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hey everybody final thoughts time for

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Agri from designer Mike Keller who was

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one of the co designers of lagron ha

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game I did a run-through for four years

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ago that just absolutely floored me and

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Jen it was such an amazing brilliant

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economic style gyro and Mike is back

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with I mean I assume this is gonna be

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his masterpiece I mean there is so much

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here this game is so big in ideas in

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gameplay and just in physical board

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space it's absolutely ridiculous how

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much this gobbles up but that's because

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there is so much you can do in this game

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I would not say that the board the

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brilliantly lovely Illustrated board

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from michael Menzel oh my gosh is such a

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one of the nicest boards of the year

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uh-huh is chock full of stuff but it

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needs me because there's so much you can

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do this game is at its heart a sandbox

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game there's a million things you want

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to do there's a million different ways

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to do every one of those things you want

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to do and success at this game is all

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gonna be about who is best at navigating

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all the crazy circuitous routes to get

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done what you need to get done now I

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have actually in the past talked about

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how gen I are generally not big fans of

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sandbox games but I feel like I should

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probably explain myself a little bit

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more here um and I'll put my laptop away

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because I'm not actually using this

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right now regardless so a sandbox game

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like say caverna that just says you know

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what sit down and do whatever you want

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come up with a strategy and see if you

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can figure out how to do it will give

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you a million different tools to

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complete whatever strategy you want but

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it's up to you to come up with it that

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something doesn't sit well with me and

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Jen the thing that's so sharp about this

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is there is so much variable set up the

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way the river gets populated every time

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you play with such a radically different

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assortment of notables who will give you

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access to really cool gamebreaking

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powers that you'll really push you in

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different directions and make your

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experience every time you play you're

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gonna go so so differently um is such a

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big big deal but then on top of that

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these independent agents the merchant

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and the Builder the way they just move

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around with a die roll and they end up

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creating all these you know

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unpredictable opportunities you think

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okay I know how I'm gonna do this I'm

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gonna do this then this and this well

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got the mover just moved over there the

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Builder if I use him because I'll be

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able to piggyback off of that I won't be

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quite as efficient but that means I save

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an action so I can do this other thing

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this game just makes your brain explode

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with calculable probability paths of

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what is the smartest way to get stuff

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done because unlike say well I mentioned

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auricular career so I'll say Greek law

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unlike a really really tight sharp razor

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thin margin worker placement game like

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Agricola where you know what there is

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you know what you do and if you can't

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get this one thing your whole plan falls

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apart oh no now I gotta go and find some

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other way to do that's never gonna

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happen to you in this game because

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there's a million different get what you

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need to do are you gonna chase upgrades

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given you are you gonna chase notary's

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to get away you need to do are you gonna

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piggyback off the actions of other

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players to get you to do well the things

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I am so impressed by in here is the

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amount of player interaction so much

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interaction that is cool and positive as

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opposed to oh look at ways I can destroy

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you and steal all your stuff so many

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opportunities to piggyback off of other

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players oh are you converting all your

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wood into lumber all I think I'll

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piggyback off that too you'll get a

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benefit I'll get a benefit I scratch

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your back you scratch mine oh I really

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need to go there's your guy there well

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I'll tell you what I'll just go on ahead

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and bump him and here's a little bit of

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favor for you that favor is really gonna

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help you down the road um really

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wonderful beautiful gameplay in that

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regard you know and so it becomes your

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players just become your your opponents

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I should say become another cog in the

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beautiful clockwork machine you're

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trying to build from round to round to

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figure out how to achieve your goals

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those goals you know chosen from several

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that were set out for you as part of set

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up I'm really impressed by this game it

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is it's a beautiful production the you

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know that the big emperor's palace it

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didn't have to be a nice plane you know

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a rising plane with all the pieces that

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have the little cut so they all still

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align I say could've just been a flat

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thing and you put some cubes on ah but

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you know because the board is so big I I

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can imagine they did that because

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players at the other table and I'll be

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able to see it so they had to kind of

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raise it up because the game is so big I

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just think it looks really nice it's a

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very very evocative you know the way the

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Emperor

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it's on high on his throne of looking

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down on everybody it helps the

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atmosphere of the game that's it I will

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say I know a lot of people complain

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about the Emperor's Palace um that it's

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a bit too rickety and fiddly I'll be

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honest to us we didn't notice any

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problems with you know accidentally

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bumping the table anything falling over

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but there is one thing if you're kind of

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butters fingery and you're trying to go

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and pick up your thing you might

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inadvertently knock over somebody else's

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pieces and that can be kind of obnoxious

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because oh wait did I what work was I on

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this line or this line that is kind of a

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problem well I love the presentation I

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just wish that instead of these kind of

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long skinny pieces you put in there they

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were just little short squat pieces just

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so they wouldn't fall over if I

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accidentally bumped them with the with

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my shirt sleeve or something like that a

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minor complaint in what is otherwise a

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really lovely presentation style but

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getting back to the gameplay which is

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really what makes this game special it's

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it's again that wide open there are a

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million different ways you could do

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stuff but every time you decide how am I

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going to go about achieving this goal

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you're denying yourself the opportunity

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to do other things and balancing all

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that stuff is just it's an incredible

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fun and wonderfully interactive puzzle

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bhangra and that's it folks thanks for

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watching hope you have a very very nice

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day talk to there so long goodbye