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Hey guys, and welcome to a bonus
episode of Meeple to Meeple. 

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As always, I remain PJ and this 
is going to be bonus episode #4 

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I wanted to just share with all 
of you a quick impromptu story 

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about our gaming this weekend. 
And so this episode is sponsored

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by the letter T. 
So unintentionally on Sunday, my

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wife and I, we were playing some
games and I think halfway 

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through the day we realized 
every game we played started 

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with the letters TA and totally 
unplanned. 

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So by the third game, we were 
like, well, what other TA games 

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do we have in our collection? 
So we started our day playing 

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Tapestry by Stone Meyer Games. 
Now this is a beloved 

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civilization building game was 
designed by Jamie Stegmeyer. 

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Just amazing, amazing artwork by
our good friend Andrew Bosley 

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who made an appearance on this 
show. 

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So we want to give a shout out 
to Jamie and Andrew. 

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Thanks so much. 
So we started our day playing 

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Tapestry. 
There are so many because we 

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have all the expansions. 
There are so many civilizations 

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that we have not gone through 
all of them. 

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So when we played yesterday, I 
was playing the Craftsman 

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Civilization, which I never seen
before. 

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And so it was a really 
interesting experience where I 

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would put my economic buildings 
on my player mat rather than my 

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capital mat, for those of you 
who are familiar with the game, 

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and you would get bonuses along 
the way as you're crafting. 

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It was exciting. 
I did not when Katie ended up 

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beating me in Tapestry. 
It's a game we play often. 

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It is a game that we will never 
call from our collection. 

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It was the last game. 
I don't know if I shared this 

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with you. 
I don't know if I've shared this

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on the show previously. 
This was the last game that my 

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mother gave us as a Christmas 
gift before her death in 2021. 

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So it kind of is like, you know,
not that my mother was a really 

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big board gamer. 
She did enjoy cards, bridge, 

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cribbage, canasta, rummy and so 
forth. 

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But she supported our board game
hobby and she bought us Tapestry

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and all the expansions. 
So Tapestry is the first TA game

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that we played over the weekend.
The next game we played is a 

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newer game. 
This was a Kickstarter that we 

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had backed about a year ago. 
It arrived early in December. 

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And what I'm really excited to 
talk to you about, and that is 

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Tabreeze. 
Tabreeze is a majestic game. 

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It is incredibly beautiful. 
It is published by Crafty Games.

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It was designed by Randy Flynn, 
and it was illustrated by Sid 

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Finney and Dawn May. 
It is an incredible game where 

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you are in the Middle East and 
you are create, you are 

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fashioning rugs, right? 
And so you have 3 workers. 

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Everyone has three workers. 
And one of the things I think my

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favorite thing about this game 
is there is no board. 

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The board is a neoprene double 
stitched double sided mat and 

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you roll it out and it is 
incredible. 

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There are stalls for different 
types of resources, all that 

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come in different sizes. 
They're made of wood and they're

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dual layered. 
And so you move around the 

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board, your three workers one at
a time by trying to collect the 

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necessary resources so that you 
can meet the customers orders 

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for the rugs that you are 
crafting through a set of cards 

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in your hand to get more. 
There's a middle section where 

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you can draw one card and get 4 
coins, or you can draw 4 cards 

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and keep one. 
When you fulfill an order, you 

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get a bonus right away in money,
in resources, even in bonus 

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points. 
But also you slide it underneath

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and you have like a little 
workshop area at the bottom of 

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your player mat. 
You slide it underneath and what

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is shown at the end of every 
round when you reset the board, 

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there's the workshop phase, 
which is essentially a glorified

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income phase. 
Whatever money is showing, 

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whatever resources are showing. 
Sometimes dice because you roll 

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dice at certain points in the 
game to determine what type of 

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resources will be generated or 
will be available for you for 

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purchase. 
Again, that is to breeze by 

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Crafty Games designed by Randy 
Flynn. 

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We strongly recommend taking a 
look at it if you haven't. 

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It is absolutely incredible. 
It was at this point where my 

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wife said, So what other TA 
games are we going to play? 

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Because we played Tapestry and 
we played to Breeze and then we 

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did not play them in 
alphabetical order, of course. 

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So I was like, well, why don't 
we grab a light one and let's 

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play the beloved Takinoko? 
Who doesn't love the cutest set 

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of pandas and gardener and 
beautiful bamboo? 

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This game is so simple, so 
accessible, and yet it has a lot

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of emergent qualities. 
The more you play it, there are 

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more strategies every single 
time. 

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It was designed by Antoine 
Bauza. 

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We love him to death. 
It was published by Matago and 

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Bombick's Games. 
And so we we played a Takinoko. 

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And what can I say? 
Takinoko is the classic 

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experience. 
Played it then. 

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You know the beautiful pink, 
yellow or green hexes that you 

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place on the board every? 
So my initial draw my there's 

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panda cards, Gardner cards, and 
emperor cards. 

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Basically, it wants you to set 
up tiles in certain locations. 

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So the panda card wanted to eat 
pink bamboo, the gardener wanted

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to grow certain bamboo of 
different heights in pink, and 

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then the hexes had to be pink 
and irrigated in order to grow 

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bamboo. 
And wouldn't you know it, it was

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probably four or five rounds, 
four or five draws of hexes, 

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because you can draw 3 hexes and
play one as an action. 

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And between myself and my wife, 
no pink, that was rather fun. 

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Took me a while, but I ended up 
eking out a pretty considerable 

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win. 
But so our second game of the 

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day, once again Takinoko by 
Antoine Bauza. 

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So we're really thankful for 
that. 

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And we decided to play a heavier
game, one that we we have 

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recently gotten the big box to 
hold all the contents of all the

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expansions. 
We also have all the expansions.

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We've talked a little bit about 
it on previous episodes. 

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It is probably the most 
beautiful game that we have ever

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played and that we even own, and
that is Tang Garden. 

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And this is the big box. 
So Tang Garden. 

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This is so beautiful, guys. 
I really can't stress enough how

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beautiful this game is. 
It's just incredible. 

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It was published by Thundergriff
Games, and Andrew Bonsley also 

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was a contributing artist. 
It was designed by Francesco 

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Testini, Pierre Lucci Zizi and 
Pierre Paolo Paletti. 

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I apologize to all three of you 
for having butchered your names,

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but your game is amazing. 
It's beautiful. 3 dimensional 

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cardboard trees, pavilions, 
bridges. 

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There's even little miniature 
cats that you can play. 

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So you're building or you're not
building, you're fashioning a 

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garden in the Tang dynasty in 
China for the emperor. 

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You also have all these little 
miniatures. 

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These are characters that you 
start with one and then as you 

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move your elements, a green, 
yellow and blue water, earth and

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forests. 
As you complete them, those 

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features on the garden, you move
forward on your chart. 

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When all three of them pass 
certain markers, you have the 

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option of drawing a new 
character, which comes with a 

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new miniature. 
Each one gives you a power 

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during the game, and they will 
score you points if you put them

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out in the garden. 
So you're trying to get all 

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these nobles and Royals and 
scholars and everything out into

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the garden. 
The last expansion was the 

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seasons, which is kind of a 
campaign where you play through 

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The Four Seasons, and it also 
came with this big box artwork 

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here. 
I mean just look at this. 

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The tree on the cover is an 
actual reflection of the game. 

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I'm telling you guys, if you've 
never played Tang garden, find a

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copy, find a friend for friends 
in England. 

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If rent shuffle and roll has a 
copy that you can rent to do it 

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guys, I'm telling you this game 
is incredible. 

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It is so worth playing, it's 
worth owning as it is incredibly

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gorgeous. 
And then of course, our last TA 

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game of the day, we played the 
beautiful rolling right. 

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Simple Taka, no color. 
Taka, no color. 

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Nope, color. 
This one's amazing. 

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It's a Roland, right take on 
Takanoko again. 

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Designed by Anton Bowser and 
Quarantine Labrat, it is 

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fantastic. 
The thing that makes this game 

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stand out are the markers, so 
there are no dice to roll. 

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You actually roll the markers 
and so you've got yellow, blue 

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and green and pink in front of 
you. 

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And then these little rings that
you see here on the pen, they 

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have shapes. 
So the sheet in front of you and

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there are different levels of 
difficulty. 

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They may be green squares or 
pink triangles or yellow 

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circles, whatever it is. 
So if I were to take this, it's 

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a blue, obviously, and it's got 
a circle facing up. 

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I can fill in or color in on my 
sheet a blue circle. 

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And you're trying to fill up 
features in order to score 

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points there. 
Ladybugs on all the sheets. 

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The first person to color in 
three ladybugs through the 

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course of the game. 
That triggers end game. 

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But it's just a really unique 
feature where you simply take 

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the markers, roll them on the 
table, and then each player in 

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turn order draws 1 and colors it
in. 

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Straightforward. 
The first player marker is an 

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adorable a panda meeple made of 
wood so that everyone knows who 

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that active first player is 
who's rolling the markers. 

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So that was our weekend gaming. 
And that was finally, again, 

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that is Takino Kohler. 
Great rolling, right? 

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So yeah, thanks for watching. 
We appreciate your support. 

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Remember, we're trying to unite 
the meeples from around the 

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world. 
Also, you should. 

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When this episode comes out, 
it'll also be episode 109, Last 

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Night Games, where I had a 
really good conversation with 

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Nathan Jenny, one of the owners 
of the publishers and designers 

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of Last Night Games. 
So be sure to watch that if you 

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haven't already, because 
presumably you've watched that 

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already and then watch this. 
So yeah, little bonus episode 

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brought to you by the letters TA
again, that is Tapestry, 

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Tabreeze, Takanoko, Tang Garden 
and Takanokollar. 

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And that was a complete day of 
gaming with my wife. 

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It was incredible. 
Thanks for listening. 

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Please make sure to like and 
subscribe to the channel. 

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Your support means everything to
all of us. 

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So we've got some really 
interesting Co hosts going on 

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right now. 
You'll notice that Gareth's kind

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of been absent right now. 
He's got things going on. 

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So there will be various 
individuals filling in in the 

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next few weeks and we've got 
some things planned. 

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So once again, like subscribe, 
leave a comment, let me know 

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what is a game that starts with 
the letter TA in your 

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collection.