Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

Dear listeners, it is once again time for us to part ways. As we come to the end of our third season, let us reflect on the games we have covered. From the family friendly Ticket to Ride, to the genre defining titles like El Grande and Dominion, and the brutal chance of Blood Bowl we have covered a wide range of genre, mechanism, and complexity. However, no game this season has the reputation for sheer scale and difficulty of our final title. 

Not only did our last title this season establish its designer as a powerful voice, but it took a venerable genre and turned it inside out. The civilisation style of board games is almost as old as the hobby, and our final title took this genre, stripped out a lot of the fundamentals and made a game that took the world by storm. Join us for one last time this season as we go Through the Ages.

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mentions during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Pandemic

Mage Knight

Codenames

Francis Tresham Civilisation 

Mega Civilisation 

Prophecy

Sid Meier’s Civilisation

New Leaders

Through the Ages App

Can’t Stop - Playte Version

Flip 7

FFG Civilisation

Mare Nostrum

Imperium

Six Sojourns - Eight Minute Empire

Carta Impera Victoria

Civilisation: A New Dawn

Innovation

Ark Nova

Other Mentions

Matt Leacock

Boardgame Arena

Digital Antiquarian 

Team Links

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

BlueSky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

Nate: Well Iain we are almost at the end of the season

Iain: That’s right Nate and the teams have all to play for

N: Teams?

I: Yes Nate, teams. In no other sport do we get to see the sheer physicality and natural brutality brought out in such a glorious manner

N: This isn’t a sports podcast Iain, it’s a board game podcast

I: Can’t it be both? 

N: I guess it could. If we covered a board game from at least 10 years ago that happens to be focused on sport

I: How about a fantasy sport? 

N: Tell me more Iain

I: Well Nate, let me tell you about a sport that is not only an allegory for the animosity between many fantasy races but also stands as one of the icons of the British gaming scene. 

N: Is it from a famous British Publisher?

I: You took the words right out of my mouth Nate

N: Meat Loaf?

I: No thanks I’ve eaten. 

N: Enough of this, let’s get on with the show

I: You’re right Nate, let’s tell these fine folks about Blood Bowl. 

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Warhammer

Epic 40k

Warhammer 40k

Necromunda

Warhammer Quest

Space Hulk   

Monsters of the Midway

Football Strategy Avalon Games

Terror of the Lichemaster (warhammer campaign)

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

Mordheim

Gorkamorka

Dune

Blitz Bowl

Dreadball

Blood Bowl: Team Manager

Kaos Ball

Other Mentions

Games Workshop Ltd.

Tabletop Simulator Mod we used 

Beastie Boys - License to ill 

American History X

The Producers

TSR

Team Links

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

Sometimes you hear about games by reputation. The epic length of Twilight Imperium, the complexity of Vita Lacerda designs, the seemingly simple mechanisms behind the games of Reiner Knizia. These reputations can attract or repel in equal measure, and sometimes they are undeserved. The folklore around some games can be a hindrance to their uptake. However some folk tales are firmly based in reality. 

The game we are covering tonight is one of those games that I knew by reputation alone. Dry, excruciating downtime, with very little in the way of redeeming features. Despite that description this is a game that has always been available, an evergreen in more ways than one. Now that I have played the game, what do I think? We will get to that. As to what my fellow hosts think, well they are in the ring and ready to fight over the classic that is Power Grid. 

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Ticket to Ride - Episode Link 

Imperial

Railway Rivals

McMulti

Playboss

Age of Steam

City of Big Shoulders

Chicago Express

Bohnanza

Puerto Rico - Episode Link

Fearsome Floors

Plum Island Horror

Fish, Flip, and Frikadelen 

504

Ark Nova 

Seti

Thebes

Red November

Patchwork

Ra

Modern Art - Episode Link

Fishing

Other Mentions

Brettspielwelt

The story of Power Grid - https://opinionatedgamers.com/2016/07/11/funkenschlag-at-fifteen-the-story-of-power-grid/

Team Links

Websites you can find the cast on

There Will Be Games

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

A large part of the culture of the tabletop hobby is tied up with games emulating history. From HG Wells’ Little Wars to the early days of Avalon Hill and the modern expressions of the form in GMT Games, wargames are undoubtedly a large part of tabletop gaming’s history and present. We have covered one of the icons of this genre with Twilight Struggle in Season 1, a game that sat atop the BGG rankings for many years.

Our next game this season has never had such an accolade, but has still been a massive presence over the years. Taking the more complicated wargames that were available at the time and distilling them into a fast card driven experience, it crossed the aisle into more  mainstream hobby gaming. Soon it was on gamers shelves everywhere and spawned numerous, and we do mean numerous, expansions, campaign books and more. Pull up a chair and reminisce with us as we look back at Memoir 44. 

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mentions during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Twilight Struggle 

Ticket to Ride

Battlecry

Commands & Colours Ancients

Commands & Colours Napoleonic 

Commands & Colours series 

We the People

Combat Commander

Heroscape

Star Wars Queen’s Gambit

Battlelore

Netrunner

Samurai Battles

Other Mentions

Vassal 

Richard Borg Interview

Team Links

Websites you can find the cast on

There Will Be Games

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

Over the last two and half seasons of Cult of the Old we have covered some absolute classics. From the brutal farming of Agricola that kicked off our very first season to Catan that began our second we have looked at games venerable and revered, and some that are just past their prime Some of those games still hold their place in the hobby, but many have been surpassed as designers take the original ideas and improve on them ten fold. 

This is not the case for the game we are covering tonight. 

Hitting the scene in 1995, the same year as Catan, our next title quickly became a watch word for area control. Though many games have followed in this Grand Dames footsteps, none have managed the combination of simple mechanisms, devilish decisions, and twists of fate that this title nailed. Pick up your caballeros and send them into the depths of the Castillo as we explore El Grande. 

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mentions during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Catan - Episode Link

Civilisation

Risk

Go

6 Nimmt

Heimlich & Co

Torres

Tikal

Heroquest

Villa paletti 

San Marco

Mission Red Planet 

Race for the Galaxy

Dominion - Episode Link

Arcs

Root

Chaos in the Old World

Kemet

Wallenstein

Shogun

Other Mentions

Rio Grande Games

Z-Man Games

Team Links

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

The three of us on this cast are purveyors of words. We use them to communicate our thoughts on games in the written or audio form. In doing so we hope to convey the emotions, feeling, and mechanisms behind games we love and loathe. 

Words have a long history of association with games. From Victorian parlour games to modern expressions of the form in games like Codenames and Paperback Adventures. Of course here on Cult of the Old we are not interested in the modern expressions so much as the origins of word games. 

We aren’t going to go back as far as the Victorians this episode. We are instead going to go back to the early 20th century. Then a game that was originally called Criss-Cross words was brought to a wider audience. It is then when it took on its modern name which you will already be familiar with. Scrabble. 

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mentions during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Codenames

Paperback Adventures

Kriegspiel

Monopoly - Episode Link

Tigris & Euphrates - Episode Link

Anagrams

Go

So Clover

Upwords

Boggle

Acquire

Letter Jam

Other Mentions

Words with Friends

Rosemary’s Baby

Sneakers

Team Links

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

Games come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. As consumers and critics of the form we try and categorise, quantify, and contemplate the flaws and virtues of these forms. We have tackled many games over the first two seasons of Cult of The Old from the heavier economic stylings of Brass, the negotiation heavy stylings of Cosmic Encounter, and the gentle , if grim, farming of Agricola. One category we haven’t touched on so far is that of the party game.

These games tend to take a large number of players and lie at the lighter end of the mechanical spectrum. Although not the originator of this style of game, the title we are covering today is arguably one of the most influential. Coming in a blockbuster year of titles it was the lightest of that crop to make a mark, and it didn’t really take off properly until a couple of years later. A game that allows the players to express themselves through art, interpretation and surreal imagery. Welcome to the dream world of Dixit. 

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Stella on BGA

Apples to Apples

Cards Against Humanity 

Balderdash

Charades

Monopoly - Episode Link

Telestrations

Time’s Up

Fictionary

Mysterium

Dixit Journey

Dixit Odyssey 

Once Upon A Time

Old Hellfire Club

Scrawl

Medium

The Chameleon 

Spyfall

Pictionary

Codenames

So Clover

Decrypto

Concept

Other Mentions

Dixit online - Tixid 

Blankety Blank

Catchphrase

Call my Bluff

Team Links

Websites you can find the cast on

There Will Be Games

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Twitter

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

Many of the games we have covered over 3 seasons have an important place in the hobby landscape. From Catan at the birth of the modern board game renaissance, to the success of Monopoly, and the influence of Agricola we have covered many big titles. 

The game we are covering this episode has one of the farthest reaching impacts of anything we have covered so far. Coming out in 2008 this box of cards took the hobby world by storm, spawning numerous expansions and countless imitators. The mechanism it spawned is still everywhere in the hobby, and continues to be innovated upon. Let’s get shuffling and dealing as we dive into the phenomenon that was, and is, Dominion.

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mentions during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Magic: The gathering

St. Petersburg

Netrunner - Episode Link

Pandemic - Episode Link 

Ascension 

Star Realms

Arctic Scavengers

Thunderstone

Tanto Cuore 

Shards of Infinity

Race for the Galaxy 

Star Wars Unlimited

Arkham Horror LCG

Puzzle Strike

Undaunted Series

Dune: Imperium

Automobiles

Tyrants of the Underdark

Gloomhaven

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Clank 

Battlestar Galactica

Cosmic Encounter 

Dixit

Star Wars: Deckbuilding Game

Millennium Blades

Ruthless

Quacks of Quedlinburg 

Other Mentions

Diana Jones Award

Gathering of Friends

Fortress Ameritrash 

Team Links

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

Amongst the thousands of games that are released each year into the tabletop hobby, it can be hard to stand out as a designer. Your name rings out less than the games you make, making it hard to carve a space for yourself, let alone a career. For the designer of our next game, this has not been a problem. Dr Reiner Knizia was designing games before the hobby as we think of it today existed and is regarded as one of the best of all time.

How do you know what games are his best though? Which game shows off that particular Knizia magic? When did he come to the attention of the wider community? Well the game we are covering on this episode is considered by some to be his masterpiece. A game that sat at the top of the BGG rankings for several years, has been reprinted numerous times, and is the perfect example of some of Knizia’s most famous design tropes. Let’s dip into the refreshing water of Tigris & Euphrates.

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

Games Mentioned

Catan - Episode Link

El Grande 

Risk 

Axis & Allies

Diplomacy

Civilization

Acquire

Go

Modern Art - Episode Link

Ra 

Taj Mahal

Lord of the Rings

Lost Cities

Samurai

Amun-Re

Through the Desert

Revenge of the B-Movie 

Yellow & Yangtze

Race for the Galaxy

Puerto Rico - Episode Link

Dune

Gest of Robin Hood

Hex

Carcassonne

Babylonia 

Quest for El Dorado

Blue moon

Other Mentions

Deutscher Spiele Preis 

Tigris & Euphrates video part 1 - other parts can be found from there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRCub6Xxng0

Team Links

Websites you can find the cast on

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at [email protected] 

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

The tabletop hobby has many niches within it. Maybe you are a miniatures person, battling over the table with painted models and buckets of dice. Just boardgames for you? No problem. How about being a dedicated card game player? Within these subcultures things get even more niche, but out of these specialisations seismic shifts can emerge. 

The 18xx genre of games is a complicated, byzantine, and often misunderstood section of the hobby. These games see players buying, selling, and building trains and train companies in a variety of different ways. The fascination with trains in the tabletop hobby doesn’t stop with this particular class of games though. When our first game this season hit the tables, it became a household name, being translated into 33 languages and, as of 2024, selling 18 million copies worldwide. I’ll be checking your travel pass as we get on board withTicket to Ride. 

Show Links

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mentions during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question. We will also link to previous episodes where we have one. 

Games Mentioned

Votes for Women

Catan -Episode Link

Rummy

Elfenland 

Brass -Episode Link

Bagh Chal

Hnefatafl 

Monopoly -Episode Link

Age of Steam 

Memoir 44

Ticket to Ride - Legends of the West

Lords of Vegas

Spirit Island

Gloomhaven

Other Mentions

Martin Wallace

Masters Traditional Games

Around the world in 80 games book

Team Links

Websites you can find the cast on

There Will Be Games

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

Nate

Bluesky

Instagram

Support us on Patreon

Email us at[email protected]