Time is a precious resource, so let's not waste any; we're talking about game length. How long should a game be? Is it worse if a game is too long or too short? We wrestle with the fourth dimension in our search for answers. Before we watch the clock, we talk about Dice Forge, Gulo Gulo, and Millennium Blades.
01:28 - Dice Forge 06:53 - Gulo Gulo 10:53 - Millennium Blades 19:41 - Game Length 23:42 - Dominant Species 25:53 - New Angeles 27:05 - Formula D 27:37 - Robo Rally 28:35 - King of Tokyo 29:05 - Citadels 30:21 - Five Tribes 32:07 - Agricola 34:30 - Indian Summer 35:10 - The Voyages of Marco Polo 35:52 - Above and Below 36:53 - Archipelago 38:09 - Food Chain Magnate
In today's episode the Lords start out by talking about the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon and the Brazilian car commercial recreating it in live action. Then the gang talks about the new Alien role playing game and the trend of RPGs being board gamifyied with cards, tokens and player boards. Then the Lords take a question from a listener asking if we prefer preexisting published campaign settings or homebrewing. Then finally the group lists many of the campaign settings that they would like to try one of these days.
This Game is Broken is released every two weeks and features Matthew Jude, Dave Luza, Christina Aimerito and Nick and Mike Murphy.
The show is devised by the whole gang and is produced and edited by Matthew Jude. If you would like Matthew to help you edit your podcast then contact him at: Matthewjudecooper@gmail.com
Art by our secretive sixth member Gary. If you would like to commission Gary then email him at: Graphics@deadcatdreaming.co.uk
Heroscape! This show has spent far, far too long talking about things that are not Heroscape. Today we attempt to remedy that deficiency by talking about Heroscape, which is a game--nay, an experience--nay, a lifestyle!--worth discussing. It was a wonderful retail oddity, an overproduced and affordable big box beauty. It is why basements were invented. It isn't the greatest game, but it is definitely Heroscape.
AYURIS: Lords of Hellas 1m54s (Awam Kwapinski, Awaken Realms, 2018)
Games Played Last Week: -Junk Art 6m31s (Jay Cormier & Sen-Foong Lim, Pretzel Games, 2016) -Claustrophobia 1643 9m02s (Croc & Laurent Pouchain, Monolith, 2019) -Pax Renaissance 12m34s (Matt Eklund & Phil Eklund, Sierra Madre, 2016) -Heroscape 13m32s (Stephen Baker, Rob Daviau, & Craig Van Ness, Hasbro, 2004) -Scythe 16m37s (Jamey Stegmaier, Stonemaier Games, 2016) -Newton 18m20s (Simone Luciani & Nestore Mangone, Cranio Creations, 2018)
News (and why it doesn't matter): -Earth Reborn Reborn? 20m44s https://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/32180941#32180941 -Too Many Too Many Bones? 22m36s -Co-op City Building 23m32s -Karate Tomate! 24m18s -RTS -> Cardboard in Company of Heroes 26m05s -Snake? SNAAKE! 27m22s -Post-Apocalyptic Small Furry Things 29m19s -Jim Felli's The World Reapers: A Game of Overpowered, World-Eating, Cosmic Frogs 30m05s
Topic: You Need to Take a Little Off the Top, Bud 32m14s
In today's show, Mandi and Suz discuss The Gallerist, Ticket to Ride New York, Futuropia, L.A.M.A., Clank In Space, and Pandemic Rapid Response. They also run through their Origins Game Fair Anticipation list.
In light of people, inconceivably, thinking it's okay to be paid for reviews I thought I'd dig out something I wrote for the patreon backers that elucidates my thoughts on the subject.
Reviews of Copenhagen, Valparaiso, The Ancient World, Notre Dame, Corinth, Anthelion, Bubble Tea, and more. Featured review: Journeys in Middle Earth by Fantasy Flight Games. Reroll Argent: The Consortium. Board game discussion starts at 45:23.
I'll be attending Origins Game Fair this year (June 2019) in Columbus. I've been there before, but only in the 80s & 90s, so I'm sure it's substantially different now. I'll be there Thursday-Sunday, including participating on a panel of wargame podcasters/YouTubers/bloggers Sunday morning. That's listed in the program as shown below. I think it's free, and although it's about wargaming you may want to stop by anyway. The topic is the current "golden age" of the hobby, and part of what I have to say is how there are more euro-wargame crossover titles now. Some good aspects of euro design & production have made their way into wargames. I'm thinking of titles like Memoir '44, Twilight Struggle, Academy Games' 1754/1775/1812 series, A Few Acres of Snow, and so on. Whether you attend the panel or not, I'm happy to hand out my little BoardgamesToGo and WargamesToGo buttons to listeners. Just track me down and I should have some onhand to give away. I'll mostly be doing open gaming, I think. Drop me a note on Twitter or geekmail if you like.
Armchair Dragoons Presents Wargaming Media: State of Play This panel featuring wargaming media personalities will discuss the current "Golden Age" of board wargaming and what can be done to ensure its survival. Location: GCCC - Apods - A210 Date: Sunday 6/16/2019 10am (2 hours)
Opener: Silver & Gold Closer: SdJ jury comments • Dale Yu's 2009 interview with Tom Werneck at Opinionated Gamers • Harald Schrapers and other jury members It's Spiel des Jahres season. That means the speculation has happened, the actual nominees & recommended titles have been announced, and now we're just waiting on the final prizewinning selection. This doesn't matter to many people--in fact many gamers don't think it's a big deal. But it's a big deal to me and here's why: I'm a hobby gamer from way, way back. Like four decades. If you think hobby gaming is niche now, you have no recollection of what an odd corner it was in back then. Stereotyped as being full of nerdy boys and grumpy old men, that was kind of true. Game shops did not smell good. Mature romances and stable careers were hard to find. Now, those people are still around--and they deserve their hobby, too--but I find it FAR better today that we have more diverse game groups filled with everyday people doing everyday jobs. Interesting games are on sale in bookstores, at Target, and of course online. Not everything has to have an orc in it. I don't know if the hobby IS bigger & broader, but it sure feels that way. True, these improvements may have come around on their own. After all, formerly geeky entertainments like Game of Thrones and Marvel comics now dominate our cultural landscape. Perhaps hobby games would've developed on their own. I don't think so, however. Or, at least, it all happened much faster (and--importantly--across a broader audience) because a group of game reviewers in Germany took artistic criticism of gaming as an artform seriously. They drove their publishers to do better, and in turn the publishers were rewarded with increased business. It was a positive cycle, and we are some of its lucky recipients. There are a lot of awards thought up & given out by all sorts of organizations. There have been some in America for decades. Yet they didn't have this impact. In fact, there were other awards in Germany, too. The Spiel des Jahres has worked like no others because it has been cultivated & maintained by a dedicated, revolving collection of game critics. Even if the lighter, more family-focused games aren't your favorites, you still benefit from their polishing of the games business. For someone like me, it's even better because I honestly love many of the titles that have won the Spiel des Jahres. I don't love ALL of them, though. Not even close. As you'll hear, I'd say I love about a third, like another third, and don't like the final third. Close to that. This episode is a ranking of all 40 of the SdJ winners, and (briefly) what I think of them. -Mark
In our second episode we discuss a slew of games we played at UK Games Expo 2019 and there’s quite a few goodies we can’t wait to tell you about:
Pandemic: Rapid Response (2:22)
Copenhagen (17:40)
Letter Jam (30:00)
Blood on the Clocktower (38:57)
And on a final note we’ve received quite a question in our mail bag but we’ll leave that for you to discover.
There's nothing sweeter than the softening of a heart, that precious feeling when all of the things you thought you'd dislike, suddenly become endearing. We're counting down our favourite games that we thought we were going to hate, but ended up loving. Before we go full tsundere, we talk about Indian Summer, Richard the Lionheart, and X nimmt! 01:55 - Indian Summer 09:26 - Richard the Lionheart 15:53 - X nimmt! 23:37 - Games we thought we'd hate 24:55 - Shadow Hunters 27:12 - Walnut Grove 28:52 - Survive: Escape from Atlantis! 31:34 - Great Western Trail 32:35 - Blood Rage 33:47 - Formula D 35:32 - Zendo 36:48 - Hansa Teutonica 38:18 - In the Year of the Dragon 39:47 - Majesty: For the Realm 41:21 - Mansions of Madness: Second Edition 42:25 - Chicken Caesar 44:27 - Yokohama 46:18 - Caylus 49:54 - Blue Lagoon
In episode 184 the gang is back for a jam packed episode! Today we review Fantasy Flight's newest app driven board game, Lord of the Rings Journeys in Middle Earth and look back at Big Trouble in Little China one year later. Then Tony T gets down and dirty with the best damn tabletop gaming news segment in all of gaming media while the rest of us quack in the background. Then finally we have an in depth discussion about replayability in board games and what it means to us. Lord of the Rings Journeys in Middle Earth Overview 00:55:51, Lord of the Rings Journeys in Middle Earth Odyssey Review 01:00:27, Big Trouble in Little China Look Back 01:26:25, News with Tony T 01:36:40, Replayability Discussion 02:23:20
AnmeldenThe Secret Cabal
