Auztralia in about 3 minutes (and expansions in a few more)

[@3MBG]

A couple of notes from me. If you could click on the gamefound link for castles of burgundy, that helps the channel out. t2m.io/CoB1 The subtitles are incomplete and haven't been edited because you tube's subtitle editor thing has been busted for me the last day or so, will go back and edit it later. The bit about the mythos player needing to use all of one stack is incorrect, they can use other stacks once the stacks are the same size.

[@3MBG]

As for the game, it's a bizarre one but oddly quite fun. It's still very much a train game, but with wargamey and thematic elements baked in. A true hybrid of styles and I do like it for that, and for being just different to anything else i've played.

[@RacingDamon]

Oh man I am already trying so hard not to buy this fancy Burgundy that will look beautiful on my shelf but I know I'll never play, and here you are tempting me!!

[@lachlanb3987]

As an Australian who is a big fan of your channel and wasn’t aware of this game, all I can say is…this pleases me greatly.

[@CarlosRodriguez-ez3ls]

Great review Jarrod! As a Martin Wallace fan, this game has always intrigued me and remains solidly on my wish list. Thx!

[@andrewshih110]

You mentioned how the design treats Australia as terra nullius, but I think it's worth noting the designer's words on the setting: "The colonization of Australia - the real colonization of Australia - was horribly brutal, much like the colonization of America. And nobody's going to play that. So you replace the indigenous people with monsters, and you can do it. This mixing of the real world and fantasy allows you to deal with things that you couldn't in a straightforward historical game." (This was on a Ludology podcast last year.) I don't think the designer meant that he was trying to model aboriginal genocide with a wink and a nod, but the fact that he thinks you can sidestep a historical atrocity by turning a group of people into monsters... well, it gives one pause.

[@3MBG]

"So you replace the indigenous people with monsters, and you can do it. " Jeez that sounds bad written down that way.

[@abruwer08]

Oof! Wouldn't a better way of integrating the Lovecraftian theme be one where the monsters spawn BECAUSE of the colonisation and the destruction of the natural world? I live in town here in South Africa that used to be right on the border of the old British Cape colonies. And we also have long history of white farmers stealing land and murdering the indigenous Khoi-san people. And boy let me tell you there are times that our town definitely feels like a Cthulhu-esc monster making people loosing their insanity because of the resultant inequality and societal collapse built on this history.

[@hanng1242]

@@abruwer08 The setting of AuZtralia is a sequel to "A Study in Emerald," also by Martin Wallace, based upon the Neil Gaiman's short story of the same name. The story takes place in the Victorian era but the Great Old One rose somewhere back in the middle ages, and rule the world (so it isn't really Queen Victoria, it's a monster named "Gloriana"). Holmes and Watson are rebels trying to re-establish human rule, and who kill a "noble" relative of the queen - a horrible mythos monster. Moriarty is a consulting detective trying to find them. The game is set around this time and combines deck-building, area control and social deduction. Players are secretly assigned a role of either a "loyalist" (to the mythos order) or a "restorationist" (trying to restore human control). The latter are trying to assassinate the rulers of Europe - all of which are monsters, and the former are trying to prevent this and expose the restorationists. AuZtralia takes place in the early 20th Century, after the restorationists have won and the Old Ones have been driven back to Australia - a continent that the Old Ones made off-limits to humans while they were in charge. Humanity doesn't know this, and so encounter the Old Ones and their minions when the arrive in Australia to start colonizing the continent, where the Old Ones are making their last stand.

[@abruwer08]

@@hanng1242 Interesting! Thanks.

[@gospelofrye6881]

No no, he's not turning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into monsters! He's ERASING them and REPLACING them with monsters.... hmn that's not much better either.

[@cardboardconflicts]

My main gaming partner is into lovecraftian horror stuff. We play a lot of wargames and always looking to branch out. He is really interested in this one. Probably more than me, but I do like the combinations of different things going on here for sure.

[@algathrac2304]

At the end you could have mentioned Anno 1800 too. The way you use your cubes/workers, pay for them (shift end) and take them back (festivals) very much reminds me of it.

[@3MBG]

Anno 1800 is still on my unplayed shelf

[@algathrac2304]

@@3MBG Give it a try! 😊 It‘s good at all playercounts and my wife likes it a lot. Sadly the game doesn‘t look very welcoming, the components are „meh“ and setup is quite fiddly without a proper storage solution.

[@LameryLame]

You should make a tierlist of the top 100 games on BGG

[@3MBG]

I've not played a surprising number of them, like 20 or so

[@Paul-ro6py]

Have often wondered what this game was all about. Not for me, but does look like I'd play.

[@ozzyperez3190]

Love ur channel 💯❤️

[@MrTroxel]

This looks interesting but I'd want a veteran of the game to play with me for my first 2-3 games

[@3MBG]

Its surprisingly not as heavy as it looks when you play it. The actions are all very straight forward. The main tricky thing is the monsters

[@Captn_Grumpy]

Wait a minute! You get to destroy Perth with rambling insanity causing death machines and you say it isnt required gaming? I call shananigans! I missed a good deal on the original box some time ago as I didnt know anything about the game, since saw some reviews and been waiting for a similar deal. It does seem to be one of those games that has a fairly consistent level of interest (albeit towards the lower end but it doesnt drop off the radar). Even non-gamers are intrigued when told "well, its early 20th century colonial british fighting lovecraftian monsters in Australia with railways, resources and guns (and you can watch melb or syd get crushed)", their eyes glaze over as their mind isnt able to take in the concepts :D

[@wishmeheaven]

Awesome overview. How come you haven't recommended "Dawn of Zeds" in the end..?

[@3MBG]

The games are quite different. This is mostly multiplayer, cthulhu and network building, while DOTZ is tower defence, solo and zombies. I don't see much in common between the two at all.

[@wishmeheaven]

@@3MBG oh right. I saw it very late at night and got confused. Nothing in common between those games... Or just maybe... If you treat Auztralia as... Rails defense?! 🤔

[@ramyahoo]

Not really having troops on the board killed it for me...there's also a very limited amount of time to do much.

[@3MBG]

The troops thing, sure, its a train game. The time thing though, that's a core part of the game. We've cleared the board of cthulhu monsters before time ran out a bunch though

[@ramyahoo]

@@3MBG I only play board games solo, so perhaps it's easier to clear the board coordinating with other people.

[@3MBG]

Ah, the tasmania board is probably the way to go then, its made for 2 players, you and the AI cthulhu

[@MassDefibrillator]

To be fair, the designer, while British in birth, has been living in Australia for quite some time now. Not sure if he's a citizen or not.

[@3MBG]

I believe he was living in NZ while making this game

[@p0ck3tp3ar]

Do you have any interest in making a video about your favorite dungeon crawlers? I think that would be very interesting.

[@3MBG]

I'm quite out of touch with dungeon crawlers to be honest. The last one i really played was gloomhaven about 3 years ago

[@p0ck3tp3ar]

@@3MBG Aw, that is disappointing, I was eager to see your insightful input :) Can't win em'all I guess!

[@3MBG]

Yeah, my main group that used to play dungeon crawlers has been on a D&D bender for the last few years. So instead of say gloomhaven, descent and imperial assault, which we played a lot before hand. Its all D&D atm. My other groups are more about one-off games too.

[@p0ck3tp3ar]

@@3MBG Ah that makes sense. Thanks for the info!

[@UnimatrixOne]

Does it work well for Two players?

[@3MBG]

Kinda, but i think the tasmania map in the expansion is better for that

[@UnimatrixOne]

@@3MBG ok, thx :)

[@ianamortensen3034]

Automatic subtitles are translating "Aotearoa" to "airterror"....

[@3MBG]

Thanks for the reminder, if you check the pinned comment, when i uploaded the video the subtitle thing wasn't working at all. I'll fix them up

[@3MBG]

And done!

[@ianamortensen3034]

@@3MBG Whoops - sorry!

[@3MBG]

Nah, thanks for the reminder, it had totally slipped my mind and needed to be fixed up.

[@trashmyego]

Such lazy theming. Knowing the design history of this game makes it even worse and unplayable. Big ew.

[@3MBG]

I assume you watched the vid and noticed me call that out?

[@trashmyego]

@@3MBG Yup. Still a disgusting game where the designer wanted to gamify the colonization. Realized it would not be received well, and instead of figuring out a theme that'd work for the mechanics, turned the natives into monsters to excuse the genocide. It goes well beyond just lazy use of the Cthulhu mythos, but the entire setting.