1 Player Podcast

Don't be alarmed - this is not the final hour of this podcast!  Actually, we are talking about a game called Arkham Horror: Final Hour from Fantasy Flight Games.  It being an Arkham Horror game, you can pretty much guess what this game is about and like.  If you do, you'll be half right and half wrong.  Thematically, this is pretty much the same game as Arkham Horror or Arkham Horror: The Card Game.  You are running around fighting monsters and cultists while trying to stop some GOO from showing up.  Mechanically speaking, however, you will be surprised.  This game feels and plays very differently from other Arkham Horror games.

• Arkham Horror: Final Hour (BGG, FFG)

This week Julius tells us about a dice placement game called Artemis Project by Grand Gamers Guild.  This is a really nice looking game with some fantastic artwork and great components.  You are trying to colonize one of the moons of Jupiter, Europa, by mining and sailing the seas for stuff.  Check out what we (especially Julius who has played it) think about this game.

Incidentally, there is a real Artemis project by NASA.  It's stated goal is "With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before".  It looks like the goal is to have this done by 2024 with the first unmaned mission in the project landing on the Moon 2022.

• Artemis Project (BGG, Grand Gamers Guild)
• Artemis Program (NASA)

This week Julius and I embark on a new journey of exploring interesting game mechanics.  We start off with multi-use cards.  It's more than which card should I play play.  It's which card should I play and how should I play it?  That mechanic, when done well, adds for interesting choices.

• 03:33 Bruge (BGG)
• 04:00 La Granja (BGG)
• 07:00 Oh My Goods! (BGG)
• 09:00 Lewis and Clark (BGG)
• 11:30 The Bloody Inn (BGG)
• 14:50 Imperial Settlers (BGG)
• 17:20 Gloomhaven (BGG)
• 18:00 Newton (BGG)
• 19:00 Race for the Galaxy (BGG)
• 19:30 Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (BGG)
• 22:30 Batman: The Dark Night Returns (BGG)
• 24:20 Rove (BGG)
• 25:25 Spaceshipped (BGG)

This week we talk about the slasher film game Final Girl by A.J. Porfirio of Van Ryder Games.  This game is built on the foundation of Hostage Negotiator and expands on that system to make a fun but creepy game about trying to survive in a horror movie while a killer is after you.

This is a modular game series in which you need to buy at least two boxes to play, the core box with rules and a Feature Film box with a killer and location to play in.  With multiple Feature Films, you can mix and match killers for more variety in your games.

• Final Girl (BGG, VRG)
• Kickstarter Season 2 late pledge (Gamefound)

This episode is a family affair!  Julius and his son discuss the game Sprint, in which you play as the Turtle trying to race the Hare to the finish line!  This is a co-operative game that can easily be played solo.  Check it out.. is this a game you should get?

I'm starting to feel like I'm trapped in a time vortex as this week Julius tells me about yet another time traveling game.  This time, our crack team of time agents must stop the dastardly Professor Evil from stealing famous works of art from throughout time, lest he locks them in his own private vault for all time.

This is a relatively simple to play co-op game in the general style of Pandemic.  That is, a player does stuff and then bad stuff happens.  This game handles that bad stuff with dice rolls and it seems to work well enough.  Check it out!

• Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time (BGG, Asmodee)

This week Julius and I have a quick chat about Bismarck Solitaire, a book game published by Worthington Games in an effort to quickly and efficiently deal with the global shipping crisis created by the pandemic.  It's a light wargame in which you play as the famous German warship, the Bismarck and travel the Atlantic Ocean (not the English Channel & North Sea as I thought during the recording) trying to find British Warships and sink them.  The fact that I wasn't sure what body of water you are can in give you an idea how light the game is.  Well, sail the ocean and find enemies to sink while you plot a coarse on the map.  What is really different about this game is that you actually are writing in the book as you play.

• Bismarck Solitaire (BGG, Worthington)
• Waterloo Solitaire (BGG, Worthington)

According to a BGG thread, these are announced but not yet released

• Braveheart Solitaire
• Gettysburg July 1 and 2 Solitaire
• Antietam Solitaire
• Coral Sea Solitaire
• Stonewall in the Valley Solitaire

Julius and I look at the game Newton by Simone Luciani & Nestore Mangone.  This is a really interesting action selection game with some neat mechanisms.  Each round if you take subsequent actions of the same type, they become stronger and the types of actions are all very different.  It feels like a worker placement game in that you can never do as many things as you really want to.  The game was out of print for a couple of years but is now available again.

• Newton (BGG)
• Newton: Great Discoveries (BGG)
• Newton & Great Discoveries (BGG) ⇦the current edition!

This week Julius and I talk about the game Skyline Express.  This game seems to mix, trains, air travel, maybe steampunk and a post-apocalyptic past to bring you a fun experience but seems to fall short for Julius.

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Skyline Express (BGG)

This week Julius tells us about City: Skylines a cooperative city building game by Rustan Håkansson, who designed Nations & Nations: The Dice Game.  Cities: Skylines is based on a video game IP and sounds like a big 'ol jigsaw of a game.  Check it out!

This week Julius and I gush about the game PARKS based on the US National Park system and the fantastic art from 59parks.net.  In this 1-4 player game, you play as hikers hiking through the parks, buying gear and filling your canteen along the way as you collect parks.  At it's heart it is a resource management game without enough time to collect all the resources you want.

• PARKS (BGG, publisher)
• 59parks.net (website)
• Field Notes Brand notebooks(website)

This week Julius and I talk about the time travelling game The LOOP.  More specifically, Julius tells me about the game.  It's got strikingly fantastic garish art and interesting game play.  Note that both of those facts are good things.

• The LOOP (BGG)

This week Julius and I look at something a bit different.  The Curioius Correspondence Club is a subscription service that will send you an escape room style mystery every month.  It comes in the form of a letter with all kinds of papercraft items that you use to solve the mystery.

Each letter is just about self contained, other than the internet you need to enter the final answer once you have solved all the puzzles.  You can also look at layered on-line hints if you get stuck with a puzzle.

The Curious Correspondence Club (website)

You ship got a bit too close to the sun and are now being pulled in. Sadly, your ship is suffering malfunctions due to the intense heat of the sun.  You need to rep[air all the modules as they break around you and divert power to the engine so you can escape the Sun's gravity.

This week we have a small episode in which I teach Julius the small game Solar Storm.  This is a fun little pandemic style cooperative game in a very small package.

This week I interview Elli Amir, designer of the game Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate.  This is a two player card game with a solo campaign mode which will be coming to Kickstarter in March.  I really enjoyed this conversation with Elli, not only did they talk about the game and the solo mode for the game but they told me a bit about the process of commissioning art for a game.  I really enjoy hearing the backstory for games and game design.  This was a really good conversation and I look forward to seeing more of the game, which can be tried for free on Tabletopia!

• Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate (BGG, website, Tabletopia)
• How to play video (YouTube)
• Solo playthrough (YouTube)
• Mailing List (website)