Top 3 Board Game Plays of August 2026

0:04 Hey, I'm Ryan. This is my brother Daniel. And this is Rolls in the Family. And we are here like we are every month to talk about our top plays of the month. This one is a little strange. I mean, we're filming this a little late.

0:20 It's going to go out

0:21 even later. Who knows what month it is when you're watching this. True.

0:26 Uh, you know, the scheduling gets a little tricky. ing with our we did we just finished wrapped up our top 50 board games of all time and we try to keep that series together right those five videos. I mean

0:39 wait on that

0:40 there would maybe be a riot if we you know got to the final video dropping and instead dropped our top plays

0:46 almost as much of a riot as the year we were doing our top 50 and it was the day that the re the final video was supposed to come out and remember I was late on editing and and and they were like final video.

0:58 It was the final video and people were commenting where is the video and you and you threw me under the bus.

1:05 Yeah, deservedly so. Yes. Uh yeah, we hopefully didn't make that mistake this year. Technically, we don't at the time of filming this.

1:14 It still could happen.

1:16 Oh gosh, that now I've got pressure. Okay.

1:19 Um but you know, the these uh monthly videos are pretty flexible. It doesn't matter too much if you're seeing this a little late. It just means that we probably aren't going to remember the details of our plays very well.

1:32 Uh we will have links to all the games below if you want to check them out for [snorts] yourself. Uh feel free to drop if you happen to remember what games you played.

1:41 Think about game you played four years ago and drop it down.

1:44 Uh let us know what was or just recently. Just do recently.

1:48 Yeah.

1:49 Um and if you missed our top games of all time, we'll maybe link that playlist. some of the probably better content on the channel that we put out.

1:59 A I mean, at least on my end, a a spicy top 50. There was a lot of movement and uh and even a new number one spoiler for me. So,

2:10 wow.

2:11 Not for Ryan. Spoiler. Sorry.

2:14 Yes. Uh yeah, it sounds like you you Dango maybe didn't have the uh the most plays to draw from this month. That might be kind of a weird month. It's

2:24 Yeah. Well, this is going all the way back. I mean, this was this was surgery month on my shoulder. Uh I was I was drugged out. So, this had to be games that, you know, could play with Daniel, you know, half incapacitated. Incomp in

2:39 incapacitated.

2:40 Thank you.

2:42 Decapitated.

2:43 No, no, not that. Not that. Um, so but we still got some gaming in and uh, you know, sometimes it's fun to talk about games that you don't talk about as often on the channel.

2:53 Yeah. Is that a good segue into your first game?

2:56 That's actually a great segue into my first game. I don't know if I've It's I'm I'm not sure if I've ever talked about this game on the channel. This is a a party game. uh does not get played a ton, but is one that we were at um my wife's families and had an opportunity kind of looking for something to hit that uh late night just wanting a light laughing fun group experience. We got to play green team wins. played a sixplayer game of that which I will just as a side note say always complain about why in the world did they in the new edition drop it down from your copy which has goes up to 12 right

3:35 I think it goes to like 12 yeah and I have no idea

3:38 and so I get this Ryan gives it as a gift to me for like my birthday or something.

3:43 Yeah, they bait and switched me with the player count.

3:45 And so I get it I'm like awesome. I'm like, I've been wanting this one. And we go to play it the first time with a group a while back and I'm like going through the components. I'm like, it only goes to six players. And so that's a apparently

3:57 they do have like they do have an expansion pack.

4:00 I really should add that to my wish list. But anyways, we played green team wins and uh and honestly this is a this is a really just great great party game in terms of a different dynamic where you're asked you know some sort of they've got kind of different category of questions. It might be like a this or that or my favorite are the uh the fill in the blanks. The word

4:22 the word fill in the blanks I think is honestly there's

4:24 actually know something that I I do when I play this game.

4:28 I stack the decks such that we're guaranteed for one of those to be the last round.

4:33 Oh, nice. Okay. It's I don't normally do that, guys, but I find that those ones tend to like have the most fun dynamic and having it on the last round when it's going to deter.

4:43 I almost wonder if the game would be better if it was just all that like

4:47 there's actually some other game that's very similar to that. I think I I I kind of like mixing it up, but I agree that those ones tend to be the spiciest

4:56 because in this game it's interesting what you're trying to answer is not necessarily what you think personally, but what you think the majority of the people in the group are going to answer because that's what gets you on the green team and you get a point if you are in the majority. And so it's a fun group game because you're thinking about the group as a whole and then it always, you know, after the reveal is like a what I, you know, you think this and how, you know, there's a lot of, I think, banter that happens, which is honestly where most of the fun of the game is, uh, as well. So we, uh, this was a an it's nice because it's super easy to teach. It's plays quick, um, but gets a lot of that kind of fun group dynamic going. So that was I have not played this one in a long time. But

5:41 yeah, it's a good icebreaker game. Like there's some games that kind of require you to know the group writer. This one works pretty well even if like people don't know each other very well. Kind of break the ice.

5:51 I think my best experience of this game was probably when we played it at our family reunion a couple years ago and we but again it was your copy that could go up to like 12.

6:01 Well, that's the thing that's so hard is like if you ask me where is green team wins at his best, I'm like seven or more players. Oh, the player the player

6:08 literally everything you can.

6:11 I just Yeah, I got to get the expansion thing that makes it go up to 12.

6:16 I do like the decision they made in this game for the whole green team, orange team. One, it's just fun for the banter of like who's on which team, but it does add this interesting thing of like you get more points when you win when you were already on the green team. So, you could have somebody who

6:31 like let's say you're right half the time. If you alternate being right half the time, you're gonna get a lot fewer points than if you, you know, got them

6:39 five in a row and then didn't for the rest of the game, right?

6:41 Um, so I think that's kind of a fun twist on it and it feels good when you can kind of like rack up those points on the green.

6:49 Nice. Uh, we talk about how there's uh, you know, different reasons games can end up on our top uh, games of the month or whatever the plays.

6:59 One might be you only play three games in the month. But sometimes it's like just that's all there was to choose from. Uh this is maybe a first of kind of this uh interesting category of I had the opportunity to introduce my son to a game that I designed which doesn't happen every day.

7:20 That doesn't happen every day.

7:22 This is um

7:24 just disgusting. We're going to have to talk about this game on the channel. [gasps] No. So,

7:30 do we need to like put a disclaimer of like self-promotion here?

7:33 Yeah, self-promotion for the game you can't even like go buy now.

7:36 Yeah. Does the affiliate link double like you get the you get the link

7:40 and sends an email to me to send you one of the five copies I have left.

7:46 Uh this is the game Tasty Humans. Um

7:49 and this is a funny this is a funny one. Uh back in, you know, circa what is it 2018 2019. Uh this I kind of stumbled into this opportunity uh to have a game that I designed kind of go through the whole

8:07 Dangle hold that he had some part in this

8:11 my main

8:12 it was originally just this little game jam thing. It was like a 48 hour like based on a theme designed a little game and I like doing those types of things going back even with like my brother older brother and I used to do a lot of u

8:24 like video game game jam type things. Um, so it's kind of just a fun thing over the weekend. Um, but happened to win that contest. I don't think there were many entries, but I did win the contest.

8:37 The publisher that small publisher putting it on was interested in like, hey, are you going to do anything with this? And so we actually worked on developing it over the next year had a successful Kickstarter and actually printed the game.

8:48 Um, so there's a few things that were kind of fun this month with this one. I had not played it in a long time and I played it a lot back in those years. Um, so it was kind of this brought me back to remembering this thing that I worked on, this thing that like in a lot of ways like defined this short season. Like that was a big part of my life kind of doing all the development on that. And um it was fun to be reminded of like, hey, this game's still like fun. Like you know, I I I look back I I I still enjoy playing it. you know, there's a lot that I can critique in like the it's a pretty small publisher budget production and there's even some design things. I'm like, if I could go back, I would maybe, you know, tweak this or change this. But I still enjoy playing it. Um, but then very fun to get to introduce it to my son who I was like probably is going to like it cuz he likes a lot of puzzly games and this is definitely kind of like a crunchier puzzle. And I was right. He did like it enough that he requested to play it again. We actually played it twice this month. So, um the most he might be one of the top players of Tasty Humans over this last year.

9:57 That's true. It's true. Um but it was just fun to get a play. You know, it's so weird cuz like my time working on that game. That's like prekids. I have three kids now. And so it's like that's a very different season of life. and now getting to revisit it and like watching my own kid playing this game is it's just a weird cool dynamic. Um,

10:21 you know,

10:22 this I'm guessing like nobody watching this has played this or very few maybe just shout out if you played this.

10:31 Oh my gosh, we will heart your comment.

10:34 Yes, I mean there's people there's probably people on the channel that were were knew me back then. Um,

10:40 it's a good game. Like,

10:41 but you know, it's kind of this Tetrisyy. You're playing the monsters. You're eating the adventures that are coming to attack you. You're dropping the pieces in, rotating and dropping into your, you know, stomach, which is kind of this Tetris grid, but the pieces break apart. So, like if you, you know, the tiles will always drop to the bottom, so they won't always stay together.

11:01 It's deceptively crunchy. it is because you're then dropping in these like leader scoring tiles that drop in but then define a scoring based on what's around them and you always know which one is coming so you're kind of planning for it and then you're layering in these and your monster has its own scoring. So it is a crunchy layered puzzle.

11:21 Yeah.

11:22 Um and you know it was fun. The second game I played with Toby we uh I used like the slime monster. So, there's some of the like back sides of the boards that are a little more advanced monsters and that was fun to kind of just play again with that where the slime spaces double how much a tile counts for scoring conditions and things. Um, so yeah, it was it was fun to get to show this to Toby. It's been sitting on the shelf for a long time. You know, I don't think you can get it now. At one point there was some like Amazon retailer that like bought out the stock of it and was selling them on Amazon for a while. I don't think they're available anymore. How many copies did you say you have at your house?

12:00 I probably still have like eight or probably like eight in shrink that aren't like the you know my

12:07 someone could reach out to you.

12:08 So I mean yeah I mean if you if you looking at this and you're like hey this actually looks really fun or whatever. I mean I will say we we it was another thing that was really fun about the experience of of making it is we actually got uh Tom Vassel from the Dice Tower reviewed Tasty Humans and he gave it a seal of approval. It was, you know, like a 7.5 or but it was like, hey, you know, that was uh our our history with board games goes back to some of Tom Vassel's reviews were the very first ones we

12:36 Oh, how nervous were you when his review came out?

12:40 It is. It was a very surreal thing. And, you know, as someone who also like knows a little bit of the shortcomings of the game in the broader landscape of big board games coming out, you're like, "Okay, I hope he hope he, you know, at least enjoyed it or whatever." And he did. And so it was uh

12:54 that's cool.

12:55 It was cool. Uh so fun to get this one off the shelf and and show it to Toby. Show him what his old man was up to.

13:03 I know. So proud. So proud of his father.

13:06 So proud.

13:06 Beautiful.

13:08 Um very nice, Ryan. My number two uh game of this last month I did not design.

13:16 Yeah. Sorry, that segue was gonna be tough. Yeah. [gasps] But uh this is one that has it just feels like this has been like especially I guess in my world but I would say you two it it's just been the

13:30 we live in the same world.

13:32 It's true. It's been the hit of the last uh several years I would say of just a game that it kind of it feels like in this almost in the same way that like we view Ticket to Ride as like just a classic that this one is just a classic now already in its own right. This goes to heat pedal to the metal.

13:55 Wow. Heat getting a lot of love from Daniel lately. You know, I we were at my uh like I said, at my wife's family's uh for a week and I brought this one with me and and it's one that I find can actually appeal to kind of a wide range of people. Like it doesn't, you know, it's not like you have to be this like passionate, you know, racing game person who loves only, you know, racing games, but it very much, I think, can, you know, hit kind of a wide range of people. And so I funny enough almost there's actually a different play of this a second play of this that probably would have been my top play because we had a full sixplayer game. It was going amazing and we ran out of time and had to leave halfway through. So that was that's a bummer.

14:41 So that was that was a real bummer. Um but we I did also get a three-player game of it with my wife and her sister and then we filled it out with the the legends modules.

14:51 Um which worked great. Now it reminds me I need to get that legends uh update because

14:58 it's subtle but it's a really

15:00 it's a really great really great yeah twist on twist on them and just makes them feel maybe even more just dynamic and

15:08 yeah really fun but the fact that even at three players it works so well and it was just such a fun and tight game. My wife pulled off the victory in the end.

15:18 Is she a fan of it? I don't know if I knew she had played.

15:21 I think she likes it. I think she's not it's not like like she's totally cool out of the lane of some of like her favorite style.

15:28 I think I mean she loves she likes crunch like she likes heavier you know thinking stuff

15:35 management like a lot of the games she likes have more of that.

15:38 So it doesn't have that but I think she she enjoys it. And man I just love this one. It it again always it's fairly simple in terms of like what I mean you're just you're you're picking cards based off your gear and you're playing them and you're moving that many spaces, right? Like the game is not that complex, but just the different dynamics and the management of your engine and and even, you know, we played with uh the weather and the different uh uh whatever those little tiles are that you can place out that make the curve maybe plus one part.

16:11 Yeah. And it just those add just some different, you know, unique flavors to the to the map. And I just am always amazed at how there are just every game moves that it's like, oh wow, that was a that was a really good move. Ooh, that was that was really interesting.

16:28 The way I just spent all my heat to do this. May have been a mistake. Well, you know what? Like, like I like I early on I made a huge gamble and it just blew through my heat and it got me into a really good spot, but then it's like, oh my gosh, can I recover? And I just love that that this you really are faced with this tension constantly of do I do I push it now or do I hold back now and wait for an opportunity later? And that over the course of a race is just it's super thematic. You know, it fits really well with the theme, but just also fun mechanically. So, uh, yeah, it was I wish we could have finished the six player game of it because Oh, it was so sad, Ryan. It's like you have the dream setup. It was, you know, her brother who you know, you know, like was just like I think loving this and so we had to we had to stop which was which was too bad.

17:22 But either way, so glad to get this one to the table and honestly just makes me want to get I don't have any of the expansions shockingly for what are you doing?

17:30 I know. So, um I need to need to start getting those

17:34 but a great game. He keep pel the metal.

17:37 Nice. My number two was probably the biggest game I got to the table this month in terms of kind of a big game day. It's one that I have been excited to play more since playing it for the first couple of times. I actually had had a conversation with a couple of guys who um especially one of them really big fan of Terraforming Mars and I was like I think you guys would like this one a lot and this is STI search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

18:10 This one's been getting some love recently.

18:12 Yeah. And I think it's deserved. You know, we we in recent years don't often buy new big games just because it's so sorry

18:23 bought all kinds of

18:24 big games all the time.

18:25 I'm saying like like

18:27 I can tell you like this category of like longer strategic games,

18:34 we're pretty like tentative to introduce new ones into the collection cuz it's it's competing with a lot of other ones. I mean, even ones you've gotten in recent years, like you got Age of Innovation. Well, you had played it with me and like, you know,

18:47 but this was one that was like brand new. We hadn't played it. And I really have been enjoying my plays so far. I will say this particular game, well, one thing was interesting about this game is we played for the first time with the Space Agencies expansion, which is great.

19:02 Anticipated. It wasn't like a huge mystery that it was going to be good. It's like, okay,

19:06 for new players first time. Was that easy to add in? Here's my hot take. I think it's better for new players because getting a a space agency that has its own power and then getting a couple of those. We just played with like the basic where you just get Delta Space Agency and you get dealt two of the

19:26 Prelude like cards. I don't know what they're called in this game, but it's basically like Prelude.

19:31 Although I will say they're less exciting compared to Prelude. They're a little they're a little more subtle. Um, but just getting two of those and the the space agency, um, instead of doing like a kind of draft thing.

19:44 Um, but it gives you a little bit of direction as a new player. It gives you a way to go, okay, I'm a little better at this

19:51 thing. Maybe I cuz I tell you, SETI is a game where you can explore

19:56 a lot of different mechanisms because there's a lot of ways to get points. And so, as a new player, it's like, should I be scanning? Should I be launching probes? Should I be trying to orbit or land or you know Daniel you know his first game avoided many of the core things of the game

20:14 like launching probes.

20:16 Oh no no that was my I thought that was I thought the first game

20:19 that wasn't the game I played with you. That was uh that was my second game where I didn't launch a probe until like

20:24 I'm mixing up my games. We've been talking about

20:25 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With game with you. I remember I got on the moons. I got the moons. You were the moon.

20:30 I was going for the moons. I still lost but

20:32 Yeah. Speaking of losing, I got absolutely destroyed in this game. Let's go. You want to hear the scores? You want to hear the scores? I got second place. Um, so so we the score was third place 147. I had 183. The winner came in at 301.

20:50 So a full

20:51 wow

20:52 fullund almost 130 points.

20:54 We're not SETI experts, but that's uh that's pretty high.

20:57 That's a high score from my and it's with the expansion which I think it inflates scores a little. It was one of those things that you looked at the end as we're looking and like a lot of the like scoring conditions he got on cards and everything was just like, "Oh man, that just like lined up perfectly for you and we did nothing to like slow you down. Like we kind of just let you eat your lunch here." Um, so yeah, absolutely got crushed but still had a great time. Um, and I think part of the reason I didn't have a particularly strong game. Um, I is I think I'm still feeling out the pacing in this game. So, you with games like this, it's easy to be ambitious about what you think you're going to do. We get this in like a Gricola, for example, like I'm going to play these occupations and do all this.

21:43 But the thing about a Gria is I've played it so much. I understand the pacing of a Gria. I so quickly can realize okay this isn't going to happen or like I need to let go of this because this other thing has happened. I don't have that intuition yet in SETI and so I realized so I had the corporation that could um or it's not corporation space agency that uh I could run my computer for free like I didn't have to pay the energy which is a really powerful thing if you're going to run your computer a lot and so I'm thinking okay I'm going to lean into scanning so I'm getting lots of data build out my computer and really just try to get that loop working really strongly well I made the cardinal sin that we tal about uh dango the the sirens call of getting a card that has some like objective to do, right?

22:32 And out of the opening thing, I had this objective that was like, "Oh, I need to visit Uranus." And the things were lined up that it was like kind of doable out of the beginning.

22:44 And so, and the and the reward for like landing there was like pretty good. So I so I'm thinking, okay, let me take advantage of that and then I'll go into my, you know, kind of main plan. But I just didn't not realizing the pacing of the game, I just didn't realize how much that was going to hinder me getting into my real strategy.

23:06 And so I think I realized like I I just did all this work that wasn't really setting up what, you know, my space agency was going to be good at, what I wanted to continue to be good at. So, I think that was a big mistake out of the gate. Um, so yeah, I think as I play it more, I'll have a better feel for how much you can do and like how much you need to, you know, where it makes sense to be opportunistic and where it where it doesn't. Um, it was very fun to play. We had two aliens I had never had before in this game. One of them was from the uh expansion. I'm not going to spoil here, though. I'm going to I'm going to use some vague terms. So, if you want absolutely no spoilers for SETI, uh, you know, jump to the next chapter or whatever, but I'll give some some

23:53 some try to keep it vague. Um, one of them was very interesting from the expansion because it had this concept thematically of like we're translating their language. And so it had this interesting thing of like the rewards that that alien gave were like kind of undefined until we translated

24:16 and now we knew what those things meant and could get the rewards out of it. And so it was a very interesting I I thought it was very fun and um gave our game a very unique feel. The other one I didn't like engage with at all, which I think turned out to be a mistake because that was part of the reason the other player I think he just like reaped all the benefits of um this one that kind of had this like kind of pick up and deliver thing going on with it. Um but it again is something I just really enjoy with SEI is like how different each game feels based on which of those two aliens are. And even once I'll have seen all the aliens and there isn't like this sense of discovery of I've never seen this before, it's still just going to be fun to see which two are in the game um and play that out. So, uh not a strong performance for me. That's That's not why it's making the top plays, but I think it's a testament to just how fun STI is. That even when I'm getting getting destroyed,

25:14 I was still having a great

25:17 time with it. You know, the space agencies I I'll one more thought on the space agencies. Besides having a power, which mine was the run my computer for free, they all have like an ongoing power and then they have a like once per round action you can do. Uh, and mine was that I could swap a card in my hand with a card from the card row.

25:35 So, I had a lot of flexibility. I didn't end up using it as much as I like

25:40 maybe had hoped I could. Um, but there's some clever things you can do with that, especially with like scanning because sometimes that's dependent on what, you know, colors are in the row and stuff like that. Uh, so I do really like how they implemented the space agencies. It's like, hey, you get a passive power and you get this like once per round um ability. It's good fun.

25:57 You know, Ryan, we just did our obviously completed our top 50. I feel like I am super curious for you where this one's gonna end up landing because I am also curious.

26:06 I think we you know I can't even remember this year where you had I know obviously it was still like early impressions. Yeah. Go watch early.

26:13 It was pre-expansion. So that was before the before this game,

26:17 but it feels like this one's got a lot of potential um to to launch up into the elite status of of games that you have. So

26:26 I think so. I hope so. I mean, when with this kind of game, that's what we're shooting for, right? Like the only ones we keep around are really the ones that get to that top tier. So, totally.

26:37 Uh, feeling optimistic with City,

26:40 Ryan. Feeling optimistic.

26:42 I'm a pretty optimistic.

26:42 It's like those uh uh Facebook uh posts you can make or where it's just like a reaction. Daniel, feeling optimistic or something.

26:50 Are you talking like old time? I'm talking about like

26:53 retro [snorts] like OG Facebook

26:56 and where you know this is total sidebar where like you would I look back at posts I made when I was like Facebook was just starting and you're like in middle school and you would always it would have your name at the beginning of the post and so you would talk almost in like the third person. You'd be like you'd be like you'd be like Daniel is feeling really happy about how school went today. It's like you look back

27:17 it's like this person poked you.

27:19 This person all poking. Oh, we need to bring that back. That was great.

27:22 And now it's just all ads.

27:25 Now it's just ads.

27:26 AI slop. Isn't that nice?

27:27 AI slop. We missed the poke. Um, okay, Ryan, speaking of poking. Okay, I I can't I don't know what to do. Um, speaking of great games, my number one uh is a game that, you know, I think this one has maybe surprised you at how much I love it, how much my wife and I have love it. I mean, this is a you talk about this is this really is a classic now in our collection. Um, and it has it's one that got early on and there must just be something about it that really hits at what uh I love in board games because it has lasted many years of games coming in coming out and still is. I think this year my top 50. I want to say this one went up.

28:17 Oh, Ryan already knows what it is.

28:20 Uh, also 3D printed a finally a much smaller uh storage solution for it which was beautiful. My number one goes to Splendor. And I tell you what, Ryan, having that smaller, I mean, we're talking like, you know, this big. And you're able to, it was huge because in my game bag now instead of a full like game slot, it's a little just add-on. And yet we were able to play a fourplayer game of Splendor. Uh, and it was so great. Like, I just love this game so much. It is so it honestly Ryan it you know I know you haven't played it a ton but it is so tight like

28:59 the when you look out at the beginning and you you know I love at the start of the game because you're just like trying to analyze like like okay between the way the cards are laid out especially maybe those ones that are at the top third row along with what nobles do we have in this game like what kind of path do I think I might try to play? It's honestly a little bit of like, you know, at the start of like a gorilla and you're like trying to think, okay, what kind of arc am I going to do? But then you have to be able to pivot because someone's, you know, takes someone reserves the card that you are going to take or something comes out and opportunistically like, okay, I'm actually going to, you know, go this way. But you have to do it all within the fact that like this is a race. You cannot waste a turn. And so you are trying to be as efficient as possible to getting to that 15 points.

29:53 And I just find that it's such a satisfying journey. It's one that like is so tight. And I'm, you know, especially in a four-player game, there's a lot that changes in between your turn. And so there's a lot kind of shifting which makes things interesting of like, okay, maybe I need to be more aggressive on reserving that card because the chance of that sticking around three people until it gets back to me, you know. So, there's definitely some things that that shift on on that end,

30:18 but it, you know, it's not like there's a lot to this game. It's it's a, you know, the the formula is pretty simple and yet I just love it. Um, I also did win, you know, and this this honestly, Ryan, is probably one of my better win percentage games. I'd have to I'd have to look. Um, but I just it's it's so much it's so much fun being able to just continually

30:44 I I feel the tension throughout the game of just okay, how like where are people at and how and and there is a little bit of blocking of like, you know, if you see something come out of like the person lead reserving that card. Um,

31:00 yeah, I was going to ask how often do you reserve without any intention of actually using it, but just because you know it's key for

31:09 super often only because you are limited to the amount of reserve cards you can be holding. So, if you're never going to play it, you're like giving up a whole slot, which can be kind of rough. But it definitely like you will not do well in Splendor if you don't ever pay attention to what you know the other people are doing. Like that needs to be something on your radar of hey if something comes out you know um that is like perfect for what they've they've built up. Um, yeah. You know, so, uh, I don't know. Just the

31:43 the looking across the I think there's, you know, four in each row, so 12 cards out and trying to kind of just like see. It's like almost like if you can discover like a little like, okay, if I get if I can get this one, then these ones will build up to that and that

31:58 because you could be another player that's eyeing almost the same

32:01 the same thing. Well, and that can change things. If people start going down like a certain route, then pivoting a different direction is, you know, can they're not going to want those cards that maybe that you want. So,

32:15 I don't know, simple design, but this one has just been been so great. And it was one that again, a four-player game. At the end of it, I it just left me with that feeling of I love Splendor. And this is

32:28 Dangle does love Splender.

32:29 I I do love Splender. I love that it's in a smaller package now, so it can easily be taken um as kind of an add-on add-on game. Um but

32:39 this one's just been an absolute hit. Um and and got it way back in college.

32:45 It makes me think of how hard it is to predict, especially with this weight of game, like which games are going to be the long-lasting hits cuz I remember like did we give you Splendor? Was it a gift? Yeah, you it was a gift my like freshman year of college

32:57 and I think it was like right when Splender came out and you know but I don't remember thinking

33:03 oh this is going to be this is going to like this looks like a good one.

33:07 It is it is so hard to know. Yeah. Um but it stuck around. I mean that's like a decade now.

33:13 No, totally. And I will say it just I like games where you're, you know, a little more tactically trying to like

33:24 optimize and kind of figure out your way as you're going. Like you can have a general kind of maybe I'm working for this, but this one just gives me that of like, okay, get this and then going to try to get that one and work towards this one and and you know, having to pivot a lot along the way. So, uh, yeah, we, this one's, uh, this one is a staple for us, and it was my best play of this last month.

33:47 The best.

33:48 Yep. My best play slashplays. It's I played this one a number of times. Um, so it's going to blur together a little bit for me. Uh, is a newish game to the collection. I don't know that we've talked about it on the channel. um played it actually for the first time with you

34:09 kind of I would say experienced a group with you I would say we experienced so it's it's a scenario based game we we did some of the early stuff so I think we kind of were doing some of the onboarding I don't know that we really got to kind of the full game experience

34:23 uh but this is Bombusters

34:26 oh wow

34:28 this is one that had been on my radar for a long time I know that I enjoy deduction games deduction games can be a little bit hard though.

34:36 One, a lot of other people just don't really enjoy deduction that much. You know, that kind of puzzly.

34:43 Two, if it's a competitive deduction game, sometimes it can just feel like here, let's sit around and like see who's smarter kind of, you know, experience. Um, but there's been a great new wave of cooperative deduction games. And Bomb Busters, I think, is like one of the best examples of it.

34:58 And so, so glad I finally got to try this, though. was so concerned after we played it and everything. It was like, when am I going to play this? What's the group that I'm going to play this with? Cuz like you ideally want like four people. You ideally want a group that's maybe going to go through some of the scenarios together, but likes that type of game. My wife was like fine on it, but not it's not really her style. Um, and so it was this feeling of like I have this game that I think I really like or am going to really like,

35:25 but I just am afraid it's going to kind of sit on the shelf waiting. And maybe that's okay and eventually I'll find the opportunity. But what interestingly uh this month I thought to myself, I wonder how this game plays two player because it certainly would open up, you know, the possibility to playing it more. Um, and so tried it two player actually with um, another friend of mine and actually works really well. You know, I was looking online and stuff and obviously people say it's better with four or five or whatever and I think I would generally agree with that, but I think it it's an example of one of these games where people will ask about ideal player counts, right? And so so many games will say, "Oh, it's best with this." And sometimes that can so easily come off as saying it's not good at the other ones.

36:17 Right. Right.

36:19 And sometimes that's not true. Sometimes it's well yeah it's best at but it's still pretty

36:23 but the other ones are still great. Yeah.

36:25 Um right.

36:25 And so you know when you play Bomb Busters with two players you each have two trays. So it's kind of like you're playing two players yourself but you get can see both. Um, and so it's a little bit more known information because like if I don't have a wire in front of me, I know it's in one of your two trays. I just don't But because it's two trays that are each ordered individually, like it still has some nuance in like where things are.

36:53 Um, but it's also very tight because you there's that dial of how many times you can be wrong. Well, with two players, you can only make one wrong guess. your second wrong guess, you lose.

37:04 And you only get two items instead of getting, you know, because it's items equal to another player. So, it does feel like this tight

37:11 thing. And um

37:14 what was cool about this though is realizing it was good two-player, I realized I wonder if my son would like this game

37:20 cuz he it's pretty simple and he likes kind of puzzly and it could be a next like a nice next step deduction game for him. And so that's been the real breakthrough this month is Toby and I have been loving [snorts] this. I mean, we've probably played it eight times. Um, and so we're going through the scenarios and so so quickly Bombbusters went from this game that I was afraid was going to like, man, this is going to sit on the shelf. When is it going to get played? To now we're on this trajectory where like this could be one of my most played games of the year. Like like depending on how things play out. because we're having a lot of fun with it and it's fun to, you know, go on to the new scenarios and see what it changes and everything. You know, even just the base like final exam. I can't remember how far we got with you in terms of what the game introduced, but the

38:07 the game introduces the yellow wires where those are like in between numbers and you have to cut yellow to yellow and so add some nuance and then it adds the red wires that like if you ever cut a red wire you lose. So that's like the you got to watch out for where the red wire is. But then they do this interesting thing where um you'll like draw three red wires. So we'll be like it's 8.5, 5.5, 2.5, but then you shuffle those and only put one in the game. And so on the board you have marked those three, but they're with question marks. You're like,

38:40 "One of these three is in the game as the red wire, but we don't know which one." And so that's another way they add some more nuance into the deduction is like they do the same thing with the yellow wires as well. Um is oh I don't know exactly which wires are in. Can I deduce that piece of it and feel it out? Um so I really am at the point now having played it more where I think this is a best-in-class deduction game especially as like a like entrylevel like it's a very it's a pretty you still have to like deduction. Like I think a lot of people maybe talk about this being a little bit more of like, "Oh, it's a great family game." I was like, "Well, yeah, if everybody in the family likes puzzly deduction, um cuz it's still going to have elements that come with deduction games." We talked about this with like the crew or things like this where,

39:27 you know, there's opportunity for someone to feel stupid because they made the mistake. Everybody else at the table knew what they should have done, but they, you know, didn't figure out. So, so you got to have a group that kind of it clicks with them. But I think the system is so solid with this kind of and it's it's actually very fun playing with, you know, Toby who maybe isn't got quite the level of deductive. You know, it's fun to watch him start to uncover these things and realize things.

39:53 But, you know, there's some more advanced deduction you can apply at this game of like, okay, I know there's only this many wires that are below three that are left and he has this many between the two trays. that means

40:05 both like this tray has to have a one because it there's not enough room or whatever. Um, but it's so interesting on my turn cuz I'm thinking not only what can I deduce and pick, but I'm thinking what is he going to be able to do on his turn? Like I need to do something that's giving him information to open up something that he's going to be able to deduce. And so it's this very nice like

40:28 strate and I think that's even just the strategy of bomb busters if you're playing with advanced players and with four players is this not just what can I deduce but how can I keep the chain going of there being open deductions that can be made and what does the next player know what do they need to know?

40:45 Um and so I think it's really brilliant. I love how replayable the scenarios are. um you deal out different items, you know, and like you randomize the wires, so you could even just replay the same ones over and over again. So, the fact that it has these 66 missions with all this variety is really just icing on the cake. I did see as a closing thought um they are releasing a uh like deluxe upgrade kit for this that replaces the cardboard wires in the trays with like I guess they would be like ma jang tiles like the thick and so what's cool about that is you don't even need the trays anymore. You just stand up

41:24 the tiles cuz they stand up. Yeah.

41:27 And can tip down. Um, and I am very interested in that. One, because this is a game where like you don't want

41:33 them to wear because you you don't want to know what anything is.

41:37 Um, two, it the most annoying part in the game is the setup where you put all the wires down, you carefully, you know, put in the one red wire and the yellow wires and then you need to shuffle them and deal them, but it's so hard to shuffle them without accidentally flipping them.

41:51 Yeah.

41:51 And so you're very carefully and it's very important that you don't flip any and see anything you shouldn't. whereas with the thick like maong tiles, those are really nicely gonna shuffle on the table without flipping.

42:03 Um, so that I think is going to be a really nice um upgrade for a game that honestly I think this is like a long-term keeper in the collection and really nailing.

42:14 I flipped on that one.

42:16 Well, it's not so much I flipped as I had the opportunity to like really play it.

42:20 Well, and you said and you said best not only bestin-class deduction game, but how old's Toby? Toby is six. So, is this going to be like top board game for six-year-olds? You know, it's a little advanced. To is going to be so freaking skewed when he puts that video up.

42:35 Yeah. No, I try to keep in mind that Toby's not representative when I recommend games for a specific age. And he like again, there's some people that like that

42:45 puzzly deduction and he does. Um, and you know, there's going to be kids that this just is like not

42:51 Well, that's part of navigating board games with kids is based off how they're wired, their interests, like certain games will they'll gravitate gravitate.

42:59 No, they also are very good at learning and it's good to expose them to things like deduction, but there definitely are kids that are going to, you know, take more naturally to it. It'll be interesting to see cuz I I am on this weird path now where like I'm probably going to have most of my Bomb Busters plays be two-player at least for a while. Um, it would be very fun, you know, to get a and I think it is a game that could work well to just do a one-off. I now have a better tuning of if like I was going to do a one-off, which scenario I would pick.

43:26 Like if if we have a good group, I'm going to jump to like a scenario that kind of has

43:31 right

43:31 more going on. Um, but yeah, this one has gotten a lot of praise. It won the spiel's jars. It's in the top 100 on BG. Like, it's kind of rocketed up. Um, but I'm just going to join the bandwagon because um, having played it more now, I think this is about as good as it gets in this weight class uh, of deduction game. Hey, thanks for watching. Did you drop a comment below with a game that you uh, played recently that you really enjoyed? You should. We enjoy hearing from you. I'll even reply to you. I I promise you that. There are also some other videos here uh, that you can check out. I never know which way to point, but you see them right now. Check them out.