The 2nd Annual Christmas Extravaganza and Nova Roma

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but our Chasing Meeple's Christmas Extravaganza is so delightful!  Angie and Chris have donned their festive sweaters to bring you an episode that's like the perfect holiday board game—entertaining, full of surprises, and best shared with friends. 

We're thankful for the community of listeners who've joined us for our podcasting journey and would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas, remember the reason for the season and keep chasing those meeples. May your holidays be merry, bright, and full of victorious game nights!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:24):
sagen Christmas extravaganza on today's show.
Wait a minute, I'm not gonnaruin the surprise.
Ho, ho, ho.
You'll have to wait until weunwrap this show for you.
So grab your hot cocoa, snuggleup by the fire and let's get
this holiday show rolling.

(00:46):
The banter, the games, theholiday cheer it all starts now.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Ho ho ho.
Welcome to the show.
The Chasing Meeple's Christmasextravaganza.
Everyone gather around, it'stime to celebrate.
Ho ho ho.
Welcome to the show the ChasingMeeple's Christmas extravaganza
.
Everyone gather around, it'stime to celebrate.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Hello everybody, this is the Chasing Meeple's
Christmas extravaganza.
I'm your host, chris, and asalways, I'm with my lovely
co-host.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Hello, hello, it's Angie.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Hey, angie, merry Christmas and ho ho ho, it's our
big show.
It is oh Meeple chasers.
Thank you for tuning into theChasing Meeple's Christmas
extravaganza.
I'm just going to keep sayingit because I love the way it
sounds rolling off my tongue.
Angie, and I look forward torecording this every year.

(01:52):
This year we're raising the barfrom last year.
Last year we had Santa on Santa.
He's here again.
I mean, you heard him in theintro, but this year we might
add a couple.
It's going to be a little bitmore musical.
Let's just put it that way.
I mean, it's a Christmas show.
I think back to all thoseChristmas specials that we used

(02:12):
to watch growing up as kids.
I love those.
They were great and they werestar filled, star studded
extravaganzas.
There's that word again.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Yeah, I'm thinking, I'm trying to think of their
names.
Oh, it was.
Why do I want to say RoyOrberson?
It's not.
You know one, two.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, no, that's not Roy Orberson, that is Lawrence
Welk.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Lawrence Welk.
I'm also thinking of the Osmans.
The Osmans always had aChristmas special where they
were in front of a big window,the Christmas tree, snowing
outside.
Yes, they always had musicalguest stars and stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Absolutely.
Well, I forgot to get thebubble machine so we can't
Lawrence Welk is.
You know we're not going to beLawrence Welk level.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
It's probably not good around the equipment to
have bubbles kind of floatingaround here.
Yeah, well, and the board games, you know there's goals,
somebody can have goals.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
You know, maybe next year we can be Lawrence Welk
level.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
This year we're just going to try to be chasing.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
Okay, I like to chase the bubbles level.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
It's worked for us so far.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
It has.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Right, we're going to do a review today, and Santa
didn't want to let the, hedidn't want to unwrap the
package, but we're going to bedoing a review for you guys.
Today we will be reviewing thenewest game from Stan Kordonsky,
and that is Nova Roma.
So stay tuned and you'll catchthat if you listen to the whole

(03:39):
show.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
So let me ask you a question.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yes, what's up?

Speaker 4 (03:45):
How has your week up to Christmas been?
Your preparation, how are you?
How has your week been going?

Speaker 3 (03:52):
I'm good.
I'm not sure what you meanPersonally.
How am I?
I'm fine.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
No, but handling this Christmas season, how have you
been Wow?
How have you been handling thisChristmas season this week up
build up to Christmas?
Because now we're here,christmas is on a next Monday.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
At the time of recording this podcast.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yes, it's on Monday, which is kind of, I think, kind
of an unusual day becauseChristmas Eve's on Sunday.
But this is it.
We're at our last week, ourlast push before Christmas, and
are you feeling any pressure?

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Oh, always I procrastinated so much.
This year my mind was on manydifferent things getting all the
extra setting up, all themusical guests and all the stuff
that we got going on today, youknow, sending letters to Santa,
doing the whole real world workthing.

(04:50):
Yeah, yes, that wipes me outbig time, but I think I've got
all my Christmas shopping done.
There might be one person I gotto get another gift for, but
other than that, I mean feelingpretty good about it, looking
forward to it.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
I've had a couple of missteps this past couple of
weeks.
When it came to Christmasshopping, I wasn't as maybe
organized as the right word asin former years.
I made several errors, severalmistakes.
While getting Christmaspresents, I bought several gifts

(05:28):
a few for you that well,frankly, you already had.
I did one of those, and this ismaybe this is the part about
shopping online.
I was shopping at a particularstore online and I filled up my
shopping cart.
I wasn't sure what we're calledlike flavors whether it's a

(05:52):
smell or taste, how many to getor what ones to put in my cart.
I suppose you're not girly, solet's say they were candles.
They're not.
So I filled up my cart with allsorts of different smells, like
vanilla to tea and a wholebunch of things, and as I go
through my cart, I was going totake things out, decide, okay, I

(06:13):
don't want this one, I wantthat.
I did not do that.
I pressed the purchase buttonand I had too many, too many
things in there, and now I woundup with probably not quite
triple the amount of things thatI wanted, but certainly double

(06:34):
the amount of items that I wasgoing to buy my co-worker, and
so I kind of made a few mistakes, a few errors in my Christmas
shopping experience.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
See, normally you're on top of it I normally am Like
you are on the ball.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
But I got everything in the mail.
I'm waiting on one thing tocome in the mail.
That was kind of a custom ordertype of thing, and that one is
on the way.
Should actually, I don't knowif I was supposed to be here
today, but that one is on theway, the one I was worried about
for one of my brothers.
Otherwise, everything was here.
I had things I bought at Etsythat came on time.

(07:16):
So I am essentially done.
It's just a lot of wrapping.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
That is my least favorite part, angie.
You make it look easy.
I, on the other hand, amsweating.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yes, you were.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
And I was stressed out.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
I was doing some work in the kitchen when you were
trying to wrap something in theother room and I heard your mom
telling you to cut the paper.
You're going to have too muchpaper, You're not going to have
enough.
And I was like you're likewrestling with a roll of paper
or something.
And then you're complainingabout the tape.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, because having somebody sit there and tell you
exactly what you should be doingwhen you're already frustrated,
you know that's the key.
That's the key to helpingsomebody through something.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
You chose to wrap at that moment.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
It was either now or never.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
It's the way I look at it.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Then or not at all.
I have, I have.
I had enough courage to do itat that point in time.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
I suppose I was out of the room and you're like,
okay, she's over there.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yes.
So next time no to self, nexttime grandma comes over to visit
.
Not a good time to wrappresents.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Well, I decided to do a lot of things in bags this
year so I wasn't going to beoverwhelmed with wrapping, and
bags aren't necessarily hugely,and we did go to five below to
get bags, so it would be alittle bit more economical.
But once you're buying, youknow if you go to start and pick
up one bag, you're like, oh,that's no big deal, it's, you
know, a couple of bucks.

(08:46):
When you buy a lot of bags atonce, suddenly you realize when
you're checking them out thatthat really adds up and maybe I
should just wrapped everythinginstead.
Since I've sitting here with aplethora of wrapping paper, I
maybe should have just wrappedthem instead.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
That's okay, although bags work easier.
It's just quick you open it up,grab the tissue paper to throw
it out and there's your present.
So I see your point on why youdid that this year.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
I did wrap, though I wrapped several things, it
wasn't just it was like odd sizethings, and I tried to do our
sons and bags, because sometimeshe doesn't always like to open
up his presents.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
I do believe there's still a present no I would
finally get rid of the wrappedpresents.
We did, it took us a year.
Good.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
Here's the thing it's going to.
I don't want to knock on wood.
I can't knock on wood right nowbecause it'll bump everything.
That this isn't the one year,because every once in a while it
happens where he sits there andhe's like another present, Like
he'll get through these so fast.
It's suddenly he'll like bewaiting for something else to
open up and some years it's likeunwrap one present and he's

(09:56):
gone.
That's it.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yep and he is done with the Christmas.

Speaker 4 (09:59):
So it'll be interesting.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
But enough about Christmas wrapping presents and
all that stuff.
I'm sure that is engaging.
I know it is.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
Everybody wants to know how I failed at Christmas
shopping this year.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
It is.
It is relatable though, sohopefully there's somebody else
out there like giving you a highfive, air high, virtual high
five, and then I know thatthere's got to be a listener out
there that sweats as much as Ido in the wrapping presents.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
I just hope that some other people have better FedEx
drivers than we do.

Speaker 5 (10:58):
Christmas, christmas, christmas, christmas, christmas

(11:46):
, christmas.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Quiz time.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Oh yeah, angie, what do you think about that
Christmas wishmite?

Speaker 4 (12:11):
Well, you know what?
There's no pressure.
None on you Three minutes songthere, no pressure at all.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
No, no pressure on you, but plenty of pressure on
me and, quite honestly, I'mready for it.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
Well, you know I could have saved some money.
If that's all you really wantedwas to Max points, I would have
dumbed this down and saved themoney on your Christmas presents
.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah, no, no, no, no dumbing it down.
Make sure that if your quiz isdumbed down, raise that up brain
level 10.
I don't know how to put that,but Max, max, whatever, just
make it harder.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
It's.
It's not going to become realdifficult, especially Well.
You'll hear later.
All righty, there is going tobe a Max 20 points.
Each question is worth twopoints, but there will be a
bonus five point question at theend.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Say that one more time.
Max points Already like I'malready stressed out here, this
is like 20 points.
I've been waiting all year forthis, angie, and just hold on,
let me just soak it all in.
Let me soak it all in.
Started over a max of 20 points20 points, okay.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
Each question is worth two, okay, and there will
be a five point bonus at the end.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
Now just to be clear.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
Well, no see Max points 20.
You get 20.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
That's Max points.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
Max points.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
And then there's the bonus points.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
That's like, my, that's like the 25, but if you
get to 20, you've hit Max points.
Oh if you hit, if you get thebonus, well then you're like
super max, superior, alreadysomething.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
I'm.
I got a.
There was like an extra gifttucked behind the Christmas tree
that that Santa brought thatnobody saw until the end.
Yes, it's like my red rider BBgun.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
There you go, there you go.
Yes, exactly, I'm ready.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Whenever you are, I've, I'm done hyperventilating.
My heart rate is now down to anormal point and I am now 100%
focused on you and the quiz.

Speaker 4 (14:24):
Okay.
The 1987 American comedy film,written, produced, directed by
John Hughes, tells a tale ofNeil, a high, strong marketing
executive, and Dell, the goodhearted salesman, become
traveling companions when theirflight is diverted.
What is the name of the movie?

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Plains, trains and automobiles Good answer Go to
Goldfish.

Speaker 4 (14:55):
Now, this is a dual question.
Here Are there two answers.
What are the names of Neil andDell?

Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, Neil and Dell.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
Yeah, no, what are the actors?
Who are the actors who playedNeil?

Speaker 3 (15:15):
And Dell.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
And Dell.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
Okay, dell was John Candy and Neil was oh my gosh, I
know him.
He's got gray hair.
He looked like he was old whenhe was in his 20s.
Oh, steve Martin.
How did I not know that Likeright away?
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Okay, all right, take a deep breath.
Take a deep breath.
Okay, what city are they goingto Look at your face?
Suddenly look at your face.
You just drop off.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
No quiz, no hints, nothing.

Speaker 4 (15:57):
No hints.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
No, no, nothing.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
I mean, I thought you would get this because we just
played a game.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
You think I was paying attention to that.
I was just trying to figure outa slide, a shower curfew and
ring across the table.
Oh my gosh, this is it folks,this is it I'm going to say a
city in I hope I am rightChicago, you are right.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
You are right.
You are at eight points, chris,you are at eight points.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
Oh, okay, I'm ready.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Are you sure you need to take a minute?

Speaker 3 (16:39):
No, take a drink of water.
I'm going to take a drink ofwater.
Okay, all right, let's go.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
What does John Candy's character Dell sell?

Speaker 3 (16:56):
Well, shower curtain rings, okay, All right, wait,
what am I on?
What question am I on?

Speaker 4 (17:03):
I didn't know where you got 10 points.
So then you must be on question, you must be like on the fifth
one.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Oh gosh.

Speaker 4 (17:09):
There's a second question.
Had two parts.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
There are 10 more points to go, all right.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Okay, the next one is a multiple choice.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
Oh, these are the ones I always mess up.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Their plane was diverted to which Midwest city,
Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit orWichita?

Speaker 3 (17:32):
Oh, it's not Milwaukee, it's not Cleveland.

Speaker 5 (17:43):
Maybe it is Cleveland , oh gosh.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
This is not my answer , but I want to tell you my mind
and I'm going to keep my eyesclosed because I don't want to
look at your face my mind keepsis shouting Wichita.
But there is this part of mybrain right on like I'm going to
say it's the back left of myhead that the word Cleveland is

(18:10):
like no, you idiot, it isCleveland.
I really wish I watched thatmovie more or played attention
to him.
Played attention when we played.

Speaker 4 (18:28):
Second guess yourself .

Speaker 3 (18:32):
It's Cleveland, oh no , it's Wichita, you second
guessed yourself.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
You second guessed yourself.
Oh, chris, oh my gosh, oh mygosh, I second guessed myself.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
I listened to that little voice, I listened to that
little voice.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
Oh your gut, oh my God, I feel so bad.
It's all right.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
It's fine, angie, it's okay.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Okay, max points are 20, so you can make it up with
the bonus.
You can make it up with thebonus.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
You can make it up with the bonus.
Use your bonus All right.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
Neil and Dell have to share a motel room.
What one thing did not happen.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Beer spilled, a burglar steals her cash, dell
mistakenly takes Neil's creditcard or the bed breaks.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Beer spilled.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Ooh, you can still make it up Is it, the bed
breaking.
The bed breaking.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
You still have a chance to make it up with that
bonus.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
I do, I do.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
On the bus to St Louis.
Dell raised cash by selling hisshower curtain rings.
As what?

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Earrings.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
There you go.
You got that.
So you have two, four, six,eight, 10.
So you have 12 points.
While driving, which did nothappen the car starts on fire,
dell drives in the wrongdirection on the freeway, dell

(20:19):
uses Neil's credit card to renta car, or Dell hits a deer that
gets stuck in the window.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
What's the second option?

Speaker 4 (20:29):
The second option is Dell uses Neil's credit card to
rent a car.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
No, read them all one more time.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
Okay, dell drives in the wrong direction.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
That totally happened .

Speaker 4 (20:45):
Dell used Neil's credit card to rent the car, or
Dell hits a deer that gets stuckin the window.
Car starts on fire.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Yeah, that was the first one.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
The first one is car starts on fire.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, you forgot to tell me.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
I say that one.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
No, okay.

Speaker 4 (21:06):
Car starts on fire.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Here's the craziest thing.
Okay, right now, in my mind,the movie Tommy Boy and this
movie are like they're meshingbecause one of them happened in
the other movie.
I knew it.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
Do you know what?
To tell you the truth, when Iwas creating this quiz, I had to
look up to see which onehappened in what movie.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
I have to go with the car started on fire because I
remember that in no that didhappen in planes, trains and
automobiles Did not happen.
The deer happened and the deerdid not happen in plane, trains
and automobiles.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
You got it.
You got it Because the car thatstarted when it started on fire
, del, had used Neil's creditcard that there was going to
have to take care of the firedamage.
Yep, all right.
So you were up to 12 points,all right.
What does Neil barter for hishotel room, his wedding ring,

(22:25):
his watch, his cuff links, orhis cashmere coat, his watch?
All right, good job.
Ding ding, ding, you're at 14points.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Okay, I'm at 14 points, I think.
Yeah, that doesn't sound, right, that doesn't sound right, let
me count again 2, 4, 6, 8, 10,12, 14, 16.

Speaker 4 (22:43):
So you're at 16.
Here's the five point bonusquestion.
If you get it right, it takesyou to 21.
Del attempts to barter hiswatch.
What was the brand name of hiswatch?

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Okay, all right Angie .
I have to think time periodright.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Yeah.
So there's like, when you watchthese, when you watch, no, it's
not a Rolex, because then itwouldn't be funny.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
All right, so Rolex was probably like Niels.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
Niels is called a PJ.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Oh, PJ Okay.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Like that.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
You know, I'm going to say it, what I'm going to say
, casio.
That's it, that is it 21 points, you did it.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
21 points, you did it 21 points Wow.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Hey, that feels good.
All right, I got myself Maxpoints.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
Moist flats and long luggy.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
Daddy, what love is master?

(24:47):
Is that sweet?
It's time for Captain, angieand Chris, talking of games you
don't wanna miss.
From the classics to the new,every game's a ride.
With Angie, air-christ, we'rein for life to life.

(25:09):
Laughter and joy are sometimesa fight.
Trying to stand and tell youwhat we play at night.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
All right, everybody, it is time for GackPan Games.
Angie and Chris play at night.
Angie, we've been playing, wewell, let's be honest, we
haven't got a lot of games in,we haven't.
We've just been busy.
We got a lot of stuff going on,but when we do get a chance to
play, what have we been playing,especially this month?

Speaker 4 (25:43):
Well, I'm going to.
We're not gonna talk about NovaRoma, that's the big one.
So what I'm gonna concentrateis what we did the other night,
and that was our Christmas games.
So we didn't even get all ofour Christmas games played, but
we got several new ones and wegot those played.
So we played Family VacationScramble.
Oh gosh what do you think ofthat game?

Speaker 3 (26:06):
That game is horrible .

Speaker 4 (26:09):
I think that was a game you actually wanted to quit
.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
I actually wanted to quit that game.
It doesn't happen.

Speaker 4 (26:13):
I don't think there's everybody game you really
wanted to quit.
No you literally wanted to quittell everybody what Family
Vacation.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
First of all, where the heck did you even find that
game?

Speaker 4 (26:23):
Kohl's, kohl's.
But you know what?
At TJ max they have that gameand a whole bunch of other genre
.
Like they have an elf one, Ithink they have a spongebob one
the same game, different like IPslapped on it.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, like I'm assuming.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
I'm assuming it's.
Yeah, it's one of those.
You know it says strategy gameon it, so I thought it was
decent.
It is Technically like a rolein move game but you are
collected, set collecting.
So you're collecting differentsets of the scenes in the in the
game or scenes of the movie,and if you get like a set of

(27:02):
three you can put your.
You can Move so many spacesbecause the cards all have a
space designation and maybe youget some cards you can move
around the board and you can putone of your old tokens On the
scene that the card is of.
Yeah, it's really bad.
We did not play the long game,we played the short game.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
It is bad thankfully it's bad and I didn't even want
to.
We didn't finish it.
No, we did finish it.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
I wait yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
I like, I sucked it up and I finished the game.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Oh, the short game.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
It was bad.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
It was bad that's just.
It's one of those cash grabgames for Christmas, and I'm
yeah, I actually had a littlebit of like I don't want to say
hope, but I did hope that whenwe first, when you first,
started setting it up, I waslike this might actually be a
game, there might be a littlebit of game in it, but it was so
bad.

(28:02):
It was so bad.
You the.
Yeah, I didn't want to talkabout it.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Next, then we played Plains trains and automobiles.
That's why I thought for sureyou were going to get the witch
talk question correctly.
It was interesting when youwould have got witch a talk from
would have been the score orthe round track.
There's like a little roundtracker where you move a bus
forward and as you you win agame, you move it forward, and

(28:29):
if you lose a game you roundround.
And then you well, theyactually call them games, yeah
you flip over the card and it'slike a fiery bus, and if you get
two of those, you lose.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Um you're the bus and not a car.
It's a car.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
It's a car, um, so yeah, you go through like three
cities before you get to chicago.
That one was interesting.
The fact that there weredifferent ways each Game around
is play.
You have different conditions,like what you were saying during
the quiz.

(29:05):
There was one that literallyyou have a hand of cards on the
table and you can look.
You have to spin a showercurtain Ring and for as long as
it's spinning, you can look atyour cards and that's all the
time you have to do that.
Now, I could not spin the ringand it wouldn't have been very
long, but you actually, youactually the game may have been,
but you were very good atspinning a shower curtain ring.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
That's one of those talents that I don't like to
show off.
But that game yes, that gamemade me have to show off my
talents of spinning showercurtain.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
That was a cooperative game.
That was a cooperative game.
It was you know some limitedcommunication on some of them.
So there were a little.
It was interesting not horrible.
No, it wasn't horrible.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
I would say keep it, pack it away.
Yeah, play it again next year.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
Yeah, exactly, then we played dice throne santa
versus crampus.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Always awesome.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
I was crampus this year.
Mm-hmm, I don't like just thecharacter of crampus, so there
was something that took it awayfrom me.
But, um, did you win or I win?

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Santa won.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Santa always wins, because I always play Santa and
I usually win.
Yep, santa, I think he's justlike a workhorse.
That's what I would say.
He's just a workhorse, he's notoverly complicated.
Sometimes, when you add thoselike Krampus has got a special
deck that you can, you know, usecharacters in, and that doesn't

(30:37):
make him better.
And then the final game Santa'sWorkshop, santa's Workshop.
Now, let's be honest, we reallydid not get through the whole
game, and it wasn't because itwas a game that we quit out of
like disgust or anything.
It was our timing.

(30:58):
We started, I started it likelate at night, I started putting
it together and saying, okay, Iknow how to play it, and we
played it and then, literally,we had to go pick up our son
from something.
So it was not that we didn'tfinish it because it was a
family vacation, or I should it,chris, is it a family vacation?
Scramble to you?

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Absolutely not I.
I enjoyed the little bit ofchance that we had to play it.
I wanted to get it back to thetable before Christmas and play
the game.
I think it.
It's a good.
It's not hard by all means.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
We played the advanced version, but it is a
good game.
There's game to it.
It's not a holiday knockoffgame and I think it would be a
decent game if they put aregular theme on it.
Yeah, I think because of thetheme, you're not going to get
people play it all year long.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
And it's nice, like it's competitive, but it's also
not cutthroat.
It's nice If we were to haveactually finished the game.
There might have been more.
I could maybe give a little bitmore critique on the game.
I think at one point, when Igot to my last elf no, it wasn't

(32:17):
elf, it was the helper, orwhatever one of my last workers,
I felt like there was nothingelse for me to do except pick a
toy, and probably not in thegrand scheme of things, probably
not bad To be forced to pickmore toys because there's no
limit.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
Those are the resources.
No, it's the oh the cards, thecards, okay, the toy card.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
And I think in the grand scheme of things it's not
a bad thing.
But the way my mind works iswhenever we play games like that
I don't know if you ever notice, I guess we'll call it contract
fulfillment I usually like tofinish one before I get another.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
Yeah, with that one you can have what I say, five
all at once.
Yeah, you do.
I was thinking of like Lord ofRIT, but yeah, you usually have
one sitting there in year.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yep, it's that one strategy of mine.
It's the one.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
You never even thought about that until you
said that, but that is true.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
So now my new.
I guess I got to start thinkingabout New Year's resolutions.
Maybe my New Year's resolutionis to have a second strategy for
all of our games.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
Well, that was going to be at the end of the show.
I was going to ask you aboutyour New Year's gaming
resolution.
But yeah, Okay, yeah maybeMaybe develop another strategy.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Maybe develop another strategy.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
yes, but I did enjoy the game and I do definitely
want to play it again.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
Was that?
It Is that all we played?

Speaker 4 (33:39):
Probably not, but I was concentrating on those games
.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Oh, we played perfect .

Speaker 4 (33:44):
We were up at the nursery.
We were at the nursery.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit.
What do you think about thatgame?

Speaker 4 (33:51):
Oh, that's interesting, it's interesting.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
So that's the perfect wave.
I think the OP or the OP,however you pronounce it
produced or published that game.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
Is it?
I think so.
I can't see the picture.
I don't think I have it in thepicture.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
No, but keep talking and I'll look it up If it's
wrong.
Future Crystal comes with it.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
It's an interesting game.
I don't really know.
I don't really think I cancompare it to anything you have.
It's going to look like, maybeonly a timeline that's what it's
going to look like and you'retrying to lay cards out,
essentially sequentially.

(34:36):
You need to go from lowest tohighest with your cards, because
those are going to representyou swimming out.
Essentially, you're swimmingout, paddling out on the
surfboard, so you need to keepyour cards in an order where you
can go one, two, three, six,but you can only go up to 12.

(34:59):
So you can repeat the number.
You could go one, two, three,three, six, but you can never go
one, two, three, two.
So you have to try keepingascending up in an order.
And then you're also going toplay trick cards above those,
and so essentially, when you'resurfing backwards, you're doing

(35:21):
tricks and you're gainingdifferent points.
That way there are some endgame goals.
So it's got a little strategyto it.
It wasn't difficult.
I thought it was okay.
It was interesting.
I'm glad we played it.
I'm glad we didn't buy it first.

(35:42):
It would have been one of thosethat I would have been
disappointed had we bought it.
I know, I think you saw it onetime you said oh, I heard stuff.
I heard about this game, so I'mglad that you didn't buy it.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
Me to okay is probably the best way to
describe it.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
For us.
I don't think there's enoughgame to it for me.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
Well, I don't even think there's enough fun in it
for me, right?
I would not say I did not, Idid not have fun playing it.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
That's a good way to think about, because we can play
really simple games and havefun with them.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
To me it felt like an activity in math.
Yeah, I'm not there, not for me.
Sorry, reiner Kinnitze, I knowyou're a big fan.
However, math not my favoritething if I just want to relax
and play a game, and that's allI got to say about that.
Oh, we busted out dungeonmayhem.

(36:40):
We have not played that gameand we haven't played that game
probably since 2020.
We played that at Bricks therestaurant.
We're starting to get thisreputation as the people who
play games when they come in andeat.
I don't want you guys to thinkthat Angie and I go out often

(37:00):
Wednesday night.
Our son has youth group and webring him there and then,
instead of just going home, wego find somewhere to eat, and we
don't do it every Wednesdaynight.
That's kind of what we do, yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
Now that gets expensive if we do it every
night.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
But it's fun to watch , like the normal servers that
work in those restaurants.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Yeah, they stop and ask no, what is this game?

Speaker 3 (37:22):
What are you playing?
How do?

Speaker 5 (37:27):
I play this oh.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Oh, it's me Santa again.
It's time for the review ofNova Roma, a masterful game
crafted by the renowned StanKordonsky.
In Nova Roma, strategy andforesight rule the day as you
construct palaces, race chariotsand vie for imperial favor.

(38:08):
Will Nova Roma earn their sealof approval?
Thank you, meeple chasers.
As Chris and Angie reveal theirthoughts in a review filled
with surprises, insights andmaybe a few laughs along the way
, will this be a game toremember or a ghost of Christmas

(38:30):
past?

Speaker 5 (38:33):
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
Oh Okay, Chris, are you ready?

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Oh, angie, I am ready .

Speaker 4 (38:50):
All right, well, let's dig into Nova Roma by Stan
Kordonsky.
Artwork by the Micho.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
The Micho, not an Amicho and adjacent artist.
No, actually the Micho like.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
There might be another video.
There might be a videosomewhere out there on the
internet where board game coversare getting rated.
And yeah, You're going there.
Oh, Angie, I'm going there.
I'm not gonna say who or what.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
We won't say what, yeah, what channel what channel.
Well known personality in theboard game See now you're going
way deep into this.
Oh am I.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Yeah, like well, okay , sure, sure, sure.
Yeah, there may have been adiscussion of whether or not the
Meech-O was a goodrepresentation of the Meech-O's
artwork.
I mean, I don't know how to putit.
You had made a comment when wewere watching that.
I don't know what's more of aninsult telling an artist that

(39:52):
they don't like their artwork ortelling them that they're a
cheap copy of themselves.
But I went there.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Angie, Good you did.
See, that's something.
I would push the boundaries andyou did it.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Oh yes, I'm the rebel .
This time, I'm the boundarypusher.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
Every once in a while I gotta push you out of your
box, Off the chair, out of yourbox.
All that good stuff.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
So Nova Roma.
This was a game that fulfilledthis year.
It was a Kickstarter.
Another, like you said, anotherStan Kordonsky game published
by Half a Kingdom Games, andit's.
I can't tell you what it is yet.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
I can't tell you because we haven't done our
review yet.
Nova Roma is a.
It is a power pack game andit's one of those games that's
going to play over a series offive rounds.
The winner gets the most points, obviously, and most of those
points are gained at the end ofthe game.

(40:56):
So it's one of those thingsthat you're not going to really
know who wins until you're atthe end.
It's one of those things youknow.
You're kind of looking atyourself and we've did that
before when we looked at eachother and said, oh, I think I
got this one, and then you scoreall those points and you may
have won or you may have lost,but you don't really know until
the end of the game.
Each person is going to gettheir own player board.

(41:17):
They get a mosaic board.
They're going to get threepetitions.
They get an artisan.
You're going to get yourstarting money, depending on
player count.
You're going to get two cardsand you're going to get three
mosaic tiles and they're in agraduated order.
There's a tier one, tier twoand a tier three.

(41:38):
The cards and the tiles can be.
Now we always just do random.
We just do random, but you cando a draft, sort of draft, with
your mosaic tiles and we just dorandom, but those are very,
very important and that'ssomething you want to really
keep your eye on.
There are a couple extra steps.
When a two-player game, we playtwo players, so there's always

(42:00):
additional petitions.
Two players are going to get,but you have a big main board
and the focus of it is the forumin the center, which is a grid.
There also are severaldifferent areas of the board.
There is a hippo drum track, ifthat's what it's called.
There is a black sea where youhave a map that you have two

(42:23):
ships to go around to score somepoints, and then there are some
shipping cards that go withthat.
So those are two areas thathave racing in the game.
There is a building area whereyou can build cards, build
zoning cards, contract cards,and then you also can put some
blocks out for an area, majorityarea.

(42:45):
In that part of the game you canbuy some follower cards or one
of the actions that you can take.
There are state tiles that goon the production board.
Your production board is partof your player board and that in
itself is also a grid andyou're going to work it, similar
to the forum board where you'regoing to take your worker,

(43:08):
whether it's your artisan orpatrician, and you're going to
place it on a space and then youget what's there, vertical or
horizontal, during the forum.
It's going to be the actions.
That's how you can do youraction selection on your
production board.
You're going to get whateverresources, whether it's money or
the resources, what there'swheat, wine, a horse head.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
Yeah, the horses.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
Brick no, no, rock and wood.
I think those are the and onyour player board that is a
resource track and I kind oflike the resource track instead
of just having a lot ofresources.
I kind of like that.
And then you have a I alwaysforget, I want to say victory

(43:58):
track, but it's an influencetrack as well on your player
boards and you can go up anddown the influence track.
You can spend the influencepoints to gain end game points
on your mosaic board or you canjust keep going up on the
influence track and get pointsout.
There are so many way and yeah,it is kind of you know what I'm

(44:21):
gonna call you know, kind ofpoint salad, but I love that
type of game.
Not saying what my feelingsabout this game whatsoever, but
so then you're also, besidesyour player board, you have this
little mosaic board which is soimportant to your gameplay.
So, as I was saying, there'sthree levels to it and you're
gonna think of that almost astic-tac-toe, because on each

(44:45):
level there are going to bethree conditions on each level
and as your levels go down likeone, two, three they're going to
be a little bit morecomplicated.
For example, one of the bonusescould be three shipping cards,
three building cards, and thenyou can put a token there, which

(45:10):
are the achievement tokens.
Is that, yeah, theirachievement tokens?
And you can put those.
Now, if you can make three in arow or three horizontally, you
get extra points at the end ofthe game for those.
So that's really a way to buildup points and even if you can't
do like the tic-tac-toe action,you still get points based on

(45:30):
where you put those achievements.
So if you gain achievement, ifyou get to this point where,
okay, I've got three shippingcards, I'm gonna put my
achievement marker on there.
Really important, you do notwant to skip that part.
All these areas are importantpart of this game.
You really can't ignoreanything.
Once again, not trying to givemy review right now, just to

(45:52):
tell you how you play it alittle bit.
So then, on your turn, you'regonna play place your patrician
there in the form.
You take your vertical actionon your horizontal action you
also have is he an emperor?
Is that what he is?
The Constantine?

Speaker 3 (46:09):
he's an emperor.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
He's on your forum board as well, and if he's in
the same row or column you justkind of double up so your action
is more powerful.
So you have a lot of choicesthere were.
You know how powerful.
Which action do you want?
Or do you want to take anaction that's more powerful?
So after, for a two player game, after your turns over, you're

(46:30):
gonna put one your extras onthere, kind of blocking off an
area, which kind of is what it's.
You know it's mimicking whatwould happen if you play in a
larger player count game andthen you go back and forth like
that.
At the end of your turn youalways have the option then of
putting one of your achievementson the mosaic board.

(46:51):
Essentially that's how you playthe game.
Am I forgetting anything?

Speaker 3 (46:56):
no, I think you got everything really good on that.
I guess I want to hop rightinto gameplay.
All right, this game's got somereally good gameplay.
It lasts five rounds and Ithink in each, each of those
rounds there is tension, andwhat I mean by that is, you know
, the heart of the game is thatthe forum right.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
Like Angie said, you place the emperor based on
there's two choices that you canthere's emperor tiles, and then
the first player flips it overand chooses which space to put
it on correct.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
The tile tells you there's two spaces you can put
it on.
First player picks that.
So there's a little bit oftension there, at least for me.
Okay, where is Angie gonna putit?
Where are you gonna put thisemperor token?
that might determine where I'mgonna go on this round but yeah,
it also blocks up a spot otherthan you know but it also takes
up a spot, yeah, and then, onceyou think you know where you

(47:52):
want to go, because essentiallythere are there's like three
different competitions in thisgame that you have to try to
manage and you have to choosewhether or not you're going to
go heavy in the hippodrome or ifyou're gonna focus on sailing
this game or if you're gonnafocus on construction.
You can't do it all, butthere's three competitions that

(48:15):
you have to manage, becausewe've already established that I
only have one strategy.
My win-loss record let me putit this way, my win-loss record
shows that one strategy does notwork for this game.
You have to.
I think that, which I'm kind ofhopping all over the place.
But going back to the tension,there's a spot, you know.

(48:39):
So Angie will place her, herworker, her patrician, on a sail
action.
Okay, now, that essentiallyblocks that sail action.
Okay, well, now I think tomyself I've got, I want to focus
on sailing.
So now I've got two otherchances to put my worker, when
it comes to my turn, into thatsail action.

(49:02):
But no, like Angie said, youthen have to.
The active player then has totake another colored worker to
represent a higher player countand they place that worker.
There has been plenty as timeswhen we play that game that I am
sitting there in my head goingdon't put it there, don't put it
there, do you?

(49:22):
Don't put it there?

Speaker 4 (49:23):
you know what I think only twice and I mean two times
out of the complete game.
Have I ever purposely blockedyou off?

Speaker 3 (49:32):
but do you?

Speaker 4 (49:33):
but you, I think that , so that tension is
self-inflicted for sure.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
I try to play it cool like I'm not gonna.
I'm not gonna act like I don'twant her to put it there.
I don't know if my, if I'm thattransparent that you know where
I don't want you to put it, ornot, like if I'm burning a hole
in the, in the game mat or theboard of the spot that I don't
want you to put your, yourworker, in.

Speaker 4 (49:58):
That's why you have to be able to have a loose
bobbin weave.
Okay, if you put it here, I'mgonna go here well, I try that.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
I try that I'm able to change on the fly doesn't
mean it affects anyway, but so Ilike that.
I enjoy that part of the gamewhich I think that adds to the
replayability of the game aswell.
I think this game's got a veryhigh replay value on a replay.
I think it does.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
I love it you know.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
And then there's the in our last episode, when we
said we weren't gonna talk toomuch about it, but since we're
on, since we're on this forum,it's the petition action, I
believe.
Where you give up yourinfluence, you have to spend
influence.
And I remember I totallythought I won our first game

(50:51):
because of the tie and I thoughtit was oh, because I was the
youngest, I totally won becauseyoungest.
Yes, no, because the youngestwins the tiebreaker.
Yeah, but you pointed out to methat the first win condition
when you go into the ties it'sthe influence is the influence

(51:14):
level and I remember our firstgame I had my influence, I want
to say, was either maxed out,yeah, and I said to you you are
spending that influence on a notwant to spend this influence
because I don't want it to comeback to bite me, but I did.
I did it.
I did it so I could take one ofthe seven actions, and it came

(51:43):
back to get me at the end canalso, you know, come back to get
you.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
You're on the basic board.
If you want to get, if you wantto get an action some of their
there's the action, some whereyou can put your achievement is
like, okay, you need to be up toeight, but you're going to lose
three of them.
So that's one of the otherthings with the influence track
that can you spend them?

(52:07):
I think you can also spend themfor other things, right?
Yeah, I could tell you werelike you did not want to spend
that influence.
You were so happy.
I think you even said somethingwhen you got up to eight.
You're like I hear yep, youwere so proud you were pushing
yourself up to the highest onthe influence track.
I think you were just gonna tryto sit there you know, I think

(52:28):
the forum is done really well.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
Really well.
I think Stan Kordonsky is gothe.
He made a good decision to gothat route.
Good design, like like myopinion, stan, like good job,
stan.
Thank you, chris, whoever youare, but anyway I think that's
cool.
If you don't mind, angie, I'dlike to talk about the like I

(52:55):
mentioned before.
There's three competitionsgoing on.
You're sailing on the Black Seamap.
That's one competition.
That is one that I like, thesailing.
I, if you notice, sailing andconstructing.
Those are like what I do.
I'm building up no aroma or I'msailing.
I don't do the hippodrome verymuch that might be because you

(53:21):
get those.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
Okay, let me think about the chariot chariot tokens
.
So if you're up highest on thattrack at the end of the round
you get these chariot tokens andthey're each were three points,
which doesn't seem like a lot.
But if you're up there, youknow that's, you know that could
be, you know, depends how manyyou get.

(53:45):
I mean, it does take you awhile to like a two-player game.
There's always that third quote, unquote third player that
starts ahead of you.
But once you get, you know farenough on that track and that's
kind of one of the other endgame.
That's not a condition, but youonly have five of those on
there.
So you know once you get downthere that you're heading to the

(54:05):
end of the game and and eachwhen you flip over those chariot
, it each has a different symbolrelating to the hippodrome
track, because there's threedifferent tracks.
So you have to make thatdecision which one am I gonna go
up and stuff like that.
That might be one of your fatalflaws.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Yes, it could be.
It absolutely probably is,because I think that's also the
only way that you can get yourthose tokens that you put on the
the achievement tokens.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
You need to go further up, but you have to make
sure you have enough horses,because to go further up you
have to have enough horse headsand the mosaic board.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
I think that that you know.
Moving on to the mosaic board,I like how you compared it to
tic-tac-toe, because it doeskind of have that tic-tac-toe
element right.
But I'm still salty about thelast game that we played but
that's not the game's fault.
It's not the game's fault, it'sme, it's totally me, 100% me,
but I had some really hard toget achievements and I felt like

(55:12):
there was so much going on thatI couldn't.
I could do the first row easily, but anything beyond that was
like what I have to get six, Ihave to have six followers.
Okay, here, holy cow and six,six followers and that mosaic
board really has to dictate.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
You know how you said you love building, you love
sailing.
Your mosaic board has todictate what you're doing in the
game.
So if your board does not havea lot of sailing on it, if it
does not have a lot of buildingon it, that's where you need to
kind of change your focus.
You're building, you know your,your mosaic board might have a

(55:54):
lot of hippodrome check, and nowyou're you're not looking at
those cherry tokens, you're notlooking at the end game race
tokens and you're not looking atyour mosaic board.
Your mosaic board has todictate what you do and not, oh,
I love to build.
You have to look at the mosaicboard and that's why the mosaic

(56:17):
board changes every time youplay.
That's where that repealability is.
That mosaic board's gonnachange, so it's gonna change
your focus.
It has to.
You have to pay attention tothat and you can't just be.
You know I shouldn't be givingyou the hint, because I win this
game and, like our other gameswe play, I'm always certain I

(56:40):
win the first game and I losethe rest.
Well, guess what?
I have not lost the rest of thegames of this game, so I should
not be giving you hints itsounds so simple, angie.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
I don't know if I actually thought of that last
time I played.
Well, every time we playInteresting, I might have to
start winning, though We'll giveyou guys an update on that one.
The fact that I haven't wonthis game does not Change my

(57:17):
rating or my feelings on thegame.
Anything else you want to talkabout on gameplay, angie?

Speaker 4 (57:22):
This game has got resource management, hand
management, you're going to race, you're gonna have that area
majority and you have workerplacement.
So these there's so much herecombine in one game and I'm
comparing it a little bit toendless winter and how that's
got the Area where you take yourworker placements and you go

(57:43):
off and there is a terrain boardand Monolith board.
This is seamless.
This or sometimes that may seema little maybe disjointed, like
you could drop the terrainboard and you would Maybe affect
anything this is seamless.
This forum is your heart of thegame.

(58:05):
It is the heart of the game andeverything off that you do with
its building or sailing orproduction comes off that form
and it is.
It works all these things intoit.
You takes that worker placementand you're working off with the
like said area control in theracing areas and it works so

(58:27):
seamless.
It is so Okay.
I don't want to tell you if Ilike the game or not, but it's
really he.
I'm trying to do this, but notletting you know if I like this
game or not.
I think I know and I think itseamless is really the best way,
because it doesn't seem likethere's an area that, oh, if you

(58:48):
drop it it wouldn't matter.
It really is iterated reallywell and that's you know, I
would stress to people.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
This is one of those games where I hate to say it
this way, because it matters inall games, but it it matters.
Yeah it matters because, yes,100%.
Before we move on to the restof it, why don't you talk about
your soul, your experience withthe solo mode?

Speaker 4 (59:16):
It may be and I don't want to use the word simple,
but it is a elegant soloexperience.
You take the emperor tiles,which you turn over on your
first turn, for your averageturn, and this is where you are
deciding where to put theemperor.
So when you're playing solo,you're going to use all the

(59:38):
tiles.
You're not going to just choosefive, you're going to use all
of them.
And then you Do the same thingyou turn over tile and decide
where you're going to put theemperor.
Based on that, the next tile onthere is going to determine
where your first Legionnairegoes.
So now you have legionnairesthat are going to Muck up your

(59:59):
board and you don't know wherethey're going to go.
So after every turn, you'reputting a legionnaire out.
So that's all you're doing.
You're putting the legionnairesout there blocking area and
you're playing your game.
And you're playing your game,and so it's pretty quick.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
So it's pretty quick turns are very quick.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
Yeah, that my mistake .
My mistake was.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
I never looked to see how the legionnaire scored
points.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
So I didn't realize how many points the legionnaire
got at the end of the game and Ididn't take into account.
Okay, I'm going to do this.
Legionnaire is going to grabpoints from Me not doing certain
things.
I mean, legionnaire, you reallyhave to pay attention.
I always recommend looking atthe legionnaires and Really pay

(01:00:50):
attention of how they're goingto score points and having that
in the back of your mind.
The other thing here's my othertip you get the production board
, you get a state tiles and youput them on your production
board and you do this.
You know, doesn't matter whatmode you're playing in, and then
these tiles are going to boostup your resources.
So if you have an extra artistin there, you're going to boost

(01:01:12):
upon any resources, but thereare additional tiles, so it's
money.
There are these animal tiles.
I don't know.
I still Can't figure out reallythe animal tiles, unless these
people had like zoos and theykept lions as pets.
I don't know if they did, butthere were animal tiles and my

(01:01:34):
first game I ignore themcompletely.
And then I looked down a littlecorner of the board and I
realized you are going to getpoints based on how many Excuse
me animal tiles you have onthere and really it's like you
max those points out after youget three animal tiles or three
like there's a lion, I thinkthat's worth two points.

(01:01:55):
So if you can get, that's likenine points.
And we weren't that far off onpoints.
I think one of our games wasmaybe Nine points I got and then
I had the first player marker,which is two points, and that's
all I was.
It was Looking at that.
So I would not ignore thoseanimals because they seem kind

(01:02:15):
of worthless, because they don'tget you anything.
Yeah, I don't pick them.
You just kind of like muck upnot really muck up the board,
but they're not going to giveyou an added resource at all.
So it wasn't until I took themthat I started to realize the
benefit of them.
And they are benefit like.

(01:02:36):
You're going to be scraping forpoints at the end of the game,
and I'm not mean scraping, butit's going to come down to these
little things.
Did I take those?
Do I have the first playermarker?
That's two points.
You think that really wentmadder.
I know you did something.
You're like ah, first playertoken.
I'm like that's two points, um,and then you're talking about

(01:02:59):
what you're doing on mosaicboard.
Each thing you do with pointsis important in this game.
So that was my other tip.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
Well, thank you for the tip.
Well, we kind of touched on theartwork already and it's the
mijo.

Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
Enough said, he's one of my favorite artists.
He really is, I really like.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
I think in the iconography is very, I think
it's easy to understand.
Uh, there were a couple I thinkthere's a couple follower cards
where I had to say, okay, whatis this card telling me?

Speaker 4 (01:03:30):
and then you have in the book that does say so.

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
But the real.
The rulebook is very clear andit explains things very well.
And we've already discussed thereplayability of the game.
I think it's very high, so Iguess the only thing that's left
is Angie, do you like Nova Roma?

Speaker 4 (01:03:52):
How about you?
You go first.
No.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
I'm not.
You always make me go first.
I refuse to go first this time.

Speaker 4 (01:03:59):
Okay, I like this game.
I like this game.
Not only would it be my game ofthe year, it would be even
higher.
I would give this game 10 plus.
If I could go higher, I wouldlike.
I said this game is seamless,it has got Everything, and I

(01:04:20):
don't like area control at all.
But I can deal with thismajority Because you have three
different areas on there you'rebuilding.
You're not just building in onezone, there's three different
zones.
So I love this game.
This game In my mind.
I really liked um, at thispoint, resurgence to me overtook

(01:04:43):
endless winter, so I reallyliked.

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
I agree.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
This top that this is unbelievable.
I am in love with this game.
I think it is by far his bestgame.
I love it, so I would go 10plus, and I haven't been
dropping tens easy.
Yeah, you don't, you don't, youdon't I think the last 10 I

(01:05:08):
gave was endless winter.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
I don't know I'd have to go, look but to me, this is
10 plus plus, plus plus plus a10 plus plus plus and game Game
of the year.
Is it, is it safe to call itgame of the year?

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
for you.
This year it's my game of theyear Holy cow.
Easy hands down.
I mean, we haven't okay, westill have a week or we have a
couple weeks left, yeah, but Idon't think there's anything
that can top this.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
Are you sure that it's not just like the hotness
no factor?

Speaker 4 (01:05:40):
No, because it has everything.
It has it all and, like I said,it's combining it seamlessly.
It is easy, my game of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
Well, that's awesome, angie.
I myself, I enjoy the game aswell, and the fact that I have
not won the game does not Changethat fact.
Okay, I just want to reiteratethat I'm not a 10.
It's not a 10 for me, though.
It is not a 10.
It's going to be about a 8.5.
Oh it's gonna be about 8.5 8.5.

Speaker 4 (01:06:15):
It's a good.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
It, it is.
It's a good score for me.

Speaker 4 (01:06:22):
Tried lightly, chris.
Oh no, let's remember yourresearch and stream no, no.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
I have nothing to complain about, there's just If
I were to nitpick.

Speaker 4 (01:06:37):
Oh boy, oh boy, I think you use the wrong color,
red.
If I was designing the game, Iwould have used what's a made-up
red.

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
No, but if there was one thing, I can't even get it
out now without you laughing,you're gonna judge me, angie.
You're gonna judge me.
You are gonna judge me so muchwhen I say this no, I'm not even
gonna bring it up, no, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:07:10):
This is your review.
Come on, you justify your 8.5.
Come on, you can do it I don'tneed to justify anything.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
It's an 8.5.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
We want to hear it.
All the evil chasers right?
Ken, you want to hear this, Iknow he does.
Randall, you want to hear it?

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
To me.
If I were to rate gameplay wise, though would make it an 8.5
would be that hippodrome.
That hippodrome is what I donot enjoy it.
I don't, I don't enjoy it.
Maybe my simple mind doesn'tunderstand it.

Speaker 4 (01:07:44):
You raised straight down a track.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
There one of my gun.
Do my turn.

Speaker 4 (01:07:50):
I'm gonna move my token.
That might be too simple foryou.
What am I gonna do?
Move my token to spaces.
Maybe, oh wow.
I just got 20 points at the endof the game because I wouldn't
move my token, because the moveseemed too simple for me to do.
I'm not nitpicking on you atall.

(01:08:11):
She stinks, angie.
She stinks.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
Angie, you're not making me feel stupid or
anything at this moment.

Speaker 4 (01:08:18):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
It's.
It's 10, then it's 10.
No, come on.
No, it's 8.5.
I think it's an 8.5, it's it's.
You know, when I ask you if youwant to play a game, you're
going to say no, veroma, right,it's not a game that I'm going
to say I want to play, I enjoyit, but it's not a 10 for me,

(01:08:44):
it's an 8.5.
And if I were to pick on theart, I think the art maybe,
maybe brighter colors, I don'tknow whatever, just forget it.
Just forget it.
Angie, here I'm trying.
You tell me now to overthink myreview.
Now I've completely under thunkmy review.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
No, I don't like going on the hippodrome track
Tampadrome.
I hippodrome track.
It's not exciting enough for me.

Speaker 3 (01:09:11):
People don't listen to us for reviews.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
Let me tell you, if anybody is listening, they don't
really care.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
Anybody is listening to?

Speaker 4 (01:09:18):
us for actual information.
No.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
If there is one person out there that actually
bought a game on myrecommendation for it, holy moly
.
I'll help you I will send you afree chasing meeple stickers.
You just send us an email,chasingmeeples at yahoocom, and
I would be happy to send you afree chasing meeple sticker,
because don't listen to me, I'mjust a guy.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
But you are a guy that somehow did not mistake the
artwork for somebody lesserthan the other one.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
Well, you know what?

Speaker 4 (01:09:54):
How about this?
Give yourself a point for that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
All right, I'll take the point that I knew that the
Meech-o did the artwork for agame and it wasn't like fake
yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:10:08):
Oh, yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:10:09):
So 8.5 for me, game of the year for you, angie.
10 plus plus plus, would yousay.
This game goes to 11?
.

Speaker 4 (01:10:21):
Oh, it could, it could, it would go past.
If we went past, it woulddefinitely go past.
It would definitely go past in11.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
Congratulations, stan Kordonski.
You have officially heardeverybody's.
You've heard it here first, ifyou listen to anybody.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
Yeah, if anybody cares what I say, it is my game
of the year.
It is his best game to date.

Speaker 3 (01:10:43):
Well, I am giving it a.
Um happened for some reason.
I'm logged into your BGGaccount.
I have literally just marked itdown as 8.10 for you.

Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
Oh, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
You're welcome.
It is now official.
It is now official.
It is now sealed, signed,sealed official.

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
Anybody wants to look at that.
I am Anna Pajama on BGG.
What more can I say?
What more can I say?

(01:11:22):
We had an awesome, awesomeChristmas extravaganza
extravaganza, and I think afitting end to it is this Nova
Roma review.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
I think you're right.

Speaker 4 (01:11:35):
We did a decent job at it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
I think you're right.

Speaker 4 (01:11:38):
We did a decent job explaining the game and how
things work out, so I think thisis a pretty, I think.
I think a review is, at leastyou know, a seven.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
I think we did.
I think we did a good reviewthis time.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
I'm going to give us a solid six.
It's better than the normal.
I like this game.
That's usually if you listen tothis podcast.
I've listened back this many atimes.
Yeah, it's pretty good Everytime.
I every time I bring up a gameand you'll bring up a game.

Speaker 5 (01:12:06):
Yeah, I like that game, that's me.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
That's Chris.
That's Chris's review.

Speaker 4 (01:12:11):
You're prepared and I'm just sitting here going yeah
, it's cool, it's cool, I likethat.
Yeah, I like that.
I'm usually not as prepared asI am today.
You know, the one time oh, I'mgoing to say this the one time I
prepared, I over-preparedbecause you told me I went too
long, so that's why I think I'venever prepared before.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
Oh, is that are you talking about?
When you did the endless winterthing?
Yes, oh, yeah.
You mean the 20 minute gamelike explanation that you did.
Yeah, yet another board, angie.
I remember that and like,literally you're just
ch-ch-ch-ch and then you stop inthe middle of it.
Yet another board, angie.

Speaker 4 (01:12:54):
So I try not to overdo it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
Well, I think you did good.
I think you found a goodbalance today.
Well, Angie, I think it's timeto wrap up our Christmas
extravaganza episode.
Meeple chasers.
I want to thank you forlistening, Angie, is there
anything that you want to say?

Speaker 4 (01:13:12):
I want to thank our loyal, loyal listeners all
around the world.
It's incredible that we do havepeople that listen to us from
around the world, so thank you,thank you and Merry Christmas
and happy holidays.

Speaker 3 (01:13:28):
Yeah, as we bring our Christmas extravaganza episode
to a close, I want everybody tojust remember that it's
important to remember the trueessence of this season.
So Myths of Joy, of Gaming andthe cheer of celebration, let's
not forget the deeper meaning ofChristmas it's a time of giving
, of reflecting on our blessingsand cherishing the moments we

(01:13:52):
share with our loved ones.
So when you gather around theboard game table, it's all
gathering gratitude and rememberthe reason for the season.
I want to wish all of ourlisteners a Merry Christmas,
filled with love, joy and thewarmth of togetherness.
Merry gaming, and may thespirit of this special season be

(01:14:12):
with you and your familythroughout the coming year.

Speaker 4 (01:14:17):
Oh that was nice.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
Thank you and, last but not least, say it with me,
angie Keep chasing those meeples.
You did.
Say it with me.
Say it with me.

Speaker 4 (01:14:32):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Geez, now we got to do this over.
Last but not least, Angie.

Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
I'll watch the hand signals.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
And, last but not least, angie, keep chasing.

Speaker 4 (01:14:44):
I thought you were going to do the finger thing.

Speaker 3 (01:14:48):
Boy, we were so good.
And last but not least, Angie,say it with me.
Keep chasing those meeples, ohmy goodness.

Speaker 5 (01:14:59):
And 308 of the Summit played at a Javi Park, but oh
baby, it's ahh, wait a sec.
Aah, ti, simply the best.

(01:15:30):
We'll entertain you better thanthe rest.
Oh, tracy Meeple's, we're herefor you.
We've gained some laughs andinsights too.
Oh yeah, tracy Meeple's, simplythe best.

(01:15:53):
The show is over.
We've had our fun.