GameNight! 2021 Spiel des Jahres Special

[Music] so [Music] day night oh wow this is a lot of people we haven't had this many people in a long time it must be a special episode tonight on game night join everybody here as we review the nominees for the 2021 spieldus yaris and kennerspiel desyarus awards if you like opinions we got em come and listen well we got a special episode tonight where we have a fully crowded house the first crowded house we've had in a very long time and we're going to talk about the sdj nominated games for 2021. uh for the sdj category itself for the schmielda grass we have micro macro crime city from pegasus spila and johannes sick then we also have the adventures of robin hood from cosmos and michael mike how do you say miguel manziel okay and then we have zombie teens evolution from the scorpion masque designed by anik lovay and that's actually kind of interesting we have all cooperative games in the sdj category then we have in the kenner spiel category we have fantasy realms by bruno glasgow and wizkids and then we have lost ruins of arnac from czech games editions from min and elwynn and we also have paleo from z-man games and peter rustemeier is that correct peter that's my yeah there we go okay i remembered it all so let's start off with the sdj games what we'll do is we're going to pick one game and then we'll start with somebody and we'll all have some comments about it um i already kind of know where people's minds are at so i'm going to start with zombie teens evolution hey naveen why don't you tell us about i know you got a chance to play it uh yes monique and i have played this game before it is a fully cooperative game uh in which you are teenagers trying to protect the school from these zombies right uh so you are basically putting out fires like most cooperative games and so there are different sections of the board and you are trying to kind of gather resources and get them into the school and try to protect everything you're supposed to hide fist bump which we did not do in our videos aaron i can't believe you have an idea i really think and it says in the rulebook that it's an important critical rule so i really don't know how i missed it yeah so it's a it's it's a good family weight game um and uh we have actually played this uh two player as well as uh with another uh couple uh nice and they're their young son things kind of unfold uh so they're so the the first scenario that you play is kind of more baseline and then you add more and more things as the game goes on and so especially for families this is a great game because you can play with your kids or with um you know other friends right right so it was it was a very very enjoyable experience for me okay erin um i would have loved to do the fist bumps me too i think the fist bump rule is even better with four players because there's more ways to go across and over and over i'm sorry we missed that yeah i do you know that i'm sort of a heavier gamer and i prefer longer and more complex stuff so zombie teens evolution is super simple for me right it's really out of my preferred range of complexity right it's you could teach the basic game to someone in three to five minutes correct so it's really not i'm not the target audience for it but we still had a lot of fun with it absolutely and and i also really enjoy the legacy concept where you're adding more secrets and envelopes and extra rules as the game goes on but i also understand why that can be scary to people to your right to your average board gamer who's never done that to a game it also requires a fairly large amount of buy-in like are we gonna enjoy playing this game right ten twenty thirty times to get to it's got all the stickers though the kids the kids are gonna love the stickers the kids are gonna love the art the kids are gonna probably love the theme and you know if they have fun those first two or three times they're probably gonna be fine with it but for this and really any legacy game if you don't like it the first couple times right you're not really going to want to stick it stick with it for 10 to 20 hours that's that's just a sort of legacy game caution essentially but i do think this is clearly a fun game for families even if it's not really you know right at my app it's way cute too and i like all the representation i love the guy in the wheelchair it's fantastic really fun stuff what do you think nikki p uh i enjoy that game i enjoyed the um previous one the kids zombie version this one feels a lot the same but i guess once you start adding the evolution stuff it'll get a little more complex than the original um i liked for non we kind of touched on this in the game night video for non-gamers i think it's a good yeah we had a big discussion about like yeah video qr codes on games at target right because i think that they could they could bring more people in it's it's a good way to to learn the game and to really learn the solid base of the game since you have to play it at least three times or something twice if you get the right number right so objectives but the third time is when you add something i think in that sense it's good i think for adults that don't do board games very much at all even right um the rules are really clear and it's i like i like it for an introductory game that shouldn't scare people away absolutely mike so i think the game is fantastic i think it's modern i think it's dynamic i think it's exciting i think when you compare it to some of the other games i agree with you nikki that it's simple to play it's easy to teach it's easy to learn and it's really uh you don't spend too much time you have fun and then if you play another game and go on you can go on for there sure i think on the the kids part if they want to cheat on the stickers and a couple extra stickers and put it in notes i think that's fine i think that's fine i like the uh the trampoline technology though oh my gosh you stole it from me that was so scary it's like zombies trampoline that's the best thing ever and the art on those trash building tiles is just amazing they're fantastic yes so i think it and it's i think the mechanics are tight so like where when we'll talk about robin hood there's a lot more leeway to the mechanics i think zombie teens is very tight and there's it makes it a better game i think monique did you want something to say oh yeah i'm gonna echo a lot of it yeah yeah me too come on you stole it from me i stole it nobody said it tell you i'm also primarily like a heavier gamer but i really really like zombie teens because you know on the surface level and also considering the um the game that came before it zombie kids it looks like a kids game sure does a lot of adults really love it and like compared to other legacy games this is like a really no the commitment is not as i guess as aggressive as other legacy games this is kind of like you you just enjoy it you can play it whenever you want to you don't always keep the same group and the surprise element of a lot of stuff in there is really nice not only it kind of gives people like a short-term goals as well as long-term goals right that's what it kind of keeps you engaged so yeah it's fun i i appreciate the system like nikki was saying that it really kind of drills in each level and then it introduces another piece i i mean robinhood has a little bit of that as well although there's a lot more in the dark i feel with robin hood like you're like oh all of a sudden now i understand how this works although candice i know you probably don't have a lot to say about it because you haven't played only but what we've said yesterday yeah it's the one game candace and you play and then aaron the only game he didn't get to play was this one he did read the rules but um i am looking forward to the zombie trampolines though [Laughter] so then we'll move to robin hood robin hood is a deeper game for sure it has a book so you must be able to read um the segment so it's absolutely a family game um and it it grows as you play it as well it's the game teaches you as you play it it's like here's what you got to do here's how you need to move let start reading the book and it'll teach you how to play so aaron i know you taught it what do you have to everybody as much as the game lets you teach it like i said in that video we're going to be playing the game within five minutes and we were yes because it just tells you a very basic move and a very basic action right and then you're off and away and everything else is sort of fed to you as it's needed by the game book itself which is i think really inventive and really neat and the legends of andor menzel's first design did a very similar thing sure just sort of gave you each thing right when you needed it and expanded your knowledge of the game in a very organic fashion which was really great um the drawback for us not speaking german is we could not progress as far as we wanted to this would have been everybody wanted to continue we have so much missing information from pieces on the board and pages in the book that we haven't gotten to yet it's kind of unfortunate that we've only gotten to taste a little bit of this fantastic meal that you can see spread out before us but you know there you can clearly see the the really creative miracles that's there waiting to be explored in this really yeah okay candace it's your chance now you get just you get to talk about a game yeah i really enjoyed it i know we only played one chapter together everybody right um but i really like how the different characters like each have different tasks they're doing and you can go and explore something and then you're reading so there's the whole story driven you know narration that goes along with it right um the other thing i really liked about it was the uh turn activation system where you're putting everybody's color disc whatever characters you're playing in a bag and then you're seeing so every round you play it's you don't know if like hey am i going to be going first last or is you know are the uh the bad guys what are the bad guys the guards yes the guards because there's a token that will come out and then the guards will activate and you know they might get you right yeah there's there's a lot that's really cool about it i'm really looking forward to playing it more and getting the english version yeah yeah the book is fantastic in here too it's really nice and they make it it's smart with the the ribbon to return to the specific part yeah okay this is any time you're lost just come back to this and it'll help you get there um naveen what you have to say yeah so i played it also with candy yes yeah so we all played it together and uh it is pretty interesting um i am very very excited to try the next couple scenarios because uh like you said it's just a little taste that we got right there so i'm wondering is there more mechanisms because just within that first scenario we started learning mechanisms that were like oh well there were pieces we see with other characters with movement stuff that we have no idea how they work and so that was just in that intro scenario we we got things kind of fed to us so i'm wondering six seven scenarios down the road what else is added on and what else can be possible in the show the artwork is very very nice i really enjoy his art style uh and so this is no different than that absolutely i think that's cool the there's a shaded area and a bright sunny area and basically if you're in shade you're protected uh there is some wiggle room and uh in terms of uh how your character moves around right right which gets a little bit uh kind of strange uh so that might be considered a little fiddly but it makes for a good you know a good cooperative experience that we're kind of joking about i don't know if that can go there okay whatever like you know so it's lighthearted uh from what i've seen so far i don't know if it gets you know more intense or deeper but that's part of the excitement that i have is to see exactly where it can go we mentioned the book is obviously the a very creative and original part of that game but you mentioned the art which i think is integrated into the game in a way that almost no other game does i think that's also its second most original thing right is the way that the art is really just part of the game playing part of the part of itself well he's the artist an illustrator and he wants it so right up front it's gorgeous too what do you think yeah oh i yeah yeah both of us we want to know what you think well i agree with what you said i think lincoln said earlier that it was it's art forward yeah the board is the art and then they kind of built the spaces around the art and that's the first thing that kind of struck me when you laid out the board was all those pieces yeah you can oh we should mention too a little trip tip use poster poster tech is easy to pull the pieces out and you don't destroy it trying to get it out so your fingernails yes exactly yes so i think that that design is really neat and that was the first thing i think i asked you in that moment like is this in other games like i haven't really seen that i haven't i mean the the um uh rise of queensdale has a board that changes as you play it but it's not it's not as for you know like you're developing your kingdom and stuff like that so this is and it changes and it has a really awesome save state with the the map it's a like a eight-piece board or something like that and you connect it together it keeps everything in place it's real slick yeah and i really really like the fact that it's an adventure co-op and it feels like an adventure club like what you said everybody has like a kind of like an asymmetric character that you that intertwines with the story like i'm like in one area of the board and the story might talk about to candace about my character right right so it's really neat and not only that but also the rule book is kind of like an adventure itself right yeah yeah teaches you how to play as you go yeah so on robinhood i think as you mentioned i think the art is fantastic i think it's a great theme on the legacy side it's long and i think that's where some of the people talk about about getting in between zombie teams you can there's just it's a lot easier to get in where's robin hood you're gonna spend a lot of time into it and i think that is a barrier that makes it maybe not as approachable of a game sure i mean but there's a there's a lot of that because paleo's got a bunch of gameplay as well but these this but this is the speed of jars it needs to be a little more fairly and i don't think it's i think it's a little unapproachable compared to zombie teams i think it's a great game but it feels like maybe it was in the wrong category that's yeah it does seem like it's in the wrong yep group of three to me nikki p what do you think the words out of it i like it but i think it's it's not in the correct category it needs to be in that category teaches you though it's a way deeper story um you feel more involved if this is truly a family thing i think when i think family they want to play a game they want to learn it quick they want to walk away from it they don't want to feel like they have to make a an appointment with the same people to play the game again i like the game i like the game a lot i love story games i like the flipping of the tiles but all of that i'm not saying i don't like it because i do like it and the theme is fun i mean robin hood's always kind of fun um i just it's a it's an ip though that this is free though yes it is um robin hood sherlock holmes and cthulhu yeah help yourself is that our next thing yeah robin hood versus cthulhu and sherlock holmes it's in the wrong category yeah okay okay well then let's move to micro macro and we're going to start with monique i know she's very excited about this game so my micro macro uh has a huge map and it's kind of like where's waldo with like actual gold over and over again right because you keep you keep looking for waldo multiple times but the thing that i loved about that game besides the fact that the art is just i can't even begin to imagine what that process was like to intertwine all those cases on this this art map that one man yeah yeah the thing that i thought was cool was uh time the way that they portrayed time you can have several different scenes on a timeline on the same map and you're using that to as your clues to solve these mysteries yep ah so good there's one that we did that was clearly over like like a week or something like that because you're seeing different things happening at different times that was really really cool um deborah wants to color this so she wants to get it so i was like i don't know what yeah i think that will make it too easy well no but she just wants to as she does it right because once it's completed i get the urge too yes it really would be a lot of fun to color yes but like you know if you colored the same character right right the same color across the map you're basically drawing a line of the solved crime yes but yeah maybe when you've done them all and you've solved all the mysteries what do you think candace i mean i this caught me by surprise so we we the three of us played it for the first time today crime city um and i just you know i look at the box cover and i think yeah this game is going to be whatever i saw it on the shelf but then you know you laid out the map and instantly like we started drawing the cards and you you know walked us through the first scenario and i'm like this is so cool like it's so fun get a group together you're working together and you're trying to solve these little mysteries and then the map is just crazy like just yeah to think about how this was designed and then drawn or you know right i i really enjoyed it i was enjoying hearing you hypothesizing what was going on because i love that about this game you're like what you're creating the story around it and you came up with the rival right and you asked money okay okay yeah and i loved it because i thought you know this is fantastic it's like that's what's really neat about this game there's one that we did um we showed it as an example but that you all you see is that i mean you always start from the crime scene but this one doesn't have any steps you just have to follow it back to see what happened and it's fun like you're like oh my gosh this is really amazing um what do you think aaron um i agree it's if it's totally novel and beautiful to look at and fun to play i think a brilliant step of theirs was putting up crime right on the box cover for you to figure out and the free case that you can solve on their website both of those are amazing ways to try out the game without having to open one up or know someone who owns it right right so it's a it's a really neat game for all ages and all skill levels um i'm not quite sure what you do once you've solved all the cases yeah yeah what then what you put it on the wall yeah i guess i'm sorry i like it it's a lot of fun um i love just staring at the artwork and not even trying to solve the case just looking for all the weird stuff that they've put in it another designer and artist yeah um i'm i am going to point out the crime thing and i think that there's some gruesome things yes perspective there might be as far as a family game some parents might find some issues with eight players this is a german award so yeah you know they seem to be a little bit uh um lateral on some of these things and i mean it depends on the kid and the family and but but it is they are going to change for them when they reprint for america oh really yeah they are going to make some changes but yeah for you i agree and that might be delaying that's why the game's just different cultures yeah that is a problem from for america you might not be able to play it right now if you're an american family because right family yeah i would assume with crime city being a subtitle that there might be yeah there's another one coming already there's still someone yeah naveen yeah uh i really enjoyed that one experience that we had with it i would love to just like robin hood i would love to try to get more of those played i really want you guys to play like one of the five-star ones yeah amazing we played a three-star one and uh that was it was uh challenging but not too challenging right i can see why it was kind of in this category um i will say though because it's all black and white uh some people who have a little bit of a difficulty with with like you know vision of close close fine details may struggle with this game um yeah yeah uh but just like nikki like getting lost in just the art and just kind of well forgetting that you're even doing a story is kind of interesting to for me but um i really really enjoyed it uh that was really really clever what you when we played there like you said there was a rival without giving away anything but there was something that had deeper you had to have kind of deeper thought about what absolute experience is yeah in solving that prime which was really really really the one that we played that was the five-star one had something like that yeah it was really awesome it was it was not something that we were expecting yeah and it's it's time travel that's what scott was pointing out like the game is you're going back in time you start with the crime you go backwards and you follow them through the city like we played one where you're following multiple suspects and it's just all over the board and we used uh tiddlywinks or poker bingo uh tokens in that case because there was different suspects we actually assigned a color to each suspect one guy was robin hood which is hilarious and you and you you yeah you guys were coming on some other stuff and i was laughing because it was other you know other crimes but deborah sat down and immediately solved an entire one without any cards cards she just started with a crime found a crime scene and then just went backwards and figured it out um that was the one i think that was actually we didn't actually do it on the show but it was one that was uh over several like several days at least story-wise some of it though with that with her just sitting down and following it backwards is cool and everything but the cards and the questions that the cards ask you are very interesting too you could sit down and just stare at it and go backwards in time and blah blah blah but there's specific questions that go along with it with a case that make it a little deeper than just that there were specifically cards that say what did they do that day like there would be a list of like eight or nine things that they might have done or eating or what did she eat or something like that and it's really really quite clever mike did you have notes on so i said there's two things i agree that um i had problems seeing it with uh even with the magnifying glass and my glasses it was it was hard to get there in closing especially when you're jockeying around it's hard to get more than two people on the table i think that's a that's one issue um i also think you need a moderator i i think lincoln yeah i help everybody get started by yeah and if you don't have that and you're just by yourself of the family i'm not sure you'll have that jump started you could get frustrated or you look at the game with on the one or two star and then you say oh i only got one of these do you and then you already know the secret so can you play it again or not i'm not sure about the replay value i'm not sure if you need that moderator so that's i don't think it's a terribly expensive game um i mean it is expensive in the united states right now because it's very hard to get but i think it's in the 20 euro range or 25 euros i might be wrong think about like an unlocked game or something like that buy a new package yeah that box size is you know 1995 euros or 1995 i'm not certain about that but i think that that's what i don't know but if it is that's a good price point if it's more than that maybe well there's not a lot to it right it's a giant sheet of paper with maybe a hundred cards so it can't 75 so it shouldn't be more than yeah well no how many scenarios come in the game there's 16 scenarios and then there's additional scenarios like the one i said that where you just start with the crime and then go backwards there's several of those and then if you sign up they give you even more things yeah i think the jury recognizes you know special games with unique mechanics and i think micro macro crime city should have been nominated for that and recognized for that being really unique the nomination alone is is the prize often some games i mean the mind is an example i i picked it to win but it did not win and i still think the game's fantastic but many people um don't think it's a game and a lot lots of stuff on that one it's an activity [Laughter] we played we played speaking aside we did uh groundhog day and groundhog day has that kind of element but then it actually has a little bit more i think ronald honda is a is a hard and it's a better game yeah yeah okay well we're going to move on to the kenner spiel nominees and we're going to start off with paleo i know nikki loves paleo so we're going to have her oh no talk about that what do you think it's your chance to spit out what you want to say before everybody talks about it um i love this game i can't wait to play it all the way through i want to unlock the dice that are in there and all the other nobody knows what the dice does i just spoilers they're in the box it's not like it's hidden in a thing like pandemic ones are um i just i i really like it i like the theme too i like that it's so spot on you are struggling to survive and the bare essentials are the things that you need to make it through the day you need clothes you need spears and food and shelter shelter and and there you go um i love the fact that you've got these cards and you're discarding them into a pile for everybody and you also have the ones that you get rid of and then you're all honing the deck together because then those get shuffled and distributed again to everybody else so you're not just honing your own deck you you're doing a deck for everybody um and i really enjoyed um especially watching you i know yeah spoiler yeah we had a terrible game yes everybody else has played a terrible game and these three no they had seven people like all chiming and helping but they had a fantastic game with some of the most amazing luck they still only won by the skin of their teeth but it was amazing well aaron is aaron is like one we joke he's one of the best add-ons for every game you want to have him so he was absolutely helpful on it might not agree with that considering all the hazards really amazing like yeah the good well it's the achievable things go out right like the things that you can actually make happen then they're gone right well it's actually it's any exhaustible thing sometimes the bat it's also the bad foes sometimes that have very little positive benefit you can also get rid of those so right anything that can be burnt up killed used up or exhausted goes out of the game so there there are good and bad things that go out of the deck yeah but a lot of them end up you know thinning out your prey and making the deck be much more hazardous as you go yes correct what do you think i loved it i know you were very excited yeah i loved it i i just haven't been like i'm trying to think this excited about a cooperative game in a long time um the deck and the card play just like every day we're drawing three cards and we're deciding we're talking talking to your group about like okay really yeah you know the odds of what you might get for certain types of cards based on the backs but you don't know exactly what you're gonna get and then you're working collectively and it's challenging it's exciting i liked building your technologies and getting access to better tools and everything i love you know i love flipping over the the cards that have like the mammoth on it where it's like okay we know this is going to be difficult but like how difficult we might be able to do it and you can help each other too so i can forfeit my action to help a teammate maybe if i have of the extra spear that they need i think it's really great yeah like i said like most unique um cooperative game that i've played in a while and i'm excited by it i think that i think that helping action is also a really key innovation in there because you can sort of plan together like okay we all need to go get all our spears together and tackle this card but then your card that you turned over may not have the help icon on it and you have to deal with some other you know rockfall or bramble thing this turn and so you you sort of you're all working together cooperatively but you may not always be able to be able to all come together and do things so the it's again just another quirk of the deck genius and the card the card use but that help action help icon where you can usually plan on all coming together or or just enough people who need to accomplish whatever you need to accomplish is another really neat thing about the the game so she alluded to the bad draws the bean had this really really rough yeah you evenly distribute the cards yes but he kept getting like seven out of three hazards yeah he did one day where he took two actions but they made it yes and in that sense that you really feel the struggle yes it's like an ancestor and like you're struggling for the food and you're struggling thematically it's all there remember how much energy you expended that one round and you finished quickly yes then you started getting all those terrible decks yeah that's a terrible card and you had to bail yeah so that was that's what i love about it the thematic aspect of the game is really there you feel it you do feel it and the art style makes it light though yeah it still feels like um i love that they have a custom logo for this yes that is really nice the art style kind of makes it just like a fun and inviting kind of experience versus like if it was like a darker art style i don't so it makes it kind of like fun and just light but you're having a good time and you're just like if we could just get one more piece of wood then we could get this done well it was it was funny because of the the the uh specializations each had and monique the frail monique over there was the toughest she was so clearly she had so many spears it was amazing it was really six feet but then you're on the card where you needed eight spears yeah failure was really really fun and everybody's already said this but that is my favorite part of it the thematic integration and just it's so it's almost like whimsical but mean and feeling that struggle that they must have gone through and like you you get a dream card but you there's a lot of like well i could do this but it'll get me that but i could do this but that's right knowing that the card will come back to you is pretty neat you know what i mean it's like you know okay well you could discard it in just that's the crazy thing is that you have to get rid of cards face down without knowing what they are so do i want to give up this card that could be what we really need this round is really exciting yeah it's really cool that it's scenario-based yeah like something like this could potentially if it weren't if it were not the way that you could cater the deck after a few plays it might get you know the same thing but it's not yeah because you can cater to the deck and you can do different things you play it again it's one that's replayable because the game changes you know based on what comes out of the deck what you end up having to use to just so we all of us discuss how is this even possible because we just didn't see the cards we were shocked by some of the cards because because you you end up toss sometimes you just never see it because it ends up being a card that you discard to be able to do an action or you get a different dream card or invention type card that no one else got in your previous game so there's a i know i'll come back to you mike mike's the one who's the grumpiest i just want to say something okay actually go ahead and grump it up and then i'll come in and uh so i think it's a great idea it's a great mechanics i think the theme is fantastic i think there's so much depth to it i think it's really mean though i i like games that give you some type of level where you can ease into it and it doesn't just beat you and kill you really quickly so day one what are you talking about all seven of us helping yeah they had to work for it though for sure so i play there's a game called frost on the switch which is very very similar to that it is a deck building single person game and you're trying to escape the uh the frost and try to get to your base camp the same type of thing i play on easy and very easy and i must be very bad at it because i only win like 10 of the time it's the same thing here paleo there's a lot of subtlety on the cards that you don't see as we've mentioned there's cards today that i haven't seen before i think it needs to give you some way to make it very easy and then easy and then you can get to the hard parts sure i i don't want the game to say that it's so difficult you never win so you get turned off by it right i think and there needs to be a balance if you want to be challenged you can and but the game's difficulty level is really hard at the beginning i think one thing that would help that would be your starting tribe or group of characters that you get if in the rulebook they say hey if this is your first game or you want to play the intro game player one take these two cards player two take these two so you have like a balance of tools and resources to get in because yeah it can be punching we got lucky starting off with your spear and everything right you had seven heads helping you out no it doesn't tell you what thing six additional right there yeah six of the shots there's always one head that was integrated in the other six round [Music] they were saying that there is um it doesn't tell you which tools you need it doesn't give you any type of direction it just needs a little bit of nudge it's very unfriendly in your first game if you have no idea how strong this the strongest mammoths are going to be you have no idea how many tools you're going to need to build certain things you have no idea how how tough the hazards are going to be i do feel you and and destroy you on your first game i don't feel that it should be i mean it's great but i i enjoyed it but i think it's cruel yeah i i think it needs a little bit it needs to be a little friendlier yeah a lot of us have compared this game somewhat thematically and somewhat playstyle to robinson crusoe which is another co-op survival game where you're sort of stuck in the middle of nowhere and learning to build simple crafts and survive against the elements in nature and gather food to survive so there are a lot of plain and thematic similarities but and i think another good similarity is that game is tough as heck it's very hard to survive and and the game is actively trying to kill you at almost every card draw right but i think that's an important part of the actual theme and gameplay and i mean robinson crusoe is one of my favorite games of all time and i certainly don't win it every time or close to 50 of the time right i think you lose a lot i sort of think that that's actually part of the appeal i do agree that it absolutely could give you a recommended starting setup or give you a little bit more information for your first game if you wanted to but i don't really dislike it for any of those reasons i just think that's part of the learning curve and for a co-op i i do i like that challenge like i like the fact that we learned the hard way that hey we should make sure we have a torch in our group you know yeah um but not too hard yeah it didn't end the game yeah but it makes you want to go back and like i want to play this again and keep trying to figure it out and it's going to be different every time because the innovations or whatever they are the cards those those change the game a lot though because you guys got the figure out the burial mound right yeah oh yeah which was important because you needed that would have been a different game and you probably would have lost right one more thing i was going to say is also like think about pandemic i don't know about you guys but like the first time i played pandemic we got crushed yeah we are crushed and it's you know i think that's just like that's a sign of a good co-op for me an exciting part of a good yeah of a co-op there are some co-ops or games that punish you that really shouldn't that really ruin it that really make the game like i don't even want to play this again but i do not get that feeling from paleo it's a difficult game but i don't feel like it's just being mean to be made right yeah and that's what i was going to say too like this this big challenge it's more like a the first game numbness but after that yeah you know you know you know they're going to throw new loops to you but you you'll you'll grow and i mean that's what's neat you want to find out what happens in mentioning the dice we did play this game by the english rules which allow you to adjust your cards when you return them to the stack right and the important thing about that in this version of the game because in germany supposedly that is not the way it works you um you can then put cards that you do not want to deal with where it could be bad i'll just take a wound for removing that card instead of like dealing with it now aaron was making a case that there are ones that are beneficial i feel you should ignore him and you guys succeeded by never turning over one of those so i think i mean that was just my takeaway from the previous game we played i'm like man you want to avoid those if you can um i mean it's not it was still bad but you got a benefit right there was something bad that happened but you got to benefit which is exciting right i i i think the game has a lot to offer um so we're going to move on to lost ruins of our neck that is candace is the only game she played i guess you played fantasy realms too before i came here today she was already like no about that one but anyway so last ones of our neck i know you like it i know mike does too he's next i i do like it i do like it um i will say like i tell everyone um i think it got a little bit of overhype um initially when it got released and i think it's not anything that exciting i think the theme is cool i like the exploration um i really like the way the card market works where you have more items initially and less artifacts and then it moves i thought that was really inventive um one thing that i didn't like about it and i played with you for the first time um and this is again from just playing it once but um i had played a lot of dune imperium which also mixes deck building and worker placement and i love dune imperium so when i played lost ruins of arnac i was like ah it's it's okay you know and i i would like to play it again and you know just kind of explore it some more but the one thing that i did not like about it was on our game um there was one time i think maybe it was you mike that went and did you know explored a tile one the guardian came up and the guardian was so easy that like any of us at the table we all had the resources that we would have been able to like take out that guardian and then later i did an explorer draw that random guardian and it was awful and it just i didn't i wish there was something where they were like teared differently or or something like there was just too much luck or something you know what to expect yeah yeah so so that kind of left a bad taste but i like it i think it's i think it's cool it's not like it doesn't blow me away um the the components are great i love the exploration like the theme and everything um but yeah i think i think it's cool yeah that was my major issue with that there's a lot of volatility and i want to call randomness but you can lose the game on that exploration there's nothing you can do about it and that frustrates your game players because they're like i have no control over this unfortunately that's part of the game and i i don't think it's bad or good but it is part of it i know there's a lot of people that talk about the exploration track being a little powerful i disagree i think it's a little same same that you're kind of doing the same thing a little bit there is going to be an expansion uh i think that's a very tactical game on the players you kind of have to get in people's brains and know what to do i look at it like it's as similar as as good as goa like we i know a couple of you guys haven't played no it's the same idea that it's the you take a lot of the actions based on the tactics of the other players so it could be a really great game or really like oh this person took this and i'm kind of screwed so it has that feeling it that's why i left go i also i like lost our uh lost ruins of arnac but it does have those same issues with it nikki um i enjoyed it i think we played it twice the first time um i played it i got through it it was easy the second time i played i got stuck and i can't really um you cleaned up on that track but i don't really remember what had happened but i had gotten stuck in one of the air exploration areas and um i didn't feel like there was a way i got could get out of that situation so um that kind of colored my opinion the second time i played it like one time i go through it like no problem and then the next time i got stuck and i couldn't find a way around it um but i like all the levels i like the parts and you can go for this track and that track and you're moving up to that thing but i i didn't see anything new about it particularly monique i enjoy a lot of spoons of arnock i kind of i agree with what you said there's some things that are kind of out of control that would frustrate euro gamers the thing that drew me to this game initially was the combination between deck building and work replacement and i'm a really big fan of deck building but it does it very differently i think that's it's interesting but for me the heart of the game is really a resource exchange you know you're constantly like you reach like a point at the end of the game where you're just like well how many uh arrows do i have can i go up the research track again if i do this and so i guess that part of it is a little bit lost on me because i kind of wanted a little bit more of that deck building and some of those cards are like way better than others and if you flip it and it's not your turn then you could be in trouble for the rest of the game yeah but we recently played it i think at three and it was it's still like a fun experience for me it's more like an experience so yeah when we first played it we played it several times at two player and uh there was less exploration being done uh there was less opportunities to go to spot spots because as the game goes on you uncover new sites once those uh those monsters are gone now that's a new site that other players can go to uh and as a smaller player count at two players there's just less opportunities to go to different places so when we finally played it at three or four players and more people were willing to take those exploration actions then it got a little bit more interesting for me because if not it was just kind of that resource management and kind of kind of deck building um but not so much uh but i do find it gets kind of samey and me going up that track i'm constantly thinking like okay well i have uh two gems and a uh and a tablet so yeah okay yes i'll go there oh i got the worker okay great yeah uh the what's not the worker assistant assistant yeah the assistant and then so you can kind of tap that some of those assistants i feel are better than the others absolutely yes you know and sometimes you just kind of stumble into one right right aaron um most of my points are echoes of everybody else's i do really like the art and the theme and the components a lot it's a really nice game to look at and put on the table but i kind of also feel like it doesn't really do anything brand new yeah it feels a little bit assembled from parts of other games and the the whole doesn't feel like anything super original to me um i mean i do i do like the assistant parts and i like the exploration parts and i like the uh you know track of items and artifacts but it just it all sort of feels like things that i've seen in other places it just doesn't feel like um a holy original product right i i like the i thought that you know the evolving abilities you know it's like in the beginning you got to choose from these levels and then you move on i think nikki kind of think actually where she got had a problem in her second game was actually in the exploration aspect she wasn't able to gain the benefits that really would help her move up the research track and you know you absolutely have to move up the research track and she just barreled down that path in the first game in the second game she didn't i think i did many many more beasts or monsters or whatever they are um i i think i was like yeah the bulk of those out and i think that's what hurt her right you need to actually have those to be able to get some of those benefits and um even though they're all kind of really small but it's something that helps right that can modulate your turn where you don't you're not able to do something in that one turn but now you've got this that can help you uh take care of something and move on because you know the choice is up the path as it gets more difficult to get the things you need to to go to the next exploration space um you know it's tough well yeah they're the catalysts i think once you get no in the game there's a lot of and take that but there's lots of scrooge you're trying to you go up tracks to screw other players don't worry absolutely on the research track yeah which is great once you know the game but once you've started spots before you can get there you do need both you need to explore and do the research track and you can't ignore one there's no way around it in the base game when they have the expansion will it make it different enough to be fresh and exciting i don't know i hope so but i i do feel that maybe it might not be as you were saying aaron well nick i don't know we're gonna move to the last game okay and this is you and me get to start this one because i let other people start this one we're gonna start with because mike and i we actually did this on the show we recorded this for the show and it did not work out both mike and i really didn't like the game fantasy realms i'm sorry thanks for saying that nikki p and i now replayed it again today with naveen and uh monique they taught monique taught us the game and i have changed my opinion let's start with you well first off i think why is it in the kenner spiel i think it should have been us let's just swap these two this is this is yeah it's just yeah it would be a lot easier it's in the wrong category again yeah so the game it's rummy as we talked about um it's a it's a mass-market game so there's a lot of issues with the rules you have a lot of you don't know what the answer is those are like three pages well there's a lot of like how do you figure this without a fact problem one thing you should probably realize it's many years since the game was released and it is now in german and they only care about the german rulebook so there could have been evolution as far as that goes because there's a new there's a new edition of this game now as well so with better artwork that people think this is boring i don't care you know so i when i i love drafting games between fairy tale and seven wonders or fields of green those are the type of graphic needs i like fantasy realms is not that kind of a game well i will i will uh continue i grew to really like it i can see scott was disappointed in us because we only played one game and you absolutely have to play more than one correct and he probably should have told us that going into it but now having played it several rounds i really think it's a great game i don't know that i i agree i don't think it should be in this category but i think it's a lot of fun um i really like that type of game i love rummy games um you know nikki we said this for decades now but we were i never we never played those kinds of games when we were kids so this was all new to us and we still don't get to play them a lot i mean we can't take it to ride that's a running game um but it's really quite good and it's actually fun it's a massive amount of luck you're praying to get that combination i played in our second game i had trying to do the straight one essentially you know a bunch of numbers in order and boy it hems you in you know you're automatically ugh i can't do this now i can't do that i don't want to get rid of this because i kind of need that to bump this score up and it was just painful now i know monique and naveen kind of started with a hot or not type of attitude on it i know you enjoyed it yes um but you had two bad games today oh i had terrible yeah um no i really really enjoy fantasy realms i do agree though that this is probably not the category i questioned this yeah you said it was a filler you told me that when we talked about this yeah but and that is why i like it so much because of the decision space in such a small amount of time like that that is the heart of it for me like you have a it's very simple you have a hand up cards but the the decision of like oh which one do i get rid of yeah give it to somebody else because you put out 10 up to 10 cards that people can take from you and you're like am i giving somebody something they need to make this massive combination we had both of these players in the first game do massive combinations of those other points so we put we really blew it on that first one what do you think so for me uh i i actually play it pretty well he won both games i'm actually okay i like i i can see the combinations of things you have to do for some reason it just doesn't have an exciting or like a fun factor for me like i get this hand of cards and i look down at it and i'm like okay these two cards are kind of cool they can score me a lot of points let's see if i can make this work and then turn turn turn goes and it's my turn okay i'll take a card okay that kind of works towards it turn turn turn and then it kind of just does that over and over and i'm just mid-maxing and i'm like okay if i can get an average of 25 points out of each card that sounds like a good like score for me right now yeah then i don't know for some reason it just it doesn't have that but excitement factor for me it has those moments of like you have cards that are looking for a specific card and then it comes out and you're like if i could get that card i'm gonna get a hundred points oh believe me that happened several times nikki nikki had an app she's always it's like she sees it i'm like oh man can she just flip it no she never does it she picks the card i want every time i know you know i know you don't know i know it's just by sheer chance you get that one card i wanted that six so bad and i'm like well that ain't happening um but uh and it wouldn't have been that much benefit because the reality is maybe some of the my hand in that case was like a bunch of stuff that was almost samey so it wasn't really gonna help me out i wasn't gonna get enough bonus points but i wanted that 150 points and then maybe have something else to do but to do that you have to have all seven cards in the straight which is just yeah um i know you haven't played it uh i know you're probably not two oh no no no that's right that's right i have both editions oh really um yes i do um i played it a lot and i'm in the same boat with uh naveen um so the second edition didn't help it for you no no no is the artwork better in the second i don't think so yeah the cover is different i think maybe some slight changes to some of the cards art um but i agree it is exciting when you're like oh that card's out there and i love the tough decision of i don't want to put any of these down because i kind of want them so in case i could get some you know one combination or the other like the discarding is always hard it's like arboretum you know it's like the hardest things i don't want to give anybody anything that's fun but it's just like it's a very meh game to me i will play it anytime i have i have a lot of people that i play with regularly that love it it's a filler game it's short so i don't like dislike it to the point where i wouldn't be down to play it um but i just don't i don't get a spark from it i think it's like cool it's hot and cold some games are like you know maybe they have an exciting moment others are just like yeah just picking up cards putting them down you know we kept seeing nikki almost win yeah being beat you by you think ten points wasn't unlike you guys the first time we played it i enjoyed it i liked the game um and so again playing it today you barely barely lost that game too yeah we saw the score as we opened them i haven't touched it for three years partly because you didn't grow up playing rummy type games and so it was all sort of new in the original team oh yeah i mean we play a lot more rummy stuff now i mean i've been playing board games for years now but when i was younger of course not um i didn't have the mystery movie series we just yeah and the mystery series and whiter wonderful um i enjoy particularly with this game is finding the synergy so you get a hand of cards and you're like clearly this one forget it right but then you get two or three that you can go this path or you can go that path and i enjoy um like a puzzle working out how to make that work um the synergy and holding on to both directions as long as i can and but knowing the the right time to be like forget about right you're never gonna you're not gonna get there and making the right choice as far as um choosing which path in the end to kind of go for so i like i like it every time we play it yeah is it deep no but i enjoy the puzzly figuring out how to make the cards work hard combo delicious no i know you haven't played it and that was where i confused got a new can displayed she was talking about the app before um she loves the app does make it a lot easier there's a lot of announcements to score it with the uh yeah i'm like oh just pick my cards and then tallies it all up so now we're going to go to the the part that everybody loves no i don't know it's challenging so what we're going to do is we're going to go through all of the categories the two categories and we're going to pick first what we would pick if we were on the jury what we think we would like to see when um you know and it's tough because i know there's a there's a lot of 12 people at least i think on the dream maybe 13 and you know they're lobbying to make games win so it's it would be the same terrible task but worse for them because that you know it's like figuring out that how that works so this is easy we just get to choose right i wonder do you know when i don't know if i've asked this before do you know how they vote at all do they like have a uh jury trial type discussion and try and convince each other i'm sure there's some of that or do they just vote and count and then see i mean i know we've talked with a bunch of people in the jury i really don't know that much of the insides of it but i do i mean we used to know the uh well we still know um the jury uh uh head or the jury which was tom felber he retired a couple years ago um and then we know kristoff slovinsky who's been on the show and he's the head of the children's jury but we i don't really want to pick too much because i don't want to know i mean i i like they may want it to be somewhat secret yeah like not the actual process but i i think they do deliberate yeah sure um because but that happens the whole time as they're developing the list evolves they have a weekend before that is it monday or wednesday or whenever they say monday so you know that there's there's deliberating going on i don't know if there's deals there's definite like trying to convince they're not just cast a vote and we're done they are journalists and they take it very seriously and they have to do it's a it's a thankless job i think ultimately because they have to go and play test it with tons of people and obviously the last year two years were probably challenging um so for sure i the fact that now i know that there was probably i don't know germany's been struggling you know they're just finally getting back a bunch of people vaccinated so i'm not sure what happened i know there was a lot christoph said he'd leave a bag of games and then he'd be on skype with the family to see the playing but you know he he goes to schools and plays with the kids and they have uh tom felber would have events like big events with lots of people coming and he would make sure you know they do the whole blind play test like you play the games because they're very rules disqualify games it's not not if the the end result is great and you figured it all out with a bunch of faqs and uh errata online it has to be in the rulebook yeah sometimes games will get nominated that don't have a flawed rule book which means they think the game's so great but they can't it will not win because it has a real problem so it's it's a it's a pretty interesting you know and they're all journalists so they're they all have to write about games they're not paid by the jury it's a it's a it's a lot you know a work of love they have to really enjoy the hobby um so do we know how it's voted on is it ranked voting like they'll say i don't believe so i don't think so we don't know huh yeah but i don't think so uh but it might be i mean i know i mean that was exciting to hear about in the new york elections they had the ring voting that's intrigued on how that worked out i know that there were problems so i don't i didn't really pay attention after the results so we're going to start with the kenner spiel i dave i think always starts with the sdga but i want to go the other direction because this is the main prize okay so first thing we're going to do is we'll we'll count to three one two three and then point we're gonna put nikki's gotta reach as far as she might i think i know where she's gonna be but we will all point and then we'll just think why we'll just say why we think that that's the the the winner um the one we would choose i mean right the one we would choose yeah so we're starting one with we would choose okay so three well we'll give a moment to think everybody can think for a moment but i think everybody's kind of got it together you guys ready for that one okay three two one okay so five six five of us are pointing for paleo and two of us are pointing for arnac was there two are next yes maybe not yep naveen oh okay i couldn't do it yeah oh so let's start with naveen why do you think that that's the one that you would choose uh of the two games now i i don't have a very long history of playing with paleo so but i i have played lost ruins of our next several times and i do enjoy it i know there might have been uh kind of earlier in the discussion me saying that um it can get kind of samey or sure but overall my my enjoyment factor for this is there uh i am constantly thinking i'm constantly on my feet and i'm all alone when i'm writing that paleo it's co-op so we can kind of converse and talk about it together i love co-ops i love playing them but this is my own puzzle this is like what sure i need to get done and how can i beat out my opponents and for me that's kind of the way it is well i when we're talking about arnock is it is familiar but i don't i think for a while we haven't had a good medium classic hero and i think sure actually i agree with that that's why i like it hey paleo people let's start with uh figure out what we why we like this game let's start with you aaron yeah despite what i sort of said about robin hood and zombie teens where you have to buy into it a lot and be ready for that 8 to 10 hour campaign that's kind of what i like about paleo is that there's a lot to experience you know if you if you enjoyed that first basic scenario you get to see how the game evolves you get it it's about a pretty good game but you know there's more challenges that await you and you get to see how the game's going to change and become harder and and throw new things at you which i think is really neat and i in general would actually rather compete with the rest of the players at the table than do another co-op game but i really found the co-op elements of this game to be really novel and new so i kind of liked almost everything about it so new to this game tonight she said she was going to buy it but as soon as she was done i feel the exact same way especially the fact that it's just innovative like i don't know for lost ruins if i would pick that over every other medium weight euro game that came out like again that just doesn't doesn't stand out to me but this is just refreshing yeah it's just a very enjoyable unique co-op experience and it's it's challenging too and it just it feels different yeah it feels different and so i think it stands out to me absolutely monique i first of all agree with everything that you said but also i just think that it's really difficult to make a cooperative game that's this engaging for everybody around the table where everybody is so invested that the the revealing of the cards is it like you have that decision factor with those three cards and then doing then you work on stuff you know you're like it's all tentative too because you don't know what's going to be on the other side of that card as you play the rounds it adds up but but even that yes exactly because yes before we picked our card to even discuss what we're going to do what do you mean yeah do you think it's this may be a late-breaking paleo uh observation do you think it's actually harder in this game than other co-ops to to have somebody alpha the game and just be like you do this and i'll do this yeah it's almost impossible because they can't they don't know what's there and they and they can't force you to do a certain thing yeah right it's actually yeah more co-op than some guys can't control everything well that's what i said earlier that's what i'm saying i feel that that they remove the alpha thing on that which i think is really really strong nikki yeah um paleo did we start with you defend your paleo um i and i think um these games are supposed to be the logical next step from family games so if you're really into gaming and you want to go to the next level that i feel like paleo is a next level uh cooperative game um it's it's different from everything else and it's um like robin hood even though i said i think it's in the wrong category that kind of is a more generic storytelling cooperative game yes um and paleo is like the next level for that yes although it's not really telling a story it's a little different but what's most exciting for me about this one this has branching different category but this has branching which is exciting to see what might that do that might do this game is absolutely replayable because you set that up and even if you just decide to do the whole campaign again it's going to be a different experience because you're going to run into things now you have more knowledge of the cards in advance but you're still going to start with a giant deck and you don't know what you're going to get everything's going to come in a different exactly and i what i really love is that it's a common deck everything goes discarded stuff and played cards and then the cards that are out right that you've done so everything comes back in and it goes to everyone not everybody's got you you you have no idea and that specialty may not be your thing right and you and then the person that is that specialty may not be able to help you on that round and that's really exciting to me that makes it different um which is really really exciting um well that was an easy choice okay i guess but it was very uh very almost 50 uh five of us to two of us i don't know i don't know now we're going to pick we're actually pick what the g we think the jury might pick this is probably a tougher choice because i feel i feel all of these games have something to offer i know a lot of people are down on fantasy realms but it's it's a tougher game and it's a uh it's a deeper game even though it is but like a filler tenor you know is exciting a card game i mean you don't see card games win that often true i mean to me it has it has and i know there's a lot of excitement in germany uh it's funny that it took that long to get there i don't know that truly the excitement because there haven't been events so i don't know exactly how that works but i think i mean we shouldn't harp on this too much because it might just be our opinion sure but if we if we made our category swap here and if we put robinhood up in this category i think paleo and lost ruins of arnock and adventures of robin hood would be such a much more interesting decision a much more interesting split up of the votes for the counter at least just between the seven of us at this table right it would be a much more like uh still team payload okay and i might i might fall that way too but it would be a much longer i would pick differently but um i would actually be differently yeah okay well let me change things i know i know that mike has said he really loves this so um so this i think that's great yeah you'll i'll show you don't worry about this my problem is i already know what i'm going to pick right i'm positive but the reality is if i you know we have mark and dave you know these people that should keep stats and you know i've got my reputation nikki and i think are at the top of the heap because how that is even possible really well how that's even possible i don't know because i think both of us ended up doing you've gotten like three out of three if you didn't yeah well i think nikki's done it three two times and i've done it once but i've i've picked things by my like i picked king domino by myself remember that yeah i picked it and everybody's like oh man i want to re-change it because i said this is a fantastic intro game it is right and it was it was the winner but i may be getting wrong i mean i because i i feel i think they all have something to offer and i could i could agree with any one of them winning i understand people's reticence about this but i feel if they chose i still think that'd be a valid choice because it is a it's it's introducing people's games it's it's a lot of math kids aren't going to play that that easily that's why i believe it's in the advanced yeah oh that's true right you know yeah it is it is you have to be able to do that okay so what we're gonna do we're gonna count down three two one and select what we think the jury will pick okay are you guys ready yeah three two one okay so he's wait wait we're not picking this one up so wow we've got two guys in fact two two back yeah i understand so we're back to two and five yeah two people i think i think monique and naveen have a chance to be correct on this yeah they do oh i sure do why do you think that i would love to see fantasy realms win now just for all of us to be i know i agree i think it could happen i mean i will for that argument you guys are talking about with fantasy realms uh it certainly could happen we could just could have the big boys there's been a lot of games like that in the german audience maybe that's why it's where it is also just or just make it that sweet spot for a german audience that doesn't really resonate with us right so you guys picked basically i mean you already are picking arnak but you change what do you why do you think the jury might pick it um because i i hear the kind of the overwhelming response to this game from just the general public that i've i've entered or like the scene play it and uh people are really really interested they take they take a lot of the audience into account yeah um yeah some people are just really like this is the best game in the world it's suddenly it's my favorite game ever i agree with the i agree with the euro comment though right you know because there there haven't been games like this very much correct and i know that we want to win this and that's the other reason that we like we go back to this because this is the type of euro games we like but it is we've played a lot a lot of games the makeup of the jury has changed though so there's been quite a few new people right i went to paleo for the jury because i really want even though the game is really hard and i know there's some ice i talked about some issues with the games level of difficulty i think it's going to match a well with the uh the sphere jars category and i think it's the right games that will come back from one of these two games i didn't really think about the popular you know i mean it was so you know certainly absolutely this is a safe choice yeah that's right i hope they pick paleo i agree paleo is a different like a i feel that it's innovation should be rewarded it's definitely really strong and the way that the mechanism works really is a very fantastic uh solution to for a lot of people's problems with uh with uh yeah maybe i didn't talk about that you're right we didn't talk about the alpha come out but i i really i didn't maybe i didn't stress enough i think the mechanics are really good and there's a really that as you mentioned the backs of the cars is really unique and interesting and plus there's more than having those other icons on there fantastic oh boy do we want to do this yeah i like you guys kept calling the tent uh uh an easy tent it's not necessarily gonna be easy but i love that you guys are thinking that might be the case it's just it could be a shortcut to it right yeah and maybe more which is what's exciting about it right they're big rewards on a lot of those things besides the fact that i just really adore this game um i think more people should know about it because tons of people know about lots of runes of our neck you know it's the buzz buzz blows everywhere but you know they were barely they sometimes reward the games that are super popular now yeah this has sold a lot of games do they want to i mean that's one of the things that the jury thinks so that will be one thing that they actually their their emblem on the box earns them money for the jury yes and it's essential to keep the jury going because they have a lot of community stuff and trying to develop new designers and all kinds of things like that so maybe they think in those terms i don't know i really don't know how that stuff works nikki do you have anything you want to say no okay well then we're going to move on to the sdj the premiere game that should probably sell many more copies than that game will sell but you never know um so we're going to pick what we what we think should win what we would pick first um and again i feel this is another this i think isn't i always say it every year but this is a lot of great games there's a really fantastic games here um you can think of great reasons for all all of them to win once again i think every single one of them has something to offer uh that is different that is different that there's nothing like this for an uh a legacy game nothing like it that that is that interesting other than the previous game and this one's different you know yes um this is innovative and amazing right so i mean who knows okay so this is what we're gonna pick we're picking what we would choose first um boyle boy this one's really hard for me it's harder really torn between these yeah and i've only played two and i'm torn yeah yeah okay well uh give you a second to think about it and then you guys ready okay oh i'm not right now it's i don't i don't i don't want to just be well i i don't want to be picking the same thing twice and i'm feeling like i'm going to do that you know me it's okay i get my heart into it and i get invested okay i know i know if that's what you're if that's i know that tells you dang it i mean i well i'm gonna pick the one that i think will win so this is easy i i know what i want to win okay okay three two one awesome this is a big dif but much different mix so we have four people picking micro macro one person person picking robin hood and one and two yeah yeah okay so let's start with the person that the only person to pick zombie teams right i i'm just saying you start with zombie teens you can go to paleo it's a cooperative game this is family yes the graphics are a little different i think it's modern and cool robin hood again is a safe bet if you compare the two i think this is what the jury should pick to be new and modern this is the traditional that's your choice too so that is okay so people that picked robin hood i think as you mentioned that i think the jury can and should reward innovation and originality and that beautiful book which we are waiting for in english yes yes as well as those awesome little advent calendar type flip boards that change the state of everything are and the art being so perfectly melded into the game those are three amazing innovations that make this game like nothing you've ever seen before i don't know if it's in the right category i don't know how replayable it is yet because we haven't gone all the way through it and i don't and we don't really know what it involves that's the problem that's the problem with really kind of all the it just has so much promise that i want it to be successful i agree the the potential is there i wish we could have played more i'm so curious to delve into it it would have helped me solidify what i would because i think this is fantastic but i'm trying between these two i'm very torn as well but i think again like with all the different characters having their own little paths but you're all still working together the activation system of like putting those cubes in the bag and putting your discs in the bag to determine when the turn order is and how it seems like it's gonna keep building and the whole like advent calendar like flip this part of the board you're changing the board ah i just think that just like knocks it over a little bit like i love this i love micro macro crime city i think it's very inventive i but yeah i don't know i just i just feel like robin hood has four of us with micro macro yeah i know you really love it what why do you think why do you why would you pick why do you think you'd pick it uh well i i feel like it's also along the lines that other people were choosing robin hood is because this for me is innovative yeah well the first time i played it was jay yeah but i can't stop thinking about it despite the truth and i'm frustrated that we can't get it and that to me is like a big sign of like a good game and it you know in this category it plays so quickly yeah it's so easy to just get in and out of it um i just think it's a lot more approachable that way as well yeah yeah it's the same thing um we pretty much align with a lot of our opinions on things yeah but nikki and i have the same thing yeah uh it's it's one of those like like as a kid that i would have loved to do yes yeah yeah you know i could just put myself in and that's it when i'd go to yeah when i was a kid i go to a restaurant they'd give you that those little things so like that just kind of brings me a little bit back to kind of that feeling it's a new level to a new level um despite that it's the crime city and the whole family thing if we let go beyond that um i think it's something that it would be fun as a family activity um i think it gives a family uh a conversation piece and and really just fun and just for kids to be like what's that why is and i found it and that now yeah um there's that discovery and that fun thing that i think as a family um would enjoy um but i'm i will say i was torn between this one and um robin hood i enjoyed robin hood as a game on its own but if i'm thinking in terms of family i would think this one because robin hood is i don't know if the how this is going to sound but you could read your kids the book yeah but i love i'm i'm here to hear what comes from the story like what you're supposed to do i want to know what those things are i'm excited because you look at the board i know we have our hideout in that one corner i'm positive that's gotta be what it is i want to see all that stuff i think that that has a lot of potential i'm um i'm really torn though because i i'm with you this is like a magnet to me i want to keep looking at it yeah and even when you're done with the stuff i just want to look at all this stuff because there's so many i wonder how many things are connected to something like all the people because they just you know as you're doing it we were seeing stuff we'd seen on other ones it's really fun i do not want to spell anything because there's a fantastic element in the one if you haven't watched because we did do it on the video um but i just loved the details you're seeing i'm like oh my gosh that building look what's going on in there um and you had to think like how does this work and how does that connect uh i i really like it it's 16 stories on one i know no it's more than 16 yes more than 16 in the box uh there's 16 in the box and more online okay so now we're going to pick what the jury picks this is going to be challenging um yeah because i i i understand there's super compelling stuff for this game to win there's super compelling stuff for this game to win and they're suit i'm saying this game robin hood yes zombie teens evolution and super compelling stuff for micro macro crime city because they're all really have a really great case for winning i i'm i as much as i like zombie kids i cannot believe how much i love zombie teens because it's really really cool we would be playing we wouldn't be playing with kids too much so although we toshi wanted to teach us but yeah because they finished it already of course um okay so you guys get ready you know what you think the jury might do i don't know i'm gonna i'm i'll make a prediction i probably will be wrong this year okay so get ready here three two one okay so now it's shifted again wow so we've got five people micros and two zombies two zombie teams okay well hey let's start with nikki on this one since you uh okay you pick zombie teens i think the jury will pick this one it's more of a game it's a good starting off point for a family getting into board games um it's got stickers which i i don't even know how to tell you kids just freak out for stickers so i i think i can see um grandma and grandpa buying this store and thinking that this art is all cute and it's colorful and it's got to be fun right so that that's i think the jury that's you can buy this at a mass market retail and that's exactly what it used to be i can see the steelers jars on there right now and i agree it's there's there's some type of uh pull to it when you go to the store if i saw all three of these at the store you know robinhood would be down at the bottom of the shelf and it would be in the 40 section it's this is not a compelling box art form sure and i would and like as you said grandma and grandma are going to pick zombie teams evolution well they're gonna in germany they'll be picking what the winner is i mean that's not how that works yes okay let's start with aaron with the micro macro okay well i mean i do think the zombie team's argument is very compelling yes and i think a lot of us find a lot to love about ramadan but i but i think a micro macro is i'd put money on this one i think this is almost the clear choice because it's the most unique most inventive most new thing out there uh i think to go back to a couple previous sdj winners look at azul those tiles and that that you can you can imagine you can hear the clack of these tiles in your head right now that was the mind here i was a knucklehead for picking uh the mind over think about i think another perfect me plus ultra sdj award is corkle those big one blocks and the way that those fit together and make scrabble without words right that's how inventive and new this is and there as soon as yes it's not a great box art that sells it to you right right away but like you said there's a case on the box but the way that right once people start hearing about this and and playing it once it's gonna be impossible to keep on the shelves remember how big where's waldo books were yeah where's wally from our european viewers all seven of you there's a lot of one this is gonna take off like that i'm predicting like this is fun and i agree with mike that having more than two people crowding around that uh that picture is kind of awkward it's not great as a co-op for the whole people playing on the wall but yeah i would put our own kids in the walls better yes i think this is so inventive and so much fun for people that they're that this is going to do amazingly well and i think robin hood is too complex and too much for the sdj the sdj needs to be sum-upable in two minutes unteachable in five to ten you said this was five minutes and we were rolling that's true there's a lot more going on here and i think zombie teens and micro mac are really where the sdj is pitched and yeah so much i'm an interim yeah it's the exact same reason why i think that that's going to win is because it's so innovative and like you said inventive it the fact that time yeah oh yeah the way time is is on on flat too cool and you have to find it it's not easy it's really interesting i don't know the storyboarding for it to then actually put it down onto paper it's i don't know how they yeah so somebody can even come up with something like that i i mean it's not everything that they said but i was actually torn between these two but this is kind of because it's kind of like a slow burn and we didn't get to experience it this is that's to me i think that this is that's a good word that's a good phrase though yes too much of it for that for this category i think and this game as as fantastic as it is the zombie kids evolution is not too far off yeah different from it and so that's why i think that this is a little bit less innovative i guess in that regard than this and i want to will this into a win so you can buy it hopefully available everywhere oh yeah candace yeah i mean i agree with what everyone has said so far it just it's very original and it it surprised me you know when i look at the box it is very bland and it would be something that i probably would walk by but man when we gave this a try it's just so cool like so much to look at such an inventive creative way to make an experience for people i know yeah it's like you're thinking about look just wanting to look at it more you know yeah it it really is cool and i can totally see again if you know we're talking about something for families to easily throw on the table and play with just go yeah christmas day they're gonna fold this sucker out and have a look i think it just nails it when i first saw it i i was intrigued because i really love the art as much as i think all of the art is great on just about everything except fantasy realms this is amazing like it's such a great idea and it looks so compelling and it's fun it reminds me of um life in hell from uh matt grant yeah yeah so it's and i love that stuff i loved i falled out when i was in college i loved all of that stuff and this is just it's so amazing and i love waldo but waldo is you're looking for waldo on a big page this is waldo waldo waldo waldo it's really awesome it's it's really like steroids yes it's really a great idea it's so unbelievable it's like thinking about waldo you make waldo or wall-e um it's easy right i just do a bunch of crazy stuff and try to do as much different as you can and then there's waldo right let's see how i can hide him this is like insane talking about storyboarding i'm like wow you know it's like and what's really fun is there's more things in there than it's in the game right and there may even be more we don't even know right it's like they've introduced other things slowly so and i cannot wait for the other game i i really want to get this is not my copy either so we'll probably play it through before we send it back to it but i still want to buy one because i think it's really fun i think my mom would have a lot of fun with this game too so well that's it that's what we've chosen this year and i really thank you all of you for coming it's really fantastic we we're short dave we missed dave we miss mark we missed rusty but it's awesome to have you we've been we met everybody here basically the same day i met you later because nikki met you but it was like all these people that come into our lives we got to see a little bit and then we've all been isolated and i'm so happy that we can all be together and i hope all of you are able to do the same soon um now getting choked rebooting life and yeah and new friends stay safe everybody please and thanks to you for watching if you liked this video click the thumbs up button and consider subscribing to our channel if you click on the bell to get notified when we put up new videos see you next time bye [Music] you

Channel: BoardGameGeek

Views: 19,898

Rating: 4.9327731 out of 5

Keywords: linktousergallery, GeekUsername:heccubus, other

Id: X48oBgaU-S4

Length: 87min 41sec (5261 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 15 2021