In the Year 2016....

In this episode, our hosts discuss , dissect, and “dissomething” 2016. After a light banter, they head into a few categories they wanted to used to highlight certain games, including Best Art and Best Components. Zach gives out some Year-End Awards and then they look back on the year as a whole, including how their views on the gaming industry have changed since starting this podcast 6 months ago. Everyone mentions their favorite “Older” game that they first played in 2016 and they finish up with a list of their Top 3 Favorite games from 2016.

00:00:45 - 00:08:20 Banter!!

00:08:39 - 2016 Best-of Categories

•  00:11:27 - Best Art
•  00:14:49 - Best Components
•  00:17:47 - Best Mechanic/Mechanism
•  00:22:21 - Most Disappointing

00:27:07 - Zach's Year End Awards

• 00:27:32 - The  "Dead Inside" Award
• 00:27:55 - "Would You Please Shut Up, I Have Something to Say!"
• 00:28:31 - "Oh God, Everything Has Gone Wrong So Fast!"
• 00:28:41 - "Now I Can Finally Play Out My Own Fan-Fiction!"
• 00:29:06 - "Beating An Undead Shoggoth"
• 00:30:05 - "A Place For Everything And Everything In It's Place"
• 00:30:30 - "Yo Dawg, I Heard You Like To Game, So I Put A Game In Your Game, So You Can Game While You Game"

00:32:25 - 2016 Year-End Look-Back

01:05:28 The Best Games of 2016

•  01:06:24 Best New To Us Games of 2016
•  01:13:24 Adrian, Jeff and Zach's Top 3 Games of 2016 
  •     01:14:16 Number 3
  •     01:16:18 Number 2
  •     01:23:00 Number 1

01:32:47 Episode Wrap-Up

Great Western Trail

This Holiday Filled* episode starts with some topically off-topic banter, before diving into Jeff’s Bloody Minute and some of the host’s newly played games, including the new Pandemic Iberia and Adrian’s KS copy of Druids and Zach finally regales us with his triumph in Legendary Encounters: Predator.  They then move on to a very light News and Kickstarter segment before diving into the game review of the week, Alexander Pfister’s Great Western Trail. Is this game’s path filled with strategy, cruelness, and cattle herding, or will it get lost in a stampede of mechanics? Find out! After the end of the episode is a First Impressions bonus discussion on Rob Daviau’s Seafall Legacy, talking about the prologue and first play of the game.

00:00:15 - Banter! Featuring: Star Wars, Blood Bowl, Panemic: Iberia, more Terraforming Mars, Power Grid Card Game, Druids, Legendary Encounters: Predator   00:09:53 - Bloody Minute 00:34:05 - News and Kickstarters 00:35:36 - MHGG Review: Great Western Trail 01:08:17 - End of Episode Wrap Up! 01:11:51 - Seafall first impressions WITH SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Feast for Odin

This very long episode starts out with a brief Bloody Minute from Jeff, before the weekly game sessions are recapped, including Adrian’s “lovely” time with The Oregon Trail and a rousing game of Werewolf. In the Kickstarter section, Zach finally gets a chance to own a Crokinole Board. A short news section talks about GenCon staying in Indy, and the soon to be released Doom: The Board Game. This week’s game review is Uwe Rosenburg’s newest game, A Feast for Odin, and the hosts try not to get stuffed as they mentally chow down on all the mechanics that make up this game. Do these mechanics mesh into a fine stew, or is it overstuffed and convoluted, leading to bloating and gas? Listen and find out… Two new emails close out the show.

Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed Play Report

Your hosts discuss their most recent playthrough of the epic 4x game: TI3. Listen in as they discuss the politics, battles, and interactions that tore a galaxy apart before one race rose above the others to take ultimate control.

Twilight Imperium

This episode starts off with the weekly recap of our hosts’ game sessions, including first plays of The Great Western Trail,more plays of a Feast for Odin, and Jeff gloats about his latest win in the Bloody Minute. In the news section, CMON’s public trading is discussed as well as AEG’s expansion triple pack. Kingdom Death: Monster continues to crush its enemies in the Kickstarter roundup, and Adrian introduces a new Euro KS, Fuedum. Twilight Imperium Third Edition is the review of the week, and our hosts try to discuss this monument to Ameritrash style games, barely able to get through its countless mechanics and game pieces. Numerous emails close out the show.

00:00:30 Banter!!! Featuring Inis, Great Western Trail, Blood Bowl recap, Feast for Odin, Seven Wonders: Duel,  00:06:09 Bloody Minute! 00:17:55 News and Kickstarter Roundup  00:18:04 Pandemic Iberia  00:21:33 Cool Mini or Not now publicly traded in Hong Kong  00:23:00 AEG announces Destination Fun  00:26:34 Mountains of Madness from Rob Daviau  00:27:32 Email from Andrew RE: Kickstarter coverage  00:28:13 Kingdom Death Monster  00:29:24 Quodd Heroes  00:32:53 Feudum 00:36:46 MHGG Review: Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition  00:39:45 Game Overview  00:40:53 Initial Thoughts  00:44:54 Components  00:51:18 Rules and Rulebooks  00:56:34 Gameplay  01:08:08 Final Thoughts 01:17:23 Emails, Contact Info, and Wrap Up

Episode 22 - Cry Havoc and the Unstoppable Hype Train

The episode kicks off with the many games our hosts have played over the week, include first impressions of Feast for Odin, the continuing coverage of how great Terraforming Mars is, and Adrian’s experience at Heavy Cardboard’s game day. In the news section, A hole was dug by Cards against Humanity, because it was Black Friday, and a Terminator licensed board game was announced. They then move onto Kickstarters, mainly discussing the huge hit, Kingdom Death: Monster and Vast! The Crystal Cavern’s PayPal woes. Cry Havoc is the weekly review, where the hosts do battle on how the game’s many mechanics fit together and if it’s more than the sum of its parts. The Hype Train then departs(Choo-Choo Motherf**ker!) as our discussion topic delves into Hype and ways to avoid its pitfalls. Two new emails close out the show.

Banter! Featuring Sportsball, Board Games, and Jeff's Bloody Minute   00:29:18 News! and Kickstarter!   00:29:23 - CAH Holiday Hole   00:33:12 - Terminator: The Boardgame   00:35:45 - Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5   00:39:34 - Vast: The Crystal Caverns   00:42:20 - Wordsy by Gil Hova 00:43:00 - MHGG Review: Cry Havok   00:43:21 - Rules Overview   00:44:21 - Initial Thoughts   00:47:41 - Components       00:50:39 - Rules and Rulebook   01:04:41 - Final Thoughts 01:10:51 - Discussion of the Day: Boardgame HYPE!!! 01:29:52 - Emails, Contact Info, and Closing Thoughts

Episode 21: Last Will

Opening up the episode, our hosts catch up on all the gaming they have been doing, including Adrian’s game-filled Snowboarding trips and a trio of newly played games, Inis, Cry Havoc, and Concordia. Jeff finally gets himself a win in this week’s Bloody Minute. They then move onto the news, including a new edition of Aye, Dark Overlord! and the recent BGGCon. In recent Kickstarters, a bunch of interesting ones are currently active, including Wordsy from Gil Hova and the highest funded Tiny Epic game, Tiny Epic Quest. In the review section, our hosts try and figure out the worst way to spend money and see if Last Will and its expansion is worth it. The show closes out with another email. 00:00:47 - Banter! Games discussed include: Space Cadets, D&D 4th Ed, Jeff's Bloody Minute, Hero Realms, Inis, Cry Havok, Concordia

• 00:09:53 Bloody Minute  

00:21:04 News and Kickstarer Round up

• 00:21:10 Munchkin X-man & Munchkin CCG
•  00:23:41 X-Com Expansion
•  00:25:23 Aye, Dark Overlord
•  00:26:47 BGGcon is over, future convention plans.
•  00:31:11 Mythic Battles: Pantheon
•  00:33:34 Bears Vs Babies is wrapped up
•  00:34:53 MegaMan Pixel Tactics
•  00:35:34 Tiny Epic Kingdom
•  00:36:21 Wordsy
•  00:37:17 Lisboa
•  00:38:36 Feudum   
•  00:40:18 Man vs Meeple

00:41:29 MHGG Review: Last Will

•  00:41:50 Game Overview
• 00:42:41 Initial Thoughts
•  00:46:29 Components and Art
•  00:47:37 Gameplay
•  00:53:34 Rules
•  00:55:20 Expansion: Getting Sacked
•  01:02:11 Final Thoughts

01:04:54 Listener Email, Closing Thoughts and Contact Info

00:01:01 - List Criteria Number 10s 00:04:30 - Adrian 00:07:29 - Jeff 00:10:59 - Zach Number 9s 00:12:45 - Jeff 00:14:55 - Zach 00:16:22 - Adrian Number 8s 00:18:57 - Zach 00:21:15 - Adrian 00:23:47 - Jeff Number 7s 00:26:21 - Adrian 00:27:57 - Jeff 00:30:07 - Zach Number 6s 00:32:24 - Jeff 00:33:45 - Zach 00:36:04 - Adrian Number 5s 00:39:14 - Zach 00:41:14 - Adrian 00:43:00 - Jeff Number 4s 00:45:58 - Adrian 00:48:39 - Jeff 00:51:43 - Zach Number 3s 00:54:49 - Jeff 00:58:41 - Zach 01:00:06 - Adrian Number 2s 01:03:53 - Zach 01:07:44 - Adrian 01:09:05 - Jeff Number 1s 01:11:25 - Adrian 01:13:54 - Jeff 01:19:54 - Zach

Sorry for the delay, unfortunately show notes were also lost in the computer crash so this week won't have any. Thanks again to all of our awesome listeners for their patience!!! I hope you enjoy the episode and that it proves worth the wait.

Cheers, Adrian

Today our hosts are once again joined by Guest Host Megan, and the episode begins with more plays of Terraforming Mars and how they finally found time to try out Mech vs Minions and the Pillars of Eternity Game. Some more developments in active kickstarters are mentioned, including Bears vs Babies Stretch goals, and how Tiny Epic Quest’s tiny box will be stuffed to the brim with content. In recent news, Jeff talks about Hero realms and some new Agricola mini expansions are announced. In the review section, our hosts figure out if Isle of Skye is as great as the Germans think it is. After the review, the discussion of Theme vs. Mechanics begins. What is more important in a game? What gets you interested? What keeps you coming back? Can one exist without the other? Answers to these and more! Ending the episode is a response from our first contest winner, MHGGhater! 00:00:37 - Banter!! Feasturing: Recent plays, Seattle, Video Games, Broncos, Season 3 of Jeff's Bloody Minute. 00:18:15 - Kickstarter and News   00:18:24 - Bears Vs Babies   00:21:36 - Chariot Race   00:22:10 - Tiny Epic Quest   00:29:11 - Wiz Kids Agricola Expansions   00:34:26 - Terra Mystica App by DigiDiced   00:36:14 - MHGG Review: Isle of Skye   00:36:45 - Rules Overview   00:41:31 - Initial Thoughts   00:43:20 - Components   00:45:39 - Rules/Gameplay   00:49:55 - Strategy   00:54:27 - Final Thoughts 1:00:45 - Discusion of the Day: Theme Vs Mechanics 01:25:32 - Episode wrap-up, emails, contact info