The closer you get into the center of this kind of pyramid esque style Burial mound Set in the incan. Empire it. It looks absolutely fantastic. Like i said. I adore every game. That i’ve played That that david. Turkey has had a hand in the end zone. This is just one of those. Another one of those games. That i just think would would be great to add to my shelf I love all of his games. And i love all of these t styled ancient civilization building games. I gotta say it’s got one of the coolest little maples i’ve seen this sorcerer’s with like holding the staff up and those little steps that you can even have to go from layer to layer. Sorry i’m going all deepen. The board game geek. That’s cool josh. Because that looks really really really cool so yeah so speaking of cultures and things like that. I feel like i should do this one. I am excited about. And i don’t have extreme detail here. But i’m excited about clash of cultures monumental edition by whiz kids so clash of cultures. I play got to play with dean in our gaming group here in texas. And i forget who else is playing it with us a three player game. It was me. Bruce wasn’t you. It was me this. It was that long ago. Oh my gosh. I am sorry. Josh no worries twenty. Twenty a while ago but it is yeah. This game is fantastic. I i love this game bruce. i’m very gel. I i’m i’m very jealously. You still have dean around to be able to play this with you at some point i do. I do I am so sorry josh listeners. That’s complete fell on my part But class of cultures. If you’re not familiar with its game that came out. Honestly a while ago but thousand twelve. Yeah and zev made it Which is cool and classroom.

00:30:00 – 00:35:02

Cultures is essentially age of its civilization. And it’s probably the best implementation of a civilization game that i have played where combines the exploration of a map the building up little like city the expansion to make new cities having barbarians having reading you or rating barbarians having different events. Come up having your tech tree is who is definitely a four x style game but the way they did it. It really simplifies a lot of things. Because you have this really cool player board in front of you. That’s got your tech tree that you can then slot into which is just fascinating. The way they did it. And i really enjoyed it like when josh and i got to play it i guess with dean and it’s it’s kept my mind going like since then of like there’s the mechanics in the way. They did different things in the game. And i know. I’m not giving that much detail but it’s been a while because it’s a it’s a hard game to get to the table because it we played it for like three and a half hours but that was including learning it and it’s not a game i easily have access to right now but i’m excited about it. Because class of cultures came out with some expansions to expansions. That didn’t like change things but just added things in in a good way and classic. Monumental edition brings all of that together. It’s almost like a celebration box with upgraded components and everything else. So i’m excited about it because this will be my pivotal civilization game in my collection. If i’m able to get this absolutely bruce. I think this is in my mind. The seminal civilization game out there right now specifically when it comes to that tech tree. i don’t. I can’t think of another game that has a better implementation of a tech tree in my mind than what clash of cultures. Put out there right And i would say yes tech tree but tech tree in a civilization game yes because there are some games that are good and they’re just a tech sherie the new unlike beyond the sun from rio grande. That’s really just a tech tree game but this has everything else that i’ve wanted from a civilization game in it so yeah i’m excited about this. Absolutely yeah the and the upgraded art and components for the monumental edition. Just look fantastic. That was if i had to pick one one thing to knock. The original is a came out eight years ago and the plastic that the minis were made of wasn’t the highest quality. But i think this looks fantastic. Yeah they definitely up their game which is for many from a from whizzkids. Being good is rare out there and droopy miniatures droopy like if it has a sort it kind of droops down. Yeah hangs down josh. Pretty you got so. Let’s let’s let’s go with another kind of expansion aci to. I know you don’t own clash of cultures but but a big big piece of it. That is the expansions there. But i am very very interested and i don’t know how i had convinced myself that i had preordered this and i went back and i checked my bank account and no never never paid for it so listeners of our show I’m going to once again. Add to the caveat here that this is not a stone. Meyer games podcast despite every episode before this talking about steinmeyer constantly i really want to get my hands on a copy of the plans employs expansion two tapestry so tapestry is another civilization building game kind of arguably not a civilization building game though. That was the intended idea behind it. still a very very interesting and fun Little game that not little Very very fun game where you are Trying to kind of go through the four acts but the four x are just kind of tracks. That you’re moving yourself up Either exploring or gaining territory.

00:35:02 – 00:40:14

Conquering territory Or going up on tech or science and plans employees just kind of adds a few more Cards to the decade adds a few more options in terms of your players that you can choose from And a few other kinds of twists. That i think just make the game Sounds like even better. I not had a chance to play it yet. But it’s definitely on on my wishlist here. I think i’m really excited about it. Also by the way josh throws in a a bag so that way you can put the tiles of the back instead of of stack them up for the random draws which like. That might not seem like a lot. But that’s a real nice. Yeah i did pick this up. I did preorder. This talked about it in a previous episode. We just haven’t gotten at the table but in this holiday break. I know it’s a game we’re going to be playing and so we’re definitely going to be reporting out on plans employees in upcoming episode looking forward to bruce. Yeah so a game on an expansion on my list. That i’m just gonna call it. I’m not getting this to the table. Probably in twenty twenty one unless some really great things happen with logistics of vaccines like really great logistics. But there is no way that this is not gonna end up in my collection at some point and that is i’m really hopeful for and even with like even though i won’t get it to the table necessarily there’s other things i can do with it. And that is the twilight imperium fourth addition prophecy of the kings expansion from fantasy flight games. So if you’re not familiar with twilight imperium fourth edition. This game has been around since the early nineties. It’s the game that put fancy flight on the map into the behemoth they are now it is a another four x style game. So we’ve talked about that with the to civilization games just now but this start. This is in space. You start the game with one of sixteen different factions that come in the base box before the dish in. And you’re choosing between your tech tree which this does have a phenomenal territory. Tree battling different people moving things around acting different things and once someone settles the in the middle planet which is rex and adds in a whole diplomatic. Almost like galactic. Un so there’s like all this diplomacy and backstabbing and voting on laws. That happened in it that this game is so much fun. This is one of my favorite games of all time. I know it can be a beast in. Some people are like ooh. That’s going to be an all day type game but this all day type game. We’ll keep you engaged. If you like epic this is a game. You need to try. And so if you’re like how do i get this to the table because usually it’s got like a two and a half hour per player especially or three hours per player if it’s all new players caveat there but if you’re hoping to get twilight imperium to the table and you have it or have a friend who has it and you wanna play it. Do reach out to me. And i’ll send you some really cool resources that have helped me get it to the table. More often and run games for others even actually from a distance. It’s kind of crazy but a half but prophecy is the kings ads in more factions. That you could start the game with which is fascinating. So i think there’s like twenty three now. Have you add in the prophecy of kings expansion. It adds in two more colors so it adds in a pink color. Forget the other one but then it also adds in a new unit type for every single faction and the subsequent cards for it and that is mex so instead of just having troops that go down to a planet that you’re trying to conquer things like that you can send in mix an every faction every faction of the twenty three ish factions. there mech. Does something different which is really cool and it’s all like take towards that like how that race or how that faction would do that kind of technology which is really cool it also adds and this is one of those expansions where you add all the things you just added. It’s a edit and permanently part of your game it adds in some variable player power which is not something that the game really had before in which there’s three levels so there’s a new power that you’ll be get to yoga and another thing you can unlock. That’s tailored towards your faction that you get to do like once or twice in a game and then like a super epic mode power where it’s like you get to do that thing once in the game and it is like it’s.

00:40:14 – 00:45:03

It’s a experience making moment that it will facilitate because it’s those like not flip the table but like oh my gosh like this just happened or like a. If you’ve ever seen the memes hold my beer type moment whereas like you’re to remember that story that happened and there’s even more that’s added into this like there’s hidden planets in these like gas clouds that you can explore it adds things you can do on the planets keep going. I’m not a really good our long fantasy flight unboxing don’t even show all the content for just to show you. That is coming in this game. That i’d recommend watching. They did that for gen. Con and i watched the entire stream and have been jumping at at this since it was announced. I cannot wait. So i do want to add a caveat here sure for our listeners. This is a hundred dollar expansion. Yes it is. This is not. I think everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve never played twilight imperium I will not speak negatively of it But there’s a reason why. I’ve never played it. I just have always been of the opinion. I’d rather play for games. One term That being said i also play longer games too. So i I i don’t know that this is necessarily for me. But it’s definitely something that i think as a people love it right. People adore twilight. Imperium and i would love to give it a shot at some point but it is a. There’s a commitment high. It is a high barrier to entry style game both from a price a rule set and just time commitment. So i own it. I do on the base game. Obviously and you’re right. It is a commitment. Personally i’ve had the game for two and a half years. And i’ve played it six times so whether it’s my copy or someone else’s copy yeah it is a commitment. It is those kinds of things. And that’s why. I said if you want help getting to the table please reach out to me. And i’ll send you some resources that i’ve been able to send a players in advance so that way. It speeds everything up like super everything up. I’d love to be able to help you so please do reach out but yeah. I’m really excited about this. Josh and i will give the other caveat. Though the reason it’s one hundred dollars it’s because it’s adding content for all of the sixteen pre existing factions from the base game. So it’s new minis for every single one of them new cards for every single one of them but yeah it is a investment to say the least. I understand why it is the price that it is and i think you know. It’s it’s a you know incredibly well designed to game And so i i do. I am hopeful for you. Because i would love to see you Get this. I would love to see it. Hit the table. And i love to hear. W- how how it affects the game and how it affects your experience in the game bruce. Well i appreciate it. And so that is the definitely the biggest thing on my list For an expansion. But josh how about we give one more thing each and then just something fun after that does something completely random not necessarily board game related but maybe adjacent or fun. Sure sure so. The last thing that i want to mention here on my list is game that i’ve talked about a few times on the podcast in the past and that is yokohama. Yokohama came out from tamest games. at least the most recent edition was i fell in love with this game. The first time. I played it Unfortunately the the person for my game group who owned. Yokohama just moved to florida all so We are sad to lose the other. Josh from our game group I’m sure he will be back in around eventually for Some various random days here and there but Without that copy of yokohama. I am i am strapped for where to get this type of experience because it’s a game unlike any i have played before just in terms of how worker placement.

00:45:03 – 00:50:09

But how you place your workers and decide which actions to take is incredibly unique. An incredibly incredibly Fun to puzzle out it is. It is a game that is a puzzle to the nth degree Really really enjoyable Play though so really hopeful for to get a copy Especially the the new. Tm g copies The original had a lot of not so great components Most recently the tm g components were were much much better. Yeah and. I’m sorry to hear about your gaming group. Losing another josh and him going to florida there can be only one. The only what we can say that about. Justin’s here there’s so many so many justin’s that being said regardless i’m excited that it’s on board game arena and things like that so no matter what happens you and i can play it from a distance and you and josh can also keep playing it from a distance. Absolutely a so for me. The last thing have in terms of gaming related on my list or gaming directly related is more memoir forty four so i mentioned on the last episode that my secret santa for bg acted real fast and got me an expansion for memoir forty four on the eastern front which adds in russia and memoir. Forty four is a two player Wargame in which persons access when persons allies. You’re playing cards to move your little units around the board really fun. Justin and i played through thirty two games of it in two thousand nineteen because we played all sixteen of the base game base game missions that are actual historically based on different things it gives you the dates and who was involved in the different battles which is really cool. That’s in the rule book. And then i just got this other expansion but these expansions have been hard to come by until now because they’ve been out of print and so i got the eastern front and so the other two that really like to get my hands on that are currently back in print are the mediterranean and the pacific theaters. And if possible then just the double sided winter slash desert board map so that way instead of putting like winter tiles or water tiles on a forest yell the put them on the respective things. So that’s just. That’s that’s what i’d like to get my hands on to really get more plays this game. That’s obviously already paid dividends in terms of its bang for. Its buck for me and some friends here. That’s awesome bruce So let’s leave our listeners with one more thing and that is something fun so i actually want to shift gears a little bit here for my topic. Bruce and something away. From just what i would like because as much as i love getting gifts and saving copies of games and being able to share those games with other people It’s always always fun to to give as much receive and so something. I’m really looking forward to this year. My wife Actually just for her birthday Decided to by herself with a little bit of birthday cash from family and friends and such to go out and get herself a cricket maker Role not aware of what a cricket is. I had no idea i just knew it was very very expensive thing that my wife wanted That that i was happy to help her Trying to get her hands on and and support her in her hobbies which is largely revolve around crafting But cricket makers are a little machine that you can program to cut out stencils You can make like acrylics out of them. I cut out acrylics and put them onto two different things. You can make vinyl with it And make screen prints for cups or different things like that so. My wife is a very crafty person. She likes to so do all those types of things just to put that out there. Yeah they are so elizabeth. My wife really wanted this specifically for her quilting to be able to her her designs easily and smoothly and kind of come up with some unique things.

00:50:09 – 00:55:08

There what i was unaware of until we had it is that a cricket maker can actually cut At least the the model she has can cut a would Softwoods like Basle would which is on something that is commonly used for board game inserts so of my projects that i’ve been working on and will be working on for the future is to try and design some board game inserts using this cricket maker and so i would like to. I’ve already started work on a Insert for wingspan and going to be working on a few others and hoping to to have a couple made before the holiday season to give out as gifts to two friends who are in the board gaming hobby. I think it’s a really great great way for me to to give them give some joy. Give them love to two friends in this hobby. Who have made this hobby so special. And so Feel so much like home to me over the years To give back and provide some of that back love the that. I’m feel on a weekly basis during game days so really looking forward to doing that doing it on a budget. The cricket maker itself is incredibly expensive but the wood and all of the resources those types of things relatively reasonably priced so. Yeah just something that. I’m really excited for And hope to to be able to continue to do well into the future. That’s gonna be really cool. And i’m excited for her. Being on her journey of having some hobby crafting and crafting for really good purpose. That she’s going to be able to hopefully get a lot of fulfillment out of and that you’re gonna get to have some fun with two in experimenting and failing learning. You know what i mean. I’m just really excited for y’all so that’d be cool and also if you wouldn’t mind have a reach out to my wife because my wife also has a cricket i’m not sure which one and maybe they could work on some things from a distance together because that might be really cool. If you have ideas of things that based on those mediums that you think would be cool for us to try and make or once you feed that beast of ideas feel free to shoot us a message. Because i’d love to if not your wife give it to my wife as a challenge and see what she wants to do things that might be fun so the spirit of giving and spirit of fun. I have one more thing for us. And this is where you’re gonna really wanna listen in y’all and that is it’s been a couple of episodes. We did this but it’s still thing. Don’t worry but first of all i’d like to say congrats to justin for winning our last giveaway and with his different entries and things like that and we want to do something for all of you and that is intentionally not talked about this because i wanted to do it a little bit bigger than we were normally doing it. And so we’re when we’re going to be giving away thirty dollars to market dot com. This is not sponsored by miniature market. But you can enter that over on the on our website. There’s now a contest page at the time of this recording and at the time of this episode going out go on over there. It’s also on over social media and by listening to this episode. You now know the secret code and that’s going to be alliance a. l. l. nca which will get you extra entries for listening to this podcast. Just being part of a community so again. We’re waiting to do something for you. Maybe by that by that game that you’re wanting or that expansion that you’re wanting for yourself or for a friend after the holidays because we’ll be doing this drawing after the holidays and but we do just want to encourage you to go on over there and this is just something. Nice that we want to do for you so again. It’s thirty dollars to market. And i’m just excited. We can do this. Josh any any thoughts on that no i. I’m very very excited to be able to put this out there. Good luck to all of our listeners. go in and fill out. Those forms are fill out. Those you know the click throughs to enter for your chances to win And says You know best of luck. And i hope that you’re able to walk away with something that is going to bring a lot of joy and happiness to you and your game group this year.

00:55:08 – 00:58:44

Yeah and so. Thank you so much for everything that you’ve poured into us over this last year. Twenty twenty has just been at twenty twenty but we’ve all been together and i’m just so thankful that we’ve been able to stay connected. Our listenership has grown. We’ve been able to do all these different videos and stuff. It’s been a good year and so if you’re wanting to share something with us by the way you can do the very simple thing just reading this in your podcast wherever platform you’re listening to this on telling a friend about it but if you are if you do have the means it would mean the world for us to become one of our patriots supporters as well and so you can find all the links to that in the show notes but again. This is really just about coming together as a community. And we’re so thankful that we get to keep doing this and so josh any kind of closing remarks for listeners as we’re closing out twenty twenty yeah i. I’m not going to dwell on the year. That twenty twenty has been and the ups and downs. I i will say you know plenty of people will focus on the negatives that this year’s brought us I wanna focus on. Just how amazing it has been to be a part of this podcast to be a part of this community. I’ve talked a lot this year about reconnecting with friends that i haven’t gotten a chance to play games with and quite a while because everyone was online and rekindling those connections and rebuilding those relationships. A little bit. Bruce as always. You’ve just been an absolute weekend in my life Recording these podcasts. And just being able to chat with you every couple of weeks Makes makes things so much better. And so i’m so incredibly thankful to be a part of this And i’m so incredibly thankful to our listeners. For letting us be a part of their year. And i’m looking forward to hopefully many more to come. Thank you and josh. Thank you and listeners. You wouldn’t know this but There’s been like personal stuff going on in the background and things and so. I’m just very thankful that we do have this podcast and gets a report this but also just as our friendship has continued to grow and and talk about life. Things and i’ve been really appreciative of that in all of this definitely hasn’t always been the easiest. I’m not going to get into that But i’m really just thankful and that we do have the such a great community and get to come together for really great because that’s just a really good way to go about your game right And so with that. We hope that your time with family and friends During this holiday time if you’re listening to this time is wonderful. And it’s bucket filling and it’s giving you the most joy just spending time or Spending thoughts But also we want you to go into you. Start of twenty twenty one Thinking of how you want to continue to grow that impact with your friends and your family and your community and so From us to you We just want to say thank you for a really good and Perspective building twenty twenty And for everything you’ve done in our lives and so with that go out there and plant the seed for how you’re gonna make your positive impact in twenty twenty one and we’ll see you next year by.