The Old King's Crown is a game that wowed us. So rarely do we see such a strong combination of intricate mechanisms and thematically rich play. It's a multi-layered experience, and although it is at times wobbly - the juice, as they say, is worth the squeeze.
Hello everybody! Today on Noooooo Pun Included we are shillin’ like there’s no tomorrow. Selling out. Taking the moolah. Except of course, there’s no moolah and we’re not taking, we are giving. Specifically, we are giving the gift of a video on our channel to a friend who made a board game that we liked. It’s called Emberleaf and we think - it’s pretty neat. Maybe take a look at it.
Hello, I would like one ticket please? My destination? As far away from Ticket to Ride as possible. You heard me right. At No Pun Included, we are not TTR fans.
Ticket to Ride, in case you’re not familiar, is maybe one of the most popular board games in the world. More popular than Catan, and certainly more respected than Monopoly. Or at least it was until we came along and said “ENOUGH!”
Join us for a video that does not waste time debunking the myth of TTR, but simply offers better alternatives, suited for folks who are off-ramping themselves from their first dip into the world of cardboard into new horizons.
Find the Board Game Dirtbag shirts here: https://no-pun-included-shop.fourthwall.com
There are many good things a person could ask. And yet, today I am asking, can we find political meaning in any game? For example, what about a game like Sausage Sizzle, a yahtzee style affair with cutesy animals? What is political about that. The obvious answer is nothing. This video, however, looks for a different answer.
Once in a blue moon comes a euro game that feels... special. There's just something about it that makes it stand out from the crowd. I am not sure that Galactic Cruise is that game - it's too hard a call to make because whether it feels like that to us or not doesn't matter. It's how everyone else receives it.
But I do hope that it is, there's just something cooking in this game that feels simultaneously breezy and crunchy - a good combination! Not to mention the standout production, art, compelling premise - a total package.
When we started working on this review, I asked Elaine, half-seriously, if she thought she could build a human sized rocket out of cardboard. The glint in her eye made me realise very quickly that my half-seriously was her full-seriously.
It took more than a week.
Which seems unreasonably long for something that's meant to be intetionally shoddy. But even a silly thing can take a long time. Especially when you have to cut out and glue together something like forty triangles.
Seal everything with primer and let it dry.
And then paint it and let it dry.
But, eventually we got there.
Yup, that's a "rocket" alright. And here is the kicker - the stupid thing is so big we could barely get it into shot. There's maybe a five second scene where the entire thing is visible in the video, otherwise you can see parts of it and that's it.
But it was worth it! Mostly because we got to make the kind of NPI video we used to make circa 2017-18 where we got to be silly, a little creative and just gush about a game because we enjoyed it. You might even say we've gone retro NPI to keep the theme of retro-futurism going.
And you can obviously watch the result for yourselves. I hope it brings some of that much needed levity.
Hot on the heels of checks notes a thousand other dungeon crawler campgain games comes another dungeon crawler campaign game! But wait, what is that smell? Is it… success? There’s certainly a buzz about Arydia. It feels like something is different, new, fresh. Some might say even exciting? Is it possible that this oversaturated genre is getting a shot of arydialine in its arm?
The answer, as it always turns out, isn’t so simple. Arydia is definitely a game that sports a wow factor but not everything is wow, some of it is just ow. More on this in the review itself.
It’s our Game of the Year, and for more you’ll have to watch the video!
Friends, answer me this. Do you like tracks? And if the answer is no, I want you to think of good tracks. Not those shabby “I just go up on the track to get some points” ones, but dynamic. Where you have to time the placement just right, tactically outmaneuvering other players. Still no?
What about area majorities - you know, the euro game version of those miniature wargames except there’s no miniatures and everyone just places little cubes for their fights? Still no? Okay, what about hundreds of cards? Do you like hundreds of cards? Oh come on you gotta like one of these.
FIne. Aliens. This game has aliens. There’s actual alive aliens in the box. You open it - out the alien pops, says something unintelligible which you psychically intuit to mean “hello.,” even though up till now you were not aware you’ve had psychic powers but maybe this alien awoke something inside of you? Have I got your attention now? Okay. Then let me tell you about SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
Is this harsh? I feel like this is harsh, right from the get go. But I’d be lying to you and myself if I didn’t admit that most euros just aren’t that special anymore. Has the genre peaked? Reached the plateau? Peak of the windmill?
Well, Pampero is here to say capital N capital O, it’s a euro that is HOT TO GO. With fancy components and innovative mechanisms it was ready to shake up a very stale scene and… crickets. The public concensus? It’s fine. So what happened here? What is it that’s so different about it? And why didn’t it land? All of that is the subject of today’s video.
But do stay till the very end for a very special announcement, if you’ve been a long time viewer and if you’ve enjoyed Bessie’s contributions to the channel, you won’t want to miss this.
Somewhere in the video I say that Leviathan Wilds should not work. The fact that it does is a miracle, a conjuring, some sort of arcane trickery that animates paper and wood into a daunting physical act. If you boil Leviathan Wilds down into genre, you appropriately get boiler plate tags. Co-op. Boss-battler. Action selection. But if you distill it into essence you get only one word - magic.
Leviathan Wilds is a valiant attempt at translating a premise not at all dissimilar to Shadows of the Colossus into board game form. In it, you’ll climb, leap, hop and glide across the terrain of gargantuan creatures trying to liberate them from blighted crystals. It’s snappy, feather-light and more-ish in a way that only modern co-opeartive games can be.
But it’s beating heart lies in adaptation and how effortless it makes it feel. I still don’t know why Leviathan Wilds works, but I’m glad I got to experience it. For more, please watch the review above.
Someone please pass me my hat - for I must eat it. Devour it whole, with fixings! Dear viewer, can you blame me for taking one look at Slay the Spire: The Board Game and every single one of my sceptical reviewier instincts kicking into full gear? In an industry replete with video game after video game after video game having it’s own little board game offspring and so many of them being, let’s not mince words, quite poor - it was only reasonable to asume that this one will not be somehow different.
But my job isn’t to asume. My job is to set those feelings aside and actually try things and my gosh am I glad I gave this one a chance. In every single step Slay the Spire: The Board Game surprised me and subverted my expectations.
The second episode of My Favourite Game should give you no doubts - this series is all bangers. I mean, name a better auction game than Ra. If you can - you’re wrong! Joking, you are allowed to like other auction games but you gotta admit that Ra is at the least excellent anyway.
If you’re not familiar, Ra is the creation of one Dr. Reiner Knizia, or the K-Niz amonsgt friends and has been about since 1999 in various editions. It’s longevity, of course, speaks for itself, but this new edition by 25th Century Games with artwork from Ian O’Toole is the perfect opportunity for my to review this gem of a board game. Enjoy!
Earthborne Rangers is a shower game. Don't actually play it in the shower, the cards will melt quicker than you can say "enviromentally sustainable." But do play it. And afterwards it will haunt your thoughts.
You'll think about Earthborne Rangers when you're having your lunch sandwich on a park bench, when you look out your kitchen window with your morning coffee, when you're walking your dog, and yes, every time you have a shower.
Earthborne Rangers is a game that stays with you because it's a game that gives more than it has. It's unusual structure ensures that every session ends with more lingering thoughts, questions, mysteries, that hook you in for just one more play.
Oh, and it's also a co-operative "LCG inspired" campaign game with all that deck construction cardy-combo goodness that you expect from games like Lord of the Rings and Arkham Horror the Card Games, but comparing it to those does it an injustice. It's so much more!
Solo only games is perhaps the freshest design space in board games. Unlike the solo modes you find in your new favourite euro games, solo only games are board games designed to be exclusively played by one. They range from small boxes, like today’s subject - Unreliable Wizard, to big extravaganzas like Hoplomachus: Victorum (which we have also covered in the past).
By not having to accomodate rules for multiple players, they can really zero in on to what makes a solo game fun! But, what is that? What do we want solo games to do? What’s the thing that translates them from ticking mechanisms to delights on a table?
Today we answer that question by taking a peek at a game that doesn’t really succeed at being a fun time. And through that angle we can then cotrast it with ones that do, like Maquis and Witchcraft! and within the difference, there’s more than one answer.
Can you believe we haven't made a main channel Top Ten video since 2017? Such is our commitment to not list (very often) but today our dear fellow patrons we list in style. Please take a seat, grab a plate, here's some napkins, dinner is just being served. Efka's Top Ten Board games.
Introducing - My Favourite Game. A series of videos focusing only the best of the best that board games have to offer. In each episode Efka and/or Elaine will regale us with tales of their favourite representative of a given board game genre. Finally! A video series that is absolutely guaranteed to provoke as many “do you even like board games?” comments as possible.
In our inaugural episode we’ll take a peek at El Grande, a modern classic all the way back from 1995 that very recently got a new coat of beige paint. El Grande is an area majority game a terse calculated fight over how many men you can round up into regions of Spain. It’s got a touch of numbers and heaps of deviousness and if that’s your marmalade - you’re in for a treat!
What's that law about the title being a yes or no question? The answer is always, yes, right? (No one correct me.) Ha ha, well jokes on you, this one is a straight N.O. How would a board game even save the world? With its dashing smile and can-do attitude?
Haaaaaaving said that... I think that maybe Daybreak is as close as we'll get, and I know, I know - that's corny and a tad sensationalist but... I dunno. There's something kinda transcendent about it. Something that makes it more than a board game. Actually, scratch that. That implies that a board game can't ever amount to being transcendent. What I mean is, Daybreak feels like just a bit more.
In both setting and gameplay, Daybreak feels like it's breaking ground, and to see both executed so well is a rare treat. So please, enjoy me gushing about a fantastic board game for 15 minutes - a treat for everyone, I am sure.
I long resisted the idea that board games are getting too expensive. They just cost what they cost. They’re complicated physical products targeted at a niche audience. But when prices reach the level of “I could buy a new kitchen oven or a board game” level, I think it’s time to ask ourselves some difficult questions.
Like, for example, how good does a board game have to be to justify that? Because make no mistake, Kinfire is pretty good. But is pretty good good enough?
And how do we even answer that? Let’s say that it is, but then four months later another $150 board game comes out that’s also exactly as good. And then another. And then another. Who can afford to keep buying them? Where’s the cut-off? At these prices, how do you continue to judge a game’s quality?
I ignored price for a long while as a board game reviewer, but I feel like it’s become unconcionable lately. A lot of people just can’t reasonably justify to keep making purchases like that. And I feel like the cut-off line has come.
The Crew, The Mind, Magic Maze and now Sky Team, each wonderful games that want you to sit down and shut up (ha ha). The premise is simple. Land a passenger airplane without talking. Isn’t that just the best pitch? We’ve all dreamed of being a pilot. Sky Team says - you can do that, without the ridiculous complexity of Flight Simulator and none of the dangers of real planing. Here’s our review.
What follows is a transcript of our video.
Sky Team asks a very simple question: have you ever wanted to land a passenger aeroplane? To which of course the answer is:
Elaine: NO! I don’t know the first thing about planing, I don’t want that kind of responsibility.
Efka: Relax, you’re not piloting an actual aeroplane, just a pretend board game one with dice. Let me show you how it works.
In Sky Team you and one other person will play as the pilot and co-pilot responsible for landing said aeroplane. You will do this by placing dice one at a time on this true to life accurate representation of a pilot’s dashboard.
There’s just one problem, just like in a real aeroplane, you’re not actually allowed to talk to each other. So that’s fun, but if that wasn’t enough, let me show you some other things you shouldn’t do.
Normally when we explain a board game, we like to start by telling you how you win, because that gives you context for what you’re trying to do. With Sky Team, I will instead be telling you how you lose.
This is the altitude track. It goes down by one at the end of every round.
If you haven’t reached the airport by the time it reaches zero - you crash and lose.
If you overshoot the airport at any point - you crash and lose.
If you don’t arrive at the airport before the last round - you crash and lose.
As you fly towards the airport, there will be other aeroplanes in the way. You and your co-pilot can shoot them down from the sky with this radio action. If you fly over any of them - you crash and lose.
Let’s say your aeroplane reaches the airport on the penultimate round. On the last round it needs to have a speed equal or lower to your brakes value. If it doesn’t – you crash and lose.
Let’s say your aeroplane reaches the airport on the penultimate round and on the last round your speed is lower than your break value but you haven’t perfectly balanced out your plane - you crash and lose.
Let’s say your aeroplane reaches the airport on the penultimate round and on the last round your speed is lower than your break value and you balanced out your aeroplane, but you haven’t deployed all your flaps - you crash and lose.
You haven’t deployed all your landing gear - you crash and lose.
You tilt your plane too far to either side - you crash and lose.
You flew through some clouds at the wrong angle - you crash and lose.
You ran out of fuel - you crash and lose.
You haven’t completely trained your intern - obviously that last one is fine, interns don’t really care about on the job training, they’re just doing it for exposure ARE YOU KIDDING ME, YOU CRASH AND LOSE.
Just one or two things for you to worry about as you’re not communicating with your team-mate. Unless, maybe you are.
As mentioned, each turn, one by one you’ll be placing one of the four dice you rolled at the beginning of the round.
You can place these dice anywhere you like, as long as the spot matches your dice colour – blue for pilot, orange for copilot – and the number restrictions. For example, I can only place a one or two here to deploy some of my landing gear. Each time you place a die, you perform the corresponding action.
That’s how you deploy brakes, landing gear, flaps, shoot other planes out of the sky, cross all the dots and i’s or even make some coffee.
Most actions are simple. Place a die, it does the thing. And when I say thing, nothing miraculous happens. If you radio to shoot a plane out of the sky, you just remove that plane. If you increase your brake value – well, you just increase your break value.
However. Two actions, balancing tilt and speed, are mandatory, and require a die from each the pilot and the co-pilot. Which means, two of the four dice you have, are spoken for every round. And that’s where communication comes in.
Let’s say it’s my turn and for my first die I put a 1 on the tilt action. If Elaine also puts a one, our tilt remains the same. If, however, she puts a higher die, such as a three, the tilt will move towards her equal to the difference. Tilt too far to one side - you crash and lose.
So me placing a one here is an outrageously brazen move! I have no idea what’s behind Elaine’s shield, it could be all fives and sixes in which case that’s an instant loss. But think about what I’m communicating with that one.
Because I placed it as my first move, I’m saying to Elaine, this is my problem die.
Elaine: Your face is a problem die.
Efka: It’s true. I haven’t got anything better for there, and if you haven’t got low dice you have four turns to figure out a solution.
I’m also saying, all my other dice are probably low too, so adjust your plans accordingly. Maybe send a die to the coffee space, which, like in a real aeorplane, makes coffee and adjusts die values by plus one or minus one.
And if worst comes to worst, we can always spend the very hard to come by reroll token.
I want you to think about how tense all these situations are in play. I said you’re not allowed to communicate, but I can bet you ten pounds no one’s going to stop themselves from a painful wince if someone places a two on tilt on their last turn when all you have behind your shield is a six.
Or the agony of deciding whether to use a reroll, which lets everyone reroll any dice they want, but you have two of these for the entire game.
And obviously you can’t confer when to use it. You just have to decide to use it. For both players. Whilst the other person is giving you a deadeye stare. And you just sit with that. And stew. I mean, forget hiccups. This game is so sweaty it legit gave me swamp butt.
What truly makes Sky Team a masterclass in board game design is that it knows how to de-escalate that tension in the most dramatic way.
Die by die, move by move, mind read by mind read you watch as you and your partner sync up and read each other and your plan is maybe, possibly, just about coming together.
Still in silence! Until that very last die placement where you’re finally allowed to high five each other and go OMG that was perfect! How did you know I still had a four behind my shield when you put a 3 down on speed?
Or the alternative to that, where someone makes one misstep, like the co-pilot forgetting that they need to shoot down an aeroplane and instead putting the die down to retract the flaps. And the mad silent scramble by both players to somehow find a fix before they literally cause an international catastrophe.
Last year everyone’s darling was Heat, a racing game that didn’t simulate racing, but high drama movies about racing.
Sky Team, along with obviously being a future mega-hit, does exactly the same thing. It simulates not actual aeroplane landings but movies about aeroplane landings.
You’re not playing a pilot, you’re playing Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, maybe even Gerard Butler or Tom Butler.
Elaine: Who’s Tom Butler?
Efka: He’s the actor that plays the pilot in Snakes on a Plane.
Elaine: Oh. Why Snakes on a Plane?
Efka: Cause we needed a segue for the criticisms.
This isn’t gonna be long, don’t worry. My only real criticism is that Sky Team is incredibly precise and particular with the timing of actions. You move forward at the exact moment when someone places the second die on the speed action for example, not at the end of the round.
There’s a reason for that, it lets you set up more strategic moves. If you can’t shoot down the aeroplane that’s two spaces away because you’ve only got dice with like ones or sixes, you can move forward one space, and now your 1 die is eligible to take that enemy passenger plane DOWN!
But that sort of thing can be very fiddly during the portion of the game that has to play out without people talking to each other so when someone forgets - it’s tense, tense, TENSE… Oh wait you forgot to move your flap marker. No longer tense.
Aside from that, I mean, it’s a dice game where you roll dice and the values matter. So at easier difficulty levels, it’s tuned quite well towards that communicating without communicating action. Whereas with the really difficult scenarios, it’s just, did we roll the right dice? No. Okay. Let’s try again I guess?
Which isn’t really a criticism. Sky Team is an experience game. You can get better at it, but you don’t play it to get better at it. You play it for kicks, and let me tell you, this aeroplane’s got legs.
Also, don’t play this with strangers. In fact, don’t even play it with like acquaintances or co-workers or virtually anyone with whom you haven’t developed a level of comfort where you can just chill in each other’s company. Sky Team relies on intimacy to create that tension, so a disaster in the wrong hands.
But as long as we’re talking about scenarios, and as much fun as that base game is, this tiny box is a treasure trove of well thought out game-modes. From an intern you need to train, to fuel you have to manage to ice-breaks, wind - every module (aside from the hackneyed real time mode), offers an interesting spin to make sure that when you’re feeling comfortable with planing, it’s got another spanner to chuck in your face.
Try the intern module after your first game to vary it up a little bit, add the fuel module if you’re into players forgetting to do important actions and watching disastrous consequences unfurl in silence, and put on some ice-breaks when you really feel like taking things up a notch.
Sky Team is a top-notch recommendation from us. If your evenings are getting a bit stale and you’re bored of binge-watching streamers, inject a bit of swamp butt into your routine.