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]