Men on Board

Today we’re taking a look at theme parks in two very different ways: Unfair and Dinosaur Island. Because both of these games have some swingy randomization mechanics, we then talk about our thoughts about randomness in games in our Broader View.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:34] - Theme Parks
[00:01:34] - Unfair
[00:17:24] - Dinosaur Island
[00:34:16] - Comparison
[00:45:51] - Other Theme Park Games (For the Most Part)
[00:49:08] - 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 we’re taking a look at the games that we played and our overall experiences that we had at Origins Game Fair 2019. We played a lot of games, so some of our thoughts are quicker than others!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:38] - Origins 2019
[00:13:19] - Calico
[00:14:58] - Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
[00:15:43] - On Tour
[00:17:47] - Gorus Maximus, Egizia: Shifting Sands, & Crown of Emara
[00:19:25] - Pipeline
[00:20:51] - Call to Adventure
[00:22:44] - Underwater Cities
[00:25:30] - Illusion
[00:26:33] - Medium
[00:29:11] - Smartphone, Inc.
[00:31:56] - Die Tavernen im Tiefen Thal
[00:32:55] - Obscurio
[00:35:51] - Endeavor: Age of Sail
[00:36:30] - Gem Hens
[00:37:20] - Tuki
[00:38:52] - Men at Work
[00:39:23] - One Night Ultimate Super Villains
[00:39:52] - Our Favorite Moments from Origins 2019

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

This episode was edited the night after getting back from Origins, so these show notes are going to be short and to the point! Today we’re talking about two games that were both originally published by Days of Wonder: Cleopatra and the Society of Architects and Colosseum. Because both of these games were then later reprinted, we have a conversation about reprints and games that we would like to see be reprinted. Most importantly, as of this episode Mat is officially back in Pittsburgh so we will once again be recording our episodes altogether in the same location!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:29] - Days of Wonder
[00:02:44] - Cleopatra and the Society of Architects
[00:17:49] - Colosseum
[00:34:48] - Comparison
[00:39:11] - Other Days of Wonder Games
[00:42:47] - 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 apologize for the delay in getting today’s episode out, but we think that it was worth the day’s wait! Today we’re talking about two pick up and deliver games: Firefly and Merchant of Venus. Then in our Broader View, we have a conversation that we’re calling The Logistics of Longer Games: Running Long, where we pretty much just talk about social etiquette when playing long games. If you’re going to be at Origins next week and you see us around, please say hi!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:02] - Pick Up and Deliver Games
[00:01:40] - Firefly
[00:16:09] - Merchant of Venus
[00:32:05] - Comparison
[00:41:37] - Other Pick Up and Deliver Games
[00:44:57] - 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’s Kiki is all about art in boardgames, and we run through exactly how much we value art and what we look for in art. We didn’t announce it in this episode, because we didn’t know it at the time of recording, but next week we will be back with another regular episode where the category is going to be Pick Up and Deliver games and we’re going to talk about Merchant of Venus and Firefly.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:04:07] - Does art matter in board games?
[00:19:34] - What kind of styles of art are we drawn toward?
[00:36:22] - How does art influence gameplay for us?
[00:39:08] - What do we think of art as a mechanic in games?
[00:45:29] - What is some of our favorite and least favorite art in games?

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 went a little bit long today, but that’s because we’re essentially talking about 9 different games in our descriptions. And that’s because today we are taking a look at asymmetrical games by comparing Vast: The Crystal Caverns and Root. We then take a step back and talk about how we learn games. We also get a little bit excited about the upcoming Origins: Game Fair, so be on the lookout for us if you are heading to Columbus next month!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:34] - Asymmetric Games
[00:01:55] - Vast: The Crystal Caverns
[00:18:21] - Root
[00:35:36] - Comparison
[00:46:27] - Other Asymmetric Games
[00:50:14] - 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 we’re talking about games with a steampunk theme, and we’re discussing The World of SMOG: On Her Majesty’s Service and Victorian Masterminds. Then in our Broader View, after looking forward to Victorian Masterminds for what felt like forever, we talk about anticipation of games and what games and events that we’re currently anticipating.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:43] - Steampunk
[00:02:30] - The World of SMOG: On Her Majesty’s Service
[00:22:02] - Victorian Masterminds
[00:39:27] - Comparison
[00:43:56] - Other Steampunk Games
[00:48:00] - 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.

While editing this episode, we realized that we had some unfortunate audio issues, and we apologize for the quality in some parts! Because of this, we edited a little bit more than we usually do, bringing the episode length down a little bit. Hopefully this will clear up the confusion when you hear Aaron talk about how the recording is going long during the episode!

The category in this episode is Cerebria, which is a shared theme between two different games from Mindclash Games. Specifically, we’re talking about Cerebria: The Inside World and Cerebria: The Card Game. In our Broader View, we have a discussion about variable player counts in board games.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:11] - Cerebria
[00:02:20] - Cerebria: The Inside World
[00:23:26] - Cerebria: The Card Game
[00:36:00] - Comparison
[00:41:52] - Other Games with Two Implementations
[00:45:03] - 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.

Starting off with a programming note, due to moving this episode is going to be a gap filler until we get the games unpacked and the studio set up in Aaron’s new house. Episode 38 will be airing on April 22, 2019. For this episode, we’re talking about our experiences and opinions on tabletop RPGs, and we spend a lot of that time talking about a campaign of Mutants & Masterminds.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:48] - What do we like about RPGs?
[00:08:51] - What do we look for in a system?
[00:24:41] - What kind of characters do we like to play?
[00:39:12] - Do we prefer to GM or play characters?

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

As of this episode, our friend and occasional fill-in host Other Matt is officially joining the cast of Men on Board. We accidentally forgot to elaborate on how this is going to work moving forward on the show itself, but what will happen is that Matt is going to be more regularly filling in for Josh and other hosts are there are conflicts in our schedules so that we can produce even more content! That being sad, at the end of this episode we announce that there may be some delays in some upcoming episodes due to some logistics surrounding Aaron moving.

Anyway, in this episode we’re celebrating Other Matt joining us by talking about historic war games. In particular, we’re looking at Memoir 44 and 1775: Rebellion. In our Broader View, we have a discussion about the different ways that combat resolution is handled in games and what we like and don’t like about these systems.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:11] - Historic War Games
[00:01:40] - Memoir 44
[00:17:02] - 1775: Rebellion
[00:33:01] - Comparison
[00:42:51] - Other Historic War Games
[00:46:45] - Broader View
[01:01:20] - Programming Announcement

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