The Games

10. A Gentle Rain

This game might feel too much just like an activity.

9. Ohanami

The decision space, while matching the aesthetic of the game, might be too simple.

8. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

You can bring the theme to the game but for a game that should have more theme it is very mechanical.

7. Apocrypha

The rule book is horrible.

6. Say Bye to the Villains

The game is too long for the stuff in the box.

5. Galaxy Trucker

Chaos and then destruction.

4. TIME Stories

You go on runs over and over again.

3. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

The game doesn’t let you do everything and you need the internet.

2. Icecool

It’s a flicking game.

1. Betrayal At House On the Hill

The scenarios are hard to understand and if a too strong a character is the traitor they can win easily.

The Beer

Last nights beer was from Bent Brewstillery out of Roseville MN. It is another brewery very close to where I live, though one I haven’t been to in a few years. They make good beer but not always my favorite beers. This one, a hazy fruited sour, O.P.P., is a very solid beer. To me, it would have been a great summer beer because of the very fruity nature. That sweetness balanced out against the tart nature of the sour for a very refreshing drink. I think that it’s getting a bit cold in Minnesota for a beer like that, but still really enjoyable.

What’s Coming Up On Malts and Meeples

Starting tomorrow I am tackling my Top 100 of all time live. The list is ready to go so every Wednesday at 8 PM from September 15th through November 17th I’ll be doing the next 10 on my list. Again that’s at 8 PM Central. Subscribe, click that notification bell and join me live as I talk about my Top 100 games of all time. That’s going to be mainly what I stream coming up here. There might be some Monday night streams, 8:30 PM Central, and those will be chats while playing a small game.

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Plus I unbox a new board gamer order with had four expansions in it. And I go off on some tangents, not about beer this time, but about a board game that stayed in my collection.

The Topic

I wanted to touch on getting rid of board games, because it is a popular topic. And well, I hope that I can add some insight to the conversation. When I see these videos, too often, it comes off as bragging that people have nice and trim collections. This is very much a pushback on a previous mindset of having a massive board game collection.

But, to me, neither of these are healthy. I think there are good reasons to get rid of board games. But showing off that you are better, that isn’t a good reason. That is a seemingly responsible thing that actually creates barriers to entry into our hobby. New gamers often buy a lot of games, I know I did, and I still do. So when they see people getting rid of games they feel like they are doing it wrong.

I go with a few different reasons to possibly get rid of a game.

1. Other Games in the Same Category/Genre I like Better
2. Space
3. Don’t Have the Right Group

You can find out more why in the video.

Unboxing

Expansions for three different games were unboxed last night. You can see the Point of Order that I did for these games and posted yesterday. I’m excited for all of these expansions. I think most so I’m excited to get Terraforming Mars to the table. It’s a bigger more complex game than Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, and I’m interested to try that.

The Beer

Another can of Spray Tan from Outstate Brewing up in Fergus Falls, MN. This is really a go to summer beer. It is tart and has a good flavor that works really well on a hot day. During the summer in Minnesota, I tend to drink mainly sours and IPA’s with a few other random beers thrown in. Just because it helps cut the hot and humid. During the winter, on the other hand, it still can be IPA’s and Sours, but very often I will dive into the big porters and stouts that feel like more of a hearty drink during the cold.

Upcoming Videos

So only for sure one video coming up in the next week and a half. Two weeks from now I’ll be back with another Top 10 list, and I think I’m going to do my Top 10 either Family/Gateway games or Roll and Writes, haven’t decided what which yet.

And on Wednesday, 8 PM Central, I’m going to be streaming the second chapter of Aeon’s End Legacy. I’ll probably miss, though, next Wednesday’s stream because of having family in town.

Though, I do plan on putting out another 3 Reasons Buy/Not Buy video. You can find all the videos in that series on this playlist as they come out.

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The Game

Floor Plan, like I said, is a roll and write game. This one is actually a roll and write versus a flip and write, which are part of the roll and write family. So you can get a lot of interesting combos of dice. The dice are used to do one of a few different things. You can use the dice combo to create rooms. So if you roll and 2 and a 6, you can create either a 6×2 living room or washroom. The 2 is for the washroom and the 6 is for the living room. Or in the rooms and as landscaping, you can place things like doors, trees, furniture, windows decking and more.

Placing all of these things is how you complete your ideal building objectives. So, someone might want a pool in their place. So you get a set number of points of you create a pool with a deck around it of the right size outside of the house. And there are five of those objectives that you can score multiple times. You also score points at the end of the game for a certain criteria, such as doors with a stone outside of them or doors with decking outside of them. And the scoring changes each game.

At the end, the player with the most points wins. Or in my case, since I play solo on Malts and Meeples, I was going for a high score. Overall a fun game, it is a bit silly you don’t need doors in your room, but everyone wants some house projects, right?

The Beer

So, of course on Malts and Meeples we are going to drink a beer as well. Last nights beer was a tart ale from Surly Brewing Company based out of Minneapolis, MN. Grapefruit Supreme is definitely what it sounds like. A beer with a lot of grapefruit flavor that has been added. Now added fruit flavor in a beer is generally not my favorite, but I do like it in Surly’s tart ale collection. Mainly because a lot of tart beers can end up being too tart so this balances it out. On the flip side, a lot of beers with fruit can be too fruity, so this also balances out because of the tartness.

Upcoming Videos

Thanks to everyone who is checking out the videos. I hope that you are enjoying them. I am thinking about adding in another stream that is maybe done once or twice a month on the weekend. The idea would be to create more of a chat type of scenario versus game play. I love doing the game play and getting in 3 games for my trek to 365 plays this year is nice. But I don’t always engage with the chat as much.

So I was thinking, maybe a series of videos talking about some Kickstarters, or maybe some board game news and then dropping into a topic, talking about a game or a genre of games and just chatting about that. Of course, if people join live I’ll be interacting with the chat, answering questions and seeing responses. I will probably try this out soon, but let me know if this is something that sounds interesting.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
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Support us on Patreon here.