In addition to having to struggle with new hardware on account of gravity murdering his tablet of 10+ years, we now must try to adjust to capturing the sweet, sonorous tones of the elusive Jimbo. It's hard to get audio levels right when the mic's compressor itself swoons from sheer bliss.
02:43 AYURIS: Revive (Helge Meissner, Eilif Svensson, Anna Wermlund, and Kristian Amundsen Østby, Aporta Games, 2022)
Games Played Last Week:
06:28 -Civolution (Stefan Feld, Deep Print Games, 2024)
19:45 -Race for the Galaxy (Thomas Lehmann, Rio Grande Games, 2007)
We're trying this YouTube thing in earnest, now, doing the video podcasting thing. This is our inaugural attempt at plastering our mugs on the internet in a podcast form. You have to be where your audience is, and also, Mark hopes that a link to a video can serve in lieu of his having to travel to see anyone ever again.
16:55 -Trudvang Legends (Jordy Adan, Fel Barros, Guilherme Goulart, Eric M. Lang, Marco Maggi, Francesco Nepitello, Umberto Pignatelli, & Fabio Tola, 2022)
20:38 -The Gang (John Cooper and Kory Heath, KOSMOS, 2024)
23:31 -Wonderland's War (Tim Eisner, Ben Eisner, & Ian Moss, Druid City Games, 2022)
26:33 -SCOUT (Kei Kajino, Oink Games, 2019)
28:49 -Fromage (Matthew O'Malley and Ben Rosset, Road to Infamy Games, 2024)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
33:05 Witcher 3's card game Gwent getting a physical version from No Loading Games
34:57 Hachette distributing MicroMacro Crime City in North America
35:19 Reiner Knizia's Ape Town from Piatnik
36:22 Shut Up & Sit Down form "Strategic Partnership" with Play to Z Games
37:35 Feature Game: D.E.I.: Divide et Impera (Tommaso Battista, Ludus Magnus Studio, 2022)
All of our musical references are at least a decade out of date, even when we attempt to reference contemporary artists--I must assume, because Mark knows her name, that no one listens to Billie Eilish anymore. We think Drake is suing Kendrick Lamar over claims he plagiarized a board game design, but the details elude us.
01:43 AYURIS: Gatefall (Jack Dire, Jack Dire Studios, 2020)
Games Played Last Week:
05:09 -The Gang (John Cooper and Kory Heath, KOSMOS, 2024)
07:45 -Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard (Gaëtan Beaujannot, Olivier Cipière, and Geonil, Mandoo Games, 2023)
11:28 -Chronicles of Avel (Przemek Wojtkowiak, Rebel Studio, 2021)
13:49 -Han (Michael Schacht, ABACUSSPIELE, 2014)
16:12 -Splendor Duel (Marc André and Bruno Cathala, Space Cowboys, 2022)
18:41 -Battalion: War of the Ancients (Paolo Mori and Francesco Sirocchi, Osprey, 2024)
23:23 -Rats of Wistar (Simone Luciani and Danilo Sabia, Cranio Creations, 2023)
25:12 -Galactic Renaissance Expansion: 5th Player (Christian Martinez, Matagot, 2024)
When you are obliged to cite your sources is a fraught question, full of nuance. Even in academia there is some disagreement as to when yo quote, when to paraphrase, and when simply to assume common knowledge. Like the preceding sentence, for example--I assume it is common knowledge not requiring a citation, but then again maybe not, and were I using footnotes here I would comment on the absurdity of citations in episode notes (to say nothing of footnoting episode notes). And don't get me started on ibid, supra, and all their blighted ilk! Safer, I think, just not to ever read anything, and thus one's incoherent nonsense is indisputably one's own.
Apparently there were scrapped plans for the Gorn (the lumbering rubber lizard suit dude Kirk fights in that famous episode) to show up in other Star Trek properties. One plan had a Gorn show up as Worf's guest to Riker's bachelor party in Nemesis, and frankly despite how awful those latter movies were I would have been all over that. I can only imagine that the plan was abandoned when the props department couldn't get a styrofoam cocktail to look right.
01:42 AYURIS: The Wolves (Ashwain Kamath and Clarence Simpson, Pandasaurus Games, 2022)
Games Played Last Week:
03:49 -Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders (Tim Eisner and Ben Eisner, Druid City Games, 2024)
10:28 -Mass Effect: The Board Game - Priority: Hagalaz (Eric M. Lang and Calvin Wong Tze Loon, Modiphius Entertainment, 2024)
Thrill to the latest superhero epic, "X-Men: Layover in Dulles." When the Blackbird is grounded due to an unexplained indicator light (meddling from the sinister Magneto? Who can say?!?!), the elite group of heroic mutants must navigate the perils of terminal D. Wolverine is having problems with the metal detectors again, which is troublesome as he is smuggling Cuban cigars. Rogue must battle the temptation of the 15-minute massage station. Panera bread keeps getting Cyclops' order wrong. It's epic, it's exciting, it's eight hours long!
01:42 AYURIS: The Great Wall (Kamil 'Sanex' Cieśla, Robert Plesowicz, & Łukasz Włodarczyk, Awaken Realms, 2021)
Games Played Last Week:
04:43 -Don't Rock the Croc (Uncredited, FoxMind, Unknown)
07:52 -War Story: Occupied France (Dave Neale and David Thompson, Osprey Games, 2024)
13:20 -Barcelona: Passeig de Gràcia (Dani Garcia, Board&Dice, 2024)
20:27 -Mass Effect: The Board Game - Priority: Hagalaz (Eric M. Lang and Calvin Wong Tze Loon, Modiphius Entertainment, 2024)
27:04 -Freedom Five: A Sentinel Comics Board Game (Richard Launius, Adam Sadler, and Brady Sadler, Arcane Wonders, 2024)
An auspicious palindrome of an episode number! Granted, in triple digits one encounters a palindrome every ten episodes or so, but I'm sure the numerologists amongst us have special enthusiasm for the mighty TRIP THREE. I mean, primes, and threes, and all that. Anyway, it'll be a minute until we reach episode TRIP FOUR, so let's savour this while we can.
01:10 AYURIS: Mille Fiori (Reiner Knizia, Schmidt Spiele, 2021)
Games Played Last Week:
04:06 -Lunar Rush (Steven "Skippy" Brown, Dead Alive Games, 2023)
08:53 -Dragons Down (Scott DeMers, Mr. B Games, 2024)
16:20 -Things in Rings (Peter C. Hayward, Allplay, 2024)
26:00 -EGO (Reiner Knizia, Bitewing Games, 2025)
33:37 -Keep the Heroes Out!: Boss Battles (Luís Brueh, Brueh Games, 2024)
37:20 -Mexica (Michael Kiesling & Wolfgang Kramer, Rio Grande Games, 2002)
40:22 -Avatar: The Last Airbender--Aang's Destiny (Patrick Marino, The OP Games, 2024)
43:47 -Formula D (Laurent Lavaur & Eric Randall, Asmodee, 2008)
Once again, a primer on some of the differences between the US and Canada. We Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in early October, in honour of our second governor general, the Right Honourable October G. Thanksington. Rather than turkey and football, we do latkes and rugby.
It is October, the month of Fat Bear Week, Decorative Gourd Season, Halloween, and Arkhipov Day! Sure, it has less candy than some of those other celebrations, but I'll wager neither a corpulent bear nor a kid dressed as a pirate has ever saved the entire human race.
01:00 AYURIS: IKI (Koota Yamada, Sorry We Are French, 2015)
Generally we here at SVWAG prefer sci-fi to fantasy, especially if it is of the general sort. There is something joyous about the weird flights of fancy that sci-fi can enable, such as Andromeda's Edge with its "Jelluloid Technoblorps." That said, there's something particularly odious about importing generic fantasy into your sci-fi, like space dwarves and space dragons--something Andromeda's Edge also does. Call it a wash.
If you replayed all the published SVWAG episodes back-back, it would take over 355 hours, or almost 15 days. This is not necessarily how we would recommend you spend your time. Indeed, for our purposes, we are equally wrong regardless of whether anyone is there to hear it; while we sometimes engage with Western philosophy due to Mark's academic background, the realm of the koan is beyond our purview.
Long story short, feel free to re-download all our episodes to your heart's content. I'm sure it would help us with some algorithm somewhere.
I find so many mnemonics to be profoundly disappointing. Unless there's a structural element to tie the components together, a mnemonic will not serve to dispositively disambiguate a dyad.
I assure you, that lamentable bit of alliteration was unintentional.
For example, "I before E except after C" also works qua slogan as "I after E except before C." There are the ones about beer and liquor, feeding or starving a cold, colour of the sky and sailors' states of mind... I recall the structure, but not which one goes with which. Relatedly, is there a mnemonic to remember how to spell mnemonic?
Games Played Last Week:
02:27 -The Voyages of Marco Polo (Simone Luciani & Daniele Tascini, Hans im Gluck, 2015)
Solidarity, dear listeners, on this most august September Labour Day. Of course, Labour Day is the labour holiday invented for the US and Canada so as to undermine global solidarity. Nearly everywhere else celebrates International Workers' Day instead. One must marvel at the ingenuity of inventing Labour Day so as to undermine global labour solidarity.
02:29 AYURIS: Rolling Heights (John D. Clair, AEG, 2023)
The full title of the Spider Lord is Spider the Third, by the Grace of God of the Unfinished Basement, Canada and His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Subterranean, Defender of the Faith.
01:56 AYURIS: Ginkgopolis (Xavier Georges, Pearl Games, 2012)
Games Played Last Week:
05:02 -Knarr (Thomas Dupont, Bombyx, 2023)
08:12 -Primal: The Awakening (Tommaso Mondadori and Alberto Parisi, Reggie Games, 2024)
12:55 -Beowulf: The Legend (Reiner Knizia, KOSMOS, 2005)
19:19 -Pavlov's House (David Thompson, Dan Verssen Games, 2018)
23:26 -Deep Rock Galactic (Ole Steiness, MOOD Publishing, 2022)
It is Festivus once again here at SVWAG, where we shall once again vent our collective spleen over features of games that irk us. Sometimes we will assert that our umbrage is righteous and ought to be shared, and other times we will concede we are merely motivated by idiosyncratic pique. Our feelings, in either case, shall not be denied.
00:46 AYURIS: Beowulf: The Legend (Reiner Knizia, KOSMOS, 2005)
Games Played Last Week:
04:21 -Terminus (Earl Aspiras and Tom Volpe, Inside Up Games, 2024)
08:53 -For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game (Wilhelm Su, Self-published, 2021)
12:41 -Deep Rock Galactic (Ole Steiness, MOOD Publishing, 2022)
Who is this Wilmot? What wares is he housing? Few answers are offered. We are merely told, rather imperiously, that we work at his warehouse. Sure, we have weekends off, but on occasion the fickle demiurge Wilmot commands us to speak in monosyllable, or move seats, or hide secrets from our colleagues. One shudders to imagine what terrible fate befalls those foolhardy enough to flout his edicts.
Games Played Last Week:
00:41 -Terminus (Earl Aspiras and Tom Volpe, Inside Up Games, 2024)
10:15 -Hour of Need (Adam Sadler & Brady Sadler, Blacklist Games, 2022)
13:40 -Animal Upon Animal (Klaus Miltenberger, HABA, 2005)
Anmelden
