Dave is back with our Halloween inspired special show, we just hope you remember what happened 7 years ago...
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.
Nothing captures the fundamental duality for which SVWAG strives than our two patron saints, Vasily Arkhipov and Honky Chonk Beardonkadonk. We aspire to be both enlightening and diverting, embracing both the ridiculous and the sublime, while trying to be simultaneously erudite and stupid. It's a daunting endeavour, but then again, both Arkhipov and The Beardonkadonk put in the work.
02:12 AYURIS: Thunder Road: Vendetta--Maximum Chrome (Dave Chalker, Noah Cohen, Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson, Brett Myers, and Brian Neff, Restoration Games, 2023)
Games Played Last Week:
04:41 -Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, and Jonathan Ying, Fantasy Flight, 2014)
07:48 -Blood Rage: Valhalla (Eric M. Lang, Tycoon Games, 2026)
15:15 -Falling (Kentaro Yazawa, SUNNY BIRD, 2026)
18:19 -Regicide Inferno (Paul Abrahams, Luke Badger, and Andy Richdale, Badgers from Mars, 2026)
24:06 -Alibis (Yusuke Sato, Allplay, 2025)
28:02 -Starts With Ends With (Uncredited, Relatable)
Walker claims that his grandfather invented Crokinole, just because no one else is given credit. Next he'll be saying someone in his family invented poutine, or calculus even before Leibniz and Newton got to it. Heck, let's say an ancient Walker formalized Linear B and call it a day.
For fans of deep, euro-style economic strategy, both Puerto Rico Special Edition and Ostia: Mariner Edition deliver rich, engaging experiences centered around trade and development. Puerto Rico Special Edition revitalizes the legendary role-selection classic with upgraded components, striking art, and refined themes, keeping its crisp, non-luck engine-building core as rewarding as ever. Meanwhile, Ostia: Mariner Edition takes players back to ancient Rome, blending mancala-style action selection with naval expansion, resource management, and tile placement. Both titles shine in their ability to turn clever planning and player interaction into tight, competitive engine building, making them standout additions to any strategist’s shelf.
If you prefer lighter setup times, high interaction, and quick table turns, Machi Koro Life and Robo Run offer vibrant, fast-moving fun. Machi Koro Life breathes new life into the beloved city-building series by tweaking the dice-rolling mechanics and introducing fresh landmark goals, making each roll of the dice feel impactful and exciting But Robo Run is all about cooperation with your partner as you try and get the robots out of the maze before being found. Both games are fast playing and easy to set up for a quick filler during game name.
Thanks for listening and please join our Discord for more discussions on these games.
Paula is at the wheel as she takes the gang through rounds of ‘Random Experts Trivia’, Daisy Chain, Cozy Reviews, Next Big Trends and of course Higher or Lower.
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.
In addition to using The Seven Years War quasi-exclusively to refer to that conflict, Canadians have a bevy of unique regionalisms to delight and confound our American neighbours. Our standards and measures are famously opaque, switching between imperial (a person's height and weight, distances less than ~100 meters) and metric (temperature always [except when baking], non-human weights usually, volume always [OUNCES DON'T MAKE SENSE, Y'ALL], most long distances [except when driving, then we use time]).
There are more, trust me.
02:51 AYURIS: Fromage (Matthew O'Malley and Ben Rosset, Road to Infamy Games, 2024)
Games Played Last Week:
06:33 -Deckers (Richard Wilkins, Deep Print Games, 2025)
10:45 -Salton Sea (David Bernal, Devir, 2024)
16:30 -Regicide Inferno (Paul Abrahams, Luke Badger, and Andy Richdale, Badgers from Mars, 2026)
20:41 -Regicide Legacy (Paul Abrahams, Luke Badger, and Andy Richdale, Badgers from Mars, 2025)
23:45 -Dune: Imperium--Uprising (Paul Dennen, Dire Wolf, 2023)
27:49 -Azure (Trevor Benjamin & Brett J. Gilbert, Bitewing Games, 2026)
"Oh, boardgaming's very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore it. They think it’s a righteous hobby."
-Grace from Ferris Bueller's Day off, correctly observing that the hobby is for everyone
Mike is leading the crew in as they: name weird components, decipher Board Game Mashups, paint words like neanderthals and of course play a round of Higher or Lower Steam Edition
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.
One of the biggest grail games of all time is Star Wars: Queen's Gambit.
One of the biggest franchises of all time is the Lord of the Rings.
What happens when Restoration Games gets a hold of both of these things? They merge them together for the new game, Lord of the Rings: The King's Gambit.
Justin Jacobson & Rob Daviau join us to discuss how the project came to fruition, design, gameplay and product information.
We cover the gamut of historical figures this week, from shy spiders, Thor, the Italian Masters, Iggy Pop, Terry Bogard, and one underexamined and grossly underappreciated figure in the form of Vasily Arkhipov. He made your life possible, so you owe him at least a day.
01:07 AYURIS: D.E.I.: Divide et Impera (Tommaso Battista, Ludus Magnus Studio, 2022)
Games Played Last Week:
04:01 -Patchistory (Yeon-Min Jung & Jun-Hyup Kim, Deinko Games, 2013)
07:04 -Grabble (Naoki Fukuda, CMYK, 2026)
10:47 -Creature Caravan: Wanderers (Ryan Laukat, Red Raven Games, 2024)
15:59 -Blood Rage: Valhalla (Eric M. Lang, Tycoon Games, 2026)
23:39 -Star Wars: Super Teams (Max Gerchambeau, Zygomatic, 2025)
Starcraft The Board Game and Forbidden Stars are still two of our favorite games. But both are long out of print and have no more support.
We are excited to hear the systems the we loved in those games are back with Old Ones: Origins.
We talk about length with the designer, Samuel Bailey, about the process of bringing a version of Forbidden Stars back to the market, the process to do so, the changes to theme and the gameplay.
To paraphrase Sir Mix-a-Lot (O.B.E.), I like big bears and I cannot lie! Fat Bear Week is upon us. Let these corpulent kings of ursine excellence strut their stuff, and let us admire in awe at their tangible gains. These bears do not skip leg day. Some people have mukbang--we have out fat bears.
Some weeks, the game table feels like a tour through entirely different mechanics and level of challenges. We kicked things off in Middle‑earth with The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict, a game that thrives on tight choices with every roll of the die. It is not the normal Roll and Write, but one with clear objectives in order to win the game and not just get the most victory points. Every turn feels like a small story—heroes clashing, shadows pressing in, and players trying to outmaneuver one another while waging war on two fronts. It’s the kind of game that leaves you wanting one more round just to see if you can pull off the perfect combo.
From there, the mood shifted dramatically with Cat Trick, a clever little card game that proves you don’t need a big box to create big laughs. It’s quick, mischievous, and full of those delightful “gotcha” reveals that make everyone team up against one another. Then came Jump Masters, which brought out a game reminiscent of Checkers. This one thrives on setting up the best combo and tactical maneuvering to gain victory over your opponent. It is quick and easy to teach and the art and components are amazing.
Cyberpunk 2077 TCG, a game that channels the neon‑soaked grit of the franchise into a sharp, tactical card duel. More to come on this as we continue to explore the game and the meta that surrounds it. But for now, we will continue to put that one the table as we wait for others to show up for game night.
Once again, thanks for dropping by and giving us a listen.
With Walker imminently about to move (to Kingston from Kingston) and Mark still storing his games from the previous move, the overwhelming preponderance of the SVWAG collection(s) is currently shackled by packing tape. So much good design and fun toys yearning to get out! Alas, physical instantiation is a curse, the material world is a prison, and entropy always wins. Find me one realtor sympathetic to the specific needs of a boardgame collector, and that'd be something, at least.
01:12 AYURIS: The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game (Bryan Bormueller, Office Dog, 2025)
Games Played Last Week:
04:04 -The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth (Thomas Sing, KOSMOS, 2026)
06:32 -Avalon: The Riven Veil (Jamie Jolly, Shadowborne Games, 2026)
Nick hosts a three way battle of the brains. Which frankly doesn't bode well considering the nature of the podcast.
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.
Some game nights feel like a whirlwind tour through every corner of the hobby, and this week’s lineup delivered exactly that. Sand Castles and Grunts are two wildly different flavors of competition—one a charming, tactical puzzle of building and defending fragile seaside creations, the other a scrappy, tongue‑in‑cheek skirmish game where your squad of blocky little soldiers bumbles bravely toward victory. Both games share that delightful “easy to teach, surprisingly clever” vibe that keep things fresh in the hobby at times.
Then we have world of Computer Junkyard and the comic‑book chaos of Enemies of Gotham City. Computer Junkyard scratches that nostalgic itch, letting players sift through piles of retro tech to assemble the best contraptions—half strategy, half puzzler. Enemies of Gotham City flips the script into full superhero mayhem, where iconic villains clash, plot, and posture in a fast‑moving battle of wits and wickedness.
Then there is a trio of games that each bring their own distinct charm. Six Sided Seas turns dice‑driven piracy into a pirate battle across unpredictable waters, while Abroad offers a gentle, globe‑trotting experience built around exploration and cultural discovery. Bunny Kingdom Town offers a bright, two player, family‑friendly strategy—one about expanding adorable rabbit realms, with enough take‑that spice to keep it from being a solitaire style game. All Mine is a gamer’s trick taking game where the play is fast, but the planning is what wants you coming back for more. This is one of those games that stays in the game bag to be pulled out to end the evening or get things started.
And speaking of big swings, this is the perfect moment to remind listeners to sign up for notifications on Game Toppers’ upcoming Kickstarter. We rave about their mats for a reason—the quality is top‑tier, the artwork is stunning, and this next series looks like one people will be proud to show off on game night. We’ve already got our eyes on the Lord of the Rings designs, and that purple plain mat is calling our name. Honestly, who doesn’t need another game mat.
The SVWAG Canon (https://www.sowronggames.com/svwag-canon) is an elite list of games that Walker and Mark both very much enjoy. Walker is nervous around recommendations, per se, and the imitations on an ideal game library or somesuch is subject to many practical constraints--so instead SVWAG has an unruly list of games that are greatly enjoyed by both the hosts. And it is time for that list to be updated!
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