Episode 19 - Holiday Plans

(upbeat music) Good day everybody. Welcome to episode 19 of Cardboard Campaigns. I'm your host, Don Lavek. And? - I am your other host, Kevin. - See what we did there? We switched it up. I hope people aren't too upset that we changed an 18 episode tradition. - I didn't think the intro could be more awkward, but I was proven wrong once again. - So what we go for here, we thrive on the awkwardness. Thank you everyone for watching the train wreck. What do we got tonight, Don? - So our topic for tonight as promised from the last episode is holiday war gaming. And we'll talk about our typical topics and then talk about anything that is special about what we do over the holidays in terms of gaming or purchasing things like that. And the teaser for episode 20 since we like to keep you guys involved. And on the edge of your seats, is we're planning hopefully to have another holiday round table. And like we did last year, which was hugely successful. And it was a ton of fun for us. So Kevin, you wanna talk about the logistics of putting together the round table? - Yeah, so similar to last year, we'll do a Google form, which is quickly becoming one of our things for all of our listeners to fill out forms who doesn't like some good paperwork for their podcast hobby. And we'll then review just everybody's availability for different time slots that we'll record that episode. We will probably cap it at a certain number of participants just so that way there's not all 20 of our listeners on at one time for one round table. But we'll try to do it first come first serve. So a little bit of incentive for filling out the form early so we can narrow down on logistics soon or rather than later during the busy holiday season. And last year was so much fun. Just felt like it was two, three hours with friends at a bar having a chat or at a convention and stuff over lunch, just a really good time getting to chat war games with a larger group. So it was great. Something to look forward to. - So sign up early if you want to be on. - We're in high demand on bribes are accepted. - Well, I don't know about that. - Well, for me, I was just speaking personally. I have no shame. - Well, we got a few items as gobacks from episode 18. The first, by popular demand, there was a little bit of discussion about this on the discord but by popular demand. One a minute rules segments are coming back and there's a twist. I've roped dawn into doing them with me. So instead of your usual noble knight insert ad here to go by used out of print games, we will just add break throughout different parts of the show in this and future episodes with a one minute rules segment that will either be myself or dawn. And we're not gonna do every one minute rules segment as fed an empire. The fed an empire may come back for some one minute rules segment certainly, but we'll be sticking to a couple of series based off of feedback that we got in the discord and we'll just evolve that as we go along and see six months from now how it's gone. But one minute rules segments are back so that way you can have that little carrot dangling in front of you as you think about what game to play next. - And then know one more rule about it than you did beforehand, but hopefully. - It's a marathon, not a sprint, don. - Indeed. - Very, very long marathon. Now, some things were invented last episode, so we should probably go through the corrections segment. There were actually a few items in this one. - So, when at the 16 minute mark, when I was talking about what I was playing, I said battles from the American Revolution and it should have been battles from the age of reason and everyone, I've mentioned that several times that I've been playing those games and so I was just so excited that I screwed up the title. So that was battles from the age of reason, not battles from the American Revolution. - That's not too hard because to be fair done in the system battles from the age of reason, there are battles from the American Revolution portrayed in the series, right? - Good point. - I wasn't playing any of those, but it's good point. So, yeah, there is Monmouth and Brandywine and Germantown, I believe, so. - But that egregious error pales in comparison to that of your co-host on last episode. - You want this, we'll go ahead. You can, I don't think I can even say it again, 'cause I'm gonna mess it up again. - So at 58 minutes, we were talking about next war and I think we were talking about next war Poland and Kevin mentioned the map location of Lydansk. So he made up a Polish city to put on the map called Lydansk and I'm pretty sure he meant Gdansk, since Lydansk does not exist. But we didn't catch it in edit, but we, and even if we did, it was funny enough that we had to leave it anyway just so I could make fun of him. - Yeah, I caught it in editing, but I did not make any changes because that involved a fair amount of work and my apologies to all Polish listeners that was not a proud moment for me. But Gdansk is very much a location that I have in the past learned about and will try to not replace with a fictional location in the future. And actually was playing next war Poland this morning with somebody that I'm sort of teaching and I looked at the map very carefully just to be sure that indeed there is no Lydansk on that map and there isn't. - I'm really excited to be like corrected that there's some small village in Finland named Lydansk and somebody was very excited that we were actually shouting out them. - But that was not my intent. - What do you call people from Lydansk? - Lydanskins? - Lydanskers? - Lydanskins. - Lydanskivites? - Well if anyone that is put it in in the discord, we're a problem that certainly doesn't need to be solved. - But one that's good material. - Yeah, we also had more folks on the discord, quite a few actually offer even more suggestions for I think this was Dave's question, and Hexen counter suggestions for games that are not car driven and can be split up or played multiplayer Hexen counter. So some of these were Normandy 44, which I thought was a pretty good shout. The Sicily games can accommodate three. I was trying to think of some like good examples of that, but I guess I don't have that many Sicily titles that I've played. - Yeah. - You can either do it. - I suppose if some of them represent the common wealth and the US forces is kind of like distinct formations and such, maybe that makes it a little easier. And then day of days, I can't remember if we had talked about that one, but that is a great shout for Hexen counter multiplayer. Never snows and on Hell's Highway, which I'm excited to get that when it comes out, but obviously have not tried it yet. - Great. Yes, that was one of our listeners north of the border. So someone from Stack Academy, so thank you Mark for those suggestions. - Now we get to our favorite things on the discord, bringing back a segment that we haven't had in a while. Mine that I would like to shout out would be Justigard's new prototype that he's currently working on as a designer. And. And it's around the War of Spanish Succession, but particularly the low country's theater. And just looks very interesting. He's given a great kind of detailed AAR of his play testing for it so far. I think it's still early stages, but seems to have a really good system in place with it. And that will be actually demoed in SD HISCON in San Diego, which unless I really drop the ball will not have happened by the time that this is edited and published. So if you're going to SD HISCON, make sure you give a look out for his title that he's working on. I think name is still in the works, but look, look great. I love the updates he was giving and I keep meaning to add some comments in there, but continue to forget it. It makes me want to get QS Regio back to out to the table. I haven't played it yet from GMT, I think shipped earlier this summer. Looks quite interesting. I'll shout out to the Builds of Fire Discord channel. People remember that was my Easter egg game from last holidays. I played it during the year, I think I talked about it. But I try and read the rules, questions that come up just to keep the game somewhat fresh in my mind and look at people's postings of AARs and different situations. It's a really responsive group, great explanations, some really knowledgeable people and very rapid response, which is always nice when you have rules, questions or something else comes up. So I thought it's a really excellent channel. And it made me think of this question and I'll throw it out and people can respond within the episode Discord thread. Is it worth, when you're not playing a game, do people read Discord or other posts saying board game geek about rules, even though you may not hit your table for several months, is it still worthwhile to read about the rules? Because for me, it's going to be hard to remember them since I can't remember yesterday, let alone, you know, something I read three, four months ago that now I pulled a game out. So what do you think, Kevin, do you, do you read rules, questions and try and sock them away somewhere? Yeah, I don't know that I have any like storage or note taking mechanism, but I will very frequently look at rules or AARs or what have you of games that I don't currently have on table or maybe don't even have plan to be on the table in the near future. One thing that often gets me with this is the, you know, subscribe feature on board game geek, so I've got, I don't know what the number is called 20 different title subscribe there so you get the notifications of when there have been four and post to those games and stuff. And like every week or two, I'll just go through there and I'll just browse and click through some of those conversations and get caught up on them. It's, it's manageable because my play is dictated by copious amounts of scheduling and organization in Excel. If I didn't have that, I think it would be a very destructive habit to just constantly be looking at games and AARs and rules and such from titles that, you know, aren't on the table or weren't going to be on the table in the near future. I enjoy doing that and it just, especially games that I have played, but aren't playing presently helps me stay a little connected to them and not forget things quite as easily I find. So yeah, count, count me in there for staying attuned to games, even when I'm not playing them. Yeah, so if you guys out there have any opinions or tips on how you do that, please put them into the discord when once we post the game the session thread. So what have you been playing this past several weeks, Kevin? But a lighter month for me compared to some past ones here, but still got a few games in I didn't have any in person game sessions for October, which normally like every month I'll have at least one of those so that was a little new for me. That new just is a little different, but works been busy this month. Mr. President, folks have seen me post about that on discord. I think I've done a couple of updates of just me rewracking Mr. President this month and I'm in a really weird place where I think I'm getting good at it. I don't know if I've ever said that about a game before, but I think I'm getting good at it because my latest playthrough like everything's going fantastic and it's not like dice rolls just things are going really well. Maybe I'm just breaking the rules or forgetting rules or playing it as it should have always been, but this playthrough is going really well. I'm starting to wonder if this will become a bit of a problem for me, but like China and Russia both have very friendly stances with me. So like when their activations come up for China and Russia act, which is one of the segments in the sequence of play. They're they're usually pretty short. There really isn't, you know, a lot of bad stuff happening. They're not getting much influence or anything on the map. So that part's been really positive, but I feel like their economies growing and it's just like maybe a ticking time bomb waiting for me in the end game because I haven't really gotten to the end game. I actually think about that. Yeah, I don't know that I've ever completed a full four turn scenario. I have had two or three auto losses. That's been the most frequent reason that I've stopped playing it. And then I've had a couple that I've just stopped. Yeah, I don't think I've ever made it to the four full turns. So it's going really well. I've really been having fun with it. I've played it more than the copious amounts of scheduling for the year would have suggested that I should, but here I am. And having a good time. So I'm just kind of rolling with it. Yeah, you've talked a lot about it. And as we'll hear later in the show, it's tempted me enough. That said, I will have this call out with the copious amounts of scheduling. I have like a hard limit. It will not survive to the like Thanksgiving holiday time period. The space and organizer it sits in right now has other plans and will not be up come that time. So I need to finish this for for turn for your whatever scenario. What was one of yours done? So for me also, it's been a lighter month. My younger son got married this past weekend on the 24th. So it was a bit busy getting to that, you know, getting to that point in terms of helping with preparations and other things. It was it was an amazing weekend. It was great. It was the wedding was Ren Fair themed for those that have medieval bent and and so Saturday morning, the ceremony was Saturday evening. Saturday morning, I organized a jost and I will post some pictures. Once we publish the once we publish the episode, I'll put them into the thread and those that want to who don't know me well enough and want to get a sense of who I am. Just look at these pictures. So I just showed some to Kevin since we, you know, we're just getting them together on. Yeah, it this episode probably would have been about a two hour episode, but a fair amount of time was spent on the mechanics of jousting at a wedding ahead of it. So we're slightly time compressed. I, I'm now regretting that I didn't lobby harder that you convince the wedding party to like sit down for a game of here, I stand or something during the event, but. You know, they are game players in the reception area, you know, for the people that weren't in the dancing area, we actually had set up various games for people to play like Mancala and nine man's more simple things and. Nefertafel, which is Viking chess for those that know that game, so it was fun. So yeah, it was great. So, but certainly the room I would have been in. Yeah, it was cool. And people were playing. So I would home. I talked last time I think that I had the long road from flying big games on the table. I finished that. I actually published some pictures and an explanation on a couple of the Facebook sites. I don't think flying pigs has a specific site that you can post to. So I put it, I think on war gamers on the war gamers group in Facebook. And now I'm playing pub battles or musket battles from command post games. And it's, I'm playing the Battle of Gettysburg. I think I talked about this in the past sort of these amazing canvas maps that are period designed. So they're just beautiful. It's one of my favorite tactile games, just because you're moving blocks either division sized or brigade size. So it originally were division blocks much bigger. And then the designer came out with brigade level blocks. So it breaks it down to a much finer detail. So there's a lot more granular movements and more granular battles some work. And since it's chit-pull, it's a great solo game. So I'm working through that. I'm actually, I'll probably finish that tomorrow, I think, and post some pictures. So what about you back to you, Kevin? Well, we've actually been playing a fair amount. We had what three sessions this month of a most fearful sacrifice. That's been going and, you know, it's kind of the monster of the full, well, we didn't, I guess we didn't do the full campaign, but we did like one of the two map large scenarios that we're still working through from SDSC on North. So it's only been about two months or so since that and us getting set up on vassal and we're still working through it, but it's been incredibly approachable. The system solid, of course, the topic is interesting. The map art, you can just stare at that, even if you don't want to play the game. So it's been good. I will highlight, I don't think we've talked about this, but maybe I'll just be repetitive. There are two things that I haven't enjoyed about it. It's American Civil War and just historical interest. I don't have as much interest in it. So that's not a knock on the game. That's a Kevin thing. And then the second is, I'm curious if there are other like minded individuals that have played the game or the system and feel the same way. Elevation seems to matter so little and it drives me insane. Like line of sight elevation matters and that is makes all the sense in the world to me. But like the pros and cons of being on top of a steep hill and firing down and shooting up just like. I hold all this high ground is the union and it doesn't do me any damn good. Okay, that was my rant on a most fearful sacrifice time. But it's been good. So I'm going to do something slightly out of order here when we because eventually we talk about shout outs and the next game in the black swan series from flying pig called a primitive madness, which is based on the Battle of Antietam. And I think it's going to come to Kickstarter in December. I just completed a detailed rules review for that game for flying pig. And so I was going through it in detail and and it does indeed have elevation modifiers even for distance fire combat. So your your wish comes true when this comes out so. And it's it's an admit it's going to be another amazing game. There's some really cool stuff and new mechanics in there that I probably shouldn't reveal, but it will be another another great addition to that line of games. Yeah, we want some returning guests there. So we shouldn't spill spilled too much on that. Don, I will just say this done has been very excited for it. I'll add emphasis to that animal fearful sacrifice has been good, but. Did you have another one to share here done. So I don't think there's been anything face to face this past month, just because I haven't been around as much, but all my lot of my online games have continued blind swords BCS. I started another battles from the age of reason the Chota sits battle is I now have actually two of those going on. So one mostly just intro to the cab mechanics and then another one where we started the full the full battle. So a lot of online gaming lined up for me the next several weeks. And then good friend of the good friend of the pod Keith and I have continued our last split screen game that's been going strong. Month of October we had fewer sessions than than planned due to both of us having I think a couple of conflicts, but it it was really good. It just kind of actually similar experience with the most fearful sacrifices like these are two of my weekly online games I have last split screen and a most fearful sacrifice. And with both of them not because I am some rules expert or because I have done teaching me and just looking up the rules as an expert on it, but I can just come into both of the systems. And without any prep without like looking for 30 minutes at all the rules and stuff before starting to play just sit down and play both of these games and I. I don't think that's a me thing or the player I'm playing against thing I think it's just the systems are very approachable goes back to our common topic of series that you know series that you learn it's easier to pick up and just roll with. Last split screen just scratches that it's again and Keith's been an excellent opponent and I got some breakthroughs in our last session so it just feels good which already applying. I'm the bad guys but I captured three bridges think three bridges and we're in turn two so it makes me feel good three three bridges that can be destroyed slash blown up in the game for those unfamiliar with the system. Yeah so that's been good and then DAX been quite minimal I think I've had about two turns worth of deck this month just haven't had as much time for that and I blame Mr. President of soaking up more of my my free time so not much on the deck so. Can you apply so that he can you can do all the accounting for. He did help in the last session I had and he did enjoy that but. No it's have had other gaming and all that with with my son so it's been good. Anything anything no in the mail I got actually just a few days ago secondhand copy of Blitzkrieg legend from OCS which is the well the German Blitzkrieg in France and just at it was a collector purchase which I think we talked about previously when I mentioned that I picked up a Baltic gap. Same kind of thing it's not on some short list to make it to the table in the near future but. Just wanted to add to the collection a little bit so picked up Blitzkrieg legend. But since it's OCS that's more of a game you will most likely eventually play as opposed to a game you wanted because of collection for completeness right. Yeah very likely like when I sit down to do next year's planning and stuff it very much maybe a candidate of like yeah I want to try to get that to the table this year and. It's very plausible to play it I would say good. Alright what about you for in the mail the only thing this month was the next and most likely I think the last game in the undaunted series so it builds on. The other space game undaunted 2200 and this is undaunted 2200 revolution it continues the story a little bit I think it adds I haven't broken it open yet. It adds air units besides the infantry and the max which are new to the undaunted series that's what came from the space series. So this is undaunted 2200 revolution so it's a nice you know for those I'm sure a lot of people played undaunted relatively easy to pick up. You can play a scenario in a few hours so it works pretty well it's one of the games I play face to face with. My friend that comes out from New York once a month we were right we've been doing the style and grad campaign game so I think after that I'm not sure whether we'll continue with undaunted but if we did probably go into one of these space games yeah that's it not light month in the mail. Excellent so when it comes to pre orders I think this one we both have but I'll mention it it just went up last week I think it was for the new BCS title breaking point which simulates World War 2 western theater. screech action in the low countries. And it's the history of it, I'm by no means an expert, but I find it kind of a very interesting topic for Battalion Combat Series because it Battalion Combat Series relies so much upon kind of tempo and fatigue and not mixing all your units and these kind of operational concepts. But at the beginning of the blitzkrieg in the invasion of France and the low countries, there was this kind of nervousness on both sides of there's key terrain to take in the low countries notably like the Muse River and such and this from my understanding from from what I've read it kind of represents that race to capture the flag in the middle right of how quickly can each side make it across or to the river to defend it or cross it and just the thought of having a BCS game that has like almost a race element of getting into position and defending a maneuver. I can't wait to see how Carl and the teams have kind of simulate at that and I think it's going to be just another great addition to the system and the the map looked beautiful. I saw some pictures of it I think last time when we had Carl on he had posted some on. I think it was his blog I saw them on by can't remember now and that's up for pre-order now on MMP site it's racing up there in the pre-order count so make sure you go ahead and click pre-order so you don't forget or miss out on that one when it does ship and MMP my understanding is with their change to their sourcing and their procurement there there have been I believe some slight improvements and kind of like the speed of pre-order to production to shipping and such so hopefully we get this one in our hands next year some time would be that that's purely my hope that that's no knowledge at all of any kind of what it's actually going to be from an outlook calendar wise but in Carl's photo for next year. Carl's posted when people ask you know how soon is this coming and he responds that it's it's a complicated formula because it depends on not only BCS titles in Q but the the whole MMP print Q and production Q so it'll it's going to be tough so yeah but please sign up because the more everyone else pre-orders the less number of copies Kevin will wind up having to buy in order to make it meet reach the minimum number so I don't think I need to do any heavy lifting on that one yeah it's moving pretty quick yeah so excited for again Carl and seeing that one come to the pre-order steps always a fun development and just BCS has just been you know if I had to think about it down for like just the the system or series that stands out this year like I think that just easily takes the cake and probably was a contender in the past couple of years too it has just been been a great time yeah it seems like it's it's and you know this was I guess the past year was the first year I played it so you know to me it's it's still got a lot of newness to it new hotness to it so and then you have another game listed on the show notes traces of Tunisia yeah if I recall correctly I think I should really write these down in the notes but if I recall correctly I think it's slated for a December release from VUCA VUCA has a very tight turnaround of when they put it up for pre-order versus when it actually starts shipping so this one it it's not a they're not surprising that it's coming so quickly but traces of Tunisia is I believe it's now their fourth iteration of the traces of series which originates from the red box series that previously belong to MMP and the designers names escaping me right now Tatsuro Nakamura did I might be butchering that thank you but anyways it's it's again I believe one of his designs and you know I need to stop talking it's actually don't know that that's true I think that's a guess on my part but traces of Tunisia is going to follow the same system as traces of victory traces of hubris traces of war and each year they've come out with one of those titles and they've just been consistently pumping them out probably like my favorite thing that I could pick up from VUCA in the given day would be a traces of game so that it looks like the designer for Tunisia is JUN is the first name and Tashima is the is his last name and I'm pretty sure that is different from seeing if I could find the other the other games because it is a different name yeah this is a system that that I get tempted with periodically because it's not that hard to pick up so it'd be a system I could assimilate it's got several titles so so traces of victory is Alan Alan Vandy so it looks like there's some different so that this the system designer is Tatsuya Nakamura and that's the same individual that did the red box series with MMP I believe though that they're all still founded in in his system so I wonder if he's still getting some credit here with the design with the being his series and such but yeah and his name's on the traces of war box also so so that definitely is is yeah I don't know whether I'll break down or not and part of me's hoping I don't and part of me's tempted that I will it it it it is just a system that is so easy to play like it I won't even call it like a series to learn it's if you understand just basic hex and counter games you can just pick it up and run yeah literally just have the play eight and and you've pretty much got it yeah so that that was an added pre-order for me and now that we've gone down a rabbit hole for three minutes of designer credits and me embarrassing myself with who did which game it is part of the system and a quick pick for me we now interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for our first ad break one minute rule shout out and we're letting Don do the first one I'm I'm getting my stopwatch ready Don just tell me what the story you know I actually was joking about that but I actually think I might pull it up because I am very curious so I was I was playing next work for probably about two years before I realized this rule and I'm pretty sure the people I was playing with at times also was not we're not aware so it's series rule 18.2.3.1 theater weapon defense TWD headquarters defense so a theater weapon defense HQ provides a DRM on the strike table if it's within three hexes of the target and it applies so that the the the the powers that the factions that have TWD HQs or the US Russia PRC and then any of the multinational HQs can also do this so it's it's a it's a it's a positive defensive DRM if you have one of these HQs within three hexes of the target for for strike so there you go how long was that that came in at 56 seconds so excellent I I think this is an interesting rule that does go a little unnoticed I think you and I were talking about how like we looked at the um the resolution stable and sought listed as a DRM and it's got that acronym of you know TWD HQ I think is what it reads or something similar to that and if if you don't think about that acronym or or know its rules reference it can go just a little unnoticed because you're going through the DRMs of like yeah is it overstacked and these things are terrain or what have you and obvious ones that like you read it and you go oh I know what that means uh TWD HQ is one that gotta think about the rules a little bit right I will say too that for those that haven't experienced the next war series I think this rule is a really great example of some of Mitch's understanding of modern conflict and operational combat and just the intricacies that things like you know the missile age introduce uh to conflict that you don't see in something like a World War II that the system does it? good job simulating and it's just, it's solid. It's not perfect. It's purpose is not to, you know, predict day by day what's going to happen if there's a war with Iran, but it's a model in which you can simulate these things and it takes into account legitimate considerations, which I really appreciate. And I think this DRM is a fantastic example of that. And actually in the rules he has, so you made this go longer than a minute. I did this in under a minute. I want, I want the record to show, but you've now gone. So there's a design note right under this that says with recent empirical evidence of the efficacy of such missiles to hard kill such targets. We thought it was time to add this. Technically the S 300 400s have better range, but in practice, it shouldn't matter that often. So just like you said, clearly, you know, this has been given thought and and felt to be important enough to include. So it's, yeah, to me, it's one of the things that makes the series so cool is just there's just so much depth to it, you know, it carries a, it carries a lift, obviously, since I, you know, missed it for a while, but it, I think it adds to the, the coolness factor. Yeah. Speaking of coolness, RPGs, what's been happening on that front? So I've actually taken a few weeks off, again, because of wedding plans. So I was playing, you know, it sort of shelved it for a little, but I should get back to it actually this week. So I'm using, it's a Star Trek adventures, and I'm using the captain's log solo rules. And then I've integrated some rules from the main Star Trek adventures in the, the adventure I'm designing. I have used the species source book, which is one of their other content books. And then the main plotlines coming from a mission compendium called these are the voyages volume one. And it's the, the, the scenarios called forests over the night. And just in a sentence while mapping eye on storms, the crew picks up a signal from an alien ship, including life signs, they send a shuttle over to investigate and find the ship contains a massive forest full of strange life forms and other unusual objects. And so I'll see where that goes once I start rolling dice and using articles and other tables to develop, to develop the plot and, and the surprises that'll come into there. So more to come from that, I'm sure I'll be hopefully wrapped it up by the next time we record, but I'll put notes in about what happened. Yeah, we've, we've talked about this huge, tricky as, as you are, and just kind of that universe is very exciting. And I've got the captain's log solo handbook and all that. But when I hear you mention all this, I get an itch, what one RPG, but two just Star Trek and that combination of the two is exciting. I haven't done any RPG stuff on my side, but I do want to call it last episode. I talked about picking up cyberpunk red RPG core book. Matt from History and the Table actually made a great comment in our our show notes about just kind of complimenting the system. The scenarios are strong. He suggests a night at the opera is a good choice to get started with. And works well with either one GM plus one player or the GM also playing a character player to assist the other party. So that was a little bit of good reinforcement for me. It's a video game that you have experience with, right? Cyberpunk? Yeah, myself some, but my wife is just a big fan of that game. So we'll we'll maybe tackle it together. That's great. That's cool. Yeah. All right, shout outs. You did yours early. So I'll hop on to mine. My shout out would be to Art Wolf, who has just been really delivering some great and dare I say extra content of late, but notably he has started doing live streams on Thursdays. Thursday, Advanced, I believe is what the series is called, but there's specifically live streams of him playing games. And I think Art Wolf is a fantastic member of the community who knows his stuff just about as well as anyone. And I, I'll pretty much I haven't missed it like counter clipping show and stuff. I don't get to watch them live usually, but I'll always catch up on them even if it's just the audio. So I, I'll soak up any content the guy makes, but maybe not everybody's aware that he started this Thursday, Advanced series of actual playthroughs of games. And most recently, his last episode was BCS inflection point, which I believe he's had two live streams on now. And then the other one was Thunderbolt, GMT's recent release this year, which was long awaited. So just games I'm interested in, games I'm excited about by a content creator who's one of my favorites. He's had some great new stuff going on. And specifically Thursday, Advanced, if you're interested in that YouTube channel. Yeah, he certainly is prolific in terms of content both in game game review playthroughs as well as just like you said, the counter clipping. So thing is an important part of the community. And a quick note, actually, while I'm on hard, will he, he relaunched his swag merch store, which is giving Don and I further incentive to continue exploring this. But just to tease everyone a little bit, the silicone cupcake trays are becoming closer and closer to a reality than I would have ever imagined. So stay tuned. I'm dealing with the ideas around minimum number like the production run. So yeah, I'm trying to keep it under 10,000 in order to make this happen. The current decision point, which is a real decision point for Don and I, is does one of us rent a storage unit to drop a couple pallets of silicone cupcake holders into? If nothing else for the laughs, I'm sure our spouses will find that quite, quite humorous. Well, I think we agreed. It's much more manageable if we split it. So, you know, as long as we stick together and don't break rings, we're good. So I'm more to calm on that, but it's still active. Yeah, so it's still still happening, hopefully. Main topic for this evening. War game holiday traditions. So breaking this up into kind of two parts. One, holiday sales and the things we're looking forward to in the procurement space of war games. And then the other just being, you know, Don and I talking a little bit about what our plans are for the holiday season with war gaming. Don, you want to get started there? So if you remember last year, whoever's still here from last year, we talked about the paper compass catalog that gets mailed out. And how cool it is to still get a paper catalog in the mail that you can flip through and then reflip through and then reflip through and mark things and, you know, circle them and stuff like that. And so, and if you remember last year, we talked about that there's actually an order form on the paper catalog. And so we questioned, does anyone really order through the mail? And it's there again in this in this year's version. So I ordered last year golden age of piracy and had it sent. And it actually came, it came very quickly actually. I think it was within a week and a half of when I sent in, when I mailed the envelope with the check or whatever I put in there. And so the good news is it really worked. Well, the bad news is is I haven't played it yet. So it's still on my shelf. So, but again, they have a big sale. There's some stuff that is marked down very significantly. And then a lot of other things are also on sale. So that's a yearly tradition for them and one that's sort of fun because you get the paper catalog. Yeah, it was, you know, just as exciting for our household as when the, you know, Amazon holiday catalog came in the mail, except it was actually way more exciting for me. The, the other ones I'm going to go through here. I'll, I'll note that if you are seriously looking for updates on companies and their holiday sales, at the time of recording many of these haven't been in So I'm going off of historical trends with some of these, but if you want, just up to the minute updates, the best you can really do is make sure you're subscribed and following armed church or goons Tuesday news days where they will just religiously have these covered in their weekly updates for any sales of these companies are doing so if you aren't already following there, please do so. I have first up the MMP holiday sale, which traditionally happens around veterans day first couple weeks of November and I don't know of a specific title I'll be looking for when that comes around, but I'm always a little tempted to see if I pick up another GCACW game if maybe I get into that now that I'm playing the most fearful sacrifice maybe I'd like snowball into American Civil War by accident. All the presses. Yeah, if not that I was realizing the other day that actually my you know SCS library just probably isn't as deep as I would like because I wonder if I would play more of that if I had more of those titles on the shelf I think at present I have four, but it's just such a great system. So I may look for SCS titles when the MMP sale comes around for blue Panther last year and in years previous they've generally done a holiday sale with a coupon code for a percentage off. I think I might consider another red sash title or two I think it would probably be sea lords related instead of lace wars, but I'm not certain yet. For the Holland days I actually still don't have a Holland Spielgame I realized and I really need to correct that's looking at their library I was again drawn to NATO air commander is maybe my first foray and to see some of their work. For compass as Don mentioned I've got the catalog sitting on my desk just as he was enjoying and there wasn't as much there as I was thinking because the compass has a great breadth and variety in their catalog is pretty deep in terms of war game publishers. At the moment all I can really think about would be dawn of empire but there's nothing that really called out to me but dawn of empires at $30 and it's a pretty interesting time in American history that certainly I don't have a game about right now although avalanche press now that I say this does have titles I think in the great war it's C series around that time period so maybe if I want that I should go there. This is live Kevin debating what I should be looking at so I hope it's you know. A scary peek into the head of care. And then lastly noble nightwalked and run a bit of a code or something during the holiday season for discounts on particular titles and may continue the trend of picking up just an out of print OCS title So I just keep building out the collection I don't have too many left until I've got all the back stock of the title so that's that's what I'm thinking about for holiday sale related items did you have any others to call out done. So I I'll save one for a little later when we talk about our holiday Easter egg. And the only other sale that I was that I that's a osprey games usually has a big holiday sale. But they're selling off their board game division apparently and so I'm not sure what's going to happen with that so I haven't heard anything you know about a sale yet it's usually there is one so we'll see what happens with that. And what are your plans for the holiday season when it comes to work gaming. So it's it's similar to last year you know say and again I. I say this mostly just to you know. Tease Kevin but it's not like you know I vacation coming up since every day when you're not working is sort of the same so it's not like oh I have a week off around the holidays it's you know it's just. Provident done that's that's why that's why I said it so we'll be going down to my daughter's house in Alexandria for Thanksgiving. And the newlyweds will be back from their honeymoon going to Japan and New Zealand as it turns out they'll be touring the. The. Blanking on the name the book series lord of the rings so we'll be doing like some lord of the rings tours things like that so once we're all together I'm sure we're going to get a game of room in. So that counts as war gaming and then some other other games like wingspan they've started to play ever Dell and seven wonders. And my three and a half year old grandson will be there so there'll be some. Roses candy land and shoots and ladders going on I believe to. What about for you I have some more but go ahead. Yeah I generally have the opportunity because the holidays are a little bit of the slow season for my work so I'll take about three weeks or so off. That's what I mean the month of November and December and this year. To no one's surprise working on spreadsheet in a little bit just during those vacation days what the plans are for gaming where I will have sections for. You know family plan games and stuff when we're visiting family or just me and me and my son and wife and stuff and then separately I'll come up with a little bit of a list and day by day of what I. To do war game wise. It feels a little over the top but. You think there's so well. It there's so much time that I'll have available to that and we'll certainly rest in relaxation is by itself a wonderful thing to enjoy this time of year. Just want to make sure I'm taking advantage of you know instead of starting and bingeing a new TV show I'm you know staying a little focused on things I could be doing in the war game space so. So is that spreadsheet. I have two questions about that spreadsheet one is are those tabs. Of the existing yearly spreadsheet or do they warrant their own workbook and then second are they hyperlinked into the original yearly schedule. So that the time slots and the time allocation is dynamically updated. Everyone that listens wants to know this answer they're on the edge of their seat. So my my next comments just going to dig me deeper into this whole of grievances that you're expressing. For my son we we have a schedule and we're going to use that word very lightly in the sense compared to the heavy usage that otherwise folks may have the impression from me on but we have a schedule of. Kind of like key activities day by day and stuff that maybe be going on maybe it's a haircut maybe it's a you know as particular project that you want it to do on the weekend with us or something like that so we. We have a little bit of a schedule where we keep track of those things and try to plan out our time. That goes on the fridge every week. So the thought is that we'll leverage that same mechanic for the war game and gaming schedule over the holiday season as he will will be using that same source of what to look forward to when it comes to gaming. So it'll just break out you know over the weekend here the games we want to play and have a little bit of a checklist for them and stuff. Not actually going in the war game master spreadsheet. Yeah, disappointed. Well, we should be very clear. It's not like those activities won't be allowed in the restaurant game spreadsheet. Okay, I feel better I can sleep tonight. They're planning and publication and communal areas of the household will not be via the war game master spreadsheet so that's the distinction. I can only imagine the image that most of our audiences developed about what a day is like in this house. I'm sorry, Don. It's 21 minutes past the hour. I need to stand and stretch now as the schedule indicates. Okay, I'll talk for a minute while you stand and stretch. You can walk away from the mic. What do you got else going on? So I'll probably once I finish, once I finish the pub battles game, the Gettysburg game, then often I'll pivot off from something entirely war game to something a little less. And so I'll probably bring out the duel of Melok, which is the stone Meyer game that bridges between expeditions and sides. So I haven't played it yet, you know, I've had it for, it's got to be four or five months now, I think, since it came out. So that'll be sort of the next thing to hit the table and then again, like I said, you know, I'll probably place some solar root so that I can brush up on all the new factions before we take it, before I take it down to my daughter's house for the holidays. So I think that's sort of the, so and then my war game will all come from the one mostly online stuff since I have so many online sessions and if people are, if the, the people I, I game with if they are working and they have additional time off like you do during the holidays and it will actually make it a little easier to schedule some of this. It will be done stretching that I fill the space, okay. Yeah, you did a great job there, is there, is there any like last minute shelf of shame, you're just coming to a close, you know, considerations for you of things that you don't think are going to make the cut or anything. So there is actually and it's not, it's not a war game, it's probably a euro called. Great, now I'm blind, Darwin's journey to Darwin's journey was I think an award winner and there's actually an expansion that they kick started that I also ordered. So I have both of those, they've been on the shelf for quite a while now, still in shrink and it's a very highly rated game on BGG for a euro medium, the high complexity. And so that's something that, you know, if I get the, the urge and it's like all right, I have, I have this space open, I think that may be the one that'll, that'll get broken out. So for me, the, the one that I'm very tempted by is, are not tempted by, but is a decision point still for me and how it kind of fits into the schedule is with the, with the 2026 wargaming plan. For most of the buckets, I've hit kind of the, the targets, like my, my core, I think I labeled it core set of games that I wanted to explore and I said, hey, I'm going to try to touch at least 50 of these. I'm actually at like 60 some odd percent of touching them, so things are going well. But I've gotten this far into the year in one of the foundational games that I'd committed to, hey, 100% I'm going to get these to the table during the year. And prepping for this episode, it made me realize that I actually, I want to say I miss this, but just kind of like a vent after a vent has happened and I haven't gotten it to the table. Next war. I haven't played next for this year, the entire year I haven't played next war. Yeah, and just reflecting upon that it was shocking to me, I literally have a map hanging on my wall of a next war game. And I haven't played next for this year. So, so just what I'm trying to think about Don is how and, and do I try to squeeze in next war in November and December and that's, I think one of the reasons that Mr. President is going to have a hard clean update around the Thanksgiving holiday time period. Because if I get next word to the table, it's going to be occupying the space and the storage that currently Mr. President does. So, if I do it, one of the questions is, I thought about this quite a bit at the beginning of the year. Is it going to be Poland or is it going to be second edition Taiwan? So, that's the decision point. Conversely, to continue listening live is Kevin has thoughts and it's a scary thing indeed. Do I play next war? Because the track record of next war titles, happy and in real life, has been a little disappointing. And maybe I don't want to provoke that force upon the universe. But yeah, next war would be what I would try to like squeeze in if I had to think about a title. So, the challenge with that is squeezing that in is just such a huge time commitment that, especially Poland, it's huge. So, you can't say, well, I have a day or two here and I'm going to do that. You'll get through a turn in a half. It's if you're going to do it, it's like, all right, this week or these, you know, week and a half is going to be X hours per day of next war to get it to, you know, unless, you know, you decide to do one of the flash points or just one of the small scenarios. Which is a very interesting idea that I hadn't considered, but I feel like I would be cheating a little bit as I hadn't thought about those. I don't think when I'd done the planning for it, but I, I think I would be pretty happy if over the holidays, I could carve out four to five like four hour blocks of playing next war. I may not, you know, actually most certainly probably would not finish the scenario of Poland and probably not Taiwan either. I may get one or one of them to the point of like I know who the winner is going to be, but if I could get 16 or 20 hours of next war in November and December, I'd be really happy with that. Well, if you're going to play Poland and you need help with setup, let me know. I'm not calling you. You will be the last person I will call you want the Russians to win on your man. I may not know where Ladansk is, but I will handle the Poland setup solo. Well, holidays are a fun time. This is going to be exciting. Don, I'm, I'm looking forward to hearing how your, your war gaming goes over the next month here and will probably be a topic on the round table as well when we have that next month. And listen, I can certainly share what their plans are, you know, especially if they have something special plan in terms of big blocks of time or, you know, even just like a mini con at their house with a couple of friends for a weekend, things like that. Please let us know and so we can, we can talk about it on the discord and then just as important post some pictures so we can see what went on and what games were played and. Who yelled at who and things like that. To take another tangent there, I've got to say, our, our forum channel for what's on your table has just been a delight because there are now so many games that people have posted and you can so easily go back and just find, you know, a particular title or a particular individual is after action of their playthrough or something like that. So appreciative of everybody posting on their sharing their experiences, it's like a little corner of AARs and great community discussion on the games it's been. If you haven't been following, if, if you have only one reason to join the discord and take a look at things, at least make sure you check out the what's been on your table section of the discord. All right, interrupting regular programming for another insert ad break one minute rule segment brought to you by power rate. By, by recommendation of Mike and I think there were a few other voices said this to, but I think Mike said it first. I'm going to do a few segments on OCS. One minute rule segment, so Don, whenever you're ready. Ready. Okay, OCS, I've talked about this mechanic in the past, but it's by far my, my favorite probably from the system is surprise. So units in OCS have an action rating value. This represents their training, their cohesion, how well they operate, how elite are they, etc. During combat, both overrun and combat sequence, you take the differential of action rating of the attacker and the defender to get a modifier for a surprise role. And you have a table that you roll on for surprise. And the defender can surprise the attackers and the attackers can surprise the defenders, so it's not guaranteed just chuck and dice you're going to end up with all these crazy random surprise events that throw off all your calculations, but it's enough that you have a surprise every now and then that really changes the feel of how things went. Take the modifier of the action rating units. You check. three dice. You take two of the dice, reference the table, add the modifier, and if there is surprise for the attacker or defender, the kicker is how many column shifts you have on the CRT, and I'm out of time. It sounds like you were, were you done? I was pretty much too close. But it just works so well, overruns which are during the movement phase, they have a wider range of surprise possibilities which makes sense, right? You're moving quickly, you're more likely to be surprised by the defender or you're more likely to surprise your opponent. So it's a little easier in those situations and I'm telling you, you get a really good combat stack ready. Pivotal, pivotal key terrain, you spend a lot of supply on this big breakthrough combat event. And you roll snake eyes on your surprise roll with a kicker of a six. That general is never showing this face again, especially if you're playing the Soviets. But it's not something where like you're constantly plagued by these random events, it just it's a nice added feature to combat. Are there are there results where there's just no impact? Yes, no effect, just keep going. Right, yeah, I can't remember the statistics on it, but the attacker or defender call it like a 20% chance of surprise on an overrun or something like that. And then even then it may only be a column shift to three depending on what the kicker dices rolled. So it doesn't devastate things, it just adds some nice flavor to it. I actually might even be less than 20% as I say that. I think it's less. But yeah, so that is my one minute rule segment. Good. I have no idea why we're doing this to ourselves and repeating this segment, maybe simply because it was in the show notes from last year when we went in the plan for this episode again. But Easter egg time, the family and loved ones are listening. Here's the Easter egg. Congratulations, you made it. And to the empty void. Last year, you know, mine was fields of fire and and I got it. So for me, it worked. And, you know, I like the game enough. I've ordered their expansions that, you know, I'm not sure when they're coming out, but I think there's two expansions that are being developed. So, so it worked for me. I know you, you went over, but so what's yours this year? Mine is a little bit of Easter egg comedy. I would really appreciate some assistance in procuring the iMAR game that I actually intended to buy, but failed to do so. So if you're listening capstone, not GMT capstone publishes a game simulating the iMAR Republic. And that one is titled Vi-Mar the Fight for Democracy again by capstone. I already have the GMT Vi-Mar game by accident. Well, trying to procure the capstone Vi-Mar game. Really going to laugh if Easter egg is revealed with the GMT version of this again. Right. You get second copy. Yeah. What about yours done? So initially, when I was doing these notes and I was thinking, are it, is there a game that, that, you know, I want that, you know, is, is around and not waiting to be published? And, and I came up with the enemy action series from Compass Games. So, enemy action or den, enemy action, car carbon. Interestingly, so I bought, I forget which one. I bought one of these several years ago. And then as I started to look at it, even before I think I opened it, it was like, well, I think this is too complex. And so I sold it. So, how times have changed now, you know, for everything we've talked about and that I've been playing? I was thinking, all right, I put it back on the list. Interestingly, enemy action or den, you can't even find on the Compass site, which is weird. So it's not even like out of print, not available. I can't find it. Maybe it was, because enemy action carcob does come up. So, and it's on sale mail. It's in the, so it's in the brochure. Kevin's actually flipping through the brochure and it will be in there. But enemy action or den, nowhere to be found, I believe. So, but as we got closer to the show and then, you know, Kevin and I've been talking, I'm actually going to call an audible at the line of scrimmage here and change it to Mr. President's second printing. Because it's, you know, another pure solo, you know, not a new hex encounter to learn. So, it's a new, you know, a whole new sort of system of play. And Kevin's talked about how he hasn't even really fully read the rules that the flip book that comes with it is, is enough to get you going and then you can just look up what you need as you go. And so, so I think that's going to be my Easter egg is Mr. I think it's available on secondary markets, not direct from GMT. I think it's been sold out, but, but it is available like on game nerds and some of the other sites, not that I've looked while we were talking or anything. Yeah, it's, I had been thinking about this as you were describing that done in the other element that I think may intrigue you or some of our listeners that just clicked for me. It has fantastic RPG elements to it. I'm not trying to claim it's an RPG game, but it's very narrative. Exactly. Very narrative. The event cards, like you, you build your, your cabinet as the cabinet to the president. And you have like your, your secretary of state and stuff. And they have a name and they have stats and these types of things. So it's just, it's kind of like you have your party that you're going on an adventure with. And I think some of those elements might really resonate for you as well. It was just looking. Yeah, I'm not sure if I've done and lost, still listens. He was the one that was, you know, of all my children, was the, the big listener. And I'm not sure he's still listening. So I may get shut out. This year. That'd be too bad. Well, because you really did need another word game. Is this a word game? You know, let's, let's think about that for a second. Actually, I'll make the argument. Yes. Because some of the core mechanic loops are keep things from blowing up in different regions around the world. And when they blow up, what ends up happening? It starts a war. And while there is no map that war happens on, you actually are, you know, allocating forces, allocating your action points towards that war, you're rolling on war resolution tables, etc. So like, it's not simulating a historical war, of course. But I would certainly make an argument that it is closer to a war game than say, um, twilight struggle. And I think twilight struggle is a war game. By the way, that's not meant to be inflammatory. Um, but yeah, I, I would say Mr. President is a war game that is just 80% narrative tacked onto it. Mm hmm. Uh, yeah, are you sure it's out of stock? I see it on GMT site. Oh, really? Yeah. All right. So check there first. Um, but I, I think it is available. I thought it was, yeah, it is. You're right. Good call. But now you have to get it. Cheaper by in some of these secondary, uh, yeah, the, the second edition, I do not know all the details, but the changes between second edition and first are material to the point they did an update kit. So if you can, I would try to get the second edition. Yeah, I agree. I agree. All right. Easter eggs have been laid, so to speak. So now that we've wrapped up our show notes, Don and I were looking at this the other day. Um, it's really fun when we open up our Spotify analytics page to just see like last week one new subscriber, um, which doesn't sound like a lot, but You know, that's kind of still like 50 or something now. So that's something I'm making up those numbers, of course. But it's actually higher than that. So it actually is, which is surprising within itself. But when we look at those analytics, something stuck out to me. There seems to be a trend that when we don't talk about hockey at the end, the average listen time is way higher. So just to test this theory a little bit and add more sample size to the evidence. Let's chat hockey for five minutes or so, Don, just to see what happens. And may I begin with, I don't know what to do. I don't know if I want my wings to tank. Or if I actually want them to make a push for the playoffs. And one of my hesitations is, I think they're too damn good to actually tank. Like, I genuinely don't see how we could enter the lottery. Where the West has so many weak teams that were at time of recording. I think for, you know, 10th or 12th or something like that from the bottom. It's just mushy middle, middle, first round pick is all we're going to end up with. That doesn't do anything. So then I sit there going, yeah, no. We can definitely make the playoffs without a top line center that doesn't want to be traded and without signing our second most promising defenseman in about a generation. Yeah, we can do that. But then reality hits and you lose to the Calgary Flames. And then what do you do, right? That was not a pretty game by the way. For any Red Wings fans also listening, or actually just maybe I'll put it this way. For any NHL fans listening that are interested in a fourth line, bottom six. Rasmussen, who you could get so cheap from Detroit. And has other than the last week and a half. So the streak has been broken, but up until a week and a half had gone since January six. Without recording a point, playing every night, averaging almost 15 minutes a night on the ice. And the second, the second worst points per game player on an NHL roster with like at least five starts was averaging something like 0.18 points per 60. I think is what the metric was a vice time. So like per 60 minutes of ice time is averaging 0.18 points. Rasmussen's number for that same metric was 0.03 points per 60. He's getting 15 minutes of ice time. I'm just ranting this actually isn't. This is how the number falls off I'm I'm spoiling the sample size. I'm trying to create of listener retention throughout the episode. I think you're doing a good job. Yeah. Thank you. So let me redirect to how's it going there in Philly done. I was going in Philly, so the fans are or it's you know, they lost their first six games and everybody was that's it. You know, let's sell off everybody that's over 24 years old. Get rid of the coach, get rid of the GM. And and then there was the contingent of let's give it some time. It's early in the season. Even though at this point, the chance of them making the playoffs is now 10% at this point. So which feels high as a Red Wing's fan. And you know, and then they they rattle off three wins, including one against the avalanche. And then all the you know, all the haters were okay, where are you now? You know, it's like, hey, maybe it isn't too bad and maybe, you know, we can. But the and then they lost last night or two nights ago to the docs by the four. So it's you know, it's just going to be an up and down choppy season. I don't know, I don't know what's going to happen. You know, not a big fan of Rick tock it is a coach, but he's got this huge contract with four more years, I think on it. So I'm not sure they're going to be able to dump him and eat all that money. So he may be around for a while. And I just don't think he's great at developing young talent. And they're trying to be a young team and have all these, you know, 20-year-olds, 22-year-olds take, get all the minutes and I don't think he knows what to do with them. So so we'll see what happens. I just want them to be entertaining. You know, I want to be able to like I've said, I think I've said before, if they compete every night and they're entertaining the watch and they lose, I'm okay with that. But those first six games, they were, it was horrible hockey to watch, it was a terrible product to watch. They weren't competitive and they were losing and it was like there's not a whole lot of reason to be turning that one at that point. So that's my opinion. My silver lining I have is MBN. He's the race for rookie of the year, I think he's third in points, first in hits, first in plus minus, kind of a dark horse for that coming into the season. So that's the solace I'm trying to take is a couple of those younger guys just seeing them develop like this Emmett Finney kid, he's playing like a top six forward now for a second season in the NHL and he was a seventh rounder like that's just found money that is just glad that not going to make any horrible decisions like refusing to renew him out of his ELC or something like that, not that that's ever happened. All right, yeah, test has been run long enough, we'll see if the retention number of listening dives off, it's really kind of cool being able to see like where most people stop listening and I suspect it will be at the hour 20 mark. Yeah, this one I thought this was going to wind up being shorter, but we did some good re-rambling tonight, so I think we have entertaining rambling. Stream of consciousness, consciousness rambling of that and schedules and it's good. Yeah, so again, next episode will be listen around table. I would project that probably will come out early December, this will probably come out first week here of no vent, well, no, probably around Halloween, this should be, yeah, right, right around Halloween, I have this out and then let's try to get all those forms in by like November 15th or something for the round table folks and we can try to get that scheduled on everybody's calendar for for when we have the round table. Yeah, it'll be great, so everyone have a happy Thanksgiving. So we probably won't, I guess we'll record before then but not, no, I'm confused, yeah, right. We're going to record after. After? Okay. Yeah. Yep. All right, everyone be safe, have a happy holiday. Be well everyone. Bye. Take care. Bye. Bye.