Cairn Review - Tactical Druid Rugby Chess 

Fun fact: Cairn dogs are actually made up of lots of tiny little dogs.

I'm loving chess month, I'm pregnant and stuck in the house, no chance (or energy) to break out the usual epic games! These two player games are just perfect for me and fella. Also hoping to have one more game of War of the Ring before the baby lands and we never have the time or energy again!

Matt: I'm not sure why it's called Cairn, cairn is a big stack of rocks Matt, just earlier: you can have potentially SIX rocks stacking effects over and over that make really intense moves

This seems like the Druid cousin of Onitama with rocks in the way ...

"When you're holding a bishop, everything looks like a knight" had me rolling

Cairn, as in a game about layering on more and more turns until the structure of the game is so complex that one person with inevitably make a mistake, not unlike stacking rocks like a reverse jenga.

Nothing like getting deep game analysis from a totally mad homeless person

This is why I love Shut Up and Sit Down. Cairn would have been nowhere near my radar because of it's geek rating if not for this, and now I'm going to buy it.

This was a wonderful story about a man having to be a twig for years.

I aspire to Matt's level of manic

I've slowly come to realise that Matagot are a great publisher that create games with JUST the right amount of nice fluff to them that they become fun toys to interact with, without being bloated or mega-expensive.

Should have been called Menhir. For some reason I think it might have been fun to give it an Asterix and Obelix theme.

Jokes on us : What if a twig that is connected to just a single leaf in active sunlight constantly feels the most awe inspiring ecstasy that no human can even comprehend. With night cycles of blissful serenity that only make the next days anticipation of sunlight even better?

We are super magic men We stay up til 5am Although we're bound by Shaman Law What goes on tour STAYS ON TOUR!

Oh, a new Christian Martinez game? I’m sold already

THANK YOU FOR CHESS MONTH!!! You’ve made quarantine not only bearable, but also, when considering what close quarters I find myself in with one other very irritable person… survivable!

Cairn is sharin'

This channel has the best game reviews on the internet. No doubt. Thanks for the work!

Great review and video, Matt is really flexing his shooting skills by making his limited space not feel limiting. Full support also for your window sign

Shades of "The Duke", methinks.

For this series, I recommend you to review war chest! It's such a good and it seems to have little attention. Anyways, thanks for the delightful review! Nice haircut!

I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that “Tactical Druid Rugby Chess” isn’t actually part of the name

"Cairn you believe it" Killed me

This review title sufficiently piqued my interest enough that I clicked on this video at 2:40 in the morning. Well done lads!

Is this regular Cairn or the more exclusive Wet Cairn? Little podcast reference there for you to enjoy

That twig reincarnation sketch was so unbelievably stupid...everyone knows Matt would be reincarnated as a worm

His nose bumping the piece at 10:53 killed me 😂

10:49 Matt's table is just a giant piece of salmon.

I see echoes of Onitama and maybe a little bit of Tash-Kalar (summoning new entrants, positioning multiple pieces for future moves). A great and fun review as always. I'd love to give this one a try.

2:17 He said "orthogonally"! The most underrated word in the English language.

Such is the mistery of the druids.

Maybe it's called Cairn because they're tiny gnome druids, so what seems like a megalith to them is just a stack of pebbles to us.

This sounds like the most chess-like game so far, I think. Like, at least in my experience, Chess is a game where whoever forgets a rule or a movement possibility first is the one who loses. It's a game about trying to hold all the information of the board state, of every potential move and countermove in your head all at once (which is why computers are so much better at it than us because a computer doesn't forget things.) And especially before you brought up the megaliths, that sounds a lot like what you were describing, a game that's all about "well I can only do this because if I do this then that happens" and such, which is the pitfall imo of a perfect information game. That it becomes less of a game and more of a calculation problem with a definitive solution. None of which is to deride anyone who likes Chess or Cairn, just was something I noticed and wanted to say.

The blinds made me think the window sign said "Will Self is violent", he roughed up Mark Francois in debate and I could certainly believe he'd introduce a fascists face to the pavement but "White silence is violence" makes much more sense . Thank you for these videos.

Your style is great Matt. Been watching for years and these vids are still so fresh to me. Thanks susd

I've watched several other episodes of this show but this one was easily the most hilarious. An inspired performance!

I dig the sign in your window!

It's called Cairn because as you play on you stack on more layers of complexity

I auto-bought Cairn after hearing the mini review on the excellent SUSD podcast. Not disappointed

"Chicken. Not the bird, not the food..."

Me at the beginning of the review: “So... it’s Onitama?” Me at the end of the review: “So... it’s Onitama.”

A chicken, not the bird, not the food, chicken

I generally like games with simple rules and complicated repercussions like Go or Chess but your description got me. Well done sir

I'm sure Onitama, Santorini and Tak are happy to get another member in 5x5 Grid Hall of Fame

if it's the stones then it might be called Cairn because you stack the megaliths on top of each other when you set them aside, like the back sides of the megaliths looks like stones, and wen you stack them up it's a cairn and they are flat too so that also adds to it But this game is GENIUS!!!!!! I WAAAAAANT!

Cairn reminds me just a little bit of Pyre, by Supergiant Games. It's a computer game that is (very, _very_ basically) fantasy 3 v 3 basketball. I feel like they share this idea of "What if we made a really small, sporty play area, then used some fantasy fluff to justify some real interesting nonsense?"

"Woah looks so fun, lemme pick up a copy...." *checks Amazon link in description* Unavailable.

Cairn: rival druids maneuvering to control stacks of rocks and banish each other. Karens: rival Karens maneuvering to be the first to see the manager.

When you started it sounded like The Duke, then it became Onitama.. now it's Cairn. Looks/sounds like an interesting game.

This reminds me heavily of The Duke- it's centered around the same "tile flip" mechanic, but instead of flipping three shared tiles, you flip the piece you moved (and the tile's moveset changes accordingly). I really want to play it.

Absolutely loving chess month! I’m always looking for great 2 player games for my wife and I.

"get out of the Jacuzzi... now" - twigkoaladruidman

A game for two players i absolutely love is "Legend of Korra: Pro bending Arena". I know, it's a license-game and yeah, i own the Kickstarter-edition and the retail-pack might pack a little less punch, but i was actually surprised at what a solid game it is. My girlfired calls it fancy chess and refuses to play against me, but i had great duels with several friends^^

It's good to get the kind of chaotic apocalypse hair representation I need; not often I see my hair style out in the wild

Hey guys, I want to say that I'm new to your channel but I have been loving it for the past week or so... Do you guys have a playlist for this Chess Month? I kinda want to watch all of these videos but can't seem to find them all (or maybe I did, but I want to be sure!)

'Santorini' would be a good fit for Chess Month.

Another great video. Chess month should include Smash Up. It’s a completely different game at 2 players than at 3 or 4 and really develops a chess-like few between experienced players.

Great Video. I've been looking for just this game and I didn't even know it! You've inspired another purchase.

Sneaky sneaky. I saw that large green circular piece and was thinking "I guess it's a helper? Doesn't look like it does anything because we're almost done with the review"... And then, PLOT TWIST!

Loving Chess Month! Two player games have definitely been a high point of lockdown for myself and my female house inhabitant. Hope you guys are thinking of covering Raptor? Not only is it a great 2p but it also has dinosaurs. DINOSAURS. I rest my case.

Two chess month recommendations: Warhammer Underworlds, which is a brilliant intersection of board game, card game, and miniatures skirmish game; and Blitz Bowl, the real rugby-chess (and a far more elegant design than it's big brother Blood Bowl).

Always wondered what happened to Edward Norton after he started that fight club, sorry to see he was introduced to meth but glad he's got healthy gaming habits

Twiglets Imperium

The megaliths bring complexity to the game. That complexity stacks on top of itself, layer by layer. If megaliths were stacked on top of each other, they would form... Cairn. Great review Matthew!

I can't hear The Pyre without also hearing the Vox Machina intros @4:55

Come on man. The small rocks are complexity. They keep stacking until they tower like a monolith.

Sounds a lot like The Duke, one of my favourite Tactical Rugby Chess games. There was a planned "Mystical Troops" expansion for the game that never released, so maybe they had plans for Druids and just never made the cut to compete for the Tactical Druid Rugby Chess genre championship title.

This looks neat. Inis is decent but I never really got into it much,Tigris and Euphrates is good but can drag on a bit, but this one looks more fun and shorter than both of those.

Great review Matt, you should review Raptor, another great 2 player game from Bruno Cathala and Bruno Faidutti published by Matagot

SIX! Can someone please compile a video of all the times SUSD squeaks out Six in their different videos??

Glad you guys liked this one! I was starting to think I was alone in my affection for the game, and it didn’t seem to get much buzz. Happy to see it get more love!

One of Matt’s best reviews, sold on this game. I’ll look forward to buying it when it comes back in stock in 5 years. But... anyone else notice audio clipping?

I kept thinking about Dungeon Twister during this review.

I think this board game wants to meet your manager

When do you review Cosmic Encounter Duel? It would fit perfectly to this months theme, and I thought SUSDs opinion on the normal Cosmic Encounter is very high as well :D. Im excited to hear your opinion on this game :D

Spot on about this being a caravan game. Every time it rains I want to play Cairn now.

The only thing I don't like about these reviews is your showing me games that are out of stock

Goblins with funny hats, you say? Sounds familiar...

1:49 "Spawn Slots!!" 🤣

We demain a hairing or we will say nee.

Sounds less brutally fun than blood bowl. However, it is true that in BB I’m already satisfied with the first half of the match and don’t really want to play the second

Looks like fun, just need a friend.

Looks awesome! Great review!

I really want them to review Element for Chess Month. Discovered it yesterday and fell in love with it. It's basically Avatar The Last Airbender dual chess. Brilliant, simple mechanics that really give you that attack and counter riposte feel.

I mean, the effects of the rocks stack right? allowing for combos? cairn as a name makes sense to me.

Just here pushing for DVONN to hit your table... my all time favorite abstract 2 player tactical game. So simple, with layers of complexity revealed as you play more.

Awesome presentation

Erm, I think you'll find that Twilight Imperium 4 is actually 6 player maximum. Unless you know something we don't...

very funny review. will be buying this

Why board game boxes gotta be bigger than necessary? I got limited shelf space, people!

That orange keyboard is totally rad, Matt.

Looks like my family name really sounds like Cairn in English when I say it in German. Anyway, the game looks nice! Might take a closer look! Thank you so much for all your great work!

Maybe they called it Cairn because the powers from the individual monoliths combo and stack with each other? That would actually be pretty clever.

I know you guys did a Scythe review a while ago, but just like how you did an updated review for the expansion for the Game of Thrones board game when that came out, have you thought of doing an updated review for Scythe: Rise of Fenris?

My chess month suggestion is Kumo Hogosha. Beautiful as well as a great 2 person strategy game.

Does anyone know what song is used for Matt being a twig? Neither of the songs in the credits quite matched up with it and it's stuck with me over the weeks. Great review!

The pieces look like they'd be fun to paint and look pretty good afterwards

Have you ever played a game called "Imperium"? It was released in 1977. Yes, back then! A great 2-player game of galactic conquest. You might have a look on this one. I think, a still rewarding experience.

yet another great review! i would love to play that game

Don't know why, that ballet sidebar really just struck me...