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
Our Top 5 Phil Walker-Harding Favorites and a Missed Convention
Guess who almost made it to Midwinter Gaming Convention before the flu and a snowstorm double-teamed us? That's right, me and Angie had to switch gears, but we're not letting that dampen our spirits! This episode, we reveal our top 5 picks from designer Phil Walker-Harding, we discuss not only the missed conventions but also the anticipation of future ones like Strong Tower and PhoenixCon. Plus, we're pondering the puzzle of how to bring our son into the fold of tabletop gaming and conventions without pushing too hard. All that and more!
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It's time for another episode of the wildly inconsistent but still wildly popular Chasing Meeples. On today's show, chris and Angie discuss their top five Bill Walker Harding games, and Chris is ready to start 2024 with another Max Points quiz. Until it happen, stay tuned to find out the laughs, the banter. It all starts now.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everybody. This is a Chasing Meeples podcast, and today I am your host, but sitting with me is my lovely co-host.
Speaker 3:Well, hello, hello, I'm Chris.
Speaker 2:And I bet you're wondering what I'm doing here talking. Well, don't fear everybody and don't turn off the dial, isn't it a dial button?
Speaker 3:Turn off the dial.
Speaker 2:Don't hit that pause button, because Chris is here.
Speaker 3:For a second there. I thought we were like on AM radio or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I am that old, I am that old.
Speaker 3:Why am I not allowed to be in the big chair?
Speaker 2:You're not allowed to be in the big chair is the same reason why we did not attend the Midwinter Gaming Convention, and that is we have had a round robin of seasonal flu go around the house. It hit me a little bit, I didn't have it severe, but then it went into our son and he got it pretty bad right around when we were going to go for midwinter and he had the high fever and so we chose not to go and I was a little disappointed because we had been planning it since last summer. But family takes priority and we did not go. Our weather was also horrible that week and then you were afflicted with it as well. And the golden voice and I know, I know, and everybody should flood our comments and our email and let everybody know, let Chris know, that even though he doesn't have the golden voice this week, that you still love him anyway.
Speaker 3:Oh, thanks, Angie. Well, here's the thing. It's actually better today than it was two days ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where you sounded like the neighbor's dog.
Speaker 3:Well, yes, I sounded like the neighbor's dog. I was singing. I sounded like Cookie Monster, but neighbor's dog.
Speaker 2:That's like a shredder yeah.
Speaker 3:And I was singing and my vocal issues and 104 fevers and all that fun stuff which by the way really sucks everybody. Let's absolutely talk about what we wanted to do.
Speaker 2:We were going to do. We were going to record this podcast in Milwaukee while we were at the midwinter convention. It was going to be. We had some time set aside. There was a room set aside for us, so we were pretty excited about it. I thought there was something that I was also going to do live on Instagram and we were going to have something a little bit special.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but there is there's always. Next year there's going to be plenty of other conventions. Unfortunately, this one didn't happen. It seemed like it was a good time. I did get a chance to see some of the pictures that people were posting online, but we were not the only ones that were affected by the weather. Obviously, we had this big storm come through, took out, laid down a lot of snow, a lot of snow in a short period of time, and the convention I guess they were on emergency power.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So imagine that that might have been interesting if we were there. That would have been really cool. I mean, if so? Primarily it's a role playing game convention, but there is a nice board game presence there as well. Imagine the ambiance If you are a dungeon master and all of a sudden the power goes out and now you're working on emergency power. I think that just adds an element of an element of storytelling to your game. Yes, so I'm picturing, you know, like power goes out, those lights come on in the corners of the room and everybody's oh, what's going on. But it was probably, wasn't that? It was probably laughing and dancing and singing and gaming. So there's going to be plenty of other conventions. Angie, I know we plan on doing something special, but we will get there someday. There is one convention that I am looking forward to not missing again for like the second year, and that is strong tower convention. That's another convention that is happening in that happens in Milwaukee, wisconsin, as far as in the Manitowoc area we have the Fire and Ice convention.
Speaker 2:Fire and Ice is going on next month. Then there's PhoenixCon this summer.
Speaker 3:For sure.
Speaker 2:So, so there are a couple. There were a couple going on. We could probably do the same thing at PhoenixCon that we did last year.
Speaker 3:Just grab a couch in the lobby Just grab a couch. Start recording. As much as we would like to someday get to one of the bigger cons, right now it is just not in the cards for us financially. And just family wise right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have commitments that we can't just pick up and pick up and go and say here it also yeah, that is an experience that I would just love to bring our son to. I would love to be able to bring our son to GenCon. I'd love to be able to bring him to I don't know the Dice Tower cruise right.
Speaker 2:However, let's think of the big ones first. Let's just throw them into crowded. Go, big right Go big, stick his headphones on them and but I think it would be a cool experience for him.
Speaker 3:However, here's the problem that Angie and I have Our son doesn't want to have anything to do with.
Speaker 2:We're walking around with his switch the whole time.
Speaker 3:He doesn't want to have anything to do with board games. So why bring him into something like that that we know he's not going to like? And yeah, he could be on his switch the whole time. But how much fun would that be for him? I don't think it would be fun for him at all. So that's our dilemma how do we get a child who does not want to have anything to do with board games? We thought there was a little bit of ray of hope. Angie used it a little, used board games for learning sometimes and he played it. We have gotten him some cool games at his level.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And he still doesn't want to touch it. He will not touch a game.
Speaker 2:He does not have the attention span we can get through a round of something. When I got through and when I got through Super Mega Lucky Box with him, we got through three quarters of the game, three rounds. And that was pretty good. That was pretty good, so that's the longest. So we did play Carcazon one day and we managed to get pretty well through Carcazon. But like a lot of other ones, you get through, or he'll purposely go to sleep.
Speaker 3:He went. That is our son's. I don't if you want to call it a defense mechanism, maybe right, he can fall asleep like that. He doesn't want to do it, he's out like a light.
Speaker 2:He played Quirkle. And what does he do? He sits on the sofa, lays back and closes his eyes. I'm here trying to put together shapes. Go, oh, look it, I've got all purple. Look up, he's snoozing Right.
Speaker 3:But I don't know he can play. He can play a board game if it is on his Nintendo switch.
Speaker 3:He'll play games a roll and move Mario Party, whatever it is right. Once you get out of that digital space and into that analog space, he just doesn't want to have anything to do with it. So I guess here's. Here's the thing, meeble Chasers. If anybody has tips or tricks for Angie and I, please send us an email at chasingmeeplecom it's I, I. There's got to be other parents out there of special needs children who might be struggling with the same thing. We don't want to force them into our hobby, but it would be awesome to be able to sit down and play a game with our son. So that's that. We got a little bit deep for a second there.
Speaker 2:Angie, let's let's we are. We're not having fun, we're getting too serious here.
Speaker 3:We may as well just be like. Well, it goes back to you thinking we're on AM radio, here we go, we're getting this like. I'm just going to start talking in my NPR voice.
Speaker 2:That's okay. We like NPR voice, no, but we are getting serious. And one thing is here, chris, we have not done this for a long time, and I was thinking. Last night we were recording a segment for the don't be bored YouTube channel.
Speaker 3:Yes, table is posted by Oliver East. Oliver East.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Oliver East.
Speaker 2:Oliver East. I may have been saying his name wrong for six months.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, angie, I can't. I, I wasn't even going to go there. Okay, now the now the neighbor's dog is coming out in my voice. I wasn't even going to go there, Angie, I.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I've been doing that for so long and I'm so embarrassed and I don't know how it first occurred to me.
Speaker 3:Oh, I, I know exactly how that went down.
Speaker 2:Well, you were, yeah, you were um loading the video or downloading the video.
Speaker 3:No, no, I was, I was uploading. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I'm still on analog.
Speaker 3:It's that whole you're a record.
Speaker 2:You're spinning the record.
Speaker 3:I was, yes, I was Uploading, Spitting the record and yeah, anyway, I was putting the tape, cassette tape, into the envelope and I was mailing it to Oliver Geez, angie Meeple, jazers, it was. It was awesome. So I'm uploading this video. I have his drop box on the laptop screen and his name is right on the top of it. Angie says wait a minute. The look on her face. It finally registered. Wait a minute. Why does it say East? What does it say East? Like cause? That's his name.
Speaker 2:No, his last name's Reed.
Speaker 3:So Angie has been calling him Oliver Reed.
Speaker 2:I have been promoting somebody named Oliver Reed I don't know who that is.
Speaker 3:I do believe that you even got me into the Oliver Reed thing for a while.
Speaker 2:I know I've said it on this, I've said it on her podcast, I've said it. I am. I've written it.
Speaker 3:It's just amazing. It was the coolest thing.
Speaker 2:I had today. I had to go edit my latest Instagram post because I had Oliver Reed on there.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's hilarious. I was just. I was just Ollie, I was just. If you do listen, to our podcast.
Speaker 2:I am so sorry.
Speaker 3:I was waiting for you to literally just be like guys, just so you know.
Speaker 2:And you know what? I thought his Instagram name was so weird. I couldn't figure out where he had East and I'm like I don't know. I don't know why that's his Instagram name. Yeah, maybe you know. I don't know. He lives on that side of town or something. I have no idea.
Speaker 3:Oliver Reed, who lives on the East side, that is. That is hilarious, angie. But speaking of, if you have a chance, go check out Ollie's channel He'll be bored on YouTube, where we take part in two videos a monthly videos that he does, tabletop tea time and the game of our best of the month. We also were lucky enough to be included in the best of the year video. It's just awesome. The people that he gets on his channel are great and it's worth your time, so you should check it out.
Speaker 2:It is quiz time. Are you ready, Chris?
Speaker 3:I am always ready, angie always.
Speaker 2:All right. The new year, oh this is the first quiz of the year.
Speaker 3:First, quiz of the new year. I am riding high, whoa Riding high. I finally achieved Max points during our Christmas extravaganza episode. I am, I'm up here, angie, I am up here, and this quiz is going to be, I said, a new standard. There will be nothing but Max points quizzes going forward for the rest of the year.
Speaker 2:You know what I just thought of something.
Speaker 3:Did you, because I did too, you first.
Speaker 2:Okay, me first, because we had one of our listeners, ken, sent us an email and he did purchase a game that you recommended and that was something that we had been joking about. Maybe I can have Ken come up with a quiz question or a theme or something like that Just occur to me.
Speaker 3:Well, that's great.
Speaker 2:Ken, if you're listening quiz questions, email them.
Speaker 3:I love that idea. Angie Meeplechasers chasing meeples at yahoocom. Send us your ideas for a quiz, Either a full quiz or quiz ideas, quiz questions, a theme Put quiz in the subject line and we'll know exactly what it's all about. Angie, that is awesome idea.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Every once in a while it happens.
Speaker 3:I'm not even going to go there Now. Here's now. What I was going to say is not anywhere as cool as what you just came up with. So my all I was going to say is this year is going to be the year of Chris. It's going to be the year of Chris, there's going to be Max points quizzes. Everyone, everyone. You're going to need the Meeplechasers to give you quizzes. Oh, that is how confident I am going into 2024. So the only thing that you know what my mind goes to is Angie holding a football like what's her name, lucy and Chris running at it really, really quick, getting ready to kick that football.
Speaker 2:And Charlie Brown goes flying.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but that ain't happening. That will not be happening.
Speaker 2:No more cheering for you mentally, though.
Speaker 3:No, no, I want cutthroat, angie, we are.
Speaker 2:We are back to competitors.
Speaker 3:What is? Yeah, I want, I want cutthroat Lucy, peanut, angie, I don't know how to play Lucy peanut.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm sure she's got. Ooh, I'm making notes.
Speaker 3:Lucy's last name.
Speaker 2:Oh, come on Come on.
Speaker 3:Try not to look at what you're writing right in front of.
Speaker 2:Oh, you can't.
Speaker 3:I can't see. No, I trust me, I wear. I wear bifogels. However, I can see that.
Speaker 2:All right, let's get on with it.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:This is this one. This one is a good one.
Speaker 3:All right, I am so ready.
Speaker 2:All right, and this one is called quiz snow, Snow, so you can imagine what this theme is here. So number one on BGG, which game with the word snow in the title is not a real game? I know you love these. A iron blood, snow and mud. B snow tails, T-A-I-L-S. C a few acres of snow. D snow angels versus snowmen.
Speaker 3:Right out of the gate. You know the only. The only other kind of question that you know I love more than this is what is that game rated? That's going to be number two. I bet you that's going to be number two out of the three that are actually games. What is the ranking? And if that's what it is, I'm out.
Speaker 2:No, about when I.
Speaker 3:The game that is not real Is the one where you had to spell it. The word tales, because it's either that or acres of snow.
Speaker 2:You're wrong.
Speaker 3:Whatever Is it the snow, whatever?
Speaker 2:It is Okay, I'm going to say iron, blood, snow and mud.
Speaker 3:Yes, no, you don't have to read them to me.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, maybe I shouldn't tell you the right answer and let everybody else come.
Speaker 3:Now, that's just silly.
Speaker 2:Okay, yes, okay, my good ideas are all over.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you lost them. Okay, you're done with a good idea for the rest of the podcast.
Speaker 2:Snow angels versus snowmen. That's, that's not the real game, not the real game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Alrighty.
Speaker 3:You never said how many max points is. How many points is max?
Speaker 2:Well, this is a 10 point quiz, plus there is a five point bonus that maybe you can make up.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Alrighty. Next question how many games on BGG have the name winter? Just the one word, winter.
Speaker 3:Oh, another one of my favorite. How many games have the word?
Speaker 2:Just winter Pretzel in it, just the word winter, winter A, one, two is three, c, five or D, seven. So we have one, three, five or seven.
Speaker 3:How many games only have the name winter as?
Speaker 2:the title, that's it.
Speaker 3:Oh seven.
Speaker 2:Sorry, it's five.
Speaker 3:This is whatever, lucy, I'm like keeping track of my score by just making the zero bigger. Like I put a slash next to it.
Speaker 2:I was so proud of this, okay.
Speaker 3:Well, you should be. You're beating me, lucy. I'm calling you Lucy.
Speaker 2:Maybe we should have a rule that there's no more BGG questions.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. Okay, this is it.
Speaker 2:Which is not a real game, with winter in the title A, a winter war, B dead of winter, C winter born or D white winter.
Speaker 3:I confidently say it's winter born.
Speaker 2:It's not a real game.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No, it's white winter Wow.
Speaker 3:Whatever, I would have named a game white winter, and if I was, I'm thinking white winter, white winter, yeah, white winter.
Speaker 2:I know Like a war game.
Speaker 3:I'm thinking that's a war game, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's an Angie game. Well.
Speaker 3:I'm not buying it.
Speaker 2:It's horrible already. So white winter, remember that Okay.
Speaker 3:I'm at zero points right now.
Speaker 2:You're at zero points you are. I don't think you've ever gotten zero.
Speaker 3:Starting off the year right.
Speaker 2:Okay, and there was a game that you had recently been looking at. Last time we were at Nome Games and who publish the game? The White Castle. Who publishes the game the White Castle? Yeah, yeah who does Renegade Devere, pandasaurus or Z-Man?
Speaker 3:That's a good question, Angie.
Speaker 2:Think of the box. What?
Speaker 3:is the box. I know it's got a white castle on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And a winter scene Bottom corner. It says it says the name. That is going to be wrong.
Speaker 2:That's going to be wrong you don't get it right, they'll never send us games. Come on, chris, no pressure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, first and foremost, nobody sends us games. Well, we can help, but I think it's a two-way. Before I am delaying the inevitable wrong answer here, but it is a two-way street. In order for us to get games, we probably should be asking, but that's okay.
Speaker 2:Not necessarily.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't think. Okay, that's not a conversation for this, okay, so anyway, it's Z-Man.
Speaker 2:It's.
Speaker 3:Devere? No, it is not In my world.
Speaker 2:I see, in my brain it's a little blue strip on the side.
Speaker 3:No, it's got the Z-Man logo on the bottom right hand corner.
Speaker 2:No, it's got the little blue strip on the bottom, kind of like it does on it's Devere, it's Devere, okay, I believe you. All right.
Speaker 3:Oh, this is so bad, this is so bad. That's what I get for trash talking.
Speaker 2:Where does Devere's newest game, the White Castle, fall on? The hotness has of when I made this list, Is it 16, 4, 20, or 10?
Speaker 3:It was 20 on the hot list when you made that.
Speaker 2:It was 16. No.
Speaker 3:This is the worst quiz ever, angie. You've had some pretty bad ones, but I'm going to tell you this is the worst one. How about another answer? Okay, out of all of those questions that you've asked me so far, I didn't even get the bonus questions, I still get five points. Out of all the questions you've asked me, there's only one question that I would consider a legitimate question, and that was the one you just asked me about the publisher. That's just it. All the other ones Not cool. That's it Not cool.
Speaker 2:But I'm better than the old ones. These are actual multiple choice.
Speaker 3:These are good quiz questions. I feel like I got a chance.
Speaker 2:Come on, you have a chance here for five points.
Speaker 3:No way, don't even ask.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 3:Just get me this gunk.
Speaker 2:All right, no bonus question. How about I ask the bonus question if somebody can use? The answer Okay, all right, which is not an endless winter expansion.
Speaker 3:Oh, gosh, if I get this wrong.
Speaker 2:Ancestors, cave paintings, rivers and rafts, hunters and gatherers.
Speaker 3:Ancestors, no, it's hunters and gatherers. Hunters and gatherers is a carcasson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, all right, five points.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don't even give me that, just give me another zero. I answered it wrong. What's my score, angie?
Speaker 2:Five.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:How about two and a half Five? How about?
Speaker 3:two and a half.
Speaker 2:Two and a half. Two and a half.
Speaker 3:No, Give me the zero. Just say the word. What is my score? Angie Zero. Yeah, yeah, I'll take it All right. It is time for Gackpan Games. Angie and Chris play at night. Angie, I am still reeling from that quiz my poor performance in that quiz.
Speaker 2:Oh, you have to stop pouting because it makes me feel guilty.
Speaker 3:You should feel guilty. You're going to start making me sound like the neighbor's dog again.
Speaker 2:I was so upset.
Speaker 3:I was feeling it. I can't believe it.
Speaker 2:I think that's what it is. You go on with these high hopes. You've always do that. Even when it comes to some of these games, you go into it with such high hopes.
Speaker 3:High hopes.
Speaker 2:It doesn't always pan out.
Speaker 3:High hopes, high hopes. I guess that's what happens when you, you know, whatever, I don't know, high hopes, I just came right in.
Speaker 2:I should check and see if that's a game on BGG and what it's ranked.
Speaker 3:What high hopes. Yeah, okay, you know what I think is great? I think I think it's great that I got a zero. I got that out of my system and we're good to go.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 3:So, Angie, while you're making your note, looking about high hopes, I want to talk about one of the games that we played recently, and that game is ex Libris. So what is what exactly? What is ex Libris? I know that that was kind of one of your games that you've wanted for quite a long time and we ran I think you tried it from a a a. Was it a lending library? Yes, we had a game store in town that had a lending library and then you didn't see it anywhere, except for one time when we were in another game store and they were selling a used copy of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And they were selling it for a very expensive it was very expensive for a used copy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and luckily, luckily, it was just re released as a second edition and it was one of your Christmas presents.
Speaker 2:It was. It was an ex Libris. You play a librarian and you are trying to build a library and you have six different scoring conditions. You have to have a stable library. You need to have it in chronological order and alphabetical order, so each one of these cars has a number and a letter. So now when you are forming your tableau, which is your library, you need to, you know, put these all in order. You have also, there are different topics, subjects, and some you want to avoid, some you want to get, there are like a private goals. So there's a lot going on in this game, a lot of factors, a lot of way to score points. I like the game. I really do your ideas. You have to have the best library, because the head librarian is going to come around and judge. I enjoy the game. I know it fell a little flat for you. I've never really see you with AP. This game was kind of working on your brain.
Speaker 3:It was, but I don't think it was working on my brain because it was hard. I think I was just overthinking, like it wasn't even like analysis, paralysis, oh, what do I do next? What do I do next? It was more of less. I was just overthinking, I think, making it harder than it actually is to play or more complex than it was. I think it might have been the way you explained how to make your book show.
Speaker 2:It can only be three columns high, but it can be as wide as you need them. So you have to start at a point and then realize, when you're going down the alphabet, where you're going to play some, because you only have three rows. So you're kind of trying to pinpoint how you're starting your shelves out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it was. It's not a. It's not a horrible game. I would like to play it again, just to make sure that it was me and not the game. There's a better way to put it right. I didn't see. Let's just say by. You're not wrong when you say, it fell flat for me. I just remember. You know you always spoke so highly of that game.
Speaker 2:I enjoy it. I enjoy it. I want to play it solo, but I hear the solo mode is very difficult, very difficult.
Speaker 3:That's interesting.
Speaker 2:Okay, what is next on the list?
Speaker 3:Well, we'll talk about, let's talk about a Kickstarter that we finally got to the table and this game is awesome and that game is Age of Comics. So that game really resonated with me. In my younger days I was a comic collector. I do have a collection of comics very well taken care of in the attic and anybody wants to buy one, reach out to us. Just kidding Sort of. But so the comic book collector in me really really enjoys this game and it's a golden age. It takes place in the golden age of comics. So what is the golden age of comics, everybody? Well, this is the age where you had all of the classics like Superman, batman, when they were first started, when people were just just it was, the media was new, the media was was fresh and budding and and it was, it was good, it was good times and yes. So anyway, that's the golden age of comics, right? What is the game about?
Speaker 3:Well, the game is you are a comic book publisher, you're a publishing company and you have to go through the I guess we'll call it. It's your job as the publisher to find the writer. You need an artist that is good in the genre that you, that your writer is and you have like superhero comics. You can do romance novels, you can do true crime, you can do science fiction, you can do horror and you want to try to match your writers and your artists together for boy for points. Right, if they match, you get better points, you get more fans, if you want to call it, and that's what it is.
Speaker 3:Now you do have the ability to have a writer that is good at romance novels and put them in a horror genre and mix and match, but you're not going to get as many points because thematically it's probably not going to be that good. What you also have to do is you have to build some hype. You can build some hype. Get out on the street, get on those news at those newsstands and just hey gang Before the social media right.
Speaker 3:Yep, you know, get that guy out on the street wearing the sandwich board. Check out in about a week. In about a week you're going to see the newest. Whatever, I'm not even going to do it, you're going to see the newest episode or the newest issue of blah blah comics and it's going to be great. You know, get that hype up there. You can continue to build hype when, until you actually publish it. Once you publish that, now you've got a fan level and that is basically your points. The longer the comic is out there, it's going to do. The fans are going to basically go down every round. The game ends after five rounds and the person with the most points wins. The comic collector in me really enjoyed this game and you would. You think about it?
Speaker 2:I love worker placement and this is an excellent, excellent worker placement game. I mean, if that's your jam, you'll love this game because there are so many areas to go to. Like Chris was saying, you can go, you know, you can go get the writers, you can get the artists. You get money, you can go and get your royalties. There's another spot to have it published. So there is so many things. So that's an excellent worker placement game. You build your tableau of comics. It's a very good game. I really I don't have anything to add to it other than it is really good game. I love worker placement and I think it's a excellent, excellent example of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely need to get more plays in of the game to make a final judgment call on it, but right now it was a very pleasant experience and I really enjoyed it. The game may be a little bit samey every time you play it, but I'm not too sure We'll have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, you know, I think there's some variability there because during the rounds you have different goals but there are different genres that you flip over and you know it depends on what cards come up with us. That last round I really needed. I was trying to do a superhero comic. The writers were not worth very much, they were worth like one point, and on the city where you can get your fans, the only fan was worth six points and there was no way my comic was going to be worth six points. It was only going to be worth four at the most. So my last comic kind of wasn't as great and it bond, which I'm sure there's comics that bomb right, plenty, plenty. So that was my last comic to not do as well as my other ones. Okay, so it's one that was good and I think you won that game.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was, I won that game. You know, surprisingly, we got we got quite a few plays and of some games since the last episode, which is good.
Speaker 2:Well, a game that we played several times is a new game from New Kingdom Gaming and it is called New Kingdom Gardeners and this is a very interesting game. It is a very quick playing game. You can extend it a little bit, but everybody has a player board. You have a gardener and you're trying to. You're trying to complete and have the best garden. So when the master gardener comes back and he's going to judge your workers and what you have going on here, it's not a very high scoring. So it's not like one of the games where you're going to end up with like a hundred points. That's not the type of. At first, you know, I was kind of disappointed because I'm really used to these zeros. I have these huge. You know you really can score some points and it's not going to be that way.
Speaker 2:But it is so interesting because you plant, you plant plant cards. There are some miracle cards and then they're vines and each card is named that one. We hit like wrath and I think there's vanity and stuff like that. So as you lay down your plants they're going to vine. So they're going to be kind of pushed off your board and they're going to circle around to the next person's board. So if you have a thorn it's going to get pushed to the next person's thorn and kind of around the table.
Speaker 2:So that is a very interesting mechanic and you want to end up at the end of the game. You want to have a garden in front of you instead of a bunch of thorns, because the thorns are going to be minus three points and, like I said, it's not a huge scoring game. So minus three points are going to make a very big deal. So that's a very interesting aspect. The deck is also very interesting because the last 10 cards of the deck your master gardener is going to be shuffled in there, so you don't know when the game is going to end, because once you pull the master gardener card, the game ends. So that you know.
Speaker 2:I think we had one game where the Master Gardener came up really quickly, very quickly, and suddenly we're like uh-oh, and I'm left with a really, really bad garden. You know, I was surprised I didn't get negative points for that one, yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't know if could you get negative points in that game. I think you could.
Speaker 2:I think it makes sense, you could right you could, because you have the thorns, yeah, and for some reason you don't have enough workers built up, because, as you have different type of workers, there's the manager and an assistant, so there's different workers and the workers are worth points. They're usually worth one point. If you can stack them and have like a team of assistants, then you get obviously more points and get a bonus. But for some reason, if you haven't built up a team, if you have three or four thorns sitting there, for some reason, I mean you'd be minus nine, nice 12 points. You would really be hurting, yeah, you would be hurting. So, like theoretically, you could end up with negative points.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I quite enjoyed that game. It's like Andrew said, it's a quick play, it's just there is a lot of interaction in the game. Yes, it can be. It can be. You can either be we'll call it, take thatty or you can also be helpful. Yeah, and you get rewarded for being helpful on the other persons, so you could prune some thorns off of another player's board instead of doing it off of your board, and you would get more rewards, more points for it.
Speaker 2:Yes, you don't have to worry about the thorn in my car. But then you get rewarded. You get the three points yes, Instead of yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:At the end of the game, instead of getting yeah, you take that thorn, you put it off to your side and you get three points for doing that. So very interesting, very interesting gameplay. I quite enjoy the game. I do believe I would be willing I actually I would like to do a deep dive into this game, into a later episode. That's how much I enjoy this game. What do you say?
Speaker 2:That would be. I think that's a great idea and it was kind of interesting. I was in a Facebook group and I just heard somebody else talking about it and the designer, jack Dunbar's in there and I was able just to click a link and buy it directly from the publisher and it came very quickly. I wasn't expecting it to come that quick, but yeah, I would like to do an actual review of it where we talk a little bit more about all the mechanics and all the things that go on in it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, call it a deep dive.
Speaker 2:Deep dive.
Speaker 3:Deep dive. I want to get away from the word review. Not that I think they're bad, I just don't think we do it well.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:But absolutely we should do that, and some of the best games out there are those little independent games that not many people know of, so I'd like to get that game out there to more people's ears.
Speaker 2:That's a great idea.
Speaker 3:So all right. All right and lastly, Ooh, I don't even know if I want to talk about this one. This was so frustrating. Angie, what was the last game?
Speaker 2:It was a great Western Trail. We started it pretty late at night and it was your suggestion, and we couldn't even get through the game. It was so late at night.
Speaker 3:It got to a point. First of all, we haven't played that game in a very long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I mean that game was a best of my month actually, like it was literally one of our top video topics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's a good game. It's a great game, but it's not difficult. But once you get out of it for a while, those little rules are.
Speaker 3:I was so frustrated it was screwed up the meat market.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, it was so frustrating to me and what made it worse is like I'm like we're going around and we're going, and then we sell our cattle and then you know you go around again if you've played the game before and I think we're I was on my second time around and Angie goes you're doing something wrong. I'm like what do you mean? I'm doing something wrong. You used to get so many points every time you went to sell your cattle. What are you doing wrong? What are you doing differently? I'm like I don't know. And then you started like and then you got into my head and I was doing wrong.
Speaker 3:What was I doing differently, oh my goodness. And then we got to a point where it was so late I'm like falling asleep at the table. We had to get up early and I was like, let's just, I'm done, I'm done. We cannot finish this game. Let's finish it tomorrow. We'll leave it set up and we never ended up finishing it anyway.
Speaker 2:But oh wow, talk about can't start that one at nine o'clock at night and I think it was that late.
Speaker 3:It might have been that we started it so late, and trying to refresh ourselves with the rules and everything. And I wait, not a bad game. I quite enjoy the game. I quite enjoy the game. But talk about a game that, when you stop playing, when you, I don't know, I was almost like playing it again for the first time for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right. Well, there's the, and I had you had. What did I call you last time? You were like a cattle baron, it's a cattle baron and there is a not a mechanism but you can.
Speaker 2:Essentially, when you are on the space that you can buy cattle, you can give up. Essentially, you can give up buying cattle to like, refill or add cattle to the market. And we weren't doing that or I could have been doing that, because I was going past it and not buying anything and I could have been doing that and I didn't. So we were like running down to one cow. I was like how is this happening?
Speaker 2:Because we started out with a lot of I can't remember what kind of cows they were. We started out with a lot of them and it was just, and it was a little bit more of expensive one, I don't know. Then we just kind of like and you need a variety of cows. So if you're buying a whole bunch of the same cow, then it doesn't help you at the end when you get to selling them. So I think that was a big thing, that was really a big thing and it was probably. It was my mistake I'm not going to say only my mistake, but I am the one with the rulebook and it is what would help you win last time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, whatever is what it is, we're listening to a podcast hosted by two people who just had that happen and admitted to you guys that we've been playing silver and gold wrong for years.
Speaker 2:How are we playing it around again?
Speaker 3:We weren't adding in the coins or points. We were doing it. We weren't doing the individual.
Speaker 2:We were waiting. Yeah, we were doing the coins at the end of the round.
Speaker 3:So I love you all. I love all you listeners. However, next time you got a game in your hand and Chris is talking highly of that game, he might not have been playing it right.
Speaker 2:We were playing resurgence correctly.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's funny, All right. Oh yes, talk about humbling. You know that is humbling. Getting an email from somebody. I did make a joke. Hey, if you bought a game on my recommendation, I would send you a sticker. I got an email from somebody. I got an email from Kent and man, talk about humbling. So stickers are in the mail. By the time this podcast comes out, you'll probably have gotten them already. So that's just great. I can't get over that. That's all. So it's all.
Speaker 1:I wanted to say it's time for another chasing meeple's top five list.
Speaker 3:These are the top five Phil Walker Harding games in our opinion.
Speaker 2:in our opinion Do you think we're going to have crossover?
Speaker 3:I think we might have crossover. I think I think we're going to have a cross. I think we will have crossover. I 100 percent think we will have crossover.
Speaker 2:How many do you think?
Speaker 3:I think we'll have two, so, but my, I just want to say this again it's our opinion. Okay, these are our favorite top five Phil Walker Harding games. They don't have to be your listeners, they don't have to be your top five, you don't even have to like any of them, but this is what we like. So, angie, can I start?
Speaker 2:You can start off.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 1:Number five.
Speaker 3:My number five, phil Walker, harding game. Angie, I bet you're not even going to guess it. We will not guess it. My flanted.
Speaker 3:No, I told you you wouldn't get it. My number five Phil Walker Harding game is one game, angie, that allows me to relive the days of friendship bracelets, s'mores, wringing out my swimsuit after a long day of swimming, and that is summer camp. Summer camp is a competitive deck building game where you basically race to earn merit badges and get the most experiences, which we'll call those experiences, but they're actually points. Each player has their own deck of cards and it's a deck builder and it's just fun. It is fun. I really it was a game. When did this game came out? It came out in 2022? 2021., 2021. And I think we got it at Target. I think was it a Target exclusive? I think it was just. I just knew that it was at Target and for such a light, simple, easy game, I rather enjoy it. So that's it. That's my number five.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what your number five is? A pretty darn good game, because it is also my number five. Wow, it is. It is. So it is neat because they you do compete in seven different activities. You have adventure, you have arts and crafts, there's some cooking, there's some games, there's friendships in your outdoor and your water sports. And I think the really interesting thing about this game is that you don't play all of those at once. There's what three or four, and each of these activities have different decks so you can rotate them in the games. So you can be playing with adventure, cooking, water sports in one game and the next time you play you can be doing arts and crafts and games. So it's so replayable. But it is, I think, a good introduction to deck building and I quite enjoy it.
Speaker 3:All right, hey, that is our first. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:First crossover Wow, I did not think that was going to happen.
Speaker 3:Right away, even.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 3:Very cool Number four.
Speaker 2:My number four is kind of for me. Anyway, it was an obscure game that I had never heard about until I walked into an old, dusty game store. It is the 2015 game. It was wedged. I was in this game store. It's dark, it's dingy and technically, this game store had games from an older game store that was sold. They had gone out of business. They sold their games to this one. So I knew all these games. I knew the racks and I'm searching through the racks and here's a lot of Arkham Horror, mentions of mansions, of madness and shove between the two.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at this box, this dusty box, and it says Phil Walker Harding. I'm like what? Pull it out, it is cacao. And then it cacao is a tile laying game in which players take turns laying down the square tiles and if you lay them next to each other, you can activate the tiles. You can put your little meeple on there, activate it. You can get your cacao beans. You could sell them at market. You can put them on your player board. The more beans, the more points you get and the better you do. It's a pretty simple game. It's a pretty simple game Tile laying not something that's unique for Phil, but it's really enjoyable. I really like this game.
Speaker 3:All right, my number four. And you wanted to give me some of that cacao that you've been harvesting. Let me mix it on up in a nice yummy, yummy batter. Preheat my oven to 455 degrees and make myself some gingerbread, because my number four is gingerbread house Right.
Speaker 3:Once upon a time, a witch lived alone in her house in the depths of the forest, and you know what her hobby was Making some of them, gingerbread cookies. In a matter of fact, angie, that witch loved gingerbread so much that she made her entire house out of that gingerbread. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only person who loved gingerbread, so a bunch of rude fairy tale characters passed by and they start eating their walls and they start eating her windows and they start eating her doors. And one day that witch decided you know what? I've had enough of all these people helping themselves and paying attention to which types of gingerbread those greedy intruders like the most. She figured out a way to get rid of them all, and you know how she did that? Well, I'll tell you, and you, you can figure it out how she did it yourself by playing the game.
Speaker 3:So in that game, you take a three by three grid and you cover symbols that showed four different types of gingerbreads and each one of those some of them also have special actions on them and the tiles may also be placed on existing tiles and basically you're building a 3D structure in front of you. If you cover two of the same symbols, you get a bonus gingerbread or action and victory points are awarded for building the tallest structure. You also, basically, you complete orders. So basically you'll have a card that says this character likes this type of gingerbread and basically you get. You get the resources and you can purchase those people, and you get them, you get them and in the end, the player with the most victory points wins. And that is my number four gingerbread house.
Speaker 1:Number three.
Speaker 2:My number three is gingerbread house, the 2018 game about, yes, making a gingerbread house. You said everything really well. The only thing I would add is that your fairytale creatures some of them are good ones and some of them are villains, and so when you have your scoring objectives, you may have some that would. You would like more villains or you would not like villains. So sometimes there's different points based on are you getting which fairytale creatures you are getting? But other than that, you really you nailed it. You, you frosted the roof of the gingerbread house. I know the other comment is there cacao and gingerbread?
Speaker 3:You can make chocolate gingerbread cookies, why not?
Speaker 2:Okay, you know, if somebody out there makes chocolate gingerbread.
Speaker 3:Send Angie the recipe because I would love to try it.
Speaker 2:All right, all right, all right. So what is your number three.
Speaker 3:So a chocolate gingerbread cookie is probably a treasure. It is probably a treasure that many people would say is worth silver, maybe, maybe even gold, and that makes my number three silver and gold. So in this game everybody gets treasure maps and maybe where X marks the spot is where you're going to find that chocolate gingerbread cookie. And how are you going to know if you're going to find that? You're going to find out by taking an expedition card. There's a deck and in that deck it's a deck with a question mark on it. That's your expedition card deck. You are going to flip that expedition card over and when that card is revealed there's going to be a polyamino shape on there. You're going to have a dry erase marker and you are going to mark off that symbol on the symbol that is on the card, on your map, that shape. If you cannot do that, you must at least put one X on there, mark off one square on your treasure map. You're going to continue to mark your treasure maps until seven out of the eight expedition cards are revealed. Once that happens, there's going to be. That's going to be the end of the route.
Speaker 3:After a total of four rounds, each player calculates your victory points and the game ends. So let's talk about. It's pretty simple. I don't want to, I don't want to drag this out any longer than I than I have to, but you, basically, you flip a card, you make the shape on your treasure map. Once you fill up your treasure map, you now completed that map and you draw another treasure map. So it's a pretty simple game. You're marking off squares, you're flipping cards, and that is my number three Angie, silver and Gold.
Speaker 1:Number two.
Speaker 2:My number two, chris, is a 2021 game, which is a nice little interesting game that I happen to find in a little game store, little toy shop in the basement of where I work and that is super mega lucky box. This is a game that I think I saw at Foster the Meeple and I thought it was kind of silly and I'm thinking the name is kind of silly. It was really hokey looking box and I picked it up and I thought, oh, all right, I always like to give her some business every once in a while. So I bought the game and, holy moly, do I like this flipping right game.
Speaker 2:Your cards they're just these tiny little three by three grids and they have random numbers in each of the little squares and it's almost like playing tic-tac-toe in a way, because they are numbered one through nine and during each round you're going to flip cards which are also numbered one through nine and, very simply, you're going to cross that number off on your card. When you complete a roll or column you're going to get a bonus and any card that you fill up you're going to set aside and during the end of the round you score up your card any bonuses that you can add up on that card. Your game lasts for four rounds and then after the fourth round, you total up the rounds on your. And the interesting thing here, chris, is that as your rounds progress, your score, your cards, are worth less and less. So you want to try to fill up the more cards you can early on.
Speaker 2:But this is a fast-paced game, small footprint. It is one of my favorite games to solo, thank you. It is also one of the games that I have actually gotten game to play in kind of a tricky way, because I told them we were doing math and I slipped him that game in. So I don't tell him we're going to play a game to do math, I tell him we're going to do math and then play a game. That's one of my ways to get him to play a game with me. So my number two is Super Mega Lucky Box.
Speaker 3:My number two makes you super, mega lucky, because that is also my number two. You, you did a really good job explaining the game. It's bingo, but it is the best version of bingo you, me and all of our listeners will ever play. So if you have not had a chance to play this game, what are you waiting?
Speaker 1:for Number one.
Speaker 2:And my number one. You may never guess what it is, chris. It is a small box game that I found on a discount table in Appleton, wisconsin, at the Gnome Games is something that I saw Mr Garcia play from the Dice Tower is one of my favorite reviewers and he kept talking up this game. It is silver and gold. Yes, it was silver and gold. You described that game so well. I don't need to say much more about it other than it is a take with you anywhere game. Take with you anywhere. Love this game. It is my number one. Chris did a great job of explaining it, so why don't you go ahead, chris, and tell us what your number one is?
Speaker 3:I will, angie. So we've already. We've already been to summer camp. We've already had a delicious gingerbread cookie. We got lucky filling out our treasure maps and found a super, mega lucky box full of chocolate gingerbread cookies. And now you know what. It's time for us to grow some potatoes, grow some corn and some cocoa on the slopes of mountains, because, if that's what you love, luckily this game is going to just scratch that for you.
Speaker 3:What game am I talking about? I'm talking about Lama Land. In Lama Land, you play the role of a Lama farmer Not really, you play the role of a farmer who is growing said resources that I mentioned before potatoes, corn and cocoa and you're getting some help from some Lama friends of yours. It's another one of those three dimensional grid games that Phil Walker Harding does very well. He's very good at that spatial puzzle. So you want to go up in height and basically, as you cover crop, cover shapes, you get the crop underneath it. You use those crops to obtain Lama cards. Lama cards give you victory points, but they also allow you to place a Lama on your farm and the game plays about 45 minutes and you're going to have an impressive crop growing area in front of you and you're going to have a bunch of little llamas all over the place, all over the place being all cuddly and cute and Lama like. So that is my number one, lama land. A lot of people say Lama land is a mixture of gingerbread, house and Bear in park.
Speaker 3:Bear in park. Take the best of gingerbread house, take the best of Bear in park, smush it up together and you've got Lama land. Do you need to play Lama land? If you played those two, I don't know. I enjoy playing gingerbread house and I enjoy playing Lama land.
Speaker 2:We've never played Bear in park.
Speaker 3:We've never played Bear in park. Some people might say eh, eh, but I really enjoy the game. So that's it, Number one.
Speaker 2:The interesting thing about Lama land, the thing that I really like about it, are the objective cards. You choose which objectives you're going to go for and there's several at the beginning of the game that are laid out and you take turns, placing, like a little worker, on which objective you want and at what level, because there are different scoring levels for each objective card. If you get to one first, you get the highest level off of that one, or you're going to get the most points for completing that level or for completing that objective. So I think that's very interesting and I really enjoy that part of the game.
Speaker 3:Me too. That's my number one, angie. I'm surprised I'm. I guess I'm not, I shouldn't be surprised, but there's there's two things I'm surprised about your list One explorers isn't even on it. I thought you really enjoyed that game. I thought it would have been a top five game for you. I really do. Where would, where would have explorers been for you on your list?
Speaker 2:Oh, um, let me um. Explorers would probably have been Seven seven okay. Seven, maybe I could give you. Yeah, six would probably been llama land. I could give you which one. I should ask you which one is your worst. I could tell that easily. That's Neovill.
Speaker 3:That's your, that's your worst.
Speaker 2:That is my worst, walker.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, out of the ones that we own, neovill is is probably not my well, I don't know it's. It would probably be sushi go as my worst, and it might. Somebody might just be going out there after hearing that, but for me that it would be sushi go. Then, Neovill, my number six would probably be planted. Oh, whoa, I, I miss that one, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, my number six would be spell book, and then, yeah, Spell book is the newest one.
Speaker 3:My number six would be spell book and then planted, and then monolith, and then Neovill is gone from there, but yes for sure. Well, meeple chasers, that's it. Thank you for sticking around. We really appreciate it. 2024, new year. I did a fantastic job getting a big zero on a quiz One, but high hopes for this for the rest of this year.
Speaker 2:That's here you go. It can only go up from here.
Speaker 3:But seriously, I want to thank you guys for listening. Your support means the world to us. Angie and I do this because, while we love, we love the hobby, we love sharing the hobby with others. We do put a lot of work, time and effort into this podcast and we hope that you guys enjoy every minute of it. One thing that really helps us is, if you guys like, subscribe, relieve a review and share our podcast with people you know, even if it's somebody you don't like they might like board games.
Speaker 3:Share, share, share. Word of mouth is going to make us grow In 2024, we want to grow the chasing Meeple's podcast, we want to grow the chasing Meeple's YouTube channel and our presence on YouTube and we can't do it without you guys. So share, like, subscribe all that stuff, everything that we do, is out of our own pocket. So I would like to say we are also listener supported as well. So we do have merchandise at our Etsy page, chasing Meeple's code. Pick up some merch proudly where this chasing Meeple's stuff out there. Get the word of mouth out there. We will be coming up with some new designs this year and there is a support, the show button in the description of our podcast and free little bit helps. But ultimately we're just happy you're here, everybody. Thank you so much for listening. Angie, you got anything you want to say.
Speaker 2:Keep chasing those Meeples. Woo. The show is over. We've had our fun, but wait before you go. There's nothing to be done. Subscribe, rate and leave a review. Share the love is the thing to do. Chasing Meeple's we're here for you. We gain the miles and insights to chase the Meeple's. Chasing Meeple's we're here for you. Chasing Meeple's we're here for you. Chasing Meeple's we're here for you.
