Chasing Meeples
A lighthearted take on board games with a sprinkling of hilarity - when you listen to Chris and Angie on Chasing Meeples, expect witty banter, game discussions, quizzes, and game night stories. Perfect for gamers of all levels looking for a faith-friendly gaming conversation.
Chasing Meeples
Chasing Resurgence: An Insightful Discussion on Stan Kordonskiy's Post-Apocalyptic Euro Game
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Ever wondered how the post-apocalyptic city of Moscow might feel like in a board game? Enter the, strategic world of 'Resurgence', masterfully designed by Stan Kordonskiy. We take you through the twists and turns of this game, discussing the cold, gritty artwork and the strategic depth of gameplay. Chris likes the Soviet era propaganda poster artwork and appreciates how the game manages to capture the frozen time period so effectively....and Moscow, Chris gets the feels...Moscow...
We share our experiences preparing for a toy and comic show where we'll be selling some of our gently used games. Some, like Catacombs, Funkoverse Strategy Game, Vinyl, Plus, Chris talks about his Mater dents! Trust us you'll understand what that means when you listen.
Come, tune in for a roller coaster episode where we explore the 'Resurgence' of post-apocalyptic Moscow, share our gaming adventures, and bring you plenty of laughs along the way.
One more thing- The brief audio excerpt used this podcast is taken from 'WarGames,' a 1983 film directed by John Badham, written by Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes, and Walon Green. Produced by United Artists and Sherwood Productions and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The audio is not the property of this podcast and is used under the principles of 'fair use' for the purposes of setting the tone and providing context for our review of the game 'Resurgence.' All copyright and other rights are reserved by their respective owners. This use is not intended to infringe on any rights of the copyright holder and is done in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of US law governing fair use.
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It's time for another episode of the wildly popular podcast Chasing Meeples.
Speaker 2On today's episode of Chris and Angie mention a game designer, who believe it or not? has never done.
Speaker 1Angie a dirty And then get ready for a review of Resurgence a post-apocalyptic strategy game published by Haffigian Games and designed by the masterminds in Khorramski. Without further ado, the banter starts now.
Speaker 3Hello everyone, this is the Chasing Meeples podcast. I am your host, chris, and, as always, i am with my lovely co-host, angie. Say hello, angie, hello, hello, all right, hey. Well, today is the day. I've been super excited, looking forward to this. We are going to be reviewing the latest masterpiece, and I say masterpiece.
Speaker 2Well, aren't you giving it away a little bit?
Speaker 3Giving it away. Oh yes, sorry. We're reviewing Resurgence, a game designed by just a guy, just a guy by the name of Stan Kordonsky. Come on, how is it? How can you not get excited about that, angie? You know what This may be foreshadowing my feelings about the game. However, it is Stan Kordonsky.
Speaker 2You're very enthusiastic. I'm not used to it and I don't usually match the enthusiasm. I usually like the opposite.
Speaker 3Yeah, you are. You're usually the opposite.
Speaker 2You're like over there, ready to jump out of your socks. Over there, stan, it's Stan Kordonsky. Yes, yes, he's a. I don't want to give away my review. How about that?
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 2I do not want to give it up.
Speaker 3Fair enough. Fair enough, i give in-depth reviews.
Speaker 2I am so in-depth, i'm so deep. I have got three pages of notes here.
Speaker 3Okay, well, i'm going to keep my mouth shut because there is something I know it's going to come up during the review, but I'm not going to say a word. I'm not going to say a word. I'm going to wait till the review. Okay, oh yeah. Oh yeah, there's feelings I can tell right now you are holding back Stan. I don't want to say you know that. Again, i'm going to foreshadow my review. However, he is one of my favorite game designers.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, i can. I know that.
Speaker 3I really enjoy his games, but I know you hold a grudge. You've got a grudge against this man.
Speaker 2I do not hold a grudge.
Speaker 3Oh, you've given up, you've given up, you finally let go.
Speaker 2No, I don't like area control. I still don't like area control and I will never like area control. Am I holding a grudge because he put area control in this winter? No, I'm not holding a grudge. If he is a game designer, he can put whatever mechanic in he would like to, just as I potentially think that Phil Walker-Harty made a mistake with my shelfie but we'll get into that later.
Speaker 3Yeah, we already kind of touched on that, but again, phil, phil it is. We still haven't gotten an email from you chasing meples at yahoocom. Angie, i see those bags under your eyes.
Speaker 2Thank you Well.
Speaker 3Thank you for, oh, thank you, Okay, I appreciate that one Well those are the lack of sleep bags, because you still don't know how to score the colors in myself.
Speaker 2Yes, that's why I don't get sleep at night. Yes, that is it, and it causes what can? what causes all the wrinkles? Can I blame that? Who can I blame that on?
Speaker 3Well, area control, that's it, That's it. Yeah, so stressed That on standing area control in in um endless winter, okay, and the fact that well, Well then, my smile lines all shum fill up, so Oh yes.
Speaker 2He's yet to do me a dirty, so Can we even say that on our podcast?
Speaker 3Why not Do me a dirty? My mind is now going somewhere else.
Speaker 2That's the same. It's the same.
Speaker 3I know it is I don't know. Well, we're going to keep it. Oh me a dirty.
Speaker 2It's the same. I know it is. I know the kids use it. Okay, i'm not really sure how they use it.
Speaker 3Kids use it even better.
Speaker 2I'm not really sure how they use it. I have a tic-tac. I don't have to make a tic-tac, i'm just a.
Speaker 3Shem, don't do a hand to your dirty. I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2Maybe I should have said a solid, a solid, no doing you a solid means.
Speaker 3He's done you a favor.
Speaker 2He has not done me a dirty.
Speaker 3We're going to go with that.
Speaker 2I don't know what that means Oh my God, that's going to be the somebody that says Yes. Oh, there goes my hope of ever receiving a review copy of any game. I'm going to play games. All hope is lost.
Speaker 3Oh God, I love this, All right.
Speaker 2And here I thought I had no reason to laugh.
Speaker 3Turn on the mics, put on the headphones. Magic happened. All right, angie. So you wanted to mention something about Raccoon restaurant.
Speaker 2Raccoon restaurant, which we had talked about previously. We had done a preview video for their Kickstarter. I just want to let everybody know their Kickstarter has gone live. It will be live for another 22 days on Kickstarter. The basic they no longer have the early bird available, but they have their basic pledge is $15 for the game with access to the pledge manager and stretch goals, so that's a pretty reasonable price. So right now they have a quarter of what they're asking. They have $1,000 out of $4,000.
Speaker 3Not bad.
Speaker 2Not bad, So I would encourage anybody that thinks that it might be interesting and how about anybody that would like to see the preview video? if you don't want to go over to our page, head over to Kickstarter and check it out.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah Cool, that's good to know. So, at the time of this recording, how many days again? I'm sorry.
Speaker 2It will be over on July 17th.
Speaker 3Okay, so you have until July 17th. So if you're listening to this after July 17th, sorry, sorry.
Speaker 2You missed out, But you know it was interesting. There is. I mean, obviously the most of pledges are on that basic level, But there was a retail in there.
Speaker 3Oh, that's neat.
Speaker 2That's 10 games for $110. So that's cool. So it's going to end up in somebody's game star. So that's cool Yeah that is cool.
Speaker 3Still little disappointed that a stretch goal is not a sand timer.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3The same, all right.
Speaker 2What else? Well, what else is? there is going to be an event, a brand new and out, you know, i want to say like annual event, but it's not. it's going to take place once a month in True Rivers, wisconsin. So if anybody is from Northeast Wisconsin, anywhere in Wisconsin, true Rivers is going to have their first toy and comic book show next Sunday, july 2. They're going to have me some cosplay, they're going to have food, they're going to have all sorts of vendors there. Chasing Meeples will be there with some use gently use board games.
Speaker 3So that's awesome, If you guys aren't yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, we're going to be there, we're going to be there.
Speaker 2Heroes Venture Arcade is a retro gaming arcade into Rivers. They have one room with all just retro games air hockey, that type of thing And then they have a coin up. big front area is now all coin up all those times that you would see, like Dave and Buster's, those kind of games. They have an adult room which I think they have gambling machines.
Speaker 3Oh, wow.
Speaker 2So a lot of stuff that they've. he's really built up there. There's actually a skate parking back, So he's going to be throwing that and he's actually bringing his retro arcade games to PhoenixCon.
Speaker 3PhoenixCon, july 13th through the 16th at the Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton, wisconsin. Again, we are going to be there chasing Meeples. We're not going to be doing anything as far as organized, we're just going to be in attendance. So if anybody wants to hit us up there and play some games with us, we'll probably be the only ones wearing chasing Meeples merchandise, and that's how you can tell who we are. However, angie, why don't you tell us a little bit more about PhoenixCon?
Speaker 2It is primarily an RPG con. Ernie Gary Geikax Jr is always in attendance.
Speaker 2He's one of the guests of honor, one of the guests of honor, that's the right word for it And he's there running games, and so there's a giant, there's okay, there's. There's a nice size vendor hall Board game wise. There's usually two or three board game stores there that have merchandise for sale. Just a lot of different. We found some very interesting things The last year we were there, but he is expanding it. They always do have a game library, but he is expanding it.
Speaker 3The organizer. I believe his name is Cosmo.
Speaker 2Joe, yes, he is expanding that. There's going to be retro arcade games there. There's going to be some sort of tournament. He is also, and if anybody wanted to run a game you could absolutely do that. I think now that opportunity is probably closed, but they are having some people run games like of. I want to name that game. I want to name that game. It is Lords of Waterdeep.
Speaker 2Oh couple other games are somebody doing? search you go, and so there are people running some board games there, so that hopefully that will expand even further into the future, because that would be neat. They're not doing any mini painting this year, okay, but he always does a VIP dinner the Royal dinner music and stuff like that, so I would definitely check out their Facebook page.
Speaker 3Yeah, phoenix con. It is the second time It's, so it's Phoenix con two, i think they're calling it. Last year was their first year. Angie and I got a chance to check it out. I really enjoyed myself there, so I was looking forward to it. This year I would love to get together and do some sort of organized dice thrown tournament, but of course we dragged our feet too much and we're not going to be able to do that this year. But stay tuned. Maybe Phoenix con three will be able to hit you guys up with some sort of organized dice thrown, or maybe Angie and I will be raining doing something organized. At the very least, maybe we'll have a table with chasing meeples merchandise or stuff from our Etsy store, chasing meeples co, where you can get really cool shirts, stickers if you love this podcast and some other cool gaming related merchandise.
Speaker 2And if somebody knows that they're going, definitely send us a message on Facebook, Instagram or an email, because then we would know that you're going and that we could always meet up.
Speaker 3Yeah that would be awesome.
Speaker 2We'll be bringing some games of ours as well.
Discussion on Selling Gently Used Games
Speaker 3In our nice big giant backpack game bag. So again, yeah, that's July 13 through the 16th. I'm not sure what days we're going to go. I would love to go every day, but I'm not sure if we're going to be able to make that happen. So, figure, if it's what is it? Thursday through Sunday?
Speaker 2Thursday is open for people with the VIP tickets.
Speaker 3So we'll be there Friday at least Friday or Saturday, for sure. But Angie, angie hit the nail on the head. If you plan on going, shoot us an email or comment or whatever you got to do, just try to get ahold of us. You can talk to us on Instagram too. We're pretty responsive to comments, messages, whatever you want to call it on Instagram. So, for sure, i want to talk a little bit more about that toy and comic show. So Angie mentioned that we are going to be there And what we're gonna do is we're gonna sell some of our gently used games. The time has come, ladies and gentlemen. It has come. Meeple Chasers.
Speaker 2It is. So. Do you have anything that you see up here somewhere that you think you could definitely say cull? I mean, i think you know we going back and forth, we could say maybe and then hold off on that, but is there something that you say, oh yeah.
Speaker 3Oh, i'm looking at pretty much that whole top shelf Catacombs. That was cool Little dexterity game but it's lived its life and it is now time to go to a new home. Definitely that Funco board game that we have there. We've got a lot of expansions for that.
Speaker 2Well, definitely. we have like four copies of vinyl and just different music genres, And you said those are standing alone games, right? So there's definitely you know, at least one or two of those. I could go And they're still in shrink.
Speaker 3Well, you can think COVID and quarantine for that. I went all in. I didn't really understand how this whole I thought everything was an expansion that you had to have And I really wanted that 80s And I really wanted that.
Speaker 2Heavy metal one So.
Speaker 3I just went all in on it. So that's what happens when you're quarantine in a bedroom by yourself with nothing but YouTube and, well, the ability to spend money.
Speaker 2So you're like literally have six. We have six stand alone vinyl games, so all different genres, but they are good games, so definitely you know. I think that would be a good one to bring.
Speaker 3Yeah, there's a couple of them in there. I will not. Will not call Discover Lands on Nile. That game is staying in our collection because I will. I'm taking that game on again. I'm telling you what sucks nothing. I am taking that game on. I will win. I will discover the land unknown.
Speaker 2Are we gonna go? We're gonna call Arkham Horror If we decide to do that. I would have to straight all the cards. I would try to get it back into the original.
Speaker 3Something, maybe, maybe not, i mean, i don't know.
Speaker 2That one might be difficult, just within the next game Next week, to straighten everything out.
Speaker 3Top Gun strategy game. Love the volleyball aspect of it. The actual air combat, yeah, that could probably go conflicted.
Speaker 2We have that D&D essentials. I don't know if you wanna keep that Yeah.
Speaker 3I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. We got a lot of.
Speaker 2We've got Horizons of Spirit Island down here.
Speaker 3Yeah, that could probably get cold.
Speaker 2That, could you know, has area control, My favorite mechanic. I mean, I have dark seas which could go, which is still in shrink.
Speaker 3Floor plan the Winchester house.
Speaker 2Yeah, that turned out to be a bust.
Speaker 3That was. Yeah, you were so excited when you bought that.
Speaker 2Do you want to play patchwork?
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2You too? Yes, I thought that was a for sure. Well, that okay.
Speaker 3Do I ever wanna play patchwork? No, never, i don't wanna, you don't?
Speaker 2wanna get rid of it because it is like a thorn right. It's not scar.
Speaker 3It is.
Speaker 2It's not scar. What was that movie? It was the movie Cars 3, where Mator's got these dents. He won't pull up because it's got a memory attached to it. That's it. Patchwork is your memory of your least favorite game ever.
Speaker 3Yes, So there's three games that we're gonna we're gonna figuratively call my Mator Dents. Okay, my Mator Dents.
Speaker 2There we go, there we go.
Discussion on Neovill and Teaching Games
Speaker 3My Mator Dents is Discover Lands Unknown. Someday that dent will be pulled out. Okay, Patchwork if you've been listening to this podcast, you know how I feel about it. And then number three is probably Galaxy Trucker. I know there's a lot of people out there that love that game, but again, maybe it's just me and maybe I just suck, because I do suck at a lot of games and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I hate to lose but I suck. So it's kind of weird. It's a weird dynamic there. But Galaxy Trucker is like the space version of Patchwork. For me, That game is like.
Speaker 3Let me paint you a picture I'm a Galaxy Trucker, I'm in space. I spent all this money, all this time, this energy, this effort designing the greatest spaceship ever. I go on my mission, my first christening flight into the broad unknown, the vastness of space. I didn't put a freaking laser on the back or an engine or something on the back of the thing. Defend shield or something. Defend shield and boom. Now I'm floating in space. I'm dead, I'm dying, I'm cold because I couldn't even make a quilt to save my life.
Speaker 3My socks were wet, and my socks were wet.
Speaker 2You're chilled from the inside out.
Speaker 3And nobody could hear me scream because I was in space.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3So that is, those are my three meter dents.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3Not gonna call those games. We're gonna keep them, because someday I'm gonna take a dent popper thing and pop that dent right out Dent popper thing. I don't know what the term is, but Well, what games do you see on that shelf? I think that Game of Thrones game will go to.
Speaker 2Well, the top shelf definitely. So far, you've pretty much nailed it on the head. But let me take a spinner out. A lot of that's your call, because they're games that you bought on a whim, like the boldest, and Well, those were, those were digging dent. Yeah, Yeah, those are the ones. I don't know. Starship Captains, I don't know. We shouldn't You know? I'm thinking You don't get rid of Starship Captains, Okay?
Speaker 3We're not getting rid of that one.
Speaker 2Yet You're not ready for that. No, i'm thinking Pandemic North America. We can get rid of.
Speaker 3Sure, we could probably get rid of beer and bread. That's funny. I know there's at least one person listening out there who just cheered out loud, audibly.
Speaker 2That's funny.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I'm sure we'll have it all figured out before July 2nd. Into Rivers, wisconsin. You never said the location, you just said it's into Rivers, you never said Washington State, i'm sure what's it called again.
Speaker 2Heroes Venture Retro Arcade.
Speaker 3Okay, if you're coming in from the lake, if you go to Wall, if you see Walgreens, you've gone too far, so turn around. I don't know what to say. This is Wisconsin. This is how we give directions.
Speaker 2Exactly. Take a right at the. It's a more quick trip on the other side of the street. Oh, do you know where Fatso's is? It's like across from Fatso's.
Speaker 3Yep, and if you may get the pick and save. oh, you went too far. turn around, go back over the bridge and go back where Jim and Jones You know where Evans used to be. Yeah, you know where that.
Speaker 2It's in the building where that tight shop was.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, evans, holy cow. Angie refuses Straight up, refuses to name this segment, she just wants to call it. Hey, what did we play?
Speaker 2No. So, You never named your segment.
Speaker 3It is named Stuff That Chris Finds Interesting, and lately I have not. I'm lying. There's a lot of stuff going on in the board gaming world, but I'm just not feeling that about it, so Okay, so I named mine Stuff That Chris Finds Interesting. You, on the other hand, hate that name And I'm assuming, since I'm not changing my name, you're not gonna name yours.
Speaker 2Well, actually I wasn't gonna talk about the games we played until you just brought it up, so Okay, well, I'm gonna talk about them Okay. Let's talk about Neovill. Oh, oh, you pulled that one out, the first one out.
Speaker 3Whoa, i'm out of the gates swinging Like there wasn't exactly Like there wasn't a reason for that. Did I just do you a dirty?
Speaker 2Oh, you did. I don't know how that, but you know what It's fair play. Turn around is fair play, because who taught that game?
Speaker 3I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2Who read the rules to me and taught that game?
Speaker 3Yeah, the one who knows how to play the game me.
Speaker 2The one who doesn't read the rule book and is.
Speaker 3What are you talking about? I read the rule book. You don't listen when I talk. See, here's the deal.
Speaker 2Yes, yes I did, but you were not clear. Aboloni, you were not clear.
Speaker 3Angie, I am.
Speaker 2Okay, okay When you say grid. Oh, when you say grid, you had a burning in your mind. Have you ever seen a piece of paper, grid paper? Well, all the time. I look at it at work all the time Okay so there's lots of ways to make shapes on a grid. You don't necessarily have to make it a square grid.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2And that's what you needed to do with Neovill. Now I was doing four by four, but my four by four were not exactly a square.
Speaker 3Yeah, but that's not what you got hung up on.
Speaker 2Well, it was bad.
Speaker 3You got hung up on how to play All the play.
Speaker 2Yeah, because you weren't clear on that. Oh my.
Speaker 3God, No you weren't clear on that. I need to start recording everything so we can have flashback sequences every time you call. You weren't clear on that. Angie, i am the clearest rules teacher there is No no, i Yeah right.
Speaker 2No, you did No, you did say that at one point you did say that the Was it a vehicle?
Speaker 3Yes. It had to be in the same role, like the patrol and the.
Speaker 2When I thought so it was my mistake.
Speaker 3But it had to be. We'll say that again.
Speaker 2No, it was my misunderstanding That it had to be in the same column or row. Yeah, which is what I said I had it only in the row, so I was not looking at the number of parks in the column, because I had to have You had to have at least four parks or recreations, i think, in a column or row And I wasn't completely paying attention to that.
Speaker 2And well, once, to me the devastation is once I realized that I wasn't creating the square grid as in King Domino, that type of grid pattern. I had to start moving tiles And when I was moving tiles, it was just messing up the towns, the neighborhoods I was building, and that was devastating to me Because I came up with some good neighborhoods. So I ended up with like five points.
Speaker 3You did, that was your path.
Speaker 2I had really good neighborhoods that I had to literally break up And I just at that point just kind of said whatever?
Speaker 3And I threw You did say whatever and throw.
Speaker 2I just threw the tiles to make the pattern, just to get back in the five by five that way. So no, that was my error, even though you weren't clear on it. It was my error And at that point I kind of just gave up. I just gave up.
Speaker 3No, i don't think I've ever seen you that disheartened during a game ever. If that's what I look like, I am so sorry. I am so sorry Because I know I get there a lot.
Speaker 2So that was the first part. We did play it after that And I did enjoy my second play of it.
Speaker 3Yeah, so Neovill. For those that are wondering what we're talking about, it's a game designed by Phil Walker Harding Where, basically, you're an architect. The theme is you're an architect to build a city And you are making like an eco habit. You're making a city that is a combination of human habitation and the natural world, so you're trying to make it all.
Speaker 2Cinergistic.
Speaker 3Cinergistic. That's good. And you build your skyscrapers in a four by four grid and your skyscrapers are worth a certain amount of harmony points at the end of the game, based on their value and the district size. So there's certain ways that you can score.
Speaker 2Yeah, you have to have your district either the same or more squares than your tower, and the towers range from like five to 12. You have to know if you place a tower there, if you place like an eight or a 10 there, you have to be able to expand that one neighborhood at least that many squares. So that's where I was losing the points when I was breaking up my neighborhoods.
Speaker 3Yep.
Speaker 2Minus points.
Speaker 3Yep, and before we move on to the next game, i just want to say Angie, i take teaching games very seriously. So we may have joked on Favor Game Friday and said I don't teach and I got out. Ha ha, it's a character, it's what I do. It's like Chris magnified by a hundred right.
Speaker 2But when I leave you with these parting words of wisdom, before we move on Yeah, parting words until we leave this studio and go downstairs.
Speaker 3Yeah, And then I teach a game and you go. You're right, chris really does take this seriously.
Speaker 2You used to Give me your parting words and then I'm going to have parting words.
Speaker 3Here are my parts. I used to take teaching seriously.
Speaker 2You used to do the teach, You used to watch a video, read rule blocks, have everything prepared and now it's kind of like, okay, have the game set up. what do I do?
Speaker 3Ha ha. yeah, I'm doing it to help you become better at what you do.
Speaker 2Oh, oh.
Speaker 3See.
Speaker 2Oh, that's so good You're being supportive in my endeavor to be.
Speaker 3Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2You're setting me up for success.
Speaker 3I am See how that works. So If the student has not learned, then the teacher did not teach. Those are my parting words.
Speaker 2So if I suck at it, I can blame you.
Speaker 3But don't turn that back on me. Okay, because those were words of wisdom. Finally, we got a chance to play Sierra West.
Speaker 2We did.
Speaker 3That's been on our shelf for a long time.
Speaker 2That's been a long time. I'm glad we finally got a chance to play. I just felt good because that's one I always wanted to play and it's been sitting there, so I'm glad It's like a couple other ones I always wanted to get to and they're just sitting. I'm glad we got that one and I enjoyed that one.
Speaker 3If it wasn't for Brandon from the All aboard gamer YouTube channel. He had an interview, live interview with Johnny Pack. I think that was the catalyst to get it off of our shelf right.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, something very interesting about the game that he had. He created the game and it was originally a relatively short game and then the people at the publishing company wanted more to it And that's probably why he added all the other modules, because you can play the game. There's like three other modules to it and are different ways you can add and change up the game, so I'd be interested to know the one that we played, if that was the original or which one was the Apple one.
Speaker 3Yeah Yeah, so that was fun. We also got a chance to play Spies and Lies, a Stratigo game.
Speaker 2Oh, that was the time that we got to play games out in the porch.
Speaker 3Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, That was fun. I love playing games outside.
Speaker 2I do too.
Speaker 3My perfect world would be to have an RV. You know this, i'm just telling the listeners. My perfect world would have an RV. Just have games on that sucker. Go on a road trip and just drive camp game. see the sights, it would be so fun. So if anybody's got a RV they want to donate to the Chasing Meeples RV fund? Hit me up, thor Axis.
Speaker 2I would like to go to different game stores around the country in an RV. Oh my God It would be amazing, it would be interesting.
Speaker 3Oh my God, game stores and four game cafes.
Speaker 2That would be an interesting story We could record at different game stores all around the country.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, that would be so cool. Gabe would love it. You just get out in that vehicle and just drive.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 3Oh, you're so cool, All right, And no, I'm not looking for anybody to give me a free RV, but I would not turn it down. So we did play Spies and Lies Stratigo Outside. I thought I taught that one pretty well, but you could not get the hang of it assigning your cars.
Speaker 2You know that was crazy. Do you know why I was crazy, Why I won?
Speaker 3Moving on to the next game we talked about.
Speaker 2I think that burns you the most is when I don't get the game and then I win.
Speaker 3I forgot what game we were even talking about Monolith.
Speaker 2Monolith.
Speaker 3You were horrible at that. Just saying I didn't think so. No you did not do good. You didn't do good at all. I smoked you.
Speaker 2Well, you won, but it doesn't mean I wasn't good at it.
Speaker 3No, no, you were not good at that game.
Speaker 2I had some. What are you talking about? I had, i had some. I had sides built and I had.
Speaker 3No, I'm standing by my guns. Tell me you're not good at that game. I don't even know where that came from.
Speaker 2I mean I lost, but it's not like a new bill, that I didn't know what I was doing, i was okay.
Speaker 3I've never just told anybody they're not good at a game. It didn't feel good, but it was funny.
Speaker 2How next time try doing it when it's accurate.
Speaker 3No, it was totally accurate.
Speaker 2It's not Nope. What's the name? next game on the list I'm done.
Speaker 3The next game on our list is Fistful of Meeples.
Speaker 2I enjoyed the game. It's another Johnny Pack game. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3It was good Angie got that for me for Father's Day Yeah and you sucked at that game.
Speaker 2What are you talking about? I won. I won because I built, Yeah you won. I built the whole city practically. You only had two buildings built and I had like an entire side of the street.
Speaker 3Yeah, you're right, you won. And. I was all like happy Father's Day, Chris. No, I thought that game was really good. See, I loved Mancala. I used to play Mancala like years ago.
Speaker 3I didn't even say what Angie always says, that I say Back in the day used to play Mancala a ton and Othello I think Othello is a good game to do, by the way, but so that's so that I think you know what I'm going to tell you. I think that Fistful of Meeples replaces five tribes for me when it comes to scratching that Mancala itch.
Speaker 2Oh, how horrible of you to say that.
Speaker 1Horrible.
Speaker 2Horrible. Why It's not the same game at all.
Gackpan and Schmackpan
Speaker 3But it's more Mancala isque than five tribes. I just said well, replaces the Mancala itch. I didn't say it replaces five tribes. It doesn't make five, it's not a five tribes killer, but I think I would like I would play, i would enjoy that more than five tribes, if I just want to get them on college.
Speaker 2Okay, i didn't know you ever had them on college.
Speaker 3Well, i get that itch every now and then. Yeah, yeah, i get that Mancala itch, especially when we're walking through the store, like during Christmas season or whatever. You see all those like gift things and they always have the wooden Mancala for $5.
Speaker 2Better take care of that itch then.
Speaker 3Are you doing me a dirty online now, or are you on here online? What do you mean? take care of that itch.
Speaker 2I mean, i don't know, i just said that Yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2Whatever, in my head it was clever. In my head it was clever Well coming out of your mouth.
Speaker 3it wasn't. Oh God, I got a quarter in me today, All right.
Speaker 2Who shoved a nickel up your butt.
Speaker 3Sobek sobek two players.
Speaker 2I smoked you the first time and you were so devastated at that game You said it was broken. How do you feel about?
Speaker 3subsequent plays.
Speaker 2Yes, that's it.
Speaker 3I like the game now. It's not. It's not broken. I'm just going to say that it was the player and I need you to apologize to Bruno. Well, Bruno, I'm really sorry that Angie can't teach your games.
Speaker 2Holy shit, i can't believe. You said that I can teach your games, bruno, chris just did me a dirty. I have breaking news for you, chris.
Speaker 3Breaking news.
Speaker 2I have named that segment. It's Gackpan.
Speaker 3Gackpan.
Speaker 2Gackpan.
Speaker 3Okay, break it down.
Speaker 2No, I want you to figure it out.
Speaker 3Gackpan.
Speaker 2Gackpan. It'll be next week's Meeple quiz. You can think about it for a week Gackpan All right Gackpan it is. All right, do you know what time it is right now?
Speaker 3For Schmackpan.
Speaker 2Schmackpan It is quiz time, all right, and it yes, it does have follows with the theme.
Speaker 3The theme of this episode.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3Hold on, i'm just writing Gackpan G-A-C-E-A-N.
Speaker 2G-A-C-E-A-N. Yeah, yeah, okay, this game, yves.
Speaker 3Angie and Chris played at night.
Speaker 2See, you got it.
Speaker 3Really Yeah, that's what it was, yeah.
Speaker 2I wrote it in my hand and everything. Okay, Are you? are you ready? Put your thinking cap on. It is quiz time.
Speaker 3All right.
Speaker 2Cue the music. This is rule replacement. Now, i was going to do an example but I didn't, so I'm going to read a rule. That rule is going to have keywords replaced with terms of springtime gardening or flowers, as in move one tulip, that would be move one cube. That's an example.
Speaker 3Game following yes, Okay.
Speaker 2So you have to come up with the game. So you don't have to come up with the actual rule, just the name of the game that it came from.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3Max points Max points.
Speaker 2Let's do five each one. Okay, so then it would be 25 points. All right, because it follows the theme. So you know what our theme is today.
Speaker 3Resurgence.
Speaker 2Apocalypse, apocalypse, apocalypse.
Speaker 3I like that theme.
Speaker 2Okay, so the first rule is weed pickers, or weed a picker. Here it is Remove one picker cube from the garden you are in, placing it in the plant supply next to the board. If this picker color has been plucked, remove all cubes of that color from the garden you are in. I made this easier because it was more difficult.
Speaker 3Yeah, because this is really easy right now. I'm taking out like when you read that to me. I'm trying to like remove picker plucker.
Speaker 2Picker garden slant. So keywords are No, no, you don't Oh.
Speaker 3Okay, no, the game is pandemic.
Speaker 2I have pandemic legacy, but I will accept pandemic Okay, next question.
Speaker 3That was tough.
Speaker 2Next one I'm calling Plantina Lily.
Speaker 3What did you call the other one?
Speaker 2Weed a pickers, so it was treated disease.
Speaker 3Weed a pickers Yeah.
Speaker 2Treat a disease. It was the name of the rule.
Speaker 3And you changed it to weed a pickers. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2So I'm changing the word treat and then disease to weed a pickers.
Speaker 3Yeah, okay, whatever Okay.
Speaker 2Okay, I won't read what I entitled.
Speaker 3Yeah, don't do that. That's going to throw me completely off.
Speaker 2Okay, okay, here we go. I thought they were clever but okay, they're clever.
Speaker 3But treated a disease, weed a pickers.
Speaker 2So I'm moving the word treat and adding the word weed, and then removing the word disease and adding the word pickers.
Speaker 3Yes, I understand that. I thought it was clever.
Speaker 2Okay, The next one, Chris. the next one On your turn. you take one of your available lilies and place them in a space in your garden. You cannot place a lily on a space that already contains a lily, nor a space from one of the petals in the room trap.
Speaker 3I don't even want to ask this What did you name this rule?
Speaker 2Plantina lily.
Speaker 3So you change the word placing with planting and a lily is a worker.
Speaker 2Close, close, yeah, essentially The word isn't worker.
Speaker 3I'm lost.
Speaker 2I'll redo the rule Placing a dweller On your turn. You take one of your available dwellers and place them on a space in the vault.
Speaker 3Oh, and not place them. Yeah, okay, this one, yeah.
Speaker 2Fallout shelter. Yeah, okay, the next one. This one you better get.
Speaker 3Oh great.
Speaker 2This one, because this is the one that started off in my head. Spend one rose petal to take your rose thorn into your hand. The rose thorn may be junked to gain an extra rose petal. When you junk the rose thorn, return it to your play area instead of pruning it. You may keep the rose thorn in your hand across multiple pansies.
Speaker 3Well, this is 50 for a state. No, because you're junking a card. Is it Radlands?
Speaker 2Water, water, it's the water.
Speaker 3It's the water That makes sense, Yeah water silo.
Speaker 2Okay, the next one.
Speaker 3Because in Radlands you do the same thing You can, or in 51st state you do the same thing You can, like I think. I don't know.
Speaker 2Yeah, you can get rid of cards.
Speaker 3And get it for the resources instead of using it as a card. So that's the way I heard that.
Speaker 2There are two ways you can fertilize a location in your garden Lilac. Choose a card from your glove and discard a number of petals equal to its pollen value. Put the card in front of you, then smile and say something nice to your opponents. New flower bed cards are placed next to your daisy board according to their category Petunia locations are built in the top row, geranium locations are built in the middle row And mom locations are built in the bottom row 51st state.
Speaker 3That's 51st state, got it. Build a location.
Speaker 2Yep. Last one Multiple tulip cards may be planted at the same time. Your first tulip will be your bouquet, who represents the leader of your garden. You'll be able to gain new tulip cards by placing your token into a dandelion or iris room with the pick a tulip icon and paying the associated resource cost. You can also gain a tulip for free when you complete a row of three seedlings for the first time. Remember, when you gain a tulip card, you immediately add the corresponding flower token from your supply into your greenhouse. However, if you do not have any more tokens left in your supply, you may still prune that card, skipping the planting the token in your greenhouse.
Speaker 3I have absolutely. no. I'm going to say just because I know how your mind works It's endless winter because Stan Kordonsky is the designer of resurgence, Am I correct?
Speaker 2Stan Kordonsky is the designer of resurgence and also that game, step three worker actions. Multiple survivor cards may be activated at the same time. Your first survivor card will be your hero who represents the? leader of your faction.
Speaker 3Okay, i didn't want to go with resurgence in the meeple quiz, but come on, angie, what Dirty. Doing me a dirty. Are you serious?
Speaker 2I thought it would have been too obvious for me to say that I thought that was a gimme.
Speaker 3Well, I was going to say that Ugh, ugh, ugh, so bad, i'm so bad. Oh well, angie, i just want to say that was a very good quiz. However, please explain to me how gardening and springtime ties into the theme of how it's, they don't, but okay, i. Because that's what's throwing me off.
Speaker 2Okay, i'll tell you what. I got some inspiration from that game from Nicholas Murphy on. This Game is Broken When he does this and he does it much more complicated because I originally had it he changes every word to banana, so it would literally be remove one banana cube from your gut. I mean it would have been banana, it would have been banana. When you take your banana, you take one of your bananas from your available bananas and place them in a. So if I use the same word, i thought it'd be too confusing.
Speaker 3I don't think so. No, i think when you're hanging out saying, take a peach and pluck it from the tree, and pluck it from the plicker and pluck it, the pluckety-pluckety weedie Well see the words like we're also action.
Speaker 2Like I said, weed was actually the word treat, so it was the same verbage. You know using that and a noun here, and I think there's only one time I did not do that the correct way. I thought that would help.
Speaker 3No, I think the way you did it was a little bit more confusing for me. I think banana would have been a good way.
Speaker 2You could have just changed the pineapple and it could have been legally distinct. It could have been So pineapple, but it wouldn't get sued from Nick Moore. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3All right, So 10 out of 25. I got to take it, Angie.
Speaker 2You have to take it.
Speaker 1Shall, we play a game.
Speaker 3Let's play global thermo nuclear war. Fun Whips. I do. You want, i'll be the Russians. It is time for us to venture into post apocalyptic Russia. We're, we're taking that trip, we're going in and we are going to be talking about resurgence, a fascinating game from none other than Stan Stanislav Kordonsky. Before we start, though, angie, much like Gakpan, i came up with a fancy anagram too. So, for those of you that have been listening to our podcast for a while, we do rate everything on. Pretty much when we talk about a game, we do a review of a game, we talk about certain, i guess, criteria or certain categories. Those are mechanics, art, theme, replayability, components, and then we rounded out with what we rate the game. So, because I want it to be a little bit creative, i decided that we should, and Angie doesn't know anything about this. We're going to have a chase scale, so each letter is going to represent a key aspect of the gaming experience.
Speaker 2So you just made this up.
Speaker 3Totally 100 percent.
Speaker 2So you're going to have to maybe have to walk me through it. So now I have to reorder my Oh yeah, walking.
Speaker 3I'm walking you through right now.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3All right. So, if you can imagine the word chase, because we are chasing mebos after all.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3And here we go. So C is going to stand for components, h is going to stand for heart, or, like the theme of the game. A is for artwork and S is for strategy. That's where we could talk about game mechanics and E is for entertainment. So we talk about replayability and overall fun of the game. You got it.
Speaker 2Got it.
Speaker 3All right, let's start chasing into resurgence. So we're going to start with C components. So I think it brings to the table a well crafted game. I think you know for half a kingdom games, his own stands only on publishing company as their first, first game. they did a good job with the components. It wasn't that expensive of a game to buy yet I think, the components being really nice screen printed tokens and you know there's good. The player board isn't like a like flimsy paper. the compound.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's a thick.
Speaker 3It's a thicker cardboard. I think everything was designed really well. I think I touched on just about everything. Is there anything that jumps out of your mind about components and functionality?
Speaker 2about components It does, because I thought you were going to touch on it and you totally missed on it. The reference sheet is actually the back of the screen, the player screen, where you are essentially, with the player screen you are covering.
Speaker 3That's your play rate. Yeah, that's your play rate.
Speaker 2Yeah, you use the player screen to cover up your personal position board, your leadership track, and you're using the screen to cover up that, and the back of the screen is your player aid. So it's right there in front of you. It's not another card that you have to search for. So I like that.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Game Theme, Artwork, and Strategy
Speaker 2Otherwise, everything else I agree with you on. That was my only addition to that.
Speaker 3Okay. So let's talk a little bit moving on to the H in chasing, and that is the heart of resurgence. So the heart of resurgence again would be the theme. So when you think about this game, it is a worker placement game, it's a bag builder And at the heart of it it's a Euro game at its purest. And the theme? it takes place in the bleak ruins of Moscow and it manages to pull you in. It pulls me in. You do feel a sense of struggle. So resources is they're scarce in this game. It's kind of hard to come by resources. It gives you that tangible feeling that it, for me at least, right. Does that make sense? Yeah Right, you have to complete missions, you have to recruit survivors, figure out a way to build your base, and I think all of that is weaved well into the theme. What do you think?
Speaker 2I am not a fan of this theme. I think the theme is there, but I don't think it's there a lot, which for me is good, because I can then concentrate on the Euro mechanics of the game And I don't have to worry so much about everything else. I think we're talking themes, so I can leave my next comment for when we get to mechanics. But, like I said, i don't like the theme and it is good. He uses it good with the compound boards And maybe all your workers that you're pulling from the bag. There are three different types of workers. There's your hero, there are your basic workers that have the little Russia furry hat on there, and then you have Your laborers.
Speaker 2Your laborers, and then you have some specialists, and they are worth different points, different value, and so then you're fighting on the leadership track and I don't know, and I think you would. I think that way that you do have competing personalities. If you are in a small society like that, so you would probably have some of these people competing for leadership. So you know, in that way I think it's got a good theme, but it's not one that smacks me so hard in the face that I can't concentrate on how to play.
Speaker 3Now for me, I think it's there, Like I think we'll talk a little. I'll talk a little bit more about that when we get to art. I think it's good. There are certain things that I think maybe could have been stronger in the theme. Like I think if you're going to put mutants in the game, I can talk about that in mechanics as well, but I think the mutants, they're just there.
Speaker 2There's a crossover there, so Yeah, they're just there. Right How they're used. Now, that's mechanic-wise Yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, but I mean, theme-wise makes sense to have mutants roaming the streets, but I just I feel like they don't provide the same intimidation as I originally thought they would when it comes to the game. So and I can explain a little bit more of that later You want to move on to artwork now, wherever? Okay, i'm going to talk about the A in Chase and that is artwork. So, like I said, i was immediately struck by how well the artwork captured the cold, harsh reality of that Moscow. The board, how it's just ruined. But I get the feeling I know this is taking place in Moscow. Does that make sense to you?
Speaker 2I understand what you say.
Speaker 3And I've never seen Moscow in person, but I can tell, and it just has, that There's enough Moscow in it where I can go. Hey, this is Moscow. I don't know how I'm saying this. Do you know what I mean? Like it doesn't look like a generic rubbley city.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3Okay, the first player marker. if you look at it closely you can see in the art in the screen printing on it that it's actually like broken building. It's painted though.
Speaker 2So I mean it would be broken apart.
Speaker 3yeah, Yeah, but if you look at the artwork, there's holes drawn into the Okay, at the top of the.
Speaker 2I never bothered to look that closely at it.
Speaker 3Yeah, i was looking, okay. The other thing that I really like about it is when you look Like the artwork is, it's unique. So when you look just at the back of this player screen, right, so this is what you see, this is the first player marker here, and if you look at the first player marker, these broken parts here are actually on that, but it just gives you a sense of action here. Right, and I don't know, it's like a comic book style artwork. But at the same point, when you're looking at the cards so your survivor cards and your hero cards, they have that And I don't know how to explain it other than Soviet era propaganda poster artwork.
Speaker 2That's a good description of it.
Speaker 3You know, and it's very.
Speaker 2I was gonna say World War II art poster, but yeah, yeah, yeah, what you would see up in the red square hanging when you see, maybe, the leader banner hanging down from the Berlin wall, you know Yeah.
Speaker 3I don't know. It would be interesting if you look into the thought of time period. If I look at the clothing on these people, I'm thinking 80s. right, Thinking 80s 80s. Yeah, i'm thinking 80s 80s Yeah. Maybe not, maybe 60s, 50s, what are you thinking? I'm thinking 80s.
Speaker 2This was much before the 80, okay.
Speaker 3Okay, so like It's like time froze, you know kind of like video game fallout.
Speaker 2Yeah you know, I see I don't think a follow in the 80s I was no follow was in the 50s.
Quacks of Quenlinburg and Luck Mitigation
Speaker 3Yeah, 50s, ish, alternative 50s, but I think like I Don't know, i just like I really love the artwork in this game. What do you think I?
Speaker 2Like their work. Yeah, I like the card art. Like I said, it looks like Yeah, World War two era Artwork.
Speaker 3Cool. Now, moving on to the next letter, is s. So we're talking strategy. This is where we can talk about the mechanics. That's where I would like to talk about the mechanics. I think there's a lot of strategy in the game. I Think the blend of bag building, hidden work, replacement and resource management Gives you a depth of gameplay. That is sad if that that that's complex, okay. However, i really wish For it to be a Bag builder, that there was more of a push your luck element why I?
Speaker 2Don't know so necessarily bag building but not okay So then you're thinking quacks of quenlinburg.
Speaker 3Yeah, i'm thinking quacks of quenlinburg, exactly right, so there isn't. How can I put it this way when I, when I, you're literally just using the? it could have been. If you're gonna go bag builder, there should be some sort of I Guess feedback loop of I don't know how to put it, but instead it's you okay. Okay, how can I? how can I explain this? You draw four people on your turn, yeah, unless you are moving up on your compound, and then it becomes five, yeah, so the only thing that the bag really does is it you're literally just pulling people out of a bag and And that's it.
Speaker 3Yeah, but you don't know you're gonna get right. That's where the luck comes in.
Speaker 2I get that, but there's no luck Mitigation and that's where the luck comes in.
Speaker 3I get that, but there's no luck mitigation in the game either.
Speaker 2Why would there have to be? well, it's not a big case. You know bad How you have.
Speaker 3You ever okay? Okay, going back to what I'm trying to say, right? So I've never had a moment where I pull out of the bag. Oh yeah, I got my ranger. I never had that. Oh, I got my ranger moment you have when I get my my hero. You get your, your leader right, yeah, but because he can do things.
Speaker 2Other people can't he.
Speaker 3Can do everything, yeah, you know when.
Speaker 2Even when you get your ranger and you get your other people, they get additional benefits. So if you're gonna go to The one where you collect admission and get a bullet, you need a certain worker for that the guy with a But he looks like somebody that has that old Leather helmet that's your ranger.
Speaker 2Okay, yeah, you need him to do that, to go to that spot. There are people that you need the scientists. If you want to get extra oils, if you really need oil that time, then you're gonna put your scientists in the. I think that's a. That's one of the blue spots, so I I find that they're. You know that those people are. I get that, aha.
Speaker 3Oh, you do.
Speaker 2Yeah, i don't think there needs to be any luck in it, because I don't think It's a luck based game. Normally, euro games are not, so I'm not expecting that. So I'm not expecting that you need to mitigate because a lot of deck builders you don't mitigate.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly, exactly, but you do mitigate your luck in the deck builder.
Speaker 2There's a way to I.
Speaker 3Don't know, maybe I'm wrong Yeah maybe I'm wrong on that, but I Don't have that aha moment when I, when I pull out, like that's okay like I think you could. You could have. You can actually get a bad pull and your whole round sucks. Yeah, and there's only six rounds in the game. Yeah, and there's no way to again Euro based game. There isn't a lot of luck in Euro games.
Speaker 2Well, it's also you knowing what to do with the people you do get. Because if you're just gonna get that basic worker, where are you gonna put him to get the most value out of him? If you want to get, if you need certain resources, you're gonna stick him in your compound and that's where you could spend an oil to get two bullets. That's a good action, but that's something you would stick that worker to do because, unless you're further up in the higher Levels of your compound, you don't really need to use your specialist. So I Think it's what you, the strategy is, where you use your people.
Speaker 3Oh, absolutely gonna do on your turn well, not only that, there's I Don't want to say there's a lot of ways to get points in this game, but there's a lot of different ways you can play the game. Yeah, all the times that we've played the game, i've tried a different strategy.
Speaker 2So if I my last one sucked, You know.
Speaker 3So There's the. Do you want to take the time to invest time in building your compound? Oh, there's benefits to that, but I think the more time you spend on that, the less time you're gonna have to complete missions.
Speaker 2And that's what you get with a Euro game. There's a lot to do. You have to make that decision and I think that's a good sign of a good Euro game Making those decisions, having to be that thinkiness. If it's Only do one thing, if okay, every game, i'm gonna do this, then you don't get that replay ability, then you don't get the Thinkiness, and that is what I mean. If you just want to slap some cards out of roll some dice and get your lucky play dice, so that's a different type of game. Quacks, a quidlinberg, you pull things from a big, but if you blow up, you blow up. Those are different types of games and I would play resurgence because I want that Euro game feel And that's what I get with this. I don't see theme in it, but I definitely get that Euro game feel from all those mechanics and I'll stop so adamantly screaming like that because you didn't think I like this game, stan Kordonski, i think you did good job.
Speaker 3Stan Kordonski, didn't think you liked this game. I have a feeling you've been talking to him, or what.
Speaker 2Well, you know, i'm in that half-king thing.
Speaker 3What.
Speaker 2He's got a group.
Speaker 3Yeah, i'm in that group too, well you know.
Speaker 2I might get a thumbs up here in there Oh.
Speaker 3Oh, that's good. Um, am I missing anything? because there is something I want to talk about, but I want you to give your opportunity to talk about stuff As well.
Speaker 2Well, okay, and this is where I was gonna bring in the mechanics. I don't know if I should save it to the very end. But, yes, the mutants and I and I appreciate the fact that the mutants just essentially Take up it you make, takes resources away from you. But in the last night's game and this is when you have multiple cards, you maybe get different things on your cards, and we have one of our events There was a mutant in our compound, so it wasn't just pay a research, you know the breach he. He literally took up your spot as a spot you wanted to go to.
Speaker 3So that was but it wasn't mutant, it was you took. Oh, you put a survivor there to survivor, You pull somebody out of your bag to do it.
Speaker 2But but the idea was the mute the event was Yeah, I'm gonna put a mutant in there.
Speaker 3Yeah, you should have. But essentially your person is probably they're repairing the damage at the mutant.
Speaker 2Okay. So what I wanted to my point was going to be the fact is a solo game the mutants will punish you depending on Your actions that you get. So there are times that the mutant will If you don't pay certain resources, like here under this whole pilot one, you may pay to ammo or medicine, or the mutant gets three VP. So there are things in the solo game that you really, in the leadership boards, you need really need to make careful. I Mean there's really not that type of mitigation with those. But you do get the opportunity to say I'll pay my ammo, but I'm like I need my ammo for other things, or my health for other things, but it is that mute gives you that negative effect that you would expect In the solo experience.
Speaker 3Okay, so I'm yeah, so I didn't play the solo side, i just played at the two, so that makes me feel good that the mutants are a little bit more punishing In the solo game could he have integrated that maybe. Maybe you know that could be it so I really liked. So I really liked that event card that we had. That you just explained.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3Yeah, okay. So when I first Thought about this game, when I backed it, when I looked at it, i Thought the mutants would play a little bit more sure right Yeah. Now, essentially when you're playing a two-player game and a three-player in a floor player game, you draw from the mutant deck, you put your mutant tokens in the certain regions that they're in And when you go there, you just have to give up one resource.
Speaker 2Pretty much the same as if you were in the same spot. I'd give you the resource, or I have to give, give it up, you have to give up a resource so that way, it's not really much different right.
Speaker 3So I was just kind of like when we first play the game. I was just like that's it. Yeah, i Guess in my mind I was thinking more of that Fallout shelter game.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3Where you have all these events that happen in your compound and you have to figure out a way to stop it.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, right again different type of game. Yes, Yes, but I understand that they they're probably different things He could have done with those mutants to make it more punishing right, and I'm hoping I mean this game I don't want.
Speaker 3So as we're going through this, talking about this game, it, it makes it sound like there's I'm disappointed in the game Because I'm really not. I'm not, i'm just being critical.
Speaker 1I really like the game.
Speaker 3That's okay, i enjoy playing the game and and it's definitely a keeper right It's on my shelf. It's on my shelf of post-apocalyptic games. Right, it's a keeper. Maybe there's I really hope there's.
Speaker 2There's expansions in the world, it's a little module in the box that we could be playing with we could try that, yeah, there's yeah, and I did look at it. So there, yeah, there is a factor in there that might that will make it a little bit more. So, yeah, there definitely could be an expansion coming. That will definitely make that a little bit more punishing, if that's what you want.
Speaker 3That's a punishing, just just Relevant, and that's the relevant with the solo.
Speaker 2so that was when we were thinking about I was thinking about that, i. that's why I Acquainted myself with that, this rollo. I Reacquainted myself with this solo Rules, rules, yeah. the solo act, the mutant actions, that's what they're called Yeah.
Speaker 3Good, can we move on?
Speaker 2We can All right, i'm sorry, i actually talked that time.
Gameplay and Replayability in Euro Game
Speaker 3No, you're good. You should talk more. That was a good conversation. Angie, you know very good thoughts. Now let's move on to the last letter in Chase, and that's E, or entertainment, or replayability, however you want to call it, but that doesn't start with E. So what do you think? Like I said earlier, you're asking you. I'm asking you, but I'll start off.
Speaker 2Okay, you start off.
Speaker 3So, like I said during Mechanic the discussion, there's different routes to victory. You can take a different play style every time you play until you find one that fits for you Right Now. Depending on who you play it with, you might have to adjust your Oh, absolutely. You know you might have to adjust it. You know, if I wish we had more people to play with, maybe we bring it with us to PhoenixCon, That's an idea. Get some people in on there and see how it works at a higher level.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3However, you know, like I think the the fact that there's different ways to play it those end game directive cards, the missions. I think there is a lot of replayability in this game. What I really like and I should have maybe talked about this in the Mechanic side of things is you can pull off some pretty cool combos in that game, depending on who your hero is and who the other recruits are.
Speaker 2That you have Specialists, yep.
Speaker 3The specialists that you have.
Speaker 2I mean, you could That was my flaw, i was not playing them.
Speaker 3Yep. So you know I mentioned scarcity of resources, but if you play your people right and you build up your compound or your people, your resistance, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2Yeah, when you buy your heroes, your camp.
Speaker 3Your camp. You could set yourself up for a good combo if you go with your hero here and then you get an extra resource and then another resource for this, and then maybe you fulfill a mission and then you'll get another resource. So you could potentially have a big turn.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3And I think that's neat And that's one thing that I see the potential there, but I haven't been able to pull off a cool combo. Does that make sense? Yeah Right.
Speaker 2Yeah, so you can fulfill a mission the same turn that you get it. But you can, you know, gain those resources and I have not been able to play. I really wanted to play my hero in the right zone, and when to get the extra Mine was like get extra bread when I played it in that battle section, and when I was getting my hero I was needing him in other areas, so that one I didn't get. So I wasn't able to do that. I was never able to utilize my survivors. So another time I play, i could concentrate on that and making sure I got them in the right spot. But that, once again, is part of the thinkiness and the strategy behind it. Boom, i'm going to end up giving it a higher score than I intended.
Speaker 3Well, if you think about the last couple of times we played, I did one strategy where I did get a lot of. I did recruit a lot of people. Yeah, I had a lot of people right. Yeah. And then there was another time where I went, okay, I'm going to build up my compound. Yesterday's strategy was apparently how to suck, but what I was shooting for yesterday was just Instead of getting. I did a lot of the moves where you just pick your person. Does that make sense? What is the one?
Speaker 2Yeah, the one on the bottom where you get workers.
Speaker 3Yeah, where you just take a worker and it's not tied to a specialist.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, it's just your basic action with the guy with the fur hat.
Speaker 3So my first thought was okay, i'm going to. I literally had this planned out.
Speaker 2It was to build a bag.
Speaker 3Yep, build the bag, Yep. So I was going to go in this order It was. I have my workers. Then the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to get my. We're calling them scientists, but they're actually academics, Are you sure? I think they're academics? Oh, We get our academics. And then so I was going to get There's two academic spots or two worker placement spots that an academic can go to.
Speaker 3So I was like all right, i'm going to get two academics, and then there was two spots on the board and then I was going to be. Now I'm going to get my construction workers. Okay, and by the time I got to that point, the game was like half done.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3Right. And then I'm looking at the leadership track and I'm like, oh crap, i'm sucking on this, yeah. And then I'm looking at the missions and I'm like, oh, i only got two missions done. Okay, this is not a good strategy, but I stuck with it to the end, yeah, and I only ended up with like 35 points, right, but I was just trying to Sure, you know.
Speaker 2Sure, and I don't know, Well, I pushed my compound up all the way up there.
Speaker 3Yeah, you did.
Speaker 2And I realized I wasn't fulfilling enough missions then because I was trying to save all my resources and save everything like that to push my compound And it gave me extra points and maybe You know that last turn is when I pushed it up there, so I didn't need that extra worker at the time. That would What it gave me, so I was working on that. So far then I wasn't doing as many missions as I normally do, so I think that's where I missed out on a lot of points.
Speaker 3Yeah, but Yeah, I don't disagree with you at all. It was cool to see that you got your compound built all the way up to the top level. I mean, that's not a, that's a lot of points just for that, but Yeah, so it was interesting to see how we both did poorly yesterday.
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3So What do you think? What are you thinking about replayability?
Speaker 2I like it because of the variability of the cards. I think it really makes it. And will I stick to a? I don't know what kind of strategy I would use, but it's one of those. It's like I like to try to do everything and I know I can't, but I have a really hard time not sticking to everything. So it's going to be one of those, i don't know, because I like getting all the way up, but I don't think it gave me that benefit. So it's going to be interesting playing the next time, but I really I think there's a lot of replayability. It's not one of those that I said. You know, we pulled it off the shelf not just because we want to review it, but because we wanted to play it, and I think that's a sign of a good game. And even though that I don't care for the theme, i still wanted to play it.
Speaker 3Yeah, you've also said the sign of a good game is one that you think about when you're done playing it.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 3And I think about that game a lot, so cool. All right, let's move on to the moment of truth. Okay, do you want me to give you my summary?
Speaker 2You, have a summary.
Speaker 3And my score.
Speaker 2Well, I don't have a summary, so you might as well go ahead. I wasn't going to say too much.
Speaker 3Oh, okay, that's all right. Okay. so, like I said, i may have been nitpicky in this, but when it's all said and done, this is a solid 10 out of 10 for me.
Speaker 2Whoa, it is Whoa.
Speaker 3It is, it is 100%. Whoa, so I think about okay, so the theme that sucks me in right away.
Speaker 2Yeah, it does.
Speaker 3Already has an advantage.
Speaker 2It has okay, Because of the theme right, Yep.
Speaker 3And as far as a Euro game goes, I think it's a Euro game at its purest. It's a pure, just straight up.
Speaker 1Euro game.
Speaker 3And I think Stan shines with that. He shines with that stuff.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3You know, the artwork for me conveys its theme effortlessly. It brings me in, it sucks me in And again it's a masterpiece, a masterpiece from Stan Kordansky, it's a masterpiece from Stanislav Kordansky And Stan Stan. If you are listening, you know I've already said it, you're undoubtedly one of my favorite designers And you nailed it with this one. Really looking forward to Nova Roma. Angie, would you rate this game?
Speaker 2I would rate it in 8.25. Okay, it's a good game. It's definitely the Euro game that I'd want to pull. I am really looking forward to Nova Roma because and Brandon had mentioned you were going to get that flavor of this game with a different theme. So I think that might suck me in even more, because I do love he does a great worker placement. So I would like to see it with a different theme, although I would definitely always play this even though it's got this theme, because, like I said, i see enough where I can look past it. It's just to me it's not oozing apocalypse to a point that I can't get past it. If it had zombies running around then I probably would have a difficult time with it, but I like the mutants are there, but they don't get in my way of playing.
Speaker 2That said, what you talked about playing with more people. I think anytime we play like worker placement games, it's got to feel different with more people, because the boards aren't as congested right now And that's almost. I think it would give you that almost area control mechanic that I don't like. But this way, when they are taking up spots, you're giving up a resource. You have to then balance Do I want there? See, it's a strategy. It's the thinkiness this game gives me, so I really do. It's a solid 8.25.
Speaker 3And I think another reason why it would be a 10 for me is now again, we've only played it with two people, but I can't imagine it being any different with three or four people.
Speaker 2It would be tighter.
Speaker 3I think you're going to be using your resources more. You're not going to be able to get your toast all the way up to your resource tracker top of your resource tracker or your bread.
Speaker 2Like I said, those resources aren't easy to get.
Speaker 3Yes, but I think when I say it's a Euro game at its purest, it is, and what I like about it is it's not a Euro game that you're going to have a big time investment into. I think it's short, but it scratches that.
Speaker 2It does.
Speaker 3It's got a good. You know I'm thinking 45 minutes, right, at least 45 with two people probably looking at maybe an hour hour and 15 with a higher player count. You could probably get more than one playthrough in this in a game night if you played with a group, if your game was digging it and you wanted to do it again, or if not. It gives you a good. It gives you an opportunity to get more than one game into your game night.
Speaker 2Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 3But still scratch that Euro game itch.
Speaker 2Exactly, it's not ARC Nova long.
Speaker 3Right.
Speaker 2For me Mars long.
Speaker 3Yep Agreed, so yeah, cool. What did you think about the chase scale, angie?
Speaker 2It was delightful.
Speaker 3Yeah, is it a keeper or is it just a back to the drawing board?
Speaker 2No, no, no, it's cute. It's cute, It's individual, it's unique, So that's fine.
Speaker 3Okay, well, i guess we're keeping it. We're keeping it, we're going to keep chase and Gackpan. Gackpan.
Speaker 2Gackpan. All right, Angie.
Podcast Review Criticism
Speaker 3I guess that wraps up this episode. That was our review of resurgence. A post apocalyptic masterpiece by the one and only Stan Kordonsky. I don't know if anybody calls him this, but we could just call him the Don. I don't know if that's a thing or not, but I don't know.
Speaker 2Stan, we have our socials. We're on our email, chasing meeples at yahoocom, and you know what? You're local, you're from Wisconsin. If you'd like to head up to Appleton, wisconsin, we will be at Phoenixcom. We'd love to play a game with you there.
Speaker 3July 13th through the 16th at the Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton, wisconsin. We'll bring resurgence and we'll get us a table. Anyway, that would be pretty sweet, actually, that would be actually really awesome. But yes, so I don't know what we have planned in the works for next episode. Angie, do you have any thoughts on what we're going to be talking about next time?
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 3All right. Well then, I guess it is the mystery. It's going to be a mystery. I don't want anybody listening to this podcast, any of our meekle chasers, to lose sleep over what our next episode is going to be about, it'll be good.
Speaker 2No matter what it is, it'll be good.
Speaker 3It will be good. All right, and Phil Phil Walker, harding Phil Angie. Still, she needs to get some beauty sleep. Oh yeah, i'm so low.
Speaker 2I need to sleep. I just need to know that you need to score your highest contiguous group and not every group of teal.
Speaker 3Oh God, all right, i promise next time I'm going to behave and I'll be nicer, although this is some good stuff. All right, everybody. thanks for listening. Keep chasing those meeples.
Speaker 2Bye. Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system at the tone. Please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more options.
Speaker 1Chris, it's announcer dude. Yeah, i just got done listening to your review of resurgence. I know you really tried hard on this one, but what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent review were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. No one who tuned in is now dumber for having listened to it, just like you bombed Angie's quiz. I award you no points And may God have mercy on your soul. Talk to you later, man.
