Board Game Journal - November 2024

0:01 hello everyone and welcome back to the board gaming doctor my name is Phil and I'll be your board game doctor today so let's go over some games that I played in the month of November and some thoughts that I've had during this month so I got a total of 69 games I believe if we add up all of these games together uh played in the last month as always most of these are on board game arena more on some of these games later as you can see a almost third or so a good fourth or yeah third was glass Road and so I am still continuing to play glass Road like no other so just to update you on my progress if you notice here I currently hold the number one rank in Arena in the world not by much but it is there I've been playing quite a bit of games and have been quite enjoying the experience I think blast road is definitely a game that is has layers upon layers as as you play it um I just you know I I think that this game is the perfect length and the perfect amount of complexity and strategy for me to replay over and over again and get deep into and so I am just

1:32 really pleased with the amount of experience that I've gained the thing the lessons that I've learned in this game and I think some of this is reflected on the spread of games and also the lack of content that I've had recently I think that I've been really focused on playing glass roads so much that I really haven't had any time or energy or motivation to play new games and to review them on the channel another big thing that I did in this last month was replay Apple Jack a few times in an effort to make a new strategy video now I made a big push to get better at Apple Jack and over the past year or so I've gotten almost to 150 plays and I spent a lot of time working on a video for the strategy for this game kind of compiling everything that I've learned in the you know the last few months and so as I was making that video it ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated for editing and and of course with Applejack being not a highly desired game to be played by the masses I I think there's a very Niche Community who does play this game

3:02 competitively as you can see on board game arena but you know it it really yeah it took a lot of time and effort to make that video and hence an excuse and a reason why other games were not covered during the month but also you know there weren't a lot of games out there that really had intrigued me to play until this month or at the end of the month rather with um uh the release of Miss born on tabletop simulator which I made a video for and so I I don't know I I I felt like and this kind of goes with the a podcast episode that I listened to from game Brain about the beginning of the month they haven't had a lot of episodes out recently they were one of the first podcasts that I listened to when I got into the Hobby and inspired me to make my own content as well but one of the hosts was talking about how his enthusiasm for playing new games over and over again has waned over the years and now he would rather focus on games that you could play repetitively and really sink your teeth into and I feel I felt myself kind of getting into that kind of GrooVe and that mindset in the last month particularly with glass road but with other you know thinking about Apple Jack and the the strategy video that I made for that as well and so it was it was an interesting experience to take a step

4:35 back from the latest hotness and to just really go into you know games that are uh you know that have piqued my interest that I've been wanting to really play and and replay to understand them so so I don't know that that might that might reflect how I approach future videos on this on this content on the on this channel for content and but you know we'll see if uh if a game really intrigues me enough to play it I will play it but I don't think I'll have the same Gusto to try you know a new game every week or something like that I think I'm feeling perfectly content playing these games that I love and that I do own and and Diving more into the strategy and just exploring the spaces that are offered in the in these uh few games that have really uh been something that I've enjoyed so one game that I have been playing a lot recently is clink via the new digital app that released this month or this past month and the app is very excellent the graphics are great the user interface is really well done uh direwolf does a really good job with their apps and I've really enjoyed it the game itself you know it's not my favorite game to play it's it's a very streamlined and and somewhat simple game to play in comparison to other deck building games but I you know really

6:06 enjoy playing this with family and friends I think it's a pretty smooth and easy enough game that many people can really experience and and learn how to play a deck building game but also have that Dungeon Crawl Experience that many people might be familiar with with games of old so this game is you know very well adored it's not my favorite but I think I'm in the minority when I say that uh Clank is an excellent game and this just makes it a little bit more accessible for people to try and play so as sort of a way of announcement but also as a reflection of a game that I've really enjoyed in person one that I own Arboretum this game as you can see is in board game arena it's currently in Alpha Testing hopefully that progresses pretty quickly this game is a very interactive card game where you play cards onto your Tableau you're trying to create consecutive uh not necessarily Straits of cards but uh but create you know ascending uh rows of and of cards that you can build in all sorts of directions um there is a Twist where you can only score cards if they are bookended by the same type and color of tree and if you have one of those or at least one of those trees in your hand and if you have the most and meaning not just the most

7:37 cards but the most uh uh numerical uh values of that particular Tree in your hand then you would be able to win the opportunity to score that straight that consecutive uh path that you had created in front of you easier shown and played than described I think but this game is immensely fun because of the kind of competitive nature that you are drafting these cards in front of you you discard you you you draw two cards and you play and discard a card each on your turn and so you do have uh your own discard pile that you are mindful of whether it's a card that you might want to try to draw later on or you try to discard a card that no one else might pick up and benefit from and so there's there's a lot of tough there are a lot of tough decisions to make in this game and and so it's it's just a really fun and quick but kind of cutthroat and competitive game that I can see myself playing a lot of on board game arena I really had anticipated this game being you know further developed I had seen this in the pre-alpha stage and it's wonderful to see this being in public alfit and hopefully in beta testing soon for everyone to try and that's ARB burum I also wanted to mention that beer in bread is an alpha testing on board game arena as well this is a game that I

9:08 had played when it was released last year and really enjoyed it's a two-player game with a large deck of asymmetric cards individualized cards that have multi-use effects whether to gain resources from or to uh purchase for points or to have a an ongoing ability that you utilize throughout the game it alternates between plentiful years or Bountiful years where you are passing cards and drafting one kind of in a Seven Wonders type of draft experience um but there's also the years of drought or you know hardship where you have your own hand of cards and a a set of three cards that are available here that you can uh Play Or Draw from and so you're not really passing a lot of cards and and dealing with what you have in your hand the way that you score this game is interesting too where you have to score uh I guess the lowest amount of either beer or bread that you have in your hand if you I think if you have equal then you can score score them all but uh so there's an element of trying to balance the amount of beer and bread cards that you have purchased or produced and so I think this game one is quick two you know you know it's a two-player game so it's meant to be quick and more competitive and interactive in that way and because of the individual individuality of the

10:39 cards I am very intrigued to play this game and and to dive a little bit deeper into I think this is a game very similar in terms of like glass Road you know in terms of complexity and the ability for for me to become competitive and to want to learn the strategy for so another highly anticipated game that I am super excited to see in board game arena so one game that I did want to talk about real quick was draconus 8 I had the opportunity to play this game with a family member who did back this uh when it was on Kickstarter I forgot when it launched but this is a trading card or a collectible card game rather where you uh collect these cards as it says you you purchase say $5 deck and in each deck you have a playable you know set of cards that you can utilize and play against someone where you play onto a shared board uh you're essentially every one of these cards is a four-sided um card with different numbers that you are comparing to on each orthogonal side and whoever has the higher number on the card will score a point and whoever has the most points by the end of the game wins so this game it I think it's really interesting it it does have a digital version of it where you can upload your decks customize them and play with them against other people

12:12 online and that's how I have experience this game the app works pretty well and so and and each game is really quick so I think this game does fairly well you know as as a game in and of itself as a new newer game I do see somewhat of a lack of you know complexity as some of these games are meant to be you know when they do come out as people are learning the game and strategizing with them I think if this game does have legs and Longevity then we will probably expect it to be more uh complex as the sets come out hopefully I I don't know if if if there will be you know further expansions for this game or not but uh you know was really fun I think a lot of my time uh digitally and gaming wise is taken up by other games that are uh digital and collectible right now such as Pokemon pocket and Marvel snap and so I I don't see myself really investing a lot of time in this game but I think you know if you do get the chance to play this at least digitally you know and if these packs are you know five bucks and you know easy to grab then you know it might be worth trying and we'll see if this does break out into the physical space as you know as this game's more popular popularity I I do see some competition not only with uh recent you

13:44 know trading card games like lorana and the Star Wars game but also other digital based games such as altered which has a version of it on board game arena there are a couple of these games out now and so it you know we'll see if this does make a dent in the market but for what it's worth I thought the gam playay was very smooth and and pretty interesting and fun so Stone spine Architects is a game that is on board game arena now I've had the chance to play this twice uh I did not do very well in this game as I was learning but the these are this game is from the creators of cartographers and so if you can imagine cartographers and what that that plays like this is very similar where you are picking and choosing a card from a hand to play Down onto your Tableau which is your dungeon that you're creating you pass those cards off to someone else so you know drafting style type of game where you play these cards onto your board uh you gain points based off of what kind of you know monsters and the pathways that your dungeon has as well uh you have these goal cards and challenges that you're trying to meet and you can purchase upgrades like little monsters that you can customize onto your dungeon to fulfill some of these uh spatial goals that you're trying to meet and as you can see it it looks very similar to

15:14 cartographers and plays in a similar fashion except with the opportunity to uh draft cards from a hand as well as customize your scoring abilities as you go along rather than having those uh opportunities be placed in front of you randomly at the game as in cartographers and so if you enjoy cartographers and the experience that it provides I think this game will resonate with you in the way that it alter you know Alters the way that you approach the same type of puzzle which includes you know Drafting and spatial reasoning and placing these cards in such a way that would uh spatially benefit the goals that you're trying to pursue so very fun game uh give it a give it a go if you can on board game arena so revive is an alpha on board game arena as well this was a very um anticipated game and well-received game from last year that I had the chance to play when you know it was on tabletop simulator just to learn it solo and the way that it plays is you are essentially uh playing these multi-use cards in a very Lisboa like fashion where you have the top effect for resources or a bottom effect for special effects and there's a light deck building as you play this game and a lot of map you know interaction on this board where you're trying to explore and

16:45 place down certain structures for points and you also on your own Tableau have this uh engine that you're sort of you know building literally and figuratively where you uncover different Pathways that you can activate and gain different resour resources and abilities there what surprised me when I played this game again on board game arena was how quick this game can go I believe the game trigger mechanism is you know how quickly you can draft and take all of these um items from the board I forget what they're called but you know it it happened a lot quicker than I had anticipated and so this game I feel like is I had a lot of fun playing this I I am more energized to learn about this game after having played on board game arena with other people versus when I had played it solo there's a lot of depth to this game in terms of the faction that you use and their abilities there are modules that you can add to this game for added complexity as well you can modify these slots where when you play cards you can gain extra Resources by doing so and then of course you can draft and customize your personal machine that you activate at certain times for those abilities as well so a lot of uh you know set up Randomness that makes help make each game feel different but there's definitely a lot of strategy that that you try to pursue based off of your faction what makes it easier for you to

18:15 play as well as these goal cards that you have to Pursuit points with as well I got creamed in this game and so there's a lot for me to try to wrap my head around in this game and I feel like this compares to games like lost Runes of arnac and dune Imperium where deck building is somewhat featured but it's a minor or a more minor portion proportion of the game as a whole compared to other games where it is the Forefront like the recently um reviewed game mistborn the deck building game which I had talked about but I so I I I don't know I really enjoyed this game I am rating it higher on Board Game Geek than I did before I'm I'm excited to kind of dive this dive into this a little bit more uh it's it's kind of given me you know Vibes of as before mentioned doing Imperium as well as um L room of arnac but I also kind of get the feeling of barrage and teram mistica and the games in the terrisa line when it comes to this shared board that you're exploring and trying to build on top of and and potentially cut out someone from taking a certain space and so yeah I I really enjoyed this game and look forward to playing this more so let's go to Japan this game was

19:45 a very uh interesting and well uh received game from last year that is in beta on board game arena currently and in this game you are once again drafting cards you know uh handing cards to opponents in a roundabout fashion and drafting cards to play onto your Tableau uh planning essentially planning out your trip to Japan and uh planning logistically your way through Kyoto and Tokyo and but you know so it's it's fun to really experience this planning event you know and and I guess celebrating the things that you can do in Japan but the game itself is interesting too where each car has scoring conditions that you can play u icons that are matched or found on top of the card as well and based off of where you play these cards it kind of reminded me of uh Red Rising if you remember that game from stonem where you play cards either on top you know underneath the card or on top um to either have the icons on top be uh visible or the actual effect and the ways to score points with and so not only are you trying to mix and match these cards to uh maximize the amount of score scoring opportunities that you have but you don't want to over tax yourself and you know be really tired and you know plan out your trip in a way that you get

21:17 you know lose a lot of points from being tired right you want to bring balance as you would in real life to this game so I think this game is really clever for creating a really good game in in a drafting sense it's it's not very much more I guess heavier it's not much heavier than game a game like uh Sushi go party or something like that where or seven wonders I should say it's it's about the same uh complexity I would say but it's the Ambiance and the the theme is very calming and and interesting and yeah and so I I really enjoyed playing this I I did not do very well in this game as I was learning it once again but I do appreciate this game for the Aesthetics as well as the gameplay maraging those two into a very cohesive and fun game that you can try on board game arena last but not least is naishi so this card game took me by surprise I wanted to save this for last because I have a lot of good things to say about it so it's a card game where you have a row in front of your uh your Tableau and you also have some cards in your hand what you're trying to do is uh take cards from the Middle Market uh you can only take cards as you can see that line up with the row or the

22:48 column rather that they are in and you are trying to mix and match these cards and uh align them to maximize the score and opportunities that you have you have the ability to rearrange these cards using the effects that are located here you can only use these effects a limited amount of times though uh you have cards where you know these fortresses or not these the uh these forts where you would rather play them on the edge for example or the the naishi uh which would rather have you know a lot of tokens played around them or these cards played around them and so it's a game where you it is a two-player game where you are always managing what your opponent wants to play in front of the max for maximum be benefit and trying to draft those cards before they do always knowing that they have a hand of cards that are hidden from you and so it you know it's a a very tactical kind of game that was very enjoyable to play uh this one surprised me by how much I'm and did enjoy it and with the different kinds of cards that you have available to play I don't know it it kind of reminded me of a very tactical version of a game like love letters the first one that I think of where each card kind of has a different way that it's played or a way that it's scored um so this game was very very fun

24:21 um I guess another game that I could compare this is like jaur uh mechanically all of these games are are very different from one another but the just the feeling that I got from it the uh the competitiveness that came through a streamlined set of rules and an interesting way to uh draft these cards from a market having hidden information as well it it it was a really good time I really enjoyed this game so to wrap up this video I did want to talk about what uh is coming up next for me on this channel this month at least and that's my hope I did receive finally my big box copy of newsford very much anticipated I was hoping that it would come this year and it did probably the second most anticipated game that I would purchase and own physically this this year other than Black Forest which I've already covered but I am very excited to dive deep into newsford and the new expansions that were released with this big box version and so I will play this and let you guys know what I think specifically about the expansions but also just of the big box game itself and I hope to play some other games this month such as Civ olution there is a tabletop simulator mod available that I am very keen on trying out and you know if I do get to

25:52 play that solo so be it uh I'm excited to see what that is all about and of course this month I will be doing my endof year wrap-up type of videos I'll put out a video of my top 2023 games now that I've had a chance to play more of them it's an updated list from last year and of course out of all of the games that I have played in this year 2024 which games were my favorite of them all I don't know if I will put out a top you know 10 games of all time video I don't think much has changed from that but we'll see at least I'll get out a 2024 video at some point so lots of fun things to reminice and reflect on this year a lot of good games I I do get this General sense that the games this year were more exciting to me than last year so I'm I'm excited to talk about those at some point so thank you for uh watching this video making it through some of my ramblings at the at the beginning some of my thoughts on gaming let me know if you share some some of those thoughts as well um it's always greatly appreciated and fun to interact with you over the Internet so thank you and hope you schedule an appointment with your board gaming doctor real soon take care