Episode 61 – Tabletop Madness 2015 Round 3

For nearly two years, we’ve been talking about board games on Board Gamers Anonymous, and for me it’s one of the highlights of my week. Sitting down with three of my closest friends to talk about the games we’ve played and the hobby as a whole is a blast, but this week’s episode was by far one of my favorites ever.

Borrowing liberally from a certain college basketball tournament, we sat down this week to pit 68 of the best games we’ve ever played according to BGG rank against each other in a tournament style bracket. You can read how the first round broke down here and this week we’ll be going through Round 2 with 16 total matchups:

Shout it from the Tabletop

Drew shares a handful of interesting and exciting stories from the world of tabletop gaming this week, covering a lot of the stories, announcements, and oddball happenings in the hobby that you may have missed. Join Drew on his tabletop to hear all about the news that is lighting up the gaming world.

Analyze the Dweomer

Daniel’s back with his tabletop-RPG focused segment, Analyze the Dweomer. This recurring segment will dive deeper into the tabletop RPG experience to discuss classes in D&D 5e as well as a number of interesting factors in the RPG realm as a whole – from games you may not have heard of to the different components of roleplaying that are so important to the group.

Tabletop Madness 2015 Round of 32

If you haven’t yet, make sure to read a full breakdown of Round 1 and the rules for how Tabletop Madness works. I put together a thorough overview here. For those listening to this in the future, you can jump ahead to our Round of 16/8 and our Final Four games as well to find out which game took home the prize. This week’s episode, however, is where you can hear the team debate which games should come out on top for each bracket, broken down below for your listening pleasure:

Euro Games
(1) Terra Mystica vs (9) Suburbia
(13) Lewis and Clark vs. (5) Power Grid
(2) Caverna vs. (10) Stone Age
(14) Alien Frontiers vs. (6) The Castles of Burgundy
Americlash Games
(1) Twilight Struggle vs. (9) Runewars
(4) Dead of Winter vs. (12) Civilization The Board Game
(15) Defenders of the Realm vs. (10) Kemet
(14) Cyclades vs. (11) Cosmic Encounter
Card/Dice Games
(1) Android: Netrunner vs. (8) Lord of the Rings: Card Game
(13) Imperial Settlers vs. (12) Citadels
(2) 7 Wonders vs. (10) Dice Masters
(3) Race for the Galaxy vs. (11) Roll for the Galaxy
Gateway Games
(1) Pandemic vs. (8) Small World
(4) Ticket to Ride vs. (12) Gravwell
(2) Splendor vs (7) Mice and Mystics
(14) Tokaido vs. (11) Dixit

Final Round

This week’s final round is all about the Spring Equinox and the theme of planting, rebirth – all things spring (and warm!) The guys discuss a handful of games including Garden Dice, T’zolkin the Mayan Calendar, Agricola, and Arboretum.

Listen to Episode 61

  • Shout it From the Table Top: 3:25
  • Analyze Dweomer: 12:05
  • Feature: 2015 Tabletop Madness: 18:01
  • Euro Game Bracket: 24:05
  • Americlash: 36:21
  • Card & Dice Games: 53:03
  • Gateway Game: 1:04:44
  • Final Round: 1:19:35

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  • Anthony lives and plays games in Philadelphia, PA. A lover of complex strategy, two-player war games, and area control, Anthony is always eager to try a new game, even if he's on rule-reading duty.

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