Hi! It’s Ryan from Nights Around a Table, and you’re not going to believe this, but one of my backers on Patreon has pulled through for me again, and has sent me a game to play! How wonderful! i gotta tell you: i have the greatest Patreon backers on the planet, and this game, The Taverns of Tiefenthal, comes to me, uh, courtesy of BigDeuce72 – AKA “Don” – who is a regular on the Discord server, and if you want to meet some of the nicest, finest folks you’ll ever have the pleasure of running into, join me on the Discord server. They’re there all the time, and now they’re arranging games with each other! So if you want somebody to play with online, that’s something they’re regularly doing in, like, a game scheduling channel. You’ll be able to play with BigDeuce72 – AKA “Don” – and all the rest. Now, if you’re following along, you might recall that another of my patrons, DMExplains sent me a couple of games as well: Pulsar 2849, and Res Arcana, which we adore. And what’s really cool about this is that those folks like the channel, i think, because they like what i’m doing, and and maybe because we have similar tastes in games? It’s always nice when the host likes the same kind of stuff you do. So what’s cool about this is that this comes courtesy of Don, and recommended by Don. He’s got this on his own game table. He plays it with his family, and he says it’s great! And the super coolest thing of all is that when i was recently at the game store, feeling a little bit like Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, having found a dollar, and ready to spend it on a game – one game – and really stewing over which one i should get, this actually made the short list! i was looking it up and down thinking “Hmm! That’s a pretty good idea!” But i went with something else instead that i’ll talk to you about in another video. However, isn’t that cool that this is one that i was already considering on my own? The Taverns of Tiefenthal which is, i’m assuming… “Schmidt…” you know… all the clues are coming together. It might be German. i don’t want to alarm anybody: this might be a German game. Um… what do i know about it? Uh… precious little, except what BigDeuce72 tells me. Uh… it’s a game where you’re managing a medieval tavern, and one of the reasons that i think it made the short list but didn’t quite make the even shorter list – the one game list of the game i was going to buy – is because the theme… i get confused. There are a bunch of different games with the same theme, and if you’re not interested in one, but another game has a similar theme, you might overlook it. So what’s going on in my head the entire time when i’m looking at The Taverns of Tiefenthal is The Red Dragon Inn, which is a game that i’ve looked at a big pile of times. There are a boatload of expansions, and that’s possibly one of the reasons why it’s kind of turning me off? Because i don’t really like games that look like they were made to just sell a million expansions. So The Red Dragon… i think it’s called The Red Dragon Inn? Yeah… i’ll throw up the graphic in the corner… uh… sort of is a similar theme to this one, which is why this one i kind of went “Nyeah… i don’t know. i don’t know.” But – you know – BigDeuce72 says it’s awesome! The other interesting thing here is it says it includes four expansions, and i haven’t quite figured this out yet: is this because… it’s one of two things… is this because the developer thought “Oh crumbs – we’ve made the game too complicated, so we should split out a few of these feature sets into modules so we don’t overwhelm new players when they crack the thing open”? Or is this just, like, a marketing thing where they’re trying to make the game look more attractive? It’s like “Look! You don’t even need to buy the expansions – they’re in there!” So i asked, uh, BigDeuce72 about it, and he said that those expansions aren’t even available separately. They’re… they’re… you know. They come standard in the box. Uh, so it could be the latter. It could be a marketing thing. But let’s let’s take a look! Let’s open it up! (utter, devastating silence) Nary a box fart. Friends… can we talk about box farts just for a moment? If you watch previous unboxing videos, you might be tired of this plea already, but listen: i’m making it from the heart. If i could afford to license In the Arms of the Angels by Sarah McLachlan and have it playing and slow pan across these board games, i would, because here’s the deal: i have made repeated pleas for you. If you have boxes that make dirty noises when you open them, i want to know about it. i want you to film that and send me the video – give me permission to use it – and i will put it in a most glorious box fart compilation. Please! Give generously! Let me… because it’ll make a pretty cool video. Maybe. i don’t know. i haven’t made it yet, but i’m sure it’ll be… entertaining as all heck. Uh… but if you’ve got one, send it, and then… let me see. Here is the… i think this is the very first North Star game i’ve ever… that has ever graced my collection. Uh… “In the the small village of Tiefenthal…” and i think the game’s… the name’s different in German. It’s “Tiefen,” and “Thal” are two different words, and it strikes me that it might be a play on words in German? If you speak German… i know i’ve got at least one backer on Patreon who does… uh, let me know what, uh, what “Tief” and “Thal” means in German. Uh… right, then. Lots of pictures in an instruction booklet. Lots of examples. Um… BigDeuce72 – AKA “Don” – says this one is no problem. Slap it on the table. He said don’t even bother with not incorporating the modules. He says put all four of them in and have at it. Go nuts, because it won’t be hard, he says. So it’s not a difficult game at all. It’s a dice worker placement game, so that’s a game where – oh! Here’s a little write-up on the modules. “Modules: Module 2, Module 3…” you know, a couple of extra supplementary pages about those modules. It’s a dice worker placement game, and if you’ve never played one, dice worker placements are among my most favourite game styles of all time. That’s where you have… there’s a gnat flying around my head. Almost went up my nose. That’d be good for the blooper reel. You have a bunch of dice, and you roll them, and you generally have worker placement spots where everyone’s vying to do a thing, and depending on which pips you roll, you get to do the thing. But what’s neat about this is i’m a real sucker… if you if you watch my, uh, Top 5 Things i Love About Board Games video, i love games that puzzle piece together, and look at this: we’ve got literal puzzle nubs! There’s a word for “puzzle nub,” i’m sure of it. It’s a weird one, and it’ll probably get you a lot of points in Scrabble. If you know the word for puzzle nub, uh, please let me know in the comments. So it’s got a little puzzle nub! So these… these… these game pieces, or the board pieces, actually snap together depending on what’s going on in the tavern – the medieval tavern that you’re managing. That’s pretty neat! So some of these customers, look… oh. UH-oh. Oh dear. Oh… that nub came clean off! Was that supposed to? i think maybe it was supposed to? Maybe they used… okay. What i’m hoping is they use the same die for multiple sections, and it’s okay that that thing came off, because look: we can see, like, a little… there’s a little… line across there, so i think that’s supposed to pop right off. i hope. We’ll see as we dig in deeper. Whew! i hope i didn’t wreck the game! Aaand i’ll pop one more of these out. i’ll give a little, uh… a little bit of a close-up… there – you know – close-up camera, so he looks like he’s… he or she? Is that a lady dwarf, or a male dwarf? i don’t even know! Are there fantasy creatures in this? i can’t tell! i think it’s all people. But i’ll throw him/her up there, and this one… right. Okay. Back to it. So lots and lots of card to punch out… stack about that thick… uh, and it’s got customers…. You can tell these customers are going to be here a while, because they puzzle piece into the table. So, yeah… there’s, i think, the same die that’s been used to cut this, but i’m not sure why those nubs pop right up, and am i supposed to save this? i’m… not i’m not sure. hopefully not. Aaaand… a… this looks like a common board, i’m guessing, because it’s a unique piece. Now i can’t tell if everybody gets their own… their own pub that they’re managing, or if we’re all managing the same pub? Whoa! Look at… oh. i just saw something cool, and i’ll show you in a second. Alright: back to this. Looks like a common board. Bits that pop out. Very small. i’m definitely supposed to keep this. And i hope i was supposed to pop it out. i’m not sure. And… a couple of… looks like… i’m going to guess these are menu slash maybe mission cards or scoring cards? It’s cool. It’s all very thematic, and i love thematic games! So these are shaped like little books. They’re adorable. i’ll throw them one on the old close-up cameroo, so you can see some of the symbology in the game. Alright! Nice little crowns… crowns are points, maybe? Maybe? i don’t even know. i don’t know. If you played, you know, and you’re yelling at your computer screen right now. And the very last one… look: it’s got a lovely little… this must be – you know – something along the lines of a first player marker, i’m guessing. It’s a… beer stein. Uh-oh. i… i was… indelicate about popping it out. Now there’s a… a piece that i got to get out of there. Whatever. That’s boring. Here we go: smunch! Put it together. A little… cute little… cool! Little beer stein. That’s got to be first player token. i’m… gotta be! Come on that’s gotta be. And then there’s something similar over here, so if that’s first player token, i don’t know what this little moon thing is doin’. i… i gotta be a little bit more… the die did not exactly cut all the way through the cardboard. You know what? i’m going to leave that. i’m going to have to go at that with my… with my craft knife, but there’s a little another standee that… that hitches together. These are little little drinkypoos. Cute. Cute. i’ll throw a little drinkypoo on the old close-up cam. There: a little tiny drinkypoo. And these are little tiny… i hope it doesn’t matter what these say, because the writing on them is… look at my finger. It’s gigantic! the writing on them is itty-bitty! These… what are these? Contracts? These are bills, maybe, i guess, that the customers are paying? Tabs that they’re racking up? Little medieval bar boozers? i’m not even sure! And you’ve got these absolutely gigantic circles that are kind of… they’re reminding me of coasters. i bet they probably are! i’m sure. i’ll go a little limb on that. But what i saw out of the corner of my eye that i thought was really cool… i complain a lot about games that don’t have but very much attention paid to their inserts, but look at this: this is cool. So the… although it is the structure… i tried to wipe it… that’s a rat, by the way! It’s a little tiny rat on the box. Cute! Uh, and… (laughs) i tried to wipe this away! This is deliberately printed schmutz on the top of the box. So i complain a little bit about the well, but look at how gorgeous… they’ve actually – you know – graphically designed the inside, and when you turn it, it’s like the walls of the tabburn. Did i say “tabburn?” Did my computer just beep? There we go. Really cool. Really, really cool. And some tokens! i don’t know what they mean. Nothing too fancy there. A couple cubes, couple of disks, one for each player colour. They’re the primary colours plus green. And same with the dice… and white ones, which are probably acquired, or common dice. And they’re all wood. Aaaand a bunch of plastic baggies, and some cards. Great! Let’s get into those! (excited humming) i really like that i have that close-up cam now. That’s really exciting. i gotta thank Rahdo for that suggestion. Took a little while to set up, though. i’m not gonna lie. Alright, so the backs of these cards look like this. i’ll swipe this over and throw it up on the close-up camera. That’s what we’re looking at. And the fronts of these cards look like people… presumably customers, that you’re trying to please in your tavern business. And i read, i think on the back of the box, you’re trying to get better and better clientele into your… into your bar, and they’re presumably worth more points or give you more powers, so there’s that. That old barfly lady, and here’s somebody wearing purple, so they probably… they’re probably loaded. They probably tip really well. So that’s what’s in that deck. Uh… probably this next deck is gonna be more of the same, but we’ll see. It’s got the same backing, however… we’ve got a chair, and we’ve got somebody doing a thing. The artwork, i got to say, is pretty european. i mentioned in a game that i unboxed recently that the artwork looks pretty european, like Amiga 500 styles, where everything’s – you know – round and gradient. There’s just… i don’t know. There’s a… there’s a distinct european art style to certain things, and they all went to the same art school or something like that. And then the last deck – i haven’t mentioned, by the way, i think there’s probably about… if i were to gauge, i’m going to say 50 000 cards in these decks. And it looks like… oh! They’ve got the same backs here, so it’s going to be more of what’s going on in the other decks on this one. Rich people, richer people, people governing what you can do or what you get in your bar, and then these ones are unique: these ones with the blue backs. There’s a blue back – wow! Ah-ha ha! Because my… because my green screen is actually a blue screen, it’s a blue card, the the blue gets kind of washed out there. But it’s a… it’s a lovely little gradient of blue, and these are cards that looks like governs how those puzzle pieces get removed or put into your oh tavern. Oh, i do love puzzle piecing! Oh-ho-ho! That’s that’s making something in my in my brain tingle! i keep putting it upside down. There we go. Very cool! here’s one more i’ll throw up there. Schwoink! Very nice! That looks awesome, and i’m excited to learn it and play it, especially since, uh, you know – Don himself recommends it! Uh… have you played The Taverns of Tiefenthal? Do you like it? Do you not like it? i don’t know. Let me know in the comments below! i’m definitely going to play it, probably this weekend with my family, if it’s a recommended one for for families. You know – families. They like to play games about going to bars and drinking beer. You know, it’s a family game! It’s a family. It’s for families. So i’ll check that out, and i’ll play it, and i’ll probably get to doing, uh, a How to Play down the road for you, and maybe a Find the Fun afterwards! i know i haven’t done a Find the Fun in a little while. i’m getting back to it! It’s going to be great. i just painted myself into a bit of a corner, because every Find the Fun video, if you’ve seen them, ends with some kind of props joke, and if i’m out of props jokes, i don’t make Find the Fun videos. So if you’re wondering where they’ve gone, that’s what’s happening. i’m probably trying to brainstorm a funny joke for the end of it. But i’ve got a big queue of stuff that i want to make. Great! Thank you so much for watching this one, and we’ll see you in the next video! [Music – Board Game Boogie by Ryan Henson Creighton] Did you just watch that whole thing? Oh – hey! to 100% this video, click the badge to subscribe, and then click the bell to get notifications when i’ve got new stuff!