Top 3 Board Game Plays of April 2025

[Music] Hey, I'm Ryan. This is my brother Daniel. This is Rolls in the Family. And today we are talking about our top board game plays of the month of April, which in fact was a month that we did some gaming together. We did. It is like the minority of months, I guess. Like that's there's fewer months that we There's only a couple joyfilled months of my entire year.

And this was so much joy was had. Uh, yes. Had some had some good family time. Um, yeah. And we're we're here to talk about it. We're feeling How would we describe how we're feeling, Daniel? We're feeling We are energized. Energized. And it is not late. Definitely not. Definitely not. I definitely should not be in bed right now.

We're definitely not filming in like our last choice of filming slot to try to get this. Definitely not. Definitely not. We wouldn't do that for the people, you know, but you do what you got. You do what you got to do. That's right. Uh, and what you should do is you should comment down in the comments below because at the time of you hearing this, this video has been posted.

You can There's a nice comment section right there built into YouTube. You're much more energized than we are. You can let us know what what you played in April and what uh resonated with you. We'll have links to all the games we played. You know, we might have some nice pictures. They might make you just want to go check check these games out and and you can you can check them out through the links.

It's true. Uh, but let's just get this rolling. We want to talk talk about some games. Let's just uh jump right into it. D, what is your number three? And are we gonna have any crossover? That is the question. That is always the question. Did we enjoy playing our games together or not? We will see. Um, this one could potentially.

We'll see. Uh, my number three of April is one that uh I got to try of yours. And this was one that I knew pretty much nothing about when I heard the name of it. Like I like I heard you backed it and I did not know a single thing about it. So kind of fun to go into a game completely blind like that.

But this one really impressed me. This goes to Innovation Ultimate. Um so this was early on in my uh trip out there. We actually didn't we play two games of We played backtoback games. back toback games of of innovation. And uh I remember you talking about this one uh a little bit before I went out there and man does it hit on just a super uh super interesting design and it in it really just hits the tactical gameplay uh that I love in games in that you know you start off the game and you just get those two you have two cards and you pick one uh to play and then as the game's going on you're um just you're playing more and more these cards one of five colors and anytime you play the same color it can it goes on top of the previous one completely replacing it but then you can also like cause things to play like one way or the other and you're getting all these combos and so long story short it's a game that one is wildly interactive like I am looking at what you're doing because when I trigger uh you know one of the colors or you know based off the number of symbols I have it will you'll get to do the ability too if you have more than me.

So very like I am paying attention to what you're doing and obviously we only played this two-player. It' be interesting to see what this would how that would you know. Yeah, it would get pretty wild honestly to keep track of everything. So there's that but man you the game state just changes drastically.

Like you'll just one moment be like okay this is what I'm doing. Yeah. And then the next turn you're just like, "Oh my gosh, everything just changed and I'm having to completely pivot." Or you're like in a moment of like, "Oh my gosh, I am getting obliterated right now." And then suddenly you like, you know, combo something and you get this card and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I could do this." Or or you get a card that has a a different win condition that isn't even, you know, one of the the normal ones and and whatnot.

And so, uh, man, just a game that that was so much fun. It's one of those games that, and you mentioned this, too, of you just want to play it again right after right after you get done because every time you play, it just feels like you're going to get just such interesting and different situations um that aren't minor, that are like, oh my goodness, this is just a wildly different experience uh that I've that I've had before.

Um, I can't remember. Did I Did I win? I think you won the first one and I won the second one. And I remember the first one was very interesting because it felt like for much of the game that I was ahead because I had found ways to basically jump ahead in I was ahead of you in the eras by a couple decks.

And usually that's a pretty good sign of strength cuz you're getting the better cards and stuff. But you managed to sneak a bunch of the lower cost standard achievements. And it got to a point where even though I was in like a stronger position, you were close to winning on achievements and you were just doubling down on that.

And suddenly it was like crap. Even though I'm in a better position, I've actually kind of like not competed well enough in achievements to where you ended up, I think, winning on achievements. Yeah. Um, yeah. So, it is really interesting like the balance of the kind of opportunistic playing for the achievements and that like win condition, balancing that with like trying to get your engine more powerful and moving up um in the levels.

Well, and what I liked about it and and you know, I enjoy, you know, I've got Seven Wonders Duel and I' I've enjoyed that one, you know, decently. But something I didn't love about that one was sometimes I felt like the different wind conditions were you had to go for one at the expense of another and so you almost had to just go allin commit.

And I liked in this one that I felt like I didn't have to just like at the beginning of the game say, "Okay, I'm going to go for this or yeah, we're trying for achievements." But but you can really just play well and kind of keep your options open and then opportunistically, you know, go, you know, push towards one or the other based off the situation.

So, um, yeah, that was a a very very cool uh cool game, cool design. Um, and so I was super glad I got to try that one. I was kicked off our way. That was one of my like mustplay with you while you were here cuz I'm I'm a bit enamored with it right now. Um, it while it's like somewhat chaotic in some ways, um, it still is so like so much room for creative play and like you're looking at your options and you'll realize, oh, I could like play this or or I could play into this dogma effect and like you could do the same one twice.

I mean, you can just like make some really interesting things happen. And that just makes for a very kind of exciting replayable game where even though it's so rapidly rapidly changing the game state, there's plenty of room for like clever effective plays to like better your position. Yeah, I I can't remember how I did it, but I did something where I was able to then like steal a card from your hand, which was huge because you had a card that was from a higher higher Yep.

Exactly. a higher level that was way higher than what I could get to. And so by being able to then play that card, my uh what is that control? Well, it's which whenever you draw a card, you draw from Yeah, you get to draw a card from that deck. Right. Right. Right. So that suddenly opened up like I multiple decks because you were able to, you know, steal intel from my civilization and just broke it wide open.

That's right. So there you go. I haven't even touched any of the expansion content stuff I have and everything, but yeah. Literally very Yeah, I took it out and just rubbed it on my face. Well, I mean, and then I put it away. Okay, we knew we knew that. As I do with all games when I first Yes. I mean, that's uh standard.

I mean, I assume I assume every everybody knows. Yeah, let us know. Uh my number three, this is a first on Rolls in the Family. Oh, this this is if you've been a long time watcher, this has never happened. Debut. This is a top play of the month that you literally right now could go watch the entire play because it also is the first playthrough that we have posted to our channel.

And this is a playthrough of me playing the solo only game Final Girl. I played the Eyeless, which is one of the series 3 killers at the Falconwood location. Um, and let me tell you when you we hadn't done this like playthrough thing before and so I'm like trying to figure out the tech for it and like you know getting the angles and just like sitting down like okay am I going to get something usable out of this?

And then I'm doing it with a game like Final Girl which is so broad in the types of experiences you can get. So it's like okay I could get all the tech stuff right and then get like a very kind of meh game of Final Girl. Um, and so it was very fun to get a very interesting game of Final Girl where it was quite long.

Games of Final Girl can can kind of vary. Now, granted, I was talking and narrating probably more than I do when I'm just like playing off off of. You don't self narrate? I do a little bit out loud a little bit, but uh not as much as I did on camera. Um, but this was a very interesting play of So, Falcon Wood is an interesting location because you basically draw random mission to do with it and it has like four different ones.

There's kind of like just these wildly different versions of the map. Um, and in this particular game, I have the missing friend uh mission where my friend has gone missing. I need to basically collect clues to pinpoint where my friend is and then go and rescue my friend. So, I'm having to like kind of collect these clues around the map.

And I'm playing the ISIS, which was um this of the series 3 killers, kind of the simplest one. It basically just has this noise mechanic that every card you play raises the noise meter. And then a lot of cards in the iOS deck will say like if noise is at this amount, do this much worse thing. So, you're kind of playing with like how much do I uh you know, go up on it.

which I have to say I I'm like the iOS is kind of hard in my experiences playing it so far. But I like that it's very simple but gets you to play the game in a little different way because it's per card. So suddenly leaning into more expensive cards makes sense because it's like I'd rather play a stronger single card than a bunch of little ones.

So I like that kind of dynamic change. Um, but man, and like I said, you can go literally watch this playthrough, but the way it unfolded of just like me trying to get these clues and then like the eyeless getting like powers and it got to a point where it was like, how the heck am I going to get all his health down?

Cuz he got like one of his minor powers that adds health and it made it that like my first damage every turn didn't do anything. Like I had to like get through his thick skin and I'm just like, how am I going to do this? But I was able to make a play for a shotgun and the conspiracy theorist show up show up at one point that gave me some nice like kind of ways that I could use his little effect.

It was very funny cuz it came down to this like showdown at the uh swimming pool. And in the video I kind of get excited that I'm like, "Oh, I could use my shotgun. I should just go for the kill." And I completely forget that I can't kill him until I finish the mission of rescuing my best friend. You full on like ended the game.

I full on closed. Yeah. I thought I won. I like was closing the video and then I turn off the camera and realize, oh my gosh, I couldn't kill him yet. I'm glad I realized it. You guys got to go watch Ryan's reaction to see my reaction. It's really good. Um, so then I come back on and I finish out the rest of it and it has a strong finish.

I almost don't want to spoil it since you can go uh watch it, but very kind of like the narrative part. And that's the thing I love about Final Girl is I love the gameplay part of it. Like very interesting while there's so much wild luck. I mean, similar to what we were talking about with innovation, as long as like the decisions are interesting within that, but then kind of like a game like Elder Tour, some of these where like the theme makes it so fun like that that R you're a little more tolerant of some of that randomness because it's so kind of thematic what's happening.

Um, but I just we love that feeling of, oh, all hope is lost, but then wait a second, like this, this made a way that we could make this happen. And I get that a lot a lot in that game. Um, so it was a very enjoyable playthrough. It was fun to have it, you know, immortalized in video. I'm glad I I'm sure I got like other somebody's going to tell me the other rules I got wrong are the reasons I shouldn't have won the game.

and his video, but at least I at least I didn't completely botch it and post it, having not even uh found my best friend. So, uh yeah, it's I've had a lot of fun playing through the series 3 stuff. I'm planning on uh making a video on some of that stuff here soon. But uh yeah, it happened to be the playthrough that I uh got on camera was probably my favorite Final Girl playthrough I had this month.

Very nice, Ryan. Very nice. Sorry, I was just checking some details for my next uh next play of the month. Uh which be prepared. Which you transition. Yeah, cuz I don't prepare beforehand, I tell you that. Um, Ryan, you transitioned me quite well uh to another game that uh I was so overjoyed to get a play of this uh this now I'm having to jog the memory because it's about as far back as I can go to have it still count for the month, but I had not gotten a play of this game in so long and it just was hurting my heart cuz it's an absolute classic.

I got a play of Eldidge Horror and man was it a joy to to bring it out again. Uh it was a group of it was four of us. The other three had never played it before. So uh so it's always I don't know. It's always fun to just introduce this game that I love so much. Uh to and you're like crossing your fingers like please a good game of this please.

I know. I know. I was I was a little nervous. Uh but we really did have a great game of it. Uh we were playing the against the the synergy scissor sizzy sizzy. There we go. Uh yeah. And um and anyways, it was just such a great game. Like we we ended up losing, but man, there were just so many crazy moments that happened in the game.

like uh so we're going along and and one of my buddies uh you know one one of the tensions you can face in the game is when you get the uh you can either be forced to take a dark pact which for those of you who don't know dark pact will make you have to roll a dieice and if you roll one uh you have to flip it and it's horrible.

It's like the worst thing that you have to roll it every time every time there's every time there's a game. Yeah. Yeah. So getting one is typically terrible cuz you're probably going to at some point in the game roll one and usually it involves killing you or someone else. Um there's some other effects as well, but one of my buddies uh has the choice to get something that's amazing, but he has to take a dark pact in order to do it.

And you know, being the bold guy he is, he's like, I'm you know, what are the odds you roll one, right? What are the odds? So he takes it and I am not kidding the first reckoning rolls a just right off the bat rolls a one. Um but amazingly did not kill him or anyone else like he I I forget what the what the effect I mean it was still really bad but but didn't kill anyone and that's key.

And so, so we survived that and and we're, you know, we're going along and like it was such a it was a weird game cuz like we had one guy who it felt like was doing all the work on the mysteries and like the rest of us were just kind of running around maintain, you know, and we were actually doing pretty good.

Like we were like I was feeling like solid about how we were going um and all of that. We took care of the the rumors that came out. Um but then it's getting towards the end of the game and again another guy on our team uh had to take a dark pact as well. Um because or he took a dark pact because it ended up g ended up getting him the clue that we needed in order to I think it was like solve the solve the mystery or whatnot.

And so like and it was one of those situations where like we needed a clue and I'm I'm remembering we we needed a clue in that moment. And so the fact that like what happened it was like a card like gave him a clue. It was like this miraculous thing like oh my gosh we'll take a dark pack no problem.

Yeah. Like like we were going to lose if he didn't get that get a clue in some other way and we didn't see a way. And so we're like oh my gosh. And we're like okay we have to take her right back. We're almost at the end of the game anyway. But then we draw I I He literally does that and then we get to the mythos phase and I draw the card and it's the one that's resolve every reckoning effect as if you rolled a one and I'm like you got to be kidding me.

How I'm like guys you won't believe what I just drew. Um, and yet amazingly, we flip his dark pack and it doesn't kill anyone either, which was critical cuz we're at one on on the mythos. So, we would have died, which is one nice thing about some of getting more of the expansions is the variety of dark pack effects.

Like, every expansion adds a few more dark packs. And so, it's like there really are a lot of different ones now. Yeah, they're all bad. But, but but we we fortunately survived. So, then we still had hope except we now have like multiple multiple of us have died. And so we've got some dead bodies around that we're trying to get to to interact to retreat the doom.

And so literally the only we have to get to this person in order to interact with them to retreat the doom or we're going to lose. And I'm on the other side of the map. But we figure out this way. We're like, "Okay, if I go and I trade this amazing relic that I have to this other person, it's a relic that lets you like jump.

It lets you like transport across the map somehow. You know, it's again one of those situations that we talk about where we're like, "Okay, if I do this and I trade this to you and you jump over." Oh, because there was a pile of monsters there and the guy who could jump had an ability where he could like avoid um the monsters in doing do an encounter without uh because there was a cultist on the space.

I think it was the might have been the redeemed cultist or whatnot. Um so he was able to avoid the enemies. Um, we, all that to be said, we ended up losing. Yeah. But, but man, it was just so much fun because it was like so many moments in the game of exhilaration of I cannot believe we survived that and and just the the theme and all of that.

So it was it honestly one of the best like losses of Elder Tour of of like you lost but you just felt like man that was which almost is like a better first play with a group cuz it kind of wets it does like the desire to play again is probably high when it's like oh next time we'll get it. Oh for sure.

For sure. So it was uh it was great to get that one get that one to the table. That's for sure. Yeah. I think that that uh thing you're talking about of like the figuring out, oh, if I do this and then you do this, you'll have the ability to, you know, you string together this thing, I think it gets out a design decision in Eldish that I haven't seen in a lot of other games that I think was a really smart change kind of from the Arkham Horror or whatever where the lead investigator token at the beginning of any round, you could just pick who has it.

It's not like most games, it's like it rotates or it stays or whatever. You can always just pick who goes first. Yeah. And that's a lot of times what makes those things possible because it's like, "Oh, we need you to go first so that you can go here to trade this thing for this to happen." And I just love that they made that cuz otherwise you'd have situations where you'd be like, "We can almost do it, but we're in the wrong order or whatever." Um, so it's a little thing, but I think it does like make a big difference.

Oh, for sure. I mean, there's tons of times during the game that I can think of us changing just for that. Yeah, it's also funny because there's a lot of cards that reference the lead investigator and it's like more often bad than good and so it's usually somebody gets like hammered with something because they're the lead investigator and then we just like okay somebody else take it.

Yep. Nice. I'm glad you got it played. I haven't got it's been a little while for me actually. Um but I've I've got I've got some people that uh it's not a hard one to convince the players of Minecraft to play these days. this one played. Uh, nice. My number two is in fact a game we played together.

Um, this was another one that was I would say this and innovation were the two I was most looking forward to playing with you, making sure you played while you were here. Um, and it was one that I just have been looking forward to play a little bit more because I've only played it a few times up to this point.

And this is Planet Unknown. And specifically, we played it twice actually. Um, and the second time we played with the asymmetrical planets, which I had done once before, but it was my first time ever playing with the asymmetrical corporations, which is like the track boards. And I have to say that was a big big highlight for me because those track boards, the corporations are like really asymmetrical in really cool ways.

Like the planets are like a little different. They have like a little something that spices it up. But we were reading I mean we were in a four player game and the four different boards we read off were like oh my gosh like we are going to be playing very different things over here. Um and so I I was playing with this one that had this like flux tracker and basically um you know because you go up the tech track and that unlocks different uh abilities um and those are all unique to the boards.

Well, on my board, instead of the abilities stacking as I went, which most of them just kind of keep layering on mine, I only get the current one, like whatever the most recent one is, but whenever I get to abil an ability, I get to move my little flux tracker onto whichever of the tracks I want, and then the ability is applying to that track.

So, I'm like selecting the track that I want the ability um to apply to. And so, um, there's just it was very interesting the different things it would do. I I know late in the game I got it to the point where like I put it on the water track and I was going to be able to like go up more when I went on that track.

Mhm. Um, and so it was just like so different and so fun to play with that. And I even felt like, you know, if I was to play with that one again, you could play it so differently. like it wasn't cuz sometimes highly asymmetrical like factions can fall into the trap of like giving too narrow of a focus and it's like well I'm going to play exactly this way cuz this is the advantage this faction has was I felt like all the ones we had were still pretty like flexible and how you could play them, right?

Um and so it was very cool on top of just enjoying getting to play Planet Unknown a little bit more. Um, talk about a game that for the player count it can support and the kind of meat of the experience you feel like you're getting, you get the end of the game go, "Wait a second, that was only an hour." Like, cuz it's all simultaneous play.

So, like, you feel like you did so much cuz like you're taking as many turns as you would in a game that takes 2 hours or more. Yeah. But everybody's getting to play every turn. Um, and it's like, man, that is just phenomenal. And then to be able to go up to six players. We I think our two games were what?

Five player and four player. Y um and both were like just over an hour and the first one was with what if three new players. Um yeah, I'm not going to lie, Ryan. Games with simultaneous play make me wonder why I ever play games where they're down. I mean, it's an exaggeration. It's an exaggeration, but I'm just like, this is amazing to get to every turn, get to be a part of it.

Then you lose, you know, I think of some of my favorite games and some of the tension that comes with something like worker placement where, you know, there is this sequential impact on this. This is fairly got a fairly multiplayer solitaire. Definitely outside of the objectives that we were, you know, playing with in between, you know, outside of that, like I mean, I'll be honest, I had, you were talking about your power there.

I I don't remember that one. Yeah. Yeah. And and it is multiplayer and and honestly, we don't really have a huge problem with that. I mean, it's I don't want every game to be like that. There's some people that really are going to shy. That's just not their style of game. But yeah, I mean, it just we like puzzly polyomino games.

We like a lot of other ones. I mean, this one is probably going to be in the running for one of my favorites in that genre. Um, it just has a lot of really good things going for it. It looks bit, it looks more complicated than it is. I mean, I should mention that in our first five player game, it was us and our older brother and then our 8-year-old nephew and my four-year-old, almost 5-year-old son.

He's a genius. who I had to help him, you know, and a little bit. I mean, he could play it. He could play it and he, you know, played this and so that was another just big boon of it that we were able on this proud as a father situation. Yeah. Oh my god. You know, it's only a matter of time until he's just beaten me in every game.

And then you won't be proud, man. I I trained him too well. Yeah, I know. You got to keep hold him back. Yeah, I got to hold him back a little bit. I'm gonna that that's that'll be the ultimate low when I'm like cheating to try to beat my prodigy son at board games. I knowing about when I played him uh out there.

Yeah, I did I did have uh you playing Croal. You you for now held on to I at least I don't know if we had done best of three or something. I don't know. But you impress me. So um I might as well just uh keep keep glowing on. I was going to be kind of surprised actually if I didn't Ryan sat at the table as I'm when I when I love a board game a ton.

Uh I'm quite expressive and everyone at the table knows. Uh what's funny is how early in the game Daniel will make like some really definitive comment about how much he was like turn two. It's like this is the best game. Yeah. So So if you don't know already, my number one is Planet Unknown. Um, this is the best game.

No, I'm just um I loved this game so much. Like it it resonated for me on just so many levels. I mean, gosh, first the presentation is just beautiful. It just looks so great. I mean, that lazy Susan like is both uh beautiful and so functional. like yeah not even just functional but like mandatory like the game you like couldn't really work without it right and it just it works so well and it's so like that and the boards are just absolutely beautiful so so all of that you know great fantastic um then you got the I love the type polyomino play I mean it really feels like you are trying to just optimize how you're putting shapes together and I don't like when a polyomino game feels too open-ended because I like those crunchy uh decisions.

And I even had a my specialty board had a huge rift down the middle that I couldn't play pieces on one side uh or couldn't play across it and whatnot. And so that just even made it, you know, um you know, more tight. Talk about the variability. I mean, oh my gosh, these abil I mean, the game's fun already on its own, but then you add in these crazy powers, you know.

So, I have that that board, but then you combine that where I have this this track where I can when when my uh uh pods go out and collect the life support, is that what they're called? The life. Rather than them just going up and scoring a point like they normally would for someone, they can actually go I can place them onto my track and anytime one of my cubes would move to a space that has one, it skips that space.

Yeah. And so I'm like skipping spaces and then I have abilities that I can unlock that lets me move. So I I got all six of my life pods out here and I'm like moving them and I'm skipping spaces. It was a blast. Like that's so much fun. The simultaneous play, it's one of my favorite mechanics in board games cuz it just you like you said in an hour board game.

I feel like I made so many meaningful decisions and so it's just so satisfying. This one hit just across I I just wanted to keep playing it again. I played it twice and I I'm glad we got to play it twice. Honestly, it was so much fun. Um it is one that I added uh to my list of must own. Like that's how much it really uh really hit for me.

It makes you know I anytime a you know a game moves up to that I'm always then thinking okay you know what uh you know what will it uh you know is it going to like kind of replace a game? It got it's got me kind of second guessing like World Wonders is that good cuz I mean I'll be I like World Wonders.

It pales in comparison to Planet Unknown with my just my experience with it. So, uh so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. But wow, Ryan, that was that was a blast of a game. Um it just and it hits that window. So, I mean, that's a that's a hard time length we find often times to like hit really well, that kind of like hour, you know, mean I mean, if you have people who know what they're doing, you could play this in 45 minutes.

I mean, you could. Um, and it's definitely, you know, not going to go longer than 90 minutes. I mean, unless you just really got slow players, but and not only that, but it goes to that six player count, and that's a hard player count to hit, and it does it well. Like you could play a six player game and it would be it would go really well because it doesn't have the problem of getting bogged down because of because of turns.

So Wow. Yeah. I I had already like heard you talk about this one and kind of looked into it and thought it would be one I would like. Yeah. But man, playing it was uh just just so much fun. So that is my number one of April. Uh it was it was a joy. This is the problem about visiting Ryan. and I just come back with a all these games that I have to go buy.

You know, there's worse problems to have. I suppose there is. I suppose there is. Yes. Rolls in the family. We give recommendations externally and also internally. It's very true. Don't worry, Ryan. I clicked the affiliate link. Yeah, it's weird. Our affiliate, we violated the contract. Did I just violate the the Amazon policy?

Gosh, Daniel, you ruined our our $3 a month income from Amazon affiliates. I know. How are we going to How are we going to survive? How are we going to survive? I don't know how the lights are still on here. Roll the family. Let's uh That's besides the point. Let's Let's jump to my number one. I had to make this my number one because I can't remember I can't remember an example quite like this of a game that kind of defined and dominated a whole month for me.

Oh, I got this game right at the beginning of the month. Yeah. And I think in the month of April logged 65 plays of it. You can only pick one play, Ryan. Yeah, I'm cheating a little bit. This better not be a grilet. I don't know that I have it. Yeah, I played 65 games of No, this is Tumblin Dice. And this is a funny one because I have known about Tumblr and Dice since like the first year I got into the hobby in 2008 2009 because it came out I think in like 2004 originally and Tom Vassel on the Dice Tower had talked about like I'd heard about it and it was always like oh that could be a fun game or whatever.

kind of fell off my radar and there kind of wasn't a new edition of it, but 2022 a new edition came out and it had always kind of been on my list. I think honestly what kind of brought it back was this realization of my son was really liking playing Crocol and was like, "Oh, this could be a fun one with kids." Yeah.

And once I kind of just thought about it again, I was like, "Okay, this is a game that goes up to six players and would be great in like casual party settings when you know you can teach it instantly and people cuz you're you're literally flicking a die down these like wooden stair steps." And the result of your die is whatever it rolled times the multiplier of which one you win.

The further you go down, the higher the multiplier. But then other people can flick their dice and try to knock your dice off. And so once everybody's done all their dice, you score it all and you play four rounds that. So I mean you you can have everybody up and playing almost instantly in this game.

Um oh man, I still underestimated how much of a home run this was going to be. Like un I had this just knock it out of the park in like six different social situations. Um I mean we played it with our family. I mean, this is now my dad's like three games of all time. His favorite game already. My son loves it.

I mean, we had six player games that just the way it it it has like everything you would want from kind of like a party dexterity game where it's got plenty of room for like kind of exciting moments and amazing shots which a dexterity game's got to have, you know, and the way people get knocked off it and and the excitement of just like I mean you can hit it on to the times four the best thing.

Yeah. And you could get a one, but you could get a six. And the difference in excitement just depending on the die result. And yes, that's like luck mostly at this point. But here's the thing. While there's a lot of luck in the die results, the better players generally are doing better in this game because the more you can keep your dice on the board, the more you can, you know, hit the die that you're aiming at and effectively do that, the better you're going to do in this game.

Now, my problem is I get greedy for points and I'm trying to like, you know, when you're going for those times three, times four, you're often just overshooting it or or I'm going to knock my die so that I hit both of them down a couple levels and then you knock both of them off, right? Um, but yeah, I I mean, it was the month of Tumblr and Dice.

I kid you not. I mean, we're out of April now. I am a mere hour separated from just being at a family gathering where we were playing Tumblr and Dice. Um, and the fact that we can have this amazing time with everybody from my parents down to we had three-year-old I think was I mean your daughter was playing it a little bit dang, you know, she hasn't played a whole lot of games and um I mean what are just I mean how many games can do that and like have everybody laughing and having fun?

I mean laughing most of the time. We had a few uh just just a few uh kid blowups during the uh that may or may not have been related to Dumbling Dice. But yeah, I mean now being on this side of it, I'm like this is an absolute must own in my collection. I'm I'm going to have to tone it back a little bit so I don't get like sick of it, but I haven't gotten tired of it.

I mean, I'm at like 70 plays in a very concentrated amount of time. Um but it's it's just fun. I mean, I like dexterity games. Um, it's fun to kind of see like the high scores you can get and like when it's close going into a final round. We've had we kind of house ruled that if somebody if you tie after the four rounds, those two players have to go into a sudden death round with just them and it's just like so fun the tension of it and who's going to get it.

Um, yeah. So yeah, I mean it is it has been an absolute homerun purchase that kind of I wasn't anticipating being quite that. I was like, "Oh, this will probably be a nice one." And I could see this going over well with, you know, we played it with my wife's family and pulled the double. I mean, it's just um I can't really say enough good things about it.

It's a good high quality wooden thing. And um so yeah, you played it a little bit. Yeah, you didn't play it a whole lot. No, I put it I put it several times and I agree with you. I mean, that is that game is a blast. Uh that is a Oh gosh, now you're just reminding me. That's another one I want to get after after Daniel's budget's hurting a little bit.

My budget is hurting. Yeah, you've sold some games recently, right? Yeah, that's right. Um I think this game I mean it it works so well as as this party group game. Uh partially I was even thinking cuz like you know you could have a bad let's say on your first die you have a bad flick and it just sits you know you everyone has that moment where you like your finger just like falters and the die goes like an inch and you're sitting on a time zero so you're getting zero points.

But what's makes this game so interesting is that you're invested on every person's turn because they might hit your die and cause it to roll and suddenly you had a three on a time zero and it gets hit and you've got a five on a times four and it's like you know just those drast I mean there's so many times where a flick happens and it just changes every it's like oh my gosh like that helped me a ton or oh my gosh how how you know that dang it, that hit me off or or whatnot.

And so I think the way I just noticed like even as we were playing I was it a six player game that we were playing and everyone's so invested in what's happening. Um, and I really think it also, like you mentioned, strikes just a nice balance between it is very, it's I mean, the better players are often times going to win with, you know, just the better you are at flicking the dice.

Well, but it's got enough luck to make it so that people who aren't as good can have a shot and can have, you know, it's not it's this isn't like a like playing Ryan and Croinol where like you're just going to wipe the floor. in that scoring like get any points. But like so I just I think it balances that really well for the type of game that it is.

um and and is one that's like man who would what situation or like what person would you not feel comfortable bringing this out you know like it just feels like it's it's such a uh easy game to if like if you're walk I'm thinking if you're walking if you have like a just a larger group gathering you know nothing about the people and it's like let's play tumble and dice like yeah well I mean we we are obviously uh we with how we feel about board games and enjoy board games, but we're big believers in like how board games can take a social situation and kind of elevate it or like get people to interact in like a really good way that they wouldn't without this game.

And this is just such an example of that. Like it's so easy to pull out in a social setting or something where, you know, otherwise you maybe would just be kind of like making small talk or whatever. And who wants to do that? Who wants to do that? you could still do it while playing this, but I mean it just uh it really really is a useful tool in those situations to create this exciting kind of group energy.

Um and yeah, like it it really, like I said, can't couldn't have gone over better at this point. Um so I don't know if I'm going to be uh continuing this average. You got to keep this pace, Ryan. Yeah, if we keep this pace, let's just say how's this help? How's this helping your depth versus breath score?

That's the real question. Yeah, go check out that video. We'll link that above. Plug it through that equation and see what's going on. Um, but yeah, I could not give my top play to anything else with how just like dominant uh Tumbling Dice was in my in my overall plays. Hey, I bet that right now you are just wanting to play some Tumbling Dice.

I don't know how you could have watched that segment and didn't come away wanting to flick some dice down some steps. If that's you, go check it out in the description below. Or maybe one of the other games caught your attention. Lots of fun ones talked about in this edition.