Board Game Homies

In Episode 57, we review Luthier published by Paverson Games and designed by Dave Beck and Abe Burson. But, first, we chat about what is bringing us joy: Becky’s new year’s resolution update, Zenith, Angela’s new year’s resolution update (including Unmatched Adventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and Root. 

Luthier takes place in the height of classical music in Western Europe with 1-4 families of artisans eager to pursue prestige by satisfying patron’s requests for instruments, performances, and instrument repairs. By keeping your patrons happy through building instruments, performing different styles of music, and repairing instruments, they reward you with gifts, but if you take too long to complete their requests, they will abandon you and speak poorly of your family, decreasing your prestige. The player who gains the most prestige points wins the game.

The homies are captivated by this game, but there’s still something about it that may see it out of Gillean’s collection sooner than later.

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

In Episode 56, we take a break from reviewing games and instead bring in the silliness and the sass with some board game trivia. Play along with us and bonus points to you for catching any of the wrong answers our host boldly asserts. XD Categories include: Name the Game from this Weird Description, Name All the Games in the Series, Old School Games, Components and Rules, Crunchy Factor, Year of Release, and Top 100 on BGG.

But, don’t worry! We still chat about what is bringing us joy: Knarr, The Clank! Master Thief Edition!, Ra: Traders, and Recall.

We’re a goofing and a gabbing, and we hope you have fun too!

Connect with us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

In Episode 55, we review Speakeasy by Vital Lacerda! But, first, we chat about what is bringing us joy: 3 Chapters, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, Skull King, and Lisboa.

Speakeasy is a game for 1-4 mobsters vying for control across the many districts of Manhattan implemented by Lucky Luciano. Accumulate the most money as you build up your speakeasy empire to maximize payouts from Lucky Luciano, avoid cops and other mobsters, and, of course, cook the books every chance you get. 

Like all of Lacerda’s games, Speakeasy is rich with thematic rules and gameplay and is further enhanced by Ian O’Toole’s stunning art and graphic design. We admit we’re a bit obsessed with Lacerda games, but this game does vary in each of our rankings of the Lacerda games we’ve played. 

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

In Episode 54, we review Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon published by Pandasaurus! But, first, we chat about what is bringing us joy:

New Brass tins, Brass: Pittsburgh, Dune Imperium - Uprising 6 player, and Ahoy.

Shackleton Base is a worker placement game for 1-4 players. Players each lead a space agency that is contributing to building a base in the Shackleton crater of the Moon. Build structures, collect resources, and sell your science soul to the three major corporations sponsoring the mission. It’s the right amount of thinky.

All four homies are over the moon about this game!

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

Episode 53 is Part 2 of our annual board game weekend vacation! We discuss our planning, the things we ate, and all of the games we played (and didn’t play.) We recommend starting with Episode 52: The Homies Go to the Beach.

22 games with 33 plays over the course of 5 days-PART 2!

Games in this episode:

Sea Salt & Paper

Railroad Tiles

The Vale of Eternity

The Hobbit: There and Back Again

Revive

Bus

Barenpark

Acquire

Daybreak

Capital Lux 2

The Magic Shop

Tenby

Clank!: Catacombs

Botswana

Skull King

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

In episode 52, we walk through our annual board game weekend vacation and discuss our planning, the things we ate, and all of the games we played (and didn’t play.)

22 games with 33 plays over the course of 5 days-PART 1!

Games in this episode:

Castles of Burgundy

Brass Birmingham

Goblin Vaults

Clank! Catacombs with the Underworld expansion

Sea Salt & Paper

Botswana

Shackleton Base

PS! Board game convention with a World Series of Board Game qualifier in Bozeman, Montana this May: https://www.rooks-con.com/

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

In episode 51, we review Galileo Galilei published by Pink Troubadour and Captstone Games. But first! We chat about what is bringing us joy: Bottle Imp, Wondrous Creatures, Evacuation, and Board Game Homie weekend at the beach.

Galileo Galilei is a Euro-style game for 1-4 players where players take on the role of historical astronomers looking to the night sky for celestial objects while navigating the Inquisition as their suspicions rise with each astronomer’s discovery, lecture, and written work. The science, history, and mechanics blend elegantly in this game, and all four homies agree it is worthy of space on the shelf (especially if you’re a science nerd.)

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

In episode 50, we review Wondrous Creatures by Bad Comet Games. But first! We chat about what is bringing us joy: Eternal Decks, Reed’s new board game shelf, and Irish Gauge.

Wondrous Creatures is a whimsical and adorable game for 1-4 players. Each player manages a crew to explore the uncharted island in order to gather resources to attract the many wondrous creatures to their own reserve. This is a big deck game with many tags and various card types that all work together to help players complete achievements and, ultimately, score the most points.

Three of the four homies have mixed feelings about this game especially due to the length of the game play, but one homie was enchanted enough (and convinced) to buy this game from Gillean during the recording of this episode.

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

In episode 49, we look back on our 2025 board game resolutions and look forward to the year ahead with new resolutions and 2026 predictions and by reflecting on lessons learned, surprises, and disappointments.

In 2025…

…we all thought we would play more games with our partners,

…most of us planned to spend less money on board games (someone said no purchasing for the whole year!!),

…two of us hoped to play 100 percent of our collection,

…one of us vowed to create a trick taker collection.

In 2026…

New goals.

New games.

Bold predictions.

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies

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Board game shelf design created by Jenna Rose from The Board Game Garden. Check out "My 2026 Board Game Journal! | Goals, challenges, statistic tracking & more!" on YouTube!

Bird Game Homies poster created by HummingBelle!

For episode 48, Angela secretly analyzed, ranked, and combined our individual top 10 lists to create our cumulative TOP 10 New-to-Us Games We Played in 2025. We react to and chat about each game in our top 10, and then we move into rapid-fire questions to share our favorite themes, our biggest game surprises, games we’re ready to toss out the window while on the freeway, and much, much more. This episode is then wrapped up by visiting our listeners', followers' and friends’ favorite games of 2025!

Get to know us @ https://lnk.bio/BoardGameHomies