3 Filler Games Worth Your Time

0:00 Hey everybody, today I'm doing one of my favorite things to do on this channel and that is shed a little light on some small box filler games that are somewhat under appreciated, maybe have flown under the radar, or are just not really talked about because you know, I I tend to really like finding uh these hidden gems and sharing them with you guys in case you like them as much or could like them as much as I do. So, I have three games here to talk about today, all of which are a pretty different in how they feel and play um but still I would recommend them all and definitely think they are worth your attention and and maybe do a bit more research just to see if they will suit your collection. So, let's start with probably the the outlier of the group. This one's um not a card game like the other one the other two are. Uh this is Bittle. So, this is a a dice driven kind of wagering betting game um where you are betting how many times it'll take you or betting against how many times it'll take an opponent um to roll a certain configuration of dice. So, I think there's like five or six dice here um that you are trying to um get rolled to try and fit a certain criteria. So, these cards and there's tons of them might say things like well, you need to roll three of a kind um and then maybe two fives and anything else. It any kind of variation on that. And then obviously some of these are more likely than others to or easily to achieve.

1:22 And then in turn order you are going to bet how many times you think you can roll that or how many times it'll take you um in order to roll that particular configuration. Now, in turn order then the the next person can either agree with you, they can undercut you by saying they can do it in fewer rolls, or they can opt out of the round and basically bet against you. And then once everybody's in their kind of categories, um you know, the active players are going to roll and see you know, save dice back and you know, do whatever they want to do to try and meet that particular criteria. Uh if they succeed, they get x amount of points. Uh obviously if they lose, the people who opted out get X amount of points. And a nice little twist on this game is that it does actually encourage you to be a little bit more brave because you do get more points by completing those rolls rather than backing out. But sometimes when people say they can get this really difficult arrangement of dice done in you know two or three rolls, you just know that's not going to happen or very unlikely to happen. So you might still want to opt out and avoid getting nothing. Um it's fixed amount of rounds, you know, only like I think it's 10 rounds.

2:24 So it goes pretty rapidly. I think the box says um 30 minutes to play this one which is easily achievable even to set up, teach it, and and play it. Um it scales well, you know, two to five players. And for me, this is just a really nice kind of switch your brain off, have a laugh, you know, maybe do a bit of bragging or try and dissuade or persuade people to opt in or opt out of certain rounds. So it has a good amount of kind of like table um chat and you know, a good amount of interaction between you and the other players. Um and yeah, it's just a really good time. And I tend to like these again, switch your brain off dice driven games where you know, the stakes are low but they're still good decisions to be made. And you know, it's it's always a good time when you can you know, achieve this really difficult card in like one or two rolls because you have bet on yourself uh to be able to do that. So I I pretty much just explained the whole game.

3:16 There's not really any bells or whistles on this. You just bet on how many times you can think you can how many rolls it'll take you to fulfill that card. But this has been a big hit for me. These are the games that I tend to play a lot um because they really do fill those gaps in between other games where not only is it quick to play, um there's no real onus on the players to learn rules or there's no confusion or anything like that. So really big fan of Bido. Um next up then, um this is more of an obscure game by a pretty you know, well regarded designer. This is Shop 'til You Drop by um Daryl Chow. So um I think this game is in print in uh the UK or America. So, you might have to get this at a convention or something like that. I think it's um a Hobby Japan game. Oh, this is a this is actually an ori- origami game. Um this is a kind of a a pretty whimsical game where you are balancing three pots um of cards essentially. So, you are basically representing the shopper and you are acquiring these different goods and trying to put them into one of these three different pots.

4:21 Um or especially represent like different limbs and stuff. Um and you can only have you only have a certain capacity in each of those pots. So, you have up to um 100% capacity of certain cards card colors that is because maybe all of the electric goods which are I can't remember what color they are, but they might say, "Well, this one takes up 50% this one takes up 30%." And as long as you are getting the same color, you have up to 100% to to play with. Um but another way that you can store these goods is by having the same percentage of all different colors. So, you could have, you know, the the 30% blue, the 30% red, the 30% yellow and so on. And as you acquire more and more of these cards, you can constantly uh shift them around in these different pots to avoid um backing out of the round. And the draft system is is very straightforward. You just have the display of cards in the center uh and in turn order you will pick them. But of course, you might want to be factoring in which cards you want to keep for yourself. But also which cards that you know that your opponents cannot possibly keep. Because if they ever go over their limits and cannot store them in any of those three pots, then um they are going to basically go bust and have to get rid of one of those one of these pots of goods that they can no longer store. Um and as you can imagine, each card has a fixed points value. Um there's also other cards you can collect with these contracts which might say, "Well, by the end of the game have four um clothing items or have, you know,

5:47 [snorts]

5:47 um five items worth 30% and you know, if you complete them, that's some bonus points. If you don't complete them, that's some negative points. So, it's just another little micro decision that you might want to to go for, but this one is quite a strange game in the fact that it fits this weird niche between being kind of silly and chaotic, but at the same time feeling more like a traditional card game. And it's kind of sometimes feel quite you can feel quite clever when you can take just the right good and you can start mixing all your little things around thinking, "Oh, I can actually store this when I didn't think I could." But, you can just imagine your little character balancing all these shopping items and trying not to fall over. So, it's it's really light-hearted, but it's actually really a really good time. And uh this one let's have a look at the player count here.

6:33 Here we go. Uh two to five players. It says takes 30 minutes to play, but I think you can get it done in 20 uh to be honest. And it does feel very different to a lot of other card games out there. You know, we do get a lot of rinse and repeat in the hobby space at the moment. This one feels distinct and unique. Almost feels like a card game of Buckaroo or something like that, but I really like this one and the art style of it is great as well. It's based on this like a '90s um Japanese uh comic called Mr. Kiasu. Uh so, yeah, I really like the the kind of zany wacky cartoon characters on that one. So, really nice game. Uh the last game I'm talking about is more of a traditional um card game. Something that you would is a bit more typical of what you'd see um on the market today. Uh this is Fetching Feathers, also known as Peacock.

7:23 Uh I think that's a translation issue. So, I have the Fetching Feathers version here. This is actually by Chris Priscott who had quite recent success with Zooli which eventually I think went to Oink Games um called called something else which was also a really nice little animal-based card game. Now, this one is again more of your traditional set collection style game and you got different birds which look fantastic by the way. You got these really colorful charismatic looking birds with their fancy hats on and and they all score in different ways. So you know some might say you know this is worth x amount of points but you'll get more points if it's in this season or if you've got these birds on the same tree and so on. You know all stuff we've seen before but there are some twists here that I do need to cover.

8:10 And that is because this game is broken up into into three rounds essentially and each of those rounds there's it's going to be a different season. So there's going to be like a summer then a winter then it will go back to summer or winter then summer then back to winter and the importance of that is that each of these cards has a requirement on them which means that they need to have a certain resource at the locations where they are played. Each location can have two flocks of birds and each bird can have a different size flock. So you are trying to min-max all of these placements thinking not only does it have the right resources for me to be able to keep it in the first place to you know unlock that scoring but also I need to factor in that at the end of the round the season is going to change meaning that each of my locations are going to change therefore the the resources on those locations will change and therefore my birds might not have anywhere to go for the next round. So I do like the way this game forces you to play strategically. You can either go a bit gung-ho and think you know what I'll just load up on this round and score as many points as you can maybe take a hit next round and and then go from there but you can also again think ahead thinking well this card's going to flip this way meaning that this flock can now move here this flock can move here and so on. So it really is this kind of cerebral puzzle and the way you acquire these cards is through a is through a passing draft system. So yeah I want this bird cuz it's going to be great scoring, but I

9:40 need this location to boost my existing location. Maybe I want to start a new location to play more flocks down. So, I got a lot of plates you're spinning here. So, again, it has that kind of thread of familiarity, but the twists on this one actually make it stand apart from a lot of other games out there. And I think that's a really great idea, you know, that idea of your your foundations, your resources changing season on season. And if you can't cater to them and you can't give the birds what they want, they will go and you will no longer score them next round. But the further twist on that is that if you can't feed them, they will go to your neighbor. And if your neighbor can feed them, they will obviously unlock those birds for their scoring. So, it's one of those games where you can't do everything. It's got a great table presence, if not maybe a little bit sprawling. It takes up a lot of space.

10:32 But I like games that feel distinct and feel unique. And for me, Fetching Feathers does that. Again, I really do like that resource location system. I think it's a really great touch and something fresh on, you know, quite a exhausted style of game. So, I always like it when there's when there's innovation and different twists on existing kind of styles. So, that is Fetching Feathers. Again, I'm pretty sure if you like the same same type of games that I do over the years, then this one is I'm pretty confident you're going to like it because again, it's it's actually pretty clever and it's not as maybe silly as the two other games that I've talked about. There's a lot of autonomy in this game. So, I would really recommend that one to most people to be honest. So, I'm hopefully you've enjoyed this video.

11:18 Again, it's been nice to talk about some of these games. You know, three great, very different games here and that you should be checking out. Again, if you like the same type of games that I do, a silly turn your brain off dice fun, and a more kind of zany, silly card game, but with some cool ideas, um and your more traditional, um you know, set collection game, but with new innovative twists on them. So, that is that's Fletcher and Feathers. So, uh again, hopefully you have enjoyed the video. If you have, please be sure to hit like and subscribe, and check out my other content, too. But, for everybody else, I'll see you next time on Chairman of the Board. Bye-bye.