Review: Troyes

quintin's pheremones, matthew's buttery pastry, a hot cup of dice, ladies

January 13, 2017 Reviews Troyes, The Ladies of Troyes, Games for Two, Conflict-Free Games, SU&SD Recommends To usher in 2017 as a year of good fortune, we’re trying all sorts of superstitions. Paul wrote “FLUXX” on a bit of wood and threw it in a river, while Matt and Quinns have chosen a classic for … Read more

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Double Review: Blood Bowl and Guild Ball

sport, sports, blood sports, mind sports, spoooooorts

Eric Tonjes, our esteemed miniatures game correspondent, has returned and the CROWDS HAVE GONE WILD! Vendors are sobbing into their hot dogs! Babies are being tossed in the air by baby-tossing machines! Everybody, let the man speak…

Eric: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we’re here to talk about sports! Sports are perhaps the ur-games. Probably organizing alongside early militaries as tools for training and proving of skill, they have grown to eclipse armed conflict for many, serving as a sort of proxy for violent aggression. But what happens when sport seems unnecessarily violent, and we need a proxy for that?

Today we’re looking at two possible solutions. Blood Bowl is the grandparent of sports miniatures games. It’s a rollicking high fantasy version of North American football in which you can violently maim opposing players. Guild Ball, meanwhile, is a newcomer to the scene which has quickly gained a following. It is a gritty low fantasy version of soccer (or “actual football”) in which you can violently maim opposing players. While there are nuances to the themes, both games are clearly competing for similar space. So, in true sports fashion, let’s put them in a ring and see which one scores the most points. Or violently maims the other player.

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GAMES NEWS! 09/01/17

an explanation for paul, a rally for quinns, a gory mish-mash, a Heidelberger

Quinns: Please, everyone, take your places, fasten your seatbelts and keep your hands INSIDE THE VEHICLE AT ALL TIMES as we welcome you to a brand new year of board gaming, a year that promises to be a WILD RIDE.

Paul: Good morning! Good afternoon! Hello! Happy New Year! The Games News has been building up like snow over the holidays and we’ve been doing our very best to clear it, shoveling the path and salting the drive. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to avoid slipping on some exciting new gossip or falling face-first into a pile of previews. Let’s get right into things by talking about… oh no.

Robo Rally.

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Podcast #51: The Pearple’s Choice Awards

quinns at the oscars, paul in a gang, alien offices, rare husbands

We don’t want to tell you how to live your life but you might want to put on a tie or a string of pearls or BOTH before listening to this very classy podcast. The results of the inaugral Pearple’s Choice Awards are in and noteworthy hosts Paul Dean and Quintin Smith discuss the games that won Best Expansion of 2016, Best Reprint and (of course) Best Game. They chat about some old classics they’ve played over the festive season, like City of Remnants and Galaxy Trucker. Finally, they want to tell you about a folk game that’s come all the way from Peru. 2016 has been a spectacular year for board games and once again, next year looks even more exciting. This can’t be sustainable. Or can it?

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Review: Kingdom Death: Monster

lost ding dong, goes to eleven, you are masticated

While we don’t usually review Kickstarter titles, we’ve made a very particular exception for this seasonal special, with Paul taking a long and very hard look at at the “boutique horror” of Kingdom Death: Monster. Why this? Why now? A new version of Kingdom Death is back on Kickstarter and generating astounding amounts of interest (and cash). It was all the excuse we needed to plunge into this enormous beast and tear at its innards.

Have a terrific weekend, everyone. If you decide to spend it out in some snow, or fighting monsters, or even just rolling particularly large handfuls of dice, do remember to stay safe!

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Podcast #50: Our Top 5 Games of 2016!

quinns in bed, paul in iceland, the pearple's choice, a shocking twist

Hold onto your listicles, Paul and Quinns are celebrating the 50th ever Shut Up & Sit Down podcast (by recording a podcast (they are unimaginative)) and we want you to join us! In this tawdry tornado of numerology the site’s aged founders discuss Spyfall 2, Tyrants of the 1derdark and the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game (which has numbers in it) before dropping their respective top 5 board games of 2016. We’ll warn you now, make sure you’re sitting down when you hear Quinns’ number one. If anyone can’t bear the wait until podcast #51, here are the winners of the Pearple’s Choice Awards. Enjoy, everybody!

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GAMES NEWS! 12/12/16

tumbling protagonists, twisting highways, sentient fungus

Paul: Attention please, passengers! Now arriving at platform two is this week’s Games News, stopping at High Fantasy, Kickstarter Reflections and Wargaming Central. A light buffet service of links will be available throughout the trip and free wifi is offered for your convenience.

Quinns: Paul I have trapped my coat in the carriage door.

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SU&SD Play… Arkham Horror: The Card Game!

the nude FBI, making grapes, good buddies, a machete

It could be the voices that whisper ceaselessly inside our skull, but it seems everyone is talking about Arkham Horror: The Card Game! We’re only going to review it after a lot more plays and a few more expansions, but for now why not watch Matt and Quinns play the first chapter of the first campaign? For reference, here’s that Garth Marenghi thing they keep referencing. If you haven’t yet seen it, do get the DVD. You’re in for a treat.

And hey! Since we’re in the middle of a donation drive right now and it’s the season of giving, we’ve got yet another video coming in just a few days. Want it a clue? It rhymes with “Wingdom Beth Ponster Peview.” What could it be… ?

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Pip Talks to New Studio Restoration Games!

Papal Dragon Conversions, Crime-Scanners, Disappointing Mice

Pip: After writing about my infatuation with Exploration as an artefact from another time in board gaming (and reading through your equivalents!) I found out about Restoration Games – a project to dig out and polish up older games in order to give them a new audience. Their tagline is cute: “Because every game deserves another turn.”

Restoration Games is actually a trio right now: attorney, Justin Jacobson; designer, Rob Daviau (of Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy fame); and graphic designer, Jason Taylor. They’ve also just announced their initial slate of games to restore – Dragonmaster, Top Race and Stop Thief! I caught up with Justin Jacobson to find out more about the project – particularly what “restoration” even means when it comes to board games and why these three made the cut…

Justin, as I mentioned above, is an attorney. He’s based in South Florida and had the kind of family I definitely didn’t – one which was into board games. “My father and uncle were always regular game players, and we lived nearby growing up,” he says. “So, unsurprisingly, my cousins and I played games constantly. We played a lot of D&D and a lot of video games, but mostly we played board games. Tons of them. All kinds. I guess I’ve always been around games and so I’ve always had a passion for them.”

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Please Donate to Our Internet Web Site?

matt gets quinns a present, wow quinns also gets matt a christmas present, nice

Hey you!

You might have noticed that a lot of work goes into Shut Up & Sit Down. This month we’re asking for you to become one of the donors who make that possible.

Never mind “digging deep”- if every person reading this had a just a paddle in their pockets that would more than suffice for Team SU&SD to keep the lights on for another 6 months. If you donate by December 18th you’ll receive our donor newsletter telling you everything we’re planning for 2017, and you’ll also have supported us in our quest to make play better.

We talk a little about inclusivity in the above video, which always results in some people asking why we keep banging on about it. This month we found we had one more reason why: It turns out that while women are only a fraction of our viewership, they’re disproportionately more likely to make a donation to SU&SD.

Finally, if you have any questions regarding donations, please email [email protected].

Thank you all for another incredible, loved-up six months. And do look forward to the next two weeks on the site! We have one or two very exciting slabs of calorific Christmas content coming your way.

– Team SU&SD

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