►►► Is this a worthy prequel to Phoenix New Horizon? [ASHES]
Transcript
Hey everybody. Today on Roto Run Sue, we're taking a look at Ash's blackout protocol. But before I get going, please turn your subtitles on to the Clingon channel so that when I make rules, goofs, you'll know what they are. And if you've done that, well then welcome to the 1990s where unfortunately the worst has happened. We blew it all up. We dropped the bombs and now the surface of the planet is an irdiated wasteland. But in humanity's darkest hour, there are those who are constructing underground shelters and trying to save as many people as possible to try to rebuild for a uh better tomorrow. And I'm going to show you how it works today in a solo run through, which means it's going to be me and my green underground colony up against the uh purple uh player, which is controlled by a deck of cards in the solo game. And don't worry folks, you're going to get a good sense of what this feels like to play multiplayer because my automated opponent can pretty much do everything a human player can do. So, we've got the game set up. The board is randomly interspersed with a lot of locations where we can build shelters, a lot of action tiles out here that we can drive out to to do various stuff. And most importantly, every time you play over here in what is called the Phoenix Project, this is our massive multigenerational bid to rebuild civilization and make the surface world habitable. Well, um, this game, there are these six objectives that have been
randomly chosen from a whole bunch. There's any number of combinations of different objectives you can get from game to gain. And in this game, we're trying to get these three things done as much as we can by the end of the game. These are in-game scores. These are ones we are racing to be the first to complete. And again, they were randomly selected and um with different parameters and all kinds of different tokens. Tons of setup variability in this game. But there's a little bit more that has to be done, folks. I've got to do a bit of setup for myself. I've got to pick who my starting character is going to be, what special power I have, and what starting resources I have, and what upgrade I have right from the get-go. So, I'm going have to do this.
It'll take a little bit of time as I explain my options. And if you don't care about that, and you say, "Well, just get to the action, pal." Well, you can use the scrub bar or follow the links down in the show notes and jump right to the game play. But let's go on ahead and set this up. Uh, the way it works is there are 12 unique characters. Um, some of them have stars in the back. That means they're a little they're just as powerful as the other ones, but they're a little bit more simple and straightforward for your first time playing. This is not my first time playing, but um, you know, they're like, what the heck? Let's say let's say I'm going to have these two and I'm going to pick one of these two characters and you would pick between these two and somebody else would pick between these two. So, what have we got here? Okay, this one I know uh this one would give me this starting upgrade that makes it easier for me to scavenge plastics and metals um when I'm doing stuff uh which are two of the important building blocks for rebuilding. They're kind of base materials. This one makes it easier for me to develop anti-radiation medication to save more lives. And I have to admit, I haven't seen this one.
Uh what does that mean? Uh, that is a Oh, it gives this gives me an extra action I can do every round. Oh my goodness. Am I reading that right? Yes, I am. This is saying that, hey, it's easier for me to make anti- medication. You can see the green and this red means, oh, I can spend or I can basically trade away those meds for basic building materials. Okay, so I've got to pick one of these two. And which one do I want? You know what? I think I care more about keeping people alive. So, I'm going to take this starting power, which by the way is the star one. Not that it's more powerful than this, but it's a little bit more straightforward. Uh, this one does two things. It makes it easier for me to scavenge. And this says whenever I would collect a mission card instead, I can say, "Oh, I'm going to get another bunker upgrade." Or instead, whenever I get another bumper bunker upgrade, it can be a mission card instead. So, this gives me more flexibility on the cards I'm drafting, which is very cool and very powerful. But, I'm going to go for this one instead, which means uh we'll go ahead and keep this over here as a reminder of my special power. And I've got to install this on one of my four worker placement spots on my playerboard over here. I if I put it here, it means I will get anti- um radiation medication every time I collect a new mission card.
And I want these because these give me goals and stuff to pursue. If I put it here, it says, "Hey, whenever I collect more fuel, I'll also get um radiation meds whenever I collect more data or whenever I build my strength." So, I've got to put it in one of these four slots, making one of these four worker placement actions more powerful than it would otherwise be. H. So, these are all four actions I want to do, but I got to think, which one do I think I'm going to be doing more often so that I can get this benefit more often? Because there's no guarantee that I'm going to do all four of these actions every round. And we only play through three rounds. This is a quick game. Um, I think, ooh, okay, I know which one I'm going to take. I'm going to put it over here on the fuel. Every time I collect fuel, I also get anti- medication, anti-radiation medication.
Why did I choose that? Because remember I was saying down here, there are six different objectives. Three in-game ones and three that we're racing towards. This one says that I want to be building um shelters in um locations where like this one where I get to upgrade my fuel line. So all things being equal, if I'm going to build shelters out here on the board, I want to build it there or there or there or there or there because it upgrades my fuel line. And the more I upgrade my fuel line, the better I can do on this objective if I can complete it ahead of my opponent. And therefore, if I'm upgrading my fuel line, I want to use it more often. And therefore, I'm going to make the fuel action even better by meaning by getting medications every time I do it. So, because of this objective, um, I'm going to go for that.
Cool, cool, cool. All righty. So, I've chosen a starting character. Now, uh, since I'm playing solo, I'm going to draw two and pick one. starting resources and uh associated upgrades. So, here are my two. And if I were playing a three-player game, I would have drawn another pair. And last player in turn order would be first dibs to get these various bundles. So, which of these two bundles do I want? Do I want to make it easier to um find scrap metal or do I want to increase my happiness more? Well, the happiness comes with I start with some plastics and some anti-radiation meds, but only two workers to do two worker placement actions. Over here, I get three workers, but no plastic and no medication. And you know, there are definitely going to be opportunities to get more workers by rescuing them from the surface.
So, rather than starting with more workers, although starting with more workers can give me bonuses immediately as well. Um, by Oh, wow. These are both good. So, these are both good. You know, they're obviously the bounce. Either way, I'm going to get one fuel and one data. It's a question of do I want more workers or do I want less workers and more resources? Well, also, do I want to be able to earn more happiness or more scrap as I activate my um worker placement actions over there? [snorts] You know what? Normally, I think I'd take this and start out with some meds, but because I've got a way to get meds because of that upgrade, I think I'm going to say goodbye to extra happiness and goodbye to um you know, extra meds and plastic. I'm going to say goodbye to that and say hello to more scrap metal.
Now again, I could install this in any of these four. I'm going to put it right here. And now getting fuel is a super action for me. Plus, that means I took this, which means I start with one fuel. There we go. And I start with one data. I'm going to put these over here so I don't mix them up with the supply. And I've got three workers. two active workers and an essential or not workers, they're called survivors. So, here is my essential survivor and here are my two active survivors drawn from the bag. And this bag is full of activives and essentials. If I recall correctly, twothirds of the bag are active workers. The ones who can actually do my worker placement actions and one-third of them are essential survivors. They can't do worker placement actions. They uh don't have any immediate utility. They're essential for well reasons that the rule book never actually explains. depending on how cynical you are, you could say, "Oh, yeah, they're essential because they're billionaires or they're politicians because they don't really do anything for us to help us survive." Um, but my wife likes to be a little bit more positive and optimistic and say, "Oh, the white means that they they're lab coats and these are scientists and, you know, thinkers who will help us build for tomorrow." So, you know, like any good piece of art, this game gives you a little bit of uh you can apply your own worldview.
They're essential. It doesn't say why, but anyway. So, I start with three workers instead of two. Um, but no extra resources. Okay. And I've got that upgrade. Uh, we are set up, ready to go. Let's play. Well, how does the game work? Well, we're only going to play over three rounds. And each round, we can send our active survivors. On your turn, you can do one of three things or one of three protocols. You can, first of all, you can pass. That means you're done for the round and you're going to get income and prepare yourself for the next round of survival and stuff like that. Also, the first player to pass gets to decide what benefit they want for passing ahead of time. Um, I'm not going to pass for a while, not until I've done a bunch of stuff. The other things I can do is as a reminder right here, I can drive my vehicle around the wasteland trying to save people and um uh trying to engage in these different action tiles. The first player to do an action gets the double and then it flips, which means if anybody else wants to come to this area, they get they get the weaker action. It's always, hey, get some resource and do some action.
Afterwards, it's only get the resource. The third thing I can do on my turn is send one of my active survivors to do an action. So, those are the three things. Every turn, you're going to do a worker placement or you're going to do board traversal or you're going to pass. But I got to say before I'm going to do any of that, folks, at the beginning of each round, we've got some setup stuff to do. Now, at the beginning of the round, we don't worry about these first three things. This is, oh, survivors on the surface die from radiation poisoning if we haven't saved them. The two rightmost missions, if we didn't give them, they go away. again are replaced and um these if anybody used them these get reset. We skip those on the first round but survivors are going to appear on the surface. So we come back over remember this is um 2/3 active one/3 um uh uh essential and in this first um round of play I am going to deploy survivors to the first and the second sector here here and here. when we get to the second round at the beginning of the round, we're going to deploy them here, here, here, here, here in the second and third. And at the end of the game, they will deploy further and further into the wasteland. So anyway, let's see what we got. I put two in each of these zones. We've got an essential and an active. We've got two essential.
We've got two essential. Again, we're probably going to get another uh you know, two. Yeah, there we go. Sorry. These are activives. These are essential. Oh, these are people that are out there hoping against hope that we will save them. Um, and that is our main goal because at the end of a round if there are any of these people who have not been saved yet or I should say at the beginning of the next round, uh, they will die of radiation poisoning and all players will lose victory points as a result. Okay. So, um, we have set it up and now I'm ready to go and I'm going to do one of three things. I am either going to do worker placement in my bunker with these workers or I am going to spend fuel to uh head out in my buggy and uh explore the wastelands. And now, whenever you want to use your buggy, you need to spend two fuel. And at the beginning of the game, I only have one fuel, so I can't do that. So, my first action must be um do a worker placement.
And these actions can only be done with active workers. So, let's go on ahead and get to work, shall we? I will send one of my two active survivors to any of these four actions. And you better believe I'm going to put it there because I have souped this action up in a big, big way. I have made it much more powerful. So, because I come here, I get to do this, this, and this. And then one of these. First of all, I get some um I get some scrap metal. So, I take one of these little tokens and I put it over here to show look uh of the what is it? The four, five, six, seven, eight, nine resources we can find. I've got a resource. Yay. I've got some scrap metal. I also get some anti-radiation medication. So that goes into my little supply over there. And now I get some fuel. And how much fuel do I get? I get one fuel because I have not upgraded this action. Do I want to wait a little bit? Hold on a second.
[clears throat] Because see, here's the deal. I could get this upgraded. I'm only going to get to do this once in this. I'm only going to get to do this action three times over the course of the game. It makes sense to not do it until I've upgraded it so that I can get two fuel instead of one. But that means I got to go do something else over I've got to do one of these other actions as I can't drive because I don't have enough fuel yet. I could get some more strength or I could get a mission. Maybe I should do that first. You know what? Hold on a second. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to call an audible. I'm not going to get that scrap metal yet. I'm not going to get this anti-radiation missing because I want to upgrade this action before I do it. Instead, I'm going to come over here. I'm going to give myself a mission to complete. You can see I haven't upgraded this action, so I don't get any bonuses. I just get a mission card. And as part of setup, there are four mission cards to choose from. These two are going to go away. If nobody grabs them, they're going to be gone at the end of the round or at the beginning of the next round. So, if I want these, I better grab them now. But, I could grab these. I can't draw a blind. I'm going to take one of them.
And so these missions um require one of two things. They either require I drive my buggy to a specific location or I have a shelter built at a specific location. That's the this is the picture of a shelter which I this this objective is upgrade a shelter. Also, if I want to complete this, I have to upgrade an existing shelter. Um and it's going to cost a worker. One of the workers is going to die. Um, well, an active worker I have is going to die to be able to do this, which is going to bring my happiness meter down. But if I complete all of that, if I sacrifice somebody to upgrade a shelter and lose some happiness, I will get all of these bennies. This is a much bigger one. I'll get to scout. I'll get food. I'll get fuel. And I'll get to do a a bonus. It's like I get to take a whole extra turn of vehicle movement. and I've got the fuel to do it. So that's if I take that one.
This one on the other hand, well this one is I've got to burn some tools. I've got basically I've got to drive to a specific location and trash some tools. So I got to go repair something out in the wasteland in a specific spot. And if I do that, if I burn the tools, which I don't have, again, it's kind of the same result, except I get more medicine instead of fungus or f full f uh f can't think of the word. Fuel fuel. Okay, so actually, oh, I've got three of these that have bigger rewards. And this one, it's a smaller reward. Let's see which one do I want if I'm going to take one of those. Um, you know what? Uh, I think I want to focus more on getting shelters built sooner than later. So, I'm going to take this objective to build a shelter because while I will lose a worker, it's going to give me a bigger payday than this one where I'd have to lose chemicals. This means I'd have to gather chemicals. Um, where which is harder to do sadly. It's harder to find chemicals out in the wasteland than it is to find more survivors. So, I'm going to have to make the tough call. I am going to take this card and it goes into my hand, which I'll just put it down here as a reminder. I've now got this objective. Now, a new one is going to come out to replace it. If this card had been over here, by the way, or over here, if it had been one of the remaining ones, all the other cards slide over to the right and a new one comes out because the ones furthest to the right are the most likely to go away. In this case, I took the leftmost one and a new one comes out. All right.
So, I've given myself an objective. That was the majority of my turn. Remember, my turn is either do a car action, do a worker placement action, or pass. But I'm [snorts] not necessarily done because everybody gets this little play that reminds you every turn. In addition to whatever your core action is going to be of these three actions over there, you can do some additional stuff. You can send your workers underground to safety, either active or essential workers. You can do this as much as you want as a free action on your turn. Um, you can also convert lower quality resources into higher quality resources. Like if I had a plastic and a metal as a free action, I you can see these little lines here. I could convert these two things into some tools. If I had tools and chemicals, I could convert those two things into medicine. So, there's [snorts] like a little upgrade tree or I got a tech tree for your different resources. I can do that whenever I want. This one is I can spend data uh if I want, which lets me reshuffle these.
These cards don't go away automatically. As you take them, they get replaced from the deck. But, um, if you don't like if you're about to get one of these, um, bunker upgrades to have more space below ground to save more people and you don't like the ones that are there, you anytime you want, as many times you want, you can spend data to wipe those three and get different ones. And then finally, this one is a very important one. If you I starts with one bunker. There are room for three people below ground. If I have filled all three of these spaces, which gives me bonuses as I'm doing it and the potential for additional bonuses. If I fill all these spaces, I can flip this over and say we've closed the bunker. The door is shut. The these survivors are going to get to work building a new better tomorrow. And I take this and I tuck it under here. And this becomes a victory point generating card. The more bunkers you've got that you can fill with survivors, the more points you will generate every round potentially. So, those are four things or that I can do as many times as I want for free on my turn, either before or after my main action. But in addition to that, there are three other actions I can only do once per turn. I can scout, which costs strength, one of the resources, um, to basically find more people to rescue on the surface. There's already some out there, but if I need more to rescue, I can scout for more. This lets me complete milestones. These three milestones were racing to do them. If
I've completed any of these milestones and nobody else has done it yet, I can complete them and get benefits and bonuses. Um, or if I once per turn, if I've got a mission card, and I do have a mission card, and I've completed this mission, then I can mark it as done, get the benefits off it, and then say, "Okay, that's done. Let's start working on some more missions. So, I've got all of these actions available to me. And I tell you right now, I'm going to do one of them. It's going to be this one. I'm going to send somebody underground because remember how I started with two active and an essential uh survivor. This essential survivor cannot do anything to immediately help the survival of our colony. The only thing the essential survivors can do is go below grounds. And so, I might as well do it. There's no reason not to. So, I've got to ask myself, if I stand below ground, where am I going to put it? Am I going to put it here? That will get me one strength. Am I going to put it here?
That will get me one anti-radiation medication. Or if I put it here, it will get me one happiness. Plus, because I have somebody in this slot, um, when I pass, one of the things that happens when I pass is I check how many bunkers do I have and how high have I gotten my happiness up. Like say I have a second bunker and I've got a survivor down here. Basically any survivors in these slots on the left. If my happiness has gotten high enough to activate them, I will get some passive income when I pass at the end of the round. So the more survivors I've got in these left spaces, the more benefits I can get if I can keep our overall happiness level up.
So am I going to get some? And so if I do this, my happiness is going to go up four and I'll get more happiness to go up even more when I pass. That's all well and good. But you know what? I think I I am going to instead get some strength because more strength means I can build more shelters. More shelters means I can get more cards over here. And um it also means I have the potential to complete this mission. And [clears throat] the more cards I've got over here, the more shelters I built, the more space I have to save people, which is what we're here to do. That is the Ash's protocol. That is literally the um you know, the box cover art, binding people up on the surface and saving them. So, I think I need more strength to be able to pull more of that off. So I will take strength one strength instead of one medicine or one anti-radiation or one happiness. Now strength is a very interesting resource fuel data radiation medication. These you just collect more and more of them. There's no limit to how much you have. But fuel you collect over here on this sideboard which is very very cool. Every time you got strength, you see where is your current strength level and you get to move one step up and there are branching paths. Since I'm going to get one strength, I have the opportunity, this is where everybody starts to move over
here and get a plastic, to move over here and get a medal, or to move up here and get two happiness or radiation medication. So remember, I could have sent that survivor just to get some some meds, but instead I sent them to get strength and then that strength say, "Oh, I'm just going to move all the way up here and get those medications that way." That's what I'm going to do. I need to keep people alive. The only way I can keep people alive is with this medication. This is another thing that comes into play at the end of a round. Basically, what happens is workers that are underground are safe. workers that are here at the entrance, they're safe from radiation, too. Here, you know, these are the people who are, you know, basically on the ground floor. They're safe from the radiation, but they haven't gone on ground safety. They are still ready to be deployed over here.
These people are outside in the radiation working trying to get missions, trying to get fuel or data or strength. And so these people are going to die at the end of a round if I don't get more um meds to save them. So this person's going to die and I will lose points, but not now. I've got some I I've got this this person is safe. When I pass, I will spend this to keep that person safe and they can come back down to safety, but this will save them from the radiation. So you there's a lot of stuff going on here, but anyway. So, um, I sent that essential worker down to get me some more strength, which I need to build shelters, but along the way, I also got medication to save that one.
Right. There are other things I could do. Well, no, I I don't have enough resources to upgrade them. Um, I haven't finished any missions yet. I have not completed any of the milestones. I do have enough strength to scout. If I wanted to, I could scout right now, but that's there's two uses for strength. either scouting, which I don't need to do, or building um extra bunkers. I want to build. So, I'm saving my strength. So, I am done. I've done everything I want to do on my first turn. And now it is my opponent. If it were you, if you were my opponent, then you're going to go through the same thing. Either do some worker placement or if you have enough fuel, drive your vehicle around and do actions on the surface instead of actions over here. My automated opponent has a deck of cards. It says what they're going to do and they have access to all the same actions as me. Now, as part of setup in the solo game, this is their main card and I had to choose whether it was a level one, two, or three. I'm choosing medium difficulty.
I'm on medium difficulty game. And let's see what their first action is going to be. Shuffle the deck up. Reveal the card. Put it here. And this card says what they want to do. This card helps them um decide what they're going to do. In the first and third round of the game, they're going to do this action. If we were in the middle round, they would do this other action instead. So, they're going to do this action, and it says, "Save one person." There are all these people out on the surface that are desperate to be saved. They're going to save one of them. Um, we start out here at this bunker, this communal bunker, which means this bunker has access to save any of these four people. Later on, we'll have bunkers built elsewhere. And those bunkers, like this bunker here, could save one of these two people cuz it's adjacent. So, right now, my opponent is going to save somebody. I was building, they're saving. Well, it's uh this card's job to make decisions. This says the X. You'll notice that same X is on my card. Anytime you see this big blue X, it's referring to what round we're in. We're in round one, which means X like here or on my card means sector one, which is this area. Sector two is this area. Sector three is this area.
So, if we were in round three, the fact that they say, "Hey, do whatever you're going to do in the current sector means that they would do it here in sector three." We're in round one. So, they're going to save somebody in sector one. Either this group or this group of survivors and um which one? Well, number two, which means they count until they find the second group that's available to them. But how do they count? This card here says start from the top and count down. So, they start at the top and say one, two, they're going to rescue this group of survivors. Uh, if this had said one, if this said X1, they would have rescued this one. If this had said X3, they would have gone one, two, three, and they would have done that group. So, anyway, they're getting all these active survivors. And, um, it says right there, they get one point per.
I do not implicitly get points for rescuing survivors. My opponent does. There's a little reminder right there. I rescue survivors and I get the opportunity to do more actions. And suddenly half of the survivors that were available to me because I here's where I am. I have access to these survivors. They're gone. My opponent rescued them. Good job. But that's going to make things harder for me because I need more um survivors to do more work. Okay. Oh, also that's their primary action. They do a second action as well. Like um I've got a big list of secondary actions. So did they. Their secondary action says, "Hey, eliminate these two missions. If I wanted to do them, too bad, so sad, but they are gone and new ones come out." It's like other players had taken some missions. So that was their first turn. All righty, we are now on to my second turn. I still only have one fuel, so I can't go for a drive. I don't want to pass yet. So let's have my last active go out and do something. Um Oh, wait.
But shoot, folks, always turn on those cling on subtitles because I was a doofus. A doofus malefus. Because here's the deal. I have to rewind. On my turn, I cheated myself. Whenever you do any of these worker placement actions, you get your bonuses if there are any up there. You get whatever you get, which I did. I had no bonus. I got a reward. But there's something else you do. Your worker does one of these four actions. On the first turn, my worker not only gave me this mission, but I either would build a shelter, rescue some people, contribute to the Phoenix project, or rest, which means get two happiness and one fuel. On my last turn, I had to do one of these before my opponent went. So, strictly speaking, I could have rushed right out and rescued those people before my opponent did, but that's not what I was going to do. What I wanted to do um was get some stren spend some strength to build a shelter. Remember how I had that bonus action I did where I increased my strength which gave me the meds? Um, this little worker is going to do one of these four actions. I'm going to say it's this one. This action says build my first shelter. The first and second shelter I build cost two strength. So that strength I gained um well I gained one. I'm going to lose two to build this
shelter. And whenever you lose strength, what happens is you find where your strength meter is. And you have to fall down. So I could fall to back to where I started or over here or over here. Now when you're going down, when you're spending strength, you do not get the benefits of where you land. It's only when you're going up. So, I could fall down to either of these, but I'll fall down back to where I start. No, remember I am falling down two. I'm falling down two strength because it costs two. So, if I were to go straight down one and then from there I'd have to go down two. I'm way low. But that means when I gain strength, oh, I could get some happiness. So, I don't want to fall down that low. I am going to move spend two strength. I'll go here and then here. So, I'm back to where I started because I gained one strength.
It allowed me to spend two strength without falling to a lower level. And so that's how I'm spending to two strength to get this thing built. Right. Okay. So, um I can build this on any of these build sites anywhere on the board. And these are all randomly placed. Um you know, so you're going to get a different layout every time. These are the only two that are fixed. these ones in the far in the deepest most radioactive area. Um, but here's the deal. I'm going to build anywhere I want, but I've got a couple of things to consider. One, remember there's this objective about upgrading my fuel line. Uh, that's what this is. So, I want to build here or here or here because those will upgrade my fuel line. Now, there's another consideration. Um, you'll notice there's this in-game objective. This one right here says, "Hey, build where there are landmarks." That's this little symbol right here. So, all things mean equal.
There are not many landmarks. There's one here. There's one here and here and here and here. Oh, and these two over here. So, rather than build here where there's no landmark, I should build where there's a landmark. So, you could guess where I'm probably going to build now, right, folks? Um, I want to build where there's a landmark and I want to build where I get an upgrade for my um, uh, fuel line because there's objectives for both those things. So, I think the perfect place to build is right there. So, it cost me two strength. I have built that. And my reward for building, and remember this was all last turn. I totally forgot to do this on my first turn. My reward for building is I get one of these three bunker cards, which will come over here next to my happiness track. So, I've got more slots to put more rescued survivors in. So, which one of these do I want?
Well, if I take this one, let's say, and I put it here, and if I put somebody here, I'll get some happiness. And if I get my happiness up, which, you know, if I get my happiness up high enough, it'll generate strength for me uh every time I pass. So, this could be three strength over the course of the game if I'm happy enough and I get somebody in that slot or I'm sorry, in these slots is again uh right, right. So, h no, [clears throat] no, no, no. I think it's just this one. This one is a blank. This one, this is a tough one. If I fill all five of these slots, then this gets flipped over and it becomes a point generating card. Remember I was talking about that earlier. Um, [snorts] if I only fill these four slots, it'll never get flipped over. I have to put a worker down here to get no benefit. I'd probably fill all these slots, get some happiness, get a mission, get some um some scrap metal, hopefully earn some strength at the when I pass because I've got that space. When I eventually fill that final space, I'll flip it and it becomes a point scoring thing. That's if I take this one. If I take this one, it can generate tools for me and it can also get filled up fairly quickly and turned into a victory point generator pretty quickly. This is another one that only needs three to fill up and it's got two opportunities for me to make two strength and two data. Wow, that one's very nice.
So, I've got to pick one of these. Although, remember, if I didn't like the ones that were out there, I had this little bonus thing where I could spend data. And I have one data right now to wipe all three out, draw three more, and pick. But I need to save my data for other stuff. Which one of these do I want? I think I like this one. It's easier to get done to turn into a point generator and it gives me huge bennies, double strength, double. So, I'm going to put it over here. There we go. So, I need to put somebody in this slot and I need to get my happiness up this high so that I get extra strength when I pass. And I'll try to get that done before I pass. So, anyway, these slid over, a new one came out. All of that. Oh, this is the one I really wanted. Uh, this one would give me two anti-radiation meds, but Salem E, it's gone. I've already taken my one. All right, so all that was on my first turn because I did my my I didn't do my main thing, which was I built. Oh, but there's another benefit I got for building here. I increased my fuel production, the little yellow, and my data production. So, when I put a worker here and here, I'll produce two fuel and two data because I built that.
Okay, that was all on my first turn, folks. Then my opponent went, they went and rescued some people and took some mission cards and Oh, wait. Yeah. Okay. Okay. There's um one more. Yeah. Yeah. Next up, my turn again. I've only got one. I don't have enough fuel. I've got one worker left. If I had no fuel and no workers to do these actions, I'd be done. I'd have to pass and the and I just have to sit back and watch. And that would be terrible. So, I'm going to do another action. It is going to be this worker, and I will send this worker over here, which means I am potentially letting them die because they went out into the wasteland to do this for me. What are they doing? They're getting me some scrap metal. They are getting me some radiation meds. And now I've got enough to save both of these people. Um, they are getting me fuel, two fuel instead of one. So now I've got enough for one and a half drives with my buggy.
Okay. And again, let's not forget this time they're going to do one of these actions. So I could get more fuel and um more happiness. I could I do have more strength. I have one, two, three more strength. I could build another um bunker right now if I wanted. Um I could just get some more fuel. So I'd have enough fuel for two drives. I'd have two turns worth of driving I could do if I just get some more fuel or I have I've talked about I haven't talked about this yet. I could contribute to the Phoenix project. I mentioned there's all these objectives over here to get these in-game objectives and these midgame milestones. I need to be contributing to the greatest project humanity is working on. We've learned our mistakes. We have to rebuild. This is how we rebuild. And also at the same time, this is the Phoenix Project, which is the sequel to this game. I already covered it years ago. Phoenix New Dawn um was another great game from publisher Perol Loco which is set generations in the future after this project we're doing in this game after this project was completed and we can basically clean up the surface enough to come back to the surface generations from now we would um so we are now building the framework for what we do in the other game which I just love that um anyway though so this action means upgrade my bunker if I can fulfill one
of these projects um over here. Right. So, I'm eventually going to do this, but not right now because remember I'm out of workers and turns going to be over pretty quick if I don't. I think I'm going to rescue now because there are two people here that could either be rescued by my shelter here or this starting shelter. If I had built my first shelter over here, let's say, then if I wanted to rescue, I could rescue these people because they'd come into the main one that we all share. Or I could have rescued these people because they'd come into my bunker over there. So, I am going to rescue some folks. And this is over here. Uh, these are the only ones I can reach. I'm going to rescue them. And, uh, they basically come into my little holding area where I have room to have four people queued up ready to do work or ready to go underground. So, that was my turn. I got a bunch of resources and some fuel and whatnot. And I did a rescue. And now for a free bonus. Hey, since this one can never do any work up here, I might as well send them below uh this essential worker. So, which one do I want? You know what? I think I will go on ahead and put this one right here [snorts] because I immediately get one happiness.
And at the end, uh, once I pass, if this card is still here and my happiness hasn't fallen too far down, I will get more happiness. Um, because here's what I want to do. I started three, I've moved to four. I want to get up to five or six happiness and have people in these things because that means when I pass, I get extra strength. So before I'm done, I want to get two more people, rescue people in these slots. And I want to get because the um I you know you get it right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right. Okay. So I did that. Now this person I could send them down as well, but then I'd have no workforce again and I'd be down to only being able to drive and my round would almost be over. So I'll save this one. And they SAY NO. I I DON'T WANT TO GO OUT. DON'T WORRY, PAL.
We'll worry about you in a bit. It's now my opponent's second turn. And they say hi. Well, we Oh, I was just talking about it. They're going to do it. They're actually going to complete one of the Phoenix project initiatives. And because they're doing it ahead of me, that's one opportunity I am missing out on. I could have done it because here's the deal. If I instead of rescuing these people, I had this steel. One steel and one data, which I had, one steel plus one data would have let me complete any of these projects. That would have given me an upgrade token. And you've seen how those work. And it would have given me points. And the more of these I've completed, the more points I have the potential to score at the end of the game for these three objectives. I don't get to score for these objectives unless if I want to score for this. And I do.
Remember, I've already built on one landmark. Now I want to build on other landmarks. If I built on three landmarks that I get to score this three times, it's three times for my three landmarks plus however many of these projects on this line that I have completed. And so one of these three projects is going to go now because my opponent beat me to it. Oh, another thing. First of all, that time is going to pass for them. You see this little blue that says, "Hey, move the marker up." If a blue or a purple arrow comes up, they're running out of time. I only have so many turns. They only have so many turns for they have to pass. And so they are moving up their time and they are going to do a uh whatchamacallit uh I can't think of the word. Um a milestone or not a milestone, but which one are they going to score? There's the reminder right there. Now in this case, because we're not doing anything on the board, the blue X doesn't matter, but the number three does. They want to take the third milestone from the right. Uh, and it's on the light blue line. This one down here. Oh, shoot. Oops. I've got these set up wrong. This should be on the light blue line. This should be on the dark middle blue line. Silly me. Just a little goof there. It's part of setup.
Fixed it before it became important. So, anyway, they're going to take one of these from the light blue line. They're going to start over here and count left three spaces. 1 2 3. They have completed this. They have contributed to the Phoenix project. Boom. If I wanted to do this one and score six points for myself, too bad, so sad, it's gone. They have just scored six points. And by the way, I started with 20 points because I have the potential to lose a lot of points if people die. They never lose points. That's why they start at the bottom and have start working their way up. So anyway, this technology upgrade getting free electrical equipment, which would have been awesome. Too bad it's gone. My opponent took it and they mark that they have done this with one of their little tokens. Boop. So I can't take that one now. Oh, and there's one other thing. The our communal knowledge.
All of these are supposed to be here as part of setup on the blue track has moved up one which has implications for scoring the blue track, the endgame and the milestone associated with the blue track. So anyway, so that is what they have done on their turn. And right now it says, "Hey, score my um completed bunkers in the green zone." Um or in case you're color blind, the number three zone. Uh green always has three on it. Blue always has two. Purple always has one. So that is what they are doing. Now unfortunately they haven't. This is basically points for having closed bunkers. Same thing I've talked about closing bunkers, you know, filling these things up, flipping them over. They become point generators. If my opponent had already done that, they would score points for that. They haven't done it yet. So, they're missing out on that bonus action. That's fine. They're doing okay anyway. They're catching up with me pretty quick. So, it is now my third turn. I have one more worker. I've got two more worker placement spots. But, let's put that on hold for a little bit.
or maybe I shouldn't because I can send my worker and because that just put the fear in me. Um they took Now I wasn't necessarily planning on that one. Here's the deal. I'm thinking about this objective right here cuz I want to score it. That means I want to do these ones on the dark blue line and they could have just as easily taken that one. So I was a little nervous about that. Um, so maybe I should, um, well, I could send my worker out to either get some data or some strength. My choice. And you saw how getting strength works. Getting data would just be collecting more of these tokens. And then either way, doing one of the core actions. And that would means, hey, I could do the core action. And I already talked about it. I could snag this while the snagging is good. Um, and but I have other things I could do as well.
Yes, I do. And I'm thinking about what else I want to do because I don't have much time. I'm already halfway through this first round. I've got one worker left. But if I could rush out here, I could maybe get some more workers. So, I could push even longer. This is not a fixed length game. The more workers you can get, the more stuff you can do potentially. Remember, although you have a maximum of four actions, although there's another maximum. I'll talk about that in a bit because I haven't even talked about all of these tokens down here that have to do with upgrading my operation. We'll worry about that in a bit, will we? I wonder if I should do that now because my opponent could rescue these people at any second. My opponent could grew these. My opponent could grab these things at any second, any moment.
I could miss out um because they're capable of doing everything I'm capable of doing. Here's another thing I could do as well. Remember, once per turn, not on these I do as me want. Once per turn, I can complete a mission. Um I could complete this mission right now. It would hurt. It would suck. But here's what would happen. This says, "Hey, power up a um uh uh a bunker that you've already built." How do you do it? by having somebody die and losing to happiness. And that means you flip it. Now, flipping it doesn't mean anything. It's just a mark that this bunker has been powered up. Doesn't change anything anywhere. [snorts] But if I will have done that, if I sacrifice my last available guy to do this as a free action right now, then I will get to scout. I will get food. I will get fuel.
And I get a whole bonus turn. I get to do a driving action. So that is interesting. Do I do that right now? But I mean, but then that means this guy's not available for me to be able to do my additional worker placement actions. But there are the people out there to save. It means I'm going to have to but to save them, what I need to I have two choices. I either need to spend multiple turns driving out, pick them up, and bring them back to a spot that's within range so I could save them at my bunker. Or I would have to build spending strength, build another bunker, and I wouldn't mind building a bunker over here because hey, it's another landmark for this in-game scoring thing. And then these people could be saved, and I'd have more workers if I wanted to do this right now. Oh my goodness.
Um, oh my goodness. I think that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do it. Um, before I do anything this round, I am going to complete this mission. I'm going to power this up. Say goodbye to my last worker. Go back in the bag. Very sad they died, but you know, they sacrificed themselves for humanity. And we drop down two. Now, I'm still earning this, but I'm a long way from earning this if I put somebody in that spot. I complete this mission. Oh, I should say, by the way, remember there's this blue X. This blue X is important. This blue X means, oh, to complete this, I have to power up a bunker in since we're in round one, sector one. That was another reason to build this here because I knew I had this objective that said, hey, if I wanted to do this in round two, I could still do it because this one is connected to sector one and sector 2.
But if I wanted to do this in round three, I'd have to have a bunker connected to sector three, as an example. But anyway, so I did this. I Somebody died. I've lost happiness because I was very sad for the brave act. But here's all the stuff we get. We get a bunch of stuff. We get some food, some fungal food, which if I can combine with plastic, I could convert that to chemicals. And wasn't I just saying earlier how it's tough to get chemicals? So, we get some food. We get some more fuel. So, I've now got enough for two drives. We get to do a scouting action. And we get to do a drive action right now as a free bonus. And here's the beauty. Normally to do the um scouting action as it's listed right here. Remember scouting is something I can do once per turn. It costs strength. This one says my strength is free. This person who sacrificed themselves to power up this bunker. They found some food. They found some fuel. They did some scouting. And they even um drove the van. So before they expired, they got a lot done. It was a brave and noble sacrifice.
Everybody, you know, poor one out for um this active worker. So let's go on ahead and scout right now. Okay. The way scouting works is well, I have to look at my um scouting level over here. All these are the five attributes of my bunker as they stand right now. This one is, hey, if I go driving, I spent two fuel. How far can I drive? And how many people can I drive around with me? I can upgrade that. So, I can move three or four steps. Normally, I can only move two steps. [snorts] This upgrade is how many of these different resources can I hold now that I've got some fungal food. That's it. I cannot have any more fungal food. But if I upgrade this, I can hold two cubes in each one of these little silos. And you can upgrade it again.
This upgrade is the one I'm thinking about. Normally, if I scout, if I spend my strength, if I scout, then I draw two from the bag. But if this were upgraded, I could draw three or even four from the bag. And it also makes it more valuable to keep people alive down here in my ready area. Um, which is an important consideration as well. So anyway, um, I look at this. My current scouting level is beginner because I haven't upgraded it. It's two. That means I come back to the sackjack and I draw two. One, two. And um it's two activives cuz remember 2/3 of these are active. All right. And so I now um normally if I were scouting, if I were out and about, I would wherever I am, that's where I would put the survivors. But because I haven't actually left yet Oh, that's interesting. [snorts] That's very interesting. You know what?
before I do this scouting action. Remember, I could drive. How about I drive first and then do the scouting action. If I were playing against human players, my opponent, if I put people out here via the scouting on my opponent's turn, they could rescue them because they'd have access to them because they're still here. Whereas, if I drove first and put them over here, then my opponent would not be able to rescue them without first driving out to pick them up and bring them back or building a bunker nearby. Now, the so in the solo game, my opponent, it's like they've got bunkers everywhere. They can rescue from any place. So, there's no strategic thing of rescuing them first and then going for the drive. But, you know what? There is there is actually um because I've got to think remember after I'm done with this scouting, I'm going to drive. I'm going to spend two of my for fuel. I can move one to two steps cuz I haven't upgraded my buggy yet. And wherever I go, I'm going to get to do the action. If I move here, it's rescue people and get food from there. If I move over here, it's rescue people and get tools. And they actually or if I move over here, it's get plastic and build another shelter. And if I get plastic, I could combine it with my metal or my food to make chemicals or tools as a free upgrade. So, I need to be thinking about where am I going to drive to because since I'm getting I haven't even done my main action yet. I haven't done my main action here. I'm
doing a bonus action. So, oh my goodness. I think I think I'm not going to I'm going to do this in a slightly different order. I'm going to drive first, then I'm going to do the scouting. So, let's drive. No, no, no. I have to do this. I have to do this in order. So, I was thinking, oh, I'll drive over here and after I drive, I could rescue. But that means I had to scout first so I could rescue these people, right? Is that what I want to do? Or do I just drive here, get some plastic to make upgraded materials, and get to spend more strength and build another um what should I call it? Another bunker. Oh, I'm tempted to do that.
Wow. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I am I'm driving first. I'm just going to drive one step. That takes two fuel. So, I'm kind of wasting some fuel to only move one step, but I'm doing it to come here and do this. This gets me a plastic, which I can combine with my other base materials. And it lets me build a bunker. And then I flip this so if somebody else wants to come here, they only get plastic. Now, building my second bunker is going to cost me two strength. So, I'm gonna fall down one, two, and where am I going to build it? [snorts] I Right. I need to build it over here because that's another landmark. And remember, I'm trying to get in all the landmarks if I can. Um, so now I'm at two landmark zones. If I come here, I get to upgrade my strength meter. If I come down here, I get to upgrade my fuel meter. Oh my gosh. So, in a future turn when I get fuel, I'll get I'll still only get two, but I'll also have upgraded the ability to get level two upgrades. That's what this next step is. But I'm still planning on either getting data or strength. I think I am going to build up here because I get whenever you build, you get a benefit. The benefit I got for this was just getting one of these. Building up here is two things. I get another bunker that I can install and I get to data. I need data. The main use of data is so that we can make contributions to the Phoenix project. So the more data I
have, the better. Um, and now that I've got all this data, I don't need to gather data by putting my third worker here. I'll also put over here and get more strength so I can start working my way back up. So I came here, I got two data, and I am going to get the one that I hope to get this one, which says, hey, when I put somebody in this, when I send somebody below, that'll get me two radiation meds. And now I am full. I need to fill these things in so I can convert them into points so that I can get more bunkers built. But anyway, a new one comes out. So that was me before I did my main turn simply doing this. Somebody died. I got to do Oh, I haven't done my scouting yet. Right. I I haven't done my scouting. Right. I was thinking I was going to do this and then All right, it's fine. Scouting again. What did I get? Okay, I got two. No. Although, you know what? Hold on. I'm going to cheat a little bit. Let's say my scouting gave me this. There we go. That's just I I'm cheating. This is less likely because remember there's only a third of these and two/3 of these. So, it's most likely you're going to get two actives. But if instead you get an you get um what do you call them? The essential workers.
Well, normally um because I scouted, I'd put them here because that's where I am, right? Which means they could be rescued by my bunker or anybody via that and they'd just be sitting here waiting. If you during a scouting action you find essential workers, they are so important either because they're scientists, you know, they're wearing lab coats or because they're freaking depending on how um you know, ironically you want to look at it, they're just billionaires who pay their way in. Um they can skip the process of having to be rescued. They get to go directly to rescue town. And then that means as a free action I can immediately deploy them down there. So I'm gonna say I drew two just so I could demonstrate. It means there's one less worker to rescue which is not great. Um but uh it means I can demonstrate this. All right. So it's just random how it came out. And now this is all still bonus stuff. I have now finished all of these bonus actions. And now before I go to my main action, which you'll notice I have no workers. This essential can't work. Before I go to my main action, which is probably going to be drive more cuz I've got more fuel. I'm going to send this guy down. He's going to go right there. And what's that going to do? It's going to give me another anti-radiation medication. And this bunker is now closed. That is a free action I can do, which means all of these go back in the bag. So there's more essential personnel out there to
find. depending on how essential they really are. And this gets flipped and it becomes a point generator. These slide down and now my happiness bonus is has the potential to get me to strength instead of two happiness when I eventually pass. So anyway, I now have this and I have to put this in one of these three slots. Let me go on ahead and move everything over a little bit. I'm going have to move my I'll move all my resources right there that I'm collecting. There we go. And I have to put this in slot one, two, or three. Um the numbers don't mean anything. It's not like this is more powerful. It's just if you are color blind, you don't have to be able to see the green. You can see that that's space number three. I'm going to put this in one of these three spaces.
And over time, if I close more bunkers, I could put another one here. That means when I score this column, I would get six points or nine points or 12 points, etc., etc. So, I've got to figure out where am I going to put it. And the main way to decide that is which of these columns do I think is more likely to get scored based on different criteria as the game evolves? Well, the main way to figure that out is remember those mission cards, folks? Remember, I didn't take the ones that are over here. If I get this mission card and then later complete it, I will get an upgrade to my base for free, which is nice. This looks bad, but this is actually awesome. And I will get to score my number one category. So, here's the deal. If I'm looking at missions I might go on in the future. Remember, at the end of the round, these are going to go away. This one, if nobody takes it, is going to stick around. So, if I can get this mission and complete it, then I would be able to score column two. And that's why I'm going to put that there in column two, hoping later on to get this card, complete the mission, and score those three or six or nine or however many points it's going to be. So that's my thinking. Um, so I've closed and now because I've done that, I also have spot the next time I make another uh bunker because I can see I can make up to six bunkers. I'll be able to get another one of these cards and put it up here in the new top spot because I cleared things out because I FILLED IT UP.
ALL OF that was before I do my main turn. Now I'm going to do my main turn, which is spend my two fuel and I'm going to go for a drive again. I'm over here. I can move up to two steps because I haven't upgraded any of my stuff yet. Where am I going to go? I'm going to drive one. And by the way, you'll notice there are these um red lines. You can't drive these. You can't drive through there. So, I'm going to drive one, two, and I'm going to end right there. And that means I um well, first of all, oh here's where As I'm driving, I'm going to take this little guy with me. Get on board, pal. One, two, and then drop him off here. That means if I were playing against a human player and they're like, "Oh, I'm still over here. I can Nope. Can't save him. I drove him away. This person can be saved by this bunker. These people could be saved by that bunker." So, I'm setting myself up to make some more saves in the future with the bunkers I've built. So, um, they they do not live in the car. I can just this car can carry two people and move them around. So, it made sense to move this out of the reach of my opponent to the reach of my bunker. And now that I've arrived here, I get this benefit. I get some tools that I found um, you know, and so that comes over here. So, now there is no reason to turn my plastic and scrap metal into tools, but I could turn my plastic and my fungus into chemicals. So, I do that.
And now I'm going to rescue some people, folks. And then this flips over. So I could rescue this one person here, but no, I think I'll rescue these two people over here. Boom. Boom. And now I've got more people who can work and get stuff done. Although before I'm done, I'm going to send this person to safety. And that means because I put them there, I get one happiness immediately. And I've now set myself up because this space is occupied to get two more strength when I eventually pass. Nice. Okay, so that was my big super turn and I'm set up to do more turns now because I've still got one more worker to go out um into the radiation zone. But don't worry, I've already got the medicine to save them. Okay, my opponent says, "Well, that's pretty impressive. Let's see what I'm going to do." So they say, "Okay, well, first of all, they're going to move up. their time is running out for them and they're going to do another Phoenix project. This time they are doing it on the purple line and they're going from the left and they are moving three steps. So 1 2 3 they took this one. Okay.
One, two, three, they took this one. That gave them six points. One, two, three, four, five, six. And they don't care about the rewards, none of that. They're just that was an opportunity for me to take one. So, they take one now and they put that there. Oh, and this says, "Hey, the Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, shoot. Shoot. Shoot. What am I talking about? I was totally wrong. I just did the blue line. It was the purple line. That goes back. It's this one that they took, right? So, they still got six points, but they're moving the blue forward one. We've made one progress in the blue, the necessary blue knowledge to complete the Phoenix project, and they have marked that. [snorts] And that's what I definitely want to do because I'm hoping I want to do as many of these as possible before the game is over so I can get more points out of my landmarks. And it's like they knew that and took one that I wanted.
Goodf. Okay. So anyway, so they've done all that. Also, there's a little bonus thing. Every time every other time or for actually from now on, every time they do a Phoenix project, which is like a core action that, you know, remember for me, there's a bonus action of completing milestones. From now on, for the rest of the game, every time they do this, they also complete a milestone and they've just done it. So, which milestone are they going to complete? Well, it's going to be the same one that they worked on. They worked on this line, so they are going to complete this milestone. Remember, we're racing to complete these as fast as we can. And it's like they just completed that milestone. And in a two-player game, only one player gets to do it. If we were playing at a higher player count, there is the potential that multiple players could complete milestones, but it gets more expensive if you come later. But in a a solo or two-player game, there's only one shot for each of them, and they've just completed that milestone. So, they don't care about the data. They have unlimited data. They do get points and normally if they were a human player they would get points based on how much secondary material they've got in their bunker but they don't keep track of that. So instead I just look at their little thing that says oh they get four points every time they do a milestone. 1 2 3 4 and just like that they've almost caught me. Ah but anyway more importantly I cannot complete this milestone. Now shoot the boot for me to have completed this milestone and score points based on how many midlevel C um stuff I've got. chemicals, tools, and
electronics to do this. This was randomly put here. I would have had to have on hand three um of the mid-levels because that, you know, it could have been I would have had to have three eight happiness or I could have done two contributions to the Phoenix project. But as it is, they have now taken that. So, I can never do this objective. I can never complete this milestone. And that was an opportunity to score points that's lost for me. There's still two more, but I'm kind of eyeballing longterm trying to get these over here, but they've made it harder for me to do that one, too. Anyway, so all of that and then on top of that, if as if they weren't enough, they score all their um bunkers in the number one slot. Again, me, I've been building bunkers. I've been doing that. They've been working on the Phoenix project. So, it's like they're focused on and this could have been a human player doing all this stuff, you know, focusing getting mid-level stuff, doing these things, and then getting milestones done at the expense of saving people. U probably had some special power to do it, but anyway.
So, that was it for them. They don't score anything on that. It is now my next turn. I cannot go driving anymore. I do not want to pass yet. So, I'm going to send out my third worker. I could just send them here and then I'd have to pass. But no, I'm going to get some work done and it is going to be either get two um whatchamacallit two data or since I wait oh I have upgraded this because I built I forgot folks always turn those click on subtitles. Paul point out I forgot. So I'm either going to get two data which is what I need to do all this stuff. I've already got three data. I don't think I need data. Instead I'm going to get myself two strength. if I don't get any bonuses because I haven't put any upgrades there. But um so I haven't gone anywhere. How do I get upgrades to put here? By doing all of this. The way that you mark these is you take these upgrades to indicate, hey, I just did this and boom, I've upgraded an ability, right? And in this case, I've taken this and I put this and I put it there. It says, "Hey, every time I do this action, I get two points." I haven't been doing any of that stuff as I've been focused on infrastructure. That's been my strategy so far this game. Okay, so I'm coming over here. I get two strength and I'm down here. So the first step I got to move up is like that and get one med.
And now my second choice is I could move up here and get one happiness or I could go up this way and get one food or I could go up this way and get one electrics. Now if I get happiness, I'm moving up. Um but I don't know if I'm going to make it up there. So, I don't think I care about I'm not I don't care about the happiness. I do. I want food. Well, no. I can't. I don't have room for food. But how about when I uh when I um get my two strength, I will go up here and get some electrics. Boop. And now I'm full of all the base materials. And from here, I have no choice. I have to Oh, no. If I go this way, all I can do is get metal. Here's the problem. I've already No. No. I Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I can do this. So, um, right before.
Yeah. So, I came up here. I got some electrics. Now, before I move up again. Oh, wait. Oh, here's the problem. All All these little immediate actions, you cannot interrupt other actions to do it. So, I can't say, "Hey, I I'm interrupting my action. I came up here. I got the medals." And then I'll interrupt it to turn the the current metal and wire into electronics and then continue the main action. I cannot do that. So maybe I don't want to come this way. Uh [snorts] put that electrics back. Come on back down here. Maybe I go the other way instead. Oh no, maybe I go the other way. But first, before I do it, before I um do this action, this strength action, I'm going to do a bonus action of convert this plastic and this food into chemicals, let's say. And then I do my strength action, which is move two. Go this way.
And hey, I got some more food. And then I take a second one. And look at that. I got some more chemicals. Boom. Easy peasy. There we go. Um, let me show that. All right. All right. I'm I'm cool with that. So that was me um getting to strength and now again getting to do any of the core actions. Do I want to spend an action rescuing this last person? Well, you might think I'd want to because then, hey, I could do my fourth action. But here's the deal, folks. Remember, I haven't done any of these upgrades yet. It's crazy. I haven't done any of them. Um, but my my turn has been focused on other stuff. Um, this one up here says at the beginning of the game, I can only activate three of these four actions. And also, at the beginning of the game, I can only hold four people in my ready area. You can see there's a space for fifth. If I upgrade this, hey, now I can hold five people. And if I upgrade it again, I could then do all four actions.
So while I could go rescue somebody, I won't be able to use them to do other stuff. But if I do rescue somebody, I could then you I could then deploy them up here to get some happiness and some data income at the when I pass or I could get some or I could get some more radiation meds. So anyway, I got to figure out now I've done my strength action. I got to figure out which of these actions I'm going to do. And that's a tough choice, is it? Well, here's the deal. So far, I have been focusing on infrastructure, focusing on saving everybody, not actually building for humanity's future at all. Maybe maybe I should turn my eyes towards that a little bit. What do you think? What if I were to finally do one of these upgrades I've been talking about? Because I've got a whole bunch of resources I could pump into these bonuses now in a big bad way.
Like for instance, um doing uh you know doing the first of any of these go ahead and zoom in on it again. There's a reminder right here costs one data and any of the base goods and I've got three of the four base goods there. Doing any of these costs two of the mid-range and I've got two mid-range things. So I could spend two mid-range things and unfortunately though I'd be the third player to come here because my opponent has done it twice. So, I'd have to give up two mid-range and I'd have to give up three data. But if I did, I could get these producers. I could make extra strength every time I do a work action or extra data or plastic. And if I come over here, um, oh, and by the way, these are worth six points. These are only worth two points. If I come over here, I've got to give up two highgrade materials. Um, you know, uh, radio or medicine. actual functioning electronics instead of parts or medicine. And if I gave up two of those things, I'd have to give up, if I do, I'd have to give up two or if I came later, three or four data to grab any of these and get 12 points. So, here's the deal. Remember, I want to get on this line as much as I can so I can have more opportunities to score for the landmarks I've built at, right? So, I'm feeling my main action now should be finally contribute. finally get on the board and get some stuff done.
Um, could I or do I do I do I do I is there another thing? I'm about to have to pass. I have no more I can't do another worker placement action because I'm doing this one. I have no more gas, so I cannot drive, which means I'm going to have to pass pretty soon. Before I do that, if I had one electrical wiring, I could convert those into that and the steel and then I'd have three of these and I could then complete this milestone. This milestone. Oh, no, I couldn't because it's already been taken. This milestone was have three mid levels. I can't do this one. It doesn't matter. This one, eight happiness. I'm a long ways away from that one. This one, complete two. I I do need to start working on the Phoenix project. I mean, you might not have a strategy of doing it a lot, but you got to do it some. You got to contribute to humanity's future somewhat. So, let's go on ahead and say I'm going to contribute uh instead of rescue more people. But if I did, if I rescued this person, I could deploy them immediately and get more stuff so I'd have even more data for the expensive um you know, contributions I have to make later.
I do have enough strength. I could build another bunker. And if I built another bunker down here, then I'd increase my fuel generating even more. And I'd be able to grab a mission. These missions are about to disappear at the end of a round if I want to. I could spend my strength as I'm way up high. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. But you know what? There's something else I forgot, folks. Paulo might have already been screaming at me at the top of his lungs. Let's not forget my special power. My special power is, hey, I get extra medicine, which I already did that earlier. I can also anytime I want, I can spend medicine to get any base material. I have more medicine. I need I need to have three to save these three people before I do my main action. How about How's Aabotsski? I um spend this to get a base material and I'll say it's the last one that I don't have. Right.
So now I can convert these two into that. But unfortunately I wanted to be able to do this milestone but somebody beat me to it. Drat. That's okay. That's okay. That's okay. I'm going to do it anyway for reasons that will become clear in a bit. So, that was again, I'd already done my strength, but I haven't done these core actions yet. And so, I did a little bonus. I could do I mean, I could give up more medicine and get more bonuses if I want, but I'm going to stop. And now, I'm going to do my main thing, which is going to be contribute to the Phoenix project finally. So, I have enough data that I can contribute, be the third thing to get one of these. But to be the first one over here, I only need to spend one data and only one base material.
So, let's go on the cheap. I am going to spend one data and one of my base materials, either my food or my plastic, which means I'm giving up the ability to make uh more chemicals. Although, look at this. Right now, I could make a radio or I could make medicine if I want as a free action, but I'm not going to worry about that right now. [snorts] Um, I am Let's see. Do All right. What am I? Am I going to get my plastic or my tough choice, isn't it?
Um, no. If I were going to give up three and do this, this means I could generate plastic, which means I'd be very happy to give up the plastic I've already got, right? if I were going to do this one. But that means I'm trying to get on this track to get bonus points for doing more contributions here. And I'm thinking my strategy in this game is not going to be to do that many contributions here. Instead, I'm going to be building in landmarks and completing missions. So, I want to complete these ones down here. So, I don't think I even want that. So, I'm only going to spend one. I will give up right. I got to give up the food or the plastic. Um, you know, the plastic's on this side. I'm over on this side. If I fall down. Yeah. Okay. Let's just get the food. Let's just get the food. All right. So, I'm giving up the food and one data to get one of these three benefits. It will be this one because remember I want to get on this line. So, I could score this more times. So, I will take this. I now put this um on any although I do have a restriction.
You'd think, oh, let's just put it on this one to make it even more powerful when I do it, right? No, there is a hard limit. I cannot put more than two upgrades on any of these four worker placement spots. Why? Because I haven't upgraded. It says right here, because I haven't done this upgrade, I can only put two. I can only have two closed things per column. I can only have two upgrades per worker placement spot. If I were to do this upgrade, then um well, I can still only do two, but if I do it again, I could have three upgrades in every space. But that's way off in my future, if ever. So, I can't put it there. I like doing missions. I'm thinking I'm going to try and do a lot of missions for this in-game scoring potential, right? So, let's say every time I go and give myself another mission, I will activate this bonus. And this bonus says, "Hey, get a point for every mid-level good you've got." And what do you know? I've got three. So, this is three points whenever I activate that tile, which I'll activate it when I go to get another mission when I get to the second era. So, um, I have taken Oh, got to come back down here. I have I I spent all my stuff to take this. I'm going to get two points. Yay. And I'm going to move forward our mastery of this knowledge. One more step on that track.
And [snorts] now I have to mark that I have done this so that nobody else can do it. How do I do it? By doing any of these upgrades that I want. And [snorts] here's the deal. You might be surprised which one I'm going to do. This one is great because, hey, it lets me store more stuff, right? That's a pretty big deal. This one is great because it lets me drive further off of gas so I can get more stuff done and also I can carry more people with me. This one, when I scout, I get um I get to draw more people. But there's another thing that happens as well. I think this is the one I'm going to take. Yes, this is the upgrade I have made to my operation and I will put it over here to indicate that I've done it and I've gotten the two points and I've moved our knowledge on the Phoenix project forward. And so now when I scout, I draw three and put them on the board, which means I'm more likely, like you saw me do after I cheated a little bit, I'm more likely to draw these, which means I can deploy them immediately, which is really, this is the only luck element of the game. When you scout and you draw two or three or four from the bag, you're re you are jumping for joy when you get those essentials because it means you don't have to spend time rescuing them. They come back to the base immediately. So there's a little bit of luck because there's only a one in three chance. So if you're drawing three at a time, you're upping your chances of getting those. So I've upped my chances that, but I've also increased
my scoring. At the end of the round, I have the potential to score points for people who are in my ready room ready to do work. But at the beginning of the game, all those people are worth zero points. Now it's worth one point to keep a workforce ready to go. That I can make one point for every workforce ready instead of zero points. That's why I did that upgrade. I'm better at scouting, but I'm going to score more points very soon when I pass. Yaoza. So, that was my main action. After I did strength and did a whole bunch of other stuff, I finally contributed. Yay. And now I get to score this at least once. How do I score? So, maybe I should explain this while I'm talking about it. Right. So, this says the maximum I can get out of this is 24 points. The way I figure out at the end of the game how many points I'm going to get is how many of them did I actually do? I've already done I'm say I did three of them, right? So say I've got three. How many of this or this or this I do? Say I did three. How many did I put over here? Let's say I ultimately do this one and this one. So I got two, right? So it would be three times two.
So now we're up to six points for this at the end of the game. But there's another multiplier. How much knowledge? How far did we push our dark blue knowledge? Right now, our dark blue knowledge is in the silver area, which means the final multiplier is two. If our dark blue knowledge can get pushed all the way up into the golden, that means the multiplier on this blue track is three points. So, it would be um you know, it'd be 6* three instead. So, that'd be an extra six points if this makes it all the way up here. And what moves this up? Well, the choices we make. How often do we do these things and the milestone? But there are also opportunities like if I have this bunker and I put a survivor on there that says I can move any track I want forward or backwards. And why would I ever want to move them backwards? Well, I might move them backwards because I don't want somebody else who's doing something that I'm not doing to get more points. So, I might push it down a little bit. But there's another thing. These get more valuable the further this information travels. These get less valuable. The milestones become weaker and weaker the more uh knowledge we accumulate in each of the three colors. You can see, oh, if you can do this quick, it's a 3x multiplier. If you do this near the end of the game, it's maybe a 2x or a 1x multiplier. So, moving them back right before you complete a milestone might double the points you get out of
completing that milestone. Right. So, Yowser Dowserd. Okay. So, that was my turn. It was my last turn. I cannot put workers over here. Now, here's the deal. If I had um No, I'd have to upgrade this twice before I could put workers there. So, I haven't done that. My next turn is I'm going to have to pass. All right. Um because I didn't pick up any more fuel and I did not upgrade my ability to do more workers. But in the meantime, my buddy says, "Hi, what am I going to do?" "Oh, I'm going to rescue somebody." and they can rescue anybody. Um, again, it's like they've got bases every place. So, they're going to rescue somebody and get one point per thing they rescue. They want to go to sector one. Oh, there's nobody to rescue in sector one cuz I drove this person away from sector one. So, if I'd left this here, they would rescue that person and they'd get one point for it. But, I drove it away so that I could rescue them later. So, if they ever have a core action and they can't do it because there's just nothing there, then I look over here and it says, "Oh, they get four points instead." 1 2 3 four. And if I were playing easier or harder, they'd get more or fewer points for whenever they fail to do their main action. So, they do their main action and then they want to get rid of more missions. So, more of them come out. Bip a skip. A flippity dip. And oh no, look what they did. Look what they did. Remember, I put my thing here cuz I was planning on getting a mission that would let me score this, but they just took them away
because now this is over here in the dead zone. This is going to go away before I CAN EVER GRAB IT. NO. NO. Cursed purple player. Okay, so that was it for them. It is now my turn. And I got a pack. Oh, wait. One more thing. I have been forgetting to check. Have they been moving up? Yeah, they have moved up two times. Okay. So, it is time to pass. Now, I've had this thing. Normally, you keep this over here um as a reminder of all the bonuses. I'm just keeping it over here next to my green screen. When you pass, it says, "Hey, flip that card over." So, I'm going to flip this card over. And it walks me through the four steps of passing. So, I'm going to do these things now. First of all, I am gonna save my people from dying. These three people are about to die and lose me happiness points. Um, but oh, I've got three workers. I've got three meds or three anti-radiation. And so all three of them are safe. And because they did not die, they come over here ready to work for me next round. So that was the first step. Second step, get my happiness income. And I work from the bottom down. So from the bottom down, even if my happiness were crashed all the way to the bottom, if I lose more happiness, I start losing points. No matter what, you always get one active worker. That is because I I get to do everything that I have unlocked. This one's always unlocked. So, I get another active worker. So, I've got four workers
in my queue. My my um queue is full. I can't get any more workers unless I do the upgrade that would let me get a fifth worker. All right. So, um that's my first happiness bonus. My second happiness bonus is two strength. And then my third happiness bonus is going to be because I've made it up. Oh no, I don't get this one because I haven't put anybody in that space. So even though I've made it high enough, I didn't rescue enough people. So I'm going to get two strength. And you know what that means, folks? It's time to climb the strength meter again. So first of all, I can't go up this way. You'll notice this is blocked off. These spaces are blocked. One of the character special powers. I have this special power, but there's a different player who has the special power of being able to take these shortcuts to the higher, but I can't do that. So, I'm going to move one and get a radiation med. Yay. And then two, cuz I'm getting two strength. And what do I want? Do I want Oh no.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. I'm going to move up again and I'm going to get a chemical or a tool or some, you know, circuit boards, but I don't have any room for them. You know what then? What that means is earlier when I did this swap, let's say I did not do that swap because here's the deal. I did that swap earlier because I was planning on um having all this full so that I could score points off of that. I didn't have to do that swap though. I didn't have to because at the end I can make it up here and I'll say, "Oh, I made it up there and I got another circuit breaker or circuit board." And by the way, I'm not blockingbody. Anybody can come and get this. Um anyway, so we'll do that. So I had not done that conversion, so I had the room for it there. And that was it.
I got my final two strength. Those were my happiness bonuses. Now I get to do my my scoring. I get to do this three times over the game. This says, "Hey, score the different metrics of your um of your uh colony, my underground colony." The metrics are this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one. You can see uh you know the symbol for score for a colony metric is a triangle. And again, if we zoom in, all the triangles are um clearly labeled. That one, that one, that one, that one, and right over there, you can see that one right there. So, at the beginning of the game, when I'm scoring, I only get to pick two of my metrics to score. If I had upgraded this, I would get to pick three of my metrics to score, or ultimately, I could score four metrics if I had that upgrade. So, I could get more points depending on what I've done. Now, I only get to pick two metrics. So, let's look at the options I've got. Nothing here, nothing here. Not going to score that here. three points here where I've got four people because I did that upgrade.
Four points. So, this one is better than this one. Um, and what's my other one? Hey, have stuff stored. So, um, if I had highle stuff, it's worth four points. I have mid-level stuff, it's worth two points per. So, that's 246. You think I'd want to score that one, right? Right. Score this one and that one. Get 10 points. Six points plus four points. Here's my problem, folks. This upgrade here, which lets me store more stuff, also increases maximum. My maximum I can store from storage is only two. If I don't upgrade, my maximum is six or could go all the way up to 12. But I did not do that upgrade because I did not contribute to the Phoenix project enough. And if I had contri contributed contributed to the Phoenix project more, I would have completed this milestone and would have gotten points for that. But it doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter. So, I can only score a maximum of two points out of even though I should be able to get six. So, I'm not going to score that one. I'm going to score this one and this one and get four plus three is seven points. So, that puts me up to 29. All right. So, that was scoring metrics. And now, finally, because I'm the first to pass, I get to pick. Do I want to be first next round and get a data or do I want to be second next round and get some fuel? And that's a tough choice, but honestly, I will think I will choose to go second, get some fuel because I already have a lot of data because my hope is that my opponent goes first that they'll clear some more of these out so that um a mission that lets me score this column might come up. That's my fingers crossed is that that's what will happen. So, I'm going to choose to be second player when we go to the second round to get some fuel right now. And now this has been flipped. I am done.
This is a reminder that I have passed. If there are other players, they might keep going, but I'm not going to get to go again until everybody has passed. And then everybody flips back up and we get ready for round two. And in round two, the first thing that happens is if there are any people out on the board who have not been saved, they die and everybody loses points. And look at this. Here's a couple of people who haven't been saved. You might say, "Oh, this person's not saved." Well, no. They're okay because if there is an RV in the area, this is a mobile protection unit, the RV can save anybody in that zone so they don't die. But if my opponent doesn't save these people, points are going to be lost and unfortunately just by me because I don't think that affects the automated player.
So anyway, people die, the two rightmost go away and more come out. Um, and so that's why I know this is going to disappear um before I can get it. Then any visited places get more powerful again. And there might have been more of those, but my opponent never went for a drive at all. They focused on other stuff randomly. And then new people populate the uh wasteland. And then we keep going. But now, whenever there's a reference to X for completing a mission of driving to a spot, you've got to drive to zone two. If there's a for um powering up, it's got to be a thing that's connected to zone two and then later on zone three, etc. So, the game continues, but I think I'm going to stop right there, folks. I think you've got a pretty good idea of all the ins and outs of Ash's Blackout Protocol. And now, if you'd like to hear some final thoughts, well, folks, Paralo has done it again. designer Jorge Barroso and his companions have made a wonderful sequel, although chronologically it's a prequel to a game that is in, I believe, my top 50 games of all time. Uh, Phoenix New Horizons, which I was absolutely blown away by a couple of years ago when it came out.
Uh, you know, and I I wasn't alone. A lot of people rated it very very highly for its brilliant take on crossing worker placement with tech trees that your workers uh work their way up a tech tree giving them access to different branches of actions depending on how much you invest in a given worker's training and it was absolutely brilliant and it was wonderful because uh it was a great subject matter um you know set after a generation or two of humanity hiding underground finally coming back up to the surface with the Phoenix Protocol ready to go to be able to repopulate the land and start rebuilding society. I mean, you know, that's a good story of of humanity's resilience in the face of all odds. And it was really cool, too, because even though it was a competitive game like this one, uh it was really a lot about players standing on the shoulders of each others. I did this thing and now you can do that thing and then somebody else does the other thing or maybe I finish what you start or I started after you helped out. Uh, you know, that was a great it was great gameplay. It was a great message. Also, not for nothing, it was great presentation. I mean, obviously, this is kind of grim subject matter, but the kind of Fallout pit boy aesthetic to it just made it a little bit uh more attractive. So, anyway, that was a game set in the 2030s. Now, we get the prequel um set in the '9s right after the bombs went off and everybody is frantically scrambling to get
underground to survive. And not only do that, that's one objective, that's one uh source or a lot of points is just saving as many people as possible, building as many shelters as possible um to do basically what's there on the cover. Find people up top and get them and allow humanity to survive. I mean that is a meaningful and uh you know laudable subject matter for a game. Um yeah I love it. But then there is the secondary element of the game which is creating the Phoenix protocol that will be deployed in the other game and you know so this makes a great one two combo. Um, one afternoon you play this to completion and then the next day you uh finish the story by rebuilding society in Phoenix, which I awesome. And actually that's going to be one place where I say Paralo really missed a trick. This game should have come with a little promo not for Ashes but for Phoenix that uh basically has said, "Hey, you know what? depending on how the game ended, you know, um, you know, in uh, Ashes, it would change the beginning of Phoenix. So, it becomes like a twoame campaign of, you know, based on how players did and then they turn right around and they, okay, the stuff we have in this one 30 years later, we take into the next game. That would have been awesome sauce. And I can only hope somewhere down the line Parallel does come up with a uh you know a promo pack of I don't know a half a dozen cards that just gives you a little
bit to tie the two games more together because they're strongly tied thematically and narratively but they're not tied together mechanically at all. And that's kind of a shame. And honestly that's the beginning and the ending of my critiques for this game because uh Jorge and his this time he had co-designers. I believe he was the only designer listed on Phoenix, but he Eduardo Pon and Jesus Fuentes, I believe those are the three designers. Great job. Um, there is a lot to like here and this is going on my shelf right next to Phoenix. Uh, because I don't want to get rid of it. I think it is phenomenal. I have to admit, if you made me choose one, I would choose Phoenix because at the end of the day, one of the things I love most about Phoenix is it is a fixed nine turn game, right? No, no, 12 turns.
A fixed 12 turns. You have three workers. You're going to do four rounds. That's it. Yeah. You got to get the most done and so you have that ticking clock. This game, I think some people will like because it doesn't do that. There is a lot more flexibility in how long this how many turns you're going to get. Um, at the very least, at the absolute minimum, you're probably going to get at least nine turns, I guess, but it's probably going to be more like 12, maybe upwards of 15 or 16, depending on how much time you spend rescuing, how much time, how you focus your upgrading, how much fuel you'll get, so you can do more because, you know, unlike Phoenix, which was a worker placement game with one core mechanism, worker placement, that's the way it worked. You eventually deployed them all. This is a worker placement game, too, but it's combined with a worker movement game because you've got this map and one of your workers does not do traditional worker placement. Uh, it instead does worker movement where when it's done, it's moving from one place to another uh and activating actions that way. So, it's kind of like a mixed worker placement game, but depending on the overall strategies you pursue, which are in large part decided by this brilliant objective system I absolutely love that hey, you just grab six of the what is it? 10 or 12 different objectives and you put three of them for in-game, three of them for racing midame, and next time you play, oh, you mix them up and you get a different combination that is going to radically change the feel of how you're going to pursue uh, you know, victory in this game. I think uh it is just full from top to bottom. And you
know, I mean, the strategies of whether you're going to go heavy into movement and rescuing, heavy into building infrastructure, heavy into contributing, heavy for in-game points, heavy for midgame points. There is a lot to consider. If anything, I would say this game, I would give it probably a little bit more of a scooch. It's a little bit more complex. It's a little bit more topheavy, but they're kind of comparable. And honestly, if you love one as much as I do, you're going to love the other one, too. I just have to give the nod um to Phoenix. I I think because of the fixed number of turns and uh yeah, but I mean I think they're both phenomenal. This strength board is brilliant. This is maybe the coolest thing they have come up with so far and they've come up with a lot of really cool ideas. Hey, every time I earn strength any other game that would just be, oh, just move on a track and when you spend it, move back. But no, they've exploded a track into another tech tree.
Um, you know, so instead of just, oh, I've gotten three strength boop, I'll I'll spend them later. No, I'm going to climb three steps of this mezzant this Byzantine thing and get three different bonuses. And when I have to spend a couple of strength to build something or whatever, and I come down, well, I have to make choices. Am I going to head down over in that direction or I'm going to head down over in that direction? Super smart. I like this a lot. Anytime from now on, I'm gonna play a game that just says, "Oh, work your way up and down tracks." Yawn. When you could be doing this, when you could be doing a track that is its own game in and of itself, that puts other track progression games to shame. Um, it's super sharp. Is this going to make my top 10 of the year like uh Phoenix did? It may very well. I I I think it's the cash pajamas. I I just Paralo, you know, this is what this is now four for three, right? Because Sator I haven't played it yet, but Kimberly really liked it and I've really got to get that played. It looks phenomenal.
Phoenix New Horizon was absolutely best of class. Uh and then they've got uh what you've already seen my run through for Nihar, which is phenomenal, and it's them doing something different. All the crunch of a game like this, but in half the time in a tiny little box. Uh, Nihar is tiny epic paralo and I loved it and now I love Ash's blackout protocol which by the way ashes is an acronym. Um, which I think is clever too. Oh, what is the acronym for? I should have put it on screen, right? It's uh oh, artificial shelter and human evacuation sequence. I have to admit of the subject matter I actually prefer Ashes. Um because while they both have strong strongly implemented and meaningful themes, building a the infrastructure of a future I think doesn't draw me in quite as much as actually saving people here and now in the present trying to save as many lives as possible and against impossible odds. It's interesting. I mean, both these games are very serious subject matter, but they both have a sense of whimsy, both from the art, you know, the the mele stylings of the first game. In this one, I don't know if you could see it in the run through, but this map of this peninsula that we're working within is full of jokes like the Concordia River or um Role Playing Canyon or Klex City. You know, when it's not your turn, it's fun just to look at that. And then, you know, I mean, the, you know, the presentation art style is is it's I mean, this game could have been grim and der, but it wasn't. They
chose to make it still a colorful and fun game cuz they realized, okay, well, I want to have fun playing a game. I don't want to be thinking about man's inhumity to man. But there are still times when this game will sneak up on you. Like in the run through you just saw me do when I completed a mission by having one survivor who I saved and they were ready to go below and live the rest of their life. you're contributing. And I said, "No, no, you got to go back out. You have to sacrifice yourself to get that thing built so that basically I could complete a mission card." There are times when the gravity of this game will sneak up on you. And personally, for somebody who loves strong narrative flourishes. I mean, I'm the guy who famously cried over Pandemic Legacy. You can go watch my final thoughts on the first Pandemic Legacy and see me cry on camera about how emotionally wrapped up. And this game catches me sometimes and gets me, too. And I really appreciate that. But I would have to say of the two games, I like the storytelling more here, but I think I like the gameplay of Phoenix a little bit more. Um, because honestly, at the end of the day, I'm I'm less of a fan of board traversal, and this game has a fair bit of board traversal. It's not It's well done here.
I appreciate it. It's well done. Also, there is the one thing. There is a little bit of a luck factor. The fact that, hey, whenever you scout, okay, do I get it? Do I get it? OH MY GOSH, I GOT TWO instant saves. That was so much better than you going out and you getting okay. Well, you only got one or maybe even none, but it's a minor thing. Uh, and it's not going to swing the game. It's just it's not the greatest feeling when, hey, I scout a lot and I don't kind of get quite as good a result as you do. Um, but that's such a a minor quibble. I am just so impressed by Jorge and his team, you know, because I think Jorge is the co-founder in addition to being the lead designer on all these games. Uh, you keep this up, Jorge. You're going to you're going to you're just climbing my ranks of favorite designers. I cannot wait to see what Parallelo comes up with next year because this year they had a phenomenal one-two punch with Nihar and now Ashes.
And I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is a publisher to watch, folks. And that was the run through. Thanks for watching. Have a very nice day. Talk to you later. So long. Bye-bye.