Men on Board

First off, we’d like to apologize for our unplanned, unannounced one week hiatus! Aaron was busy writing a murder mystery party that we did last weekend, so we’re just catching up on our other nerdy endeavors. And while we’re talking about scheduling, we believe that we’re going to have an episode releasing on December 2nd, but there is a chance that it won’t release until December 9th. We’re pretty sure that it’s going to be a Kiki about holiday gift ideas.

Anyway, onto the actual episode itself! Today we’re talking about two deduction games: Mystery of the Abbey and Awkward Guests. In our Broader View, we have a discussion about pacing in games. We touch very quickly at the end of the episode about how all 5 of us should be at PAX Unplugged this year, and we’re really excited about it!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:02:15] - Deduction
[00:04:05] - Mystery of the Abbey
[00:19:46] - Awkward Guests
[00:35:16] - Comparison
[00:45:42] - Other Deduction Games
[00:49:13] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

We’re calling this episode Mystery + because both of the games that we’re talking about our mysteries with a little bit of a stretch, but the truth is that this episode could have been called a lot of things because these games have a lot in common. The games that we are talking about our Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and Obscurio. Then, in our Broader View, we start out with every intention of having a conversation about maintaining balance at the table when you are in a GM-like role in a game, but we go all over the place and end up having a conversation about how bad we are at playing games with kids.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:46] - Mystery +
[00:01:41] - Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
[00:17:15] - Obscurio
[00:34:52] - Comparison
[00:45:14] - Other Mystery Games with a Little Bit Extra
[00:48:09] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

The episode length is a little bit longer than usual because we are talking about two games with a lot going on with their strategy and we really wanted to dig deep into them. The games we’re talking about today are Underwater Cities and Terraforming Mars. Later, we have a discussion about games where repeated plays allow additional strategies to emerge. At the very end of the episode, we put out a call for suggestions on games or comparison suggestions from the audience. So if you have an idea that you’d like us to talk about, please feel free to send us an email or contact us through boardgamegeek or any of our social media pages!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:03:19] - Habitat Building
[00:03:55] - Underwater Cities
[00:21:46] - Terraforming Mars
[00:38:16] - Comparison
[00:47:20] - Other Habitat Building Games (or something like that)
[00:51:41] - Broader View
[01:03:57] - Call for Suggestions

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Today we’re pressing our luck with our success of having all five hosts on the show next week and repeating the process while talking about two Flip & Write games: Welcome To… and Cartographers. Then, in our Broader View, we talk a little bit about our opinions on player turn length.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:55] - Flip & Write
[00:02:11] - Welcome To…
[00:17:04] - Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
[00:33:23] - Comparison
[00:44:28] - Other Flip & Write Games (Or games that make us think of these games)
[00:48:21] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Today not only marks our 50th episode, but it is also our 2 year anniversary of launching this podcast! To celebrate, we each picked a game from our first 49 episodes to revisit and discuss how our opinions on it have evolved over additional plays. Thank you to everyone that has supported us over the last 2 years, and we are looking forward to another 50 episodes with you!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:09] - Second Anniversary Extravaganza
[00:04:31] - Mat’s Choice: Cerebria: The Inside World
[00:12:09] - (Other) Matt’s Choice: Ticket to Ride
[00:22:29] - Jameson’s Choice: Cryptid
[00:34:29] - Aaron’s Choice: Mansions of Madness Second Edition
[00:42:41] - Josh’s Choice: Root
[00:53:27] - Looking Toward the Future

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

The recording of this episode ended up going on for a crazy long amount of time, so if something in the episode sounds a little bit weird, it’s probably because a 5 minute non-sequitur or tangent was edited out. With that out of the way, today’s category is games by designer Stefan Feld, and we’re looking at Trajan and Castles of Burgundy. Then in our Broader View, we talk about longevity of board games. What you won’t hear is our conversation about board game canon in the Broader View, but you will at some point in the future!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:08] - Stefan Feld
[00:03:09] - Trajan
[00:20:40] - Castles of Burgundy
[00:38:29] - Comparison
[00:47:11] - One other Stefan Feld game, and then some other games
[00:51:38] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

So while editing this episode, we realized that we kept referring to the series of games that we talk about in this episode as the Arkham Files, when in actuality the name of the series is the Arkham Horror Files! Hopefully everyone will be able to forgive the faux pas. But in this episode, we’re talking about Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror Third Edition. In our Broader View, we talk about what we like about games that share a universe, and what other games we would like to see expand their universe into other games.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:03] - Arkham Horror Files
[00:01:39] - Eldritch Horror
[00:16:08] - Arkham Horror Third Edition
[00:29:27] - Comparison
[00:45:23] - Other Games from the Cthulu Mythos
[00:49:20] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

We accidentally completely lost our sense of time in this episode, so it unfortunately ended up a little bit shorter than we usually like, but the end result should make up for the play length! Today, we’re talking about two games that share a theme of competing television networks: Primetime and The Networks. In our Broader View, we have a conversation about fiddly bits.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:32] - Television
[00:02:46] - Primetime
[00:19:16] - The Networks
[00:29:54] - Comparison
[00:38:34] - A couple games with a show theme and some other games
[00:41:08] - Broader View
[00:50:40] - Programming Note

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Today we’re talking about the games Seasons and Res Arcana, and we called the category magic, but the connection between these games is a lot less general than that. Later, in our Broader View, we talk about the advantages and disadvantages in common types of variable set ups in games.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:51] - Magic
[00:01:41] - Seasons
[00:21:00] - Res Arcana
[00:36:15] - Comparison
[00:45:12] - Other Games with a Magic Theme (Except for Josh’s choice)
[00:48:29] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

In this episode we are looking at two cooperative games where players are each playing as a miniature on a board and exploring a dungeon: Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft and Warhammer Quest Silver Tower. Then, in our Broader View, we talk about how games are adapted into other games and what the relationship is between the feelings players get in the different games…or at least, we try to talk about that.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:33] - Dungeon Crawling
[00:00:57] - Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft
[00:18:20] - Warhammer Quest Silver Tower
[00:33:08] - Comparison
[00:45:01] - Other Dungeon Crawling Games (For the Most Part)
[00:49:09] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.