July 28, 2024 • 42 mins
Greetings! This week Michael and Suzy play Apollo: A Game Inspired by NASA Moon Missions, by Buffalo Games, and also holds our record for the longest game title to date! Choose your role as either the team of Astronauts or Mission Control as you attempt to successfully either orbit the Earth in the Gemini II mission pack or make it to the moon and back in the Apollo! This won't be easy, as every turn you must handle systems breaking down, succeeding in your mission level goals and managing to get some experiments done while floating through the black! You can pick up Apollo at our Amazon Associates link HERE!
We also sample Blueberry Spaceship Box, from Superstition Meadery in Arizona. This dark, sparkling cider is a mix of fresh blueberries and granny smith apples, a dark and tart beverage that goes great with the hot summer sun!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:14):
Hello everybody, and welcome to Meals meatballs and
wine. I am Michael. And I am Susie.
This is your podcast for board game reviews
for couples with a drink in hand. Yes.
We're Susie and Michael, 2 long gamers, long
married,
and we decided to
take it to the next level today. We
decided that our marriage was too stable
(00:36):
and too good. And we needed to test
it. We needed to test it again. Even
long ago, we tested it by putting together
an ikea a furniture together.
And today, we tested it by buying Kayak
and going Kayak together.
So... On the river,
against the wind.
Up river against the wind.
(00:57):
So the wind at our back and we
were going up river,
Susie Canoe go Kayak,
You were doing fine.
Mike kept wanting to go back Oh, no.
I kept spinning too. I just kept pad
like, I got into a rhythm twice on
1 side once on the other. Okay. Twice.
And then it I would start spitting the
other way and I'd switch. See. There you
go. You picked it up.
(01:18):
So we managed to get in the water
out of the water without
falling... Falling in or getting a divorce. So
good for us.
If they wanna contact us?
How would they get in touch? They can
find us at maple at maple and wine
at gmail dot com,
or you can find us on any of
(01:39):
the socials Facebook, Twitter Instagram linkedin at
maple and wine,
or you can go to our website, mee
in wine dot fun and leave us a
voice mail on our speak pipe link. Kip.
We would love to hear from you. I
have not checked speak pipe, but I will
right now.
(02:00):
I'm going to check, and
we don't have any voice mails. That's why
you're not and having to check it. I
know. We got no voice mails. Come on.
Nobody wants to
talk.
Come on people, speak. Talk. Text us. Yeah.
Texas. You can... Yeah. Like a week.
Texas on Facebook do something? We like to
(02:21):
hear from you. Like, what what wine would
you like us to try and find what
game would you like to try some but
dry is there? Library brewery that you per
particularly like. Yeah. Brewery winery, meat.
Read. We do like meat. Yes. We actually
have a need tonight.
No. We don't. No. We don't. We have
a cider. Oh, we have a cider. Sorry.
(02:41):
It is this is but it's made by
amir. Oh, that's why I was thinking that.
Yes. So we are drinking blueberry
spaceship box.
This is by
superstition Metering out Arizona.
They have multiple kinds of meats, from what
I understand they their web store actually goes
by,
(03:01):
state and what you can can't find places.
Okay. So they're based in Arizona. Right? They're
based in Arizona. So they've got a
super crew box that has... Here... Here's listen
to some of these things they've got. Oh,
I smell the blueberry just from opening it.
Just capping it. Yeah. Mh.
It's got pillars of creation it's a dark
cherry cider, peanut butter peanut butter jelly crime,
(03:25):
peanut butter and blueberry meat.
Lag the,
Traditional me mosquito honey aged and bourbon barrels.
Oh, this is sparkly.
Bubbly.
Spaceship box, our Blueberry cider and the top
right rated cider on
just not dis steal on
(03:46):
a that doesn't it doesn't say it's on
brewery or something like that or untapped. Yeah.
And then Griffin tart cherry s made with
organic Arizona apples and cherries,
and Tahiti Honeymoon are oak aged to tahiti
vanilla bean need.
Mh. So a hundred and 60 bucks will
(04:06):
get you all those
Oh, in like, in 1 order. And 1
or 1 big pack, they discount them. They
got a lot of cool stuff though.
Must start digging around seeing if I could
find some of the other things, but
in local
or local stores,
but profile,
it says that it is a
(04:27):
violent huge champagne.
It's very bubbly. Look at that. Yeah. It
is.
We're not we we... We're not teaming yet.
We team when we taste. Or should we
talk. We talk in Ting and get it
and get it straight. Talk, ting, taste. Talk
ting taste. Right. Knows it says massive blueberry
Aroma would plays with green apple rose and
orange. I will agree with that. As a
massive blueberry aroma for sure. Oh, yeah.
(04:51):
That's very,
very blueberry. A little bit of...
I could I could see the
orange
a little bit of citrus, a little bit
of orange. Mh. K.
And taste blueberry dominates, but it's lightly restrained
by Granny Smith, Apple skin tan,
while subtle notes of vanilla and dark,
(05:11):
sugar lend complexity to this cider that finishes
crisp and refreshing.
Ba sugar is just another sugar where the
molasses is left in.
So it's like a brown sugar. It's like
a raw sugar yeah. But not like the
brown sugar probably that we buy at the
store. So that's been, like, bleach then they
put it back in. They they add the
molasses back. This is like a natural raw
(05:32):
sugar with molasses. Kinda looks a little stickier,
but it's a sole
interstellar
exploration. Yes. Which is why we chose this
1 because goes with our game tonight. No.
Here we go.
Let's taste it. Mine is still bubbling.
(05:53):
Oh, wow.
That's very, very very.
Very blueberry. Cool, but a lot of apple
too. Yeah. It does... You have got the
Granny smith tart to it. Definitely an apple
cider.
But...
I would say strong blueberry
aroma,
that's strong
(06:15):
sparkling cider or taste. More apple cider taste.
And, I'm getting a lot of blueberry on
the front end of it. Like I'm getting.
I mean, I'm not
kicking that out of bed or anything. No.
And it this is a dark
violet.
Yeah. I mean, it almost looks as dark
(06:35):
as the wine we had last week. Yeah.
The red, the like the dark red wine
color.
Almost absorbs light? Yeah.
Not quite as dark as last. The 1
from last week, but pretty dark.
So, yeah, they say this is the top
rated cider in the world according to rate
beer dot com. It got a hundred point.
Mh. And untapped. Untapped. Yes. Got great views
(06:58):
on both of those. Mh.
And I would agree with it. I could
drink this. This is really good. It's been
our long.
What it wants? The 5.5
percent. Mh.
5.5.
No. And it comes in a 07:50, so
you got a wine bottle, but
something I like
(07:20):
They put a flip top on these.
Yes. So so if you're drinking by yourself,
you don't have to drink the whole bottle
at once.
I don't understand.
No. But all the bubbles won't escape. Oh,
that's true. That... Oh, that's see. That's why
the swimsuit.
So I could close it right now. And
then when we want a to pour some
more. We won't... It'll bubbly. That'll be nice.
(07:40):
You gonna do that. Yeah. Let's do that.
We can see. It should work.
That's like when you get a rest Already
coming back up my. You're it's gonna be
a burp show of folks. Mh That's like
when you get
You get, like a recipe that says use
some leftover wine to seasons... You know, I'm
like, leftover wine.
Who the hell has leftover wine.
(08:01):
Though I did I did see a good
suggestion for the wine thing for cooking with
wine instead of, like,
cracking open a whole bottle. It's to just
get a whole bunch of like, little airplane
bottles. And Oh, for cooking those for cooking
if you need to demi or do anything
like that. Yeah. That'd probably be perfect portion.
Yeah.
But then you can't. Drink... You'd have to
crack open another bottle of wine to drink
(08:22):
while you're cooking.
So
gonna Mark.
Martha Stewart. Not Martha Stewart. Who's the 1...
Dudes wanna get loaded every time she she
Julia. Yeah. I got a Julia child at.
Mh.
She was fun. I like this.
This will be better if we were outside
in the warm. This is very summary. Yeah.
(08:44):
Very summer. And I could even see this
being made into a
a cocktail.
Yes. Because it would add the bubble. Oh,
would that add a light bubble to a
cocktail. Mh. So maybe like a,
maybe a vodka cocktail? I can't see something
like the rum
I think Rum would be too heavy for
this. So it would have to be a
lighter. I don't know. What would you normally...
(09:04):
You know what? Maybe something that you would
normally use champagne and
Look, I give it a completely different complexity.
Yeah Like, a, like a mimo type of
thing. Yeah. That would work.
So, yeah. So there will be links in
this
show notes to find out where to get
this stuff? Yes. Blueberry Space box by
superstition metering. Yes.
(09:25):
And, Susan suzanne.
Oh, hang on. So we're we're trying the...
You.
The bubbles
Went right of my nose.
Dan. What game were we playing? So we're
drinking blueberry space spaceship box because today, or
this week, we played
the game.
(09:47):
Apollo. Apollo.
Which is a game inspired by the Nasa
moon missions.
Yes. Which
it's really cool. Yeah. I picked this up.
On clearance at Target. Did be really? Yeah.
It's been sitting on the shelf for probably
2 years. Well, you look at the box,
(10:08):
which is great picture of
the of the guys on the moon. Yeah.
I mean, it's a illustration. It's not of
the actual picture. But
And then it says
illustrated. So it looks like this Nasa game
that maybe you would pick up at the
museum, science and or the,
the... What do you call? The observatory Right.
(10:29):
Or something. And then it would be, like,
a boring
educational thing or something. Yeah. But no. It
was... It... It's a good game. There's a
lot of strategy. There is a... Yeah. There's
lot now. This 1 has a board... Let's
say a board game geek rating of
6.2 out of 10 for fun for popularity,
and
(10:49):
2.64
out of 5 for complex. So about 50
percent of the way from a total mind
melt type of type of game. Well, I'm
mind melt. Well, I mean, that's like that,
We talk we just watch. Yes. Or we
we just talked that about... We talked about
that,
game last week. Where we're building the instruments
(11:10):
Oh, the 1 we saw the review for
Yeah. Music 1. That 1 in kick kickstarter.
Like, a mind melt. Yeah. Has is
funded 1200
percent, over 1200 percent. So there are apparently
people that like. Maybe there's a lot of
musicians. Musicians
of a there's enough people out there that
they got funded and way the heck with
a thousand different tokens points,
(11:33):
scoring tracks and all that. So
Well, some people really like that much complexity.
Yeah. Yeah.
I like a little complexity.
So this is for
2 to 5 people.
And Susan suzanne, what's the description?
So you are a go for lunch.
It's 19 61,
(11:54):
president Kennedy challenged the nation to land astronauts
on the moon by the end of the
decade.
Now, it's up to you to walk in
the footsteps of Nasa's pioneers
and embark on the missions that made history.
For all
mankind.
Play as mission control
and astronauts.
(12:14):
Work together and strategize to complete flight stages,
overcome obstacles,
repair the spacecraft.
And keep
communication clear.
It's the team that determines if the mission
succeeds
or fails.
So this game is designed by Sarah Addison
who has designed such games as
(12:36):
Apollo.
Well she was a c designer with Jonathan
Gilmore Long. Yeah. And Jonathan Gilmore long has
a quite
the,
be that 58 games on here. Yeah. Including
At atari Asteroids,
board game,
book of Dragons, collab lab,
and 1 that I really wanna pick up
called dead of winter. It's kinda like a
(12:57):
zombie survival
type game. Game... Like the game of thrones
winter zombies?
No. No. It's, like survival... It's like, you
have to survive against the elements. Oh, okay.
And that's worth thing. But... And I believe
it's got a turn coat.
Type of thing to it. So like... But
like some trail trays. Yeah.
Lots of dead of winter,
(13:18):
expansions,
dinosaur island,
So he's gotta he's got quite a. He's
got a lot. Ripple repertoire of wonder It
was like her
idea, and he's like, okay. But she'd never
built a game before, so he helped her
or something. Yeah.
I don't know that? I just... I mean,
we're just guessing on I'm guessing.
(13:38):
What about the artist?
Thomas Roam
Roam. What's... When the oo nuts over the
oh, what does it sound like? I don't
know. Roam. Rome. No idea. Roam.
Thomas Ram, who's done art for
Apollo, a game inspired by the Nasa Moon
missions.
K. Good job on this 1, Thomas. The
The art really matches up with
(14:00):
with what it's the beam. Yeah. With the
theme for it and all that. So
and this is published by Buffalo games.
So Buffalo who has made such games as
planted.
The, a game of nature and nurture, the
1 that we got 1 of our for
Christmas not okay Go. Yeah Yeah.
So
(14:21):
Had the 1 we have to... The... It
it doesn't sound exciting. Mh.
What do you mean you played it with
me? And it was too long ago I
don't remember. Where we have to take care
of the pot. Remember they were cute. Yeah.
You have to maybe me take care of
the pot plants. You have to... Yeah. Plan
book. We enjoyed it. It was fun. Yeah.
You enjoyed yourself. Trust me on this. Did
(14:41):
we control elements or something in that water?
Had to have like water and soil and
sun? You had little tokens that you had
to Yeah we should probably play that again?
So some types of games and make mechanisms
in this 1. It's
communication limits and that plays out in this
because,
Mission control can only talk to you if
(15:01):
it has comm tokens.
Well, there's certain information that you can't share
without a com token.
Like you can share general information, but not
specific things. What do you mean? You weren't
sharing anything? Well,
like, okay. So there are experiments that you
have to do. Right. And so let's say
(15:21):
the experiment says that you have to have
3 dice
with the number 5 on it, and they
all have to be yellow.
Well, I can't tell you any of that.
It costs a
a calm token
to tell you that it's 3 dice, it
costs you a calm token to tell you
that it's the number 5 on the dice,
and it casa a calm token to tell
(15:43):
you what color. Well, I think even you
use a comm token just to tell me
that we were getting a new
experiment. Well every time you finish an experiment,
you get a new 1. Yeah. But I...
And we've all saying at the beginning of...
Mission control,
was real tight lip
in this case. You didn't get many calm
(16:03):
tokens. I started out with 2, and then
I didn't and I 5 at the very
first term. Well, we won the first game
didn't we. Yeah. Of course, the first game
was also half the size of the second
game. That's true. It is. Believe it or
not. It's a cooperative game despite the way
we're talking to each other right now.
Rolls with asymmetric
information. So this is a big play into
it that rolls into the communication thing.
(16:25):
Susan suzanne
demanded that she played mission control both times.
Demand it.
Would you like to play the? Said I
her to play and control. I've learned I
would with you if you want. I've learned
to play mission control. I would like to
remain here.
But I am in my zone. In control.
(16:46):
So, yeah. So the way that works is,
I roll
the dice every turn and there are 5
astronauts. Yeah. The astronauts. So roll the dice,
and there are 5 different categories. So there's,
like the
life support support, there's
communications, there's experiments. So there's 5 categories of
(17:06):
things that can go can break.
You take that it's initially 10 dice
roll them, and all these items are listed
12345
and sixes are wild.
So you try to fill in as many
of the spots,
there's 3 spots each to keep from damage
from happening. So if you roll and you
get
(17:28):
3 threes,
and that's,
life support. Life support takes no damage. Right
term. Mh. Now if you get 4 threes,
you get what a call is a, the
change token. The plus minus token... Minus token.
So that token, if you have 1, allows
you to raise or lower the number of
a die by 123
or 4. But that's only during the action
(17:48):
phase, which was after the rolling thing and
damage. But that comes into play later because
you when you're trying to,
finish each stage,
it comes in. But... So as I damage
things, as things get damaged.
It tell
mission control.
Life support has 1 damage.
Experiments has 1 damage. Comm has 2 damage.
(18:10):
And she marks it out a little slider.
Right. She has behind behind. Actually she had
a screen in front of me, so he
couldn't see my board,
and the mission control board then has
sliders
from 0 to 8 for each 1 of
those 5 categories,
and and mission control keeps track of them.
So you kind of have to remember how
(18:32):
much damage each system has taken without being
able to look at it. Right. Astronauts. I
mean, and they give you a Mission control
can spend a comm token to say,
hey,
you need to fix this system. Yeah. They
give us little red astronaut tokens that you're
supposed to put on
the items on the columns that you over
the rows that you think you're supposed to
repair? For the astronauts. Yeah. So
(18:55):
So that's how the asymmetrical goes. So as
you're going back and forth, there are also
3 flags that clip onto the top of
the board that show that there's things that
are going critical. So you little essentially just
red light. Yeah. There's 3 alert
things that flip up that look like little
red flashing lights, but they don't flash, of
course. And then there's 1 that says calms
(19:15):
down. Mh. That you could also put up
if your comm will go down. Yeah. So
that calms down either means that she's out
of comm tokens or communications. It just means
communications that is between 0 and 3 and
I can't even get calm tokens if it's
between 0 and 3. 0, because calms are
down. Okay. I can't use them and I
can't accumulate them And then scenario mission
(19:38):
campaign game is way is another 1 of
the categories on this 1 the mechanism mh
So as you
as you either orbit the moon... Yeah. So
the scenario is
you're on a mission to the moon, moon.
Right?
That's the scenario.
Well, this
admission to the moon or I can say,
or you're orbiting there earth because remember there's
(19:59):
a starter There were 2 scenarios. There was
Gemini and Apollo that you can Gemini 1
only has 1,
like,
10 by 10 board. Mh. That has the
earth on it, and you have to launch.
You have to orbit and you have to
get back down to the earth. So that's...
That's the that's easy. Slash down. Easy mode
of the game. Yeah. And you only have
(20:21):
to complete 2 experiments for the Gemini mission.
Right. For the Apollo mission, you have to
complete 3 experiments
plus all the other obstacles.
Right. In the stage. So each stage you
have launch. So
launch you flip over the card and it
tells you what you have to do to
complete that stage. So I think the stage
that
they they
(20:42):
get more and more complex as the game
goes on. So initially, you'll have the first
stage
is launch and you need to get into
orbit. So you have to roll 4 dice,
they all have to be the same number
in the same color. So you roll the
dice and
At when... On your action phase, you have
to choose which dice you're going to put
towards
each stages actions
(21:02):
because the other things you can do are
repair items on the ship, you can give
you can drop a certain color
dice to give com tokens to
mission control or adjust power settings so she
can
lower power in 1 item and to raise
it in another to kinda avert damage, you,
kinda like, even things out.
(21:23):
There's... And
that I say repair? Yes. You gotta put
down
sequential dice So it could be 12345135.
And you get 1
repair
for each dice that you put down and
then an extra repair for each dice that
matches a color of the first past that.
(21:44):
So if you put 3 dice down and
they're all black. You get 5 repair points.
Nice. Which I had to do often. So
while you're doing this, if you have a
you also have to put items down for
experiments, and that's was, like, Was saying, we
need... I trying to tell me that I
need Yeah. That was the other thing that
was behind my screen was the experiments.
(22:05):
Those are ones he couldn't see what it
his goal was unless I communicated it to
him. And I'm still the 1 tracking them.
That's mission control.
And then what else what else did you
have we have to do?
Things went critical, you have to solve, like,
a tetris puzzle? Yeah. If the if a
system went critical if it went all the
way down to 0,
then we start the timer for the action
(22:28):
phase,
and you flip over 1 of the crisis
cards. Mh.
And you have to solve a puzzle.
But I had, like, 2 dice to use,
and then the dice has numbers on them.
The puzzle pieces set have numbers on them.
So you had to roll
to get the right to get the right
(22:49):
piece. So you have to just keep rolling
until you get it. The the thing is
you're using up time. Yeah. So normally, the
time you get 4 minutes
to complete the
action phase phase. And normally, that's all to
the astronauts.
Right. If something goes critical, then Mission control
has to solve 1 of these puzzles or
I do, it depends on how it goes.
Right. But and it... The puzzle itself is
(23:11):
like you've got these, like, tetris
style pieces and you have to connect
1 circuit to the other circuit on the
board. And there's things in on the circuitry
that block your way and
put things in the way so that way,
you can't make just a straight path. So
you've gotta get these
the roll for the pieces by getting the
(23:31):
right numbers that are on the back of
the pieces so if you need 2 two's,
you have to roll the dice and get
a and get 2 tubes to be able
to get whatever piece that is, and then
use those pieces as you act,
as you get them,
to be able to put on the board.
Yeah. You're connect the circuits. This was very
stressful force Suzanne when she had to do
it. Well, and the thing is some of
(23:52):
the pieces have 3 numbers, which meant you
had to give me at least 1 die.
And the more die you give me the
more chance I'm gonna get get numbers. But
but then you don't use them during that
action phase. Right. And I was also distracted
by our visitors. That's right.
So this game takes 30 to 60 minutes
to play depending on how often you get
(24:15):
distracted by raccoons in your backyard. Yes.
So That is also something that happened. We
had a family of 6, mom and 5
babies,
crawl out of the storm sewer. In our
backyard and just show up, like 3 feet
from us, scare the crap out of us.
Yeah. Because we didn't see them coming. They
sneaky little things. Sneaky and quiet. We didn't
(24:37):
hear them until they were like. We heard
this munch sound. Yeah. Because they were eating
the sue and all the bird seed that
we had put out for the birds and
all that. But
that was a little bit of a distraction.
The first time we played it with the
Gemini... The Gemini 1
that 1 pretty easy. The the mission cards
are pretty simple.
It's, like,
(24:57):
get all these get roll the dice get
3 dice all the same color. Roll the
dice, get all
4 dice all the same number.
But then when you get into the jump
the
apollo mission,
Mh. It's like roll these dice.
You need 5 dice and the first 3
dice need to add up to the sum
of the first 3 dice needs to equal
(25:18):
to sum of the last 2 dice. Yeah.
And then you need to use
those dice at the bottom, but you can't
use... There's like... But you can't use the
same number that you use in the previous
1. And They throw on a lot more
rules that throw a lot more wack doodle.
Sometimes each stage had was divided into 2
stages that you had to solve.
And then,
Remember you had to solve those
(25:41):
before
The stage ended... The stage ended. So every
action that the astronauts
I,
aka, Michael
took
the mission control has to keep track of
and move the marker on the board.
Right. And so every time he puts diced
down to take an action,
(26:02):
I'm advancing his piece
And if he reaches the end of that
flight stage with on the board without completing
the stage card. Right. Then
Mission failed. Right. You know? So
Apollo failed
yes. But we made it pretty far You
had landed on the moon and you'd taken
off, but you missed reconnecting with the
(26:25):
the moon orbital. The or moon orbiter Right.
Yeah. So that we blew up in space
on that 1 I... Or drifted it off
into space.
That I think was the 1 where I
needed to roll
sequential dice that were
opposite
black yellow, black yellow, black yellow. That to
be opposite colors of each 1. And then
I had to
roll
(26:47):
3 matching
yellow dice to 3 matching black dice to
be able to connect to the orbiter.
But they had to be different number. Well,
like, the black dye saw had to be
the same number and the yellow I saw
Yeah. To be the same number It couldn't
be the same number. Like And then we
came to the neck the last turn, you
know, the last turn before the stage ended,
and it was just... There was no way
for me to. I had rolled though, I
(27:08):
would managed roll 9 dice Well, it was
a 2 part stage.
No. It was... It was a 2 part
stage, but the second part had 2 parts.
Right. That's where I needed the 3... I
needed the 3 black and the 3 yellow
dice. Yeah. And I had the 3 black
ones I was hoping that I had tokens...
I was trying to get matching numbers was
trying to get like, all 5 or something
(27:28):
You used up all your plus... No. I
had plus minus tokens. It's just my dice
roll was so bad. So bad that I
would... I needed more plus minus tokens than
I had to be able to change numbers.
So we blew up the.
We had a successful gemini mission. Yes. We
did. We spun around the earth.
And it's kinda fun. You can really get
into it because even the directions will tell
(27:51):
you to say mission control is is
ready for launch.
You know, and then you start a countdown
or you could do... You know, so they're
telling you
what to say.
It's like, Apollo.
Yeah. They want you to role play it.
Yeah. You can role play it as much
as you want. And it's 1... It was
(28:11):
fun. Yeah. I wonder if Place Each each...
I'm sorry. Each part had a little blurb
on it about the actual missions that they
were doing. That was cool. Yeah. So as
you finished a flight,
stage. Stage, it would tell you on the
card. Yeah. What it was that you just
did Or when you an experiment told you.
(28:32):
You were, you know... There was 1 about
bodily fluids. Yeah. There was an experiment about
bodily fluids and 0 gravity and that sort
of. And the All these things. These aren't
just stuff they made up. These are actual
experiments that they did on these missions. Right.
Now 1 thing I wanna ring out is
that the
presentation of this game is
Awesome.
Yeah.
It's... The mission control board that blocks me
(28:54):
from being able to see what she's got
going on. It looks like the inside of
the spaceship. Yeah. It would like your control
panel. Right. So I've got... I've got... The
astronauts.
You. I've got the... What call the steering
thingy. I don't even know. I'm not an
astronaut,
but it looks like the inside of the
cockpit. Yeah. And the tokens are plus minus
tokens. Again, everything's made really quality, Thicker cardboard
(29:16):
board. It's not gonna fall apart
right, you know, it's not gonna peel or
anything like that. Of the little plastics.
Space tokens are very cool. The dice are
solved. The only thing it didn't like about
the dice is that the numbers are just
printed on. They're not embossed.
So if the paint starts fl off on
those.
Oh, it wasn't in boston. No. Wasn't emboss
(29:38):
and and the, you know, the dice there,
yellow and black dice you get 10 of
them. And they're all 5 yellow 5 black.
No. More because I had 1 black and
1 yellow.
And you had talked about the. Okay. Are
the important ones here.
Not you.
You went home Even if it fails, I
get to go. Yeah. If it ever fails,
he get to go home. You're like, oh,
man. So I'm glad I'm not an astronaut.
(30:01):
That they... All the
It's a okay number. Your your wife could
sold all those heads shots that you signed
before you... I sign beforehand.
Which is the thing they actually did because
no insurance company would ensure them for life
insurance. Mh. Because they're like, where you going?
No. We're not at the moon. Yeah. Sorry.
But the dice look like that, it looks
(30:21):
like the old school numbers with the is.
Oh, the did... Looks like an e if
turn the wrong side. Like that old alarm
clock we to own. Right. The digital numbers.
And then
the board
has pictures of the moon, the earth and
the path that it takes and each of
the cards
has
these great illustrations. They're very kinda of they're...
(30:43):
Different flight stages. All the different flight stages.
Yes.
And the
packets for Apollo and for
Gemini
Come in these little foil bags that look
like It looks like like space food foil.
Looks like space ice cream foil, you know,
that sort of thing So you put the...
You pack everything back to those. Really good
(31:03):
presentation. Really good
quality parts. Now, was it fun with 2
players?
Yes.
I think
it would be even more chaotic with more
astronauts.
Yes. Because that is something we didn't have
to deal with. The rule say that there
is a token for for for you pass
around between the astronauts
and every astronaut
(31:25):
chooses what to do
with the diet. With the action for action
phase. So So, like, you take an action,
then the next
astronaut takes an action. Then the next ask
takes an action
So there's gotta be a lot of conversation
between you and the other 4 astronauts on
what you're gonna do,
while
While mission coal, the control sits they're silently
(31:47):
shaking her head. Wake. Yeah.
Not being helpful at all.
Couldn't even throw a calm token don. They
need to be yellow. Remember, I told you
yellow.
You're were juggling a lot of stuff out
there in space.
Why don't you put things down to Mark?
Why don't you put those You know
would you need to get repaired, Michael? A
(32:07):
couple of times,
you spent too much.
Dice trying to repair something,
like you gave me a repair of 5
and and it was already maxed out after
3.
Like you wasted dice with that. See, that
will be information that would be good to
know. Yep. I had no comm token left.
None
(32:27):
none
You didn't give me any.
And even when I'd ask you things like,
what what
system do I need to repair the most?
Well, at that point, there weren't damage that
much 3. Like 3 of them were at
6. And then you decided that's all the
information You could tell me. Well, you didn't...
It was a waste.
You couldn't say,
There were 3, and they are. I wanted
(32:47):
to go Blah blah blah.
You don't need to know that.
Don't waste a calm talking on that
David, you don't know what I need to
know. I was playing myself, and I think
this is another the issue. A thanks Susan
suzanne kinda wanted to play both parts.
No. No. No. I did my thing. You
you you got a little suggesting
on on things, but
(33:09):
No. I think with I think with 5
players
with 4 astronauts and 1 mission control, I
think it would be a lot more fun
because I think there would be a lot
contentious between the astronauts depending on what they
wanted to do, how many dice they have
left, which is the biggest drawback on this
1. I mean, not in a bad way,
but as you things get
damaged.
(33:31):
S gets damp get damaged.
You lose dice. So you start with 10.
And then as you go from 10, blah
blah blah, you lose go... Like, I think
I was only rolling, like, 8 or 7
dice.
Again. When you had full power for life
support,
which is at at an 8, you get
10 dice.
(33:51):
At 7, you get 10 dice. At 6,
you get 9 at 5, you get 9.
And 4, you get 8 3. No 8.
I might be off somewhere. Yeah. Because then
eventually you...
So you... There can be a point where...
Then which is why near the end of
the game when you had to do that
puzzle.
I was kinda hesitant to give you any
dice because I didn't have a lot of
dice to use to begin with,
(34:14):
and I had these experiments and
Right. Right.
So there is a lot of resource management
between you, the other astronauts if you're playing
multiplayer. And
mission control every now and then because they...
A lot of fights breaking up because I
could see astronauts arguing over what they used
the dice for. Like, no. We needed to
say that for experiment. We have time for
(34:35):
the experiment. We've got finish the flight. Yeah.
And then keep things moving, you only get
4 minutes on each action phase, and you
have to set a timer.
Right. Was it 4 minutes or 2 minutes?
4. 4 minutes. Yeah. Which you usually had
plenty of time. But if there were more
astronauts arguing over what to do, it would
probably take up the time. Yeah. So
(34:55):
for sure. Now fun score.
What do you think?
I think this is this is another 1.
I think if you get into the role
play
of being astronauts and mission control.
Mission control... Could be a lot fun.
Not that kind role played here.
(35:17):
Well, I mean, it was it fun. But,
I mean, game wise. I mean, I had
a I enjoyed it. There's was a there's
a lot of think into this game because...
There is a lot to keep track of
for sure.
I'm gonna give it probably a 7.
Yeah.
I would give it an 8. An 8.
I tend to do eights all the time?
Don I? No. I used to do used
(35:38):
to do sevens all the time. Now you're
doing eights all the time. Unless, of course,
it's a game about chickens.
In which case you give it a 10.
I do have done tons lately. Will it
wreck the relationship? Oh, there's definitely
wreck the
relationship. The quote the couch score 1 me
count the ways.
I would say a 4.
(35:58):
Yeah. This could this could get heated, especially...
I mean, if you're playing 1 on 1
where, you know, Astronaut and Mission control. Yeah.
I could see that get that can get
a little
maybe not heated, but aggravating because she can't
tell... Well it was because you did stuff
you couldn't tell me and there's stuff that
I... Didn't know I needed to know. Right.
Now if you're on the same team, I
(36:19):
could definitely see that getting.
I'll probably go with a 4 on this
also. Yeah.
So
a fun score of 7 and 8
and a couch score of 4.
What is this the bubbly just getting to
you? Yeah.
I'm I I wish you guys could see
this every now and then she just kinda,
like, does a 45 degree angle from the
microphone
(36:40):
covers my mouth of and her eyes bug
out.
It's like when you hold up. It's like
when you hold the j 2 too tight,
and its eyes go. Mh. I don't know
if I can drink bubbly very much anymore.
Alright.
Let's correct. Well, I don't know if it's
gonna be much different because it hasn't had
time to like, we haven't had the bottle
open, but
No. I'm empty. You can't ping me. Oh,
(37:01):
I gotta it oops.
I gotta give you sore.
Not gonna be much different. No. I'm a
thing I'm going to predict that this gonna
taste pretty much the same.
It's pretty... It's it's a little on the
(37:22):
sweet side too. So... Yeah.
A little tart.
A little sweet.
Very bubbly. Very very bubbly.
Yeah. Same as before just because we've had
it capped.
To keep the bubbles in. Mh.
Again, still would like it spaceship box,
blueberry cider.
(37:43):
At what is that superstition?
Superstition out in Arizona. Yep.
Now last call, what have I found?
What have you found? Last call, last call
everybody. I
don't gotta go home, but can't stay here.
The mix by... Our home. Gui.
But help me with this. Mix by
(38:04):
gui
It's french. Joe.
Gui gui. Gui GUIME.
That's how spelled.
Okay.
So
this is a game about mix mixing.
You are trying to become the best mix
On the block. You have to play cards
that all mix
(38:25):
are different ingredients. Who highlights likes the art.
Yeah. Heart's very very sharp.
You have to play
cards to... There are different ingredients and different,
mix up in different recipes
and have to match them up and
That's what I'm getting for. I haven't seen
a lot on this 1 because I found
it on,
game found,
and it's not... It says as a young
(38:47):
recruit at the Fox str bar, you must
create delicious cocktails to satisfy your customers.
Put your shaker ready and show off your
mix mixing skills. Right. So the cards that
they show
are 123,
and there's like, a
wine cocktail glass. It's like a stem wine
glass,
martini glass and a coupe.
(39:07):
And then there's a hand card and a
shaker card, which I'm not sure
what those
what those are. It says, it's a blend
of engine building
actions, resource management and worker placement. Okay. And
then there's a, I guess, the worker is
the
bust of the
the bartender t and swoop hair wearing
(39:28):
bartender.
So this classic vest and bow tie. Yes.
Very sharp looking game. It... That's really all
we know about it now, and I'm I'm
on this as a preview and game found
I'll put the link in the show notes.
Gi is also
the, part of the company that does Bunny
(39:49):
boom.
Oh,
Bunny Boom. Did we have that 1? We
do not have that 1, but we have
backed it.
Oh, 0, we had it as a last
last call We had it... Yeah. We it
was the last call, not too long ago.
And That's why it's familiar.
Super cool. And and
(40:10):
the artist
Mh. From
the chicken game.
Behind me. But chicken game that is called.
Flock together that we played about 2 3
shows ago, the same artist for Bunny boom.
Oh, okay. Which is a strategic game of
bunny infestation. Oh, yeah. Yeah Yeah. So
(40:30):
so that 1 is the mix. My game.
I've actually contacted them to see if we
can get a pre release copy to review
Cool see if that will happen. And now,
that has not launched yet. That hasn't even
launched yet. I I don't even think it's
got a date
of when it's gonna launch, but it is
on,
game found. Yeah. It's a campaign preview. Yeah.
So it's coming as soon
(40:52):
as it comes, I guess. But they are
showing it on
I saw... I initially saw it on Facebook
on the post from
the people that do Bunny boom. So...
Okay.
Looks pretty cool. And as him, show... Definitely
ring twice right. Yeah. That's what I sent
them like, hey.
Yeah. Because it doesn't have to be wine.
(41:14):
Wine. Hey, people. It doesn't have to be
wine. Mh.
It could be a cocktail.
It could be a cider. It could be.
It's just maple and wine beer. Sounds much
clearer than and drinks.
People's and drinks. Drinks.
So again, well, there you go, there's a
mixed by game. There is
(41:36):
Apollo
A game inspired by Nasa Moon missions, and
the Blueberry spaceship box by superstition Meta.
And you guys if you'd like get in
touch with us. We're on and wine at
gmail dot com.
Facebook twitter Instagram Linkedin,
and you can go to
and wine
dot fun, FUN. Mh. And click on our
(41:57):
voice mail our speak pipeline link, and you
could leave us a voice mail there. And
if you like the show, tell a friend.
We appreciate that. Tell us. Yeah. Listen
let us know that we're not just shouting
into the void.
We also have,
for next Wednesday
or, just about every Wednesday unless we've taken
the week off, which is once in a
(42:17):
while.
Trivia at up North A house. In Nap,
Illinois from 7 to 08:30 30. Yeah.
Until next week,
we will see you in our space. Bye.
Hello everybody, and welcome to Meals meatballs and
wine. I am Michael. And I am Susie.
This is your podcast for board game reviews
for couples with a drink in hand. Yes.
We're Susie and Michael, 2 long gamers, long
married,
and we decided to
take it to the next level today. We
decided that our marriage was too stable
(00:36):
and too good. And we needed to test
it. We needed to test it again. Even
long ago, we tested it by putting together
an ikea a furniture together.
And today, we tested it by buying Kayak
and going Kayak together.
So... On the river,
against the wind.
Up river against the wind.
(00:57):
So the wind at our back and we
were going up river,
Susie Canoe go Kayak,
You were doing fine.
Mike kept wanting to go back Oh, no.
I kept spinning too. I just kept pad
like, I got into a rhythm twice on
1 side once on the other. Okay. Twice.
And then it I would start spitting the
other way and I'd switch. See. There you
go. You picked it up.
(01:18):
So we managed to get in the water
out of the water without
falling... Falling in or getting a divorce. So
good for us.
If they wanna contact us?
How would they get in touch? They can
find us at maple at maple and wine
at gmail dot com,
or you can find us on any of
(01:39):
the socials Facebook, Twitter Instagram linkedin at
maple and wine,
or you can go to our website, mee
in wine dot fun and leave us a
voice mail on our speak pipe link. Kip.
We would love to hear from you. I
have not checked speak pipe, but I will
right now.
(02:00):
I'm going to check, and
we don't have any voice mails. That's why
you're not and having to check it. I
know. We got no voice mails. Come on.
Nobody wants to
talk.
Come on people, speak. Talk. Text us. Yeah.
Texas. You can... Yeah. Like a week.
Texas on Facebook do something? We like to
(02:21):
hear from you. Like, what what wine would
you like us to try and find what
game would you like to try some but
dry is there? Library brewery that you per
particularly like. Yeah. Brewery winery, meat.
Read. We do like meat. Yes. We actually
have a need tonight.
No. We don't. No. We don't. We have
a cider. Oh, we have a cider. Sorry.
(02:41):
It is this is but it's made by
amir. Oh, that's why I was thinking that.
Yes. So we are drinking blueberry
spaceship box.
This is by
superstition Metering out Arizona.
They have multiple kinds of meats, from what
I understand they their web store actually goes
by,
(03:01):
state and what you can can't find places.
Okay. So they're based in Arizona. Right? They're
based in Arizona. So they've got a
super crew box that has... Here... Here's listen
to some of these things they've got. Oh,
I smell the blueberry just from opening it.
Just capping it. Yeah. Mh.
It's got pillars of creation it's a dark
cherry cider, peanut butter peanut butter jelly crime,
(03:25):
peanut butter and blueberry meat.
Lag the,
Traditional me mosquito honey aged and bourbon barrels.
Oh, this is sparkly.
Bubbly.
Spaceship box, our Blueberry cider and the top
right rated cider on
just not dis steal on
(03:46):
a that doesn't it doesn't say it's on
brewery or something like that or untapped. Yeah.
And then Griffin tart cherry s made with
organic Arizona apples and cherries,
and Tahiti Honeymoon are oak aged to tahiti
vanilla bean need.
Mh. So a hundred and 60 bucks will
(04:06):
get you all those
Oh, in like, in 1 order. And 1
or 1 big pack, they discount them. They
got a lot of cool stuff though.
Must start digging around seeing if I could
find some of the other things, but
in local
or local stores,
but profile,
it says that it is a
(04:27):
violent huge champagne.
It's very bubbly. Look at that. Yeah. It
is.
We're not we we... We're not teaming yet.
We team when we taste. Or should we
talk. We talk in Ting and get it
and get it straight. Talk, ting, taste. Talk
ting taste. Right. Knows it says massive blueberry
Aroma would plays with green apple rose and
orange. I will agree with that. As a
massive blueberry aroma for sure. Oh, yeah.
(04:51):
That's very,
very blueberry. A little bit of...
I could I could see the
orange
a little bit of citrus, a little bit
of orange. Mh. K.
And taste blueberry dominates, but it's lightly restrained
by Granny Smith, Apple skin tan,
while subtle notes of vanilla and dark,
(05:11):
sugar lend complexity to this cider that finishes
crisp and refreshing.
Ba sugar is just another sugar where the
molasses is left in.
So it's like a brown sugar. It's like
a raw sugar yeah. But not like the
brown sugar probably that we buy at the
store. So that's been, like, bleach then they
put it back in. They they add the
molasses back. This is like a natural raw
(05:32):
sugar with molasses. Kinda looks a little stickier,
but it's a sole
interstellar
exploration. Yes. Which is why we chose this
1 because goes with our game tonight. No.
Here we go.
Let's taste it. Mine is still bubbling.
(05:53):
Oh, wow.
That's very, very very.
Very blueberry. Cool, but a lot of apple
too. Yeah. It does... You have got the
Granny smith tart to it. Definitely an apple
cider.
But...
I would say strong blueberry
aroma,
that's strong
(06:15):
sparkling cider or taste. More apple cider taste.
And, I'm getting a lot of blueberry on
the front end of it. Like I'm getting.
I mean, I'm not
kicking that out of bed or anything. No.
And it this is a dark
violet.
Yeah. I mean, it almost looks as dark
(06:35):
as the wine we had last week. Yeah.
The red, the like the dark red wine
color.
Almost absorbs light? Yeah.
Not quite as dark as last. The 1
from last week, but pretty dark.
So, yeah, they say this is the top
rated cider in the world according to rate
beer dot com. It got a hundred point.
Mh. And untapped. Untapped. Yes. Got great views
(06:58):
on both of those. Mh.
And I would agree with it. I could
drink this. This is really good. It's been
our long.
What it wants? The 5.5
percent. Mh.
5.5.
No. And it comes in a 07:50, so
you got a wine bottle, but
something I like
(07:20):
They put a flip top on these.
Yes. So so if you're drinking by yourself,
you don't have to drink the whole bottle
at once.
I don't understand.
No. But all the bubbles won't escape. Oh,
that's true. That... Oh, that's see. That's why
the swimsuit.
So I could close it right now. And
then when we want a to pour some
more. We won't... It'll bubbly. That'll be nice.
(07:40):
You gonna do that. Yeah. Let's do that.
We can see. It should work.
That's like when you get a rest Already
coming back up my. You're it's gonna be
a burp show of folks. Mh That's like
when you get
You get, like a recipe that says use
some leftover wine to seasons... You know, I'm
like, leftover wine.
Who the hell has leftover wine.
(08:01):
Though I did I did see a good
suggestion for the wine thing for cooking with
wine instead of, like,
cracking open a whole bottle. It's to just
get a whole bunch of like, little airplane
bottles. And Oh, for cooking those for cooking
if you need to demi or do anything
like that. Yeah. That'd probably be perfect portion.
Yeah.
But then you can't. Drink... You'd have to
crack open another bottle of wine to drink
(08:22):
while you're cooking.
So
gonna Mark.
Martha Stewart. Not Martha Stewart. Who's the 1...
Dudes wanna get loaded every time she she
Julia. Yeah. I got a Julia child at.
Mh.
She was fun. I like this.
This will be better if we were outside
in the warm. This is very summary. Yeah.
(08:44):
Very summer. And I could even see this
being made into a
a cocktail.
Yes. Because it would add the bubble. Oh,
would that add a light bubble to a
cocktail. Mh. So maybe like a,
maybe a vodka cocktail? I can't see something
like the rum
I think Rum would be too heavy for
this. So it would have to be a
lighter. I don't know. What would you normally...
(09:04):
You know what? Maybe something that you would
normally use champagne and
Look, I give it a completely different complexity.
Yeah Like, a, like a mimo type of
thing. Yeah. That would work.
So, yeah. So there will be links in
this
show notes to find out where to get
this stuff? Yes. Blueberry Space box by
superstition metering. Yes.
(09:25):
And, Susan suzanne.
Oh, hang on. So we're we're trying the...
You.
The bubbles
Went right of my nose.
Dan. What game were we playing? So we're
drinking blueberry space spaceship box because today, or
this week, we played
the game.
(09:47):
Apollo. Apollo.
Which is a game inspired by the Nasa
moon missions.
Yes. Which
it's really cool. Yeah. I picked this up.
On clearance at Target. Did be really? Yeah.
It's been sitting on the shelf for probably
2 years. Well, you look at the box,
(10:08):
which is great picture of
the of the guys on the moon. Yeah.
I mean, it's a illustration. It's not of
the actual picture. But
And then it says
illustrated. So it looks like this Nasa game
that maybe you would pick up at the
museum, science and or the,
the... What do you call? The observatory Right.
(10:29):
Or something. And then it would be, like,
a boring
educational thing or something. Yeah. But no. It
was... It... It's a good game. There's a
lot of strategy. There is a... Yeah. There's
lot now. This 1 has a board... Let's
say a board game geek rating of
6.2 out of 10 for fun for popularity,
and
(10:49):
2.64
out of 5 for complex. So about 50
percent of the way from a total mind
melt type of type of game. Well, I'm
mind melt. Well, I mean, that's like that,
We talk we just watch. Yes. Or we
we just talked that about... We talked about
that,
game last week. Where we're building the instruments
(11:10):
Oh, the 1 we saw the review for
Yeah. Music 1. That 1 in kick kickstarter.
Like, a mind melt. Yeah. Has is
funded 1200
percent, over 1200 percent. So there are apparently
people that like. Maybe there's a lot of
musicians. Musicians
of a there's enough people out there that
they got funded and way the heck with
a thousand different tokens points,
(11:33):
scoring tracks and all that. So
Well, some people really like that much complexity.
Yeah. Yeah.
I like a little complexity.
So this is for
2 to 5 people.
And Susan suzanne, what's the description?
So you are a go for lunch.
It's 19 61,
(11:54):
president Kennedy challenged the nation to land astronauts
on the moon by the end of the
decade.
Now, it's up to you to walk in
the footsteps of Nasa's pioneers
and embark on the missions that made history.
For all
mankind.
Play as mission control
and astronauts.
(12:14):
Work together and strategize to complete flight stages,
overcome obstacles,
repair the spacecraft.
And keep
communication clear.
It's the team that determines if the mission
succeeds
or fails.
So this game is designed by Sarah Addison
who has designed such games as
(12:36):
Apollo.
Well she was a c designer with Jonathan
Gilmore Long. Yeah. And Jonathan Gilmore long has
a quite
the,
be that 58 games on here. Yeah. Including
At atari Asteroids,
board game,
book of Dragons, collab lab,
and 1 that I really wanna pick up
called dead of winter. It's kinda like a
(12:57):
zombie survival
type game. Game... Like the game of thrones
winter zombies?
No. No. It's, like survival... It's like, you
have to survive against the elements. Oh, okay.
And that's worth thing. But... And I believe
it's got a turn coat.
Type of thing to it. So like... But
like some trail trays. Yeah.
Lots of dead of winter,
(13:18):
expansions,
dinosaur island,
So he's gotta he's got quite a. He's
got a lot. Ripple repertoire of wonder It
was like her
idea, and he's like, okay. But she'd never
built a game before, so he helped her
or something. Yeah.
I don't know that? I just... I mean,
we're just guessing on I'm guessing.
(13:38):
What about the artist?
Thomas Roam
Roam. What's... When the oo nuts over the
oh, what does it sound like? I don't
know. Roam. Rome. No idea. Roam.
Thomas Ram, who's done art for
Apollo, a game inspired by the Nasa Moon
missions.
K. Good job on this 1, Thomas. The
The art really matches up with
(14:00):
with what it's the beam. Yeah. With the
theme for it and all that. So
and this is published by Buffalo games.
So Buffalo who has made such games as
planted.
The, a game of nature and nurture, the
1 that we got 1 of our for
Christmas not okay Go. Yeah Yeah.
So
(14:21):
Had the 1 we have to... The... It
it doesn't sound exciting. Mh.
What do you mean you played it with
me? And it was too long ago I
don't remember. Where we have to take care
of the pot. Remember they were cute. Yeah.
You have to maybe me take care of
the pot plants. You have to... Yeah. Plan
book. We enjoyed it. It was fun. Yeah.
You enjoyed yourself. Trust me on this. Did
(14:41):
we control elements or something in that water?
Had to have like water and soil and
sun? You had little tokens that you had
to Yeah we should probably play that again?
So some types of games and make mechanisms
in this 1. It's
communication limits and that plays out in this
because,
Mission control can only talk to you if
(15:01):
it has comm tokens.
Well, there's certain information that you can't share
without a com token.
Like you can share general information, but not
specific things. What do you mean? You weren't
sharing anything? Well,
like, okay. So there are experiments that you
have to do. Right. And so let's say
(15:21):
the experiment says that you have to have
3 dice
with the number 5 on it, and they
all have to be yellow.
Well, I can't tell you any of that.
It costs a
a calm token
to tell you that it's 3 dice, it
costs you a calm token to tell you
that it's the number 5 on the dice,
and it casa a calm token to tell
(15:43):
you what color. Well, I think even you
use a comm token just to tell me
that we were getting a new
experiment. Well every time you finish an experiment,
you get a new 1. Yeah. But I...
And we've all saying at the beginning of...
Mission control,
was real tight lip
in this case. You didn't get many calm
(16:03):
tokens. I started out with 2, and then
I didn't and I 5 at the very
first term. Well, we won the first game
didn't we. Yeah. Of course, the first game
was also half the size of the second
game. That's true. It is. Believe it or
not. It's a cooperative game despite the way
we're talking to each other right now.
Rolls with asymmetric
information. So this is a big play into
it that rolls into the communication thing.
(16:25):
Susan suzanne
demanded that she played mission control both times.
Demand it.
Would you like to play the? Said I
her to play and control. I've learned I
would with you if you want. I've learned
to play mission control. I would like to
remain here.
But I am in my zone. In control.
(16:46):
So, yeah. So the way that works is,
I roll
the dice every turn and there are 5
astronauts. Yeah. The astronauts. So roll the dice,
and there are 5 different categories. So there's,
like the
life support support, there's
communications, there's experiments. So there's 5 categories of
(17:06):
things that can go can break.
You take that it's initially 10 dice
roll them, and all these items are listed
12345
and sixes are wild.
So you try to fill in as many
of the spots,
there's 3 spots each to keep from damage
from happening. So if you roll and you
get
(17:28):
3 threes,
and that's,
life support. Life support takes no damage. Right
term. Mh. Now if you get 4 threes,
you get what a call is a, the
change token. The plus minus token... Minus token.
So that token, if you have 1, allows
you to raise or lower the number of
a die by 123
or 4. But that's only during the action
(17:48):
phase, which was after the rolling thing and
damage. But that comes into play later because
you when you're trying to,
finish each stage,
it comes in. But... So as I damage
things, as things get damaged.
It tell
mission control.
Life support has 1 damage.
Experiments has 1 damage. Comm has 2 damage.
(18:10):
And she marks it out a little slider.
Right. She has behind behind. Actually she had
a screen in front of me, so he
couldn't see my board,
and the mission control board then has
sliders
from 0 to 8 for each 1 of
those 5 categories,
and and mission control keeps track of them.
So you kind of have to remember how
(18:32):
much damage each system has taken without being
able to look at it. Right. Astronauts. I
mean, and they give you a Mission control
can spend a comm token to say,
hey,
you need to fix this system. Yeah. They
give us little red astronaut tokens that you're
supposed to put on
the items on the columns that you over
the rows that you think you're supposed to
repair? For the astronauts. Yeah. So
(18:55):
So that's how the asymmetrical goes. So as
you're going back and forth, there are also
3 flags that clip onto the top of
the board that show that there's things that
are going critical. So you little essentially just
red light. Yeah. There's 3 alert
things that flip up that look like little
red flashing lights, but they don't flash, of
course. And then there's 1 that says calms
(19:15):
down. Mh. That you could also put up
if your comm will go down. Yeah. So
that calms down either means that she's out
of comm tokens or communications. It just means
communications that is between 0 and 3 and
I can't even get calm tokens if it's
between 0 and 3. 0, because calms are
down. Okay. I can't use them and I
can't accumulate them And then scenario mission
(19:38):
campaign game is way is another 1 of
the categories on this 1 the mechanism mh
So as you
as you either orbit the moon... Yeah. So
the scenario is
you're on a mission to the moon, moon.
Right?
That's the scenario.
Well, this
admission to the moon or I can say,
or you're orbiting there earth because remember there's
(19:59):
a starter There were 2 scenarios. There was
Gemini and Apollo that you can Gemini 1
only has 1,
like,
10 by 10 board. Mh. That has the
earth on it, and you have to launch.
You have to orbit and you have to
get back down to the earth. So that's...
That's the that's easy. Slash down. Easy mode
of the game. Yeah. And you only have
(20:21):
to complete 2 experiments for the Gemini mission.
Right. For the Apollo mission, you have to
complete 3 experiments
plus all the other obstacles.
Right. In the stage. So each stage you
have launch. So
launch you flip over the card and it
tells you what you have to do to
complete that stage. So I think the stage
that
they they
(20:42):
get more and more complex as the game
goes on. So initially, you'll have the first
stage
is launch and you need to get into
orbit. So you have to roll 4 dice,
they all have to be the same number
in the same color. So you roll the
dice and
At when... On your action phase, you have
to choose which dice you're going to put
towards
each stages actions
(21:02):
because the other things you can do are
repair items on the ship, you can give
you can drop a certain color
dice to give com tokens to
mission control or adjust power settings so she
can
lower power in 1 item and to raise
it in another to kinda avert damage, you,
kinda like, even things out.
(21:23):
There's... And
that I say repair? Yes. You gotta put
down
sequential dice So it could be 12345135.
And you get 1
repair
for each dice that you put down and
then an extra repair for each dice that
matches a color of the first past that.
(21:44):
So if you put 3 dice down and
they're all black. You get 5 repair points.
Nice. Which I had to do often. So
while you're doing this, if you have a
you also have to put items down for
experiments, and that's was, like, Was saying, we
need... I trying to tell me that I
need Yeah. That was the other thing that
was behind my screen was the experiments.
(22:05):
Those are ones he couldn't see what it
his goal was unless I communicated it to
him. And I'm still the 1 tracking them.
That's mission control.
And then what else what else did you
have we have to do?
Things went critical, you have to solve, like,
a tetris puzzle? Yeah. If the if a
system went critical if it went all the
way down to 0,
then we start the timer for the action
(22:28):
phase,
and you flip over 1 of the crisis
cards. Mh.
And you have to solve a puzzle.
But I had, like, 2 dice to use,
and then the dice has numbers on them.
The puzzle pieces set have numbers on them.
So you had to roll
to get the right to get the right
(22:49):
piece. So you have to just keep rolling
until you get it. The the thing is
you're using up time. Yeah. So normally, the
time you get 4 minutes
to complete the
action phase phase. And normally, that's all to
the astronauts.
Right. If something goes critical, then Mission control
has to solve 1 of these puzzles or
I do, it depends on how it goes.
Right. But and it... The puzzle itself is
(23:11):
like you've got these, like, tetris
style pieces and you have to connect
1 circuit to the other circuit on the
board. And there's things in on the circuitry
that block your way and
put things in the way so that way,
you can't make just a straight path. So
you've gotta get these
the roll for the pieces by getting the
(23:31):
right numbers that are on the back of
the pieces so if you need 2 two's,
you have to roll the dice and get
a and get 2 tubes to be able
to get whatever piece that is, and then
use those pieces as you act,
as you get them,
to be able to put on the board.
Yeah. You're connect the circuits. This was very
stressful force Suzanne when she had to do
it. Well, and the thing is some of
(23:52):
the pieces have 3 numbers, which meant you
had to give me at least 1 die.
And the more die you give me the
more chance I'm gonna get get numbers. But
but then you don't use them during that
action phase. Right. And I was also distracted
by our visitors. That's right.
So this game takes 30 to 60 minutes
to play depending on how often you get
(24:15):
distracted by raccoons in your backyard. Yes.
So That is also something that happened. We
had a family of 6, mom and 5
babies,
crawl out of the storm sewer. In our
backyard and just show up, like 3 feet
from us, scare the crap out of us.
Yeah. Because we didn't see them coming. They
sneaky little things. Sneaky and quiet. We didn't
(24:37):
hear them until they were like. We heard
this munch sound. Yeah. Because they were eating
the sue and all the bird seed that
we had put out for the birds and
all that. But
that was a little bit of a distraction.
The first time we played it with the
Gemini... The Gemini 1
that 1 pretty easy. The the mission cards
are pretty simple.
It's, like,
(24:57):
get all these get roll the dice get
3 dice all the same color. Roll the
dice, get all
4 dice all the same number.
But then when you get into the jump
the
apollo mission,
Mh. It's like roll these dice.
You need 5 dice and the first 3
dice need to add up to the sum
of the first 3 dice needs to equal
(25:18):
to sum of the last 2 dice. Yeah.
And then you need to use
those dice at the bottom, but you can't
use... There's like... But you can't use the
same number that you use in the previous
1. And They throw on a lot more
rules that throw a lot more wack doodle.
Sometimes each stage had was divided into 2
stages that you had to solve.
And then,
Remember you had to solve those
(25:41):
before
The stage ended... The stage ended. So every
action that the astronauts
I,
aka, Michael
took
the mission control has to keep track of
and move the marker on the board.
Right. And so every time he puts diced
down to take an action,
(26:02):
I'm advancing his piece
And if he reaches the end of that
flight stage with on the board without completing
the stage card. Right. Then
Mission failed. Right. You know? So
Apollo failed
yes. But we made it pretty far You
had landed on the moon and you'd taken
off, but you missed reconnecting with the
(26:25):
the moon orbital. The or moon orbiter Right.
Yeah. So that we blew up in space
on that 1 I... Or drifted it off
into space.
That I think was the 1 where I
needed to roll
sequential dice that were
opposite
black yellow, black yellow, black yellow. That to
be opposite colors of each 1. And then
I had to
roll
(26:47):
3 matching
yellow dice to 3 matching black dice to
be able to connect to the orbiter.
But they had to be different number. Well,
like, the black dye saw had to be
the same number and the yellow I saw
Yeah. To be the same number It couldn't
be the same number. Like And then we
came to the neck the last turn, you
know, the last turn before the stage ended,
and it was just... There was no way
for me to. I had rolled though, I
(27:08):
would managed roll 9 dice Well, it was
a 2 part stage.
No. It was... It was a 2 part
stage, but the second part had 2 parts.
Right. That's where I needed the 3... I
needed the 3 black and the 3 yellow
dice. Yeah. And I had the 3 black
ones I was hoping that I had tokens...
I was trying to get matching numbers was
trying to get like, all 5 or something
(27:28):
You used up all your plus... No. I
had plus minus tokens. It's just my dice
roll was so bad. So bad that I
would... I needed more plus minus tokens than
I had to be able to change numbers.
So we blew up the.
We had a successful gemini mission. Yes. We
did. We spun around the earth.
And it's kinda fun. You can really get
into it because even the directions will tell
(27:51):
you to say mission control is is
ready for launch.
You know, and then you start a countdown
or you could do... You know, so they're
telling you
what to say.
It's like, Apollo.
Yeah. They want you to role play it.
Yeah. You can role play it as much
as you want. And it's 1... It was
(28:11):
fun. Yeah. I wonder if Place Each each...
I'm sorry. Each part had a little blurb
on it about the actual missions that they
were doing. That was cool. Yeah. So as
you finished a flight,
stage. Stage, it would tell you on the
card. Yeah. What it was that you just
did Or when you an experiment told you.
(28:32):
You were, you know... There was 1 about
bodily fluids. Yeah. There was an experiment about
bodily fluids and 0 gravity and that sort
of. And the All these things. These aren't
just stuff they made up. These are actual
experiments that they did on these missions. Right.
Now 1 thing I wanna ring out is
that the
presentation of this game is
Awesome.
Yeah.
It's... The mission control board that blocks me
(28:54):
from being able to see what she's got
going on. It looks like the inside of
the spaceship. Yeah. It would like your control
panel. Right. So I've got... I've got... The
astronauts.
You. I've got the... What call the steering
thingy. I don't even know. I'm not an
astronaut,
but it looks like the inside of the
cockpit. Yeah. And the tokens are plus minus
tokens. Again, everything's made really quality, Thicker cardboard
(29:16):
board. It's not gonna fall apart
right, you know, it's not gonna peel or
anything like that. Of the little plastics.
Space tokens are very cool. The dice are
solved. The only thing it didn't like about
the dice is that the numbers are just
printed on. They're not embossed.
So if the paint starts fl off on
those.
Oh, it wasn't in boston. No. Wasn't emboss
(29:38):
and and the, you know, the dice there,
yellow and black dice you get 10 of
them. And they're all 5 yellow 5 black.
No. More because I had 1 black and
1 yellow.
And you had talked about the. Okay. Are
the important ones here.
Not you.
You went home Even if it fails, I
get to go. Yeah. If it ever fails,
he get to go home. You're like, oh,
man. So I'm glad I'm not an astronaut.
(30:01):
That they... All the
It's a okay number. Your your wife could
sold all those heads shots that you signed
before you... I sign beforehand.
Which is the thing they actually did because
no insurance company would ensure them for life
insurance. Mh. Because they're like, where you going?
No. We're not at the moon. Yeah. Sorry.
But the dice look like that, it looks
(30:21):
like the old school numbers with the is.
Oh, the did... Looks like an e if
turn the wrong side. Like that old alarm
clock we to own. Right. The digital numbers.
And then
the board
has pictures of the moon, the earth and
the path that it takes and each of
the cards
has
these great illustrations. They're very kinda of they're...
(30:43):
Different flight stages. All the different flight stages.
Yes.
And the
packets for Apollo and for
Gemini
Come in these little foil bags that look
like It looks like like space food foil.
Looks like space ice cream foil, you know,
that sort of thing So you put the...
You pack everything back to those. Really good
(31:03):
presentation. Really good
quality parts. Now, was it fun with 2
players?
Yes.
I think
it would be even more chaotic with more
astronauts.
Yes. Because that is something we didn't have
to deal with. The rule say that there
is a token for for for you pass
around between the astronauts
and every astronaut
(31:25):
chooses what to do
with the diet. With the action for action
phase. So So, like, you take an action,
then the next
astronaut takes an action. Then the next ask
takes an action
So there's gotta be a lot of conversation
between you and the other 4 astronauts on
what you're gonna do,
while
While mission coal, the control sits they're silently
(31:47):
shaking her head. Wake. Yeah.
Not being helpful at all.
Couldn't even throw a calm token don. They
need to be yellow. Remember, I told you
yellow.
You're were juggling a lot of stuff out
there in space.
Why don't you put things down to Mark?
Why don't you put those You know
would you need to get repaired, Michael? A
(32:07):
couple of times,
you spent too much.
Dice trying to repair something,
like you gave me a repair of 5
and and it was already maxed out after
3.
Like you wasted dice with that. See, that
will be information that would be good to
know. Yep. I had no comm token left.
None
(32:27):
none
You didn't give me any.
And even when I'd ask you things like,
what what
system do I need to repair the most?
Well, at that point, there weren't damage that
much 3. Like 3 of them were at
6. And then you decided that's all the
information You could tell me. Well, you didn't...
It was a waste.
You couldn't say,
There were 3, and they are. I wanted
(32:47):
to go Blah blah blah.
You don't need to know that.
Don't waste a calm talking on that
David, you don't know what I need to
know. I was playing myself, and I think
this is another the issue. A thanks Susan
suzanne kinda wanted to play both parts.
No. No. No. I did my thing. You
you you got a little suggesting
on on things, but
(33:09):
No. I think with I think with 5
players
with 4 astronauts and 1 mission control, I
think it would be a lot more fun
because I think there would be a lot
contentious between the astronauts depending on what they
wanted to do, how many dice they have
left, which is the biggest drawback on this
1. I mean, not in a bad way,
but as you things get
damaged.
(33:31):
S gets damp get damaged.
You lose dice. So you start with 10.
And then as you go from 10, blah
blah blah, you lose go... Like, I think
I was only rolling, like, 8 or 7
dice.
Again. When you had full power for life
support,
which is at at an 8, you get
10 dice.
(33:51):
At 7, you get 10 dice. At 6,
you get 9 at 5, you get 9.
And 4, you get 8 3. No 8.
I might be off somewhere. Yeah. Because then
eventually you...
So you... There can be a point where...
Then which is why near the end of
the game when you had to do that
puzzle.
I was kinda hesitant to give you any
dice because I didn't have a lot of
dice to use to begin with,
(34:14):
and I had these experiments and
Right. Right.
So there is a lot of resource management
between you, the other astronauts if you're playing
multiplayer. And
mission control every now and then because they...
A lot of fights breaking up because I
could see astronauts arguing over what they used
the dice for. Like, no. We needed to
say that for experiment. We have time for
(34:35):
the experiment. We've got finish the flight. Yeah.
And then keep things moving, you only get
4 minutes on each action phase, and you
have to set a timer.
Right. Was it 4 minutes or 2 minutes?
4. 4 minutes. Yeah. Which you usually had
plenty of time. But if there were more
astronauts arguing over what to do, it would
probably take up the time. Yeah. So
(34:55):
for sure. Now fun score.
What do you think?
I think this is this is another 1.
I think if you get into the role
play
of being astronauts and mission control.
Mission control... Could be a lot fun.
Not that kind role played here.
(35:17):
Well, I mean, it was it fun. But,
I mean, game wise. I mean, I had
a I enjoyed it. There's was a there's
a lot of think into this game because...
There is a lot to keep track of
for sure.
I'm gonna give it probably a 7.
Yeah.
I would give it an 8. An 8.
I tend to do eights all the time?
Don I? No. I used to do used
(35:38):
to do sevens all the time. Now you're
doing eights all the time. Unless, of course,
it's a game about chickens.
In which case you give it a 10.
I do have done tons lately. Will it
wreck the relationship? Oh, there's definitely
wreck the
relationship. The quote the couch score 1 me
count the ways.
I would say a 4.
(35:58):
Yeah. This could this could get heated, especially...
I mean, if you're playing 1 on 1
where, you know, Astronaut and Mission control. Yeah.
I could see that get that can get
a little
maybe not heated, but aggravating because she can't
tell... Well it was because you did stuff
you couldn't tell me and there's stuff that
I... Didn't know I needed to know. Right.
Now if you're on the same team, I
(36:19):
could definitely see that getting.
I'll probably go with a 4 on this
also. Yeah.
So
a fun score of 7 and 8
and a couch score of 4.
What is this the bubbly just getting to
you? Yeah.
I'm I I wish you guys could see
this every now and then she just kinda,
like, does a 45 degree angle from the
microphone
(36:40):
covers my mouth of and her eyes bug
out.
It's like when you hold up. It's like
when you hold the j 2 too tight,
and its eyes go. Mh. I don't know
if I can drink bubbly very much anymore.
Alright.
Let's correct. Well, I don't know if it's
gonna be much different because it hasn't had
time to like, we haven't had the bottle
open, but
No. I'm empty. You can't ping me. Oh,
(37:01):
I gotta it oops.
I gotta give you sore.
Not gonna be much different. No. I'm a
thing I'm going to predict that this gonna
taste pretty much the same.
It's pretty... It's it's a little on the
(37:22):
sweet side too. So... Yeah.
A little tart.
A little sweet.
Very bubbly. Very very bubbly.
Yeah. Same as before just because we've had
it capped.
To keep the bubbles in. Mh.
Again, still would like it spaceship box,
blueberry cider.
(37:43):
At what is that superstition?
Superstition out in Arizona. Yep.
Now last call, what have I found?
What have you found? Last call, last call
everybody. I
don't gotta go home, but can't stay here.
The mix by... Our home. Gui.
But help me with this. Mix by
(38:04):
gui
It's french. Joe.
Gui gui. Gui GUIME.
That's how spelled.
Okay.
So
this is a game about mix mixing.
You are trying to become the best mix
On the block. You have to play cards
that all mix
(38:25):
are different ingredients. Who highlights likes the art.
Yeah. Heart's very very sharp.
You have to play
cards to... There are different ingredients and different,
mix up in different recipes
and have to match them up and
That's what I'm getting for. I haven't seen
a lot on this 1 because I found
it on,
game found,
and it's not... It says as a young
(38:47):
recruit at the Fox str bar, you must
create delicious cocktails to satisfy your customers.
Put your shaker ready and show off your
mix mixing skills. Right. So the cards that
they show
are 123,
and there's like, a
wine cocktail glass. It's like a stem wine
glass,
martini glass and a coupe.
(39:07):
And then there's a hand card and a
shaker card, which I'm not sure
what those
what those are. It says, it's a blend
of engine building
actions, resource management and worker placement. Okay. And
then there's a, I guess, the worker is
the
bust of the
the bartender t and swoop hair wearing
(39:28):
bartender.
So this classic vest and bow tie. Yes.
Very sharp looking game. It... That's really all
we know about it now, and I'm I'm
on this as a preview and game found
I'll put the link in the show notes.
Gi is also
the, part of the company that does Bunny
(39:49):
boom.
Oh,
Bunny Boom. Did we have that 1? We
do not have that 1, but we have
backed it.
Oh, 0, we had it as a last
last call We had it... Yeah. We it
was the last call, not too long ago.
And That's why it's familiar.
Super cool. And and
(40:10):
the artist
Mh. From
the chicken game.
Behind me. But chicken game that is called.
Flock together that we played about 2 3
shows ago, the same artist for Bunny boom.
Oh, okay. Which is a strategic game of
bunny infestation. Oh, yeah. Yeah Yeah. So
(40:30):
so that 1 is the mix. My game.
I've actually contacted them to see if we
can get a pre release copy to review
Cool see if that will happen. And now,
that has not launched yet. That hasn't even
launched yet. I I don't even think it's
got a date
of when it's gonna launch, but it is
on,
game found. Yeah. It's a campaign preview. Yeah.
So it's coming as soon
(40:52):
as it comes, I guess. But they are
showing it on
I saw... I initially saw it on Facebook
on the post from
the people that do Bunny boom. So...
Okay.
Looks pretty cool. And as him, show... Definitely
ring twice right. Yeah. That's what I sent
them like, hey.
Yeah. Because it doesn't have to be wine.
(41:14):
Wine. Hey, people. It doesn't have to be
wine. Mh.
It could be a cocktail.
It could be a cider. It could be.
It's just maple and wine beer. Sounds much
clearer than and drinks.
People's and drinks. Drinks.
So again, well, there you go, there's a
mixed by game. There is
(41:36):
Apollo
A game inspired by Nasa Moon missions, and
the Blueberry spaceship box by superstition Meta.
And you guys if you'd like get in
touch with us. We're on and wine at
gmail dot com.
Facebook twitter Instagram Linkedin,
and you can go to
and wine
dot fun, FUN. Mh. And click on our
(41:57):
voice mail our speak pipeline link, and you
could leave us a voice mail there. And
if you like the show, tell a friend.
We appreciate that. Tell us. Yeah. Listen
let us know that we're not just shouting
into the void.
We also have,
for next Wednesday
or, just about every Wednesday unless we've taken
the week off, which is once in a
(42:17):
while.
Trivia at up North A house. In Nap,
Illinois from 7 to 08:30 30. Yeah.
Until next week,
we will see you in our space. Bye.
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