Top 10 Hidden Gems at Essen Spiel 2024!

0:01 hello and welcome to board stupid my name is Wayne and I'm Matt and this is the continuation of the SPI tacular Weg SP tacular September spacular month man yeah it is month it's not a week it's like God we are I know there is so much content that we need to bring to you about this amazing event the biggest board gameing event of the year and it's so big some things just get lost in the shuffle yes so you will hear a lot of like the big names the publisher yeah yeah yeah best game to buy the best game to demo uh the most anticipated so you're going to see a lot a lot of content uh but this one in particular is about the top 10 games from IND the publisher smaller box or something that could be lost in the chaos of of um of so yeah it is our top 10 of hidden gems that you can find hpo absolutely so we've got some interesting stuff there and you know what's not hidden the Subscribe button it's right there so if you just click you click it yeah just click it's I can see it you can see it look it and then let's dig into this episode and find some hidden gems gems yes let's go find dice feeling nice cboard dreams and gam Gams click subscribe it's a five for two all we need what what can for human

1:36 and me what what here what you should play see so Matt let's dig into the pile of games what you got for us um so we start so the the next 10 games are not in any particular order are just like the one that we we like to talk about it and the first one that I would really like to talk about it is donkey shot yes are you saying English again I couldn't even try to because and the reason why I'm not going to say because I'll get in trouble in the comments so I'm not even going to bother that I'll let you take the heat for the Italian well no donkey shop is definitely is definitely the correct one because it's from an Italian designer an Italian publisher you're talking about llas L escape games and is Andrea the same guys that he putting together B mod that we already covered a few time and we will do again in the future um while B mod is being a b mod of a game is is rolling getting ready um it came out with this s little card game uh that is donkey shop and is based about the donkey shot the the novel uh so if you haven't read it you should cuz it's a classic possibly is the first novel I guess about The Madness of the dawn on his travels and all of his different Adventures exactly

3:08 um and it is a small card-based game that utilizes an interesting voting system really interesting for such a for his game scale yeah very small game um and I like I say like I love voting in games voting is cool voting mechanisms are cool and it has some cool Powers as well that you can get which will change the different values the votes and other stuff that's going on all the while trying to encourage one of the various traits yes uh towards various either being the highest or lowest on this track yeah it's really interesting like around the table how uh sometimes you can make enemies or friends depending on what event you're trying to vote for if you want that to pass or not to pass it's really really interesting we did play a prototype that you probably seeing in on the screen right now um it's a very early stage prototype so HB the game should be should be the final version quite a lovely looking production absolutely it looks really really good and uh yeah we definitely encourage you to go and find it out go check it don't shot he said it okay we I guess we go from one little card games to another one right yeah we' got a card SL tile based game called vampire Knights and this doesn't love a vampire everyone loves vampires they're always in fashion is never out of fashion absolutely Interview with the Vampire back in the '90s or you got the Twilight vampires from

4:44 stuff anyway um this is a really interesting game where uh you are exploring a uh old mansion as you might imagine represented by sort of partly covered tiles and each player is going to have two guards that are going to be wandering around Mansion uncovering the tiles and covering different information but there may be cuz you're going be looking for Treasure but there may be times where you'll uncover a vampire okay a vampire bite and if you take too many bites well guess what you're going to be turning into a vampire and unbeknown for the rest of the players Your Role then changes and you're going to have a different win condition for the end of the game that sounds that sounds really fun sounds fun it sounds like on on the lighest side again but it sounds really fun with this Small hidden roll bit information RS yeah it sounds really really nice the graphics and the all the artworks really absolutely beautiful and sounds something that yeah could be on your table because it sounds absolutely fantastic yeah so definitely go check out vampire Knights so Matt hidden gems aren't always around the smaller form factor no they could be slightly bigger and they could have miniature for example when it's you of course it's got so tell about this one no no no so we are talking about under our son from the guys at table topper games this is I believe their very first production released for this designer as well right IND the Indie so we like it Jets is

6:17 people that do this stuff with the love and this is normally the very the designer very first game is the one that they all been thinking about it for all their lives so it's it it's great to see these people bringing their games on the table it must be like a a fantastic feeling about it but going back to the game so under our sun uh set up in um um in a future where everything has died and there is Wasteland postapocalyptic you know the the post-apocalyptic met Maxi style the look it doesn't look a copy of M Max for for for for cl for clarity more survival and and is it's a it's a semi corporate game so basically you are one of one Survivor each each play will have an asymetric character so some can do this or that someone others will do different things and you're basically exploring the Wasteland in this modular exagonal uh map map so it will change every time you play and you're trying to to do your mission got the resources and all that kind of stuff and it's semic cop because a in the Wasteland po Wasteland if you need to cross someone even if it's your friend probably you will have to do it I have to drop it drop it never but um overall you're getting getting the stuff for you crafting material you're crafting weapons and you're basically trying to

7:49 survive in this uh very very bad world that is out there um again it looks really really good it sounds really interesting it's got to me a little bit of a VI of um something like that of winter uh where you kind of like collab until until you're not and you going out in and trying to find resources and all the stuff so um gave me gave me that that that little feeling um of a game that I really love and they went a little bit out of fashion I don't know why because that winter is absolutely a game and best game really still the best gooss game uh yes I agree uh but um yeah I'm really really looking forward to have a look at this one you should do as well because he looks fantastic so uh go out and find it out under our sun okay um wait for the next one uh you got something you haven't you didn't want to tell me which one is so go on I'd like to surprise you surprise I know that we always talk about having amazing things yes what about this what's this car parks okay okay wait wait for a quirky team I'm all out there like yeah let's tell me more so this is overp parked okay I through the digging of thousands of games as I keep saying we did hours of research for this content uh I found this quirky little amazing looking game called overp parked where it's a puzzle focused tile tile place token placement

9:22 game yeah yeah yeah yeah where you are I suppose a imagine you are the traffic yeah yeah yeah yeah or the organizer of a big event you know that there's tons of traffic you need to sort of organize that it's kind of that and you have a couple of interesting things there is a card drafting mechanism which is cool so you've got this like little steering wheel piece that you will turn and that will determine which card each player drafts so when you're the person that gets to choose the steering wheel you go I want this one you also determine which one one interesting that's cool as well so you might not be asking I don't want this one but if I do this one everyone else gets these terrible cards I know nice nice the Cs those cards will go into your hand and you need to play one of those cards which will tell you which pieces have to go in your car park and there might be lores which take up loads of space or might be little cars or it could be just motorbikes or whatever it is so you might say deliberately take a car that isn't ideal for you but it forces other people to put like massive trucks in their parking so that kind of stuff really has this really cool puzzly Vibe there's also like public objective to score depending on if you can get certain amount of different types of vehicle in the certain space or in different locations New it's sounds yeah so it's got so it's poino po Tok interesting cool like quir nice yeah um I think this might be pretty special so let's go a look yeah we go check out over parked over

10:52 parked so Matt I know you're going to really struggle to be such a cool theme like car parking but I know it's in you so what have you got for me and I'm talking about tarot tarot those fancy story future telling cards and I'm talking about the game is called Cil from the guys at maton games again first game first game produc and it looks let me talk about outwork wise looks absolutely stunning but it looks it looks incredible is it because how they are Italian May maybe I'm just not say maybe that's why it looks so beautiful apart from apart from that um in Cil um basically um you work as a as a a fortune teller okay um and you are basically uh trying to get the favors of of two Gods now um each game uh there's going to be four random gods that that are that are mixed at the start of the game and those those four gods will get the um end of game conditions okay so every time you play you already got a lot of replayability and put it there on the side the next one is going to be the um your game is going to be in hand management of your of your tarots of your cards um well during your turn you're going to play three cards that's going to do that's going to let you do different abilities for example

12:23 Gathering resources or playing all the car all the cards and blah blah blah the a little bit of um engine building there then you play another three cards where you're trying to predict what the other G the other players are going to play and if you got it you can play that card as well nice so you got a little bit of the like trying to understand what the other is going to is going to do and uh basically you're trying to build your Fame and trying to build your points to um to win the game it sounds absolutely Wonder interesting awesome way prodction is great and you do this like yeah they say the most of the game experience about the predicting predictive bending combos change of action and interaction with the with the other cars sping BL deduction I love that sounds sounds absolutely absolutely our power Street and uh again this is an absolutely first timer for for for this for these guys and it looks absolutely stunning so C bill went straight up on this list okay we're in what do you got next for the next one I've found another quirky selection uh something interesting doing something very different okay um and this is again a first time release uh a debut game um by Mr Gerardo Maria priori and it is the strange forgeries of Mr s c her all right that's a mountainful all but yes

13:53 also amazing artwork on this game by the ways Great Looks call as hell so this is a game of induction up to six players and apparently um is so not deduction not deduction induction induction inductive reason interesting apparently is one of only a handful of games that do inductive logic inductive reasoning as a game mechanism or design uh principle explain me I don't know what that means so it sounds amazing so like and I think I get it based on the description of the game so I'm going to read it out okay go CU like unlike a suppos a social deduction game where there is one person that's doing something wrong it's not really that I think there is one person that is deciding a rule and everyone else has to try and work out what what the rule is in some way yeah so everyone is a collector except one player who is a gallerist and it goes like this the gallerist invents a secret Rule and it's the collector's objective to guess it during the game The Collectors are going to produce many drawings and then the gallerist will secretly tell them whether the drawing follows the secret rule or not otherwise known as if the drawings are Originals or if they're fakes y at the end of the game The Collectors will try and put their Collective knowledge to the test and try to guess whether their opponent's displayed drawings follow the rule or not mistakes determine the winner so they want to try and make as few mistakes as possible so you're going say that one follows the rule that one's original that one's a fake and I'll have

15:24 a score and then everyone will do that okay you as the person trying to work out reason yeah yeah yeah sounds sounds interest sounds very quirky especially yeah the production with this drawing elements as well I'm usually not a big fan but this one sounds like it's completely taking that things and transforming it into something completely different yeah because you don't have to be an amazing artist to be shap exactly yeah yeah I mean I think that sounds really interesting it sounds sounds definitely different from a lot of other things and this is what we like this hobby cuz there like always everyone else verys interesting um looks like a great deductive game and I'm super into that so I can't wait to go and check say the title again because there was a lot the strange forgeries of Mr s c reever whatever you say what's next uh next one I got a small card game from a big publisher this time but um is it's a game fromont by Cosmos all welcome here in the hidden gems yeah but um uh it's a very small box game card game that could be lost in the other thousand games that they got out there and sounds really fun and it's called The Gang uh it's basically a Twist on the Texas Olden por 4,500,000 all it so if you like if you like Texas

16:54 Olden Park a of that SS really this is a of on a fun lighter way so basically at the start of your of your turn each player will will get a chip um and trying to predict how good he's going to do his hand is's going to do against the other people on the around the table so there's no moreone involv there is these things they say good or bad but doesn't mean that if if you say you're going to do worse than everybody you're still getting your points at the end so you still got that thing and um and then it works like a round of Texas old them uh when the cards are gonna go down on the river if I believe at the end who who wins the point or who wins whatever is predicted um he gets the point now the point is uh that you got to open a vault of the Cino so that's why it's called the gang you represent this gang um the game will end as soon as one of the players will manag to open the three VA however that's the other twist if you you predict it wrong you're going to trip the alarm of the V and as soon as you got three alarms B on you're out of the game I see okay so it's it's very much a Twist on the um the Texas orm in a in a b game way so it's not it's not just a just a card game short and short and sweet yeah exactly like bu bu bu deal the cards what you think but good or bad and yeah

18:25 it's it's it's bad that sounds great the production looks really really good and at the end of the day it is there are poker cards but with a very nice nice twist nice TST so small game big publisher but it could be lost in under all the Thousand games that they got on their stand sounds great heard of it keep an eye on the game let's go okay Wayne uh let's go let's go because this one we both loved it when we saw with the first time then finally we could actually it and play absolutely so there's been a death a tragic tragic day a dictator has gone and it has left a power vacuum yes and that is the name of this next game Power vacuum and it's lra of course Matt because you are also sentient appliances so it's literally about you talking about senent vacuum vacuum so uh essentially you're going to be doing trick taking is and I've got a think for trick taking recently I think uh there was a a big boom of trick taking a few years ago but it's still kind of seeing the tail end of it and still being innovated in that space uh and it has some treacherous twists to it as well so you're going to be using tricks to adjust the power levels of the other players to work towards your hidden agendas you hidden agendas as well um you want to be ideally also creating a statue to your own glory in

19:55 the game as well which is really great um and it also have this this ridic ulous hilarious theme with wonderful artwork uh and I mean is completely barmy let's be honest AB it's looks fun as hell uh and if anything uh B stupid is about it's about having fun playing games fun absolutely this is fun fun yes so yeah tremendous stuff I mean it's not necessarily about winning every trick so there's the twist of the game it's a trick taker where you don't necessarily want to win the trick you might want to lose the tricks uh or choosing the right cards at the right time to engineer the rise or fall of your opponents depending on what your agendas say uh so you can then profit in the long term um each card suit here's another Twist of the game is actually visible on the back of suit but not necessarily the value which is quite interesting so you can FOC but then you got some some of this that actually tells you that it's one suit but is actually you can have a car that say I got this suit but actually on the other side is something different so there's a lot ofun there there's some like really fun interactive trick taker with a theme that is completely off the ball and really great interesting artwork fun as heck uh that's power vacue uh we love it yeah okay Matt what's next well I could not not finish with a Dungeon Crawler of course it wouldn't be you it would not be me but this is a very particular one

21:28 okay because this is based on a metal band so metal heads around there listen to me this game is called from the other side okay uh it's produced by scri UPS SCS uh they done something similar in the past um with another band but this from the other side is the official game official Dungeon Crawler for the Blind Guardian

22:09 so if you're fan of the Blind Guardian this is their story in a board game it's a story of fantasy dungeon crawling but you basically um the the guys have been trapped into this from on the other side of the of the mirror that they need to try to get a p pieces around to put them back together to someon The Blind Guardian that's going to save the world again it doesn't finish here because the actual um designer of the one of the actual designer of the game is Frederick hen that is actually the drama of Blind Guardian so he's getting even more and more in and uh it's it's a classic Dungeon Crawler with with a very very inspired by their music and their um their lyrics and stuff so if if you're a fan this is definitely for you and if you're h on the Friday afternoon the band is going to be there to sign the copies love that so um this is I don't know more Niche than this I don't know what you than this I don't know what tell you guys it's a very very serious Dungeon Crawler with the Blind Guardian team with the Blind Guardian Des um that is yeah absolutely uh dragons Orcs Warriors you you name it it's a proper dungeon CER a proper metal dungeon CER

23:41 let's go perfect we are basically at the end uh yeah what what you got for your for the last one on this list well as always Matt I think it's your influence one yeah I always seem to be ending with an Italian it sounds like yes yeah I don't know what it is I spend you too long with you that's what it is every day this is Costa take over the mafia okay this interesting yeah very interesting this is by a published T games uh by vashek loek and I'm pretty sure this is a Czech publisher so uh do then Moes leer whatever yeah I will see you uh in Sp uh and this seems really fun it is it plays in under an hour uh 3 to five players and it has this kind of um blind bidding or uh sort of shielded bidding SL auction system which I love love that iname that's super cool uh and is a kind of party es heavier than party so party game for board game it's it's a party game for board game ex call it yeah exactly as we call it using secret bids which have dice you've got a screen and you've got these dice with different symbols and you're going to be setting those dice in secret behind your screen and the dice actually um will refer to various cards that laid out and what you're doing is you're bidding on those cards those cards are the various mafiosos uh in the mob and if you can get certain symbols to match the cards

25:12 you're going to take that card into your mob which is great however the more ma Mafia mafiosas that you have the harder it is to keep control of them okay and so some might actually be out bid someone bids more dice for them Etc over the course of the game so it seems super interesting um not particularly heavy but I love sort of betting bluffing auction bidding especially with secret beards and kind of a set collection system as well um and I like the idea of uh the folks that you bid for not necessarily staying with you might move going around yeah this is really really fun so um yeah I like the idea of this one it has a cool looking production um cool theme uh I I like the vibe of it so it looks looks great and who doesn't like Mafia except maybe the people that impacted by the mafia but in fantasy world in the fantasy world yeah fair enough and on that bombshell let's go to the outro Matt just a drop in the ocean of all the amazing games it is and I'm really sorry for all the other ones that we left out but otherwise we make a list of of a thousand the short list this was like 50 games long like it's um it's so hard every time that peels a it's always like a fight on which games are we talking about and which one not it's it's always so difficult again there's going to be more and more and more and uh if you're going to follow us for the uh during Spiel and

26:42 po Spiel we'll try to bring as many other games as we can that's what we trying to do all the time absolutely because this is the hidden gems that we know of but the thing that so many that we the really really hidden stuff we won't even know until we get there and we'll make sure to tell you about anything exciting while we're there but of course if you want to know about that make sure to hit the Subscribe button it's the only way yeah it is it is the only way this is the way and also let us know in the comments below what you think of this list of 10 games and which one are you most excited about have any of them peaked your interest would you be Keen to check out any of these games we've got everything here from Dungeon Crawlers to work placement games to everything from puzzle and car parking to induction logic to everything you can a little bit for everyone yeah and we encourage you guys if you dare spel go to the to the cind Publishers and go say hi and just like shake their hands and uh and make friends because they are always very happy to explain their their game so it's absolutely lovely so do that check out the rest of our content hit the like button and we'll catch you again real soon C watch watch here's what you play see you