War With A Mate - Episode 97: Get This Man Some Air!

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

The last of the three major rule sections are recapped by the guys today as they hurtle towards the start of the full game. A very ill Andy powers through the History Corner which sees out the final outing of everyone’s favourite secret-treaty league, the Mailbag showcases all the ways to procrastinate and distract using WwaM and Andy loses his goddamn mind in a Common Ground that ties together this week’s meal-centric episode…nicely?

Hello, hello, and good morning, possibly good night. We've got no way of knowing. You're listening to this at your own volition, and you're listening to War with a May with me, James. Me, Andy. And we're back at it again with the white sneakers. No, not really. It's War with a May, which is Campaign for North Africa.

You can't wear it on your shoes. I don't know what the white sneakers thing is. Back out of the game with the... It's a damn, Daniel. Back at it again with the... I think it's white sneakers. I know I've... Damn Daniel is vaguely an old meme, right?

It is, it is. It is. It is. Yeah. And I'm not dating this because it's already old. Yes. So at the time you're listening to this, that meme is old. That will always be the case,

unless it cycles background. You know what else is old, Andy? Philoceraptor. True. That is true. The one of the penguin, where it's like blue on top and around at the bottom. Velociraptor. Philociraptor. Oh, philosopher. Oh, sorry, I thought you meant dinosaurs are old. Oh, no, that meme is old. No, it is. It is actually as well. That was when memes had like more templates and went just.

Yeah, you had a template that you could work with. Yeah. Which I guess is what a meme is to be fair. That is very true. But no, what I was going to say is the campaign for North Africa. That's pretty old. Yeah, came out. 50 years ago? Yeah, 1978, the game came out. If you're talking about the actual campaign itself,

I mean, hey, we're not far off a hundred years. Yeah, that was, there was an original, and then they did the remake in the form of a board game. Much prefer the remake, got to say. Less flies.

Yeah, less everything. Apart from game time, because overall, it's going to take us a lot longer to play than it did take Montgomery and Rommel to play. I mean, if we did this 24, 7, like they were. That's true.

That's a good point. We are kind of half-arsing it. Although they would take little breaks. Yeah, they would sleep. Oh, they'd also go to spars and stuff. Yeah, exactly. When do we get our spa day, Andy? That's what I'd like to know.

If I find Rommel and he's not on the map, because you know the like he's in Poland thing. Yeah. That was when he went to a spa to try and get off meth a bit. So if we roll that. To try to get off meth a bit. Yeah. Well, he loved his crystal meth did Romo. Well, that's probably why he was so hyped up and focused.

And that's what we've tried to be today. But without the aid of crystal meth, instead, we're still in our hiatus, ready to play the full game on 30th of October. And we've been preparing by reading the rules. We've got no meth. We've got no stimulants. Instead, Andy, you've got a cup of lempsip. I do. I have a cold if people can't tell. So sorry if any coughs and stuff make it in.

but yes, I've got Lentz at the minute. You've got a bit more vocal friar than usual. Yeah, it's already a lot. Also, if some coughs make it in, they definitely usually make it in. They definitely sometimes get past my editing process. Yeah, that's true. I guess there'll be more hacking coughs this time.

They'll be more worrying coughs. Yeah. If you listen to this one as you drift off to sleep, you will be woken up. And if it's not for a Mandy's cough, I'm just going to randomly shout out on occasion. Maybe we'll dock someone that you can but allow bleep in. Oh, people hate when we do that.

that. I have went through some of the comments on the YouTube videos, the Spotify comments. And we do occasionally get people saying, if you're going to bleep it, can you make it less loud and jarring, please? And to those people, I will say, I will try, but I don't really know how the button works all that well. And I'm not in charge of anything, so. Yeah, Andy's just here for a good time. But speaking of a good time, I'm feeling fine, Andy. I'm feeling fine about the game. I'm feeling bad in my real life. Well, that's good, I guess, for the purpose of the next hour and a half.

Yeah. That's a positive. We've been going through the air rules today. Yeah. We've ticked off the last of the trifector of main rule areas, which is land, air, and logistics. I mean, weirdly, the one I'm most worried about is the miscellaneous that isn't one of those free. Yeah, we've got all of the nitty-gritty together. get through after this as the final stretch of rule reading. But going through this, a lot of it, thankfully, felt familiar with a lot of clarity, a lot of familiarity. A few interesting points, some that really rubbed me the wrong way, personally. But I don't feel like I've

misunderstood anything. I have just missed one or two things. We've missed. Yeah, we missed a couple. Yeah, overall, all tracks, there was no like, oh, crap, we've done that. We've done that completely wrong. One we miss though, which is huge for the sake of the practice game and it's very good. We've locked down is a sort of two-parter. Yeah. Which is if an enemy unit moves next to an SGSU, that SGSU can react and try and get away big because a lot of SGSU's got war-crimed in the practice run. Yep. And then also along the same lines, if an enemy unit moves next to an airfield, any of your refitted and ready to fly planes can do an emergency flight and try and escape. So between those two, like a lot of that truck bandits and Fort

Magdalena stuff just wouldn't have been nearly as effective. Yeah, that was a real hard hitter for me, because that's something that we didn't do wrong, so to speak, which is good. We just missed it entirely. It's far worse if we got something wrong, I feel. where we've interpreted something incorrectly or we've implemented it in the wrong way. I'm glad that this was just a straight and miss, you know, just completely whiffed it, because that means we can implement it with no... We're not like rewiring any previous stuff. Yeah, it's not like you're trying to rework it in your head that this is actually how this works.

It's more a case of, oh, I can do this. Yeah. So that means if you do go to Madelena again, I can have the SGSUs run out into the desert, maybe to Bardia, and the planes can fly off. I had a few spare airfields. I could have flown them to there, which means the massacre at Madelena, which was a real fulcrum of the entirety of the practice run.

It all started around there. That's where the 7th Armoured Division got into a few scrapes. That's where we ended up fighting over for the first couple turns. Well, pushed up really fast because your Air Force was there. Yeah, that was all of my fighters for the most part. Yeah, come to think of it. I don't think I had fighters that were front-facing, that were effective in numbers, apart from Madalena.

So that would have really changed the game for me if I knew how to read the rules. We're getting there, though. Yeah, almost. We only spent 20 months. You can't expect us to know everything. It's bad when you contextualize it. Yeah, maybe without context, it's just as bad, though.

We're committed to playing it. We should really know what we're doing. it's not really how this goes though, is it? It's all a bit of fun, a bit of whimsy, and 20 years of it at that. We never really got to do them, but night missions seem like an interesting layer

to the whole thing. Yes. And something related to them, we realized, is my Blenheim fighters should have had four less maneuverability during the day. Yes.

Which feels like quite a big... It's a fairly big thing for maneuverability because it's like, that's like basically a stage. Yeah, that changes the degree of the tack air differential. Because that, when it's moved by a rank of, I think, three to four points, it changes the tack air. So usually, I think fighters tend to be like around 30-ish for maneuverability.

That sounds about right off the top of my dome. Yeah. So I think a difference of four, you could be looking at enough of a differential on that table, that it reduces the tack air, thereby making it another point on the die. to make them easier to kill. So it was the Blenheim IVF, which I did have. That lose that. The JU.A.C, which I think is a German plane than I get later.

Oh, yeah. Because we later on saw the JUAAD, 70% need to stay in Crete, I think it is, at the start. Crete, Italy, Greece, at various points, they have to be in different ones. Yeah, yeah. So seeing that, that's probably a German plane. There was a third as well, which I don't recognize.

So that must come in later on, or to one of yours. So there's a few planes that have less maneuverability because they're primarily night mission planes. There was also a typo. I got to update for the first time in months, over a year, I think, my addender of rules that make me want to scream. And when I was looking back at it,

I felt really different this time going into that sheet, that note back, because when I was first writing that, it was my first time reading through the rules. Yeah. And when I was reading through them, I was having to take in all of the information. Whereas now it's more of a refined, fine tooth comb. It's instead, I feel a bit bad going in with so much cynicism as I did first time round, because I've kind of come to appreciate the rules do work en masse.

The thing is, I think the rules are, for the most part, fairly clearly written. Could be laid out a bit better, maybe, but it's just the sheer amount of them means that's difficult. I don't know that I would structure it differently, mostly because I'm familiar with it now. I don't know that there's a more optimized way to set it out other than everything in sequence, which means you again have things out of order based on how you organise it. There's no way to make everyone happy. And since we're the ones playing it, we'll make ourselves happy. Exactly. We'll make ourselves happy.

The masturbatory nature of our rules reading is for us to enjoy. So that's where we are with it. I had a nice time reading through. But yes, what the addendum you did at? The addenda was a segment that said that at night, planes on combat air patrol don't have 20 C. That was a 2.0 C. And I was like, right, I don't really get what this is.

And you were walking out the room as I said that, and you turned around and gave it a bit of a Columbo moment. And went, that zone of control. and then you showed me your homseum leap of logic, which was that the... Z looks like 2. Yeah, and 0 looks like O. So somewhere within the rule,

someone's been transcribing it from something, and it has translated that into a 2 and a 0 instead of a ZO. Yeah. Because what the fuck would 20C mean? And I'm so glad you pointed that out because I would have been sat festering over it for... Searching the dot for...

Yeah, and then I'd find out that it's just a very small mistake, and I think the amount of time that passes between me finding a mistake in the book and understanding the mistake really spreads out that frustration and builds it. So I'd become much more feral and angry. The worst as well would be if there's a plane with like a 20C designation, and then you're trying to look like... What does that mean? Why does... They can't have this plane on night patrol? Why would the night patrol have this plane? It can't fly night missions. Is that an error? Should they have night mission capability, and I would just start to break down, fall apart, and hate the game. And I'm not there

yet. I'm still in a positive mindset of I'm ready to play the game. I'm nervous about playing the game, but this rules read-through does make me feel grounded. I think it shows we didn't get stuff confused, we just missed a few parts. Yeah. And since we were on equal footing with it, It means it's not stuff that you need to do, and by not doing it, we both get massive benefits. It just means we've removed a tactical choice from the game. Yeah. Like emergency flight. Not having that, not using that, doesn't make the game broken.

It just makes it, if anything, a bit harder to get through. I think the thing we're going to have to really lock in on getting right, well, we obviously want to get everything right, but something that's like essential, because like you say, if we're symmetrically wrong, kind of fine what we don't want is one of us misinterpreting the like side only

rules where that will cause a big problem like if you're just if you're adding like twice the shipped resources you can because you misread something I'm never going to look at it most likely yes it's a huge difference if in the production system

I'm making more trucks than I should or less or whatever big effect that's only one player. So that we need to be pretty diligent. Yeah, it's one of the few detriments, I think, of playing this as a two-player game instead of a ten-player game. It's just the keeping each other honest on track. There's no one to bounce these questions off, realistically, in the full game.

We can't sit down and open up about a rule confusion we have because it will give away a tactical component of the gameplay. Yeah. but it does remove some of the other big player game disadvantages of having to run things by people, which I know people have mentioned when they've been commenting on the journey is that would add a fun aspect of the game and part of the game is communicating with your team,

which I agree. I think that would be a really fun way to play this. I think it would, but we're just not getting 10. We're not getting 10 people playing 10 people to take part in this. And also, a 10-person podcast would be unlistenable. That would be a nightmare That might be the worst thing in the world Because it's either we have all 10 people

Speaking into the mic Or it's just us still And the other people just get sidelined As backroom admin staff Who don't get to speak on the microphone Yeah, not great I think the The situation we're in now

Is a positive one We've now read through most of the rules We're braced for gameplay The spreadsheets are nearly finished We are in October. We are. The game starts this month on the 30th. We've got a live stream for those who have forgotten or didn't know.

30th of October, it'll be 7.30pm on YouTube. Not GMT, BST, British summertime. There we go. It actually ticks over on the Sunday, I believe, that week. So keep an eye out. It's so confusing. It is. It will be on YouTube. We'll make it clear.

But yeah, it'll be that Friday. we'll be kicking off the whole thing. Before then, what we plan to have ready is all of the spreadsheets. All of our place anywhere units and all of our units are on the mode, on the board, the map. I just put those two into one word. Got a safe time, Andy. We've got 20 years ahead of us. We can't be seeing two words where one word would do the trick.

Over 20 years, that's almost a dozen seconds. That's so many seconds, a dozen seconds. that's like the Omega 13 in Galaxy Quest. Sure. Yeah, it's their, it's their MacGuffin. Spoilers, by the way, for anyone who's going to watch Galaxy Quest this weekend. Oh, I was raising my hand because I'm going to watch Galaxy Quest this weekend. Oh, okay, I thought you were gesturing to me a pause.

That's usually a signal to pause recording. Yeah. And you can understand how you making a visual joke that's also a symbol for us to pause would be misleading. would be confusing to me. No, I don't see that actually. I've decided to go back on that. Wow, speaking of which, there's the Fruit Zone. The Fruit Zone.

Jack Fruit or Giant Atlantic Pumpkin? Well, I don't know either of them particularly well. One of them I don't know at all. I'm going to go for the giant Atlantic Pumpkin. Same. The Fruit Zone. Wow. you learn about mythology in this as well, that's crazy.

So, yeah, I don't know if you made any of that up. Yeah, I think Gag's a great film. I'm feeling in a much better physical state than you, Andy. That's for sure. That wasn't the case earlier this week. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I had a situation. I mentioned to you, I went to a work function.

Yes. And you know when you go into a situation and you know you're in the wrong place? Yeah. Just outclassed. Because I went to this place and it was a meal and it was, I had no say in the planning of this. A lot of the people on my team didn't. So we got there and it's a very, very fancy place. I'm talking like, I've never been in a place like this before. And I don't belong in a place like this.

So I show up and there's a like a drinks reception stuff. That's all good and well. I enjoyed that. But then the menu was set and you know what my diet's like. Chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets. oven pizza just frozen food yeah anything that's frozen or beer

I will have quite happily so imagine my surprise when I sit down for the starter and they plate this out for me would you like to describe a little bit of what this is that you're seeing so it's

pork in a slab of gelatin it's ham actually ham Okay. Is that cuss-cus? I don't know. Kinoa. There's, yeah, there's a very gelatiny bit of meat, which doesn't look appealing. Tiny beans, maybe, cuss-coos on it.

Tiny beans. And then like a tartar sauce, maybe. It looks like maybe it's got anchovies and, like, dill in it. Would you describe this ham gelatin thing as looking like cat food? That's one of... Yeah, yes I would. Yeah, cool. Because that's what I saw.

When this got put down in front of me, I saw cat food. This isn't find... This isn't you misunderstanding the situation. This is dog shit. No, see, I didn't... I didn't love that. That looks foul. So when that got put in front of me,

I just kind of panicked. So I thought, I'm just going to scrape this around a bit of my plate. I did try it. The gelatin aspect of it just tasted like, wet, nothing. Yeah, the thing about gelatin is, it's not nice.

It's, like, for thickening stuff or, like, sweets, or it's not... It's not meant to just be there on its own. Oh, that is rank. So, I had that. I've fixed menu, so you're not... No one's getting a choice.

Was anyone happy with there? A lot of people all, like, when it got plated up, everyone kind of looked around at each other, like, hmm. Yeah. I didn't ask for that. this. I didn't expect this. So I made my way through it as much as I could. It wasn't to my liking. I mean, I'll give most stuff I've tried. I'm not a picky yet, but that looks foul. And then the next course came out. That was just chicken, though. It had like some sort of chicken viviette or

velvet or something sauce. That was great. That fucked. I enjoyed that. That was really nice. That was some of the best chicken I've ever had. Okay, so this all redeemed it. It did. But then I was left in the space where I'm like, what's wrong? Like, what's the disconnect here? Because the starter completely chopped. But then the main course loved it. Also, it's not. That doesn't look like an elevated dish you're like not getting.

No, no, that was, I don't know what went on there. But that's just a little inside under my week. That was, that put me off a little bit ill when I saw that land in front of me. The rest of the night, great time though. had a very lovely time. But yeah, I guess that was a bit of a tangent. Yeah, I had one of the worst meals I ever had on a work night out as well. Oh, yeah?

Yeah. And the place is out of business now, so I'll name and shame them. Revolution de Cuba's Christmas dinner, unsurprisingly, one of the worst meals I've ever eaten. You're telling me Revolution de Cuba. Doesn't do good Christmas dinner, yeah. It's not entirely on there, but it's on whoever picked. Great cocktail bar. Maybe not food.

Well, as I've always said, a cocktail bar is the perfect place to have a Christmas dinner. You know those like oven ready meals where it's like mash gravy and something that calls itself steak in like a box? Yes. It was basically them, but they somehow found worse versions of them. Yeah, they probably bought them wholesale. So they're all designed for individual use. When the Soviet Union fell. They bought a bunch of excess food.

It might be a history segment. But I guess meals aside, we have a big game to dine on. Rule-wise, is there anything you're particularly scared about going forward? No. I've got one. Not necessarily. The rules don't make sense. Something I think I'm going to really struggle with and probably fuck up a lot is the timed withdrawals.

I think I'm going to get overly excited and then be like, well, they can't get back. Or worse, it's like they should be, they should be back, but then they're like key cornerstone of a push I'm doing. Then I just have to take them off the map. Yes. So, uh, I'm also going to need to find a good, like, rhythm and habit to get into to check them at the start and end of the turn, both arrivals and departures. Yeah, that's a pretty unique challenge you've got. You're going to have to go through and see if you guys are allowed to stick around. How many turns do you have them for? Can they be part of this plan?

Yeah, it's a weird one because, like, depending where the front is, say, I have pushed you, like, really far back, and then I get some guys in, it's like, well, by the time they made it to the front, they'd have to just turn around and come home.

Yeah, I've kind of had that in a reverse sense with the black shirts. Yeah. At the end of the practice run, where I got the guys over from Tripoli finally, over the last couple turns. and I was like, this is so late in the game, I've wasted, not wasted, but it just takes so much time to get them there.

How effective are they going to be? And they did play a good part in the end. They are your more elite units, is that right? Of the Italians. Yeah, the infantry and those are really good. Yeah. So they've got some good capability. It's just like the distance to travel.

In the full game, that won't be much of a problem because it's going to be such a small fraction of the game that it takes for them to get there. less than 10%. So, I mean, nearly 5%. Yeah, that's crazy. I don't like that. My big concern is the Malta stuff.

Yeah. The level of forces I need to commit to attacking Malta, the amount of planes I need to have off-map, either by just rules, demand, where I need to have a certain percentage off-map, and how much I should be committing, maybe on top of that as well. Yeah. So that's going to be one I'm going to find hard to juggle solely because I've not done it yet.

I've not needed to worry about Malta in the practice run. I hope I don't need to in the full game, but by necessity, I think I will. I remember Echoes of War, they said the very first time we spoke to them, what can you do with Malta? Because it's such an important area. Yeah, that's why I think it's kind of crazy you can't take it over. It seems a bit weird almost. Yeah, it's like they've blocked it off. It's kind of like having an unkillable NPC in an Elder Scrolls game. It's like, I'd love to do this and see how it affects the game. But it's too important to switch over. Yeah, it's like, no, we can't allow you to do that.

It will break the game. I don't know if there'd be any way to balance it, but it would be kind of interesting if whoever held Malta had unlimited supplies. For me, it would be Alexander Cairo. For you, it would be Tripoli Tunis. Whoever holds Malta has that, because they have, like, control of the supplies.

And then the other one has to do the convoy stuff. It feels abstracted though. I feel like it gives players the chance to abstract part of the game by winning part of it. Because if you have infinite supplies in one area. But I do already. Yeah, you do. But I think if the aspect of that was... Because my supply situation is never...

Yeah, but if there was a way to change that, I feel like the full game becomes fight for Mulder. Yeah. Because I want to have infinite supplies. Yeah. I would be gunning for that all the time with everything I've got. To my detriment. It's probably a different game at that point.

It is. It's a less complicated game at that point. The tenacity at which we'd fight each other would increase, but I feel like the simplicity being up for grabs, that can't be what the game is. You can't fight to make the game simple. Yeah. Instead, you must be simple to fight the game. Nice. Nice bit of Zen.

Yeah, look at that. I feel like the guy from Mystery Man, the Sphinx, where he just speaks in mysterious riddles and doesn't actually say anything. Oh, yeah. I feel like that's half my life. Like, half the things I say, it's just absolute dribble.

Yeah, thanks, man. I know I said it, but you should have, like, I thought back a little bit more than hard. I'm a great review. I don't like that, though. Not in this context. Then don't do the self-deprecating things

of someone says, oh, no. Okay. There you go. That's fair. I get you. No, that's fair. I guess I'll bear that one in mind as feedback. Yeah.

I can take on strictive criticism. I think the best way to get that, though, Andy, isn't from you, someone who's known me for so long. I think it's mostly from strangers. Let's, yeah, let's crowdsource this. Yeah, so let's crack open the mailbag. Let's see what we got going on here. And we are opening up here with an email from Hugh. Hugh's email is titled Mussolini and the Roman Empire.

Well, that's topical. It is. We've heard of them before. Hello, gents. After listening to episode 85 and the discussion on someone sending in work on a historical board game, I thought you might be interested in a short essay I wrote some time ago for a school project. The essay is focused on fascism and the role that it and Mussolini had on perpetuating the changing modern image of the Roman Empire. Interestingly, I had considered

sending this essay to you earlier because you in part inspired us. Wow, okay, that's, God, I hope this did well. Around episode 40, you make an offhand comment about how the Roman Empire had been maintained by fascist in Italy, which I found interesting enough to make it the focus of my essay. I ended up getting a very high grade on it, so I suppose I should thank you. Thanks and good luck in the real game, you're subtly humbly and bravely. Hugh, wow. That's awesome, especially the fact that you've got a good grade on it. I'm glad that we played a role in your career success, and we do take credit for it.

Yeah. In cash value. I'll give you Andy's address by reply, and you can just post as much cash as you want there. That seems sensible. That's a good way to handle that. Mike had stopped at customs. I don't know where he's from.

But, yeah, here it is dressing up in Togas, how fascist Italy's glorification of the Roman Empire affected the perception of ancient Rome. It's actually a really interesting. It's really cool, yeah. Yeah, I'm definitely going to go through and give that a proper read after this. because I do like, it's, it's interesting to see how Rome, yeah, would be affected by us,

by like the myth-making of Mussolini. Yeah, because it is that sort of like mythologizing aspect of, of the Roman Empire that Mussolini was going for to try and bring it back. And I think it really must have changed the perspective. I went to Italy a few years ago and they had, they had real strong thoughts. on Bousselini, rightly so. I mean, he's, I don't think he's a guy people love lukewarm. No, I think you've got to have one side or the other and it's kind of worrying if you're on one other side. Yeah. Just looking at the, um, the citations and references here on the essay. I can't see us. Not sure which, uh, which reference it is, but we'll, we'll have a look through.

Oh, his references are probably referencing us. That's a good point. Yeah, some of these will definitely be talking about us. Some of these were written in 2014 by the looks of it. but I don't know, maybe they've got a time machine. But thank you for letting us know that, Hugh. That's awesome. We're very, very shocked, but very pleased to hear we've influenced that. And glad you did well. Hope it was fun.

Yeah. Also, I'm going to track that down as a history segment and probably use some of Hughes, because I think an interesting one for listeners. There we go. We can reference you, Hugh. Yep. Well, fantastic. In that case, on to the next.

Maybe this one will also have someone's stardom and success. creditor to us. Let's see. Those who are about to pod, we salute you. Okay. I already like it. Yeah. This is from Lane.

Lane's been in touch before. I think we've read out Lane fairly recently. Yeah, I think we did. This must be a multiple party. So yeah. Hello, my good, good war boys. I remember. I remember.

Yep. My, now I've told my parents, my mom did point out war boys. Probably not the greatest nickname for us. you did mention this yes yeah yeah turns out we'll not get into the internet but it's not one

it's not one that goes well yeah don't want to be the war boys yeah if you do a bit of research on that I don't think I don't think Lane did this intentionally but if you have a little look it's a bit of a tricy thing it's not great yeah keep an eye out on that one

cheerier topics I'm up to episode 7E6 now and the spectre of being caught up is looming large you're telling me yeah just wanted to to fire off this email and say, even though it started as a joke, I'm really enjoying the fruit zone.

I was in the middle of writing a very important email. I was in the middle of writing a very important email that has helped with evidence to refer some of a domestic violence safe house and the fruit zone came on. We have done this one, haven't we?

No. Oh, did someone else, filling out paperwork, laughter in the fruit zone? Yeah, I think so. Oh, okay. I couldn't help giggle for a full minute, which is longer than the segment. So it's profit, I guess.

The fruit zone is profitable, so it needs to run forever. That's the story I'm going with. Yes, I mean, that's a good point. I think when it comes to the fruit zone, the fruit zone is a way to break up arduous tasks or moments of grim nature. So I think the fruit zone is well. welcome everywhere. It's a shame that it made you laugh during that, I guess. That's unfortunate timing. It's a good time we get a smile. Exactly. There should be moments of joy. And I guess,

if it's an email, you're kind of divorced from the situation to an aspect. Yeah. Also, I think what you're thinking of, Andy, when it comes to someone else, I think someone else was listening to the podcast when doing something else of a serious nature. I don't know if it's fruit zone specific. Yeah. But no, we have, we have had a few people who are doing, like, like real serious jobs. Yeah. I think also listening to this. We read the emails when they come in,

and my head's a bit foggy at the minute. So I may just be remembering the first time I read this. Yeah, you might have read this previously, and then you projected in the future. You're giving yourself deja vu. That's it. So like I said, my first email, though, you've provided a lot of levity to difficult and important days,

and it's much appreciated. I've also added spaces like land. Land Plus, it explodes everyone to my lexicon, actually made me spit my drink when I heard it. Thanks, Andy. You're welcome. There you go. You're a real Shakespeare of yourself, Andy.

Well, I'm always saying space is like land plus. You've said that exactly once. It's my catchphrase. No, it's not. You can't say once. You have to stop saying that every week that I see you, if you want me to say that's your catchphrase. Challenge accepted.

You're going to forget, like, tomorrow. Yeah. One thing I want to bring up is that there's no links to buy merch on y'all's actual site. There is one on Instagram. I don't have Instagram. So if there's some way to link to the merch site on the main site, me and another friend would appreciate it. I want one of those shirts.

Stay stubbly, Humboldt, Bracket Penguin and Brace Lane. We will have merch up. That first run was us getting a feel for it. we've been trying to make that a bit more robust and we will actually be launching some proper merch linking it to the website doing everything properly I guess you'd say yes

we did have a run previously I did not realize the link was still up I'm not sure if that's just something we mentioned at the time I think I took it down I hope I have because I know while we can still ship stuff via that link the shipping costs were really high for you guys we don't see that.

That's passed on to you, unfortunately. So if that is still up there, we'll have a look at that, because we've got something else in the works, which should be out around episode 100. So keep an eye out. We should have everything up and running for then with more reasonable costs,

because we don't want you guys to be fleeced out your eyeballs. 30 quid for shipping a mug or something. Which doesn't, it's not money that goes to us, and it's not money that you need to spend if we can find a way around it. It just becomes a sort of black hole in the middle. So we'd love to avoid that for everyone involved. So yeah, watch the space.

There will be better merch, probably better quality as well the way we're going. That would be cool. I mean, yeah, what's the plan? So yeah, if that is up, well, it is available, I guess, technically. If anyone wants to grab something last minute from that one, if you've got a way to you can, but we discourage it because there's going to be better value stuff coming in future. Yeah, I'll need to check that out on Instagram,

Anime, it's not active. When the episode comes out, may well not be there. But also, thank you for letting us know, Lane, that you are getting through some important days with a little bit more levity, because that is, and always has been, one of my favorite things about this whole adventure, is just bringing a little bit of whimsy to a day. Yeah, that's what I love podcasts for.

Don't worry about the gameplay. We'll get to that. And we've got time to, Got time to stick another one in here. This one comes from James. James, I recognize the surname here, which I'll not read out, because that's doxing. But James was at the live show?

Yeah. And it's congrats on finishing the practice. Hi, James and Andy. Congratulations on finishing the practice scenario. There's something so wonderfully British about spending two years of your life to eke out a draw and then just go for a pint afterwards, after buying a Bueno, I guess.

Yep. I look forward to another draw. a couple of decades from now. I don't, James. I don't. I think it might be, though. You think he sniped it? I think...

Normally, I feel like draws the least common of the three sort of options. Not with this game. Not with this. I had a couple of questions now that you finished your first run around the game. Number one,

what units did you find were your best and or most disappointing? I guess for Andy, it would be the Trick Bandits and Long Range Desert Group respectively. Yeah, you've nailed that. And then I guess honorable mentioned 7th Armored Division for me.

But yeah, long-range desert group, such a cool idea, such cool history and like guys in real life. Such an underwhelming mechanic. Yeah, they really on paper should be devastating for me. Yeah. I guess when you said this a few times, when you pair them up with the SAS, they'll probably be scary. Yeah, it's going to be, because they still disappear from the map and have crazy range, but can actually do stuff. Yeah, so I'm less worried about them in their raw state, but when they do roll around to be armed, that's going to be a much more devastating approach. And is that an email coming through?

Yep. Yeah, cool. We'll have a look at that. We've got a live email, folks. We've got a live one. And, yeah, I guess for me, it would be in terms of successful. The Maletti division really pulled it out the bag at the end. They became a rock in the road for you.

which can't give them enough credit for that. What a devastating hit for you to not be able to move past them for so long. Solved true to history as well. They were one of the only guys with any success on the Italian side during Operation Cumbus. Yeah, so they really stuck it out hard.

So I'm glad that they managed to do that. And when it comes to my least successful, I guess the natural answer has got to be the Saharan Determis. attachment. Yeah. That's almost entirely down to my fault because of how I operated them and they surrendered like on the spot. But. Yeah, the Saharan detachment's failure was almost a highlight of the practice scenario, the charge into Alexandria surrender. Yeah, the immediate surrender just on the spot was. But yeah, that was a funny one. I'm going to use them more carefully. I want to see one. I want to see one. what the camels can really do.

Yeah. I'd love to see how they function out there in the wild before they are vanquished. Yeah, I never got a chance to see what a dead camel looked like. All of your great regrets. That one, I will forever turmoil and will have sleepless nights over until I redeem them.

The Saharaan detachment will be the MVP. They will be the unit I used to win the game. You're calling your shot, too. I am. I'm going to pocket that one right there. I don't think that's going to happen. You never know, Andy. No, you don't.

And second question, have you all started, to plan your first moves of the real game yet? Or are you going to wing it on the day? I have started thinking about placement and the place anywhere, it's the distribution of resources, that kind of thing. not necessarily the moves, but like that foundation setting it up.

I guess also the fact you have initiative by default if it's the same as the practice scenario. I will be reacting, I guess, from the start. Yes, that's a big focal point is who goes first and what that means. Yeah, because I do have one thing I'm weighing up, which isn't good because it's me still making a decision rather than having a plan and the game is fast approaching. But the seventh starts split up everywhere.

Yes, which I love. Yeah. And it's sort of weighing up, can I get more out of them if they are spread, if I use them a bit differently, or should the goal like number one get those guys back together into that, like powerhouse? Well, I guess straight away, you've, you know, spoiled a little bit of what I want to do to keep them apart. Okay.

Because they were scary together. I don't know if that will be a massive priority or that's just a little side mission I'll have. Like a nice to have. Yeah, like if they're nearby, and I've, I've got some good units. I'll swing over and murder them. Yeah, exactly. So I've got some ideas for my move. It is, it's broad strokes, but I think I know what I want my first turn to look like in terms of where I want to move guys and a few objectives. Yeah. The nature of it is, though, I've got to do that while countering whatever you're doing. Yeah. So I've got my first turn mapped out in my head at this point, what I want to achieve. What I will achieve will be completely different. I know that for a fact. I don't fall apart immediately when it's a sandstorm or some shit. But, Yeah, I've got a bit of an idea, so it'll be a bit of improv, as it always is. But I do have a bit of structure, James, which you might be shocked to hear based on how most of the game went. Better catch up.

Yeah, you got him, man. Otherwise, you're going to be caught unawares by the tactical genius of the Italian forces. Something that's never happened in the North African campaign. That's an oxy moron. You're a moron. Nice. Keep up the good work. You've been a good distraction

during the long hours in the lab doing my PhD. You're all certainly humbly, bravely, James. Oh, anyone is serious enough to be in a lab? I feel like shouldn't be listening to us.

I'm also kind of worried that we're being referred to as a distraction when everyone's doing important stuff. Yeah. Maybe you should turn us off, guys. I don't want to be responsible when something goes bad in a lab

or when you're referring someone to very needed services. Stop listening to the podcast. If you're listening and you're at work right now, turn it off. You need to listen to this in a quiet dark room. Yeah. One of those sensory deprivation chambers where it just plays war with a mate.

Oh, God, don't let me. Just a floating consciousness and that was talking shit. That's kind of what this is. I guess, yeah. Tell you what, Andy, since we just had one coming through, I've just seen the email. It's very short. Do you want to read this brand new one that came through just now?

Well, sure. I guess this is a first. Yeah, live email. I find James and Andy. I found your podcast for a news article about your attempts to complete the game. I'm in episode 41. I love hearing about the game in the history segments. I have one question for you. Reading that you've finished the mini session. Congrats. Thank you. I was wondering if you thought about swapping factions now that you are finished before the main game. So humble and brave, Peter? Well, Peter, as you'll have just heard, I've got a plan, so I can't do that. I would be devastated if some force forced us to me. now swap sides, because the practice run for me means I'm familiar with what I start off with, and I'm kind of braced for what's coming in terms of I get the Germans at some point. I know about the aspects of not having to do the Commonwealth production and all of the resource shipping. So, yeah, when it comes to this, swapping sides, if it was just another six-turn run,

100%. Yes. But for the 111, I think we need to take advantage of. everything we've learned, which is also the stuff about our own sides. Yeah, otherwise that practice run, we lose a lot of the big beneficial stuff that we got early on in the nature of it. So while it would be fun, I'd love to see how the other side lives. I think it would lead to a devastating outcome where I fumble the deck immediately. But thank you for that very well-timed email, Peter. Nailed it. But as well as that, thank you, Hugh, Lane and James for awesome emails. Great to see that.

You guys are all up to all sorts of interesting stuff in the background. Some of it relating to things adjacent to the game. Some of it just your own avenue. And we're really glad, as always, to play any part in a bit of levity. Because sometimes the day-to-day can be real drab and pretty sad sometimes. So sometimes it's nice to hear two idiots do something stupid. Yeah. And boy, are we good at that.

Good, Andy. Yes. That's not all we're good at. We're good at playing a board game. That's going to take forever. Well, we're doing it. Not sure good's the right word. But you're good at something else.

And that's why Andy is going to juggle right now, live on the podcast. Andy, go for it. So history segment. He's miming. Yeah, okay. Let's do some history. The men of the long-range desert patrols were quite a sight

on their return to Cairo from a most The contrast between the east and west of the Nile is very marked. In the east, the country, at this point I gave little thoughts with pastures, but had always been interesting about boats in the sea. I am more or less in a position of a cactus in command of the ship, telegram which is on the point of sinking because errors are present. We are absolutely not qualified the shared views on history. So, Andy, where and when are we?

We're in the 1930s, we're going a bit global, and we're going to talk about the League of Nations. Okay, okay. Do I need a sort of trigger warning of secret treaties? No, you're good on this one, no secret treaties this week. That's exactly what they would say. Yes, that's the problem with secret treaties. There's no way to tell. Oh, God damn it. The League of Nations is the greatest humbug in history. David Lloyd George.

Okay, not going to disagree. Also, my boy, David Lloyd George, shout out. Yep. Really like learning about him in history. So, yeah, what's the world in the League of Nations doing? 1930s. We're going to start in China. It's September 18th, 1931 at 10.20 p.m. Specific. Yep. Near a city called Mukden at the time, now known as Shenyang. A minor explosion goes off besides a railway damaging the track slightly. The explosion happens less than 800 meters from a Chinese military base. At the time, due to agreements after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had

control of the South Manchuria railway and the land around it, which is a railway through eastern China. Okay, okay. Kind of like how Britain was controlling the Suez Canal in another territory. Right, okay, I get it. So, yeah, this means the Japanese could station troops along the track to protect it. Japan investigated this explosion and blamed the attack on Chinese nationalists, claiming that they had retreated to the nearby military base to hide after blowing

up the tracks. The Japanese saw this as an attack on their sovereignty, and they responded by invading China using the soldiers stationed along the railway, as well as shipping people in. There is a slight issue with this justification, though. The track was blown up by Japanese military officers as a false flag to justify exactly what happened. Right, okay. I'm not calling that a secret treaty yet, but it is very underhand. It is, yeah. So in response to what happens, Japan calls on the League of Nations to intervene. The investigation led by a British diplomat took 18 months to arrive and didn't represent their findings to the league until 1933, two years after the incident. By that time, Japan had conquered Manchuria and set up a puppet state, Manchuko.

so really completely pointless. Yeah, that's kind of like if we find out that we did a mistake in turn one of the game in turn 50. Yeah. We can't undo that. No. And neither could Japan, by the sounds of it. No.

The report did find that Japan hadn't been acting in self-defense. So because of this, the league refused to recognize Manchugo, instead continuing to recognize Japanese sovereignty over the region and recommending that Japan remove its its, troops. The League of Nations voted to morally condemn Japan 42 to 1. Japan voted for themselves.

Of course. Yeah. In response, Japan just left the League of Nations on March 27th, 1933 and then kept doing what they were doing. The League impotently looked on from the moral high ground. Best place to stand.

Yeah. Meanwhile, in Europe, one Adolf Hitler had risen to power. It earlier in the year per first becoming Chancellor in January 30th, 1933, and then following another event that was potentially a false flag, the Reichstag fire on February 27th, which they blamed on communists, led to the suspension of civil liberties, followed by the establishment of the dictatorship in March, as Hitler had seen the League fail to do anything for Japan, well, for China against Japan. Yeah, they've really set a bit of a precedent here. Yeah. So seeing this, Germany holds a referendum where 95% of the vote was for leaving the league and disregarding the treaty of the Si.

Germany announced they're leaving the league in October. They're going to start rearmament, breaking limits on the size of their standing army and creating an air force. The league was unable to react as it relied on its members to provide forces. and everyone wanted to avoid another world war. Also, this is the early 30s, so everyone's economy is totally fucked. So this time, instead of threatening sanctions,

they appealed to Germany to re-enter the League. The League has a two-year notification period, so technically Germany was part of the League until 1935. While the League is naively trying to get Germany back on side, Hitler is just using the time to rearm while ignoring them. Of course, and then doing nothing about this, I take it. Oh, yes. Perfect. Yeah.

Seeing the completely toothless league gets Mussolini thinking. Oh, God. Knowing that there'll be no real consequences, he decides to invade Ethiopia in October 1935. That one I've heard of. Yep. Done a series of that. Gas, war crimes. We're getting all the crossovers here, right? It's all coming together.

It is. We're pulling it together. It didn't quite go as Mussolini planned, because instead of doing absolutely nothing, the league imposed token sanctions which deliberately excluded critical war resources like steel and fuel. This completely lackless the response made Mussolini furious and he channeled it into nationalist support blaming the league for the state of the Italian economy,

neatly sidestepping his massive fuck-ups in the Italian public's eyes. There's something funny about you disseminating the history segments into something so neat and tied to and then putting fuck-ups in there. So Italy leaves the League of Nations on December 11th, 1937. So now Germany, Japan and Italy have left the League of Nations. I'm sure those three don't get together later. No, no, I can't see that happening. Surely not.

Italy being one of the core great powers that was part of, remember that they had the central council where they had to be unanimous and it was the great powers in it. Yes. As like the innermost layer of the League of Nations. Yes, yes, I remember that. Yeah.

Well, because Italy is one of them and they've left, it deals a huge blow to the prestige and solidity of the league. And on the other side, Ethiopia and China were both members of the league and were completely unprotected. So every big, aggressive country is going, I can ignore them. And all the little countries are being like, well this can't help me

yeah there's no longer a benefit to it at all yeah oh my god I think we're seeing the fall of it we are um by 1938 the league was completely around there it is which means it was able to do nothing when German he started to remilitarise the Germans and Italians

formed the Axis in 1936 things ramp up this point back in China as well at the Marco Polo bridge incident happens. So Japan have progressed with their first invasion of Manchuria. It's somewhat settled down, but they're still

fighting skirmishes and stuff like that, and Japan's starting to surround Beijing. So on July 7th, 1937, a Japanese soldier called Shimaru Kikarugio, went missing

and not returning to his post. Because of this, the Japanese forces demand the near my village of Wan Ping to be allowed to search for the missing soldier the Chinese garrison refuses despite private

Shimura returning to his post and being found the Japanese continue to escalate their demands what demand at that point to search? They found the guy it's the same with the train track explosion it's like we're going to do this we need a justification and then the guy shows up and it's like

well we're still going to do it Yeah, private Shimmera claimed to have gone away from his post in order to relieve a nasty stomach ache and became lost after relieving himself in the woods. Also, that guy's lying. That guy's full of shit. Other sources claim he was visiting a brothel. Right, okay, there we go.

I knew that guy was absolutely talking shit. Regardless of whether or not he was shitting or fucking, his absence was the spark that led to the second Sino-Japanese War, resulting in 15 to 30 million taves. You stupid horned off, what are you doing? You either ate something bad or you just needed to get your rocks off. Whatever it was, you caused a fucking war. Yeah.

This guy's an asshole. Just like, also the fact, you know you sometimes hear about, like, there was the story of that this guy went missing on a night out, and then he showed up and joined his own search party in the morning. Yes. It's kind of the same energy. with this guy being like, we've got to get that bad guy back guys

as he's with them. Yeah, apparently this guy was really ill and he didn't go anywhere else. Also, we should close down that brothel and make sure they all got fired. So that's the complete failure of the League of Nations during the 1930s.

I don't know if I'm more angry at the Toothless League of Nations for their failures across all of Europe and indeed the globe. Yeah. Or this guy for being the worst either sick or horny man

ever. It's it is crazy when like one guy you can point to that definitively. Like it would have happened anyway. It was the excuse, but you can't point and be like that that is the spark that set this off.

Oh yeah, like I know for a fact based on everything we've got in historical context. Japan was going to make this move regardless, but I don't like that this guy gave them such a clear window. It's like, you know, when you hear about the guy in the Cold War

who stopped the missiles from firing. Yeah, this guy's the reverse. Yeah, this is the inverse. This guy wouldn't have fired the missiles because he was taking a shale. Do you know James Blunt had a similar thing, apparently? Oh, yeah, didn't he, like, get orders to go into a country or something, and I'd said no or something like that? Yeah, so apparently some U.S. General had, like, ordered him. He was part of some, like, he was head of some company or, I'm not sure what, like the...

He was a captain, I know that much. He was a tank guy, wasn't he? I think so, yeah, I know he was a captain, and you got some orders to, like, storm this Russian air bay. and refused to. And apparently they then just kind of starve them out a bit. And then they were like, okay, we'll just, we'll share the air base. Yeah. But it's a situation where if you went in and took it, it would just massively escalate a converse.

Yeah, snowball. So, yeah, big up James Blunt. What a guy. Yeah. What a singer. I mean. Back to Bedlam, best-selling album of the Norties. And deservedly so.

Absolutely. Some of the tracks in that. Yeah. Your beautiful Billy, that's underrated. track. Wise man. Out of my mind. What a fucking anthem collection.

That guy can do no musical wrong in my mind. In that album? The one after's all right. Yeah, he's got a great one. He's got moon landing. New song circles. We swear to God he doesn't sponsor us, but...

But you know what, guys? Go check out James Blunt. If James Blunt wants to sponsor us, I'm not going to say no. I mean... So half of you seem we've started drinking Huel despite my strict instructions. So go listen to James Blunt. Yeah, we're both saying listen to James Blunt.

Only one half of us is saying Huel is great. By the way, Huel, we're still waiting to hear back from you. We emailed you like two years ago. And is it lost in the cyber mail? They'll get to us. Idris Elber, you're a big huligan. Are you going to reach out? You're going to stand up for the little guy?

Yeah, he loves Hule and gold. Yeah, and gold. Yeah. Idris Hylba's big on gold. Yeah, he has a documentary about gold. Oh, sweet. Well, Check that now as well, guys.

Idris Elba, either get us sponsored by Huell or gold. I'd prefer gold. We'll take either. Oh, the gold-backed Huel. Well, what a fantastic wrap-up of the League of Nations. And also, everyone, a round of applause for Andy, powering through while ill, for another fantastic history segment.

And also the fact that he got in some choice swear words in there, doing it all. An NSFW history segment. You really let the passion flow through there. There's a lot of beer like, why are they doing this? Like, guys, please, like every decision in this entire history segment annoyed me. It's fun seeing a bleed through into your history. Oh, man, well, at least, Andy, when all of these ne'er-do-wells and cheeky chaps of the past, very much downplaying some of it, or getting up to their naughty nature. At least we are doing something that's not only fun and lighthearted,

but each week we've got a chance to put all that aside, and we can move on. We can't. Common ground. Let's do it. And now for something nicer, a little oasis in the wall. It's time for some common ground.

I'm trying to intro of the common ground. I'm recording. Maybe. Common ground is, of course, the segment in which me and Andy come together as friends at the end of each session of conflict. Again, we're in the hiatus, stakes on too high. And, well, that's good, because Andy, it's you. And in your dishevelled state today, have you got a topic for us to discuss and agree on? I do have one.

Let's hear it. You know how buildings can get listed? Yeah. Restaurants should be able to, too. Should get listed? Yeah. Okay. This is going to be a hard one.

fine dining places either. Good, because based on what I've just told you earlier, that could be a hard sell for me today. I'm going to tell you about a problem that only affects me really and isn't really a problem, but it makes me angry. Okay, I'd love to hear it. There's been three to four places I like to get a breakfast sandwich on a Friday from as like a little treat for the end of the week.

Right, okay. And they've all gone out of business. anywhere that does good breakfast sandwiches dies within six months in Newcastle. I want to be able to list them. I want people to be able to go, yeah, they're clearly not making money, but we want it to be around.

Right, okay, a bit of an issue here. And I know that common ground is driven by hubris and selfishness. Yes. But that's usually my angle. It's rare for you to drop one like this. I've got to say, Andy, I'm kind of disappointed in you. You were the best of us. I miss my breakfast bar me.

So your point there is that we should have a situation where people are saying, no, we want this place open. But the problem is, Andy, the people have proven they don't want this place open. Because they don't close if they're doing well. The restaurants, it's a tough biz. No, I know. I know. That's why the good ones succeed. There's a lot of bad restaurants that hang around.

Not for very long. Yes. Okay, so what is going to be your spin on it? How are you going to make this happen? Show me the workings out. Because right now all you've told me is you want a breakfast place to stay open. Is that too much to ask? Maybe. I don't know yet because so far, I don't know what the impact is going to be on me.

And again, selfish and hubris. I don't know if this is going to be any detriment to James. This is going to be a UK-based implementation, but we can move it. We can change it and adopt it. You want to go global. eventually. You already want to go global. But you know what they say?

Think global, do local or something. When the fuck? Has it no one said that. Anyway, your local elections, you know, for your like counselor or whatever. Yeah, I'm aware of them. Okay. When you go in and do that, there's a separate sheet and you can pick one restaurant. And whichever one wins will stay open.

how many restaurants are on their sheath? Maybe it's a write-in. Okay. But it's only restaurants in the ward. Right, okay. But then you've got the same problem, Andy, because restaurants in the ward, they're probably visited by people who are in the area. Yes. And if it's a write-in, it's just the same as buying stuff from the restaurant. Am I supposed to get five breakfast sandwiches a week to keep a place open? That's not on me. No, you're right. Damn right, it's not. Are I supposed to... Are I supposed to tar roads?

Put in power lines? What that hell is going on to do? Am I supposed to collect rubbish? No. The council does it. You want the council to bail out failing restaurants so you can get a breakfast sandwich. Yes.

I'm sorry, but there's so little structure to this. I feel like you're usually the straight man in these common grounds, but for some reason this has flipped a day and you've fallen off the rails. I don't know if you've got too much lempsip but you can't get the council to bail out of restaurant business We

We just need to keep one place Do you have a place in mind? Not at the minute There was a breakfast barmee place That did barmees With like spice sausages Glorious One of the best things ever

They went out of business Because it was a shop They only saw barmeas That's that's stupid Then there was a pizza place. The pizza place is still open, but they've stopped do a breakfast service. I guess, so, yeah, because...

Did an excellent breakfast muffin. Pizza places, to be fair, en masse, don't do... Yeah, pizzas don't do breakfast place. But people also don't get pizza for breakfast, so... I do the... I know, but do the breakfast and then do your pizza. No, because then we got the same issue that I have with McDonald's, which is the idea that at one point they floated,

will always do the breakfast menu. Yes, where they were going to do the Mick cafes that did the 24-hour breakfast menus. Yeah, which would piss me off, by the way, because... Awesome. I'm a fan of that as well. Because if I'm going to McDonald's, I want to get, like, the actual McDonald's stuff. I want to get a McMurfin.

I want 20 chicken nuggets. And if I can get breakfast 24-7, but I can only get chicken nuggets, like, daytime. What's going on there? Breakfast foods are better. No. And more evergreen. More ever-egrine.

green. Than late in the day foods. You're just throwing out buzzwords here. Nothing that you said makes any... Bacon, good all day. Yes. Sausages. Good all day.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Eggs. I don't care for eggs. That's fine. Eggs good all day. Eggs is also your nickname, Andy. It was briefly.

No, not briefly. I guess it's still a egg. Because I got eggs once. Yeah. Yeah, they're all good all day. The first. do, I'm fine with. Eggs, I can't agree with you on. Because you just personally don't like eggs, though.

Yeah. That's nothing to do with their suitability. You just asked the council to bail out a fucking restaurant, Andy. Is that too much to ask? Yes. Yes. That's my retort. Yes, is the answer. One every couple years.

What? Just keep one of them open. Yeah, it's apparently specifically the one that you're eating from. Yeah. Was it priced reasonably? Yes. It was very good, very generously priced food, which meant it went out of business. Well, have you not thought about the fact there might be something else to play here, food standards, or was it money laundering?

Or they just needed a bit of extra help. So instead, where can we go? You can get some like anemic bacon in a white roll where they haven't, there's just shit. I swear to God, if you're talking about Greggs. No. Okay, good. Gregs is kind of fine because it's like the fallback because there's no good breakfast places.

But that is a good breakfast place. You've got Greggs. No, it's not. I had a Greggs today. I had it twice because I had it for breakfast and I had four sausage rolls for dinner. And that's good. Gregs is good occasionally.

But it's not. Go to Greggs. They've got a loyalty card. I swear to God, Gregs aren't sponsoring us either. James Blunt sings there occasionally. So would you be few? Curious if they did the Greg's breakfast all day. No.

But you would at McDonald's. Yeah, okay. What's going on there, man? Yes, but if they also, if they just also didn't do sausage. I can go into Gregg's, and if I can get breakfast, I can get a sausage roll. That's, yeah. They don't complementalize it like McDonald's plan to. McDonald's wanted to have no chicken nuggets through the night, but they would do the breakfast

stuff through the night. And then they would also do breakfast stuff during the day. Yeah. I don't want that. I'm sure you don't, but it's not about you. If you're doing some of it 24-7, oh sorry, I forgot. Common Ground, it's one person gets to soapbox and the other person can't talk about anything. If something's 24-7, it's all 24-7.

Okay, I can agree with you on that. Okay. So I will only agree to this bailout thing if these restaurants, this apparently very niche restaurant that you're going to, which by the way, I'm going to get you to show me after this. They're all our business. It's my complaint. Is it Revolution to Cuba? No, they do terrible food.

Well, in that case, if this place is also going to do something I like 24-7. Okay. That works. This place, they get voted, and then they have to do their entire menu 24-7. But they get some help in exchange. Okay, no, that's good,

because I'm sick of places that are open. and I really want a takeaway, for example, or just a convenient snack late at night. I don't want to have to wait until morning or just accept to eat what I've got in the house. We live in an age of convenience. Let's be more convenient. I'm pretty sure in the first episode we talked,

it was either the first common ground or the first episode ever, we talked about the idea of Uber-eathing refillable drinks. Yes, we did. Over and over. Yes. And this harkens back to that idea. And I think it's a beautiful. idea. It keeps people in work. It keeps us fed and watered. And it also gives a nice

thriving, like, big apple city that never sleeps kind of vibe to a humble northeast city in England. Yep. And I think if we got that environment, imagine how great it would be. Just it's always hustle and bustle. There's always food flowing through the streets. Not in like a dirty way, like you've dropped your food. Like, no, it's just, just the smell of, what were you eating? What was the food you talked about? Oh, my breakfast bar me. Yeah, yeah.

That, yeah, I've never had one. You wouldn't like it, but it's very nice. And I'm fine, because I know that what I like isn't going to be what everyone likes. Yeah. Part of what you've got to accept is that no one liked that apparently, because the business went under. But if we can get them to diversify their menu and become one of these terrible places that do everything, like pizza, fish and chips, pies, steak for some reason. Why the fuck are those places still?

all open. They never die. The places where you can buy like, oh, you can buy a bucket of chalemain, a pizza with kebab on it, and like something that they call a salad. And it's all shit. None of it's good.

But it's variety. What's going on in those kitchens, by the way? I mean, horrific things. What the fuck does that look like behind the scenes? I mean, a very good local pizza place to us. They tried to put someone in one of the ovens and it was on the news.

Yeah, that wasn't good. That was when we lived together. That put me off that place a little bit. Yeah, same. Yeah, I don't think vicious attacks or good customer advertisement. No. Yeah, I'm with you, man. I think we need to encourage the good places to diversify until they kill off their quality.

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain. Here's the actual plan to save them that might actually. none of this was the past. By workshopping, that's how we do this. That's fair. That is true. We find the places that are like good for a bit of the day coordinate

with like a late night place so that the place is being used constantly and it can have a bunch of diverse stuff and then the people can just focus on the bit they're good at and not have to pay as like much of rent. So the place is always open. Never gets time to get cleaned.

Yeah. Yeah. Now I'm starting to see what the problem is here. We just need a way for me to get a breakfast sandwich. If anyone can think of a way, if I need to get a breakfast sandwich reliably, we'd love to know. And don't say you can make one, because that's not part of the appeal of a breakfast sandwich. Part of it is you're getting a meal essentially full of breakfast. I don't want to make it myself.

I can. I don't want to. You heard of hear first folks, Andy's selfish. And then over-consuming. I don't think I would have been ill if I could have got a breakfast sandwich this morning. It sounds like it's your throat. You've been coughing a lot. Yeah.

I don't think a breakfast sandwich. You described it as spicy sausage, I believe. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think that's going to help a sore throat. Pate. So good. Look, I'm all for the 24-hour thing. I think we just need to make sure it's cleaned occasionally.

That's fair. But apart from that, yeah, I'm with this. Okay. I think we keep the cycle open. It keeps you fed and it stops you becoming gravely ill for some reason. I don't know what they're putting in that, but now I think it is some sort of addictive substance that you're having withdrawal from. That's very possible.

Well, with that, we'll let Andy get some sleep. If anyone has any ideas on any way to get Andy a breakfast sandwich reliably, or better yet, something about the game. Or like, fix it. my brain. I'm sorry, guys. This one feels like it was bad. To be fair, the history segment was absolute gold. Okay. It might just be me feeling bad. I think you're getting like paranoid. It's like it's just anxiety through illness.

But if anyone wants to get in touch, ask any questions. You know what to do so through info at at war withamate.com.uk. You can use the web form at warwithamate.com at our website. You can catch us on Instagram at War with the Mate. YouTube will be updating as and when, and that's where we'll be hosting the live stream on the 30th of October. The full game begins. And that pretty much wraps it all up into a neat bow.

Yeah. I've been James. I've been Andy. Stay subtle, humble and brave. In those spicy sausage, deserted deserts of your minds. Good night.