Welcome to Meeple to Meeple uniting players around the world, a 30 minute exploration of PJ and Gareth's four-game experiences from across both sides of the Atlantic. Each episode, they share their thoughts and opinions on the World of War games, including their favorite themes, games, hot topics, and much, much more. Hi, and welcome to episode 75. That's right, it is blurple. You'll learn all about that. The Cajun invasion of the UK. As always, I am PJ.
And I'm Gareth. And we are live together all right. He is sitting to my left right now and. He's sitting to my right, yeah, PJ and Gareth. I like to. I'd like to tell to all of our listeners, Gareth is as beautiful a man as he looks like on computer, camera, camera, screen. I look thinner on camera. On camera? Is that how it says? Can't probably say these days, but. Anyway, I look fatter in real life. Here we are, but you've got your hat. Yep, tell. Me hats have you bought on the
trip? I bought 2 flat cats in London. So very British. Yes, Sir. You look good. Thank you. So we have been here since Easter Sunday, which was March 31st, so. A week. Yeah, a week and a few days a. Few days, yeah. And we are live in the Maple to Maple studios in Southampton, England. Maple to Maple Studios. Yeah, maybe I need to sign. You do? Yeah, it's a beautiful day with a bit of a windy storm in the UK, but that's cleared for blue skies.
It is in fact sunny right now. I can confirm that it does. Suns. On the trees share the view. It's so green here. Thanks. It's very green. We get a lot. Of rain? Well, no, it's it's been raining for three years. No. No, not only that, we we we just tear down all the trees and just lay pavement and just, you know, make big parking lots or car parks, as I'm learning car parks, but we don't make you traffic circles, traffic. Circles. It's a roundabout for British friends.
Yeah, so it's it's it's been crazy, it's been fun. So we hit the, hit the highlights of London and then now we're here in Southampton and. Much more quieter, easier pace. But it's real England though. It's real and I love it. We've done some sightseeing. We did. We did see some. Sighting went to Winchester. We did. And a cathedral. Gorgeous. What is it? 1100 year old.
So the, the big take away for me, I think it was really interesting when we were on a tour at the cathedral, they they walked us past the cathedral, which is the Bishop's chair. And they were talking about the current Bishop. Oh, yeah, yeah. Is there 98th Bishop of their diocese? And I'm like, you know, at work, we're just on #9. Yeah. History. Yeah, yeah. It really puts in a perspective how young as a nation we really are. But. Yeah, we saw. We saw in the cathedral there
was some ground in ball games. Yes, there was. A nine man, Morris, the monks had. Carved into the into the bench. Yeah, bench, where they. Yeah, Stone bench, which is a photograph of which I thought was quite. Interesting. And so the tour guide was saying that, you know, you can imagine in the 11th century, the monks were sitting there playing this game, which is very foreign to me. I was not familiar with it at all. Actually know the rules. You don't know.
Like in my head it was like tic tac toe, but I'm not sure it is. I was thinking it was like Othello. Yeah, yeah. That was the other thing like. The the flip over the pebbles Black. Yeah. Needs a. Couple of rules. But she didn't go into the rules because I don't think she knew them. And she didn't know she had gamers in the present, that's true. We were excited and she just left us hanging. But she was very nice. And then we went to Titanic Museum that in the morning.
We did go to Titanic Museum. We saw a lot of great painted miniatures. Yeah, and boats, yeah. And death. Yeah, that if if they would have let us touch the miniatures, we could have made a game out of. Yeah, there was. There were a lot of boats. Yeah, a lot of boats. So that was good and that was good. We played some games. We did. We played a lot of games. First game that Gareth and I played together in person. Was. Let's go to Japan the. UK Oh no. Japan.
That's so getting another spin off. No. Which I played every day since you've been here. Have you on Thursday? I played it on Friday and I played it on Saturday. Wow, Teaching it to various people. So yeah, that's been a good game. I'll talk about that in a minute some. More so it was you. It was you and Kerry and Katie and I. Yeah, we played. Let's go to Japan. And then we played French called French. Quarter. Which is out of the the same series as Three Sisters in Motor
City, correct? But is based on where to PJ. The French Quarter in New Orleans. What a coincidence. Yeah, right. Yeah. But I got to give you some historical and cultural context and the places. Explanation on the whole. Second second line, yeah. It makes more sense. We had a much better. We had a much better game playing at 4 player. And you and you learn that the key to victory is establishing
your own personal second line. Yeah, I realise that dancing is the future, but you do get banned from doing everything. You do. Too much dancing you are. You are seen as a tearaway. You'll sense the police station. And you do need a second second, A second second line. OK. So so if you when you're playing French Quarter, it's a 25th century games, right?
Yeah, that's right. That's a rolling right set in the French Quarter, where you're 8 hours and an evening in the French Quarter and you're trying to party. In every location you go to, you get certain icons. One of them is dancing, and that advances you on the Bourbon Street track. And as you advance, there are negatives because Bourbon Street is dirty, There's a lots of partying, is a high police presence because it attracts so
many people. And sometimes you can get yourself into a little trouble for partying too much, yeah. That's what happens. But at the end, that's where the huge point was. It was a multiplier. Yeah, big multiplier. So that was French Quarter. That was fun, that. Was good and that that was pretty much it for their first day. It was because then we went for we took you to an Indian Curry house in Southampton where we met up with 15. There were fifteen of us. Of the Southampton ball game
crew. I I think, yeah, I think this the wait staff had like deer and headlights. Their eyes were just like, yeah, this party is so massive, what are we going to do? Yeah, but we were sensible. And then we had we had John and Rachel. John from Try Win Games. Try win games. So a lot of people arrived early for their gaming games day. Yes, they they rocked up. And then we had Heather and Dave. Yep, Heather and Dave Dixon. Heather is about to launch. 23rd of April.
The 23rd of April, she's going to launch her game Apostocracy on Kickstarter, so be on a lookout for that and she should be a guest on our show. That's all we get to that day. So next. The next week or two. So few weeks. So they hang. They hang out with us as well. They came on the the guided tour. They did they. They travelled from Texas, yeah, which is amazing. It was like Americans came all the way here to Heather's just delightful and her husband's wonderful and.
Yeah, we had a good time. We was Katie and I established a relationship with Heather through play testing apostocracy. And so she's like, I'm coming and I'm like, great, let's do it. I lost in Southampton, yeah, but everybody else was from the Southampton crew, Yep. So that was that was the that was Thursday. You have a vibrant gaming community here in Southampton. Yeah, I think maybe we don't always appreciate how how lucky we are.
Because. Yeah. I mean, we all met through, mostly through Instagram, stroke, COVID times and then, yeah, I guess, yeah, we meet all the time, Yeah. And then other people come out, hang out too, you know, They come away all the way across that water. That's how you do. It we didn't need a boat, did we, in the end? No, we did not need a boat. We. Were going to hurry a boat and just meet in the middle. That would well that might still be the plan that.
Might still be the desperation, the the. Meeple to meeple cruise. And that got us to Saturday, Cajun. Cajun Cajun Con. Which? 25 to 30 people by my count. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think it's about 20. Yeah, somewhere in that region, which I think it was expecting about 18. So at one point I'm like, oh, we're going to need a bigger boat? But it was like, yeah, that's an interesting story. So early on when you in the planning of this, you were giving us a head count and my
wife had crocheted. Oh yeah, these coasters in the shape of maples. They're very popular. Yeah, I think. You could put them on Etsy. You could. You could. In fact, I saw someone in when we were in Nashville. I. Think you've already seen one of us put it on Etsy? Oh, no, I didn't. No, I did not see that. I guess she could have crocheted her signature into one of them and made it really valuable. But of course she made a blue one exclusively for you because
you play blue. And so she handed them out and the plan originally was to give everyone their own. But then the number kept growing. People bought friends, Gareth. Yeah, they. Weren't. Welcome. So eventually it's like it's, it's bought Dave. Yep. And it was like 1 per one per couple at that point, right? Yeah, but there I saw them being used. They're on the tables. Everyone had them on the tables for them. I had my which is great. My cider.
Because the the hall we were in, they didn't have coasters on the table and you didn't want the condensation to mess up the board games. So yeah, they were good. And I got some Nemesis, Skype, Christmas, Christmas scarves and hats, which I'll need to now find an excuse to bring Nemesis to table. So thank you, Katie, for those gifts and the very handmade dice tray that Katie's dad has made. Yes. So thank you very much for those. I think you really enjoyed the style. It's a good noise.
It's a good, solid, Yes dice roll. When we were playing French Quarter, because it's a rolling right, there were a lot of dice to roll and it made a good sound and it gets that it's that wood. My my father-in-law knows everything about like cherry wood and oak. You know all the different, the the, the, the characterizations and the nature of all these woods. And so it's like, if you want to make something will you need this? He knows which wood to use. He's got a good knocking. Sounds.
Yes, after, but maybe a minute. I'll grab it and we can even make a a rendition. That's a good idea. I find dice, so I have to cut it and edit in. So what were your What were your gaming highlights? So. Who did you hang out with? I I hanged. Oh, I hanged. I hanged. Yes, I hanged. I hung out with a lot of people. So it's really interesting. We were what? It was 10:30 in the morning till 10 in the evening was the time of the official Cajun Con.
And I socialized so much going back to French Quarter where one of the icons is socializing. Oh, and then let's let's go to Japan. You could socialize. I did not get in as many games yesterday on Cajun Con as I expected, but the first one was a game I played once before and that is Terror Scape. Yeah, I saw that. By Ice makes games 'cause he looked really, really so it is a it's a horror themed. It's it's one versus all. You've got this huge divider. Massive theater of this Yeah
house. So it's like a it's a Manor house or a plantation home, whatever. And one person is playing the killer and the other three players cooperatively are playing together as the survivor. So the the interesting thing in this game is there are scenarios. So whoever the one player is, they could be the serial killer, they could be the ninja, they could be ghost, they could be the butcher, the monster. So there's a lot of replayability and then there's like 10 or 12 survivors that you
can choose from. So there's a lot of combinations. So we're running around the mansion, there's a map on our side of the board with our minis. We have a miniature for the for the monster on the other side of the board. For the one player who's the monster, he has a map too, but he can't see where any of us are. So when we move, sometimes we make noise. And this is similar to Nemesis. You'll have a noise token you put down. So we get one action and we have
a list of what they are. You particularly take one, so we take our actions. When we're done, we draw two cards from the clue deck. We're looking for six keys and a map, so. You're working together. We're all working together and then when we're done, we have to tell the opposing player, the monster player, if we made noise and what rooms we made them in, OK, because he has access to that information and that's it. But he can hear us talking to each other. He's just tracking and.
He could see us moving as we reach to move our pieces. He could be like, I just saw PJ and it looks like, oh, there's a lot of. Wiggling over here, I'm really. Wiggling. There's a lot of fake, you know, you know, And then you try not to communicate. So you try to do this. Yeah. And. And while we're making these humming noises, we're pointing at what we want to do. Right. Because you don't want to give him anything. Yeah. And so we, we came out victorious.
It was Dan from board games, Weymouth, Dan and Paige. I got to visit. I got to visit with them because they picked us up at the hotel and took us to Cajun Con, so we had some time to socialize beforehand. So I was able to dive into a game with Dan and Dan had already said he was bringing terror scape and I knew I wanted to play that again. It's worthy it. Has an inbuilt that inbuilt dice. Dice There's a dice tower built into the Manor that's runs
across the. 2 1/2 foot by 8 inches isn't it? It's big. It's a big bit of kick. It's it's beautiful. It's it's amazing. And so that is Terror. Scape by Ice makes Games. Is that is that, was that a Kickstarter? I think it was, yeah. I've not heard of it until I've never even seen it. I was like, wow, this. Is neither. Neither had I neither had I. So check it out. Yeah. And I've not met Peyton Dan before. Yeah. So that was a pleasure. I am sure we're going to see more of those guys.
You met a lot of new people, didn't you? A lot, a lot of folks came in specifically for this that well, what that don't normally come to South Hampton. So that was good. We got some new and they're only an hour away. So yeah, I mean, that is literally Southampton. So what about you? What was the first game you played Cage of Khan? So we so we had Cassie stay here. So we played some games before we got to Cajun Khan. Oh yeah, but they were just Finners.
But we did get a Gaming of Enchanted Plumes, which is all about the feathers of a Peacock, which. Was a Peacock. Highly recommend just a card drafting playing game trying to make the best scoring plume or plumes of a Peacock. I like it. That was good. And we played Isle of Cat to explore and draw because why would you set up the full game when you could just open a pack of cards in 10 minutes? That was that. And then we got to Cajun Con and
played Enchanted Plumes again. So that cheated. But the first proper game we played was Kunihora. Yeah, I know. Only a few episodes ago, Episode 73 or 72. I think it was 73. We did an entire episode. Juan Kunihora. Got teach that to Paige Dizz from the Salamence group and her friend Dave, who'd never played before either. So, epic game. Was that was that your first time playing in a four player? No, no it. Was yeah, I think 3 is a sweet spot still.
Three is a sweet spot. But it was really close, with five, five points separating us. But Paige got a win. She did she. Did and you know, I think, you know, I think she said it's not the sort of game that she'd normally play. Decided just to focus on the mining and kicked kicked ass. So that was really good. But so that was a bit of a beast of the game and I find that that cons generally you don't get many of those games out because
everyone's moving around. Do you want to play more games? As many as sure as possible. So sounds a good couple of hours, though I think we need break for some food. So. There was a little break. Everyone brings their part of the the lunch, so everyone ate bits and bobs. So after we played Terror Scape I, I just started bouncing from table to table and visiting with people while while they were waiting for their turn.
Yeah, there's so many people there and I'm meeting them all, most of them for the first time and trying to get in FaceTime. But I got the pleasure to what we both did, got the pleasure of meeting Matt and Zara Mazza games. That was. Just some of the most lovely people. Oh gosh, was so great, just to visit with them and visit with them a lot. And they were like, they really wanted to teach us Kavango because they brought with. The like the final.
With the final final pre production something. Yeah. And and we did that. We did that five player. So it was one of the IT was the only game you and I played together at Cajun Con. If I. Remember it felt it felt fit in that that was the game that we got in right and I jumped in just to do about to start. Writers were about to start because Matt was going to play, yeah, and Zara were going to play. It felt. I'm glad. I'm glad you stepped. In we should have played that game together.
That was good, we'll say. It's got the new new art, new art, the new secret objectives. New secret objectives got. The player boards that now have the tuck in mechanic, so if you do when you tuck your cards away so they're all beautifully lined up like. I beautifully. Lined. Or you can play on the other side like the original, and they can just, you know, be put on. And then they just sit on the mat.
They're not tucked into place. So a gust of wind or you tap the table or whatever, the cards can slide. And I had. I had the one the most. Everything just fell into place. So I've never filled the entire board apart from I think 1 space you did so an awesome time EV one. I think everyone built all of the developments every we'd filled up completely the. Climate change projection. Climate change, Yeah, projection. I think everyone scores all the
animals. And I think we we did play it with like kind of the was it the beginner settings. We did, yeah. We went back and forth between that we. Should probably have gone for medium or even hard with no money as we're seasoned gamers. I agree. So I would suggest that you go back and listen to episode 52. Episode 52. I was. I was going through our list of episodes. That is when we had Matt and Zara on. That was back in September of last year, and they talked about Cavango.
Before they launched, yeah. And I can tell you that game is fantastic. I got to play with my wife and with Gareth. Come on. And Cassie. And Cassie and Zara, Yeah. And then Zara stepped out and Matt took over. Yeah. So, you know, I'm happy to say I lost to the designers of the game. I'll have to say that I beat the designers of the game. You did. You got a special card. That says Congrats on getting the high score ever the scene. Lots of Zara. Look at that.
Look at that. I've set the record at Cajun Con. But I'm going to get the real win. You got a box. Because I'm going to get the box and I'm going to get Matt and Zara stay at my house for a week when they're in the States, so you can have your little card with the. Yeah, we'll always be there. Yeah, whatever school was, let's put it down, 232. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And I was down what, near the bottom at 171? Yeah, I think it's still a pretty respectable score. That's what you said, yeah.
Yeah, I mean the average winning score is 170 on the app. We have. Wow. So like normally you would have. Won that it was one above average. The cards did come in. It was they. They really did. They just, yeah, it just worked mostly. Well, I had AI had, I had, I had a private goal of looking for migratory, the migratory keyword. And they weren't, they weren't coming. And so I just started like, I'm going to play these animals because I love these animals. Why not?
Yeah, you know, so I kind of did my own thing. But that was Cavango. That was an amazing experience. And played really well at 5. We've played it at two. Yeah, there's hardly any downtime apart from a little bit of admin when your recent cards out, right? Yeah, if you haven't backed it. Is there a late pledge on this? I don't. Know you know that's a good question I. Have to find out? We'll put that in the chat. We'll put that in the in the comments. We'll let you know.
If not, I think it's fulfilling across the summer, so look out for it. The guys are going to be Essen. They will be there too and they will be at PAX Unplugged, OK, in December in Philadelphia. So that's when they're going to be coming to the states. So, So for our Americans, y'all look out for that. Yeah, definitely. Mazazza will be at PAX. What else do we play? I played, I played. I didn't play. Many new to me games, no. In fact, only played only played one. Really.
What did you end up teaching? A lot of games? I played Jamaica, which is a really old. Game I saw you were playing that. I've never played Jamaica and I was like, oh, but I was in the middle of something. Yeah, and played it with one, I think Max, what's the Max playing? Cam, I think played with six. Yeah, played with six, which is just, it's like from 2007, as I learned from Jenny, he's played it with her kids a lot. It's a boat racing game around this island looking to grab treasure.
You have a a deck of cards, you draw three, play one, and there's a morning action, afternoon action, and either you're trying to find food, you're trying to get gold, get your cannons for battling, and just survive by getting around the island. But every space you have to pay coinage, you have to pay different amounts of food. If you can't, you go back a space and you have to pay that space. You can't pay that space.
You have to go back again. So I think Gareth ended up just following us around the islands because the very first move we went forward and went pretty much back to the start and just tagged behind us. But yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's lightweight. I mean, it's nothing but as a group of six at a con, it's that kind of game that it's not complicated. You get on with and being an older game, I'm glad I've ticked it off my list. Well, you played, you played a comic game.
I did, But so Speaking of boats, I just quickly want to talk about a game that I thought looked amazing. Neither of us got a chance to play, and that's plunder. I don't know if you saw them playing it, Carrie. Oh, you do have a copy. That game is incredible. You're like pirates and you, so you have the hull of a ship and you can enhance it, right, with sails and tags for crew members and cannons, and you're sailing around. I think at one point I walked up to visit with everyone playing.
And your wife, Carrie, she had just played a card where everyone had to give her all their gold. Just here, give it to me. Boom. I'm like. Wow, there's there's a few, yeah. I mean it's, I've got nothing new. Mechanic wise, it's a bit no, but it's a bit, yeah, it is beautiful component wise, Yeah. It's a little bit of Catan because you're kind of collecting cards and trading. Is that right? It's a bit of dice rolling, so mechanically it's nothing new,
but production wise. It had a beautiful presence. It looks great and that's what stood out to me, but. It is that kind of. I think if you've got new gamers or family and friends over, it's got so many mechanics they'll be used to. I'm sure it's just a good family. So it's accessible. It's an accessible game that's a little bit more advanced than Bhutan, but it's similar enough that you'd be familiar. With but it has got awesome. Bats. Yeah. No, it really does.
So that is going to be the meeble to meeble. Cajun Con. Honorable Mention plumbing. It's a great one to mention. Right, it was. It was really cool. Following Kavango, there was in the chat group ahead of Cajun Con. There were requests, many requests for Here We Go, an Obsession tournament. Tournament, Yeah. Who won, by the way? Well, I don't think we finished. We didn't. We didn't quite finish the tournament. Running out of time.
So essentially what happened was we had two games of obsession going on simultaneously. Players. As well. No one of them. Ours was six player. Oh, you played with the expansion? We played upstairs. Downstairs. Exactly. That's the only way to play I. Know, but that takes time with six. That's why you didn't finish. No, we finished our game, I thought. Somebody we. Didn't finish the tournament. So three games played wasn't there.
There was, I'm thinking. We got two simultaneous that didn't finish and the third game didn't finish. My wife, Katie won. Obsession. She won. She. So she won our round. First round. I don't know who won the other game. That page page one. So we need to, we need to get the schools. Then we'll know whether who the true Obsession champion is. So I hope Dan. I know that Dan won a game of spots that he played and I hope he won another game. Otherwise, Paige beat him two to. 1. Yeah.
So there was a lot of obsession going on. I did not do a British accent. Didn't you? I did not. This was very upset with me. Yeah. You promised. We did not. We did not dress up, you know, undressed up. That was disappointing. That's very British though. I mean, we have good ideas, but. No, I know. Oh no. I'm not really dressing. Up. Yeah, yeah, but that's OK. But so we played Obsession, and I don't think we need to say anything about it, because you and I have talked about obsession.
No, I think the table I taught they was only only Cassie had played before. OK, so we got a whole group of newcomers, so we. We got them set up and it was we only played five, so I didn't put the expansion in. So what? What was interesting in our table Matins Zara played as a team because we didn't have enough players. So we had seven players but we didn't have enough houses. So and Matins are wanted desperately to learn obsession. So we taught them that's.
Right. I turned up at one point and I was trying to help them play hands, but I had to go and play my other turn, so I left George in charge. And then Dan was at our table and he was playing it for the first game as well. So we introduced obsession to a lot of. New people. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, I.
Think that's accepting? Actually, once you get, once you've got people who have at least two or three turns, yeah, people got it because it's not complicated, but it is no in those chains and it's the satisfaction of managing the deck. When when Matt and Zara said look at the hands, I was like, man, you've got like you've got like 1520 cards here. Like I was trying to find the pattern. They had all these unwanted gaps. But all the Americans? Yeah, they did. They did.
It didn't help that the American was sitting across from them. But if you want to hear more about Obsession, go to episode 57. Where we chat with Dan. We chat with Dan Halligan, the designer, the inventor, the creator of Obsession, a world that you and I it's dear to our hearts. Now if Dan had a turned up occasion con, that would have been a coup, wouldn't it? Oh. Imagine that Kavango with Matanzani followed by obsession with Dan. And then Heather and Heather's, I guess.
So Heather's game, Apostocracy. She had someone playing it. We've talked about it is set in the Victorian period, whereas obsessions more kind of late Victorian, early Edwardian. So those are two complementary games. The goal is to find a third game, either a game set in the Regency period that you would start your day with, or something set in the early 20th century. Rococo's too early, and that's France. Yeah, I know, but I'm trying to find. I know what you're saying. It's.
Historical. So you play Apostocracy, you play Obsession. We need a third game to have a trio for a beautiful day. So there is a possible game set in the Regency period connected to Jane Austen, and it's there's a little card game called Marry Mr. Darcy. I don't like it, so I don't have a lot to say about it, but I've played it and I'm not really a big fan. That's because I'm not a big fan of Jane Austen and her literature. Not that the game is bad. He went to Winter Cathedral and he saw.
I saw the I did see the the grave stone. Where she died. The gravestone of Jane Austen and the house where she died. You know, we're going to, we're going to see where she lived for six years in Bath. Oh. Yeah. Because we're leaving Southampton and. Heading you're heading north. We're heading, yes, we're going to go north. It's. Already N is it just it's up. I mean, you know, north, it's an hour. It's North by Southampton standards, which is. Pretty much, pretty much, pretty
much in terms of distance. What I have learned is that the nation of England is roughly the size of the state of Illinois for our American friends, right? It's a long way to drive if you have to leave. It is if you're going extreme NS like you know. Like an hour away. Yeah, that is not So what did you play next after The Obsession I? I taught Let's go to Japan. You taught it which? Is the third three times each day I've taught let's go to Japan because it, I mean it
looks beautiful. The production is is off the roof, but it in essence it is just a card game. But it teaches really well. Everyone always has a good time. And the best part is telling the story. At the end of the trip you had. Yes. And yesterday I played with George and Lizzie and Jenny and number of times when we end up in the same place at the same time without knowing about it. Oh, right. George, I'm here, I'm here Wednesday afternoon, I'm at
Wednesday afternoon. We're both hanging out in some garden. And then it turned out Jenny and Lizzie end up at a cat cafe on a Thursday morning and it's like, this is like beautiful. So you kind of goes, there's moments of just telling the story of your of what has been I guess planning a trip to Japan. But Yep, there has to be a version playing a trip to to the uki mean it's it's just it's just going to. Happen that was just going to
happen. I could probably write the content for that after my 2 weeks. Here at least the southern part. Right of it. Yes, I could. Yeah. Play. Jamaica. And then we were just filling. Sometimes we played hidden Leaders. Oh yeah, which is next to me here, which is about a couple of years old now. It's a few years. Old you got, you got. You pick a side by giving a cards and then you need to manipulate your tableau or your yeah table to end up with the
winnings, the winning sides. But you can't see everyone else's cards so you don't know who else is on your same team as you. Not team, but he's also looking to win. So he played that actually like a 30 minute game, but then we finished at the venue. I finished the game with 9 tiles panic because in about 5 minutes we had to start backing up and then that was that was the end of there. And then we played some game. What did you ask? Do you play before?
We I played one last game at the venue, so before that before that So this So Cajun Con was like the 7th or 8th day in England. Yeah, OK, since we originally arrived and I had finally fish and chips. Oh yeah, you, didn't you? I mean, there's a big portion. Right. I think the portions would just make Americans stop and be like that's too much, really. Well, that is a. That's saying something. That was a lot of chips. A lot of chips.
Yeah, I think, I think those portions in there are designed for a family, so like. We're like a family of two. Family of four and then people were buying one for themselves. Yeah, because nobody warned it. Right, Because we we haven't been there for a long time. When you watch travel shows in America, whether on Netflix, whether PBS, what, whatever, you're watching, right? You know, and they all go to London, they go to England, they get, they get fish and chips.
It's wrapped in like newspaper and it's like a piece of fish and some chips and it's one person. It's. And that's what I was envisioning. So my wife and I each got one and we're like, this is going to feed 8. Yeah. But everyone else in the building did the same thing, so clearly I was not, you know? Well, Lizzie came back. She goes, I've got chips and she's taken her butt. A plateful. And there was another whole bag. And I was. Like whole bag. So anyway, I fed myself so.
We ate and then I don't know what happened to the waste, but it may have made it in the trash bin. But, and then our our good friend meeting him for the first time coming down from the bath area is Reese. Hey Reese, that is at Robat Games. He and I had been chatting. He's been a long time listener of the show and a big fan. And so he and I've been chatting a lot for like over a year. We finally got to meet and he taught us Age of Comics. Like him and SAT and what you
guys pay for 5 minutes. That is a solid game. Yeah, medium weight. Yeah, yeah, but it is. Oh, what did, how did how did Katie describe it this morning over breakfast? It is a perfect. That's not the word she used, but she used a really good word because she's smarter than me and picks better words. But she was talking about how it is is a fantastic quintessential worker placement game. And the theme? It's so rich. Yeah, it was good. From what I could see, everything was just.
Like tied together. Yeah, I think they're talking a bit about ink. Yeah, you developing like better ink colours, developing ideas. You have writers and artists. It's just really incredible. You're you're a publisher of a comic book at a comic book house. Did you finish? We did not. We were one round shy, one round shy. That's because the end of the day we had to pack up so. Yeah, it's 2.56. Not a bad guess. Really, really good game. Let's play. 3. Thank you Reese for teaching. Us.
He's a good teacher as well. He's amazing, I mean. And B&C&D? Yeah, I've never had a game that was taught so seamless and structured and just beautiful. The other thing I like about it, not only was this, this quintessential worker placement, it had a Lacerta esque feel like you need to do action A before you can even achieve action B. So there were actions that need action economy, I believe.
Yes, you have to do this. They were step by step actions that needed to be done, and it was just a beautiful dance of publishing illustrated works, yeah. There's no it wasn't tied to any comic. There's. Nothing. No, it's tied to the golden age of comics in Manhattan in New New York, like the 1930s. You definitely got that. It had that pulp. It's more more pulp novel than than comic books, the way we think about. The recognizable, but it will look like, Yeah, yeah, old
school. Comic. Beautiful. Beautiful, right? Those components. Lovely. Those. So those are the mastery what what I showed you the heavy metal banners were the masteries. So there's six genres, science fiction, westerns, romance, horror, etcetera. And so when you've published the most comics in that genre, you get that master tag, which gives you one more fan, which makes your comics in that genre more valuable, therefore more points
at the end of the game. And there were just these beautiful metal, totally unnecessary in terms of game kit. I don't think I've seen completely things like that before. I don't. Know what material they're made of? But it was metal but. They It was metal. It was not computer. It was definitely not computer. Yes, something like that. So, but that was the last game of at the venue. Yeah, then we headed back to where everyone seemed to be staying. Yes, apart from Matt and Zara.
Yes. And we played. We had 11 people. We had 11 people at around the table. And you introduced this game. I never heard of it. Is it we whimsical. Is that cinema? The full title. Oh, here we. Go game about we whimsical creatures and trying to identify them after someone makes noises. I'm sorry, that's the title. Of the game, in case you missed it, a game about we whimsical creatures and trying to identify them after somebody makes noises.
So that's a full title. And that and that is the description of the. Game, that is, That is. That is description of the game with the other title. It's packing cards. Bez is the designer and you lay out five number cards. Lots of illustrations by Bez and people draw a card secretly. They look at the number that represents that creature. And it's a number like 1:00 to 5:00. One to five there was you can't make it more complicated with more.
And then people sit there and make a silly noise and we all had to go each. I think everyone had to go each, so a few people. There were some abstentions. You know, it's not, not for everybody. And there were some new creatures and some new sounds that we've never witnessed before. Well, the reality is that these are, these are drawings, these are original drawings by Bez. And so they're not, well, they're based on real animals, creatures and people.
In fact, we found one that looks like me. I was about to say there was one that looked like you, I mean. With like 4 legs and this really weird ear. With a cap it would have. Been with a cap, it would have been me. In fact, I think I held up the card and made the. Face That was on it, yeah. So thankfully no one drew that and. Mocked me make the noise of a. But yeah, you. So you've got to make you have to imagine when it's your turn,
you have to imagine. You have to make the noise that you think this whimsical creature sounds like. Yeah, and you've got, like, lots of teeth, lots of eyes. I'm just, I'm, I'm distracted by the fact that you're doodling. And what I love about that is that when we're normally recording when I'm back home in the US, yeah, I doodle like just like, so it means that we're both doodling. It's just a see it. It's like, wait.
It's just a concentration. Yeah, which is perfect for We whimsical or we a game about we whimsical. There's other games in the series, but they're like a fiver. It's a pack of cards you package in his literature. It's a zip lock bag and. Check out UK Games Expo and Bezi Stand. She's always in red, Everyone is on red on the stands and it's so creative. Is it Bez it? Is it Bez Games? Or Bez Yeah, Bez Games on Instagram. I think it's Bez Games on Instagram. I did, yeah, I did tag.
So check out my stories. That's Bez right? Bez. OK Bez Bez. Games. I'm sure it's Bez Games. All right, so check that. Out. But yeah, those are really creative, silly games. And then the last game we played was a team game because it was a lot of us. There was wavelength. Was wavelength. Which Which was fun. It was just a guessing game. There's a card that says something easy, something hard, and then you spin the dial. Who is going to give the clue and see where this, I guess
scoring zone is? Yes, and they have to give a clue that leads their team to position the dull that's now hidden to where that score was. And there were some pretty good clues. There were some. Really good, Like. Like literally one. No error on the on the mark. On both teams, yeah. The game was tight. I think it was like it was the. One point. At the end of the game, it was 6/6 and the tiebreaker. I failed.
But you know, we're going to, we're going to tie this back to the very beginning of this episode. OK, 'cause I know our listeners are wondering, right? That's good. So this is how it happened. Where did the word blurple come from? So you and I were on the same team and you were like, you're the A-Team. No? At first, you called us the. A-Team. Oh, they were the A-Team. We're. We're not the VA team. And then you said we're the blue team and I was like, no, we're the purple team.
And then we both look at each other and said simultaneously blurple. And so we decided that the title of this episode is blurple because. It's a team game. Team game. Yeah, so the so the beauty of a Cajun invasion, unlike unlike a military invasion, there's not going to be an occupation or anything. It's more like, it's more like a cooperative. And then you leave again. Right. I don't know if there's, you know, guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare, Right, So.
So where you going next? We're heading to Bath in. We are going to visit the Roman Baths ancient Roman site. Looking forward to that. It's good, I know. Probably. People are wondering. I did cry when I saw the Algin Marvels. Oh, it's. Cute, isn't it? Well, I don't know that it's cute, but. I did. It's good. It just it really brought there. There were a lot of emotions I was not prepared for in London as a whole.
Like I had some really powerful connections to things, but I didn't know I was going to have and but. That one was particularly particularly. Yes, I was looking forward to it and so I'm equally looking forward to the Roman bath because again, I dedicated so much time studying. You'll like it. I think I will. The museum itself is is really well. Done. And we will finally go to a board game cafe.
We did not go to any in London. We saw board games in bookstores, which is not uncommon in the United States. We picked up a board game in or a card game in London. We bought Mind the Gap. So for my American friends that is the equivalent of Watch Your Step, and honestly I would. I much prefer, you know when you're in the tube, it's like you've reached Westminster Station, Mind the Gap. And I'm like, I love. That don't fall down, that
right. And so we got to we picked that game up, but we haven't played it yet. But we're going to try to go to Thirsty Meatball. Oh yeah. Oh, it's good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Our good friend Danielle Reynolds, the designer of her story at Token Gamer on Instagram. She was in Bath last year. She said you got to go to the Thirsty meatball. Yeah, so. They're also one of my go to places to buy games online. Is that right? Yeah. OK, but they are.
So what do you need me to pick up for you while I'm there? Not much. But they are on a on a Friday. They've normally got this rich releases and they often have a sprinkling of like Kickstarter things sometimes. Oh. And they're very reasonably priced for what is AI Guess a cafe. Their online pricing is really on the money. Thanks. So. Yeah, no. So yeah, they enjoy the Oxys.
One in Oxford, there's one in Bath and others, but they're both excellent game vacations and then you're going to go visit. And then I'm going to Daventry and then we will be staying. Daventry, what a place to go. Oh yeah. You know, there's some really important people. In the epicenter of important people. The epicenter of important. People, if you're into blood on the clocks out, which I know, you're a huge fan. Oh yes, huge fans, Absolutely.
But we will be staying with Craig and Becky. Get Into Games and misses Get into Games the host and Co host of Get Into Games on Air on Air, a podcast that usually airs. A day. Before us. So yeah, give them a listen. Yeah, definitely give a. Listen, you know I might. I don't know. You could do a podcast. There we could do a podcast if you time. I know because it's about. No, because it's going to go out. You got next week, yeah. I don't know how their timings are. I don't know.
I don't know what Craig's plan is, but we're going to be there and then Brad and Susie, so my My Shelf Life and Beanie are going to come and join us so that we can play games. Yeah, because I think they were on holiday, weren't able to make Cajun Con, but so they're going to make it up and down because that's going to be fun. It's going to be a good time. Hopefully we'll get to go up to Dice Box Cafe, where I think Craig has been working. Oh yeah, of course it is.
Yeah, so that would be fun. And then you head home on. Friday. What day is it today? Sunday. So today is Sunday. Well, if you're listening to this, it's Tuesday, but right now it's Sunday while we're recording this. Then you're and then when do you go out to work? Yeah, I'm on Monday. Monday. Yeah. Well, you know what? When? We have a longer rest. When we've done recording, why don't you tell my boss? I'll tell you. Boss. She's. She's over there in the living
room. You can tell her about it afterwards. Yeah, I think she may have some more time. Off need to rest. I do need to rest. Yeah. I don't know. I think she needs the rest, right? Yeah. I I can't remember if I mentioned it last week. In case I didn't on Thursday when we arrived in Southampton and we had dinner with everybody at the Indian restaurant, it was Katie and I's 15th wedding. That's why you're here it. Is why we're here. It's why we chose this time of
year. It was to celebrate our 15th anniversary, so. Congratulations. Thank you, patient. Doesn't you think we? Discovered. No, absolutely. Absolutely. I I I got the better end of the deal. I'm the lucky 1. So yeah. Have you worked out with your first game you're going to play when you get home? No. We. We. We. There's so much craving for. No, there's so much England ahead of us still. You forgot about your Frost
Haven campaign. I haven't forgotten about it because So Cajun Con yesterday would have been our normal cross haven day. So you had to. Fix. So for David and Eric and Vincent back home, thank you for your thank you for your patience and letting us come to England. That's all right now. It's been a pleasure. Yeah. I guess we'll do this at once a year. We we should we should do this. It's a. Bit costly but. Yeah, no, but now you got to
kind. Of meet me, Yeah, that's a good point to come to you via the Austin Grand Prix. Via the Austin Grand Prix. Yeah, it might not be this year, might be next year. OK, it's a nice Grand Prix, so we should wave at the camera. Hi everyone. And thanks for listening everyone. And thanks for visiting the UK. Thanks for joining. Me next 5-5 days left, five days left, five. Safe travels. Thank you. And going out in Bath. Yeah. Dude, dude checking out. Thanks everyone for listening.
Thanks guys. Thanks everyone for listening. Please subscribe. And as always, we'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas, so make sure to leave those in the comments. And don't forget, you can also chat with us both on Instagram at meeple to Meeple.