Expansion Pack: Boardgame Battleground - 2022 Turbo Edition

Hey listeners is JP here unfortunately, I have a very sad announcement to share with you all. Our great friend Kris, who joins us on the podcast and is the heart of this group has sadly passed away recently from suffering from an unexpected severe stroke. We're still trying to process this loss

They don't know, this place is full of streamers and balloons

I thought you said strippers, as you can tell from the noise we've got a fair few joining us in this episode so I'm JP and we've also got Kris on the show but which Kris?

Apparently big Kris big Kris. Kris with a K

Yeah, welcome. We've also got he's spicy and he calls everyone evil it's Mr. James David. Fucking evil. Thanks, mate. We got the better half of Lord and Lady Kerley.

Thanks very much.

I have to say he's not here.

That's true.

And he's also got a reputation for being on a board

outrageous slander,

and true and complete

it's only slander if it's not true.

It's defamation.

Nah, it's also only defamation if it's not true.

In Japan, you can get done for defamation even if it is true. Slander laws

We're not in Japan. But

Ian aka the flicker.

I'm just saying if we if we move the podcast to Japan, you can't say that kind of stuff anymore.

I'll make sure we don't. But we're here to celebrate our first birthday, which is kind of mad. weird to say I've actually been doing this. So yeah. I can't believe it. It's flown by as it always does.

Playing two games a year. Yeah,

we play two a week Ian, you're slacking.

We do two, sometimes four

I'm actually well, we'll get on to this later. But I'm signed up for a few things. And I have played some stuff recently.

I was only taking the piss because

Well I was genuinely worried about being kicked out.

I need to put some insight into the podcast. But no look, this episode really is about we'll start off picking some of our favourite memories of doing this podcast for for the past 12

Yeah, action action.

Celebrity Death Match of games. Yeah.

Celebrity deathmatch of board game. Yeah, absolutely.

What a TV show. That was.

I love that. Yeah. So but first let's talk about our favourite moments. So who wants to go first? Who's got something on their mind?

Mine's really easy. Mine's really easy. Oh, other than joining you guys and having such good fun. The funniest thing is when doing the transcripts, which I do for the episodes that do not kind of work perfectly I hasten to add because that takes hours, but the auto generated captions come up first. Yes, sometimes they are. Just horrifically ridiculous. One of my favourite ones is your nipples get old and then they die definitely,

that's my other gauge of life. Yeah.

Another one was something like and it was to do with Ultron the actual words were Ultron's powers. He does loads of drones and it was like old Trump does loads of drugs. Needed to make sure that doesn't go out there

Nice Marvel champions. Yeah, yeah. And it's Donald Trump. Yeah.

So it's just funny when you go through kind of collecting these ridiculous

Get a letter from Donald Trump in Japan

But other than that, the best thing is just kind of hanging out with you guys and just talking about the stuff that we really have lots of fun doing. That was true.

Got a favourite episode Becky?

Well, ah, yeah, obviously. Yeah, I really liked doing the unfathomable one because that one was I thought was a really interesting point for me. I mean, no one else liked it. I'm sure that's fine. But I liked it. Yeah, I liked kind of discussing the new version versus the old. Yeah, so that was interesting to me.

No, it was good. And also, we got to talk about Kris's balls up in talking about that, and you're never you're never getting away with it.

Ever. I never actually listened to the episode. But yeah, you were on it. Yeah, that's mine.

So Ian

So I think for me putting together that first set of outtakes was actually one of them. I mean, as JP knows, it took me a long time, because I was very bad at sitting down for hours on end and going through all the episodes, but once I found them all, and then listened back to them, I was just, it was just so funny. Especially the ones where I was there. It's just like, it just reminded me of some hilarious

Listen to it. You'll never hear it. Never hear it. You'll

Never know unless you become a patreon. Premium Member

Yeah, then if you subscribe to our Smut level

Yeah. Whose turn is it Anyway, afterdark? I think I think probably podcast wise, that's that's the standard thing for me is like just those moments that I'm never gonna make it into an episode and probably won't even make it into an outtake just where we're just having a laugh.

I think that's the thing isn't it is like generally doing these recordings. I love it. And even after a year, I don't sit

Even when you've got to manage me and Davey

It's hard to manage everyone. Nagging everyone's like, come on, he

He lives for he loves he's the project manager. And isn't it? Hurding cats? I love it.

You No. No, no, no. JPS

JP's got the whip and the fedora

Oh, nice, nicer. I think my favourite moment is the Gridcon episode. And our listeners won't have heard the outtakes from it yet. But they're coming up in around April. So there's a heads up live preview. Because it's the only episode that it took genuinely 15/20 minutes, maybe even longer before we even said the first sentence. We couldn't even get past you know, the Welcome to the show. Or like, honestly, it was just ridiculous.

Everyone was knackered in fairness, from the actual

from, you know, when you find something really funny, because basically, Adrian said Grimcon and Davey picked up on it. And other he just it was funny at the time. It was really fun. And I lost it, had water coming out my nose,everything.

I was gone. This reminds me because you forgot to ask me my favourite, by the way, is the Christmas episode that we recorded? Yeah, very similar reasons. But I think there was more of that episode that didn't make it in than did. Probably about three hours of raw material into a 40 Minute.

Yeah, that was a lot. My favourite bit about that is when you prepare for this quiz that we've done. You put all this work into it. And then Davey turns around and goes What should we just do something else? What Why don't we change things, we're like mate, we're literally in the middle of recording what you doing?

The whole segment the whole weight issue as well, which

Yeah, the whole Gridcon episode I think in general was a good episode. I always liked it in the convention wrap up episodes that just I don't know. It kind of puts a little full stop on the convention. So you do the convention for three days and you're knackered as you say back at

debrief.

Kinda say like this is how I felt about it. This was good. This was bad. And yeah, I think that one was, yeah, a lot of fun to do. So yeah, I'm gonna pick that one for me, Kris.

Well, there's just so many to choose from. Yeah. It's more just the whole thing. Really. I can't pick a special one because I'm just so proud to be part of it

You made the hoodies and you know you are you are the sponsor of the podcast, aren't you? Actually

One and only

Paid us in hoodies

We appreciate it.

I mean just walking down the high street in that hoodie you just get a sense of power.

I mean people people are coming up to you all the time, getting recognised. Kris from Whose turn is it anyway

We wore those hoodie to the Welsh Crokinole thing, didn't we? That's true. Yeah, so we just wearing it walking into the room that you've seen them intimidated

Backstreet boys start playing

Like the gang jackets in Grease.

Sons of Anarchy

Everybody, Yeah.

Not to get too slushy and stuff, but I'm not... I'm not as active as the rest of you, but very proud of what you guys have done as well. We've done but yeah, I'm just amazed as well in some ways

Have you got a favourite episode that you enjoyed being part of?

I think obviously enjoyed the Unfathomable episode and all that you know, I don't think it's really been done. Really? Wasn't I've been sort of vilified for this. Yeah. You've lived off it for for years.

It will stay forever. Yeah, you can never make another mistake again in your life. No, you know, even if you didn't

One shame on you. And then for me twice. damage he's done it again.

I almost want to plan one now, do it on purpose. Just to see what happens

Start putting just other cards in there.

Yeah.

Terraforming Mars cards.

I'm Minnie the mouse.

I didn't know the Cookie Monster was in Battlestar Gallactica

Davey, how about you?

I've got to and I enjoyed all so the episode. Discovering the Lacerdaverse was just really fun. And it was nice talking about a game designer, which kind of got a passion for a new passion for Yeah, it was good fun was good episode. And my other one, I wanna do two just because one's an expansion so doesn't count, but I really enjoyed chatting to Brendan from out of my mind. OOMM games.

He's just a really friendly nice guy. Yeah, I've never played the games that he was talking about. And it kind of interested me. And yeah, he seemed like a really, genuinely nice guy.

Well, they kindly donated one of their games Mythwind as well. So we'll be playing that and talking about that. But yeah, just I mean, I didn't, you know, didn't even ask for it. He just kind of donated it was really nice. So yeah, thank you, Brendan. That's, that's my two favourite.

I think we can say that about all the guests though. Can't we, like we've had a good bunch of different guests. And actually, if we sat here a year ago, it just blows my mind the fact that we've had guests, if that makes any sense I just didn't even think it would even get to that position. designers and people content creators and all sorts of different people

In the sense they they bring better content to the podcast and many of us do, so.

We're thankful for it. And we'll continue to do so. But there we go. Good stuff. Well, there we go. Let's stop getting gushy

I was getting all sentimental.

Now we're gonna get our fight on Davey. We're gonna get the fight on because it's time for the first annual board game battleground

Boardgame battleground.

So we want to celebrate our favourite games of last year, but we don't want to do it in a boring way. Right? Everyone does their top 10 games of 2022 we don't want to do it because everyone does it. So we thought how we're going to do something different, something fun, and actually Davey this is kind of your brainchild, I think from many, many conversations.

Everything's ours.

You had the seed,

Trying to deflect responsibility before it goes horribly wrong.

So we want to kind of take our favourite games of last year and pitch them against each other celebrity deathmatch, that's what you said, Becky, that's, that's the kind of visual board game deathmatch that we want to kind of portray. And obviously, you can't see kind of what we're going to do as our listeners. So we're going to try our very best to try and bring you in on the kind of game that we're about to play. So essentially, we will pick five

I think if anyone ever needs a game prototyped just give JP a ring, send him some blank bits of cardboard and he'll make your game.

D'ya want some artwork doing? probably don't call me but but it's all good. So yeah, so essentially, we have got these 35 games, and we're going to do them in a top Trump style where we've got basically stats that we're going to pitch these games against. So there are five stats that we're picking, and we're using BoardGameGeek a lot because well, it's quite stat rich, and doesn't everybody use that a lot. So why not? So

It's like a real boxing match that's why the heavyweight, heavyweight,

Heavyweight boom, boom. That's number one. Number two is the BGG rank. So where it kind of falls in the overall ranking of Best game or most liked game. So number one, does not reflect our opinion does not reflect our opinion. It's literally what it is on there. And, you know, bit of controversy. And we know that the number one keeps jumping around in time of this recording. Is it Gloomhaven? Is it Brass, who knows? Who knows, but bear in mind, these stats

Actually I think you'll find it's 231st in the world

The third one is the BGG average rating. So the average I did argue for the cheapest rating from the basically users of BoardGameGeek. And again, high score win on that we've gone for age as the fourth stat so the oldest game will win. So that's always good experience We've gone for value, but it's an asset or assets trumps everything, as we know. And then the last Thank you. Yeah. And the last that is the all in value in great British

With a million pounds to keep justifying it

How he sleeps at night.

Yeah, he's just trying to boost the stats from Too Many Bones.

Hell Yeah, it's Too Many Bones one of the best play games of last year. We'll see. It is

Definitely at the end of the episode. Yeah. Bones win.

Right. So how's this gonna work. So I need to explain this to your listeners how this game is going to work? Well, we all know how Top Trumps works. But essentially, we're going to do

Out of the extremely fun conversation we had before recording where we all had extremely different ideas about how this should work.

Absolutely absolutely

Listen to our teach episode as well without that you know that makes this bit. It's all good. It's all good. I'm just gonna plug our website yeah Yeah.

Yeah, so we're gonna do that when we go round some of the rounds in round one and two, we'll have a card left over just because of maths. And the fact that you can't divide a five by two without ripping a card in half, and it's hard, it's definitely harder. And so one card is going to be left to the side. And that will kind of battle the wildcard, the wildcard is going to allow the last one that wins out of the, the end of the round. And then yeah, we'll kind of carry on

Announcement like Gladiator are you ready? Are you ready for this

Counter attack counter attack

I mean you could do your own sound effects

Sound effects

You gonna be the guy from police academy

And the last thing to say is, it's a bit of a game for us as well. We have obviously got our games that we've pitched in some of the players on the podcast who aren't on this episode. Obviously pitch their games in they're not here to defend them. So that's the downside. So and as the decks

Yeah, it was going on.

So I'm gonna do is I'm gonna shuffle the cards and no doubt this will be edited out because no one wants to listen to me. Shuffling and riffling cards

That's the sound when there's a counter attack

Bloody Westwood over here Ian's got his horn out

But if thats Too Many Bones, we know it is an absolute fix.

I'm so intrigued by what that card is now.

So we've shuffled the deck, and we've decided that I will be the first attacker who's decided I've decided decided I've decided although technically, it's an expansion pack. So I'm not gonna argue, and Davey is on the receiving end at the moment. So to be fair, JP did draw all the cards. I have got the Weather Machine. Vital Lacerda and this is good, because I'm going against Davey and this is what are you telling?

Start...you're tanking straightaway.

Yeah. So you know, I don't have a choice. I'm defending. So yeah,

So the Weather Machine heavy game. Vital Lacerda, it's basically robots. Yeah, controlling the weather.

Great fun I saw the event you'd put up for it on the group. And I was like, Oh, I'll go see what that's about. I just went on boardgamegeek, and was like, no, no, don't think so.

That's amazing game.

I'm gonna pick weight, clearly. Yeah. 4.53

Holy moly.

Well, I've got Civilization the 2010 Oh, great game Kerley. Kerley I'm very sorry. Because if you haven't guessed the weight is less than that. The weight is only 3.89 So winner winner chicken dinner,

The weather machine goes through.

Oldest game in the pack by the looks of it

That is the top Trump of age eliminated, and eliminated on first go so game as well. Are we going right? Yeah, Davey pass the deck along to Kris

Better with the expansion. Before the expansion the combat was a little bit iffy.

I agree. But it's a classic game. We do. Right so it was like well, Davey was the winner. He gets to attack again. I am going to draw apparently Mansions of Madness second edition game. Awesome. Some fantastic

artwork. It does it looks like he's drawn a really great kind of Medusa head. Mr. Mr. Wibbles, Cthulu you know Adrian'd like it like that.

So I'm going to pick the stat, dunno how I feel about this one BGG rank 47

Right. So I'm holding the Nemesis Lock down. Which is a game we all enjoy

Yeah, love a bit of Lock down.

Especially Tambo. He's the one who,

Tambo God Um, unfortunately the BGG rank presumably because it's a new game is only 334, so Mansions

Well that's one of Tambo's favourites as well so makes it you know good card winning

It's quite fitting of Nemesis anyway to get killed off early

Cool so next up it's me and you then yeah and you won again so you get to be the attacker

I am a weirdly I've drawn the other brother to Nemesis, Nemesis. Oh, so pretty similar game it's very very similar except it's set on a spaceship with nasty shitty aliens that kill you. Brilliant fun. You play to lose early

For the joy of the story in the game, don't you? It's such a good

Tells a good narrative

I've still not played Nemisis, but every time you guys talk about it. It's always a story of how you lost Yeah.

That's pretty much the game. So I really want to champion this one. So I'm gonna go for BGG rank of 18

See now I'm really starting to think you have stacked the deck with that little comment because if you're going to champion it, you're up against Marvel champions.

How did that happen, who put that one in?

What Nemisis? Yeah, Kerley and Chris? Chris.

Okay, so Marvel champions was put in and also by three people Adrian Tambo and little Chris it's got a pretty good BGG rank. But it's 36 not good enough. Not 18 No Marvel champions falls by the wayside. Sorry, champion. At least one Nemesis got through.

Yeah, that's good. I feel good about that. And the older Nemisis got through so you know, the OG There we go. Right. Next Card, Becky. Oh, interestingly, I've got Zuuli

Oh, you've got to you've got to make this win. You've got to make this win one of the best games.

Do I, no I do. Becky's just gonna lie about her stats to make sure she looses

I've got Noughts and crosses you can't see the card, I'm gonna throw it straight in the bin

I'm conflicted with this but not really conflicted. Well me and you interviewed Chris Priscott didn't we, who's the designer of Zuuli, so I have to champion it. And just on that basis alone,

Was that in a previous episode

So I am gonna go with and this is quite tough I think on Zuuli, because it's a fairly new game. Yeah. It's not low valued by expensive, which is a great thing. But I'm gonna go BGG ratings 7.7 Yes. Excellent. So I've got Yeah,

No, really truly, it really did. It's Fort, which is If you don't play with your friends then they go and play a game I have played, liked it. We played it in Gridcon. It's kind of a deck building, sort of drafting, doing Yeah, kind of children in a playground kind of so you're basically drafting your friends to help you kind of with someone else. That's essentially the mechanics of the game. It works really well in life as well, isn't it? Yeah, You got pizzas and backpacks.

Pipped at the post but sorry Rob because that's Rob's choice

We're 4 rounds in and JP has won every single time so I think it's time for someone else to be

However, that said none of the games that he has put forward have won

True, has he got some weird strategy where he's taking his own

I mean, I don't know if you kind of think how I'm gonna tank this or it's a shuffled deck of cards by I don't know. Anyway. I'm gonna pass this to Davey. So Davey is gonna kind of take

I'm now the first player on now the attacker as well

Yeah because that deck was the attacking deck we're gonna stick with it

I'm gonna start with person to my left which is big Kris. Oh, a game we played not long ago that you really like, I don't know if you like it so much anymore. So yeah, you attacked Kerley all game and let me win so that's Scythe.

Kind of why I do it. I do like attacking Kerley

I just had to sit back and on my lonesome and just slowly farm so Oh, I do like this game as well. This is a game you've championed. Uh, you got in your hands Davey I do have in my hands but I like it. So in fact, I'm gonna go for let's go for value. We haven't had a value that so it's all together with expansions as well.

This will be interesting actually.

£169 pounds. That's a lot less than Kris has spent on it.

I'm not sure I've included the metal mechs

Accessories not included.

Scythe

So I'm holding Kings Dilemma given by Becky, I've not actuall played that myself.

Nobody else liked it as much as I liked it

I like it, we just don't play it

Then the good news for me is that

Scythe is the winner. It's cut down its opponent.

I just put that in there because I nominated King's Dilema because I really enjoy playing it. And it's a really good kind of social argument game.

Yeah, it is.

It looked like I would enjoy it?

Yeah, I think you would

It involves arguing.

Basically coercing Kerley's brother to try and do what we want him to do, isn't it? Yeah. Anyway, what we got next?

So I'm looking to you though, Kris.

Oh. Exploding Kittens has made the best games played of 2022, explain yourself, Kris.

We did all sit around and play it once. Even Kerley, Kerley said he enjoyed it.

That's gonna be the gold standard, did Kerley enjoy it. Yes. It can't be too bad

I'll let you into a secret, I quite like Kittens. It's got a place, it;s fun, it's a party game. It's silly. Especially if you've got the cone of shame. Yeah. You wear the cone of shame. Yeah. Which is brilliant.

I like your drawing on here as well. It's just a fat cat. It's like, literally, it's a front profile about to explode.

Very true to life for the actual artwork.

Because why not? We haven't had a tank yet. So I'm gonna pick weight. Is 1.09

And you're trying to tank it? Yes. You're going to be displeased. I've got Just One. Weight of 1.05.

No way How did Kittens Win? Just Ones one of the best games of the year

Just One is amazing.

Put that one in the the winner pile.

Just One for anyone who doesn't know is a party guessing word based game where one person is in the dark about what the secret word is. All the other players know and they have to write a word on a little erasable board. Yeah. And then the person who doesn't know the word has to guess what the word is based on all of the clues.

It's about right right. Yeah,

Yeah, the perfect description.

That's if you play dirty Just One

Unfortunately, it goes in the bin.

I can't believe kittens won

Especially on weight

I can't believe you tried to tank it.

I didn't work. I can't believe it. But it's brilliant. So go on then Davey

Next one. I've got Star Wars Imperial Assault so this has been nominated by Rob Yeah.

Because he loves the game

It is a good game, I've played it before. It's very much like Descent. And if you don't know what Descent is, it's pretty much just a dungeon crawler. It's got some cool little mechanics with the dice and the fact that if you hit a certain they're like custom dice to hit certain amount of lightning bolts you can do abilities from items you've got and it's quite thematic with what battles will happen when

Sorry Rob.

Rob's just swearing now

I'm not gonna tank it. I'm gonna go for a nice middle middle stat I think and we'll go from there, shall we? So let's go let's throw in one we haven't had before just for sheer entertainment value age of nine.

You win, we have got Vital Lacerda's own On Mars

Went for middle of the road.

It does not look like a game that I would be interested in whatsoever. Kerley didn't like it. In fact, he sold it to you

I love it.

You love it. Davey loves it. I think it's one of those Marmite kind of games. And the age is three I'm very sorry

What's it's weight though?

It's weight is 4.67 which is the highest stat

Yeah, the value of Star Wars Imperial Assault was £274. Well we've got quite a few old games in here. So I thought it was but maybe it's not

Maybe it is, I'm gutted, I'm just basing it on the ones we've seen come out so Yeah,

Well I went for another random stat then. There's no rhyme or reason to my madness right. Whoo. So we have Wingspan, so if I don't know what to go with this because I enjoy the game

Most beautiful game stat

I don't know what other games, my games haven't come out yet. And also but there's gonna be one in his hand. So I'm gonna tank it. I've got Lightweight games in there as well. These

You monster are all quite high values. Cos it's the best game!

This is like a golden card. The Golden Goose. I'm gonna go with weight 2.45

I've got Twilight Imperium fourth edition. Wingspan versus TI fourth edition. Weight 4.28

Yeah

I'm not I'm not sad. Those birds are dead

I'm sensing there's going to be a final between the Exploding Kittens and TI

That will be decided on weight.

Maybe they'll do a special in TI where you can Yeah, there'll be a faction where you can send off little exploding kittens

That would be cool.

Cat attack What do you got Kris?

Oh my Okay, so I have never played this game but it is ISS Vanguard and I hear a lot of good things about it from whoever's doing the thing but I might do a bit of tanking mainly because people were so negative about Exploding Kittens

Why're you tanking Vanguard

Vanguard is from from JP I'm going for age of just one wow

Well JP is going to be a winner either way because I've got Too Many Bones! I just saw JP's face when you said you were going to tank Vanguard and thought Don't worry, you want

You're right, compared to Bones it's shit. I love Vanguard him to is great fun. So

You've got an age of one, obviously the age on Too Many Bones is more, it's six

The BGG rating could have tanked Too Many Bones and that would have been quite controversial.

Biassed isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. Too many bones is 8.4, rank or rating? Rank is nine. Wow. Yeah, it's got a high rating. Yeah. And yeah Too Many Bones was put in by obviously JP but also Tambo and little Chris Yeah, it wasn't you know?

I played once and didn't like it

In any case, the defender wins

I'm glad you didn't have Too Many Bones and that's all I'm saying.

So now Becky gets to attack Kris

Right now. Okay, I've got Star Wars Outer Rim nominated by Rob and little Chris. I don't really know how I feel about this, I haven't played it. I'm gonna go for a nice average here. I'm gonna say BGG rating of 7.7 middle of the road

So I have Astra Put in by our fair Becky. Yeah, I'm glad this because I do

Oh no!!

I have

BGG rating for Astra is 7.15 like Outer Rim but I've never plyed Astra

Flipping heck

I'm sorry, Becky. But yeah, I'm not that sad, but I know how it feels.

Did we mention that all the games that go out in the first round we're not allowed to play in the group anymore.

You've got to actually burn the game. Yeah, you

have to be destroyed

You have to sell them or destroy them Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I really enjoyed it

Yeah, Star Wars Outer Rim it's very thematic with Star Outer Rim's the one where you're kind of like following a Wars and all the Star Wars fans in our group love it. track rather than, is it Rebellion where you're trying to find the hidden?

Yes, yeah. Basically the smugglers and the scum and villainy of Star Wars

Go around doing little contracts and stuff. Trying to get get fame.

It does sound good, it can't be as good as Astra because I waited for that. 1000 years. And you've drawn a very beautiful constellation there, JP. It's very nice. You know, Big Dipper.

That's very nice. Yeah, like the simplest one to draw.

That is kind of a, I can't say roll and write, because you don't roll anything but you do write stuff. Yeah, Colour in your plotted constellation to gain the constellation.

I will play it again.

Unfortunately, it really deserves to have gone in the bin because JP has not drawn a factually correct Big Dipper there. He hasn't even googled the constellation before he did the picture.

It's how it is on the card pal

Call yourself a profssional

It's how it is in the card, it's canon, although it does look like a chip pan fryer.

More like a kite. Alright, then.

Alright, don't diss the artwork, shall we move on? Let's go.

JP's the attacker

So I have one of Adrian's favourite games in my hand. Which is Pandemic Legacy season one

Tank tank tank

Yeah, And Adrian's gonna kill me, because pandemics only alright

I've recently played the Pandemic World of Warcraft version yeah and I really liked it yeah, I did like World of Warcraft but it was good it was good

I've only played the base so, and the base for me was very much one person can lead the whole thing so I haven't played the other versions so my

my experience of the first game was basically led by one person and it was not a good one.

Yeah, I'm gonna go middle of the road and go weight. And go 2.83

Adrian's not gonna like you

What am I up against

So I have Anachrony, put in by Kerley and Tambo I've not played this one

So good

But it's quite a weighty one by looks of it, it is 4.10 or one sorry

A worthy winner. Yeah, Anacrony.

It's funny, everything is working out the way JP wants it to

He's got a certain amount of dots on each of the back of the cards

Why are you wearing those special glasses today JP?

The mirror on the wrong side

We haven't battled yeah yeah. Oh no. I'm thinking

I have the Lost Ruins of Arnak

This is one of Davey's games, funnily enough still at our house.

My board games, I've said about this on the episodes before that, the way I keep my, store my board games is at other people's houses?

Like Santa you just go into people's houses and just leave little presents?

No, I do need to collect that I need to remember where

We do need to play it actually before that they are

Yeah, so there's quite good values on these but don't know

It's a very good game good, a deck builder, really solid

It's a deck building Indiana Jones style going finding temples getting stuff but essentially getting your hands on idols

I've played lot of it, which is why I obviously left it at Kerley and Becky's so they could have a go

so I'm gonna choose value. Okay 68 pounds.

I've got Ark Nova in my hand. Which the value is £46

Because of the expansions

yeah, Ark Nova, if you haven't heard about it, then where have you been?

Why are you listening to this podcast?

Really good game, Enjoy it loads I just, it, for me, it didn't have the staying power of, because it got compared to TM a lot. It didn't have the staying power of TM but it is a really good game. And I'm looking forward to playing it with the new

Aquarius. Yeah,

If they brought them out quicker it might have just won this match.

There you go. So it's own fault,

It's one of my favourite games but even I agree, I think TM has got the edge. And I love cute animals on cards. We all know this, Yeah.

So my turn to attack then so I have got Trickarion, not a game that I've played but I know there's a few people at the table with a vested intrest

You'd better not tank it you bastard

Well, I dunno, I'm not sure any of... I'm just looking at the games that have come up so far. I'm not sure whether really any of mine have come up, I thought I was on Zuuli that's the only winner that I've gone through so far. Well it means it's more likely Becky's got one of my games. So do I want to Stop trying to pokerize it. However, tank Trickarion I'm not trying it's got pretty good stats. Great game. All right. I don't think this counts as a tank. But I'm trying to

I'm holding the card Unfathomable which is lots of people's you know I can't say favourite but veryvery popular game

It is a good game

BGG rank unfortunately 622 Because it's new

Yeah, I wonder what the Battlestar Galactica,

Higher than that.

I bet it's better than 109

I don't think BSG made it in our list because I don't think we played in last year.

Every time we've played it, we've got the wrong number Cylons. Boring.

So I'm afraid Unfathomable goes in the bin Sinks to the depths and that's the end of that. There we

Goes into the graveyard go. All right,

So JP gets to attack me now.

I get to attack you in. I've got Skull King which is put forward by Davey Yeah, he's the only one here we'll be

I will be Skulking if it doesn't win. Yeah.

But the trouble is, I've not played it, Davy. I don't know what he's got in his hand. So you're purposely tank purposely tank it but I just don't know.

You haven't got a you haven't got a vested interest to kind of put it through either though.

You never know what I could have over here

I'm gonna go rating seven, five.

Okay, well you do lose. I've got Castles of Burgundy put in by Adrian has a BGG rating of 8.5 he'll be pleased, he'll be very pleased. And he was going to be displeased before this. So it's a good job.

Yeah. You're welcome Adrian.

I've not played Castle of Burgundy, but based on the illustration, it looks like it involves hexes and dice. Pretty much yeah, animals and buildings. Yeah.

You're clear your illustration was absolutley spot

Also known as Houses of beige. on

It is a very well regarded Stefan Feld. Yes. Design. So it's good that it's an actual

It has a rank of 17, which is

And age of 12. That's gotta be one of the strongest biggest ones on this.

And now it's Ian attacking.

Okay. Oh, it's Dune Imperium, our lovely little worker placement slash deck builder. And Davey has just shown JP the card and now I think someone is conflicted. Yeah, I like Dune Imperium. I think I want this to go through and especially now that I know JP probably wants the other thing.

Mate I'm actually torn. So

Are they both his then?

Wherever you're thinking, don't do it.

Hey now, metagaming Come on.

Should mentioned Dune Imperium was submitted by Davey myself and Adrian.

To be fair it's close on my list, yeah, it's win win. It's a fantastic game

I'm gonna go with BGG rank. Yeah, because this is quite strong. It's as of time of when the cards were made. 12

So you have not won. Oh, I have gone. The changing of a planet. Terraforming Mars, by Becky but I don't mind this. It's a very good game. I play a lot of it. And it's probably the game I played the most out of all board games.

It's a lot of people's number one game.

Yeah, there you go. So Terraforming Mars goes through with a rank of six.

I mean, the top Trump for rank. No. Wow.

Sorry, I mean, Brass Birmingham

Who knows? Yeah. Wow, that was a tough matchup

If I'd gone on rating, probably not.

Okay. So have Eclipse second Dawn of the galaxy.

Yeah, A lot od people's very very high game

I just enjoy tanking games

Kerley put this one in. Isn't it supposed to be very similar to TI

It's not, it's more Euro. Yeah. It's basically space 4X exploration very Eurofied. It's, it's brilliant. But again, subject to opinions, of course.

I've got no vested interest. But I mean, Kerley'll love me for it. I'll put down age of 3.

So I've got Carooka, which was submitted by Rob and myself and is just kiss in terms of dexterity games. It's so good. I mean, it's basically if you play crokinole And you understand snooker or pool, you combine two games and you're there

Even if you don't understand any of those things, it's great. I

I think it's pronounced Crokin-hole

Don't you start Davey, I let him get away with it. So unfortunately, age of two, although that's the official answer. I suspect it's been around longer than that

Yeah, well, we're going off what BGG said. I know we

I know we are, I know. So Becky now becomes the first attacker and attacks.

This is an exciting one. So I have an absolute vested interest in this. However, I'm not sure what's gonna happen with it. So I've got I've got Lords of Waterdeep Tank it, It's not a very high weight, so I don't think I'll pick that. Yeah. Rank is 83 which I'm afraid is just nonsense.Ages 11 Yeah, I'm thinking that, 85 quid, 85 quid?

Expansions.

How much is the base game?

£40 or something?

Probably 55 yeah round there I think, don't quote my research no.

mean don't quote me

Presumably Kerley tells you every game he buys is 10

No , I know we've spent a lot more on Lords of Waterdeep pounds than 85 quid, we've got the mat and all the you know sexy little meeples.

Yeah, you have

Monday money laundering.

I'm gonna go for age of 11

I got Lisboa. Oh, which I am gutted

Lords of Waterdeep kick it to the curb, get in the bin

How can Lords of Waterdeep beat Lisboa?

because it's old?

Because it's older. Who put the rules together for this?

Do we know what this random card is then?

We'll find out in a minute but just before to give my little love letter to Lisboa because people that don't know what it is. It's another Vital Lacerda game, it's my favourite Vital Lacerda game I love it, set in Lisbon re-building Lisbon in 18th century so I know I probably haven't sold you on that

Is Queen Victoria in it.

It looks like I've drawn Queen Victoria

Cos the person you've drawn on the card looks remarkably like Queen Victoria. Oh King Victoria

Okay, that's Lisboa it's out, Get over yourself JP Lords of Waterdeep, is obviously the better game

Yes it is.

I do like Lisboa, but the fact that it's about flooding and then my house was flooded when I got home it makes me feel a bit sore about the game yeah, I'm looking forward to Monday

Yeah, yeah. Now we got the special card that was left to the side, the end of the round so the Lord's of Waterdeed was the one that one so it's gonna take it's gonna take on the mystery leftover card

So it's me that's choosing, I'll go age again 11 Because it needs to beat whatever, oh no!

Lord of the Rings LCG, bye Lords of Waterdeep, you

No would it have beaten any stat

No because it's rubbish

Oh BGG rank it would have it would have lost on that

A draw? Yeah,

Then we could have a draw, people want to hear the sound effects

Oh I'm really sad about that

And that, that is round one which is longest rounds we've had to go through all of the games and now we move into round two

Can't believe Lords of Waterdeep lost against piece of crap Lord of the RIngs

By one year as well. That was, cor. I felt a sense of glee then, that was invigorating.

I'm glad I'm glad

Displeased. Anyway, I've got Mansions of Madness second edition. I'm gonna go with value £274 pounds

Heavy hitter

This one's quite a heavy one two, but you have won, this is an Anachrony

Oh Becky!

Well, Mansions is one of my favourites I mean I didn't vote this one in this time but I flippin love that game

Your turn to attack still, because you won

Why don't really like the idea... The idea of this one. Oh, Adrian'll kill me man. All right. I will go weight 2.95 What is it Castles of Burgundy?

Adrian will hate you but JP will feel better because I got Trickarion with a weight of 4.25

So heavy boy so I have got Return of the Star Wars Outer Rim. God, this is quite tough.

Do you like it? Do you want it to win?

I like it. I don't love it. I like it. I am going to pick weight 2.49

So I have Scythe and its weight of 3.4. It's cutting down its opposition even more left, right and centre, bang

Like your Rusviet Yeah, that's it. Again, Scythe

Lord of the Rings LCG

Burn it. I'm still salty it kicked out Lords of Waterdeep

Banish the Balrog

Kerley's not

Banish the Balrog

Lords of the Ring has an auto win. Because it does have one of the Top Trumps that so it's a case of whether Kris wants it to win

My whole game plan is to try and get Kittens to the next level at least. So this was put in by Rob, dunno if we said that last time but I'll go for rank of 147

So I've got Lost Ruins of Arnak ranked 29 bye bye Lord of the Rings LCG

Apparently Indiana Jones beats up Gandalf

So I take back the attacker, and I got the oldie, the classic Terraforming Mars, in my hand, so that must have a top trump as one of them. It's not but it's strong. It's strong, but I don't know what you have. I'm just gonna go I'm gonna champion it and go BGG rank six.

Yeah, unfortunately for Davey, I have the Weather Machine. Which, despite having a pretty good rating, and a very good way, considering his age, yeah, he's got a BGG rank of 1001

Brand new, literally just come out. Yeah. And it's sat in a corner of my room. Yeah, it's in the corner. Yeah, I can see it

Looks very pretty, though. It would melt my brain.

You enjoy it. So I get to attack again. I've got one of Rob's favourite Star Wars Imperial assault. Yeah, okay. So let's let's go with let's champion Rob here. And that's, you know, do one for Rob So value 274 pounds.

I mean, it's really nice that you that you went for it. Really glad you went through on it. Good. Yeah, you did try. You're gonna be happy that it lost that one 618

JP wishes it cost him 618 pounds.

Rob, he was on your side there mate

Rob likes Too Many Bones. So yeah, I don't feel too bad. You're attacking because you won with Bones.

Right? I have got Exploding Kittens. Now what do I do with this?

You tank it is what you do.

Explode it.

So trust me when you see this. You're gonna want to go? I did.

Like I did like this game. It was it was silly. Nonsense. I think. I'm gonna go...

Does it even have any good numbers?

Yeah, it does. Yeah, it's got an age of eight.

So on age alone, it's quite strong. Yeah.

I'm gonna go BGG rating of six.

You've been knocking this game and it's got a BGG rating of six.

That's the users rating of the game.

Six out of 10 So you're gonna be glad that you've not picked age? Because me Zuuli has got a BGG rating of 7.7

Get in! Sorry Zuuli goes through yes, me Julie.

So I've got Eclipse second Dawn of the galaxy. I will go for BGG rating. 7.9.

So I've got Nemesis and it is beaten BGG rating of 8.3 Wow.

Sorry Kerley.

He also went for Nemesis. So yeah.

I'm sure. Right, we've got the special card

So to take that on.

Okay. I liked Nemesis. I think it was a good game. Yeah.

Yeah, we should know what that is.

But I've got no idea

I wouldn't have remembered either.

I'm gonna go with value £224 pounds.

And it wins. Against Twilight Imperium for 197 pounds.

I care not for that game.

In the bin

So Nemisis with a double win to stay in.

And that is round two done. Nice. It gets quicker.

We're down to just eight games remaining.

And we head into round three round three

Quarterfinals.

Who's gonna win?

Not Kittens.

And who cares? Match up the final eight

Here we go. The Holy Grail of games. Lost Ruins of Arnak

Oh, I like what you did there

Not the temple of doom though.

Yes, it is my one. So I'm gonna go

Up against JP.

Don't give him any hints!

I'm gonna go for rating of 8.10

My lord that was a very, so you've picked Trickarion.

Can you say in anymore Southwest?

Round and round and round

We have a BGG rating of 8.0

I like Trickarion as well

It's better than Arnak

Davies up again.

Yeah it's close, so, ok.

We're gonna get to the point where no one is happy with the winner.

Yeah, absolutely.

So from what's left. I've got to think about this, and I do like this game but we're gonna go through so Zuulli with a weight of 1.6

Oh you Tanking little Tanker

It loses to Mansions of Madness second edition weight of 2.67

Well, but well

Davey you've just made a couple of enemies Yeah, well well

Well well well well

What're you're gonna tank next

I feel like this is too much power

Yes it is, pass it to someone else!

I think this game is in balance on the later rounds

So, I have too many bones Oh, so I'm gonna go I'm gonna try and go middle of the road

Like value right, surely no

I didn't, I mean I'm not trying to tank any of them. It's just

I'm not trying to tank any of them, Zuuli 1.6?

Competition maybe it couldn't hold up, but I'm going for a weight with 3.8

You did wins I've got Nemesis I've got a weight of 3.4

Bones is still in, Bones is in

The final match up of this round.

So this is my this is my golden boy who's been with me from turn one. I've had this card, so I feel like I should stick with it. And just through loyalty alone. I'm gonna go for value 169, Scythe. What was it 169.

What was it value 169? Terraforming Mars beats it with

Accidentally tanked himself.

I think he's happy

Yeah, it's okay.

That's the end of round 3

So our four semi finalists, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Mansions of Madness, Too Many Bones and Terraforming Mars. Quite happy with that, but none of them are Carrooka the whole thing's completely pointless. Alright, cool. Kris. You're attacking mate. First semi final.

Okay Terraforming Mars.

Heavyweights left now

You know you want to take it through

Like you did with Kittens?

I didn't tank it. I didn't.

I'm gonna go for weight which is 3.25.

Well, JP is going to be glad to know that I've got Too Many Bones, 3.85 weight. S our first finalist is Too Many Bones.

What did we say about Too Many Bones winning?

Yeah, exactly. It's rigged

It would be rigged. I know. I kind of I kind of, no, I do want it to win

He's inflated the numbers. Says it's only 150 pounds

I've statistically worked out the stats and it's the

You've made sure of it.

You're attacking

Lost Ruins of Arnak

Now you should know what you're up against.

I should. I'm gonna go BGG rank of 29

Oh, you've just knocked out Mansions of Madness

Oh,

With 47

So we have our final Lost Ruins or Arnak, versus Too Many Bones, couldn't have predicted that. No, that's not right.

So we have our final we know it's going to be Lost Ruins of Arnak, against Too Many Bones. JP is sweating visibly to find out whether Too Many Bones is victorious. So where are we going to do this? All five of us are going to pick a stat and whichever stat gets the majority If not we'll randomise the number and do a Zuuli or maybe, not Zuuli, we'll do a Chwazi or something Let's start with you JP, What stat?

I mean clearly knowing Too Many Bones. I'm gonna go in for value aren't I?

Thought he would

That's what I'm gonna go for.

I don't know the stats from there so I'm gonna think I'm gonna go for rating

Okay, yeah, okay, solid. I

Think it's ratings gonna be more

User rating. Yeah.

But you're wanting something to win then?

He wants Arnak, it's his champion

So Kris, what?

How old is?

There should be no conferring in the final

Thank you adjudicator. Yeah.

Use of Rank is it? I'll go for rank as well

Rating. I'll also go rating.

I'm gonna go value.

Three to two rating I'm afraid. So

I don't know the numbers though.

Reveal. Rating of Lost Ruins of Arnak is 8.1. Can we get a drum roll please. Too Many Bones has a rating of ....8.4! Success Horn!

It's rigged

I am so happy

So now that we've done that and we know JP fixed it, should we do it for real?

I don't think he's recorded any of it

That was just a practice run right?

Well, biggest surprises there,

Was there one?

Zuuli got voted out by some kind of crazy nonsense

Yeah there was there was tanking

In round 4, That's a solid...

Yeah, it is.

Lords of Waterdeep bowed out early

Disgraceful.

Yeah, that was climactic. Like no.

Got Lisboa out, then got knocked out by Lord of the Rings yeah,

Well, you can have one of these roll things with games we have lost in

Games we lost.

Just Carooka in black. Just me. Me and Rob. They're wiping away and tear

Being flicked down a tiny hole.

There we go. That's it. Yeah, just a bit of fun.

It was our first we're gonna have to repeat this next year.

That's why I say it's the first annual board game battleground. So I want to do this again

We will all be rooting against Too Many Bones Yes, definitely.

I liked it. I liked Too Many Bones as a game

Yeah, I'm chuffed

I liked it, I just don't want it to win again. Yeah,

It was just destined to win right?

Destined to win. Yeah, you'd got no chance. No.

Ark Nova going out was a bit of a bit of a, you know, tragic moment. Yeah,if they'd just released their expansions. But

It could be out what the next one?

That's true.

It'll come back stronger next year. Yeah.

There we go. We have gone through the battleground. There have been many casualties along the way. And Too Many Bones rules. 2022 Best Played Games of our podcast, and I'm chuffed. You all contributed to the nonsense. So no, thank you for playing along the game. It's been good fun. We'll do it again next year on our 2023 Best Played Games

Let us know in the comments what should have won. Yeah. Yeah, what

What games shouldn't have gone out as early as they had, which is complete random nonsense. Anyway, but if you enjoy the show, please, please review subscribe and get in touch and you can get in touch via a variety of our handles. We've got our email at players@whoseturn.co.uk , you can get us on boardgamegeek, and become a fan and listen to the show that way, we've got Facebook at Whose Turn Is It Anyway Podcast, we've got our Instagram handle @whoseturnpodcast , and of course Tiktok