Hey hey BATT Family! Sorry to overload you with top ten lists recently, but here is Episode 30! As it's a multiple of five it is a top ten list and this week's episode is about Simultaneous Action games. This was recorded at Gen Con on July 30th, 2025 in the BATT hotel room, so it's a bit more echoey than usual. This topic was brought by the guest of the show, Derian, who has been a good friend of ours for years and runs all of the demo tables at Gen Con. If you've ever seen the dude wearing a bright orange shirt, a mohawk, and a utilikilt - that's our boy. We cover some really great games here and even had a couple (big ones) that were forgotten off of some of the lists. Give it a go, let us know what you think and we'll see you in two weeks with Episode 31 where we have the president of Level 99 Games on with us!

This episode's segments:

00:00:00 - Intro / How We Know Each Other

00:02:18 - History / List Selection Criteria

00:07:23 - Scott's 10 (Broom Service)

00:10:13 - Derian's 10 (Broom Service)

00:12:15 - Mark's 10 (Smartphone, Inc.)

00:14:40 - Scott's 9 (Apples to Apples)

00:15:45 - Derian's 9 (Quacks of Quedlinberg)

00:18:00 - Mark's 9 (Raptor)

00:20:15 - Scott's 8 (7 Wonders)

00:23:46 - Derian's 8 (Niagara)

00:26:02 - Mark's 8 (Hadara)

00:28:32 - Scott's 7 (Get Bit)

00:31:36 - Derian's 7 (7 Wonders)

00:32:14 - Mark's 7 (Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition)

00:35:19 - Scott's 6 (Bezzerwizzer)

00:37:00 - Derian's 6 (Roll for the Galaxy)

00:38:44 - Mark's 6 (Faraway)

00:40:17 - Grand Gamer's Guild Sponsor

00:41:33 - Scott's 5 (Gloomhaven / Frosthaven)

00:43:16 - Derian's 5 (Between Two Cities)

00:45:10 - Mark's 5 (Antidote)

00:47:32 - Scott's 4 (Planet Unknown)

00:48:50 - Derian's 4 (On Tour)

00:50:36 - Mark's 4 (Incan Gold)

00:51:42 - Scott's 3 (Antidote)

00:52:24 - Derian's 3 (Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest)

00:53:30 - Mark's 3 (Tidal Blades: Banner Festival)

00:55:05 - Scott's 2 (On Tour)

00:56:46 - Derian's 2 (Orleans)

01:01:04 - Mark's 2 (El Grande)

01:04:02 - Scott's 1 (Bullet)

01:06:37 - Derian's 1 (Race for the Galaxy)

01:10:27 - Mark's 1 (Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest)

01:15:29 - Secret Door Sponsor  

01:16:20 - Meeple Source Sponsor

01:17:23 - Victory Roll Sponsor

01:18:14 - Contact Info for BATT and Theater Geeks

01:19:25 - Outro

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Notes!

1) Scott's lead in on his number 10 is something that was referrenced in the Honorable Mentions! That'll be out with an Odds and Ends episode eventually.

2) In regards to El Grande, because the way Derian jumped in I didn't really fully explain why I picked it. The simultaneous selection is admittedly not that high here (really only during the scoring phases) but I find it to be so radically important to the game that it had to be that high. Realistically I should have had this probably a bit lower on the list, and it definitely would have been bounced lower as Bullet should have been my number 2, but I still like the game quite a bit and think it deserves to be here. 

3) One other thing I found interesting listening to this episode back to back with our recent Top of 2025 lists is how consistent some of these opinions are. We played an enormous amount of games in the five months between these three recordings and we still managed to feel the way we did in both periods. Apologies for these being so close together though, the intent is that we'd actually start 2026 with Episode 31 but my schedule just got delayed significantly over the past few weeks and the edits just fell behind. So that's why they've lined up the way they have. 

4) Libby scored 52 points as recorded, not 56. But I looked over the photo and found that she accidentally cheated and connected a 74 to a 73 in the South. Whoops. 50 points is still insane though. You can see the board here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BMzkTCtub/

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We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:

Grand Gamers Guild! https://grandgamersguild.com. Use Discount Code BATT10 to make sure that we are supported AND you let them know that we sent you.

Secret Door Games! They can be found at https://www.secretdoorgames.org or 215 S. Main St, Elkhart Indiana 46514.

Meeple Source! https://meeplesource.com/?PARTNER=battg Be sure to keep that partner bit (?PARTNER=battg) on the end of any link on their site, and you'll get us our affiliate linking!

Victory Roll Cafe! https://victoryrollcafe.com or 711 W McKinley Ave, Mishawaka, IN 46545.

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You can email us at [email protected].

We finally put a linktree together! https://linktr.ee/boardallthetime

We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 

We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social

If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/368857/top-100-games-2025-edition

If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime

Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6

Theater Geeks! https://www.twitch.tv/theatergeeks

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We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music.