0:11

Hello and welcome to this very sleepy episode of

0:13

the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast, a podcast

0:15

about board games, board games and... That's

0:20

my sleeping noise. Did you like that? Yeah,

0:22

it was great. It was really good. You're

0:25

joined by myself, Tom Brewster,

0:27

and Emily. Hello. I

0:29

don't know what you're talking about. I'm full of energy.

0:31

You need to stop bringing the podcast down. This

0:33

is one of the most energetic board game podcasts

0:36

in the world, Tom. Shut up. Oh my goodness.

0:38

Okay, fine, fine, fine, fine. On this podcast, we're

0:40

going to talk about some board games, baby. Hell

0:43

yeah, Tom. Yeah. I

0:45

actually do feel slightly more energetic just by doing

0:47

this. We're going to talk about two board games

0:49

on this podcast, just two, and then a third

0:51

one at the end, but only for a little

0:53

bit. We're going to talk about

0:56

MLEM, space agency.

0:58

Am I saying MLEM right, or should

1:00

I be pronouncing it? M-L-E-M. I

1:02

wish it were MLEM because that would be like my

1:04

name, but with an M at the end, and that

1:06

would have made me very happy. Ah,

1:09

they'd be synergistic with your real life

1:11

name. And we're going to talk about

1:13

Kootenai Horror, the city of silver, a

1:16

CGE game that looks on its surface

1:18

to just be a standard Euro game,

1:20

but then under the surface, it's got

1:22

a bit of spice, a

1:24

bit of oddness going on. Are

1:27

you, am I making this sound exciting? You

1:29

are. I was hoping you were going

1:31

to say it, and under the surface, it is a

1:33

basic Euro game, but that's fine. I

1:35

mean, that is also kind of true. And

1:38

then right at the end, if we've got

1:40

time, we're going to have a little chat

1:42

about Dune Imperium and Dune Imperium Uprising, a

1:45

game that we have covered extensively recently in

1:47

a big chunky video review, and that Emily

1:50

has never played and does not

1:52

know anything about because she's outside

1:54

of the Dune-iverse. Isn't that cool?

1:57

Isn't that amazing that we would do that? Why would you have

1:59

me? on the show and talk about

2:01

this. I don't know, this is Tom's

2:03

decision. It's mostly just an opportunity for

2:05

me to talk more at someone about

2:08

Dune because people in my life don't

2:10

want to listen anymore. So you are

2:12

now that person. And so is the

2:14

audience. I am the sacred spice. There we

2:16

go. That's enough to put a sting in

2:18

and lead us right into Pod Town. I

2:22

think I nailed that. The sacred spice.

2:24

Yeah, you nailed it. You did. You killed

2:26

it. Whoa. Emily,

2:30

you've been playing a whole bunch

2:32

of Malem Space Agency, a 2023

2:34

game designed by Ryder Knitsia, published

2:37

by Rebel Studios with art by

2:39

Joanna Respecker. What is this game?

2:41

Because I've seen people talking about

2:43

it. I've seen that it has

2:45

a really long neoprene mat. And

2:47

I've also seen that it's covered

2:49

in cute cats. And

2:53

I don't know if I like the

2:55

fact that it's got cute cats on

2:57

it and that it's called Malem. That

3:00

makes me cringe. Do you

3:02

think they're cute? Yeah, I think

3:04

that they're not my definition of

3:06

cute, but they might be someone's

3:09

definition of cute. They're a little

3:11

strange. Although I do like one

3:14

of the ones on the front cover. The little

3:16

chubby one that cooks. The one with the spatula.

3:18

Yeah, what a cutie. He

3:21

seems like a cool guy. I

3:23

love them. Well, apparently I'm becoming

3:26

the correspondent for Animals in Space games.

3:28

I talked about Apiary. Oh yeah. There's

3:30

bees in space. And now I'm talking

3:32

about cats in space, Tom. It's cats

3:34

in space. Yeah. That sounds like a

3:36

really good niche for you to cover. Like any game

3:39

that has got animals and also space. It sounds like

3:41

we know who to call. We're probably going to get

3:44

on the podcast. Five years

3:46

time. Bring Emily back. Now we've

3:48

got turtles in space. I

3:51

would play the living daylights out. Oh wait,

3:53

hold on. That's just Twilight Imperium. Ha ha

3:55

ha ha. You know, that's got space turtles

3:57

in it. Tell us about Malem Space Agency.

4:00

Cats right they've taken over the world it says

4:02

it says in 2075 they taken over the world

4:05

I don't know if the the animals like

4:07

I don't know if the humans are dead

4:09

I don't know if we've been domestic odd,

4:11

but they've taken over yeah now They're going

4:14

into space Tom isn't that cool mm-hmm It's

4:16

like ground control the major Tom, but

4:18

instead of you It's like Tom from Tom and

4:20

Jerry cuz it's cats. That's a good joke leave

4:22

that in This

4:27

is a push-your-luck game apparently it's

4:29

similar to Celestia Which I haven't played,

4:31

but if you've played it apparently it's like

4:33

that, but a little more complicated And I'll

4:35

get into that there There's a spaceship and

4:37

you all have eight cats and you're going

4:40

to be putting your cats onto this spaceship

4:42

So every round the person who's

4:44

cats at the top of the ship They're

4:46

the commander and they have control over the

4:48

ship and they're going to be doing the

4:50

push-your-luck portion of it Wherever the ship is

4:52

you'll be rolling dice and those dice will

4:54

determine how far your ship will progress or

4:56

whether it will crash Oh, and then you

4:58

all die oh oh No,

5:01

the cats actually live. Oh well. I

5:03

can't live They're like I guess

5:06

because they land on their feet or whatever

5:08

right in space in space. They land on

5:10

their feet That's a boy that

5:12

is an interesting you know like when they talk

5:14

about that idea that like you know bread always

5:16

lands Butterside down and cats always

5:19

land on their feet So if you put

5:21

a piece of bread with the butter facing

5:23

up on a cat's back and drop it

5:25

it'll spin forever Well, I'm going to go

5:27

to the Empire State Building right now a

5:30

cat and bread in hand and I'll

5:32

report back So

5:37

if every space that your ship

5:39

can go on there are dice

5:41

possibilities for that space right and

5:43

it goes from Wonderful and

5:45

then there's also an afterburner So

5:47

I think it's the two gets twice

5:50

on the on the dice So it's

5:52

like one two two three four after dinner So

5:54

say that the space that you're on it

5:56

has an afterburner and a two right

5:59

as the the two possible

6:01

dice rolls. You roll your dice, and

6:04

every afterburner you have and every two that

6:06

you have, you can apply that to your

6:08

ship, and it will go as

6:10

far as the number that you've got. But

6:12

you don't have to use all the dice

6:14

that apply. You'll essentially like group them. So

6:17

you'll group your afterburners, you'll group your twos.

6:19

And then you can either use the afterburners

6:21

or you can use the twos, or you

6:23

can use all of both group, right? But

6:26

you have to use all of what, like each category.

6:29

If you decide to use the twos, you have to use all

6:31

the twos. If there are two twos, you'll move forward four spaces.

6:34

But if you roll and you don't get

6:36

any of the numbers that are indicated, you

6:38

crash. All of your cats will go back

6:40

to your board, they'll land on their feet,

6:42

and then you'll move the, I

6:44

don't know what it's called exactly, the little crash marker.

6:47

You'll move that up one. Then does that trigger the

6:50

end of the game when it gets to a certain

6:52

point? Yeah, and what number would you expect it to

6:54

go to? For a game without cats, when they crash,

6:56

and how many times do you think they can crash

6:59

and die? Yeah,

7:01

how many lives, how many lives

7:03

like these cats that we had? I'm

7:06

gonna say 11. Yeah,

7:08

apparently it's 11. I

7:10

thought that was the same change. That

7:13

is strange. Isn't that weird? That

7:16

does seem very particular. I mean, is there some,

7:19

you know, maybe they played it at nine and they were like, you

7:21

know what, this ain't, this is, you know, they were saying this game,

7:23

it's a 7.5. We make this

7:25

track 11 and we're getting all the way up to an eight out

7:27

of 10. We're getting 0.5 full points by

7:30

swerving the thematically correct answer to how

7:32

long this track should be. Yeah,

7:35

and like, you know, they just put

7:37

astronauts. They don't put cataronts. It's like,

7:39

what the hell? What are you, your-

7:41

What was going on? What were you

7:43

doing? What's even the point of this

7:45

anymore? This is definitely further

7:47

evidence of Rainer Canitzia Games being

7:50

mechanics first, theme second, because

7:52

all of the illustration and art in this

7:54

is really nice. Like I can see these

7:56

pictures on BoardGameGeek and like the

7:58

little trinkets that you're- I don't

8:00

know how you get them, but like it seems like there's

8:02

like a little little Cat treat on a

8:04

string is one of the treats and like one of

8:06

the planets is like a fishbowl full of goldfish and

8:09

one Of them is a big yarn ball like that's

8:11

cute and I in a way I love

8:13

I love the idea of Like

8:15

because it's it's saying that it's grounded in

8:17

the real world like they they overtook us

8:20

in 2075 and then somehow The

8:23

planets all like shifted into cat

8:25

related things. I love yes It's

8:28

almost like they're predicting what's out there and

8:30

they're and they're just talking about like things

8:32

that they know and they're like Oh Jupiter

8:34

looks like a big cat scratcher That's quite

8:36

that is that is a that is a

8:38

nice idea and then the I want the

8:40

sequel game Where the cats of Malem are

8:42

bitterly disappointed to find out that Jupiter is

8:45

in fact mostly just So

8:48

if you crash the ship like you're the captain

8:50

you're rolling the dice you crash the ship that

8:52

like, you know quote-unquote Kills

8:55

all the cats on board including yourself presumably

8:57

right? Yeah Yeah, so is there a way

9:00

if you don't like where the ship is

9:02

going presumably you can get off early Yeah,

9:04

this is the whole game. I probably should

9:06

have said this earlier instead of going on

9:08

a thousand tangents so As

9:12

you're progressing along the track your you're the luck

9:14

the luck won't be on your side You know,

9:16

it's a press your luck game It's like if

9:18

you think that dice roll won't go the way

9:20

that you want it to in the future You're

9:23

getting a little antsy You can jump off to

9:25

either like if the space is next to moons

9:27

You can jump off to a moon if it's next to

9:30

a planet you can jump off to the planet the moons

9:32

are like Solid points when

9:34

you're on a moon, you just get the points

9:36

that are on that But the

9:38

planets are like majority. So whoever

9:40

has the most on They'll

9:43

get that they'll get the big points. So

9:45

this push a lot game where if you're

9:47

the captain you're Trying to

9:49

navigate like as far as you can Like

9:53

while you're in control and that's fun And

9:55

if you're any of the other players and

9:58

you're not liking how that's going you you want a

10:00

jump ship or if they've jumped ship you take

10:02

over. But here's where it's interesting Tom, this is

10:04

this is very interesting to me. It kind of

10:06

sounds like there's very little decisions to make right?

10:09

Sure. Unless you're like the the captain of the

10:11

ship. But one of the main decisions you can

10:13

make is what cat you are going to put

10:15

on the ship. So you have eight

10:17

cats and they all have a little special

10:19

ability. So when to use which like cat

10:21

for which ability because once they're once they're

10:23

on a moon or a planet you can't

10:25

use them anymore. Gotcha. So it's like when

10:27

to use it and like when to take

10:29

advantage of them. That's fun and that's cool.

10:31

And so there are ones that are like

10:33

you'll get double points if it's on the

10:36

moon or you'll get double points if it's

10:38

on a planet or there's ones like one

10:40

with a parachute where if the ship

10:42

explodes then you'll automatically go to

10:45

whatever space that's on so you can be a

10:47

little more risky if you've played that. Yeah.

10:51

Yeah and I found that very fun.

10:53

I think that's very cool. And so

10:55

presumably as the captain or even as

10:57

another passenger you can look at the

10:59

other abilities of the cats on

11:01

board the ship currently and you can get a sort

11:03

of temperature of where people want to end up or

11:06

where they want to go. Very much. And you can

11:08

make decisions according to that. Oh that's cool.

11:10

I like that. I think that's an

11:12

interesting little twist to that kind of thing

11:14

because if I remember correctly and I have

11:16

not played this game so this is incredibly

11:18

foggy for me but Celestia the game that

11:21

people have by the sounds of things been

11:23

comparing this to is a

11:25

similar game of being like you know you

11:27

move between these different places and maybe you

11:29

stay or maybe you leave but it does

11:31

not have that level of like player power

11:33

or intent and this could be completely wrong.

11:35

Yell at us or yell at me specifically

11:37

in the comments if this isn't the case

11:39

but having that ability to you

11:42

know have a guess at what your

11:44

opponent slash comrades might be trying to

11:46

do rather than just basing

11:48

it on pure vibes does sound kind of interesting.

11:50

I like the idea of this despite not being

11:53

into cats particularly.

11:55

I do like cats actually. I don't know why

11:57

I said that. I'm a fan. I

12:00

just don't like cute games broadly. Do

12:02

you not? Do you? Do you? Does

12:04

this do? Does this, does this, does this

12:07

delight you? I, uh, this game in particular?

12:09

I don't find this game all that cute.

12:11

I mean, I find the components in everything

12:13

cute. I don't find the art particularly that

12:15

cute. But I do love cute games. You

12:17

don't find the cats themselves. No, not really.

12:19

But cute games are, why would you not

12:21

like them? I think it depends on what

12:23

kind of cute it is. Like, if it's...

12:27

Like, the art in Fort, for example. I

12:29

love it. Yeah. That art is like, exactly

12:31

my kind of cute. Don't you dare say

12:33

anything bad about it. No, no, no, no,

12:35

no. I would never. I would never. I

12:38

think the art in that game is like,

12:40

the good kind of cute. Whereas I feel

12:42

like, maybe like Calico is a

12:44

good example of like, a sort of...

12:46

I mean actually, I like Calico. It's

12:48

kind of a cosy rather than cute.

12:50

I guess I just don't like things

12:52

that are like, trying too hard to

12:54

be like, It's adorable. And I don't

12:56

like words like, Doggo, for example. Yeah.

12:58

You don't like words like, Mlem. I...

13:00

maybe I do not like words like,

13:02

Mlem, yeah. Hahaha. So,

13:04

that kind of stuff will

13:07

always be a little bit of a turn off

13:09

for me. But is... Okay, here's the... Time

13:12

to hit... Um... Ahem. Time

13:15

to do the, um, official...

13:18

Shut up and sit down verdict. Time.

13:22

Is it... Um, is it a good

13:24

game, Emily? Yes, I like it. Can

13:27

we put in claps? Can we put in a crowd

13:29

cheering? Yeah, we can do some applause

13:31

right now. Right now, you're basking in it.

13:33

The, you know, the crowd they're loving it.

13:35

Oh, thank you. Are roses unnecessary? Thank you

13:37

so much. Hahaha. You're

13:41

just being... It's just overwhelming how much,

13:43

how much love is coming from our

13:45

live studio audience. I'm glad that

13:47

it's good. Yes. So, what I find like, really

13:50

fun about... I mean, I just like push it a

13:52

lot in general. I like it a lot. It's a

13:54

good mechanic. Oh my gosh. If I

13:57

ever, um, like dip

13:59

my toe... into gambling, I think I'd have a problem.

14:02

I... It's very fun. There's

14:07

just like so much joy in, you know, being

14:11

in a terrible situation. You've

14:13

got like one dice left. There's

14:16

something that I didn't say, but the afterburn is if

14:18

you use them, you keep them. Whereas the other dice,

14:20

when you use them, they're gone. Oh.

14:22

Yeah, so you're running out of dice as you

14:24

go along. So you're getting like less and less

14:26

likely to roll these numbers. And

14:29

then people are like, no, I'm gonna jump ship. And

14:31

you're like, no, I'm gonna stay on this ship. I'm

14:33

gonna make it to the end. Because when you get

14:35

to the end, you get to like write a comment

14:38

and you get like seven points. Whereas every other

14:40

suck is getting two. And you're like, I'm

14:42

going to get this against all odds. And

14:44

then most of the time you crash and

14:46

that's a horrible experience. And you look like

14:48

a do-this, but when it works,

14:51

oh my gosh, what a thrill, Tom,

14:53

what a thrill. There's

14:55

literally very little better. I'm

14:58

trying to think of other push-a-luck games that

15:00

do, because I think that there is something

15:02

nice about the, not only is it a

15:04

push-a-luck game, because often

15:06

in push-a-luck games, you're watching someone else push

15:09

their luck and then you collectively cheer

15:11

or scream or whatever when they push

15:13

too far or you curse them when

15:16

they've done something really good. I

15:18

feel like there's this new pocket of push-a-luck

15:20

games that I really enjoy, which is where

15:23

like one player pushes everyone's luck. My

15:26

Gold Mine is a recent example of

15:28

this. It's like a small push-a-luck game

15:30

from Cosmos games, where you are flipping

15:32

cards in the top of a deck

15:34

that affects all players, not just you.

15:36

And Diamont is kind of similar, but players

15:38

always have the opportunity to leave. So you

15:40

are only ever pushing your own personal luck

15:42

by continuing to go on. And

15:44

I think there's something special about that, making

15:46

that kind of like risky maneuver a more

15:48

like universal thing rather than just something that

15:51

one player is experiencing at any given time.

15:53

Yeah. It seems cool.

15:56

Yeah, yeah, I agree. And also like planets,

15:58

as I said, it's majority. So you can

16:00

pop as many cats onto there as possible,

16:02

but the moon's like once there's

16:04

a cat on it You can't go onto

16:07

that moon anymore So as

16:09

the game's progressing because the game

16:11

will end once somebody has all of all eight

16:13

of their cats Like occupying

16:15

somewhere or the spaceship's crashed

16:17

crashed crashed 11 times so

16:20

as the game's going along like all of these

16:22

spaces are getting occupied and it's like kind of

16:24

interesting because there's not like

16:27

As you're progressing up the track there

16:29

is like a higher you're getting higher points as

16:32

you go along obviously Like

16:34

the better you push your luck the more yeah, you're going

16:36

to get but it's not like so drastic

16:38

of a change to where it seems

16:41

like kind of enticing to go for a

16:43

moon early or something like and Just occupy

16:45

that space so that other people can't get

16:47

there. So there's like less chances for people

16:49

to jump Yeah, I guess once you start

16:51

occupying those lower spaces by necessity people need

16:53

to start pushing them back to get any

16:55

points at all Rather than relying on

16:57

safe options. Well, they're down this seems

16:59

cool I mean, you know, I expect this

17:01

kind of you know, like quite simple clean

17:04

but ultimately pretty good design from from writing

17:06

It's here. I think that like I'm looking

17:08

at this and thinking that like is it

17:10

a game that is and this is

17:12

gonna sound like maybe a

17:14

little too clinical and nasty, but

17:16

like is it an experience worthy

17:19

of like the box size and

17:21

a giant neoprene Like

17:25

it seems like this is the kind of experience

17:27

that is like a pub game for

17:29

me It's what I would clarify, you know classifies the

17:32

pub game It's super easy to teach a little bit

17:34

raucous a little bit loud, you know A

17:36

little bit silly and it comes in

17:38

a box that is like, you know, it's

17:40

like a full game box It's like a

17:42

standard board game size. Yeah, right. Yeah, I

17:44

can see that because now that you've mentioned

17:46

that it's like it feels like

17:49

it could very easily be something

17:51

of like What's

17:54

it called the link game one with the

17:56

with the way you'd like diving Oh deep

17:58

sea adventure. Yeah deep sea adventure We're

18:00

famously deep sea adventure haters over here.

18:02

Yeah. Yeah, I didn't mind it so

18:04

much Yeah, it seems like something that

18:06

could easily be shrunk down to the

18:08

size of like deep sea adventure But

18:12

that makes sense these these oh gosh,

18:14

the components are really nice though And

18:18

I have seen it in the shops and I'm

18:20

like it doesn't seem particularly that expensive like I

18:22

get it I get that like if

18:24

you want to bring it to the pub or whatever That's a problem,

18:27

but I don't think it's I don't think I

18:29

don't know if everything that you get in it

18:31

It doesn't seem that bad. I don't know Tom.

18:34

I quite like you're trying to turn me against

18:36

it Okay, that makes me feel I'm sorry about

18:38

myself your earnest joy Malen space

18:40

agency should not be should not go punished

18:42

and every time you say the name I

18:45

regret it I don't want to I don't

18:47

want it. Yeah, you take it down by

18:49

by by point one Oh

19:00

Next up on the

19:03

podcast after Emily's light

19:05

breezy joyous push-your-luck game

19:08

We're gonna get crunchy and

19:10

boring. Oh, yeah, so I'm

19:12

so sorry. Listen to the podcast

19:14

We're going to Kootenahora the city

19:16

of silver. This is the latest

19:18

game from CGE purveyors

19:22

of weird and fringe and odd

19:24

games all around they're best known

19:26

for stuff like Galaxy

19:28

trucker dungeon lords dungeon pets alchemists

19:30

recently deal with the devil and

19:32

here they are with what appears

19:34

to be kind of quite a

19:36

dry and Boring

19:39

euro game this big box is

19:41

covered in iconography and numbers. I'm freaking

19:43

out I don't know what this is CGE you

19:45

you have me thinking that you were gonna make

19:47

weird games The secret source of Kootenahora is that

19:49

it is a little bit weird right at the

19:52

end This is a game designed

19:54

by and I'm really sorry. I'm gonna

19:56

mess up all of these check names

19:58

But I'm trying my best Andre Bistron

20:00

Peter Kastler Lava, Pavel Jarosh, and with

20:02

art by a whole bunch of other

20:04

Czech names that I'm not gonna butcher.

20:06

I am so sorry. So largely this

20:09

is a pretty straightforward game about bringing

20:11

Kutnohora, the city of silver, into

20:13

a new age of prosperity. It's a

20:16

game about gathering resources, it's a

20:18

game about building buildings, it's a game

20:20

about using your actions efficiently. All

20:23

big turn-ons of

20:25

fans of spreadsheets.

20:28

Yeah, I'm chomping at the bit to learn more

20:31

about these num num nums. Here's

20:33

the twist though, here's the twist, here's the

20:35

twist. You've got all these resources

20:37

in this game, right? You've got like wood and meat and

20:39

beer and all these things, but none of them except

20:42

for money actually exist.

20:44

None of them have like actual

20:47

components. Everything

20:49

is just done through the game's money,

20:51

through the economy. If you need four wood

20:53

to build a building, for example, you do

20:55

not get four wood from the supply and

20:57

then you build a building, you pay for

20:59

that wood with your money. And the way

21:01

that you know how much wood is gonna

21:03

cost you is by looking at these special

21:06

cards in a special card holder that represent

21:08

the market. You then look at those cards

21:10

and you see that wood costs four money.

21:12

So if you need four wood, you just

21:14

spend 60 money to build that

21:16

building. And this seems simple, it seems boring,

21:18

it seems straightforward. But as

21:20

you are building the town, you're

21:22

creating both production and you're creating

21:24

jobs that affect the supply and

21:26

demand of all the resources in

21:28

the game. So what this

21:30

means practically is that in the game that

21:32

I played in this two-player game, we were

21:34

building stuff constantly. We were building buildings all

21:37

the time and all the buildings required wood,

21:39

which then meant that wood became very scarce,

21:41

which then meant that it was really expensive,

21:43

which then meant that when we were trying

21:45

to build buildings, they would just like cost

21:47

us so much money. And

21:50

the wrinkle here is that only

21:52

certain players can actually build each

21:55

kind of building to produce each

21:57

kind of resource. So in

21:59

the game... that I played my opponent was

22:01

the one who had the ability to build

22:03

the wood buildings in the first place and

22:06

he just refused to do it for the

22:08

whole game because he knew

22:10

that I needed wood to build stuff to

22:12

get my strategy to sort of lift off

22:14

the ground and so I had to pay

22:16

through the nose to get anything built right

22:19

and so while I was doing that paying I so

22:21

cruel while I was doing that paying

22:24

like nine you know money per wood

22:26

per turn like building these buildings cost

22:28

six wood and they said that was

22:30

nine money per wood so that's like I can't even

22:32

do math that's so much that's so much he was

22:34

just going down the

22:38

mines and doing this sort of separate thing which

22:40

he didn't require as much wood and also was

22:42

creating more demand for wood at the same time

22:44

so I just keep you know would just became

22:46

more and more more expensive me over the course

22:48

of the game natural born

22:50

capitalists that that boy I know

22:53

exactly but then the flip

22:55

side to that right the thing that was

22:57

that interesting is that because he then went

22:59

down the mines he created jobs which then

23:01

meant demand for the beer that I was

23:04

making then started to go up so then

23:06

I could sell that beer to make more

23:08

money than I ever needed so that the

23:10

high cost of wood didn't actually really matter

23:12

to me because I was just making like

23:14

absolutely scans of cash that's so interesting right

23:18

it looks like you look at this game

23:21

on the surface and you're like yeah I

23:23

see buildings I see tiles I see like

23:25

money and you're like okay I know how

23:27

this works but that like hook of this

23:29

like fluctuating market it pushes you towards making

23:31

decisions for the market that like exists in

23:33

the game right now rather than the one

23:35

that you like want to exist if that

23:37

makes sense it's kind of similar to brass

23:39

in that way right like brass Birmingham has

23:41

these constant opportunities to be like well my

23:43

ultimate strategy is to build I don't know

23:46

pottery buildings but right now iron is worth

23:48

loads of money so I'll make an iron mine and then I'll sell

23:50

all that and get a big explosion of cash right now it

23:52

has a lot of that in it so I've

23:54

been talking for a while now but I should explain

23:57

just like the rough like flow of the game outside

23:59

of this like resource market and the good news

24:01

is that it's actually really simple which means that

24:03

it's easy to engage with like the complicated market

24:05

stuff because the actual like turn-by-turn is quite quick.

24:08

On your turn you have a hand of cards,

24:10

you have six cards in your hand and you'll

24:12

play two cards from that hand. Each card gives

24:14

you access to some different actions. They're sort of

24:16

like these Scout style double cards

24:18

with a different bottom half and a top

24:21

half so you have to choose which action

24:23

you want but you'll also bin

24:25

something at the same time so it's always an important

24:27

consideration. A quick

24:29

note here is that a lot of the

24:31

actions have that classic CG approach

24:34

to administration and bureaucracy to them. Like to

24:36

build a building in this game which is

24:38

what you're gonna be doing all the time

24:40

you have to take three set reactions, you

24:43

have to secure the rights to that building,

24:45

you have to secure the plot of land

24:47

and only then can you actually

24:49

build something which is like games like deal

24:51

with the devil that have this like bureaucratic

24:53

edge to them. This is just present in

24:55

that game which is delightful. And there's only

24:57

other three other actions outside of like getting

24:59

the blueprint for a building, securing a building. You

25:01

have mining which as you extend this mine it's like

25:04

a little area control game. You have income that gives

25:06

you cash for everything that you've built and working out

25:08

when to time your income is always this very interesting

25:10

puzzle like it's not a game where you just get

25:12

like a set amount of income at the end of

25:15

a round you can sort of flexibly do it at

25:17

any point in your turn always an interesting consideration. And

25:19

there's the St. Barbara's action that lets you build

25:22

out this cathedral that gives you a little bonuses

25:24

for building it but obviously other people are gonna

25:26

have their eyes on that bonus so timing that

25:28

to the right time is important too. That's

25:31

a really like hastily

25:34

explained chat about Kootenahora

25:37

and I do really want to play

25:39

this again. I came away from this

25:41

being quite pleasantly surprised by how

25:43

much I liked it, considering that I saw it

25:45

at Essen and I didn't stop to like demo

25:47

it because I looked at it and went oh

25:50

yeah it's a euro game whatever and I should

25:52

have had faith Emily I should have had faith

25:54

in CG putting a little spin on things here

25:56

and there you know what I mean yeah yeah

25:58

because you know you put you put out

26:00

that video on what was it Gollum? It was

26:03

Gollum, right? Oh yeah. Yeah, where you were like,

26:06

Euro games, they're pretty normal mid,

26:08

they're pretty mid. Yeah,

26:12

I think that's what I said in the video. I was

26:14

like, all Euro games are mid. And you

26:17

know, the board game Unity was surprisingly fine with

26:19

that. They were so fine with that. You were

26:21

celebrated, but this

26:24

is not one of those. This is not a mid

26:26

game. I think this is a little

26:28

bit more, it's got a little bit of

26:30

source to it. It's a little bit more

26:32

exciting than your standard thing. I still don't

26:34

know whether it's the kind of thing that

26:37

would push like something really solid out of

26:39

my collection. Cause I feel like there's only

26:41

a few slots in my shelves for like

26:43

really like just solid Euro games. And this

26:45

has that like odd little spritz to it, but

26:47

I don't know how much longevity it would have.

26:50

I do really want to play

26:52

it again at a different play

26:54

account because at two, because

26:57

players can only build certain kinds of buildings, like

26:59

I could only build three different kinds and my

27:01

opponent can only build three different kinds. There was

27:04

no overlap. And in larger player

27:06

counts, there's probably more of a scramble

27:08

to build the right building at the

27:10

right time. So you can capitalize on

27:12

that like market map. How many possible

27:14

buildings are there? There's like a few

27:16

different types. There's these different guilds. There's

27:18

like, hold on, I'm looking at

27:21

a picture now to work it out. I think

27:23

there's a total of like six different resources. So

27:25

there's six different kinds of buildings. And

27:27

then there's also these, and then anyone added

27:30

to it would overlap. Exactly. And that would probably

27:32

be quite a good thing because I never felt

27:34

like there's this way that when you build a

27:36

building, like other buildings get more expensive, like they

27:38

shuffle around in the market. And that never really

27:40

became a factor. Like I could just sort of

27:43

always pick up what I wanted when I wanted,

27:45

which gave us a lot of control over that

27:47

market aspect, which let us approach the weird stuff

27:49

quicker. Like it let us get into these

27:51

like very strange game states where like wood was

27:53

ridiculously scarce. Oh, you know what? One thing that

27:55

I really enjoyed about this game that I should

27:58

Spotlight That I thought was just such a wonderful. Mylan with

28:00

you know how a say my parents

28:02

refuse to build any would buildings or

28:04

whole game and I was getting increasingly

28:06

frustrated Isn't There was a moment where

28:09

the town that like of the game

28:11

itself got annoyed at him for not

28:13

building and he would build a i

28:15

guess because this like market deck that

28:17

you like kind of slowly like what's

28:19

your way through as he built more

28:21

stuff. There's a point at which the

28:23

price get so high the the town

28:25

just builds the building for you have.

28:27

oh. Like that it which

28:30

is like not even that much of a downside

28:32

for your opponent. It was really good for me

28:34

because it just made it so that like the

28:36

what the market now just like had wouldn't again

28:38

and like his whole strategy of like squeezing me

28:40

with like but I was like we're sick of

28:42

capitalism we just we just like a have a

28:44

supply of this stuff and a set of me and

28:46

and they build the cells which I think was

28:48

nice because it came as a surprise. The way that

28:50

these decks of cards work is that like a

28:52

love the information is hidden on them as you

28:54

like kind of like go through them and so is

28:56

this one time we were like oh that was

28:58

this. Big like cross symbol on the thing rather than

29:00

a number to see how much it costs of what

29:03

is that me to but it to the robot we

29:05

were like oh the town is go on strike they're

29:07

annoyed at you they they just on their own thing

29:09

as well. cool but yes a cynical I also just

29:11

one it's her and briefly touched on how good the

29:13

production for this game is. I'm.

29:16

He doesn't come across in pitches but the

29:18

board is covered in this like gentle silver

29:20

foil effect so it kind of cells this

29:22

town being like the City of silver and

29:24

there's always like nice little for delaying and

29:26

like signee stuff but also unless send you

29:28

a picture of what the I wouldn't components

29:30

to this game looked like and you will

29:32

go. Thomas Position of the

29:34

sit down.com. That is not a

29:37

ah a wouldn't component I will say

29:39

emily were living in the future. Oh.

29:41

it's like it's the what one of those thirty

29:43

printed when when says it i said about this

29:46

it's some freak would it's like it looks like

29:48

a minutes up but it's made of wood or

29:50

it said thomas bertha the set up and sit

29:52

down.com or that's not that's not would components if

29:54

it looks pretty cool like the fact that there

29:56

is just all of these like they look like

29:58

minutes as the super detail They're really pleasing to

30:01

hold in place. They're really good like

30:03

the production for this game. It's just off the chain

30:05

I like the colors too. Oh, yeah I

30:07

love a game with some really good player

30:09

colors and this one nails those like Slightly

30:11

pastel-y kind of like washed out colors rather

30:13

like there is nothing uglier to me in

30:15

a game than like Default red cube default

30:18

blue cube default yellow cube like everyone knows

30:20

those colors. I love those like gentle shades

30:22

Yeah, I think the way that you've been

30:24

describing it makes it seem like it's a

30:26

lot like uglier and you know You

30:28

know with the beige games that you

30:30

often talk about but like mm-hmm. It's pretty it's

30:33

pretty I like looking at it, and you know

30:35

there's like space in my life for a lot

30:37

of beige for a lot of beige games Yeah,

30:39

but you know occasionally It's nice having

30:41

one where the production looks as good as

30:43

this like look at this card as well like

30:45

the cards I'll put these in the podcast thumbnail

30:47

the cards have some really like charming like

30:49

poppy color on them I just think is

30:52

it's really nice and detailed and Gribbly like

30:54

it's good. It's just really good The production

30:56

is delightful, so it's ticking a lot

30:58

of boxes couldn't horror see a silver. I might

31:00

come back to this I might play it again, and

31:03

I might report back on Whether

31:06

this game holds up of multiple plays because I want

31:08

it to you know yeah I really I really like

31:10

the look of it. Thank you for telling me about

31:12

it Tom. No worries Thank you for coming to my

31:14

Ted talk all about Couldn't horror

31:16

City of silver and the positive effects that

31:18

mining will have on your body And that's

31:22

all the main games We're

31:26

going to talk about on this episode of

31:28

the shut up and sit down podcast box

31:30

before we end this I want to Tell

31:32

you all about a little game. You might

31:34

not heard about it. You might not have

31:36

know much about this goddamn board game I'm

31:38

going to talk about June Imperium again We

31:41

did a video review of this Mia Matt

31:43

on the site that should be up by

31:45

the time that you are listening to this

31:47

podcast Where we heartily?

31:50

Recommended it because we've always recommended June

31:52

Imperium Emily There's never been a point

31:54

in history where I did not

31:57

like June Imperium. There's never a time where I said

31:59

that June Imperium was a bad game. This is

32:01

the only video that's ever existed on Shut Up

32:03

and Sit Down. Correct. God,

32:05

what a power move if I deleted

32:07

the old Juniperium video and fully just

32:10

like played and completely whitewashed my... Yeah,

32:12

exactly. I thought you didn't know. I've

32:14

always liked this game. I'm

32:17

a Juniperium head now. I've fully

32:19

come round on this game being

32:21

pretty spicy and pretty good. And

32:24

I think, Emily, we should do a

32:26

little stream or something where I introduced

32:28

you to this game because it's really

32:31

good. I was bowled away by how

32:34

much I have liked playing this game on a physical table in

32:37

a physical space and I really like the app version as well.

32:39

The app version is pretty good. And I

32:41

think by the time you listen to this podcast as

32:43

well, I think the app version, like it was on

32:45

Steam and now it might be on phones as well.

32:47

Crazy. We're truly living in the age of Dune. It

32:49

sounds like it's going to take over your life. Quite

32:52

possibly will. I'm

32:55

addicted to many small games at the moment and this

32:57

is about to become one in that cluster and everyone's

32:59

going to just hate me for banging on about it.

33:01

But if you have not heard of Juniperium, if you

33:04

do not know what it is or if you do

33:06

know what it is and you want to hear us

33:08

ramble about it, check out that video review. It's going

33:10

to be... Yeah, for the first time. For the first

33:12

time ever in a channel history, we'll have a video

33:14

review for Juniperium out on the site. I think it's

33:16

really funny. It's got a bit... Emily, it's got a

33:19

bit where I crush a

33:21

tiny house with me inside of it. It's

33:24

got a bit where there's a reference pair made

33:26

out of sand. I'm really making a roll for

33:28

my own back here because I've not filmed either

33:31

of those bits yet. No, no, no. It's

33:33

more like, why are you telling me about this?

33:35

I've already seen it. This video has already come

33:37

out. Correct. Why are you acting like I don't

33:40

know this? I love the sand pair. You've

33:42

watched it and you loved it, right? Yeah. You loved

33:44

the whole video. It was the best thing we've ever

33:46

done. The best thing you've ever done. First time you've

33:48

ever done it. Great, great, great. We'll

33:50

have some more... I was going

33:52

to say we'll have more coverage on Juniperium for

33:55

you soon. I'm just so used to

33:57

saying that because I've known this video is coming, but

33:59

now, obviously... It's already out go and

34:01

watch it have a nice time,

34:03

but we'll stream it and we'll have more

34:06

coverage We'll cover it to bit correct. We'll

34:08

cover it to bits We'll cover it so

34:10

much that you're gonna be sick of Dune

34:12

Imperium. It's gonna be suffocated. We're going

34:14

to we're going to cover it Drowned

34:17

in sand oh and you

34:19

know what Emily I should plug our smorgasbord

34:22

of bonus bits That's coming out this month

34:25

if you are a donor to put

34:27

it down We have not one not

34:29

two, but three delightful tasty bonus bits.

34:32

That's too many Tom. Are you sure? Tons

34:35

I am sure we can give them that many bits

34:39

Should we not ration out the bits in

34:41

a more sensible way? No feeding the bits

34:43

per month? No, they deserve all of the

34:45

bits now Supporting us

34:47

and we care about that's written a

34:49

really lovely newsletter this month where he's

34:52

just generally bowled over by How

34:55

much it means to us having people support the site

34:57

even when the going gets tough even when things are

34:59

a little bit bumpy And so if you support the

35:01

site this month you've got three bonus bits you've got

35:03

a bonus bit where I steal a game from Quindas

35:05

collection after my victory

35:07

in the shut down predictions

35:09

podcast which was not Contentious

35:12

what games are you got

35:14

to be a bonus donor to find out? Where

35:18

do I go to patreon.com shut up and

35:20

sit down or www.shut up and sit down.com/donate

35:22

And you can see that you can see and as

35:24

well as that you can hear a podcast where

35:26

me and Matt talk about Scavengers

35:29

rain a game and a TV show

35:31

that greatly sort of inspired us during

35:33

our earth born rangers review process We

35:35

were watching those consuming them getting into

35:37

the world. I got

35:39

a tattoo of rain world recently

35:41

That's how much that game is playing rain.

35:43

Well, because they all have here. Oh Have

35:47

you yes, I thought it

35:49

might be pretty exciting and good if he's gotten

35:51

the tattoo about it So I bought it and

35:53

I've been playing it. Have you have you been

35:55

enjoying it? I've really been enjoying it Tom Oh,

35:58

that's so good. I did to see your video about at it.

36:00

Oh hell, I mean I will make

36:02

a video about it one day. It's a bonus bit, is

36:04

it not a bonus bit? It is not a bonus bit.

36:06

It's me and Matt having a chat about Rain

36:09

World and a chat about Scourbinger's Rain on a

36:11

podcast. Down the line I'm going to make a

36:13

full video about it but the problem is that

36:16

game means so much to me that I've started

36:18

writing it and I just can't. I just can't,

36:20

you know? I just can't. And

36:22

that's hard. And then the

36:25

final bonus bit, maybe most enticingly of all,

36:27

is I'm going to share my

36:29

first impressions of ARCs, the latest leader games

36:31

game. I've been playing a whole bunch of

36:34

ARCs. Is it good? Spoilers

36:36

yet. It's pretty damn good. I'm

36:39

sorry, you will get it one day

36:41

and you will be like damn, this

36:43

is a good game. You know, Absence

36:45

makes the heart grow fauna. But Fauna

36:47

does make the Absence longer, as they

36:49

say. I've never heard that. That's the

36:51

end of the podcast. I've literally never heard that instead of

36:53

the talk.