Will we keep any of these new board games? - Keep or Cull!
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Transcript
Hello everyone, this is Cinema
and this is Johannes
and you're watching Board Gaming Ramblings and
welcome back to Keep or Call, the series where we play all the games and decide whether to keep or call them. We have 11 new games for you today. So if you haven't seen these episodes before, it's a mini review and also we decide whether to keep the game or call it out of the collection. And we are at a we're basically at a one out one in kind of thing. We don't. It doesn't work like that. But we have to soon go through it all. Even though we pretty recently did like an organizing thing. Go check out where we organized the whole collection. We got rid of over 100 games
and we might need to go through it again. Even though last time like now we can't get rid of anything else.
We have to because of the games we are keeping. But we will see what is getting kept or ke this time. We're trying to be pretty hard. The process is basically it's for me it's very feeling based.
Yes. So it's like if I'm feeling oh I need to have this or I want to play it one more time for example it's going to get a keep and that one time might be in five years
because we don't get to replay games that often so if we were to keep only games that we thought we would actually play again let's say in the next year we would keep nothing we wouldn't have a collection we would only have the new games
for us the key part is to make it a positive experience so if one of us is thinking oh I'm not done with this yet or this is a keep for me. It's the keep who has the final say.
And now I don't know why but we've just basically told you the whole concept of the series again in this random episode of it. It's been so yes.
Are these games fresh out of spiel?
Yes. Most of them are. Yes. Most of them are 2025 releases.
Cool.
Okay. Do you want to begin?
Yes. Let's start with Llama Llama.
This is a review copy from All Play Games. Are you ready? One, two, three. Boom.
It's a double key. I was very unsure.
I actually wasn't, but I was thinking I have to be hard
on these games.
You could have easily chosen Kell because I wanted
Oh, I could. It could be one of those few moments where I chose Kell and you chose K.
Yes, it could have. Uh, Llama Llama is a very short and simple game, but it's very fun. So, you have a it's basically you're drafting and that's the game. So you have scorings that are face down that will be gradually revealed and each time it's drafting time
which is all the time because it's a whole game.
You are keeping X amount of cards left in your hand and slightly
drafting four cards then three cards then two cards then one card
and then you score points.
Try try to score points.
It's a very interesting game. Super quick but I really enjoyed this one. Me too. Next up is another allplay game and this was not a review copy. Are you ready?
Yes.
One, two, three. Boom.
It's a color from me, a keep for you. It's soda jerk. Did you say
it's soda jerk? I didn't
I said it. It's an old play game.
It's an allplay game. It's soda jerk. Uh I really enjoy this. I feel like it is a it is a game where you are bidding basically on the uh value of different things. Uh different sodas with bananas and kiwis make I said the Norwegian word there taste flavor. Uh smok is taste in Norwegian. So or or flavor it's the same thing. So basically, you are playing a card on your turn. You play a card face down or you flip a card already on the board and I play a card under one of the columns. If I play it under the correct column, basically it will add points to that category. If I play it under the wrong one, it will subtract points. And I'm trying to keep cards in my hand that I think is going to have positive points at the end of the game. So it's speculation, it's uh bidding, and you when you flip a card, you show it to everybody so everyone have the information. And there's a couple of different ways to end the round. I think it was really fun and I I really want to keep it.
I like it. I'm happy to keep it.
I just chose skull because I'm controversial now. Like something has to go. But
this for the game.
Yes. It was really fun.
It's a fun one. And it's also a small box. Like it's it's way easier to keep this.
Yes.
Because they're small.
Talking about cool small boxes. This is all play one. This was not a review copy. Uh and it's Vibo. You already said that.
One, two, three. Boom.
It's a double cow. I wasn't sure for this because I really liked it.
I liked it a little bit. It's a trick taking game.
Yes, it is. And in this game, it's not like a must follow thingy, but you have like a rule for that particular trick. So, you have you either need to play like a solo duo or trio. That means that quarter players. Yes. And so this is a three to four player game and you have to it's if it's a solo the it's only one color that needs to be played. Yes. But you the the twist in this game in addition to that is that the lowest card that got played will be points and often more points than the winner of the trick
because the winner will also be points but you play the face down and get the point for it.
Yes. And that was cool because you're trying to play um the highest low card that you can play and try to lose basically.
Absolutely. It was a fun one.
Yes. But there's too many games.
Too many and too many trick taking games
of course.
Next up is a trick taking game. Three witches all play not a review copy. And this is a three player only trick taking game. I really enjoy all plays like tiny games.
Yes. Because
as long as they fit in the box.
Yes. They usually do the tiny ones. Are you ready? Yeah.
One, two, three. Boom.
It's a call from me.
And a keep from me. This was a very interesting, fun game. You have a hand of cards. You bid. If you think you're going to win three or four tricks, there's only five. If you bid four, you're going to be the lead witch. If you bid three, the other players and yourself get a chance to up it to four. And the player who then ends up bidding four. or if nobody else hit the player end of three is the lead witch, which then plays their will be the lead player of every trick. And they're going to play one card face up, one card face down, and then the other players have to follow the color that's uh face up. And then after everyone's play, there's some different rules here. You flip them up, and you will uh add them if they're the same number or the same color, or you will just have the highest one if there's different colors. Uh, and if the lead witch gets to get to the points like three or four tricks, they will get two points. And if they don't, the other players get one point. And the player that first gets five points is the winner. I think it's really good. And I also think it's a it's it's an 18 card game. There's a lot of game in here in this box, which doesn't weigh anything, which has a few cards and tokens.
Yes. Uh, I I see there's a lot of interesting stuff in this game. Uh, I was super horrible at it. I think I will like it more if I kind of managed to lose. Yes, because I just like I don't know how to do anything else than just lose right now. So, I'm I'm not sad to keep that one.
And it's nice to have another trick that game triper game and simpler than Robot Trick and and shorter than Robot Trick. So, it's nice to have
Yeah, you say simpler, but it wasn't like a straightforward one. It's you you had to like wrap your brain around it a couple of times.
Three witches.
I'm still doing that actually.
Next up is
Veggie Match.
This was a review copy. So, thank you so much. Are you ready?
Yes, I am.
One, two, three. Boom.
It's a double curl. This is a take on tree in a row basically.
Tic tac-toe I think it's called.
Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Tic tac toe. We call it tree in a row in Norwegian. Yes. Uh it is a very simple game. You're you have like um different patches of land that is yours and you're playing vegetable cards and you're trying to get the positive vegetables into your fields basically and putting the negative ones into other players field. But if you trigger a tic-tac-toe or a tree in a row, you will get a bonus vegetable token that can could score you at the end of the game if you have the most of that particular vegetable. pretty is simple and short. It says 15 minutes. I don't think that's too far off, but it's just a little too simple and not anything remarkable, so I don't need to keep it.
It's a family game. If you have a family that don't mind me to take that, it might be a good fit for you. Uh, next up, we have Shall We Dance? The new game from Sashi and Sushi. Yep.
Let's do the thing. One, two, three, boom.
It's a double cow. Shashi and Sashi makes some really good games. Yes. And then they make some games that are not really interesting at all. This one is in that lost category. It was a game like you're playing cards in different colors. It sounds like it was going to be interesting, but it's it's not really interesting. I'm playing cards in different colors. I can either play one to three cars in colors I already played or I can play one to three cars in a color I haven't played. And then after that if I have like it's a couple thing like if if you have people that are not coupled up you can take them from other players sounds more interesting than it is and is a majority of having the cards at the end of the game the different colors you get the points for that and then you are done with the game. Yeah, it's pretty forgettable, I would say. Uh I would find if you're into these simpler card matching games, I think there are absolutely better ones out there. Um not that I think of
any stop from Sy.
Yes, that's a one that I really like or like better than this. Oh yeah. Um so yeah, I don't need to keep this. from the kill pile. Next up on your side is
wine seller
from 25th century.
Is it a review copy?
No. Then I would have said it.
Okay.
Are you ready? Yeah.
One, two, three, boom.
It's a double cow. Yes.
But this is short and simple as well. It's
But is it fun?
But is it fun? Well, it has that same mechanism from uh art society that it has like a um
some a offering
offering. Yes.
Offer offer. Yes.
Not an offering. I think that's a little more witch thingy. But um and you see is there something I really need? And you blind bid and the person with the highest number gets first pick and so on. and you're trying to get the right wine types from the right country to get points according to your personal goals, but you also get points depending on where in your stack the wines is are and you're trying to then because when you have let's say I have five wines already the next one I get it needs to go either in the top or the bottom and as you said after we played it that's puzzle gets pretty like stale or
like it gets stuck soon. Like if you get forced to like if I made a plan of this is going to be number two for example, I can only have one card over there, which means the rest of car is going to be on the bottom. Yeah.
And other than that, I'm just trying to get the things that's on my card and score that. It It's like a little bit interesting which card I want to bid, but it's not a very interesting game all in all.
Next up, we are going to have Ghost Lift. This is a shedding game or a led climbing game. H that was a spiel few copies like when the cos dice is going to be way easier to get next year if you want to get a copy of it.
But first off, let's do the keyboard cull.
One, two, three. Boom.
It's a double c.
It's a fun game.
Yeah,
it's a fun game. I enjoy it. I enjoy the twists of that. You don't want to have the same card left in your hand. Like with all games like this, there's luck involved and all of that. Like in Scout, like, oh, I I managed to I actually had the things. And in this one as well, it feels very good when you do.
And how does it feel when you don't have the cards you need to play?
Feels pretty boring because there's pretty much nothing you can do, which
you can draw cards in this one, which is pretty good.
Well, but if it helps you, it's good. doesn't help you, you end up with more negative stuff than
like in all other games that if doing a thing that doesn't help you is not helpful in this game either. And also another interesting thing is that there's only one loser. So if you're playing with six players, you're going to be five winners, which also look good on BG stats.
That's true.
Uh but I would say it's a interesting game, but not one that I need to play more. The most interesting thing about this game is the lift that's going up and down because it the what needs to be played if it's a higher descending or ascending order uh can change or will change during one trick. So or
it's it's not a trick.
It's not a trick. No,
but one round of shedding and and that was cool. And also that you want to avoid losing kind of or being stuck with the same numbers. That's I found found it like a little boring because I was bad at it.
Okay, next up is
Their Merchants of Andromeda.
This is a review copy from Old Play. Are you ready? Yes.
It's a Ron Quincy game. It is.
It might have the longest rule book I read for a Ron Queen game. Like 14 pages.
No.
One, two, three. Boom.
It's a double kill. This is a game that looks pretty much at the beginning because there's a lot of colors and it's a little cartoon. It's very cartoony. Um, but it's basically a um it borrows the same mechanism from Biblios kind of.
I don't know if it's from there. That's where we know it from where you
where you draw one card and you decide either to get the resource on it yourself, get to do the action on it yourself, or to auction it with the other players. And you choose that for three cards. And the um uh actions you can do is basically different mini games where you most of the time want to have majority to score points as the game triggers scorings during the game. And that's kind of random. And also the bidding mechanism in this game is kind of the coolest thing because you have an app on your phone and
can be played without it but I don't know why you ever would.
But the app is you we nonapp.
Yes. Yes. Yes. You need the app like I would say and you are all holding your finger on the screen and it's a countdown from 20. Uh, and the person who lets go of thing finger first will buy the action or the card, but they have to do that for the price. So, it's like a waiting game. How
how the Dutch auction auction that goes down.
So, it's very tense. Very interesting.
Yes, I like that part a lot. I think like that auction was an auction that I I do really enjoy. I don't like auctions that much. I really enjoyed most of the things in the game, but it's not one I need to to keep. Like if you are really if you really like a majority in multiple ways, the timing of the events is very interesting. It's a solid good game. I just don't need to to own it.
You're also voting for some like special things.
Next up,
stories and stuff.
Day one. This is a game that we picked up at Spiel mostly because it is from Johannes Scoopy and Yuan Levit who has made far away. Johannes uh great name and also uh Yuan Levit made I think our favorite from here is Mirum still
so that's why we got it. I knew it was going to be a lighter one but we uh we got to play a few times. So let's do the thing.
Yeah.
One two three boom.
It's a double keep. This uh might be this is one of the biggest surprise of the year. Yes, this is a game. I read the rules. I was thinking this is not going to be fun. But then we got some people to play it like we do. We like I don't think this game is going to be fun. I don't say that usually, but I in my brain like I'm hoping this is fast. And it was 40 minutes, four players and a lot of great gameplay. there. It is basically a ticket to ride eachish game where you will draft cards, but this time you have to draft two cards adjacent to each other or you will play cards to be able to build these little camps around the board and you're going to have cards or goals that's going to tell you where you want to place those. And it's very specific locations because if you're not going to manage to do all of yours, you have to place a camp that's going to help you with different goals. And the other players also want to place on these locations. So, it's a timing thing. There's a lot of lot of no, you place there. that's going to screw up my whole plan. Um, there's different scenarios that change up the game. Not a lot, but a little bit. And all in all, I would say that this is one of the better light games I played in a very long time.
Yes, it was super solid. It's very surprising because we didn't expect so much from it. And also it's kind of you you have to choose kind of if you want to just settle for small like short route or just play play few cards to get like a short distance or be like I need that specific spot. It's way over there. I need to throw away five cards to get there and then play fewer houses probably. And you're you're also able to choose to or like choose a card from your hand and tuck under your player board as the game goes along to also fulfill some of the goals you're trying to achieve. Super fun.
Very, very much so. Last game up is
Real South America. This was a review copy. Are you ready?
Yes.
One, two, three, boom.
It's a double co. This is a game with a really nice theme and it's
so beautiful.
Yeah. Yes. Very beautiful artwork and good quality pieces and like the projection all in all super good. Like it has a beautiful table presence when people are building trees and putting the animals up into trees. Super cool. Um but in this game you are playing a card to do an action and that's usually to like play or uh build some terrain of a type. Yeah,
on the board or upgrade some existing things. Um, and then you get if you're able to to choose one of the cards in each category in the offer. So, you can choose an animal or
you can take up to five animals.
Oh, yeah.
So, you can take more animals.
Yes. Uh, usually you don't have space for that many. That's true. But yes, you could take multiple if you had the space. Um, and you're trying to then take cards that will fit with your final scoring or will give you some instant bonuses and trying to because there's three different areas to have uh the different all the different types in one area that will also score you points and all of the animals will uh take space in in on your playerboard basically. So, some take up fewer spaces and some take up bigger spaces. Kind of like Ark Nova. That that part of it. The spatial puzzle in itself I didn't find very interesting.
It wasn't very puzzly, but but
I don't think it's supposed to be like a spatial puzzle.
No. Uh, but you will can build something that will give you discounts on later terrain that you're building. And other than that, it felt a little lucky that some cards out came out with a perfect scoring for you and not for me. But overall, I thought it was a nice game, but not one that I need to keep. I think there is better uh games in this category out there already.
For example, Spectacular for most games, which is not the same game, but it's like in the same category and and theme of games. But there's a solid game. Like, there's nothing there's nothing in the design where I'm thinking like, oh, why is this like that? Like, it's a solid design, but for me, it didn't excite me as much as other games in this category. And those are 11 more games. And we only kept one game basically. And these three that can just be stuck somewhere so they don't count. So we kept one game for three stream. And we said there's like seven. 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven. What's your favorite and least favorite of the bunch?
I think my least favorite was uh Shall We Dance? Well, actually maybe Ghost Lift because well uh it it this was less interesting. Ghost Lift have more interesting stuff in it for sure. And my favorite has to be day one because it was super fun.
Day one for sure. And least favorite I think Shall We Dance. Maybe Veggie Match actually. I think Veggie Match for me. That's going to be the end. If you are still here and you're watching these videos, why are you waiting to click that
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Yes.
Thank you so much for watching. I'm Johannes. I'm And you've been watching Board Gaming Ramblings. And bye-bye.