Silk Review - Stay Away From My Worms, Thanks

[Music] hello my name is Matt I am a worm now in Louisville Renato's silk two to four players will be visiting the island of acacia for approximately 90 minutes in which they will be wrangling their silk worms like jolly farmers to try and munch away at all of the delicious grazing grass all of your favorite flavors of silkworm are here the Queen critters the brown bunks the green grubs and the purple worms all competing for limited space in this grass munching shuffling land of the pure joy honestly I'm not I'm not cut out for being a worm I wanted to be a worm but it's it's too hot in silk as in every game ever the objective is to score the most points how do you score points well you got a graze those worms but depending on how many worms you have on a space and the quality how did you see the grasses is gonna depend how many points you get one worm on rubbish grass that's one times one that's from one point three worms on top quality corn fed grass that's three times three there's no points but worms are naturally lazy creatures and won't budge unless prompted and so it's down to your friendly farmer friend and his frankly freakish dog thing to nudge the worms around board like like grandma frantically arranging keepsakes talking mantelpiece covered in lovely butter but you're gonna have to be wary because as much as you want your worms to be chowing down on some truly gourmet grass delicious you're never too far away from the Oh Carly or as I like to call him the bad monster skulking around the board and staffing up any stragglers he won't need them immediately of course he'll just take them away and save them for later it's strangely gloopy liquor then while you treat your worms with such love and respect to the monster they're really nothing more than meaty little pop-tarts do not be afraid my sweet sweet son of worms you can protect them with wooden fences can't get through that Canyon and the use of your weird dog thing who controls such a monster who would do such dastardly things to such innocent worms it's you it's everyone as with in real life the real monster is man sort of on your turn you're gonna roll two dice and take the corresponding actions well this board of six things you can do you can make a silkworm move a Shepherd or a dog build a fence build a nursery graze your worms or be a bloody monster everything in the game that moves only moves one space but can sometimes cause a chain reaction of movements cheerily referred to in the manual as bumping the farmer bumps the dog the dog bumps the monster the dog and the farmer both bump the worms and the monster bumps the farmer apparently the farmer also wants a wife which is sad but honestly it's just not my problem and the first of a few interesting things this board actually loops which means you move over here and over here which means something that it's pretty squished pretty cozy well actually it's even smaller than it looks you basically have a seemingly info quantity of labor is like some sort of long-running soap everything can move around the world in this fashion with the sole exception of worms so when they get bumped off the edge of the map they get lost in the mountains they're lost in the mountains bumping indeed bumping with the fishies bumped three times in the back of the head and here's the point where it becomes clear that silk is quite unusual it looks like a fairly basic economic farming game when actually it's much more of an interactive abstract puzzle it's just that the rules make so much theoretic sense that you forget that what you're doing yet is very abstract the farmer bumps the dog the dog bumps the worms yeah if you are a monster eats all of the worms a thing about bumping is you often end up causing multiple bumps at once the bumpy always chooses where things get bumped to and packs of worms can even be split weirdly all of mine made it over here to this nice field where's yours oh it's got lost in the mountains ah really unfortunate weird but there's a real splash of magic sauce here and the fact that the game's rules make it quite player that you never have to do anything nasty for example you're not allowed to bump silkworm of any kind at any point if there's nowhere for the silkworm to be bumped to and so maybe you're doing a big chain movement move the monster into the Shepherd into the dark and I need to do all of these things because I just do and oh no yellow player oh well there's nowhere that your silkworm can go but into the mountains where they get lost and more importantly than that this action board where you roll these dice and get these actions if you don't like what you roll you can spend your actual points in the game to change the numbers on the dice one point for every pip number that goes up or down and the one wraps around to the six which means you never get stuck with oops all fences and that means that if you roll the bad well there's nothing stopping you from just spending a point or two in changing it no one ever has to be the monster in fact it's entirely possible for two players to collaborate and do - lots of fencing each one after another and to just fence the monster in completely and take it out of the game you can spend a lot of this game just peacefully farming and not using the monster at all but at the same time well if you do roller sex and you don't really fancy spending any points to change it's something else well you know then maybe it means that this monster is gonna go here and eat all of your worms that were just about to eat that unbelievably delicious patch of grass and get you nine points but uh well it wasn't really my fault was it the dice sort of I sort of made me do it and this is kind of for me something really wonderful silk is a game that does adapt to the sort of people you're playing with if everyone's non aggressive then fine but what's lovely about this is if you've got players that have never really been a bit mean in a board game and I've never really had the feeling that they wanted to or the fee no they could this is a really wonderful opportunity for people to just try this is a game that since it's sat in my stack of things to play was consistently the one that people who didn't like wizards and weaponry wanted to try the most and those same people usually ended up losing but also having a lot of fun going on a gluttonous rampage with the monster because while some games of silk do start more peacefully than others it's only a matter of time before somebody realizes they probably haven't won and decides to start stomping on someone else's birthday cake because it's really impossible to overstate just how crushed up this board is and right from the very start the game you're gonna be shunting someone else's silk worms offer delicious patch of nibbles and when eventually they send the monster after you well yeah fair enough everyone wants to secure their own patch of safety and if you're not greedy you can absolutely do that bouncing them back and forth between a couple of spaces and regenerating the munched upon land with a nearby hatchery but making all those fences is gonna take quite a while and there's some really nice grass that we can start munching on right now instead and the monster is like it's quite a long way away and I mean you know ya know I'm just gonna I'll build a fence in a bit in a little bit it's all very jolly it's all very nice it's not very naive it's all deeply foolish because all it's gonna take is for one player to suddenly shift the monster around quite a lot gobbling up worms and before you know it yeah you're in the middle of silkworms battle royale where everyone's out for blood and the Beast will feast like Machine freed from indentured servitude what the Beast will eat like a starving Gibbon at a sit-down meal for two that's much better although I think starving given alone at a sit-down meal for two has been anyway as part of some sort of silky synopsis this is a game of cute and fun friendly aesthetics that secretly beneath the surface hides a row of very tiny teeth much like the game's evocative arm it's twee and nice but also slightly gooey on the very edge of grim and as an abstract evocative machine I really like it it's a game that has players theatrically shaking their fists at one another no you're right my worms it's again that has players making noises as they eat up the grass or eat up the worms I've really made it quite a mess of this board haven't you mr. machine when played by those who don't usually delve into heavier economic games this is a quick little jaunt full of interesting decisions I suspect may actually turn quite dry and fail if played with the sorts of people who really stop and crunch the numbers I don't know if it's worth spending two points to turn that 2 into a 4 I kind of feel like it might be but I don't know and for me that lack of clarity is a really integral part of playing the game and it's unfortunately been clarified by the designer online that when regenerating a piece of land and flipping it back over so it can be eaten again you are a now before you do it too look underneath to see what it is which I feel actually I just House ruled the complete opposite and adding that slightly memory game feel to it is a much better fit for the kind of people that I usually want to tend to play a game like this with so there's enough spice folded into silk to theoretically turn it into an outstanding omelet but for me it's somehow never more than a sum of its parts it is a beautiful little colorful game and a beautiful little dinky box but despite being refreshing and interesting it's not quite exciting enough to completely recommend it's slightly too fiddly for what it is and it's not something that anyone really needs in that collection but that doesn't mean it isn't a lovely thing still might have a valuable place on your shelf it's unusual enough that it's continually fun to just put it in front of people and see what they reckon this is a surprisingly meaty game in a frankly wonderfully condensed little box that counts for something if you live in the United Kingdom where rooms are effectively carpets that's why I keep in turn been in the cupboard please stop acting as if there's anything wrong with that the components are wonderful it doesn't outstay its welcome it's usually over within about an hour it's a peach to teach and it's again that kind of slightly adapts to the mood of the room maybe you're all just super chill maybe you all want to take a worm family hostage I don't know what your friends are like if you see something that seems strange call the police and last but very much not least people want to play this game looks fun yeah it is kind of fun should we play it you know a long time ago very long time ago I made a series called the opener it looked at the qualities that games hand that would help you get new people into the hobby and the main one by a country mile is just having games that people who don't play games look at and go oh oh and that's that's enough it's a good thing it's slightly too fiddly and it's not amazing but it's a fantastic entry way for getting people who aren't interested in sort of blokey looking boxes into things that still give them the capacity to be a little bit mean because everybody likes being a little bit mean they might not just not realize that yeah and honestly if the only reason this has a place in your collection is to stop people asking if they can plate a Conoco then for me that's that's fine your mileage may vary I don't hate all pandas I mean know that I've mentioned the opener I feel like it would be remiss of me not to after all these years of requests well I guess we should probably get extravagant because where's the love of eating your friends worms if you can't also eat worms with your friends for today's recipe you are going to need three eggs a whisk one clean Bowl you'll need 175 grams of caster sugar and you're also going to need one of these piping bags and some piping thing which you should have from your review of capstone games pipeline preheat the oven to 150 degrees and wash your hands crack the eggs and put the whites of the eggs into the bowl what you do with the yolks afterwards that's your business I'm not gonna ask questions next up we're gonna whisk this thing you don't need to do this legs either these days you can make pretty amazing meringues where they think the water will chickpeas there's vegan alternatives that are really good check it out so no little quiz that stay up on their own lovely little Peaks and that's the point we want to stop whipping it because otherwise you might get so much I should point out I've literally never made this before I just had the worms the words wormer and pop into my head and next up we will do is put in the sugar a little bit that time and continue to whisk we're almost through the whiskey I promise this is the point in the recipe where basically you just need to wait for your burly bearded friend to arrive at your house in the hope that they will bring you the food coloring that you forgot to buy so just just wait for that thank you so we're gonna use some green food coloring to make them look like green worms I don't know how much to put in so I'm gonna just make it up it's not very pleasant color assemble your piping machine so I don't really understand how any of this works sort of spoon this [Music] and the great thing about this recipe is because you can't be bothered putting the rest of the mix into the paper and doing all of this stuff you've just got like you can do whatever you like with the rest of this it's free eggs put them in the oven turn the heat down to about 140 130 things and then an hour and a quarter an hour and a half pause your uncle we got some worms [Music] [Applause] really work tool so I don't I mean yes just complete disaster so I think the key thing of this recipe if you want to do it properly is to make it so that your friend who brings you your green coloring that lime green just just arrives a bit earlier than you expect and you don't that's always so long cuz um yeah I mean basically that's it that's how you make one meringues just don't do it exactly like I did it do something do something differently mm-hmm worms huh what are they good for and on the topic of that do I recommend silk well I don't know maybe it's got a place in your collection maybe does it's got a little place in my heart maybe it's got a place on your shelf it's fun it's fun like akka tired old robot too many years of service dear Matthew I am old and tired they've served shut up and sit down for many years and have loved every second but as I get older I goose Tonight Show and I feel at this time to plan my retirement allow I have Lester another couple calls and I feel as though I would be quite comfortable and I would appreciate your financial assistance in these difficult times truly your friendship has meant more to me than thanks for watching and if you've really enjoyed this video you can like and subscribe you just comment subscribe to the channel again that already is bloody it's a lovely thing you could do and also if you live anywhere in the kind of area to Vancouver we're about to have a third ever shucks shucks 2019 tickets are available now and it's it's gonna be a really great convention run by us with us there physically so you can come and play lovely games like this with friends or strangers so do check that out it's pretty cool yeah I mean if you watch the videos we'll put some videos over there and the first yeah that's it

Channel: Shut Up & Sit Down

Views: 156,372

Rating: 4.9425511 out of 5

Keywords: Shut Up and Sit Down, SUSD, SU&SD, Board Game Review, Review, Board Games, Board Gaming, Boardgame, Board Game, Gaming, Tabletop, Fun Games, Matt Lees, Silk, Devir, take-that, worms, worm game

Id: C_tOQ84adic

Length: 19min 23sec (1163 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 23 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/davaca]

Poor goof generator :-(

[u/mrdrofficer]

I've been very curious about this game. Glad to see them take on a less popular title and give it the ol' SUSD treatment.

[u/MrGurbic]

Purple Pupae!!

[u/ComtriS]

Looks exactly like Nausicaa's ohmus.

[u/Run_nerd]

This game looks so cute and weird at the same time.

[u/elliottdisgrace]

THE RETURN OF MATTS RECIPES. I AM A HAPPY MAN.

[u/Pjoernrachzarck]

I played Silk twice and I was reallly thinking about getting it. I mostly agree with Matt here. The game is charming as fuck, videos really don’t do it justice. The art is Root levels of amazing and immersive. My girlfriend adored it and wanted to play it on that count alone. And then wanted to play again.

Mechanically it’s a) problematic but b) different and original enough to be wildly engaging anyway. Simple to teach and to play but just complex enough to not be too casual.

Overall this is yet another one of those games that only ask one question of you. Do you enjoy emerging stories on the table as much or maybe more than mechanically perfect games? If so, Silk is worth a second and third and fourth look.

[u/Falco451]

Can’t watch the video yet but this game was easily the worst game we played at a recent convention :/

[u/jg012c]

After seeing it on his shelf I just what the Hellboy review