Shut Up & Sit Down

Review: Burgle Bros.

a dollop of chaos, a crime soufflé, a misplaced acrobat, and a bloody cat?!

Matt: Chucking Pandemic Legacy in the bin proved to be an uncomfortable day for my board game collection, causing a cardboard-flavoured existential wobble. As much as I love – had loved – Pandemic, experiencing the full-fat campaign spin-off had left me wondering if I’d ever bring myself to go back to the standard co-op game that had been such a household staple.

I’ve spent a while poking my nose around for a worthy replacement, and – for me – I think it might be Burgle Bros.

Dropping two to four players into a classic bank heist, Tim Fowers’ has squeezed an almost comical amount of theme and bits and ideas into a box that – being generous – might hold a small shoe. Our intrepid / idiotic thieves have failed to case the joint ahead of the job, so it’s up to you and your Colleagues-In-Crime to first find the safes, then crack them, grab the loot, and get out.

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Tickets Now On Sale for The First SU&SD Convention!

oh my god please come, it'll be weird if it's just six of us in a ballroom

Quinns: This is one of those times where you wish our headlines didn’t already use capital letters, so we could SHOUT!

Our team has been working ludicrously hard for the last five months putting together the first ever SU&SD convention. It’ll be in Vancouver, Canada on October 6th, 7th and 8th of this year, and tickets, details and hotel rooms are available through THIS LINK.

You can expect a board game lending library, tons of tables to play games, no less than three Megagames(!), a full track of talks and loads of special guests including every single member of the SU&SD team. It’s going to be ludicrously good fun. Practical info can be found on the above SHUX ’17 page, but I’ll pop a small F.A.Q. after the cut.

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Games News! 01/05/2017

the hated cobbles, the sweetest scythe, the additional hamilcar, ecstasy

Paul: Here we are again, marshalling a whole host of new Games News arrivals! Please stand back as I wave the latest Games News to Gate F26, where it will disembark and make its way toward customs. Quintin, I believe you actually wanted to detain a particularly important story related to Fantasy Flight’s new Legend of the Five Rings card game, right?

Quinns: Ah, yes please, Paul. Please send it this way, where I will thoroughly inspect it, as well as the first of their preview articles…

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Podcast #57: A Purple Boss, A Spicy Path

emergency holidays, invented furs, unicycle jousting

Quickly, man the battlements! The podcastle is under attack from deadly waves of silence. Secure the chat parapets, and brace the gates of opinion! In episode 57 of our award-winning podcast Quinns offers thoughts on I’m the Boss!, the first Sid Sackson game that this site has ever covered, while Paul takes a look at the new edition of Citadels, the first game to ever appear on SU&SD. Quinns has also played an advance copy of the much-hyped Century: Spice Road, while Paul rounds off this week’s Fresco review by talking about that game’s expansions. There’s combat juggling in the folk game section and the boys chat about why Virgin Queen was Quinns’ lowest point, but perhaps the biggest surprise comes during our mailbag segment. We’ve received a reader mail that’s made us question our entire attitude towards not just box inlays, but board games in general. Listen in horror as one listener’s expensive opinion spreads across the very fabric of SU&SD, like a spilled glass of wine.

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Review: Fresco

i got you yellow, she doesn't want yellow, THE BISHOP!

Paul: Here are two things that are absolutely and irrefutably true: 1) I love art. 2) I hate getting up early. Here are two more things that are painful in their truth: 1) Sometimes you have to get up early in the service of your art. 2) This feels awful.

Here are three other things that feel awful: 1) When the guy at the market has nothing to sell but combinations of the same sickly yellow paint (“I’ve got a bit of yellow, some yellow, or lots of yellow.”) 2) Mixing colours that you can’t then use because someone beat you to the cathedral again. 3) When the bishop buggers off. Honestly, what is the point of bishops?

Here’s something that’s great: Fresco.

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Games News! 24/04/2017

the sun went down like an easy mark staggering with two slugs in his back

Paul: I stumbled into the Games News office this morning (much as I do every morning) to find it abandoned, a thin and smoky haze twisting through sunlight sliced a dozen times by crooked venetians. As I tried to blink away the hatred for this unsociable hour of the day, I spotted a single, cryptic note scrawled on Quinns’ desk:

“PAUL we haven’t covered Bear Park yet. We should definitely cover Bear Park. It’s the perfect lead story for your solo news.”

So, he was gone. And he’d left me with the bears.

It was time for the day’s first drink.

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SU&SD Presents: A Feast of Friends!

your mum is a murderer, undermining a war, an expensive potato clock

The third talk from our V&A collection is a sneak preview of a new talk that Quinns is working on. OooOOOooh!

A Feast of Friends is Quintin’s overlong, years-late answer to the question everyone asked when he left the video games press for board games, which was “Isn’t that a step down?” No, no it isn’t. Board games are beautiful, important and have a glittering future, and this is why.

Enjoy, everybody!

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SU&SD Presents: British Board Games 1800-1920, by Holly Nielsen

Modesty, Decreptitude, Despair, Poverty, Also wargames are a thing

Continuing our collection of talks filmed during the V&A’s Board Game Study Day, here’s 15 minutes from journalist and historian Holly Nielsen on the hilarious, horrifying history of British board games.

Huge thanks to Holly for letting us host this talk. It’s just too much fun. Next time you buy a game that’s a little less than perfect, why pop this talk on? You’ll feel very lucky about the state of your board game collection, we guarantee.

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SU&SD Presents: Board Gaming’s Golden Age! (2017 update)

how's everybody doing, this is the wrong talk, how much time do i have?, a stony pro

Hi everybody! Remember Quinns’ old talk on the current “golden age of board games”? Here’s a new performance of it! It’s a lot like the old talk, but snappier, more informed and down from a whopping 45 minutes (you can still watch the original here) to just 15 minutes. Perfect for sharing with your friends or perennially-bemused relatives.

This talk was just one of several snappy and informative talks given during a contemporary board game study day at London’s prestigious Museum of Childhood, and it’s not the only one we filmed, either. This week we’ll be uploading three more, including a brand new talk from Quinns!

Stay tuned, everyone, and thanks to everyone who came down on the day.

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Games News! 17/04/2017

One does not simply walk into birmingham, a sleeping dean, a merry box

Quinns: I hope you all had a nice weekend, because it’s time to get to work. Chop chop! Into the mine with you! Shut Up & Sit Down might be done with classic board game Brass after filming our review, but apparently this game isn’t done with you lot: the unwashed, coin-clipping masses.

Roxley, a Canadian publisher of truly gorgeous-looking games, has posted some stunning teaser images of two games titled Brass: Lancashire (pictured above) and Brass: Birmingham (pictured below). Brass: Lancashire will be a new edition of the original game (which we reviewed) with a few tiny rules tweaks and a radical visual overhaul. Seriously, go and take a peek at the images in that link. It’s not so much “a new coat of paint” as it is “burning down the original building and buying a gothic mansion”. Heavens!

And as for Brass: Birmingham? Why, it’s a collaborative effort between original designer Martin Wallace and two new co-designers, and Roxley is calling it a sequel. A sequel to what many would call a masterpiece of game design. Hold onto your stovepipe hats!

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