War With A Mate - Episode 56: Matemas

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

Join Andy and James as they relish the festive vibe by waxing lyrical about topics only tangentially related to The Campaign For North Africa, pass on Merry wishes, and discuss an upcoming project for the New Year.

ho ho ho it's war with a maintenance does that work yeah i'll go with it yeah well you're gonna have to because it's probably what i'm going to call this one okay or some sort of weird esoteric reference to something else going on in this episode i'll have to do some of them then this is war with a mate with me james me andy and this is the the christmas extravaganza which uh means we haven't played the game because we we don't have time to play the game right now yeah it's a busy festive season it is it's coming up to christmas we've got all sorts going on but we have managed to siphon off a little slice of time to make sure that you get your weekly dose of us even around this festive period i just really hope you're not listening to this when you should

be spending time with loved ones or playing with your toys put it on for the family actually that's a good idea let's pivot that round 180 play this in front of the whole family this is a perfect thing you know when christmas comes around and everyone's sort of full of food and they're all lethargic afterwards just stick this on instead of a nice christmas movie yeah because this will be coming out this should be around boxing day this it won't be it won't be ready for christmas this one christmas is on a thursday maybe chuck it on when you're hung over from new year's or something oh yeah that's a good idea i don't imagine many people will have this one on between christmas and new year but unless you're at work which which i am i'm working between christmas

yeah i guess a lot of people work between around christmas so are you working between christmas a new year no i had some time off so at the end of the year so lucky bastard yeah every place i've worked i need to schedule you need to like put your christmas holidays in quite far in advance and you only get like a select few days that you get to have assigned to you which means you get like a sort of two or three day window at best which means i've never really had that joyous moment of being off for a while for the the remainder of the year which you seem to nail every single year yeah you seem to be off from like halfway through december up until the end of the year yeah it's actually kind of because i should take more holiday and spread it out

yeah that's a good point do you actually do anything in the middle of the year or do you just save it all for the end to save it all or like go away for a week like we did yes but then not use the big war with a made company trip to budapest yeah paid for by ourselves and it was Well, you've got to spend money to make money. We certainly didn't make any money on the Budapest trip. Well, I didn't. I don't know what you were up to. I slipped away to make some deals. That just sounds really suspicious.

I was, when we were in Budapest, I was propositioned by a taxi driver who tried to sell me drugs on the way back to the hotel. That was confusing. The whole series of events was odd because it was quite late on. i'd went to that club which was not too far from the hotel and they had a rock night on which i was very excited to go to and i was coming back it was our last night there and they pulled up outside the hotel and i was ready to go in and this is like 4 a.m and he turns to me and he looks at me in the strangest way because he doesn't turn from the front i was in the back he doesn't turn from

the front and look between the driver and passenger seat instead he turns and looks at me between his seat and the door well it's better for doing crimes because it's narrow if it feels claustrophobic it's harder for the police to detect despite the fact he's turned so someone could lip read him through the window and then he and then he offers me what he says is that um would you like the good stuff and i was like this so euphemistic you've not narrowed down anything you could be propositioning anything at all and then he says cocaine and i go no no thank you i'm i would not be interested in that especially when i've just arrived back at my hotel room at 4 a.m i'm going to bed i've got a flight tomorrow i was up for a good 24 36 hours from that point i think if you'd done that journey

back which was really grim also coming down coming down from a drug uh intake that would be oh my god such a negative experience well the taxis in budapest we had a fun few experience with taxi drivers oh yes because there's also the one that cat called a girl and then looked at us like a and we were just sort of like no that's comfortable that's not we're not interested in this behavior and then another one who was like have you seen the scenic route because we were heading back it was like hot like and we were like we don't want to walk we'll get a taxi for like a 15 minute journey and then he was like oh no i'll show you the sights it'll only be like an extra half an hour yeah it's like no one gets in a taxi for that experience we were coming back from

because we'd spend a day at the zoo yeah which was a lot of fun if anyone's going to budapest anytime soon go to the zoo it's a great zoo it is great zoo a lot of fun a lot of animals the elephant there was a real standout the common gundy may be the best animal that we saw what a guy so much aura yeah we saw a jeb the desert rat yes we did actually we saw a desert rat which at the time i didn't know a whole lot about the desert rats i'd read like the first fifth of that book that i've now given you and i was like oh desert rat that was kind of all we knew yeah i'd uh yeah i'd had a good time at the zoo our friend did and you did but then our friend was just so beaten down by the heat that he popped back to the hotel we went to the room bar and

it was i can only describe the conditions as tropical they'd like had water spraying because there was a lot of greenery and stuff i guess also maybe to cool people down but it was hot enough that it just become like mist yeah so it went from just dry heat to jungle heat it just made it that much more humid the air becomes so thick yeah so we'd had like i think maybe two drinks at this room bar that we were gonna spend a long time at and we just decided it's far too hot our friend was gonna wait till it got a bit darker and meet us there yeah and this was like i think that particular day it was like 42 degrees celsius it was the hottest temperatures i've ever experienced so we were group aren't great with heat no we're not we're not i burn immediately

i had to constantly lather myself with i got like aerosolized um sun spray um so that was it was spf 50 and by some miracle and i guess over applying of that sun cream i managed to not get burned but that was so touch and go but we that's when we got back in the taxi and then the guy that's when he started offering to give us a tour of is it um heroes square or hill yeah i think it was here it's something like that one side and he was literally going to take us across the river up this like hill covered in trees with like a shrine at the top that overlooks budapest then down past like the palace and stuff and then loop around and cross the river again and it was like sounded like a quite well designed tour yeah but you sign up for a tour

you don't i guess maybe it is the kind of thing in a city that is so tourist oriented yeah because you know you wouldn't get that here in the uk you don't you don't go to a city in the uk hop in a taxi a black cab and then they're like do you want a tour of the city it's like no i don't know they just try to feel out whether you vote for reform or not yeah they just they drop very leading questions and it's usually quite an uncomfortable experience in a taxi here i don't think i've had many pleasant conversations with taxi drivers especially for some reason during the day i feel like the taxi conversations in the uk are more inflammatory during the daytime than they are at night maybe because at nighttime they're used to people being inebriated and

maybe a bit rowdy whereas during the daytime they're just happy to speak their mind regardless of how unpleasant that mind is there's a misogynistic comments there's racist comments just all around an unpleasant journey i've taken to now putting my headphones in when i get in taxis a lot of the time which unfortunately means sometimes i'm being rude to a polite person probably but i also don't really want to take the risk of engaging in a conversation where definitely be the default to be like i'm not gonna talk and then there's like a button if you're open to chatting you know what they need to bring back you know there's the screens between the from covid no well they came around um in covid again but you know the ones

from like black cabs yeah i'm thinking of like a limo i think that's what i'm thinking of i should be getting more limos is my that's today's common ground i should get more limos never got the appeal of a limo well i was watching die hard last night and there's um at the start of the film bruce willis gets in a limo and he sat in the front and i just thought like that's a very funny thing to do because the vibe of a limo obviously you make the use of the space but even then in the back it's like you you definitely need company in a limo for it to be fun yeah there might be nowhere lonelier than being one guy in a limo the loneliest man in the world it's not the guy who was on the uh international space station when it went around the earth it's actually someone

sat in the back of a limo isolated themselves in such a way that they're getting solo limo rides because the only time that is at all beneficial is when you step out the limo at the destination but if you step out by yourself it's like what the hell happened in there why is there not more people coming out well as long as people don't read into it too much then you look cool if you just get out and people are like oh this guy just got out his limo just solo but if they do think about what that journey must have been like it becomes a much more uncomfortable situation i've never been in a limo i don't think ever i don't think i have either i mean we're gonna get the war with a mate limo at some point oh yeah

we'll show up at a live event in a limo separate a limo each oh that's decadent i like it i think i'd probably be airdropped into a live event oh like the queen at the olympics yes that's it we would do a because i presume it'll be a stadium tour that we're gonna do next year we'll halo jump onto the stage so yeah we're gonna be sponsored by red bull do a felix drop oh yeah he is is he dead now am i right in thinking he died i don't not from that not from that no oh did he have a i think i think he died from some other accident that feels sort of it's sort of like steve irwin where it's like at that stage the only thing that's going to kill you is your career yeah it's too your life's too diluted with

high octane action for you to be killed in any other way yeah it's sort of uh you want to go out on your shield in that profession i feel that's probably a really dark like no you probably want to have a successful career and then die in like you bed surrounded by loved ones at age 90 but it doesn't feel like it tracks that way yeah i mean i certainly don't want to die during war with a mate no but but by the same merit of you know steve irwin's mantra if i die during a recording of an episode keep it keep it rolling we've got to keep the action going until it's finished the common ground section admittedly will be tough is that what you said yeah you don't think they released that footage today i certainly haven't gone looking for it but it feels like

would have drifted across my no no i don't think they've ever put it out there i think his his whole idea was always keep it rolling if something happens to me just keep the cameras going so we can document whatever this event is but then when he died his family understandably have went don't put this out there yeah no one wants to see well we certainly don't want people to see our loved one our family member killed by a stingray because i that must be grisly as well yeah i don't like the sound of that i occasionally come across these horrible like this is a great christmas talk i occasionally come across these like like the audio of that person who was attacked by a bear oh from the documentary where the guy watches it i think so yeah where he's like this

is too horrible for me to it's like where he's like you can't see this but you can watch me react to it react to it yeah stuff like that i i i don't like the i think i've mentioned this on the podcast before i think being eaten is just a terrible way to go it might be how i'm using the internet now all the internet's changed but i feel like there's a lot less risk of like finding that stuff now well you don't know it's like when we were at school it was like well it was constant horrific things being sent to each other well i'd say that was another thing that people were looking for it was the ecosystem of school where you'd be bluetoothing each other ringtones and sending each other videos of people being beheaded which is unfortunately

for some reason part of the subculture that we grew up in in the uk around that time which is insane i think it was internet at that time yeah it was still sort of wild west and build the like facebook highways and stuff yeah which whereas now i guess one area where that is still prevalent is apparently twitter which i've never i've never had a twitter i've never used twitter to any real extent occasionally i'll come across articles where i need to go on to twitter and it locks me out because i don't have an account and then sometimes on tiktok because i i admit unfortunately i do doom scroll through tiktok from time to time time to time being pretty much daily and sometimes on there you get flash banged with a horrible video yeah

usually around um some sort of big event i mean charlie kirk's death that's one that was just constantly being plastered all over tiktok so that's that's unfortunate what i've had it does also seem like the entire war in ukraine everyone involved was wearing a gopro that's another thing that entire war is just on the internet well that's a that's a crazy thing if you compare that to the North African campaign I guess let's get a touch of relevance here if you can

attach a GoPro to any group in the North African campaign who would you want to see that footage of again this is hoping that we don't see the sort of grisly detail but if you had to see a conflict unfold from their POV

which would that be? I think I'd want a lot of them. But I think an interesting perspective would be SAS. Yes, Long Range Desert Group. Yeah. I think just seeing how... I'd like to see how quick it actually translates in real time, like the repairs, how frequent they need to make the repairs,

just how all of that actually looks in the moment compared to... Also, if you were following the Long Range Desert Group, you just get, like, vistas, like, from June. A lot of it is just them driving through somewhere that is dangerous but visually beautiful. Yeah, as long as it's a clear day, you're going to see some incredible sights. So I guess you get that.

You get some beautiful screensaver images, and you get to see some of the most, I imagine, adrenaline-infused action that you'll come across in a situation where it's not just straight combat immediately. Yeah. Because bombing through the desert in one of those vehicles, having to repair it having a

sip of a mouthful of lemonade to get you by. Yeah. And then the other end is like just the sort of grunt infantryman. Yes. Where you like get out of a truck and it's like oh apparently we're near Bardia

then there's just artillery going off and tanks rumbling around and stuff. Yeah to understand the how accurate you know sort of war films and stuff is you know like we watched a video um a few weeks ago where it was someone i think they were from the sas weren't they uh oh yes it's one of those yeah we watched one of those videos where like a someone reacts to their profession on a like a film i think it's gq or

or whatever but yeah they do the like expert reacts and it was yeah the sas guy and there was a bunch of films he'd looked at and some tv shows and for the most part he had some some critiques to throw out there and one of them was um saving private ryan which i've always understood to be praised because i've only seen it a couple times and it was a while ago but it's always praised for the the d-day scene yeah where it's just so visceral and you know people are being absolutely torn to shreds by the guns on the embankment yeah and you know that's not necessarily something I'd like to see POV, but what I would like

is almost a simulation of the claustrophobia of being under a hail of bullets and artillery fire and just to understand the sensory experience of that in a safe environment where I don't actually have to be there. I just

can't imagine how the noise must just be so overwhelming. Your senses must just shut that out almost i feel like filter it noise like that for me when it reaches a certain point just becomes like a wall where the shouting's moving into it but the words lose their meaning yeah like and that's nothing i've experienced is even close to that but it just becomes a a singular sort of sound yeah because i've had it before when i've been in situations where

you know there's it's been intense and i don't know if this is i doubt this is unique to me because i'm a person and my body reacts the same way to stimulus as others but do you ever have it where in like a a moment where like time slows down a little bit and it feels like your field of view expands yeah you're like pull everything in yeah it almost feels like you can like view everything in your peripheral completely clearly as if you're looking directly at it and i don't if that's just the way like that information is processed in the brain when some sort of chemical is released but it's just such a weird sensation because i had a well i had a diy mishap very recently where i was drilling some holes into a wall and i hit a water pipe and this first time

using power tools as well so embarrassing and i i hit a water pipe and thankfully nothing too severe but the water burst out it was the last hole i needed to make and hit this water pipe and water just burst out and it was just a constant stream for a good five seconds and as i was watching that i was like the house is flooded i've ruined this house like everything's ruined yeah and everything went in slow motion my field of view just expanded massively which is not helpful for plugging a hole behind a wall i need to see one specific point very clearly i don't need to see everything in the room but then the the water started to pour downstairs like it was coming through the ceiling fixtures for the light and in that moment like the adrenaline that kicks in

it's very funny that my body reacted to that in that way and there's people who've been in wars where they've probably reacted a similar way maybe even calmer because they're used to it yeah and my body's just like this is the most terrifying thing that can ever happen you've hit a water pipe how there's a radiator one as well so it's just horrible don't horribly because it's got whatever chemical they put in radiator water to make it make it heat up faster maybe or maintain heat longer i don't know what they do or in radiators but it's always sludge when you drain them oh it's like a black like tinted it does make you go like what is going on here because my understanding is you've just put water in here and then you heat it up in a

The water that comes out of all the other pipes in my house isn't filthy. It must be like a closed system. Do you have to replace radiator water? Oh, I should probably find that out. Where does it get the chemical from?

I don't know. I'm just so dumb. We're just broadcasting how idiot we are. Oh my god, that's even worse. incredibly basic questions that are just like information you should pick up being alive there's so much that you pick up through osmosis but there's so much i've yet to learn oh yeah and also i think we've talked about this is uh i also have the paranoia about

doing things wrong oh i know exactly where this comes from yes because there's a video i think it's sort of an internet classic of a guy on a podcast uh who sort of reveals that he like makes a cup in his hand with toilet paper and then would shit into that and then like drop it into the toilet which is so foul and it's like three minutes of like footage of like a guy finding out he's been shitting wrong his entire life and as funny as it is there is an element of like what what basic thing that like you just sort of do in private am i just doing wrong if he spent his whole life thinking that's accurate and that's the way normal people do normal poo then what have you been doing that you've just taken for granted yeah because going to the

bathroom is quite unique in that it's always private from like the moment you're toilet trained that is now a personal private activity yeah no longer a spectator but there's also other areas of life where depending on your lifestyle you might end up doing it completely alone like this doesn't apply to you but there's some people who have like meals on their own forever like they'll never sit around other people and eat they'll not go out to restaurants and eat yes and like it's just maybe the way that you then eat a meal like yeah you just hold a fork weird or like yeah like because i i do this is a very small scale compared to that but i always have i've got my knife and fork in different hands i always hold my fork in my right hand and my knife in my left

but i'm right-handed yeah i don't know where that started from but i i can't do it the other way around for some reason trying to use a a fork in my left hand my brain just does not allow that to happen yeah because i was thinking about it i was like no one's shown to me how to brush my teeth since i was like five funny you mentioned that actually i'm like i i assume i'm doing it right and it's like do it for two minutes and like could have like a terrible like technique where i'm not hitting stuff for all i know i'm like not doing it well there is actually a tip i um got a little while ago is when you're you're brushing um you need to be careful when you brush with your dominant hand because one of your incisors at the front you'll always miss typically when you're

brushing because of the way that you move with your dominant hand oh so when you come in the other side you need to like do a swap yeah so it's sort of the incisor i think it's the incisor on the side of your dominant hand you'll tend to miss and not brush as thoroughly because of the angle that you come in i'm like imitating brushing my teeth now i also saw a post a little while ago which said that you'll never feel more of a stranger to yourself than if you try and brush your teeth with your opposite hand and i tried it and it's right it's such an odd experience yeah it just it doesn't feel right it feels so bizarre trying to brush your teeth with your opposite hand because it just it's so

janky yeah have you ever tried that's like have you ever tried using your mouse with the other hand oh no move your oh i'm trying it right now and i know for a fact the issue here would be clicking the buttons yeah i would i would mess that up so quick i'd like the movement isn't you you go over yeah i or under but whatever like you've not your hand doesn't like synced up with your computer mouse funny thing actually you mentioned mouse uh mouses um i also i use my mouse like this don't know if you can see that yeah but like wherever the screen is like say it's directly in front like that i don't use it directly pointing to the screen yeah i have mine at an angle as well yeah mine is almost when i use a mouse it's actually pointed sort of left

i have my 45 degrees from what i'm looking at yeah i've got it on my right hand but i always point it to to my left which i don't know why but that's become a bit of a stable i think it's Probably, because I've always, when we played D&D for the last 10 years, whenever I use my mouse, it's usually resting on my laptop and there's not much room. So I just have this little space

that I'm maneuvering within and there's no way for it to sit forward pointing. So I think that's what I've done. I've broke my mouse maneuverability. well it's very yeah this is a real uh patchwork episode because we we figured we had time to make one and got to put something out there for you guys listening in we um we thought we'll not dip into the mailbag we'll save that for an occasion where we can dip into it more so and we thought we'd forgo a history segment we'll give andy a little break this week and i guess by the same

nature we don't need a common ground because christmas is common ground disagree over we're just sort of chatting yeah we're just we're just waxing lyrical about how how life is and the things we get wrong we don't get the game wrong though yeah well there's actually we do get it wrong quite several occasions i'd probably say it's been a dozen or more occasions where we've got it wrong well i guess one thing we can go over something that we've um got planned for next year we've got a new year coming up new year new me except i don't believe in that yeah i think very much new year same person but we do have a bit of a an additional project in the the works which we've been working on for a good few weeks months now which we're looking at rolling out next

year some point yeah we don't have any solid time frame on it but what we are looking at putting out for the future is because we decided we enjoy recording the podcast for the game so much why not throw some extra bonus things in there so what we are going to be recording is an additional series which will be from a solo pov where it'll be one that i record individually or andy records individually and it'll be fairly short but it will be to give a bit of a breakdown as to what our current plans are for the game and what our plans going forward are in terms of tactical aspects yeah and sort of talk about the stuff we're not going to want to reveal too much of when we're playing more competitively where it's like oh this unit's actually starving or

i'm having a real supply issue here and then also yeah it's like i'm gearing up to attack here this must yeah the private planning stuff almost yeah just an extra level of insight to the game which will be particularly good when we get into the full playthrough because it means when we aren't able to divulge the plans which we've also stayed away from for the most part in the in this practice scenario we don't get too granular with our upcoming plans i feel like i'm always batting around the issue with very broad strokes but this means we can talk in detail we'll be editing them ourselves so the other person doesn't get to hear them and it'll just be a sort of five ten minute thing so that is one part of this that we're going to be putting out there at some point in the future

and another is a completely separate project from the game in a sense kind of semi-related we're gonna yeah do some sort of media around uh north africa and world war ii and sort of react to that uh watch it uh give a bit of analysis or just talk about it so yes so we we found some some films some tv shows some yeah various pieces of media that are ideally centric around the north african campaign i'm sure we'll get a bit looser with that as time goes on but that's that's what the focus is so stuff that's related to the game that we're going to watch and then review to do a sort of um a watch podcast and break down our thoughts on that how it compares to the game or how the thing is in and of itself maybe some stuff about specific research on how accurate

certain bits of media are yeah so it'll be a nice breakdown of of a very different aspect of the history so we got to touch on a bit of the history we got to enjoy something else and we got to pump out what we hope to be in another episode each week we're still figuring out the logistics of it um but what we are planning on doing is wrapping all of this in the umbrella of a patreon so that would be the the plan to get that the the watch aspect of things as well as the personal predictions and insights yeah maybe occasionally some more some stuff that's probably not a history

segment but because it's not quite related but it's interesting it's a lot of stuff where we don't want to clutter the feed but there's stuff we want to do. Yes because we'll always be releasing an episode for the game playthrough every single week until we

finish which is the rest of our lives so that is always going to remain in the same structure but we thought some extra bits and pieces for those interested we enjoy doing it we have it on good authority that other people enjoy hearing it so it's something we're working on we've got some material already in the works but we just want to make sure we refine that before we think about putting it out and get a bit of a litmus test on interest exactly want to make sure that it's it's what the people want and you as the people let us

know if there is anything we can add in there because we've got this uh the watch with a mate aspect of things and the personal insights to the game a few other history aspect and things to smatter in as bonus material also so we're looking at regular bonus stuff but we also want to make sure we're delivering

stuff that people have a direct interest in as well so let us know if there's anything else you'd be interested in and we'll see how we can wrangle that in see how we can fit that in with our time and how we can make it realistic for us to commit more time to things that's kind of what this this plan is because we enjoy doing it but it's it's hard to

carve out time but if we have a bit of more reason it's more justifiable to people in our lives that we need to spend two days a week yeah we need to we need to rally this and petition it towards the other aspects of our lives and explain why it's fine for us to do this so that's that's coming up that'll be fun i think we've got a good year ahead of us andy because we are going to be definitely finishing the scenario 100 we will be starting the main game which means we'll be doing all of this all over again yep also this time next year we'd look to probably be releasing our templates that we've worked on through the scenario and then we'll refine over the first few turns that's right of the main game so ideally that'll speed us up massively but could also make

the game more accessible to any fans because people have said they've got an interest so if we could make the like 20 turn scenario or even the six turn scenario something more manageable so more people get a chance to play i think that would be a cool thing to do yeah if anyone out there decides to buy this game if for some reason you've taken this not as a cautionary tale but as some sort of inspiration which we really decry as an idea then yeah you means you have a bit of an easier way to get a hold of playing it rather than just starting from scratch although starting from scratch is part of the fun also give that a go perhaps that's another thing for the potential patreon because we've had a lot of people write in about other board games yes where they've said

we're inspired but we're not doing the whole whole hog so we've bought some so it'd be cool to do some some reviews of other yeah i think maybe more bite-sized uh board gaming and potentially some war gamey stuff where it's not going to be like a month to finish but we could play like if we get an extra day here or there yeah it means we can delve into some games that are a bit

more accessible and aren't the hardest or longest board game of all time means we can play something that might actually be fun from go start to finish with no lull periods and a finished game in a day yeah I shouldn't be going through the five stages of grief regularly

every time i'm playing a board game so it'll be nice to just play one where it is just a game and it's just a bit of fun but we won't be doing like is it code blue oh yes yeah we're not paralleling a comparable game yes we that's a level of insanity on brains can't handle yeah we're not doing a bonus run where we do the same thing twice that's we don't have that in us we just can't be doing i say that i didn't think i'd be doing this who knows what the future holds but there's no plans for that no code blue can stay where it is for now we're not getting someone else can pick that up yeah that's a different podcast whoever wants to do that give it a go so we've got that we've got end of scenario we've got bonus content we've got main game begins we do predict

there'll be a hiatus not in releasing episodes we'll still do that for the main the main run but a hiatus between finishing the scenario and starting the main game while we refine our templates our spreadsheets the way we organize things so that we can produce some very clear and accessible material for everyone to follow the game along yeah we're also going to make rule we're going to go over the rules again once we've actually played the game yeah we'll make like the scenario sheets for this is combat this is trucks this is air stuff so there's like a sheet for each bit that we'll collect rules from throughout the book yes for our convenience and again we'll yeah we'll share all that stuff exactly uh hi it is for a few weeks maybe a

couple months at worst and make sure that we've got a fully refined system so that we can put out pictures of the game regularly we can put out the sheets that we're using so people can follow along with how our units are getting on and just all of the granular stuff that we've been really eager to put out there that is at the moment too jumbled to put out there reliably without confusing our situation even further yeah a lot it's currently spread through notebooks and stuff but excel spreadsheets notebooks um i've got some stuff on my my notes page on my phone yeah keeping track of um water evaporation and usage so there's just a a whole host of stuff that we need to be able to put out there in a really easy to understand format and we'll also be looking at some point

next year i would imagine of doing some sort of um stream some some live um section of a game probably a combat yeah so that's that's something that again it's sort of blue sky thinking for that that we need to figure out how we'd actually show the game position a camera maybe a live stream or the first time we do it it might be a on the youtube just so we've got a bit of editing and work out the process before we do it live well yes a video before a live yeah there's a few iterations of what we'll get to there but a lot of people have asked if we could show the game live in action so we'd pick a section that isn't going to just be bootkeeping because then it's just an episode of the podcast but quieter so instead we'll find a either maybe an air combat

or land combat maybe do an air combat a land even a truck if they want to see truck day we'll do truck day uh yeah like chunk it up a sort of different steps of the game uh give you a more not just us talking about it but an experience of like how it is when we're actually playing yeah because i think being able to share that side of things it gives a more well-rounded experience hearing us rant and rave about it every week as we either excitedly or depressingly talk about what's gone on for that week it's it's one way to digest it but occasional sprinklings of different experience i feel gives an idea as to what we're actually up to each week the the life that we have going through this game and what it is because the idea is to detail the experience

of playing this yeah not necessarily just the outcome of the game but what it's like to play a game like this over this long period of time which I think realistically could work with any game if you played it long enough we could have been smart and done it with Dungeons and Dragons since we love that game but instead we picked a game we hadn't played

before and is by a lot of metrics on paper not a fun game I guess the space for this game isn't filled with professional voice actors and improv people and very talented

that's a good point doing dnd stuff yeah the usp is here in that it's not done by anyone else the only the only big question mark out there is uh veilfisk will he ever release his video of playing the game because that's all i see online when i when i'm checking up to see if there's any updates on people playing the game well when we spoke to cam like six months ago he was like oh he's teased it for next week and then we were we were eagerly awaiting and now i'm looking back because there's a big meme on the whole. Veilfisk, for anyone who's not aware, he's got a YouTube channel,

I think maybe some streams as well, and is a big gaming fan. He does all these obscure versions of various well-known board games. Yeah, where he adds like a weird spin. So it's like 5D chess. What's the, was it Dominion or something? Diplomacy.

Diplomacy, yes. Where he has the AI. Yes. That one's very good. I'd really recommend it. I mean, the guy doesn't need us shouting him out because it's massive in terms of following. But if you're not aware of him,

some very interesting stuff on there. But it's been a big meme that he's going to make a video on Campaign for North Africa and that it's just a week away. And now I'm looking back, when we spoke to Cam, he said, I don't know if you've seen, but it looks like next week he's going to release a video. I don't know if Cam was pulling our leg with that. I think he was in on the meme and we weren't, yeah.

He could well have been. So I think Cam might have had us there. but either way that video coming out could be interesting see if someone else does actually tackle it and someone who's got the resource and budget to really tackle it unlike our subtle humble and brave selves

where we're just fumbling around in the dark until we get there but we've made good headway we're crushing it man I mean we are, we're speeding it up we are, we're speeding it up we're nearly halfway through the scenario that's crazy, halfway through

it's a massive accomplishment, what a year it's been and my new year's resolution is to finish the scenario and start the game properly yes that's uh that's not new year's resolution that has to happen that can't be it if that doesn't happen oh i've i've let that one go yeah that's i guess that's why it's such an easy resolution to have because it has to be the case yeah and if it's not then we've i guess stopped doing this we've fallen out or one of us has died yeah the game was consumed in a fire and all the the copies have been bought up can't happen it can't happen i wouldn't like it to but it can anything can happen oh yeah well i guess that that covers up um a lot of what we had to talk

about in terms of actual logistics and game updates project updates um and we're keeping people around christmas time we should we should probably let them get on with it and i guess get on with our stuff as well yeah we just wanted to put a quick one up so we thought we'd put something out there just a a little a little bite-sized episode i mean this is like the length of the old ones yeah early days but whatever you're doing this time of year i hope it's fun i hope it's enjoyable and if you've got any board games for christmas let us know what they are and i really hope you don't say campaign for north africa because that is a bad christmas present hey it's one of those christmas presents that's it's fun for years it's not like a

something uh consumable like a bottle of whiskey or like chocolates it's yeah i guess a bottle of whiskey in that christmas gift for the rest of your life bottle of whiskey would definitely help you get through this thing the spreadsheets would be a mess but mine are anyway to be fair it might be a more realistic experience because uh a lot of them were drunk as hell rightly so and then a lot of the germans were on meth yeah but rommel big big fan of meth apparently yeah well i guess it is daily bread i bet his will be an interesting history segment yes the crystal fox that was a good game show well i hope you all enjoy your your festive period and we'll pick up with you before the new year

and we'll gear up for whatever that holds but until then I've been James I've been Andy, thanks for listening stay subtle, humble and brave in those festive deserts of your mind goodnight We'll see you next time.