Monthly Live Q&A - Ask Me Anything - March 2026

1:56 Right. Wrong button. Yeah, bear with a minute. Q&A. There you go. Right button. Welcome to this month's live Q&A. I apologize for the delay. Some technical issues here as always, but hopefully we are live. Hopefully you can hear us hear hear me, see me. Everything working? Vicky's giving us the thumbs up. We're all good. Sounding a little low. Okay. Could be one of the many technical issues is the audio. So, bear with it a minute. I will I will sort that out.

2:30 Need to replace this. Right. Is that any better? Yeah, let me know if let me know if that is any better. Hopefully it is. Yeah? Okay. Yeah, one of the technical issues that I'm having is with my Zoom H6 audio controller, which has been very temperamental and every so often, maybe once every couple of weeks, just decides that it's going to reduce the volume for no [clears throat] reason whatsoever. And the fix, for those people interested, I turned the dial from six to seven and then back to six. If anybody has any advice for me on a new audio controller that I can get for my computer, please let me know because I've been struggling with this one and it's really annoying. But anyway, we we are we are back. So, yes, thank you very much to everybody for joining us. I'm also getting errors on YouTube telling me that there isn't enough information being received. So, I I I don't even know if this is working or not. We will we will find out.

3:28 But, welcome to this month's live Q&A. As always, I'll be answering all of the questions that I've been asked in advance over on the BoardGameGeek Guild. So, if you've been asking questions there, thank you very much for those. Gives me a little bit of time to prepare. And then after that, we're going to be going to the live questions. So, if you're watching live and you have any questions for me, please put them in the chat, but make sure you start with the word question, ideally in capitals, and then Vicky will see those and transfer them over to the document that I'm working from. I won't be seeing the actual live chat during the stream itself. If you don't start the question with the question, it will probably get missed. But, let's dive in and head on over to, if I can find it, the questions. Right, the first one is from Jake. And he's asking about SETI: Space Agency, which is the expansion for SETI which I covered recently-ish. He says it's not currently available in the UK.

4:21 Do I know what's delaying it? I have my own theories as to why it's delayed, but they are completely unconfirmed rumors. So, I don't actually know. All I would say is that if you reach out to Czech Games Edition via social media, you are likely to get an honest answer from them as to whether it's been sent to the UK and whether somebody in the UK is keeping it in a warehouse and not sending it out to retailers. I I don't know, but um definitely check with CGE. I did send a message to somebody at CGE a couple of days ago just to try and find the answer for you, but I didn't get any reply from them. Cuz I think they're away on holiday at the moment. But yeah, contact CGE. Social media is always good for them and they might be able to help you out. It's a bit of a shame cuz SETI is a great game. The expansion came out at last year's Essen and normally CGE are able to get their new releases into the country earlier. For example, this year they have made they've teamed up with Hachette Games UK for distribution of Whistlewood. And Whistlewood was available in November.

5:28 So, I don't know who is responsible in the UK for distributing the SETI expansion, but it does seem unusual if CGE were able to get Whistlewood to the UK in November, but haven't been able to get the SETI expansion, which which is a shame. Uh next question also from Jake. All of the questions this month are all from Jake. If you're going to IKEA to purchase a board game storage system, which one would you go for? Would it be the Kallax, which is what most people go for, or would it be something else? So, we have a lot of Kallaxes in the house, not just for board games. We have Kallaxes for various other things as well because they're really good size. They do the drones, which are these little things that you can pull in and out, and they do lots of modifications for Kallaxes. So, you can get drawers or cupboard doors or whatever. So, we've got a few extra Kallaxes in the house that aren't being used for board games.

6:17 The other ones that I use are I think it's a Billy bookshelf that's over there. I have a Billy bookshelf, which is not as deep as a Kallax, which is sometimes a good thing cuz the Kallaxes are quite deep. But that's a really good solution as well and I think you can adjust the heights of the different shelves. So, yeah, they're the two that I would mostly go with. To be fair, I don't think IKEA have that many different options. They have a wide range of Kallaxes and a wide range of Billys and I think they have one more as well, but they're the two that I generally go for. Next question from Asaf from Easy Board Games and we've got some quick fire questions from Asaf. Basically, he's got four pairs of games that he wants me to compare. First one is Forbidden Stars or StarCraft. That's an easy one. I own Forbidden Stars. I have played Forbidden Stars. I really enjoy Forbidden Stars. I have not played StarCraft.

7:08 Next one, War of the Ring or Dune: War for Arrakis. I've heard Dune: War for Arrakis is very good. However, I have a connection with the War of the Ring board game and I've got the 20th anniversary edition on its way to me. So, that's enough for me. I kind of don't want to look at Dune: War for Arrakis and think, "Oh, actually that's a better game. Let's get rid of all of this War of the Ring stuff." I'm happy with War of the Ring. And for those of you interested, one week today is International Tolkien Day and I will be doing a stream of War of the Ring in the afternoon and by this point in the day, it should be finished. Next one is Xia: Legends of a Drift System or Western Legends. Neither of those. I would prefer to gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon than play either of those.

7:53 To be fair, I have played Xia: Legends of a Drift System. It was one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had. I couldn't believe how totally and utterly random nonsense it was and I was really excited about that game because theme-wise, going around buying and selling a sort of updated modern version of Merchants of Venus, no. It was just completely random and I hated it. Western Legends I haven't played, but I have heard things about that that mean it's not going to be my kind of game. If I had to choose, I would choose Western Legends cuz I never want to play Xia ever again. And finally, Golem or Lorenzo il Magnifico. Golem I have played physically. I have never played Lorenzo il Magnifico physically. I have played it on the digital adaptation. I would choose Lorenzo out of those two. I gave Golem three or four plays, but that was enough for me and I moved it on. Whereas Lorenzo, I played it a few times and I would happily play it again.

8:48 Next question from Breal. What are some games that you really enjoyed the first time that you played, but you cooled off on them after your second play? Honestly, most of them. Well, I say most of them. So, if we take the recent crop of Essen games, which I came back with from Essen Spiel last year, there are at least four of those games where the first time I played it, I enjoyed it because I like playing games, believe it or not, and I like the process of learning a new game. Usually, if the rule book's really bad, then I don't enjoy it. But generally speaking, I enjoy the process of learning a game with some of the people and seeing how it goes. And then my second game of it, I enjoy that more because right, now I've learned the game. I can now actually start playing it.

9:35 And sometimes I do get a third game in as well. But there are four games that came out at Essen Spiel last year where I have played them two or three times. And whilst I think each of them is a good game, it's not good enough to keep. So, there are some games that I got from Essen Spiel last year, like Recall and Fear Swamp, that I'm I'm keeping. They are staying in my collection. But, Covenant, Orlog, the Astronomical Clock, Coming of Age, Voynich Puzzle, again, they were good games, not great games. There were some issues with each of them, but ultimately, there's a lot of games where on my second play and sometimes my third play, I have to make the decision about, right, this is not good enough to keep.

10:21 So, I would say that because my brain is kind of accustomed to having to make those decisions on games because there's no way that I can keep, you know, the 30-40 new games each year and keep them being played, that I have to be more brutal with my decision-making. So, yeah, there's a lot where my um my feelings about a game have have gone down after repeated plays. Uh really looking forward to your playthrough of Super Monday, such an underrated game in my opinion. Yeah, a lot of people have been telling me that. And for those of you that don't know, this Friday evening, I will be doing a live tutorial and playthrough of Super Monday, which I got from last year's Essen. And from everything that I've heard about the game, a lot of people have said that it's really good and that I'm really going to like it. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to that. That's happening on Friday.

11:07 Uh next question. Uh Paul, we used to play a lot of RPGs on the computer like Baldur's Gate. Now we are more into board gaming and we are checking out different campaign games. There are so many. I know that you like Agemonia a lot, but can you give your reasons for that? And what about Aridia? Have you played that one and how do you compare Agemonia to Aridia or Tainted Grail? So, I have played Agemonia a lot. I have not played Aridia, although I have heard from lots of people that I would really enjoy it, potentially even more than Agemonia. I've heard so many good things about it. Tainted Grail, I have played as well. I've played other campaign games like Alien Trespass Odyssey, ISS Vanguard, etc., etc. So, Agemonia for me, what are the reasons why I enjoy it? Well, for me, it is the game which is most like a session of a role-playing game.

12:00 Now, there's a lot of games out there and I always refer to Gloomhaven in this. As much as I like Gloomhaven, ultimately, an individual scenario of Gloomhaven is a tactical combat card management situation. That's what it is. Even if the objective of the scenario is not kill all of the enemies, the entire thing is all about just fighting. Each scenario of Agemonia is actually a little mini adventure. So, to give you an idea without trying to give too many spoilers away, the most recent time that we played Agemonia, our objective was to defend these four priestesses which were on this ship. So, there's these enemies that are coming in, but also, there was a fire going on. So, one of the things that we could have done in the game is go off and pick up these buckets, fill the buckets with water to try and put the fire out. There were other things going on as well. There was a There was a door that we didn't know where it led to, which was somewhere and then there was secret stuff in there.

12:58 There was a chest with some traps that we had to disarm the traps. There was other There was lots of things that we could do. And each individual adventure of Agemonia, there is a lot more to do than just fighting enemies. There is a lot of fighting of enemies in there, but that's not the whole idea of the adventure. And it really feels like a proper adventure that we're taking part in. As well as that, the overall world-building, the campaign, the overall story, the way that your characters progress is really really good. So, that's why Agemonia for me is great. Tainted Grail, very much enjoyed Tainted Grail from a narrative, thematic setting. In terms of the actual playing experience of Tainted Grail, it is nowhere near as good as Agemonia. It's more for the the setting and the world and the story and and everything else.

13:45 Uh we really love Destinies. Uh although not a campaign game and you've liked Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion for the first 10 games and then it felt repetitive. Yep, I I get that. Uh we thought we would like Sleeping Gods, but alas, you only play two-player mostly. So, in short, how can you proceed with your exploration of campaign games? Do I have any tips? Just try them. I mean, one thing that is great these days with the board gaming hobby is there is so many content creators making videos of games. So, if you are interested in Agemonia, look into it more. I've done some playthroughs of the game. You can watch those playthroughs and you can get an idea of how the game plays from that. However, what I will tell you is those first three playthroughs that I did on the channel were the tutorial. You might watch those and think, oh, there's not very much to this game.

14:31 Trust me, once you've got through those tutorials, the game comes to life. And once you get to level two, the game really comes to life. We're now level four and there is so much more going on in the game, but it has to lead you gently into these new things cuz otherwise, it'd be too much at the start. Aridia, again, I've not played it, but there's plenty of other people. There'll be plenty of videos on it. So, there is information out there which you can use to help you make a decision about whether it's the kind of game that you're going to like. I would definitely watch playthroughs rather than reviews. Personally, I don't want to just watch one channel and have somebody for 5 minutes tell me their opinion of the game. I want to form my own opinion by watching actual playthroughs or reading rulebooks or or things like that.

15:19 Next question from Monica. Do you travel with games in your luggage for private vacation, not game-related? Why or why not travel with games and do you have some specific games to bring? Well, Vicky isn't much of a gamer and we don't go on holiday that much, but when we do go on holiday, we will take a couple of games with us. We've taken Ganz Schön Clever with us, a cut-down version of Ganz Schön Clever in a ziplock bag rather than the actual box. We've taken MicroMacro: Crime City with us before and we've taken some other little, just, you know, roll and write games, ones with a small footprint. But, yeah, because we're not uh because Vicky's not much of a gamer, we won't take any actual proper games with us on holiday. It's just the the lighter ones that don't take much much space.

16:05 Next question from Bart. Bart said last month you spoke about Terry Pratchett. Yeah, so for those people who missed last month, I am going through all of the Terry Pratchett Discworld novels on audiobook and I'm I'm at at the end of book five at the moment and I'm really enjoying them. I did have trouble with the first two, but books three, books four, and books five have been really good so far. I remember book five is Sourcery and I do remember reading Sourcery when it came out. So, yeah, I'm really enjoying them. Uh but Bart is saying that Terry Pratchett's life is just as fascinating as his works and he explains a lot in his bi- um or in his biography, A Life with Footnotes. So, Bart recommends having a look at that. Bart also says that he taught Barcelona to some new players last week and it was pretty straightforward and then he got to the rules about the tram action.

16:54 And he had to clarify that several times. Can I name another game that has one part that's at odds with the complexity of the rest of the game? Barcelona is the best example for this and offhand, I can't think of another one. And Barcelona, if you take out the tram action, the game is like this complexity and then when you add in one additional action, the tram action, it it grows a lot more. So, exactly as Bart says, you're teaching Barcelona how to play, you know, teaching Barcelona people how to play. And you teach them all the rules of the game and they're all like, all right, yeah, we get we get this. That That's fine. This isn't that complicated. And then you explain the tram action. And every time I've taught it, that's the action that catches people out. So, if you've got any ideas for games of a similar thing, let me know. Leave a comment on this video and tell me what game that you can think of where the majority of the game is relatively straightforward and then there's one particular part of it that always confuses people. The only one that's coming to mind for me, and this is this is a bit of a weird one, is Voidfall. Now, Voidfall is already an extremely complicated game, one of the most complicated games that I've got.

18:08 But, the rules for agenda cards, that's the bit that always catches people out because the agenda cards, you have to first of all, do an action that puts them into your hand. Right, easy. Now it's in my hand. Then, at the start of your turn, when you're choosing your focus card, if you want to play an agenda, you have to play it with the focus card at that time and only if it matches an icon. The action on the agenda, you can resolve at any point in your turn, before you do the focus card, after, in between actions, whatever. And then at the end of your turn, if you played an agenda card, you then have to tuck it. And one of the confusing It's not confusing once you know the rules, but a lot of people struggle with it, is you cannot have two agendas with the same icon. But, that doesn't mean you can't take one. It doesn't mean you can't play one. But, then at the end of your turn, when you come to tuck it, if it matches another of your agenda icons, you can only keep one of them. And there you go. There's the rules on agenda cards. But, that was the trickiest part of that game to learn and to teach and it's the part which a lot of people get get confused by.

19:20 Uh next question from Maurice. He said would I like to share my thoughts on The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game because he's missed my thoughts on the game elsewhere. As a solo game, he likes how it's rough edges um when when compared to Marvel Champions and Arkham Horror card game. So, yeah, I have spoken about The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game many times before, but in summary, I was extremely disappointed in the game. And part of that disappointment was down to me not enjoying it because I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan and a Lord of the Rings card game by Fantasy Flight Games with gorgeous artwork, really good graphic design, you know, it's good it's going to be fantastic. And I love Arkham Horror card game, I love Marvel Champions card game. So, the Lord of the Rings card game should be, on paper, my favorite of the card games. However, it wasn't.

20:12 And I went back to it multiple times, and then when they re-released the core box, I got it again, and I tried it again, and I had exactly the same issues with it as I've had with the other game. So, in summary, and I know that I'm in the minority on this one, but I don't like games with dead cards. So, I don't like card games where you end up with cards in your hand which are dead cards. Now, Marvel Champions doesn't have that because cards are used as a currency. Arkham Horror doesn't have that because you have you have alternative ways to play cards because they have skill icons on which you can use to put into tests, but the Lord of the Rings card game, if you draw Gimli and you've already got Gimli in play, or you know, a unique card when you've already got that unique card in play, it's a dead card.

21:00 Now, that alone is not the problem. The other problem with the Lord of the Rings card game is it uses the massively outdated you draw one card per turn. And that mechanism of drawing one card per turn in a card game should have gone out of fashion, and did go out of fashion 15-20 years ago. Most other card games that I play have some way of drawing extra cards. And I know there are cards in the game which can draw you extra cards, but I don't want to circumvent what I feel is a flaw with the game by the fix is, well, just play with that particular character because that particular character draws extra cards. No, I want to fix the actual problem with the game. Other than that, I like the game itself. I like the way that the game plays, I like the mechanisms of the game, I like the way that you build the encounter decks and everything else, but the core gameplay of the drawing one card a turn and ending up with dead cards in your hand, that's the bit that I really didn't like.

22:01 Uh also, deck size. I like modern card games that have a 30-card deck, and I think the Lord of the Rings card game is something like 50 cards. So, you're building a 50-card deck, you're only drawing one card a turn. Yeah. Anyway. Next question from uh Nino. How do you clean your playmats? Good question. So, I use these game topper mats, which are the best quality gaming playmats that I've ever used. They're really thick, they're stitched on the edges, they're fantastic quality. They are expensive, but they are the best quality gaming mats that I've ever played on, and I've got loads of them. But, they do occasionally get mucky. And the reason why they get mucky is I will occasionally have my cup of tea, and I will forget to put it down on a mat, and oh, there's a bit of a stain, or just simply wear and tear. You know, if I've got this mat in front of me, and I've got people around it for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, just the I mean, the people who come to my house do shower regularly, and I shower twice a day. But, you do get skin rubbing on these, and on some of the mats, you do notice this sort of build-up of, you know, general bits of skin and grease or whatever.

23:12 But, there is one way to wash these, and that is we call it Fairy washing-up liquid in the UK. Other washing-up liquids are available. I'm not sure what it's called, but the stuff that you use when you're washing up. And what I do is, usually on a sunny day, I will take the mat outside. I'll get the hosepipe on it. Well, no, first of all, I'll look at where the dirty marks are. I will then squidge a bit of washing-up liquid onto those parts. I'll rub it in with a bit of a, you know, cloth or uh brush or something like that. Then, I will spray the whole thing with with water just from the hosepipe. Then, I'll go over it, and I'll scrub it again, and then I spray it with the hosepipe again to get all of the the suds off, and then it just dries, and it comes perfectly clean. And I've done it on my red and blue one a few times now.

24:00 You can also put the washing machine in the washing machine, but definitely remember to put it on a low spin if you do put it on the in the washing machine. So, yeah, that's how's how I clean my playmats. Next question from Patrick, uh Trismegistus Kickstarter should be delivering any day. Any plans to review this game post the campaign? So, technically, Patrick, I won't be doing a review of the game, and the reason for that is I don't really do review videos anymore. If you are asking me, am I going to be covering the game now that it's finally out, cards on the table here, no. I am happy with my involvement in Trismegistus, and I created a playthrough video for Board & Dice to help them promote the campaign. I also spent all of last year's UK Games Expo teaching Trismegistus to people who wanted to learn how to play, and I was happy to do that.

24:53 For me, personally, Trismegistus is a bit too much for me. It's a bit too complex, and it's a little bit too much of combos, this causes that, and then that chains this, and then that does that, and that does that, and a turn can end up being 5 or 6 minutes long. So, Trismegistus is a good game, and I'm glad that they've brought it back, redone the graphic design, tweaked some of the rules, and I know lots of people who love the game, and I'm happy that I have helped people learn the game and help promote the game. But, for me, I'm probably not going to play it again. And again, that's not cuz it's not a good game. Uh since it's mostly a recipe game, does that put you off the game? I mean, it recipes are a part of the game, but not all of the game.

25:42 Patrick says he's also looking forward to my Nippon Zibatsu solo play this week. He's played it a couple of times, and it's a poll-friendly automa. Yeah, so again, for those people who don't know, and if you're interested, I will be doing a solo playthrough of the new version of Nippon, so Nippon Zibatsu, this Saturday. I have a practice game in the afternoon, which will be Patreon only, and then in the evening, I will be doing a public playthrough where I will be showing you how it plays, and I'll be playing through it. It's not a sponsored playthrough, so I hope that I'll get the rules right, but yeah. And I'm doing that because my Patreon supporters have voted on which game they wanted to see me play solo this Saturday, and that's the one that won the most votes, only just. It just pipped Decker's and Puerto Rico, and Nippon Zibatsu just came ahead.

26:33 Next question from Stefan. Just watched your playthrough of Brass: Lancashire from 2023. In the playthrough, you stated that it was stroke is a good game, and you want to play it more, but I don't see that you've got a playthrough of Brass: Birmingham, for example. Is there a reason for that? Because Brass is considered one of the best games, and it's the number one game on BoardGameGeek. I think it still is. Yeah, I think it is. And now that Brass: Pittsburgh is announced, is it possible that you will cover Brass: Pittsburgh? So, I respect Brass as a game, and when I did that playthrough of Brass: Lancashire in 2023, I said at the time, this is a good game, and I do want to play it more, and obviously, I haven't. And the reason for that is the usual reason of there are too many games, and there are not enough time. So, I've enjoyed Brass as a game, but I personally, and I can see my subscriber count disappearing as I'm saying this, I personally don't like it as much as the rest of the world seems to.

27:32 For me, I'm a bit surprised that Brass: Birmingham is the number one game on BoardGameGeek, but it's clear that my opinion on the game doesn't match the general populace. Like I said, I'm not saying it's not a good game. I think it is a good game. I think it is a very good game. It's just one that is not as suited to me as some other games. Am I going to be covering Brass: Pittsburgh? Probably not. I know that the publisher, Roxley Games, has sent a number of copies to lots of content creators to help promote their new Kickstarter. I've not heard from them. Am I a little disappointed that I hadn't heard from them considering they asked me to do the official how to play video for Brass: Lancashire? I'll be honest, yeah.

28:21 And if Roxley Games had have contacted me and said, "Hi, Paul. It's been 3 years since we last spoke, but we've got Brass: Pittsburgh coming out. Would you like to cover it on the channel to help us promote it?" I would have probably said yes, to be honest, cuz I am keen to see what it does to the Brass system. But, they they haven't asked, and to be honest, I've got enough work uh going on anyway. So, no, um chance of me covering Brass: Pittsburgh are are slim. Next question from Gavin, on the subject of Brass, what are your thoughts on a more complicated version of Brass, i.e., Brass: Pittsburgh? Well, I didn't know that Brass: Pittsburgh was a more complicated version of Brass, but to be honest, I have no problem with that. I think Brass, when you look at it, it is not an overly complicated game in terms of the rules. Hello, Loki.

29:08 Yeah, it's the depth of the gameplay, and it's the decisions that you have to make in the game that make it harder to play than just the rules alone. So, if Brass if Brass: Pittsburgh is a more complicated version of Brass from a rules point of view, I don't have a problem with that. And for those people that love Brass and love Brass: Birmingham, having a more complicated version is going to potentially suit them more than the other two games. So, yeah, I've no problem with that. Next question from Brian. Brian says he's considering the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game core set, the second edition, as I call it. Mostly, he's a solo gamer for this type of game. He's found my channel. Uh sorry, he's found on my channel a series of videos on it. What are my thoughts on it for solo if one has no other options?

29:56 Do you play two-handed, a single hero, and how would you scale the length and the difficulty of the solo? So, you're absolutely right, Brian. There are a lot of videos on my channel for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. In fact, I think there are more videos on my channel for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game than maybe any other game that I've ever played because I did an entire solo play through of the Dragon's Demand campaign, which was I want to say eight or 12 sessions, and then we are currently almost in the middle of the Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign. We are nine sessions in. Uh so, that means I've covered it on the channel about 15 or 18 times, something like that. Now, the Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign, we are playing at three players. Three players for me is probably the optimum number.

30:47 But, the Dragon's Demand campaign I played solo, and it played fine. It is a very different game at solo than it is multiplayer. And but it does work. You will just find yourself running into all sorts of problems. So, for example, I played my solo campaign of Merisiel, who is a rogue, and she's good at dexterity and using a rapier and things like this. She's not good at healing or any kind of magic spells or anything like that. So, what you've got to do is you've got to make sure that you customize your deck to include allies and equipment that helps make up for the deficiencies that your character has. So, in another campaign that I've been playing of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, I've got a cleric, and he's good at healing and all sorts of other things, but he's terrible at defeating barriers.

31:39 And if you come across some really tough barriers, it's going to really hurt your ability to succeed in the scenario. Thankfully, I have a couple of items in my deck and an ally that gives me a boost against barriers. So, whenever I come across a barrier, I can hopefully have those cards ready. And that's what you need to do. If you want to two-hand it, you can. That's absolutely fine if you like two-handed it. I think probably the two to three player game does play a bit better than solo, but you can actually you can you can play it solo. Um yeah, make sure, by the way, if you do pick up Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, the core set, make sure you pick up Curse of the Crimson Throne as well because there's going to be limited supplies of these games out there, and the expansion adds a lot more content to the game.

32:24 Next question from Benjamin. Benjamin says, "I'm a high school teacher in the US, and every year I get to take a break from school for 1 week to play board games with a large group of interested teenagers. {brackets} I love my job. For the last 2 years, we've been playing Twilight Imperium. Although it's not my favorite game, it's complex, has a theme that young adults find exciting, and can be played over multiple days. It's been extremely successful, but next year, I'm looking to change it up. What game or games would you recommend? Well, I mean, it really depends. I mean, I I honestly, I I can't answer that question. I cannot answer "What game or games would you recommend?" based on the fact that they've played Twilight Imperium. What I would do, Benjamin, is I would head on over to my guild on BoardGameGeek, which you are on cuz you asked this question, and I I would post this as a new thread. So, just start a new post on the guild and say exactly what you've said to me, but if you've only played Twilight Imperium and I'm getting the impression that you have only played Twilight Imperium with them, you're looking for other games to recommend, and hopefully you'll get the answers from various other people.

33:41 I'm going to suggest, though, I think you're looking for not just any games to recommend, but actually ones which take quite a long time and have quite a bit of player interaction. So, if I'm right, what you're looking for are games for up to six people that can take about 8 to 10 hours to play, which have a high level of player interaction, and are of a complexity level of Twilight Imperium. In other words, people don't need to be suggesting, you know, light games or anything like that. But yeah, head on over to the guild, ask that question on there. Nothing's coming to mind for me, but it might do by the end of the stream. We will find out. Right. Couple of games a couple of questions left. Next question from Vinicius.

34:30 Uh how Now with the Arnak campaign coming to a close, well, it's coming to it. It's come. It's finished. Do I have a favorite Arnak leader? I do not. For the Arnak campaign, for those people who missed it, I played the mechanic all the way through. Uh so, I enjoyed that one, but I don't have a particular favorite leader. I would have to play each of them about five times before I could even think of choosing which one. While we're talking about the Arnak campaign, I will give one final shout-out. This is your final warning to enter the Arnak giveaway contest. So, over the last 12 weeks, me and Rick have been playing the Lost Ruins of Arnak campaign every 2 weeks. There are six videos on my channel, and we are doing a giveaway for all sorts of Lost Ruins of Arnak goodies. Now, I am doing the draw at the end of this month. So, on the 31st of March, I will be doing the draw to see who wins, which means you can still enter the contest. And in fact, there are six mini contests, all of which go together to the big contest, and you can enter all six of them right now or tomorrow or whenever you're listening to this.

35:38 All you need to do is go and find my Lost Ruins of Arnak videos on my channel over the last 12 weeks. Leave a comment on a video, and there is a form, so there are six forms, one for each video, and you need to fill in the form. So, for video one, leave a comment on video one, fill in the form for video one. That gives you one entry. Then, go to video two, fill in the form for video two, leave a comment on the video for video two. Gets you another entry. So, the maximum number of times you can enter the big contest is six times. If you only enter it once, you've got 1/6 of chance of winning of the people who enter it six times. So, yeah, final shout-out for that. Next a few questions from James. James says, "Hi, Paul and Vicky. Do you think all games need expansions?" Nope. "What makes you buy an expansion for a game?"

36:26 I don't buy games, James. You know that. Um if I was not doing the job that I do and I was buying expansions, what what makes me buy an expansion for a game? To be honest, I would always buy an expansion for a game if I liked the game, and if I didn't like the game, I would be getting rid of the game. So, for me, I can't see me ever being in a situation where I don't want to pick up an expansion for a game if I like the game. "How many expansions is too many?" The the the the can be not I I don't think there is a possibility of too many expansions for a game. Ultimately, the decision about whether to continually make expansions for a game is down to the publisher, and it depends how well it sells. Let's take, for example, Terraforming Mars. We have Venus, we have Prelude, we have the alternative maps, we have the one that nobody liked, the politics one. Then we have the new stuff, so we have the solo mode, we have everything else. Then we've got Prelude 2. I don't know Oh, we have Colonies as well.

37:36 I don't know what else is coming for Terraforming Mars other than the legacy version, which is coming later this year, maybe. But, if I was to skip ahead 10 years into the future, and we've got another five expansions for Terraforming Mars, is that too many? Some people will think yes, and the sale of expansions goes down more and more as a game goes on. So, expansions generally sell less a lot less copies than the base game. So, yeah, but I don't know. I don't know how many expansions is too many. Oh, thank you very much, Georgios. Georgios has just sent 20 euros through as a super chat. Thank you very much for that. Um we'll talk about the charity money in a minute, but remind me when we get to the break. I'll I'll talk about that.

38:22 We're almost at the break, I think. Are we? Oh, no, we've got a few more. Right. Questions from Neil. "Thanks for your chat with Phil about the new Mage Knight expansion." Yep, so there is a video on my channel from a couple of weeks ago where I interviewed Phil Pettifer about the new Mage Knight Emergence expansion, which was recently announced. It sounded like you'd known about it for a while, and it got him thinking. On average, at any one time, how many games or expansions are there that you know about that you can't talk about?"

39:01 Ooh. Uh about 10. Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to say roughly 10. That will vary depending on when things get released. "Typically, how long do you have to keep them secret for before you can talk about them?" It really varies. It could be anywhere Oh, no, there's that one as well. Yeah. Um it could be anywhere up to nine 9 to 12 months. There are definitely some games which I know about. In fact, I think there is one that I know about which is going to be coming to crowdfunding in 2027. And I know about it and I kind of wish I didn't know about it because it's a really hard secret to keep and I've got to keep it for at least another year, I think. So, yeah, sometimes up to a year.

39:59 Related to Neil's question, Doric wants to ask, "Since you know a lot of secrets in the industry, has it ever happened to you that you accidentally spilled a secret?" Accidentally? I mean, accidentally stroke deliberately? Um no. I mean, to be fair, I haven't really I I think I've been very good. I'll tell Vicky things and I'll tell the cats things, but I I don't accidentally spill secrets. Um I think I've been fairly fairly good at that. Next question from John Melby. So, thank you very much, John, for these questions. John says, "When I teach a game for the first time, he's gone through the rules, he's tested the player actions, and he's actually played a sample game himself or at least part of it. Because of that, he usually has a better understanding of how to do well in the game." Now, this was actually asked on in a previous Q&A where somebody asked me, "Does me knowing the rules of the game and creating a how to play video give me an advantage in the game because I understand how to play it?" And my answer is no because for me, there is a big difference between knowing the rules of a game and actually putting those rules into practice to be able to do well. For me, they are two separate things. For John, however, they're not two separate things. John says that going through the rules and playing a few rounds himself gives him a better understanding of how to do well in the game.

41:30 For example, he's recently taught a game of Covenant to people and he said, "I gave people tactical and strategic suggestions, tried to help them make better moves, and even deliberately made inefficient moves myself." Well, I'd never do that. I I would never deliberately make an inefficient move in a game just because I was the one teaching it and I wanted other people to do better. No, I wouldn't do that. He said, "Despite this, I outscored everybody and I felt embarrassed to win." Well, you should not feel embarrassed to win, John. The And I and I've spoken about this before, but there is a train of thought of some people that really annoys me. And that is, if you teach a game and you won that game, you are a bad teacher.

42:17 Please, please, please, do never never ever say that phrase around me because it's one of those phrases which winds me up because it's complete and utter nonsense. If you teach a game to people and you win that game, you are not a bad teacher. Those two things are completely separate. Now, if you taught the game to people, didn't tell them half the rules, and then used the rules that you knew to your advantage to screw over the other people and win the game, you're a bad teacher. But, let's put this situation to you. I taught a game last week. I think I did an extremely good job at teaching the game and they said, "Paul, that was the best teach we've ever had of a game ever."

43:03 And then I won that game. Does that make me a bad teacher? No. It doesn't make me a bad teacher. So, please, if you think that, stop thinking that. It's completely wrong. Anyway, rant over. I wouldn't feel embarrassed just because you did better at a game that you were teaching to the other people. If you've gone out of your way to help them out as much as you can, then that's it. You've done your job. You've taught the game. If you played better than them or things went well for you, that's just that's just how it is sometimes. Um so, yeah, what do you do about this? Do you feel sorry that you know the game better than the other players? So, on on the subject of if I've read the rulebook, that doesn't actually mean I know the game better. But, let me give you another example.

43:49 I taught a game of Puerto Rico a few weeks ago to a good friend of mine, Simon. I've played Puerto Rico approximately 300 times. I would say that I not only know how to play Puerto Rico, but that I am very good at Puerto Rico and I am very good at understanding all of the different knock-on effects and consequences of everybody's actions in the game. So, when I teach Puerto Rico, I make sure that I give as much knowledge to the other players as I can to help them with not just learning the rules of the game, but understanding that if you take the craftsman right now, then what's going to happen is Chris is going to end up with six corn and he's going to ship it onto there and he's going to get six victory points and then there's going to be no left for me and I've got a coffee and then on my turn, I will probably take the trader and the trader's got two money on it.

44:48 So, if you take craftsman, which you're allowed to do, you are absolutely, if you want to take craftsman, you can, but here's what will happen if you do. And I explain it and then they go, "Well, I better not take the craftsman, had I?" Exactly right because if you do, you're literally giving the game to the other players. But, I don't say to them, "Don't take the craftsman." I explain to them what will happen if they do take the craftsman and and that's it. Now, I won that game. Do I feel bad about winning that game? No, not at all. Did I do the best job I could at teaching the game to other people? I think I did. So, yeah, I don't feel bad about it. Anyway, next question from John. What software do you use to edit your videos? I use the Adobe Premiere Suite. Uh so, yeah, the Adobe Creative Suite on my computer. I use After Effects, I use Premiere Pro, I use uh a few other ones as well, Photoshop.

45:46 So, yeah, I I use a lot of the Adobe Suite to do my work. Which campaign games do you prefer? Well, we've talked about that earlier on. Definitely um Agricola has has been fantastic, but I've enjoyed a lot of campaign games over the past. Right, couple of questions from Cat. Give me three games that you'll take with you to a board game day or weekend and beg other people to play with you. I mean, I could just pick three games I'm going to be playing at an upcoming convention next month, which is War of the Ring, Uprising Curse of the Last Emperor, and Voidfall. But, I'm very fortunate in that I never have to beg people to play games with me. Generally speaking, the places that I go to, the local games clubs that I go to, the conventions that I go to, the type of games which I enjoy playing are the kind of games that other people also enjoy playing.

46:41 But, if I was to, for example, take a game with me to a convention which I know most people are not going to want to play, I don't think I'd struggle to find people because I think people would feel sorry for me and say, "Sure, Paul, we'll play Monopoly with you. Yeah, it it'll be great." So, no, I'm I'm very fortunate that I don't have to beg other people to play games with me. Cat also says, "I've been watching some of your older vlogs." A much younger me. So, Cat had recently watched one of my vlogs from May 2020. I mean, that was just at the start of lockdown, wasn't it? She said, "I couldn't get over the the size of your eyebrows." Yeah, so I I trim my eyebrows more now than I used to. If you want a laugh, go back and watch some of my old videos from 5 years ago. My eyebrows have got a life of their own. But, yes, they've matured into a nice shade of gray.

47:34 Uh but, Cat says, "In some of my old video logs, I used to do them in various rooms in the house." I did some outside, I did some downstairs in the dining room, whereas now, I pretty much just do them in the studio. Uh do I plan to do that again? I don't have any plans to do that again because to be honest, the technical issues with moving a lot of the stuff around, um my camera is on a mount which is attached to the ceiling grid, the lighting is in here, the microphones are in here, you know, disconnecting everything and moving it around to another room in the house is a huge amount of work. So, no, no plans to do that. Also, Cat said that I've mentioned another channel called One Man and His Meeple, but he seems to have disappeared over the last few years. So, is he still making videos? No. So, Andy from One Man and His Meeple, Andy is still alive. Uh Andy is no longer really into board gaming like he was.

48:27 He now does music. So, if you were to check out his YouTube channel, I don't know if it's the same YouTube channel, but have a look at it, One Man and His Meeple. Andy's now doing various music-related things. Speaking of Andy, but this is a different Andy. Andy Pelton says, "Out of the Captain's Chair decks that you have played or played against, which is your favorite, providing that you can talk about this freely?" I don't have one. I really don't have one. I've played the Picard deck about 20 times. I've played Shran about 20 times. I've played um Sisko about five times. I've played Sela twice. I've played Burnham twice. Who am I missing from the base set? Oh, Koloth. I've played Koloth about 25 times. I didn't like Koloth deck too much. It was a bit bit quirky. I've played Riker about 20 times.

49:21 I've played Kirk about 10 times. And I've played No, that might be it. So, oh, Soval. I've played Soval about 10 times as well. So, out of those, I don't have a particular favorite, to be honest. Um again, similar to what people have asked me earlier on, do I have a favorite leader from Lord of the Rings of Arnor, do I have a favorite this? I I'm never able to answer those questions because I don't seem to have favorites. I just like playing different decks with different strategies. Is there any correlation in the captains that you like playing and the shows that you enjoyed the most? No. Um no, not at all, I don't think.

50:06 No. Same sort of thing for Mage Knight, which character is your favorite? Yeah, can't can't can't say. Which mode or scenario is your favorite to play? Full conquest. Full conquest, the six-round full conquest is still the competitive version, two to three players, is still my favorite way to play the game. Final questions before we go to the live questions. I I I know there's loads more. Oh gosh, right. From Chris, Paul, I imagine that you've been assigned uh oh sorry, imagine that you've been assigned as the captain of a newly built USS Enterprise. You can assemble your senior crew, but you may only choose people from the board gaming world, designers, artists, reviewers, etc. Who would be your captain's chair picks and more importantly, who would you trust not to start a rules debate in the middle of a mission? Right, so unfortunately Chris, I ran out of time this afternoon to do all of the prep that I needed to do for this Q&A and that is an answer which deserves that is a question which deserves a better answer for me than just me randomly picking it. So what we're going to do is we are going to turn that question into a guild question. So Chrissy, if you are watching, if you could put that on the guild this is a question from Chris and I'll tell you what we'll we'll do it after the show. I Yeah, don't worry. I'll I'll put that up my there myself and then I'll have a think about it and I'll answer it. So there is going to be a question appearing on the guild on BoardGameGeek in about an hour's time. If you are not on the guild on BoardGameGeek, it's guild number 2258. Vicky'll put a link

51:36 to it in the description now. And there will be a question appearing there from Chris which is if you have to put together the senior crew members of the USS Enterprise, who would it be and why? Right, next question from Elvira. I love the attention to detail in your videos like the color matching playmats and how you always pick different props. Thank you. Most people don't ever comment and only hear that, but I do actually put quite a lot of time and effort into choosing what color playmat to use for what video and which props go in the background for my video. So thank thank you very much for that. Where do the chickens, the chameleon, and the Highland cow, and all of the rest live when they're not on screen? Basically, just in other parts of this room. I have various parts in this room, various shelves, and they will live on on those. So they they do live in this room, just they move around.

52:27 How do you pick which ones to use in different videos? Do I have favorites? I definitely have favorites, but don't tell them. How do I pick which ones to use in videos? It really depends on what mood I'm in and what I think would be a suitable video. Uh what what would be a suitable prop for the video? I do tend to chop and change them a bit. So like earlier on today, I decided I was going to use these. What made me use these? Well, Haggis has not been on camera for a long time. The axolotl, I don't think it's ever been on camera. So this has been downstairs for the last few months. I brought it upstairs recently and I thought, ah, we'll put that on camera. Uh and then we've got the wooden meeple that was made for me. So um and then we've got one of the owls. Yeah, I just kind of randomly just decided it would be those. Are there any interesting stories about them that you can share? Like how you got them, how you saved them from spilled tea, etc. I've got lots of interesting stories about um about them, some of which have a an emotional attachment, but I will tell you about the very first one, the the original one which is Haggis.

53:31 So this wild hairy Haggis was purchased in 1995 from a motorway service station when I was on a work trip to Area Control Center 1, which I think is somewhere near Newcastle. So I was driving from Blackpool to Newcastle for this work-related thing and I stopped off at a motorway service station and I saw wild hairy Haggis and I bought it. So this has been my companion for 31 years and Haggis is probably the most special of all of my friends because Haggis has been with me pretty much on holiday everywhere. Every holiday that I've been on for the last 31 years Haggis has been with me on holiday and we've got photos of Haggis everywhere and where around the world.

54:29 He's been to the pyramids, he's been to the leaning tower of Pisa, he's been up the CN Tower. He's Yeah, he's been absolutely everywhere. So yeah. He's also a bit grubby. So he has had a couple of trips through the wash which have kind of I mean yeah, he's doing okay. Right, next few questions from John. I'm considering retirement in the not-too-distant future and I have considered creating some board game content while in retirement. Question, does the pressure of having to create content because it's your source of income lessen the enjoyment of the hobby? Well, let's touch on that for a moment, John. Um I don't feel any pressure to create content. And I've actually been asked this a couple of times recently in the I I produce a lot of content, right? This week alone, we have yesterday, Earthborne Rangers.

55:23 So yesterday afternoon, I took the afternoon off work and I did play through of Earthborne Rangers. Tonight, I've done the Q&A. Tomorrow I've got some plans for tomorrow. Friday is another day off work and I'm doing Druids of Adora in the afternoon and I'm doing Super Mundi in the evening and then on Saturday, I'm doing two videos for Nippon's I bat su. One is a practice game in the afternoon and one again in the evening. And some people will look at that and say, "Wow, that's a huge amount of content." Bearing in mind, this is my full-time job, right? I don't have another job to go to. And whilst it is true that I have a lot of background work that I'm doing, I'm writing a script for upcoming how-to-play video, I'm doing some testing for a future unlock scenario and the editing of all of the cards for that. I've got all sorts of background work going on, but I do produce a lot of content.

56:15 And do I produce as much content as I do because I'm concerned that if I don't produce this much content, I'm going to make less money on Patreon? No. I'm producing all of this content and honestly, if I could produce more, I would because I love what I do. I love producing content for games, I love playing these games and it really frustrates me of the fact that we're almost halfway through March and I've still got games that I brought back from Essen that I've I haven't covered yet and that's just because I've been so busy with everything else that I haven't got around to doing it. So no, I don't personally feel the pressure of having to make content. You, John, in your position, if you are retiring and you're thinking you could create of creating content, then I would strongly recommend you just do it because you want to do it. Don't go out and spend £4,000 on a fancy camera, lights, and everything else and think "Right, I'm going to be the next big channel and I'm going to get 50,000 subscribers in 6 months." Right, you might end up with doing videos where you will get 50 views or 100 views. There are lots of content creators out there who I know, some of whom I'm friends with, some of whom I watch their videos and they only get a few hundred views on their videos, but some of them are really good content. Some of them, I would say, are better quality content than my live streams and yet they don't get that many views. So yeah, just be prepared that you might be doing it for actually very little views. And

57:47 if you're looking to monetize the channel, then you seriously need to be getting a huge amount of views if you want to make money from it. Don't go into it with that mindset. I I would I would do it because you want to do it and because you enjoy doing it. Next question from Carl, what is the best way to bring games back from Essen? Carl says he may be going for the first time this year, probably flying. So Essen for the last few years has a postal service within the halls themselves. That is the best way of doing it. I've never used it because I've been fortunate enough that I've always had friends go over with large cars or vans and things like that. But I know lots of people that do use it. So what you do is you buy the games, you put them in your bag, you then go to this place which is in Hall 8, I think it was last year, and basically, you buy a box and you put all the games in the box and they give you the packing material and then they say where it's going and you give that and you pay them and then a few weeks later, you'll get your games. So yeah, there is a place within Essen itself where you can send the games off.

58:48 Next question from Brian, what are your thoughts on the Concordia special edition? It's an awesome game, but how much does bling how much bling does it warrant? It might be nice nice to have all of the maps in one place. By the way, they include a quote from you on the page. Now I didn't realize this, but there is a quote from me on the on the preview page of the Concordia special edition. So I didn't know it was there and I went and had a look at this last night and I'm like, I don't remember saying that. Now, I'm not saying that Awaken Realms have misquoted me. All I'm saying is that Awaken Realms didn't ask me to give them a quote. So what they've probably done is they've probably watched the review that I did back in the day when I did review videos, I did a review of Concordia. And they've probably taken some of the words that I used in that review video and put it on screen as a quote, which I have no problem with whatsoever. I just I don't remember saying those exact words because, you know, that review video was years ago.

59:49 What do I think of Concordia special edition? Well, I'll let you into a secret. 2 weeks before they announced that the Concordia special edition was going to be Awaken Realms' new big, you know, overproduced, super deluxified game, I was having a conversation with somebody at a board game convention and we said, "Right. So, they've done Castles of Burgundy. They've done Puerto Rico. They're doing Agricola. Another publisher has got Terra uh Terra Mystica. What are they going to do next?" And we sat there and we went, "Right. The category here or the criteria here is massively popular, really well-respected, solid Euro games that have been around for a while and stood the test of time and are known as just really, really good games. Castles of Burgundy, yes. Puerto Rico, yes.

1:00:38 Agricola, yes. Terra Mystica, yes. What could be next?" And I went, "I think it'll be Concordia." So, we had a discussion about "Nah, won't be Concordia. What can you do to deluxify Concordia?" Anyway, and then 2 weeks later, Awaken Realms announced "Oh, we're going to be doing Concordia special edition." So, what do I think about it? Well, as I say in the quote on the page, Concordia is a fantastic game and I love playing it. So, I think Concordia is the right decision based on the criteria that they are using to do these games. Does it need a super deluxified version? No. No games do. It doesn't need all of the bling and everything else. Is it going to look nice on the table? Yeah, it's going to look nice on the table. It is. And that's just that's just how it is.

1:01:25 Next question from Keith, and this is the last question before we have a break. Do you have a favorite season, spring, autumn, etc.? And is it down to the probable climate, board gaming activity, or something else? So, Keith, one thing that not a lot of people know about me, so this is me sharing something personal, is I think most people in life are affected by what's called seasonally adjusted disorder. I think everybody has that to some extent. It's called seasonally adjusted disorder. It's a disorder, but I I don't class it as a disorder. My emotions and my emotional state is affected by the seasons.

1:02:11 And I know that and I I can feel that. And there are a number of times each year where I will smell something different. And I I I've never been able to I I don't want to analyze it or anything else like this, but it there'll be one day around the time when we're going from winter to spring where I will walk downstairs and I will just breathe in and I will have this moment and it triggers this emotion. And that smell is the smell of spring. But the it only ever happens once. And it's a really weird feeling, but this has been my whole life. So, it's a weird feeling because I walk downstairs and I go and I go, "Ah, there it is."

1:02:57 And because I've had this my whole life, I know about it. I know it's coming. I know what effect it has on me. And when I get that transition from winter to spring, it is one of the uh it is one of the happiest moments of the year. And it happens every single year and I think it's already happened this year. I think it was a I think it was about a week ago. It It was either a week ago or I'm I'm making it up and it hasn't happened yet. But, yeah, I I will I will smell something. And it isn't a gradual thing. It It's It's one day where it will just happen and it's really, really weird. Uh winter for me tends to be a a difficult time. And I'd like to say it's down to all sorts of various factors going on, but I think a lot of it is just you know, the fact that the weather changes and things like that. Anyway, right, that's it for all of the questions that we've been asked in advance. Good, let's take a short break now. I'm going to get a glass of water and we'll talk I didn't even have any there.

1:04:00 Let's tell you about the contest. So, every month as part of these live Q&As, I give away 50 or 75 pounds of games vouchers from Games Lore. It's 50 pound if the winner is one of my patron supporters, it's 75 pounds. If the winner is not one of my patron supporters, it's 50 pounds. That's That's how it works. The winner of the live Q&A giveaway for last month is Keith Broskey. So, well done, Keith. Keith entered the contest last month and I did the draw earlier on today. Keith has been a patron supporter of mine since the start of this year. So, yeah, congratulations, Keith. You have won 75 pounds of games vouchers from Games Lore and I have sent you an email, so we've started the ball rolling on that. If you want to enter the contest for this month, it's really simple. There is a link which Vicky is going to put in the chat right now.

1:04:56 The link is also in the description of this video. And if you are listening back as a podcast, there is a link in the description of the podcast as well. Now, just to give you an idea of your chances of winning, these live Q&As generally get about 2,000 views and only 150 people enter the contest. So, what's that? Well, if it was to uh less than 10%. Less than 10% of the people watching this video or listening to this as a podcast actually enter the contest. So, just to clarify, entering is absolutely free. It doesn't cost you anything whatsoever and all you need to do is click on the link in the form and fill in the details. If you are one of my patron supporters, you do get extra chances to win as a thank you to you.

1:05:45 Anybody who's clicked on the link right now will be asking what the secret word is because it's not just clicking the link on the form and filling in the details. One of those questions is what is the secret word this month. And the secret word this month is haggis. So, haggis is the secret word this month. If you just put that in there, I will be doing the draw in about 4 weeks' time. So, on the day of the next live Q&A, whenever that is, uh that's when I'll be doing the draw. So, even if you're listening to this video back in 3 weeks' time, you can still enter the contest. Now, thank you very much to all of my patron supporters for funding the channel. I said I'd talk about the charity. For those of you that don't know, if you're new to the channel, all of my advertising revenue from all of my videos goes to charity. So, not just this video, not just my monthly vlogs, but all of the advertising revenue from all of my videos goes to charities and other good causes. So, I don't make any money out of the videos themselves on YouTube.

1:06:41 People call me crazy. They would be right. But, the reason why I can do that and the reason why I can continue to do that is because of the support of the patron supporters. So, huge thank you to all of you for supporting on Patreon. And if you are in a position to be able to do so and you want to support me directly, patreon.com/gamingrules. If you are wondering why there is a road to freedom bar below me, it's because we are currently sitting at 1,330 patron supporters, which is mind-blowing and overwhelming. But, if we get to 1,400 patron supporters, I have said that I am going to do a live play-through of a game called Freedom in the Galaxy from 1977. That's going to happen if we get to 1,400 patron supporters.

1:07:27 It's only 70 to go. 70 doesn't sound very much, but if you become one of my patron supporters, you can help us achieve that goal. Right then, we're going to now head on over to all of the questions that we've been being asked since we went live. We've got about 20 minutes left. Shall we say no more questions? How do you feel about the number of questions that are there? We're just going to have a look and see where the questions start. So, yeah, I think that's enough. Yeah, okay. I'll say no more questions for now. If you do have any questions, please save them till next month. And now let's go through these. So, the first one is from Monica. How much research do you put in to find new audio and video gear for your studio? A lot.

1:08:13 I I I put in a lot. Vicky puts in a lot. We watch loads of videos. I talk to other content creators. I talk to people on Slack. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Okay? Sometimes I have bought equipment which other content creators use and I haven't had any luck with it and it's had to go back. That's happened with microphones. It's happened with cameras. So, yeah, I do do the research and sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not good. Uh Ross says, "Have you played or heard of Millennia: Tracks of Time?" I have not. No. Not Not even heard of that one. Easy question. Next question from Keith. Who is the blue cutie to your left with the awesome hair? So, this Right. This is a little plushy from Lookout Games for a family puzzle style game called Ephy, E W P I.

1:09:08 And we were asked to do testing and proofreading for the content of the game. It's a little bit like Cantaloupe. If you've played Cantaloupe, which is a puzzle style game, it's kind of like that, but it's for kids. And it's actually really good. So, we enjoyed it even though it's aimed at a younger audience. And Ephy is the little alien character who's crash landed on Earth in a little house with the family, and it's your job to try and get Ephy back home. I think it's something like that. So, this is Ephy, and it's a really good game. Really like it. Um Next question from Lemons, have you checked out or played the new Cloudspire factions yet? No. Do I have a favorite? No, but it's on my list to do very soon because in 8 days time, I will be doing a live playthrough using two of the new factions from Cloudspire. So, I need to learn one of them, and I'm going to be playing I think it's the Creel who are bats.

1:10:09 I haven't even opened the box yet, but at some point over the next 8 days, I need to be getting it, learning it, and practicing it ready for the playthrough next Thursday. Thank you very much for the reminder for that. Next question from Paul Snows, what are you feeding the plant? It looks like it's hitting the ceiling. I'm feeding the plant oxygen. Uh but it's not growing. And the reason why it's not growing is it's not real. It might look real, but it's not real. It's an IKEA special. Also, this one here. Not real. Yeah. So, yeah, these these plants are not real. Uh next question from Frodo, what is a board game accessory that you didn't think you needed, but now you love using it? Specifically a generic one that you can use across multiple different games.

1:10:54 Well, I went for many, many years without a dice tray. And I thought I can do without a dice tray. And then about I think it was maybe 4 or 5 years ago, I made a decision and said, I want a dice tray. And now I have about five dice trays. Two people made me dice trays and sent them to me. I made one of my own, and um I bought a couple or I got sent a couple. So, I now have about five or six dice trays, and now I really like using dice trays because it bothers me when I roll dice and they bounce all over the table and they hit pieces and they knock something off, and it's like Yeah. So, yeah, dice trays. Uh now, you're you're saying a board game accessory I didn't think I needed. I actually I did think I needed because I was starting to get bothered by the dice going everywhere.

1:11:45 Um but I yeah, I spent many years thinking I don't need one. What is the weirdest part about being a public personality in your daily life? What would Vicky say? I don't know, actually. Um I've I've been doing it long enough now that I it it isn't something that I think about. I mean, for a start, you know, when I go to the post office and buy a stamp, nobody's going to recognize me. The only times that people recognize me are when I'm at a convention or I'm at the train station on the way to the convention, apart from this once. There was this one time we were on holiday in Italy about 2 years ago now, 3 years ago. 2 or 3 years ago. I was on holiday in Italy.

1:12:32 And we were in a small Italian town. So, not even the airport, not even a big city or anything like this. We were in a small Italian town that every year celebrated some festival for something or other, right? And the whole town was made up, and it was all medieval, and there was all of these things going on, and we decided to go to this town for that day. And we were wandering around this grassy area, and I was eating an ice cream, and I was with Vicky, and I was with Vicky's family. It was a big family holiday. And this guy came up to me, and he was like, "Are you Are you Paul Grogan?" I was like, "Really? This is really weird." So, Vicky's family are pointing at me and laughing and taking photos and everything. And it was just a random occurrence that this guy watches my channel and recognized me, and it was really weird. Um yeah, I say really weird, it actually wasn't really weird. It was just It was weird that it happened, but it was fine. Um so, yeah, I don't Yeah. I don't What was the question again? What is the weirdest part about being a public personality in your daily life?

1:13:40 I I I don't know. We'll talk about this later. I can't think of anything. I I also hope that all of the people that come round here and play games with me, especially the people who I knew as friends and gamers before I even started the channel, don't think it's weird that I'm now on the telly. Um I don't think they do. I think they treat me the same, and I treat them the same, and I talk to them the same. Nothing's changed. So, yeah, I I I I'm I don't think there's anything. Uh next question, what is the best way to write a rulebook? Oh, gosh, that's not a question that I can answer um quickly. I I do 1-hour seminars on how to write a rulebook. So, summarizing that in an answer to a Q&A is going to be very difficult, but what I will say to you is one, do not front-load information. Please, please, please, do not front-load information. I don't care how important you think me knowing about how this particular interaction works, don't put it at the start of the rulebook, right? Secondly, blind test your rulebook. Once you have written your rulebook, make sure you include lots of examples, itemized setup sheets, everything else.

1:15:03 Get it tested. Sit down in a room with people, with your game, with the rulebook. Don't say anything, and let them try to set up the game from your rulebook, and let them try to learn the game from the rulebook, and only interrupt them when they start making mistakes or they get really stuck. Otherwise, try to avoid stepping in and taking over and teaching them how to play. There you go. Best advice I can do. Blind test. Has there been a situation that has left you so giddy you have to say it out loud? Yeah. Yeah, good question, Monica. Um there's been a few situations, actually, where I've been doing a live stream, and an an absolute amazing thing has happened, and I've just been absolutely bubbling about it. There was one that I did a few months ago where I literally had to mute the microphone, and I walked around the room swearing because what had happened was so amazing.

1:15:59 Um it was just It was just Yeah. So, it has happened, and I'm glad that it's happened on camera. And for those regular viewers of mine, you will know that I'm not I don't have a fake online personality. So, I'm not like, "Oh, I'll tell you what, if I pretend to really enjoy it and mute the microphone and go off and swear, then that will get me more views." No, I do it because it's me. I'm passionate about these games, and when something happens, I really like it. One situation happened last week. Last week, I was doing my first ever practice game of the Riker deck from Star Trek Captain's Chair. So, Riker is one of the captains that's included in Second Contact. I'm going to be doing a solo playthrough in about a week's time or 2 weeks time.

1:16:47 And last week, I learned the deck for the first time. Now, I was learning it as a private live stream with people from the design team watching. And there was one particular card that got played, and my reaction was, "This is absolutely bonkers. What the heck's going on here? This is really weird." And they were watching it, and they were they were giddy. They were happy because that's exactly the reaction that they wanted from people who saw that card for the first time. And I was really happy that I gave them that enjoyment by me experiencing that card for the first time. Now, when I come to actually do a video with that character, I won't be having that reaction. I'm not going to fake that reaction because I know that card now.

1:17:35 I will be still explaining how bonkers that card is, but I will be doing it using normal words and not um not exaggerated ones. Next question from Frodo, whenever you get to the point of retirement, do you see yourself continuing to stream games with the hope that you wouldn't have stress involved and playing it just for fun? Yeah, we actually talked about this. I I think we've had some independent financial advice recently, and I think we were talking to the financial adviser about retirement and what retirement might look like for me. And we basically explained to him that whilst this is my job, and I do get paid by publishers to do this as a job, this is also something also something that I very much enjoy doing. So, I'm technically 12 years away from the retirement age in the UK, but I I'm kind of retired already. I mean, I'm not, but I am. It's all a bit Having this kind of job is is weird. It means that normal life of normal getting up and going to work and getting paid and you know, all of that stuff, that doesn't really apply to me. So, yeah, when I hit when I hit 67 and I am technically at retirement age, I will be continuing to live stream games because this is something that I enjoy doing. I may cut down over the years, but I don't

1:19:05 think I'm ever going to stop because I just enjoy doing it so much. Uh next question from Harsh, uh will you be attending Essen Spiel this year? Yes, I will. I've attended every Essen Spiel apart from the one that didn't happen since 1999. And this year, I will be working for Glass Cannon Unplugged, and I will be running demos of Don't Starve. So, if you are going to Essen this year, and you want to come and say hi to me, please don't come and say hi to me. Please don't come and say hi to me at the Glass Cannon Unplugged booth because I will be demoing for them. And when I'm demoing, I personally believe it's a little a little weird for people to come up to me and say, "Hi Paul, can we just get your photo?" while I'm in the middle of demo. I'm being paid by Glass Cannon Unplugged to demo their game. So, I kind of feel a bit icky when I stop doing their game to do that. So, if you do want to come and find me, I will be releasing my whereabouts at Essen Spiel in the weeks beforehand, and I will tell you the best place to come and find me.

1:20:09 But, yeah, I would ask that you don't come by the Glass Cannon Unplugged booth while I'm there demoing. Unless you just want to literally, you know, wave and throw a Jaffa Cake at me. That's fine. Or if you want to come by and get a demo of Don't Starve. That's fine as well. Uh next question, do you recommend buying games during Kickstarter campaigns or from the website uh and exhibition? Oh, you mean for Essen? Um I mean, yeah. I I'm not in a position to recommend whether people buy games on Kickstarter or not. That is I don't feel comfortable in saying, "Yes, you should buy games on Kickstarter." or "No, you should not buy games on Kickstarter." That is a decision which everybody has to make individually. What I would do is I would definitely look at that publisher's track record because one thing that really annoys me is when the games come out at retail like the same time or even before and they're cheaper.

1:21:10 Now, at the moment, we are faced with a a lot of things going on in the world. And when you look at games on Kickstarter, and you see the game and you're like, "Oh, yeah, that that seems all right. 50 55 dollars. Yeah, it seem seems okay." Oh, wait a minute. And now I've got to pay taxes, and that's another 12 dollars. Oh, and now I've got to pay shipping. How much is shipping? 32 dollars. All right. So, I'm now paying 85 dollars on Kickstarter for a game that costs 55. Now, some people do. And they publishers always try to give you incentives uh in incentives to back their game. Here's some extras. Here's some Kickstarter exclusives that, you know, and if you've got the money, sure, go ahead.

1:21:56 But then, when that game comes out, and you find it for 55 dollars in a store, and you're like, "I should have just bought that." You know? Yeah, it might not be the super deluxe version. It might not have all of the bells and whistles on, but yeah, I I I don't like it when games come out in retail for the same price or sometimes slightly cheaper at roughly the same time and sometimes earlier. I don't know. It's one of those things that makes me feel a bit icky about the hobby. And I'm part of that problem cuz I work in the industry and I produce videos for games that are on Kickstarter. But, there's my thoughts on it. But yeah, I can't tell you whether to do that. Uh in terms of whether you should buy games from the website or the exhibition, yes. Yeah, I mean, buying games from Essen itself is the best place to do it because then you're not paying for shipping or or anything like that.

1:22:47 Next question from Rick, "When are you pulling the name out of the hat for the Arnak draw?" March 31st is when I'm going to be doing it. And which hat? Well, it'll be a virtual hat. I'm not physically going to print off hundreds and hundreds of tickets, rip them up, and put them into a hat. That will take forever. Um but yes, I will be doing the draw for the Arnak contest on the 31st of March. Next question, "Have you heard of Ashes and Ember on Kickstarter? It's a card-based civ game that I was very intrigued about." Nope, not heard of that, but a card-based civ game is always worth a look. But nope, not heard of that one. Uh next question also from Rick, "Have you reached out to the Slay the Spire guys for the new Kickstarter?" I haven't. Uh couple of reasons. The first one is I I'm I'm pretty much booked for this year. Honestly, my my sh- my plans for this year, certainly for the next three or four months, are absolutely packed. Like really packed. I can't fit anything in for three or four months. So, I don't want to be in the situation where I approach a publisher and say, "Hi, my name's Paul. I'd like a copy of your game.

1:23:55 Do you want any paid content for it?" when I then turn around and say, "Actually, I can't do anything till November." So, yeah, I'm I'm not in a position of uh you know, reaching out to people and asking for stuff because I don't have the capacity to do it. Also, believe it or not, I still feel uncomfortable in reaching out to publishers to ask them if I can cover their game. That's something that I still feel a little uncomfortable about. As for my point of view, I have been around long enough that if a publisher wants finds my stuff and likes the content that I create and wants to contact me, that's great. But, I also know that I am, compared to a lot of the American content creators, I am still relatively unknown. But yeah, I am I still feel a bit icky about that.

1:24:46 Next question is, "Are there any themes that you think have been overdone, or do you think it doesn't matter about the theme so much provided the game mechanisms are good?" So, honestly, we do get asked this question or variations on this question either every month or every couple of months. And the answers are, "Are there any themes that I think have been overdone?" No. "Do I think it doesn't matter about the theme so much as the game mechanisms are good?" Yes. That That's That's the short answer. I think a number of years ago, people would have said the Cthulhu theme is overdone or, you know, farming theme has been overdone. Right now, I think we are still in this golden age of games. There's hundreds and hundreds of games coming out all of the time, all with all sorts of different themes, and that's fine. You know, if you think there are too many fantasy cooperative role-playing style games, sure. But, I I my only issue with that is that I don't have time to play them all. So, no, I don't think any themes have been have been overdone. And yeah, the theme for me is secondary compared to the game itself.

1:25:53 Uh next question, "Have you played any legacy games like Jurassic World Legacy?" Uh Island of Ember, the Pandemic Yes. I've I've played leg- I've played Pandemic Legacy Season 1. I've played Charterstone, which is a legacy game. I have played Aeon's End Legacy. So, for those people who don't know, the difference between a legacy game and a campaign game is a legacy game has physical alterations to the game which cannot be undone. So, you are physically destroying components, or you are physically putting large stickers on areas of the board, stickers that won't come off, etc., etc. Now, you might think therefore that Gloomhaven is a legacy game because you're putting stickers on the board.

1:26:42 Technically, it is. But, for me, legacy games are you play them once and then that's it. So, Pandemic Legacy Season 1, you play it once. At the end of it, you cannot replay that at all, right? Gloomhaven, once you have played 50 games of Gloomhaven and you've got all of these stickers on the board, you can replay it. You just have to have another way of tracking what stickers you have on the board and which scenarios you've unlocked. But other than that, you can replay it. Charterstone, you cannot replay Charterstone from the start because you are physically putting large stickers on the board and things like that. Now, what's interesting about Charterstone, unlike Pandemic Legacy, is that at the end of a campaign of Charterstone, can actually play that final board that you've created over the course of the game. So, do I like legacy games? I do. Have I played that many legacy games? No. But, I like campaign games. I like legacy games.

1:27:48 Yeah. Um That That That's how I feel about them. I do enjoy them. Next question, "Do you get uh you get early copies of some Kickstarter games or prototypes? Yes. What do you do with them afterwards? Do you sell them, keep them?" Um cuz they are most of the time not final. So, first of all, do I sell them? Absolutely not. I personally believe it is fundamentally, morally, and ethically wrong for me to sell a pre-production prototype copy of a game. It's just wrong. Uh and and and I'm I was really surprised when somebody who I know, who is another content creator, actually put up for sale on BGG a prototype copy of a game. I'm like, yeah. It It shocked me because I just I just assumed the the rest of the world thought the same way that I did. That you should not be selling prototype advance copies of games.

1:28:53 Do I What do I do with them? Well, some of them I send them on. So, recently, I have had to send on the copy of Goa. So, I I did a video on the new version of Goa recently. That's gone to Tom Heath. I've also had to send back, unfortunately, the prototype of Voidfall, the expansion of Voidfall. I've had to send that on to another content creator. The reason I say unfortunately is that I was planning a game of Voidfall in a few weeks time and I was kind of hoping to use some bits from the expansion, but I can't now cuz I had to send it on. So, yeah, generally speaking they get sent on to somebody else. If the publisher doesn't want me to send it on, then it usually get recycled. And um yeah, some of the bits I will put into a general pool. The cardboard will get recycled and and things like that.

1:29:40 But yeah, definitely not definitely not selling them on. Uh next question from Target44, "Have you considered playing any other co-op Eurogames after Arnak, such as Viticulture World, Everdell Journeys, Thor Gal, etc.?" So, me and Rick are in discussion about what campaign game we are going to be playing next and I can tell you that the most likely candidate is that we are going to be playing through the campaign of The Mandalorian. Both of us are huge Star Wars fans. Both of us have played Mandalorian before. Both of us enjoyed it. So, that's probably what's coming next. When is it coming to the channel, you might ask? I think April. We don't have a fixed date yet because we've got a lot of other things that I need to do and I've got a lot of other Captain's Chair videos that I need to create, but hopefully at some point in April the every other Tuesday night gaming with Rick will start up again and we'll be playing through The Mandalorian campaign.

1:30:40 As for the other ones you mentioned, Viticulture World I don't have. Everdell Journeys I don't have. Thor Gal I don't have. But yeah, um we do have a couple of other options if we don't play The Mandalorian and if we do play The Mandalorian, we've got a couple of options for what we're going to do afterwards, but we'll take it one step at a time because there's plenty of other games to play. Uh next question from Big Sound, "Are you familiar with games from the NAC Wargame Studio?" No, afraid not. Um if I am, I've forgotten who they are. So, I'm I'm not I don't know who the NAC Wargame Studio is. I will look them up afterwards, but yeah, it's it's not ringing a bell. Next question from Lootin Ruckunk, uh "Do I think there could be a theme that is too niche for a game as in the theme is liked by much fewer people, so it's unlikely to sell?

1:31:34 Say seed dispersal or spider webs or bricklaying." Bricklaying? Oh, we absolutely need a game about bricklaying. To be honest, I don't think if you have a niche theme, it's necessarily a problem. So, for example, bricklaying. If you bring to me and say, "Paul, I've got this game. It's about bricklaying." I'll be like, "All right. Okay. I'll I'll take a look at it." But you you're right, it might not appeal to most people, but I think if the mechanisms are good, then a quirky theme or a a niche theme might work well. Where it might not work well is when you've got a theme about a TV which wasn't very popular. So, "Oh, I've got a game about this TV show that was on in 1974 and was canceled after six episodes because nobody watched it. But I'm going to do a game on that." And people will be like, "Really?"

1:32:28 So, yeah, niche themes can work quite well. For example, a game which I think is is a terrible game. I I played this game and I didn't enjoy it whatsoever. But the reason I didn't enjoy it is because I thought the game was a a bad game. And this is Holding On the life story of Billy Kerr or something like that. Now, the theme of the game is very niche and is very unique and is very good. Basically, there's this guy in hospital who's dying called Billy Kerr and he's got memory issues and you're trying to help him piece together his memories of his life while he is dying on his death on his deathbed. Now, that is a really interesting theme. And if they'd built a good game around it, I'd have been like, "Oh, this is really really good." But for me, that game was a terrible game and I really didn't enjoy it at all. So, yeah, didn't didn't work.

1:33:29 Um where are we now? Next question from Frederick, "Are you going to play Survivalist? As I really enjoy watching you play board games. Keep up the good work, Paul and Vicky." Thank you. Am I going to play Survivalist? I I've not even heard of that game, so unlikely. Yeah, not heard of it. Uh next question from Aiden, "Will you be doing your idea of International Unplayed Games Day during your week off in July? That's why I heard you mention it." Yes. So, for those people who don't know, which is most people because I haven't actually spread the word about this yet, but I'm starting something this year which I'm hoping as many people as possible jump on board with and I'm going to try and spread the word as much as I can.

1:34:18 Before I do, I want to say that I'm not getting anything out of this. This is just another of Paul's crazy ideas that he thinks would be a good thing. And it's International Unplayed Games Day. And the date that I've chosen, and I haven't told anybody about this other than Vicky, is the 1st of July. So, 1st of July every year is going to be International Unplayed Games Day where it is everybody's the the idea is that gamers everywhere on that day, whether it be a weekday or a weekend or whatever, go to their pile of opportunity or their shelf of shame, whatever you want to call it, and pick one game and play it.

1:35:03 Because most people in the board gaming hobby have a pile of games that they haven't played. And a lot of people just never get round to playing them. So, my idea was that on the 1st of July every year you go and get one game off your shelf that you haven't played and you play it. So, I am going to be looking for help in spreading the word about this as much as I can. As I say, I'm not getting anything out of it. It's just a fun thing that I want to do. Now, what Aiden is mentioning is that traditionally for the last few years, I take the 1st week in July off work and I live stream games all day, every day. And this year, the 1st of July is a Wednesday and that will be in the middle of my week off work. So, I will be live streaming games Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the Wednesday, I am going to be playing games that I've not played before. So, what's going to happen is I am going to get a list of all of the games which I own which I haven't played yet. I will be putting that list up to my Patreon producers and they will be voting on which two, maybe three games of that list I will play that day. So, that vote will go up probably around the middle of June and if you are one of my Patreon supporters at producer level or higher, you get to vote on what games I'm going to be playing. So, yeah, thank you very much Aiden for the opportunity to talk about that. Put it in your diaries. 1st of July, International Unplayed Games Day.

1:36:33 Couple of questions left. We have uh Chris. Hi Chris, thank you for popping in. "Have you considered doing a play through of War of the Ring? Sorry if I've missed it." Well, Chris, you have missed it because for the last 2 years around this time of the month, I have done a live play through of War of the Ring. So, I've already got two of them on my channel, if not three, and I'm doing another one next Wednesday. So, yeah, International Tolkien Day is March 25th, which is known as Tolkien Reading Day. It's the date in which the ring was destroyed. And what I've done for the last couple of years is on that day, I well, in fact, last year definitely, it wasn't No, no, no, last year I did it on March 15th because we were away on holiday on March 25th. So, this year, March 25th, next Wednesday, 7 days from now, I will be doing a play through of War of the Ring. But that isn't the first time I've covered it on the channel. And we're doing a four-player game. So, we're actually going to be using the four-player rules next Wednesday.

1:37:34 The video isn't on my channel yet, but if you are able to watch us live while we're playing it, we're going to be starting at 1:00 in the afternoon and playing till about 5:00 or 6:00. Please join us next Wednesday if you can. Uh next question from Murray, "I've watched a lot of your older streams and you did more digital stroke online play throughs, even asking patrons to select a game from your Steam account. Will you do more online plays?" Potentially. The reason why I'm not doing that at the moment is as usual a lack of time, but also, I'm actually playing a lot of Gloomhaven not Gloomhaven, Frosthaven. I'm playing a lot of Frosthaven digital at the moment because it's fantastic. It's really good. Now, some of those have been live streams. I have done one stream which is on my channel now, which is a first look at Frosthaven digital, but I've done at least one or maybe even two other late night Paul plays a bit of Frosthaven on the computer and I've live streamed it for my Patreon supporters.

1:38:29 So, again, if you are a Patreon supporter of mine, you do get exclusive access to some additional behind-the-scenes content and some additional play throughs, but I'm playing that at the moment and that's really good. But I'll tell you now, nobody knows about this. Vicky doesn't even know about this. But on Saturday night, I might be doing another play through of Talisman. And the reason for that is the new city expansion has been released for the digital version as of today. So, Saturday evening, if I have time after the Nippon solo play through, I might be doing some Talisman. Right, have we got anything else or is that it? I think that's it. That was the last question. Right, excellent. So, 6:43, not too bad. Just before I disappear, first of all, big thank you again to all of my patron supporters. Just as a reminder, this video is not paid for.

1:39:20 I'm not being sponsored to make this video. Nobody gives me any money for it, and all of the advertising revenue goes to charity. And I'm only able to do that thanks to the amazing support of all of my patron supporters. So, if you like the content that I create, you want to support me directly, get more chance of winning the contests, exclusive access to the community, extra videos, all of that sort of stuff, patreon.com/gamingrules. Also, the guild. Guild number 2258 on BoardGameGeek. We're going to have two questions from the discussion today. One of them was about crew of the USS Enterprise, which board game people would you pick as members of the crew for the USS Enterprise, should you be the captain? And then there was another question earlier on, which was the help for Who was it? Was it Bart? Was it John?

1:40:11 Was it Patrick? Was it Stefan? It was Benjamin. Uh Benjamin is a high school teacher in the US, and he's been taking kids away to play Twilight Imperium, and wants suggestions on what other games they can play as a as a change from Twilight Imperium. Those two questions will be appearing on the guild, if they're not already there. And head on over to the guild, and let me know what you think about it. But as always, any thumbs, comments, videos, all of that sort of stuff, likes, shares, subscribes, the usual stuff for these videos always helps. But thank you very much to everybody for watching, keeping us company. Thank you very much to everybody for watching back later on, and I'll see you next time. Cheers, everybody. Guys.