Hey, my friends, and yes, it is that Tuesday favorite day of the
year is Mardi Gras down in my hometown in New Orleans.
So welcome everyone. This is episode 113 of Maple to
Maple and it is tantalizing top titles of 2025.
That's right, I remain PJ. And with me again, as promised,
is Adam. Me tabletop vibes.
Super super stoked to be back again in the booth.
That's right. I kind of scared you with all
the Mardi Gras. I don't think you expected all
this. Tuesday I'm just stoked.
And PJ was dancing before this, so like.
I was I shouldn't wear. My beads.
I should have been shirtless. That's what I should have been
anyways. Well.
It's a it's a family. This is a family.
Exactly exactly. So as promised last week we
looked back at 2024. This week, we're looking forward
to 2025. Guys, please thanks for
listening, but please make sure that you like and subscribe to
all the streaming services. Please put comments below if
you're watching on YouTube. I really thank you so much.
Also, before we do anything else, Adam doesn't know I'm
going to do this, I want to just take a moment of silence really
quickly. A friend in our community in the
in the hobby recently passed away.
I don't know all the details, but everyone who's on Instagram
probably knows about it. That's Jennifer from Rawls Plays
Games. And I just wanted to recognize
in our shared grief with the lost of our friend Jennifer.
And with that, we're going to keep honoring her memory by
going. We're going to look forward to
the titles of 2025. These are the ones we're looking
forward to. If Jennifer were here, she'd be
looking forward to them too. Right.
Yeah, yeah. And even on Instagram right now,
they've been doing a lot of celebratory posts in memory of
her. So our hearts and prayers go out
to the family. Yeah, we finally made it to 2025
top games that we're looking forward to.
That's right. So.
Technically, we did our top 2024 in 2025 and now we're actually
doing. We caught up.
Yeah, we caught up. So.
So take it away, Adam. Start us off 2025.
What are you looking forward to? OK, so none of mine are actually
in any order, but I just threw them out there.
I'm going to go with the first one that we talked about last
time. It's Luthier by Peverson.
The games, man, this game is just beautiful as all get out.
You're like in the music world, making instruments, right?
In some old I, I'm going to say Victorian era.
It's probably wrong, but it's in, it's not our era.
And so it is wonderful. It is Patterson Games has been
incredible. I've only seen demos.
I think you had an advance review copy I.
Did I covered? It so so you you got to see more
than I did other than what a demo could show.
Yeah, yeah, I didn't get to play, but it looks, it looks, it
looks fantastic. Yeah, it is 100%.
I mean, and I play music so like it kind of like speaks to me way
more than than not, I guess you could say, right?
So absolutely, I'm also looking forward to that.
It was on my list so I'm scratching it off as we speak.
Great minds, you know this. No, that's a good one.
I think it's on everyone's list. It's Yeah, it's going to be a
hot one for 2025. I want to tell you the one that
I'm. I think it's going to surpass
distilled. It might, it might, but I think
more people drink whiskey then play play music.
I don't, I don't know. I don't know, still this solid.
This still is a solid game. Distilled.
Was the was the Distilled was the first game that Katie and I
played in our collection in 2025.
Really. Yeah, was the first game January
1st? I think that's the first game.
Well, I didn't play because I my buddy played with a few guys,
but that's the first game that I was going to play with you guys.
Yes, yeah, you were supposed to, but you were just.
You're just too busy and fancy, man.
I mean, I do move. Around a lot.
I have a hard time sitting still all the time.
So I want to talk about the game that I'm looking forward to.
Yeah, I'm really excited. It's coming out soon.
It's Galileo Galilei by Pink Troubadour Games, which is
supposed to be distributed, I think, in the United States by
Capstone Games. Again, I'm not seeing a demo
I've not seen. All I know is yeah.
I see I need this game. Galileo was incredible.
His story is amazing. And the whole thing is you're
you're astronomers and there's going to be science and things
are going to happen. I don't.
I don't know a lot about it, but the theme, the theme has got me
excited. Dude, that's where I was.
I saw space and I saw a Euro game and I was like, yes, it
looks, it looks like the pieces look really nice.
And I was like, Yep, I'm in for this.
Let's go. Yes, let's go.
So that's Galileo Galilei. I really can't wait.
Pink Troubadour Dance Games, partnering with Capstone.
I'm not sure how that partnership works, but hopefully
we'll get, hopefully we get publisher designer on the show
and talk about it. That'd be cool.
That would be great. Yeah.
I need to get. I need to get Patterson Games to
come on and talk about Luther, because I Yeah, well, they can
talk about Luther and just, they can talk about whatever they
want. Let's be honest.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they've made some big.
They've made some big moves actually.
They've actually got like 3 new people on their team.
Exactly power. Moves to grow the company they
got, they had distilled, they had expansions and then they had
luthier. So they're coming up.
And yeah, So what do you have next for us that you're looking
forward to? All right, so this one is also
in the space theme. OK.
Gallic Galactic cruise, Yeah. It's on my list too.
Is it? Yes, Come on.
So Quinceaner games I think is how you say it.
Yeah, it is Kinson Kinson Key Games I.
Just combined them together. Yes, yes.
Galactic cruise, you're literally running a cruise ship
in space. Like when I saw this, I was
like, yeah, I have to have this one.
It's deluxified to all get out and beautiful.
And I was like, this is just comical because like, I'm like,
you're like running your own spaceship, but it's a cruise
ship as a spaceship. Yeah, yeah.
So I I did not get a chance to play test it in the first
exposure play test hall, but I was at a table next to it play
testing something else. It's huge.
It's a table hog. It's got a huge table presence
and like you said, it is all about managing a cruise ship.
So I think the impression that I get is it's not like Grand
Austria hotel, but I feel like there's some resource management
because you're going to be fulfilling customer orders,
things that you would expect on a cruise ship, right?
Yeah. But in space.
Yeah, it's, I know. I don't know.
I'm a space person, so I just love space.
I most games that are like in space, I just draw close to
that. That's astronauts.
Space things. I'm with you.
I feel you.
In fact, so much so that that was on my list too.
So see. There we go.
Great minds. I'm pretty sure we probably have
some couple more. I got a feeling we do.
I'm saving. I do have 3 for last and these
are Katie's picks. She told me these are her three
that she wants me to talk about. So I'm going to save those for
life. So my next one is Iliad by
Bitewing Games. It's I think it's coming out in
the third quarter of this year. So you are again, I'm not seeing
this. I only know what you know,
promos that have come out, promotional videos and whatnot.
You're it's set in the Trojan War.
So you were immersed in Homer's story of the Trojan War through
the Iliad. So yeah, it it seems to be, I
don't know, it looks, it looks good again.
I'm. Curious how that I'm curious how
that like plays. That sounds really cool.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if you're taking on
the role of individuals like Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector, or
you're taking on the role of gods and you're going to choose
sides. There are some, there is a card
driven aspect to Iliad. I could.
You can definitely tell that and the artwork is amazing.
So be on the look up look if you're into Greek mythology.
Yes, right. So good.
And I'll. Yeah, Iliad by Bitewing Games.
I wish I could say more, but it looks really cool, right?
I mean, yeah, I'm. Going to have to do some more
research on that for sure. There's a lot of future
potential for development if Iliad is is successful.
Expansions go lower. Yep.
Well, then you, you can immerse yourself into the Odyssey on the
you know, and then and then if you really want to do it, you
could cross into Roman literature and can you could do
Virgil's I need, which kind of the I need was written meant to
be the conclusion of it's the story of what happened to the
Trojans who managed to escape Troy and they made their way
westward through the Mediterranean.
The Romans believe that they were inherent.
They were genetically linked and historically linked to the
ancient Trojans through their lore and Virgil Ania really
plays that out. So I get that would be a great.
Game that would be super cool. Oh my.
God, because you have all the gods and there's drama and
there's so many things happening.
So we'll see. Yeah, that sounds awesome.
I'm excited for it. So look out for Iliad, my
Bitewing games. Right.
All right. My next one is my Lucky Duck
Games, the Dark Quarter. Super stoked for this.
And so appropriate. Huh.
Yeah. And so.
Appropriate it's it's based in New Orleans.
It is. You are a like spiritual
detective in like in New Orleans, solving like paranormal
activity cases. So if you've played Destiny's,
it is the darker version, more streamlined, upgraded,
supposedly better version of Destiny's, which Destiny's is
already like. I love Destiny's.
We play it all the time. Yeah, but dark quarter, man,
it's going to be so awesome. You get that spooky feeling get
like and is supposed to be way more in depth on character
building in the in the app and things like that where like they
it remembers like bad choices and good choices and
repercussions. That's cool.
And I went, of course, like all in deluxe, give me everything.
I bet you did. Yeah.
We thought about it.
So here's here's the danger. And I'm sure this is true.
First for anybody. Well, no.
Well, now whenever a board game comes out, that's about either a
theme, a topic that you know really well, right, Right.
Or a place that you're from. OK, so I saw it more.
Like nitpicky and like. Yeah, because, you know, it's
like, because. You're familiar with it.
Yeah, exactly right. Because, I mean, you're.
Going to be like this is this isn't?
Right, because I'm, I'm walking the streets of the French
Quarter, you know, in my formative teenage years, right,
growing up in Louisiana. And I'm like, the art looked
good. Yes, the art looked good.
The storytelling seemed sound. I didn't take issues with that.
My fear is they're going to, they're going to lean too much.
They're going to go too far with the voodoo and the supernatural.
Yeah, that is all real, right? It is.
It is there. So I was a little nervous and I
said, you know what? I'm gonna pump the brakes.
Yeah. I'm not gonna back it.
And we're gonna see. None of my friends here in
Springfield are gonna back it. So if I see it again, Jen Connor
or something, I'll pick it up. Later, Yeah.
I mean, like we were all like, we all played Destiny so much
and everybody loves it. We saw like the dark version and
murder mystery style and I was like, Yep, this is gonna be
like, we're gonna be playing this forever.
So that's my number. Whatever we're on.
That's a, that's a good dark, dark quarter, dark quarter by
lucky Duck, I think. It should be fulfilling soon, I
heard. It should.
It should be. You know.
You backed it, so you probably got the e-mail alerts that let
you know. Yeah.
Feels like it's getting closer. So my next one, I know it's one
that is probably on your list as well.
I know you've seen it. I know that you've played it,
and that is Brink. Oh wow.
By by Ivy Studios. So we're going into space again.
I forgot about Brink. Oh my God, are you kidding me?
It's not on my I've backed it all in everything and it that is
a great game. I played it too.
I know you did, and so I'm just going to say that I can't wait
and I want you to tell us about it based off your play.
Yeah. So it's like, it's honestly kind
of like Catan, but it's not like that's a horrible representation
of what it is. But you're in space, you have
resources, everybody has their like player boards and you're
trying to fly your spaceship around and like take over
sectors, I guess you could say, get resources and then you can
switch off these resources. And then there's like tracks and
everything. It's like Euro EE, the board.
Like, it's got tracks, it has tracks.
I love track and it's space and then even the addition I got all
the tiles are holographic. I'm I don't know how I feel
about this yet. Because your eyes while you're
playing. Oh.
Sure, right. Like, I don't know, but it's
going to look cool no matter what, so I'm stoked for it.
Ivy Studios crushes it as usual with production is outstanding
and that's a blast. Absolutely.
So that's Brink. Yeah, I totally forgot about
that. Yeah, that's.
Great. I can't believe it.
I thought it was going to be on your list.
OK, well, great. So that's Brink by Ivy Studios.
It's coming out this year. Look for it.
OK. What do you have?
My next one, Nemesis Retaliation.
Is that what on your list? It so it's not it's not on my
list. I'm looking forward to it.
But yeah, we, we backed it too. We went all in on this.
I had to, I think because we backed it, what, two years ago.
It's been a while. It's been a long time.
Well, it's kind of comical right, so like nemesis bass
nemesis OG nemesis amazing with the karna morphs right like play
it harder mode, death mode. I mean, like, it's amazing.
So I was looking for that game when it first came out.
By the time I buy it literally the next week.
And this is when I first started getting into board gaming,
right? And they dropped Nemesis,
whatever the second one was. Lockdown.
Lockdown and I was like, you got to be freaking kidding me
because like I just paid a crap ton of money for Nemesis, OG
Nemesis, and then they just dropped this other one and I
actually played Lockdown. It is really cool the night and
the day and night or the the lights being able to turn on and
off in lockdown is very cool. We played with Steven Nashville
board game guy. Yep.
And we had and and every time you play Nemesis, it's an epic
camp. It's epic.
Like some craziness happens. Something that you're always
like this is memorable. Like, that's what I love about
Nemesis. One moment it's always
somebody's like, this is easy. And then the next round, all
hell breaks loose and we have 14 like aliens.
The Queen's out and you're like, right, You just had to say
something, right? Yep, Yep.
So I want I want to. That's a good one.
I want to point out. I know that I've said it before
on the show and people may be like PJ, how can you even enjoy
Nemesis, right, which got a trainer mechanic and I'm famous
for hating trainer mechanic. You are.
It is not in my mind, it's not a trader mechanic.
It's a cooperative game where there's a potential that you
have an objective. Objective.
Yes, that doesn't that doesn't necessarily work with everyone
else, right? But it's not like trader.
Mechanic either. No, I feel like a trader
mechanic is you betray the entire group.
Right in in that game, you have objectives that could betray
others, but it's not a betrayer mechanic because it's a choice.
You don't have to, right? Right, because you could just go
for getting off the off the ship.
Calling it, but it's what I'm looking forward to with
retaliation is now we all have guns and we're armed to teeth,
right? Yeah.
And, and we've got good combat dice and we're going to go and
retaliate. What is that going to?
What is that going to look like? Is it going to be completely
cooperative? Or will you have an objective
that maybe doesn't mingle like like Nemesis like?
It's got to have both I would assume and can.
My question is, can you shoot fellow teammates?
So playing enough board games, I know you will.
Yeah. Playing enough board games?
Typically you can't, right? Yeah.
Like you can't do you can't do even in Nemesis and Nemesis
lockdown here. Yeah, right.
So I don't know. I don't know, but I think it'll
be cool. Yeah, it'll be cool.
I'm. Very stoked about it so.
I'm I'm, I'm looking forward to things getting so bad.
Like things are just, you know, there's so many monsters, so
many aliens, right. And we're we're about to be over
on and I just want to in my best Bill Paxton voice.
Game over, man, game over. Who knows?
Will that happen? I don't know.
So my next one, we're going to
go in the completely opposite direction.
We're leaving. We're leaving space.
We're going beautiful and gentle.
That is La Patisserie Rococo by Eagle Griffin Games, where you
are in Rococo, France and you are managing a patisserie
serving up pastries to the nobles of France.
Yeah, Right. Oh my God, it's gorgeous.
It's a gorgeous game. The artwork is fanatic, fanatic.
It's fanatical. It's phenomenal too.
It's fanatical. I'm fanatical about how
phenomenal. Yes, Exactly.
Now. Yeah, the cards are gorgeous.
That linen finish? Games they do great job with,
yes, everything they put out. They also published Roko Co,
right? Which so they're famous for
publishing like Vital Laserto's games all through Eagle Griffin.
Roko Co is not a Lacerda game. La Patisserie Roku Co is not a
Lacerda game, but the artist Ian O'Toole.
Right. Who he does everything, so it's
going to have. A recently funded or fulfilled
Kickstarter, though they did. Wasn't like some like music
thing. It'll we'll talk about it today.
Oh, OK, you got it on there. It's it's on the list.
Nice. So the beauty of Eagle Griffin
is even in the design, right. The boxes still fit in a calyx,
although they're a little longer.
That's OK. The boxes are solid, thick
cardboard. They usually come with a very
good insert so you don't have to.
Yep, very key. And one of the things, the
detail of Eagle Griffin games that I love and La Patisserie
Rococo is no different. Sure.
On the sides of the box in the middle, there's that little cut
out. Yeah, the little for.
Your yeah for your fingers so you can pull the lid and that's
incredible so. Think about.
They think about things. Yeah, yeah.
I'm looking forward to, I'm looking forward to playing
Rococo and then La Patisserie Rococo.
Like. As a day of celebrating now the
beauty is Lafleur by Duxomium just was just fulfilled and we
got it we got our copy and it takes place in Rococo, France,
where you're trying to order the flowers to host the party Rococo
you're making the clothing la patisserie you're making the
pastries so that. Could be 3 games on the table at
once and just start taking turns just walking around.
Well, I mean, OK, I love that you think my game table's that
big. We can make it work.
We we could could we could we make a rococo table at gemcon?
Really awesome. Just it's like all the same like
theme and yeah, OK. Do you want to, do you want to
make you want to pick up the flowers?
Do you want to make the pastries or the clothes?
Where do you want to lie? I'm going.
Exactly. Yeah, I'm with you.
I'm with you on that one. You know where else in Louisiana
there's some great patisseries in the traditional French style
and that you could pick up during Mardi Gras.
So, yeah, yes, yes. So that's my next one.
That's awesome. What's on deck for you?
OK. So mine I guess we're going to
stick with the the food era thing.
OK. And I'm going to go with food
chain magnet. Oh yeah.
So this is actually an older game that I believe lucky Duck.
I think it's lucky Duck took back over on game found and I
think it's lucky Duck. I'm pretty sure might not be,
but regardless, food chain magnet, they reprinted it and
they like went like they went like crazy.
I went crazy. It is the highest level
Kickstarter I have ever backed. Wow, Yeah, that's a lot, Yes,
so. Like the pizzas, like the
buildings, everything. They deluxified the living
daylights out of it and it looks super cool.
But did they change the game? That's the question.
Full disclosure, I abhor this game.
It's very, very long, crunchy and hard.
It is flawed on levels of flaw. Let's hope they fixed it.
I mean, you basically my problem with Food Chain Magnate is you
play it your first turn, you have to do this one thing and on
your second turn you have to do this thing.
So basically I have to follow a path and I have to follow a
specific path otherwise. Right, SLC.
SLC fixed it or not, huh? Yeah, yeah, the production
quality is crushing it. I'm sorry how pretty it looks.
If the game is garbage I'm not playing it.
That's that's pretty sure, but at least it will.
Look good for pictures if it comes down then.
I will be fair. I'll be honest.
I didn't know. I didn't know the lucky duck had
picked it up. I was like, why are they
remaking this game? Like I was raging quietly behind
my aunt, but looking at my phone going, why are they remaking
this? Because it is.
It is like my absolute I hate this game and just have vowed to
never play it, ever bring it up. I've walked, I've walked away
from tables. I.
Actually have never played it though, so like every time I
went to go play it somebody they already had a fill a full table
and they end up playing something else.
So we'll see. Actually Jason, my previous
partner, that's his one of his favorite games.
That's why pretty much why we backed it.
So I was like, cool, I have a luxified pieces.
Let's go ahead. If Jason's watching this, hey,
I'm sorry. We'll see how it goes.
But I will say that Jason plays a mean game of distilled, so he
does. He plays a mean game of
everything because he is. That's how his brain works.
Sure. If you get him to break, you
know you've you're on a good check.
That's the tracks. Damn that track.
All right. Not on my duck, not on my duck
games, but adjacent we did. Puerto Rico, they did.
They did. Awakened.
Yeah, Awakened wins did that, Yeah.
Anyway, Puerto Rico's a good game too.
We're not looking forward to that one.
But yeah, that's. Yeah.
I, I will say 27th my my next one I'm super looking forward to
as well, but I did not, I did not back it on Kickstarter and
that is Revenant by mine Clash Games.
Oh yes, it is very, very beautiful.
We're back in space again and it just, it just looks incredible
because you're, you're building a fleet and I, I love fleet,
yeah, logistics and fleet combat.
And you know, I'm not into single ship and single fighter.
Kind of I really. Like when you can combat.
Armada Well, well, I love armadas and I love fleets and
and Revenant is perfect. Didn't back it, didn't back it
SO. Actually I have not as well.
I didn't do it. I wanted to.
I was on the fence. I wanted to.
I didn't know enough about it. I hadn't played.
I saw it. I don't essentially really like
how it looks. OK, it's beautiful.
But I don't like like there's not enough deluxified Ness for
me to pay to pay that like amount of money because I want
like I want like a decent mom. Like it doesn't look like
there's a lot there. I'm assuming there is though,
because they make wonderful games.
They do avoid fall Ironwood. I mean a bunch of good games.
So. Yeah.
So the quality production should be solid, yeah.
It's going to be. I just like when I looked at it,
it wasn't like beautiful, all the things I have to have this,
but I like. But inside I heard it was
amazing Europe. And I was like, now I'm curious.
Yeah, I would have thought it was going to be on your list, to
be honest. It's definitely crunchy Euro
kind of car driven. I thought about it.
It's yeah. So be on the lookout for
Revenant by mine Clash Games guys.
Yeah, super cool. What's next?
My next one, and maybe it's on yours.
We'll see richer Path of Destiny.
That's not on my list. That's 2025.
They could lie to all of us and it could be three years from
now. I don't know.
I got an update saying that it's it's getting.
It's like on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic
somewhere. Well, if it's on a ship then
it'll be 2025, yeah. We'll find out.
Yeah. Yeah, they did a whole new thing
I think I'm trying to remember to be honest, because it's been
such a long time ago that I backed it.
We also did a giveaway and gave away a free deluxe.
We bought 2 copies all in and we gave away one on the channel.
So that's really cool. But yeah, I'm just stoked for I
don't I love the Witcher. The Witcher board game is has
let me lead off with this has a ton of flaws.
OK, there's a lot of problems with it, but it is amazing.
It is a blast of play. You home brew some stuff.
The community like the cool thing is the community kind of
wrapped around it and like created like fixes because like
it sticks to like the the lore of Witcher, like the where the
essence of the Witcher is, which is like everything.
But then it just needs some tweaks and things like that,
Which it was cool to see the community come over and be like,
Hey, we love this. Here's all the fixes that we can
make. And, and I can't remember who
makes it, but they came back and they ended up updating and given
a rule cue and facts. But it's great.
But the new one is supposed to be even better.
It has like, I think it is cooperative in some weird way.
Interesting. Yeah, if I can remember
correctly, trying to see if I can pull it up.
I think it's cooperative though. Interesting.
Yeah. So I'm looking forward to that.
Very cool. OK, Witcher.
Witcher's good. It's it's.
Yeah, Path to Destiny. Yeah, it's not my jam, but it's
it's still good storytelling, so.
One to five competitive, oh oh, competitive player tableau
building card game where it's become one of the characters
taking part in the most iconic story.
So you get to, like, live that person's character through the
story as it unfolds. Well, there you have it.
I love it. Yeah.
OK. So my next one I'm really
looking forward to this is Abemus Papam, which is Latin for
Abemus Papam. We have a Pope, which is kind of
which is, which is, well, it's interesting.
So it's by Salt and Pepper games.
It's supposed to be I think a quarter 3Q3 release 2025.
So it's really interesting and timely, right?
Timely because Pope Francis's health is been fading quickly.
So when the Pope passes away after a time of mourning, the
College of Cardinals come together in Rome and they have
conclave. And that's what this game is
about. Essentially, you are you're in a
conclave and you're trying to choose the next Pope, right?
And so the end of the game, you you announce habemos Habam.
We have we have a Pope and it's it's yeah, it's interesting.
And if it's coming out in the third quarter, coinciding with
and none of this is connected. And, you know, they're a movie.
Movie conclave just came out. This board game is coming out.
And, you know, we may have a real life conclave.
We hope, we hope not soon. But, you know, and we pray for
the health of Pope Francis. But, yeah, so this is a board
game that could become very real, Right, Right, right.
For this year. Do you know what kind of style
of game that they're making with it?
So there's not a lot of information.
I there's, there's Tableau building it.
I don't know if it, I don't know that it's worker placement.
I think it's going to be Tableau building an auction like voting,
because the core of Conclave you, you, you cast votes.
I wonder if somebody like at the table that you're voting like
that person, yes. Yes, that is what you're doing
essentially right. So whenever you're whenever you,
when you watch on television during a conclave and they have
black smoke, that means that that the Cardinals cast their
vote and they did not. No one got a majority.
So no one was elected, right. So then when you see the when
you see the white smoke, it means they passed a vote and
they've elected a new Pope from their ranks.
If. They don't elect somebody.
What happens? Then, well, then there's a whole
lot of I don't there's there's yeah, I've they they go, they
go, they go back and forth. That's a.
That's an interesting concept
for both. Yeah, because you have to, you
have to essentially build alliances, right.
So like we're at the table and we really want, you know, we
want Brian to be the next Pope. And I've I've got these other
players who are like, we agree, Brian, but say you and Jason,
don't you want someone else? And it's like, so we have to
convince you. So it's a little bit
competitive. It's competitive.
It's it's competitive where you're trying to be cooperative,
right? You're trying to bring everybody
together so that we can elect a Pope.
So yeah, it's interesting. I think it's a cool game.
I don't know if it'll be timeless.
Like if I get a copy, is it going to sit on my shelf
forever? Is it a game I'm going to want
to play it that that is my concern.
But I'm I want to play this game so badly.
Setting aside the current health of Pope Francis, because that's
not relevant, I want to play this game whether we have a
healthy poke or not. I don't know about the
replayability. And unfortunately, the only way
to play a game is to buy the game.
So there you are. Or let your friend Jason and
Adam buy a copy or get a review copy or do all that.
Yeah. And then I just hop up there.
I mean, exactly. That's it, that is.
It so that sounds interesting. Like it Habemus Papam by Salt
and Pepper Games. Yeah, interesting look for that.
Yeah, that sounds great. Yep.
All right. How about how about you?
Yeah, What you got? I'm going back to the food thing
again. OK.
Critter Kitchen just got delivered.
Literally is on my table over there.
There is so much Dang stuff in this box.
It is amazing. It looks really cool and I kind
of like so I started off like kind of in the hobby of playing
fast rival restaurants, which is a great game by gap closer
games. My family loves it.
They'll play that game every single day for like 25 times and
it's great. I have all the expansions I got
to help play test the newest expansions, forks and something
fun. But this Critter Kitchen game
looks really cool and the deluxe version is beautiful.
Everything that's come with it. They have trays and everything
that's in there to help, you know, make sure all this stuff
goes back. Into the Box Love a good
organization place. Seven though I didn't even know
that when I backed it yeah which is kind of like gives me that
like 7 wonders feel you know so I'm really curious I might try
to bust it out I'm having game tanks tonight so I might try to
bust it out tonight but I also haven't put it all the way and I
haven't learned it so that makes.
So let's be clear, this is a game that you're looking forward
to for 2025 that you just received just a year.
So, so quarter one, it's hitting people's homes.
Yeah. And it might be hitting my Rose
Bros table. Yeah, I'm still so critical.
Gamma Expo was last week and everyone was posting pictures
there. Critter Kitchen, everyone was
talking about it. So that's exciting.
So be on the lookout for that. Yeah, guys.
So this is my last one. The next three are my wife's
choices. So this is my last.
My last choice. Actually, No, we're starting
with my wife's. I don't have any more.
I thought I did, but then I realized, look at my list.
You already took chose it. So I have three more titles, and
these are all while they are titles I'm looking forward to,
these are specifically Katie's choice.
I like it. OK, This is what Katie wants to
see and she's looking forward to it.
And that is Knitting Circle by Flat Out Games.
Was that happening? Yeah.
It was. It was.
There was sample copies of Jimmy Con, yeah.
And then Hick starter and it's due to, it's due to deliver.
Deliver. Why I couldn't remember that
word deliver this year. So it's based off of Calico?
Yeah, the cat game. Yep, Yep.
With the cat, it's cats and quilts.
The artwork is done by Beth Sobel, who did Calico, who also
did Cascadia. Because, you know, Flat out
Games and AG are teaming up together.
This this game looks like a lot of fun.
And Katie was like, we're getting this because it's got
cats. And that's pretty much all there
is to say that. Does sound really fun I the only
knitting game I've ever played is Arch Gravels.
Yes, we have that. That's an amazing game.
Yeah, my parents love that game a lot.
That's a lot of fun. That is a lot of.
Really good for teaching children about color.
Oh, yeah, My, my daughter. Because like, you know, there's,
there's purple. There's a lot of colors, yeah.
There's like the whole like Gambit.
And so every time we're fulfilling, I was helping her
learn colors and do order fulfillment.
What does this say? Get those things from the thing.
She'd get them back out. That's cool.
Worked. It was like a duel.
That's cool. And I think Knitting Knitting
Circle will be similar to that. The artwork is, I mean, it it's
it's straight out of calico. So, you know, orange cats and
knitting. Yeah, I mean.
That's awesome. Say no more, but that's on
Katie's top 3, so. That's awesome, I like it.
I didn't even, I didn't even get a vote whether the game is good
or not. I don't know anything about it,
but I know she's like, you know, you do what the wife says,
right? Yes.
That's it. Happy life, happy life.
Yep, and it's even better when they take a board game and tell
you to buy it. That makes my heart happy.
Oh man, I love that I. Don't remember which one, but
Joy was like, you have to buy this, this is really cool.
And I was like, say no more, I will go buy it.
Yeah. And then add to that cart that
we are buying that one. One game.
Exactly. Right.
I love it. I love it.
What else do you have next? Yeah, talk to me.
So we are going to go into this fun new world that's been
popping off like crazy town. OK.
OK, dual. So I'm going to pick.
There was a bunch to pick from, but I'm going to go with a Zul
dual. They're also making Flamecraft
dual. They're also making.
It's like the season of two player games, which I'm very
excited to see that publishers have started looking at the fact
that you might not have a 5A46. You two player games for whoever
partners, girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever, everybody,
two players, people games. It's kind of like, it's really
great to see so. More and more school.
Is classic. Yeah, more and more couples are
gaming and joining the hobby, and more and more singles in the
hobby are meeting because of the hobby.
I think publishers are taking notice and so.
So it's really cool to see that. I mean, it works out for them.
They already have like a like a game that's core and then now
they're tweaking it to make it a two player game.
So yeah, that looks cool. And Flame Craft Duel was on
Gamma. I saw a bunch of pictures for
that at Gamma. Last week.
So I always get nervous when they make a two player version.
I don't know why, because in a lot of cases they're better than
the big player version. So Professor Meg posted some
pictures of flame crap duel. Her description was just spot
on. What?
I mean, I was like, OK, Yep. Right.
I'm going to love this game. My wife's going to love this
game. We're going to play this game.
Yeah, I was really playing. Flamecraft itself.
Yes, yes, we played it a geek way.
Katie loved it and we went and bought it when Geeko it was over
so. It is beautiful.
Did you go? Did you get all the stuff for
it? We have since purchased upgraded
like the food resources and things, but yeah.
It's a great, it's a great game. It's a great, it is lightweight
game, yes, but like, I have to always check myself as a
Eurogamer. I want it to be more in depth,
right? I'm like, why can't we make this
harder? Right?
My only qualm with the entire game, though, is this moving
those cards when like you move your guy and they move.
That is the only thing that just makes me like it's just messy
and I like tidy board game areas while we play right, So like for
me that like just makes me frustrated because like people
are bumping it and like what cards here, what was here and
they're sliding around. But that's the first word
problem games. Oh yeah.
So let's go to Katie's number 2.
Yeah, Katie's number two. I promised you I would talk
about it. And that is Speakeasy by Vital
Lacerda. It's supposed to be fulfilled
quarter 4 of 2025. So I guess this is going to be a
Christmas gift. We're going to be playing this
at Christmas time. I.
Love the concept of this game. This is so great, right?
That whole prohibition area era in America and you're, you know,
trying to deliver alcohol to speakeasies and man, and it's
and it's Alserta. It's Alserta.
So if you want a heavy heavy weighted, yes.
I'm really stoked. I think my brother-in-law Flow
actually picked it up, I believe.
OK. So I'm excited to.
Tell you, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's it was on my list, but
Katie's like you better put it on the list.
So I'm just like, yeah, it's just going to be your number
two. Yeah, right.
Speakeasy by Vital Lacerda, Eagle Griffin Games.
It's going to be awesome. I.
I'm hoping that next week or oh, I'm like, I'm hoping that I get
to see it soon played out. Yeah, yeah, because I want to
so. I want more OK.
My next one. Yeah, let's.
Go down. Let's make sure I did that.
This one is already because we have two more games, right?
I have one more. I have Katie's, Katie's number
one, which, yeah. Parks, second edition.
Yeah, I've been seeing this around.
Yeah, they changed the entire so I love parks.
I tell anybody whoever plays this game, it's like if you want
to play a calming game, it's calming.
Like it just makes you feel at Zen in my opinion.
Like there's no, I don't really care what happens.
I just like trying to find and gain a pretty park and like
learning about what that park has.
Like the little description, like some fun fact.
It plays really well too. If it's a four player game, but
they've remade it and it's the second edition and they changed
the entire layout. Really.
It's all different colors now. It's pretty vibrant.
The other one was kind of like woodsy.
OK. I guess that's that word.
And now it's all changed, which looks kind of cool.
Well, OK, I. Don't know if it plays different
but if they they remade. It So I'll tell you when our
group gets together here in town, we play some of these cozy
games. We play some of these smooth,
calming games and violence erupts.
Violence let there. Be violence, Cascadia, Cascadia.
When we play Cascadia it is like.
Do you know I've never played that game?
Well, it's like. I'm not even a real board gamer.
Oh, you're not? Exactly.
Like get out, get off my, off my.
Chest. Yeah, this will be the last time
that tabletop odds is on Maple to me, no.
No, he learns how to play and has played at the stadium.
I actually own it. I own it.
Well, then you need to play it. Yeah, There you go.
There you go. It's a sign.
So my last game I'm looking forward to in 2025.
But this is also Katie's number one, right?
And it's going to play well with our game group.
And that is Western Legends Stories by Colossal Games.
We are huge fans of Western Legends.
We love taking on the role of someone in the Wild West, you
know, American West trying to get money, trying to evade the
police or the sheriff, or if you're the sheriff, trying to
catch the bad guys. So Western Legend stories, it's
a legacy game and it's, you play your, your, you get to create
your character like the very first, the prologue, right?
Every legacy has like a prologue, the map, the map
expands. So in Western Legends, you
usually have the saloon in the bank and the Sheriff's Office.
There's a mine where you can go and get gold.
You can mine gold. It's like the woods, like it
doesn't have all that because the towns haven't been built
yet. That's.
Cool. So the towns get built over
time, and you choose whether to be on a wanted track or the
Marshall track. I think there's a different name
for it in this, but yeah, so it's a whole thing of imagine if
you're Billy the Kid or your Wyatt or your Doc Holiday or
these characters from American West history, but you're
starting from the beginning. And that's how this game is
going to play Origin. Story, right?
Like, where did you come up? Yeah.
That is exactly. Right.
We talked about it, so it was in.
I literally had put it in my cart twice and I was like, I'm
going to do it. I talked to PJ, he's really
excited about this. This looks great.
I love, I love Western. My goal, my dream as a kid was
to be a cowboy. Obviously I'm winning.
I'm doing it already. There you go.
But like, I just, I don't actually end up getting rid of
all of my Western Legend stuff. Really.
I never got it. I got it to the table twice,
people liked it, and then I never got it back to the table.
So I actually exchanged all my Western Legend stuff for Dark
Towers. OK, well Dark Towers are pretty
solid games. Yeah, and that's hit my table
like way more than Western Legends do.
So it sounds like you just need to come spend a weekend here.
That's what I'm saying. We'll play Western Legends, be a
cowboy. Yeah.
On The Wanted track, because I'm going to take out everybody.
I'm, I'm going to tell you there's a good weekend coming up
for you to come down. I'm going to tell you about it
after we're done recording, so. Nice.
But that's Western Legends stories, colossal games.
I want to hear your number one. OK, so fun fact, my my number
one in 2024 was CD Seti Yeah, and my number one in 2025.
Currently this is Hold it Loose but Lost Ruins of Arnec
Adventure quest. Chest.
Chest Yeah I love Arnec, it was actually one of the first games
I have ever pre-ordered as a gamer.
I also got the game master for CGE virtually and teach Lost
Ruins of Arnec virtually and I just love the game.
It's beautiful. I did.
We have the cooperative version. Fun fact, I don't solo play a
lot, so when I first started gaming, I would just throw away
a lot of solo stuff because I didn't ever play solo when I
first started like four years ago, right?
Yeah, I come. The cooperative version comes
out for lost rooms of our neck where you can play two player
and go through our neck, right? It's like Jumanji, our neck.
Yes, yes. Which I thought was just
brilliant. So my wife and I, I can all set
up and I realized that I don't have the solo tiles anymore.
But the fun part, the whole fun part about this is I reordered
them and I was cleaning my game room and I found them in an
expansion box that I thought I had gotten rid of.
Of course you did. So I have them the whole time.
So we've been, we played that and it's oh.
My gosh, that's great. The new one looks amazing.
It does look amazing. We're looking forward to that as
well, yeah. I hope it extends the player
count to be honest. Like I want five players.
I do too, but we talked about this last week in the 2024
episode. CGE is notorious for the four
player Max. It is a good hard stop.
It really is but for time. But like I usually have people
that are like oh I'm in. I love that.
That sounds so cool. Sorry for sucks the suck.
You should have used RSVP D quicker.
Yep, but like Kunta Hora, 4 players lost friends were on
Karnak, four players. Starship Starship captains four
players. Yeah.
I know it's seti, four players. Yeah, if if CG is listening to
this, please start making inserts.
Please guy, please please say I don't.
I don't know because they partnered with folded space and
inserts are the CG inserts are pretty incredible.
OK, start putting them in the boxes on by.
That's right. Well.
That's where I that's where I want it.
You just need to. You just need to go to folded
space and inserts. We just had delivered the SETI
insert by folded space. Did you already?
Did you already put it all away? Oh yeah, we played it today and
then put it away. You need to send me a take a
picture of what it looks like. We need a, we need a fifth
player though. It needs to be 5 players.
So. So yeah, yeah, CG, if you listen
to five players, I love it. So those are the top tantalizing
titles of 2025. Yeah, Adam, thank you for
spreading the good vibes. Always.
Across the tabletop and joining me for episode 113 as we we keep
going I've got the next episodes scheduled.
We've got some great Co hosts who are coming on a little
variety looking good. Well, you know.
Debatable. But thanks again for joining me.
Happy Mardi Gras to all y'all, and don't forget to let the good
times roll. Yes.