Where Are The Most Anticipated Essen Games NOW

0:00 These were the most anticipated board games of last year's Ashen Spiel. We got to play most of them, but how do they hold up? Are we disappointed? Are we happy? Let's figure that one out. Starting out with Tag Team, which is brought to you by the same company that brought you one of the best two-player co-op games ever. But this time, it's one versus one. Before each game of Tag Team, you will create your team by drafting two unique characters. They're so unique that they have their own unique rules and even components. Your goal is to remove all of the life points from one of the opponent's characters. All you do in your turn is just flip the top card of your deck and resolve it. For example, I deal one damage to this character and then you I get stronger with token that's not here.

0:51 I get stronger. Once you resolve the last card of your deck, you get to add new cards to your deck. And the fun part, these cards, you pick where you should place them. And you can never change the order. Let's place it here. And then let's start a new round. One of the best parts about this type of deck building, it kind of is like a deck building, right? Is the outguing the other player. I know that his second card is the attack card, so I could place my defense card as the second card. But what if he knows that I'm going to do that? Then he's going to outsmart me. But what if he doesn't and I'm going to outsmart him. But what if he does? And then I'm going to outsmart him.

1:29 All right.

1:30 And he outsmarts.

1:31 Now it is time to rank this game. Could you

1:36 Sorry, I was

1:37 time to rank it. So there are three categories. We had expectations when we

1:41 we did play. We expected a lot from all of these pretty much. So

1:46 So is it exactly the same as we expected? No. Is it better than we expected or is it worse than we expected?

1:53 It's definitely better than I expected. Well, I expect it to be good, but it is really fun. The unique deck building without guessing your opponent like varied characters. This card game auto battler is better than I thought it would be.

2:05 That's really good. So, I had really high expectations of this game which is decker all about hacking and cooperative and should be something like spirit island. What was it? Let's try it out. In this board game, you will play hackers and with your unique deck, you will try to defeat the big bad AI. Depending on the goals you draw, and there are plenty of those, you'll have certain goals that you need to achieve. And most of them will include hacking into the system, removing bad tokens, and adding good ones. And it's generally a card game where you play out cards and then do whatever the icons let you in most cases, place new tokens. There's also a bunch of other actions you can do with each of them. So, it's a puzzle. And other actions might involve moving and placing down new installations or attacking the bad server. Woo! Get away bad server. Also, it's a deck building game. You will get plenty of new cards to add into your deck and play out stronger cards with time.

3:10 So, this is a very challenging cooperative war game because the bad guy will spread out really, really quickly. Plus, also the baddies, there's bunch of different ones, which means they will act very uniquely each time. This is a really good solo game and also good cooperative game. It's very mathy, right?

3:29 It is very mathy and it does not look that great to be honest.

3:34 No, the looks are not that great. Game play is great because of the deck building which is very satisfying. To be honest, I had higher expectations. It's a good board game. I think I ranked it as in Friends Collection.

3:46 I think you did. Yeah.

3:47 Yeah. So, it was a bit lower cuz I had high expectations in hopes for this. It's good. It's really, really good. Just not great.

3:55 Yeah. I would play it again.

3:57 Yeah. What else would you play again?

3:58 Uh, well, how about something I wouldn't play again? How did [snorts] you know? How did you know? You wake up in this room surrounded by darkness and there is no way out and the only thing to guide you are these matches. Will it be enough to get out or you will die here? To win, you have to get through all of these labyrinth tiles. And once you gotten to the last one, all you have to do is just walk out of it. Simple, right? Everything is dark. And the only way to guide you through the labyrinth are these matches. Each time you use one match, you will take all of these cards and pick three to use as actions. You can use cards to move through the labyrinth. Or you could peek into the next room or just rush into it headlong.

4:45 But then you might face the fears that are there. Or you can play a card to find some items in the labyrinth that might help you along the way. So you win once you get through all of the labyrinth tiles. You lose when you run out of matches on all the cards in your deck. So, what did I think about this solo only game where you have to survive long enough to escape? Well, I still love the visuals.

5:10 Oh, that's going,

5:12 you know, grasping at the matches here, but uh the rule book is pretty bad. I had to really re read it twice to figure out what you need to do exactly and how everything works. So,

5:24 yeah. Uh, sadly it's worse than I thought it would be.

5:28 You thought that this is going to be great.

5:31 I did.

5:32 You really wanted to play it.

5:33 I did.

5:34 So, you didn't.

5:35 I didn't.

5:36 But I did.

5:37 Let's talk about it.

5:38 Let's do that.

5:39 In 15th century, there was a little problem with London's plumbing system. The problem was it did not exist. But hey, you oh, you are smarty pants. you know that you can solve this poop problem by making the poop into some money. You will have workers that you will send to the city and then you will be able to do that action that is drawn right here. Now the problem is or also the good thing is that all these workers also generate some poop. These actions will give you some patronons boosting your skills. You'll be able to add your facilities to London and move some poop. And then there's the card phase, and that's all about moving some poop. These will be some workers that will let you do actions like moving poop, moving two poops, or you guessed it, moving all three poops. Woo! Cool cards. And you are doing all of this to get that excrement into the river and out of the city because you get paid for it with some gold coins. And night soil is so unique because it's a meaning. For example, your workers are not your workers. Other players might steal them.

6:57 Steal them. And that poop that you desperately want to get away from the city, well, other players might steal that away. And remember the Patreons? Well, other players might steal the majority votes for from that Patreon, which means he gets those powers and steals them away from you. Too much time, I would say. That's my biggest critique. And it's well wacky. The theme is wacky. The game play is mean. And you okay?

7:25 I'm okay. And did you like it? All that wackiness.

7:30 It's better. It's better than I expected.

7:32 Now I want to play even more.

7:34 Yeah. I didn't expect almost anything. So, so, so you know, it's just funny. But, uh, it was much, much better than I actually thought it was going to be.

7:44 Well, if you're talking about wacky games, how about some Dark Romance?

7:48 I think that's the wackiest of them all.

7:50 Dark Romance is a deduction game for two players. You might be the countest, but who is the other player? Depending on who you are, you have to achieve a certain game end condition to win against the other player. For example, if you are the countest and the other player is the count, you need to have some love. To get that desired love result, you need to move this token all the way to the center right here. But how do you do that? To move any tokens on the board and reach your desired result, you'll have to play certain situations. For example, you might have an unexpected confession or a picnic by the lake. But the other player will decide if it's love, love or stabby stabby. and he decides it's Tabby Stabby. So, he's not interested in your love. Who is he then? This is a very unique game experience. It's almost a two-player role- playinging game. And I think playing it out without the role playing, you will lose a lot of charm that this game has. So, the best part is also its worst part. You need to play with someone who's okay stepping outside of that comfort zone and just role playinging it.

8:59 It was really fun.

9:00 It was really fun. It's

9:01 what? No, I mean

9:03 based on your expectations.

9:04 It's exactly what I thought it's going to be. It's exactly what I thought it's going to be. It's similar to Fog of Love if you haven't played that one. Also makes you step outside of that comfort zone and role play a situation between two people. As you might know, I really like cars. This was the top car game of last year. Let's figure out did it hold up to our expectations. Let's drive TO THE TABLE. HUH. [screaming and groaning] OH,

9:28 IT'S a good thing we have like an awkward person there and then I kind of look better because you he does all [screaming]

9:36 in this board game. You're managing your racing team. Look at this handsome fella and that mustache. Your main task is to get through these stages trying to be the first one finishing and also being fast because there's separate thing as speed points. It all starts with players rolling their dice and then placing them on the right spots. Then you will have cards in your hand and you will be able to play them well anywhere here. But the further it is on the left side, the longer it will be in the game. Another thing you can do is activate the cards that are underneath those dice that you place there. For example, this lets me get speed one. And most of those actions will let you navigate your car, which will let you finish any of the stages right here.

10:26 There's also a store where you can buy upgraded parts for your car, so it's easier to manage these stages. But be careful because yes, going fast is great, but also that might damage your car. And this is the most unique part of the game. You can play the cards anywhere you want to. Yet, yeah, be careful because those cards might be stuck there for a while if you play the wrong one in the wrong place. That choice is really cool. Overall, it's really nice. I didn't It's weird to say. I had high expectations, but I also knew that it's not going to be like better than Heat or anything. So, I would say it's the same expectations. I was looking for a good-looking game that's really solid and is about cars. And that it is. So, you would recommend it?

11:12 I would recommend it especially if you like more euroy rather than uh fast pew pew boom boom.

11:20 Okay. You mean thematic games?

11:22 Yeah.

11:22 All right. That's a good description.

11:24 If you're if you're a fan of Fast and Furious, then I don't think this is for you.

11:28 Ah, there we go. There's the keyword. Uh, also talking about Euro games with a weird theme. How about 1975 Christmas?

11:36 No.

11:36 What do you mean no? You don't want just skip it and just rank it immediately.

11:41 Yeah.

11:43 Here.

11:44 Why?

11:46 Well, okay. Let's go talk about it. It's 1975, end of Vietnam War, and Saigon is under siege. You, as a US captain of a ship, are trying to send choppers to rescue the people from Saigon and score as many victory points as you can. This game has a very unique action selection system where you can pick one of these actions and then you're going to take a card associated with it and later in the turn you will play this card for its action. For example, you can use your actions to move the chopper to a rooftop to which these people are running to hoping to be saved. Or you can collect these radar tokens that you can use to upgrade your ship. For example, I need 10 of these to upgrade my ship, and then I'll be able to move my chopper twice.

12:33 You will score victory points for the people you collect, but you also get a special order, which is exactly what it is. You just order to to get these people and then you'll get these victory points. Uh, not very thematic, right? So, which brings us to the biggest negative this game. This promised to be a very thematic game on this subject. The subject is very interesting, but it is a Euro game. It's just a Euro game and there's no there's no theme, right?

13:02 There's that that's the unfortunate part.

13:03 The the really good part is that it is a pretty decent Euro game in this teeny tiny box. But if you're looking for a historical research on this subject and kind of, you know, live through it, it's not there. It's just very abstract. But before we get to the heavy hitters and the expansion part of the video, let's talk about Pinched. Wait. Ow. Stop pinching me. In this game, you will be playing little thieves trying to steal as much stuff as humanly possible. But a little problem is that you're not the only thief. And if other players will guess your moves, you will have to split your loot. And no one wants to split their loot. On your turn, you will have to pick one of these houses to rob. For example, you could go for this lady's house right here. So, you take her card and place it down here so nobody knows. Then other players will try to guess which house are you going to steal from. Maybe this one. If everything went according to plan and nobody guessed which house are you stealing from, you collect all the stuff.

14:13 But if somebody guessed your plan, well then you will have to split your loot. And more of the same kind of stuff is always better because, well, it's a set collection. More means more money, more points, and all of us want more money, right? Thank you. Also, consider becoming our YouTube member because, well, we need a little bit of money to continue making videos.

14:35 Yeah. And this one's not real, so we can't pay any bills uh with this. Sadly,

14:39 to be honest, we haven't tried. So, maybe let's go. Look at how much we have. What's also really cool is that each of these houses are a little bit different and each of them will have they are like powers. If you steal this one, there is a safe you can unlock or if you steal from this one, there's a secret entrance for you get more cards. Oo, cool, right? And that's kind of it. It's simple. It's lovely. It's really a family game, a set collection game with a little bit of a twist. And well, I was sold by the principle of, you know, trying to guess other thieves points. And

15:13 I would say it's the same expectation. It's definitely not better. It didn't blow my mind. Yeah, it was lovely. Nice. Something you would definitely try should try with your kids, Mr.

15:24 I will. But you know, one thing I will not try with my kids most likely is this game.

15:29 Why?

15:30 Let's talk about it. Yes, you are playing a fire truck and you will be rolling dice at the same time to do actions with this fire truck as fast as you can before something blows up and all the fires spread. And just keep doing this and everyone does that at the same time. That's pretty much so the game. Yeah, you will roll these dice in real time and hopefully get the results you want. For example, you can move your car. Now, this result will let you take out water out of your car and try to roll that to put out flames in the buildings. The game comes with this booklet full of different scenarios. And each scenario will tell you how many points you start with. But by not saving people from burning buildings, not putting out fires, you will lose those points. And if you have at least one at the end game, you will win. If you have none, you lose. Firefighters and Duty is a sequel of sorts to the Project Elite, which is an amazing realtime game. And I thought this will be something similar.

16:39 Well, it kind of is, but somehow they made it way way way way more complex. There's so many things to keep track of that you can't even focus on the gameplay. You're like, did you put that token there? Did you open that card? Did you do that? Did you? It's just so much bookkeeping and

17:01 it's sad. But let's move on to

17:03 I also got two expansions for these games. Let's talk about those. Agent Avenue is one of the best board games in the freaking world. Period. If you're looking for two-player game, just get it. All right. How it goes is in your turn, you play one card face down, one face up. This one. You pick this one. Yes. Then your opponent picks a card and you get the other one. In this case, I move zero spaces and your opponent moves one space. If he would catch me, then I lose. And if the other thing happens, I win. Super simple. Clear. But if I get another sentinel, well, the same card. Now, I will have to move two spaces, not zero. And the next time it's six. And last year, it introduced a new expansion. We only have the rule book, not the box, but it's super tiny. And it introduces little tiny mice which adds new card to the deck. If you get this one, you place a little mice that will protect your home, but also it adds new event cards to the deck. Whenever you go to a store space, you will be able to get new superpowers. In short, it adds more variety just like the expansion for Lord of the Rings jewel game that we have set up right here. All it adds is well few tokens on the board, but it does change things. In this game, you either will be playing the shadow side or the free people side, but your victory conditions are pretty much the same. Win the race to Mount Doom or capture the hobbits before they do so.

18:33 Have forces in all seven regions of Middle Earth or collect enough friends and let them do the work for you. In order to achieve any of those things, you just pick up cards from this pile. For example, this will give you five money. Or this card lets you add more troops to the board. The rings will help the chase for the ring and so on. And the expansion, well, it adds allies to the game. Without the expansions, whenever you reveal the card, that was a bad thing because the opponent had more options. Well, now the cards you reveal will have these tokens on top of them. That's the way how you can call your friends and get some superpowers because of it and there's plenty of friends to choose from. That's basically the expansion. So these two expansions I was super excited to try before SN. We tried it, played it, and well, Agent Avenue is even more fantastic, better than we expected, right?

19:31 Yeah. And for this one, I think you don't really feel the expansion outright.

19:35 No, we do not because well, it's simple. It's not bad at all. Uh but it is a small package expansion, so it's more what we expected.

19:46 So SN 2025 worth it?

19:48 It was. It was definitely cuz we got these beauties. Uh and also some of those and well, not those are not bad. It was just we were disappointed in them. I think a lot of people would like these. Anyways, if you want to know what are we excited for this year's Essen, we're going to SN again this year, right? Then uh we will make most anticipated list once again. Are you serious?

20:13 No, of course that's I'm sorry.

20:16 So [snorts] be sure to subscribe, like, share. Uh let us know in the comments what were you excited last year. Did you play those games and what did you think about them?

20:24 Goodbye everybody.

20:26 Thank you. And uh thank you to everyone who supports our channel. Please continue doing that.

20:31 They are pretty awesome people.

20:32 Mhm.

20:33 Freaking great. Could you stop eating while we film videos? Seriously, we're filming through the lunch break.