I am Paco García, your host and I am joined by Chris Dias and we talk about Dinosaur games, Tetrarchia and Ninja Squad.
Below there is a transcript.
This podcast is made for people like you. Thank you for being there. Welcome to the GMS Podcast episode 432 a podcast about the people who make and the people who play tabletop board games and roleplaying games.
Get your copy of Tretrarchia here: https://dracoideas.com/editorial/en/tetrarchia-expansion-2/
Get Ninja Squad here: https://www.backspindlegames.com/product/ninja-squad/
If you would like to participate or sponsor this podcast, or if you would like to send us your questions or comments, get in touch. You can email me on podcast@gmsmagazine.com or find me in Twitter as @gmsmagazine. and Chris is @diasexmachina
And please, leave a review about the podcast in whatever platform you listen. It really helps a lot and it means even more to me. Thank you.
Thank you for listening. It truly is wonderful to have you there and genuinely appreciated. The GMS Magazine Podcast is produced by Paco Garcia with assistance from Chris Dias and Martin Reed and the amazing bunch of listeners all over the world. The theme tune is by Kev Adset.Let me know what you think about the podcast by emailing me at podcast@gmsmagazine.com or on our FB page. You can also follow on Twitter @gmsmagazine.
Join us in our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/fHaKNPe
Visit other #GMSMagazine productions:
For our main channel: http://bit.ly/GMSmagazine
For our #podcast: https://goo.gl/M54zau
Follow us on #Twitter: https://goo.gl/moZgvK
Our #Facebook page: https://goo.gl/YkbQIj
Thank you once again and, until next time, game on!
00:00:01:02 – 00:00:14:03
Desconocido
This podcast is made for people like you. Thank you for being there. Welcome to the GMES Magazine podcast Episode 434, a podcast about the people who make up the people who play tabletop board games on the role playing games.
00:00:24:05 – 00:00:40:08
Desconocido
I am curious to hear your host, and today I am joined by Chris Diaz. In this episode, Chris and I are going to talk about dinosaur games and I bring you a few reviews. I reviewed the trachea and Ninja School.
00:00:41:10 – 00:01:02:06
Desconocido
We really hope that you will enjoy it. If you would like to participate or sponsor these podcasts, or if you would like to send us your questions or comments or even your games for review. Get in touch. You can email me on podcast that GMAC Magazine dot com or find me Twitter us at GM’s magazine crazy’s at
00:01:02:07 – 00:01:31:17
Desconocido
Deus Ex Machina. And please, please, please leave our review of the podcast in whatever platform do you happen to listen? It really helps a lot, and it means even more to us. Thank you. Mm hmm. Chris, starting with the young.
00:01:33:17 – 00:01:52:05
Desconocido
I mean, I can take me on now. Oh, sorry. Sorry, sorry. Hello. How are you? I’m good. I’m perky. one of us, my my dear wife, however, is completely passed out because she had blood taken today. So she’s very much kind of out of it.
00:01:52:05 – 00:02:09:18
Desconocido
And so she’s asleep in the bedroom. So I the only one who’s tired. No, no, you know, and I haven’t had any blood run today, but I do feel like it. Um, so yeah, I think it’s being a long day, but no Tuesdays, Tuesday with our recording Tuesday or something like that.
00:02:09:18 – 00:02:30:15
Desconocido
So we have to we have to record because, you know, this is our duty to the community so that our biggest fans, mom can and can always tune in. I know I have news. I have I have actually news because we have had an email.
00:02:31:19 – 00:02:56:23
Desconocido
With good things said to us. Somebody call so morale is high, so overall, I should say Saule, morale is since I can pronounce it probably about my interview with Black Void creator. A great episode, packer. Yeah, I really liked how you got into some of the details of the Black Void RPG.
00:02:57:07 – 00:03:14:09
Desconocido
I had interviewed Christopher a while ago about his black void RPG, but it was not as polished as yours in getting some of the details about the rules and something. Think you could blushing as easily, Christopher? He’s a super nice guy that is completely and utterly true.
00:03:14:17 – 00:03:29:18
Desconocido
I am glad that he and his game are getting more attention and more attention they should get because it’s truly fantastic. He was very gracious with his time being interviewed by me and my wife for a very humble podcast.
00:03:29:18 – 00:03:47:14
Desconocido
Amy, that doesn’t exist. All podcasts I meet while most yours is amazing. Glad he’s getting the attention of a podcast with a large podcast. Oh my god, you’re wonderful. Great job all round, Parker. Thank you. Thank you. So your wonderful and absolute adore you.
00:03:47:21 – 00:04:00:24
Desconocido
Now, one day I am. one day I am going to buy you drinks because I truly ain’t, even though I’m reading this and kind of a joke away. But it is truly a genuinely appreciated that he means the world.
00:04:01:22 – 00:04:16:15
Desconocido
Yeah, people post comments posted on Twitter, Facebook, email, whatever it may be. And and regardless of whether or not it’s positive or negative, you might find itself on the air. Yes. And you know what? The likelihood? Don’t worry if it is negative, you can say it.
00:04:16:23 – 00:04:27:00
Desconocido
You can tell us whatever you want, because the likelihood is that we’re not going to give a shit anyway. So by all means, do say whatever you want. Oh, yes, we will either thank you or shame you. Yeah.
00:04:27:03 – 00:04:48:12
Desconocido
Or ignore you. Not as as a possibility. OK, today we’re going to do two things. two absolutely wonderful things. We’re going to do some reviewing for the first time ever. We’re going to do the two of us, some reviewing, and we’re going to talk about dinosaur games because I know I only know one dinosaur game and I
00:04:48:12 – 00:05:16:04
Desconocido
haven’t played in years. So one is that Fossil is. Ha ha. I, gotcha. I think I’ve heard of a. I think I’ve heard of a game called Fossil or Fossil this fossil less. Yeah. No. Finished the force all finished in R I s Fossil s, and it’s a game that came on to kick start a little while
00:05:16:04 – 00:05:33:12
Desconocido
ago and I only backed it. I didn’t have any money, but I thought, Oh my God, this sounds very interesting. So I backed it because you actually have to dig to get fossils, bones and remains, and then you win the game somehow.
00:05:34:01 – 00:05:52:00
Desconocido
But I haven’t played it. Yeah, I haven’t played it. Be a boxing and it looks very cute. I have to say it looks really, really good. 3D elements are definitely interest, are fascinating, but I haven’t played it because, to be perfectly honest, the Roos look a lot more intimidating that I hope that we’re going to be.
00:05:52:14 – 00:06:11:15
Desconocido
So I haven’t brought myself to read them and bring them to the table and play it because I tend to forget the rules and then we just invent them as we call them. Everyone does that of it. Well, I it depends on the.
00:06:12:10 – 00:06:23:01
Desconocido
That’s not that’s another complicated topic my my my relationship between the rules as presented and then, you know, whether or not they’re fun or not and whether or not I have to homebrew a game to make it fun.
00:06:24:10 – 00:06:41:20
Desconocido
Well, I am going. I could talk about that, about the way that the rules are explained and the way that the rules should be explained. From the point of view of an instructional designer that I am, I can tell you that most companies should hire instructional designers to write the rules to help them, because more often than
00:06:41:21 – 00:07:05:12
Desconocido
not, they are obsolete. Russia’s really atrocious. Yeah, yeah, unfortunately, we I mean, some game we just we were just talking two weeks ago with Ignacio and he his his titles like his more beefier mechanical titles, are unfortunately notorious for being somewhat intractable in their rules presentations.
00:07:05:13 – 00:07:26:21
Desconocido
Yes. You know, first Martians was famous. I think first Martians. The lack of first Martians of success compared to Robinson Crusoe, I think can be directly tied to its manual. So much so that, as it know, Fan had to recreate the manual to make it easier to learn because it was so difficult to understand.
00:07:27:02 – 00:07:39:01
Desconocido
And the fact that Rodney has to do two videos and a 45 minute playthrough to properly explain what’s going on. It just shows you the game. The game isn’t terribly hard to learn, but it’s just the way the rules work.
00:07:39:01 – 00:07:52:09
Desconocido
Then Nicole and I were just playing a game which I’d like to talk about in a future episode, which was a kingdom rush. And the rules were so atrocious. We played the game twice and we were still missing out and the misunderstanding rules.
00:07:53:03 – 00:08:11:23
Desconocido
And in a cooperative game that could be murder if you’re not careful. True. I’m just going to throw a hint and a tip to people out there. If you read the rules and learn a game and you explain the game in a different way, then the rules were written.
00:08:12:10 – 00:08:31:08
Desconocido
That is the way that these rules should be written. Simple, so don’t don’t don’t don’t think that just because you’ve written the rules has a right way of doing it because nowadays that’s ballocks and more often than not, we explain the gains in a different way than the rules are written.
00:08:31:08 – 00:08:47:12
Desconocido
But anyway, that’s that’s one of the reasons that’s how we do the dinosaurs first or the previous us so we can talk dinosaurs like that stuff to talk about, OK, we have 20 minutes. Otherwise, this episode is going to go on forever, and I’m told, OK.
00:08:47:12 – 00:09:08:19
Desconocido
OK. All right. So the important thing about for me when it comes to dinosaur games is and this is an interesting observation. And whenever I look at board game gig, whenever a game is rated an eight or higher, I generally considered I came to be great, a great game when it’s between seven and eight.
00:09:08:20 – 00:09:23:20
Desconocido
I think that’s generally a good game and it’s the lowest seven. I generally will look into the reviews to see what like, what’s the issue? What do people have problems with? Because despite what most people think that you know, a five should be a path that should be an OK game.
00:09:23:20 – 00:09:45:10
Desconocido
Nowadays, it’s like unless it scores a seven, I’m not going to look at it because there’s so much voting manipulation. I need to take a look and read the actual reviews. So with dinosaur games in general, one thing I was I was observing that there are virtually no dinosaur themed games that rate over an eight on I’m
00:09:45:10 – 00:10:00:06
Desconocido
board game geek. What I thought was very, very I thought that was fascinating. And there seems to be two approaches to making these dinosaur. three approaches really comes down to just two. one is you’re making dinosaurs or you’re running the park.
00:10:00:15 – 00:10:16:02
Desconocido
And the third type is, you know, something to deal with being predator or prey or eating or eating people or what have you. But that seems to be for me, a good dinosaur game is going to be something that feels thematic to what it what it is.
00:10:16:11 – 00:10:32:15
Desconocido
And like, you were talking about this game fossil list, which is definitely purely semantic because you are digging, you know, tiles to to recover fossils when that’s really, really cool. And there is a bunch of other ones. There’s a game called Evolution.
00:10:33:03 – 00:10:58:04
Desconocido
Mm hmm. Now, evolution is a game that I own, and that’s the game where players are. Creating animals by playing down cards, and then this animal is represented by how well it reproduces, whether or not the carnivore or a herbivore and you give it certain traits, then you take it to a watering hole, you try to get
00:10:58:05 – 00:11:16:12
Desconocido
it to reproduce and you try to make it successful. Then somebody else could, of course, create a predator. That predator survives by eating other characters, dinosaurs, other characters, animals. So it’s a very interesting game because it’s going to be entirely dependent on which players are coming to the table.
00:11:16:20 – 00:11:31:07
Desconocido
If you don’t want you, your your, your animals to be eaten, then you generally don’t want to play with people that are going to go aggressive and constantly. Fowls are being said. If everybody makes carnivores, then everybody dies because there’s no herbivores to eat.
00:11:31:13 – 00:11:51:16
Desconocido
So if you have a carnivore on the table, you have to then assume that everyone else is going to be herbivores, that you can create that balance. So it’s a fascinating game because it encourages that balance. But it’s also a game where you can succeed just as easily by employing just herbivores that just reproduce.
00:11:51:20 – 00:12:07:06
Desconocido
But the real issue with that is if you’re not careful, there may not be enough food in the watering hole to keep your species alive. He’s done very fast, so he does the game. Have an up? There’s a couple of games that are like that, but this one’s called evolution.
00:12:07:12 – 00:12:33:17
Desconocido
I think that game is just what you’re explaining rings a bell, and I think it has enough on going to look at things very, very quickly in the play to draw because I remember playing a game that feels very much like what you’re describing and I hated it.
00:12:34:21 – 00:12:51:09
Desconocido
Well, there is an evolution and. There is a game certain which is definitely based off of the board game because the artwork still the same, the artwork is very colorful. It doesn’t necessarily include dinosaurs, but dinosaurs can definitely come as as a result of this.
00:12:51:18 – 00:13:03:06
Desconocido
There’s a couple. Is it by Northstar games? It is by Northstar. And then there is an art, and I hated it. I can’t remember why I hated it, but I played the ones I thought, Oh my God, this is.
00:13:03:15 – 00:13:18:16
Desconocido
I followed the story. I thought, I really don’t want to play this anymore. What the hell is this? So I may have to go back to it. Sorry, maybe I was having a bad day. There’s always like, for example, I mean, there are certain games where they the app is better and sometimes where the app is inferior
00:13:18:16 – 00:13:30:07
Desconocido
. Like, I like there’s a game called NERAM, and the app is superior to the card game just because it’s a much faster turnaround. I agree. I was never I’m never a huge fan of the pandemic app because I find it a bit more restricting.
00:13:30:09 – 00:13:48:22
Desconocido
I haven’t tried. So yeah, so that’s evolution. Oddly enough, there are some people who who dislike it. I think I think evolution is a very, very good game, and its size sequel Climate has a few better reviews. Then there’s a game that’s seemingly very similar called Evo.
00:13:49:03 – 00:14:06:14
Desconocido
It came out in 2010, one that was more directly connected to dinosaurs. It trend it’s trending at about 6.9. So that’s below the point where I usually have to do research to see whether or not it’s a good game, but it’s also a game that employs auctions.
00:14:06:14 – 00:14:23:06
Desconocido
And my wife doesn’t really like auction, which is where you basically spend resources to pick up. You know, you spend resources in order to get things in order to make your dinosaurs better. I came out in 2001, a relatively popular game with a game called Raptor.
00:14:23:07 – 00:14:45:06
Desconocido
That’s one of the few ones where you’re actually playing as a dinosaur that is running amok, killing people. So that one’s that was a pretty that was brutal Khattalah and blue for duty. I had to fight burnout. Not quite badly, but those are two very well-known designers that’s running on about a 7.3.
00:14:46:19 – 00:15:06:20
Desconocido
There are, of course, not one, not two, but probably four or five games based off of Jurassic Park. Oh yeah. None of these are particularly valuable, very well-received Jurassic World, the board game is probably the only one that’s cooperative, and it’s been kind of explained as being very childish.
00:15:08:18 – 00:15:23:22
Desconocido
There’s also a drastic park, a danger, which is a one versus all. And that means one person’s playing as the dinosaurs and everyone else are playing as people that are trying to escape the park. And that one, I am generally not a fan of one versus all.
00:15:23:23 – 00:15:44:06
Desconocido
But there have been a couple of exceptions. This one’s directly connected to the Jurassic Park franchise, so you have all the characters and then the actors playing on them as well. I’m just very weary of franchised games, they tend to be rubbish, so I look at them with a suspicious suspicion.
00:15:44:06 – 00:15:58:13
Desconocido
Yeah. I’m afraid, sorry, I’m a cynic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we have a game, which I which is in critical God’s love, God’s love dinosaurs. It’s running a 7.2. I’ve heard about this title. I’ve not played it.
00:15:59:04 – 00:16:11:22
Desconocido
And how do you make an ecosystem flourish with just enough of every life in the chain to supply you with dinosaurs to dominate the lands? Once again, it’s very beefy in components. It’s a smaller game. But it’s tile based.
00:16:12:09 – 00:16:32:07
Desconocido
I haven’t played this one, but it’s done by panda saurus and you’ll hear them pop up more than once in this conversation. They’re called pandas. So you think that they would do a lot with dinosaurs? And you’re right, there’s a game called Triassic Terror from 2013 done by Eagle Griffin and I generally really like Eagle Griffin.
00:16:32:08 – 00:16:51:22
Desconocido
Yes. When Pacific designers associated with them, Triassic terror has not gotten very good reviews. It’s certainly turning out about a 6.9. And it’s been generally described as being relatively ugly. We were talking before the video began about the tiny epic series by so-called arms and gambling.
00:16:52:01 – 00:17:09:01
Desconocido
They do have a tiny epic dinosaur game, which is kind of compared to being another your dinosaur ranchers and you’re in the dinosaur farming industry. So it’s another situation where you’re trying to create dinosaurs. And then we have a lost valley of the dinosaurs.
00:17:09:01 – 00:17:32:14
Desconocido
This is back from 1985, wow. I believe all this game. And it’s it’s it’s. And because of that, it’s got. Yeah, yeah, it is. It’s one of those big map hex based games and and oddly enough, the highest rated game on board game geek that’s that’s revolving around dinosaurs is a Jurassic Park game, but it’s part of
00:17:32:14 – 00:17:48:22
Desconocido
the unmatched series in Gen versus Raptors Jurassic Park. And I think the reason why this game is popular isn’t because it’s good is because it’s one of the few games that has fully rendered miniatures. Most of the previous games usually have cheap plastic, or they have wooden maples.
00:17:49:04 – 00:18:09:06
Desconocido
But the unmatched Jurassic Park does actually employ it is a traditional combat game. And as a result of that, I think it’s a bit more popular. Which finally brings us to going back to Panel Saurus. They’ve got not one, not two, not four, not five, not six.
00:18:09:16 – 00:18:35:17
Desconocido
Actually, it is five, I think like five games in this field and they and they all revolve around their Dinosaur Island series. Now I. These games are interesting, as the most of them turned out about 7.50 7.7. And the criticisms people have to the dinosaur island games is that there is a lot to the dinosaur island is
00:18:35:17 – 00:18:50:15
Desconocido
the first one I acquired. I know that Tom spoke at the death, who was one of his favorite games that came out that year. It is a fantastic worker replacement game. As long as you understand that it is one of the most.
00:18:51:03 – 00:19:08:16
Desconocido
It’s easy to learn, but it’s complex because you have to not only acquire DNA, you also then have to acquire the specialists and then you have to create the park by building the buildings, making the dinosaurs from the DNA you’ve acquired and then putting them in your park.
00:19:08:23 – 00:19:29:05
Desconocido
And then you also have to create the security to make sure that your dinosaurs don’t eat the patrons. So it very much encapsulates Jurassic Park in this very weird early eighties neon fluorescent esthetic. It has these bright pink and yellow and green colors.
00:19:29:11 – 00:19:49:13
Desconocido
The dinosaurs are all hot, pink and green. Very interesting art style. But like it. But it’s also, as I described the people. It’s like three games in one and there’s three different boards, which means it has probably the largest presence of any board game I’ve ever played because you have a board where you roll a bunch of
00:19:49:13 – 00:20:13:06
Desconocido
dice. And these give you certain symbols that give you, Danny, and then using a using a certain number of maples, you can acquire the DNA by placing your people next to the dye. Or you can get a dinosaur template and then the next phase of the game, you’re not, you’re then spending maples again in order to acquire
00:20:13:07 – 00:20:31:21
Desconocido
either basic buildings, paddocks or you’re building or you’re buying one of these specialists to make the game easier. And then you have a bunch of completely separate minis. There are separate from the first one, so you have two different sets of minutes there, workers ones look like little beakers and these guys you place on your own, which
00:20:31:21 – 00:20:50:18
Desconocido
is a very unique aspect of this game because the first two parts of the game, you are interacting with players using the scarcity of resources where I’m getting this. So you don’t have. So you can’t. But the last phase of the game is an entirely solitary experience where you are basically placing peoples on your own board to
00:20:50:18 – 00:21:09:18
Desconocido
activate certain things to make dinosaurs suspend DNA. Put dinosaurs in your park, up your security. And at the end you reach into this bag, you pull out fistfuls of little tiny patron meatballs and then you place them all over your map to, you know, okay, this one’s got to go to the paddock and so forth.
00:21:10:05 – 00:21:25:07
Desconocido
And it’s a very fun experience, and you might pull out a hooligan which doesn’t get you any points. And then you have to check it, see if your security sign up for your security is not high enough. The dinosaurs go loose and kill, and if patrons and then you score points based on how many patrons remain.
00:21:26:09 – 00:21:43:03
Desconocido
It feels a lot more complicated than it is, but because the game is segmented into these three little mini games, you’re kind of concentrating on one at a time. And one aspect about the game I do enjoy is the fact that there’s so much variety and you can have people that create a very powerful park and they’re
00:21:43:03 – 00:21:56:16
Desconocido
not making a lot of they’re not generate a lot of income because they’re their patrons keep dying. But you can still generate a lot of points because you still have. You might still have the better park. So it’s got this very cool ascetic going.
00:21:56:21 – 00:22:17:21
Desconocido
There’s dozens and dozens of different dinosaurs you can make Nicole and I, my wife. We definitely love games where you’re building something, engine builders, deck builders to an extent. But if you have a map where you’re building something, that’s yours, and regardless whether or not you win or lose, you have a constructed park and go, Well, this
00:22:17:21 – 00:22:37:24
Desconocido
is my park. one of the things I like about the expansion Dinosaur Island came with a special edition called Totally Liquid, which gives you a bunch of new options, gives you water, dinosaurs and so forth that you can get a mega mega raptor, which oddly enough predates the second movie or throughout the new World Jurassic World.
00:22:38:06 – 00:22:50:12
Desconocido
But it was this gigantic, gigantic, singular dinosaur, and you get this giant mini you put on the board and you have to create so much security because this thing will run amok and kill people if you’re not careful.
00:22:51:02 – 00:23:02:09
Desconocido
And it’s so it’s cool. You create the situation. You can have a petting zoo where you just have little tiny baby dinosaurs that don’t generally lead a lot of a lot of security. They don’t generate you a lot of points, but they’re good with the Kitties.
00:23:02:24 – 00:23:22:09
Desconocido
So there’s a lot of really interesting things that dinosaur island. But the general consensus with criticism is the fact that has this very weird color palette. If you look at the box, for example, it there’s there’s the dinosaurs are are are neon blue or fluorescent red.
00:23:22:17 – 00:23:39:13
Desconocido
Even the people are kind of off color and their skin is a very culliver. But it’s so Jurassic Park is totally trying to be Jurassic Park. Even the first player marker is a mosquito, and Amber Rose absolutely is tapping on that.
00:23:39:23 – 00:23:58:20
Desconocido
And then they came out with a two player verve for a two player version called Douglas or Island, which removes a couple of the elements and makes it a faster game for two people. I am generally not a big a fan of this one because I love Dinosaur Island so much that if I’m going to play it
00:23:58:20 – 00:24:17:07
Desconocido
with two people, I might as well play that over, do a little sore and we were going to sell it and my wife decided to want to sell it because she felt that it had its own appeal. There are a few rules that are very different, and Dinosaur Island has fewer reviews, and it’s definitely a distillation of
00:24:17:07 – 00:24:33:18
Desconocido
Dinosaur Island, which is Julius our island. I think it’s a good game, but I don’t think. I would buy it if you want, if you already have Dinosaur Island, you don’t really need to lose or if if you get it, you know, it concluded it’s not a very good travel game.
00:24:33:18 – 00:24:45:09
Desconocido
It has a smaller box and heads get behind it with the smaller box. But. It it doesn’t have a very small footprint, I think a travel game should have a small footprint as well as being a small box.
00:24:46:08 – 00:25:07:04
Desconocido
Then about a year ago, they came out with a brand new title called Dinosaur World. Obviously, tapping on once again the movie the color palette shifted, so it’s not as freakishly garish as the first one was. And now, instead of creating a park where people walk through, you’re actually creating a very large park with with hexagon tiles
00:25:07:20 – 00:25:22:02
Desconocido
. And the big distinction with this game is that you’re no longer pulling tourists out of a bag. They’re just kind of more invisible. But now you create tours using the vehicles, which is something interesting that it takes an element from the first rustic parks.
00:25:22:02 – 00:25:37:20
Desconocido
And now you have what is called JPL’s hmm-mm, which is a term I absolutely hate. And there’s people you take this jeep when you drive it across your park trying to generate, quote unquote excitement. The games are very similar.
00:25:37:20 – 00:25:53:03
Desconocido
So if somebody asked me, what would I get dinosaur world or island? If you can handle the color palette of Dinosaur Island, I think that’s a better game because there’s just so much more to do. Dinosaur World, however, I do think is shorter.
00:25:53:13 – 00:26:11:08
Desconocido
There’s more of a solitary element to dinosaur world. When we played my wife and I, we very seldom ever interacted. We there was very few occasions where we ever did anything that we were kind of missing each other over a in dinosaur island where there is a little interaction dinosaur world.
00:26:11:08 – 00:26:21:16
Desconocido
There’s very little interaction. But I don’t have a problem with that. Some people do. They want to be able to take that. They want to be able to hurt other players. You can’t really hurt other players in dinosaur world.
00:26:21:16 – 00:26:34:12
Desconocido
There’s very there’s plentiful resources, so there isn’t a lot of times where you’re doing something. That’s screwing somebody else. The issue with this whole world that it has a lot of components and some of them are very, very small.
00:26:35:08 – 00:26:52:03
Desconocido
And there’s this rule where if you visit an exhibit, it becomes less powerful, so every time you visit it, it generates you fewer and fewer points. But that gets manifested in these very, very tiny tokens, which if you’re not careful, you will lose.
00:26:52:13 – 00:27:09:08
Desconocido
So I would say, I think I prefer Dinosaur Island in the longer stretch if you have a long time to play it. It’s also really good in two or three players. I think Dinosaur World is also a very good game, and that finally leads us to a game called Dinosaur Island Roar and right.
00:27:09:19 – 00:27:25:00
Desconocido
So it’s rather and right. I was not for the longest time. I was not a fan of Roland write games, and it got massively huge about two years ago where there was like 2030 Roland write games coming out.
00:27:25:01 – 00:27:43:09
Desconocido
Everyone had to have a Roland, right? So every game franchise is coming out with their version of a Roland, right? And so dinosaur island. When they made Dinosaur World last year, they came out with a dinosaur island roar and raw and right, which is a Roland Wright version of the original dinosaur island.
00:27:43:17 – 00:27:57:18
Desconocido
So everyone gets two pads of paper with all these indications on it. It gives you two big stacks so you can play this game probably 100 times. So no problem there. And it actually has a pretty small footprint smaller than Douglas or Island.
00:27:58:04 – 00:28:09:16
Desconocido
And same thing happens. You’re rolling, dice, you draft your dice. Then after that, you place your dice on this action table and where you place that action can make it more difficult for the other player to complete that action.
00:28:09:23 – 00:28:30:18
Desconocido
Once you’ve done those things, you’re checking things off or you’re drawing. Now the dinosaur island onto this grid. And so the so the vast majority of the game is you drawing in and creating your park, making roads to connect it, and then you’ll do a tour and you’ll draw a tour through your park.
00:28:31:04 – 00:28:50:21
Desconocido
And I was not I did not have very high thoughts. I, you know, really good opinion on rolling right after playing the roaring right dinosaur island. It is one of my favorite experiences in this genre. I’ve only played it a couple of times and I’ve played the good ones, people say, and this has got to be probably
00:28:50:21 – 00:29:10:15
Desconocido
be best in the genre. I love all the customization that you can do. I love the fact that there’s more interaction, but not really a lot, not have a lot of antagonistic interactions. And yet I think it’s it’s a fantastic game.
00:29:10:15 – 00:29:24:02
Desconocido
It’s different. It’s a much better game than dual-use or for travel and say if you if you were to pick two games, I would say Dinosaur Island and then the island right now is real. And I think the turtles are the two best games in the series.
00:29:24:12 – 00:29:44:00
Desconocido
That’s a world I think is got its more polished, a bit more mature. It’s got a bit more better production value. If you can handle the color palette of Dinosaur Island, though, I think that’s a better game. But if you get the totally liquid though, boy, are you spoiled because you get something like 120 or so plastic
00:29:44:00 – 00:29:56:03
Desconocido
dinosaur meatballs, you get a bunch and in the dinosaur world, they really they painted them so you can literally identify the dinosaurs on the little minis and they give you a bunch of plastic minis with little images on them.
00:29:56:03 – 00:30:09:09
Desconocido
So there’s a lot of cool, meaty components. And the thing I like about the dinosaur games that pterosaurs puts out that they’re very thematic like, you know, you’re doing a dinosaur game, people will say, Well, you know, dinosaurs aren’t doing anything.
00:30:09:09 – 00:30:20:23
Desconocido
I go, No, you, you’re making a dinosaur, you’re putting them into a park, you’re pulling out patrons. I think it’s because the dinosaurs aren’t moving along a map, actively traveling and eating people. Some people seem to have an issue with it.
00:30:21:08 – 00:30:35:12
Desconocido
I don’t. I absolutely love dinosaur. The dinosaur island games. The Rhone, right probably might be the most, the most underappreciated because I think it’s going to fall under the radar compared to dinosaur world or the original dinosaur island.
00:30:36:06 – 00:30:52:18
Desconocido
But yeah, if that it’s interesting genre, the fact that there aren’t a lot of well-reviewed games, but I think the reviews for Dinosaur Island are for some reason there are some people that have it issues. They’re putting low reviews because they don’t seem to like panda stories.
00:30:52:19 – 00:31:08:16
Desconocido
As a company, they don’t really like Apple Day. And then they also complain because these games don’t have a lot of interaction. It’s all like an imara trash game. We are constantly screwing over the other players in all of these panda stories games.
00:31:08:20 – 00:31:25:21
Desconocido
There is very little interaction, but there’s a lot more enjoyment. If you are solitaire or you’re a person that likes low interaction where you get to create something like a park at the end of the day. With these with the roller right and you have a drawn map, you can name it and go, This is my park
00:31:26:17 – 00:31:44:11
Desconocido
. It’s all that. I’m also particularly good at these games I when more than I lose. So it’s a fun experience. We just played Robin Wright just. Today, and I won that one by two points, which I thought was a very close call, so it wasn’t like I dominated my wife, but it was it was definitely a joyful
00:31:44:12 – 00:32:01:20
Desconocido
experience. But yeah, there’s a lot of dinosaur games on the market and. It’s it’s interesting that none of them have ever blown people out of the water as being amazing, but I think if you look at the board game geeks, it doesn’t give you a proper amount of, you know, reflection of what these games are.
00:32:02:03 – 00:32:14:13
Desconocido
I think the dinosaur island games are fantastic and you get a chance to see the the Ron Wright Ron Wright game. I would definitely give that a whirl if he liked the role and write games. I think this might be maybe the best one of the genre.
00:32:15:00 – 00:32:28:11
Desconocido
I think I would like to take a look at that. Back to you? No, I was going to say two things. Well, firstly, well, three things, actually. There is a dinosaur island game from 1980. Wow. And it looks terrible.
00:32:30:05 – 00:32:43:03
Desconocido
It looks like, I dunno. Snakes and ladders sort of game. That’s not true. The Bolt actually looks pretty good. I like it. I like the board, but the fact that the rules are printed on the inside of the lead.
00:32:44:10 – 00:33:03:14
Desconocido
You know, it’s been four games in the eighties were done that way. Wow. This might be the lowest reviewed game I think I’ve ever seen it. It’s it’s trending a 2.8. Yeah, it’s really it looks like it is as bad as it looks, but I like actually the ports and the port looks very good under cover.
00:33:03:15 – 00:33:19:11
Desconocido
It looks fantastic. I love the cover of the box, so I’ve never played it. I don’t know what kind of should the game it might be or not, but you know that’s how far back the inside and goes on about the the right hand drawer kind of world of game.
00:33:20:03 – 00:33:37:14
Desconocido
I quite like them. We played recently Doodle City by a TP games and we had a great time. I really like it. So but you can see if you can see that there, but that’s cool. Yeah, it’s a very neat little situation.
00:33:37:14 – 00:33:49:07
Desconocido
I like the fact that by my lovely wife screwed up the dimensions of one thing and just changed the map very quickly. But it is a simplistic version. I think the way they designed, it was very, very novel.
00:33:49:12 – 00:34:02:16
Desconocido
And once you figure it out, it’s a relatively easy game to play. If I was to pick any one game, I would think I would still purchase the original. If you can get the totally liquid version, which was a Kickstarter one that gives you a lot beefier components.
00:34:02:23 – 00:34:15:04
Desconocido
There’s a lot of cool plastic and a lot of dinosaurs, and barring that, I would probably go with the Reverend Wright. I think Dinosaur World is a very, very good game and we have 123 expansions already that you can get.
00:34:15:11 – 00:34:28:18
Desconocido
There’s one that’s about water dinosaurs when there’s an Ice Age and then a hybrid which combines certain types of dinosaurs together. But I like that with Roland, right? You actually end up with a dungeon that you can use in your role playing games.
00:34:29:22 – 00:34:49:18
Desconocido
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I never thought of it that way, but yeah, technically you want I was think if you wanted to do. No one’s ever done a really decent Jurassic Park role playing game, but I think that you can definitely you can definitely do that because it definitely gives you the capacity to to create
00:34:50:12 – 00:35:12:18
Desconocido
rooms with hallways and so forth. Yeah. And they have is like, OK, you in this room you find for megaliths Soros’s furniture. Wolf, thank you. And you die. Exactly. Well, otherwise you should. OK, so back to me. Look, I have been playing a fair number of games recently, which I am very proud of because I haven’t played
00:35:12:18 – 00:35:28:17
Desconocido
board games for a very long time, but now I’m kind of back in the mood. So I want to. I have three reviews of games I want to talk about because I have enjoyed all of them for different reasons, and not all of them are great, but so much so anyway.
00:35:28:17 – 00:35:43:13
Desconocido
I have to try to here, which I have spoken about in Twitter quite a lot, and I’m going to keep doing it because I’ve loved it. Then I have Maes Howe, which you should be forgiven for pronouncing it may show, because that’s what it looks like.
00:35:43:13 – 00:36:08:02
Desconocido
It’s been written. The Troika. No, no, no, no, no. Tetrick yeah. Oh OK, thank you. That’s right. And I’ve also played a Ninja Squad by Backspin Spindle Games. The troika is by Draconid as a Spanish publisher, and anybody who knows me will know that I am not particularly keen in talking about Spanish people or the things that
00:36:08:02 – 00:36:26:03
Desconocido
Spanish people do. But the ideas on the clips are actually very good friends and I like them quite a lot and they tend to come out with some very good and interesting games. They got in touch with me about the troika a little while ago and they said, Would you like to review a?
00:36:29:04 – 00:36:51:22
Desconocido
OK. Yeah, because it’s you, I say, look, it’s a very difficult game, I thought. Yeah, you’re not selling it very well. But anyway, send it. Let’s let’s find out for me. So what is striking about this striker is a solo or cooperative ball game is kind of a war game really that plays one to four people and
00:36:52:03 – 00:37:14:22
Desconocido
the players take on the roles of four Emperors is based on historical events I cannot recall because I wasn’t there. But you play the roles in four emperors who must defend the empire from the invading armies. And I’m just going to say, spoiler all make all this game is so good.
00:37:16:06 – 00:37:37:19
Desconocido
So, so God damn good, and it is as good at this as it is hard to play because it’s very difficult to win. How does he play, you would be asking. Well, let me tell you, every round you are going to be able to spend six Imperium points and those points are going to allow your emperor to
00:37:37:19 – 00:38:07:19
Desconocido
do certain things, moving between provinces or moving between shorelines if you have the fleet. You can also set up a. Little settlement in the provinces, so the invaders cannot invade you easily enough, you can get rid of an uprising or invade or a revolt, and you can go into the borderline and set up a settlement there so
00:38:08:09 – 00:38:33:21
Desconocido
the armies cannot get in through that side of the board. You win the game when you set six settlements in the borderlines outside the Empire, the empire. So you basically cut the entry points of the armies and you lose the game if the invading barbarians reach Rome.
00:38:34:24 – 00:38:58:10
Desconocido
All the Germans. Well, yes, dear. They could be the it could be if they reach Rome or if you run out of revolts to place on the board. Some people have said that the game plays a little bit too much like pandemic because at some point you need to roll your dice.
00:38:58:18 – 00:39:17:05
Desconocido
And depending on where you roll the dice, the revolts will expand. So adjacent provinces will get revolts, and that is a very quick way of making sure you’re never going to win the game. It really is horrific when that happens.
00:39:17:17 – 00:39:42:19
Desconocido
But this game predates the first edition, predates pandemics, so no doubt. There you go. It’s not a copy, is not a copy at all of of a pandemic. Something else of very interesting is of the game. You can customize the level of difficulty if you reduce the number of feet that you can have access to at the
00:39:42:20 – 00:40:03:17
Desconocido
beginning of the game, or increase the number of armies that start invading the empire at the beginning or reduce the number of settlements that you as an emperor can place in the world. Then things become. Tricky, really, really fast.
00:40:08:08 – 00:40:25:01
Desconocido
It’s a very challenging game, because the way that he plays is that you play one of the emperors, then the invading armies go. Then you play an emperor, the invading army go. So by the time two, you are going to act again.
00:40:26:10 – 00:40:50:22
Desconocido
The invaders are played four times. That means that the army advances four times, that you get four chances of revolts or uprisings and you get four times the chances of. An explosion of revolt, which is really bad. I love it.
00:40:52:12 – 00:41:09:08
Desconocido
I really, really enjoy the game is tiny. You can bring it pretty much anywhere. And it’s a slow place a lot better than as a co-op because, you know, the rules would say, Oh, if you play a co-op, play one player each plays an emperor is a bit different.
00:41:09:09 – 00:41:23:13
Desconocido
You never end up doing that. You’re discussing your strategies and where you should go, what you should do. So it never is played. Just as Noodle, I played my emperor, and let’s say you play yours. He doesn’t play at all, either.
00:41:24:02 – 00:41:39:00
Desconocido
So I think that solo is shines. It really, really shines. And I hope everybody gets the game in place because it’s fantastic. Well, you’re saying the right, but it has a very small footprint for a board game like that.
00:41:39:01 – 00:41:55:00
Desconocido
It’s a very small presence table present, which is great for for travelers. Yes, I mean, the one thing I would say is that the board could do with being a little bit bigger because reading some of the names and finding out where you are when you have an awful lot of armies and a presence on the board
00:41:55:07 – 00:42:13:14
Desconocido
, it becomes a little bit cumbersome. So it could do with being another five, you know, two or three inches, five centimeters bigger on each side and making a tiny, tiny bit larger. That would be very, very good. But yeah, as a traveling game, it’s just amazing.
00:42:13:15 – 00:42:33:06
Desconocido
Absolutely amazing. And it has so many different scenarios. The game comes with some expansions so you can play with the barbarian armies, but also you can play with the Golf Army with a pirate fleet. And each one of them is going to play different mechanic or a different mechanism.
00:42:33:18 – 00:42:51:12
Desconocido
And that adds an awful lot of replayability to the game, especially if you’re going to play it alone. And then you get historical scenarios where you can start from a historical point and figure it out with the emperors will be doing at the time trying to defend the empire.
00:42:52:01 – 00:43:12:19
Desconocido
It really is remarkable that so much game is being packed in such a little box and it is so good. Well, he definitely looks fascinating, I can see that there. There was a second edition that came out that has a slightly larger board, but there’s not a lot of talk and mention about that.
00:43:12:19 – 00:43:35:16
Desconocido
But I do see, you know, some somebody mentioning about another edition. Yes, it’s I think the one they have just released now. You can get a nail neoprene board. Well, it’s a mat, then you can play along. And also that has the, you know, all the spaces where you can keep your chips on your tokens and all
00:43:35:16 – 00:44:00:01
Desconocido
Yugoslavia’s and that is worth getting. But even if you don’t trust me on this one, if you like the difficult war games, this is one you should be putting right away in your shopping list for Christmas. Right. Well, I notice also looking at the reviews, it doesn’t have a single review below five, which is really rare for
00:44:00:01 – 00:44:11:19
Desconocido
a game like that, especially with so many scores. I mean, the the the the irony of the fact that my game, which has not been released yet, has a one star review by somebody who hasn’t played the game.
00:44:12:11 – 00:44:26:03
Desconocido
So it’s very hard to have a new game nowadays that doesn’t have at least 11 person posting a negative review just out of giggles and so forth. So this one’s a better rarity. The fact that the the lowest score is a five.
00:44:26:12 – 00:44:37:03
Desconocido
And it says I played 13 player game and didn’t find the hook others speak of. Perhaps it’s best as a solo game where you are figuring out all out and thus getting more of a payoff, which is exactly what you said.
00:44:37:03 – 00:44:49:14
Desconocido
The game is much more enjoyable as as. And I’ve noticed that looking at the comments, it is a most people are complimenting it as a valuable solo game. Not necessarily as good if you’re playing with a full player account.
00:44:49:19 – 00:45:10:15
Desconocido
No, I think the reason is that the all the emperors do exactly the same thing. So it’s not as if you have in your character being able to act in your own time. Like, for instance, if you play mansions of madness because each character does something slightly different, you look forward to your time to play and you
00:45:10:15 – 00:45:24:21
Desconocido
can try and combine your strategies. But here, because all you can do exactly the same thing. It doesn’t add any variation to to the gameplay, regardless of what emperor you play. And that is why you feel it’s a solo.
00:45:25:06 – 00:45:42:05
Desconocido
It really shines. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a good cobweb of game because you spend all the time deciding what you can do, how you could be doing so and so. So it is truly and genuinely enjoyable regardless of how you play bass as a solo, staying out of town is fantastic.
00:45:43:04 – 00:46:01:23
Desconocido
Oh, OK, well, there you go. So next game, I’ve been playing as well, it’s called Maes how is designed by Lee Broderick and it’s been published by Dragon Dome Productions now target. They’re also very good friends of mine, and they usually publish very, very good games.
00:46:02:08 – 00:46:23:19
Desconocido
You know, if you play Black Hat is great and they have one of my favorite and if not my favorite, dungeon crawling abyssal rift, which is amazing. Absolutely amazing. But Maze, how is a game for one or two players and maze?
00:46:23:19 – 00:46:38:15
Desconocido
How not? May show correct? OK. And if you are important because I mean, even I didn’t know that. No, it’s I was corrected by Lee, by the way, when I interviewed him because I am a muppet and I kept saying Maze, how so?
00:46:38:15 – 00:46:53:02
Desconocido
I made sure major major I was a bit like. And he said, You know, this is a place that actually exists and the old. OK, that’s interesting. And I’ll read you the story because it’s very good, and I think it fits my voice.
00:46:53:02 – 00:47:17:23
Desconocido
So according to the old, can the how it is brought here, that’s a. Hurricane, yes, saga. Joe Rogan involved Carly Colson broke into the chamber to move May’s House in Orkney in 1811 and 50 in Idlib and 53 John Harold Madsen and a group of his men sheltered there during snowstorm.
00:47:18:16 – 00:47:36:05
Desconocido
The sagas tell us they are wrong, Valle found in there, and the two of Harold’s men went mad when the Victorians opened it to me, 1861. They found Ruly graffiti demonstrating the both of these episodes were based on real toon breaks.
00:47:36:21 – 00:48:00:14
Desconocido
This game combines the two events and casts you as Harold and VOLVED. Giles Harold and Rockwall had landed in Orkney less than an hour ago, but the suddenness and ferocity of the snowstorm got them by surprise. So to add, there’s another paragraphs I’m not going to read, it may show is yeah, so it’s a real place.
00:48:00:18 – 00:48:17:04
Desconocido
Yes, Orkney Scotland. Yes, yes, it is. Too bad I didn’t get to see it. Then see that when I was in Scotland, but I’ve only been to Scotland, to Edinburgh twice. I think I have. I didn’t go any further than that, unfortunately, so I missed Adobe.
00:48:17:06 – 00:48:33:22
Desconocido
It’s not as if I didn’t have time. I lived in the UK for 17 years, so shame on me. So, yeah. Jesus Christ, I said I was in Edinburgh before I visit Edinburgh twice with the Glasgow sky and a few other places in between Sky and Edinburgh.
00:48:34:01 – 00:48:49:03
Desconocido
And I was going out with a girl who lived in there at the time, and when I was staying at her Airbnb, she made a passing comment about places to visit and I was like, You know that there is a castle that’s a five minute drive from where I’m staying in the middle of Scotland.
00:48:49:06 – 00:49:00:13
Desconocido
And she was like, Oh, I had no idea, and I’m like, There’s a castle in your town and you’ve been living here for 15 years and you haven’t seen it. I don’t know if there was if there is a castle in my town, I think I would.
00:49:00:13 – 00:49:10:07
Desconocido
That would do that all the time. But yes, you know, for some reason, a lot of people who live in the UK don’t travel as much as I imagine they they should. Yeah, I am a Churchill. What can I say?
00:49:10:13 – 00:49:23:15
Desconocido
OK, so how does this game play? The objective of the game is, of course, to escape the tomb. And to do that, you need to dig and get your your way out. And now that it’s going to be harder said than done.
00:49:24:00 – 00:49:40:14
Desconocido
You have a hand of five cards on every row and you have to play a card and discard the card in whatever or that you want. Now, if you play the card, you can have some effects, and if you discard the card, you’re going to have another effect on.
00:49:40:14 – 00:49:59:14
Desconocido
Each card is going to tell you what it does exactly. one thing to note is that one of the cards, specifically the card eat, is gruesome, as in featuring a very gruesome image of some body slaughtering a goose.
00:50:00:14 – 00:50:28:23
Desconocido
Like opening the neck. With a knife, I will show you. So you can hopefully say that you can’t. Like that? OK. OK. There you go. Oh, yeah, that’s yeah, that’s. So these game features accurate. Well, it is accurate, but this game, I have to say it features some animal cruelty, which eve you see illustrative anyways in the
00:50:28:23 – 00:50:48:02
Desconocido
photograph. Thank God. But he can be quite upsetting for people who you know, are sensitive to these topics. So be aware when you do this. So depending on what course you do, you can either lose food or lose health, regain health or regain food.
00:50:48:12 – 00:51:09:16
Desconocido
And if at some point you get a combination of four different cards that are excavates passage, you excavate one of the stones necessary to get out of the tube. Depending on how many stones you start the game with, the game is harder or easier.
00:51:10:14 – 00:51:29:02
Desconocido
So. It’s a very simple game. Play a card, this card, the card, good thing, you will learn to play the game in five minutes and the game with a base set of cards, you will last about 20 minutes.
00:51:29:18 – 00:51:48:16
Desconocido
That is going to be a how to play a play through video in the channel fairly soon, hopefully. The bad thing if you only play the base game, you will not want to play it more than twice. Is too quick, there is no variation, and it really.
00:51:49:17 – 00:52:16:21
Desconocido
He just doesn’t have an awful lot to offer. However, the box comes with a few expansions. In fact, 18 expansion cards now what was the good thing about this, that if you begin to mix the expansion cards, then the game becomes interesting because of the effects of the cards are going to make life a little bit harder
00:52:17:02 – 00:52:32:18
Desconocido
, which is exactly what you want in this game. Mixing more than two expansions in a game will make you probably a bit too hard, and then it will not be all that exciting. But mixing what two expansions you add to the beginning of the game.
00:52:33:17 – 00:52:56:15
Desconocido
That was. That works very, very well indeed. The game is a co-op two people game. I haven’t tried it. That’s a co-op two people game as a solo game. Yeah, actually, I quite enjoy it. It’s is is pretty good.
00:52:56:15 – 00:53:17:09
Desconocido
I. Have to choose I will probably take the troika with me, but as a solo game or, you know, this is highly recommended. So my question for you and because you brought up to I was talking entirely with the competitive dinosaur games and you brought up two cooperative games.
00:53:17:18 – 00:53:40:01
Desconocido
I have a lot of passionate views for another episode regarding my opinions on co-op with games. I love the idea of cooperative games, but I find that people who design them are incredibly shortsighted about. The potential enjoyment factor, I think there are too obsessed with the kind of boating dinosaur.
00:53:40:06 – 00:53:52:10
Desconocido
You know, a dinosaur movie that they they fought, they they worked so hard to see if they could. They didn’t stop to think of they should because I think so many corporate games are like, Well, you designed. It is just too bad.
00:53:52:10 – 00:54:09:07
Desconocido
It’s not fun. How? And my issue with so many of them is the fact that they are they’re too difficult and being when you have a cooperative game, that’s too difficult. The success, the factors of success or failure become more dependent on the random number generators.
00:54:09:17 – 00:54:31:17
Desconocido
So how difficult would you say are these two games? Talk is very difficult. I think that’s really hard. I mean, I’ve won the game a number of times, but every single time it’s been on the brink. I think, you know, either the army would be very, very close to Rome already, or I would be very close of
00:54:31:17 – 00:54:59:20
Desconocido
running out of tokens to put on the board, which would also mean I lose the game with Maes. Howe is something very similar, but again, I was playing solo. You know, it really can be very, very tricky. The troika have played in co-op mode and we enjoyed it, but because we enjoyed the discussion of the strategies and
00:54:59:21 – 00:55:14:04
Desconocido
the tactics that we were going to perform, not necessarily because the game has anything to offer from the Co-op point of view that would make it enjoyable to play per se is just because we enjoy the company of the other players.
00:55:15:10 – 00:55:33:12
Desconocido
Would you say you’ve won more games or lost more games, lost more games? Yeah. Would you say you have a percentage, is that an 1820 loss? No, no, no, no, no. I would say it’s 6040. Perhaps I haven’t really made any, you know, accurate measurements, but I would say 60, 40, perhaps.
00:55:34:19 – 00:55:55:08
Desconocido
OK. I think I played the game for 15 or 20 times already, and I, yeah, I must have won eight or nine of those. Okay. I just want a quick side, I decided to look up Orkney because obviously this game is very much based off of this real artifact in a real location.
00:55:55:21 – 00:56:19:18
Desconocido
And I realized I know why I never visited Orkney. It’s very far away north. It is very far away north, and the average rainfall per month never dropped below 48 mm. Yeah. So yeah, with the with the high being, which is at the high being in October, when they get 126 millimeters of rain.
00:56:21:01 – 00:56:34:24
Desconocido
It doesn’t it doesn’t get terribly cold and never drops below negative seven, which is kind of surprising for being that far north. But obviously the the benefit from continental weather, but I’m looking at the amount of rainfall, 40 inches of rain per year and I’m like, Oh yeah, screw that.
00:56:35:00 – 00:56:56:20
Desconocido
Indeed. Yes. OK. Last game I have played is called Ninja Squad Squad. Yes. And are you going to like this? It is structural. A co-op game. That then becomes a competitive game. Oh, OK. Are you going to have to?
00:56:57:00 – 00:57:12:24
Desconocido
You’re going to have to explain that and justify it because I am generally not a fan when games mixed co-op and competitive. Wow. Please. Wow. I think you’re in for a treat. This game has been designed by young Yeager for you, Gaurav.
00:57:12:24 – 00:57:29:10
Desconocido
I don’t know how to pronounce your settings or about that, and he was published by Bach’s mental game in 2018. It’s a two to four players in place, it says here on the board game geek and 40 sorry to 45 minutes bullshit, it plays in considerably longer than that.
00:57:29:10 – 00:57:52:05
Desconocido
I’m sorry to say age is ten plus that I agree with. So what is the game about? You are going to become ninjas, and the board is made by several tiles that represent the house of a, you know, shogun lot of these, these this person that we need to get rid of because they are very, very evil
00:57:52:12 – 00:58:12:10
Desconocido
. Really, really bad people that are ninjas, a very righteous and we want to get rid of them. So the board is the guardian that you have to race through in order to get to the House of the Shogun person and destroy them.
00:58:13:01 – 00:58:30:08
Desconocido
Now there are going to be some guards and they are going to be some land turns on the way and the first half of the game is all about getting to these mounds of person’s house and destroy them.
00:58:31:10 – 00:58:50:18
Desconocido
So in order to do that, you need to help each other to avoid the guards if you and you turn on the floor. You alert the guards, if you and you turn by a lantern, you alert the guards so you have to end on a roof.
00:58:51:12 – 00:59:07:11
Desconocido
Every round you’re going to be able to move your ninja, depending on the movement allowed by your card. You have a deck of twelve cards. Every round is six movements. When all the plays are finished their movements, then the guards go.
00:59:09:01 – 00:59:22:19
Desconocido
And you’re going to have at the beginning of the round, you draw a card and then you draw a second card and you have to choose which one of the two cards you want to use to move. Think about it as a.
00:59:24:07 – 00:59:42:16
Desconocido
Tetris style movement, would you maybe maybe to move three tiles in a row or one to the left and three forward or move in zig? And then you keep the card that you have used to move and you discard the other cart.
00:59:44:23 – 01:00:04:22
Desconocido
If you land on a Long-Term, you keep that launcher and you switch it off, but you keep it. And that is going to add alarm points if you get a 25 alarm points that say you’ve you’ve lost the game because the whole guard has been called and you lose.
01:00:06:01 – 01:00:30:14
Desconocido
If you get, however, to the Showgrounds house and kill them, you turn the border upside down. You replace the guards. And then you have to escape. And that is when the game becomes competitive. And that is when the game becomes truly good fun.
01:00:32:05 – 01:00:55:19
Desconocido
Getting to the house cooperatively, it’s all right, but there really isn’t that much to cooperate with. You know, you can give each other a few items here and there, but there isn’t really that much cooperation. In fact, when we played it last week at work.
01:00:57:10 – 01:01:14:18
Desconocido
We were playing by ourselves, you know, and we were really playing cool. We just running with our ninjas all over the place and we all got there. He was absolutely fine with you, the need to help each other, but we laughed when we were missing each other.
01:01:15:18 – 01:01:41:00
Desconocido
Are the troops, so we would be delaying the other ninjas or using our hooks to swap each other’s place from one place to another or dragging out of the other players characters so they would fall in the path of a guard that made the game really, really good fun.
01:01:41:06 – 01:01:57:13
Desconocido
We absolutely love that part. So mixed feelings about this one. It is fun. I think it’s very interesting. Super cute has a really cute meanings. But the second part is definitely a lot more enjoyable than the first part.
01:01:57:16 – 01:02:16:17
Desconocido
That definitely makes the game worth playing. Oh, it’s fascinating. It’s interesting because you said I’ve I’ve played a few games where there are. The game is kind of in different phases where it goes. You know, you play a game, you play one certain game and then it switches and becomes a different type of game.
01:02:17:02 – 01:02:39:11
Desconocido
Mysterious is a good example where mystery and as seemingly two different games that are tied to each other and then a game called. Read something Oh, God. Drawing a blank. It literally is two games slapped together, and the stuff that the components you build in the beginning of the game are all the stuff you have at the
01:02:39:11 – 01:02:56:24
Desconocido
end. In the second half of the game. So it’s a very interesting aspect, but I’ve never seen one which combine a co-operative and a competitive mode. As in two different phases, because most of the time in a semi cooperative, it’s competitive co-op at the same time, which always generally doesn’t work.
01:02:57:06 – 01:03:10:18
Desconocido
But in this one’s very interesting, you mentioned because it starts off a cooperative and then switches modes and becomes a competitive game. Yes, that’s what I that’s what I liked about this world, because it really changes the mood of the game completely.
01:03:11:01 – 01:03:30:19
Desconocido
And if it kind of makes sense, is from the theme point of view because you have already got rid of your enemy. And the idea is that the first one to get out is the one who’s going to get all the merits for being the first to do it by the other members of the ninja class.
01:03:30:21 – 01:03:49:13
Desconocido
And so it just is just wrong, and it’s just a good fun little game. It has an expansion that I haven’t tried yet, but it is recommended if you want to, you know so many cute ninjas and you want to play this with kids.
01:03:50:09 – 01:04:04:01
Desconocido
It’s fun. It’s a nice raising game. They are looking at the review scores on the aggregate there aren’t there are a few people who have posted negative reviews, but they’re all in German, so I have no idea what they’re saying.
01:04:05:14 – 01:04:22:04
Desconocido
But intellectually there isn’t. There isn’t any other comments like that. The the lowest comment is at a. five Star, which is a five, which is a five out of ten review, that’s the lowest review that I could read.
01:04:22:10 – 01:04:38:00
Desconocido
And it says it looks like a good game, but not interested in co-ops. So why would you buy it? They, but it looks like a good game, but not interested in co-ops, which that tells me that he pulls it off by review.
01:04:38:08 – 01:04:54:11
Desconocido
Even though he probably has never played the game. So I’m like, Why are you commenting on a game that you have no interest in playing and you haven’t played? It’s almost like, you know you. It’s like whistling at a passing woman that nothing is being accomplished.
01:04:54:19 – 01:05:11:13
Desconocido
Well, I don’t know, but I mean, people write some nonsense from time to time like, you know, more fun with house rules. What? Was I even supposed to mean. So anyway, that’s that’s. Oh, yes, oh yeah, there’s a general one that I can understand why.
01:05:11:13 – 01:05:31:21
Desconocido
That’s a shame. OK, we’re on our way. OK, so those are my games and people send us your questions about those games, if you would like to hear more and soon, very soon I am going to be able to review the Dune game from Ignasi because I have received my copy.
01:05:32:14 – 01:05:44:10
Desconocido
You got it. I have it. I haven’t got mine yet. Well, I’m sure you will, but I have got mine and I am really excited to open it. So I’m hoping to get some time to bring it to the table.
01:05:44:10 – 01:06:05:07
Desconocido
Maybe this Friday. I’m played solo because my work colleagues are not going to be around to play with me. The Bastards. I made a point of translating that German review. We were patterns are shown in the cards, which are ninja can be moved if the ninja pats in a light field or even on a guard, there are
01:06:05:07 – 01:06:16:03
Desconocido
penalties. As soon as all players reached the temple field to the first half of the game ends and the escape continues on the reverse side, which is basically played it the same way. Except now the players now play against each other.
01:06:16:09 – 01:06:28:14
Desconocido
The game is trickling away if you’re unlucky to draw two movement cards of the same kind and you have no choice as to how to run, that is just bad luck. And the player cannot do anything other than walk straight ahead into the guard.
01:06:28:24 – 01:06:41:00
Desconocido
No, I really didn’t like this game. It’s a shame, actually. So that was that was the lowest review that was written. OK, well, at least, you know, being honest about, you know, this is how it plays, and I didn’t like it.
01:06:41:01 – 01:07:06:17
Desconocido
Well, fair enough. Yeah, it’s a more eloquent than I don’t like co-ops exactly or more fun with, you know, house rules. Mm hmm. So anyway, that’s all I have for today. All right, then, so I say this because the interesting thing is we’ve been playing these dinosaur games so that those are my reviews, although we are trying
01:07:06:17 – 01:07:29:06
Desconocido
to chew through a very high profile game by Lucky Duck called Kingdom Rush Rift in time based off of the app. So this is a situation where the app came first. I’ll leave that for the next of the next episode, because right now, as it stands, this game blows, which is a very unfortunate because it’s a very
01:07:29:06 – 01:07:41:06
Desconocido
high profile game that made a lot of money on Kickstarter. Lucky Duck, who did chronicles a prime and we’ve played the game twice so far, and we want to play it a couple more times for right now. That game, though.
01:07:41:07 – 01:08:02:17
Desconocido
Oh dear, oh dear. But I will go into details once I feel I have a more confident review on why this game. But in a quick search right now, we were talking earlier to the underlying issues. Is it intractable manual and harkening what I mentioned earlier when I asked the question a.
01:08:03:19 – 01:08:20:16
Desconocido
Unflinchingly difficult learning curve and a difficult cooperative game, which means it’s one of those situations where the first mission is the hardest one to get through because you don’t fully understand the strategy and the game itself is brutally difficult.
01:08:20:17 – 01:08:31:16
Desconocido
So as a result, there’s a lot of finicky rules. But yes, so far I’m not. We’re not I’m not enjoying the experience, but we’re going to play out at least once or twice more before I sign off on it.
01:08:31:21 – 01:08:41:11
Desconocido
And this may be a situation where you might have to homebrew it to make it fun, which is unfortunately not the first time I’ve had to do that to a cooperative game, which is once again, it’s something for another subject.
01:08:41:15 – 01:09:13:17
Desconocido
Yes, indeed. Also, by the way, I played Burger Bros. I know that one. We found a way to heart. And also, I guess there’s going to be a point where I’m going to go on a very hefty rant about the underlying flaw with that systemic throughout almost every game designer where they have this weird obsession of making
01:09:13:18 – 01:09:34:20
Desconocido
games too difficult. And as someone who’s been designing games for a quarter or half his life, I’m getting increasingly annoyed that they’re missing out on the core tenants on on making a game. Fine. OK. They seemed they seem to have not gotten it, which is weird because the video game industry only got the hint that this only
01:09:34:20 – 01:09:46:20
Desconocido
about ten or some years ago. But the board game industry, which is younger, probably has a few more years before an economist or a financial adviser goes to them, goes, I know how to make more money. Don’t make.
01:09:47:00 – 01:10:01:18
Desconocido
Don’t get, keep your frickin games. There’s so much gatekeeping in cooperative board gaming. It’s very, very distressing. Well, that is something we will talk about at some point. Maybe we can have somebody as a guest who designs corp board games and see what happens.
01:10:02:17 – 01:10:17:01
Desconocido
No, it would be good to have their opinions. So but I’m going to pick those people off. Maybe. But that’s fine. You know, they can live with that. We can live with that. So we’ll see. Anyway, we’ll talk to you soon.
01:10:17:21 – 01:10:47:11
Desconocido
Yes. Thank you, sir. Thank you for listening. It is truly wonderful to have you there and genuinely appreciate it. The GM has magazine podcast is produced by Paco Garcia with assistance from Chris Diaz and Martin Reid. And the amazing bunch of listeners all over the world.
01:10:47:22 – 01:11:03:12
Desconocido
The theme tune is By Kev Adset. Please let me know what you think about the podcast by emailing me at podcast at magazine, dot com or on our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Twitter at GMAC Magazine and at Deus Ex Machina.