Welcome back Simon Kinberg! Star Wars Board Games (A Retrospective)

Time to abandon ship. Hold on! Here we go! Can I persuade you to join us for a drink? It's a tradition. Here, here. Jar Jar, homie, my main man, quickly. Before the Separatists attack, get into the escape pod. Hey, this is escape. Then where's the pod? This is escape pod. Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod and another episode that we have for you this week all about Star Wars. That's right. It's a Star Wars podcast.

So we are talking about Star Wars board games, a retrospective look at some of the classics out there. Some of the board games. Some of the board games that you can buy today. We're talking about some Skeleton Crew trailer details as well as some headlines like Simon Kinberg starting up a Star Wars trilogy. Ahsoka tells the Jedi First Brother news that came out due to a book. We got some stuff to talk about there and Lego stuff for all you Christmas buyers out there.

It might be interesting to stay tuned for that. So we got Kirk, our co-host, and as well as Blake joining us. Our other co-host joining us this week on the show. So let's dive in with Kirk and then Blake will be joining us soon after. Let's do it. Another happy landing. What are you in for? What are you in for? I found something buried in the woods. Dad. This is unacceptable. Do you understand? What do you think it is? What do you think it is? What do you think it is? What do you think it is?

What do you think it is? Don't touch anything. What do you think it is? What do you think it is? What do you think it is? What do you think it is? What did you do? We are lost. We are really lost. LISA, who was not born at this time, is missing. Stay together. We just need some direction home. Come on, kid. Pay up. Where'd you two find an old republic credit? Help! Help! Over here, quick! I'll get you home. We'll make a partnership. But we have to move fast! I need you to take the controls.

Okay. Kneel! Kneel! A crew of murderous pirates is coming! What? Something's wrong. They're not going to just turn up. We need to find them. We're not alone down here! Be warned of booby traps. Pirates. And mountains where none dare to go. If you hear this, don't give up. No matter what. We're here to save you. We're here to save you. And we're here to save you. We're here to save you. We're here to save you. We're here to save you. We're here to save you.

Alright. Welcome back, Kirk. Hello there. It is good to be back. It is good to have you back. This week is the first week that you have watched this particular Skeleton Crew trailer. So, what's your thoughts on it? Oh, wow.

i literally watched it for the first time i saw the first trailer when it came out but then i completely forgot about the show and just watched it recently you know it looks good it looks good however if you uh didn't put a star wars logo on the end of it i would have had no idea it was a star wars trailer so whether that's a good thing or a bad thing we don't know we'll have to wait and watch yeah no i i i agree i think a lot of the music threw a lot of people off but you know

honestly i'm kind of digging it like i um i'm glad it's just you know it's not it's not some songs that we've heard in star wars you know no song names mentioned what's that one called you know it's good just to get something two for one special what are you talking about uh yes yeah yeah yes wait are you talking about life day no not life day no no it's the song called uh i'm just gonna call it two for one special oh the power of one and the power of the

yes yeah yes no that was that was an all-time banger you cannot cannot beat that two for one special i actually um i actually heard that han zimmer and john williams have announced their retirement because they just couldn't compete with such such uh overture yeah such such grandeur yeah yeah um yeah you know i like some of the songs um that have that have come out within the with the star wars like canon have been have been interesting to say the least there has been a few

that uh have been kind of like they're they're not exactly like you know a headbanger songs or anything like that like there was one in solo which there was that little alien guy in the jar and he was singing i think it's called like chicken in a pot or something is what the song the song is actually called that chicken pot or something anyway it's like it's not a good song but at least it kind of it kind of fits the the environment because it's a song that they're

playing in the scene right and so i i do my favorite um my favorite song that is like not a soundtrack that's come out recently is the the bar music that's played on the planet of near moss when in andor when they're when you kind of just first see and or after he's a i think escaped maybe oh no he hasn't escaped something something i think early in the season and then there's like that really cool tropicana kind of music and then

it's playing in the bar that's a good time yeah that's a good time i think it's a very highly viewed youtube video as well the near moss uh the near moss sound the near moss the near moss near moss theme that's what it's called are you is it in the first half yeah morelana club mix oh yes morelana yeah okay um let me let me play that hold on a second uh here's chicken in the pot from solo it's very uh it's very like in universe you know what i mean uh it's not something i would

rock out to in my car uh and here's the near moss song oh yeah you're right yeah i totally i like this one this one's good yeah this is a jam this is my uh go-to shower song yeah i'm adding this to my like songs it kind of it kind of feels very daft punky like a like a tron legacy or something like that you know yeah i remember listening at train to the i was watching the show it's like wow i want to go to the miami of star wars yeah yeah this is great some of the some of

the comments are kind of funny on that youtube video but i won't say them on the pod i'll leave you to uh yeah you know it reminds me of uh i think it reminds me is it this one is it recognizer from tron legacy i think oh no oh yeah you know what um people say like the key for a successful retirement is the tron legacy i think it's the tron legacy i think it's the tron is to have you know a nice sports car driving on the beach well i disagree i think a key

to successful retirement is listening to this near moss theme and then having a blue milk glass of blue milk on the beaches of pabu that's uh that's uh where life is that when when there's no tsunami yeah that's uh feels good um oh is it i think it's this one no is it this one uh uh maybe it's this one oh yeah yeah there's that one uh what's this one rectifier or no discourse clue oh man there's so there's so many there's so many good songs on that soundtrack um yeah there's one where they

go into that bar in tron legacy if it has the same kind of kind of general vibe about it but anyway uh so what are your thoughts about the um you know a group of kids you know obviously there's uh old republic credits uh which don't look like the clone wars republic credits so they it's probably probably is like actual old republic uh like you know kotor era level stuff um but uh seems to be the center point of pirates chasing down a bunch of

kids who you know get caught up on a space station somewhere you know they're buying lunch and all of a sudden their day goes wrong and probably spirals into this greater adventure so um what are your thoughts on this particular you know plot that they're teasing here and and just overall like you know the the idea of watching this genre in a star wars show you know you know what it's just so different and it's not tied to anything

at all like the acolyte was tied to many things so it was even was mando and all the other shows have come before and after it this is just totally fresh it's got the star wars brand on it so that's going to help to get a few views to start off with but i'm uh you know what with um acolyte i was cautiously optimistic but this one i'm just optimistic you know so we uh i think i think i think we're in for a bit of a bit of a treat i think we're in for a bit of a treat i think we're

in for a bit of a change of pace and now also i feel like a lot of people uh that grew up with star wars especially the prequels they all have kids now and stuff you know yeah young kids it might be great uh great show to introduce uh introduce uh to those kids um apart from you know young jedi adventurers which i know is your favorite um but uh this is yeah this should be a good time yeah i think like if i was a kid and i was and i was like i don't know it's like

eight to ten years old and i was watching this show i feel like i would have wanted to uh wanted to be one of these guys going throughout the galaxy so it looks good yeah yeah i mean i i think it'll be a fun show um you know just like what it has to offer and uh i feel like it's a good opportunity to put in so many like little easter eggs and cameos of of different things uh being kind of the genre that

it is uh so yeah no i've like i don't the thing is like i'm going in with low expectations on this um i had high expectations for a show like the acolyte because it is the first of its era you know really kicking off the high republic era to uh viewers of the the live action stuff right and i think that's where it had a lot of weight on on the shoulders whereas this show is taking place in that time frame of of all these

other successful shows you know three seasons of the mandalorian and you know i mean we got ahsoka in there we got book of boba fett in there like so much happening in this time period and skeleton crew is just kind of the next thing so i feel like it doesn't really have a lot of to get the politics right to get the you know the real core star wars war aspect right like it doesn't really need to focus on all that and i think that's where some of this pressure kind of

like is removed right whereas the acolyte really the jedi are at the core you know definitely features some politics in there with the senate and and i don't know i i mean i think like the what people were expecting it may have not necessarily been what they were expecting and i think this show is sort of like you know like the pressure is off kind of thing if that makes sense yeah it's a fresh start there's nothing for it to be compared to i think oh actually outside of the

star wars franchise like there's obviously a lot to be for it to be compared to stranger things is kind of like the one thing that keeps coming to mind um but i also i loved ghostbusters afterlife that was pretty recent a bunch of kids in in that show going on an adventure yeah so um yeah i guess what's always interesting like if this show like uh you know takes off it'd be interesting just to see how like the actors obviously the kids grow up over the next like five ten years if they

don't get out of the show um and uh i think this is another interesting way lucasfilm is just trying to try some different things while uh we wait until 2026 the next uh next big movie comes out and uh i think i'm not sure if i've said it on the podcast in the past but i'd love to see it's just like a star wars story that has absolutely nothing to do with the main line of stories like i.e like it could be about a restaurant owner on uh on canto bite or like

on coruscant or something so this is kind of like the closest we could get to it at this stage has no relevance to anything but the show and i think it's a really interesting way to talk about it and else at this stage but i don't know maybe i'm setting myself up to disappointment who knows maybe uh it'll end up being tied in with luke skywalker or something i don't know yeah yeah exactly all right cool thanks thanks for the uh the two cents on that um we're gonna we're gonna

pull in blake because uh we see him docking at the ship uh there he is now all right hello blake welcome back oh wait hello hello hello oh thanks i was out there a while it's getting cold out there and we're running out of air yeah yeah i thought it was gonna be just left in the vacuum um yeah don't forget to close the door oh yeah there we go thank you sir this is getting out of hand now there are two of them

co-hosts yeah we got the outdoor blast shield the inside blast shield you know all the door um so i was looking at some youtube shorts uh just a just a little little extra thing a tidbit to ask you guys i was looking at some youtube shorts recently because you know who doesn't these days and uh there was this one that came up which was probably older at this point but i feel like maybe a good chunk of our viewers probably haven't listened to it or maybe you guys haven't seen

it maybe you have who knows um this is a little youtube short uh with sam witwer he has a discussion with somebody and they were talking about the best way to watch the star wars films and the shows and this is i'm bringing this up now with all of the current star wars media yeah yeah well so this was a few years ago um but it still can apply to certain certain demographics certain people um especially with younger kids and i bring this up because of

what kirk said uh because of skeleton crew coming out uh targeting a younger audience and um and also just in general you know um with star wars fans out there who are watching this and they're you know having kids with getting to this age of uh of you know maybe you want to introduce your kids to star wars right and maybe skeleton crew is not where you want to start uh maybe you want to start with an animated show and this is kind of where this shorts came in and i just thought

the details he provided on why this makes sense as well to some people who want to start with with this particular way to do things uh i can actually see the a benefit in doing this so here let me just play this clip here's my theory i think you start with clone wars and you don't for kids start with the clone wars right get them used to what that world is and and more importantly get them used to who anakin skywalker is and then if you show them episode four and

obi-wan's like you know darth vader gilgul father anakin skywalker and all this stuff and then the kids are gunning for darth vader but they hadn't made the connection yet and so long as you don't show them the prequels before that they won't make that connection yet so then when you go to episode five you get i am your father and then the kids are mind blown even more than you and me were mind blown because

they liked the guy they mourned his loss they went after the guy that killed him to find out that's the same guy and then that's mind blown for them and then and then once you hit episode five then show them the prequels anyway so that was that was just kind of one more extra viewing order that you could throw in there for for younger viewers specifically who you want to start on an animated show and work their way up into live action i thought that was a cool way

to do it because i'm a bit clone wars guy as you know and and i was like yeah i'm a big supporter of that you know this is a spin-off on the machete order so are you now in favor of the machete no no the machete order is a very specific never watch phantom menace order i hate that machete order i never i never i ignore that part but but that's not the machete order there's a different four five ten prequels in that so all

you're doing is really introducing clone wars first the animated series yeah there's a name for that order um but the machete order is specifically called machete because it chops because it cuts out you know like a machete knife right like a machete knife right like a machete knife like it cuts out the phantom menace right i thought it was invented by machete no uh but now he's in a star wars show that's true he should probably take ownership of that he should um so

why does it cut out the phantom menace i don't understand the machete order the machete order was a viewing order derived uh cutting out jar jar cutting out jar jar banks from somebody's experience uh watching star wars movies for the first time i personally think it's the most ridiculous viewing order out there because i love the fan but how do you watch episode two and three because like like so jar jar's in there so okay so there so there's so i'll go through the list of viewing

orders so first there's theatrical so that's just basically in order of um theatrical release so that's four five six one two three seven rogue one eight solo rise of scott walker and then you know that's that's that's theatrical view then there's chronological view which i'm kind of the biggest advocate for so that's one two three solo rogue one eight solo rise of scott walker one four five six seven eight nine then there's the machete order which is four five two three six

seven eight nine and then at the very end they've thrown in one solo and rogue one is optional but that's an updated machete order but originally machete order just chopped out entirely and that was uh that was invented before the sequels even existed then there's the disney narrative timeline which is like if you if you happen to watch yeah that's the that's everything with the live action animated shows in chronological order um so there's also there's also a uh they throw in a

little bone for all the old fans out there um the star wars vintage lineup where you throw in the ewok adventures in the cartoons yeah you watch you watch caravan of courage ewoks ewok adventures the animated star wars droids and then the micro clone war series um and uh anyway so those are some of the different viewing orders but um so there's no name for the one that sam whitworth gave but i i don't know how uh he considers the idea that hey there's young kids out there they might not want

to start with a live action film right like they might not be old enough to really appreciate it for what it's worth they might really only be into animated 20 minute episodes here and there right and it's a good way to get to know the core characters you know unlike some of the other animated shows which jump around or feature characters that aren't in the movies and the movies are like for a little bit older audiences like people do die in them yeah so you're not

necessarily see a four-year-old watching it right closer to ten years old and they're not yeah and like it what's so good about clone wars is it does in in like it does um feature a lot of those characters like darth maul like dooku grievous venturous palpatine you know it features these characters that you see in the movies boy they're gonna be really confused if they watch phantom menace darth maul get cut in half after that yeah well and that's the thing right like

however you watch star wars in whatever order you like to watch them if you're showing somebody in order there's always going to be a spoiled surprise to some degree right so even in the order that sam whitworth is talking about you still spoil the surprise of anakin's downfall whereas like if you do it the chronological way um it's this story i don't think so because you're seeing the downfall as he's our darth vader which is more of a reveal i think well to somebody who's

never seen the films right like when you start with episode one it's this story of him transitioning into this sith lord it's a very shocking movie episode three right like yeah you see him get but you never really think ahead to oh could he ever do something that bad right if you don't really know what's coming right um you know to somebody who knows anything a little about star wars they might make the connection but uh to somebody who's a clean slate you know they wouldn't

see it coming and um you ruin the surprise of that transition of this chosen one becoming you know like this uh the villain of the galaxy whereas if you uh watch it the other way around then you spoil you know if you watch it in that order then you do do the luke reveal uh surprise that that one gets ruined the vader the vader luke father reveal that one gets spoiled because the viewer knows but if you do it the other way around then the anakin turning into vader gets spoiled

because then you know i think he is i personally thought vader as the father reveal is a bigger deal because i think that's i think you get both i think if you find out vader's anakin and his father i think you get it all at once do you still get well not but not really because you don't really know anakin as a character you only know you would if you watch the animated series if yes in this case you know because you watch the animated series yeah i personally i'm on board

with this new one yeah there's this new one yeah so i like i actually kind of like this one because younger audiences i'm not sure if it has some effect if you're watching it as an adult that's that's where i actually like really liked this viewing order as well because normally if you don't put in clone wars and you do just watch episode four five six and then one two three it's not enough of a surprise for me it's like okay it's terrifying for luke but it's anakin's

story right like it's a six-part story about anakin skywalking who is who falls and then is redeemed because of his son right it's only half about luke and if you count in the sequels it's even less about luke so like it's less about the skywalkers yeah so it's really it's really anakin's story for the majority of the saga and i think george intended to be that way by the end of it um but uh but yeah i like how clone wars does bring more to that

episode 5 reveal because you now know who anakin is and you've seen sort of the seeds planted and so when it's revealed like oh that's who he becomes that's who he turns into um then it's then it's cool uh there's only one like little hiccup is uh there's the mortis trilogy which hints at who he will become when he speaks to the sun i think that's why sam whitworth said so not all of it yeah yeah i mean like uh yeah yeah you can define that however you like you could

you could define it like that or you could be like uh like like you always skip season one or two kind of thing yeah it's true um so you could define it however you like but um but yeah and if you're a younger audience you're probably not going to put the pieces together something complicated like that yeah it's more of a pre-teen like target i think that storyline yeah yeah um all right so uh let's uh let's move on here to our uh our main subject uh the great

star wars board game retrospective uh blog by board game geek uh this was something i stumbled across and thought it was kind of worth talking about uh so also kirk will be right back um this in 2017 uh credit goes to the user trk27 nat green shout out to you if you're listening uh thank you for all these amazing images and text uh so basically what this is is sort of a walk through star wars 40 years of star wars games and um you know naturally i think based on based on the time

that we have i'm gonna try and summarize each thing as much as possible we're not gonna go through everyone in hyper detail right right exactly i think we should discuss the mechanics i think you're right so uh starting off with number one uh this game is called freedom in the galaxy uh the star rebellions 5764 ad that's the full name of the game all right that's yeah that's quite a so this is a 1979 war game from spi simulations publications incorporated games

um this company is defunct um and uh it this it was also published by a different company called so it's not a star wars licensed game but this person included it in the list because it is very much inspired by star wars no you you need to finish the rest of that sentence so hevelon hill never got the star wars license so they released the game but just replaced all the characters that's right all right we got kirk back awesome so luke is named adam starlight

and darth vader is redjack yeah and i love how the designs look all exactly like the characters right like he's got the tunic vader looks like he's got the tunic he's got the tunic he's got the tunic a little different because that'd get rid of vader's helmet right right right uh kirk we're just talking about the first game up on the first article on the list um freedom in the galaxy this game looks so complicated dude yeah so basically this game is if anyone has played the ffg star

wars rebellion game it is like a more complicated version of that just like that it's like out of rim while doing your taxes yeah yeah so it attempts to model the entirety of the galaxy in a way that forgets like the is like a more relaxed assess the wicked alive or planets or anything like that so they just made it a space game but then all the artwork looks like it's star wars to a degree it's just like it looks like knockoff star wars you know

what i mean um like so that's why the name is called freedom in the galaxy yeah because i just looked at this without any context i'm like what does 5764 id mean is that actually is that like after death star after darth vader i i think like i'm looking at the the rule book here uh the picture of the rule book is quite entertaining to look at and i'm gonna drop a link in the description of this episode for everyone else who wants to see these photos that's the rule book

that's the rule book so uh this thing looks like a dictionary what um is like like section 21 chapter 21.0 hyper jumping and then there's like a general rules about it everything is just star wars stuff but just renamed yeah yeah yeah it's hyper jumping at detection like oh my gosh like there's so much stuff going on here like i don't i don't know what this space combat in each orbit box this contains opposing military users space

combat is resolved in the following order one if there's an interception stack in an orbit box the non-playing player non-phasing player must attack all the phasing players military units in the space combat area and the non-phasing player must attack all the phasing players military units in the space combat area and the non-phasing players military units in the space combat area and the back i don't know say that may not eat probably in the middle of a sack but can't read it's blurry

but wow yeah so um this is so what what they say about this is they said luckily freedom in the galaxy has three scales that beginners can use gradually to learn the rules for the full game the system game where you play as a single star system the sector game where you play as several star systems and then the galactic game where you play the whole board sadly even this system game was beyond us uh there are some great ideas in freedom of the galaxy but i don't think it's

It's a highly asymmetrical game in which the Rebels play a game of characters completing missions while the Empire plays a more traditional war game, moving large stacks of units around trying to detect and crush the Willy Rebels. The Rebels start only with the characters which they use to complete diplomacy missions in order to foment rebellion and eventually evolve into a military force that can take on the Empire, which starts the game controlling all sectors.

And if you're interested in more detailed rundown about how the game works, you can check out the link provided on the website. So it is a pretty detailed game and pretty nuts to say that like, you know, this could have been a Star Wars game. But, you know, just hats off to FFG for making a game that was sort of similar and it's called Rebellion and it's still available for purchase and I played it once.

So thank you, Ben and Ellen, for buying that game because otherwise I probably wouldn't have played it. Sorry, I got to read this slip that came in the box. It was like a little piece of paper and it says, Do you have a friend? If you know someone who has the basic brainpower to comprehend Avalon Hill games, then get him to send us to send this postcard. And it goes on to say, like, you'll get a friend and stuff.

And then to fill out his name, you put it under name of a bright friend because this game is just so complicated. The average person wouldn't be able to play it. Wait, what? I wonder what year was this made in? This was 1979. 1979 is when this game came out. So it was like. It was designed in 1979 and then released in 1982 under Avalon Games. Oh, is that what it said? I think so. Anyway, pretty nuts.

What I find fascinating is how they, because I'm assuming, was this company pretty big at the time? Well, I don't really know, but I mean, they included it in the list because I think the conversation was there to make it a Star Wars game and then they just couldn't get the license for it. So they just made it a knockoff Star Wars game. Yeah. But the game is designed to be a Star Wars game, which is cool. The cover art is pretty, pretty sweet.

Yeah. How long do you think the average game is supposed to be? It's going to take a while to guess. Four hours. Estimated shortest game. Nah, that's low gross. 20 hours. 20 hours. Oh my gosh. That is nuts. For a low estimate of 20 hours. Dang. Okay. So think like the worst game you've ever played. Does that include. Does that include explaining the rules? That's a good question. I guess so. I think it says low. So I'm guessing this is if you already know what you're doing.

Dang. Okay. So maybe not. That's not. All right. Let's let's move on to number two here. Okay. So number two on the list is a Star Wars licensed game called Star Warriors. So this was this is one of the first games from West End Games, which the West End Games had the Star Wars license between 1987 and 1991 and supported through the late the late 90s. But that's when most of the games came out. The first of these is Star Warriors Starfighter Combat in the Star Wars universe.

It's a hex by counter style dogfighting war game. So it's a board with a bunch of hexes. You get some tokens, you get some dice, you get some some stat sheets, picture the miniatures game called X-Wing made by FFG, but much more primitive and much more old without all the fancy miniatures. It's all paper and tokens and very two dimensional.

But yes, this was published in 1987, the same year as the West End Star Wars D6 RPG, which Pablo Hidalgo talks about a lot because that's the one that he said inspired a lot of the surrounding expanded. Universe stuff way back in the day when they were doing books like the Thrawn Trilogy, you know, the what was that Shadows of the Empire, stuff like that. A lot of that came out of the the world that West End was building, you know, for Star Wars. All right. So what else?

What else details about this one? It was 1987. Yeah, it looks it looks very similar to how X-Wing might play. There's certain tiles like certain maneuvers that certain ships can do on the tiles. There's certain maneuvers that certain ships can do on the tiles. There's different ways that it can attack. You know, you got tables for for the various different ship and, you know, how how they can how they can fly, how they can attack, you know, stuff like that.

So like it very much is very similar to the X-Wing game, the miniatures game, except it looks way more complicated. And, you know, as far as X-Wing goes, it is a canceled miniatures game now. And, you know, I enjoyed playing it. But yeah, it looks very, very similar to that. Just old school. So I think we'll I'm guessing a lot of these older games are going to be probably created by fans of the classic Dungeons and Dragons. Probably be a lot of tables and dice rolling.

It's interesting, though, that everything is based on the D6. Yeah. Yeah. That's how they that's how they did there. That's that was just a West End games kind of thing, I guess. What's interesting is I'm looking at a picture of one of the in the rulebook. Chapter 36 in the rulebook says using Star Warriors with Star Wars, the role playing game. So they they designed it to also tie into their other game, which was the role playing games. That way.

If you did fly somewhere and get into a dogfight, you had an entire other game to simulate the dogfighting experience. Bro, could you imagine being like 30 hours in a campaign and you got to do a space battle and your character just dies? Yeah. Like you're literally playing a game inside of a game like at that point. Right. Yeah. It's a concept that's not super foreign to me, though. Like back when I when I played a Star Wars role playing game with you. Yeah, I think. And yeah, we did.

And I think. I did use the the X-Wing minifig minifigs. That was fun. Yeah. At one point, our group of characters got like the Outrider. You know that. That's right. Y.T. I had the VCX 100. I don't know if we ever used it. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's right. So anyway. Yeah. It was it was cool to do that, to have the option. I'd be down to do that again soon, by the way. We wanted to put together a campaign. So much work to do. So much fun, though. OK. Third on the list.

Star Wars Miniatures Battles. Also West End Games. This is basically Star Wars Legion, but vintage. It's from, let's see, 1991, I think. Or yeah, 1991. Picture Warhammer 40K. The Lord of the Rings. Miniatures games. Star Wars Legion. Shatterpoint. Anything like that. Paintable figures. You dress them up yourself. You do the basing. All that stuff is a hobby slash miniature war game. And this was put out by West End Games. I actually didn't know that they did a miniature war game for Star Wars.

These were made out of pewter. They're not even plastic. No. Yeah. Actually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the vintage Warhammer and Lord of the Rings miniatures are also made of pewter. But they stopped doing that. Now everything's resin and plastic. It's too expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But all the old stuff is metal. Yeah. It's pretty neat. They don't make them like they used to. They don't. Yeah. Kirk, you into any hobby gaming?

You play any of the old Star Wars board games back in the day? No, I haven't. I haven't. I have to admit to that. Although there's these board game cafes that have become increasingly popular around my city. And quite often. And every once a month, I find myself going out to them, which is good because, you know, so much entertainment stuff these days is all looking at a screen. So it's always good to be able to interact with people in person. But no, I haven't played any of these.

Like all of these are completely, completely new to me. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a big hobby out there. You know, as much as Star Wars, like Star Wars has a ton of video games, right? Like it's an IP that's generated a lot of video games. Big in the 90s, right? Yeah, for sure. But it's also an IP that has generated a lot of video games. Yeah. It's generated a lot of card slash board games as well.

And so that's kind of why we're doing this, because like, you know, it's just interesting to look back at some of the things that have existed. And board games are different than video games in the sense where video games, because it's a digital thing, can be replicated and preserved a bit easier. Yeah. It's easier to emulate and use them and catalog them. Yeah. And find copies. And you can still buy like a Steam package for $12. I think it's on sale like right now for $12.

You can get like 15 vintage Star Wars games. Yeah. Exactly. Whereas board games, unless you get lucky at some random like. Right. There's no way to recreate them. There's like or like a thrift shop. Like it's kind of just luck of the draw. This stuff's probably old and missing pieces. Yeah. And a lot of that stuff goes up in value big time because because it's never published again and because it's only publishable under the license.

And if a company loses the license to publish the game that they made with that IP, they can't publish it anymore. That's why I grabbed a copy of Epic Duels. Yeah. And that's also why I grabbed as many. Well, I own other than one. I own paper like module for the journeys and maps or for boats and water travel. I own all of the books for the first edition of the One Ring, like the RPG for Lord of the Rings, the One Ring role playing game.

And I went on like a bit of a streak trying to find all these books because I knew that they lost the license. So I knew that they weren't able to publish this game anymore. And they did end up finding a different publisher to get the license or something to then continue doing it. But it's in the form of. A second edition. So it's different than the first edition. And there are things that they've improved and things that have changed or whatever.

But the first edition books will never be recreated again. And because they're doing a second edition, they're trying to focus on other areas of Middle Earth to write source books for and everything because they know that a lot of the people buying this may have bought first edition books. Right. So they're prioritizing other stuff. So it kind of like, you know, it's like a lot of these games like they they're, you know, it's a spot in time that never really gets recreated. No, that's true.

And then eventually. They stop and they wait long enough that then they do it all over again. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. When's the next Star Wars RPG going to come out? Right. Yeah. It always gets rebooted every every now and again. But yeah, Star Wars Star. The miniature battles is is essentially it's a standalone game. But they also tied that into the Western Games RPG as well. So that's the second game. So they did the space battles game. They did the miniatures battles games.

And both of those games tie into the RPG game that they made. And there was a large amount of content surrounding the Thrawn trilogy. But they have a entire chapter dedicated for importing that game into the role playing game. And undoubtedly they had stats for miniatures that they referenced in the role playing game source books. Very similar to how Wizards of the Coast did it.

That was a model that transferred over very well into Wizards of the Coast because Wizards of the Coast did the Star Wars miniatures game, which I have very many of those, as well as the Star Wars role playing game, which a lot of the characters in some of these source books, a lot of the artwork and the characters and stuff.

You can buy a miniature that they made that worked for a different game that they made, but you could use it for that exact character in a source book that they made for the role playing game. We used to use those for RPG stuff all the time. Yeah. Number four, Star Wars Starfighter Battle Book. So this one looks interesting. This one. What is this? One book has an X-Wing on it and the other one has a TIE fighter and you throw them at each other.

It's a it's a variation of the Aces of Aces system. You know what that is? I do not. Battlebook. Interesting. OK, so the best way to describe how this game works is that it's a sort of competitive choose your own adventure book. One player takes the role of an X-Wing pilot for the rebels, while the other pilots take the TIE interceptor book for the empire. Each player takes the book that corresponds with their ship.

It says each page of the book shows a view of the cockpit from the player's fighter. Well, this is what I was talking about to you earlier and the relative position of the opponent's fighter to them. So the corresponding page in the opponent's book will show them their view from that position.

And so each page in the book shows the maneuvers available to the fighter, which differ somewhat between the ships and every turn you select a maneuver and tell your opponent the page number beneath it and your opponent does the same to you. You both flip to that page and from that page you go to your final page, which is then given the maneuver on the selected mid-flight page and then the final. Yeah, so it's like a it's like a back and forth.

You're flipping through this book and telling the opponent where you are and it kind of gives you the options that you have to like dodge or shoot or whatever. It's like good. Turn based battle system. It sounds like. Yeah. Yeah. In novel form. It's kind of like a shifting puzzle that you're both playing and trying to guess what the other person will do and then making a educated guess on maybe what they might do. And yeah, if this functions well, because it might just be terrible.

But if it functions well, this could be something that actually be fun to do on a road trip. Yeah, because you're basically there's no pieces. There's no it's literally just a book. Two books. Each player gets a book and that's it. Yeah, it's very cool. I love that. I like the concept behind this. This is like an excellent. I love the game, you know. Yeah, exactly. Just two little small paperback books. Keep it in the car. Yeah, that is really sweet. Are we all looking at the same thing?

Because the battle book I'm looking at has like a board game after after it. Oh, yeah. It's the Star Wars is the Starfighter battle book. It's number is like a number. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's. Yeah. I was looking at two books that came. I was looking at it like it was a. Oh, you're looking at it like it was. A box. Oh, got it. No, yeah. It's like a box. And then I saw the pictures afterwards. Keep scrolling down. There's like. I think I clicked into the one of the images. Oh, got it.

Got it. OK. Yeah. If you keep scrolling down, then then there's more pictures of the open books and stuff though. All right. Yeah. I don't know why, but when I think I click on a picture and then like when I hit next, it showed one of the other images. So it looked like it was a box to a book. Gotcha. Yeah, you're right. It would be a pretty awesome thing, I guess, if you didn't get car sick. Yeah. Unfortunately.

It said it's hard to find now, but it goes for something like sixty dollars on eBay. If you see it for cheap, definitely give it a go. So it says in general, it's a great little game, not overly heavy or hard to learn, but it's very luckless and rewards experience and anticipation, unlike some other Western games of this period. It's also not in any way dependent on the RPG, unlike the miniatures game or the Star Wars like the Starfighter game.

This one is very much a standalone experience, so you don't need to tie that into the real playing game. All right. Number five on the list, Assault on Hoth, The Empire Strikes Back. So the next two games on this list, Assault on Hoth and Battle for Endor, are built upon the same basic system that randomized action order decks and relatively simple combat mechanics to present an experience that is much more accessible than West End's other Star Wars hex encounter games like Star Warriors.

Due to the similar nature of both games, they'll go through the gameplay, both including in comparative analysis. OK, so let's just take a look at this. It looks like a board with hexes on it. Very similar to the Starfighter game. Tokens, dice, rulebook, deck of cards. It simulates the Battle of Hoth, simulates the Battle of Endor. This is where FFG got the idea of custom dice. Ah, yes. They made custom dice for this game, did they? Yeah. Interesting. OK, yeah. So that's where it started.

Thanks, West End Games. Yeah. Interesting. OK, so really not too much to elaborate on that, but... I'll take it. We don't like custom dice. Well, I don't mind them, but it just makes it less compatible. If you lose a dice, you have to go out and buy more. As your character gets stronger, you also need more dice. And then they charge you like 25 bucks for a pack of five. Yeah, because they're proprietary dice, so they always... That's where they get you.

Yeah. As opposed to just classed as a D20 system. They always under-provide dice, too. I know. I remember they were sold out for a long time. Oh, man. Yeah. OK, yeah. So both these games are very, very similar. Not too much to elaborate on there. So I'll move on to the next one on the list. Wow, there's a lot of photos of these. OK. OK, number seven. This is the one that I was itching to talk about. This is called Star Wars The Queen's Gambit.

This was released around the release of the Phantom Menace film. It was published in 2000 by Hasbro. And they also published Star Wars Risk Edition, like Risk, you know, the game Risk. They made a Star Wars version of that. So they're going to be covering both those in this section of the article. So... So this is a really cool game, starting off with Queen's Gambit. It allows the combatants to fight through the climactic moments of the Phantom Menace. So they provide two boards.

One of them simulates the grassy fields of the Gungans versus the droids. Then in the middle, you have the Naboo Royal Temple, which has three layers built on these pillars. Each layer is its own board. And that's where Padme and her guards are breaking into the temple. And there's droids. And there's droids in those hallways. And then the third board is on the other side of the middle section. And it's the Duel of Fates between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Maul.

So there is no game quite like this game. Like this game is... That's why I was reading this little paragraph here, which is The Queen's Gambit, which allows combatants to fight through the climactic moments of the Phantom Menace. It's now a Grail game for many collectors. Yeah. It was very sought after. So it regularly goes for over $300. Yeah. USD. So it is a three-part story-based board filled to the brim with 155 plastic minifigs. That's a lot.

Setting up and playing this game is a life event. A celebration of the one redeeming sequence of Episode 1. That's what they say here. So the appeal doesn't just end with the looks. The gameplay is solid and engaging. The game is made up of four sub-games, each of them representing one aspect of the Battle of Naboo. So we got the... Oh, yeah. I forgot. Of course, there's also the Starfighter battle going on in space. They have a section for that, too. So you have the Battle of Naboo.

The Feed Palace is the center of the conflict. In order to win, the Queen's forces have to detain the Trade Federation Viceroy by having the majority of figures in the throne room on the top floor, which is, if you're looking at the image, three layers of like a three-layered cake of a board. Are you seeing this, Kirk? I am seeing it. Yeah. It's pretty nuts. The Trade Federation, on the other hand, has to kill all but two of the Queen's figures in the palace to win.

Each player has a hand of order cards, which are drawn in any combination of the two decks, which focus on a different combination of the sub-games. It's like, there's so much going on here, man. Like, I love it. It does look pretty complicated. I've never played this game. You're playing three games at once. You're playing, oh, like four games at once. You're playing four games at once. It's like three or four games at once. Yeah, it's like, it's crazy.

And then on the right side, you got like the duel between the Jedi there. Oh, right. And then you have the space battle going on. Then you have the Gungan battle going on. You know, you got so much stuff happening all in this one board game. And I just, I gotta say, like, it's like- Is this a replica of another board game? Because, like, how on earth do people come up with this stuff?

No, this is a, that's why this is like a, the crown jewel of a Star Wars board game collector is, like, there is no game that would like this game. Like, maybe 3D chess? Maybe? But, like, that's the only- Is this officially licensed? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a Hasbro game. This launched in 2000. So, it was a long time ago. Phantom Menace? They went crazy. Man, there's so much merch. Phantom Menace had some wicked merch. They went all out. Did you see the lollipops?

The Jar Jar lollipops? Yeah. Yeah, you could suck on Jar Jar's tongue. You get one of those, Kirk? I have not, personally. But I have seen someone unbox one, an open one, mint, that has not been opened since 2000. And let me tell you something. No strawberry flavor, apparently. And let me tell you something. It looked like, it looked like the manifestation and incarnation of the Ebola virus. It was rotten. Oh, jeez. I still have no idea who signed off on that, but I love them for it.

So, they included the- We're both talking about the thing that you can suck on Jar Jar's tongue, right? Yeah, the lollipop. Yeah. Okay, good. Good. Just double checking I'm not the weird one here. Very good. Yeah. Okay, so number eight on the list, Risk, the Star Wars edition. This version, in particular, was released around The Force Awakens, late 2015. This is a reimagining of The Queen's Gambit. It changes the setting to the Battle of Endor. So, it's actually based around Episode VI.

There's two versions of the game that were put out in different price points. More on that later. But for now, in the photos, we've got an image of, the board looks like a TIE fighter, like in shape, right? Oh, yeah, right. But the center is like the space battle. It's like a circular area with the Death Star II in the middle. And you got the Rebels on one side, the Imperials on the other, all with like little minifigures, TIE fighters, and X-Wings, and all that stuff.

And then on the right side, it looks like it's the Battle of Endor with the Ewoks and the Rebels and stuff like that. And then on the left side, on the left wing of the board, it looks like it's the throne room with the duel between Luke and Vader. So, that's all that's going on there. There's a deck of cards included. And because it's a game of Risk, naturally, it looks like you're playing just a game of Risk on three different levels, on three isolated areas.

With the two on the sides being, you know, obviously a little different than a traditional Risk game. So, yeah, it uses the same mechanics as the Queen's Gambit. Wait, actually, I'm really sorry. Going back to Queen's Gambit, I just did a quick eBay search of how much a sealed new version of this is selling for right now. Is it $1,000? Yeah, I'd say at least a grand. Yeah, $1,000. Wait, what currency are we talking? Well, USD. Yeah, USD. Yeah, USD. So, $1,300 Canadian or so.

Okay, let me do a quick currency conversion here because I'm in fair dinkum Aussie dollars. So, give me a quick second. So, yeah, a sealed version right now is going for $1,400 US. Oh, it's so close. That is nuts. That is nuts. You're going to pay your rent for my money. Well, $2,096. Wait, not including shipping for me, unfortunately. So, you have to pay for shipping as well. But, yeah, $2,100. That's crazy. I wouldn't mind buying that. I'm totally kidding.

That's an investment, Josh. Think of it as an investment. What a stable investment. We should get one auctioned off on the podcast. If anyone wants to give us a copy of this game, please. We'll review it, yeah. Yeah. We'll review it and maybe we'll send it back. So, yeah, this Risk version, though, it's cool. I'm actually, I didn't realize that. When I saw that, I remember when this came out. And I just saw the Risk banner up top and I thought nothing of it. Yeah, me too.

I just assumed it was like regular Risk. I just thought it was regular. Yeah, because they do like Star Wars Monopoly stuff and it's like, I don't care. It's like, what are we doing here? Not to be a downer, but like, you know, I just don't care enough to buy a Star Wars skinned version of a game, right? The best Star Wars games are always... The custom ones? Custom built Star Wars games. Those are also risky because sometimes they're just trash. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can't speak for like specifically some of the Star Wars, but I've played some like random off-brand. I had a Bionicle board game. Man, it was brutal. Yeah, but, you know, it's so interesting seeing how this game functions and I kind of regret not buying this Risk game. But, yeah. Anyways, very cool stuff. And if any of you see this... Oh, sorry. And it did mention there was going to be like a one-up version of that same Risk game, like the one that launched in 2015.

And I'm just looking at photos of that now. And it's basically... It basically looks the exact same. It's just a fancier box. It's got some more like high-end embossed like components to it. Like the board is nicer. The cards are nicer. The box is nicer. You know, stuff like that. Sorry, for which one? For the premium version of the 2015 Star Wars Risk, which is basically a re-skinned Queen's Gambit game. Admittedly, the board looks better in Queen's Gambit. Yes. That's because it's 3D.

It's got like the levels to it. I mean, that's what's so cool about it, right? I've never seen a board game like that. No. I mean, you know, I'm sure we could probably recreate it using like... I don't know. If anyone's got the game out there, please like scan it and like, you know, share this somewhere. I would love to, you know, get my hands on like a... Even if it's like a knockout version. Like just to play the game itself, you know, would be awesome. Okay. Next. Moving on. The next one...

Hold on. I want to just read this paragraph. The Risk. All right. Go for it. So to sum up the game's mechanics, Risk Star Wars Edition, at its heart, is a fairly neat and fun little light board game that is wedged between two mini games, one tedious but mandatory and the other extraneous, extraneous, and neither of which are connected to the core of the game very well. So it sounds like you could probably take a pass. Maybe take a pass on the 2015 version.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So moving on, we got number nine, which is Star Wars Epic Duels. Now, I have nothing but good things to say about this game. This game was published under the Milton Bradley label. Also Hasbro, I think. Technically, it is the same company, I guess. Epic Duels is basically a miniatures game that relies on decks of cards for your combat, special moves, defense, everything. There is, I don't think, any... There's no dice in... Actually, yeah. I think there was one.

Is there a dice? I can see him looking at it. I forget. Yeah, there is dice. Yeah, there is a dice. Okay. It tells you how many spaces you can move a character or all your characters. And then you have your deck of cards for everything else. So it's very unique. The boards are very small. It's very simple mechanics. You can only shoot in a straight line or diagonally. You can't shoot in line. It's not a typical miniatures war game where you shoot in line of sight.

But I have this game and it is incredibly fun. It is a huge party game because, I mean, heck, you could have all the characters out on the board. Everyone plays as one character. You can have alliances going on. You can have teams. It's unlike any other game out there. And if you see a copy of Epic Duels on the shelf at a garage sale, at a vintage, you know, like a, what do you call those? Like an antique mall or, I don't know, like a thrift store, whatever. Anything like that.

Yeah, thrift shop. Yeah, yeah. You can usually go to like, I'm sure there's like used board game stores too. Just buy it. Just buy it. It's so worth it. It's so worth it. This game is like probably my number one on the list, having not played Queen's Gambit. This one's my number one. What I didn't know about this game is that... There was nearly a Clone Wars version, a newer updated version, because this game came out before episode three came out.

This was like around the release of Attack of the Clones. So like 2002, 2003. And there was almost a 2008, 2009 version when Clone Wars came out. This looks, based on the box artwork, it looks like it would have been around season two of Clone Wars based on the red text. So probably like 2010, maybe. And it, unfortunately, it got canceled. This was like a, I guess, an image of the box, like of the product.

That ended up not getting mass produced, but they had the entire game repackaged, redesigned, reskinned for Clone Wars, and it would have come out and then it just disappeared. And the person who wrote the article here says, Hasbro's content to garbage out endless variations of Risk and Monopoly while failing to support any of their actual good games. So a bit of a slam there. Epic Duels itself was never reprinted and now regularly goes for $70 on eBay or more. So definitely if you see a copy.

Kirk, what's the... What's the running amount for a new sealed edition of Epic Duels? All right. Let me just plug it into my Star Wars board game calculator. I think this is where you play. What is it in the Aussie dollar account? Let's have a look here. In the FedIncome Aussie dollar account, we've got... Oh, this one's a bargain. It's 100... I'm sorry, $280 Australian dollars. Okay. So US, what is that? Which is... Like $200? US dollars, but $186 United States dollar reduced. All right.

So yeah, there you go. And this game, let me tell you, awesome game. I mean, you played it, right? I actually picked up a copy because I liked it so much. Yeah. What'd you get yours for? I was actually just trying to think about that. I bought it secondhand, so I can't quite remember. Okay. I got it from a coworker. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Cool. Sweet. So to make it even better, just so you know, there is a fan community of people that have supported this board game in an unofficial way.

Made decks. Of cards for new Star Wars characters, for new stories, and created boards and everything like that. Let me tell you, some of these unofficial decks are over the top redonkulous when it comes to some of the things that they can do. But if somebody is so into this game that they want to keep going and play more characters, you know, updated characters, whatever, there is a community of people to do that and a Discord to join for that.

And I think I am in that Discord, if I'm not mistaken. And somebody in our Discord is actually from that Discord. So it's just been a while since I've heard from that person or seen any messages from that person. But I will put a link. Oh, I'm still in that Discord. Yeah. So I will put a link to their community Discord in our podcast episode this week because, yeah, it's worth you guys knowing. All right. Let's move on to the next one, which is number 10.

Unfortunately, on that bombshell, I'm going to have to... Going to have to step out? Exit out of this. No worries, man. I'm going to have to step out. So... Okay. Time to abandon ship. All right, buddy. We will catch you in the next one. Actually, sorry. I'm supposed to be out of the Skype pod. Does that sound all right? There he goes. There he goes. All right. See you, Kirk. All right. So a big thank you to Kirk for being on this week. All right. So let's hit the next one on the list.

Episode one, Clash of the Lightsabers. This one was... We're going back a little bit to 99 for a brief look at a small card game that Hasbro put out as part of their episode one merchandising. Clash of the Lightsabers is a miniatures game with looks like two decks of cards. You lay out five cards on the table. You kind of choose your moves. And it's almost just... It's very simple. It looks like a rock, paper, scissors sort of card game based on the... Cards.

And the miniatures just represent which card you're playing at that turn. So it's... They still had pewter miniatures here. Yeah. Yeah. Vintage game. Very cool. I think the only reason why Queen's Gambit didn't have pewter is only because there was like 159. They went with plastic, but... For the box, it'd be like 100 pounds. Yeah. Oh, it's worth noting Epic Duels has painted, pre-painted minifigs. Yeah. I noticed that.

Yeah. And they're not very detailed or anything, but it's like a rarity for the time. Yeah. Because there's a lot of effort to paint all that stuff. Yeah. And actually do like multiple colors. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. So yeah. Anyway, this game looks pretty cool. Looks like it's just Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. No Obi-Wan in there, but... So Darth Maul wins every time? Looks like Obi-Wan's on the cards, but you don't get an Obi-Wan figure, so...

Unless this was made when George had the plan for Qui-Gon to become Obi-Wan. Yeah, that's right. But then why is him Liam Neeson? Oh, man. Okay. So anything to say on that one? I'm sure we move on to the next one. I'm just skimming through the pictures here. It's kind of hard to follow because it is just cards. Yeah. To sum it up, they said Clash of the Lightsabers may be an uninspired game, but it's not an objectively terrible one.

The bluffing and mind games are there, and for a 15-minute long two-player game, you could certainly do worse. It can easily be found on eBay for about $3 to $5, which is worth for the pewter mini alone. Let's just say that, for better or worse, it's an appropriately priced $3 to $5 game. Cool. Cool. I'm reading some of the cards, like discard your entire hand, draw an equal number. It seems like it's kind of overlap, but who knows? All right.

Next up on the list, number 11, we got Risk Star Wars Clone Wars Edition. This is what appears to be unlike the 2015 Risk Star Wars Edition, which is basically Queen's Gambit. This is actually a Risk game, just Risk skinned as a Star Wars game. That's typical. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had assumed it was like this as well. Yeah. This one's 2004. So this one's the typical. Yeah. So this one is encompassing the prequel trilogy in the theming. And to follow this up, they also released a Risk Star Wars original trilogy edition, which came later. And that one is basically just the original trilogy planets and figures and theming with the rebellion versus the empire.

Uh, so, you know, that's the, uh, that's the main difference there. But, um, so you can get those two editions. They're both just standard Star Wars Risk games, you know, flying around the galaxy, taking over planets, stuff like that. Um, yeah. Oh, and in the original trilogy Risk, the third wheel is the Hutts. Apparently they play a, uh, neither the empire nor the rebels needs to defeat the Hutts to win. But if you leave the Hutts entirely alone, the Hutts can actually win on their own.

And, uh, I, it seems like maybe it's like an AI part of the game, or maybe it's just a third faction. I don't know how that works, but that looks, that looks kind of interesting fact that there was like a NPC player playing alongside the, uh, the two, the two player risk. It's kind of a cool twist system. Yeah. It's a bit of a nice twist. Um, okay. And that is, that is the last, uh, sort of detailed post that this person has given. Um, so let's see how we're doing on time. We're okay.

Um, we should, yeah, we got a little bit, a little bit left. Um, so in order to follow this up, I mean, let's just look at some of the more deep, like some of the really nice kind of vintage games, which I thought, uh, were kind of cool, you know, and, uh, probably worth taking a look at, but somebody might have questions as far as like some of the more current games that are available and some of the things that maybe we've played in recent history.

So, uh, without any details at all, I'm just going to run through this list in like 10 seconds. And then maybe you could just keep in mind some of the ones that you've played, and then we can just kind of elaborate on those. So, uh, some of the best board games you can buy right now that are either only slightly out of print because they just got canceled within the last two years, but you can still find them. Within reason, uh, or games that are still being printed to this day.

So for those of you who recognize a few on the list that aren't printed anymore, just know that this is maybe an older list. Um, but it is for 2024. It's just, you can still find places that sell these games. Okay. So number one, uh, Star Wars, the Mandalorian adventures board game. That's fairly newer.

Star Wars, bounty hunters, Star Wars, shatter point, Star Wars, unlimited Star Wars, Jabba's palace, a love letter game, Star Wars, the deck building game, Star Wars, the clone wars, Star Wars, villain. This power of the dark side, Star Wars, outer rim, Star Wars, X-Wing second edition, Star Wars, Imperial assault, Star Wars, rebellion, Star Wars, destiny, and Star Wars Legion. Those are the games that you can find right now in a store and buy. Those are a card and board games.

And, uh, as far as I know, uh, the one that they've left out here is Star Wars Armada, but it's worth knowing that both Star Wars Armada and Star Wars X-Wing second edition have been canceled and you will find, uh, it much harder. To buy those games. Does that mean that edge of the empire is out of print now?

It doesn't have edge of the empire on this list, but, uh, but yes, uh, the FFG, the more recent FFG Star Wars role playing game, which lasted from 2013 all the way up until about two or three years ago, uh, went for a long time. Yeah. Like over 10, over 10 years or something as well, or about 10 years. But yeah, they've stopped. They still have the license, but they've stopped making new. Content for that game and still find the old stuff available, the newest things.

So the newest modules that, and yeah, so the game that you were referring to is the, yeah, the FFG role playing Star Wars games. So they did three main titles of that game, which all take place in different eras. So that was edge of the empire, age of rebellion and forces and destiny. Those were like the three packages that you could buy all different theming. Do they ever do the prequels? Uh, yes.

So they, those were the three ones that they kicked off with as well as a starter set for the force awakens. Now it's basically, it is the same game. Um, translatable across these different source books. The only thing that was different between all of these different like sub versions was that you had different theming around the, the, the story that you start off with the different source books that you got with it, uh, the character classes that you could make all that stuff.

Like it was like, because the star was galaxy so big, they thought they would kind of split it up into these different kind of sub genres. And I think that was maybe a relatively good idea for people who were like, oh, I really want that smuggler bounty hunter experience with it. Edge of the empire, or I really want that rebel verse empire experience with age rebellion, or I really want the Jedi experience with forces and destiny. Right.

So it really kind of splits it up and you might be thinking like, oh, well, what if I want a character? Like if I want a rebel with a Jedi and a smuggler all in one group of players, you can totally do that. It's just, it just kind of makes, made it easier to run a campaign core focused on one of these types of stories. If you went down the road at the road of, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, of, of buying books for that particular title, but they're all compatible, right?

Um, eventually they stopped doing that and they started releasing just generic star Wars role-playing game books for the FFG RPG game. And they had a different look about the cover and they did do two books that were quite large and they summarized all of clone wars. Um, the first half was like most of the animated show. And then the second half was the remainder of the animated show plus revenge of the Sith. Um, and the first book also encompassed. Attack of the clones in there.

It kind of goes up to like order 66. Yeah. So it did basically attack of the clones, clone wars, episode three. So it was like kind of that span. And then also just after episode three. So like they covered basically that whole era in the two books. Um, they, I don't think they ever got around to episode one era stuff. I think if anything, they may have slipped something in a few pages, maybe at the beginning of the first clone wars book. I never actually picked it up to read it.

Uh, but yeah, they, they did, they did stuff like that. Um, kind of on the side later. Uh, and then they did, they did stuff like that. As like source books and story material goes. Uh, but yeah, that game lasts a long time and it's almost too bad that they stopped doing it. Um, and I kind of wonder, we kind of need to do like a pre pre pre phantom menace. Yeah, it would, it would, you know, a couple of Jedi, Jedi younglings or whatever on like just a small adventure. Right.

Cause there's like a whole war. Yeah. It would be interesting. Yeah. And technically that's like, you can probably do that with those mechanics. Yeah. Yeah. You can, you can write your own adventure and stuff. I mean like, that's the thing. Well, like, like a role playing game, once you got the basic rules and the dice system down, yeah. You can do anything, you know, like you got enough details in all the source books, you can make it happen.

Um, but yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's too bad that that's not on the list, but, um, you know, FFG is one of those companies that I personally have had some just bad, some bad experiences, you know, like with some of the stuff that they've done, uh, outer rim is on this list and that is probably one of the best stars board games I've ever played. And that is an FFG board game. Yeah. That one is really good. I just, I do think it's a tad long. It's a three hour game.

Yeah. Yeah. But it's like, it's a cool complaint. It's a four. It's a four hour game. It's, it is the only game that can capture that experience of being a smuggler of a, of a notable smuggler character of some kind like Lando or Han or Hondo or, or, or whatever, like Boba Fett or yeah. Like, yeah, you choose a character, you, you, you play as that character and it is the only game that can give you the experience it gives you with making it feel like you're living in that, in that story.

You know, like you got planets that you can travel to around this half ring. It's like a moon shaped ring of a board and you know, there's markets with the expansion. Yeah. Well, it doesn't complete the circle, but it like gives you portals that you can jump to the other side. Yeah. It's so cool. It's so, so awesome. Like the, the objective of that game is to be the most famous in the galaxy. So that was really cool. Um, I recommend that to anybody.

Uh, but, uh, but yeah, I'm honestly kind of surprised that, um, they've had, uh, issues like that with discontinuing games so quickly. Uh, Imperial salt also game that they killed off. It was, that was a cool game. We played that for a while. Um, it has like a, it's like a one person plays the empire. Everyone else plays a rebel. Oh, that's right. And it's a bunch of cam. It's like a campaign. So like every game you play is different. The board is made up of puzzle pieces.

The app helps drive the story. And it's like the Imperials versus like the, the rebels basically. But it's like one person plays the empire and then there's a team of other players. And it's always like objective based. You play as a, as a single character. It's basically if anyone's ever played borderlands, it's like you're the borderlands team. You play your character. You level up. You level up and get experience and get different abilities and talents and stuff.

But then you're playing against one other player who is the empire. Yeah. From our experience though, because of the way, uh, experience is rewarded. Really? Whoever wins the first game. If you mentioned, I would say maybe, maybe at the end of the second game, the same team has won both. Then you just get so far ahead of the other player that it just becomes impossible for them to catch up. It is. And the, the, the interesting thing that with this game is there's three different ways to play.

So, so we played the empire verse rebellion play style. Where you could have five people playing, uh, but there is a players versus the board way to play. And that I think is only four players, but you use an app to drive the enemies. And, uh, that one's really cool. That's most similar to a newer version of this game, which they're doing still called the Lord of the Rings journey through middle earth and Star Wars game. No, uh, but it's the same.

It's based on, it's basically just Imperial salt 2.0. That's pretty cool. Except as Lord of the Rings. I might pick that up. Yeah. My, my Ben has it and it's, um, uh, and I've bought him most of the expansions for it. And, uh, I forget if I bought him the core game or not as well, but anyway, uh, it is incredibly well designed. They one-upped Imperial salt on a few different levels. So first being they ditched the other two modes. They exclusively feature the players versus the app.

Yeah. And then they went ham on the app. So like only concern with that is the app ever gets discontinued. You can't play the game. Well, the, the app, uh, uh, yeah. So you can get it on steam. You can get on the app stores pretty much everywhere. Yeah. But what about 20 years from now? The, the, yeah. Well, I mean, it's not an online only app, so you can just sideload the APK file or whatever, you know, there's ways to do it.

Um, but what I like about this, this version is that, is that, uh, you can DLC new campaigns, which is not something that they sell physically, but it uses the components in your box and you pay like five bucks and you get like another 20 hours of, of like play material out of it because you're able to just. They're, they have a whole story that they've constructed and everything, but it's something that they just ship on that platform. So it was, that was really cool.

Um, and they kept the expansion, the physical expansions quantity wise way down. Like, I think there was only like four or five, there was like two major boxes that you could buy and then like four or five, like individual, like small character packs. Right. Yeah. They went super hard on that for Imperial Assault. Imperial Assault, they went nuts because, because the third mode that you could play with Imperial Assault was a 1v1 miniature war game. So if you. Ah, okay.

If you bought all the pieces, right. If you bought all the pieces, you can make an army and play like a skirmish style battle, which was basically just Star Wars miniatures from Wizards of the Coast, but on a smaller scale. And I just could, like, I don't even know if I played that mode of the game, but I, cause I already played Star Wars miniatures. So I was like, what's the point of that mode? Right.

Um, but it was like, yeah, I think they just had their hands too full with what they tried to accomplish with the Imperial Assault. And it was a cool idea, but I think they really mastered the best of Imperial Assault in the Lord of the Rings version. I think then they're also trying to do like Armada. And there's, there's also. Yeah. Armada was like. Rebellion is the other big one. No, uh, X-Wing. X-Wing. So Armada was the fleet scale stuff.

So that was like, you had like a cluster of tiny little X-Wings on one piece. Yeah. And then X-Wing is the ship to ship dog fight minifigure game, which I have behind you there. But I think what I was going to get at those, I think at that point they had three different miniature based games and that's just a lot of physical printing. It was Imperial Assault. It was X-Wing. It was Armada. And then. They started producing Legion, which was. Right. That's what I was trying to think of.

Which was FFGs, uh, basically their version of Warhammer 40K. Yeah. Um, and, uh, Legion is still being produced. It is, is done very well, but now they've, they've offloaded all their miniature games minus Armada and X-Wing. So, uh, to a different company and now they've started up a new miniature game called Shatterpoint. So this one is, is a way more, it's less about a mini army and more of a squad based. I play.

I play with four or five figures and it's a bit more kind of objective based and a more dependent on like having like a really detailed terrain set up. So like you have like multiple layers and stuff like that. Whereas Legion, you can play on a tabletop and maybe have a few things, but like not super crazy. Uh, Shatterpoint is probably most comparable to a Marvel game that they're producing right now called Crisis Protocol. So any game, you know, game heads out there will recognize that.

Uh, so Shatterpoint is the newest one and it's, and the miniature is also bigger than Legion. And Legion is already big. Compared to some miniature game. But, uh, yeah, Shatterpoint might be a good jumping on point for anyone who wants to paint Star Wars minifigures and play a game. That's like, you don't need to buy a lot to just kind of support a second person to play with you kind of thing.

Um, so like one starter sets, like, you know, you can stop there and like you paint two factions all included in the box. Good to go. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's good. Cause I know even the X-Wing game, man, if you just buy some of those ships, you buy like one ship, like 80 bucks. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the X-Wing, some of the, and those are, what's cool about X-Wing though, is that all those were pre-painted. True. And they were masterfully detailed.

Like, like some of the X-Wing ships that I own, I bought because it was just a cool ship, right? Like display it. Yeah. I didn't even, I don't think I've ever even actually played with one or two of them in there. I just bought it because I was like, Oh yeah, that's a cool ship. And I will also say that it was very complimentary to the Edge of the Empire for us to do space battles. It was. Yeah. It was really nice to have. Totally. Yeah. It was nice to have the detailed figs and stuff.

So, um, so yeah, I have figs when, when X-Wing 1.0 was a thing and then 2.0 kind of made some of the rules more simple and better. They improved some things and then they expanded with 2.0. They expanded to, um, Republic, Separatists, First Order, Resistance, Fringe, like Bounty Hunters and stuff like that. Whereas the 1.0 version was very exclusively Rebellion and Empire, uh, factions. Uh, there was the. And Fringe. And Fringe.

Yeah. They eventually did, got to Fringe, but, um, but yeah, it took a little while though. Um, so yeah, there's some cool, cool, uh, some, some cool games out there. Uh, Star Wars Unleashed. Star Wars Unlimited is probably the one that, that Kyle would want me to mention, uh, Kyle of Kai Sabers, um, uh, links in the description below, by the way, for, for his company. Um, but, uh, he recently bought into the Star Wars Unlimited game, which is Star Wars, uh, FFG's recent TCG.

So if anyone out there is really into Pokemon or, uh, a game like, uh, like Disney Larkana or, uh, Yu-Gi-Oh, anything like that, like opening booster packs, stuff like that, Star Wars Unlimited is for you. Uh, that's what that game is all about. I have personally never played Star Wars Unlimited, but I have played a different game, which is not on the, oh, it is on those lists actually. It's called Star Wars, the deck building game. It's a one V one card game.

The deck building game is an all in one box. It's a 30 minute game. Uh, it's very, it's kind of hard to describe, but basically you're just trying to, it's all, all based on cards and you're just trying to take out the enemy's base. Uh, it's like a tower defense game, but for like cards, right? Um, so Star Wars Unlimited is very similar to that and, uh, it works differently than other card games out there.

Uh, but, uh, I personally liked the rules of Larkana more so, um, and, uh, also the theming I think agrees with people in my, my circles a bit more. I'm the only Star Wars nut. So I decided not to go down the unlimited path, but, uh, also a fear of FNG canceling another game. Yeah, that is fair. But yeah, so do you have fair warning to people out there? But, um, but yeah, a lot of hype around Unlimited apparently is doing fairly well. So, um, yeah, lots of more on the list.

I will leave the description in the, in the link in the description below. Uh, and, uh, yeah, I think that sums up our board game highlight for the night. Um, we should probably wrap things up here, but, uh, there's two real quick things. Actually, maybe we should save the Lego stuff for next week. Next time. Okay. Yeah. We'll, we'll talk about Lego next week, everybody. Um. That way it's fresh in your mind for Black Friday deals.

Yeah. Uh, this week we had news that Simon Kinberg, the X-Men alum is announced to have begun working on a Star Wars trilogy. Now I'm not overly. I mean, like, I, I love the X-Men movies. I'm not overly hyped for this news because there has been so many times that they make an announcement like this and yet, um, nothing comes about it. You know, we had news many years ago that the guys from the Game of Thrones series would be Benioff and Weiss. Josh Trank. Josh Trank.

Yeah. There has been countless, countless times. I mean, oh, what was that? Uh, the director of Wonder Woman who was, uh, who's going to do that, um, Rogue Squadron movie. Oh, I remember this. I don't remember the director. Yeah. And, uh, yeah. Patty Jenkins. Right. And that never happened. They even made a logo for it and everything.

And a little trailer bit that they played online when she was, she was getting into an X-Wing and, and, you know, yeah, it was like, it was like, it was going to happen and it just didn't. Right. Um, Rangers of the New Republic. Right. I mean, like there's been so many times in which we've had the news that something's going to come out and then it just doesn't happen. Is you feel a little burnt? I'm just saying, don't get your hopes up. I mean, this is literally just like.

I'm reading the variety.com article. So this is a legit news source and it's just says Simon Kinberg is preparing to visit a galaxy far, far away. It says Lucasfilm is developing a new Star Wars trilogy with Kinberg set to write and produce the three films. Produce. Yeah. Um, that's also the news that we got with Brian Johnson, who is also supposed to come and do a trilogy of films or a movie with Lucasfilm. And that news came out in like 2018. Where's that movie? Right. That's true.

Actually, you know, we're closer to 10 years now on that one. James Mangold. Recent news. He was going to, he's going to come and do a Star Wars movie. That's still supposed to happen. No details on that. Right. The Ray movie as well. Uh, that was also brought out at the Star Wars celebration. They brought Daisy Ridley out on stage. They announced the director, all that stuff. That movie just lost its writer.

Um, so, you know, like basically like this is cool news, but I'm also just like, take it with a grain of salt, even though it's legit news. Just be like, you know what? Cool. Let's just see what happens. Don't get your hopes up because the movie's not out yet and anything can happen in between. So I'm just looking through his IMDb, um, and just looking at some of the stuff. It looks like he's mainly just been producing for a long time.

It says this film will begin a new series with new characters after the rise of Skywalker starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, uh, after the episode nine Skywalker saga in 2019 plot details have not been revealed. Uh, and that is pretty much it. Uh, it says the forthcoming trilogy that Kinberg's movies will continue the story that George Lucas began with 77 is a new hope. And that is all that there's really nothing else too much about it.

Uh, Oh, do you remember that hot moment for a, sorry, for a hot minute? Uh, Taika Waititi was also supposed to produce a Star Wars movie. Don't remember that. That was also announced a few years ago. Uh, it says Lucasfilms released, uh, several other Star Wars projects, uh, that would have been in the works such as James Mangold, Charmaine Abad-Chinoy, uh, Taika Waititi and Donald Glover who, yeah, Donald Glover, the Lando series that we have still been waiting for for like 10 years.

Um, very ambiguous. But these. Um, some of these will be hitting the big screen at some point. Um, I'm starting to wonder Patty Jenkins, Kevin Feige. He said he was also announced to be a producer at one point. Officially. Yeah. Yeah. Kevin Feige. They announced Kevin Feige would produce a Star Wars movie. Um, here's another one. Benioff and Weiss, the Game of Thrones guys. And none of these are coming to fruition.

So, so like, I'm just saying like, let's just wait and see, you know, if anything comes about this. I know it's big news, everybody, but you know, just chill. Um, yeah. Kinberg is known for X-Men first class days of future past Deadpool, Logan. Yeah. Original X-Men films, Dark Phoenix. I mean, he, he, he was pretty consistent through that whole universe. He was involved in like all the X-Men stuff. Yeah. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. That's always a fun movie.

Yeah. You're looking at his IMDb. Mm-hmm. Sure am. Yeah. He was also attached to. So he was always a producer then. Yeah. He's, he's a producer. Yeah. He's like Kevin Feige. You know, he makes stuff happen, which ironically in the Star Wars world is very hard to do apparently. Um, so, you know, hopefully he makes something happen because, uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, wait and see. Um, okay.

His second, second little tidbit here for the week and then we'll wrap things up is, um, that, do you remember that Ahsoka story from Tales of the Jedi? I do. Yeah. Do you remember the whole conversation about who that Inquisitor was? Yes. Cause I remember it was, uh, not, didn't have the same continuity as the novel. Right. And so, cause we had the, we had the Inquisitor's name in the novel, right? Yeah. Yeah. So who, who was he in the novel now? Was it, um, was it the fifth?

No, it wasn't the fifth brother. Uh, hold on a second. Okay. Look it up. Okay. So the Ahsoka novel. Yeah, it was the sixth brother. Um, okay. So this, the sixth brother was the one that supposedly was featured in the Ahsoka novel. All right. Uh, this character also known as Bill Valen, a member of the Inquisitorious featured in the Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith comic books, um, then, uh, hunted down and killed us. Uh, tried to kill Ahsoka.

During the uprising on Rada, which is the farm world. And Ahsoka ends up killing him, takes his kyber crystal, uh, from his lightsaber or kyber crystals from his dual bladed spinny lightsaber and purifies them in the force. And she makes her white lightsabers based on those crystals, right?

Well, uh, behind the scenes of the Tales of the Jedi animated short, the third one that featured Ahsoka, where she faces off the Inquisitor in that short depicted that exact moment in the book, very inaccurately, but to a certain extent that all of us who saw it and had read the book knew it to be the same event in Ahsoka's story, right?

Behind the scenes, according to the Wikipedia page, as of this very moment, it says, according to Dave Filoni, the Star Wars Tales of the Jedi episode Resolve, which is what the episode is called, depicts the same events as the Ahsoka novel, which would logically make, uh, the first brother, which is just hold on to that thought, featured within the sixth brother. All right. Now it sounds confusing, but recently there.

There was a, um, a, uh, source book that was, uh, revealed or, or this, this book got launched or something like that. It is a book that basically depicted images of, uh, certain characters. Uh, this one is called Star Wars Encyclopedia, the Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy. Okay. So this book, uh, is very, very new. This launched November 7th in the UK. That was today officially as of this recording of the episode, but it released earlier elsewhere unofficially.

Okay. So some people have already read this book, taken photos of it, posted it online. Um, it's officially launching in the States as of November 19th. So this is news that technically is from a book that in some bookstores where they don't care about release States, you can buy it, um, you know, based on the size of the bookstore, but, uh, officially you might not be able to buy it until the 19th. Uh, so this is kind of, we got the scoop on this.

Uh, but I saw a picture of someone's, someone's, uh, identified this, um, this page, which identifies the Inquisitor in the Tales of the Jedi short. As the first brother, not the sixth brother, as we thought him to be. The Ahsoka novel depicts that guy as the sixth brother. Then the animated short translated that scene into an animated short, right? And now the visual dictionary depicts the sixth brother that showed up in the Ahsoka depiction of the novel as the first brother. You with me? I am.

It sounds like. It sounds like the first brother and the sixth brother are the same character in a way. To me, it just sounds like they renamed it by mistake because they didn't bother to look. Yeah. So, so the art, so it keeps saying on Wikipedia, um, however, numerous differences exist between the short and the novel. Additionally, upon seeing the trailer for the series, uh, Johnson assumed that the Inquisitor was not the sixth brother featured in her novel. This is E.K. Johnson, the author.

Uh, she assumed that when she saw Tales of the Jedi, that this, that the sixth brother was not the one that she wrote about. Um, the reference book, Dark Side Pocket Expert, which is another supplement book that later included. The best book name, by the way. It later included information about the Tales of the Jedi appearance, but declared the sixth brother to have only appeared in novels and comics up to that point.

Logically, meaning that he wasn't featured in the Tales of the Jedi episode, meaning that it depicts separate events. So it means that, um, what this whole thing is trying to say, uh, oh, and here's another thing. The novel Inquisitor Rise of the Red Blade, which did we read that together? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, that was released after. Tales of the Jedi and featured the sixth brother, but described him in a way that matched the Ahsoka novel and not the Tales of the Jedi episode.

So it means that the books have all stayed, uh, continually, continuity wise the same, but then the appearance of the Tales of the Jedi episode is still kind of the one-off different thing. And weirdly enough, the events somewhat match the novel, right? So basically there's two events now. They're very similar. And now that's exactly what that, what the, if you put all the pieces together, that's exactly what the story is. Yes. So now it is. So Ahsoka has four light, white, white lightsabers.

No. Well, no, because the Tales of the Jedi short never actually showed that, right? It's only in the book that she does that. But in the Tales of the Jedi episode, she just kills the guy, drops the saber and that's it. Right. And then Bail shows up. But I think because Bail shows up and he, Bail also shows up in the book, people thought it was the same thing. So now the story goes, right? Ahsoka kills this Inquisitor. Six or one. Um, I think it, it would be one at this point.

So the one from Tales of the Jedi, the book does not reference that moment. Right. And then later she kills the sixth brother and then goes off with Bail afterwards. And the book never mentions that moment. Either that or for some, some, because I forget, I'm very vaguely remembering the book now.

But if there was a time jump somewhere in the, in the story of the book where she initially chats with Bail about joining the rebels and then later becomes Fulcrum, uh, it might be that the short fits in between some of those chapters. But in short, Ahsoka fights two Inquisitors now after the purge. One is the sixth brother. Depicted in the Ahsoka novel. The other is the first brother depicted in Tales of the Jedi.

So I'm wondering in the novel, the original novel, I feel like there was a lot of lead up because she hadn't done anything, any combat. She wasn't sure what she was going to do. Right. Cause she was like, she didn't have any lightsabers. Yeah. But I mean, she, I don't think she had done any sort of combat or she was trying to figure out her way in, in life after leaving the order. And I think she was just trying to make a simple life for herself. So I thought a big part of that novel was.

Leading up to her still being a warrior. That makes sense. Yeah. Um, wouldn't that take away from that? Yeah. And it, well, that's what I mean. Like it's, it's so hard to like fit those pieces together in a way. Um, but, uh, but yeah, it would, it, it does kind of, it does kind of take away from that a little bit, I think, but I don't know.

I mean, like I have to, I feel like I need to reread the Ahsoka novel to try and make sense of this new information now, but it would have been nice if it was maybe a less of a similar moment, you know, depicted in the novel. In the tales of the Jedi. I don't know if maybe Dave was inspired by, cause he worked with the author, you know, with EK Johnson to, to help that story with that character. And, um, I don't know, maybe he was inspired to write his own story of a very similar event.

Do we know what planets they're both on? So in the show, that's the thing. It's like, we all made assumptions that that was the same event, but. Cause it looks the same where they are, but if they don't actually say the names. That's the thing, right? Both are like farming planets. Both are farming planets. In the book, it's Radha. In another book, it is in the tales of the Jedi story. It's apparently somewhere else.

So, you know, I don't know if this makes it better or worse because like on the one hand, I'm kind of relieved. At least the depiction of the animated thing is at least a different story now. Right. Like it's not just a adaption of the same thing. Like what we saw with the Canaan comic book origin story, completely different in the bad batch. Yeah. Right. And that's something I was kind of peeved about. Um, but at the same time, uh, it's, it's almost two.

Similar to be a successful, different story at the same time, right? Yeah. It does. It does kind of feel like a bandaid. And I just like, I'm just a little confused. You know, I'm just like, I would like a little bit more information on how this kind of came about or if it was just like a fluke or if it was just originally supposed to be a different thing and ended up turning out visually to like almost very similar to how it was in the book. Maybe that wasn't the intent intention.

I don't really know. I feel like only Dave Filoni can answer that. Yeah. That's the, that's the thing is like, I would, I would love. I would love to ask him that question just out of genuine curiosity, like where do these events fit into place amongst Ahsoka's story now? And you know where, yeah. Cause, cause I, I am genuinely curious, um, especially seeing as it involves bail, right? Like in the short, he does show up and she says, oh yeah, maybe next time kind of thing.

Uh, but then in the, in the novel, he is an ever present character through her kind of eventually coming to terms with like, okay, this is something I have to do. This is something I, I have to be this fulcrum, you know, I have, I want to help the rebellion that's going on. That's growing, you know, on this secret scale kind of thing and, and become this person that they need to do this, this thing, which she wasn't ready to do when she, when he was approaching her earlier through the book.

So yeah. So that's why I feel like it's only bail's presence and what she says to him, like, okay, yeah, maybe I'll join, but not right now or something. I forget how it wraps up, but it's not like bail showing up at the end there really convinces her over to be fulcrum or something like that. It's not like it happens right then and there. I felt like it was always the turn of events that now the inquisition.

She can't run away and she can't leave them to fight these stark force users by themselves. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. Right. But I think she felt led by the force. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's cool. But yeah, just like another little piece of news that I heard this week that I was like, oh, okay, that's worth talking about. So anyway, I don't know how to feel about that. I'm thinking about wait and see if there's more information that arises.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, our next, uh, our next book review at some point, uh, we're going to go through John Jackson Miller's, the living force. Uh, this is the author that wrote a new dawn, uh, a number of years ago, uh, which was quite a number of years ago, quite a number of years ago. Yeah. 10 years ago. Um, and is that, was that the last book? I think that was the only one he's done so far. Well, uh, in Canon. So the, before he actually did the Kenobi book as well. Oh, okay.

It was like, that was one of the last EU books to come out, which was Kenobi. And then, and then he did a new dawn. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, that was, uh, that's, that's, that's our next, uh, our next, our next book review and I will be, uh, starting that soon. Sounds like a plan. Cool. All right. So, um, thank you everybody for tuning in and apologies about misleading about Lego star Wars. We'll get to that next week. That's right. But we're glad you stayed, stayed listening this far.

Uh, very, very chill, chill episode this week. So, you know, biding our time until skeleton crew, I guess. Um, okay. Um, any last words? Last minute things to bring up or, uh, you get to go. Just, I got to figure out how to get a copy of the queen's gambit, man. Yeah. I got to pay that $1,400. Maybe I'll make it, make my own version on a cardboard printer paper. Yeah. Although, um, to any hero out there who, uh, might be able to add on a steam workshop expansion to tabletop simulator.

I haven't checked there, but maybe, maybe it's a game on there that you can, you can grab that. Uh, we'll have to. We'll have to find out if that was on there. Yeah. I'll take a look. It's pretty obscure. All right, everybody. Links will be down in the description below for all things that we talked about today. And, uh, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Blake. Thank you, Kirk. And I will see you in the next one. See you out there. Keep flying. All right.

Thank you everybody for tuning in as always. Uh, so check out the links in the description. Big, thank you for tuning in this week. Uh, make sure you share the show with a friend and, uh, you know, interact with our, if you're listening on Spotify, we love five stars, you know, hit up the poll down below or the, uh, the, the FAQ section. Um, you know, what's coming next and, uh, you know, stay tuned with our social feeds for the, for the weekly or daily updates.

I mean, the, the Twitter is quite active. You can find us on there with the handle at SWSK podcast, and you can use the same handle on YouTube to subscribe there. Hit that bell icon so that you don't miss a week where we publish an episode, uh, send a reply on swell. Link is down below. Our email is SWSK podcast at gmail.com. Make sure you send us your two cents. What's your favorite Star Wars board game? Is there any vintage board games that you have?

Uh, maybe send us a picture of, uh, you know--- --- If you're playing the game anytime soon, uh, we'd love to see how that goes and let us know your favorite. What's, uh, what's the best recent Star Wars game that's come out that you like the most. Go check out orbit key stickers by East post media, Kai Sabers, all that stuff down below. Join the discord five stars helps us out and we will see you in the next episode of Star Wars escape pod. May the force be with you.