Quintin Smith - Shut Up & Sit Down

The Next Two Weeks On Shut Up & Sit Down…

Ava: Happy new Monday everybody! Welcome to another new week on Shut Up & Sit Down, but also, sorry, it might be a quiet one. The whole team is already absolutely piled up with preparation for AwSHUX, the incredible free online convention that we’re running from the 22-24 October. A whole host of previews, panels, games and joy is just around the corner, but we’ve got to assemble the whole lot of it. Matt’s reverted to tech-goblin mode, Tom is figuring out how to film previews in a whole new place and Quinns has a pile of games bigger than I’ve ever seen. They’re even making ME do some actual work. Unfair. But it’ll all be worth it, because AwSHUX is, frankly, amazing. Loads of streaming with a huge range of special guests, a digital convention hall with more streams, previews and general showing-off, a discord server full of people playing and demoing games, and our live podcast and late night Q&A. It’s just so much stuff, all celebrating games and supporting the publishers that have struggled through a hugely challenging time. So while we’re doing that, we’re pausing our video and podcast production. Does that mean you won’t get anything to watch and listen to? No! We’re going to be uploading some of our favourite panels and shows from the last AwSHUX to keep you company. Right. I’ve got a puzzle to solve and some editing to do. Have a lovely week and I hope we see you at AwSHUX!

Quinns: The next AWSHUX, our weekend-long board game extravaboardza, is happening on the weekend of the 22nd of October. That means it’s almost time for our team to take a couple of weeks away to prepare… almost, but not quite! Our content pipes are going to remain warm and lubricated for another week yet, and they’re going to squirt a whole bunch of exciting board games into your figurative lap.

After my lukewarm review of Descent: Legends in the Dark last week, on Thursday you can look forward to a review from Tom over on our YouTube channel that’s very positive indeed. What game is he looking at? Alas, I know this is criminal behaviour, but I simply can’t tell you.

And then on Friday we’ve got a podcast where we’ll be talking about a few new games, and among them will be Hadrian’s Wall (pictured above). That’s gonna be an exciting discussion for me because actually, Hadrian’s Wall is a game that I’ve been asking for for years- namely, a game that asks the question “What if a roll’n’write but MORE? More rules, more decisions, more considerations?” So I got my wish, but did I actually enjoy myself? Find out on Friday.

But honestly, mostly this week I’ll be knuckling down to start filming my share of the preview videos which will all flop onto our YouTube channel on the first day of AWSHUX. And oh my goodness, you folks can look forward to some stone-cold corkers this time around. I expect at least one or two of these will go on to become SU&SD reviews.

Ah, but I don’t want to tease you! I’ll keep quiet and just get on with my work.

Quinns: Is it gauche to say that I’m having one of those weeks where I just love my job? The sky outside is bruised and moist (perfect weather for staying indoors with a game), I’ve got TWO big, great games that I’m playing exhaustively for my next great big reviews, and just minutes ago I received a package containing Brian Boru from Osprey Games*. Tabletop publishers around the world might still be struggling with punishing shipping problems, but I can at least promise that my advocacy on SU&SD will be as honest as ever. This week on the site we’ve got a video and a podcast for you. At some point in the middle of the week Tom will be going green in the week’s video review, and then on Friday you can look forward to a podcast where Tom and I talk about Magnate: The First City, North Berkeley and Witchstone. Two games about property development and one game about witches who are only tangentially interested in property. How are you doing, everybody? Have you been affected by publishing woes? Or have you, like me, just been having a great time playing games? * I don’t even know what Brian (Mr. Boru?) is yet, but I feel like I can rely on Osprey to deliver something polished and deliciously unexpected.

Ava: Hot off the heels of a podcast record, it’s time for me to tell you about this week on Shut Up & Sit Down, the exact website you are looking at right now. SPOOKY! I’m really excited for this week’s output, because it’s got some stonking great games in it. First up, on Tuesday, we’ll be jumping into the stream on Twitch and playing a whole game of Iberian Gauge, the third (and most interesting?) installment of Capstone Games’ Iron Rails series. This one offers a simplified stonks and shares train game with a lot of Spanish spice in it. It’s like an 18xx game that won’t make me cry with stress. Or will it? Let’s find out on Tuesday evening with me, Tom and Matt. Then in the middle of the week, it’s Tom’s turn for a review, and it’s probably the game I’m most jealous of Tom for getting to review, because for me, it’s potentially my favourite game to come out in the last three years. Definitely make sure you’re ready to tune in as soon as it washes up. Finally Friday, suddenly Seymour, perpetually podcast? I’m getting carried away with myself. Friday is the day when the podcasts come out, and this one should be a little treat. Me and Quinns found ourselves in a slightly odd mood and still managed to talk about two cute games that we kinda liked a bit? Fast Sloths makes us think about Friedmann Friese, and Trek 12 gets our tongues twisted. Lovely stuff. So tell me lovelies, what have you been up to this weekend and what are you excited for this week?

Quinns: I AM SO CLAMMY. Am I referring to the anxiety brought on by launching our 10th Anniversary Donation Drive? I am not, no. I trust you folks to do the right thing! Instead, I am clammy because this week England entered the vanishingly small segment of the year where the sun actually shows up, turning our population into 56 million slowly-sizzling and noisily distressed beefsteaks. Fortunately for you, the editorial team of SU&SD are absolute pros who won’t be stopped by still air, who won’t be held HOSTAGE by HUMIDITY. You’ll see evidence of this on Tuesday, when we’ll be streaming Star Scrappers: Orbital over on our Twitch channel! This is a game of steadily building out your very own sci-fi space station from the designer of no less than Terraforming Mars. Our big feature this week will land on Thursday, when Tom will publish a video reviewing all of the expansions of a beloved game that has too many expansions. What could I be referring to, do you think.. ? Finally, on Friday Tom and I will be releasing one “podcast”! This one’s a brutal business special, with us chatting about asbestos industry-simulator The Cost and historical factory manager Arkwright: The Card Game. What a week! Wow. Alright, I’m off to wipe myself down again.

Quinns: A wise fellow once said “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” Recently this has been especially true of the SU&SD weekly plan, which “life” has been chasing all over the shop with a big stick. Thwack! goes life. Ow! says team SU&SD. My new video review scheduled for last week will now be published this Wednesday. As Tom teased, you should expect plenty of cards, dice and violence, as well as a big ol’ SU&SD Recommends seal.

Ava: Ooh, look, this week’s this week is going to be as compact as I can manage, because I’m rewriting the intro after noticing that everything’s got some kind of ‘small’ in it. Squeeze yourself into your tightest pants and squash straight into this most minuscule message…. That’s because Tuesday night I’m going to be on our Twitch channel with Matt and Tom, playing Tiny Turbo Cars from Horrible Guild. This is a recently-kickstarted game from the publishers of King’s Dilemma and Railroad Ink. Tiny Turbo Cars has you fiddling with a sliding puzzle and using it to pre-program the moves of the titularly teensy conveyances as they race around the kitchen floor. It sounds neat! I’m excited to find out how neat. Wednesday is review day, and Matt is building a colourful edifice of a review for you, which I’m excited for, because I already own it, and it’s a surprisingly full-but-small box. I shall say no more. Then Friday we’ll be podding our hearts away. Me and Matt are ready to record what I’m tentatively titling the ‘cosycore’ podcast, with a look at some gentle games with nice things in. Gardens and cupboards. Ooooh, lovely (and a bit of a break after last week’s sprawling massivenesses). So that’s the pint-sized line-up for this week! Any of that float your cosy? What’s the smallest lovely thing you did this weekend? What’s your favourite cupboard?

Quinns: Oh gosh! British society is slowly opening up again like a grouchy flower, which means team SU&SD was so busy planning board game meetups yesterday we plum forgot to tell you what’s coming up on the site. That must be fixed, because let me tell you- this is gonna be a strong week. Tonight you can look forward to an eldritch battle over on our Twitch channel, with Tom and Matt bashing their brains against one another in a live match of Cthulhu Wars: Duel. This is the new, cheaper, 2 player-only edition of Cthulhu Wars, which I covered in a special Christmas review back in 2019. I barely knew Tom back then, but that didn’t stop me from (a) dressing him up as a ghost and (b) making him sprint around outside my building. What a good lad. Tomorrow our video reviews return with a bang, with Tom covering an early contender of our game of the year. I shall say no more. Finally, on Friday we’re releasing a podcast that I can’t wait to record- it’s a double feature talking about two very ambitious games, the shockingly-asymmetric Merchant’s Cove and the shocking-looking Coffee Traders. Although I guess both are games are about being “Stressed traders”, which would make this.. the stressed trader-cast? Have a lovely week, everyone!

Quinns: We have awoken from the post-AwSHUX slumber! Well, I’ve awoken. Well, I’m half-awake. Well, my right eyelid is gummed shut and I’m still wearing my pyjamas- the point is that I’m here, and I’m ready to tell you what’s coming up Shut Up & Sit Down.

On Tuesday we’re streaming Keystone: North America, a game of developing an ecosystem and the first release from hot new publisher Rose Gauntlet! Then on Friday you can look forward to episode #139 of the podcast, which will be (get ready) a special episode all about manuals. Basically, Matt had a near-death experience laying out the manual for RATS: High Tea at Sea, and will be telling us what he learned as a springboard to discuss manuals in general.

No video review this week, although we do have our next five(!) reviews planned. You can look forward to our video reviews starting up again from Wednesday the 12th of May.

Finally, let’s have a little peek at the games topping the BGG Hotness and see what we think, eh?

Evil scientist simulator My Father’s Work tops the hotness this week, with its Kickstarter campaign at a hefty $445,000 and counting! For a closer look you should absolutely check out Tom explaining the game in our AwSHUX preview videos. We’re learning to expect zesty games like this from Renegade Game Studios, who often pair innovative games with very strong art design.
Matt Eklund’s Stationfall takes the #2 spot. It’s my first time seeing it and it reminds me of a tabletop Space Station 13? A highly thematic, highly chaotic game of hidden objectives and strong theming. Or maybe you could describe it as Nemesis without the aliens and with more of a sense of humour?
Next up is Lost Ruins of Arnak by CGE. Released last year, this game is turning out to have some real staying power! Not only is it still in the hotness, it’s currently listed as BGG’s 7th best family game and 103rd best game of all time.
Fourth is Dune: Imperium. Our team was broadly pretty cool on this box, and you can hear why in podcast #127. Like Arnak, this game combines deckbuilding with worker placement, and we felt it was no more and no less than the sum of its parts. (Except Matt, who thought it was not “Bad” but “Good”.)
And riding unexpectedly high in the hotness is Vivid Memories by Floodgate Games! Could this be a result of Tom explaining it so masterfully in his AwSHUX preview, and then again on podcast #138? Probably, yes.

Ava: Today in Ava’s seasonally-inspired attempts to leverage better moods for everyone, we’ve made it past the equinox! The halfway mark between the solstices, the light finally outweighing the dark (in the northern hemisphere) and the official end of that there winter (sorry southern hemisphere). Let’s get vernal! I’m deeply excited about this week on Shut Up & Sit Down, and I’m here to see if I can make you be the same. This Tuesday, me, Matt and Tom are taking a(n imaginary) trip to the Rockies with a game of Cascadia! This follow up (of sorts) to Calico promises a whole biosphere of tile-laying trickery, so you’ll probably get an intriguing array of grunts from your beloved stream-hosts. We might even be building streams, on stream! How deep does this rabbit-hole go? That depends how many points it’s worth. On Wednesday Tom has a review for you about a game that is hitting my own doormat sometime this week and I’m SO excited for the review and the game, because it’s probably the game I’ve had the most fun with this whoooole year. All I can tell you is that we’ve been in the company slack discussing the correct number of dice to roll in a game. Finally, on Friday, we’re going to be digging into two hefty historical games we’ve had time to try out online in the last few weeks. This week’s podcast is about Stroganov, recently departed from Kickstarter (but still available for pre-order) and Anno 1800, currently only available in German, but coming soon to a shore near you. One’s pretty, and the other’s problematic. One’s solid, the other we’re not so sure of. But I’m not going to spoil the conversation, partly because.. well.. we haven’t had it yet! Wooo. What a week to bring the season in with! How have you been heralding the spring or preparing for autumn, folks?

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