Author: Anthony
Anthony
Anthony cofounded Board Gamers Anonymous in 2013 and has been on (almost) every episode. Today, he lives in Philadelphia with his family and teaches first year writing at Thomas Jefferson University.
Liz from Beyond Solitaire rejoins Anthony and Jason to talk about some games to while away your lunch hour at work. First, we chat about Hero Realms (3:26), a variant of Star Realms with a fantasy theme. We love the original, but is this one possibly better? Liz then breaks down Multiuniversum (12:43), a puzzly card game about scientists closing portals which has a neat solo mode (even if the rulebook doesn’t advertise it as such). Finally, Jason chats about a game in the Duelist line from Level 99, Professor Treasure’s Secret Sky Castle (19:11). For our discussion this week,…
This week, Anthony and Chris look at the hottest games from the Essen Spiel Geekbuzz list – discussing why they were hot, when and if we’ll get a chance to play them, and what we’re most excited to try. Before we dive in, we look out our question of the week, discussing the answers our listeners gave to our question, “What’s your favorite game that’s at least 20 years old?” After this, for our acquisition disorders Anthony looks at Skulk Hollow from Pencil First Games, now on Kickstarter, and Chris looks at a recent Essen Spiel game, Kingdom Defenders. Reviewed…
Guess what? It’s Anthony! With a special preview series episode featuring Swordcrafters designer/publisher Adam Rehberg. This episode was recorded a couple of weeks before Essen so there are a handful of references to the upcoming show. You can look for the full release of Swordcrafters in mid-November. Swordcrafters has some of the best table presence we’ve seen to date, and it was well worth discussing with the designer how it was built, what kind of hiccups come up during development of such a sweeping game, and how its family-friendly mechanisms played early on. Join us for an interesting discussion about…
Liz, Jeremy, and Jason geek out and go gaga over more delivered Kickstarter projects! Jason begin by gushing over the uberly cute Rescue Polar Bears (7:19 – is that a word? it is now!). Rescue Polar Bears is a family weight cooperative game that evokes Flash Point: Fire Rescue. In other words, right in Jason’s wheelhouse! Liz then chimes in with Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr (16:59). This cooperative game about giving palliative care to a dying man has caused quite a stir since being announced. Liz and Jeremy share some thoughts about the hype. Jason leaps…
This week we’re looking at games we love for the end of a long, arduous day, when there’s no energy left to think or fight. Before that, though, we remind everyone about our current ongoing contest. Click the link below and share your top games to enter a chance to win one of them from the final list. Contest ends on October 31! https://gleam.io/jwEDM/your-top-20-board-games-of-all-time For our question of the week, we asked everyone a similar question to our feature, “What’s your board game of choice when you want to relax and unwind?” For our acquisition disorders, we dive back into…
Designed by Gunter Burkhardt and Published by R&R Games Without fail, we will have at least one new game every year that charts the progress of a well-known European city and its rise (or fall) hundreds of years ago. There’s something fascinating about reenacting the ebb and flow of a city’s development in historical context, and Ulm does a great job of evoking that in its thematically oriented gameplay. From the second book full of historical details to the use of family crests and coats of arms to represent the 16th century city and its citizens, Ulm is nearly exactly…
Adam and Brady Sadler are back! Two of our favorite personal designers of solo/ coop games return to the show with the new expansion for Street Masters, Aftershock. We love Street Masters here on ENGN. However, we recognize that some gamers encountered barriers when approaching it. We ask the Sadlers how they designed Aftershock not just for pure awesomeness, but to answer some of the criticisms that folks have had, including player scaling/ downtime at four players, rules issues in some scenario interactions, and lack of easy entry points for new players. Aftershock promises to address some of the issues…
Sheeple is a new game from Aaron Smith on Kickstarter now. Below is a sponsored preview video and writeup to help you decide if this is a game worth tracking down for your game group. Do you like puns? Do you like party games? If you answered yes to either of those questions, Sheeple might be in your wheelhouse. The new game, launching on Kickstarter this month from Aaron Smith, is a party game designed around a series of word associations and while not integral to the gameplay, a whole bunch of sheep puns. The game is designed similar to…
I did not think I’d enjoy The Mansky Caper. It’s a light, almost party-style Mafia themed game with strong press your luck elements. None of those words describe much of anything in my wheelhouse, so I understandably approached the game with some trepidation. What I found, though, was something much different than what I expected – not necessarily in terms of mechanics or game play style, but the overall execution of what turns out to be a very good game that fills a gap I didn’t know I had in my collection. How The Mansky Caper plays The Mansky Caper…
Liz and Jeremy are back! The creative minds behind Jambalaya Plays Games (https://jambalayaplaysgames.com/) and Beyond Solitaire (http://www.beyondsolitaire.net/) are here to share about their continuing and terrible KS acquisition disorders! For the Kickstarter preview this week, we talk about a game that’s already out and whose expansion is (or, at least, should be) live as we drop the episode – Expedition (4:17). It’s a card-base RPG that has an app, as well as tons of fan-created content. These are not things that every gamer looks forward to! They break down whether this project integrates those things in ways that folks might…