Back Chat (Top 10 Kickstarter Board Games) Ep5 feat. Everdell, Gift of Tulips, Night Market & More!

Welcome to our new for 2021 Kickstarter / Crowdfunding series where we talk with no authority about all of the games we may or may not spend all of our money on each fortnight (or two weeks as they say elsewhere in the world....!)

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Introduction
02:45 NUMBER 10
04:44 NUMBER 9
07:30 NUMBER 8
10:33 NUMBER 7
14:33 NUMBER 6
18:15 NUMBER 5
20:13 NUMBER 4
22:07 NUMBER 3
25:14 NUMBER 2
28:31 NUMBER 1
33:21 Wrap Up

Links of all evaluated (Alphabetical order)

Thanks for stopping by to watch Back Chat! We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
Are you #teamthinker or #teamthemer? ❤🏳️‍🌈🇦🇺

[ThinkerThemer]

Eternal Palace somehow fell between the episode cracks!! An addendum to this episode, we backed that too Emperor's Tier deluxe edition 💸💸 😎💸💸 Thank you to Aaron in the comments for pointing this out!!

[horrayhstudios]

Hi Amy and Maggie, I'm Rayne the creator of Hojo Pojo. Thank you so much for having me in your top 10 list for the fortnight! It's really really encouraging, especially as a first-time designer. And yes, Hojo Pojo is a play on Hot Pot, so glad you got that! 😂 Can't wait to find out what you both think about the gameplay!

[kritisharma]

Another great review you guys! You guys are so cute. I have backed everything from your top 10 minus three sisters and meeples vs monsters. I didn’t know about hit the silk (going to check that out now). Great ratings, pretty accurate. My ratings were similar to Maggie’s 🙈 (I play this game in my head that what will you both rate, last time mine were close to Amy’s. Dang, I still don’t know if I’m #teamthinker or #teamthemer 🙄).
Great job ladies. I was also intrigued by eternal palace, seems like an interesting campaign. 😊

[tylert.]

So happy that you two lovely humans are bringing consciousness to female designers.
So glad more games are being designed by female bodied people.

[philbarnett]

Great video... again :)
Hit the Silk looks interesting... going to back now (not sure to thank you or not LOL)
Everdell Complete Collection is a 12/10 for me :)

[Sebastian-rtqf]

Over 70! incoming!? Please, please extend the landing strip. But I am totally on board... A little less, just around 50 incoming.  
You can add number 8 to that as well. But to aid Maggie's case, she can play it solo and even as a 0 player. I have backed 7 as well, but the more time passes by, the more doubt I have. Keep thinking it's more a party game. Number 6, Caper Europe, was an instant back. Been looking out for this one for over a year. You know that immersive art like this needs to be added to the collection. Not backing Gift of Tulips, looks nice though, but just mentioning i used to live near that flower market in Amsterdam. Still looking into Night Market. Feel it's quite expensive. And number 1 is a no-brainer. Everdell is in my top 5 of all time. But this pledge is def. for you. With the Complete Collection you will have a steal!!! You even get all the legendary cards from the previous collectors editions. It will be long wait though. Thanks for his video again... and the plushie galore. I see the disco Mic works fine now ;-).

[dahakhamoontouched]

Sorry guys, I had a long comment all typed out and tabbed away, came back and it was gone. :( Such a good top ten this time, so many hits! Hurrah for your first 10/10! And I agree, Maggie, squishy berry tokens are the BEST.
PS that mic is hypnotic...

[FrancoisLandryCorbin]

Awesome format. I always like listening to you two and why you gave your ratings. Keep up the good work!

On my side I backed Everdell Complete Collection since it was exactly what I was waiting for to jump in this game.

[ryangallagher]

Another great video. I'm in the same boat as you with Everdell. I'm very excited to finally try it and to get the all-in for such a great price.

We're huge fans of Fleet the Dice Game, and we've been absolutely loving Three Sisters (I made a make-shift PnP because I was too excited to wait). It feels like an evolution of Fleet, but at the same time it doesn't replace it. It's heavier and thinkier, and something that won't click until your second or third play. We prefer it to Fleet, but will still keep Fleet for those times we want a lighter experience.

I'm very excited for Hadrian's Wall. It sounds like it will be a Paladins-weight flip and write, which I think will be right up my alley. Hopefully you can do a video for it when it releases!

[flamtzer]

Just to comment as the video starts, what a beautiful sight, camera quality, the COLOR, the plushies, YOU TWO... Really cool setup!

[BoardGameGran]

I backed Gift of Tulips, how wonderful it was an all female team. I also backed Everdell. Still devo I missed the deluxe edition of that.

[ag]

I see you have robinson crusoe on your shelf behind you. could you please make a video about that game at some point? and maybe also a video about the theme "island". I know it sounds weird, but my favorite theme is being stranded on an island or something along those lines, so I would love to hear your top 5 island related games.

[koklead]

What a beautiful mic! Where can one purchase it?

[gustavosalazar]

Hello Amy and Maggie, between you and Alex from BoardGameCo, you have made me back Hit the Silk! I hope it gets founded.
Bye

[Luke_L]

Just a ton of options this past fortnight!
Hojo Pojo: I hadn't heard anything about it so thanks for mentioning it. I hope it funds! This definitely looks like a passion project by a new female designer that Kickstarter was meant for. And I do enjoy a good hot pot (altho it's been a while)! Also, your reaction to Maggie's comment about Chinese friends made me laugh out loud :D
Gloomier: I did play Gloom a few years ago, and it didn't go over well with the game group for whatever reason, so I'll probably pass.
So You've Been Eaten: I generally don't do solo or 2-player games, so I'll likely skip this. I do find it interesting that the game is partially inspired by Scott Almes' experience with Crohn's disease. He had a picture on his twitter feed of him getting an infusion which keeps the disease in remission. Hope he's doing well!
Hit the Silk: I almost never watch KS videos! I do like the game's theme, but negotiation in games is usually not something I enjoy, so this one is probably a pass.
Meeples & Monsters: I'm definitely backing this one. I'm a sucker for bag building and worker placement games, and a fantasy theme where you can upgrade your meeples works for me! I'm glad there's only one pledge level because I really didn't like how AEG handled the Dead Reckoning kickstarter. But AEG tends to put out quality games.
Gift of Tulips: I'm currently in for $1. I generally avoid kickstarting filler games, but both the theme and gifting mechanism are different. Plus it's very unusual to see an all-female team. Amy, were you questioning Maggie's knowledge of the setting/theme (Amsterdam)!? :D
Three Sisters: I'm definitely in! The theme is unusual, and I'd like to learn more about it. The previews for the game all seem quite positive! 
Night Market: I'm in after watching your preview (thanks? :P). But I'm not sure if I'll go with the all-in pledge. I'm trying to stick to a budget. The deluxe is $40 cheaper, and I could get Gift of Tulips and Hojo Pojo for that. But all the mini-expansions do seem fun!
Everdell.... I'm almost certainly backing it, so I guess all that talk about sticking with a budget was nonsense :)I actually backed the first two Everdell campaigns and sold both. I really liked the forest critter theme, but the game had this bit of randomness that didn't sit well with me. Pearlbrook didn't help with the competition for higher-value goals. But it sounds like the Newleaf expansion might give more options that help alleviate issues I had with the game. Jumping back in now is a really good deal with the complete collection. However, I'm beginning to really dislike huge box sizes. Maybe I'll end up trading the huge complete collection for the base game and just get the Newleaf expansion at retail.
Eternal Palace: I'm on the fence with this one. I've played a couple of Alley Cat games (Dice Hospital and Dino World), and they were decent, but not good enough to stay in my collection. On the other hand, I think this is the first big game from the designer of Sprawlopolis, so that's intriguing. One thing I like about Alley Cat is that they don't rely on FOMO because you'll be able to get the game later even with the deluxe components. So that makes me want to support them. But my wallet is hurting!

Other games that you evaluated that I'm considering:
Monuments: I'm a sucker for civilization-building games. But I don't know much about the company or designer, so it's a bit of a question mark for me. I suspect it won't make the cut.
Moonshell: Another game from a first-time, female designer - Calli Wright. She's actually a content creator as well (along with Michael Wright, they host the Unfiltered Gamer youtube channel), so I'm currently supporting the project. However, this looks like more of a pure abstract puzzle game which generally is not my type of game. I backed it when it hadn't funded, but now that it's over the funding goal, it doesn't really need my help. Well, there are still stretch goals to achieve. Hmm....
Silver Grove: Another forest critter worker placement game. I recently backed Creature Comforts, and they seem to fill the same niche. I can probably skip this one.
Stellaris: Talk about blowing the budget. My main game group also plays PC games (although I've definitely cut back). Stellaris is a 4X sci-fi game, and I tend to love those. I actually haven't played the PC game, so that's not really a factor here. Academy Games tends to put out solid games, so that's a positive for the project. But they have yet to post any previews from content creators, so that's a red flag for me. However, I messaged Academy Games, and they said previews should be coming this week. Hopefully I can make more of an informed decision after seeing those previews.
Uranus!: Another sci-fi game, and I believe a relatively new female designer, and I think all-female team? The game looks a bit mathy which is right up my alley! But it is co-op, so it's not for everyone :D
Valeria Darksworn: I've heard good things about Valeria Card Kingdoms, but never got around to trying it out. I guess it has the Space Base mechanism that I really enjoy. Darksworn is the co-op expansion, so that's always a plus for me. I'll probably just get the base and co-op expansion. I don't need the Big Box :)

Yikes, way too long!
Hope you two are having a great start to your week! Talk to you later! :D

[Keindzjim]

Caper Europe sounds great, looking forward to this one! What is the difference between Gloomier and Gloom?

[karenpatterson]

Im definitely keen to research more about 3 sisters, especially as I'm 1 of 3 sisters. The colourful artwork looks beautiful. Im still undecided about Everdell. I see it listed constantly in people's top 10 lists, but still not knowledgeable about the mechanisms of game to know whether or not it would be appealing to me. This kickstarter all-in collection looks very appealing if one was starting to collect the game.

[caroloconnor]

You two are just delightful together! I am on the fence with Everdell. It is a great value, but I'm not sure that I need everything. (But what if I do?) The box is SO big. I measured and it would take up almost an entire shelf of our limited storage. I'm trying to make myself wait for others to offload their base game, but the complete collection is so tempting! Three Sisters also looks great. Hojo Pojo is a cute game I hadn't heard of, so I like that you include some lesser-known projects, as well.

[achang]

Another great video. I really like Everdell. I missed the original Kickstarter so picked up the base game at retail and then backed all the other expansions on Kickstarter. The all in price is great, but I’m disappointed they didn’t allow backers who have some things (but not everything) a better deal. In order to get the wooden Evertree, metal coins and other things I am missing plus the new expansions and big box, it is going to cost me more than the price of the All in Pledge. It basically means I’m “forced” to buy everything again if I want to save some money. I’m now undecided on the campaign as I would have effectively paid close to $700 for Everdell and receive the equivalent of one and half All in Pledges. I guess I need to find someone to sell my old copies to, or gift it to someone.

[Cissewis]

Awesome episode as always, thanks again Maggy and Amy! And congratulations with the 4K subscribers!

I was wondering what your culling proces is like? I can imagine you have huge collection with all these games coming in 😄 Do you cull as much games as are coming in? And do you resell them on Gumtree or some similar site?

Cheers and have a great week! Thanks again! Cis