Into The Meepleverse

The duo are bringing some fresh takes to this week’s episode with a Never Forget Your First (i.e., thoughts after one play) on Dune: Imperium, as well as Maggie’s early impression of Merchant’s Cove. This listening experience will be enriched if you have listened to the episode where the two discuss Lost Ruins of Arnak, as it is impossible for any content creator to talk about Dune: Imperium without talking about Lost Ruins of Arnak!

This episode covers two recent releases: Lawyer Up (6:35) and Darwin’s Journey (32:28). The duo also discuss games they’ve played with significant typos in the rules which leads to a short discussion of Batman: The Animated Series – Rogues Gallery (27:38). And as always the episode wraps up discussing a newly released album and video game for Maggie and Billy’s Nerd Adjacent Musings.

Maggie and Billy bring a critical eye to the Spiel des Jahres, mostly looking loosely at the types of games that have been nominated for the prestigious German Award. Backed with limited experience with the nominees, they look at what games they would have liked to see recognized and look at the direction the awards seem to be moving.

This episode begins with a love letter to Railroad Ink (8:14) and the new Challenge edition along with several other mini expansions. Then Billy and Maggie discuss Nidavellir (30:48) after their first play of it just before recording. Finally Billy gives his a ~spoiler free~ overview of his experience playing Clank: Legacy (51:04).

This episode features a more in depth look at a game we talked about back in our early days, when playing games at board game cafes was still an option for us, and we were allowed to travel internationally. It feels like a long time ago now, and that’s probably because it was Era: Medieval Age (2:40)! After this discussion we move onto Res Arcana (20:25), a game that we have both played exactly one time. #NeverForgetYourFirst.

After a brief reflection on Terraforming Mars (Billy and Maggie played it together since the last episode and Maggie has now played it almost a dozen times), the two jump into 6 Nimmt! (9:45), Wolfgang Kramer’s simple card game from 1994. Then the two move on to talk about the illustrious, waterproof, luxurious title that is Too Many Bones (20:15). Complete with audio of how twangy the plastic cards are, this discussion goes into depths of the game, the characters, and the wonderfully ways that Chip Theory Games has produced such a supreme game. Spoiler Alert: Too Many Bones is good.

This episode starts off with a discussion about a wonderful little game, Similo (4:54). Then Billy and Maggie discuss a game that both of them have only played once, Terraforming Mars (18:26).

This week Billy and Maggie revisit one of Billy’s favourite games, Lorenzo il Magnifico (5:23), and Maggie gives her initial impression after just one play. They also discuss the expansion for Lorenzo, Houses of Renaissance (16:48). The conversation shifts to discussing airship pirates with a more recent title, CloudAge (26:09). And this episode ends with an impromptu discussion on how certain video game developers react to community cheats, scandal!

Ready to explore some newer and older Roll & Writes (we ain't talking Yahtzee old!), Billy and Maggie jump into Silver & Gold (4:53), a Flip & Fill game that has you checking off boxes as you search islands for treasure (we think). Following the nearly theme-less Roll & Write comes a totally theme-less Roll & Write, The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game (16:35). Capping off the games is Adventure Games: Monochrome Inc. (28:41), the least successful narrative game Billy has encountered. This episode is filled with goodies after the game chat, so stick around!

In this episode, free from his need to rant about Kickstarter, Billy brings up Q.E. (1:47), a fun game that succeeds in making him feel like a failure financially! Ironically, it is a Kickstarter game. Maggie swings back on Alma Mater (14:18) having run her own university several times. Does she like it as much as Coimbra? Billy brings up storytelling as a mechanic, and the two talk about how Gloom (36:58) nails it.