Episode 25 - You Look Marbleous!
25: You Look Marbleous! Release Date: Mar. 19, 2007 Running Time: 94 min. Listen Now: Download: Enhanced Version - MP3 Version |
Driven to abstraction. From archaeology to pachinko in less than two hours, we play Mykerinos and Marvin Marvel's Marvelous Marble Machine, two fast fun abstract strategy games.
News & Notes: Chupacabra, Sakkara, 1701, Notre Dame
The List: Mykerinos, Marvin Marvel's Marvelous Marble Machine
Backshelf Spotlight: Balloon Cup, Space Beans
Truckloads of Goober: Through the Desert
Collector's Corner: How to organize, inventory, and protect a new game
Mail Bag: Nicknames! Romantic Game list, a pronunciation guide
Complete Show Notes continue after the break.
Game News & Notes
Chupacabra Link
Take on the role of the fabled goat sucking creature of the night and feast on your opponents herds!
Battle Lore Epic Rules link
Rules and scenarios available online for registered owners of the game.
Sakkara link
Newest Kosmos two player game to be published in English
Anno 1701 link
Kosmos 2 player game only available in Europe
Notre Dame link
Newest Alea big box game (#11 in the series. Dave is alredy drooling)
The List
Mykerinos BGG entry
Archaeologists compete to gather the best treasures and place them in the best spots in the museum. Theme is a little pasted on, but it's a solid game and fast paced.
Marvin Marvel's Marvelous Marble Machine link
Middle Managers make marbles move mostly by manipulating machine parts.
Backshelf Spotlight
Mystery Connection Contest
Can you find a connection between these two games? We find a mystery connection each episode and challenge you, the listener, to hunt for it! Email us with your guess and you could win a pair of laser cut custom Spiel dice !
Congratulations to Matthan in VA for winning the connection contest for Caesar & Cleopatra and Zaubercocktail from Episode 24!
Balloon Cup BGG entry
Tile flipping cube collecting game of short balloon hops to acquire trophies.
Space Beans BGG Entry
Bohnanza's kid brother. It's gets a lot of grief, but stands nicely on it's own.
Truckloads of Goober
Through the Desert BGG Entry
175 pastel plastic camels. Need I say more?
Game Sommelier
The Challenge: returns next week with Dave facing a challenge from Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower !
Collector's Corner
Topic: how to organize, inventory, store, and protect a new game in your collection.
1. Do a complete check of all components (use the list provided in the rules as a check off sheet)
2. Look at how the game will be set up when played and try to organize the components so it will be easy to set up when you get it out.
3. The Spine Test. To determine whether the in box insert is going to work, tip the box on its spine to see if any of the components move around
4. Little plastic baggies. Multiple sizes are available at craft stores or online Here's a short list of places to look.
5. Never use Rubber bands with card decks. They'll damage the cards!
6. Use foam cboard to fill spaces to keep things from moving around inside the box.
Mail Bag
NEW DONORS! GAME NICKNAMES
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (we hope!) Filmspotting, a fun podcast on movies, gives all its donors movie themed nicknames as a way of saying thanks. We're going to give game themed nicknames to our donors from now on. So, I present to you...
Ben "The Brick" Tichy in Calistoga
"Trademaster" Bay-Wei in Foster City
Jeffrey "Mayor of Catan" Myers in Albuquerque
Ryan "The Roadbuilder" Bruns in Utah
David "Two Sheep Shy of a" Shapiro in Milwaukee
Poll: Yes, we forgot to mention the poll. We'll remember next episode!
Phil in Scotland says thanks for help with his survey
Ryan in Utah asks about our game classes at the library.
Gregory in Seattle shows us some love and then takes up the Romantic Game challenge from Episode 23 and rips the Sommelier crown from Dave!
John Lund corrects our Hoosier pronunciation of Sommelier. Truth hurts!
Ron Barnette in IL was glad to hear Tactics II in our list on The Dice Tower
Simon in England corrects some miscues in our rules rundown of Caesar & Cleopatra
Errata
I'm sure there are some other goofs in there somewhere. Let us know if (when?) you find one!
Yes, I did say "Strike heart in the fear of goats...." D'oh!
Comments
Great show!
Another great show, as usual.
Also loved hearing you guys on the Dice Tower!
Keep on truckin'
Glad you're still tuning in!
Glad you're still tuning in!
Tom Vasel has offered to record a response to Dave's Sommelier picks, so that should be a fun crossover, too. Stay tuned...
Stephen
Play Yspahan soon!
Enjoying the show so far.
I heard you say that you were looking forward to getting Yspahan, and let me just encourage you to do so, quickly.
It is a wonderful filler.
Josh
soon, very soon!
Hey Josh.
Yes, one of us is going to have to break down and buy Yspahan very soon so we can put it on the list! Ystari has set the bar pretty high with their first few games, but from everything I've heard, Yspahan won't disappoint.
Stephen
I just got Yspahan myself.
I just got Yspahan myself. Have only managed to do a test run of the game by myself but it really looks promising. The dice mechanism for determining the available actions for the turn is extremely clever (if you like randomness) and it seems like there are at least a couple different paths to victory which is very much welcome. Hope to give it a spin in the next week or two.
Yet another good episode. Look forward to hearing Tom on The Spiel! Also, some good info on storing games, should be good for people just getting into the hobby. I'm guilty of throwing out the inserts that come with the games, though :)
The dice mechanic is the
The dice mechanic is the part that looks really intriguing to me. A couple listener emails we received said the dice add just the right amount of randomness without taking away from the strategy elements of the game.
I thought Dave did an excellent job on the first Collector's Corner. Lots of great info for new gamers and hopefully a few little tidbits for the seasoned pros, too. We're planning on doing a little picture spread showing Dave's hyper organized game room and my sad walk-in cedar closet converted into our game storage area. I have been putting off building proper shelves for a while but I am about to hit critical mass!