Hey guys, and welcome to episode 156 of Meeple to Meeple.
It is a new year and man, there is so much to talk about.
First of all, I hope you've been enjoying the content creator
series, which just ended with Jerry last week.
So it's 12 episodes, but don't worry, I think that that's what
the podcast is going to look like.
You're going to see more of it. It just won't be a series.
So you keep watching. So today a couple things I want
to let you know we're in the second week of January.
It's 2026. You could see who my guest
sitting next to me here. I'm hoping I am hoping to put
you in a better mood as we look back at 2025.
With that in mind, there's something I'd like to tell all
of you on November 23rd. So for those of you in the US,
you know, this was Thanksgiving week for everyone outside of the
US. It's when we in US spent
celebrate Thanksgiving. I had to go to the emergency
room and I spent two weeks in the hospital, had two surgeries,
and so I've been recovering through Christmas.
What that means is that this entire content creator series
that you've been watching and enjoying, I recorded all of them
back in October. And thank God I did because I
didn't know I was going to be sick for as long as I was, but
I'm OK. Those of you who know, thank you
for well wishes, cards, comments on Instagram, even I'm going to
give a shout out to Jerry. He sent me a package with three
games because he knew I was recovering at home just so that
my wife and I had something to do so I wasn't lying in bed all
the time. I don't recommend it.
But today we're going to look back at 2025 and I brought Dana
from Better Mood Board Games to put me and all of you in a
better mood. Dana, how are you?
Oh my gosh, I'm so good. I'm so honored to be here.
Thank you so much because this is the first time ever on a
podcast and it's like, what better way to start with someone
that I feel like is my brother? Dana was so excited.
She's wants to put us in a better mood.
She had to like, blank out her camera because she's just
thrilled to be here. I blacked out, checked out
because I was so excited. And I love it and thank you.
Thank you for joining me. You're so welcome, thank you for
having me. You and I have been chatting for
a while and you've been really encouraging to me.
I was getting rather discouraged.
And yeah, and so you were like, well, let's just let's start the
new year, right? Put everybody in a better mood.
Absolutely. Right.
The truth is, we all go through so many things.
So many things. I mean, I'm so grateful to know
you're doing OK. I'm so grateful to see your
smiling face right across from me.
And like for the viewer or for the listeners, PJ just made the
best smiling face ever, which made me laugh.
But ultimately, we need each other.
And you've helped me many a time come out of some some ruts.
So this is a friendship and the blessings of this community.
I mean, we get to be what what it's called a community for each
other. So thank you.
Yeah. Thank you so much.
Cheers. Can we?
Cheers. We should.
Cheers. Let's cheers.
There we go. There we go.
All right, It's just coffee, guys.
Can we do like a slurp? I mean, that's a good one.
That was good. Oh yeah, that that's a recap of
2025. Thanks for listening.
Yeah, to be fair, 2025 just kind of ended.
That's more like how it ended. The year was good.
And as a result, there were a ton, a ton of new games that
came out in 2025. And Dana was kind enough to join
me. And we we've picked 10.
How about that? A top 10?
PJS 5. Yeah.
It's going to be great. It's going.
To be juicy. Juicy.
I don't know. I don't know how juicy.
Like I cannot wait to listen about what you have to say about
each one. Well, I'm excited to hear about
yours. You've got, you've got, you have
two of them. What?
You have one I've never heard of.
You have two of them that I've not yet gotten a copy or played,
and then there's one on your list that was on mine, but I
kicked it off my list, so. So we have no crossovers for all
all who are here. Which is pretty amazing.
I would point my listeners back
to I should have wrote it down. I don't remember the episode
Adam from Tabletop Vibes and I, we did.
We did a 2 episodes. We did a look back at 24 and
then we did a look ahead to 25. You all should listen to that
one and see if my picks coincide with what I was looking forward
to. Now that the year's over, did
what I choose make it or not? Yes.
That's who knows that. Would be a good lesson and shout
out to Adam. Yes, Adam.
Love you, Adam. Yeah, now I know some of you
were probably like, well, Oh my God.
But Dana's on for the first time and we love Dana, and you'd
probably love me to do the interview that I've been doing
with everyone else for the last 12 weeks.
But the reality is, is that Dana's one who you're someone
you don't even need. Everyone knows you, everyone
loves you. You got a shout out like almost
in every single episode of my content creator series.
Almost. Almost.
Will We know that Reggie. Reggie shot.
Yeah. Timely.
And then Sarah from Sarah always loses.
I love Sarah. I'm trying to think who else
because we talked, a lot of people brought.
You up. I felt so loved.
And one thing that Sarah said that really moved me was that
she was like, Dana doesn't gatekeep.
Like she'll help you. And I do want to tell everyone
listening absolutely if you have any questions about anything I
do. Which I'm not.
Like, I know, I know that she said the Queen of Reals or
somebody said that. No, no, we're not there yet, but
thank you too, Crown achieved. But I'm always willing to help
and I would love to like I love talking shop, one of my favorite
things. Yep.
Well, I think you are the queen of reels.
Your work is amazing and as I said, my conversation with
Reggie, you do it all with your iPhone.
Yeah. You know you don't have a big,
you have a big fancy setup. I know, I know, I'm obsessing
over updating my studio for the new year.
I know that some of our friends in the content creator community
got, you know, they got fancy equipment for Christmas.
Definitely. I get it, but you do it.
Without it, you're like Nope. On my iPhone now.
I love so you you also you find a corner of your house where
there's sunlight coming through a lot, right?
Because you use a lot of. Right next to.
Yep, right next to the window right now.
And I would point everyone back to the very first episode in the
content creator series, and that was with Bandzinator.
So she's in the Southern California area.
And I think she talked about really briefly, she does a lot
of content like outside, she goes out into the desert and
like sets up a table or something and does something for
all that natural sunlight. Man, I don't want natural
sunlight. Well, except for recently,
Southern California's had a lot of rain.
So to all of our friends, some of whom were on the show, Grant
Lyons, Amanda Panda, Lincoln, Hop Vanzenator, you're all in
the Southern California region. Our thoughts are with you as you
endure all the rain and flooding.
Hope there's no mud slides. And of course, you know, we, we
just, you know, love you guys. I did.
You had such an amazing lineup this past year.
I mean, I know we're doing like top ten games, but can we just?
Say like we're looking back. 2025 was an amazing year of all
these amazing gamers and content creators.
It was awesome. It was awesome to listen and
watch. It was great.
I got, I got. I'm still, it's still floors me
that I got Pete Fenlan, the CEO of Catan Studios on my show.
Like that was crazy. And then when I went into the
meeting at Gen. Con and talked to the COO and
the CE, the COO and the CFI don't know important people in
Catan. Like they they knew about my
little podcast. I'm like, what?
Jackie Fox came on to talk about rock.
I saw that. I saw that.
Or Jackie. Kidding me?
That was incredible. Incredible.
What a joy. Absolutely.
That just I was, I was really impressed.
And there's some other designers who have reached out to me,
other publishers who have reached out to me and said we
want to work with you. So I'm like, OK, I'm doing
something right. Yes, absolutely, PJ, honor that,
they clap. That Yeah, yes.
So yeah, like it says right above me, game on, game on.
It's all about that. So tell me your first game of
2025 that you acquired and enjoy.
That I acquired and enjoyed or in my top five.
Well, in that your top five, I assume you own them and play
them. Well I when you said acquired, I
was like, wait, what was my first game I acquired in 20?
No, I met on your list. OK, well I am here PJ fully
present. Let's go.
Number 5 was actually one that you mentioned that you never
heard of, which I'm shocked, but I'm going to show it to you.
It is Hot Streak. That is quite a long.
OK, let me show you this game. This game is from CMYK.
They're the ones that brought you the reskin of quacks.
They're the ones that brought you spots.
If you're familiar with Fuzzies, they just make the colorful
poppin eye candy of a game. But they made this party game of
it's just stupid fun. It's mascots racing each other
and you're placing bets on who's going to win, but it's super
chaotic. It's really hilarious.
But the coolest thing about this is they have this on.
You're probably going to hear it.
Hopefully my mic will pick it up this vinyl board.
Wow. Holes out and that is like
something spectacular. It's like, I feel like every
year games just get more and more.
Yes. Do you feel that way?
Oh, no, absolutely, absolutely. I'm going to.
I'm going to tell you a story when we get to my honorable
mention. I can't wait.
That is directly about that. Look at this moving the style.
You can bring the vinyl play mat all the way up.
It's super fun. The mascots are like these large
minis. There's real paper money.
Can I put that so guys who guys who are on Spotify and you're
just listening and you can't see so the box has a retractable
vinyl banner. Yep, like you would see in a on
a display, but instead of it going vertical, it's horizontal.
And that's the play mat and the sound you we were hearing is the
dial rolling it back up into the box.
Like yeah, we had a game that OK, it's not on my list.
I'll do a quick mention. It's not an honorable mention.
So Legend Academy by El Dorado Games, they it's a campaign game
where you're playing a character from literature, Alice in
Wonderland, etcetera, a Paul Bunyan, things of that nature
and you're in training to be calm that character.
The box folds out and the board that you play on is attached to
the box and. I love that.
I love when you're doing that because otherwise you have like
this box lid that's got to go over there.
And totally. You know, that's really.
Cool, amazing. And it was just really fun.
I got to play it with my nephew who is like 6.
I don't even think the age range is 4 that young, but he
understood it, picked it up like that and it was just it was so
funny and ridiculous. I mean some cards like make the
mascots fall over, trample on each other.
I mean, it's just like chaotic stupid fun.
I love it. I love that.
That is fantastic. So you said it's a party game.
What's the player count on that? You know what, let me look it
up. Guess I should.
I should. Thinking it's 6, but maybe it's
more you never you never can tell.
Let's look these oh. You are so good, PJ.
Is it small? Is it 62 to 6:00?
2:00 to 9:00. 2 to 9. Whoa.
Yeah, and it comes with the four painted mascot minis.
But you know, one person can play as the one who moves all
the mascots. Another person can play as the
bookie with all the money and stuff.
So everyone's involved. Even with nine people I did not
play it. The nine player count, the
highest I've ever played I think was 4 so.
But it's a good time. That sounds fun.
That actually sounds fun. I'm thinking about my family
when we get together my my niece and nephew.
That would be that would be kind of exciting.
Now did you you're you're 5. Are they ranked like this?
Is your number 5 or you know what are they in?
No. Are they in no order or are they
in? They they are in order.
I I spent making this list and just like trying to, I had to
take out some because they were almost a little too similar and
I was like, I should probably have some unique ones in the top
five and so. This is my.
Only party style game that I think is deemed worthy of
everyone checking out. It is so much fun.
Okay, well I'm going to bring it to you.
I grew this list up in about 5 minutes.
I am not ranked them at all. There's there's no order.
I'm not a big fan of game rankings.
I don't normally do top 10s. Everyone else does it, some
better than others. I just, I, I don't think it's
fair to the games. Like I have a clear emotional
connection. Yeah, I have a clear.
I have a clear favorite. We all know my favorite.
I mention it in every single episode.
I'm going to mention it right now.
Dan Halligan, we love you. Obsession.
Absolutely. I mean my favorite.
Game. It's not like you have a tattoo
of it or anything. I mean, I yeah, right.
So yeah. So that is clearly my favorite.
Nemesis is right behind it by Awakened Realms.
Again, these are older games, but with that in mind, I will.
My first of my 5 in 2025 was Nemesis Retaliation, which is
the third installment in the Nemesis trilogy by Awakened
Realms. Holy wow, this game blew us
away. First of all, we pride
ourselves, OK? My wife Katie prides herself.
She prides herself on painting all minis before we ever first
play it. Right.
Major respect. Yeah, she's like when the
friends come over to play. Those minis need to be painted
well. Amazing.
Nemesis Retaliation, if you're familiar with Nemesis at all,
it's it's it's, it's kind of like Alien or the Alien movies,
but there's no it's, it doesn't have the IP.
So it's close, but not exact. So the original Nemesis, you're
on the ship Starship Nemesis, you wake up.
My God, they're aliens. We got to deal with all that and
get home. Nemesis lockdown was the second
one where there at least one person is a survivor from
Nemesis. But you're on Mars, I believe
you're on a base on a planet. Oh my God, they're aliens.
We deal with that. Well, now we are an intrepid
band of Space Marines, fully armed and weaponized to go and
hunt those nasty aliens on this base.
Yeah, and that's enhanced retaliation, and it is so cool.
The gameplay is fantastic. The number of aliens, however,
has grown exponentially, which means we've played it twice and
I've never painted them because so many.
But. It's great.
I think what I really enjoy about this, this installment is
in the previous installments you would explore from one room to
the next in the form of a hex. And so you'd flip the hex over
and be like, oh, you're now in the control room or the fire
suppression room or the engine room, whatever.
And you know, you'd find out how many items are in that room that
you can search well in, in Nemesis Retaliation, you the
hexes are connected with corridors between them and you
can take an action to kind of like reinforce the corridor,
which will prevent aliens from just kind of like showing up.
So the corridors are just as important as the rooms
themselves. And I'm like, this is really
cool. And it is well, mostly
cooperative, right. The the thing about all three
games is that they are, we call them semi Co-op.
They're cooperative games that you have a hidden objective and
that objective may or may not work against the team.
I don't think it's a real trader mechanic.
My listeners and regulars, you all know, I don't play trader
mechanics. I have a lot of issues with
deception and let's call it what it is, lying to my friends who I
say I love. If you love social deduction and
deception gains, I'm not judging you.
This is an issue with PJ. But this is not a true traitor
mechanic because you still have to work with the group and then
achieve your private objective and sometimes your object.
Your objective is not ruin everyone.
It's ruined, Dana, you know. Yeah, I haven't played the game
I have heard so much about. All of it, yeah.
Table Knots I think was the first ever Max over there, was
the first ever one to talk about Nemesis in a way that intrigued
me, but enough to where I knew, yeah, I'm not going to buy this
game. Sure.
I don't want to play it. I want to play it, but I'm not
going to buy it because I know my friend group and yeah, it's
yeah, it's not going to apply. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, that's, that's, that is our, I guess we'd call it #9 in
our top 10 of 2025 Nemesis retaliation.
That's good. Check that out.
Definitely your number 8 in our top 10 is was on my list as
well. So I'm really interested to hear
what you think about it. You obviously enjoyed it.
It was good. It's a good game, guys.
Oh, it was. It was such a delight.
You ready to hear? I am.
Trinket Trove. So.
Loud, this little game. Yep.
So this was actually Speaking of 2025.
I mean, this was a new publisher House of 2025 game head.
Yep, Paul Solomon, one of my favorite people.
Obviously Rocco designed the game as well and then had the
artwork from I think we can all say is a fave in the board game
community from Sandara Tang, the one that does Critter Kitchen
and the illustrations for Flame Craft and.
She did the. Illustrations for a trinket
trove and Oh my gosh. Yes, yes.
Playing in this little storybook.
But let me tell you about it. It's a very delightful filler of
a game, you know, can take anywhere around 30 minutes.
It's two to six players and but it's like it's a bidding game,
but also a set collection game. And I gotta say, I'm not really,
I'm not like a huge bidding mechanic fan, but this one was
delightful. And I was shocked that even at
two player you play with a third little mouse.
But it's not a it's not a pesty mouse.
It's not a pesty AI. Or is pesty the right word?
Pest is pesty. I meant pesky, sure.
Mice are pests. It is a pesky pest of an AI.
No, it's not. It's not.
That's that's the beauty. Really not.
It's so fun. And so you're like bidding for
these little trinkets. And the story goes that you're
like these mice and like these underneath these wooden floors,
finding all these trinkets like, you know, little bells and
marbles and. Just the cutest.
Little trinkets and you're trying to set collect.
And if you get more, of course, you get more points.
Well, set unless, yeah, unless there.
And this is where the trick of the mechanic.
Goes. Is that there's some that will
get lower as you go, but it's a risk, right?
Because it's like, OK, you got three of these cards and it's
worth maybe 5 points. And if you keep going, it may be
still only worth 5 points. But if you keep, keep going and
get like, say 7 of it, you could get like 80 or 100 something
points. And it's like, do you take the
risk of collecting knowing that you may only get like the three
or four or five that give you those low points?
Or do you take the risk and go for it So that it's super fun.
It was such a delight. I, I am so, so proud of game
head putting out these small filler games.
They did a great job. Absolutely no, totally agree.
I think there's one set where if you have if you have one it's
worth 5, if you have two it's worth 10, then if you have three
it's worth like 0. Right, right, right, right.
Somewheres in the middle of the set collection, the price the
the price yes, the price drops don't I wish the points the
points drop and then they go up it's it's really cool because
it's. Brilliant.
Yeah, like that that I'm not a big auction bidding right.
It's not for me as either. But this one really sings.
And sometimes it's better to go last.
There are true, especially when you're when you're at the six
player count, sometimes you want to go last.
Yeah. Because you're bidding, we
should mention you're bidding the cards that are in your hand,
which are the sets you're trying to collect, so.
Why didn't I even mention that mechanic That's.
Because there's so many cool things about this small box
game, like, oh man, Paul Solomon knocked it out of the park.
OK, I got to say Paul, I just want to give a shout out.
This guy has been my go to friend for all things
inspirational. So we'll send real little
secret. We'll send reels to each other
of like artists and like these really funky paintings.
And we've just grew in this friendship.
I just appreciate Paul so much for not only his game design but
just his friendship. He's just a great guy so shout
out to him. Yes, absolutely.
Thank you so much, Paul. You are amazing.
I had the luxury of meeting him at Origins.
Awesome. We got to sit down and talk
where he showed me all of the games that game Head came out
this year. There was 6 in total, same box
size, Trinketrove among them. And if you're interested, go
back to Episode 130 and you can hear all about Trinketrove and
the other five games in the game Head Line.
Where? Yeah, Paul, Paul was, I had Paul
on and yeah, we, we got to chat all things game head and the the
journey, his journey, the journey of game head coming from
was it they were like they just did player mats and then they
got into gaming. It's it's it's a great story.
That's a great game. That's a lot of fun.
It hit the table quite a bit for us.
Same toward the end of the year, like, yeah.
And then Paul's just such a great and genuine individual.
Yeah. Who knows everyone?
Like, and he's kind of close to you.
He's in Saint Louis. He is in Saint Louis.
Absolutely. That the time frame that I lived
in Missouri, I did not meet him face to face.
It's just nuts. But it is nuts.
That is nuts, I agree. Good.
Man. Oh, right.
Forget it. I never forget that pesky.
Pesky, pesky. Pesky, pesky, pesky, pesky,
pesky pesky. Let's go to #7, shall we?
Do it, we shall. So #7 should not be a surprise
to many of you. It was one I was looking forward
to and yes, it made the cut. And that is Luthier.
Luthier by Patterson Games so good.
This game does not disappoint. Like its predecessor, Distilled
Luthier is a perfect marriage of theme and game mechanics, right?
Wonderful. You are a luthier, luthier
designing and creating musical instruments, right?
It's just, it's so, it's so good.
It's so informed by 19th century orchestras.
We did not go full deluxe, but we did go deluxe enough.
It's, it has quite a table presence.
It is just a beautiful game, though.
I don't know if you could call it auction.
So it's kind of like you have these discs and each disk is an
action you want to take. And so you place your disk on
the action on the main board. And if you're the first one
there, then you'll be able, you'll be the first one to take
that action. It's, it's been a little while
and I was in the hospital, so I had brain fog.
So I'm trying to remember the details because PJ doesn't
prepare for any of these, right? I just, I just go, yeah, yeah,
you know, well, I knew with you're so good, and I'm really
looking forward to hit hitting the table.
It was trumped by another game on my list that we're going to
talk about in a minute in terms of, you know, hitting the table
in the first days of January. It hasn't yet, but it will soon
enough. It's a big box.
It's you know, so it's, it's not the same box size, unlike
Trinketrove, where it's the same box size as every other game
designed by the company. Luthier's a much larger box than
distilled. So if you you know, Patterson's
not being uniform and there's nothing wrong with that, but
it's just they managed to find a way to marriage that theme in
that mechanics like everything is informed exactly because you
need a musical instrument before you can write.
You can write music, but before you can perform it, you need to
write music or have or have a musical piece that's been
written that you've either purchased or either you could
write it or you could purchase it.
Those are the 2. But you need an instrument and
then you need a venue. So that's another action is to
go to a venue and and pay the price.
And I guess it'd be the entry. I don't know, whatever the fees
are that the orchestra house, right?
So it's really cool. The actions you're taking are so
informed by all the things you need to do to perform your
masterpiece, you know. So check it out.
It's worthy. Yeah, I've heard only good
things about it. I haven't tried it yet.
I definitely have it on my want to playlist.
All right. And I will say that thematically
they nail it. I mean, I, I did play distilled
many of times and they, I mean they know what they're doing
over there for sure. Yep, I totally agree.
And they're not far from you. Like really Paterson's Paterson?
Are they in, I believe they're they're in Minneapolis.
Are they in Minneapolis? I'll go.
I'll go and drive to Minneapolis.
I think they're in Minneapolis. If not, they're in Wisconsin.
So I think they're in Minneapolis, Saint Paul.
I think that's where they're based.
I'll. Look it.
I'll look it up for sure. Yeah, but yeah guys, luthier
number 72025 release. It didn't disappoint.
How about #6? Well, number six is another
small box game and I am so thrilled it came before the year
was over. It is called Flame Craft Duels.
I. Love and it came probably maybe
4 weeks ago. So for it to make my list, I
promise you it's not because it's just fresh, it is because
it's that good. It is everything that you want
in a two player game. That is everything you want in a
travel size game and I personally backed this game.
It's like the last game I backed.
I mean, obviously we know the situation with tariffs, but this
was worth every single penny. I strongly suggest everyone to
play it. Let me tell you about it.
So I got the deluxe edition. Retail is a bit different.
I think the deluxe is great because you can open up this
class. Now there's a class on the box,
so it's not like your normal top cover.
You open it up and here's what we were talking about earlier.
PJ Yes, the game board is the box.
Yes to. See it I would love to see it
and then you open it up and inside you have all of your
cards right and they come come with a card holder, a wooden
card holders, metal coins, a dragon miniature right and then
on the other side is this lovely felt velvet.
I don't know what it is velvet bag with chunky tiles.
And that is where we get to the gameplay.
You are pulling out a tile out of this bag, your placing,
pressing it out on the board. And in Flame Craft, if you're
familiar with the original Dragon's Flame, like they fire
up and it's their ability, their special abilities.
So each colored tile has its own unique abilities and these
abilities move pieces on the board and you're trying to
strategize in a way where you're trying to complete cards and
card objectives, which is like 3 purple or three purple tiles in
a row or like in a specific shape.
And it's so it's very like a little bit abstract, a little
bit of like fulfilling goals. And they have like 3 different
versions in here too. So it's going to keep me busy
for the rest of 2026, even though it came out in 2025.
I'm so pleased. I should mention this is also
another game from Miss Tang where she's just pulling out so
much great illustration slim craft duels and then this comes
from cardboard alchemy. I I would love to collab with
them. They are.
I've never collab, but they are so amazing.
I love Rosie Pocket that she works over there now.
They're just wonderful people. And they just, yeah, they make
solid, engaging, immersive. Games so Rosie, if you're
watching probably aren't you don't know who I am, so you
probably Rosie. You don't know about my podcast,
but I hope that you do listen you in Cardboard alchemy.
You guys need to collab with the mistress, the queen, the maestro
of reels. She's going to do some beautiful
work for you, because y'all know the work that Dana does her
reels her videos. All of her content is guaranteed
to put your customers in a better mood.
I'm just saying. I'm just saying cheeks.
Are hurting from smiling. Oh, and by the way, if you want
to come on the show, I'd love to talk to you about your your
journey. Come on, that's what I do.
Absolutely, Absolutely. Tiny plug for me, big plug for
Dana. That's how this works.
This is how we each other.
This is how I build community. I pump you guys up.
You know, I'm not necessarily good at putting in a better
mood, but I am good at talking you up to a crowd I'll get.
PJ. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do it. That's great.
So did you back? I have two things.
Did you back like the full on flame craft duels with the
plushies and all that or? Did.
You know, OK, good. Nope.
Good. As much as I respect a good
plushie, I knew it did not matter to me.
I wanted that game. I needed that game.
I will say that the base game you will lose out and I'm I, I'm
going to just be vulnerable here.
You will lose out on the affection of what I feel with
the deluxe because the board is separate.
It's not part of the game box. And so I think there's something
so special about the fact that it's all together perfect.
Little experience, hardly any setup.
Boom. Yeah.
And I think that's The thing is like that doesn't need to be
what I would like for publishers and designers to do going
forward. And I realize there's a
financial, there's a, there's a financial component to this and
I'm not aware of that, but I would like to see more of that.
I think you would probably get increased sales if your box,
everything like the box itself is usable and then your box
wouldn't end up hanging on my shelf on my wall behind me,
right? That's where.
Expansions. Go right.
Yeah. That's true.
They're. Going to go on the wall as wall
art. So unless you want that, if
that's what you want, then, you know, keep keep doing business
as usual. I respect it.
So I'm going to talk about what is this number six?
Yeah. I think so, yeah.
This number six I've already lost track.
Let. Me see.
Yes, this would be number. This would be #6 this is #6 so
mine is, and this is the reason why Luthier hasn't been hitting
the table, because this game has been hitting the table.
And it is the latest game by the dynamic duo, the powerhouse
themselves, Vital Lacerta and Ian O'Toole, just the best
designer artist combo. You can see a Lacerta game.
You know it's a Lacerta game. In fact, if Ian O'Toole doesn't
partner with Lacerta and he does another game which he has,
people think it's a Lacerta game because Ian O'Toole is such a
magical artist. And that is, of course, speak
easy. Yeah, yeah, guys, man, this game
is incredible. It is so good.
Like all Laserdas, it's a one to four player game.
I wish it were 5 because there's five in our gaming group and we
would love to introduce it to all of them.
But you're, you know, you're in Manhattan in the 1920s and
you're a little startup gangster.
You've got a Speakeasy and you want to get bigger.
But you got like the mob to contend with and the police.
That's always fun too. But you've got, and then there's
the docks where you can get the wooden barrels for all your your
spirits because it's during the Prohibition era.
It's really an amazing game. I've had several victories
against my wife and I never know how I did it because it's
Lacerta is really good at. You want to do this thing, but
in order to do it, there are these four actions you have to
take first, and you don't have enough workers or enough time or
enough money. You're always missing something.
So you come up a little bit short.
Now here's the interesting thing.
You play over 4 rounds, ideally 4 years, 1924 to 1928.
You have 4 capos. I don't know what a capo is
having no experience personally with organized crime, but you
know, it's kind of like the Godfather.
But why would you have four of them, right?
So these are like you're these are like, I guess you're
lieutenants in the in the city. You have four of them and
there's on the top of the board are the number of actions.
So you place them, take the action or actions.
There's usually a primary and secondary.
There are always executive actions in all of those service
games that are like free. If you have the necessary
resources, you can take them. So you take that action and then
move or build or whatever. You can take over the mobs
speakeasies, which is kind of cool too, but they might come
back and bite you so just be careful.
So that's in round one, but in rounds 2 and three you only have
3 capos. And now here's the kicker.
In round 4, the final round of one capo, which means you have
one action to take and it better be the the yeah, it's you have
to manage your actions and your workers.
My God, it is just a real tight game.
White Castle, right? Like you only get so many turns.
So many, it's just so and they get fewer because you go from 4,
then three and three and then one.
We're not even jumping at two straight to 1.
So that last round is like key. And, and what's interesting is
you have, you have, you have money sitting out in front of
you, but you also have money hiding behind a little screen.
And the screen looks like a safe, right?
And, and so your money at the end of the game, money is
victory points. Well, I can see, Dana, I see you
have like $12.00 right now. And you can see that I have like
8. I'm like, but I don't know
what's in your safe and you don't know what's in mine.
And I'm just hoping, hoping for the best there is.
And secondary action. There's like little assistance
cards that you can draw and then they'll give you some little
bonus on your on a future turn. You can't play them the turn you
pick them up. And when you do play them, you
immediately take you get the bonus and then they have like a
printed like a whiskey bottle on it.
You So there's a little set collection.
You're trying to get different colored bottles.
So at the end of the game, you'll count up your money and
then you'll look at and depending upon your set, that'll
determine how much more money you you get.
So you go add that to your final score.
So it's a little little bit of set collection if you like that.
I love set collection. It's cool.
The game is beautiful. I mean it's.
Gorgeous. It is a map of Manhattan from
Battery Park all the way to Central Park.
Very cool. It's really cool, beautiful
pieces. Yeah.
Speakeasy. So many, so many photos of this
game. I mean, board game photographers
are just gushing over Speakeasy. They are.
They love taking photos of that game.
You know, I've just seen so many gorgeous posts about that game
and I'm definitely interested in trying it, especially with all
the mechanics. I had no idea it has that many
mechanics. Yes.
So what I'm hearing, so that is so, so far, when you come to
visit me for the weekend, that's three games we have to play.
We have to play Nemesis, one of them.
Absolutely. And then we have to play
Speakeasy and then we have to play luthier.
And of course, you know, the there's the obligatory you have
to play a game of obsession with the king of obsession.
So. I'll bring the coffee.
That's all you have to. You don't even have to do that.
Just you just bring yourself. That's it.
You'll be fine. Awesome PJ, thank you for that
invite. Can't wait.
So talk to me about #5. OK, so this was the literal
biggest surprise, and I say literal because this game is
massive and it's the heaviest game I own called Tent 10 from
Ivy Studios. This game is an extra right
game. I am thoroughly surprised by.
I actually did not think I was going to like it.
I love rolling rights, I love X and rights.
But when I was watching some of the videos, I was like, I'm not
sure if I'll get into this. There's a lot going on here.
It may feel very overwhelming, but I ended up playing it
throughout the month of December and Oh my gosh, I couldn't stop.
I was just like, and I'm I've only played solo.
I got to put that out there for everyone to listen.
I've only played solo. I imagine it's pretty much like
you're playing solo even with other players.
If you do multiplayer, it is what it is.
But this game is is like kind of like, you know what people love
about Nintendo Switch and video games?
You're the cozy farming and you're tending and you're like
doing all of these. You're going fishing, you're
doing all these fun things. But what's interesting about
this little storyline is that you're doing it for a
corporation called Zenith, and you're kind of wondering if
you're like, am I doing something like for some weird?
Company. I don't know.
I don't know if you've ever seen the movie well or not.
Movie TV show Severance. Yes.
It kind of, it's kind of like am I doing something?
You know, whatever, but it's just silly.
Let's be fair, it's Ivy Studios, so leave it to them to take
something cute, cozy, everything you said, but there must be
something sinister in the background because all of their
games kind of have that feel which I which.
Is great. You know, that's real.
Let's talk about real quick, because I think this is the
thing that makes 10 special. You said X and right, so
typically we, you say, you know, there's either the roll and
right or the flip in the right or whatever.
So tend is like like it's X ^3 and right, right.
Because it's it's all the things.
So yeah, it's, it's, you got, you're flipping cards on every
round. You are rolling the dice.
You roll for, you know, geodes and fish.
You go fishing by rolling dice. But of course, just like your
typical X and right game or what?
Fill in the blank and write rolling right, flipping right.
There's always going to be combos and you're always like,
oh, I get this and I can use it for this and then it'll unlock
this. And it's just this fascinating
little like explosion that happens every single time you
play. I will say this is the least
sustainable game I own. I mean, look at all, I mean, I
know why they do it. They give it to you, all these
paper pads because they give it to you because they don't want
you to ever run out. But my gosh, so many pads of
paper. And then you have this new
fascinating talk about innovation of 2025 gaming.
Have scratch off pads. Scratch off.
I mean, like, it's so fun. You have no idea what you're
about to get When you scratch off with a metal coin.
It's so much fun. But yeah, there's like 100
scratch off cards in this and then I have another 100.
So I mean, least sustainable game.
I will put it out there. It is not sustainable.
If you if you appreciate sustainability, maybe wait to
play with someone else or maybe they'll have you know it online.
But, and I do want to say one more thing about it.
They do have an app. They have an app on here that
helps you kind of streamline your gameplay.
So it's a less setting up all the cards that you would flip in
the game are all like online. You just hit next round, it'll
flip it for you. And it's by far.
I use it every time I play. So shout out to Ivy Studio for
that because I did really appreciate.
So a recap. It is a flippin, right?
It is a rolling right. It is a scratch and right it's.
A scratching. Right is it, is it a, is it a
peel? Is there, is there a peel?
And right is there do you peel stickers at all?
At some point I'm thinking of a different game.
OK, Yep, you're thinking of a different one.
So it's just three, OK, so it's just three X's.
So it's X ^3 and right. OK.
Yeah, yeah. I I enjoy it and yeah, they have
like these markers that are shaped out like cut out type
things. I can't even express it and
visually would show you but basically like this marker.
Shows a little fish symbol. And you mark it with a marker
and it's like, I don't know, it is so fun, so unique.
Nothing like I like. I don't have anything like this
game in my collection. I'm very happy to have it.
And so, yes, that was a big surprise for.
Me this year. Wow.
Tend by Ivy studios. There you go, guys.
I mean that's that's a lot combo mechanics innovation.
Yeah, 2025 really is the year of innovation in game design.
I love it. So I guess we're at #3 I think I
said 5, that was #410 was #4 we're yeah, I'm terrible.
We're there. This is why PJ doesn't script.
He just makes a mess. Who cares?
So the next one I'm kind of excited to tell you about.
It's less about the game than the story of how the game came
to be. So it is the March of the Ants.
Yes, this game is fantastic. It is.
It just blew me away and I had no idea.
So how here's the real story. OK, so I'm at Gencom and my wife
and her sister, so my sister-in-law, they peeled off
and they're walking the vendor hall and they find this the
booth. And so they're talking to the
designer. They don't know they're walking
to the designer, but they are. And he's talking about March of
the ants and they just think it's so cute and the wooden
components of all the ants and beautiful and everything.
So they come and find me because I was talking to someone.
I had like AI had agreed to go meet someone at a I don't know
what I was doing. I should know, but right, I was
setting up guests for my show. She's like, you need to come
check this out. Like, OK, but it's my
sister-in-law who's like, you need to come check this out.
Like she's not a big gamer, so I probably need to check this game
out. And so we go, and there's Tom
Eiser, the designer, and he's talking about the.
Game yeah he's. Awesome, Tim's supposed to be on
the show in 25, couldn't make. It wonderful guy.
He's coming on next year. Awesome.
Let's talk about sustainability. I know, right?
We go from one to another. I was just thinking.
That this this game and incidentally, I think every game
in their line is the complete opposite of what you just.
Lead opposite. So I order March for March of
the Ants and we loved it so much we went ahead and we purchased
Leaf another game by. Him.
I love that game. I own that game.
To be here, both games are consistent with the description
I'm about to convey to you about March of the Ants.
So I get the game. It is not shrink wrapped.
It is wrapped in recycled paper with the logo of the game
printed on it, and there's not a lot of ink being used.
And so you unwrap it like you would our friends in England if
you were ordering fish and chips.
It's very similar to the paper they wrap the fish and chips in.
So you open it up and then you open the box and there's the
board and everything, or the tiles.
Everything's in their own talk box made of a recycled material.
It's not quite cardboard, but it's not quite paper.
It's kind of a thickness of the tuck boxes is between paper and
cardboard, but it's all recycled and the components are made of
wood and they're painted, not silk printed.
And they're gorgeous. Yeah.
I these guys are like, there's no plastic bags, There's no, I
know, there's almost no cardboard to punch.
Everything is. And I love talk boxes 'cause it
makes organic 'cause then I can just be like, OK, Dana, you're
playing blue here. You here's your tuck box with
all your ants and whatnot. For sure.
And so and then there's the cardboard hexes because you're
there is some tile laying and exploration.
Tiling is my favorite mechanic. I love it.
I love to explore the map, but I love it when the map is just
like 1 tile and we all share it and then we go exploring.
That's the thing about tiling. I like a la Arcasone or March of
the Ants. I recently got to play Twilight
Imperium for the first time ever.
I enjoyed it, but the exploration was not what I
thought. I'd never played it before.
When you start, all the tiles are out face up and I'm like
it's less fun because I like to lay the tiles out and.
See What's the best part of tiling?
So as your aunt, you know, on each of the hexes, there's like
an, there's a place for you to put your aunt.
And then at the end of the round when you get like the income
phase, which I think it's called the queen vase of the queen
aunt, you get whatever's printed.
You look at all your aunts on the board and get the food or
the car cards or more larvae, etcetera, etcetera, right.
Got a player board in front of you where you can put your ants
to indicate larvae. There's several actions.
Other thing I like about this game is I take I take this
action there's like I forgot what they call it, but there's
an action that all your players take.
So if I take the March action, you get like I'm and the March
loves. That.
You get 1 right? Everyone gets one.
Yep. In the center of the board is
like the great cave. I can't remember exactly what
it's called right now because it's not in front of me, but
when we fight the centipede or whatever, we all fight it
together in two player. The only way to play this game
is fully cooperative. OK, It doesn't play well at
2:00. OK, good to know because I'm a
two player household, yes. Because for sure when you're
doing it, you're going to go explore over here and I'm going
to go explore over here and we're going to collect resources
and there's going to be almost no interaction.
And then it's like you're going to get 12 points and I'm going
to have 13. And it's a really close game,
but you know, it's not. Yeah, it just doesn't, it
doesn't do it. Cooperative is where it's at
because you have like these centipedes and these big,
beautiful wooden centipedes. Yeah.
Cool. It's not like an AI.
It's like your opponent and he pops out and you got to fight
him, right? And we collectively fight in the
center. Now, when you go three to five
players, fully, fully competitive, right?
It's fantastic because then you've got to compete for all
those resources I just told you about that were on the hexes.
So yeah, it's, it's a beautiful game, It's a sustainable game,
it's a well designed game. It is a lot of fun.
It has hit our table quite a lot since Gen.
Con. And incidentally Leaf which
arrived later, same thing. Yeah, we love Leaf.
I would say the same thing about Leaf that I say about March of
the Ants in terms of gameplay and an admiration for the
sustainability. Absolutely.
I mean just. Yeah, I've actually worked with
Tim. He was one of my very first
publishers that was willing to support my little TD Instagram
account when it was like, I don't know, 500 followers.
He's a wonderful guy. But one thing that I've always
loved, and I wish, I truly do wish this more publishers would
consider sustainability, because it is.
It's not. You're not losing out on quality
at all because man do they really weird City Games.
Really knocks it out of the park even with that.
So good. So good.
Great pick. That's a great.
Pick yes. That game is just incredible.
I'd also like to point out, just for the moment, Tim helped you
out when you had 500 followers, guys.
I think so, yeah. This is why Dana is the queen,
the mistress, the magnificent maestro of Reels.
Do you all know she's at 5955 followers on Instagram?
She's almost at six and. And how long?
How long have you been doing this?
Longer than than I thought. I I think I've been doing this
for three years now. Three years, yeah.
Beautiful. Let's see, it's.
Hey, it's a marathon. It's a slow process of growth,
but man, I'm learning myself through it all.
So that's been awesome. That's the testimony of it all.
Yes, yes. So keep pushing forward, keep
pushing forward. Let's go with #2 this is your
left. Oh my goodness.
This is your final choice. This is my final wow.
I loved this game and love it. It is The Hobbit there and back
again. My goodness.
OK. I have to say this First off,
Doctor Reiner Canitsia, he's I mean, how many games can we even
like? We could probably have a trivia
game solely based on him. Like how many games has he
designed? Like so many.
But this comes from office dog games and Middle Earth
Enterprises. I've I got to be honest, I've
never seen The Hobbit. So you do not need to see the
movie series to enjoy this cozy, rolling right game.
Here's what's unique about this Have you played this one?
No, this has been a game that I, I want to get.
I'm looking forward to it and. You're going to love it.
So I will confess you said you'd never seen The Hobbit.
I do not like or The Hobbit. Don't like the books, don't like
the movies. Not a big token fan.
At all. Yeah, hopefully you don't get
cancelled. No, I'm just kidding.
There are so many dedicated though.
There's so many dedicated Lord of the Rings fans.
Honestly, I've I've actually not picked games because of that IP,
because I've never seen it. So it's like, why would I?
But this is this is something that I just felt like the art
alone wrote down. I think the artist here is, Oh
yeah, Lorenzo Cullen colon Jelly, and I hope I pronounced
that correct. He did a great job with bringing
me into this. I do admire art.
I as an artist, I went to art school, graduated with.
This is actually a little fun fact for you.
I have a degree in biomedical illustrating, so I love
illustrations. Oh my gosh, I'm so obsessed.
So this one didn't feel like that dark Lord of the Rings kind
of vibe, which is fine too, but this is just cozy.
Look how cute. For the for anyone who is
watching is just the cutest of the game.
But the best part is that it's kind of like a campaign.
I mean it is, but it is. But also, it's like way more
replayable than most campaigns where you're going through
chapters that legit the characters in the movies and did
they went through all of these scenes and challenges through
the movies. And that is what the game is
about. But what's cool is like you're
trying to get from point A to point B by certain roles, by
collecting resources like bread and swords and things like that
to fight your way through it and, you know, get the strength
you need to go through all these challenges.
There's each one has a unique storyline, a unique gameplay.
So just when you think you know how to play, you go to Chapter 2
and you're like, oh, there's another mechanic here, you know.
And so it just. Keeps.
It so exciting and so fun. It was.
I mean, obviously it's my #1 of
2025. I absolutely adore this game.
That's great and everyone has said nothing but good things
about it so. Yeah, it's so cozy.
It's so delightful. Oh, and the solo, I have to put
this out there. The solo play is so good.
There's nothing you have to do. Nothing.
It's the same exact gameplay, except you're removing 2 dice or
one dice or something like that. It's very, very good.
That is good to know. Yeah.
Excellent. Thank you.
I love it. So here's our last one.
It is my two player game of choice coming out of 2025 that
is Modcala Wonderland's War Two player game.
Yes. Now I want to be clear, this is
not the same thing as Wonderland's War Duel, which has
not yet come out. Let me just say that this might
be my favorite two player. Game.
This is this is tough. OK, so until origins, which was
in June of 25, my absolute favorite was 7 wonders duel.
Hands down best two player game. Absolutely origins came along
and it was last last stop God, last Starship final Starship
shoot. I did a whole episode about this
which was a two player duel dueling game which was a lot of
fun and was kind of like my favorite but Mad collar is
awesome. That's awesome.
You've got the you're at the Mad Hatter's table and the Round
table, and you can choose one of the characters who are all in
Wonderland's War and they play asymmetrically, which I love a
love that love. A Me too.
So you have a different ability and power in the game and you
have the gems which are the madness tokens in Wonderland's
War and you're, you move them. So what I love is you pick up
all of the gems from one plate and then you drop them one at
time. So if you have 3 gems, you would
take the action, the final action, the final gem, that's
the action you take, take, right?
But when you go around the table, if I stop on a plate
that's on your side of the table, I don't get to take that
action. Fascinating.
I need to get my gems over here but I'm trying to get your gems
on my side of the table for sure.
But you I love getting more it is so cool.
There's a cards you can draw that are like assistants that
help you to enhance your powers to move your tokens.
You have one gem that's larger than the rest that allows you to
take double the action. I love stuff like this.
Yeah, it's so, so cool. It's just it is flawless in
almost every single way, and because there are 6 characters,
there's enough replayability between the two of you that you
can't go wrong. I love that.
I want to try that. I actually never played
Wonderland's War, all right, And I know that that was so popular.
I have that game too, so let's. Put.
Let's put that on the list. OK, PJ.
OK, yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
All you got to do is come here for the weekend.
We'll get all these games played.
Hands down, it seems like it's going to be a weekend to have to
play through all those games. My listeners have heard me say
this before. I say it all the time.
I make this invitation. All you have to do is come here.
I will play games with you and I will feed you.
Boom, that's. It we love PJ.
You just got to do you're so great.
Thanks. Thank you.
That was a good number one.
I want to I want to like that was juicy.
I feel like I would love that style of.
Gaming, yeah, definitely do it. And that was a Kickstarter that
we had backed 2423. I don't remember when it was,
but it arrived. It came out in this last year,
this year, last year, 20 fives. So that's our ten.
That is our 10 games. That was Hot Streak.
What was that? That was Hot Streak and then
Nemesis, Retaliation, Franketrove, Luthier, Flame
Crafts Duels, March of the Speakeasy, Tend March of the
Ants, Hobbit there and Back Again, and Mod Kala a
Wonderland. War wow, two players.
I feel like we just we covered a lot of like different style of
games. You know, like that's one thing
I love. I know you mentioned earlier you
don't like the top list, but that's one thing I love about
top list when it comes with people.
It's not just one person talking about their top.
It's two different people with two different styles and things
that they like about games collab together like this PJ we
we like I mean, you went from aliens for me to go to cozy
little mice. You know what?
Yes, yes, absolutely it. To be fair, other games that
came out this year that didn't make it also include cozy, you
know, cozy creatures and kittens and all kind of fun stuff.
I do have one honorable mention. I want to hear it.
Came out this year, 20 or next last year 2025.
I'm a mess y'all, give me a break.
So I want to talk about really briefly, I don't have to say a
lot about it, and that is apistocracy.
I can't wait for mine to arrive. I still don't have it.
Yeah, I still don't have it, but I made a video of that.
Love that game. Great game.
So Apistocracy is beautiful and I would prefer you and all the
listeners to episode 76 where I had Heather Dixon on.
So let me. Tell you so.
Let me tell you about Heather. Heather came to the UK in 2024
at the same time that Katie and I did, and she attended Cajun
Con in Southampton, England. Amazing.
Her and her husband. So it was like, you know, like,
yeah, wow. Yeah, that's really cool.
Right, and Apostocracy is part of a trilogy of games that I
have yet to. We haven't done it yet.
Hopefully 2026 will do it in a single day.
I want to play Apostocracy because 1851 I believe it is.
You go through, you go through the taun and at the end of the
game you've done well and you've married.
Then we play Obsession, my favorite game, where you're
establishing your estate in Derbyshire.
After that, once you've established your estate and
Obsession is over, you play botany where you are traveling
around the globe collecting flowers and trees.
I know those two are just amazing.
Oh my gosh. And then you could, you could if
you wanted to, depending upon the gaming group, you could
finish it off with a game of deadly dowagers where you were
trying to marry off and kill your husband's in order to keep
the money so that you can marry the Prince and win the win
England. Now that's my kind of weekend.
I am jumping on that. Yep, 100.
Yeah, I've got the top hat and the tuxedo ready to go.
Let's go, teen. Compets.
That's right. Yep, I can't do a British
accent. No, neither can I.
I'm so sorry. I humiliated myself there trying
to do it. No, PJ, No.
You mentioned honorable mentions.
Do you have any others? Because I have one I want to
kind of talk about. You do, and I think you should
talk about it. I think this.
Is OK, so I mentioned the PJ earlier.
I'm so sorry, but I have this game that didn't come out in
2025. But I have to say that it was my
favorite game played and I just got to talk about it.
And this one's also very heavy. It is Kinfire Chronicles
Nightfall. OK, so I want to, I want to hear
about this. OK, Katie and I have been
talking about Kinfire for a long time.
Yeah, it is. Curious.
It's incredible. So I said incredible and it's
guess who published it? Incredible Dream Studios.
That's right. So yeah, they released this in
2023 and it was by far my favorite gaming experience of
the year, even beyond the ones I just listed.
I mean these top five are great and cozy and feel good and fun,
but there is something to say when a designer and a team of
people come together and spend 2 years writing and designing one
game. I mean that is crazy to me.
Kevin Wilson, I feel like he must be a genius because he has
directed this team of people. I think they even has like 5 or
6 illustrators on this game and it is a campaign game where you
are on a quest and you're learning your story as you go.
You kind of even learn about your character as you go and you
fight these baddies all to try to save this city, OK, from
darkness. It's very powerful story.
You have can fire light within you that keeps you alive, that
you're trying to keep the city alive.
And the storyline is incredible. But what is awesome, I'm playing
with a friend, his name's Austin.
He comes over. We play like maybe once a month.
So we're only on like quest 7 or maybe 8, right?
There's like 21 or something in here.
But there's times where we get to a part of the story and
unlock something and we are both going, Oh my gosh, we're like
freaking out. There's been times where I've
teared up. Like.
At part of the writing, the writing, and this is incredible.
I mean, you're talking about battling darkness versus light.
I mean, it's like that. That storyline in general is
very relatable to so many of us, but it's just really the most
immersive gameplay. You, you literally, it's like
everything fades away around you and you're just so in it, you're
so engaged until it's over, until your quest is done.
And it's just like the perfect amount to each quest is about 55
minutes to an hour. And so you know, it takes some
time to learn it in the beginning, but then once you get
it, it's just smooth. And every quest, it's just this
sense of accomplishment. And so.
And even if you lose to a baddie, there's still it veers
you to the storyline. Very, very good.
So yeah, we love this. Game Wow.
So Katie and I have been thinking about Kinfire Delve
which is the 2. Such a great game too.
You play your version and you're talking about the big bad box.
I'm talking about the big box. What made you choose Kinfire
Council versus the two player Delve?
Well, this is actually Kinfire Chronicles.
Kinfire Council, I do think came out in 2025.
I have yet to dive into that because I'm so into this
Chronicles that I don't even want to dive into Council just
fully, even though that is very cool too, because it's like
worker placement. That's like a whole other vibe.
They have so many in this universe, right?
So Kinfire Delve is a fantastic two player also solo solo two
player game that will get you used to the mechanics and that
is by using these cards to fight the Batty that is in front of
you. But it does not involve the
storyline, the choose your own adventure.
It does still have unique player powers, but if you want to know
the story of Kimfire, go to Kimfire Chronicles.
Okay, okay, there it is. Kimfire Chronicles, folks.
Love you guys over there. Incredible Dream studio.
Wow. Amazing.
And so for you, OK, so to be clear, that's like your absolute
favorite tabletop board game experience of 2025.
Hands down. Playing that.
That's incredible. Is it safe to say that when you
play Kinfire Chronicles it puts you in a better mood?
It gets the better mood stamp of approval hands down.
There it is. Absolutely.
I actually want a stamp that somehow says like better mood
approved or something like that and just stamp some stuff
because there are so many that really do boost the mood meter.
You could do that. That's one of them.
The other thing you could do is you could do a collaboration
with your local game store. You can make stickers Gemini
through sticker mule or Vistaprint if you prefer.
That's, say, better mood approved.
Absolutely. And, you know, just slap it on
the yeah, that way people who know absolutely, you know,
you're the maestro of the reels. Bam, I'm telling.
You, you, you've boosted my mood.
PJ, Thank you so much for having me on here.
That's what you do. What I bring to the table is
like me. That's all I bring.
If you look at my content, it's rubbish.
Stop. No, I I take pictures, OK,
that's the lighting I have whatever I have, that's it.
I tried. I buy like the people will say,
oh, you need this, this pit, this light again, equipment,
right? And I'm like, OK, yeah, let's
let's do it. And it looks garbage.
It looks like a 5 year old took pictures.
Stop. But you know what I can do?
I could talk to you. I can.
Love you. I can, yes. 100.
Percent try to build the community and support you in any
way I can, so yeah. Can you do it well?
Well, thanks, I mean, I try thank you.
That is that is so kind. Couple other things to talk
about 2025. While this was not the primary
goal that you and I were talking about, but I so let's talk about
some of the games. You could call these my top
played games of 2025 S Flip 7 was.
What a what a time. Yeah, it was played the most,
took over the world, took over Christmas with the Grinch
version, which I could. Not very much so.
Could not find a copy of that. Hey, I had a giveaway, wish you
put your name in there. Yeah, well, I don't win
giveaways, so, you know, And then Sky Team was close behind
it. Katie and I play that a lot,
obviously. Yeah, great game.
We played it like 3 or 4 times. On New Year's Eve we finally
landed in Oslo, Norway. It just took Wow.
I bet. And then there's stool pigeon.
Never played. Yes, you need to play Stool
Pigeon. That is a fun game.
It was our top played game of 24.
It is our top three-game because it's so accessible.
It's so quick these card games, right, You could just get and
then castle combo. Another solid game.
Yeah, Castle Combo took over UKGE in 2024.
And so one of the things I love about having so many friends in
England, they go to UKGE, which is like at the end of May, early
June. So it's right before our
convention season. Origins, Gen.
Con, Dallas Tower W the packs unplugged, right?
So it's kind of like a preview. So it's like there's this game
castle combo, all right, So I know to lookout for that when I
get to order. Yeah.
And then The Lost Ruins of Our Neck.
I got a copy of the big box with the Missing Expeditions.
I wasn't going to back it. It was on Kickstarter.
I was like, I don't need that, it's fine, whatever.
Got it at Miniature Market and Saint Louis on their debt.
Love that place. Yeah, the Denton Ding wall where
you get a massive discount, like, let's just get it.
And then we went through the campaign.
I'm missing expeditions. That was just incredible.
Great game in its own right. But yeah, so 2025, finally, a
little bit of sad news. Yeah, most people, most people
are aware if you're not. And you know, is our dear friend
Goja, A wingspan girl on Instagram.
She sadly passed away on December 20th.
That was a really heart wrenching.
She was probably the most supportive, constantly in
communication and just supporting all of us.
I know that she would. So she was reaching out to me
once she found out I was in the hospital, she would message me
every day throughout the first few weeks of December while I
was in covering every single day.
I got a message, how are you today?
Are you OK? Are you feeling well?
And then to get this message from her sister Magdalena, who's
lucky meeple on in on Instagram and that she had passed.
As far as I know, it was through complications due to pneumonia
and her funeral was on Monday, January 5th.
And so I just want to take a moment of silence to remember
Goja, all of you who were touched by her.
So in the spirit of Goja, we're going to try to play Wingspan in
2026. We're going to support each
other more. We're going to promote
positivity, not negativity. We are not going to gatekeep.
There's no room for that anymore.
It's 2026, no gatekeeping. We're just going to love and
support and be positive and dedicate all of our games this
year to Goja, yeah. Absolutely, yeah.
When I got the news, obviously was devastated and I told
Kristen what happened and I was just man, a mess.
I was a mess cuz just like for you, she would always check in
on me. She was the checking in like
that was her like everyone has their part in this community.
She was the one that was so selfless that would give her
time and checking in on how everyone was doing.
I love her for that. And so, you know, later that
day, Kristen said to me, you know, honey, why don't we go
ahead and just stay home and play games and just play games
and like do it for do it for her.
And I was just like, that is so like, that's how she would want
it, right? All of us just sitting at the
table spending time with each other, taking it slow.
That was awesome. So yeah, we honor her.
And you know, Magdalena, we, the whole family, we love you guys
so much. We're here for you.
Absolutely. That is right.
Do you remember the first time you she reached out to you?
You reached out to? Do you remember that first
connection with Goja? Actually a lot of people may or
like probably don't know this, but Grisha was my first follower
that was outside of the USI think she was my 10th, like
within the 1st 10 followers. I mean, she was the first one to
welcome me to this community that wasn't like my friends.
Like I was like, hey friends, I'm doing this like.
Weird board game Instagram thing.
I don't know what it's going to be, but.
And then she found me. Yeah.
And it was her and Craig from from Get Into Games.
And those two were the first ones to welcome me in.
And yeah, so she will always be a monumental person for me in
this community. And yeah, Wingspan will be
played. For her, absolutely.
I want to share my first interaction with Gojo.
This might have been 20/21/22. I mean, I've known Gojo a long
time. Of course, I've been in this
community for so long, probably longer than people realize.
Yes. We she had did a post of
Sagrada, which Daryl Andrews just recently posted that
there's a new version coming out.
So wow, congratulations there. She so she posted a picture of
Sagrada, but she put like it was a cross.
She designed the yellow dice in the shape of a cross.
I think it might have been Easter to note, I am Roman
Catholic and she is as well. And so I made a comment about,
oh, you can't you know, you broke the rules and Sagrada, you
can't do that. And then we connected both in
our shared faith as Catholics and our shared community and
hobby through board games. That's kind of how we just
connected. And it was really funny because
she would send me messages and then I wouldn't reply because
I'm at work. And so we figured out that we
are 7 hours apart in distance. So so she figured it out first
and she would time her messages with the time that I would get
off work. That's so sweet.
I would get home and there'd be a message from Instagram, from
Goja and like so our. Conversation.
Yeah, right. I mean, just the most beautiful
spirit. And I know we say that about a
lot of people. No, she does.
Goja's just fantastic. Yeah, we're lucky to have had
her for as long as we did and, you know, continue to pray for
the repose of her soul and just, you know, wish the best for her
family. We got we got to know her
youngest son, Anthony, who is now 14.
My wife and I both bonded with him because we're cat owners and
lovers. He's a cat lover.
He wanted a cat. He just kind of.
We would send mail to him from our now deceased cat, Shrimp,
who I did an entire memorial episode of.
Wow. Yeah, years ago.
And then now we have of Lersa and Baitor, our two cats who
have been in this room with me but have not jumped on the
table, which is crazy. Yeah.
Just a beautiful family getting to know Magdalena all these
years as well. So we we continue to grieve with
them through it all. So yeah, now I don't want to end
it on a completely terrible note.
Is there anything else in 2025 that's been in your better mood
world that you've done that we haven't talked about?
You know, I think the best part about 2025, it was actually a
very difficult year. I mean, we got our first puppy,
her name's Remy, but we actually adopted her and she has tons of
behavioral issues. And we went through that one,
not 2, but three trainers. And I want to say this all
because it was a really challenging experience.
I mean, for a first trainer to say, I don't know what to do
with this. And we didn't want to just give
her up, right? And give her to a family who may
say we can't, you know, I don't want her to be passed on to
family, to family, right? But it was very difficult time
and the trainers are expensive and come to the time where we
actually had a terrible experience where a trainer kind
of bailed on us, took our money, bailed on us and didn't hear
from them for like a whole month.
And it was just a really scary time because we lost money and
we ended up starting a GoFundMe. And I could not believe the
board game community showed up. They paid for basically half of,
well, they paid for all of what we lost and then they paid for
half of what was to come. And I just, I just can't thank
the my friends that I've made, even strangers that I really
didn't know that just jumped on it.
I can't thank everyone enough for really supporting me in this
past year because that was a challenging time.
And it was this community that helped me out to keep me going.
So thank you so much, everybody. Yeah.
Thank you, guys. Keep being positive, keep
supportive, you know, and like I say, let's be kind to each other
and play more games. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for watching everybody. Thank you.