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