The UK Games Expo will be hitting the Birmingham NEC between Friday 31 May and Sunday 2 Jun 2024 and to say the boy from PHC are excited is an understatement. In this episode we go through the board games and table top roleplaying games that we are most excited to see, think about our annual miniature painting competition, and talk about the food we plan to eat!

Come see us live on Sunday in Piazza 4 - Dice room at 11am. https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/events/1418-polyhedron-collider-uk-games-expo-live-podcast/ 

Check out the full geeklist at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328923/most-anticipated-games-of-the-uk-games-expo-2024 

Find out more about the UK Games Expo at https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

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Beast is a cunning game of escape, survival, and of course, hunting.  No matter which side of the table you are on, you will, at turns feel like everything is well within your control and going according to plan, or, moments later, feel a terrible injustice at how unfair Beast is.

Beast isn’t a fair game.  It isn’t equal and balanced, but that is kind of the whole point of it.  Balance and power in this game shift continually, ebbing and flowing as cunning and guesswork pave the way for knowledge and victory.

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Welcome to the glorious pastel Salton Sea.  On the border of California and Mexico, it is here that we shall revolutionise the energy industry by tapping into all the geothermal energy stored within our planet, extracting gallons of brine, which will be converted into lithium.  In short, we will solve the energy crisis and play a bloody good, if not utterly gruelling, board game all at the same time.

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The boys from the Collider waste little time in the latest episode of the Collider Cast and get straight to business discussing the clever but hideously ugly Carpe Diem by Stefan Feld on which both Andy and Rory agree upon, for a change. Steve talks us through the deeply satisfying, if not mentally taxing and beautifully pastel Salton Sea from Devir Games. Sid and Rory chime in with their two cents of their experience of that and Sea, Salt and Paper that they'd enjoyed on a work day bunk at the Games Den.

The episode wraps with some burning questions from the bag bag, such as Bacon of Sausage Sarnie.

Why not buy a board game from our sponsors Kienda: kienda.co.uk/polyhedroncollider

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Don’t be fooled by the cutesy artwork.  Yes, that is an adorable griffon on a very lovely powder pink background, but focus, or this game will kick you where it hurts.  The Vale of Eternity is a grandiose name for this little tableau builder, and I don’t think there is a better example of “don’t judge a game by its box cover”...or card art…or components…or name even.

Vale of Eternity is pulling you in a lot of directions, and perhaps it doesn’t know what type of game it wants to be or what audience it is for (yes, I’m suggesting that this game is having an existential crisis), but don’t let that distract or detract: this game is nasty.  I mean, it’s just plain mean.  But it is also rather good.

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We are over a quarter of the way through the year, so that means Rory and Steve, are a quarter of the way through their BGG Top 100 challenge, so we look back at the current highlights and lowlights and of course talk about some of the best board games currently playable.

But its not all about looking back as we go into detail about card drafting game Vale of Eternity, a game that’s much deeper than it looks, and Apiary, a Euro-style game themed around bees in space. We then dip into the mailbag for chat about the themes we are fed up of.

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Join the PhC boys for Episode 145 as Andy discovers his lucky totem that allows him to make it to and from Airecon without his car breaking down. Steve accedentally creates what is sure to be the best fabric softener in the history of fabric softners. Sid invents a new word #Begrumble, and Rory awards himself the board game equivalent of the Victoria Cross for playing his least favourite game on the BGG Top 100.

They also discuss the highlights and the further highlights of Airecon, which unsurprisingly consists of food, beer, and board games (in that order), including: a chaotic and hilarious game of Heat from Days of Wonder, the light and delightful "revesres action-programming" Faraway from Catch Up Games/Hachette, and challenging, almost dinner-reservation-missing, Side Quest Nemesis from Board & Dice.

A quick dip into the mail bag reveals thier most hated "popular" game and an announcement that if you are not already following Polyhedron Collider onInstagram, now might be a good time to do so as there is an upcoming competion supported by show sponsor Kienda!

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Space.  The final frontier.  These are the voyages of the Queen Bee ship. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new sources of pollen and fibre, and to carve honey runes into the side of the vessel.  To find pollen where no bee has before.

So, the themes (plural) are a bit of an odd mix in Apiary…and by odd obviously, I mean utterly bonkers, but once you just settle in and accept it, what lies beneath is an enjoyable, middleweight worker placement game which has a few interesting twists and turns and a pretty short and snappy playtime.

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