Phew, now I'm really glad I picked up a rare Belgian 3rd edition printing of Robot tied to a Sock on eBay a few weeks ago! It's been out of print for so long and no doubt this will cause the few remaining copies to disappear!
1:26 - Old game of the Year (Remakes) 2:46 - Genre of the Year 4:08 - Overlooked of the Year 5:22 - Industry fad of the Year 7:07 - Campaign of the year 9:24 - Efka was wrong of the year 11:01 - Efka's game of the year 14:51 - Elaine's game of the year 17:46 - Bessie's game of the year
Me too. Covid killed my hobby and gaming group. We have only gotten together twice this year. We joke see you in six months. We played: empyreal spells & steam, level 7, and possibly one more session this year.
Scout is a climbing/shedding game. Trick-taking, climbing and shedding are three subgenres of the same uber-genre of games. They share a cultural geneology and frequently overlap with one another. Sometimes (perhaps out of laziness or for the sake of being brief), reviewers (including myself) will lump climbing and/or shedding games into trick taking. Way more on this in 2024, the history of these games if fascinating.
So glad you're into Dune Imperium too! Thought my Dune fandom might have swayed me too much but has been a hit even with non-gamers - actually pretty quick to pick up.
I've just found your channel for the first time. I'm extremely impressed with the thoughtfulness of your discussion about different board games and an issue like sustainability. It would be incredible if, as I watch more of your videos, I find that you highlight the more responsibly produced games whenever you review or discuss them. That would be very helpful! To highlight games which chose to use better practices was amazing and something that I feel like board gamers in general don't really consider. I've only ever sleeved one game which was so precious to me, but also it was the first really big game I'd ever got, Isle of Cats, and I've felt a bit guilty ever since for encasing cards in plastic which will just sit there for decades. I haven't bought any sleeves since then because we need to reduce our use of plastic. I'm not rough on my cards anyway, insist people wash their hands before coming to the table to play, and honestly if they see some wear and tear around the edges won't that just signify a well-loved and much-played game? Yes, yes it would. This video seemed to me to be of a much higher intellectual quality than the vast majority out there. Thank you, and I look forward to looking through a backlog of 9 years worth of content to discover more.
"...hopefully, you will find a discrepancy in your conscience that should be accounted for." Extremely well put, my biggest take away from this video will be a challenge to align my actions with my values... good job NPI.
Hmm, thanks for mentioning the ecological part as well. Even though for groceries I do stop and look for less plastic alternatives, somehow for boardgames my mind just ignores it. It was a very good point to make and one I will keep in mind! Thanks.
5:12 As soon as Forest Shuffle got mentioned, I started to type a comment about balancing issues, but you mentioned that yourself directly afterwards :D In my opinion, the tl;dr of that entire discussion is that Forest Shuffle should be treated as a 4-5 player game only. Wolves and deer being vastly overtuned doesn't "break" the game, but it makes for a really boring meta where every game plays out almost the same - definitely when playing as two, sometimes when playing as three. Would recommend it at higher player counts though.
Woo! Trick-taking! I think it's just my social circles, but I have some difficulty getting my relatives who love traditional trick-taking games to try the new ones, and I have a hard time getting a lot of my tabletop-gaming friends interested in trick-taking games. That said, I've managed to sell a lot of them on The Crew, but I've had only limited success with Yokai Septet and none yet with The Cat in the Box.
Glad to see Kinfire getting some recognition! It was a great game and kept you on your toes, especially surprising since had such simple card check system that proved very versatile.
Glad to see recognition for Kinfire Chronicles, we are really enjoying it so far, but I didn't see much hype or talk about it which is a pity. It is really good if a bit random at times (though there are ways to mitigate and plan for it)
I've had no outlet for this mildly funny shower thought before, but this feels like a good place for it. Every single time I've watched a video covered a trick taking game in the past year, the reviewer always pulled the same trick on me. Always offering a variant of this sentence : "We have a new entry of the classic but forgotten trick taking genre of which I'm not gonna explain the basics here, but with a game that has a twist !" The one in this video was sneaky ! Talking about legacy skills you can carry into other games of the same genre. I don't get why this is one genre where people have to make this pre-amble about how they're not gonna explain the basics lol. I couldn't un-observe the pattern every time it happened lol.
Ayy boss, have you considered opening up a ko-fi? It's like patreon, except they only take a flat rate of like 5 bucks. Or locals, which is more of a community kind of thing.
Controversial idea ... but hear me out please til the end. PVC cards! Yes, i see the "irony" ,but can you see the "plasticity" of its' lifespan ? I mean , people are paying super premium for "colorful pieces" of papers.... why not deliver a prodcut that will last ???
It may be me, but Robot tied to a Sock felt like a masterclass in subtle undercutting of the entire GoTY practice or of how were constantly chasing the something new. I may also just be over thinking it.
I love this approach👍 There a so many good games for so many different occasions, that having on Nr.1 game feels wrong for me. And great video and I love your jokes.😀
Great video! But ugh it feels so bad to have all the expansions for Dune Imperium and then hear that Uprising is better... will have to wait for more expansions first I suppose
I still don't understand how so many people liked dune imperium. The people I played with said it felt too pigeon holed with the actions you could take and the combat was too random
Ok, i love el grande, but the zoo vadis and Ra releases are phenomenal. They really improved zoo vadis over quo vadis and the player boards for Ra make it easily the best version of a game that everyone should own.
Lacuna was good... until we finished 2 games and realized whomever goes 2nd just wins .. and confirmed that over the next several games . It just doesn't work. 2nd player wins.
Great Video. I’m gunna use this comment to talk about one of my favorite Trick Taking Games I played this year…Brian Boru from Osprey Games. I absolutely love this game. Typically I bounce off of Area Control games but not this one. Great game.
All the negative reviews of DI always boil down to "why won't this deckbuilder board game hybrid let me just Dominion my way to victory?" I'm happy that NPI came around.
Lacuna is so beautiful! (I may or may not have murdered my sister over her placement one game). Just kidding, but a few games at a pub with a date could definitely clear out 90% of red flags.
Could you please make a list of ALL the Trick taking games that were in your piles? I really love trick taking games and I saw a bunch in there I couldn't see the names of that I wanted to find out what they were. Thank you so much!
Will look for Dune. Played the original at this year's games EXPO and liked it a lot. I am however amazed that my two favourite channels (NPI and SUSD) have not covered Hegemony. I don't have a lot of boardgame exposure (limits of money and space) but Hegemony is my GOTY.
I am curious how much Uprising differs from the original Imperium? Did y'all get a chance to play Hegemony, Scholars of the South Tigris, or Nucleum? Those are three that I wonder where they fell.
I looooove Dune imperium but when I introduced it to one of my friend who I play the most, he was like "meh-" However, after a year, I persuaded him to try Uprising and he immediately liked it much better. Personally, I think it's good in a different way, and for me, different is a very important aspect XD
El Grande. Just played it tonight. I just love it. Every time. Been in my top 3 for years now. So much fun. Quite harsh sometimes, but then you should have picked higher power card 😋
Board games are far greener than video games. You just actually touch the carbon in board games but in video games the electricity and the power generation is invisible to the player
Hadn't seen Lacuna before, but it is now on my list; That's a nice fast setup, and could easily make it to the table for a 30 minute "filler" while waiting for people to show up to a game night, without being an actual filler. Just enough randomness to keep it from being "solvable," while not so much that someone can simply win by luck.
What a great video! However, we may be a little biased but we have to say Bessie has the most excellent taste. But tell her next year the Board Game Animals are sure they can rope her into a game of Dog Park at least. 😉
Dune Imperium is like 3 simultaeous games deck building worker placement and an area control game. Each time you play it you want to play it to see if some other strategy would have worked better. I was hooked from my first play where I had set up everything to win the battle only to be beaten by sand wurms out of the deck of the player that allied with the fremen. Getting flavor killed in a euro game is a hoot.
I had the exact same experience with Dune Imperium - wrote it off initially, tried the new version and immediately fell in love with it. Such a great game!
