Author: Anthony

Are you a person who owns Star Wars: Rebellion, but it just sits there collecting dust because you don’t have the time or table space for it? This week, we have a game for you! We welcome Jon Simantov to the pod, designer of Liberation, which is an 18 card game which distills the essence of what makes Star Wars: Rebellion fun into a short, tight, and fun package. Jon discusses how he was able to recreate truly asymmertic gameplay in only 18 cards, as well as the advice he got from famous designers while making Liberation. Jason Tagmire from…

We’re tackling one of the great games of skill and chance this week as we look at six modern board games you might like if you’re a fan of Poker. Whether you’re getting into modern hobby games or just looking for something new with poker mechanics in it, we have a few you might want to check out. To kick things off, we asked the listeners our question of the week – what game mechanics they’d like to see in legacy games moving forward. Then for our acquisition disorders, Anthony looks at Santa Maria: American Kingdoms, a new expansion for…

For our last episode before 100, we are really excited to shine a big, bright spotlight on a few corners of the board gaming world that you might not know much about. If you want to build up some “indie cred” when it comes to some potential hot games in the future, this is the show for you! First up, we welcome back Chris Harris, who runs the Solitaire Print and Play game design contest on BGG. We spoke with Chris last year, and he’s back to talk about how much the contest has grown, how excited we are for…

Gen Con! We’re back from the big show and are excited to share with you everything we saw, played and experienced at the show this year. We start off by discussing the games we got a chance to demo or see that aren’t yet out, but that we are excited to see more of in the weeks and months to come. Then we delve into the games we DID bring home and you can look forward to reviews of in the next few weeks. Finally, we share some of our favorite moments from the show, including the shark jumping releases,…

Anthony is taking the reins this week, at least when it comes to the games we’re reviewing this week. Anthony is a huge, huge fan of Roll and Write games, so he wanted to take some time and share about three different games. Welcome To… is all the hotness nowadays. He also tells us about Steamrollers and the (hopefully) soon to be available in the US, Ganz schon clever. If you want to check out a whole Facebook group on Roll and Write games, check out the group made by Glenn Flaherty from the Board Games and Bourbon YouTube channel:…

Ever want to wine and dine a potential client or get to know your new colleagues over board games? This week, we look at some games that offer the social interaction without potential gaffes or uncomfortable situations that work perfectly for low-key non-drinking ice-breakers. Before we dive in, we look at our question of the week – asking the listeners “What’s the most ostentatious thing you’ve seen printed for or with a board game (besides CMON’s jumbo Cthulhu)?” For our acquisition disorders, Anthony puts the spotlight on Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game hitting the states at Gen Con this…

Note: This review originally appeared alongside the 2017 Kickstarter campaign. It has been updated with new photos, additional commentary, and a new score to reflect the finished, retail copy of the game. Spy Club is all about solving mysteries. But it’s not your typical murder-in-an-alley-with-construction-material mystery game. It’s about the things that mattered most when we were children. Like, where the heck did my video game console disappear to? Or who would dare get into mom’s purse (and why am I being blamed?!). In Spy Club, players take on the role of pre-teen sleuths attempting to track down each of five…

We are happy to be joined this week by Stephen Gibson. He gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the design, development, and multiple iterations of Grimslingers, a card game that has a duel mode as well as a solo-coop adventure card game mode. We thought this would be an interesting discussion, not only to talk about Grimslingers and its new expansion, Northern Territories, but also to address big picture questions about iteration of design, responding to fan feedback, releasing multiple editions, and working with a publisher. Stephen gives his very honest opinions about the whole process. To help us with…

Only one week to Gen Con! That means it’s time to run down some of the hottest games everyone’s talking about, plus lots of reviews of our recent plays from Origins. To kick things off, we chat about the recently announced Spiel des Jahres winners – Azul, Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg, and Dragon’s Breath. Then we read listener answers to our question of the week, which asked, “What criteria do you use when/if culling your board game collection?” – a spot on question for convention season. Next up, in our acquisition disorders, Anthony looks at the newest Vital Lacerda game,…

Some games defy basic expectations. They hide meaty mechanics behind cute artwork, or they bury a party game behind a gothic-horror theme. In the case of Drop It, Kosmos and designers Bernhard Lach and Uwe Rapp have couched a surprisingly rich dexterity game behind a colorful, connect-four inspired plastic toy. Don’t let the look of this one fool you, though. It manages what all the best dexterity games do – finding a way to be instantly accessible for children, and yet frustratingly difficult to master if you want to do well. Combined with the need for tactical decision making about where to…