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.
Every year for the last three years, Kevin Erskine has gathered votes from hundreds of solo gamers on Board Game Geek and created a gamer-voted Top 100 list of solo games. The 2016 edition of the list had nearly 400 voters and saw a bunch of interesting new games make the cut. In part one of a special two part interview, Anthony and Jason welcome Kevin to Table for One to discuss the first 50 entries in the list, what goes into creating the list each year and some of the biggest surprises we spotted in this year’s rankings. To…
Another year has passed and so many good games hit the table this year! To wrap up the year, Anthony and Chris will discuss the best games of the year, along with some recent plays, acquisition disorders just around the corner for 2017, and some of the recent news stories (and fun observations) from the end of the year. Around the Table Anthony discusses a recent segment of The Grand Tour that turned Battleship into a game of exploding cars and why it both thrilled and annoyed him, the guys dig into the Fantasy Flight Holiday Sale debacle, and we…
Happy Holidays everyone! As the last episode of 2016, we’re diving back into Pandemic with the biggest release in the series yet, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1. For Part 2 of our Pan Pandemic special, Anthony and Jason dive into all things Legacy to talk about the game, its impact on the hobby, how it plays with different player counts, and our thoughts on playing a game like this solo. Plus spoilers! If you haven’t yet played Pandemic Legacy, but would like to learn more about it or just hear our thoughts on the game, the impact it’s had on the…
This has been an interesting year in many ways. From consolidation of the industry into a small number of much larger hobby gaming companies, to the resurgence of some brands and companies, there has been a lot of jockeying and movement as the industry continues to grow. And to be honest, it looks like that kind of year. For the explosive innovation of 2015, there was a lot of refinement and 2.0 releases in 2016 – games that took what their predecessors did and made it better. I love that – I think it’s a sign of evolution in a…
One of the most popular and iconic board games of the last 10 years has been bigger than ever in 2016 – and it just so happens to be a highly solo-friendly game. So in episode 14 of Table for One, Anthony and Jason sit down to discuss all things Pandemic. In a special two parter, we start by discussing the base game that started it all, along with the core mechanics that have made this game so iconic in the hobby (and that so many others are willing to borrow from liberally). We then dive into the three major…
Lunarchitects is an interesting game for several reasons. First, there is the backstory. I was originally drawn to this game, not because of the theme or the visuals (both of which ended being spot on), but because it was a reimplementation of another game I rather liked and couldn’t find – Glen More. Glen More was one of those hidden gems I had a chance to play at a convention and then upon realizing how great it was, was disappointed by its rarity (and subsequent cost). So, I don’t own a copy of the original. When Lunarchitects was announced, it…
A Game of Thrones: Hand of the King was announced a few days before Gen Con to a fair bit of ridicule. Yet another small box card game with this license? And what about the goofy artwork? People weren’t too impressed, and considering how many times in the last few years Fantasy Flight had slapped a license on an abstract game to make a few quick bucks, it wasn’t too surprising. Westeros Intrigue was one of our worst games of 2014 because it was such a blatant cash grab. Would Hand of the King be the same? Thankfully, I can…
Have you ever discovered a movie years after it was released? Maybe after spending a lot of time saying “meh, I don’t see what’s so great about it…” It’s hard to admit to yourself after all that time downplaying something that it’s actually pretty incredible and nowhere near as played out as you thought. The inner hipster monologue won’t allow it. That’s how I’ve felt about Pandemic in the last year or so. This brilliantly designed, incredibly flexible machine of a game is the perfect crossover hit for me to pull in my kids, wife, and extended family for game…
One of the big benefits of solo gaming is the sheer volume of great new content suddenly hitting the market every month, especially in the realm of digital apps. What started with a small trickle of apps for games like Eclipse, Catan, and Carcassonne a few years ago is a torrent today with dozens of new board game apps hitting the market every year (some for brand new games). Anthony and Jason sit down to discuss this torrent, and pick out their favorite four apps from 2016, giving a rundown of each and the things they love about each of…
7 Wonders Duel is one of my favorite games of 2015. And it snuck up on me a bit. In fact, I didn’t think much of it to start, other than that it was a rather clever implementation of the 7 Wonders mechanics for two players. I remember saying it would be great to see the same tableau drafting mechanisms used in other games. But over the course of the last 13 months, I’ve been playing this one more and more often. It’s overtaken Patchwork and Summoner Wars on my go to two player game list, and it’s in the…