E10: Ranking the Lacerda-verse

0:00 Vital Lacerda, Tear Maker, and some very hard choices. Let's go and rank them. Welcome everybody to the Just Play podcast. I'm your host, JP, and this is episode 10, where I'm going to rank the Lacerdaverse, and I'll get to that in a second. But yeah, welcome everybody. It's been uh really good to get through um uh a bunch of episodes.

0:31 Episode 10 already on the main episodes, which is pretty pretty amazing. Um, but yeah, I'm gonna get straight into it. We're gonna get straight into the main segment of Center at the Table, where I'm gonna talk about uh Lacerda games. So basically, I wanted to do this like when you've been board gaming a long time and and you start to discover uh these these kind of games, basically Vitel Lacerda, for those that don't know, I'm sure many of you do, uh, is a kind of kind of a prolific designer based in in Portugal.

1:03 Um, and he creates and designs some heavy buggers, right? Some real heavy, head scratching, brain-burning games, and I'm all here for it. I love them. Um and my kind of story on Lacerdas is that I I first um basically got into um the games through on Mars. That was my first experience, probably one of the heaviest games ever, and I absolutely adored it.

1:25 Um, and every time you speak to anybody about Lacerda games, everyone wants you to go which one's your favorite every time. It's guaranteed. It's like it's like a magnet for that conversation. You can't help but get you to to to a ranking list of which ones people's favorite Lacerdas, and it's really interesting to see which ones are different to yours.

1:45 Do people align to your tastes or are they completely different? And I I love it, I love the conversation, you know. So I thought, what the hell? I'm gonna do an episode where I'm gonna rank them and I'm gonna do them in a tier maker, um, so that you can kind of see me agonize what should be S tier, A tier, B tier, and and all of that kind of stuff.

2:04 So so yeah, that's pretty much what I'm gonna get straight into. So I'm gonna jump over and I'm gonna show you um basically the tier maker that I've uh got ready for this. And here we go. Hopefully you can see that. Um, so for those that aren't watching on YouTube, I will try and explain what's going um into what tier um so that you can kind of follow along.

2:24 Obviously, if you're watching on YouTube, you'll visually see me move boxes into the tier maker, but don't worry, you won't really kind of miss out on much there. So I've got a bunch of games at the bottom, and I've got to make uh some decisions about where I'm gonna put these uh these lovely, lovely games in uh the various different tiers.

2:43 And just for the purposes of those not watching, we've got S tier, A, B, C, D, and a not played tier. Okay. And let's get cracking. I'm gonna basically get uh stuck in. I'm not gonna actually explain the games in depth, um, mainly because I think I'll be here for about three hours. Um, but just know that these are very heavy games, and I've also focused only on the big box games um that that kind of fall in the VTL Lacerda because he's done lighter versions of the games that actually take a lot of the mechanics on the big boxes, the big brothers.

3:16 Um, but I've not put those in, mainly because I have not played many of them. So we're going to focus on the big boys, okay? So let's get started. The first one on my list is Escape Plan. So I've only played Escape Plan once, and I played it at GridCon about two or three years ago with a good friend of mine, Martin, um managed to kind of show the game off.

3:35 And if he wanted to play Escape Plan, but in sense, it's uh it's a game where you've just pulled off a heist, right? And you're trying to escape the city, you and your fellow um kind of teammates, um, who are obviously kind of your opponents as well, and you're trying to escape the city uh for any means necessary, and the the main board's got these basically big hexagonal tiles on there, and you're exploring them, and you're trying to get out and trying to move around to the different kind of districts and get the terrain all kind of mixed up.

4:05 Obviously, the police are after you, and you're building up um a lot of kind of uh disguises and ways to evade the police and also kind of maybe shaft each other a little bit as as you go and and effectively try to escape uh out of one, I think, three routes out of the city. So you kind of know where the three routes routes are, but you don't quite know which one is the actual escape.

4:26 So you've got to kind of put this escape plan together so you can get the money and get out because some of the money that you've you've heisted has had to be stashed somewhere in the city. So you've trying to basically get as much loot as you can and get out. Um, the premise of the game uh is pretty much that, and it's probably the most un-Lacerda-like Lacerda game um that I've played, which is gonna not mean uh a lot to some people who haven't played Lacerda games, but it's very different.

4:52 It's um yeah, the theme of it's kind of very different, um, because a lot of his other games are quite economic and and things like that. So he plays very different. But I had a really good time with it, and but I think I think for me it's probably in the C or D tier, it's definitely on the lower end.

5:10 And I have to say this. I have to say that even if I'm putting a Lacerda game in the D tier, it does not make it bad at all. I think most of his games are are pretty fantastic, and this is why this is so difficult to rank. Um, so I think I'm gonna put that in just because I had a great experience on the one time I've played it, I'm gonna put that in the C for now.

5:33 These might change because I can change my mind, I'm allowed, right? Uh, hopefully. So that's Escape Pan going into C tier. So next one is CO2 second chance. This is easy for me. I've not played it, so it's going straight in the bottom, not played tier. But you know, when I was preparing for this episode, I actually um kind of forgot this game even existed.

5:55 And I know this game is notorious for being absolutely bloody difficult. I've heard uh lots of people talk about how infuriatingly difficult this game is because I think you play cooperatively or solo, I might be wrong, but I think you do, and you're playing against the game um and effectively trying to uh be more the most environmental friendly as you can, doing all sorts of different things uh to try and not pollute the world.

6:20 Um so I think the theme of it's quite unique, and I really want to play it. So it's probably one of the ones on my list where it will sit in the not played uh section, especially as older games. And uh yeah, so that's on my list now. So I'm gonna try and and get that one done. So that's gone into not played.

6:38 The next one is inventions, evolution of ideas. So this game is kind of all about you journeying through time, um, whereas you play as like a civilization, and you've got all of these uh kind of uh inventions that you're trying to um basically do throughout time in different eras. Um so already the theme of it is kind of like civilization-y style theme, but it's not like any Civ game I've ever played.

7:06 Um, and there's a whole life cycle about you know, someone's got to come up with an idea and then someone's got to invent it, and then someone's got to kind of produce and engineer that that idea into reality and and all that kind of stuff. But the action selection mechanisms is pretty cool because you have these pillars and you put them on an action, which are kind of uh, if you think of uh five rows of two actions each, if you put your pillar on one of the rows, and let's say you do the left action, um, you can't then use the right action.

7:37 So you're kind of blocking off uh certain actions there, and that alone is is kind of oh really, really kind of breaks your brain. Um, but what this game is really known for is its combo tastic chaining. Um you actually have these chain tokens on on um the main player board, and anything that's I think is like a pink symbol with a with a chain link on there, is that you can spend these chain tokens to chain off certain actions.

8:02 So if you're doing this action, you can chain off to do another action, and that can then chain off to do another action. Um, which when you pull this off, you feel like a frickin' genius. You absolutely feel like, yes, I've just executed this massively. But when you don't, it can be a bit frustrating in the fact that you've done the first chain, the second chain, the third you've cocked up, and then realize actually you couldn't have done the third, so you've got to rewind the second, go back to the first.

8:26 So it can be prone to some of that. Um, but your player board's pretty cool because it has um these hexagonal uh tiles that you can put in, and even that's a spatial puzzle of what you're kind of inventing and what you're you're putting in there, and it gives you powers or one-off abilities and all sorts of stuff.

8:44 There's a lot going on in this game, but I really, really enjoy this one to the much I think is gonna go in my B tier. Um, so and again, this one's not everyone's cup of tea, but every time I've played this, it's been it's been a blast, it's been a joy, and I really like the theming of it. I like the fact you're advancing through time and through all the different eras.

9:04 So we go, evolution of ideas, inventions into B. The next one here is the Great Library. Very simply, I'm gonna put it in not played. Um, so this is the one that's coming out. Uh, I think it's been fulfilled. So not many people would have played this one. I want to play it though, because again, yeah, so it's about the uh the great library from from olden times.

9:24 Um and yeah, it looks cool. It looks cool, can't tell you anything about it though. Um, but effectively, yeah, I'm just gonna put it in not played and move on. Want to play it then. Okay, Kanban EV. Now, this is a very popular game. I think most people will put this as their top top tier game. Um, and I'm gonna make a rule that only one game hits S tier for me, um, just to spice it up a bit.

9:51 But Kanban, I've played what, two, three times, and it's basically you are in a um uh motor uh factory, production factory, and you're building cars or uh EVs, electronic uh electric vehicles, and you're effectively trying to uh go through the manufacturing process of building a car and testing it, and ultimately trying to keep out of Sandra's way.

10:15 So this has this unique um uh mechanisms where Sandra is this meeple that's on the board, and she will like evaluate you um in each of the departments. And the way that the worker placement works in this this kind of line in the middle of the board is that you're like always run it from top to bottom.

10:34 Um, but you yeah, the just the way that you're you're selecting your actions as well, and where everything's gonna be sequenced and programmed, it's it's a real head scratcher. Um because then you've got to work out if there's a space in the department and Sandra's gonna come down to the next department, she's gonna come and evaluate you.

10:52 But if someone takes that space, she'll skip that department and move to the next one. And she's punishing, man. And I think you can play the game in two different modes where you've got uh nice Sandra, and Sandra is a little bit of a bitch. Um, and yeah, she's she's awful. She just basically evaluates you and then starts uh causing you some real VP headaches.

11:11 And one game I had, I did absolutely uh shocking. Um, but I love the theme of it, and I love the fact that it's in in you know the automotive um industry. Uh so I'm gonna put Kanban into A, right? And it's probably touching S. It's probably I want to get into S, but A tier is is kind of where I want to put Kanban.

11:34 It's good. I want to play more of it, um, but it's fantastic. Okay, Liz Boa. Liz Boa, what can I say about Liz Boa? Um, I've made it no secret that Liz Boa is my favourite, and I'm gonna instantly put it into S tier. Right, just gonna do it. It's gone straight to S tier. Liz Boa for me is Vital Acerda's Magnum Opus.

11:55 It is his genius design of how this game works when effectively all you're doing is playing a card and picking a card up on your turn, right? Now I make that sound simple, and it's not that simple because it depends on where you play the card. Do you play a card into your portfolio, which is your player board?

12:13 And I love the player boards in this because it's got this kind of funky, it's like a H, looks like uh the letter H but stretched out. So do you put it into the gap at the the the top um to basically give you uh more influence when you're gonna score it and also get um some sort of uh good or boon as you slot it in at the bottom of the card, or do you put it at the bottom of the portfolio to give you an ongoing benefit?

12:37 So it could be this is cheaper or something else is happening or whatever, and or you can play it onto the main board into the court and do something else. And just this simple I've got one card in my hand and I can put it into these different spaces. The fact that all the cards are uh multi-use really it's it's an interesting puzzle.

12:57 And the fact that um the the whole premise of the game, which I completely skipped over, is that it's set in the um the earthquake um um of I think the 1700s in in Lisbon, and you're effectively re-building Lisbon, rebuilding the shops and the commerce trade uh to to basically uh sell uh you know clothes and and tools and and different things that uh the people want.

13:22 And in the game, you've got kind of three um like key VIP people, you're like the master builder, I think you've got the um the king and uh the prime minister or something like that, and they are basically help you do certain actions in the game, and just the way this interconnects, I could wax lyrical about this game.

13:41 Um, it's just got so much going on, it's just it's effectively it's just a brilliant puzzle, and I've never played anything quite like it. Um, and it's very blue, it's very blue. Lots of people say it's very blue, isn't it? But if you've ever been to Lisbon, um, which I have um in the past, you'll realize why it's blue.

13:59 It's very um, you know, the UI is very much um you know Lisbon Portuguese. It's it's it's great. It is my favourite um Lacerda game, and it will probably continue to be. It's gonna be hard to knock that off the the podium, um, to be honest. And yeah, and I love it, as you can tell. I love it. Okay, uh the resort.

14:22 Obviously, this is brand new, but the only thing I know about it is it's got a lovely cover. That's it. I know nothing about it, but it's just on there because why not? And I'm intrigued. I like the the kind of theme of you managing a resort, a holiday resort by the looks of it. I'm intrigued to know more.

14:38 Enough said, really. On Mars, as I said earlier, on Mars was my first foray into Vita Laserda's. It is a special game for me because it opened up that world, and I was daunted by La Cerda games before I played it because I've always heard the heavy am I going to be clever enough to play this? Is it gonna make sense to me?

14:59 And I got invited around a friend's house to try. He had the Kickstarter, and I played on Mars, and I just had this smile on my face, which was beaming on how frigging amazing uh this game is. So effectively, you're building uh these colonies on on the planet Mars, and you've kind of got two sides of the board.

15:17 You've got the space station and you've got the planet on the surface, and certain actions only belong in certain areas. In between, you've got a shuttle that kind of moves in every round um uh one space towards the other, and it will go back and forth and back and forth. So, what you've got to do is not only kind of plan what actions you want to do.

15:36 So you'll start in potentially in in space, is that when that shuttle leaves, you've got to make a decision on do I want to get on it and do I want to go down to the surface so I can start doing some work on there, and then I'm gonna go back and do more and then do more. And that shuttle is quite frequent at the start.

15:52 I think it moves back and forth pretty quick, but then it starts slowing down. The more you increase the the life uh support systems on on Mars, um, the more like that's gonna slow and back off to the point where that shuttle's not gonna run. And you need to have your engine in place to be able to handle everything.

16:09 And I love the the arc in the game, it's it's kind of it is competitive, but you're all working together to improve that life support system so that everyone can benefit from it. And it has a real nice uh resource wheel of you know things that feed each other, so you're gonna need you know, batteries uh to to basically generate power, and you're gonna need yeah, uh water to get your plants and plants to get your oxygen and oxygen to to do this, and it's just a real clever game setting space, which is always a bonus for me, and that is why that is going to um my A tier, it's gonna sit there along with Kanban.

16:45 Um, and you know, nostalgia alone and the fact that it's important probably could have nudged it into S, but I adore this, but I still haven't played the uh Alien Invasion expansion for it. I have it, I've had it for for years, and I need to play it. I need to play that and and try out that alien uh faction, which should be quite fun.

17:05 Okay, so we've got um speakeasy. So speakeasy is my latest um Vital Lacerda game. I've only played it once, and speakeasy setting like the Prohibition era of uh New York in the 1920s. So the main board is literally Manhattan, where you've got midtown and you know uh South Manhattan, etc. etc. And and yeah, you're effectively running these speakeasies, producing moonshine at your distilleries, and you're trying to um basically bootleg it up and down uh New York City to get uh the yeah, yeah, the the moonshine in speakeasies and sell it for lots of lots and lots of money.

17:42 Um so you're kind of playing as this kind of mob boss, and your player board is effectively you sitting in your mob boss chair, which is very, very cool, and you've got your capos, and your capos are like your your bosses um that that work for you, and that's what you're using to trigger the actions on the main board.

17:59 And so you then have family members, you've got thugs and goons that you can hire to help you do stuff, and so yeah, it's got that kind of thematic link to escape plan in the fact that it's crime and the fact that it's doing that's that similar thing of trying to get money, and money is your VPs in this game, but it is very different, it is very different, and yeah.

18:20 My one game I had with it, it was great. I I really enjoyed it, I really liked it. I do need to play more speakeasy to see kind of where it sits because I got a feeling where I put it on this tier maker now is gonna change probably if I do this in six months. But yeah, I've had uh a number of my friends uh ask me for um yeah, games of this, so this is gonna happen uh when I get some time to do it.

18:42 So that's yeah, speakeasy. And what's cool about it is that you have a safe as well. Um, and any money you earn will go into the safe, but if you need that money to spend, you've got to launder it. So you end up spending at a two to one ratio. I love that. Love the fact that yeah, I really need money right now.

18:57 I need to be cash rich so I can, you know, buy more uh speakeasies or or casinos and put them around uh Manhattan. And yeah, it's just it's just a cool theme. And if you get some like 1920s jazz music on in the background, it really sets the scene. I'm gonna put that in oh what's it B or C, B or C. I think I'm gonna put it in C, mainly because it hasn't had its uh uh time yet, and I think that's gonna change.

19:25 I think that's gonna change. So there we go. Next one is an oldie, Vignos. Vinyos, I think came out in 2010. And I've got the deluxe version, which has got two sides of the the board, it's two different uh games of the same game, different versions. So you've got the 2010 vintage version, and then you've got the 2016 reserve, I think it's called.

19:47 And the reserve is like a slightly more streamlined version of Vignos. Um, but this to me, it gets compared to Viticulture because you're making wine, right? Um, I prefer this to Viticulture. I think this has got a more like umph in the game design. And what I really like it, no matter what version you play, is the action selection mechanism is called the quadral, right?

20:10 So you've got a three by three grid of squares and actions, and you put your action selection meeple on there, and basically on your turn, you can adjacently move uh orthogonal adjacent to another action to take it for nothing. I think you can um move anywhere or additional spaces for spending um money to do that, and again, if you're um on or go to an action that's already occupied, you have to give them money.

20:37 I think something like that. That alone, that just that action selection puzzle is is pretty cool. It's really cool. But you're trying to find uh areas in in Portugal to um basically get um the the I think it's the grapes from. And uh yeah, you you run your um your your kind of boards where you've got uh the production of of your wine, and you're gonna do that, and you're gonna age that wine um through through time.

21:03 Um and there are things that you can do to improve the quality of that uh as well, that things that you can buy and enhance. Um, and effectively you're trying to enter the wines into the the wine tasting festival, and they're gonna get judged um by uh three different independent judges, and you're trying to produce the right wines for their tastes, which you can kind of get an advanced look at.

21:24 So you can score the most prestige points or wine points or whatever, whatever this this game kind of covers. And it's pretty cool. Um, you can go to the bank if you play in the 2010 edition, and that adds a lot more complexity and in how you can kind of get loans and and get more money, and it's just a tight game, and it's a fantastic game.

21:43 Um and a game I don't play nearly enough. Um but I think it's gonna sit in um the yeah, I'm gonna put that in the C tier. I'm gonna put that in the C tier. Okay. Then we got uh Weather Machine. So Weather Machine Um is basically uh kind of set in this kind of cutesy world where um you've got Late, Professor Lative has built a this machine and he's buggered the weather up.

22:17 He's he's royally buggered it up, but he's this scientist, kind of a mad scientist, and yeah, and it is basically causing all these uh um kind of conditions around the world with different weather effects. And your job actually is not quite to fix the weather, but it's to kind of come up with um the the kind of publication of of how you can fix the weather by testing and and getting the results of it.

22:42 So you've got this uh scientist uh worker, and it's the action's um worker uh placement game where you're gonna put your scientists on the board, and there's three areas of the board. You've got the the government area where you can enlist the government's help to help you build the the weather machine and pay cogs to let them help do the test.

23:00 You've got the weather machine section in the middle where you can uh effectively uh put your own robots on onto there so that when the weather machine runs, you can learn more of that data and get more um uh information from that. And then you've got like the RD, where you can put into research of building your own uh effective machine.

23:20 And you can put in uh again robots that you slot into to those areas and and effectively then produce uh the effects that's uh reverse the the bad effects of the weather. Um and then there's a bit at the bottom, which is supply where you can get all your materials and tiles and things, and your player board is is cool.

23:38 It's probably one of the best player boards in V Tel Acerta games, to be honest. And it does um yeah, it does a lot of heavy lifting in what's going on in the phasing, and also on the right hand side, you've got all your tiles uh for your factory tiles that you're kind of building out on these um basically three rows, um, and that's where you store your cogs and your robots and and your chemicals and all that kind of thing, and that alone is a puzzle, just getting the right combination and being able to kind of spend from there.

24:07 Um, but yeah, you're you're effectively just trying to get through publishing papers, um, trying to understand or get papers on on the different um weather types, and when you get three, you can then you know patent and and publish stuff, and it's just cool, it's a really cool game, it's kind of complex.

24:25 Um, and every time we've played it, we've had a great time. So I'm gonna stick that in my B tier. Um, so yeah, that's where it's going. So yeah, I forgot one. Um, so I've just added it on. So apologies for that. I forgot the Galarist. How can I forget the Galarist? It's the one of the originals um that yeah, that came out for the big box uh laserdas.

24:45 So I played the Galarist uh once. Um I played it at a uh convention in North Devon um for my good friend Adrian. And uh I think this is probably one of his favourite uh Laserdas as well. Um so I I liked the Galarist. Um I I don't hate it. I just I found it for weirdly, I found it the one that I couldn't get my head around.

25:06 I couldn't wrap my head around this game in terms of what the loop was and what I was supposed to be doing. And and yeah, and I think after having played it, and it's got some cool uh effects because you're basically running an art gallery and you're trying to coax um visitors into into your art gallery, and that bit's pretty cool in that you've got these meeples that come out, I think, as a bag, and there are ways that you can kind of move them into your gallery, and you're looking for different colours to do different things, um, and then you're building out your your actual gallery with art pieces, and then you're trying to get the um the the kind of promotion of the artist to be better and

25:42 better because then you're gonna earn more points out of it. Um, but I just found that at the end of the game, I found it's probably my least favourite. So you already know where this is going, it's going into D, um, my D tier. But I just probably need to give it a fair shake. I probably need to give it more plays, but I just feel maybe it's the theme.

26:00 Maybe I don't like the theme as much as the others. Um, but that's kind of where the Galarist lands for me. But yeah, nearly forgot it and uh only just realized when I saw the fact that the D tier was blank. So there you go. That's me ranking the Lacerda verse. So I hope you found that fun. You're probably all screaming at me, going, I'm wrong.

26:18 And that's okay because your rankings are going to be different. Um, but I want to know what they are. So get in touch with the comments. Let me know what your S tier Laserda game is. Maybe give me your top three. Everyone loves to do that. So I want to hear what your top three is. So get in the comments on YouTube, get in the comments on socials, and tell me what your favorite Lacerta game is.

26:36 So thank you very much. So the next segment I'm gonna talk about is Just Played, where I pick a couple of games and I'm gonna talk about my experiences with them. So today I've got two games that are kind of similar in the fact that they are economic games. And the first game I'm gonna talk about is Chicago 1875 City of the Big Shoulders.

26:56 Now, this game, I'm gonna be kind of honest with you, I've not played this actually recently. I played it quite a few months ago. Um, and I've been wanting to talk about this for a long time, and obviously with the podcast um shenanigans that have been kind of happening with me, I've not had the chance to kind of talk about it.

27:14 I've talked about a similar game um uh a few weeks ago called Arkwright, and for me, Chicago and Arkright sit in that very similar space, but they are very different games. So, what is it? Effectively, it's uh uh an 18xX game, and a lot of the times 18x games are mainly around trains um and you know building track and getting stocks and shares and all that kind of stuff.

27:37 So, what it does, it takes 18xx um mechanisms and it kind of blends them with a worker placement and sets it into this business uh simulator, and so it's very, very cool. So, if I show you the um kind of main board, which is gonna kind of show show off the game a little bit more. So, again, if you're uh not watching, I will do my best to explain.

27:58 So, basically, you start the game and you've got a bunch of money because you play as an investor, so you are an actual investor, you've got a load of money and you want to invest it into certain companies. So at the start of the game, you're gonna pick a company and um you're gonna basically um start it, you're gonna start that new business, you're gonna pump in a lot of cash um into its coffers to get shares out of it.

28:21 And the what I love about this already is that these companies are real, these are real agile companies that um existed um in the 18 uh late 1800s, and some of these companies are still around today, which is awesome. Um, and so yeah, you're gonna buy uh so much shares of that to get the the primary share, that the main share um of that company.

28:42 And on there you get your little uh company board, and I'll kind of show you here some some upside down. Um you got your company board, which is going to show you a couple of factories um that that you can use to uh effectively uh produce goods and put people in to work, and you've got um kind of space for for your salespeople to to kind of help increase the sale price for for this.

29:04 And you've got also some companies have spaces for these uh tiles that you can put on and to help them. Uh I think they're called assets that can help those companies do cool things and better things. So this is the kind of stock phase where you're you're buying and selling company shares throughout the the rounds of the game.

29:22 And and this is where the you know the the the meanness can happen because you can start you know uh basically building up the the the share price, you start uh you know tanking the share price and dumping stock and all the things that you can do in 18x games you can you can do in here as well. But it does have a nice introductory mode where it stops a lot of that shenanigans whilst you're trying to learn the game.

29:45 Um, but yeah, effectively you've got um this this main board here and you start the game as well with the tiles, you've got some building tiles in your hand. So at the start, you've actually got limited worker placement um spaces that you can kind of put your investors' um uh assistance on. And as the game progresses each round, all of you are going to be putting buildings down, which is gonna increase the the worker placement spots.

30:11 And this is the cool bit because you you've got your tiles in your hand, and you're like, Yeah, I really need that that particular tile. And everyone's thinking the same, and then you're placing it down, and then you're going, oh yeah, but that's also really good for me. And they're going, oh, that's good for you as well.

30:25 Um, so you kind of put all those down, and then you um adjust the the basically the workers off the back of that because each tile has like a worker symbol off on it, and then yeah, but you're just in the labor market, so it's going to get more and more people in it, which means it's cheaper to hire and all that kind of stuff.

30:42 And then you kind of get into the action phase where you're sending your assistants out. And depending on what building they use, and depending on the symbol on it, it will depend on when you spend the money where it goes. Does it go to the bank? Does it go to the investor who has basically produced that building?

31:00 And you're doing all these different things. You're either rising up influence, which is this kind of track where your your your companies are getting more influence in um in the world. So people are hearing about them, and that's useful for production turn order. Um, and yeah, you're kind of doing other stuff, getting money, uh, getting um more goods, more machines that can help run those factories in a more efficient way.

31:23 And uh yeah, and you're kind of doing all that cool stuff. And then you get to the operating phase, and that's where now you kind of put your investor cap over here, and then you're gonna put your I'm running this company, and then in influence order, you run the companies, and you're gonna run them kind of left to right, doing different things.

31:40 So if I kind of jump back up to a player board here for a company board, you sometimes might have managers in there that might produce the different goods, and at the top of the board, you've got a bunch of cubes and different goods that you may need, which is symbolizing, you know, meat and uh I don't know, steel and coal and all that kind of stuff.

32:01 So you're buying resources so you can run that engine, and it gives me like a very light touch furnace appeal. If you've ever played furnace, it's like you're getting cubes, you're you're turning those into goods, and the other these are these generic white tokens that you end up placing and selling into the demand.

32:18 So on the right hand side of the board, you've got the demand tiles, and you're basically uh selling those goods into that market. So all the companies that you invest in will either be one of the four different types of shoes, I say pigs, but food, um, clothing, and and you know, like maybe raw materials or whatever.

32:35 And yeah, so you're kind of selling into those areas and getting lots of money. And obviously, the more you sell, the more your share price will increase, um, which is obviously going to improve your overall share prices for the investors, um, and and so on and so forth. But obviously, if you're at the back of the pecking order, you can absolutely miss out on that and your share price doesn't go up as much.

32:56 And then you kind of rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. And and effectively, the game kind of goes through through that cycle and to the point where you get to the end of the game, who's got the most money um in shares, like who's the best investor? And it's just very cool, it's just a really cool game.

33:13 It's um it does a lot uh uh in in that space of time and it does ask a lot of you. Um I've really enjoyed my my plays of it. I've played this solo as well, I think it's got some good solo modes. Um I've got the new deluxe version, so I think they did a reprint of this because it is an old game, it came out in 2019.

33:31 But I did a reprint, uh, sorry, I got the deluxe version and and yeah, in there had some really good solo modes where you're going up against um these different investors. And whilst there isn't an opponent to kind of um pilot, which I actually quite like in this, it's giving you restrictions that you're having to navigate around, um, and ultimately trying to get um the best score and of of money uh as you can possibly get, and it's just quite a nice way of doing this game because I did think how they they would do this in a solo experience, but it it works quite well, and you have goals that you're trying to achieve as well.

34:07 But yeah, Chicago, compare it to Arkwright, and then people go, which do I prefer? Oh I don't know, I still don't know. I love our Arkwright, I love the way it puts you more micro-focused into you're running your factory and your business. You've got one business and you're trying to maximize your factories in that business, and that's all you care about.

34:28 So I like the fact that it's more zoomed in. Whereas this one puts you in the the mode as an investor where you've got multiple companies, and you can absolutely have two, three, four companies, or you can um invest in other people's companies where you know you're riding off the back of their success.

34:44 So I think if you like the stocks and shares element, um, which is very akin to an 18xx game, then this will be more your bag. Um, but if you think if you want to get kind of closer to um the factory and what's going on, then our cry it's probably more your bag. But I I I I'm keeping both. I I love both of them in in different ways.

35:04 Um, but yeah, but there you go. Uh I think the downsides of the game would be more obviously if you're not you're not interested in economic games, then stay away. If you're not interested in maths, um, because there's a lot of math in there, you need a calculator at some point, but it gets very mathy and trying to work out you know what you're earning and what you're getting, and it can get quite crunchy.

35:26 Um, so you do use your your brain. So if you don't like any of that in games, then probably stay away from this. But that's true of Arcright as well. Um, but yeah, it's uh it it does go on a little bit long as well, uh, if you've got a high player count, because there's just a lot going on, especially if you're running 16 companies in total and you're trying to basically go through all that in sequence.

35:47 Um, it can be that part of the operating phase can be a little bit slow. But yeah, I like this game. I I've really enjoyed it. So that's this one. So the next one on my list is uh Nippon's Ibatsu. So Nippon is a game that's been around uh a while. So this one's a re-implementation, it's a reprint of the original Nippon.

36:08 And uh I was a bit late to the party with this. I played this um a few months ago for the first time, played it solo to try and learn, you know, kind of how this all works. And then yeah, I've been playing it recently in a multiplayer setting, so I thought I'd talk about it. So Nippon is a game set in um kind of the old, I think it's like 1700s, maybe 1800s, where uh Japan had to go through a big surge in their industrial revolution because they were falling behind the rest of the world.

36:35 Um, so they invested so much like money into basically catching up and eventually surpassing. Um, and effectively, yeah, this game is um is really uh has a unique twist in it. It's a worker placement game, but it's like a reverse worker placement because you'll see like there at the top of the board, you have a bunch of coloured different workers that are above these action spaces, and they can be like red, black, blue, grey, green, whatever.

37:03 And and basically on your turn, you're taking one of those workers and putting them into your Zarbatsu, your your kind of company, and and to the slots. Um, you've got dedicated slots there, and then you'll perform the action where you've taken them from. So it's that's what I mean. It's a reverse worker placement.

37:19 And then you're gonna do different things. So you're likely to you know build trains that are gonna help you um basically give you influence into the regional areas. You can build ships which allow you to get um advanced workers and and improve your departments, uh, yield and outputs and what they get.

37:37 Um, and different things that you can do here, and you can obviously place um goods that you produce from your factories that you can also build onto your main player board. Um, yeah, you build factories which kind of sit at the bottom to help you produce those goods or which you can sell into the main market um of Japan.

37:55 And each kind of area and region has these demand tiles that are all randomized and all different, and that's gonna tell you um what kind of base influence you need to match or or kind of exceed in when you're selling your your tiles. Um, but before I kind of get into that, the the the cool thing is um when you're kind of pulling those workers, you're gonna get to a point where um your slots are full in your player board and there's six slots, and then you have to do like a reset where you're gonna basically take all those workers off and put them back in the bag.

38:27 Um, and then depending on which colours you've got, and this is the rub, if you've got all of the same colour, which is let's say you've got all red, you're only paying uh 3,000 yen um for that. And but if you got a different colour, you pay 3,000 for every different colour you have in there, which is like, ah, so you think I'll just want the same colour then?

38:46 Well, depending on the colour, you get um the bottom and the topmost colour uh relation to their department bonus. So sometimes you want different things so that you can get more and more uh goods like silk or steel or money or going up a research track or or coal income or money. Um yeah, so basically that's the the kind of rub of the game.

39:08 It's got a nice flow of get workers, release them back into the bag, and the round ends when all the workers kind of disappear um from this area. And it's just a really slick game. I really surprised me. I didn't think this would be one I'd kind of care about, but that when I played it, I was really, really, really had a um a good good laugh with it, you know.

39:28 It's good fun. Um, but what's kind of unique is that you know your your supply um kind of tokens that you you produce uh goods from are limited on what how many you can kind of get rid of uh based on these tokens, these kind of X tokens with numbers on. And then you'll see on the uh main board uh there are the spaces where they go.

39:49 And they've basically got like uh importers from around the world, which is what the main board's numbers mean, which means you can surpass them because I'd rather take goods from local sources like yourself. But this is where the contention in in the game comes because other players are trying to vibe for control, and it becomes like an area uh majority, area control, and you get a lot of scoring for those kind of regional bonuses as well.

40:13 So, yeah, it's it's a quite a cool economic game. It's uh compared to Chicago, it's a lot lighter, um, and it's a lot cleaner, I would say, in in what you're doing. And I just really, really enjoy the the reverse worker placement aspect of of the game. I think it's just really, really clever. You know, it's really clever and um innovative, I think, when it came out.

40:34 And even now in 2026, I think it still holds up and it's fantastic. And I have actually backed the Genro uh expansion, which adds uh all these genros um to the to the mix. I think they come with their own little puzzles um in mini games and how you can interact. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Um, looking forward to playing more nippon, but I really like it.

40:54 It's a nice tight puzzle and uh it really gets your brain brain burning, which is kind of what you want, right? So let's move on to the next segment, which is just ask, and this is where I get a uh one of the listeners or viewers of the podcast to ask me a question and I will try my best to answer it.

41:12 So we have Bob from um my Discord um server who says, How do I deal with people who are distracting at the table, go on tangents, etc., and hold up other people's turns? Well, my blunt answer is I tell them, really. Um, and I think it depends like you've got to have a bit of tact, right? You've got to have a bit of tact in in that conversation, and it will depend on how well you know them.

41:38 Because if you if they're your really good friends, you know, you're just gonna tell them, say, you know, bloody hell, hurry up, mate, because you know, we all got work in the next, you know, next day, all that kind of stuff. Um, and I've got friends who suffer from analysis paralysis, I'm sure you do um in your gaming groups as well.

41:55 But um, yeah, there is a thing that we did do once, which we started singing the never-ending story uh theme tune, which is kind of signifying that you're taking a little bit too long, and that was always quite funny to do. But I think if you've got someone that you don't know, and I've had this um at a convention where um yeah, they were just taking forever to the point where it was draining on the game.

42:18 Um, you know, I'd I'd purposely kind of highlight and say, you know, obviously you say the immortal words, whose turn is it? Even though you know, whose turn is it? And it's like, oh yeah, it's mine. It's like, oh, okay, just to kind of jolt them into you need to kind of move on. But I think you know, it's just politely having a conversation saying, look, I think we need to move the game on a little bit, um, especially because you've got other things to do afterwards, you want to go to bed, or if you've got another game you need to reach, say, come on, let's not worry too much about um, you know, this, that, and the other.

42:48 But it's hard for players, players who want to be, you know, the most efficient in their play, they they find it difficult. Um, but I suppose the answer, Bob, is I tell them, mate. Um, I tell them, especially if it's in my house and I've got stuff to do. So yeah, there we go. So that's it. Um, so I think in terms of time, I'm gonna skip what's hot, what's not this week, uh, mainly because I think I recorded uh my last episode not long back, so it won't have changed too much.

43:14 I'm gonna skip over that and go straight into the next segment, which is just about to play. So I'm excited to go to Essen. So by the time this episode releases, next week will be Essen. I can't wait. Um, I love Essen spiel, it's brilliant, and as I said in my last uh episode around the Essen preview, if you see me, please come and say hi.

43:36 I love having any interactions and and and conversations around that, and you'll be able to find me because I'll have the massive logo on my back and on the front. So yeah, please do say hi. But in terms of games, obviously I'm looking forward to all of those games that I mentioned on the last episode.

43:50 But in terms of games to play at home, um, ever since Deco uh appeared and got delivered, which is uh a game uh it's like Bellatro meets poker. Um, I'm really wanted to keep playing this game. I've only ever played the prototype, so I've got my full proper copy. I want to play Deco, I want to get that to the table very soon.

44:11 And we've actually booked in a game in January, which is ages away, um, of Twilight Imperium Thunder's Edge, but we're gonna try out the Twilight's Fall mode, which is a separate mode that they've released in in the game. Um, and I'm looking forward to to trying that out, even though I've not actually played the Thunder's Edge normal version, but I'm looking forward to trying out Twilight's Four.

44:32 So I will let you know how that goes uh once I've done it. So there we go. We've got to the end. We've ranked Laserdas, we've gone through some economic games, and I hope you've enjoyed uh the episode and and kind of coming along with me. And yeah, and hopefully, you know, I want to get your feedback on on how things are going and and what your favorite Laserdas are.

44:51 Please do that. That'll be good fun. But if you enjoyed the show, please like, please subscribe, please comment, please review whatever your format and media uh that you do to listen to the Just Play podcast. I really love it if you can interact and engage. It makes the world a difference to small channels like ours.

45:08 And if you really, really, really enjoy it, then we have Coffee, um, which is our um crowdfunding support platform. And any you know, pennies or pounds that you send all helps to the running uh of the show. And uh for those that always do, you're legends, I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you so so much.

45:24 Um, but other than that, all I'm gonna say is my usual um kind of sign-off, which is you only grow old when you stop playing. I'll see you at Essen. Thank you.