Squarriors: The Card Game and Curious Beasts Red Blend

Curious Beasts Red Blend and Squarriors: The Card GameThis week, Suzy and I explored the mysterious pairing of Curious Beasts Red Blend 2021 and the post-apocalyptic card game Squarriors. Both offered a lot to look at and talk about, but we quickly discovered some unexpected twists along the way.The Wine: Curious BeastsWe kicked things off with Curious Beasts, a red blend with bold flavors of cherry, plum, and just a hint of oak and pepper. The bottle design really caught our attention—it's decked out with skeletons in sombreros, roses, and gothic-style fonts. Unfortunately, tracking down info about this wine was like solving a mystery. The winery's social media has been silent since 2018, and the website is defunct.Taste-wise, it was smooth and juicy, leaning sweeter than we expected. Suzy described it as “cherry wine-esque,” while I thought it would pair nicely with burgers or pizza but not richer dishes like lamb. We couldn't find much else about it, but if you stumble across this wine on clearance like we did, it's worth a try for the cool bottle alone.The Game: SquarriorsAfter the wine, we dove into Squarriors, a card game where sentient squirrels battle it out in a post-human world. I picked this game up at Half Price Books because, come on, “squirrel warriors” sounded too cool to pass up. It's based on a comic series, but like the wine, the game and its creators seem to have vanished from the internet.The gameplay has some interesting mechanics, like deck-building, dice rolls, and strategy chains. But honestly? It's a bit of a beast to learn. The rulebook leaves out a lot of key details, and we spent more time debating rules than actually playing. The art is gorgeous, though, and I think there's a good game hiding in here. With more support and expansions, Squarriors could've been something special.The Wrap-Up:Both Curious Beasts and Squarriors left us with a bittersweet feeling—so much potential, but both are basically abandoned projects. If you're a collector or a fan of unique themes, you might enjoy giving them a shot. For everyone else, there are probably better options out there.If you want to check out Squarriors, it still has a page on BoardGameGeek. For wine lovers, keep an eye on clearance racks for Curious Beasts! And don't forget to check out the Kickstarter I found, Christmas Rolls, a fun little roll-and-write game that looks perfect for the holiday season.We'll see you next week with more wine, games, and laughs. Cheers! ️If you've got a game that you'd like us to demo get in touch at meeplesandwine@gmail.com, at our Twitter (@Meeplesandwine) or Facebook or if you'd like to leave us a voicemail you can go to https://www.speakpipe.com/MeeplesandWine!This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp