In this Session Report show, we "Point-5" one of the games we talked about in 20.0. The Candidates are: Avalon Hill's Merchant of Venus and DVG's Phantom Leader...and the envelope please...the Point-5 episode goes to...Phantom Leader!

This Session Report is based on a short campaign of Phantom Leader that Jeff played. Jeff's goes over most of the decision points throughout the campaign, and then summarizes what he likes about this game in the context of actual play. We end with a brief discussion of DVG's announced intent to release a Deluxe Edition of Phantom Leader.

We always love to hear from you our listeners, so please post a comment to this blog entry (at www.gameopolis.org or gameopolis.libsyn.com), or send us an email at [email protected]!

Stay tuned for Show 21.0, coming at you faster than a sidewinder missile!

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Here in Show 20.0, we discuss a couple games that we are very excited about --one fairly new, and one a true classic! But since this is a whole-number episode, we start things off properly with a Dusty Old Box segment. To be more accurate, though, this is not a Box but rather is a Dusty Old THING...three things, in fact.

After the Dusty Old Box segment, Jeff launches us into the show's first main topic: a solitaire strategy game called Phantom Leader. Jeff covers the basics of the game elements and mechanics, and then describes why he loves this game so much. After Jeff's main segment, Mark takes us for a stroll down Memory Lane in the show's second main segment, talking about his all-time favorite game, Merchant of Venus. You might consider this a primer or a "warm-up" for the pending re-release of MoV! Mark covers all of the main rules and the subtleties of this game --the things that separate it from other "pick-up and drop-off" games, and that make MoV his all-time favorite.

As always, we love to hear from you our listeners, so please post a comment to this blog entry (at www.gameopolis.org or gameopolis.libsyn.com), or send us an email at [email protected]!

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Stay tuned for Show 20.5 --our session report on one of these fine games-- coming very soon.

NOTE: To download, right-click on the "POD" icon above, and choose "Save Target As..." Select a download location on your computer, and save. After saving, play the file from your downloaded copy.

In this Session Report show, we "Point-5" one of the games we discussed during our Lord of the Rings Extravaganza of Show 19.0.

This Session Report is based on a friendly game of ICE's Lonely Mountain: The Lair of Smaug the Dragon, that we shared with our good friend Bill. This is a light discussion of some of the strategies each of the three of us employed, and also of some of the unforeseen events that threw a wrench into most of our strategies. While this play example was quite atypical for a couple reasons, we still got some fun insights into this game, and so we hope you enjoy hearing about some of the surprises that awaited us deep in Smaug's Lair.

We always love to hear from you, so please post a comment to this blog entry (at www.gameopolis.org or gameopolis.libsyn.com), or send us an email at [email protected]!

Stay tuned for Show 20.0, on its way to you very soon.

NOTE: To download, right-click on the "POD" icon above, and choose "Save Target As..." Select a download location on your computer, and save. After saving, play the file from your downloaded copy.

It is HERE! Our much-anticipated Lord of the Rings Extravaganza episode! Well...much-anticipated by US, anyway. As always, we start things off right on this "whole-number episode"...by opening up a Dusty Old Box, although in this case it is more accurately described as a Dusty Old THING.

After the Dusty Old Box segment, we launch into our LOTR Extravaganza, starting with a couple games from the early 1980s, then one from the mid-90s, and finishing off with a couple more recent releases. Our angle on this comparison is focused on how well we think each game embodies the LOTR theme. Our opinions range from one extreme to the other, so we hope you enjoy listening to what we think of them. We end this episode with a return of our segment "Mark's Personal Gaming Trivia", in which Mark describes an old gaming-group slang term that sounds so much more violent than it actually is.

We'd love to hear how your experiences compare with our opinions of these LOTR games, so please post a comment to this blog entry (at www.gameopolis.org or gameopolis.libsyn.com), or send us an email at [email protected]!

Stay tuned for Show 19.5 --our session report on one of these LOTR games-- coming soon.

NOTE: To download, right-click on the "POD" icon above, and choose "Save Target As..." Select a download location on your computer, and save. After saving, play the file from your downloaded copy.

This is the second episode in the Gameopolis CarCast spin-off series. As is our intention, the Gameopolis CarCast is brought to you totally unplanned, and virtually unedited.

We'll be back with the next regular installment of Gameopolis --Show 19.0-- very soon. Until then, we hope you enjoy the random musings of the Gameopolis CarCast!

NOTE: To download, right-click on the "POD" icon above, and choose "Save Target As..." Select a download location on your computer, and save. After saving, play the file from your downloaded copy.

In Show 18.5 of Gameopolis, Mark and Jeff do a double-header Session Report. First they talk about a play session of Pizza Box Baseball, ending with a couple comparisons between this game and the On The Line Game Company's other publication Pizza Box Football, which Mark and Jeff discussed in Shows 9 and 9.5. Mark and Jeff then move onto a second Session Report on Cargo Noir with some light analysis of the three different approaches employed by the players in this play session.

As always, we'd LOVE to hear from you, so please post a comment to this blog entry (at www.gameopolis.org or gameopolis.libsyn.com), or send us an email at [email protected]!

Stay tuned for Show 19.0, coming to you faster than a flying Nazgul!

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Too much time has passed, and therefore Mark and Jeff feel the need to sit down and talk about games once again. Since this is a "whole-number episode", they start things off right...by opening up a Dusty Old Box! This Dusty Old Box takes us to places we haven't been before, and then brings us back again.

After the Dusty Old Box, Jeff talks a bit about Pizza Box Baseball, published by the On The Line Game Company. Jeff goes through the rules for all four complexity levels of the game, starting with the most basic ("A-league") and then building through Double-A, Triple-A, and finally "Pro-Ball" level. After Jeff's discussion of Pizza Box Baseball, Marks tells us about Days of Wonder's Cargo Noir. Mark describes the game rules, and then discusses some of the common arguments surrounding the theme of this game, and how the theme contributes to the play experience.

As always, we'd LOVE to hear from you, so please post a comment to this blog entry (at www.gameopolis.org or gameopolis.libsyn.com), or send us an email at [email protected]!

Related links:

Stay tuned for Show 18.5 --our session report on one of these fine games-- coming to you faster than line-drive to third base!

NOTE: To download, right-click on the "POD" icon above, and choose "Save Target As..." Select a download location on your computer, and save. After saving, play the file from your downloaded copy.

In this session report, Mark and Jeff talk about a play session of Fantasy Flight Games' re-issue of DungeonQuest. They give an overview of the session's events, and focus a bit on some of the updates to this 3rd edition of the game: the combat system and the player character characteristics and abilities. Mark and Jeff give their opinions of these updates, and decide whether this edition might still be able to fill the role of a filler game, even with all its embellishments.

As always, we'd LOVE to hear from you, so please post a comment to this blog entry (at www.gameopolis.org or gameopolis.libsyn.com), or send us an email at [email protected]!

Stay tuned for Show 18.0, coming to you faster than a DungeonQuest sunset!

NOTE: To download, right-click on the "POD" icon above, and choose "Save Target As..." Select a download location on your computer, and save. After saving, play the file from your downloaded copy.

This is the first of a spin-off series that we are calling the Gameopolis CarCast. The idea behind the CarCast is that whenever Mark and Jeff are commuting in the car together (talking about games and related topics, as always) we'll record the conversation --AND, if it sounds like a discussion we think our listeners would be interested in, we'll post it up here as a CarCast. Our CarCasts are completely independent of the regular Gameopolis podcasts, and are brought to you totally unplanned, and largely unedited (we only cut out the part where we argued about whether to go straight here and circle around the park, OR hang a left at this intersection and then turn right at the Gas Station). Also, there won't be any schedule for releasing the CarCasts, so you may detect some anachronisms in dates we refer to in the CarCasts relative to the shows' release dates.

We'll be back with the next regular installment of Gameopolis --Show 17.5-- very soon. Until then, we hope you enjoy the random musings of the Gameopolis CarCast!

NOTE: To download, right-click on the "POD" icon above, and choose "Save Target As..." Select a download location on your computer, and save. After saving, play the file from your downloaded copy.

Mark and Jeff challenge tradition in what would --normally-- have been the Dusty Old Box segment of the show.  Then, Jeff kicks us off with a deeper treatment of a PREVIOUS Dusty Old Box: Avalon Hill's Freedom In The Galaxy. Jeff takes a high level look at this game to answer his months-long question: is this game truly "ridiculous", as was once asserted? After Jeff's analysis of FitG, Marks tells us about the re-release of DungeonQuest by Fantasy Flight Games, with plenty of comparisons and contrasts with the previous edition of the game.

As always, we LOVE to hear from our listeners, so please post a comment to this blog entry (at www.gameopolis.org or gameopolis.libsyn.com), or send us an email at [email protected]!

Related links:

Stay tuned for Show 17.5 --our session report on one of these fine games-- coming very soon!

NOTE: To download, right-click on the "POD" icon above, and choose "Save Target As..." Select a download location on your computer, and save. After saving, play the file from your downloaded copy.