Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysium Quadrant

Podcast #85: Do you have any Fascist Fish?

Come on up! Make yourself at home in our twiggy podcast nest, where Paul and Quinns are ready to regurgitate some warmed-up board game knowledge into your waiting beak. This episode features the quietly fabulous tile-laying of Gunkimono. There’s Taj Mahal, the fourth in a fantastic series of beautiful Reiner Knizia remakes. We’ve had a first play of Trade on the Tigris, a new negotiation game from the designer of Space Cadets. Quinns talks about how GKR: Heavy Hitters is almost his favourite game of all time, if it could just be combined somehow with Critical Mass (see podcast #84). Also, like the rest of the internet, we’ve begun playing Root and can’t seem to stop. Finally, the pair chat about a reader mail asking when, and where, we’d consider playing board games for money. Full podcast transcript available here.

Think you’ve seen it all? THINK AGAIN.

Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant might have a silly name, but this hybrid sci-fi/negotiation/economic game is no joke. Whether you’re playing space-wasps, space-squids or space-school teachers, it’s going to demand every ounce of intelligence you can muster.

Have you got what it takes? There’s actually a good chance you don’t.

Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant is a singularly unique trading and negotiation game for 4-9 players. Over the course of the game, each race must trade and negotiate with the rest to acquire the resources necessary to fund their economy and allow it to produce goods for the next turn. While technically a competitive game, Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant has a uniquely cooperative feel during the trading phase as no race has the ability to thrive on its own. Trade well, and you’ll develop technologies and colonize planets to form a civilization that is the envy of the galaxy.

Who’s feeling cosy? In this final, festive podcast of 2017 Matt and Quinns tuck themselves beneath the Christmas tree before cutting it down for victory points. That was an oblique reference to the first game the pair discuss, the noble Photosynthesis. The boys then get far too excited about cubes and the possibilities thereof in the absurd game Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant. They then discuss Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, the new Games Workshop board game showcasing beefy people hitting one another with hammers. Finally, we read out a heartwarming love letter to the Play By Forum section of the SU&SD forum, and read out our last ever Folk Game of the Month, with a little discussion about depictions of mental health in fiction. Best wishes to everyone who has trouble at this time of year.

Quinns: GOOD MORNING. That noise you hear is me cranking the Games News press, pumping out hundreds of thousands of individual copies of this for all of you, our fine and beautiful readers.

Paul: And THAT noise you hear is me pedalling away on my bike, after hurling THIS, your very own copy, onto your doorstep. Look at me ride! A dog is chasing me! You look down at our headline…

Quinns: ANOTHER CLASSIC REBORN: Just like Tigris & Euphrates, Ra and Samurai, Reiner Knizia’s Through the Desert is back in a shinier, sexier incarnation, care of Z-Man Games. Will this be yet another refurbished classic that we fall dramatically in love with?

Cynthia: Date: June, 2017. Subject: Origins Game Fair.

Known in the United States, at least, as Gen Con’s quiet but friendly little sibling who lives in Columbus, Ohio. Also known for revealing major summer releases well in advance of Gen Con.

But what really goes on at Origins? Shut Up & Sit Down was curious, so I donned my best black hoodie and infiltrated the scene. Slipping past the bronze statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger that guards the convention center, I entered a bustling space filled with thousands of gamers. Fortunately I seemed to blend in, and… oh, alright. It was just a great con.

Locals and industry people were open and nice, it was easy to get into events or find gaming space at the last minute and, above all, the Columbus Convention Center is a quick walk from the North Market, where there’s all kinds of good, nutritious food like Vietnamese noodle bowls and donuts and gourmet ice cream.

Quinns: Good morning, Paul! Ready for Games News? How are you feeling today? Rambunctious? Meticulous? Corrugated?

Paul: No, no. Dispirited. Crenelated. Crepuscular. My prandicle is absquatulate.

Quinns: Good God, that’s our SEO ruined, for sure. Perhaps you’ll be emboldened by THIS wonderful news. SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE IS GETTING SWOLE because the first(?!) standalone expansion is ALMOST HERE

Paul: OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO EXPLODE

Quinns: HAVE YOU FINISHED THE ORIGINAL TEN CASES YET

Paul: NO

Quinns: ME EITHER

Podcast #85: Do you have any Fascist Fish?

Review – Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant

Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant

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