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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
Goblin Vaults, Thanksgiving 2023, and Boardgame Gift Ideas
It's time for another episode of the wildly popular podcast Chasing Meeples! Happy Thanksgiving. On today's show, Chris and Angie delve into the strategic depths of Goblin Vaults, published by ThunderWorks Games. But that's not all. They're also talking about board game gift ideas. You won't want to miss this. The meeple quiz, the laughs, the insights and the banter. It's all rolling your way, starting now.
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Hey, are we rolling? It's time for another episode of the wildly popular podcast Chasing Meeples Happy Thanksgiving. On today's show, chris and Angie delve into the strategic depths of Goblin Vaults, published by ThunderWorks Games. But that's not all. They're also talking about board game gift ideas. You won't want to miss this. The meeple quiz, the laughs, the insights and the banter. It's all rolling your way, starting now.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone, welcome to the Chasing Meeples podcast. 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, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I'm rolling with it, I'm doing good. Good, good Rolling with it Great day. I don't mind.
Speaker 2:I don't mind, all right good, this is the Chasing Meeples Thanksgiving episode for the year 2023. So for us Americans and our American listeners, we're going to be celebrating Thanksgiving this month. Not many of them.
Speaker 3:What kind of this week?
Speaker 2:Well, okay, so this week, Actually this week. Yes, you're correct.
Speaker 3:Everybody get ready for turkey day.
Speaker 2:Let's get this show rolling. What do you say?
Speaker 3:Let's get it rolling.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Blah blah blah, blah blah.
Speaker 3:So much for no editing.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I'm going to keep the head.
Speaker 3:That's pretty awesome, it's just going to drive our listeners nuts. Why do these?
Speaker 4:people keep talking over each other.
Speaker 2:They have been doing it for over a year now.
Speaker 3:They should be used to it. They should be used to it.
Speaker 2:Well, we should know how to talk to Really, so huh.
Speaker 3:Really, really. I realize that that was something we were supposed to figure out.
Speaker 2:How nuts talk over each other?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I maybe would have been practicing it or something yeah well. Sometimes you need to be talked over though.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. Thank you, I'm sure I do.
Speaker 3:Well, sometimes I need to too, Uh-huh uh-huh. So we're picked up, we roll. That's how it works. How it works, you know, pick up the slack, no dead air.
Speaker 2:No dead air.
Speaker 3:No dead air. There's no reason for you to edit because there's never going to be dead air.
Speaker 2:Have you listeners noticed that Angie and I have been using the word roll or rolling, quite a lot?
Speaker 3:Have we been.
Speaker 2:Oh, we have been.
Speaker 3:I mean, I just used it a couple of minutes ago.
Speaker 2:You've been using it since we started.
Speaker 3:I'm getting well. I guess it's in my mind, it's in my head, it's going to become part of my vernacular. Since Three months, chris and I are doing a segment or we're part of a board game a new board game show on Ali Reed's YouTube channel Don't Be A Board. He has a new show called Tabletop Tea Time, where he does bring content creators from around the world. So this is an international show. So that's kind of neat and they will be talking about. We do have a topic each month and it's not necessary that we stick with a topic, but this latest topic that will be that was just released was the shelf of opportunity. What Chris and I are doing is we have our own little segment. So we're going to take something that has to do with the topic and we're rolling it into a dice game.
Speaker 2:And the name of our segment is Are we Rolling?
Speaker 3:We're Rolling. Yes, I thought that was clever.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, very clever Angie thought of that.
Speaker 3:I thought of it and it had to do something with a movie that they probably had in the 1970s but yeah, the old movie cameras.
Speaker 2:They used to say Roll Film, roll Film. Yeah, are we Rolling?
Speaker 3:I thought that was clever, and then Chris had pointed out they really don't have those type of cameras anymore.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I do. I have no idea, maybe they do. All right, angie, we went to a convention recently.
Speaker 3:We went to GameholeCon in Madison, Wisconsin. I think it's maybe a primarily an RPG convention For the most part. But there is a board game presence there, a pretty decent one. They have a board game library. That's one of the reasons that we love going to something like this, because we can play games that we don't have. So we did play a really cool game there.
Speaker 2:I was actually pleasantly surprised by this game.
Speaker 3:Pulled out a game that probably was not what you would expect to play at a con. It was not a con game, it was Rouge. I was like Steph, I'm velled and I had always been interested in that game. So when I saw it there I figured, hey, minus, we'll try it.
Speaker 2:And it was very good, it was approachable, it was.
Speaker 3:Good word for it.
Speaker 2:Easy to figure out.
Speaker 3:It was. It really didn't take. It didn't take much and it unfortunately not have. Unfortunately, it is no longer available in its form. It has now been reprinted on the city collection. I think Feld is calling it and I believe this one is Hamburg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's also extremely expensive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think they changed mechanism in it.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you chose that game from the lending library.
Speaker 3:What else did we do there?
Speaker 2:We talked to one of my favorite game designers, Keith Matejka owner of T hunderworks Games. We met him probably in 2018. The last time we went to GameholeCon before this year really nice guy, really nice guy. We got to talk about the dawn of Ulos and we talked to him about goblin vaults and we talked to him about a whole bunch of good stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mentioned to him that he should actually play some games for enjoyment and he said doesn't get much time to do that, he's working and that kind of stuff, so he doesn't play a lot for enjoyment.
Speaker 2:You did mention to him also that you are a fan of his solo modes. Does he make some very good solo modes for pencil first games?
Speaker 3:Yep he does. I think they're really good. He made a comment about how that they were pretty simple jobs to do. He could actually do them in a couple hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was pretty cool to hear that.
Speaker 3:And we did something else which we don't get a lot of time or chance to do. We played a prototype which I thought was very, very cool. I really enjoyed it. I was kind of nervous about doing it, to tell you the truth, why I'm a little intimidated by it.
Speaker 2:Like having somebody demo a game for you.
Speaker 3:Because you know, okay, going into that, I usually go over the rules a lot, watch videos a lot before I play and essentially you're playing as somebody's describing things to you once. But I really felt comfortable with the guys doing it and I was able to say, can you walk me through this? He would ask you know what would you want to do? And you know I said, walk me through the steps. And he was really great with that and I didn't feel intimidated doing it and I enjoyed the game. It's not something that normally I would play or pick up, but I really did enjoy the game and it was called Role. So do you want to tell the folks what games we actually picked up while we were there?
Speaker 2:I don't even remember which games we picked up.
Speaker 3:Well, obviously from Thunderworks we did pick up.
Speaker 2:The games that we picked up there were Dawn of Ulos. We picked up Goblin Vaults, which is going to be a game we are talking about. It's our review in this episode. What else did we pick up, Angie?
Speaker 3:Sky Team. Oh yeah, Spellbook.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I forgot, we picked up that Sky Team there.
Speaker 3:And Genesis and that's a 2010 game. Yeah, so that was interesting, so it's not horrible.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a bad game.
Speaker 3:There wasn't a lot to it.
Speaker 2:I agree, as far as a lot of actions in the game, there's not a lot of stuff to do.
Speaker 3:There's like three things you can do, but it's like move, that's your action, that's it.
Speaker 2:Move forward, move backward, collect cubes, spend cubes, and that's really it.
Speaker 3:That's really it, yeah.
Speaker 2:I thought it was interesting.
Speaker 3:And you didn't spend a lot of money. I think you paid for about 15 bucks.
Speaker 2:I paid $15 for it.
Speaker 3:You know what time it is? It's quiz time.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 3:Quiz time. So now we are doing our Thanksgiving episode, so I felt the quiz should be Thanksgiving related. It's not going to be a difficult one, it's going to be. It's like a yes-no.
Speaker 2:Oh, a yes-no quiz. Well pretty much.
Speaker 3:yeah, you have two choices, so it's going to be each question is 50-50,. Right? This is going to be the Thanksgiving meal.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 3:The Thanksgiving meal.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:In your mind if you go to Walmart and pick out a turkey, a Butterball Turkey. They feed 10 to 16 people. The average price is going to be 1834. You might want to write that number down.
Speaker 2:Really? Yes, you just took the pen.
Speaker 3:There's another one.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, write it down. I have the pen in my hand 1834.
Speaker 3:Here you can use the back of that.
Speaker 2:Oh, I got it right here 1834.
Speaker 3:Okay, so this Butterball Turkey is $1.28 a pound, so that is going to be your starting number, $1.28. Is stovetop stuffing more or less than $1.28? Does it cost more or less?
Speaker 2:That is not a yes or no question.
Speaker 3:Well, it's an either or. Stovetop stuffing costs more or less than $1.28.
Speaker 2:More.
Speaker 3:You're correct, it is $1.98.
Speaker 2:This is like the prices, right it is.
Speaker 3:It is $1.98 is now your target Is Heinz Homestyle Turkey Gravy, 18 ounces More or less, then $1.98.
Speaker 2:Less.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's more. It is 234. Is Ocean Spray, jellied Cranberry Sauce, more or less than 234. Less it is less, it is $1.98. I was going to do a trick question but I thought, no, that's not nice.
Speaker 2:So I'm back at $1.98.
Speaker 3:Yeah, back to $1.98.
Speaker 2:Well, you mean to tell me gravy is more expensive than stuffing?
Speaker 3:No, no, let me remind you these are some of these things are on a Black Friday special, so the basic cost of the stove top stuffing, I think, was closer to $3.
Speaker 2:Oh, you didn't say there was a sale price.
Speaker 3:Well, some of the things are on a sale price.
Speaker 2:Some are not. Shouldn't be doing sale prices. That's just silly.
Speaker 3:Most of these are sale price. To tell you the truth, I think they all were, except maybe the gravy Del Monte 14 ounce can of cut green beans. Is it more or less than the Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry at $1.98? Less Bob Evans. You know what the Bob Evans are.
Speaker 2:Bob Evans, I know Bob Evans.
Speaker 3:Bob Evans. Yes, those are the mashed potatoes. They are in the plastic tray that gets microwaved. We're not going to go with potato flakes we're not that low-brow here so we're going to go with the Bob Evans microwave mashed potatoes. The 32 ounce, which is the family size, is it more or less than Del Monte green beans? Remember, there are sale prices here. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, Bob Evans, it is less.
Speaker 3:Less than a dollar. No, you got it wrong, it's 387.
Speaker 2:I don't know, sometimes okay. So sometimes Bob's a generous guy. He gives deep discounts to those you overthought that.
Speaker 3:You overthought that I did. You overthought that one.
Speaker 4:I did.
Speaker 3:Marie Callender's pumpkin pie. Is it more than 387? Yes, all right, we got three of those.
Speaker 2:You're busting out some big names. You're Bob Evans, Marie Callender. Is Patrick Cudahay coming up next?
Speaker 3:No, that's it for the Thanksgiving meal.
Speaker 2:No more.
Speaker 3:Patrick, so you have, so you have. These are the numbers you need to remember now.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm not writing any of these numbers now, but you're writing them down.
Speaker 3:Why are you writing them down? Okay, you don't have to, because I'm going to tell you, you're like literally telling me them. Well, okay, this Thanksgiving meal costs $35.14. Yeah, so right now you have six points. This is a three-point question. Is it more or less than the Lego Classic Building Set 1,500 pieces?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's less Lego than our freaking expensive.
Speaker 3:It is more, it's a Black Friday sale. They are only $30.
Speaker 4:Yay.
Speaker 3:I'm very proud of this, okay.
Speaker 2:That was horrible. I mean, my showing was horrible.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:It's a good quiz. That's the end of it.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve. Yeah, I mean 15 points.
Speaker 2:The grand finale was is this Thanksgiving meal more or less expensive than a Lego? That was it. It was so anticlimactic I thought that was.
Speaker 3:I thought that was kind of funny comparing it to the Legos. Okay here, bonus bonus, bonus question. Bonus bonus, bonus Bonus bonus bonus question.
Speaker 2:Now, how do you pronounce it? The?
Speaker 3:Walmart brand that O-N-N. It's a proud sign On Okay.
Speaker 2:They have 45 inch. Tv. Is it more or less than?
Speaker 3:a Thanksgiving dinner.
Speaker 2:It is more than a Thanksgiving meal. Okay, how much is it? 40 inch 45 inch.
Speaker 3:45 inch. It's a 1080. 1080p on television. It's a 10 inch 45 inch. It's a 1080.
Speaker 2:1080p on television is on sale.
Speaker 3:It's on sale Black.
Speaker 2:Friday for $279.98.
Speaker 3:$98. What $98. Are you sure it's 1080p?
Speaker 2:It's probably like 420p or something. No, it said 1080. Wow, 1080 Roku Smart TV Impressive $98.
Speaker 3:Everybody run there. You don't have two anymore. You can buy them on them.
Speaker 2:I might just get them to send them to your house.
Speaker 2:Well, that was a great quiz, angie. I got six out of 15. I'll take it, angie. That quiz was fantastic, but it did bring up a good point. So it was about shopping, and what we like to do in America after Thanksgiving is shop. It's shopping season for Christmas. Some people do their shopping all year long. Others wait until Black Friday, which pretty much is an entire month now. So Angie and I decided that we are going to give you guys a little bit of our recommendations of what we think would be a good gift to get people for the holidays, and we're just going to call it Board game gift ideas. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a board game. It could be a board game accessory or a board game adjacent thing. So, angie, why don't you start off? What is a recommendation that you have for a board game gift?
Speaker 3:I don't know which way I should do this, if I should start low or high. So I'm going to say I think a classic game that everybody should have is Carcassonne. Now, carcassonne is one of those older games. It may be something that is already on your game shelf, but brand new to the gaming world and I think it first reached the United States this year is the cooperative version, miss Silver Carcassonne. So that's going to be a cooperative and I can't really tell you anything else because we haven't played it yet. But I think I was really excited about it when I first heard about it, because I do love Carcassonne and it does. Obviously, you can play it solo, so I'm excited about it. I'm excited to get it played this weekend. So if you would rather have a cooperative game for the entire family, that is a thing that you can get. Otherwise, I would always recommend Bass Carcassonne.
Speaker 2:Always, always. So, as far as games, now I have a list of eight games and I've ranked them from I have ranked nothing.
Speaker 2:We'll call it like easy to learn, to like a little bit more advanced games.
Speaker 2:And this list, in my mind, is suitable for somebody who in your family or friend who you know plays games, or somebody who does not. So if you're a gamer and you want to buy a game for somebody who you would like to maybe introduce to the hobby, I think this would be a good list to start with. So my first game that I would recommend would be Century, so you could either get Century Golem Edition, which is the one that we have, and I think that to me that is a theme. It's a theme thing too. That would probably make it a little bit interesting. In this game you're basically collecting and trading crystals to buy Golems, and it's it's simple but yet it's strategic, and you are trading and swapping your crystal colors in order to get more valuable Golem cards which score you points at the end of the game. So it's kind of like a puzzle game where you're trying to find the most efficient way to upgrade your crystals and get your Golems, and I think that would be a good game for gamers and non-gamers alike.
Speaker 3:It is that the Century series is a very good game. It's kind of one of those. A lot of people have Century Spice. A lot of people have Century Spice. A lot of people have that game.
Speaker 3:Century Spice World yeah that game and, yeah, I love it. I love it. So I'm going to go. My next, I'm going to kind of group two together that I have on my list because they could be stocking stuffers. Well, some things that might be good for some stockings would be maybe some booster packs, a lot of different card games out, but the big one right now out is Lorcanna. So if you can get a hold of some booster packs, if you have a Lorcanna player, they will probably be pretty excited to get some of those as well as a neat little game that comes in a tin.
Speaker 3:It's a small dexterity game called Tinder blocks. It was a great game. I will stick it in my purse. We take it with us when we go out to restaurants. It's a simple game, it's fun, it's cute and it does draw some attention.
Speaker 3:In this game there is a base card and you lay three wooden blocks and you draw a card and what you're doing is you are creating a campfire and you're taking the pieces of the campfire out of the tin. There are blocks that represent the logs and there are blocks that represent the flames, little cubes, and you have to pick up the blocks with the tweezers out of the tin and put them on top of the fire. Some of them you have to actually stack on top of each other and put them on top of the fire. Jenga, whoever knocks it off loses. But you draw a card and it tells you what you have to do. The really fun part is sometimes you have to do it with your opposing hand, so you'll see somebody taking their left hand, the right handed, trying to stack it up there, and it's a cute little dexterity game. It's fun, it's quick, I win a lot.
Speaker 2:You win a lot. Yes, it's a fun game. I really enjoy it. It's funny how you said it draws a lot of attention. The game does draw a lot of attention, but you know what really draws attention what? When we're in a public place playing that game. Like the last time we played it in a restaurant we had probably the highest stack of bricks that we've had, of blocks that we've had ever we talked about when we went to bricks.
Speaker 2:We're talking about. Ironically, when we went to the place called the Bricks, the restaurant called Bricks and Angie screamed so loud when that thing fell. She thought she had it in the bag. Oh, I did. She thought she had it in the bag and the tower fell. The fire collapsed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there were some guys playing dart ball and they turned around. And did they turn around and look? My eyes were closed.
Speaker 2:I think the whole bar turned around and looked. It was like one of those moments. You know those awkward moments when the jukebox stops and you're in the middle of a conversation and you say the most obscene thing and everybody looks at you. It was that the jukebox stopped, angie, I'm surprised people didn't like misthrow their dart ball things and it could have been mass chaos.
Speaker 3:It was funny.
Speaker 2:Anyway, good suggestion, angie. Thank you, I totally agree with you. Ironically, the next game that I have could be considered a stocking stuffer as well, and that game is Hive or Hive Pocket. So what is Hive? Hive is a two player game, think chess with bugs. Each player has a set of hexagonal tiles and each one of those tiles represents a different type of bug, and each of those bugs, like in chess, have their own unique way of moving, and the goal of this game is to surround your opponent's queen bee while stopping your opponent from being able to do the same to you. I really enjoy that game and I think it would be a great game to gift to somebody for Christmas who enjoys chess or a thinker, a thinker game.
Speaker 3:It is. It is. It's an abstract game. It's fun. I like it who wins? I win. Come on, I Win a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I used to be that. I used to be the hive master until you show me the dung drop.
Speaker 3:Move the beetle bomb, the beetle bomb, and that is it. You've been cream, yeah, how many times since then? Yeah, you wait. I didn't even think that was a real move. It is it is now. I almost have to play without doing it. Yeah, mike, the challenge is can I beat you with Out doing that? Yeah, and then it's more difficult.
Speaker 2:I am starting to hate that move so much. Basically the Cuz I'm an innovator baby, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person that's ever done it. Basically I take the dung beetle and I put it over the queen and now the queen is stuck there and then you just play your game and then when you have one open spot left around the, I don't be able to tell me don't be, it'll right in there and Angie always gets me with that move.
Speaker 2:now, the first time I did it to you was priceless, so you were just like what?
Speaker 3:are you doing? Yeah, I like that's not legal move. Probably scream noon red lobster to.
Speaker 4:But yeah, don't, you can't just do that. Okay, just put it down there.
Speaker 3:What do you mean? I can't move something like that. I'm pretty sure I sounded something like that. You probably did okay, the next one on my list here. Let me choose one. I have not put them in any particular order. This is a rolling right. It is called three sisters. I play this game. I don't know if have you ever played it or if I only soloed this.
Speaker 2:I have never had the opportunity to play it.
Speaker 3:You are creating a garden, um, you will roll some dice, uh, depending on the number of players. There is an action board which is a rondelle. There's different actions, like a shed action, a garden action which you are making things grow. You have like a rolling right, so it has Like a map, a garden map with different gardens. In there. There are some sheds where you can get points up. Different actions you can get some honey, you can get some berries, so there's different things that you can do. I play solo, so you are playing against Farmer Edith. I don't like her. She will stomp all over your garden when it's her turn. But it's nice, it's simple, it's enjoyable. It is probably one of the solo games I do go to because it is simple and it is pretty quick. So that is my next choice three sisters.
Speaker 2:All right, my next game on the list as we get a little bit more into More complex, maybe, dare I say, heavier games, but not too heavy. You don't want to be too heavy when you're trying to introduce the hobby to somebody and that game is a fallout shelter. So fallout shelters, based on the video game and it's published by fantasy flight game. It was published in 2020.
Speaker 2:You are basically playing as an overseer of a vault and, as a person who enjoys post-apocalyptic themes, I really enjoy this game. So in this game, you're building rooms in your vault, you're managing resources and you're keeping your dwellers happy. You're kind of like the video game. You got to have happy dwellers, you got to build some rooms, you got to keep them alive. So it's a game of research, management, strategic building, and you Make decisions on what parts of the vault to develop and how to Basically, on your turn, where your dwellers are going to be. I think it is a good example of worker placement and maybe, maybe, engine building, because as you add rooms, you get more resources and you can spend your resources in a certain way.
Speaker 3:Oh, don't forget the mutants that break into the vault. So there's mutants that break in the vault and they'll cover up some of your rooms and you have to fight the mutants off before you can, um, like, complete that row. Is that the way it is? That, yep?
Speaker 2:before you can go back into that room.
Speaker 3:Rumor that floor. I think you had to have them out by a certain point of the game. Yeah, I don't gotta be cleared out or something, but this is a good game. I like the game. I don't think it's got a heavy Apocalyptic theme right, but I suppose like the video game I so I do like that game.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like a tongue-in-cheek. It's a tongue-in-cheek. Yes version of apocalyptic. Yes, exactly so that is my pick follow shelter.
Speaker 3:Okay, let's see. What am I going to choose next? What am I going to choose next? I am going to choose After us. After us, I believe, was an ascent release and you purchased it straight from the publisher. I had no idea about this game. I did see people on some videos talk about it, um, and not so much talk about it. There are people that would say, hey, this is my hall, from this con, this con, wherever con they went to, I got after us. I'm excited about it. I saw it being played there and that's all I heard. I never paid attention to it after that, until you bought the game and you were trying to give me a hint or something like that.
Speaker 3:The box is blue, nothing. Then you're telling me there's a monkey on the box and I completely lost, I'm like, and then you tell me it's after us. I'm like, after us had a monkey in the box. I had no idea what it had to do with, but it has to do with a post-apocalyptic earth when there are no humans left. There are monkeys are going to terraform the planet for themselves using the leftover tech that humans left behind and unlike, I think, a normal tribe of primates, these primates don't stick together. They're going to collect tribes of different type of apes. You have the mandrel, the great ape, you have chimpanzees and what is the oh? An orangutans.
Speaker 3:So it is a deck building game. So you start out with a hand of tamarin monkeys and you're going to. You're building a deck, so you draw a hand of Four cards and you're going to lay them out in a row and each of these cards are really interesting. Now, this, I think, is the most interesting part of the game that the cards have Cells on them, or half cells on them, and when you place them next to each other, they form I don't know what it's called. Um, there's three roles of them and you're going to activate, so you will activate a row, so you'll have, you'll be able to get some resources.
Speaker 3:So if you put the cards next to each other and they complete a cell I'm calling them a cell. I'm not sure what they are, but it's like a little. It's like a little box, and if you have completed box, along the rows, you get whatever's inside of there. You might get some power-ups, which are batteries, you might get different types of resources, and there's three roles and you Essentially this is simultaneous action and then, after that's over with, you can buy new monkey cards. So that's where you're building your deck and, depending on how many resources you have to spend, you can get a level one monkeys or you can, if you're saving them up a little bit, you can get a higher level monkey which have Stronger abilities, or they're going to give you points and different kinds of things like that.
Speaker 3:Um, there's also a rage track that you like to use, but it's pretty simple game and I, you know, I think it's maybe more of a medium weight Game that's not so heavy heavy that you couldn't teach it to somebody. I think we learned it rather quick and it's fun. It's really interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did do a review of this game, so if you want to do a search for chasing people's podcasts after us, we'll be able to hear our full thoughts on the game. It is a game that we both enjoy and I think, angie, you are spot on. It would be a great gift for somebody for Christmas.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:My game that I'm choosing kind of along the same I'm gonna say maybe the same weight as a fallout shelter. It happens to be the game that we are going to be reviewing and that is goblin vaults, so I'm not gonna give too much away because we're gonna give a full review on this, angie.
Speaker 3:I'm going to break away from the board games and I'm gonna Hit your pocketbook here. I'm going to say the Rat Scaller Garrison Table. Do you know which one is the garrison table?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the one that's like a coffee table, which is pretty sweet.
Speaker 3:It is. It's the one that's like a coffee table. I just saw it the other day on Instagram. It's really pretty, you know. It's got some sliding doors where a lot of things are hidden in there. So it's a very pretty table. And I had even made a comment because we do not have a dedicated game room. So I mean, you know, it would be a little bit easier to pop an end table in the living room.
Speaker 2:We would have no living room left. With how small our living room is Dreams. Someday we will own a game, a legit game table. I would love a game topper to put over our oval kitchen table that we've been, that we play.
Speaker 3:It is oval. It's an oval table. It's been oval yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, since we got it.
Speaker 3:I think a game topper is going to be our best bet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:It would be our best bet. It's our most possibility of getting a table, because it you can take it off, you can put it back on, you can travel with them. You know they do have some pretty nice mats to them, I think somewhere even lighted too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think they're lit. I don't know.
Speaker 3:Burkey, it's an idea.
Speaker 2:Burkey, I'll give you another idea.
Speaker 3:Hey, we're not pandering this episode. Okay, we're not pandering. We did enough on the last episode to last us the whole another year.
Speaker 2:Come on, I was going to say something funny like your game topper would. That's funny. No, I was going to say something really funny like yeah, burkey, you know those game toppers. They would look really good on an audio podcast. You should send us one.
Speaker 4:They would.
Speaker 2:So, if you're listening, chasing meples at yahoocom, anyway, okay, I got that out of my system. That's an excellent choice. Angie, a game table, that would be awesome, all right.
Speaker 3:Top that Well.
Speaker 2:I can't top a game table, but I can tell you about another game because that's all I got on my list, and that is dice thrown. So everybody knows I really like dice thrown. So what is dice thrown? Imagine a game where players take on the roles of unique heroes. Each hero has their own special set of abilities and you roll dice. So if you know how to play Yachtsy, you know how to play dice thrown and you play cards to attack your opponents and defend yourself. The combination of dice rolling and card playing makes for a dynamic game where strategy and a bit of luck determines who wins.
Speaker 3:Can you tell Chris is rehearsed? I am in the other hand. I just throw and stuff out there, hoping something stick.
Speaker 2:You do good. You do good, Angie. What's your next gift?
Speaker 3:idea. My next gift idea are convention tickets. Convention tickets whether it is a cruise like the Dice Tower cruise or a big convention like Gen Con, or a trip across the ocean to Essen or just a smaller local convention, those would always make a nice welcome gift for anybody in your gaming circle.
Speaker 2:Con tickets are an awesome idea, angie. It doesn't have to be for the whole con. Just a day, yeah, yeah, just a day, right? You can get a lot of good playing game playing, a lot of good sightseeing, a lot of good vendor hall action in one day. All right, my next pick is, of course, another game, so that recommendation is wingspan. It's not too hard, it's not too complicated.
Speaker 2:So basically, you're playing the role of a bird enthusiast and you're trying to get birds into your wildlife reserve. Each bird has its own special abilities and requirements that you need to be able to play them. So, basically, you have to be able to feed them. You have to be able to feed them and put them in their correct habitat. So you're going to spend time managing resources, and each bird that you attract will allow you to maybe create some chain reactions of powerful combos like the tuck action. The tuck action that always wins against Angie, except for the last two times we've played, because she's become the wingspan master and it has now become a game I don't enjoy. I enjoy it up until we add up the score, and then I get so mad.
Speaker 3:It also depends on what cards you end up with. Sometimes you don't get the tuckers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, true.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there are times that you haven't gotten the cards that you can talk, so it's very card-dependent. You play the cards you get.
Speaker 2:Angie pointed out to me the last time. I'm like digressing from this whole point of this. Angie pointed out to me the last time we played a game. I have one strategy for every game.
Speaker 3:That's right. You won't vary it, no matter if you lose or not, you will not stray from that strategy. I don't even know what was the last game we played that you did that. I can't remember it was Goblin Vault. It was the faction In game points versus.
Speaker 2:It was the faction action, faction or faction points.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you kept sticking with that. You weren't looking at the end game goals.
Speaker 2:I just made a face at my mic.
Speaker 3:Oh, at the mic. Yeah, are you sure it was at the?
Speaker 2:mic. It was at my mic, not my co host. So I have one. Apparently, I have one strategy, and if it didn't work last time, it's going to work this time. It's got to work this time. That's the way it works. It's got to work at something.
Speaker 3:Well, if we play the game right, maybe it'll work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, we do, Okay. So that is my pick Wingspan.
Speaker 3:Okay, my next present is I am going to choose Earth. Why am I choosing Earth?
Speaker 2:It is You're going to give everybody the planet Earth. That's very nice of you, yes ma'am, you're talking about the game. Right, we are the world.
Speaker 3:The game Earth. The game Earth has been something that has been very loud. Is that a word? It's been compared to Wingspan. It's been compared to Terraforming Mars. There have been people online that have even said that it had ended those games for them.
Speaker 3:I did not get that feeling because I don't feel it is the same. I don't get that same vibe off of them. To tell you the truth, you are building a tableau. You have a ton of cards, but really I think it ends right there In Earth. As you are Terraforming Mars, you are Terraforming a planet. So all the cards you're getting are going to be plant cards, they're going to be trees and things like that Earth cards. So you will be laying those out. You are creating a grid, five by five grid of cards, and there are certain ways that you can lay the cards out so that some will score off of each other. So you have that sort of chaining. You can build trees on them and you're building your stack, stacking them up and, depending on if you get the completed, you get different points for them.
Speaker 3:But it's got an interesting action selection where you could choose an action and at the same time, your opponent can pick an action as well, or they get a lesser action. So you're always doing something in the game. You're always playing. So there really isn't any downtime. Even when you're playing two players, there is nothing. You're always doing something. So that is a fun game. We played the beginner stage the first time, which takes out a deck of cards which I believe it's an end game scoring cards that they take out. If you're a gamer, if you play board games, you don't have to take it out, you don't need to do the beginner game. I think doing that beginner game spoiled it a little bit because I was missing something and that was that extra oomph. You know what am I trying to accomplish in this game? You take one of those scoring objectives out and it really kind of lightened it a little bit. So if you are a board gamer, definitely don't start at the beginning level and that is my pick. Earth.
Speaker 2:Very good pick, Angie, except I do think it's four by four grid.
Speaker 3:The four by four.
Speaker 2:I think it's a four by four grid.
Speaker 3:Yes, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Who's got a five by five grid? What game King Domino does fives and what other game does five by five? Does Neovill the five by five?
Speaker 2:I have no idea. I don't know how you're able to set up games without looking at the rulebook. I do not. I'm not able to remember that stuff. So the fact that you are able to recall that from memory is amazing.
Speaker 3:Something, something. I'll take it All right.
Speaker 2:All right. So my last game on my list for a Christmas gift is, ironically, terraforming Mars, but not just any terraforming Mars. It is the Aries expedition. In this game, players represent corporations working to terraform Mars. You're going to play project cards to raise temperature, create oceans and cultivate green areas on Mars in order to make it a hospitable planet for us to live on. It involves managing resources, playing cards for effect and strategic planning to efficiently terraform the planet and earn those oh so awesome end game points. That's probably the most out of all the games that I mentioned. That's probably the most, I guess, complex game. It's really not that complex, but it can be. It can be AP inducing at some point in time. I chose this one over the original because I think this is a maybe an easier game to get into and maybe even easier to grasp than the dice game. I think the dice game might be a little bit trickier. So those were our suggestions for games or board game tables.
Speaker 3:Convention tickets.
Speaker 2:Convention tickets, anything that we think. Well, just a general list of things that Good board game gifts.
Speaker 3:Good board game gifts or gifts for the board gamer in your life.
Speaker 2:Yes, and gifts for the people that you would like to maybe become board gamer in your life.
Speaker 4:Ah, fresh faces in the shadowed halls of cool back prison. Welcome new inmates. I hear you're here for pilfering a turkey A bold move here. We usually stick the gears in secrets, but I admire the audacity. It seems you're my kind of people. I am Glafrun.
Speaker 4:The mastermind behind the game has become the heartbeat of this forsaken place, goblin vaults. Imagine a game born from the depths of solitude and a perfect distraction from the dismal planking of these iron bars. Here, in this dank and dreary world, we play a different kind of game, a game of strategy and deceit, where your wits are your best ally and trust is a currency even rarer than a choice turkey leg and a Thanksgiving feast. Today you'll be privy to a view of Goblin Vaults, courtesy of your daring hosts, chris and Angie. They've dived into the madness of my creation, where each card is a step In a dark dance and every bed could be the difference between triumph and despair.
Speaker 4:So gather around new inmates, Let the echoes of this prison be the backdrop to a tale of cunning and ambition. For in Goblin Vaults, just like at your eerie favorite Thanksgiving GAR, it's all about taking the right risks or ending up with nothing but bones. Listen well and perhaps you'll learn something that will help you survive Both at the gaming table and within these grim walls. Who knows, you might even find that stealing that turkey was the best move you ever made.
Speaker 2:Angie, we're going to talk about Goblin Vaults.
Speaker 3:Alright.
Speaker 2:So Goblin Vaults, if you guys remember from the beginning of the podcast, is one of the games that we just recently purchased at GameholeCon and since we've brought it home from GameholeCon it has been a game that's been in our rotation.
Speaker 2:We've played it quite a few times, I would say We've brought it to it has actually landed its spot in possibly what I would like to call my EDC game collection, my everyday carry game collection, a game that will probably always stay in the Jeep with me, in case we ever need a game to play. So that is a. You know, that's a coveted spot the EDC game collection. Why don't you kick off your thoughts on Goblin Vaults? Why don't we start with Mechanics? We're not going to use the chase scale. Okay, I don't remember, even remember what it was.
Speaker 3:I don't remember it. I was trying to think of it before too. I can't remember it.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about the Mechanics.
Speaker 3:Okay, let's talk Mechanics. Well, one of the Mechanics in it is a bidding mechanic, which is the primary mechanic is how you're going to build your vault. It's interesting because you don't think that it will work at two player and it does, because at the two player level there is a warden that plays and it's not a warden. It's not a warden. What is she?
Speaker 2:She's another fellow prisoner.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:She was the warden.
Speaker 2:No, glavroon. Yeah, she's not the warden.
Speaker 3:Are you sure?
Speaker 2:Well, look it up.
Speaker 3:I am, I've got the book right here. I swear she was the warden. I, I swear she was the warden. Okay, well, there is a. I am going to look it, but there is another.
Speaker 2:Another player. It's an AI player.
Speaker 3:It's like an AI player, but she works well. There are symbols on the bottom of the cards. There's like it's a symbol. It's got three cards and it kind of denotes what row that she's going to take up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you start your game, everybody gets 10 cards. They choose one card to go into your vault, to start your vault off, and then you have nine other cards, which is essentially the length of the game, nine rounds of the game. What Angie is describing is the AI player which is added in the two player games and I believe her name is Glavroon I think that's how you pronounce it. They always go first, so there's two decks that you run off of. There's a yeah.
Speaker 2:There's the deck off to the side, and then there's the Glavroon deck, she invented the game. Oh, Raditchie Yep and the theme.
Speaker 3:She invented by Glavroon, the Dregul's greatest wartime strategist. Wow, goblin Vault is a game born of madness.
Speaker 2:No kidding.
Speaker 3:Angie developed the rules of the game while confined to Solitaire for 90 days.
Speaker 2:Whoa.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I want game designers out there to come up with something in 90 days.
Speaker 2:Lock yourself in a room no lights and you're going to come up with a game. That's right. She always goes first and on the bottom of the card there are numbers basically that represent the role that she's going to bid, which is the central cell block. Essentially it tells you which card she's bidding on. She puts her card there, puts her token on top, so you know it's her card and then it's the player's turn and they will do the exact same thing there is a bidding mechanic and there is a card in there, the Warden card, which is essentially a trump card.
Speaker 2:So if you want to bid on a card, anyone guarantee you win that card.
Speaker 3:Unless the person after you plays a higher trump card.
Speaker 2:And then you don't win it, correct you?
Speaker 3:guarantee you win, correct.
Speaker 2:And then there's also a ability to underbid. If you underbid, you take a gear, you put it on the winning bid card and then the strategy is you get to take that card and put it into your vault.
Speaker 3:So if you got a card that you really like, that you want to put in your own vault, then yeah, then you use it to underbid, so you can keep the card.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's pretty simple, straightforward mechanics. There are limited actions that you can do for a round. So you can place a card. If you play a card that matches, there's symbols on each card that are called faction symbols. So there's a trump card. If you have the Warden card that's out there and you play a card that also has a matching symbol as the Warden card or the trump card, you get to do what's called a Warden action. So let's say you've got a card in your hand that you're really not feeling too good about. You can take that card, put it on the bottom of the draw pile and take a card from the top of the draw pile and it kind of gets you some new cards into your hand. Then you also, if you are the first player, oh, and then the Warden action also allows you to move cards in your vault around.
Speaker 3:That may be something that you really want to do is if you have a card that you need to place in the first tier, let's say, and that's when you can move the cards around.
Speaker 2:Right. So imagine everybody. You have columns in your vault and each column your cards will have a symbol on it. It tells you that it wants to be like you're going to stack cards in threes, in threes, and it's going to tell you that this card wants to be on the bottom, or the first card, then there's one that'll show a picture of a card in the middle. That means it should be the second card, and then the third card is the one that's on top.
Speaker 3:These are the points that Chris always goes after, because everything if you have a card in the first row that matches, that has that matching symbol. You're going to get one point at the end of the game. Here are two points for the middle row and three points for the last row. These are the points that Chris goes for every game.
Speaker 2:Well, of course you should want to go for those points.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you do, but there's strategy to this, because they're also end game goals you have to keep your eye on.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's going to lead us into our next topic that I want to talk about is the scoring system. So I think this game it's kind of point salad there's a lot of ways to get points. And you, why don't you explain the scoring system to our listeners?
Speaker 3:You get points for the rows of your vaults. If you are in the first row, which is the top row, you get one point. All the cards that relate to the second row, the middle row gets two points. Every card that relates to the third row, which is the bottom row, gets three points, which is the third tier.
Speaker 2:There's other ways to score. Keep going.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:You also will get points for end game goals.
Speaker 3:There are end game goals that relate to the factions. So when you choose the number of factions in the game a two player game you choose four of them, so you need to choose corresponding end game goal cards. So if I picked, I would pick. If I pick, like the red, blue and green and purple factions, I have to pick those four end game goals and of those I randomly choose two. Each of them are double-sided, so you do have some variability. I personally wish there were more goals, but this is the way the game is right now, so you can score points based on those two goals. There is also a basic goal card that's always there, which is two-sided, so that varies per game. So those are other end game goals. So those are going to be changing. Those goals change based on based on the game, whereas the and I'm calling them end game points, which are not really end game points, but those are based on your vaults, your tableau.
Speaker 2:And then there's also at the end of the game. For every gear token you have, you get one point as well. And then there's the faction icon. Players will then score two gears for each one of the faction icons, like we talked about the Snake Hammer, dragon Sword or, I guess, arrows.
Speaker 3:You do good with this, you really do good with this. I don't, somehow you do score. I tease you about always doing the same thing, but you're really good at having the tiers in the right spot and then also having the faction symbol your faction symbol on there. It kind of amazes me sometimes when I look over at you and you have it's that well put together and that's when you kind of you. It's very difficult to do that. And your end game goals I mean I try to do in my strategies. I try to. I'm doing these end game goals because some of them can really score your points, but it's difficult to do all three of them Now if you're trying to do those and do the tiers. So there is kind of point salady, but you can't. It's one of those games. You cannot do everything.
Speaker 2:You cannot do everything, yeah you're right, and then the winner is the person with the most amount of points at the end, of course, if there's a tie, the tied player with the most gear tokens wins. We have never actually got in that position yet, and if the tie is still a tie, then you share the victory.
Speaker 3:What's next?
Speaker 2:We'll talk about artwork now, as usual. Thunderworks Games has some pretty awesome artwork on there.
Speaker 3:Okay, I have an odd question. Is this part of a lockup universe or the role player universe?
Speaker 2:It's all the role player universe.
Speaker 3:I thought lockup was different than role player. No, because I don't remember like these goblins and these characters being in role player. Sure.
Speaker 2:All this stuff is in the role player universe.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:It's the role player universe taking place in the prison that the game lockup is about All right, okay. Excellent question and I'm glad I can answer it. But as usual Thunderworks, they have some pretty good quality components. Cards are pretty nice cards. They're not cheap. They're like a linen finish on the card. Wooden tokens. The art and the theme may not appeal to everybody, but it appeals to me. I like it.
Speaker 3:They're cute. I like the goblins. I think they're cute. I mean they're not sweet, cute like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But the goblins they're cute. Drawing they're good. It's good artwork.
Speaker 2:Good, good, all right. So overall, I would say that there's a high replay value to the game. I think the fact that you swap up, your swap out your end game points or end game scoring conditions, I don't think it's one that would wear out its welcome very soon. That's my opinion. What do you think?
Speaker 3:I think it's. I think no, I think you could, because I think I'd always strive to do a little bit better, if that makes sense. You know, I would want to do better at building your tiers, because it's depending on which, you know, cards come out. I think it's replay value. I think we'll be playing this for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, and I think, as far as the gameplay it's, it's pretty tight, it's pretty quick too.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:You can get a lot of games in there pretty quick. You know, as far as as far as some pros to this game, I think it offers some. There's some strategy, there's some depth of strategy and and your choices are meaningful. You have to really think how you're going to bid on what card, knowing that the card that is the winning bid is the one that's going to slide up into the vault. That would be your next card to possibly bid on, right. So you could either play your strategy of underbidding, if you really want the card that you have in your hand to end up in your vault, or play another strategic game of chess where you want the card that's on in the in the. I did that once?
Speaker 3:Or did you do that where you lay a card down knowing it's going to slide up and then trying to get it? I do that's a hard one.
Speaker 2:It's hard. You're taking a lot of chances, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's a hard one.
Speaker 2:It's always a chance.
Speaker 3:I don't really. Yeah, that's a hard one. I only thought about doing that. I never really really tried it once.
Speaker 2:And I couldn't you know, the only. There's only one con that I can come up with this game, and I think, I think that, even though I am playing the game with you we're sitting at the same table, we're bidding on the same cards Sometimes it feels like I'm playing a game of solitaire. I think there's a solid there's, there's just like feeling of I'm playing my own game, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but why is that a con? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I just feel like you know, it's the bidding phase. We don't really have as much interaction there, I know.
Speaker 3:I think maybe if there were more people it would be more competitive.
Speaker 2:Possibly.
Speaker 3:You know, if you have four people, then you definitely are. We're almost at this point where we could choose our own card Yep, yep, and that's probably why I'm getting that feeling. You know, because there are points where I look at and go, okay, which card do I want, you know? So it's like if I didn't really want a certain card, I can just pick one that you know that you and Glaveron whatever her name is didn't choose. If you have like four players, there's going to be a little bit more competitive.
Speaker 2:That's a really good point.
Speaker 3:It's going to be more competitive because you're always going to be trying to outbid somebody Because you, we don't two player, you don't really have to do that, you can play. You know you really don't have to play that competitive If you have four people. Then you are going to be a little bit more competitive and it's going to be maybe a little bit more intense, intense, I don't know how intense, but maybe more cut throat you may be cut throat.
Speaker 2:I think maybe your, yeah, maybe your turns have more consequence.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Your choice.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Good point. I guess what you're just saying is we need friends. So anybody want to be our friend? Chasing meples at yahoocom?
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you have a game table.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, only if you have a game table. All right, no, that's just kidding. Okay, all right. Well, that was goblin vault. Angie, do you want to wrap it up with anything?
Speaker 3:Thank you for listening. Woo Wait just yes, as part of put a period on it. I would like to say to all of our listeners around the world, even those that are not celebrating the holiday, that we are celebrating here in the United States, chasing meples, would like to thank you very much for listening. Have a great Thursday. Have a great. Thursday we're going to have a great Thanksgiving, because they don't have Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, happy Thanksgiving everybody, and that's it. That's it. What a way to end this.
Speaker 3:I don't know what to do. How do you normally end it?
Speaker 2:You chasing those meples?
Speaker 3:I guess I could have said that
