Boardgames To Go

Opener: Wayfarers of the South Tigris

David Arnott

@Arnott

Mike Mayer

@Mike Mayer

If you're like me, you've been supplementing your in-person boardgaming with the ability to play online. I've been doing that for over 20 years, way before the covid pandemic struck. However, that worldwide event opened up the joys of online boardgaming to many more gamers, especially as they worked to keep connections going with friends they couldn't see across the table for many months. Add in the explosion of titles and popularity of BoardgameArena, coupled with the widespread use of Discord, Zoom, or other voice/video communication tools, and gamers today have more ability to stay in touch than ever before. My two guests have taken that, stuck with it, and done more than I've ever managed to do with all of my online play: make a regular game group out of it. Three years on, no longer with the pandemic as the reason, Dave and Mike continue to get together almost every week to play games together. One's in California, the other in Virginia, but they meet more regularly than most in-person game groups. Sometimes they widen the circle to include some other friends like me, but primarily this is a 2-person game group, another interesting aspect.

 

Like me, these guys have been around a long time, have favorites going back decades, yet in this online group they're really espousing the Cult of the New. Why is that? Why are they always learning new games, why do they enjoy online roll & writes so much, and what the heck is Tulpenfieber?! Listen and find out.

 

Closer: The sort of old school games I don't like -Mark

Openers:

 

Mark: First in Flight Tim: Arcs Closers: Tim: Changing enjoyment (and ratings) of games Mark: Is it possible to go to too many game events?

Tim

@Denga

If you've followed me for any time, especially on our Discord server, you've heard me talk about a couple things: my appreciation for the "new" podcast Board Game Hot Takes, and my observations of how the energy of our hobby has shifted from when I joined it. I get to combine both of those topics into one episode by inviting one of the three BGHT hosts, Tim, to join me on the mic and use him as a representative of the "next generation" of boardgame hobbyists. He chuckles at that characterization, pointing out he's not that much younger than me, and has been playing boardgames for a few years. But that still makes him the New Kid on the Block compared to an old fart like me, and I think it shows in the types of games he & I both love.

 

That's what we talk about, how the bulk of the hobby may be broadening and unchanging (think about Ticket To Ride, Catan, and Azul at Target stores and on Amazon), but the energetic, active hobbyist part of the hobby appears to be compelled by crowdfunding, plastic figures, and the BGG Top/Hot games lists. I'm not trying to say that's a problem, but I am certain that's it's a difference. At the same time, there are some nice advantages for old-timers like me, whether it's improved game distribution, production enhancements (e.g. double-layer boards), and the most robust online multiplayer options we've ever seen. -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.

Openers: Voyages Closers: Virtual Flea Markets (VFMs) at game conventions and other events

It'll be no surprise to any listener that I care about the Spiel des Jahres. In addition to its decades-long strong & beneficial effect on our boardgaming hobby, these awards are a better predictor for me than any other. Predictor of what? Of the games I'll actually continue to own and play with family & friends. True, they skew more toward lighter games, but that's ok with family. And truthfully, that's the preference of myself and several of my longtime gaming friends, too. If you only know the SdJ from recent years when it homed-in on the lightest games, more about parties than strategy, then I'd forgive your feeling that these aren't an award process that means much to a hobbyist. I'm thinking of recent winners like Just One, Pictures, MicroMacro Crime City, and even Dorfromantik. However, while you may long for the days when the award was bestowed on more gamer-ish titles like Tikal, Torres, and El Grande, my own personal highlights are the titles in between those two groupings. I'm thinking of Catan, Thurn und Taxis, Carcassonne, Dominion, Hanabi, Dominion, Ticket to Ride, or Alhambra. Not only the winners, too--I've learned to pay attention to the other nominees and recommended list of games, too. Just last weekend my friends Davebo and Jeff were visiting. Along with some other local gamers we played a lot of great titles, but guess what was on the table, pulled from my collection: Luxor and Imhotep, two fantastic nominees that were merely overshadowed by the steamroller winners those years (Azul and Codenames, respectively). The titles nominated for Spiel des Jahres are Captain Flip, In the Footsteps of Darwin, and Sky Team. In addition to these nominations, the SdJ jury recommended the following six titles: Harmonies, Passt nicht!, Phantom Ink, Schätz it if you can, Trekking Through History, and Trio.

  

Then for the Kenners the nominees went to Daybreak, The Guild of Merchant Explorers, and Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West. Plus the recommended list: Bier Pioniere, Botanicus, Forest Shuffle, and Ritual.

  

I think it's July 21 when we'll hear which games are the ultimate winners, but do take a look at the other nominees and recommended games. There's a good chance you'll enjoy those games, too, maybe even more than the winner. -Mark

Openers: Knarr, Faraway Closers: Ordering games nominated for the IGA and SdJ awards

Mark Johnson

@MarkEJohnson

Mark Jackson

@akapastorguy

Recently I asked my listeners for more feedback about this old podcast. What I heard back was very encouraging--thanks for that. Most of you just tell me to keep doing what I like & want. Good, I will! Some other comments called back to the All About… episodes I used to do, deep dives into individual games. Others remembered the 100 Great Games series fondly, a collaboration I did with Mark Jackson and Stephen Glenn. More ideas came up, too. I’ve mulled those over and devised something that should be fun for me and worthwhile for the listeners. I’ve invited an old friend to join me in discussions about the Spiel des Jahres winner from a particular year. That makes it kind of a deeper dive into that title, but we also talk about the other nominees from that year. Not only that, but the longer list of recommended games, too. Along the way, we briefly mention the winners of the Kennerspiel, Deutscher Spielepreis, and the À La Carte, all notable awards in Germany where the Spiel des Jahres is still the preeminent award for our hobby.

   

When this podcast is released, we’ll be only a week away from hearing the list of nominees and recommended games for this award year, 2024. I’ll be very interested in that, however this new, occasional podcast series is about the SdJ in prior years. The award itself goes back to 1979--and I may cover those oldies someday--but for this episode I’m starting with something much closer to our present time. Five years ago seems like a good place to start--recent enough that the games are familiar, but distant enough that most gamers will have had plenty of opportunity to play them, if desired. Future episodes may jump around to other years that interest me, like a goofy time machine. My co-host for this episode is Mark Jackson, a well-known writer about boardgames. He’s had multiple websites, is active on social media, is part of the Opinionated Gamers editorial board, a member of the International Gamers Awards panel, and has been on my podcast several times. I’m happy to call him my friend, too. Really, the only downside to this guy is the confusion we generate with our similar identities.

Mark & I have similar histories, but not always the same taste in games. Nonetheless, I know I can count on him to appreciate the kind of family strategy boardgames I focus on in this podcast--it’s in the opening to every episode! That’s what the Spiel des Jahres awards and selection jury are all about, too. It’s a great fit.

    

By setting our Spiel des Jahres Wayback Machine to 2019, Sherman & Peabody Mark & Mark will be going back to when Just One took home the prize over fellow nominees Werewords and L.L.A.M.A. Do you know all of those? How about the list of recommended titles, Belratti, Dizzle, Krass Kacke/Who Did It?, Reef, and Sherlock? We do our best to talk about all of those, while also mentioning that Wingspan won the Kennerspiel & DSP, while Belratti won the À La Carte. Let us know what you think about these games, and the SdJ Wayback Machine itself. Is there a particular year you want us to visit next? With 44 more years to choose from, we’re not going hit them all or go in any order. Future episodes will be occasionally interspersed with the “regular” episodes of Boardgames To Go. Very soon we’ll have this year’s nominees to discuss on our Discord server or elsewhere. I’m looking forward to all of it. -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.

In my last episode's Closer I asked for feedback. Really, all podcasters ask for feedback in every episode. I'm no different. Well, I'm only different in that I've been podcasting forever, and many of my listeners have given me feedback over the years. Other than comments on Discord, however, it had been some time since I received much feedback, which is why I asked for it specifically. And if you'll indulge me, this episode's second half is all about that feedback, and my responses to it.

    

Before I get to that, however, I talk about a bunch of games played recently. I used to do this, what I called my "Session Report (SR) & Feedback" episodes. However, it's been a while since I published that kind of episode. How long? A decade! By my records, the last time was exactly 10 years ago, in episode 146 from the May 2014. Seems ok to do another. Closer: If it's been 10 years since my last "SR & Feedback" episode, what other old features of this podcast do you recall? Are there any I've forgotten? -Mark

Opener: The final winners for Mark Madness! Castles of Burgundy and 

eryn roston

@baditude

Closer: A specific call for feedback to the podcast. Tell me what you like me to do more of, or do less. Session Report & Feedback episodes, like the old days? All About shows (more old days)? Something else? Over the years I've been to many game conventions, both big & small. However, it wasn't until this past month that I attended a Dice Tower event. The Dice Tower West annual game convention is held in the west, in Las Vegas, which means it's a pretty easy drive for me - four hours across the southwest. Though I'm not really a Vegas kind of guy, this is still a big geek convention of boardgamers, right? Right. In that, it felt very familiar to the multiple times I've visited BGGcon in Dallas...just in a different city, hosted by a different organization. I knew some of my buddies had attended in prior years, and many months I started asking them if they'd attend in 2024. I think most of us were on the fence, but hearing other friends may attend helped collectively push most of us into signing up. A couple had to back out due to unexpected life commitments, but enough of my gang went that we were able to fill game tables the whole time. In this episode, I talk about ALL of the games I played during this Wednesday-Sunday major event. Half of that discussion is about old games, or OG games, or whatever you want to call them. How old? We decided the cutoff should be a quarter-century. Focusing one of our convention days on titles at least 25 years old meant we had a full Friday of pre-2000 games. Games from the last century...the last millennium! Practically speaking, we played games from the 1990s, which is when many of our group got into modern boardgaming, including yours truly. If you appreciate retro gaming like we do, you'll love the first half of the episode. If not, skip ahead to the interlude music break near the 55-minute mark, and then I transition into some newer titles. That represented the other half of what I played at the convention. Including lots of card games, which are having their moment in the sun right now. Wonderful! (Even though I didn't love all of the card games I played, as you'll hear, I love that we're playing so many of them again.) -Mark

Go vote for the championship! (And the 3rd/4th place consolation match) https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-to-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12087718#comment12087718

 

It's the Final Four. Go vote now at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12083072#comment12083072

It's the Elite Eight! Get your votes in before March 24 at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/328714/boardgames-go-season-20-2024?itemid=10561730&commentid=12079786#comment12079786

 

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.

 

Play along and predict the winners at https://challonge.com/3abpsej6 Predictions must be submitted by March 12 to be in the contest

Mark Johnson

@MarkEJohnson

Patrick Pence

@Farsol

Last year I ran my first "March Madness" style, 64-game, single-elimination vote, with a contest to submit predictions for the entire bracket. If you've got a pool for the famous college basketball tournament in your office, or with your friends, then you know what this is. Actually, these days many other copycat tournament prediction contests exists--there's a big one on BoardGameGeek, my favorite movie podcast (Filmspotting) does one for films, and so on. My version is similar, but it lists a bunch of games to be voted on against each other. Listeners suggested I call it Mark Madness, and that's what we did. Last year I picked all 64 games that we voted on, pulling from recent award winners in different categories. Listener Patrick Pence ended up the winner of the contest, and for that reason he's my co-host this month for the 2024 Mark Madness. Not only that, more listeners on our Discord channel suggested that the contest be more specific to me, asking me to populate the bracket with games that mean something to me. I did about half of those, and asked Patrick to do the same. Then I combined our lists, added a few "people's choice" titles to round it out, and then set up the bracket. Play along! I hope we get a good number of folks who submit their own official predictions at challonge.com, which is free. Some have already done it. You've until March 12 to submit your brackets, so you need to move quickly. Then the voting rounds will start via Geeklist polling. As you can see from the chart above, the successive rounds of this voting will start happening every three days: On March 15 we'll have the results of the first round, when 64 teams are winnowed down to 32 survivors. Then it proceeds to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, and Championship. Who will be the winner? We expect to do "micro-episode" podcasts throughout the month to talk about each round. They'll show up in your regular feed, and I can link them here, too. -Mark