0:00

Few people may love games

0:02

more than I do. And hey, some people

0:04

don't even like games at all. And

0:06

if that's you well, I suggest

0:08

you skip this week's podcast. Come

0:11

back later this month when we'll be playing

0:13

a different kind of game that you

0:15

may like as it involves stock

0:17

market. And that is, of course, the market

0:20

cap game show. That's a game we all

0:22

can play. We'll be doing that in two

0:24

weeks. Okay.

0:26

So if you don't like games,

0:29

I give you permission to take this

0:31

week off. Hey,

0:34

wait. You're

0:35

still listening?

0:37

Excellent. In that case, thank you for suffering

0:39

a fool gladly as I endeavor

0:41

this week to share two shortlist of

0:43

recent favorites from the world of

0:45

tabletop games shared intentionally

0:48

as early as possible this December

0:51

So you might have time to put one of these under

0:53

someone

0:53

else's

0:54

tree to spice up your families,

0:57

perhaps your own life.

0:59

It's my annual games, games,

1:01

games, games, podcast, volume four.

1:04

Only

1:04

on this week's rule breaker investing.

1:07

It's the Rulebreaker

1:09

Investing Podcast with Motley Fulco

1:12

founder, David Gardner.

1:16

Long time listeners know that we spend

1:18

a third of our time here on investing,

1:21

third of our time on business, and

1:23

a third of our time on life.

1:26

And if you think about the Motley fool's purpose, David,

1:28

to make the world smarter, happier,

1:30

and richer, well, you can map

1:32

those those three zones

1:34

that I just talked about. The third of our

1:36

time spent on investing makes

1:39

us richer. That spent on

1:41

business and our professional lives

1:43

makes us smarter. And

1:45

the third of our time spent on

1:47

life. Well, I sure hope has been making

1:49

you happier because, well, that's a big

1:51

reason I do what I do. If you're getting

1:53

richer and smarter but not happier,

1:56

that's gonna create some problems. One

1:59

antidote might very well be then

2:01

finding things that spark joy

2:03

in you to bring out your

2:06

happy. And what I try to do

2:08

here at least in the third of the time and

2:10

this week Well, it's my effort to

2:12

spark joy for you and your family

2:15

around the game table. Now, I first

2:17

started doing this in two thousand seventeen. back

2:19

then it was the gift giving special this

2:22

time of year. It was December two thousand

2:24

seventeen. I had a bunch of fellow fools

2:26

on to talk about how they give gift around this

2:28

holiday period and some creative

2:31

thoughts.

2:31

And I still think that probably

2:33

makes a good listen five years

2:35

later. But I kind of just

2:37

Right at the end of that podcast,

2:39

they're stuck in a games list,

2:41

in that gift giving special of two thousand

2:44

seventeen, and then a year later, Well,

2:46

that December, I interviewed Richard Garfield

2:48

here. Richard, the designer of Magic: The Gathering,

2:51

one of the great all time games. And

2:53

wonderful interview. And yeah, at the end

2:55

of that one, I just put in a list

2:57

for recommendations for holiday

3:00

games. So then in two thousand

3:02

nineteen, for the first time I just explicitly

3:04

came out of the closet on this and I went

3:06

games, games, games.

3:08

That was the title of the podcast, which

3:10

is why this week is called games

3:12

games, games volume four. It's

3:15

my annual holiday guide to

3:17

some of my favorite recent tabletop

3:19

games that would be board games and

3:21

card games. Alright.

3:23

Now before we get started with the

3:25

first of my two game

3:28

lists. First, I'm gonna put out a

3:30

list of lighter family games and

3:33

then second, harder core strategy

3:35

games. I want first though

3:37

to share with you two of my favorite

3:39

tools from the board game

3:41

world. The first is

3:44

board game geek, which I talk about

3:46

at this time every year.

3:48

Now if you love the mottley fool, we

3:50

say investing to you and

3:52

you come to full dot com thinking about

3:54

investing in money, while

3:56

the site that I do the same thing for

3:58

when it comes to board games

3:59

the magnet site for me as a

4:02

board gamer is clearly board

4:04

game geek dot com. A lot

4:06

of you who are gamers already know this

4:08

but many others are hearing this for the first

4:11

time. Wait, there's a site dedicated

4:13

to board games on the Internet? Well,

4:16

darn right there is. It's been going for twenty

4:18

plus years. In fact, I talked to the founders

4:20

in those early days back

4:22

in the nineteen nineties because they reached out about

4:24

branding their business and their

4:26

website. And so they reached out to us,

4:28

I guess, understandably at the

4:31

fool. And they said, hey, you guys call

4:33

yourselves fools. Has that worked

4:35

for you? They were saying in the late nineteen nineties

4:37

because they told me, we're

4:39

thinking of going with the site and calling

4:41

it geek board

4:43

game geek. So what do you think

4:45

of that? And of course, well, as fools we

4:47

said, we think we think that's

4:49

great. I'm not saying they needed

4:51

our advice, but it did end up board game

4:53

geek, which I'm very happy

4:55

to note. Now, more important

4:57

is, of course, the value of that

4:59

site every game ever made,

5:01

whether it's a game you were taught as a child and

5:03

can't remember the name of it, or a

5:05

game that's existed for thousands of

5:08

years like the game go or

5:10

a game that you played last week, every

5:13

single one of them has a page

5:15

on board game geek. where people are

5:17

posting a pictures of the game, they're

5:19

answering rules, questions in the forums,

5:21

putting up tutorial videos, all

5:23

kinds of content user generated

5:25

around each game. So it's

5:27

such a helpful tool.

5:29

Do you have a burning rules question?

5:31

Great. Just ask and get it answered. right

5:34

there on the forums. And in fact, as

5:36

I have in years past, I'm actually gonna

5:38

be including in this games

5:40

games games episode Three

5:42

key bits of information from

5:45

board game geek to add value to

5:47

your decision about what is the

5:49

right game for you. So three facts.

5:51

Key

5:51

data. Let's go over them right now upfront.

5:54

First is the rating.

5:56

You know

5:56

how the Internet movie database, IMDB

5:59

dot

5:59

com, puts a rating? on every

6:02

movie? Amazon

6:03

puts a rating on every product? Well,

6:05

that's exactly what you'd expect from

6:07

board game geek where every game

6:10

is rated, and in my experience, if

6:12

a game is at seven point o

6:14

out of ten or higher,

6:17

it's probably a pretty good

6:19

game. If it's below seven, well,

6:21

you better really like the genre or

6:23

maybe you know the designer personally because

6:26

there are probably many better games

6:29

than those. I'll also mention because each

6:31

of these ratings and review sites has

6:33

sort of unique parameters about

6:35

how to think about their ratings It's

6:37

very rare for any game on board game

6:39

geek to be rated over, let's

6:41

say, eight point

6:43

five. I mean, you have thousands of people rating

6:45

have to have everybody agreeing that it's a

6:47

ten to be anywhere near

6:49

a nine. Turns out there

6:51

are many mixed tastes and so

6:54

rarely if ever will you see a

6:56

game much higher than eight point

6:58

five. So it's

6:59

that sweet spot that I look for on

7:02

board game geek games ranked

7:04

between seven point o and

7:07

roughly eight point five. And of course,

7:09

all the games I'll be sharing with you this year

7:11

do fall in that Sweet Zone. I

7:13

mean, they're good to great games. Otherwise, why

7:16

are we talking about them? The

7:18

second number I'm gonna share with you is

7:20

the weight rating. And that bears a

7:22

quick explanation. It's so helpful,

7:24

especially figuring out what is a

7:26

good game for you or a person

7:28

that you're thinking about giving

7:30

a game two as a

7:32

gift. So the weight of the game

7:34

is gonna be rated from one to

7:36

five. And it's basically How

7:38

much effort does it take to teach

7:40

and or to play

7:43

this game? How weighty?

7:45

Is it? So closer to

7:47

five means thirty

7:50

seven page rulebooks, two hours,

7:52

rules explanations, a whole bunch of

7:54

overhead probably even to get

7:56

that game to the table.

7:58

And you'd wanna have opponents

7:59

who are deeply into hardcore

8:02

strategy games. That's a game with a

8:04

weight near five. Whereas

8:06

the opposite, well, if it's down

8:08

near one, it's candyland.

8:12

By

8:12

the way, one of the worst games ever made teaches

8:14

kids, decisions don't matter because all you're doing is

8:16

flipping cards and flying with the cards says,

8:18

Though

8:19

I would like to point out that a fellow fool, this

8:21

is a bit of a digression. A

8:23

rule breaker investing listener has fixed,

8:25

Kandyland has previously told on this

8:27

podcast Instead of just

8:29

drawing one card, you have your

8:31

child draw

8:32

two cards and decide which

8:35

card to play. That's the way to

8:37

restore choice and meaning to one

8:39

of the worst games ever made. Anyway,

8:41

Candy Land, yeah, is around a weight of

8:44

one point o. So

8:45

the hardest most intense game you

8:47

could probably ever think of is gonna be above

8:50

four and the very light games down

8:52

near one. So for each of

8:54

the games, This week, I'll be giving the

8:56

weight to give you a sense of how

8:58

easy it is to teach to others, often how

9:00

long it might take to play or

9:02

not. A lot of that is wrapped into

9:04

the weight. Now the final fact I'll be giving

9:06

you from board game geek for each of these

9:08

games is the appropriate number of

9:10

players for

9:11

the game. If you're a

9:12

longtime gamer, you'll recognize sometimes you

9:15

buy a game box and on the box it says

9:17

players two to six, but

9:19

While it might say players two to six,

9:21

sometimes it's only really a

9:23

good game if it's four, five, or

9:25

six. Maybe it's not a very good two

9:28

player game or sometimes it

9:30

might be a great two or three

9:32

player game of boy. If you start adding four five

9:34

and six players, It just takes way too

9:36

long. So gamers are smart and

9:38

onboard game geek. They vote what

9:40

they think the best player

9:42

totals are. So I'll be giving that

9:44

for each of these games too. So

9:46

again, to summarize, I'll provide the rating

9:48

for each game. How good is

9:50

it really? And the weight of the game, is

9:52

it weighty, requiring deep

9:54

rules reading and only players who really

9:56

want that experience? Or is it

9:58

the opposite?

9:59

and

9:59

and what is the optimal player

10:02

count. But

10:03

I did say that there were two

10:05

tools I wanted to share with you

10:07

upfront. The first was board game

10:09

geek and now the second, and

10:11

it's another free endorsement for

10:14

something awesome in the gaming world. In this

10:16

case, someone who's created an

10:18

amazing tool and that is the

10:20

BG stats app.

10:22

You ready to get really geeky

10:24

with me? I take

10:26

the time when I play any game

10:28

to log that I played

10:30

that game. Some people do this, I don't know,

10:32

with their diet. Right? They're like, I ate this

10:34

today. I'm gonna list that.

10:36

They keep a

10:36

spreadsheet of what they're eating to make sure they're

10:39

eating healthfully or to keep to

10:41

a diet. well,

10:41

gamers, especially hardcore

10:44

ones like me, also log

10:46

their games. So I'll

10:48

say I played this game with my friend, Rick,

10:50

Rick and I played this game at his

10:52

house. So you type in the location,

10:54

on this date, it

10:56

took this long Yep. You

10:57

could track the time that the game took. That could

10:59

be helpful for the future. And of

11:02

course,

11:02

what the final score was. And

11:04

so I log my

11:06

games. Now if this sounds crazy to you,

11:08

please don't do it. But if it

11:10

sounds interesting and you're wondering

11:12

what's an amazing app that just keeps getting

11:14

better, to help

11:15

you keep track of all the games that

11:17

you've played. Well, that's BG

11:19

stats, of course, BG standing for board

11:21

game, but BG stats you'll

11:23

find it on the app store. You shouldn't

11:25

have much trouble finding it. In fact, the author

11:28

says board game stats was created

11:30

because, quote, My wife and I were

11:32

missing a quick and easy to use tool to track

11:34

our board game plays over

11:36

time it developed to include statistics

11:38

and more and more details

11:40

features and polish thinking we

11:42

could not be the only ones looking for

11:44

this solution. And, quote,

11:46

the app was published to the App Store. I

11:48

see now in July of two thousand

11:50

fourteen apps by

11:52

Iroko, the name of the developer.

11:54

And in fact, I see that Iroko is

11:56

Dutch, and his wife, Susanne, Their

11:58

last name is Vestering. You can even follow them

12:00

on Twitter if you like, but he does

12:02

this spectacular job

12:04

with this app. So the games I'm sharing

12:06

with you this week are

12:07

among my most played games in

12:09

twenty twenty two. And I can do crazy

12:11

things. Thanks to the Zap like,

12:13

tell you

12:13

I've had two hundred sixty plays

12:16

of games so far this year.

12:18

That's

12:18

pretty disappointing and that I played three

12:21

hundred nineteen games at the

12:23

same point last year. So if you're

12:25

calculating either way that I'm playing

12:27

roughly one game a day on

12:29

average, well, that is true. Of course,

12:31

sometimes

12:31

nothing for a week and then eight over a

12:33

weekend, but I

12:34

actually know how many games

12:37

I've played. and I played with thirty

12:39

four different other players in the last

12:41

twelve months, sixty nine unique

12:43

games in fourteen locations.

12:45

The list goes on All

12:47

I'm doing is logging by the way, but the number

12:49

crunching from the app is just

12:51

fantastic. Alright. So you've

12:53

heard about board ginkink and the

12:55

BG stats app.

12:58

Let's get started.

12:59

Alright. We're

13:01

starting with casual games,

13:03

and I always do these alphabetically, and

13:06

the first game actually starts with

13:08

a number. So I'm leading off with

13:10

seven wonders dual.

13:12

Yep. Just the number seven wonders.

13:14

A lot of you may know. Seven

13:16

wonders. The famous drafting

13:19

card game, a lighter card

13:21

game. Seven wonders first appeared

13:23

in two thousand ten.

13:25

Five years after that came

13:27

this game seven wonders

13:30

dual. Now you might be thinking,

13:32

wait. Hey. Check it. It's twenty twenty

13:34

two. Why are we talking about a game that

13:36

came out in two thousand fifteen. Well,

13:38

I hadn't previously mentioned this game

13:40

on any of my last several

13:42

games, games, games, podcasts and

13:44

it continues to be a game that rewards

13:47

me playing it year in

13:49

and year out. And it's a casual game.

13:51

So I wanted to lead off with it this

13:53

year. seven wonders dual.

13:55

Now what is the board game geek

13:56

rating for this game? Out of

13:58

ten,

13:58

eight point one.

13:59

Yep. This is a pretty

14:01

great game. What is the weight of

14:03

this game? Well, of the five games I'll

14:05

be presenting in the casual list,

14:07

this is the weightiest. The

14:09

most gamers game of these five

14:11

in the weight of seven wonders dual is

14:14

listed as two point two again

14:16

out of

14:16

Five.

14:17

Finally, this is a two player game.

14:20

Only that's what it says on the box and that's

14:22

what it plays best with.

14:23

So like the game

14:25

that spawned it, seven wonders dual

14:28

is a

14:29

card game, and it is a civilization

14:31

based card game. So You have

14:33

this sense over three ages. You're

14:36

requiring cards. They're improving

14:38

your military or your

14:40

scientific development. and the

14:42

title of the game seven wonders, hailing back of

14:44

course to the seven wonders of

14:46

the ancient world, which are prominently

14:48

featured in this game. So you're

14:50

also constructing wonders. But

14:52

overall, we're talking about a

14:54

thirty minute card game. And with

14:56

seven wonders dual, it's just

14:58

for two players. If you're

15:00

familiar with seven wonders, it became

15:02

famous as a drafting game.

15:04

You pick up a hand of cards. You take

15:06

your favorite one and pass them to the left.

15:08

to your opponent to the left, you take the

15:10

hand from your opponent to the right, you take

15:12

one of those cards, it keeps going around, you draft

15:14

out a bunch of cards that you played your

15:16

Tableau in front of they key

15:18

off of each other. You're trying to construct the

15:20

most valuable civilization over

15:22

the course of time. You can you can earn a

15:25

military victory. You can earn a science victory.

15:27

And again, that's the game of seven wonders,

15:29

this game goes just for two

15:31

players. So instead of passing hands

15:33

back and forth, you deal a bunch of

15:35

cards into a Tableau on the

15:37

table between you and you draft

15:39

from there.

15:41

Over the course of the game, you're kind of

15:43

collecting sets of cards.

15:45

For example, the blue cards

15:47

are civic improvements. The

15:49

red cards are military. The

15:51

yellow cards are around trade and commerce.

15:53

One of you might start specializing

15:56

in one or the other. Part of what

15:58

makes this game great is it's

16:00

different every time how the cards

16:02

get dealt out to the Tableau. And

16:04

in fact, toward the end, which ones

16:06

are actually included or not

16:08

changes every game as do the

16:10

wonders that are available for

16:12

you and your opponent to build. So this is

16:14

a wonderful couple's game if you have a

16:16

spouse or partner who enjoys games or a

16:18

sibling or your neighbor. It's just

16:20

a delightful two

16:22

player game. And of my five casual

16:24

games this year, this is the only one

16:26

that's just a two player game.

16:28

So if that's a particular interest

16:30

to use seven, Wonder's dual comes

16:32

highly recommended. Before I move on to

16:34

my next, I do wanna mention this game and

16:36

the one that follows it, these are

16:38

not exactly very, very

16:40

light games. These are a little bit more

16:42

appropriate for people who appreciate new

16:44

game mechanisms, who don't

16:46

mind reading instead of words on the

16:48

card sometimes. iconography that might

16:50

be keyed to a certain way to score or

16:52

a certain keyword in the game.

16:54

So seven wonders dual of these five

16:56

casual games is the least

16:58

appealing to purely casual

17:01

gamers. This one's a little bit more

17:03

of a gamers game, seven wonders

17:05

dual. By the way, I should mention

17:07

all ten games I'm featuring this

17:09

week. I made a point of typing in

17:11

to amazon dot com to

17:14

ensure that they are available

17:16

and

17:16

widely distributed. It would be really frustrating

17:19

for me to get you excited about a game this

17:21

week, and then you click in and find it's not

17:23

available for another three months or

17:25

even worse, let's say, that it's only a

17:27

Kickstarter game. So I have a

17:29

particular conscious bias this

17:31

week to giving you games that you

17:33

can click and buy and know they'll be there

17:35

within the next week or

17:37

two.

17:39

Alright. Casual

17:39

game number two, we go down to

17:41

the letter g. It's the

17:43

guild of merchant explorers. Now

17:46

this is a hilariously generic

17:48

name. In my experience, even people

17:50

who played game five or ten times if

17:52

you ask them really quickly to say the name of

17:54

the game. They have a hard time

17:56

coming back up with the phrase, the

17:58

guild of merchant explorers, but

18:00

that is the name of game number

18:02

two and a spectacular twenty

18:05

twenty two release from Aldarac.

18:08

Games. The Guild of Merchant Explorer's gets

18:10

a board

18:10

game geek rating of seven point

18:13

eight. The weight of this game is two

18:15

point one right near two

18:17

point two for seven wonders. Dual two

18:19

point one. This game plays

18:21

one to four players. It's

18:23

considered best with two or

18:25

three players. So

18:25

what's happening in the guild of merchant

18:28

explorers? Well, each of us has an identical

18:30

map in front of us on the table, and

18:32

it kind of looks lightly like, I

18:34

don't know a medieval map that merchant

18:36

explorers might be exploring. Were they

18:38

part of a guild? And so you as

18:40

a merchantic floor will be dropping

18:42

cubes down on the little hexes, the empty

18:44

hexes of your map, and that's kind of showing that

18:46

you've explored that. So your goal

18:48

is to crawl across your map with as many

18:50

little cubes in your color as

18:52

possible. But what brings those

18:54

cubes onto the map? It's kind of like

18:56

Bingo. One player flips

18:58

up a card and calls out

19:00

a particular terrain type. And all

19:02

of the players see that on that card and all

19:04

the players let's just say it's a couple of

19:07

mountains or three sea spaces or two desert

19:09

spaces. Each of you would then take up

19:11

two little cubes and put them

19:13

on desert spaces. Again, you're starting

19:16

with identical maps, but

19:18

how you start playing across your

19:20

map will be different every time.

19:22

So all of us is exploring and trying

19:24

to score points in different ways. One of the

19:26

things I don't do on games, games,

19:29

games, podcasts is explain the

19:31

rules to games sometimes it

19:33

can be tempting to do so. But

19:35

keeping a big picture here, one

19:37

of the really neat innovations in

19:39

this game is Again, it's kind of like

19:41

Bingo except with maps, but a

19:43

couple of the cards that are pulled out

19:45

over the course of the game as

19:47

directives to what to do next

19:50

create unique features where

19:52

you and all your opponents will be diving into

19:54

a separate little deck of cards

19:56

and you'll pull out from that a unique way

19:58

for you to explore on your

19:59

map. And that will recur

20:01

a couple of times over the course of

20:03

this multi round game.

20:06

So We're all kind of exploring

20:08

the sea and the desert and

20:10

the mountains and we're building cities

20:13

and a couple of other things I wanna

20:15

explain here. but

20:15

we also have a unique

20:18

strategy that starts to emerge

20:20

over the course of the game and of course

20:22

from one game to

20:24

the next it's different every time. So sort

20:26

of

20:26

bingo over a hexagonal grid

20:30

and exploration strategy game.

20:32

Casual light again takes an

20:34

hour or less, best with two

20:36

to three players looking to

20:38

create networks, building routes, and

20:40

scoring victory points over and

20:43

across their maps bonus.

20:45

There are four different maps in

20:47

the box. So of us might play

20:50

map one. You should play map one the

20:52

simplest one for your first game, but

20:54

we could in future games play on map

20:56

two or three or four each of them have their

20:58

own fans c name and a little

21:00

bit more complication. So the

21:02

game has progression for those who

21:04

want a richer and more advanced

21:06

experience. The guild of

21:08

merchant explorers. I'd like to say it in

21:10

a distinctive way. That way, I myself remember

21:13

the title of this generically

21:16

named game. Alright.

21:18

On to casual game number three.

21:20

This one comes from Reiner Kinesia, a

21:23

previous interviewee on this podcast,

21:25

one of my favorite game designers and a

21:27

friend of more than a couple decades at

21:29

this point. So shout out to Rainer if you're

21:31

hearing me this week.

21:33

Reiner's game, my city, came out

21:35

in twenty twenty. It is a legacy game.

21:37

I will explain that in a sec.

21:39

But somewhat similar to

21:42

guild of merchant explorers,

21:44

my city has you kind of

21:46

bingo calling once again

21:49

with Polyomino shaped pieces that we're

21:51

gonna be playing to our respective boards,

21:53

kind of like the maps from Guild of Merchant

21:56

explorers, trying to rack up points as

21:58

well as you build

21:59

the

21:59

your

22:00

city.

22:03

But I mentioned it's a legacy game

22:05

which is a relatively new innovation in the

22:07

world of games and a delight in

22:09

my city. Legacy games

22:11

are games where what happens in

22:13

one session like you and I just played this game.

22:15

We played my city together You

22:18

won, I lost. The

22:21

following game session whenever we next

22:23

play my city together will

22:25

be affected by what we did

22:27

in the previous game. Maybe since

22:29

I lost, I'll get an extra piece

22:31

or maybe get to start with plus

22:33

three points over the course

22:35

of many sessions.

22:37

The game keeps growing

22:39

and changing based on what's

22:42

happening all the way through. And that's in a sense why we

22:44

call these legacy

22:46

games because the game builds up a

22:48

legacy and the legacy of your

22:50

past will affect the play

22:52

into the future. Now in the case

22:54

of my city, the game consists

22:57

of twenty four episodes. That's

22:59

what calls them basically twenty

23:01

four play sessions. And if you're thinking,

23:03

wow, that's a lot of times to play a

23:05

game. Each of these games takes

23:07

between fifteen and thirty.

23:09

minutes, so you really in a couple of hours could

23:11

probably play six to eight sessions

23:13

and rapidly advance through this

23:15

legacy game. I should mention

23:18

that part of it being a legacy game, you will

23:20

occasionally put stickers on your board,

23:22

you will change the nature of the

23:24

game as you're playing, and you might be wondering, well,

23:27

Wow. If we're putting stickers on these boards and some of their legacy games

23:29

have you writing a word, like you get

23:31

to name the continent after yourself. If you

23:33

win a game, this kind of thing you might

23:36

be wondering, is

23:37

the game playable by the end of the

23:39

legacy? And the answer is, in the case of my

23:41

city, yes, you will

23:42

end up with a final version of the game

23:44

that is replayable from that point

23:47

forward. I have to admit after we'd

23:49

played twenty four episodes of my

23:51

city, we haven't since returned

23:53

to it, but we certainly could have.

23:55

Part of my problem is always another game to play

23:57

some new shiny bobble

23:59

appearing in

24:00

cardboard delivered outside my front

24:03

door. So I often don't stick with

24:05

games much past especially that

24:07

legacy portion. When I talk about

24:09

legacy games, of course, here we're talking about

24:11

my city, which has those

24:13

twenty four legacy sessions,

24:15

but there are other legacy games. In

24:17

fact, the first legacy game ever was

24:19

risk, was turned into a legacy

24:21

game. So if you've played risk whatever

24:23

happened, that first game changed the

24:25

nature of the second game with Risk Legacy.

24:27

In fact, the

24:28

innovator and designer behind

24:31

The legacy concept is Rob Davio, another

24:34

past interview on rule breaker

24:36

investing. So legacy games,

24:38

pandemic legacy has been

24:40

a big hit for those who know the Cooperative

24:42

Game Pandemic, which I've talked about in the

24:44

past on this series. That is a

24:46

very popular set of

24:48

legacy games. So I really like

24:49

legacy games. One of the requirements though

24:52

is you're gonna wanna keep playing with the

24:54

same group of people. Now my

24:56

city is rated at seven point

24:58

seven onboard game geeks. So, yes, it

25:00

is a well liked and

25:02

admired game. The weight of this game is

25:04

two point o. slightly

25:06

less weighty than the previous two games we

25:08

talked about. On

25:09

the box, it says you can play with two

25:11

to four, but really this game is

25:14

probably best with four. Yes. You could just play it with a spouse or

25:16

partner all the way through. But I

25:18

think the more the merrier kind of like

25:20

bingo itself, but two,

25:22

three, or four will enjoy my city, but

25:24

I'm telling you that you're gonna wanna have

25:26

those same two, or

25:28

three, or four players consistently

25:31

play all the way through the

25:33

game. And if you end

25:34

up falling in love with my city as we did

25:36

and playing it all the way through,

25:39

my island a sequel

25:40

I think is coming out next

25:42

year which I'm looking forward to. So

25:44

this is a tile

25:45

laying game. I mentioned Poly

25:48

Yamino. That's a phrase given to tiles that take different

25:50

shapes, and you're gonna be fitting them together

25:52

like Tetris, but they have different

25:55

colors and different functions

25:57

because We're building a city here, so

25:59

you've got like the

25:59

commercial buildings and the residential

26:02

buildings. As you construct your

26:04

city, hoping to score more points

26:06

with your city that you're building

26:08

than the one that I'm building. But even if

26:10

you win this one, maybe I'll get you

26:12

back powered by, I don't know,

26:14

maybe an extra component or

26:16

rule or two in the next

26:18

play session. My

26:21

city. Alright. Casual gain

26:23

number four. Well, let's go to the

26:25

letter s and

26:25

the card game

26:26

scout. Now this game

26:27

first came out in two thousand nineteen,

26:30

but got reprinted and made more

26:32

widely available last

26:34

year and we have played this game a lot

26:36

this year. Now we're card players in my family.

26:38

We enjoy a good card game.

26:40

This game plays three to five players.

26:43

The box, by the way, lists two to

26:45

five, but most gamers would really

26:47

prefer to have three, four or five. It's

26:49

considered best with four. I'm

26:51

very happy to play scout with

26:53

three, four, or five players.

26:55

This is a

26:58

ladder climbing game sort

27:00

of similar to run me. You're

27:02

trying to get rid of your

27:04

hand. One of the cool aspects

27:06

of Scott, one of its primary innovations

27:08

is that every card bears a number

27:10

It's not a traditional deck of cards, so you'll

27:12

have like an eight in your hand. But

27:14

if you flip that card upside down,

27:17

it'll be a two. And so every

27:19

card has two sides to it. And

27:21

as you pick up your hand of cards that's

27:23

Mandel to you. And again, you're trying to get rid of

27:25

your hand before I get rid of

27:27

mine, you

27:27

make the initial decision at the start of the game that

27:29

you can either flip

27:30

your hand one way

27:33

or do

27:33

a one eighty

27:34

and play it from the other

27:36

side. And another key innovation

27:38

in the game of scout is you

27:40

do not rearrange

27:42

the cards. sequence of

27:44

cards from left to right across your hand,

27:46

whether you wanna play it this way

27:48

or upside down,

27:50

that

27:50

sequence of cards is gonna remain

27:53

the same entire hand. Again, I'm

27:55

not gonna explain the rules of this game,

27:57

but I am gonna explain to you that for people

27:59

who enjoy games like

27:59

rummy or if you're a harder core

28:02

gamer and you know the game, tissue,

28:04

then you're gonna be very comfortable

28:06

and very happy playing the game

28:08

of scout. Scout is rated at

28:10

seven point seven on board game

28:13

geek Its

28:13

weight is just one point three. So

28:15

of the four games, in fact, I'm just

28:17

noticing now I'm presenting the games alphabetically

28:20

this week, but they

28:22

decline in weight from one

28:24

to five. So this is less weighty

28:26

than the three we've just covered and the

28:28

final game by the way will be less

28:30

weighty than this. But basically on

28:32

your turn, when it's your turn, you're gonna

28:34

take one or more cards out of your hand, put

28:36

them on the table, then the

28:38

next player is gonna attempt to top that. Maybe with a

28:40

more valuable card or a more

28:42

valuable combination of cards, that's

28:45

why this genre of card games is

28:47

called ladder climbing because kind of

28:49

like we climb a ladder by

28:50

going up. Well, at least when we go

28:53

up ladders, you'll be doing the same thing with the

28:55

cards you lay down on the table. You'll keep

28:57

trying to top whatever trick

28:59

was just played before yours. Now if

29:01

you can't top whatever combination is

29:03

sitting on the table, you will take

29:05

a card from that trick played

29:07

to the table and add it to your hand

29:09

and you'll choose again Where

29:11

to put it in your hand? That's the only time you

29:13

can disrupt the order of your hand. You

29:15

take a new card in. You can decide where to

29:17

put it and also which way

29:19

to

29:19

flip it. Again, you're trying to get out of cards. So,

29:22

generally, if you're left with cards in your hand because

29:24

your buddy went out first, those

29:26

points

29:26

are gonna count against you.

29:28

And if we're playing four player game of scout, that means

29:30

we're gonna play four hands. If you're playing

29:32

a three or five player game of scout, three

29:35

or five hands, so one hand per

29:37

player each hand taking about

29:39

ten minutes to play. So this is

29:41

one of those great card

29:43

games that can be played over and over your

29:46

whole life long. A lot of us of course

29:48

grew up with games like rummy

29:50

or spades or

29:50

more simply Go

29:53

fish or more complicated, a game I

29:55

love. Bridge, a lot of us

29:57

recognize these games, but there have been

29:59

some

29:59

great more recent card

30:02

games that I think stands shoulder

30:04

to shoulder with a game like rummy

30:06

or Bridge. And if you hadn't previously

30:08

heard of tissue, I can recommend that one as well, TICHUT

30:12

shirt and scout, probably two

30:14

of the truly great new card games

30:16

to appear in recent

30:19

years, scout.

30:20

out And by the way, of

30:21

these five casual games I'm highlighting this

30:24

week, this one's probably the hardest to

30:26

find. So if you're hearing this

30:28

podcast within minutes or hours of it

30:30

coming out, you have a better shot at

30:32

buying the next copy of scalp than if you're

30:34

hearing this on Saturday

30:36

or two weeks later. Good luck either way. This

30:38

is a game worth acquiring. Even if you can't

30:40

get it in time for the holidays, a

30:42

great game to play throughout twenty twenty three.

30:46

Alright. And the last of my

30:48

five casual games is probably my

30:50

favorite. If I had to name

30:52

a game of the year for twenty twenty two.

30:54

It is so

30:57

clever. Exclamation point. It's supposed to be

30:59

punting off the phrase so

31:01

clever. but the shape of the

31:03

player boards are four

31:05

leaf, green leaf clovers, which

31:08

really has very little to do with the game, but

31:10

that's why it's called so Clover.

31:12

This game is rated as a seven point

31:15

six onboard game geek. The

31:17

weight of

31:17

this game, it couldn't be much simpler.

31:20

fellow fools. It's a one point

31:23

one. So Clover is

31:25

a word game. On the box, it

31:27

plays two to six, which in fact,

31:29

it does Generally

31:29

considered best with three or four players, but I'd

31:31

be happy to play it as just two or

31:34

six. The more players the longer

31:36

the game will take. So happening in so Clover? Well,

31:39

you're gonna be pulling a bunch of

31:41

cards from a face down pile and

31:43

you're gonna arrange them randomly

31:45

on the board in front of you

31:47

and each of the cards has words on them and you're gonna be dropping

31:49

them down in a little two by two

31:51

grid on the clover

31:53

in front of you. So

31:56

two

31:56

words by two words. And if you look across the

31:58

top, you'll see two different words. Let's just say

32:00

one of them is boat and

32:02

the other is pig.

32:04

you're gonna

32:04

have to think about what is the one word clue that I

32:07

could come up with that would

32:09

unite, boat, and

32:11

pig Once I remove all of

32:13

these cards from my board and

32:15

only show the clues that

32:17

I wrote down, I'm asking my

32:19

teammates and this by the way, a cooperative game, not a

32:21

competitive game. This is a cooperative game. I'm

32:24

asking my partners to

32:26

figure out out based

32:28

on my clue that it was

32:30

boat and pig I was trying to speak

32:32

to. So what

32:33

word would unite boat and

32:35

pig because this is

32:36

the kind of challenge you get in this game. And I

32:38

have to admit, I couldn't come up with anything

32:40

off the cuff,

32:41

so I briefly stopped this podcast when

32:44

offline with my producer, Rick.

32:46

And Rick, you

32:46

and I talked this out, what's a word?

32:48

A single word by the way

32:50

that can somehow connect in the minds of our fellow gamers

32:53

are secret

32:53

words, boat and pig.

32:57

I

32:57

don't think there is one.

32:59

We talked about it. I mean,

33:01

they both float. Do pigs float? No.

33:05

No. About that. I was thinking

33:07

of the word muck. It's like,

33:10

you know, the pig lives in muck. It's a

33:12

noun, but you can also muck

33:14

a deck maybe? I don't know. It's like to clean.

33:16

It's to muck. Is that -- Yeah. -- whatever? You

33:18

muck a boat. You you you you

33:20

you clean a boat. Alright. Good. So

33:22

so let's go with Muck. And

33:24

of course, in the game of So Clover, you're

33:26

not allowed to ask for help from your pal, Rick.

33:28

You need to sit there and puzzle that

33:31

yourself. But over the course of ten minutes or so, everyone

33:34

quietly looks over four different

33:36

pairs of words to

33:38

create four clues on

33:40

their board. Again, I'm not gonna explain the whole

33:42

rules of this game, but basically, you'll then pull

33:44

all the cards off your board. You'll only

33:46

show the keywords that you gave

33:48

then you'll ask your fellow players to

33:50

piece together the cards that you

33:52

had in order to figure out the

33:54

right arrangement to speak to each of your

33:57

clues. This is, like, all of my

33:58

casual games

33:59

infinitely

34:00

replayable. This game

34:03

takes somewhere between fifteen and forty

34:05

five minutes And this is the

34:07

game I have played more than any other, not because it's

34:09

the best game of all time or my

34:11

very favorite, but because it's so

34:13

easy to throw down among

34:16

any group of people, family members over the

34:18

holidays, even people who don't enjoy

34:20

games, so Clover is

34:22

a genius word game

34:24

very similar to the game just

34:26

one, which was on my

34:28

games, games, games volume, one of this

34:30

podcast in two thousand nineteen,

34:32

another great word

34:33

games. So those are the five casual games of the year

34:35

for

34:35

me for twenty twenty two. A combination

34:37

of ones that may or may not have come out this year,

34:39

but that I

34:42

played the heck out of this year, and that I highly recommend

34:44

to you, your friends and family,

34:46

to summarize seven wonders dual,

34:49

The guild

34:50

of merchant explorers,

34:52

my

34:53

city, scout,

34:55

and so clover. Again,

34:58

all should be pretty

35:00

purchasable, pretty easily here

35:02

between now and the end of

35:04

the year. I do wanna mention just in passing one more

35:06

game that I mentioned this

35:08

time last year that

35:09

I really just continue to

35:12

love So if you're looking for an

35:14

extra idea and you hadn't already bought and played Cascadia, I'm not even gonna explain

35:16

how it works or what's going on.

35:18

what's your what's going on but

35:20

Cascadia is another great casual game if you're

35:22

looking for additional ideas. So

35:24

thus much for casual

35:26

family games, we're about to move now

35:28

to hard course

35:29

strategy games. But before we

35:32

do, I do wanna mention the mailbag

35:34

this month. My producer, Rick and I will be

35:36

recording this

35:38

month's mailbag earlier than usual, so we can both take the last week of

35:40

the year off. It's gonna be a fresh new

35:42

podcast, of course. It will be

35:44

your mailbag,

35:46

but we're actually gonna record

35:48

it probably a week or so before the

35:50

end of the year earlier than

35:52

usual. So that's my way of saying before we

35:54

move on to hardcore strategy

35:56

games that If you'd like to be part of this month's mailback, drop us a

35:58

note like

35:58

ASAP. Our

35:59

email is RBI at full dot

36:02

com. We'll take them all in and read

36:04

them probably Friday,

36:06

December sixteenth. Of course, the

36:08

mailbag will come out on its normal schedule, which

36:10

this year happens to be

36:12

Wednesday, December twenty eighth. But

36:14

I'm flagging this with the very

36:16

first podcast this month, of course.

36:18

So if you have questions or thoughts about

36:20

games or additional game

36:22

suggestions, we're happy to speak to that in

36:24

the mailbag or email address RBI

36:26

at full dot com and, of course, at

36:28

RBI podcast. You can tweet

36:31

us

36:31

on Twitter. Alright.

36:33

Well, before we move on to our

36:35

hardcore strategy games, Rick, I wanted to

36:37

ask you about board game arena. A

36:40

lot of people will use the

36:42

acronym BGA That's the Internet site which increasingly has many

36:44

of these card and board games that you

36:46

can now play online

36:48

against opponents across the

36:50

net and been

36:52

availing yourself some of BGA this

36:54

year? Yeah. We discovered, like,

36:55

a lot of people did. We discovered BGA

36:57

and made a lot of use of it during

36:59

the lockdown years. and

37:02

yeah, play

37:02

a little bit against strangers from

37:05

who knows where and also with

37:07

local friends even you can you can select who you

37:09

wanna play with if you want to. And

37:11

one of the great things about playing games that way, and

37:13

you and I know both still enjoy far

37:15

more playing with people in person, whether

37:17

a board or a card game, but

37:19

have to admit two cool things about playing on BJ1

37:22

is that the games usually go a lot

37:24

faster. You're using the same rule

37:26

sets. In many cases, they try to make the

37:28

components look

37:30

just the same as the physical components if you own the game

37:32

yourself. But man, Rick, you don't have to set

37:34

up anything. You don't have to set up, you don't have

37:36

to clean

37:38

up. And and a lot of the mechanics in the game that

37:40

that can take some time, like say drafting,

37:42

as you were talking

37:43

about before, shuffling things

37:45

like that. It just because those things

37:47

are obviously not necessary to do in

37:49

that context, the game can go much faster.

37:51

I was playing a game of seven wonders,

37:53

not the dual game, but the multiplayer

37:56

game. And that's not a long

37:58

game to play in person.

37:59

But on PGA, it's a very fast

38:02

game to play. So we found that we could we

38:04

could play a dozen games in a in a

38:06

evening very easily, and we gotta get a

38:08

better feel for who's winning

38:09

overall as opposed to who just wins one game.

38:12

It's fun to do. Great examples. So

38:14

certainly the games often go faster the

38:16

game keeps score for you,

38:18

etcetera. And then one other aspect is, of

38:20

course, you're playing against the world and some of the

38:22

best players in the world of some of

38:24

these board and card games or playing right there

38:26

on BGA. The system is

38:28

gonna keep track of the results. You can

38:30

build up with your avatar. You can build

38:32

up stats. You can play games

38:33

over and over. You're gonna get a lot better,

38:36

generally a lot faster at

38:38

games

38:38

that are played on BGA. So

38:41

just a shout out to BGA.

38:43

I think many of our gamer friends

38:45

listening in this week already know about it, but I like

38:47

to share it out for all those who don't.

38:49

And one last

38:50

benefit is that it gives you a great avenue

38:52

to try out games that you think you

38:54

might like. But maybe, you know, you're not

38:56

sure. So these games that you're recommending here,

38:59

you can

38:59

try them out on BGA first and make

39:01

sure it's something you like. That's right. And the

39:03

site is free, although there are

39:05

premium aspects of it, of

39:07

course, as well. Alright. Well,

39:08

let's move now on to list number

39:10

two, and these are the harder

39:13

core strategy games

39:16

and By the way, if you're still

39:18

listening, you are either already a harder core

39:20

gamer or you are open to

39:24

becoming one If you don't wanna go deeper here, I mean, we've had a

39:26

great time this week. This is enough of a

39:28

podcast about games for

39:30

most people. please find some

39:32

of the great games I've already mentioned. Enjoy with

39:34

Family and Friends' holiday

39:36

season, stop full

39:38

stop. Alright. But if you didn't stop

39:40

with me, that means you're willing to go deeper. You're gonna

39:42

be playing games that are longer,

39:46

far wavier And boy,

39:48

did some great games

39:50

appear in twenty twenty two? Let's

39:52

talk about my

39:54

five favorites. Again, alphabetically, we're gonna start with what

39:56

I believe is the game of the year for

39:58

twenty twenty two for harder core

39:59

strategy games, and that is the game

40:02

of arc

40:04

Nova.

40:04

Yep. ARC as in

40:05

Noah's Ark, Nova as in the latter

40:07

half of Supernova Ark.

40:10

Nova, this a zoo

40:12

simulation game. We're gonna be building

40:14

zoos competing against

40:16

each other. This game is rated eight

40:20

point six on board game geek already with more than

40:22

twenty one thousand ratings.

40:24

This puts ArkNova as

40:27

presently the fourth greatest strategy

40:30

game of all time, and I

40:32

played a lot of them. I

40:33

think I

40:34

kind of agree. of

40:36

Ark Nova is three point seven

40:38

out of five. So, yes, this game's gonna

40:40

take about forty five to sixty

40:43

minutes to teach It's gonna take about

40:45

two and

40:45

a half hours to play. The box

40:47

lists one to four players.

40:49

Most people on BTG would prefer

40:51

it. I do

40:54

too. with fewer than four. In fact, I don't think I'd wanna play arc

40:56

no with four. That would take forever. This is

40:58

one of those games, the more players, the longer

41:02

the time. It's

41:03

listed as best with two. I'd be happy to play with two or three, and yes,

41:05

it does play solo. Well,

41:07

with my harder core strategy

41:09

list each year I specifically

41:12

make a point of not trying to explain the

41:14

rules because these games can get very

41:16

complicated very quickly, but suffice

41:19

it say in this zoo simulation game

41:22

that there are about two

41:24

hundred and fifty cards, each one of them

41:26

unique, many of

41:28

them showing animals, but others showing

41:30

specialists

41:30

or potential business

41:32

partners or special enclosures or

41:36

conservation projects. All of the

41:38

things that are involved in

41:40

Zoos these days are simulated

41:42

in Ark Nova, but the key here kind of

41:44

like the great game terraforming Mars

41:46

and other of my favorite games of

41:48

all time. Each one of those two hundred

41:50

fifty plus cards is

41:52

unique.

41:52

And so in a game of

41:54

Ark Nova, you won't be going through that

41:56

full deck even with four players

42:00

probably which

42:00

means it's very replayable. The mix of

42:02

cards that comes up each time is

42:04

different. What's not different? Are

42:07

the five at that we each as competitors take throughout

42:09

the game. One of them, for example, allowing you

42:12

to draw more cards to your

42:14

hand, another that allows you to

42:16

build more

42:18

parts of your zoo. Yep. This is another game with a map where dropping

42:20

polyaminones down onto your map, trying

42:22

to fit everything into your enclosures.

42:26

Of course, you're gonna be playing cards through your hand as well, the animals to

42:28

your zoo. So these are some of the actions.

42:30

And again, there are a number of

42:34

different game mechanisms that all combine beautifully. You're

42:36

gonna be doing some drafting. You're doing

42:38

some economic management. There's some end

42:40

game bonuses. Everybody's playing toward.

42:43

I'm quite confident actually since if you're a serious gamer

42:45

still listening to me, and over twenty

42:47

thousand ratings are already

42:50

logged, I'm quite confident you might

42:52

well have heard of Ark Nova at

42:54

this point. But if not, take a look on

42:56

board game geek. And again, it

42:58

is purchasable on Amazon looks widely available

43:00

to me and I highly highly

43:02

recommend this, which is again

43:04

for me the game

43:05

of the year, Ark

43:08

Nova. It is often,

43:08

by the way, compared to games like

43:11

terraforming Mars, kind of a

43:13

business economic simulation happening with

43:16

lots of card play and card

43:18

drafting and valuation and victory

43:20

points

43:20

the law

43:22

galore. Alright. On to

43:22

harder core game number two, this

43:25

one is plank catacombs.

43:27

Now, plank is a

43:29

series of games created by

43:32

Paul Denon. The first one appeared in

43:34

two thousand sixteen, and this is a

43:36

deck building game. So over the

43:38

course of a game of plank, you're going to be buying

43:40

cards from the central area

43:42

and you're going to be adding those to your

43:44

own personal deck that you're going to be

43:46

drawing from

43:48

your deck and playing the cards and taking the actions. And in the case

43:50

of Clank, the classic game,

43:52

you were starting your little pawn

43:54

in town You're moving your

43:56

pawn down through the game board

43:58

into the dungeon, moving it along through the

43:59

dungeon with the movements on your

44:02

cards. You're trying to steal a

44:04

valuable treasure and then run

44:06

out of the dungeon using your movement

44:08

points to get out before the big

44:10

boss dragon shows up

44:12

and incinerates all of the

44:14

players who didn't get out in time. So it's kind

44:16

of a race game, but it's

44:18

driven by deck building. And Clark

44:20

has now come out in many different

44:22

forms. There's a space version of it. There's

44:24

a sunken treasures version.

44:26

There's a mummy's curse version that came

44:28

out in two thousand eighteen. And then more

44:30

recently, within the last couple of

44:32

years, a legacy

44:33

version of Clank, I already spoke

44:35

to legacy games earlier this

44:37

podcast So there's now a legacy version of Clank, and I

44:39

certainly highlighted that as

44:40

one of my top five last year.

44:43

So, yeah, I'm a Clank

44:45

fan, but in particular, Clank

44:48

catacombs has just come

44:50

out in the past few weeks. And what's

44:52

cool about this version of Clank

44:54

is that all the others are on a

44:56

fixed game board where each time

44:58

you play the game even though the cards

45:00

that you buy and the deck that you build is

45:02

different each time, the

45:04

board is always the same. Well, for the first time,

45:07

the innovation with plank catacombs

45:09

are that you're actually

45:11

spawning the game board as

45:13

you play through in each time

45:15

you play a game of client catacombs, the game board will

45:17

therefore be different. Of course, you're still gonna be doing a lot

45:19

of the same things trying to

45:21

get in there. Move through as quickly as

45:23

you can through the catacombs, go as deep as you can to get the best

45:26

treasure and then get the heck out before it all

45:28

blows up. But really each of the plank games

45:30

I would

45:32

recommend but

45:33

I am excited in particular. I have to admit I haven't played it yet, but I know the

45:35

game well enough to know that

45:38

clank catacombs for

45:40

deck building strategy gamers, people looking for a

45:42

little bit lighter fun, I should mention

45:44

the weight of clank catacombs.

45:47

is

45:47

two point five. So this is a

45:49

much quicker,

45:50

easier to learn game and to

45:53

play than ArkNova. Both are so highly rated though.

45:55

Clank catacombs at eight point four on board game

45:58

geek. And while the box says it

45:59

plays two

46:02

to four, gamers generally think this game is best with three

46:04

or at the max four

46:06

players. So that's all I wanna say

46:08

about plank

46:10

catacombs, hardcore strategy

46:12

game number

46:14

two. Alright. On to

46:16

hardcore strategy game number three.

46:18

And this is actually a plug for two

46:21

expansions, both of which came out in twenty twenty two

46:23

and both of which enhanced one of

46:25

my favorite games of

46:27

the last decade. The game I'm

46:30

thinking of is Dune

46:32

Imperium. Fans

46:32

of the book series Dune, those who

46:34

may have seen the recent movie of

46:37

last year, That's the

46:37

dune that we're talking about, and this is a game that

46:40

I talked about one year ago

46:42

because in fact, dune imperium was

46:44

on this harder core

46:46

strategy list one year ago today, but as often

46:48

happens with popular strategy

46:50

games and expansion came out, in

46:52

this case, two smaller

46:54

box expansions

46:56

both of

46:56

which are brilliant and that's why I'm highlighting these as

46:59

game number three this

47:01

year,une Rise of IX

47:04

came

47:04

out earlier this year. It's an eight point eight on board game

47:07

geek. That's an

47:07

incredibly high

47:10

number. Top even more

47:12

recently by June immortality,

47:14

which just came out in the last

47:16

month or so, which is at present, keep

47:18

in mind all of the fans and

47:21

geeks have put in their big numbers for this 1A9

47:23

point two on board game geek. That's

47:25

probably unsustainably high, but

47:28

both of these are

47:30

fantastic expansions that will make

47:32

your plays of dune

47:34

imperium that much better. This is a game, by

47:36

the way, that is an eight point four of

47:38

the base game overall. Really one of

47:40

the top twenty games of all time at this point. I really

47:42

love this game and I believe it's worth it. So

47:44

with Rise of IX

47:46

and immortality, either

47:48

or

47:48

both of those expansions

47:50

will further enhance your experience of

47:52

June. And, yes,

47:53

this game, both the base game and, of

47:55

course, its expansions play

47:58

three or four players. I like it

47:59

with either. There is a single player

48:02

version. There is a two player

48:04

version as well, but really this game

48:06

screams to be played. with

48:08

three or four players. Now I will

48:10

mention Rise of X appears available

48:12

on Amazon, but immortality,

48:14

which was kickstarted and is

48:16

pretty brand new You may have a

48:18

harder time finding

48:20

direwolf is the publisher. And if you were to go

48:22

to direwolf digital dot com

48:24

or shop dot direwolf digital

48:26

dot com, You might be able to

48:28

score yourself a copy of dune

48:30

imperium, the

48:31

immortality expansion. But even if you can't

48:33

get that in time for the

48:35

holidays, If you hadn't already discovered the base game and

48:37

or the rise of expansion earlier

48:39

this year, well, you're in for

48:41

a treat. And before I move on to game

48:43

number four, I'll mention Another

48:46

great expansion came out this

48:48

year for another game I highlighted last year.

48:50

I'm not including this on my list of

48:52

five, but that's because I kept it to

48:54

a

48:55

list of five. If I'd done a top ten,

48:57

lost ruins of

48:57

Arnac and its expansion this

48:59

year, expedition leaders

49:02

would absolutely be on this list as well. So just as Dune

49:04

and Puriam made it last year, so did

49:06

lost ruins of Arnack, both of them

49:10

came out with expansions this year and they're great. I think I

49:12

included June because I just like the game a little

49:14

bit more. But I should mention to my

49:16

fellow hardcore

49:18

gamers here that these games blend deck

49:20

building. We just talked about

49:21

that some with clank catacombs deck

49:23

building with

49:25

worker placement. and

49:27

it's very

49:28

compelling the way these two mechanisms

49:30

are fused in both dune and

49:32

lost ruins of Arnack completely different games,

49:34

but using some of the same mechanisms

49:37

and both integrating them so very well. So really

49:39

any of the games I just mentioned, even if

49:41

you only get the

49:44

base game

49:44

game of lost ruins of

49:46

Arnack or June imperium. If you

49:48

had not previously discovered those, I

49:50

highly recommend them. Of course, I spoke

49:52

to them more in last year's games

49:55

games, games podcast. Alright.

49:57

On to

49:57

hardcore strategy game number

49:59

four, and it's great

50:02

western trail. second

50:03

edition. Now, Great

50:05

Western Trail first came out in its

50:07

original edition. The year was

50:09

two thousand six teen. It was a very popular and well

50:11

liked game back then, but it

50:14

got redone, I would say, with somewhat

50:16

better graphics in a couple of

50:18

rules tweaks and came out more

50:20

recently as Great Western

50:22

Trail Second Edition, and I

50:24

cannot recommend this game highly

50:26

enough. Once again, you're doing

50:28

some deck building, which means part of this game is a card game. In

50:30

fact, in this case, you're

50:32

buying livestock cows and bulls.

50:33

You are rustling.

50:36

You are driving them

50:38

from the origin of the start point of the

50:40

board to Kansas City where you'll

50:42

be dropping them off the

50:43

most valuable cattle that you can manage over the course of

50:45

a game. You'll probably be visiting Kansas

50:48

City between five and seven times.

50:50

It's kind of a

50:52

race game as you move from one point to the next along

50:54

the Great Western Trail,

50:56

deck building your way, building

51:00

buildings that give you unique powers. And when you drop one of your

51:02

own buildings along the trail, other

51:04

players can't really use it

51:06

effectively, which means you're slowing

51:08

them down as you build

51:10

buildings, but you're gonna need to make a lot of money

51:12

from your adult to build the most

51:14

valuable buildings. Of course,

51:16

economics runs Underneath so

51:18

many of these harder core strategy

51:20

games in Great Western Trail is no

51:22

exception. This game is an eight

51:24

point five as its

51:26

second edition on board game geek, which means it's a truly

51:28

outstanding strategy game designed

51:30

by talented German game

51:31

designer Alexander Fister

51:34

This is one of the top fifteen strategy games of

51:36

all time at this point. Its weight, yep, is up

51:38

there. Three point seven. That's

51:42

Ark Nova level. That means for gamers who

51:44

are getting ready to play Great Western

51:46

Trail's second edition, well, somebody's gonna

51:48

need to read the rulebook, which

51:51

gonna take that person probably about an hour to read and

51:53

then an hour to teach others and you're gonna be

51:55

playing this game probably over the course

51:57

of two to three

51:59

hours.

51:59

So yes, weighty

52:00

and to my way of thinking absolutely worth it

52:03

so rewarding. This game plays

52:06

well for one to four

52:08

players as it says on the game

52:10

box, it's considered best

52:12

with three. Now I will mention for

52:14

those who may have come across Great Western

52:16

Trail in the past, There's a

52:18

new version. It's kind of like a sequel.

52:20

It looks a lot like the game has some of its

52:22

same mechanisms, but it's called

52:24

Great Western

52:26

Trail colon Argentina,

52:26

and that new but related game is

52:29

just coming out as we

52:31

speak. In fact, again, this

52:33

is

52:33

only for really gamers

52:36

like me. If you already had Great Western

52:38

Trail and didn't know about Argentina,

52:40

you should know you can probably order it. I

52:42

don't see it on Amazon these days, but I

52:44

sometimes buy games Canadian

52:46

website here in North America called board

52:48

game Bliss, where I did

52:50

order Argentina. So great western trail.

52:52

Argentina is out there for anybody

52:55

who loves him or her as some great

52:57

western trail and may not have known that

52:59

the sequel is now out. I realized a

53:01

fair amount of my hardcore

53:03

strategy been about sequels, and that can

53:06

often be the case. You know, in my

53:08

experience, movie sequels are usually

53:10

worse than the original

53:12

movie themselves

53:13

themselves video games sequels

53:14

are almost always better

53:16

than the original themselves and games.

53:18

Well, tabletop games that can kind

53:20

of go either way. But of course,

53:22

In my games games, games podcast focusing on the

53:24

best and often I'm finding brilliant

53:28

expansions that

53:30

floor new areas or enhance your enjoyment of existing

53:32

great strategy games. So there you

53:34

go. Game number four, Great Western

53:37

Trail. Second edition.

53:39

Alright. And that

53:42

brings

53:42

me to game number five. And you

53:44

know, I have made a point of interviewing

53:46

some of my favorite people from

53:48

The tabletop games world, I've already mentioned a few of them, like Richard

53:51

Garfield, Reiner Kenizia, and Rob

53:53

Davio. Earlier this podcast, And

53:56

here I'm gonna mention another, and that's Jamie Stegmeier, one

53:58

of the proprietors of

53:59

Stone

53:59

Meyer Games, a brilliant game designer

54:02

on his own, but also a

54:04

talented businessperson and then

54:06

publisher. And Jamie came on this podcast some

54:08

years ago because he's so good at

54:10

Kickstarter and racking up lots of

54:12

dollars for his new games and he shared some of

54:14

his secrets about how to succeed on Kickstarter, on Rule

54:16

Breaker investing a few years

54:18

back. But Vivid culture has been

54:20

one

54:20

of his

54:22

better

54:22

games, both as a designer and a publisher. Many

54:24

of you are hardcore strategy gamers.

54:26

That's why you're still listening to

54:29

me right now. Probably have played

54:31

Viticulture or are aware of it. It's a worker placement game simulating,

54:33

of course, the world of wine

54:35

and wineries and having your own vineyard

54:37

and running the

54:40

business of your vineyard as you compete with others

54:42

for, of course, victory points because that's

54:44

how things are scored often in the world of

54:46

business. We score with dollars in real life,

54:49

but in these games. We often score with victory points,

54:51

and that's true of Viticulture as well.

54:53

But in particular here in

54:55

twenty twenty two, a new

54:58

cooperative version called Viticulture

55:00

World came out as a

55:03

standalone and expansion to

55:04

Viticulture, and I highly recommend having played

55:06

some of Viticulture World myself,

55:08

this game, Viticulture World is

55:10

rated seven point nine on board

55:14

game geek It's weight well, it's three point two, so it's

55:16

not gonna be as

55:17

long or difficult as Great Western

55:19

Trail, but it certainly is heavier

55:21

strategy game. This game does

55:23

play ABLY. Players one

55:25

to five. Yep. It's a cooperative game. You

55:27

could even play it by

55:29

yourself. considered best with two and it's the kind

55:31

of game you might

55:32

really enjoy with a spouse or partner especially

55:34

if you both enjoy wine, over

55:37

a glass of wine. You can strategize

55:40

together how to beat this game because

55:42

that's what it is. This is a

55:44

cooperative version some of my

55:46

favorite games in recent years I mentioned one

55:48

earlier this podcast.

55:49

So Clover, these are cooperative

55:51

games where you all win

55:53

or lose together against the

55:56

game. Inviticulture world takes many

55:58

of the mechanisms of Viticulture again

55:59

primarily work worker

56:02

placement and economics and it brings it

56:04

in into a cooperative,

56:06

progressive environment. There are light

56:08

legacy elements to Viticulture

56:10

world, which we have enjoyed.

56:12

as

56:12

well. So summarize my

56:15

five harder core strategy games.

56:17

They are in alphabetical order

56:20

Arconova.

56:22

clank, catacombs, the

56:24

dune

56:25

imperium expansions, rise of

56:27

XIX

56:30

and immortality,

56:31

Game number

56:32

four, Great Western Trail Second Edition.

56:34

And finally, the one I just mentioned,

56:37

Game number five, Viticulture

56:38

World. Now, I can't end this

56:41

podcast without throwing out some

56:43

more harder core

56:44

harder core game recommendations.

56:46

In this case,

56:48

just paying lip service to games, I won't explain,

56:50

but part of the reason they didn't make

56:52

the to five is because they're

56:54

not as easy to find as

56:56

the five I just shared with you.

56:58

Alphabetically, these four games have

57:00

all been out standing releases in the

57:03

past

57:03

year. Dead reckoning,

57:06

endless

57:06

winter, paleo Americans,

57:09

planet unknown, and

57:11

Wonderland War. One

57:13

sentence about each dead reckoning

57:16

is a pirate themed game,

57:18

kind of like deck building

57:20

except your card crafted. You're actually making the cards

57:22

themselves. It's a brilliant

57:24

mechanism. And as you explore

57:26

and compete

57:28

against Your fellow pirates in a couple of hours, endless

57:30

winter, like both June Imperial and

57:32

Lost Rooms of Arnack, endless winter is

57:35

a combo deck builder. With

57:38

worker

57:38

placement, I haven't gotten to play

57:40

it yet, but I have the Kickstarter version and I'm

57:42

excited to dive in. I do see that

57:44

one is available by the way. on

57:48

Amazon. Planet unknown is one of those

57:50

games kind of like Guild

57:51

of Merchant Explorer and my

57:54

city earlier a

57:56

Polyomino game where you're building

57:58

out your maps together as

57:59

you explore in this

58:01

case outer space and

58:03

Wonderland War which is an amazing themed

58:05

game, pretend that it all went wrong for Alice

58:07

and Wonderland, it all got very dark

58:09

and different factions.

58:12

almost like Game of Thrones started

58:14

warring. Wonderland War brings you card

58:17

drafting together with

58:18

area control in

58:21

a wonderfully fun and thematic

58:23

few hours. So dead reckoning,

58:25

endless winter

58:26

paleo Americans, planet unknown and

58:28

wonderland's wore some

58:30

more great twenty twenty two releases. The

58:32

only reason I'm mentioning them is because

58:34

our cup runneth over in terms of

58:37

both bound to full harvest of great new games

58:39

that came out this year and my

58:41

enthusiasm not being able not to

58:43

mention them here at the end

58:45

of this podcast. Alright. Well, let me say one

58:47

final thing in closing. I love

58:50

games. I think that's evident many a time in

58:52

this

58:52

podcast. I've talked about

58:55

i've talked about losing to

58:56

win. Now that's one of my

58:58

big themes in life really important. I've

59:00

talked about it in the context

59:04

of investing and also business and how we go through

59:06

life. I love games and yet even

59:08

though I own hundreds of them

59:10

myself, people might

59:12

think, well,

59:12

might think well I'm probably really

59:14

good at them if I'm this into games

59:16

that own that many, but I'm

59:18

actually don't

59:19

tell anyone else

59:20

not a particularly

59:22

good gamer. I mean, I regularly get beaten

59:24

by people of all ages. I'll

59:26

teach a new game to somebody. I played it

59:30

for years. and they'll beat me in the first game that we play

59:32

together. So I guess it's

59:34

fair to say winning and losing

59:36

are not

59:36

such a big thing to me

59:39

when it comes to board games. I also love

59:42

cooperative games, which I spoke to

59:44

earlier, but the three games, I

59:46

love the most, which in their

59:48

own ways, involve a

59:50

lot of losing too, but I'm

59:52

trying to get better at them every day and I hope you

59:54

are too through this podcast

59:56

and

59:56

through the molly fool, the games of

59:58

investing business and

59:59

life. I've always thought of investing

1:00:00

as an amazing game

1:00:02

and I love keeping score. We've done that together

1:00:04

with all the five stock samplers over

1:00:08

the course of years now and, of course, at the motley fool in our

1:00:10

business, we have lots of different

1:00:12

services. We keep score on what

1:00:14

we do.

1:00:16

Now business I'm

1:00:17

so pleased and delighted. I would say I

1:00:19

would say blessed to have been an

1:00:22

entrepreneur, to be an entrepreneur, somebody who's

1:00:24

created a business So, yeah,

1:00:26

investing business in life. I love investing in

1:00:28

other people's businesses. That's what we

1:00:30

do, by the way, as investors, but the

1:00:32

game of business will

1:00:34

always be infinitely

1:00:35

interesting to me, which takes me

1:00:37

to darn it

1:00:40

life.

1:00:40

Life when thought

1:00:41

of as a game, where

1:00:42

you can keep score. The big secret is it's a

1:00:45

coop. It's not

1:00:45

a dog eat dog

1:00:47

competitive game unless you wanna play it

1:00:49

that way really, but What

1:00:51

really happens in business every day is that

1:00:53

buyers shake hands

1:00:56

with sellers

1:00:57

and transact with each

1:00:59

other. We're all helping

1:01:00

each other. You're good at this. I buy from

1:01:02

you. I'm good at this. You buy

1:01:04

from me. We're all helping each

1:01:07

other in a cooperative game

1:01:10

of life. Now, if you've ever played the game of

1:01:12

life, which I think is Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers, well,

1:01:14

that's not such a good game. If you

1:01:16

know what the one with little cards and

1:01:19

pink

1:01:19

blue ponds and a big spinning

1:01:21

wheel. That's not that's not a good game.

1:01:23

But the game of life,

1:01:26

all caps the one I love talking about in this

1:01:28

podcast is so

1:01:29

those are the three games that

1:01:31

I love the

1:01:32

most and I hope

1:01:34

I'm

1:01:34

helping you get better at each of

1:01:36

them. Well, I guess

1:01:37

it's not too early to say it.

1:01:40

Is it?

1:01:42

Happy holidays. Full on

1:01:45

one and game

1:01:46

on. As

1:01:49

always, people on this program may have interest in the

1:01:51

stocks they talk about, and the Molly

1:01:53

fool may have formal recommendations

1:01:55

for or against. So don't buy

1:01:57

or sell

1:01:58

stocks based solely on what you hear. Learn more about rule breaker

1:01:59

investing at rbi dot fool

1:02:02

dot com.