Special Ops: Holiday Grab Bag of Games!

Looking for fresh games that actually hit the table? We dig into a stack of recent plays that span fast fillers, tight two-player duels, a chewy co-op, a welcoming auction classic, and even a solo RPG you can toss in your bag. The throughline is simple: clear rules, meaningful choices, and sessions short enough to replay right away.

We start with Bohemians, a sleeper deckbuilder that remixes After Us’ symbol-chaining puzzle with a bohemian artist theme that finally makes the mechanisms sing. From there, Flamecraft Duels trims the cozy original into an elegant contract-filling duel-in-a-briefcase, and Penguin Party reminds us how a single adjacency rule can fuel ruthless, five-minute mind games. Co-op fans get a spicy recommendation in Flock Together, where punny chickens face predators that level up and weather that wrecks plans, demanding smart coordination and tempo control.

Seasonal spirit shows up in Santa’s Workshop, a bright worker placement refresh with family and advanced modes that both feel satisfying. For auction lovers, Medici earns a place on the shelf as a gateway-friendly once-around classic that balances total value with color-track jockeying. Solo time? The Tainted Grail solo RPG delivers a portable, Arthurian narrative crawl powered by tarot-style exploration, evolving maps, and character arcs that persist across runs, making it perfect for commutes and quiet evenings.

We also gush over White Castle Duel’s razor-tight twelve-turn lantern puzzle, Come Sail Away’s Sashi-designed guest-placement flow that hides depth behind minimal rules, and Agent Avenue’s I-split-you-choose mind games that turn two cards into a bluffing clinic. If you want games that teach fast, play clean, and leave you wanting one more round, this lineup is your new shortlist.

Enjoyed the recommendations? Follow the show, share this episode with your game group, and leave a quick review to help more players find us. What should we play next—got a hidden gem we should try?

Transcript

Drinks, Hellos, And Tonight’s Plan

SPEAKER_04 0:15

Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast, where a special delivery is being made to my co-host, Clayton Gable. How are you, Clayton?

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Muted myself. He told me my my audio wasn't good. So yeah, we're off to a great start here. I'm doing great. Mary just delivered me a whiskey and water, the meal of champions.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

So what type of whiskey are you drinking?

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Couldn't tell you.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

Great.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

I didn't specify, so this could be what do they call it? The well.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

A plastic bottle.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

Plastic bottle whiskey. American special whiskey. Yeah. Awesome. Well, from ambiguous grip brown liquids to our other co-host. Tiff, how you doing, Tiff?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Hello. I'm back.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

You're back. We are we just couldn't get enough from our first conversation. So you are back for another episode. As we approach episode 100 of the Operation Game Net podcast, we want to have all of our friends on to talk board games. So thank you for joining us again. We are honored. And last but not least, another special guest, Michael from Barron Plays Board Games. How's it going?

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Good, good, good. Glad to be back on as well. We are happy to have Tiffany.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Yes. It's good to have multiple guests and fans of the podcast. So thank you for joining us. And thank you for agreeing to talk board games because today we are talking games that we are playing lately. This is going to be a loose debrief, just kind of go around the horn, talk about games that we've been playing, games that we've been loving. Tiff, you talked new games to you this year, but I know that you are constantly, constantly playing games, and you that list is just constantly running. So uh Mike, I know the same for you. You are playing lots of games, and we are living vicariously through you two. So we want you guys to debrief some of the games that you have been playing lately and loving. So, Mike, I'm gonna let you go first because Tiff, we we heard from lately. I want to I want to hear from you, Mike. What's been going on with you?

Bohemians Vs After Us

SPEAKER_03 2:17

All right. Uh are we doing one each or how are we doing this? Let's do one each and then we'll just go around the horn. Cool. Um, so probably the one that is been the most popular with me in the last couple weeks is uh have you guys heard of Bohemians? Yes, just from you.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, just from you.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Uh it was it's a sleeper. Have any of you played after us? Yes, yes, I have. No, uh, so it's deck building, uh, it's very similar to After Us. Um, and the whole premise is you're Bohemian, uh, and you're living through uh your day-to-day and uh trying to get inspiration um so that you can create art and and stuff like that. Uh, but in any kind of bohemian lifestyle, obviously there's a lot of sex tracks and rock and roll going on. Uh so uh as you're buying things from the the cart, there we go. Uh I mean the the market, you uh are trying to match up symbols uh on the cards, and there's like um painting and uh uh security and all these types of things that symbols are you're trying to match up in on on these cards, but with that you also are getting hardships like syphilis. Uh and with that, I like how your eyes like brighten up or they're blame. Um and they really affect how you're you're playing the game. Um, but this has been a lot of fun. I despised After Us, and this is really basically the same exact game with a much more entertaining theme than uh basically uh what's that movie with the apes? See what you mean? Planet. It's basically like After Us is Planet of the Apes, and like they've taken over the world. Uh this is totally different in theme, but exact same gameplay. Um, but this is really a lot of fun, except for when you're telling your girlfriend uh that you have to use spread syphilis. Uh she thought that was a little weird, uh, because it keeps spreading. It's the gift that keeps on getting.

SPEAKER_04 4:31

You feel like the you feel like the theme is better integrated in this one than it wasn't after us. Like after us, it was kind of painted on, like the art was beautiful. The paintings of the chimps and like the decaying old uh civilization is really cool and really striking, but you're like trading batteries and yeah, weird crap that you find around.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

So yeah, it gets rid of all the like resources. Oh and it just when you match up those symbols like the batteries and um and and like what is it, the C's and stuff. Now it is just four symbols matching up as every completed symbol is a uh inspiration um that you buy new cards with, so it it just integrates a lot better and it thematically makes more sense. Awesome. I have not heard of this one, but I am interested.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Are there other STDs besides syphilis?

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Uh that's the only STD, but you have uh what is it? Uh hysteria, uh madness, claustrophobia, uh I mean not claustrophobia, what's the one? Agoraphobia. Uh you get you there's a ton of them. Uh and there's really no limit. Like you could you can keep drawing because you draw four four cards to on to fill out your week. Um but if you pull any hardship cards or muse cards, you keep pulling them until you get four regular cards. Uh so I'm playing online with Korean Meeple, uh Mike from Korean Meeple. Nice. And the I I think I had 13 hardship cards. Uh, so it was just hardship after hardship. I'm not gonna win that game. Uh so yeah, it's a good one though.

SPEAKER_04 6:14

You think it's more like luck-driven, like it's just the the hand that you're dealt, or do you think that there's like decision spaces to navigate around those hardships?

Hardships, Syphilis, And Strategy

SPEAKER_03 6:22

Um there is decisions because you have to spend all your points each each round. Okay. Uh so if you don't, you can either buy stuff from the market with your points, or there's a at the Adelaide board that you collect points, that you can do some special one-time abilities like discard a hardship card and stuff like that. So, really, it's about planning what cards you buy and how to use those points. Um, because you you can get you can get rid of some of these hardship cards uh if you don't get stuck in the syphilis circle. Um so nice. That sounds cool. I'll have to check that one out.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

You said it's online?

SPEAKER_03 7:03

It's on BGA, so we can get that going.

SPEAKER_04 7:05

Beautiful. I would love to give that a try. Uh Tip.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, he he posted on his story um something about syphilis, and I was like, I'm assuming this is part of the game.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Um Tip, what do you got?

SPEAKER_04 7:22

What game have you been playing?

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Um, just recently I got my Flame Craft Duels from Kickstarter coming.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Um if you don't like Flame Craft, then give this one a go. It comes in this cool little box and you store everything in it. It's like a little briefcase, and it just flips open into the board.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

That's incredible. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah, it's very simple. You're just pulling um little dragon tiles out of the bag and placing them on the board, and they each have their own little power, just like regular flame craft. So you gotta kind of finagle them to like fill out your little order cards, like and it's like color-coded, so you need like a red, red, blue, so you have to move them around to try to complete your orders for that one. Um what do you think, Mike?

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Might be there. We go. Uh I what another game that I bounced off of pretty hard was Flame Craft. But this is actually a lot of fun. Uh very abstract.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Um like a like a puzzle.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Yeah, and you're just filling contracts. And I actually tried the solo mode. Um, and it's way more challenging than you would think because you have to complete a contract every turn. If not, you automatically lose. And you have three coins to like buy an extra turn, uh, but once those are gone, you you lose. Um, so yeah, it's good though. I really liked it. Uh, plus this latch. I don't know if you can see the metal, the metal latch there. Way more entertaining uh than you would think for a board game box. Uh so I've been playing with that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

But yeah, yeah, the whole the whole design is really fun. And there's also a little fancy dragon expansion or fancy mode in there, which gives out extra cards. So one is like, oh, you can have an extra order card in hand. Another one's like spend a coin, and if you flip it and it's heads or towels, you discard the coin, and if you have coins at the end, you don't get any points. So that's just a little extra like added depth to the game.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Yeah, that's cool. They have like a little bit of replayability in there for something that's pared down and a little more simplified than the main Flamecraft series.

Flamecraft Duels First Impressions

SPEAKER_02 9:46

I'm so upset right now because I went like a good boy to the game store and I was like, I'm just going here to look for Christmas gifts. As they're I have a ton of people that want Christmas gifts from the game store. And I saw them unloading a shipment of this game there, and I was like, you know what? I told myself I was coming to the game store to get things for other people. I don't need this right now. And then I like the next day I saw both of you guys like posting about this game, and I was like, I should have got it. I'll still have a loop right now. But yes, I did not love Flame Craft DOG, and this has such a cool vibe, and I'm taking it, so I'm probably gonna give it for me.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

I love Flame Craft though, and Amanda Lee will back me up.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

But it is different, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

If it's sold out, Clay, Tanuki Games, that's where I got mine.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

That's that's where you told me to get Viking Seesaw from.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

Apparently, that that link got spread around because I did not know that you got that link from Mike, and then you sent it to me. And man, Mike is uh you need to get some uh kickback on those sales because I had not I don't know if I had ever purchased anything from Tanuki Games, but that's a that's a hot buy.

SPEAKER_03 11:08

Uh with just a random throw out uh the board game homies they talk about tanuki, and that's the only reason I heard about them. Oh all right.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Oh, one of the board game homies, they uh lived in Fishtown, and that's where I grew up.

SPEAKER_04 11:21

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Right outside of them, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Shout out to the homies. Maybe we should do a crossbow with the homies. I mean, if you guys like the homies, maybe we get along.

SPEAKER_04 11:32

Yeah, yeah. Should hit them up. Awesome. Uh Clay, what have you been playing?

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Well, this isn't gonna get us any traffic, but I I have been loving Travis. You sent me this game. If you didn't like it, Penguin Party. Oh, yeah. Just a light little card game from our man Dr. Kenitia. I pulled it out the other day. I was like, I haven't played this in a while. I played with the kids, we had a good time, and then my sister and brother-in-law were over. We played it, and we they came over another time, they wanted to play it again, and every time I play it, I'm like, okay, I see a little more to this than meets the eye, you know? And you start getting mean with it. Essentially, you're building a pyramid of penguins, and the bottom row is eight penguins. There's like four or five different colors of penguins, and then once you get like a little base established, then when you build up, the only rule is you the penguin you stack has to meet one of the two colors of the ones you stacked it on top of. So oh my god, that cat I thought the cat was in my house. That for that like that threw me. Okay, so if I got a blue and a red penguin and I put a penguin on top of those two, it's gotta be blue or red. Only rule. But then there's these fun ways. Like if I'm out of blue cards, I can find a spot where blue might be single string, and I can cut it off by you know putting the pair of it on top instead of a blue, and then people get stuck with the blues in their hand. And so it's so quick. You know, around it, it's like five minutes, and you play a few rounds and then see who has the most points at the end. But I've been loving that as a quick little killer game. So I don't know if it's still out there. I got the one Travis had from 25th century, but um a great little pick out. Okay, cool. Yeah, can't go wrong, in my opinion, to just introduce to people that might only know Uno, just hey, here's a fun card game. Yeah, um, and then watch them, watch their mind get blown. My sister's like, I don't see how this is a game. Like, we're obviously just gonna get rid of all of our cards, and then it comes to the end, and you're like, oh no, where do I put my my red cards? All the reds are covered up now, and so it's just it is what it is, and it does it well.

SPEAKER_04 13:56

Yeah, it's not that I did not like this game, it's just that primarily I play two-player games, and two players is not the correct way to play this. Yeah, it I could have held on to it forever, the box is super small, yeah. But also, if I'm only gonna play it two players, it's probably not the correct way to play, and it's not quite as fun with two players because by the time, like in a four-player game, by the time it gets back to you, you might be severely limited by the choices that you can make. And you're just trying to make the least bad choice you can, or like to kind of take that, like I'm gonna cut off your lifeline because I think that you have a bunch of blue penguins or whatever. But in two players, I know exactly what the other person has. Yeah, it's always kind of like you just go back and forth, and it's like the game kind of plays itself. So I'm I was happy to offload it to you, Clay.

Where To Buy And Holiday Pickups

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Yeah, well, thank you. I appreciate I will take your cast offs anytime you got us.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Perfect. Uh Tiff, back to you.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Oh, me again? Uh okay. I want to talk about my friends at Seacal Board Games, their game flock together. It's a co-op. You're basically playing as chickens trying to like defend off the predators until it comes winter time. Um we have like a love hate relationship with this game because it's really tough to like actually beat. Like we love it, but it's really hard. Um like you can pull, they're called weather cards. Like every round you're pulling a weather card and you think you're doing good, and these weather cards will just like throw a wrench in your whole strategy. Um so you're just going around the board fighting off predator predators, you're leveling up your little chickens. Um you're like catching these little grubs. They can give you like little bonuses, little hearts. Um, and they all have the chickens, all have punny, like punny names. I wish I could think of one right now. Like Princess Lair, like all chicken related. Um, but it's just really fun. It's really fun and really tough. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

What kind of predators? Because uh, this is hit and home to me. These chickens are defending themselves. My sister's got a chicken coupe of like 15 chickens, and there's a hawk that keeps coming and massacring these chickens. So maybe she could learn something from this game about how to save her chickens.

Penguin Party As A Quick Hit

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Um, I did forget to mention that the predators level up if you do not kill them, they level up every round. Okay, and they get significantly harder to beat. Alright, so I'm pulling one out. Cleopultra?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

So, like this predator dodges attacks if you roll a five or a six, and um they're just really tough. Really tough to beat.

SPEAKER_04 16:57

But at its core, at its core, it's like a worker placement game.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah, there's not very many spots on the board. Um, but you can only like attack the predator if you're on its spot. Sometimes you can't leave like the circle, you have to go back to that circle in the center to like re-eat so you can regain your health. It's a very large board, but there's only a few spots on the board that you can actually go to, but it's really cheeky, but really fun.

SPEAKER_04 17:27

I really like that uh the little plastic eggs.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yes, that's and the chicken dice. I don't know if you can see the chicken dice, so cute.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Oh that's biker dice. Those are there's like a thousand of them. Where where am I? Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Listener, we are zoomed in on the oh, they have like little uh like feathers and stuff on them.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yeah, like the two is little feet.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

That's yeah, I just had to talk about that. Talk about that game because it's really fun. Something we really enjoy. Like if you want a tough like co-op, that's the one to choose.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Okay, I like it. I haven't seen this anywhere. Is it our is it? Can you find this? Is it on Tanookie?

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Uh no, I'll I'll play. I'll play.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

I'll play.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Okay, dang.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

All right, I think you can get it, yeah. And they have that expansion which adds like new predators and new chickens.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

Okay. I think it's the same artist. Oh, is it?

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Yeah, Andrew Bosley, my bestie.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

Oh, that's my bestie. Um Tiff, are you primarily playing this two-player?

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Yes. Most of the games I play is two player.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Um, unless we're lucky and our neighbor can come and join.

SPEAKER_04 18:43

Yeah. I need to get some two-player recommendations from you. And so far we've had two of them on this podcast. So I love it.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Beer and bread. Have you played beer and bread?

SPEAKER_04 18:51

Love beer and bread.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

I love it. That's my favorite, favorite two-player game.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

Okay. Yeah, I like that one too. That's great. Clay introduced me to that one. I sure did.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Nice. Good job.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

I'm really good at this.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Uh, Mike, over to you. Um, no, I'm not gonna talk about that. Um I was gonna go off on gazebo again. Um, but another one that we've been playing, and I've actually got to play it at several player counts now, uh, is Santa's Workshop. Um that is uh I know Tiffany was just playing it too. Uh is that Bosplay 2 art?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Yeah, it's another answer Bosplay art. Um everywhere. It's actually was a Grail game for since like the beginning. I uh uh uh being in the hobby. Um, and it was originally printed by Rio Grande, and it was the art was not as good by any means. But anyway, uh in this game, you're really it's worker placement. You're the I love reading good backstories to games. But basically, you're running a crew of elves, and whoever produces the most toys for uh before Christmas gets to go on like a Caribbean vacation with Santa.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 20:10

Uh that's the that's the reward. Um, and there's two sides to this. I've never played the family-friendly side, I've just done the advanced side. Um, and then uh what what did you call him, friend of the the podcast, uh Paul Solomon, uh says that the family side is the uh better side to play. Uh, and I think Tiff agrees.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

I only play family, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Uh, but either side I'm sure is great. Uh, but we've loved this. Um, I we played it, Riley and I, and then I actually took it to a board game night with my ex-boss that I used to play Catan with uh and his wife, and we played it, and it was a lot of fun. Um, it is definitely one of my favorite games this year. Um, it's very Christmas themed. It's great. Every everything about it.

Tough Co‑Op: Flock Together

SPEAKER_04 20:59

It's kind of an underrepresented theme in board games is like the Christmas season, the holiday season. Lots of like Halloween games, but not a whole lot of Christmas games.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

No. Um really, yeah, I was gonna say this uh Christmas Nana uh at Tompton, and I I uh may have intoxicatedly ordered a game called uh Krapis Not uh that I forgot I ordered or where I ordered or even how I heard about it. Uh, but those are the only Christmas games I've really seen. Yeah, that's great. I've seen more games like that.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

I've seen Tiff playing some. You you've got like a holiday jangle or something, jingle jungle. I don't know what I've seen you post. Oh, Holly Jolly. Holly Jolly. Holly Jolly.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Yeah, there's a lot of card games for Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Grinch Flip Seven. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

That's a new one. There you go. Definitely underrated. Underrepresented, not underrated.

SPEAKER_04 21:57

I hear dogs.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

Oh, that's Eleanor, who it woke up from her nap and is that's what you're seeing. This is correct. Uh Clay, over to you.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Travis, don't you want to say anything? Have you not been playing games? What's you what what do you got going on in your life?

SPEAKER_04 22:13

I'm living vicariously through you three, so just tell me about all the games.

Christmas Gaming: Santa’s Workshop

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Okay, we're going with another Kenny game, another oldie. Medici. I talked a little smack on this game, and I think it was the episode 10. And I uh well, no, I think it was when we're talking about production, maybe, but this game it's one of the earlier versions of it, and it just looks horrendous. It's just got this really grouchy looking guy on the cover, and it is a Kenesia option game. It is fairly simple, it kind of feels like raw a little bit, but slightly different enough that I'm glad I have it. Essentially, you have five different goods you're messing with, and you have this big bag of tiles that have all the goods in them, and on your turn, you're pulling out one, two, or three tiles to determine what gets auctioned off that time. So, just like in RAW, you start an auction for the whole lot of tiles that you decide to pull out. So, if I'm starting the auction, I can just pull out one and then start the auction, and it's a one once around bid, and then I get to go last. And at the end of the round, every person can have five tiles. So you're trying to collect the right five tiles at the end of the round. Essentially, the ways you score are having the highest value of tiles, so each good can go from like zero to five in value, and then you know, if I have three fives and a four, I'll probably have a higher total value than anybody else at the table, and then you get like plus 30 points, and then the next highest gets plus 20 points. But then to kind of offset that and make you think a little bit, there's also tracks for each of the good types, and it doesn't matter what value your tiles are, if you have three green tiles, you get to move up to the green track three times, and at the end of each round, whoever's highest on each of the tracks gets a bonus. And so you're kind of balancing the you know, grabbing for the values of tiles versus trying to, you know, really focus on a single type of tile and get to the top of track because in addition to just comparing your score to everybody else, if you can really get to the top of the track for a certain good, you're gonna get another like 10, 20 bonus points for that. And it's just a three-round game, it's very simple and it plays pretty quick. We played it four players, took about 45 minutes. Was a little fiddly the scoring uh at the end of the round, just because each good type you have to like, okay, I had three greens, I gotta move up three greens. How many greens did you have? I have two, blah blah blah blah blah. Everybody's moving up the track, and then you're like, okay, now who had the most greens? Okay, you get 10 points. Who are the second most? You get five points. And so that was the only like a little nuisance piece of it, but I think there's a lot more to it that I'm excited to explore because even towards the end of the game, I was like, at the beginning, every auction we were like pulling out three tiles and auctioning that off. And then you would end up filling over half your boat with maybe things that you didn't exactly want. And so there is a benefit to just like doing that single tile auction and really focusing in on trying to get the specific colors or values you want. So it's a cool game, it's a tight little auction. I think it's lighter than raw. And um, if there's a nice looking version of it, which I think there is, might be worth checking out.

SPEAKER_04 25:50

Nice. Is there like a place for this amongst the other Renner Knitzia games? Like it seems like a combination of some of his other favorite mechanics with auctions and moving up tracks and bonuses to those that get the furthest. And like, where does this fit amongst his catalog?

SPEAKER_02 26:08

I think I think there's a place for this. I think this is like a good gateway option game. Not that Ra's like too much, but you have to explain a lot of different tiles and scoring situations. And this is just like, hey, you want to have the highest value of stuff on your ship at the end of the round, and you also want to you know try and focus on getting a single color up the up the track or two colors up two tracks, and that's pretty much all you really need to know to get it going. And your points are your money that you use to auction, so you know you've you can't spend more than you have in points, and it's just a nice quick little auction game that I do think deserves a place on the shelf, and I'm excited to play it more. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

Yes, I will I will share one that I've been playing, and not necessarily a board game per se, more of a solo RPG, and that is the Tainted Grail solo RPG. And it's pretty cool, it comes in a pretty self-contained box. Let me hold it up and show you.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

You hold that up. Oh, I've oh I thought it was like the big not the big boy back here.

Auction Classic Spotlight: Medici

SPEAKER_04 27:19

No, this is Tainted Grail, the solo RPG, and it comes with two books in here. One is like a journal that you can like keep track of your character and stuff. The other one is the rule book, and it's got like a nice map in here and everything. Self-contained, super easy to get into. It's kind of similar mechanics to like uh kind of like a Dungeons and Dragons, but it's in like old Camelot, basically. It's like an Arthurian legend, and it's got a bunch of uh pretty built characters in here with their own like backstories and motivations. Um, you kind of just read through some simple rules and then it throws you right in. And the rule book itself is pretty long, um, but you can fly through it. Like I sat down and was waiting for a doctor's appointment. I read the first 50 pages. Like it's really easy to read through and get into, but basically, like it's kind of a little bit of theater of the mind, but each scenario that you go through, each character's story contains like three acts, and it'll tell you where you start for your character, and there's like 40 different locations that you can go to. Each one has like a map that you can uh lay out for the different region that you're entering, and it's kind of cool because you play it once with one character and you kind of keep track of what happens. And the whole thing with Tainted Grail is that you're in a fictionalized version of Camelot where uh this kind of fog is creeping in called the weirdness, and the weirdness is like driving madness and all sorts of weird things to happen. And so it's causing people to attack you and to act strangely and to grant special powers and all this stuff. And so you're kind of just mobbing around this Camelot and going to these different regions, exploring the different maps that are laid out, and they're kind of done in tarot cards, which is cool. So it'll give you a layout for your city that you're entering or your region, and you lay out the tarot cards, and the tarot cards have like suits on them, suits and values, basically. So as you flip them over, the different uh card that you flip over corresponds to different events that you're encountering, whether you're exploring or um combat or intrigue or these different types of like scenarios that you're getting into, you're exploring the region. Some of them have towns where you can like trade goods and all that stuff. And then the cool thing is as the story develops, and let's say you run through three acts with one character, things will happen that will change the rest of your scenarios for your other characters. And so, like, even if you die halfway through one of your campaigns with one of your characters, you can either run it back with them or you can switch characters, and some of that stuff carries over to your next run. So it kind of evolves as you go along. It's got a little bit of replay value. Um, I am like halfway through one campaign with one character. Um, one of them is like a magic dealer, a couple of them are knights, a couple of them are like assassins. Um, so yeah, it's it's kind of cool. Um, it's nice that they do all that work for you, like developing your character and everything, giving them giving you a backstory and uh motivations and everything. But yeah, uh most solo RPGs are a lot of like sit there and journal and like write things down, and you're kind of just imagining scenarios and stuff. This one has a little more concrete like story building to it, and uh kind of kind of a unique thing, especially for people that love the tainted grail uh suite of games. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Is is that uh where would what is the one uh that you got me to the uh what uh what lies underneath? Yeah, below. Is that like more involved, the tainted grail?

SPEAKER_04 30:55

It is a bit more involved. Um, your character has like different actions that you can take, and and all of it's laid out pretty clearly in the rule book. Um, it is closer to Dungeons and Dragons than it is uh what lies beneath or what lies below. Um it's a little different than like Shadow Dark, which is another one that I've been getting into. Um, this is more closer to like a true RPG. If you're familiar with like DD, this is like a simplified version of that that you can do without like the game kind of plays Dungeon Master for you. You have a bit of randomness with the cards that are generated. And once you map out the city and you're flipping the tarot cards, if you come across like a city, you can actually mark it on like your map. And when your next character goes to that town, you're like, I know where that is. I know where that city is, and it stays in the same place, which is kind of cool. So, yeah, it's a bit of discovery, a bit of leveling up your characters and getting new abilities. The scenarios get harder across the acts, and it like scales based on how far you along you are in your like journey. So, yes, uh Tainted Grail, the solo RPG, has been a cool one that I've been enjoying.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Well, guess what? Mike's about to find in order.

SPEAKER_04 32:06

Yeah, I'm I'm curious to get your thoughts. Like Tainted Grail can sometimes be a heavy endeavor. Um, I have the tides of ruin back here, which is a gigantic box that takes up huge space on my shelf. Um, this is a nice little tiny box that you can take with you, say, to uh you know, a rental house. Tennessee in Tennessee. So yeah, um, I will definitely take this one with me and um get that played. So uh back to you, uh Tiff.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Still going?

SPEAKER_04 32:39

Yeah. You got you got time? One more?

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah, one more. Um the White Castle duel. Um, were you gonna pick that one?

SPEAKER_02 32:48

No.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

No, okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

All the hotness all the time.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Well, the White Castle is one of my favorite games. So I had to talk about it. Um it's pretty much very similar, especially with the icons. Like you're still getting your rice, your iron, and your pearls to put all your little people in, but it's very like lantern-based, so you're building up your different colored lanterns. Um, there's only 12 turns in this game. The first game, the first game I played of this, I thought I had more turns than I did, but the game was just ended. So I was like, oh. But you're just placing your little lantern around, you're getting your lantern rewards, and how you score points in this one is based off of cards that you have in your tableau that are flipped with certain symbols. There's like flags, swords. So you want to put your little marker instead of putting your people on the bridges and like in the fields and in the castle, like in the regular one, you're putting them in little different areas that are gonna score you points based off of how many symbols that you have. So if you don't like the White Castle, you might not like this one because I feel like this one is even harder. Very tight and even harder than like regular White Castle, but it's it's still as fun because I like the White Castle. So this one's just as fun, it's just a little harder. Um, and it ends very quickly.

SPEAKER_04 34:27

I can appreciate no 3D castles that you have to build because I built those in my copy of White Castle and it stresses me out every time I oh yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, the the bridges that you build. Um, because every time I put them in the box, it stresses me out that I'm gonna break those things and never be able to play properly. I just need some 3D printed bridges, that's what I need.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Yes. So you're you place your lanterns. That's the first round, and then the second round, you're taking them back, and then you get to do that colored lantern and that action again. And that's where I was thrown off. I was like, what do you mean we don't get to place them again? It's just over.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

And but and you don't have to pull your own back, you pull any of them back.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Any color that you want.

SPEAKER_04 35:12

That's interesting. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

But I just I like the White Castle because there's just so many things you can just combo.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Yeah. Um what's your opinion? Yeah, what's your opinion on uh the matcha expansion for White Castle?

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Um I I enjoy it, but I think it's not needed, but I mean it just adds in like an extra little tea room.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

So it's not needed, but I really I I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_04 35:42

Yeah. I found that uh the integration of the matcha expansion was an interesting choice for that type of game. Like usually with worker placements, you have like m way more spaces. That one adds like just a tiny little tea room. And I I don't know. I I don't I'm kind of torn. I've heard like mixed reviews on the matcha expansion, but I was curious to hear your thoughts as a fan of the original.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Yeah, when when we do add in the matcha, I feel like I don't tend to go into the tea room.

SPEAKER_04 36:11

Yeah.

Solo Spotlight: Tainted Grail RPG

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Like the base game's so solid. I mean, you don't really need it. Yeah, it's pretty tight.

SPEAKER_04 36:17

And they had one of the coolest setups, uh, because this game, the not this one, but the uh the White Castle main game um was airing at or being published the year of the SN that I went to, and they had a phenomenal setup that was so cool. You walked in like the main hall and they had this huge White Castle display. They had like a snowy bridge that you could like climb up on and take pictures on. It was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_04 36:44

Yeah. Uh Mike, over to you.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

Well, since Tiffany stole mine, uh we're gonna go with uh the probably one of and uh Vantage obviously is probably my game of the year. Yeah, that that's probably not changed. I did my uh top 25 of all time and it's number three. But uh something that is very, very close this year is Come Sail Away. Come sail away. Um have you guys heard of this?

SPEAKER_00 37:20

I played it for the first time last month, and I love it.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Um it is uh it'll it's a man uh man cala uh by Sasu and Sashi. Um and you're basically building out uh your ship. Uh and there's what is it, uh 12 tiles uh and rooms that you're uh filling out, and basically you have these cards that you see there. Um and you can take the color meeples of those cards, and you're trying to basically put them in their rooms uh to complete rooms and cabins or uh lounges and stuff like that, but you have to go in order from either left or right. So, like on the top card there, you have red, green, blue, black. So as you play them, you have to actually uh put them, kind of plan out how you're doing it because you can only go through doorways. Um it is the most simplistic strategic game I've played in a long time. Um it's very, very satisfying to like lay out four people uh in a in a pattern where you don't have end up with uh disgruntled guests, which is basically if you can't place it in a room that matches the color, um, they become disgruntled. Um it's I don't want to say point salady, uh, but yeah, it's all you're doing is trying to place it and capitalize on the points. Um, it is so much fun. Um, also one of Riley's favorite games uh that she continues to ask for uh and likes to play.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

So never hurts.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

I was for it for Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 39:02

Nice Christmas list game.

SPEAKER_03 39:04

It is it is so and yeah, I don't I don't know why it is so entertaining and fun for something that is so simple. Um, I don't like man cala, but this is fun.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Can you buy this on Tanuki?

SPEAKER_03 39:18

No, I got that on Amazon actually.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04 39:22

Yeah, it's my least favorite part of taking a cruise is when they shuffle all the guests around trying to get you in the right room. Yeah, end up in a room with people that you don't know, and then you have to do a man call it down the hall. I hate that.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Yeah, it it's I've never been on a cruise uh due to my fears. Uh don't laugh because uh I have a fear of waves. Uh so I've never been on a cruise, but yeah, I can imagine that would not be fun.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

It's not on Amazon, so I'm gonna need you to send me a link to where I can buy this because it sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

Yeah, you would love it. I think you would love it, Clay. Yeah. Yeah. Plus you've I was just telling them before, like you've kind of tainted me, and all I want to play is these lighthearted, uh easy games lately.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

It's just what it's just what's on the now, you know?

SPEAKER_04 40:13

Uh Mike, did you play uh the Mad Calla, the Wonderland's War?

SPEAKER_03 40:18

I did. I like it, but I I feel like if I'm gonna play that type of game, I'm gonna play Wonderland's War. Yeah. Like it that's the superior version.

SPEAKER_04 40:31

Yes, agree. Uh, are you planning on getting a Wonderland's War duel?

SPEAKER_03 40:35

I am. Uh, I don't know if I'll end up keeping it, but I'll get it.

SPEAKER_04 40:40

Okay. I'm uh really interested in that one. I'm so excited for the dual version to finally arrive.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

Hey, I I'm getting rid of Arcnova. I got one like Sanctuary, I'm getting rid of Arcnova.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

It's yeah, Tip's got me hot on Sanctuary right now. It's good. Especially it's not just me.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Everybody who plays it has been loving it.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

Did you pick up Sanctuary?

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Me? Yeah. No, but I have it marked for when I get my Christmas money. I've marked three games tonight.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

I've seen them taking it off the truck at the game.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

I know, I know, but they're probably all gone by now. Okay. God I blew it.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

Caps don't all have it. Yeah. Uh Clay, last one, what you got?

White Castle Duel’s Tight Puzzle

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Okay. Uh staying. Well, we're staying light, and I'm gonna go with Agent Avenue. So I am a big fan of head games, and I split you choose. And this might be the lightest version of that that I've ever played, and therefore I love it. The lighter, the better for Clay. So in Agent Avenue, you're playing as like rival spies with these sexy animals. I wish I could unsee it, but I heard I heard some other podcasts talk about being uncomfortable by the sexy animals, and I was like, what are they talking about? And then I got this game and started looking at the cards. I was like, that Daredevil, he looks like he could really take me for a spin. Um but anyway. Yeah. But sexy animals aside, what you're trying to do is you have this little like circular track of a board, and you're both going clockwise around it, and you're trying to catch the other person on this track. And the cards are very simple. They have most of them have like three spots on the card that say how far your um meeple will move when you get that card. And the first time you get the card, you go the top spot, the second time you go to the uh middle spot, and the third time you go to the bottom spot. So, like the double agent's a good example. The first time I get a double agent card, that actually moves my meeple back one. The second time I get that double agent card, I go six, which covers a ton of ground in agent avenue and can you know really get you caught up. But then the third time you get a double agent, you go back again. And so on your turns, you have a hand of four cards and you put one face down, one face up, and you present that to your opponent, and they have to decide whether they want to take the one face up or face down. Do they trust that you've given them a fair choice face up, or what are you hiding under there? Who knows? Because there's also these codebreaker cards, and if you collect three codebreakers, you automatically win. And then there's daredevils that if you get three of those, you automatically lose. So when you get to a point where you have like two daredevils or two codebreakers, it gets a little scary to take a face-down card because you're like, they could have you know, they might put a really nice one face up, or or or they might put a bad one face up, like the saboteur, and you're not wanting to take that. But underneath, the face-down one might be the mole, and that's even worse. So I just love the head games of this, and it literally can take less than five minutes. I've won this game in like two turns before, and you just run it right back, and it's so easy to set up. I play with the kids, I play with the wife, I play with the neighbor, I play with everybody, and it's just so fast and easy to explain. My my son loved it so much. Uh little neighbor girl was over the other day, and they were playing it, and I caught him downstairs doing unspeakable things with her, teaching her a board game, and this was the game he was showing her. He was teaching her how to play Agent Avenue. I was the proudest moment I ever had. I was like, man, my son gets hit now. He's uh showing this girl the light. But uh yeah, I love this. If I'm a coji is just a little too thinky, this is the two-player I split you choose game for me.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

Nice. Have you uh tried Tussy Mussi? That's like the my go-to i cut you two.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

I have not played that in a long time. I how is it with two?

SPEAKER_03 45:14

It's good. I like it. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Okay, nice. I mean, I don't have that.

SPEAKER_04 45:20

They have a button shy version and then they have a like a big box that has all the expansions and stuff, but yeah, Tussy Mussy is great. It's that that's the one that I briefed uh probably a year ago about like uh giving bouquets of flowers to one another. Yeah, that looks great. And I think that one's Elizabeth Hargrave. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice. Uh Mike Tiff, what do you think about these uh sexy animals? Thoughts.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

Well, I think that one has syphilis.

SPEAKER_01 45:53

I think he's cute.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

Uh I can't I I don't I don't see sexy.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

I don't see the Mole Man's not doing it for me.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

No, look at the Mole Man, he's even putting up some vibes to me. You know, there's a vibe, I don't think it's sexy.

SPEAKER_04 46:10

No, no, they definitely went for like they went for like a zootopia look with these animals. And there's plenty of games with anthrop anthropomorphized animals, and this is like they went for a very specific vibe and a very specific audience with this one.

SPEAKER_03 46:26

Yeah, and the uh Daredevil is giving me uh Henry Cavill vibes, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Oh yeah, I see it.

SPEAKER_04 46:33

Like in the where he's like talk to like grows a button on his shirt and like uh grows a beard between frames.

SPEAKER_03 46:45

Have you guys played this? Yes, I own it. Uh I actually found it for three dollars at a thrift store about a year ago. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 46:53

Nice. I did not realize that this game was that old. I felt like it got a lot of traction this year.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

It they have the expansion coming out, that's why.

SPEAKER_04 47:02

Ah, check. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 47:03

Uh Agent M, I think it is. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

How old is this? I thought this just came out.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

23, I believe. Yeah. I think yeah. Okay. But there's an expansion, I think it's Agent M that's just coming out for it. Yeah. Okay. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Even when I try and be relevant and talk about a hot new game, I'm I'm not. This is point four.

SPEAKER_03 47:27

It was big at PAX from what I saw. Like a lot of people were picking it up.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

Yeah, so see, I'm with it. Awesome. Right, Tiff?

SPEAKER_00 47:38

Mike got his at a thrift store.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 47:43

You got a hand-me-down game from me and a thrift store game.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

I've actually Magic I got in a used section of a board game shop. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 47:52

Wait a stick up with the hotness.

SPEAKER_02 47:54

Yeah. This is what keeps us relevant.

SPEAKER_04 47:57

Did we do it?

SPEAKER_02 47:59

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:00

I think we did it.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

We did something.

SPEAKER_04 48:01

All right. We are talking games that we have been loving lately. I have been Travis. He has been Clay. He has been Mike from Barwin Plays Games. Barwin plays board games. You added the board right after you came on the podcast, and it always throws me off. She has been Tiff at tiff.board.games.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 48:21

And special appearances by Eleanor and Dewey. This has been Operation Game Night, and we are out.