Chasing Meeples
A lighthearted take on board games with a sprinkling of hilarity - when you listen to Chris and Angie on Chasing Meeples, expect witty banter, game discussions, quizzes, and game night stories. Perfect for gamers of all levels looking for a faith-friendly gaming conversation.
Chasing Meeples
Chasing Lorcana and our Review of After Us
We talk about Lorcana and test your knowledge with Angie's meeple quiz, then we review After Us.
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It's time for another episode of the wildly popular podcast Chasing Meeples.
Speaker 2:On today's show Chris and Angie.
Speaker 1:Review After Us the game where you guide your tribe of apes to be the pinnacle of collective intelligence in a post-human world.
Speaker 2:The Meeple Chasers, brace yourselves the Meeple Quiz, the Insights the Reviews and the Bantur.
Speaker 1:It all starts now.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, this is the Chasing Meeples podcast and I am your host, chris, and, as always, I'm with my lovely co-host.
Speaker 3:Hello, hello, it's Angie.
Speaker 2:Hey, Angie, what is going on? We have been well, we've been gone for quite a while.
Speaker 3:Life has been interceding in our podcasting abilities.
Speaker 2:It has, it has, but you know what Life happens.
Speaker 3:It happens, it happens.
Speaker 2:So I'm excited.
Speaker 3:As long as it keeps rolling, we're okay, right.
Speaker 2:Right, right. As long as the eyes open every day, we are good. Exactly Okay, so All right. Well, I'm excited to get back in the driver's seat. Last month, we gave an announcer dude the keys to the show and he decided to do a announcer dude, he did, he did okay, he did okay.
Speaker 3:I approve him as a temporary, temporarily, a temporary replacement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, temporary replacement. I think he did a very good job picking some good meeple quiz memories, I guess, if you want to call it that, okay, yeah, best of the meeple quizzes in his opinion. And he picked some pretty good ones.
Speaker 3:I think he did.
Speaker 2:Listening back to that episode, I actually laughed a little bit. There were some.
Speaker 3:Giggles yeah.
Speaker 2:There were some giggles in there, so I would like to apologize ahead of time. I've got a little bit of a stuffy nose Nose Nose so if I sound a little bit nasally it's because I've got a stuffy nose and I will do my best to stop doing that. Yeah, the cold that I had. I was pretty wiped out when it came time to record the Game of the Month video.
Speaker 3:Yes, you were, so I did that on my own with very bad, bad video.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. You have a nice cell phone and, I believe, a fan edition even. It's like the social media version of the Samsung Galaxy and it looks like you're recording with a VHS camera.
Speaker 3:I don't know why. There's probably some settings, or I don't know. I think it's the light, it's just not. Well, it's the same light I use when I use my phone, that's true, I think I was using, I didn't use these lights and I don't know. That's why we don't do video.
Speaker 2:Although I'd like to forget.
Speaker 3:No, we're dipping our toes in there, angie, before we get too far into this, Chris, I want to stop you for a second Before we get too far into this. I want to remind everybody to like, share, subscribe, follow, give us a comment, give us a review on your favorite podcast platform. You're also going to hand it over to YouTube as well, so you can look for us there as well. Hit that notification bell.
Speaker 2:And you'll know exactly when we post the newest episodes. So the cool thing about that is we post all of our episodes on the podcast providers first, and then a couple of days later it's going to come out on YouTube. I am actually looking at a way to make our YouTube presence a little bit more entertaining, and I'm just going to keep it at that.
Speaker 3:Just keep it at that. Just keep it at that. This is a difficult Not difficult but yeah, this is an ongoing process for you. This is really like a passion of yours, yes, so I don't want you to feel like you have to rush something.
Speaker 2:I don't want to rush it, but you're right, it is a passion. It's a passion that I would love to make a full-time job someday. So like, subscribe, share, follow all that fun stuff would make my dream a reality.
Speaker 3:Well, once you see it, you'll understand.
Speaker 2:I've been leaving a little bit of hints in some YouTube shorts, but I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 3:I think we should mention something that recently came out, and I recently got our copy of the season.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that was pretty exciting. It opened it up even though I knew who it was from when I saw Dinky Bar Games on the label. But I ripped it open anyway, just because I wanted to see it, because it was so neat being part of that as a prototype, so that when we actually got the actual game because actually we got it and it didn't have a board game cover, it didn't have a box, so it actually came in the same type of box that originally we received it in. So we're going to actually crack that open play tonight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really cool to see something that we had a part in the Kickstarter. That was our first opportunity to help with a game and it was cool to actually see the finished project.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to see it from the beginning to the end, something bizarrely, I don't want to say the user word proud, but it was. It was like I opened the box and I showed Pam and I said look at here, this is that game. You remember what I was talking about? I showed you that video. This is it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:She thought it was very cool. I have to share things with her because nobody else in my immediate circle at work thinks anything I do is remotely interesting at all. I tell them and they just get that blank look on their face. I don't even get the oh okay, nice, they don't even fake it.
Speaker 2:I've got a couple people at work that I think are genuinely interested, but I think the rest of them just fake it.
Speaker 3:I really do. It is time, once again, our quiz is going to have something to do with today's topic. I was not going to redo this quiz because I had a quiz which I thought was really good, very prepared, but we did, at the last moment, change to night's topic. So, to keep it on track, I've got a new quiz and I think it's still really good. So today we are talking about. What are we doing? What game are we reviewing? Tell everybody.
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to be reviewing the game after us.
Speaker 3:So the quiz is going to have to do with primates.
Speaker 2:Yes, awesome, something I'm totally familiar with. That's my jam.
Speaker 3:Well, it's not necessarily. Oh yeah, it has to do with primates, but this is entertainment. So we're going to say first question, chris. Each question is going to be worth two points. There's going to be a bonus question worth three, so that will total us up to 15 points. You're possible. Your possible max points is 15 points. Are you ready? Everybody?
Speaker 3:Oh, everybody, yes everybody, because I know we have listeners from all around the world, so as you are traveling, I want you to think about these questions and if I'm wrong about any of these answers, you have a better knowledge on the topic of primates. Please leave a comment somewhere below on YouTube, our Instagram, our Facebook, DM us anything. Let me know. Angie, you were wrong, Okay.
Speaker 2:You want to see how quickly people will start listening to that? Angie will send you $5 for every time she gets a fact wrong.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 2:Oh, I've listened to a podcast that did that one time and they actually paid up for it. And now they're really good at fact checking themselves.
Speaker 3:Oh are they.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's pretty cool, they're actually in the board game space too.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's Rolling Dice and.
Speaker 3:Taking Names. Ah, okay, okay, well, yeah, you know, maybe we should, because there are a couple of times I found myself afterwards going. I hope nobody really listened to that closely. I hope you're just listening for the entertainment, because sometimes the facts might not always be right. Okay, all right, let's hit it, hit it, hit it, quiz time, which is not a real ape movie. Return from the planet of the apes, congo ape versus monster or space chimp, which is not a real movie.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:Space chimp ape versus monster Congo, or return from the planet of the apes.
Speaker 2:Return from the planet of the apes, not return to the planet of the apes.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:Five bucks people? No, just kidding, All right.
Speaker 3:I have returned from the planet of the apes.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm in order to save you five dollars. I'm just going to make sure.
Speaker 3:I made up this quiz. What are you looking at? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right, fine, there may be other planet of apes questions on this, okay.
Speaker 2:Well then, that tells me that return from the planet of the apes is not a real movie.
Speaker 3:That's right, that's right, I could have just wrote it down right, Because when you said return, you said return of. I'm thinking that might have been a better title. Return to, Return to. Yeah, I'm thinking that might have been a better title, so maybe I should tweak it.
Speaker 2:I actually think there is a movie called Return to the Planet of the apes.
Speaker 3:We'll find out. Okay, we'll find out.
Speaker 2:Ooh clever.
Speaker 3:How many planet of the apes movies are there?
Speaker 2:Like counting the originals in the reboot.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Six.
Speaker 3:Nine? Ooh, I originally thought it was six too, and then I looked it up someplace else. The original planet of the apes. Was it 1975, 1960, 1968, or 1980? 1968. That is correct. That is correct. So you have two right. So you have four points In the original movie. Which monument was found destroyed on that beach? Was it the Eiffel Tower, statue of Liberty, a pyramid or Mount Rushmore?
Speaker 2:That's an easy one it's the Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 3:Maybe not for everybody driving along the highway. I don't want them to get in an accident while they're going. Wait, wait, wait. What was it again? It was the Statue of Liberty. Six points for Chris, in chronological order. So that is a movie that would take place first, not the first one made.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, thank you for explaining to me what chronological order is. Yes, yes, I thought it was just randomly. You know how the story went, Okay, got it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is. It's how the story goes.
Speaker 2:Chronological order.
Speaker 3:You know like From start to finish.
Speaker 2:Yes, All the way in the correct order, got it.
Speaker 3:So my question is which movie comes first? So I'm going to give you four movies. You got to tell me which one comes first. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, planet of the Apes, rise of the Planet of the Apes or beneath the Planet of the Apes?
Speaker 2:It's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Speaker 3:No, it's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Oh, you're still sitting at four points, four points. Okay, now we're kind of switching a little bit, although, should I tell you chronologically? I will tell you what they are, because everybody's wondering Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 2014. War for the Planet of the Apes. Then, planet of the Apes, beneath the Planet of the Apes. Escape from Planet of the Apes. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Battle for Planet of the Apes. How many of these movies did you see?
Speaker 2:Not all of them.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Don't watch movies about damn dirty apes.
Speaker 3:In this game in After Us there are the main primates on the board are the Mandrel, the Rangitang, the Gorilla and the Chimpanzee. One of those are not an ape? Which one is not an ape?
Speaker 2:The Gorilla, because a gorilla is a gorilla.
Speaker 1:Do you want to re-do that answer?
Speaker 2:I was half listening to you anyway. What was the question? I was trying to quietly put my water bottle down because I'm struggling here hun.
Speaker 3:You are, you are. So you have six points. You're at six points. Let's see if you can get to eight. So how about this? Which of these four primates in the game are not an ape? Mandrel, rangitang, gorilla or Chimpanzee? See, considering they keep talking about everybody being apes, I thought everybody was an ape until I was doing the Meeple quiz and I found out one of those are not apes.
Speaker 2:Mandrel, you are right there, what is a mandrel?
Speaker 3:A mandrel is a monkey. Monkeys and apes are not the same. They come from two distinct evolutionary lines. So what is the difference between apes and monkeys?
Speaker 2:What is the difference between apes and monkeys? Red butts.
Speaker 3:No, but it is the butt. Apes don't have tails. So there really is only so many apes. There are Rangitang, Gorilla, Chimpanzee, and then I think there's something else in there Are the mandrels, the one with the bright red butt, the blue butt, the blue butt. The blue butt, I think, the bombons got the red butt, but the mandrel doesn't have a very big tail, if you look at that picture. There might be some sort of exceptions between some of the tails, but I'm not positive. So you had 8, 8 out of 15.
Speaker 2:So monkeys don't have tails.
Speaker 3:Monkeys have tails.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Apes don't have tails Interesting. But it's not so much that, but it's. The evolutionary lines, apparently, are different. We are closer to apes than monkeys. I thought that was very interesting because then I was looking at the game and I wanted to see how the game was worded. Was it worded primates? They do use the tamarinds. That's why I didn't include the tamarind in the list, because they are monkeys. But so that's why I did when you were up here. I am looking at the box, looking at the rules, because I did want to go look and see how it was worded, because even when I did the video I said apes. It says apes in the rules. They use the word primate at one point, but it does say apes.
Speaker 2:So primate would be the word to use for all of them. Yes, Okay got it Interesting. I learned something today during this quiz.
Speaker 3:And you know what, if the designer of this quiz is listening?
Speaker 2:Designer of the quiz is the one game or quiz.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I am the designer of the quiz. If the designer of the game is listening, he learned something too.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:So let's talk about GACPAN.
Speaker 2:Is that the end of the quiz? Yeah, like that's just it. It's just going to fizzle to the end. You're not even going to give me my total.
Speaker 3:I did, you weren't paying attention.
Speaker 2:Angie, you did not. Yes, I did.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh people, when you listen back to this and you're doing your editing, I so did.
Speaker 2:No, you didn't, you went. Oh, you know what's cool about monkeys.
Speaker 3:I told you after that. Here's the Baloney I did. I got.
Speaker 2:I did. I have 12 points. No, you don't 12 points, 12 out of 14. You have eight points. Tell me how I got eight points and I'll tell you if you're wrong. Okay.
Speaker 3:You got the question which primate is not an ape. You got that correctly because you guessed you did not get the chronological order. You got the original movie monument. You got the year it was made and you got which title was not a real ape movie. You got eight out of 15.
Speaker 2:I thought it was 14.
Speaker 3:No, it's 15 because I was going to give you three points for the bonus round. You know, keeping it as a nice 15.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at my microphone as if I'm breaking the fourth wall and looking into the face of every one of our listeners right now.
Speaker 3:I said 15.
Speaker 2:Okay, just like when I go back and listen to the fact that you never told me my total score.
Speaker 3:Do you know what? Do you know what you have to do? You have to come back as future Chris and apologize. Okay, I need to apologize because you listened to very carefully. I know I said you got eight out of 15. I know when you. I listened to you when you edit, because you are meticulous. How many times you listen to this podcast back? It annoys the heck out of me and I never want to listen to it again because, after it's all done, you're like Angie, listen to this before I upload it. I'm just like I don't want to listen to that anymore. I want future Chris to come back and apologize at the end of that. And you know what? And you know what. I want future Chris to come back wearing wet socks when he apologizes to me.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Because you got wet socks on the beach and at Planet Apes, when they find Statue Liberty, they are on the beach and he falls down and screams because he realizes they are on earth. And he falls on the beach and gets wet socks. Boom. Continuity between episodes. I pulled it all together, episode one to episode, whatever number this is.
Speaker 2:Okay, future Chris will come back with wet socks.
Speaker 3:All right, I cannot wait. Do you like how I pulled that together, though? I thought that was very creative. Yeah, you seem disappointed over there because you know you're going to be wrong.
Speaker 2:No, that was very creative. However, how I don't see how you're pulling anything together, because I was never in the Planet of the Apes. I was like episode one I got wet socks.
Speaker 3:And Charlton Heston had wet socks on the Planet Apes when he was on the beach, but the water was rushing up because he found out that he was on earth because the Statue Liberty was destroyed on the beach.
Speaker 2:Okay, sounds good.
Speaker 3:And you got destroyed on Discover Lands Unown because the wet socks on the beach gotcha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3:I am, you're just disappointed. You didn't think of it first. I could see it.
Speaker 2:I could see the dismay in your face.
Speaker 3:Some might call the rest of this episode is going to go downhill.
Speaker 2:Some might call it dismay, others might call it I'm just sick. I'm trying to not like make gross sounds in the mic. You can call it whatever you want. So I've got eight, eight points.
Speaker 3:Eight out of 15.
Speaker 2:Eight out of 15. I guess I have to take it. You do, hey, everybody, it's me Future Chris and my wet socks.
Speaker 1:I'm listening to this. While editing, I discovered that Andrew was right. So, here I am. Wet socks Alright now back to the show.
Speaker 2:Alright, it is time for GakPan and Angie. What does GakPan stand for? For the listeners who have not listened to us before, I am so out of the game.
Speaker 3:You are, so you're not going to be the golden voice of the episode. There's no golden voice tonight. No, there's not. Gakpan stands for games Angie and Chris played at night.
Speaker 2:And Angie. What games did we play at night?
Speaker 3:Let's talk about last night. Okay, let's talk about last night Actually started. Well, last night was an adventure, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, last night we played for quite a while.
Speaker 3:Well, it did, but it was also a quest to get the game.
Speaker 2:We played a month of questing.
Speaker 3:We played Lorcaana and we had looked for or you were looking for it when we were in Baraboo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great story. And so I met where we're, at Labyrinth Games in Baraboo, wisconsin, when we're on vacation and we're in there, we're looking around and I and that's a very nice game.
Speaker 3:Sorry, I'm just going to iterate here. It is a very nice game.
Speaker 2:And I go to the gentleman behind the counter and I say, hey, do you guys have any Lorcaana? And while I'm talking to him, angie walks up and says it's not like we're going to buy it anyway. I was just like what. The look on his face was priceless, like why are you even wasting my time?
Speaker 3:So I'm like I just want to see what everybody's talking about.
Speaker 2:I was like Angie, I would have bought it. And you're like oh really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had no idea. I wanted you to know what bought it. I kind of just asked. You know I wanted to go hey, do you have any? Everybody wants this. You know there was like a mad rush at Gen Con. People are, I guess, dumping over wheelchairs to get stuff like that Some craziness. So I just wanted to kind of look at the box, see what everybody was really, you know, had no desire. So what did he do? Hold out the box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he had one that they kept in the back and they only sell it during their league night for those that want to play. It was a starter pack for somebody who maybe wanted to come check it out, which I thought was kind of neat that they held it back for that. So so, yeah, so we got lucky. I ended up going to our local game shop in town. Here they had one one starter pack and then it was sit and wait for a couple weeks to get the other two and finally I found two on.
Speaker 2:You know there's going to be some people that roll their eyes when I say this, but two of the other two starter packs on eBay for a decent price I paid. I don't know what the actual MSRP was on these, but the game store I bought it from charge me 27. And the person on eBay that I bought it from charged me 30 for both. So well, 30 a piece for both of those. So I figured it wasn't marked up too much. I could be wrong, but we got it and we played it last night and it's good. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:You enjoyed it more than I did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can tell.
Speaker 3:I was.
Speaker 2:But it was like I said, these are these are the starter decks.
Speaker 3:This was learning. There is one. I still have a question about a certain card how to play it. I wasn't getting you had a lot of really powerful cards I didn't have. I think the deck I was playing with something they considered good for beginners is what I had read, and so there weren't a lot of really interesting powers, the only ones I really liked. I had that one, not flop, it was a different evasive I had, and that one was good because I could protect when I went out to challenge somebody or even request I could protect a character. But otherwise I didn't find any of the powers tremendously interesting and you want a game just by questing. So I did that and it kind of held back and then I felt that was kind of boring to do it that way. So I wanted to continue to challenge, even if it meant not winning, because that was just a little bit more exciting. Now we did get some booster packs and we're going to insert them and I think you wanted to make a green and gray deck, emeralds and steel.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So maybe I will try putting the gold and ruby one together and see what they do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm thinking. I love purple. So you know, here I am. I want purple cards and they were not. I was not turned on by them. I felt a little disappointed.
Speaker 2:I also think it was just the fact that it was a card game. It was burning your brain at first. There's certain things on those card games that you don't understand, Like when we played Radlands. It was so hard for you to understand Radlands.
Speaker 3:Well, Radlands is stupid.
Speaker 2:I disagree with that Stupid. No, I'm going to not even touch that comment. Radlands is a good game, water towers is not a hard concept, and I'm just going to leave it at that.
Speaker 3:It should be the other way. When you are hitting up a water tower, you are going to put it in your bunker and you're going to save it until you need it. You should be able to store water. Any good prepper knows store water. It's not like I'm buying it from the store, but I had to drink it all right away, otherwise it goes away. Yeah, no apocalypse, you're saving your water. You may drink a little, but you're saving it back for the next day. You got to survive. You can't drink all that water on one day, so thematically it would have been better and made more sense to be able to store that water. I'm just saying they were wrong.
Speaker 2:All right, okay, I'm not even going to argue with that.
Speaker 3:Because we're talking about Lorcan, we're talking about Lorcan. There is no storm water in Lorcan. And you know what my little, did you notice? I didn't even notice until right now that I wrote it wrong. I wrote Arcana on here. Yes, you did, I didn't even realize that until right now. And our little show outline I wrote Arcana instead of Lorcan.
Speaker 2:But I could tell last night you weren't enjoying it. I think it's good. I think it's a very straightforward. There's a lot of similarities to magic. I got in on magic when it first started years and years ago and then stopped playing. Instead of land, you have ink. Instead of, you know, summoning sickness, you have ink drying.
Speaker 3:Well, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:You know, it's all. There's a lot of similarities, but I think it's good, you know, instead of taking people's health away starting at 20 and going to zero. You're going from zero to 20. It's a good game. Now we're primarily a board game podcast and this is technically not a board game, but it's part of our gaming hobby. I really want to play it more.
Speaker 3:There were tons of people that are board gamers that were talking about this, so I don't feel bad including it.
Speaker 2:Sure yeah, I mean, I don't feel bad about it either, but I mean and we will.
Speaker 3:I will definitely, you know, try to. I'm not a crazy card collector or anything like that, but I will try to make a deck better Because I put those two decks just to make it more interesting for me when I play.
Speaker 2:For sure, for sure, and I think I think the more you play it, the more fun you're going to have.
Speaker 3:Maybe it's because I wasn't killing you. You know, when you battle, you're not really killing the other person. Maybe it would have been like bam, I got you, You're dead.
Speaker 2:But that's not the point of this game. Point of this game is the only reason why you're challenging people is to stop them from getting lower.
Speaker 3:I know, I know We'll play again. It's not that I'm not going to play it. Yeah, it's not, absolutely not that I'm not going to play it. I have my idea behind the card game Was that maybe it's something quicker, easier, as we were sitting out in like Panera today.
Speaker 2:Yep, have a quick card game, yeah, so when I look at your deck, your deck is the type of deck that you are supposed to quest early and quest often. So you start off with you would want to play your ink and low cost cards, that's what I did.
Speaker 2:First and then quest, quest, quest, Because mine is designed to hit hard, but it won't hit hard right away. It's going to give me the ability to get my ink up faster at the beginning of the game and then say, mid game is when my deck starts to take off and I can start putting out the bigger value cards and hit harder. So my problem is is I have to manage you getting your cards out quick and questing, and that's why, when I started, when you stopped holding back from questing, yeah, I did it first.
Speaker 3:I was trying to play very defensive at first.
Speaker 2:I could not win and it took me a while to figure out I wasn't letting you win. It took me a while to figure out. Okay, I need to change my style. I thought that was interesting.
Speaker 3:Okay, because it really did, because at that point I was able to put out cards. I was able to put out, you know, mickey would give you two stars, and then I think I send a rail. No, I had, moana should be three, so I had like three cards out that would give you multiple stars. You know where I could get like eight points if I quested everybody. Then I was that first game. I was playing very defensive because if you don't quest, you don't challenge, you're not exhausting Is that the word Exhausting the cards, and then you can't be challenged.
Speaker 3:So my first game I was playing very defensive. And then one game I had no idea the whole thing about singing. I was thinking you had to have a card that sings, because I had a card that was voiceless. So I assumed there were other cards that you could sing on. So I'm like using my singing cards as ink and you know we were making this comment about not being able to get more cards I'm thinking, well, you should draw more cards. Well, I was inking cards and I knew I had pulled at least two of them. Then what they did was let you draw three cards. So once I realized that, I'm just like oh, I had like inked three cards that would have kept letting me draw more cards. So yeah, I was like a learning game.
Speaker 2:And we played that from probably about eight o'clock at night till one o'clock in the morning. Yes, we played it for quite some time, so that's. Lorcaana, everybody, we actually got a chance to play it. If I were to rate that game, I wait, I'm going to go back to something that. Talk about tying it back to earlier. There's talking about tying it back to earlier episodes. I would shuffle this one back into the deck there you go, there you go. Definitely not going into the discard pile. I like that game.
Speaker 3:But, chris, I can see that there is the potential for the completionist in me coming out and needing to get everything. Every time we go into the store, you're getting a booster pack. When you think about how much the game already costs, you add up everything you're like okay, this is getting to be as expensive as a Kickstarter.
Speaker 2:I don't disagree with what you're saying. Yes, the completionist in me is going to probably come out, but I think I'm managing to control that completionist very well, that is only because it's unavailable. True.
Speaker 3:How many packs of cards would we have picked up today if they were in the store?
Speaker 2:A lot.
Speaker 3:Because we were at two stores looking at both, because we went into Walmart and Meyer and you would have picked up cards at both of them.
Speaker 2:Probably. Yeah, I want that rare giant tinkerbell.
Speaker 1:And now it's time for our feature review. Imagine a world where humans are no more. Nature has retaken the land and, in the wake of our absence, apes have risen, evolving, learning and taking the torch of civilization. It's time for Chris and Angie's review of After Us.
Speaker 3:All right, everybody, we are going to do our feature review of the game After Us, so let me kick it off by describing the game and what you're going to see a little bit, especially if any of our listeners are not board gamers. So I want to give you a little bit of a visual. There is a main board that you're setting in the middle of the table, obviously, and your goal for this game is to score 80 points. So that is how you're going to win. First person to win 80 points is going to win. There are cards in the middle of the table, there are apes, there are mandrels, orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas in two different strengths. Each player is going to have a player board and a deck of eight tamarin apes. The idea behind this game is a cataclysm, apocalypse. Something unnamed has happened and the only creatures left are primates, and they're going to rebuild a civilization and is going to use tech that mankind left behind. So far, so good. Chris.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so far, so good. You're doing a great job.
Speaker 3:Okay. Okay, like I said, everybody gets eight cards. The cards are. Let's see. To give you a description of the cards. There is a value on the card. There are in one corner. There's like a value. In another corner. There is a potential benefit that comes further down the line. But when you look at the card, the main part of the card has three lines. But in my mind and the best way to explain it is, if you're looking at a sheet of music, how you see the sheet of music, you see the lines across and you see notes. The card looks like that, with three lines, and there will be cells or boxes that go across there. Some of them will be complete and some will only be open, so they'll only be half complete.
Speaker 3:You will take it as a deck builder. So you're going to take four cards into your hand and this is your starting tribe. You will lay them before you on your player board and you want to. The big strategy here is how you're going to arrange these cards, because they are all different. When you connect the cards, you will be completing cells. So some of those boxes, the cells on the cards, are open and so when you lay them next to. When you lay them next to each other, they're going to close them. So you really want to look at what cards you are closing, because you're then going to activate them and you're going to go in order from top to bottom, left to right, and then top to bottom, and you're going to activate each cell, some of them.
Speaker 3:Most of the time you are going to be gaining resources, because there's resources that correspond to the different apes. So you're going to gain like a fruit or a nut. There is ability to gain energy, which are denoted with batteries and their points, and there is something called rage. There are a couple cells that have like a redo action where you can redo another cell, which are always real nice, because there are some potential cells that can give you multiple points and then if you get a card that lets you redo that more points, better, try and erase the 80 points. The more points that you can rack up during the game, the better. So after you get done with that phase of the game, you're going to choose.
Speaker 3:There are disks that are denoted with each individual ape. So you'll have one ape, a gorilla, you will have a chimpanzee, you will have a mandrel and you will have an orangutan. Each one of these has a benefit and you will choose. So everything is pretty much simultaneous, playing at the same time, except for this particular action which you will both choose a disk. You will then flip them over and you reveal them and, very simply, if I got the let's say I got the orangutan I get the benefit which was an energy or was a battery. I would take that and then I can use that to purchase an orangutan. So you have to purchase the matching ape.
Speaker 3:The other neat thing I think this is why you're doing this simultaneous because your opponent can pay energy in order to copy your disk. So if Chris had the one that gave points, I might decide to do mine but then spend the energy to also mimic what you did. So that's really the only thing in the game, that's that you're doing head to head with the person that maybe you're doing a little bit of a mind game with, but direct competition. And then after that is when you're going to purchase your ape or monkey, and so you need to use a certain amount of resources to buy the particular ape or monkey and you put it into your tribe A lot of deck builders you put the purchase card into your discard pile, but with this one you're going to put it straight on top of your deck, so it's going to come out on your next turn, and that's pretty much how you play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really good explanation of the game. What I like about that game so before I talk about that is you didn't even know that game was a thing.
Speaker 3:I didn't. I did hear people coming back from the UK expo and they're like oh, I played this game, I brought this game back, it's cool, and then it kind of went, oh okay.
Speaker 2:And then it showed up at the house.
Speaker 3:And then it showed up at the house.
Speaker 2:So I had that game pre-ordered a long time ago.
Speaker 3:I know you mentioned something about it, but it was still on those.
Speaker 2:So what drew me in? Why is it pre-ordered?
Speaker 3:Apocalypse.
Speaker 2:There you go. Post-apocalyptic game sucker for it every time and I was pleasantly surprised with the game, so I didn't know anything about it. I didn't have any, I guess preconceived.
Speaker 3:Did you see any gameplays?
Speaker 2:Preconceived ideas or anything about it. It was lighter, I guess. Lighter, but not. There's some more of a midway game. Yeah, not super light. I love the puzzle, the puzzle of putting together your cards on the table in front of you to create the I guess the cells together Like a tableau or a tribe.
Speaker 3:That's what you're doing. Your oh hey, yeah, definitely mentioned rage, because I skipped that.
Speaker 2:Yep to gather your resources. Okay, so deck building, resource management, two mechanics that I like, but the puzzle. The puzzle, that was cool, I've not. There might be a game out there like that.
Speaker 3:There's nothing game out there, that, but we don't have.
Speaker 2:So it's a unique mechanic for me and it was fun. So then you save your resources and there's the rage track. So you can, if you get gorillas, gorillas have rage, and you would use that to basically get the junk cards out of your deck. You have what are the first cards? What's the first?
Speaker 3:Tamron Monkeys.
Speaker 2:Tamron Monkeys. So you get the Tamron Primate card and they are very basic, just give you basic resources, nothing too special about it. And what you wanna do is you wanna save your resources up so you can buy there's like a level one chimp and a level two chimp, a level one ape and so on and so forth, and you wanna save enough resources to get the level two of that card, because then you're gonna get the better puzzle piece per se. So then you can get more resources, get more things, and I just I like that. I like that a lot. Also like that you can use the power cells to use technology that is left behind for that, the humans left behind right and you get certain bonuses. I think that's pretty novel. Overall, I don't think there's anything that I could really say I don't like about this game. I like the theme, I like the art. I mean Vincent Dutray I can't remember where I heard this, but somebody said it almost seems like Vincent Dutray said I feel like drawing a game about monkeys.
Speaker 3:They made a game around monkeys.
Speaker 2:They were like sure, draw some monkeys and we'll make a game around it, right? Vincent Dutray's just got a gift and everything that he does is just beautiful. He's just listening to you describe the game. I didn't realize how much of a solitary game it is.
Speaker 3:You never thought about that.
Speaker 2:No, I never thought of it that way. But yeah, you really are playing like a solitary, a two player solitary game. Right, you know there's not much player interaction, but it doesn't make the game bad.
Speaker 3:Until you get. It's one of those games and when you're talking about thinning the deck and a lot of times you want to get rid of those Tamarind cards, but for me anyway, it is that race so you get to about 70 points and you realize, okay, you're starting to feel that that's when you feel that competition and if you're gonna thin your deck, this might be the point where you want to thin it from one of the big Apes, because then you're getting more points. So then you want to try to really start. You know, because there were games, I think, that either I was far ahead or you were far. I think there was one that you were pretty far ahead and that last half or last quarter of the game I just started coming back with points and then, I think at the very end, I managed to thin my deck of a great Ape and was able to win.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we want to talk about that one. So I okay. Again, it's established, I'm not the solo player of this group. You took it with you when you went on a business trip.
Speaker 3:I did, I did.
Speaker 2:And you played the solo game. Why don't you tell us about the solo?
Speaker 3:game Solo game is. You are playing the solo game pretty much the same way. Your opponent is another Ape, so you have to choose one of the other Apes as an opponent. He gets a deck, he gets you're only choosing three of the discs. So you're essentially you're choosing three of the monkeys and you're going to place them on top of the board and that comes into play a little bit later. But, as you're, instead of activating, he gets, gets some starting resources. He gets a certain like number of starting resources and his actions are going to be he's going to lay out the four cards and, instead of activating cells, he gets the resources or power, whether it's energy, the benefits on the cards at the top of the deck. Those are things that when you play, you are going to get when you thin your deck. So that is how he's playing along.
Speaker 3:I think the interesting thing about this is when you take resources, you're taking them from him. You don't take them from the supply, you're taking them off him. So I thought that was kind of interesting. So that was probably the most interesting thing. The difference was that you were taking them, the resources, from him, so he was building them up and the disc decided. When he had resources, he would count up, or you count up his resources. Whichever had the most and would be able to purchase the most expensive or the most powerful monkey would be the one he would use and that's the way he would get that bonus and everything associated with it. So, but there wasn't other than how he really moved. There wasn't a lot of difference to your game at all.
Speaker 2:That's interesting.
Speaker 3:So solo game is pretty much like the two player game it's very much like the two player game, except how your opponent is playing different than you. So it's kind of the same idea between, almost like a solitaire game, but you're taking the resources, you're pulling them from him. He has the ability. He can occasionally mimic your bonus disc.
Speaker 2:So would you recommend it as a game to play solo?
Speaker 3:I would I would, it wasn't I won. So I don't know if that's a bad thing, because you do want some of a challenge when you're. You know when you play, but it's different for a solo game. I think the way he works is different. So I would definitely, if you have the game, try the solo. I don't know if I would buy it for the solo, but definitely if you have the game and you, you know you do play. So definitely try it that way.
Speaker 2:Okay cool. So I, like I said there's not. There's not much I can nitpick on the game. Yeah, I think it's a great game. I'm not going to give it a 10 out of 10.
Speaker 3:You know, if you were going to give a 10 out of 10, you would nitpick the heck out of it. Please listen to our research and episode. You'll know what I am talking about. Yes, it is funny.
Speaker 2:Yes, the review that makes it sound like I hate a game and then at the end of it, 10 out of 10.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's a great game.
Speaker 2:So, yes, I would give this game a solid nine. I'd give it a nine, would you Right Again, just like resurgence, a full point just for theme, right Okay?
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 2:Just for theme. So if it was, if it was monkeys in a zoo, then maybe it'd be an 8.5 or an eight, but opposed to Apocalypse, give it a nine, Solid nine. One point just for theme.
Speaker 3:I'd probably give it an eight.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:An 8.5. I liked it. I do like it. I'd definitely, definitely play it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:All right, that will be a game I will grab to play. It's not one of those like other ones that oh hey, if you want to play it, that's you know I will. No, I will definitely grab it. I'll definitely go to it. I will go to it to teach it to people that aren't maybe not gamers, because it does teach rather easy and mechanics are pretty simple. It's not overly complicated, so I think that way it would be a good game. Somebody that's new to the hobby.
Speaker 2:Maybe I agree.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, and that is after us. Well, angie, I think it's about time to wrap up this episode. Hopefully I'm feeling better the next time we record another one, so I'm not over here muting my microphone and making gross sounds.
Speaker 3:No one wants to hear you make gross sounds. Well that was so gross.
Speaker 2:Oh, I needed to do that. All right, what are we going to talk about next episode? I'll tell you exactly what we're going to talk about next episode. We're going to talk more about the games that we are culling. We're going to be on the bees.
Speaker 3:We're on the bees.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk about the games that we played when we were on vacation and, of course, angie is going to have an amazing meeple quiz that I well, I'm going to do awesome on, because I just max points, that's me yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, If you could have saw the face I made.
Speaker 3:I'm sure I like that quiz. It's a good quiz.
Speaker 2:That was a good quiz, Angie.
Speaker 3:No, this one I have coming up, I already created. I already created. I like it.
Speaker 2:The day that you like it, the day that you tell me that you don't like your quiz, I'm going to be sad. You like every quiz you give.
Speaker 3:No, the day I don't like a quiz, you'll get max points.
Speaker 2:Probably All right everybody. Thank you for listening. Don't forget to check out our Etsy store Chasing Meeples Go for some really cool board game related apparel and Chasing Meeples merchandise what you guys are thinking about using Windows 6?
Speaker 1:Chasing Meeples, millefeuille and the love is a thing to do. Chasing people's way for you With games and laughs, and inside too. Chasing people's simply the best. Chasing people's simply the best, oh oh oh. Chasing people's simply the best. Chasing people's simply the best.
