Con At Home - Ranking All The Games Played

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4:52 Hello. Hello. I'm almost ready. One second. I'm ready. I'm back. I was almost I was so certain that I would be ready on time today cuz everything is ready. Uh but then something fell behind the camera and I was like, you know what? Let's go ahead and deal with that. Anyways, welcome to Board Game Co.. Sorry, I'm doing this wrong. Hi, I'm Alex from the YouTube channel Board Game Co. So today we're going to be ranking all the games I played at my con at home. This is a live video. It happens to be a live video if you're watching it live. If you're not watching it live, it still was a live video when it was going up. That said, uh here's the situation. Certainly, let me take a moment to collect myself. Cool. So here's the situation. Uh basically this past week, you may have noticed, those of you who are regular diehard viewers of the channel may have noticed that there were a lot of videos missing. Basically, I think Wednesday was the last video this week. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, uh and I guess today, Sunday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday had no videos, no weekend review, no anything else. There were a bunch of videos planned. But then the problem is uh we had a friend come in. A friend came in from out of town and we had a kind of con at home situation where we had to play a whole lot of games. Everything you see on the table was played this past week. In fact, more games were played, but some of them not counting for a variety of reasons. Uh but because of that, uh I originally was going to have videos up as usual. I was like, you know what? I'm going to enjoy my week off. I'm just going to enjoy my week off. It's fine. There will not be videos uh Thursday, Friday, Saturday, which is great in theory, but also I'm

6:24 headed to UKGE in a week and a half. A week and a half, dear Lord. Uh it's it's like 10 days, nine days till I leave, I think. Yeah, I leave next Wednesday, I think. So, uh nine daysish, 10 days, 10 days uh till I leave. Uh which means we'll see how the next, you know, week goes in general. Anyways, with all that said, I figured that today we'll do a live video so we can touch base, see how things are, and also so I could rank the games that I played this past week. I will not be giving official ratings to these games. I'll be giving rankings uh to the order that I like these games currently. I say currently because in some of these cases and things like So Clover or Captain Obvious, they are games that I have played a lot and they happen to be pulled out this week. Other games on the table are still going to be getting a lot more plays before I review them. Uh the True Tower is close to being done.

7:10 still need more plays there. Uh, Evidal Journeys, I might dive into solo before reviewing it. We shall see. Uh, Kinfire Cat Chronicles, I've played the first four or five games, but I still want to play it more before reviewing. So, a lot of these things are still going to be in process before you see review coverage. Terrifying Mars Legacy. I'll save you some time right now. Yes, I've played it, but I've only played the first game. I know the campaign is live. It only arrived 2 days ago. Anyways, with all that, uh, we'll go ahead into rankings of these games, general thoughts and opinions on them so far. And again, I mean, I mentioned uh the Legacy of Mars, but there's a bunch of these exciting crowdfunding campaigns. We have Legacy of Mars, Evidol Journeys, and Let's Go to France. Three upcoming crowdfunding campaigns that are all pretty exciting in their own right. And I'll go ahead and give you my thoughts on all of these or at least thoughts where I am so far. Good morning. Good morning to you as well. Anyways, diving into this. Uh this is going to be Let's start. We have 17 games on the table. I did not include at the very least. The one game I did not include was um the final production copy of Enchanted Ivy from All Play. Uh, that was a game that technically was played this past week, but it was played solo.

8:11 I didn't feel that really counts under the con at home umbrella. I mean, it could maybe it would be very high on this list. I do love myself some Enchanted Ivy. But with that said, that is a good segue to our channel sponsor. Allplay is a channel sponsor. You'll notice a bunch of All Play games on the table. They're not that's not here because they're a channel sponsor. That's here because a box of All Play games showed up this week. And so, a bunch of them joined the Con atthome roster of games because they are very easy to learn. And in fact, that's a good let's let's make that the uh channel sponsor segment. All play games in general are particularly easy to learn. They have small accessible rule books, easy to play games, very easy to dive in, to teach to play and table, which is why every single one of these allplay games you see on the table, I think of the stars, I knew the base game, but everything else, including the Messions of the Stars expansion over here, are all games that they arrived midweek. And I learned the rules midweek while having the con at home situation and then got them tabled because they are easy to table. With that said, let's go ahead and dive into the actual ranking the game. Starting off with number 17. As much as All Play as a channel sponsor, they don't get special treatment. Golden Goal as my least favorite game of the games played so far. This is a small two-player uh small two-player game which you're basically trying to kick a soccer ball back and forth. I think it's pretty clever as far as how accessible they made a small two-player uh soccer game. But ultimately, it it doesn't feel it feels procedural. In the game, you roll a dieice and then you use that dice to move the ball from player to player. A lot of it's about board positioning.

9:34 Every time you hit another player, you get another free move with the ball. You're kind of passing the ball and you're trying to score a goal. Either one goal or multiple depending on the way you play the game. Uh, but ultimately, it's fine. It's not bad. I I was impressed with the rule set and the small box package, but as a game, I I I don't think it's one that I need to play that much. Coming in at number 16, we have Stock Market. This is actually not bad, and this is a game that I recommend playing. I recommend playing this game to get a sense of real food for it. If you like games like Chinatown, I think this is going to be very much up your alley. Uh, Stock Market is chaotic craziness. It's real time chaotic craziness. You get a hand of cards. Your goal is to get the majority of those cards of the majority of cards in each stock. So, for example, there's multiple fives, but each five has different colors. So, I'm saying this poorly. There are each stock has multiple uh cards in that stock. There's five, sevens, and nines. So a majority of each stock would be four of the sevens, five of the nines, or three of the fives.

10:28 That's what a majority is. But within each of those numbers, there's multiple stocks. There's like there's blue fives, and then there's red fives and yellow fives. So that's three fives you can gain the majority of. There's company names, too, in the fast fanatic pace pace of the game. You are ultimately just shouting, I need yellow fives, or at least our group was mostly shouting, I need yellow fives. The game involves uh once you hit go, you're basically trying to trade with other players. And once your hand consists of only majorities, in other words, if I have a single five, I can't call because it's not a majority. But if every card in my hand is only majorities, I yell stunks and then we score. You get points for having uh the entire set. You get Well, you get points for having the majorities. You get points for having even more points for having an entire set, but it's real time trading uh with three rounds of play and then you see who has the most points at the end of it. It's fun, but it's not the kind of game I need to play a lot. It's the kind of game like that was fun, that was cool. I enjoyed playing that. Uh, it gives me that Chinatown experience in a much shorter play time. Overall, again, definitely recommend it with the caveat that I don't know if it's a keeper. For me, it's most definitely not a keeper.

11:26 Coming in at number 15 over here, we have Kinfire Council. Now, I played Kindfire Chronicles this past week because, well, just because I got it tabled and then from there, well, I actually played Kfire Chronicles last week, but then thought it would be a good game to pull out. So, I started it again from the beginning this week with the group of people that were here. Uh, and KFire Chronicles, really enjoying that one. And someone suggested we should also play Kinfire Castle because we haven't done that yet. So I went ahead and I um you know learned Kinfire Council so I can play this one as well. Uh and Kinfire Council is a tricky one. It is lower on this list. Uh I still need more plays of it. I only have one play so far. Uh I do need more plays of it. It's weird in the sense that I really appreciate aspects of the game, but also don't think it's a game for me. I think that I feel too restricted. And basically in the game, you're playing as these council members who are running the city, and you're trying to restrict the cult. Unless, of course, you are a player that leans into the cult. You could be a player that leans into the cult, embraces the madness, and then tries to um you know, win along with the cult and uh hamper the other players.

12:23 It's basically work placement across five rounds. My biggest issue with it is that as much as it as much as it's as much as there were a lot of fun things going on in terms of building up a tableau, building up the city, I'll go more in detail on this than on a review as far as the nuances of things I liked and didn't like, there are a lot of things I liked, but despite having a lot of things I liked, it still felt very restrictive as a game in the gameplay. It felt very tight as far as I'm constantly trying to feed the deal with the city's needs. I'm constantly trying to build the lighthouse and I'm trying to invest precious time and actions to building up my characters knowing there's only five rounds of play. And so it it both lets you feel powerful later, but also feels very constricted and like you can't do everything you want to do or even close to it early rounds. And I I I think my I both respect the gameplay, but as a player, I I want to feel more cool in the things I do and less like I got that done. I I've never liked tighter games, and this starts off tighter, freeze up in later rounds, but I definitely want to be able to do more as the game plays. Coming in at number 14, we have Phantom Inc. Uh Phantom Inc., Another allplay game. This one's very cute. It gets a 10 out of 10 on vibes. Uh, but the gameplay is smaller than that. I I like it. I'm not yet sure if this one's a keeper or not. I think it does get points for being different, but I have so many of these kinds of games, like, you know, games that are basically ward puzzles. And the the game in Phantom Inc. is basically you are trying to communicate with your teammate by Okay, there's two knowowers and there's two I'm I'm playing too much things in rings. There's two people who know the ward and then there's the team of people who don't know the ward. So, let's say I'm a clue giver and let's say I know the word is umbrella. Okay, as

13:54 the guessers, you're going to submit questions. You have a hand of questions. You can't make up your own questions. You have a hand of questions. You choose. Okay, I'm going to pick these questions cuz I think they're good for the the clue. You don't know the clue. You know nothing right now. Starting off blank slate, you know nothing. So, you grab two clues and you say, "What material is it?" That's one question you ask. The other question you ask is, "Uh, what is its primary purpose?" Okay? And so then I have to spell out an answer to you uh as the mystic and you're doing a little Ouija board over here where you're trying to spell it out. You don't need that. That's just for vibes. But ultimately you sit there and spell out the word and you say, "Oh, I'm going to I pass back a question. So I'm going to answer the what's the primary purpose?" Okay. And then I'm going to spell out protection. Maybe that's the right answer, maybe not. So I go P R O T E C T. And then my teammate says stop. They might have a vibe of the word I'm going for. The other team knows the word that I've spelled so far. I may have spelled protect. That's it. And they think protection, protector, protector. Like maybe they can figure out, maybe not.

14:50 But one team, my team knows the question and the word I've spelled so far. The other team knows the word I've spelled so far. Both of them might be wrong about what I actually spelling, but they're gathering information more. My team has more knowledge because they ask the question, but then the other team has to ask a question. You go back and forth until a team wants to submit a guess, and then you can submit guesses to the mediums. So, it's basically clues with a degree of trying to puzzle things out. I think it's a slightly unique take on the general genre of, you know, word games and guessing games and figuring things out. Um, points for cleverness and being being different. Not my favorite amongst the wide variety of war games out there, but it might be different enough that has a place. I haven't decided yet. Had a few plays of it so far. We'll see where it goes. Coming in at number 13, we have Captain Obvious. I like Captain Obvious. This is a pretty fun game. I've always enjoyed Captain Obvious. It's one of those games that I do look at and wonder if it is sticking around. Um, but for right now, it has. my daughter asked to pull out this week and so we played it because well she wanted to play it and I enjoy playing it. The general premise of Captain Obvious is you're trying to construct a sentence that is so obvious that you cannot stop the sentence from being understood perfectly no matter which word you remove. So you're trying to remove a word. You basically come up with a sentence and then well you have you have a word you have to include. So you roll a die and you have to include the word umbrella. Okay? Then you roll a die. Well that comes from a card. Then you roll a dieice and you have to do a sixword sentence that has the word umbrella. And so then I have to construct a sentence. Maybe I I come up with um an umbrella protects you from rain. Okay, that's six words. An umbrella protects you from rain. And you can't cross out the word umbrella. Then

16:21 I pass to the next person. They can't cross out umbrella. Uh they have to cross out any other word. If they cross out rain, an umbrella protects you from blank. Well, that's going to be obvious. So, that's not going to help you. Oh, wait. The word is umbrella, right? I could have done an umbrella blanks you from rain. Maybe that maybe that one's not bad. protects you because blanks you from rain. It could have been shelters for rain. The goal is to cross out a ward that then the other players have to figure out the ward that was crossed out. And so that's basically a puzzle. You're trying to be super super obvious. I like it. I enjoy it. It's a regular game that's number 13 on the list. Coming in number 12, we have Rise of Queens. Rise of Queensdale kind of hidden down here. Uh but Rise of Queens is a legacy game that I played a long time ago and was one of the main goals of the games being played this week with a small caveat that it did not get finished. Um I I assume we'll finish it at some point. We got maybe 10 plays deep into it. It is a 17 to I don't know 15 to 18 plays. It is variable. It's not a fixed number of plays. Uh but I'd say it's 15 to 18 plays. Uh we got maybe 10 plays deep. So we still have more to go.

17:19 But honestly, I think the group saw enough of it that the question is when are we going to be together again to continue playing it? I don't know. But the copy will stick around until that happens. I've played the whole thing before. So I enjoy the process. I like Rise of Queens though. You're building yourself up. If you play games like Charter Stone, I think Charter Stone wins and buys by like the gameplay of Rise of Queens a little bit more, but you're over multiple rounds you're trying to build up how well you can score points with the ultimate goal being winning 70 points in a single game, which is hard because the first games you're trying to win 10 points. So, you really need to escalate how much you can do and what scores you points in the game. I like it. It's accessible. It's fun. Uh random fun fact, uh happened to be at Halfpric Books this week. This is not a common game anymore. saw an interesting copy at Halfp Price Books on the shelf with the group of people that we were playing this copy with and we were like that's insane.

18:05 Like I bought this two years ago at Dice Tower East used just to have a copy because it's not available and um found a copy this week with the group that we wanted to play it with. Anyways, that's Rise of Queens coming in at number 12. I think it's it's a little lower on the list. I think I think the types of games when I played Rise of Queens, it was one of my first legacy games. cuz I had played it shortly after Pandemic Legacy for the first time and I think I liked it a lot more back then. Uh, as it stands now, I'm still happy to play it. We kind of had a vote halfway through the week like, okay, we can focus on finishing Rise of Queens or we can focus on playing a lot of games. How do we want to handle that puzzle? And we decided to focus on playing a lot of games. So, Rise of Queens is um, you know, still going to be finished at some point probably, maybe. Coming in at number 11, we have a Message from the Stars with the new expansion. Again, I'll have coverage for a lot of the games. In fact, I'll call this out right now. The games that you can expect coverage on on the table over here are Evidel Journeys, uh Legacy of Mars, Kinfire Chronicles, Triangulation, uh The Ston, and Golden, Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, I still haven't reviewed this. I need to review that. Uh Kinfire Council, Rise of Queens, probably not now. I'd want to finish it again before I review it. Uh Wondrous Creatures kind of. Well, well, well, I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to say things. There's new content for Wonders Creatures. I'll say that. I'm not going to get into more, but that's not on the table. Uh let's go to France. expect content on and Message from the Star is specifically the new expansion. But anyways, that brings us back to number 11 over here. Message from the Stars. I need to play more with the new expansion, but I got two plays of it in this past week. Mes from the Stars is a cooperative or competitive game. This either team mode or co-op mode. I like both. I don't know which one I prefer. I do think that the uh player count is

19:36 more accessible. You can play out of two or three players on team mode. And cooperative mode, right, on on cooperative mode and then competitive mode needs like four. So that that definitely gives it more range as far as where you can play it. But in a message from the stars, it's deduction with math. The basic idea is you have a cipher and you're trying to submit clues to the other team, trying to be mindful that you're trying to guess get them to guess certain words while also trying to get them to guess your cipher, which is very challenging to do. You're trying to figure out how to submit the things that that fulfill multiple objectives. And so as you do this, and the ciphers are weird because like you have letters that will add to the number, letters that will multiply the number, and letters that will make the number negative. So, if I submit a word to you and then I come back as the alien, I'm like, "Okay, that word is negative eight points." You'll know certain things. You'll know that there's a negative value in the card, like meaning one of the one of the letters is the negative value. You'll know that there's probably a multiplier in the card because to get to eight points, I think it has to be. Well, I guess you could you could get to eight points without a multiplier. Each word adds one. So, you'd have to have eight repetitions of the three letters in order to get to eight. You probably have a multiplier. you're kind of slowly inferring information and trying to deduce what all the cipher is. A very complicated game. It's a game for people who like math. It kind of works. The expansion adds new content. We'll talk more about that when I review the expansion, but it primarily adds more cards in general, which is not bad to have. It adds um it adds a more rules, which I do like. So, it mixes up the rules. If you are getting bored of the rules and a message from the stars, they expansion mix it up. And then it adds a crazy mode that is not for anyone who is unless you're like an expert beyond

21:07 expert at this game. It adds a mode called hostile alien where you don't even know which rules are in play. You have to figure out which rules are in play, let alone the cipher. I don't know how you can possibly do that with the only four guesses. Uh we will see. I'll be playing it at some point. I haven't played that mode yet. I'll be playing that before I cover it. Anyways, that is Mesh of the Stars, but I like it. I like Mesh of the Stars. I I I think that it's a game I actually got rid of at one point. Uh, this copy I got back from All Play because I was reviewing the expansion, so I need a new copy. I might hold on to it this time. I'm torn because I have that 200 game limit, but I think I did really enjoy uh playing it more, especially with the new rules mixing things up. The Hostile Alien, I don't think I'm ever going to do I'm going to do it for the sake of reviewing, but I I can't imagine it being viable. Uh, but yeah, either way, I definitely enjoy it. That's Mes from the Stars. Coming in at number 10, we have Triangulation. Another allplay game. I was hoping to like this game more. Honestly, I like Triangulation.

21:57 Make no mistake, I do like it, but I thought it would be like knocking it out of the park. And I think triangulation, the basic premise is you're trying to submit three words and you again, let's go with umbrella. Okay, so if the word I'm trying to get is umbrella, although I think it's always proper nouns, I think or nearly always, but we'll do umbrella anyway. So, I need to submit three things, three words that each word on its own would not help the other team. Any combination of two words would not help the other team. But all three together would help my team because the order is that I'm going to submit three words. So for example, let's say I did Rihanna, raining, and protect. I don't think that would be a good set of clues because the clues are flipped over randomly. And if I flipped over Rihanna and raining, I think the other team would guess umbrella off the bat. Okay. So you could try to get more clever.

22:43 Rihanna wet and protect maybe. I don't know because protect and wet that would be umbrella already, right? So Rihanna, wet and stick maybe like there's different combinations. You're trying to think of three words together that are going to help your teammate guess if they have all three, but not any two on their own. Uh my biggest issue with it so far, more plays needed. Is that so far? Rihanna, what are you saying? Rihanna, am I saying it? Am I saying the word wrong? Rihanna. Rihanna. Am I saying Rihanna is supposed Either way, uh, my biggest issue with the game so far is I think it's slower than I wanted as far as the amount of time people take both to come up with good clues and then to process the answers. It's not as fast-paced as I would like as what I thought it would be. Basically, the pitch of the game is that it's the crypto but easier to learn and faster to play. I love the crypto and I still love the crypto. Like the crypto, the triangulation is not replacing the crypto, not by a long shot. It might be easier to table and easier to teach.

23:39 Certainly is, not might. Uh, but I think the experience is still less satisfying than the crypto. I think the crypto giving me a better experience overall. I said it before you did. Oh. Oh, that's funny. Good job. Good job. Rihanna is a good one. You see, both of us are thinking of that Rihanna stuff. Anyways, that is triangulation. That was number 10. Number nine, Evidel Journeys. I like Evol Journeys. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be so fun fact when it comes to Eval Journeys. Uh, as well as Let's Go to France. Technically, those crowdfunding campaigns haven't gone up yet. Let's go to France goes live tomorrow. Evid Journeys is later. I don't know exactly when, so I don't know exactly what I'm allowed to say, but I will say that Avid Journeys um I like it so far. It's basically a a think far away meets um Farway meets Let's Go to Japan. I don't even know. Let's go to France over here. Think Farway meets Let's Go to France. That's basically what Evanol Journeys is. It has aspects of both and those are both games that I love. I very much enjoy Evanol Journeys.

24:30 I think I enjoy Fr uh Far Away and Let's Go to France more than Evanol Journeys. Uh but I think I have room for all three in my collection. They're basically all progression games. So you're going on this journey, building things up as you go. So evidol journeys, you're building up cards. You're going through three rounds of play. Each round you get five cards, and you're trying to score as you go, but you score for the things you've visited already. So again, if you've played Let's Go to France or Farway, that kind of makes sense, except Farway is obviously in reverse order, but the same principle applies. But basically, it's fun. You're building things up. It's in the Avid world. I like it less than Avidel. But I am more excited about this one than regular Avidel expansions or standalone games because at least it's different. it is different. Uh so whether it stands the test of time, I don't yet know that. Uh because again, I have two other games that are doing similarish things. Uh for right now, it's one that I do think I want to add or hold on to. Uh and I definitely enjoyed it. I've played it like I think three times in the past few days alone and probably will get more plays of it before reviewing it. Um and again, I might dive into the solo mode. We shall see. I haven't decided. There's a solo or cooperative mode. Haven't decided if I play that before reviewing it. Coming in at number eight, we have the Lord of the Rings a trick taking game. I like Lord of the Rings uh tricking game. This is Two Towers specifically. I like Two Towers more than the original. I think it does more interesting things as far as the rules adjustments and the characters. Uh but overall, my biggest issue with it is that I thought it would replace the crew for me. Uh and it doesn't. I think the crew you can just pull out and play any single mission and that's better. Lord of the Rings, the two tower trick taking game is a good mission. It's a good game to play through with friends, but it's a little annoying to pull out a random scenario.

25:57 I'm not going to be pulling like, oh, I'm going to do chapter, you know, 24. I I I don't I haven't done that yet with any of the games with the well any there's two. the first one, second one. I haven't done that at all. Both games I've gone through as a progression with other players, playing it with other playing with the group I'm playing with, and then hey, we're going to go ahead and try to conquer these tricks and we'll figure it out together. And I think that's the vibe I have for this one. In general, it is a fun campaign. Again, it's technically not progression. Like, you're not developing as you go. You could you could pick any mission and just play it with the rules in place. Um, so it's scenario- based more so than it is um campaign or legacy, but I think I treat it as a campaign game, which makes it less likely to be tabled outside of that dedicated group. So it has limitations to it, but the gameplay overall I really enjoy. I like the world of I like the world of Lord of the Rings. I like uh the the gameplay of the crew, and this merges the two with the small aspect that is less likely to be pulled out for a single shot experience, at least with myself. Let me know if you feel differently because I am curious like if you play the first one or the second one, do you just pull it out and play a random scenario or do you play through it as a specific progression?

27:00 Coming in at number seven, we have One Night Ultimate Werewolf. I love One Night Ultimate Werewolf. It's a game that I don't get to play a lot, but I did get to play it this week. Uh, One Night Ultimate War multiple times this week. Uh, but One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fun game that plays in 8 minutes or 7 minutes. You choose the timer, honestly. And you're basically going to try to figure out what happened during that one night. You have people swapping roles, stealing roles, looking at cards, and you're trying to figure out what happened because you can't just be a villager trying to kill the werewolves. You might be a villager who started as a villager and are now a werewolf. And that means you have to adapt to that. You have to be mindful. Okay, I can't just say things because I'm a good guy. I have to know what happened before I can say things because I might not be a good guy. So, it's all about trying to piece together information and slowly drip information to the table as you figure it all out together. Very satisfying, very chaotic. I really love the game. Um, it's not necessarily for everyone and you don't have to be playing with people who are going to work together. Meaning, if you have one person who's like, I'm not saying anything. I'm just going to wait and watch. Those people are stupid and they ruin the game for you. Everyone has to be willing to submit things to say, whether those things are true or not true is doesn't matter. That's not the issue. But you have to be willing to submit information to the table. if you just hold your cards to yourself the entire time and just watch. Yes, technically it gives you a leg up over other players to a small degree, but also you're just not fun to play with.

28:14 And so those players I don't play one night open werewolf with. Play a different game. Play like, you know, I don't know um what's it called? Play um uh uh the Resistance or Quest or any other games or Blood on the Clock Tower. You can play Blood on the Clock Tower if you're just going to be someone who doesn't want to. I guess that's not a good game for not talking either, but people who do that shouldn't play those games. Anyways, coming in at number six, we have Wondrous Creatures. And I kind of mentioned again, I don't know what I'm allowed to say, so it's too late now. Wonders Creatures does have new content coming at at some point in some way. I won't go into detail on that, but I played the new content. I actually played the base game and the new content this past week. Uh, but I like Wonders Creatures. I like Wonders Creatures a lot. I have mixed thoughts on the new content. I'll talk more about that when I can do that video. Uh, but it's not bad. It's just that I think the new content has some things that are definitely good and some things that I'm like, eh, I didn't need that. I don't care. It's not bad. It's just like feels tedious and unnecessary. We'll get more into that. But Wonders Creatures as a game, love the vibes. It's basically like card comboing with like fun worker placement vibes. It's like terrifying Mars adjacent. Not really terrifying Marios, but it is all about the cards and the engine you're building with those different cards. It's also a little evidel adjacent cuz like there's five card types similar to the way Evidel does like the instant action endgame trigger. There it's got that vibe. So, it's different. It's a mix of Terraform Mars and Avidel. I do think that's a somewhat uh fair mix, but I like it a lot. I I really enjoy the vibes. I enjoyed the cars. I enjoyed building my tableau. The biggest complaint I have is that it runs long.

29:33 Uh this is not a game that is best at four players. It's best at three in my opinion. It runs long regardless of the player count, but it runs longer at four players. Then we have coming in at number five, we have Kinfire Chronicles. I really enjoyed Kinfire Chronicles on the table over here kind of behind Legacy of Mars over there. Uh Kinfire Chronicles is an accessible dungeon crawler. Gameplay is not a incredible game. Gameplay is fine enough. I say that being like I don't know like five missions into it and there's like 21 missions to play. So, there's more content to explore. Maybe my opinion will change as I explore more of that content, but at least so far the gameplay is fine. Like, it's good. Like, I enjoy it. It's a nice sense of collaboration cuz it's a it's a dungeon crawler or a boss battler. I'm more a boss battler, I guess. You're basically going on these missions where you uh go ahead and fight against, you know, multiple Well, sometimes one, sometimes multiple creatures. Uh, and you're trying to utilize your cards to take them down, and then other players can boost your actions both defensively and offensively. It's a very solid time as far as the collaborative sense of of gameplay you have between players. You could play it solo. I think it's better at not solo because of the way you kind of boost others cards. So, you have to be more mindful of multiple hands in a way that's not as satisfying. I think it probably is best at two or three players. My gut instinct is three, but we'll see. Yeah. Either way, um, as far as as far as the gameplay, the main thing about it though is that it's incredibly accessible. It is literally 2 minutes to set up. And when I say two minutes set up, I mean mid campaign if I'm like going from mission like three to four is like, okay, that's two minutes. We're going to take a little timer over there. Two minutes, set up the table, we're good to go. It is incredibly fast to be able to set up a

31:03 game uh and to put it away as well. So it really wins points on accessibility. Like compared with like Death May Die, setting up a scenario of Death May Die is like a 20-minute process. It's worth it, but it's a 20-minute process to set up scenario. It is literally I timed myself multiple times in this. It is 2 minutes to set up a session of Quinnfire Chronicles. plays in like 45 minutes and gives you a solid enough gameplay experience. Is it the best gameplay experience? No, but solid enough. I think I'll be finishing this campaign this year. 21 missions. Uh well, that depends on the group because again, part of the problem is some of these games I've been playing are with a person who doesn't live here. So, we'll see how often we can get these tabled. We'll figure that out. But, uh Kfire Chronicles uh is very enjoyable so far, but winning major points for accessibility. Coming in at number four is So, Clover. I love So, Clover. I never get bored of this game, at least not yet. Time will tell. But basically, mix a bunch of cards. Try to figure out the combination. Let's say you're trying to pair up umbrella with what other words did I use today? Umbrella with I don't know. Uh let's do um uh I can't think of words. Umbrella with um psychic. Okay, because we have that phantom over here. So, you're trying to pair up umbrella with psychic because the cards are paired up. But you have all these kind of pairings all around this clover. You have four different pairings and you have to figure out a word that will connect those. So, umbrella and psychic is I got nothing.

32:17 How do you What word combines umbrella and psychic? Weatherman. Weatherman. I like that. I think weatherman's not a bad word for umbrella and psychic. I like that. We'll use that. So, you have weatherman over there and then you have all these other words around the card, but you're trying to figure out how you can connect them all. And as you pair them up, then then you review all the cards. Plus one. And your teams have to figure out, okay, plus one throws things off because it's a random card in the mix. You're trying to figure out how okay, what connects the two things because you see these four words. See, weatherman and I don't know, thermometer and then like house and and and I don't know, board game. Well, you can't board game, it's two words. Uh food. Okay, whatever it is. And then you have to try to pair those things together trying to think through forecast. Forecast is better than weatherman. I agree.

33:06 Umbrella and psychic. Forecast. Forecast is definitely better. Uh anyways, that's basically the game. I love I love the the vibe of what it's going for. I find it so satisfying, so puzzly. It's cooperative. It just it has really replaced code names for me over time. So Clover has replaced code names. I still love code names. Still happy to play it. Still want to own all code names. And Code Names do duet, I think, for two players is still better, but I find I just pull out so Clover so much more frequently than Code Names, much as I still very much do love code names. Coming in at number three, Terraform Mars Legacy. The horse, the Legacy of Mars. It's not Terraforming Mars Legacy. It's specifically not a legacy game. It's a campaign game that basically sounds like it's a legacy game uh and call uses the word legacy in the title. That's not confusing at all. The Legacy of Mars. This game arrived like two days ago. I played it once yesterday. So, uh I only have one play so far. In this box, I have four games because the fir this legacy game, this not legacy game, this campaign game that plays out across seven games. Really comes in in two parts. I said that I said that I can't see that because the heart thing's in the way. Whatever it was, I said that.

34:04 Scroll down. Scroll. I won't let me do it. I said that something is said by the man. Um, so I have four games in this box. Uh, I will be playing through all four and I'll be giving you my thoughts on it. And those plays are probably happening soon. Like I'm probably playing it tonight and then tomorrow night and the night after because the campaign for Legacy Mars is live now. I got this game late into the mix. So, um, I can only talk about it late into the mix. But anyways, uh, in the Legacy Mars over here, the basic, well, the basic idea is it's Terraforming Mars with progression. I'm not going to spoil anything now. I don't even know what they said on the campaign page yet. I do know they've said on the campaign page there are multiple planets. So, I know that past that, I don't know what else there is. Uh, but I'll say that the first game is not super different from regular terrifying Mars. So, I loved playing this so far. I absolutely loved it, but I loved it because it's terrifying Mars. Based on the first game alone, I would say do not buy this. Play terrifying Mars as is based on the first game alone. I have I will have thoughts later because the first game is basically 95% Terrifying Mars with 5% of rules, changes, and adjustments and things that slightly mix things up. And again, I'm not going to go into detail because I don't want to I I want to like spoil your experience if you're looking forward to these changes and I don't know what's public yet, but it's a small rules adjustments like, "Oh, this works that way. Now you start with terraform rating of 25 instead of 14." Like small changes as far as just the details of the game. There are some new mechanics, new elements, but they are very very minor. If I was telling you what I think after one play, I would say play Teraporn Mars that there's no reason to get this. This is like having a different map in Ticket to Ride. Sure, there's differences, but not really. But

35:35 again, we'll see what what we'll see how my opinion changes as I actually dive further into it. I think the first game is kind of just dipping your toes into the experience, dipping your toes into the water. I will say points against it in the sense that for a game that is not cheap and only seven games. There's only seven games in this campaign. I will say having the first experience already be basically Terraforming Mars, it is a pro in the sense that it's much easier to dive into as a terrifying Mars player. you're like, "Oh, meet a few differences. Dive straight into it." It's a con in the sense that there's only seven games and it's not cheap. And again, you could replay it. So, it's not that's not an issue. But that does mean that like only six games are meaningfully different. And I don't even know if they are meaningfully different cuz I haven't played them yet. So, I'll have a lot more thoughts for this later. Another live video. Yes. Um I'll have a lot more. I said that before you said weatherman. You're on point, Meg.

36:23 Anyways, um yeah, Legacy Mars, I will have more thoughts for you probably in a matter of days. Okay. Like I don't think a video can go up on Tuesday. That might be too soon. But maybe Thursday cuz I need to play again three more games. Maybe Thursday I can have a video for you. If not Thursday, Saturday is going to be the latest for it. Uh room board anything to go with. Oh, the room board video is anything to go with. Legacy of Mars is a giant scam. So Lee, fun fact, we'll do a little tangent on this. If you're watching the crowdfunding campaign, I have so many complaints. Uh, from a as a backer, as someone who is a fan of the game, I have a bajillion complaints against how is this being run. No question. Separately from that, I know someone who played the whole thing. The whole thing. Not the first four games, the whole thing. And they said they're a terrifying Mars fan. And they said it is the best Terraform Mars experience they have ever had. So like sometimes in life companies can extort the wrong word can price their games and do things in a way that I totally disagree with and I'll still go along for the ride because I'm a fan of Terrifying Mars. So it is what it is. So yes, uh the idea that they're the price they're charging, the fact that they're c they're getting you to uh buy all the deluxe tiles again even if you don't need them. the fact that they are splitting up the campaign into two parts. There are so many giant red flags that are not the way I would want to see the campaign run. The game itself still might be worth it. Those are separate conversations. They are related for sure, but they are separate conversations. Anyways, coming in at number two, we have Let's Go to France.

37:50 I love Let's Go to France, which by the way, if you watch my Let's Go to Japan video, you might be surprised by this. Let's Go to Japan to me was a three out of five. It's an okay game. Nothing wrong with it. I enjoy it. Let's Go to France is amazing. Full review coming tomorrow. already filmed the review. Uh, but it's a game that we dove into this weekend. Uh, because it's a fun game. It's a lot of fun to play. I really enjoy it. There are small differences between the base Let's Go to Japan and Let's Go to France. Small differences, but those differences make such a huge difference. I love Let's Go to France, and I like Let's Go to Japan. I will go into more detail on this on my review, which I believe goes up Tuesday. You can check that out. And the gameplay will be going up mid-c campaign as well. But I am a huge fan of this game. I cannot sell you enough on the fact that I I'm just here for it. I I I didn't think I would be because it's just another flavor of Let's Go to Japan, but for whatever reason, those small changes make a huge difference. We shall see.

38:38 Anyways, number one is Cthulhu May Die. I love Cthulhu May. I think I'll always love it. Not every game is perfect. There's always pros and cons and differences and it is a lot to set up and I I haven't I right now have seasons one and two together and season three and four together. I haven't properly mixed it all up. I probably should at some point because like things like the unknown monsters are annoying cuz I I kind of just go with whatever season I'm playing as although I actually did mix it up in one of the games. Played this a few times this week. Uh but I love Let's Go. I love Kth Cthulhu Death May Die. It is well worth the 20-minute setup. It's well worth the time to tear down. It is well worth the two hours as you try to figure out how to deal with the particular Elder One. I played um I think it's Nog Nug and Yep or Yep. And Nug, whatever. I don't remember the names, but I played the two the dual Elder ones for the first time. I've never played those. That was an interesting combination. Um, we won in the end, which is shocking by the way.

39:27 They are very hard, but it came down to the wire. But we managed to win in that scenario. We actually did not win the earlier scenar. But for whatever reason, we managed to make it work and take them down. It is such a satisfying experience. It feels like the world is constantly against you as you play, but oh my gosh, it is it is such a good time. And that's basically it. Those are the 17 games played over this past con at home weekend. Uh, like it was a full week. It was like, you know, 5 days, 6 days, uh, playing a lot of games. Birth and Birth and Question. Birth and Question. I don't even know what that means. Like, I got nothing. Anyways, uh, those are the 17 games we played over this past week. Uh, and that's that that's today's video. A ranking of the games played this past week, as well as a tease of upcoming uh, reviews to come because all of these games, not all these games, the ones I told you earlier are going to be in dedicated review coverage, and some of these are upcoming profiting campaigns that are pretty fun. Let's go to France.

40:19 Aidal Journeys and currently Legacy of Mars uh is going to those are all crowdfunding games. Anyways, until next time, I'm Alex from Board Gameco. I hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you for joining me here Sunday morning. And as always, and until next time, I hope you have a good one.