Good episode. Keeping up the tradition of Deutsche Bahn delayed train callbacks... Ep.1 spoilers It feels a little unfair that the Netherlands challenge was effectively impossible but I guess they...
Good episode. Keeping up the tradition of Deutsche Bahn delayed train callbacks...
Ep.1 spoilers
It feels a little unfair that the Netherlands challenge was effectively impossible but I guess they get to leave a trap for the others while keeping the country fairly safely in their hands, so... That's probably fine?
Intuitively, for now, I'm not sure it's worth spending too much time locking countries unless they're either very central on the board or part of a cluster of countries easily accessible from each other, and even the central ones are dubious. For example, locking Belgium means it's less attractive for the opponent to go to the benelux because there are fewer countries they can get in a short period of time by spending that time and budget, but flying directly to a large country to challenge it places them farther away from the others, so instead of locking it they could spend that time going to more countries... I'd personally focus on travelling through as many countries as possible. (Though I remember in a previous season aggressively stealing working for Adam and Ben.)
I liked the wall of waffles. I see this is Taskmaster rules, all the information is on the task! I was thinking it's not the first time (or second) that Sam underestimates the difficulty of tossing bouncy thing into other thing, elastic collisions are unpredictable...
For such an experienced group it was surprising they had no "german money" (euros) on them. It's the same currency in every country they're likely to visit during this game except Switzerand!
I just replied in Radeon 9070 review thread that I have my evening program set up and now this! Ok, I have to wedge this episode somewhere as I really am looking forward to watching it.
I just replied in Radeon 9070 review thread that I have my evening program set up and now this! Ok, I have to wedge this episode somewhere as I really am looking forward to watching it.
I thought he'd be competitive. He's way more competitive than I expected. He's almost manic, and Sam almost looks uncomfortable with the energy from time to time. Great partner for Sam.
I thought he'd be competitive. He's way more competitive than I expected. He's almost manic, and Sam almost looks uncomfortable with the energy from time to time.
Tom is very competitive - when he was on Marques Brownlee's WVFRM podcast, they finish each episode by challenging their guest to type the alphabet. Before his attempt, Tom got his glasses,...
Tom is very competitive - when he was on Marques Brownlee's WVFRM podcast, they finish each episode by challenging their guest to type the alphabet. Before his attempt, Tom got his glasses, requested to compete on his own laptop/keyboard, then topped the leaderboard by almost a full second.
This was fun and I really appreciated the producers filming cos I have to ration normal Jet Lag (like 15min at a time) or I get motionsick, but I was able to watch this one all the way through...
This was fun and I really appreciated the producers filming cos I have to ration normal Jet Lag (like 15min at a time) or I get motionsick, but I was able to watch this one all the way through with no issue!
Ah no I haven't followed him for long, but having listened to all of Lateral, I think he runs a non-competitive show to dodge that particular instinct of his!
Ah no I haven't followed him for long, but having listened to all of Lateral, I think he runs a non-competitive show to dodge that particular instinct of his!
I can gift you a week of Nebula access if you'd like (DM me an email address). That'll let you watch episodes 1 and 2 before you lose access (but then you'll need to wait 2 weeks to watch episode 3).
I can gift you a week of Nebula access if you'd like (DM me an email address). That'll let you watch episodes 1 and 2 before you lose access (but then you'll need to wait 2 weeks to watch episode 3).
I don't really want to do the free trial (which is what I understand their gift to be), thanks though. I can't add a new service for now but maybe when we cycle out streaming next time The...
I don't really want to do the free trial (which is what I understand their gift to be), thanks though. I can't add a new service for now but maybe when we cycle out streaming next time
If you’re subbed to Nebula, you have the Layover podcast where they talk about all the behind the scenes. I might still have some Nebula trials around so let me know! Edit: Just read on another...
If you’re subbed to Nebula, you have the Layover podcast where they talk about all the behind the scenes.
I might still have some Nebula trials around so let me know!
Edit: Just read on another thread that you might not be keen so no worries.
Just started epidsode 2 (which is out on Nebula now), and don't know what will happen, but the shot of that bike guy at the beginning of the video is comedy gold. :D [Edit:] Also now that I've...
Just started epidsode 2 (which is out on Nebula now), and don't know what will happen, but the shot of that bike guy at the beginning of the video is comedy gold. :D
[Edit:] Also now that I've watched it I gotta say I appreciate that they did not end it on a cliffhanger this time. It would've been very easy to do one given...
...how close it was in the end. That perfectly bottled 'Ode an die Freude' by Adam was simply beautiful. Glad I got to experience that before going to sleep today.
At the end of their last podcast they talk about cliffhangers a bit. They prefer to finish any story they were telling that episode, and give some sort of teaser of something fun which is going to...
end it on a cliffhanger
At the end of their last podcast they talk about cliffhangers a bit. They prefer to finish any story they were telling that episode, and give some sort of teaser of something fun which is going to happen next time.
Yeah, some very funny moments! Ep. 2 spoilers It's too bad we didn't get to see the Tom/Sam team do much today. Adam and Ben really deserved that win, they worked hard for it! "A huge strategy in...
Yeah, some very funny moments!
Ep. 2 spoilers
It's too bad we didn't get to see the Tom/Sam team do much today.
Adam and Ben really deserved that win, they worked hard for it!
"A huge strategy in this game should be to avoid Germany entirely..." This is getting brutal. On the one hand it's really shameful for the country of Germany. But at the same time, I'm getting progressively more worried they'll try to visit Portugal one day and realize, along with every viewer, how much worse it can be.
Several more good moments, the guy on the bike waving, the person who stopped on the doorway, etc.
I've always thought that trains that do not exist usually leave from platform 9¾, but it turns out... ...if rhey're 10 minutes late they may just leave from platform 3 instead. [episode 3 reference]
I've always thought that trains that do not exist usually leave from platform 9¾, but it turns out...
...if rhey're 10 minutes late they may just leave from platform 3 instead.
Episode 1 spoilers I'm an American but I lived in Schaffhausen, Switzerland (okay, technically Diessenhofen, but I went to school in Schaffhausen and my dad's office was in Bahnhof Schaffhausen)...
Episode 1 spoilers
I'm an American but I lived in Schaffhausen, Switzerland (okay, technically Diessenhofen, but I went to school in Schaffhausen and my dad's office was in Bahnhof Schaffhausen) as a kid and every time they're in Europe I've been waiting for them to go there and I finally got Adam and Ben through! They only showed Rhine Falls but it was still really cool to see :)
Halfway through episode 1 Perhaps this gets explained later, but I'm not sure I understand the mechanics of claiming countries. Ben&Adam briefly passed through Germany, but then went back into...
Halfway through episode 1
Perhaps this gets explained later, but I'm not sure I understand the mechanics of claiming countries. Ben&Adam briefly passed through Germany, but then went back into Switzerland. Sam&Tom abandoned their plans to go to Aachen, but if they had kept going and got there before B&A made it out of Schaffhausen, could they have immediately flipped the country and started the challenge themselves? Can both race to do the challenge at the same time? And what happens when one team enters the country while the other is still there in general?
It's maybe easier to think about it in terms of three states: unclaimed, claimed, and locked. All countries start unclaimed. The first team to step foot in the country will claim it. Claiming a...
It's maybe easier to think about it in terms of three states: unclaimed, claimed, and locked.
All countries start unclaimed.
The first team to step foot in the country will claim it.
Claiming a country gives you the point, but it's still available to be locked by the other team completing the challenge first.
The second team to step foot in the country does not claim it as it is already claimed. It's a first-come-first-served kind of deal.
Each team can attempt the challenge once to try and lock the country to their team (keeping the point if they claimed it, or stealing the point if the other team had claimed it).
So to make sure I got this right, let’s do a fictional example: Start of the game, the country is unclaimed. Team A sets foot in it and claims it, giving them a tentative +1 point. Now I can think...
So to make sure I got this right, let’s do a fictional example:
Start of the game, the country is unclaimed. Team A sets foot in it and claims it, giving them a tentative +1 point. Now I can think of several scenarios:
Team A does not attempt the challenge and moves on. Later, team B also travels through the country. They do not automatically claim it for themselves, but they may attempt the challenge. If they succeed, they flip and lock the country. If they fail, team A has the country guaranteed.
Team A attempts the challenge, either immediately or at some later point. If they succeed, the country is locked and no one can steal it anymore. If they fail, it’s like in the first situation, except they no longer have the option to try the challenge anymore.
Then there are some edge cases, notably, how does it work when both are in the country at the same time? Can they race to do the challenge and whoever gets it first gets the country? Or does one team get to try first uncontested, and if so, is it the one who first claimed it, or the one who first opened the envelope?
Episode 1 spoilers In that case I'm baffled why they didn't continue to Aachen. It would've been a very close race since they both got to Germany around the same time; I think Sam&Tom could've...
Episode 1 spoilers
In that case I'm baffled why they didn't continue to Aachen. It would've been a very close race since they both got to Germany around the same time; I think Sam&Tom could've even started a challenge first, and locking the netherlands didn't seem like a high priority at the moment anyway, as this early on, just grabbing as many countries as possible has got to be ideal, and they wanted to go to Germany anyway to fly to Vienna
Reply Well, there are two different ways competing for the same country can be wasteful: That the challenge will waste a lot of time, or that the other team will complete the challenge before you...
Reply
Well, there are two different ways competing for the same country can be wasteful: That the challenge will waste a lot of time, or that the other team will complete the challenge before you can. They didn't know what the challenge was; if it was something doable in 5 minutes then being two and a half minutes late would be enough for the other team to have a massive advantage.
My understanding is that even passing through a country on land is enough to claim it, but flipping it only happens if the other team successfully completes the challenge.
My understanding is that even passing through a country on land is enough to claim it, but flipping it only happens if the other team successfully completes the challenge.
That doesn't sound right. I saw an interview where they mentioned that if someone just tried to travel quickly across many countries, the other team could just tail them and flip everything right...
That doesn't sound right. I saw an interview where they mentioned that if someone just tried to travel quickly across many countries, the other team could just tail them and flip everything right back.
It did sound like that perhaps once you've tried (and failed) the challenge it becomes like that? Time will surely tell but as pretty much every time I wished they gave just a bit clearer rule explanations, I always feel like I can't properly follow along with their strategizing as I don't understand the rules well enough...
Having listened to The Layover, I am confident I understand how it works in general, and that this is a short way to describe it: An unclaimed country becomes claimed when entered*. A claimed...
Having listened to The Layover, I am confident I understand how it works in general, and that this is a short way to describe it:
An unclaimed country becomes claimed when entered*.
A claimed country switches to the other team if and only if the other team is the first team to succeed in the challenge in that country.**
Each team may only attempt the challenge in each country once. They can do so regardless of who has claimed it. Both teams may be attempting the challenge at the same time.
You do not need to inform the other team that you've started a challenge. However, as soon as you succeed or fail a challenge, you must inform the other team.
*If a team is travelling on the ground on an unclaimed country, they claim but do not lock that country. For trains, buses, etc. this is as soon as you cross the border. For flights, you count the time when wheels hit the ground. Landing as part of switching to a connecting flight on a longer purchased trip does not count.
** This means that as soon as either team succeeds on a challenge in a country, it is under their control and will remain so for the rest of the game. The other team gets nothing if they succeed on the challenge in that country at a later point, so there's no reason for them to start or continue that challenge.
I know you can only do the challenge once, but you're right that it's unclear. I guess that's one of the benefits of listening to their podcast, where they can get deeper into the mechanics than...
I know you can only do the challenge once, but you're right that it's unclear. I guess that's one of the benefits of listening to their podcast, where they can get deeper into the mechanics than makes for interesting episodes.
Tom Scott! ❤️
Episode 1 is out on Nebula!
Good episode. Keeping up the tradition of Deutsche Bahn delayed train callbacks...
Ep.1 spoilers
It feels a little unfair that the Netherlands challenge was effectively impossible but I guess they get to leave a trap for the others while keeping the country fairly safely in their hands, so... That's probably fine?
Intuitively, for now, I'm not sure it's worth spending too much time locking countries unless they're either very central on the board or part of a cluster of countries easily accessible from each other, and even the central ones are dubious. For example, locking Belgium means it's less attractive for the opponent to go to the benelux because there are fewer countries they can get in a short period of time by spending that time and budget, but flying directly to a large country to challenge it places them farther away from the others, so instead of locking it they could spend that time going to more countries... I'd personally focus on travelling through as many countries as possible. (Though I remember in a previous season aggressively stealing working for Adam and Ben.)
I liked the wall of waffles. I see this is Taskmaster rules, all the information is on the task! I was thinking it's not the first time (or second) that Sam underestimates the difficulty of tossing bouncy thing into other thing, elastic collisions are unpredictable...
For such an experienced group it was surprising they had no "german money" (euros) on them. It's the same currency in every country they're likely to visit during this game except Switzerand!
Funny how quickly Tom Scott ran into a fan!
Well that's a good surprise, I know what I'm putting on in the background of work today!
Background? It deserves full attention!
I just replied in Radeon 9070 review thread that I have my evening program set up and now this! Ok, I have to wedge this episode somewhere as I really am looking forward to watching it.
I love the way Tom interacts with Sam! He brings a great energy to the team.
I thought he'd be competitive. He's way more competitive than I expected. He's almost manic, and Sam almost looks uncomfortable with the energy from time to time.
Great partner for Sam.
Tom is very competitive - when he was on Marques Brownlee's WVFRM podcast, they finish each episode by challenging their guest to type the alphabet. Before his attempt, Tom got his glasses, requested to compete on his own laptop/keyboard, then topped the leaderboard by almost a full second.
If you want a bit more Tom with the Jet Lag crew they did a previous video together
This was fun and I really appreciated the producers filming cos I have to ration normal Jet Lag (like 15min at a time) or I get motionsick, but I was able to watch this one all the way through with no issue!
I still was caught off guard. I assumed this was because he was "in charge," and underestimated how much was his competitive nature xD
Ah no I haven't followed him for long, but having listened to all of Lateral, I think he runs a non-competitive show to dodge that particular instinct of his!
A reasonable suggestion!
Episode 1 is on YouTube now too:
We Raced To Visit The Most European Countries In 6 Days
I have bad news. I've watched everything except Connect Four. And now I'm just hesitating to watch it because then I'm caught up.
Episode 1 is fun. Being caught up isn't so bad.
Of connect 4? Or this? I don't have Nebula so I have to wait.
I can gift you a week of Nebula access if you'd like (DM me an email address). That'll let you watch episodes 1 and 2 before you lose access (but then you'll need to wait 2 weeks to watch episode 3).
I don't really want to do the free trial (which is what I understand their gift to be), thanks though. I can't add a new service for now but maybe when we cycle out streaming next time
The kindness is much appreciated
If you’re subbed to Nebula, you have the Layover podcast where they talk about all the behind the scenes.
I might still have some Nebula trials around so let me know!
Edit: Just read on another thread that you might not be keen so no worries.
I'd enjoy it, but I don't like that their guest pass is just a trial and I can't swing another sub right now. I appreciate the offer
I may take you up on that offer once we get close to the finale, because with or without the trial we'll have to exercise patience and wait a week.
Just started epidsode 2 (which is out on Nebula now), and don't know what will happen, but the shot of that bike guy at the beginning of the video is comedy gold. :D
[Edit:] Also now that I've watched it I gotta say I appreciate that they did not end it on a cliffhanger this time. It would've been very easy to do one given...
...how close it was in the end. That perfectly bottled 'Ode an die Freude' by Adam was simply beautiful. Glad I got to experience that before going to sleep today.
I was genuinely on the edge of my seat while Adam was playing that, it was amazing and hilarious at the same time.
I know, right?
I can't believe I was so nervous watching that part.Ep 3 spoilers
They did it again with the Deja Vu in Switzerland challenge!!!
At the end of their last podcast they talk about cliffhangers a bit. They prefer to finish any story they were telling that episode, and give some sort of teaser of something fun which is going to happen next time.
No major spoilers for episode 2, but I'm not sure if I've ever laughed more at Jet Lag.
Yeah, some very funny moments!
Ep. 2 spoilers
It's too bad we didn't get to see the Tom/Sam team do much today.
Adam and Ben really deserved that win, they worked hard for it!
"A huge strategy in this game should be to avoid Germany entirely..." This is getting brutal. On the one hand it's really shameful for the country of Germany. But at the same time, I'm getting progressively more worried they'll try to visit Portugal one day and realize, along with every viewer, how much worse it can be.
Several more good moments, the guy on the bike waving, the person who stopped on the doorway, etc.
Ah, it's mostly fine there, in my experience. Just getting out of Portugal by train is a pain :)
Episode 2 is on YouTube:
We Raced To Visit The Most European Countries In 6 Days
I've always thought that trains that do not exist usually leave from platform 9¾, but it turns out...
...if rhey're 10 minutes late they may just leave from platform 3 instead.[episode 3 reference]
Episode 1 spoilers
I'm an American but I lived in Schaffhausen, Switzerland (okay, technically Diessenhofen, but I went to school in Schaffhausen and my dad's office was in Bahnhof Schaffhausen) as a kid and every time they're in Europe I've been waiting for them to go there and I finally got Adam and Ben through! They only showed Rhine Falls but it was still really cool to see :)
Halfway through episode 1
Perhaps this gets explained later, but I'm not sure I understand the mechanics of claiming countries. Ben&Adam briefly passed through Germany, but then went back into Switzerland. Sam&Tom abandoned their plans to go to Aachen, but if they had kept going and got there before B&A made it out of Schaffhausen, could they have immediately flipped the country and started the challenge themselves? Can both race to do the challenge at the same time? And what happens when one team enters the country while the other is still there in general?
It's maybe easier to think about it in terms of three states: unclaimed, claimed, and locked.
So to make sure I got this right, let’s do a fictional example:
Start of the game, the country is unclaimed. Team A sets foot in it and claims it, giving them a tentative +1 point. Now I can think of several scenarios:
Then there are some edge cases, notably, how does it work when both are in the country at the same time? Can they race to do the challenge and whoever gets it first gets the country? Or does one team get to try first uncontested, and if so, is it the one who first claimed it, or the one who first opened the envelope?
I think you have it right. Based on past seasons, I imagine the first team to complete the challenge would lock the country.
Episode 1 spoilers
In that case I'm baffled why they didn't continue to Aachen. It would've been a very close race since they both got to Germany around the same time; I think Sam&Tom could've even started a challenge first, and locking the netherlands didn't seem like a high priority at the moment anyway, as this early on, just grabbing as many countries as possible has got to be ideal, and they wanted to go to Germany anyway to fly to Vienna
Reply
Well, there are two different ways competing for the same country can be wasteful: That the challenge will waste a lot of time, or that the other team will complete the challenge before you can. They didn't know what the challenge was; if it was something doable in 5 minutes then being two and a half minutes late would be enough for the other team to have a massive advantage.
My understanding is that even passing through a country on land is enough to claim it, but flipping it only happens if the other team successfully completes the challenge.
That doesn't sound right. I saw an interview where they mentioned that if someone just tried to travel quickly across many countries, the other team could just tail them and flip everything right back.
It did sound like that perhaps once you've tried (and failed) the challenge it becomes like that? Time will surely tell but as pretty much every time I wished they gave just a bit clearer rule explanations, I always feel like I can't properly follow along with their strategizing as I don't understand the rules well enough...
Having listened to The Layover, I am confident I understand how it works in general, and that this is a short way to describe it:
An unclaimed country becomes claimed when entered*.
A claimed country switches to the other team if and only if the other team is the first team to succeed in the challenge in that country.**
Each team may only attempt the challenge in each country once. They can do so regardless of who has claimed it. Both teams may be attempting the challenge at the same time.
You do not need to inform the other team that you've started a challenge. However, as soon as you succeed or fail a challenge, you must inform the other team.
*If a team is travelling on the ground on an unclaimed country, they claim but do not lock that country. For trains, buses, etc. this is as soon as you cross the border. For flights, you count the time when wheels hit the ground. Landing as part of switching to a connecting flight on a longer purchased trip does not count.
** This means that as soon as either team succeeds on a challenge in a country, it is under their control and will remain so for the rest of the game. The other team gets nothing if they succeed on the challenge in that country at a later point, so there's no reason for them to start or continue that challenge.
Thanks for that description, that is very clear now and definitely not the impression I got from watching the episode.
I know you can only do the challenge once, but you're right that it's unclear. I guess that's one of the benefits of listening to their podcast, where they can get deeper into the mechanics than makes for interesting episodes.