So Very Wrong About Games

In honour of our big, blowout, end-of-year extravaganza spectacular, no expense was spared. Mark put on pants. Walker wore his t-shirt with the fewest holes. The sheep freshly sheared. The palanquin carriers were freshly oiled. Come, thrill to the summary of what was actually a very good year in terms of boardgame releases.

Games Played Last Week:
02:16 -Guardians (Callin Flores, Plaid Hat Games, 2018)
03:46 -Super Fantasy Brawl (Jochen Eisenhuth, Mythic Games, 2020)
06:07 -MegaCity: Oceania (Jordan Draper & Michael Fox, Hub Games, 2019)
09:55 -Dwellings of Eldervale (Luke Laurie, Breaking Games, 2020)
14:59 -Bonfire (Stefan Feld, Hall Games, 2020)
19:13 -Caravan (Joe Huber, Rio Grande Games, 2019)
22:50 -Dune: Imperium (Paul Dennen, Dire Wolf, 2020)
27:42 -Nidavellir (Serge Laget, GRRRE Games, 2020)
29:17 -Whistle Mountain (Scott Caputo & Luke Laurie, Bézier Games, 2020)
34:09 -Aristocracy (Reiner Knizia, Tasty Minstrel Games, 2019)
35:08 -Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (Isaac Childres, Cephalofair Games, 2020)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
36:07 The C.U.R.E. Files are now The HOBO Chronicles

38:16 2020 Year in Review

39:31 Personal Top 10s
1:01:56 SVWAG Game of the Year
1:05:02 Miscellaneous Categories

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All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious episode of SVWAG! A day with So Very Wrong About Games is like a day on the farm. Every word's a banquet! Every sentence a fortune! Every review a soliloquy! I love SVWAG!

Games Played Last Week:
01:40 -Aristeia!: Prime Time (Alberto Abal, Jesús Fuster, & David Rosillo, Corvus Belli, 2020)
05:05 -Vengeance: Director’s Cut Expansion (Gordon Calleja, Mighty Boards, 2020)
11:03 -For What Remains: Out of the Basement (Paul Low, David Thompson, & Ricardo Manuel Luis Tomas, DVG, 2020)
14:42 -Undaunted: North Africa (Trevor Benjamin & David Thompson, Osprey Games, 2020)
18:13 -It's a Wonderful World (Frédéric Guérard, La Boîte de Jeu, 2019)
21:20 -Caravan (Joe Huber, Rio Grande Games, 2019)
22:41 -Fast Sloths (Friedemann Friese, 2F-SPiele, 2019)
27:19 -Cacao (Phil Walker-Harding, ABACUSSPIELE, 2015)
28:11 -Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps (Andrew Haught, Gale Force Nine, 2020)
32:45 -Aliens (David McKenzie & Barry Nakazono, Leading Edge Games, 1989)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
34:42 Transmissions
35:13 Hansa Teutonica Big Box exists!
36:22 Commands & Colors Samurai Battles from GMT
37:18 French law enforcement investigate the Confrontation debacle
39:35 The Castles of Mad King Ludwig deluxe
40:12 SVWAG News: See you in 2021

41:58 Feature Game: Empyreal: Spells & Steam (Trey Chambers, Level 99 Games, 2020)

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"I hit you!" "Nuh-uh, you missed!" "I totally hit you!" "I dodged it!" "I have special homing missiles you can't dodge!" "I have a shield that redirects all your shots back to you!" "I have an invincibility field!" "I can shoot through invincibility!" At this point, Games Workshop would have us roll off, with the person rolling higher getting the title of Most Obnoxious Person.

01:49 AYURIS: Cthulhu Wars (Sandy Peterson & Lincoln Petersen, Petersen Games, 2015)

Games Played Last Week:
05:02 -AuZtralia (Martin Wallace, Stronghold Games, 2018)
11:16 -Under Falling Skies (Tomáš Uhlíř, Czech Games Edition, 2020)
12:49 -The King Is Dead: Second Edition (Peer Sylvester, Osprey Games, 2020)
19:48 -Jetpack Joyride: Deluxe Edition (Michał Gołębiowski, Lucky Duck Games, 2019)
22:43 -Apocalypse Road (Jeff Horger & Carla Horger, GMT Games, 2020)
29:53 -Marvel United (Andrea Chiarvesio & Eric M. Lang, CMON, 2020)
33:06 -Gaia Project (Jens Drögemüller & Helge Ostertag, Feuerland Spiele, 2017)
38:52 -Terraforming Mars (Jacob Fryxelius, Stronghold Games, 2016)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
41:24 Board Game Arena's month of releases mostly old betas
42:15 Everdell publisher sending cease & desist orders to Etsy sellers

46:04 Topic: Combat Systems

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Mark has occasion to quote three different movies in this episode, and miraculously none of them are Pulp Fiction, The Lion in Winter, or even Aliens--despite the latter being related to a game discussed! Perhaps his echolalia is abating, or perhaps merely evolving. One should, after all, take every advantage to quote the well-spoken Ayatollah of Rock-and-Rolla.

Games Played Last Week:
01:19 -Pax Renaissance (Phil Eklund & Matt Eklund, Sierra Madre Games, 2016)
04:14 -Praga Caput Regni (Vladimír Suchý, Delicious Games, 2020)
13:20 -Agricola (Revised Edition) (Uwe Rosenberg, Lookout Games, 2016)
17:56 -Marvel United (Andrea Chiarvesio & Eric M. Lang, CMON, 2020)
21:30 -Under Falling Skies (Tomáš Uhlíř, Czech Games Edition, 2020)
24:59 -The Court of Miracles (Vincent Brugeas & Guilhem Gautrand, Lumberjacks Studio, 2019)
29:05 -Nidavellir (Serge Laget, GRRRE Games, 2020)
32:00 -Last Aurora (Mauro Chiabotto, Pendragon Game Studio, 2020)
37:40 -Evolution: Climate (Dominic Crapuchettes, Dmitry Knorre, & Sergey Machin, North Star Games, 2016)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
43:25 Ginkgopolis (and Hansa Teutonica) reprint soon-ish? Maybe?
44:13 Inuit board game: Nunami
45:37 The Transcontinental: Canadian trains
46:38 Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps actually exists
47:28 Sushi Boat: conveyer tastiness
48:10 Fist of the North Star
49:15 Warhammer Underworlds continues with Direchasm

50:07 Feature Game: Beyond the Sun (Dennis K. Chan, Rio Grande Games, 2020)

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One is reminded of those memes that plot definitions on two axes, asking to what degree the reader is a purist or a rebel--the setting purist and the mechanical purist would say "Descent is a dungeon crawler." Perhaps the setting purist and mechanical rebel would say "Dungeon Lords is a dungeon crawler." Invariably these memes revel in the reductio ad absurdum, so I have to imagine the setting rebel and the mechanical rebel would say "Hopscotch is a dungeon crawler."

01:43 AYURIS: Batman: Gotham City Chronicles (Frédéric Henry, Monolith, 2019)

Games Played Last Week:
03:39 -By Stealth and Sea (Nicola Saggini & David Thompson, DVG Games, 2020)
08:26 -Altar Quest (Adam Sadler & Brady Sadler, Blacklist Games, 2020)
18:17 -Gods Love Dinosaurs (Kasper Lapp, Pandasaurus Games, 2020)
19:34 -Yedo: Deluxe Master Set (Thomas Vande Ginste & Wolf Plancke, Board&Dice, 2020)
24:50 -The Court of Miracles (Vincent Brugeas & Guilhem Gautrand, Lumberjacks Studio, 2019)
27:15 -Nidavellir (Serge Laget, GRRRE Games, 2020)
32:38 -Frenemy Pastry Party (Jesse Li, Mizo Games, 2019)
34:52 -Marvel United (Andrea Chiarvesio & Eric M. Lang, CMON, 2020)
37:25 -Eminent Domain (Seth Jaffee, Tasty Minstrel Games, 2011)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
43:59 Board Game Arena Opus Magnus: A new game every day in December

45:11 Topic: Dungeon Crawlers

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It is the nature of the Walker who cries wolf that if he repeats the claim often and consistently enough, it might come true eventually. Despite the unrelenting constancy of Chinese New Year, some games do actually get produced--just only after they have emerged from their purgatorial delay in the never-ending holiday. So it is with Tidal Blades; after claims of "any day now" for years, it finally arrived, like some unwieldy piece of oversized deluxe... well... is it flotsam or jetsam? We must review it to find out.

Games Played Last Week:
01:16 -Magic Realm (Richard Hamblen, Avalon Hill, 1979)
07:30 -Funkoverse Strategy Game: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (Prospero Hall, Funko Games, 2020)
11:53 -Hansa Teutonica (Andreas Steding, Argentum Verlag, 2010)
13:28 -Beyond the Sun (Dennis K. Chan, Rio Grande Games, 2020)
20:00 -Terra Mystica (Jens Drögemüller & Helge Ostertag, Feuerland Spiele, 2012)
21:50 -Project: ELITE (Konstantinos Kokkinis, Marco Portugal, & Sotirios Tsantilas, CMON, 2020)
24:29 -Trekking the World (Charlie Bink, Underdog Games, 2020)
25:26 -Civilization: A New Dawn—Terra Incognita (Tony Fanchi, Fantasy Flight Games, 2020)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
32:57 The Zenobia Award for underrepresented designers of historical games
33:53 Reality Shift! MAGNETS!
34:59 No more Star Wars miniatures for Fantasy Flight
37:51 The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
38:33 Tom Russell's Dual Gauge
40:13 Caverna: Frantic Fiends
41:50 David Thompson's Soldiers in Postmen's Uniforms

43:04 Feature Game: Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef (Tim Eisner & Ben Eisner, Druid City Games, 2020)

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Clearly the hosts secretly wanted to have a movie podcast, or perhaps just a podcast devoted to the movie Aliens. To their credit, they at least did not devolve into merely parroting quotes from the film, which is a behaviour as obnoxious and it is difficult to avoid. Rest assured they offered their poor paraphrases and hackneyed delivery while actually playing the Aliens game. It was a bad call, listener, it was...
Crap.

02:37 AYURIS: Catacombs 3rd ed. (Ryan Amos, Marc Kelsey, & Aron West, Elzra Corp., 2015)

Games Played Last Week:
04:34 -Rome & Roll (Nick Shaw & Dávid Turczi, PSC Games, 2020)
07:48 -Dice Forge (Régis Bonnessée, Libellud, 2017)
09:48 -Martian Dice (Scott Almes, Tasty Minstrel Games, 2011)
11:28 -Asgard’s Chosen (Morgan Dontanville, Mayfair Games, 2013)
13:57 -Aliens: Bug Hunt (Ryan Miller, Upper Deck Entertainment, 2020)
21:12 -Spirit Island: Jagged Earth (R. Eric Reuss, Greater Than Games, 2020)
23:38 -FlickFleet (Jackson Pope & Paul Willcox, Eurydice Games, 2018)
27:01 -Civilization: A New Dawn—Terra Incognita (Tony Fanchi, Fantasy Flight Games, 2020)
30:29 -Hellenica: Story of Greece (Scott DeMers, Mr. B Games, 2019)
40:00 -Eminent Domain (Seth Jaffee, Tasty Minstrel Games, 2011)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
41:37 Brazil: Imperial
42:39 Upzone and Immersive Battle Atlas: Cheap terrain for minis and RPGs
46:09 burncycle by Chip Theory Games
46:52 Four Humours; can Phlogiston be far behind?
47:52 Paper Dungeons
48:32 No games based on two minutes of a movie

49:49 Topic: Boxes

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We have an unwritten constitution here at SVWAG, which we know causes some people from jurisdictions with written constitutions to get a little mystified and/or twitchy. Trust us, it works! We get to claim a rich constitutional history all the way back to 1215 and the Magna Carta, or at least we will, once we figure out what King John had to do with podcasting. It's the kind of arrangement that works until you have a constitutional crisis, which we have about as often as those places with written constitutions; except we tend to settle ours with sidelong glances and lots of utterances along the lines of, "So... how do you, uh... think this works?"

Games Played Last Week:
01:51 -Welcome To New Las Vegas (Alexis Allard & Benoit Turpin, Blue Cocker Games, 2020)
03:50 -Escape the Dark Sector (Alex Crispin, Thomas Pike, & James Shelton, Themeborne Ltd., 2020)
07:06 -Via Magica (Paolo Mori, Hurrican, 2020)
08:59 -Cthulhu: Death May Die (Rob Daviau & Eric Lang, CMON, 2019)
12:16 -Gods Love Dinosaurs (Kasper Lapp, Pandasaurus Games, 2020)
19:18 -Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 (Rob Daviau & Matt Leacock, Z-Man Games, 2020)
19:50 -Letter Tycoon (Brad Brooks, Breaking Games, 2015)
21:33 -Terror in Meeple City aka Rampage (Antoine Bauza & Ludovic Maublanc, Repos Production, 2013)
25:23 -Sakura Arms (BakaFire, BakaFire Party, 2018)
29:18 -BattleCON: Unleashed (D. Brad Talton, Level 99 Games, 2020)
33:42 -Exceed Fighting System (D. Brad Talton, Level 99 Games, 2016)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
36:40 Arcade1Up's Infinity Game Table

37:19 Feature Game: The Castles of Tuscany (Stefan Feld, alea, 2020)

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It's the daylight savings, it's got to be. You give us an extra hour in the week--through the magic of time travel--and we'll take it to play eleventy new games. The geniuses (Canadians, for what it's worth) who invented standard time probably didn't take into account the havoc it might wreak on our podcasting. So many new games! Not enough time for the topic! We will endure.

01:08 AYURIS: Calimala (Fabio Lopiano, ADC Blackfire Entertainment GmbH, 2017)

Games Played Last Week:
02:29 -High Rise (Gil Hova, Formal Ferret Games, 2020)
07:02 -Cthulhu: Death May Die (Rob Daviau & Eric Lang, CMON, 2019)
08:00 -Keyflower (Sebastien Bleasdale & Richard Breese, R&D Games, 2012)
10:23 -Civilization: A New Dawn—Terra Incognita (Tony Fanchi, Fantasy Flight Games, 2020)
16:50 -Feierabend aka Finishing Time (Friedemann Friese, 2F-Spiele, 2020)
22:37 -Gatefall (Jack Dire, Jack Dire Studios, 2020)
28:07 -The Castles of Tuscany (Stefan Feld, alea, 2020)
32:09 -Cosmic Colonies (Scott Almes, Floodgate Games, 2020)
36:37 -Seastead (Ian Cooper & Jan M. Gonzalez, WizKids, 2020)
42:20 -Wingspan (Elizabeth Hargrave, Stonemaier Games, 2019)
43:21 -Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 (Rob Daviau & Matt Leacock, Z-Man Games, 2020)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
45:58 Announcing new bonus show: The C.U.R.E. Files
46:45 Ex-Blizzard employees founding Warchief Gaming
47:49 Horizon Wars: Zero Dark expands with Operation: Nemesis
49:29 Walker hates d20s
50:18 Frostgrave becomes Stargrave, uses d20s
50:59 Chinese New Year has begun

51:33 Topic: Lifetime Games

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The unofficial motto of SVWAG has always been, "stop trying to make fetch happen." Similarly, you can't just make up words out of thin air--it's not like they're holidays or anything that can be conjured ex nihilo (Happy Arkhipov Day!). What's an Arnak, anyway? Can you lose ruins of something that never existed? I suppose a fantasy is a good pretext to give us an arm's length distance from generations of pith-decked looters and graverobbers. Relatedly, Walker desperately wants to coin the term "Azteckian," but Mark's not having it.

Games Played Last Week:
01:32 -Quantum (Eric Zimmerman, Funforge, 2013)
04:15 -Infinity Gauntlet: A Love Letter Game (Seiji Kanai & Alexander Ortloff, Zman Games, 2020)
07:34 -BattleCON: Unleashed (D. Brad Talton, Level 99 Games, 2020)
12:52 -Sakura Arms (BakaFire, AEG, 2017)
15:05 -Race for the Galaxy: The Brink of War (Thomas Lehmann, Rio Grande Games, 2010)
16:52 -Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (Klaus-Jürgen Wrede & Bernd Brunnhofer, Hans im Glück, 2002)
18:27 -Alhambra (Dirk Henn, Queen Games, 2003)
20:12 -Pavlov's House (David Thompson, Dan Verssen Games, 2018)
27:17 -Luxor (Rudiger Dorn, Queen Games, 2018)
29:25 -Quetzal (Alexandre Garcia, Gigamic, 2020)

News (and why it doesn't matter):
32:24 Descent: Legends of the Dark
34:28 Dragonlance digression
36:38 More Knizia from Grail Games
37:59 Too many Kickstarters! Yedo, Freedom Five, Frostpunk, Darkest Dungeon, Grand Austria Hotel, Crash Octopus, Kabuto Sumo, Sakura Arms
38:51 Arkhipov Day: Ocotber 27th

39:01 Feature Game: Lost Ruins of Arnak (Elwen & Mín, CGE, 2020)

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