Board Game Barrage

After last week's love-fest made us all uncomfortable, we had to get back to what do best, spirited in-fighting. To that end, we've devised three debates around the same core: is that often criticized mechanic a design problem, or a player problem? Before we pit designers against players, we talk about Red Rising, Via Magica, and Alma Mater.

00:48 - Golden Geek Awards 04:36 - Red Rising 14:21 - Rise of Augustus 14:53 - Via Magica 20:17 - Alma Mater 29:36 - Board Game Barrage Wiki! 32:26 - Design problem or player problem? 33:11 - Player elimination 36:47 - Skull 37:55 - Secret Hitler 38:29 - Food Chain Magnate 40:33 - Diplomacy 43:40 - Alpha gamers 46:34 - Spirit Island 47:00 - Pandemic 51:31 - Kingmaking 55:50 - Rising Sun 57:04 - Cthulhu Wars 57:42 - Inis Check out our new wiki at: https://boardgamebarrage.com/wiki

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We had so many fun ideas for this week that we couldn't settle on just one! It's always great getting topic suggestions from our listeners, but not all of them can make a full episode, so we figured we'd work through some of them here. Keep sending them in! Before we spice our lives with variety, we talk about Jekyll vs. Hyde, Seikatsu, and Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road.

01:28 - Golden Geek Awards 03:55 - AwSHUX 05:57 - Jekyll vs. Hyde 14:32 - Seikatsu 21:37 - Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road 29:54 - The first game we'll play together 31:06 - Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy 33:36 - My City 35:23 - The King's Dilemma 37:22 - Ruination 41:07 - Board games we appreciate but hate 41:25 - The Estates 43:28 - Captain Sonar 45:05 - Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective 47:20 - Cosmic Encounter 49:39 - Why we love gaming with each other

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We love Friedemann Friese, so much so that we're devoting a whole episode to the green-haired designer - a comprehensive look back at his contribution to the hobby, and how we've gotten on with his games over the years. If you've never played one of his games, let us help correct that. Before we give the fantastic fellow our full focus, we talk about Kubb, Pictures, and The Field of the Cloth of Gold.

03:20 - Kubb 08:20 - Pictures 16:12 - The Field of the Cloth of Gold 23:39 - Golden Geek Awards 25:24 - Board Game Barrage vs. Shut Up & Sit Down! 27:44 - Friedemann Friese 29:17 - Power Grid 36:21 - Copycat 37:11 - 504 38:43 - Fearsome Floors 39:43 - Fauna 41:22 - Friday 42:03 - Fabled Fruit 43:41 - Fast Sloths 44:27 - Fresh Fish 45:46 - Finished! 46:20 - Funny Friends

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We're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and with the exciting possibility of actually being able to play games together again, we cast our minds forward to all the wonderful games yet to arrive in 2021. Did I mention it's a BGBBOB? Before we look ahead (never back), we talk about Clever Cubed, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, and Keyper.

02:29 - Clever Cubed 10:22 - Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon 19:16 - Keyper 26:40 - 300 by 4/11! 28:39 - Golden Geek Award Nominations 29:31 - Most Anticipated Games of 2021 31:02 - Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles 32:03 - Furnace 35:13 - Weather Machine 36:07 - Coffee Traders 38:54 - Brazil: Imperial 40:24 - Arkwright: The Card Game 42:18 - LAMA Dice 43:11 - Oathsworn: Into the Deep Wood 45:22 - Kabuto Sumo 46:31 - Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile 49:35 - Darwin's Journey 50:24 - Skyrise 53:19 - Guards of Atlantis II 53:59 - Ankh: Gods of Egypt 56:54 - Dokojong

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Dan Hughes from Sporadically Board joins us to flip the podcast on its head. Now that we've spent a hundred and sixty seven episodes raving about board games, it's only fair that we discuss all the reasons they suck. Before we turn heel, we talk about Blackout: Hong Kong, Royal Visit, Marvel Champions: The Card Game, and Deckscape: Test Time.

03:34 - Introducing the Pigeon Blood Tank! 05:38 - Blackout: Hong Kong 10:56 - Royal Visit 14:51 - Marvel Champions: The Card Game 22:03 - Deckscape: Test Time 27:25 - Why Board Games Suck 28:50 - Gandhi: The Decolonization of British India, 1917 – 1947 30:38 - Lisboa 31:54 - A Feast for Odin 36:03 - CoraQuest 37:04 - Trial by Trolley 50:00 - Mythic Battles: Pantheon 1:02:33 - Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Check out Dan's board game CoraQuest: https://www.coraquest.com

Check out Dan's podcast Sporadically Board: https://www.dicetower.com/game-podcast/sporadically-board

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As important as it is to talk about that which we have received, so must we mark the loss of the games whose time has passed. Board games leave our collections for many reasons, so we're going to revisit the ones that found better homes in the past year. Before we press F, we talk about Long Shot: The Dice Game, Hallertau, and Welcome to New Las Vegas.

02:43 - Long Shot: The Dice Game 09:30 - Hallertau 20:04 - Welcome to New Las Vegas 28:43 - Games We've Recently Let Go 29:34 - Res Arcana 30:20 - Seasons 31:58 - War Chest 33:04 - Oaxaca: Crafts of a Culture 33:35 - Kingdom Builder 35:11 - Pendulum 37:44 - Nētā-Tanka 38:00 - Nevada City 38:33 - The Magnificent 41:05 - Ethnos 41:24 - Crokinole 42:49 - El Grande 45:00 - Imperial Struggle 45:53 - Iwari 48:41 - Through the Desert 49:25 - Lords of Hellas 50:27 - Troyes 51:11 - Watergate

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Design often builds heavily on what has come before, but some designers, have made an art of iteration, taking their own beloved designs, and frequently reinventing them in new ways. We dig into this practice of extremely iterative design, and how it fits into an industry hungry for fresh ideas. Before we do it again, we talk about Dirge: The Rust Wars, Electropolis, Vinhos Deluxe Edition, Architects of the West Kingdom, and Sagani.

01:34 - Dirge: The Rust Wars 09:23 - Electropolis 10:28 - Vinhos Deluxe Edition 12:15 - Architects of the West Kingdom 21:39 - Sagani 24:55 - Nova Luna 33:06 - Iterative Games 34:44 - Azul 37:11 - The Game 41:43 - Indian Summer 42:46 - Zombicide 43:52 - Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan 44:33 - Babylonia 45:50 - Yellow & Yangtze 47:04 - Caylus 1303 48:18 - Brass: Birmingham 52:07 - Strat-O-Matic Baseball 53:20 - Guards of Atlantis

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There are two good ways to create engagement in a board game: One is to let the player feel like they're achieving something constantly, the other is to keep them feeling like any wrong move could tank their game. We're dubbing this the "thriving to barely surviving" spectrum, but first, we need to figure out where some of our favourite games fit on it. Before we surthrive, we talk about Carnegie, Divvy Dice, and Underwater Cities.

03:56 - Carnegie 13:11 - Divvy Dice 20:56 - Underwater Cities 24:26 - Terraforming Mars 32:23 - The "Thriving to Barely Surviving" Spectrum 33:10 - Agricola 33:43 - A Feast for Odin 37:34 - Troyes 42:12 - Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization 43:03 - Scythe 43:55 - Tapestry 45:20 - In the Year of the Dragon 45:52 - Macao 46:43 - The Castles of Burgundy 47:41 - Bruges 48:02 - The Oracle of Delphi 49:00 - Splendor 49:55 - Root 51:36 - Food Chain Magnate 55:12 - The Estates 56:00 - Biblios

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It's getting a bit too comfortable around here. Time to put stones in our shoes, tighten our belts, and get out of our comfort zones. We talk about the times that we've found ourselves in unfamiliar or uncomfortable gaming situations, and what we learned about ourselves in the process. Before we unfluff our pillows, we talk about Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, Reavers of Midgard, and Paleo.

02:01 - Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation 13:50 - War of the Ring: Second Edition 15:20 - Reavers of Midgard 23:37 - Paleo 31:13 - Friday 34:23 - Leaving Our Comfort Zones 35:05 - Thornwatch 37:55 - Blood Rage 41:22 - Megagames 50:33 - Twilight Struggle 54:16 - Under Falling Skies 56:17 - Fiasco 1:00:50 - War Games

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Wow! We asked for your top twenty lists, and boy did you deliver. We've crunched the numbers on the hundreds of submissions, and created what we think is the definitive list of BGB listeners' favourite board games. Now let us tell you how we think you did. Before we outsource our work, we talk about Santa Monica, Steam Works, and Cthulhu: Death May Die.

02:09 - Santa Monica 08:05 - Steam Works 15:25 - Cthulhu: Death May Die 24:06 - BGB Listener Top 20 27:18 - Viticulture 29:34 - Everdell 31:17 - Orléans 32:09 - Pax Pamir: Second Edition 33:20 - A Feast for Odin 34:24 - Terra Mystica 36:00 - Race for the Galaxy 37:13 - Food Chain Magnate 38:36 - Codenames 39:35 - Cosmic Encounter 40:48 - Inis 41:36 - Terraforming Mars 42:54 - Innovation 44:12 - Root 45:20 - Gloomhaven 46:30 - Great Western Trail 47:40 - Spirit Island 48:33 - Brass: Birmingham 49:19 - The Castles of Burgundy 50:25 - Concordia Join the discussion at: https://boardgamebarrage.com/discord

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