For whatever reason, it’s taken us absolutely ages to get round to covering the board games that we played at PAX East - but better late than never! This is especially true in this pod right here, where we’ve got three hot servings of board game to ladle directly into the laps of our ravenous listenership. We’ve got a starter and dessert made of space - with Galileo Galilei and Moon Colony Bloodbath protecting a gooey fantasy center all made of Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship!
Good news, we're still on holiday. Better news - we're still doing the holiday cast, which means more free podcast more delivered to more you. Moorish! You know what else is moorish? Trees! Just can't get enough of those suckers. And you know where trees live? That's right, in Germany. And you know what Germany has? Autobahns. But also forests.
Apropos of nothing, let's talk about a board game called Black Forest which is about a forest in Germany.
Once again, no timestamps because we're still on holiday and it's still just one game in the episode. You'll be fine.
Tony's back from Ireland and Steve's shot out of a cannon! Get ready for a wild ride. Today the gang runs down a bunch of games they've been playing including Transgalactica, Sekigahara The Unification of Japan, The White Castle, Steam Power, Shackleton Base, and a feature review of Galileo Galilei by new designer Tomas Holek. Then after Tony T wrestles the News hosting duties away from Steve, the gang reads and discusses some spicy hot takes submitted by Cabalists! Transgalactica: 00:04:31, Sekigahara: 00:14:35, The White Castle: 00:21:38, Steam Power: 00:32:26, Shackleton Base: 00:42:12, Galileo Galilei: 00:56:08, News with Tony T: 01:27:01, Cabalist Spicy Hot Takes: 02:16:49. Check out our sponsors Restoration Games at https://restorationgames.com/. Game Toppers at https://www.gametoppersllc.com/. And CGE at https://czechgames.com/.
JP takes the stand and the first player token as he returns for his run. Imagine a fantasy football draft where instead of players being drafted for a team we're drafting board games for an epic weekend at "WhoseCon" (not real). We act as a committee to curate the best board game library covering a variety of mechanisms. Let us know what you would have added.
FIRST PLAYER: JP OTHER PLAYERS: Rob, Becky & Tambo
In this episode you'll learn: - how Becky faired with more nature game recommendations with Verdant by Flatout Games - weather Rob got lost in the well without his Kinfire Lantern in Kinfire Delve by Incredible Dream Studios - if Tambo survives the apocalypse in Under Our Sun by tabletopper games - more about the latest game on crowdfunding (well one of them) in Colosseum by Fantasia Games - how a committee of board gamers put on a fictional convention by drafting games across a variety of mechanisms
It's time to recap our adventures at Dice Tower East 2025. We discuss the games we played and events we ran, and you also get to hear what Eric and Julie got up to when working at the Dice Tower Booth, which includes brainstorming ways to get Tom to remember the difference between Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops.
00:46 - We Didn't See Each Other
01:45 - Gen Con is Around The Corner
03:26 - Dice Tower East: New Space
05:40 - Eric and Julie: How Do You Spend Small Amounts of Free Time?
09:28 - Library Checkouts: My Father's Work, Hot Streak, Bomb Busters, So Clover, Cretaceous Rails, Fromage, River Valley Glassworks, Lord of the Rings Duel, Toy Battle, Castle Combo, Sky Team, SETI, Galactic Cruise
16:26 - Eric and Julie: Favorite Old Game To Teach? - Fearsome Floors, Ra
19:05 - Variety of Games Played: Space Base, Ready Set Bet, My Father's Work (again), Merchant of Venus, Cosmic Encounter
25:33 - Missing Deep Regrets
26:16 - Eric and Julie: Game To Make Tom Play?
28:34 - Events: Parsely, Andrew Bosley Can't Draw, The Hobby
Welcome back, fellow board gaming aficionados. Today, we’re diving into titles that embody wildly different flavors of adventure: the dudes on the map chaos of Barony, the whimsical card drafting of Citizens of the Spark and Emberleaf, and the sun-soaked “look what I built” serenity of Positano. All three of these games involve a good bit of strategy, with a good helping of inter-activeness against your fellow players. Well, almost all of them.
But most of all, you can tell that we never really get out of second gear in the episode, so you are blessed to have Vanessa back on the mic to help us get moving.
Enjoy as always, leave comments on the discord server, and thanks for listening
Joe and Adrian are back from an incredible trip to New Zealand where they hit up Wellycon, the biggest board gaming event in NZ! They talk about all the amazing games they played, the wonderful people they met, and the awesome Kiwi gaming community.
A massive shout out to the team at Garphill Games for being absolute legends and making them feel so welcome — and for showing off some seriously cool games. Also, a huge thank you to Badgers From Mars for hanging out and sharing their creative energy.
👉 Want to join in the fun? Come be part of our community:
Reviews of The Warp, Nassau, and White Castle: Macha Expansion. All the pegs share their top three board games based on an IP. Game discussion starts at {00:19:28}.
Thank you to our sponsors: Queen Games and Grand Gamers Guild.
This week Shelley and I journey down into the ocean's depths, then to the moon!
First we check out fish species in various segments of the ocean in
Finspan by David Gordon and Michael O'Connell from Stonemaier Games
then we head to the moon and work with various companies to exploit its resources in
Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon by Fabio Lopiano and Nestore Mangone from Pandasaurus Games.
Thanks as always to our sponsor Bezier Games!
You can sponsor the podcast directly by going to www.patreon.com/garrettsgames or check out our extensive list of games that no longer fit on our shelves, but belong on your table here:
Good news, we're on holiday. Better news, we're not leaving you without podcast. It's a smaller episode, yes, but it is Talk Cardboard delivered right to your door, for free! Mmmmm, free podcast, what could be more delicious? Oh, I know, human suffering! If you feel like what you need more in your life is a cardboard simulation of robots slaughtering endless amounts of flesh bags on the moon, Moon Colony Bloodbath has got you sorted.
Not doing timestamps cause we're on holiday. Also, it's just one game. You'll be fine.
Ambie and Crystal got tagged by RollingReggie in his 3rd annual Midyear Board Game Tag, so we take the whole podcast episode to answer his questions about how the first half of 2025 is going so far in our board gaming!
0:00-Intro
0:34-Midyear Board Game Tag
02:02-1. What is your favorite game so far this year?
04:32-2. What is your most played game?
05:44-3. What was your biggest surprise?
08:09-4. What game's production/art has impressed you the most?
10:07-5. What has been your most reliable introductory board game?
16:09-6. What game do you want to get off of your Shelf of Shame in the second half of the year?
18:28-7. Which game from 10+ years ago did you discover this year?
20:28-8. Which anticipated releases are you most excited about for the second half of the year?
25:50-Bonus. What's your personal favorite video (podcast) that you’ve posted to your channel?
27:24-Outro
28:19-Bloopers
Gen Con! Where all the cool games are, before you even know they're cool. Or hot! We've got you covered, if you want to know what all the best stuff coming out of Indianapolis is going to before before anyone else, then look no further than this episode. Five games each that we're excited to hear more about at the show! Before we face the heat, we talk about Line of Fire: Burnt Moon, and Rise.
02:51 - Line of Fire: Burnt Moon 11:57 - Rise 21:46 - Gen Con Preview 23:53 - Party Panda Pirates 26:09 - Tabriz 27:33 - The Last Command 28:53 - Llama Llama 31:25 - Tearable Quest 33:22 - Furnace Duel 35:59 - Koinobori 37:58 - Galileo Galilei 39:59 - Merchants of Andromeda 42:02 - Ruins 45:03 - Slam Throne 47:34 - Lightning Train 48:40 - Guessocracy: Roll & Vote 51:22 - Habemus Papam 52:34 - Into the Machine
Hark, noble Cabalists, and well met! Gather ye ‘round, for thou art most welcome to yet another enchanted convening of the Lords of the Dungeon! This day, our bold and steadfast adventurers doth recount the wondrous tales of their voyage through the strange and many-layer’d realms of Planescape, with the wise and venerable Archmage AC guiding their path. Thereafter, the Lords dost heed the call of the arcane scrolls sent forth by our loyal listeners - speaking on their most cherished villains, the sacred handling of canon lore, the art of imparting wisdom unto fledgling Game Masters, and the campaign settings they wouldst most desire to conjure for their fellowship. So attend, brave souls, for much knowledge and mirth await within!
Mike is a 12 out of 10 this week as he hosts a radio show that doesn't exist.
This Game is Broken is a comedy board game panel show with Matthew Jude, Dave Luza, Paula Deming, Nick Murphy and Mike Murphy. We play a lot of nonsense games full of role playing and trivia as well as other fun stuff which can be found at the links below.