Episode 230 - CONjecturing

Intro: 0:00

Announcements: 0:42

Recent Games: 1:55

DTW and Conventions: 15:04

Outro: 28:13

Bloopers: 29:16

Games discussed this episode:

Slay the Spire: The Board Game: 1:55

Flip 7: 9:31

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This episode was sponsored by Grey Fox Games. Use the code "BLITZ10" to get 10% off your entire cart.

[0:06] Crystal: Hello and welcome to episode 230 of Board Game Blitz, a podcast about all things board games that you can listen to in less time than it takes to realize you forgot to pack that one important thing before you left for your trip. Board Game Blitz is sponsored by Grey Fox Games. This week, we're talking about our plans for the upcoming convention in Las Vegas. First, we discuss a couple of games we've played recently, Slay the Spire: The Board Game, and Flip 7. Then, we talk about what we want to do during our time at Dice Tower West. And now, here are your hosts,

Ambie: Ambie

Crystal: and Crystal.

[0:42] Crystal: One quick announcement before we hop into the main episode, and that is that today, as in the day this episode is releasing, is the Thursday of Dice Tower West. And starting tomorrow, the Friday of Dice Tower West, Ambie and I will both be in attendance at the convention. So, we would really love to see any of you who are going to be at the con here in Las Vegas where I live. So, please, please, please, please, please, if you see us, stop us and say hello. I know it's really awkward to stop someone you've never met in person and say hi, but if that is something that you would enjoy doing, please do it, because it makes us feel like celebrities, and that's really fun.

I still remember the first time someone recognized my voice from the podcast. That was like the first year of the podcast, and I was at Meepleville, like the board game cafe here in Vegas. And someone recognized my voice from across the room, because I'm loud. It's like, how is that a thing? Quite, quite lovely. But yes, we'll be at the convention all weekend. We would love to play a game with you if possible, potentially, obviously, schedules if they work out or whatever. But yeah, try and find us.

[1:55] Ambie: Recently, I got to try out Slay the Spire: The board game.

Crystal: I'm so excited to hear you talk about this. I like, I still haven't played this, and I am desperate to play this.

Ambie: So, yeah, this is a board game published in 2024 by Contention Games, designed by Gary Dworetsky, Anthony Giovannetti, and Casey Yano. This is a cooperative deck building game that's based on the video game of the same name. Well, it's video games called Slay the Spire. It's not called Slay the Spire the board game.

Crystal: That would be really funny if the video game was called Slay the Spire, the board game, the video game.

Ambie: Yeah. Anyways, I have not played the video game, but a lot of people have.

Crystal: Like me, I've played it a lot. Like I've been playing Slay the Spire now for years on multiple platforms, and I absolutely adore it. I am desperately awaiting Slay the Spire 2, which has already been announced and teased. And oh my gosh, I'm so, so, so excited for it. So I will admit, I was nervous about the board game because I think it might translate well to a good board game, but I was too scared to back it because I didn't want another Fallout board game scenario. And like, yeah, a video game that I love so much, I was like, I don't, I can't go through that again. So I was like, I'm going to wait and we'll see what happens. So tell me all about it, Ambie.

Ambie: Well, I think I mean, I haven't played the video game, but I think it translated well. And I enjoyed the board game. So that's the short review. But it's a cooperative deck building game. Each person has a different character. And then you start with a deck of cards and the cards have things like attack or defend or block or something. You add block to your shield thing and you're basically fighting enemies. So you use energy that you have. You start your turn with three energy and you use that to play the cards. So you're not going to be able to play all the cards you have, but you play like you choose which cards to play and then they can do damage to the enemies and you're sharing to defeat these enemies. And so like everyone, you can kind of like pick when you go, which is kind of cool. So it's like, oh, I'll play this card and then you can play your card and then someone else can do something. And then you're defeating the enemies and the enemies are lined up in rows. So like each person has a certain number of enemies in their row. That's like who they'll attack. So you don't have to attack the enemy that's in your row, but that enemy will attack you when it's their turn. So you can like prepare. Oh, you know that enemy is going to do two damage. So like I can I have the shield or can someone shield me or something? So you can kind of plan ahead because you know what the enemies are going to do on their turn. And then as the game goes on, there's this whole like branching map thing. So like you're going to have a round where you attack enemies and then when you kill all those, then you kind of go up the path and you can choose which way. And then sometimes there's campfires and you can like rest, heal up, or upgrade cards or you can go to a shop and like get more cards and have encounters and get more cards. And you get rewards for defeating enemies too, which is often cards. So you're like getting new cards that are more powerful or you can upgrade cards and the cards are double sided. So like the card will be like attack one, but then you flip it over to the other side when you upgrade it and it'll be like attack two or something for the same energy. It all comes with sleeves too. So like the game came with sleeves for this for the purpose of these double sided cards. You upgrade it and then you just flip it over in the sleeve and put it back in because you're going to be like.

Crystal: Okay, that makes sense. That is one of the things I was curious about because like obviously in the digital version, it just changes the card.

Ambie: So yeah, each card has like an upgraded side. And then there's a whole deck of cards where you get new cards and pick new ones. And so like I had fun building up my deck. We just played one act. I think the whole campaign or game is three acts, but each act is like a couple hours of play or like one or two hours. And that's like a game or felt like a game like a complete game. There was a boss at the end, but then I think you would continue the game with two and act two and three and you would have like the same deck and stuff. So it's kind of a campaign, but a short one, I guess. But yeah, I had a character where I got an early really good card. Like luckily, because you start with like some random boon or something. And so like I got a rare card at the beginning that gave me poison to every attack. And so like.

Crystal: Yeah, that's good. Are they relics?

Ambie: Maybe I don't know what I was called. The my character was called The Silent,

Crystal: The Silent. Oh, yeah. Okay. So The Silent's deck is based around poison. Generally.

Ambie: Yeah. Yeah. So like I got this card that does that, but it used three energy. And so like I upgraded it early so that it only uses two energy. So I can actually like use it and do something else on my turn. And then every card that I got, I was thinking about that. So like when I got new cards, I would pick the one that does two small attacks versus one bigger attack because like each attack does poison. So yeah, that was cool. And then I kept that card kept being at the end of the deck. So I wouldn't draw until like a couple of times. But so it was cool, like building up the deck and like getting cool powers and stuff. So I enjoyed that. We played it four players. Toby didn't really enjoy it that much. So like it felt like not super cooperative. He doesn't like when games are like you're playing your own thing mostly. And in our game, it was mostly us just doing our own thing. We didn't really need to cooperate that much to defeat the enemies. That might've been because it was easy. We played on like not a super hard mode and also it was like the first act. But like also I think a lot of games like this was it where it's like cooperative deck building games that I've played tend to be more like, okay, you're focusing on the deck that you're doing and not really like you're doing your thing kind of. And you have to combo with yourself, but not as much like interacting with the other people as much as other types of cooperative games. Yeah. So Toby didn't like it as much, but I enjoyed my solo puzzly part. And so I think it would be cool like with solo or two player game maybe or like more players if people are fine with more of a not like always collaborating type game.

Crystal: Okay, that makes sense. So then you were The Silent. So are the other players, the other characters from the game, like The Ironclad?

Ambie: I don't know what they were. Yeah. Because like I wasn't really paying attention much to what other people did. And so like, I'd be like, Oh, does someone need this? Or like, but I don't know what their powers were really. Someone had like some charge that they charged up or something. And yep. Okay. Yeah. So powers were.

Crystal: Yeah. So there's yeah, there's four main characters in the base game, three of which are relatively easy to play. And one of which is kind of more complicated. The Ironclad is the easiest one because he has a strength based deck. So you're just increasing your strength, which increases your base damage essentially. So it's just strength up hit harder. Like that is ironclad. Silent is poison based. Then there's The Defect that can create orbs kind of above their head that do different things that like a bunch of different things depending on the type of orb. And then the really hard. Well, the harder one to play is The Watcher. The Watcher can switch into different modes and in different modes, it changes both the way she attacks and the way attacks affect her potentially. You definitely have to have a way to manage your draws and your deck a little bit more carefully. Because if you end up like there's a mode where you take double damage from enemies, if you don't get out of it, but you're doing double damage as well. So you want to get into that mode, hit them and then come back out of it. So I'd be curious to see how those ones potentially work in the context of the board game. But you've definitely made me still want to play it, which is good.

Ambie: Yeah. And I've heard of multiple people who have played the video game and like the board game a lot. So nice. And my friend who brought the game over to play, he'd played the video game and he said it did translate well. So that's awesome. So yeah, that's Slay the Spire: The Board Game.

[9:31] Crystal: The game I'm talking about today is a small card game called Flip 7. Flip 7 came out last year, 2024, designed by Eric Olsen and published by The Op. This is a push your luck card game that technically per the box can go anywhere from three plus players, which like with a card game, yeah, I know, Ambie, your face makes sense. Like how can you like on board game geek, it says three to 99 players. And in the rulebook, it specifies if you're going to play with more than 18 people, they recommend getting a second copy.

I would never play this with that many people, which I'll explain it'll become obvious why, but I guess you technically could which is neat, because not many games allow for that. So in Flip 7, it is a push your luck game where players are trying to earn points and the first player to earn 200 points at the end of the round where someone does that whoever has the most points wins. So the number of rounds is not fixed, it's fluid based on when somebody hits that goal in a round when it gets to a player's turn, well, everybody starts with a single card. And then when it gets to a player's turn, you can choose to either hit or stay. If you hit, you draw another card from the deck. And if you stay, you have passed and you score whatever cards are already in front of you at that point. When you hit, you draw a card from the deck, and then you can do make that same decision again as many times as you want. The goal obviously is to score points and points are based on the value of the cards in front of you. The cards in the deck run from zero to 12. Zero is an anomaly, there's one zero. And then for every other number, there is the same number of cards in the deck as the numeral. So there's one one and 12 12s in the deck. So what you're doing is as you're flipping over cards, you are trying not to reveal two of the same numeral. Because if you do, you bust and you do not get to score that round. So if you draw a 12, that's awesome for points, because that's 12 points. But it's more likely that you're going to run into another 12 in the deck because there's a lot of 12s in the deck. So it's one of those things where you're like, do you want a low number? Do you want a high number? There's also action cards and score modifier cards that can come up. The score modifiers are kind of straightforward. They either add a certain number of points to your score or they can multiply points on your other cards. And the action cards will either give you a second chance, it's a card you can put in front of you, where if you were to bust, you can discard the second chance card to not bust at that point. There is a freeze card that you can play on any player to freeze them for that round, meaning they score whatever points they've scored at that point, and then no more. And you can choose to freeze yourself as well. I guess if you are feeling like you're gonna bust if you want to stop yourself, you could do that. And then there's a flip three card, which again, you can give to yourself or another player. And whoever gets that card has to flip the next three cards in the deck no matter what, unless they bust. The one cool thing about well, not one cool thing, one of the cool things about the game is it's called Flip 7, because if you can ever flip up seven numeral cards in front of you, you automatically score for the round with a 15 point bonus on top of whatever you've earned on the cards in front of you. And I will say getting seven is hard. Because like, because you got some high numbers in there for sure at that point. And yeah, like the zero card is great if you're trying going for that because it's like, yay, can't match anything. I love this game. It is a gosh darn delight. It is one of those games that you're like, it's relatively simple. It's very easy to teach, you could just throw people right into it and apparently play with a very large number of people. Although I like if you were playing with like 15 people, it would be kind of boring because you do take turns one at a time in this game. So like, yeah, it's yeah, I don't I don't know why you would want to play with that many people. But it's, I guess nice that you can.

Ambie: I guess if it's like, like a party where people aren't there for really playing the board game, but like want to hang out and talk while they're just right game.

Crystal: Yeah, maybe like, like I desperately want to play a game and no one else wants to Hey, will you guys just flip over some cards? I had heard a lot of buzz about this one. And it got added on board game arena, which is where I got to try it. And now I desperately need to own my own copy of this game. It obviously doesn't work for every game that you play online. But I will say this is another example of a time that a game that I got to play on board game arena, seemingly for free, I have a premium membership, but like, I played this game online for free. And now I want to buy it even more than prior like having heard the buzz. So I think there are publishers that are recognizing the value in exposing their games to audiences through online platforms like board game arena. And yeah, I would not be surprised if Flip 7 shows up during the Blitzie awards for one of the categories for me, especially like for like a card game or like a light game or something along those lines. But you know, that'll be dependent on what other 2024 games are in consideration, obviously. So that was Flip 7 from the op.

[15:04] Crystal: As we mentioned at the top of the episode, we are heading to Dice Tower West this weekend. And I don't know exactly what my plans are when I'm at the convention. And so I figured we could brainstorm together and be what we're gonna do at the convention.

Ambie: And we could talk about just like conventions in general, how one goes about planning for a convention. Because yeah, I also haven't planned, but I don't plan much nowadays for conventions since I probably won't be able to do anything that I plan anyway.

Crystal: It's one of those things where I think the more you go to board game conventions, the more you realize that this is, of course, assuming that you're just a regular attendee that doesn't have obligations with the convention or things like that. Trying to plan a lot of stuff can be a very stressful, which is A not what I want out of a convention experience and B can be problematic because inevitably, things don't go the way you expect either you know, a game runs long or a room isn't available or somebody went to dinner and forgot to tell you or whatever else. So there's a lot of different factors at play. And so I the past couple years, especially I've been kind of flying by the seat of my pants more, which means there is a little bit more time spent wandering like for me around the convention hall and just kind of looking for something to do. But I don't necessarily mind that. And it does sometimes present really interesting opportunities like getting to sit down and play test, you know, a game in the prototype room, for instance, or sitting down with some friends that I haven't seen in a while and playing a game with them, even though I hadn't planned it.

Ambie: Yeah, when Toby and I go to conventions, most of the time, we don't plan events or anything like we don't sign up for any of the games. The first time we went to a convention like our local con, we had GM some games like the first few years. And this was like over 10 years ago. Now, we used to get a free badge for GMing for like five hours or something. So it was like GM a couple games and then so that would be scheduled. And then we tried doing other scheduled games too. But like those that always ended up kind of stressful and then always they weren't always good either. Because it depends on the GM. Like sometimes they didn't know all the rules or like sometimes it's like with people that you might not like that much. And so after a couple years, we're like, okay, we don't want to do this anymore. We don't want to do like scheduled events. And so like when we went to our first out of state conventions, which was like Dice Tower, Dice Tower East, it was Dice Tower. It was just one Dice Tower convention.

Crystal: Yeah, it was just Dice Tower con at the time.

Ambie: But yeah, and then BGG con later, like we didn't sign up for any of the games. And we just like wandered around. And they have like great looking for players flags and stuff. And so like we could just wander and check out games from the library, just play them. And it helps that Toby and I go together. So we always have like someone to play the game with in case like we can't find a player. So that that's nice, which is how we were able to do like a bunch of games. Because we used to play a lot of games at conventions.

Crystal: And I hadn't had that for the longest time because my ex while he would play board games with me at home, he wasn't as enthusiastic about board games enough to come to conventions. But my current partner loves board games and will happily attend conventions with me. So I have, he just gave me a thumbs up. So yeah, like he'll be at Dice Tower West with me, which is really fun and exciting. He's only going to be there over Saturday and Sunday because he has to work on Friday. But I agree with you that it's kind of nice to have like a built in like gaming partner. So that way, if you do find a game you want to play, you don't necessarily then have to also go look for multiple players, you can like get a players wanted sign, sit down with the person you already have and let people come to you.

Ambie: Yeah.

Crystal: And then if people don't come, they'd be like, okay, well, we could play.

Ambie: It also helps for like switching off reading the rules. So not one person has to read the rules all the time.

Crystal: That is true. And I always have the intention of reading rules in advance of the convention, like for games that I think I'm gonna want to play and I never do it. Like, I'm always like, I'm gonna read the rule books for like a couple of games that I know I really want to play. I never do it. And so I'm just gonna stop trying at this point. And it's just I think, again, like the more I get into the hobby or the longer I've been in the hobby and the more, I guess maybe just getting old, I'm just like, you know what, if I don't understand all the rules, that's okay. If I mess up the rules, also okay, I care less now. And that's not to say that I don't respect the correct rules that were written by the designer and the publisher. It's just I'm not going to stress myself out worrying about getting the rules right in the context of a convention because that's not what I'm there for. I'm there to have an experience, to have fun and to do it, to enjoy myself with friends. And so that is my priority.

Ambie: Yeah. And when we used to go to conventions, we would, or I would, Toby doesn't plan much, but I would like look through the games that I want to play and then look through the library and cross reference that manually. Like see like, oh, okay, they have these games that I want to play. And then I had a big list of games that I want to play and then cross them off as we play them. I wouldn't get them all, but like, then I have kind of an idea of what I'm looking for in the library instead of just like, look going into the library and be like, oh my gosh, what do I even look for? So it's nice to have kind of an idea. I have like, you can look at the library online ahead of time. So you can see what games are there. And it's a lot easier to filter through that than walk into the library and be overwhelmed.

Crystal: That's true. I do that more often than I probably should, that go into the library and just like scan the shelves. But occasionally, I will stumble across something that I've kind of forgotten about, like it's in the back of my head. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, like that game, I've wanted to play that for like forever. And so, you know, that can be useful. And also for Dice Tower West specifically, at one point, I don't think it's as robust now. But at one point, they had their classic cardboard section with a ton of really old board games like yeah,

Ambie: it's fun to go into the library and like browse those sections when it have specific yeah,

Crystal: because you have to see like the old boxes. And I feel like a name on a list does not do most of those games justice, you really do need to see them in person to understand whether it's worth your time or not. And some of them are and a lot of them aren't, but it's still nice to have them as options to play.

Ambie: And then there are some like scheduled events that I did still go to, I don't know if I will this year, like it's hard to go to scheduled events with kids. So a lot of them are like panels or something that lasts an hour long, and not going there with my kids. But yeah, like before there were like game shows that we would like going to or like go to a panel or I think the only scheduled thing that I go to now is the paint-n-take with my kids because they like painting minis. But that's not like a specific time that you have to be there. Oh, we also go to the meet and greet because my kids like Eric Summerer. So gotta go.

Crystal: Everybody likes Eric Summerer, obviously.

Crystal: Oh my gosh, I haven't talked to Eric in a while, like we text each other occasionally, but I miss my buddy. So I'm very excited to see Eric because since he and I don't do a show together anymore, like I just I need to catch up with him. So hopefully his travel is smooth. I see on his Facebook every time he flies on an airplane, something happens like if flights get delayed or canceled, he has the worst travel luck of anyone I've ever seen in my life. So I am sending good juju into the into the void into the universe for Eric's travels coming to Vegas because yeah, he deserves a smooth trip for other things that we've done in conventions or at conventions in the past. I would say like for me kind of like you I don't tend to do very many scheduled events, but I will make exceptions for unique events. Like we've done mega games.

Ambie: I think there was a like an escape room type thing.

Crystal: Yes, there was an escape room thing at Dice Tower Con one year. But it wasn't an escape room. It was like it was kind of escape room ish. Yeah. Yeah, like it was more like an escape closet in the middle of a room if I remember correctly, like in this box.

Ambie: I think there were groups of tables like I think each person something but yeah, it's I don't remember.

Crystal: Yeah, regardless. And then last year, we did that jubensha event and that we had scheduled in advance. But that was more like that was one on one with the people running an official event. Yeah.

Crystal: But I know they were scheduling other events of people during the weekend too. So it's not a requirement for me at every convention I attend. But if there are events going on at a convention for types of things that I can't do elsewhere, like a mega game, for instance, I do like to seek those types of events out. And if it is something that interests me participate in them. I mean, I've done two mega games in the past. I really liked both of them quite a bit. But the first one we did just kind of blew my mind. And I wish that mega games had kind of gotten a little bit more note in the board game community because I haven't heard about any recently. I don't know if the company that was running the ones that we participated in is still doing its thing. But I really enjoyed them. But I know it's a lot of work to create and put those events on. So I wonder if it's just kind of not a feasible thing to maintain over time. But they are they're a blast. I would say if you ever hear of a mega game running near you and you are a gamer, like go do it. It's so much fun. So are there any games in particular, Ambie, that you haven't played yet that you want to try and play at the convention if possible?

Ambie: I haven't like thought about it because I probably won't get many games played. So like I haven't actually looked at a list. I have an ever growing one to playlist on board game geek. So I might like glance at that. Or if I see a game that may be like, Oh, yeah, that's that's been something I want to play. But I don't have anything like at the front of my mind that I want to play because I know I'll get disappointed.

Crystal: Yeah, I guess that's that's kind of true. For those of you who haven't listened to the podcast for a long time, every year we do the Blitzie awards where we give out awards to our favorite games of the prior year and our Blitzies for 2024 will be coming up shortly. So I like to use Dice Tower West as kind of my last ditch effort to play games from the prior year that I haven't played yet that I really want to and you know, we're never gonna play all the games that release in a given year by any measure, like even remotely close. But you know, sometimes there are games like I mean, did Slay the Spire come out in 2024? Was it 2023? I feel like it may have come out in 24. Oh, it is 2024. So like, for me, that one is one that I would really probably like to try at the convention because I like the property, you know, the type of game is something I would enjoy. So that will probably be one that I really try and seek out because I feel like it could get a Blitzie. So yeah, that's what I like to do.

Ambie: I'll look at a list probably do that too if but yeah, like, because I have kids, it's harder for me to like actually get games played, I might be able to get more of it played this year. My mom is coming again. So we might come back at night. Yeah, play some

Crystal: love your mom. She's great.

Ambie: Yes, I love her too.

Crystal: It's so fun to see the boys getting older. I like I know that they're, they're still not really at the age where they're going to be wanting to like participate in the convention much. But I know that that time is coming faster than you probably want it to.

Ambie: No, I do want it.

Crystal: I'm just saying from like the you know, the whole like they're growing up too fast kind of deal.

Ambie: They're gonna start growing up too fast. Maybe like next year, I think that they haven't started growing up too fast. Maybe they're starting a little bit.

Crystal: Yeah, well, I will be totally down to play board games with my little buddies at Dice Tower West once they're at that point where they want to do that. So yeah, I love the boys and I don't get to see them very often. So that's always nice to get to see them as well. So yeah, I think both of us it's kind of just going to be see what we can get done, see what games we can play. Hopefully we get to run into a lot of really lovely friends that we haven't seen in a while. I know we talked about this at a recent episode that this past year, the only convention I went to was Dice Tower West and you went to Dice Tower West and Kublai Khan. And so I haven't seen convention friends in so long. I really I miss, I miss people. I did that board gaming retreat in September and I got to see a handful of people there. But that was kind of it. So yeah, if you are a human that knows me and likes me, please come find me and give me a hug. Because I miss you.

[28:13] Ambie: And that’s it for this week’s Board Game Blitz. Visit our website, boardgameblitz.com for more content and links.

This episode was sponsored by Grey Fox Games. The time has come to gather your warriors and roll your dice because the 10th Anniversary Edition of Champions of Midgard is on Kickstarter now! And if you want to buy games at greyfoxgames.com, you can get 10% off your entire cart, including exclusives, with the code BLITZ10 at checkout!

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Until next time,

Board game con gonna open up

Open up for us to admire

Got a whole lot of games I’m ready to play

Let’s learn them before we tire!

Bye, everyone!

Crystal: Bye everyone!

[29:16] Crystal: I had heard a lot of buzz about this one, and it got added on Board Game. I was going to say Board Game Geek. I had heard a lot of buzz about this one.

Crystal: OK, that's probably it. I'm just going to keep doing this forever. I actively thought in my head, I was like, I'm not going to stop waving until she stops waving. I'm just going to keep waving. Because I knew it would get funny, so.

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