The Geeky Gimp Presents #4 – A New Year’s Eve Podcast

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In this very special podcast recorded on New Year’s Eve, I chat with my friend Christie about our top ten games of 2014 while sipping (and choking on) champagne. Here’s to a fantastic 2015! Transcript and links are below the video.

Link to Games Mentioned: Krosmaster Arena, Lost Cities, Star Fluxx, Piñata, Hanabi, Forbidden Desert, 7 Wonders, La Fantome de l’Opera, Ghost Stories, Pandemic (plus the expansion On the Brink and the dice version), Qwirkle

TRANSCRIPT by E.

The Geeky Gimp splash screen comes on with music and text: THE GEEKY GIMP PRESENTS… A NEW YEAR’S PODCAST WITH CHRISTIE….

Text splashes across a grey screen: Transcript at geekygimp.com

ERIN: Hey everyone, welcome to The Geeky Gimp Presents special podcast for New Years Eve or New Years Day. So I have a special guest. Can you say hello?

CHRISTIE: Hello, I’m Christie, I’m Erin’s friend, I’m also her nurse, I work with her two days a week, and, um, yeah, we’re going to run through our hundred games that we played this year.

ERIN: Yeah, because we had a challenge on BoardGameGeek and it was to play ten games ten times each. So all right. So now we’re just going to just talk about each game from ten to one.

CHRISTIE: Ten being our least favorite, and one being our most favorite.  However, we pretty much enjoyed  most of all these games.

ERIN: Most.

CHRISTIE: Most, yes.

ERIN: So all right. Number ten is….

CHRISTIE:  Krosmaster Arena: This is the game that I personally liked the least.  For a couple of reasons but, took too much time. This is a game that is made by…

ERIN: Murat Celebi (I’m sorry if I mess up) and Nicolas Degouy (I’m not sure how you say that)

CHRISTIE: Yeah, so what are some things you liked about this game, Erin?

ERIN: Well I mean, it was, it was designed nice.  Nice design.  It adds the little people. you know, the miniature people…

CHRISTIE: The characters were quite cute, yeah.

ERIN: The characters, yeah. So we should talk about what the game is, what it does.

CHRISTIE: Yes.

ERIN: So it’s basically like a battle game, kind of like, I don’t know. I’ve never played a game like it before so I don’t know what to compare it to.

CHRISTIE: So, yeah, basically this is a game where you each have a team of characters and you battle to win the field.

ERIN: Right. You have like action points and um

CHRISTIE: Movement points

ERIN: Movement points, and health points

CHRISTIE: And special abilities, like Queen of Tofu, she can summons a tofu, King of Gobble, he can summons a Gobble, Which those  kind of play like another character in the game. So once you use your action points to summon them, when your turn is over with that particular character, now you get to play the Gobble.

ERIN: Right.

CHRISTIE: And so it gives you another member of your team so to speak.

ERIN: So we liked the [presentation], we liked the design, and honestly, I don’t know, I couldn’t get into it.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, the game was too time-consuming. I mean, the design, it was absolutely a beautiful game, the characters were super adorable, but it took too long to play, our play times were at least an hour….

ERIN: And it took a long time to set up.

CHRISTIE: It’s difficult to set up, and yeah, it just wasn’t my favorite.

ERIN: Oh, I should also add, by the way, we’re drinking, I have champaigne.

CHRISTIE: And I have a lychee martini.

ERIN: Yeah.

CHRISTIE: So we’re bringing in the new year a little early, listing our hundred games of last year.

ERIN: Yes, and I should also say this is Christie’s first podcast — EVER

CHRISTIE: Yes, my very first podcast.

ERIN: All right, awesome!

CHRISTIE:  All right, movin’ on. Number…

ERIN: Actually, wait, we should say what we didn’t like about it?

CHRISTIE: Oh, well there’s a lot we didn’t like about this game.  It took too long.

ERIN: Oh, we said that already.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, the game is a little bit uh, it’s a little bit difficult to understand with all the tokens, we rarely used those in play.

ERIN: Yeah, like the first time I played it, I liked it, the second time, it was a little eh, and then just playing it ten times, I couldn’t, I don’t want to do that ever again.  Not my cup of tea. But I could see other people enjoying it it, like kids, I think would like it a lot. Younger people. So.  Okay.

Number nine is Lost Cities by Reiner–Reiner (I’m sorry) Knizia as published by Albi Games, and it’s for two players, and I mostly played it with my ex-boyfriend, who’s a jerk. If you’re listening to this, you’re a jerk.  And, uh, it’s, I didn’t like it, it’s very abstract. Yeah, I didn’t like it. But I mean, it was okay. It’s basically a set collection game, card drafting, and I didn’t like it.

Number 8 is….

CHRISTIE: Star Fluxx: by Andrew Looney, pruduced by Looney Labs. This is a game that I enjoyed playing with Erin quite a bit actually. I would like to say that my wins were 8, Erin’s wins were 2, out of the 10 games we played with this.  This is a 2 to 6 player game. This game can last anywhere from five minutes to an hour.

ERIN: And we never really played that long.

CHRISTIE: No.

ERIN: No. And also it’s all luck based.
CHRISTIE: It is, it’s entirely luck based.

ERIN: So that’s why she won.

CHRISTIE: The rules change all the time.  However, the one thing that I didn’t really care about this game–one, it’s not really a strategy game, it’s a lot of luck, and two, especially if you have difficult holding–difficulty holding cards, you can accumulate a lot of cards at a time and it gets a bit cumbersome to go through all of them to see what your next play should be.

ERIN: Yeah. And from like an accessibility standpoint, it can be too much, too many cards to hold and go through, right?

CHRISTIE: Yeah, so I think I had an unfair disadvantage over Erin because I had easy access to my hand of cards. while Erin was limited to only looking at one card at a time, so.

ERIN: Okay, I think it’s time for a champagne break.
CHRISTIE: Champane break?

ERIN: Champagne break. Although you have a martini.  Sorry. I almost choked to death. All right. Um. Piñata

CHRISTIE: Piñata. I really like this game, it’s by Stephen Glenn produced by

ERIN: Rio Grande Games

CHRISTIE: And we save this game a lot for the end. I don’t know why. It’s simple, it doesn’t have a lot of strategy but it’s cute and it’s easy to play.

ERIN: It’s basically you have to play cards to beat um, how do you explain that, like…

CHRISTIE: So there’s four different main cards on the table labeled 1 2 3 4 and there’s an arrow up on one side, an arrow down on the other, so when the arrow up means that the person who plays the highest card

ERIN: Wins.

CHRISTINE: Wins that. So for the 1 tile you can only put one card there, and you put candies on each tiles and that determines the color of the card you can use to win the candies. And so you accumulate the candies, you win rewards, and whoever accumulates three out of five reward cards wins the game.

ERIN: Yes.

CHRISTIE  Simple, easy, I mean pretty much anybody could play it

ERIN: Kid’s game.

CHRISTIE: Kids.

ERIN: Yeah, Isabella was really–

CHRISTIE: Yeah.

ERIN: That’s my niece, she’s 4.

CHRISTIE: Yeah. She’ll be 4 tomorrow.

ERIN: Yeah.

CHRISTIE: She can almost get the game,

ERIN: Yeah.

CHRISTIE: So it’s really, it’s family friendly, it’s for anybody. It’s a two player game though.

ERIN: And I should say Christie beat me 8 games to 2 games. I wasn’t very good at it.
All right. Number 6 is Hanabi, which, I really like that game.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, This game is by Antoine

ERIN: Bauza

CHRISTIE: Bauza, and um…

ERIN: Asmodee publishes it.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, this game? Erin and I got a little heated during this game.  This is a card game in which you cannot see your own hands. And you have to depend on the other player for very simple clues on what cards you have in your hand and when to play them. And needless to say you can only give like one or two words and it becomes very difficult. What can you say? You can say–

ERIN: A number or a color.

CHRISTIE: A number or a color. But you have to list all of like if you have two number threes you have to say which cards like “This this one and that one are number three,” so then you’ll have to use another clue next time to tell them that, you know, whatever one is a red three or whatever, but  you can only give a color or a number, so that game can be quite frustrating.

ERIN: Especially when you’re like: This is a one, or this is a five, and then you just play it wrong or you just play it wrong or you do something messed up, I don’t know.

CHRISTIE: And you have eight cards in your hand so it’s difficult to remember–

ERIN: Eight cards or five cards?

CHRISTIE: Five cards. Five cards. It seems like eight. Five cards. Five cards in your hand, so it’s difficult to remember what every card is. And there’s timepieces you put in to give a clue but there’s only a limited number of timepieces, so when you run out of them you can no longer give any more clues.

ERIN: Right. Yeah.

CHRISTIE: So you have to balance out clues

ERIN: Vs.

CHRISTIE:  Vs. just attempting to play something.

ERIN: Yeah, we got mad at each other a lot.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, there was a lot of banging on the table during that game.

ERIN: Yes. Why did you do that! Yeah.

CHRISTIE: So we had one perfect score.   I don’t know how that happened, That had to be early in the process. And, uh, we had a low score of 13, How does the points work? Do you get a–

ERIN: I think it’s 25 is the highest.

CHRISTIE: You get a point for every card?

ERIN: No, you get the card that’s on top at the end. The highest one you get

CHRISTIE: So make piles of one two three four five, that’s your goal. I mean, it’s an interesting game but gets a little heated at times.

ERIN: Yeah, but, you know, it was really fun, I liked it. So now we’re going into–wait, champagne. Okay. Ooh. All right, so, now is our number five, uh, game. The champagne’s already getting to me.

CHRISTIE: Good.

ERIN: Good. Okay. Number five is Forbidden Desert, which is by Matt Leacock

CHRISTIE: And produced by Game Wright

ERIN: Mmhmm.

CHRISTIE: This game kind of fell in the middle for us, we enjoyed the play.  Um, this is a cooperative game so we played together. We had four wins and six losses.

ERIN: Not bad. Not too bad.

CHRISTIE: Not bad, no.

ERIN: It’s a very hard game.

CHRISTIE: It is. And it’s a 2-5 player game

ERIN: Mmhmm.

CHRISTIE: And so this game works by you try to unbury all the pieces of a–what is it, a ship?

ERIN: A ship–like an air…..

CHRISTIE: Like an–

TOGETHER: Aircraft ship thing.

CHRISTIE: And you try not to get buried in the desert underneath the sand. And you try to make it back to your home place with all of your pieces collected to win the game.  You cannot run out of sand, of course.  And, uh, I mean, this…It’s a fun game. It’s a challenging game but it’s a fun game. It needs some strategy, which I like.

ERIN: Yeah, it’s very stressful, a lot of stress, a lot of decisions to make that are important.

CHRISTIE: But it’s fun, I think it’s a fun game.

ERIN: It is fun. My mom hates it.

CHRISTIE: Well, cause she doesn’t know how to play it.

ERIN: And she also gets very stressed out. She also hates our number one game.

CHRISTIE: Oh, I love our number one game. So I can’t even take–she just–she just doesn’t get it.

ERIN: No, she doesn’t get it. All right, number four is 7 Wonders by Antoine Bauza, my favorite designer, and Repos Productions

CHRISTIE: So this is a game that I really didn’t think that I would enjoy. Honestly, I didn’t think I would enjoy any of these games, I needed just a little break, I–

ERIN: Oh, I should say, Christie’s not a gamer.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, so I’ve never been into boardgames. I play Yahtzee, that’s about, you know, as deep as it gets in my house, so when Erin made this New Years Resolution last year, I thought, “Oh dear Lord, what am I going to do?” but actually I’ve really come to enjoy most of all these games and really looking forward to our plays. 7 Wonders is a game by looking at the box I thought, “Ugh, this is totally not what I would be interested in,” but somehow I really enjoy playing this game.

ERIN: Mmhmm, that’s a fun.

CHRISTIE: So this game was pretty even actually in terms of wins for Erin and I.  Erin won four and I won five.

ERIN: What’s S?

CHRISTIE: Sarah.

ERIN: Oh, Sarah, my friend, my BFF, Sarah, played too, but.

CHRISTIE: So this is a two to seven player game and this requires some strategy.  You have to balance military points vs. science points and Erin would always beat me on the science points. I think it was a nicely designed game, it’s pretty, the components are really nice.

ERIN: It’s easy to teach.

CHRISTIE: And it’s actually, it’s a lot of fun, it’s a good game.

ERIN: Yeah, I like it. Number three is–well we actually argued about our top three, didn’t we?

CHRISTIE: We did. They’re all so close.

ERIN: Yes they are.

CHRISTIE: La Fantome

ERIN: de l’Opera

CHRISTIE: Oh, La Fanttome of the Opera

ERIN: It says Phantom of the Opera in French.

CHRISTIE: La Fantome de l’Opera by Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc and it’s published by Hurrican

ERIN: Hurrican’t. Haha.

CHRISTIE: Haha.

ERIN: Okay.

CHRISTIE: This is a two player game. I loved this game.

ERIN: I liked it.

CHRISTIE: I was the investigator, I was the phantom, but I loved being the investigator in this game and I beat Erin seven out of ten games.

ERIN: Yeah, you did.  I just couldn’t get my head around it. Like I get how to play it, I just couldn’t figure out how to win.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, I figured it out.  I chose the detective role most of the time.

ERIN: So basically you play as the phantom or you play as–what’s the other one?

CHRISTIE:  The detective.

ERIN: So, you know, it’s fun.

CHRISTIE: It’s a cute game.

ERIN: It’s beautiful.

CHRISTIE: There’s a lot of secret passages for the phantom and people to go through.

ERIN:  It’s basically a–it’s a deduction  game.

CHRISTIE: It is. And it’s a two-player.

ERIN: Champagne.

CHRISTIE: Champagne toast. Delicious, right?

ERIN: Yes it is.

ERIN: All right.

CHRISTIE: Number two.

ERIN: I think number two is my number one. Number two is  Ghost Stories,

CHRISTIE: Again by Antoine Bauza. Repos Productions.

ERIN: And it’s 1 to 4 players.

CHRISTIE: And this is another cooperative game. And this game is so nicely designed… Wu Feng

ERIN: Is a jerk.

CHRISTIE: kicked our ass…a lot of times, eight out of ten times

ERIN: Mmhmm.

CHRISTIE: But this game is constantly changing, you never know which ghosts are gonna come out, which type of things are gonna happen. I just really enjoyed it.

ERIN: There’s a lot of luck involved.

CHRISTIE: There’s luck but I think it’s…

ERIN: In the dice. But it’s more strategy.

CHRISTIE: Yeah I think it’s strategy. You can bring back your lost partners or whatever if your teammates die.

ERIN: And it’s really pretty.

CHRISTIE: It’s beautiful. There’s special powers, each tile you can do something different. This is a–I would say this is a good game. Absolutely a must-try.

ERIN: Yes It’s very–. But you should say–it’s very, very hard to beat.

CHRISTIE: Very hard. We won our first and last games only, out of ten plays we won two. But you know what, I personally enjoyed it right down to the last minute.

ERIN: Yes.

CHRISTIE: I really enjoyed this game:

ERIN:  It’s very stressful too. Like you feel like…

CHRISTIE: Edge of seat.

ERIN: Edge of seat.

CHRSTIE: Yeah, you’re at the edge of  your seat. You never know which ghost is gonna come up next, you don’t know who  to clear, there’s 3 spaces on each side of the board, 4 sides to the board, and uh, if you’ve got 3 ghosts on your side of the board you lose point, so you’ve gotta keep on top of it, and these ghosts they can accumulate very fast.

ERIN: Right. All right, so, number one.

CHRISTIE: Number one, drumroll please *beating on thighs*

ERIN: Doo doo doo!  Is PANDEMIC. What?

CHRISTIE: Matt Leacock

ERIN: What?

CHRISTIE:  Z-Man Games

ERIN: What?

CHRISTIE: Love this game!

ERIN: Yes.

CHRISTIE: We’ve got the expansion set, it’s so much fun.

ERIN: Right.

CHRISTIE: Um, we’re tied with wins and losses. Five wins, five losses. This is a two to four player game. I think the expansion set and the petri dishes make it so, um.

ERIN: Fun.

CHRISTIE: So much more interesting and so much more fun.

ERIN: My dad loves it too.

CHRISTIE: Yeah. It’s difficult, it’s one of those games you get really upset when you don’t win, you get so close. You try to cure the diseases. The expansion set adds another what…what’s the purple?  Another…

ERIN: Virus.

CHRISTIE: Another virus. And there’s different plays for the expansion.

ERIN: Mmhmm, different, like, challenges.

CHRISTIE: What do you think about the new Pandemic dice game, do you wanna try to play that?

ERIN: Yeah, I don’t have it…

CHRISTIE: Yeah, I don’t either, but I think I’ll be buying that. I think that’ll be my next…

ERIN: Oh, really?

CHRISTIE: Yeah, I really do.

ERIN: I’m gonna make you buy a game?  I influenced you?

CHRISTIE: Yeah. Twice now.

ERIN: Twice.

TOGETHER: Oh!

ERIN: What was it?

TOGETHER: Qwirkle.

CHRISTIE: So I’ve never been big into games and I never watched any of these YouTube videos like Geek and Sundry or Tabletop or–

ERIN: Wil Wheaton

CHRISTIE: I, ya know, Wil Wheaton, and Rahdo Runs Through and I don’t remember which one it was, but somebody showcased Qwirkle. And Erin had no idea but I had went and bought this game myself–

ERIN: That was Tabletop.

CHRISTIE: Tabletop, okay. So I went and bought this game myself and I played it and I loved it  And I was raving to her and she was like, ‘Wait, you bought a game off a YouTube video you watched at my house.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I know, but you need to get it.’ So she has it as well.

ERIN: Yes. So that’s our favorite games of 2015. 2014.

CHRISTIE: Yeah, 2014. Do you wanna tell them what your resolution is for 2015?

ERIN: To play 2 games, twice a month, um, they have to be new games, games I haven’t played yet, so it’s a lot easier.

CHRISTIE: And what else is your resolution?

ERIN: Oh, yes. Don’t buy any more games in 2015.

CHRISTIE: So Miss Erin has to play, she has to find, 24 games in her 90 game collection which I think is quite amazing so far, that she has not played yet.

ERIN: I have like 30 that I haven’t played yet, yeah.

CHRISTIE: Okay. So you have to play 24 of your 30 games.

ERIN: Yes, I know. I’m happy about it.

CHRISTIE: I’m happy about it too.

ERIN: So what are your New Years’ Resolutions?

CHRISTIE: Mine?

ERIN: Yeah.

CHRISTIE: I just want to get healthy. You know? I say the same thing every year but this year I really mean it. Do you have any New Years Resolutions?

ERIN: Find a boyfriend.

CHRISTIE: Find love.

ERIN: Find–eh.

CHRISTIE: Fine details nobody cares about.

ERIN: Right. Who cares? Drink more champagne.

CHRISTIE: Yes, we should drink more champagne.

ERIN: Yes.

CHRISTIE: More than once a year.

ERIN: Yeah. I know. All right, well, that was our podcast.

CHRISTIE: Thanks for joining us.

ERIN: Thanks for joining us. Have a lovely new year and I’ll see ya in 2015.

CHRISTIE: Be well, be happy.

ERIN: Bye.

Thank you for listening to another podcast by The Geeky Gimp.  If you have any comments, questions, concerns, reach me on Twitter at geeky gimp, or my email, erin at geeky gimp dot com. I hope you enjoyed. Thank you. Bye-bye.