We've spent a lot of time over the years singing the praises of the games we love, but they can't be perfect right? Surely there's something, one little thing, that bugs us - a small blemish in our otherwise most beloved games? Before we come clean, we talk about Classified Information , S tarline Hill, Panda Spin , and SHASN: AZADI. 03:13 - Classified Information 11:54 - Starline Hill 13:35 - Panda Spin 25:32 - SHASN: AZADI 41:56 - Things we hate about games we love 42:39 - Through the Ages: A ...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 4 min
We just got back from Dice Tower West, so you know what that means ... bunches and bunches of games! Between the convention, and the meetup, and just hanging out at Mark's place, we got a lot of great stuff played, and we're going to give you all the highlights, with such treats as Moon Colony Bloodbath , Out of Sorts , and Feierabend. 04:16 - Corporate America 12:19 - Acquire 18:09 - Inside Job 23:12 - Feierabend / Finishing Time 33:13 - Moon Colony Bloodbath 44:44 - Family Dinner: More or Less...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 19 min
I'm not sure why you'd make a hall of fame that's not also a sidewalk, but that's exactly what BoardGameGeek have gone and done - they've curated 25 games into their hall of fame, and we're here to judge them for their choices. It's weird that they didn't come to us first, honestly. Before we deck the halls, we talk about Arborea , Beyond the Horizon , and Taiwan Night Market . 02:49 - Arborea 10:32 - Beyond the Horizon 20:43 - Taiwan Night Market 32:00 - BGG Hall of Fame 38:57 - Diplomacy 40:35...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Okay, pay attention, this is gonna be different! We're looking at the rest of 2025, deciding what we think the most well received games of the year are going to be - but then we're going to be bidding on them, auction style. Whoever's slate ends up performing best in their categories at the end of the year gets all the glory ... and if you vote on who you think is going to win, you could get $50! Before we're going, going, gone, we talk about Nyakuza , Hooky , and Altay: Dawn of Civilization . 0...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 14 min
It's finally time to cap it all off with the cream of the cream, Mark and Neilan's final set of ten games each! These are the games that we think are the pinnacle of our respective tastes, that we'd never turn down, that any person ought to try at least once. It's the Top 10 Games of All-Time! 01:48 - Mark's #10 - Age of Steam 08:17 - Neilan's #10 - Brass: Birmingham 11:21 - Mark's #9 - Arboretum 17:35 - Neilan's #9 - Time's Up! 20:15 - Mark's #8 - Marvel Champions: The Card Game 23:48 - Neilan'...
Feb 06, 2025•2 hr 32 min
Neilan's back to continue the journey down the lazy river of cardboard that is his top 50 board games of all time. It's games 30 through 11! I just counted, and that's twenty amazing games that I can't wait to tell you all about! 00:59 - #30 - Gloomhaven 02:58 - #29 - War Story: Occupied France 07:35 - #28 - Gaia Project 10:17 - #27 - Ark Nova 12:26 - #26 - Kemet 14:55 - #25 - Yellow & Yangtze 17:09 - #24 - Undaunted: Stalingrad 19:51 - #23 - War of the Ring: Second Edition 22:39 - #22 - Guards ...
Jan 30, 2025•53 min
And back to Mark! It's the soggy middle of his top 50, or as he insists on calling it, his numbers 30 through 11. That is twenty more delicious games, and he's here to tell you all about them while we continue to berate and praise him for his choices. 01:20 - #30 - Anomia 05:12 - #29 - Sidereal Confluence 08:47 - #28 - Chicago Express 11:46 - #27 - Rise & Fall 16:34 - #26 - Tigris & Euphrates 19:14 - #25 - Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory 22:29 - #24 - Blue Lagoon 25:37 - #23 - Lancaster 28:...
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr 3 min
It's meeeeeeeeeee! So if you care to find my top 50 list, look right here. The first twenty incredible games on the list that early critics are calling "surprisingly tasteful" and "delightfully roomy" is finally yours to consume. It's the greatest board games of all-time, Neilan edition! 01:10 - #50 - Anachrony 03:56 - #49 - The Vale of Eternity 05:47 - #48 - Arcs 09:05 - #47 - Bus 11:26 - #46 - Wilmot's Warehouse 13:03 - #45 - Spectral 15:57 - #44 - Innovation 18:12 - #43 - Codenames 20:12 - #4...
Jan 16, 2025•53 min
It's time! The grand spectacle that is our greatest games of all time is here at last! We're breaking things out a bit differently this year, so Mark's taking center stage while Kellen & Neilan mock his choices. It's the first twenty games from his list, so games 50 through 31. LET'S GOOOO! 01:53 - #50 - Cthulhu Wars 03:23 - #49 - Ricochet Robots 05:21 - #48 - The Voyages of Marco Polo 08:22 - #47 - Zoo Vadis 10:53 - #46 - Wilmot's Warehouse 12:45 - #45 - Tycoon: India 1981 15:17 - #44 - Dogs of...
Jan 09, 2025•56 min
As we approach the end of 2024, it's about time we stop, take stock, and dare I say look back at the year that's been. The highs, the lows, the mids - all the stars are here, and we're going to break them down for you with some of our favourite games, and biggest moments, and general assessment of the year that's been. Before we reflect, we talk about Let's Go! To Japan , Mombasa , and The Gang . 01:52 - Let's Go! To Japan 10:17 - Mombasa 15:05 - The Gang 21:00 - Looking back on 2024 22:01 - Arc...
Dec 12, 2024•41 min
Gobble Bobble, here comes trouble in the form of a pairing we never thought we'd see - Bob and the Ghost Turkey have delivered us another holiday nightmare. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Before we tuck in, we talk about Tapple , Mini Rails , and Naishi . 05:48 - Tapple 11:07 - Mini Rails 17:45 - Naishi 22:56 - BGBBOB Bird Games 24:45 - ICECOOL 24:52 - Root 26:17 - Rook 26:26 - Songbirds 28:05 - Fancy Feathers 28:15 - The Bird Told Me to Do It 29:09 - Piepmatz 32:17 - Wingspan 32:28 - Penguin Par...
Nov 28, 2024•57 min
We've been to Las Vegas and back for the very unofficial recurring gathering we like to call BarrageCon (which is really just all of us hanging out at Mark's place). We had a lot of games lined up to play, and I daresay we did a pretty good job of getting through them. Here's our report back, just a bunch of impressions of a bunch of games - including Rise & Fall , Fractured Sky , and Wilmot's Warehouse ! 02:26 - Harvest 07:18 - Fractured Sky 18:13 - Penguin Party 22:10 - San Marco 27:14 - EGO 3...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 24 min
I think it's fair to say at this point, that we've pretty firmly established each of our respective tastes when it comes to board games, whether it's for genre, theme, mechanic, whatever. There's always something, though, right? Something that flies in the face of those rules and boldly proclaims, "I like this, even though ..." Before we prove the rule, we talk about Andromeda's Edge , and Karvi . 03:05 - Andromeda's Edge 13:15 - Karvi 23:32 - Exceptions to our Gaming Tastes 24:47 - Through the ...
Oct 31, 2024•40 min
The Fandango Tank returns! The ever wonderful Mike DiLisio joins us again, this time to collectively cast our minds forward to some things we'd like to manifest into the board game future. We've got a mess of ideas, a veritable mixtape of miscellany that we either want to play, or hope to see more of as the hobby progresses. Before we unspool, we talk about Fishing , EGO , The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth , and Key Market (Second Edition) . 02:57 - Fishing 03:03 - I Made You a Mixtap...
Oct 17, 2024•1 hr 9 min
So we've done a lot of these drafts before, but I don't think we've done one quite like this. This time we're each trying to draft a set of five games that we think you might agree are incredibly overrated. What does that mean exactly? Well that's up for debate too. What isn't up for debate is that you could win $100 just by voting! Before we widen our delta, we talk about Undaunted 2200: Callisto , Nature , and Barcelona . 03:37 - Undaunted 2200: Callisto 13:10 - Nature 23:00 - Barcelona 31:22 ...
Oct 03, 2024•1 hr 11 min
I'm in a bit of a quandary here, because Mark told me not to tell you what this episode is even about, but I want this description to be, well, descriptive but he's glaring at me really hard, and making a throat slitting gesture so I daren't risk it. It's about ... board games? Before we get ahead of ourselves, we talk about Binho , Stamp Swa p, and First Rat . 03:33 - Binho 07:24 - Stamp Swap 17:04 - First Rat 30:16 - ??? 34:47 - Agricola 34:47 - Bohnanza 36:28 - Patchwork 37:05 - A Feast for O...
Sep 19, 2024•54 min
We may or may not be going to Germany (who can say), but that's where all the good gaming is gonna be, so that's what we're gonna talk about. It's almost Essen SPIEL! That sure is a lot of games debuting there though, so which ones should you care about? Don't worry, we've done the hard work for you. Before you go back to being eine faule socke, we talk about Nekojima , We're Sinking! , Hues and Cues , and Colorful . 02:46 - Nekojima 09:01 - We're Sinking! 15:31 - Hues and Cues 15:31 - Colorful ...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min
It's about people, right? Below all the mechanics, after all the rules explanations, beyond every crushing loss and glorious win, what really matters is people we're playing with. Some games make that more apparent than others, and we're here to celebrate that. Before we realize it's about the friends we made along the way, we talk about Arcs , and Luthier . 03:02 - Arcs 19:26 - Luthier 37:11 - Games that make you feel good about people 41:11 - Codenames 42:05 - Decrypto 43:09 - Time's Up! 43:38...
Aug 22, 2024•59 min
The only thing worse than coming away from a first game with a really bad impression, is when it takes a really long time to shake. Imagine all the amazing games you're not playing because of one bad first game! Whether we saw the error of our ways or not, we're reflecting on the times that games left a mark that took a long time to fade. Before we make our impression, we talk about Things in Rings , Yedo: Deluxe Master Set , and Harmonies . 01:51 - Things in Rings 10:29 - Yedo: Deluxe Master Se...
Aug 08, 2024•59 min
It's awards season, which means that Germany's back to tell us what games are popping off over there. And that also means we're back to tell you what we think about what they think. More than that - we're looking through the annals of Spiel des Jahres history to drafting the winningest games of all the winners! Which means you too can be a winner of $100! Just vote! Before everyone's a winner, we talk about Chess , Vabanque , The Mandalorian: Adventures , and Path of Civilization . 04:06 - Chess...
Jul 25, 2024•56 min
We've all been travelling about so much recently (some of us may or may not still be) that we often find ourselves asking, "what games should I pack?" Some games are better suited for playing on the go than others, and we're going to get to the heart of what makes a good travel game. Before our arms get tired, we also talk about Regicide , Golem , In the Shadow of Atlas , and DroPolter . 03:56 - Regicide 11:40 - Travel Games 15:47 - Pit 16:13 - Incan Gold 16:24 - For Sale 16:51 - Azul Mini 18:31...
Jul 11, 2024•56 min
Bob's back from his trip to 2014, and oh the wonders he's seen - games that not only were amazing back then, but somehow we're still talking about today ! The counterpoint to our draft of games to last a decade, we're arguing about the games from ten years ago that are still relevant - BGBBOB style. Before we yearn for our youth, we talk about Cyberion , The Plum Island Horror , and Marabunta . 02:33 - Cyberion 09:18 - The Plum Island Horror 28:01 - Marabunta 38:17 - BGBBOB: Games from 2014 39:4...
Jun 27, 2024•1 hr 17 min
More isn't always better, but that's sometimes a hard lesson to learn in the world of board games - we dig into an intriguing listener suggestion about how games (and gamers) can often fall into this trap. Also ... I guess we've got to plan some games for our funerals? It's a double hit of listener questions! Before we dress in black, we talk about Keydom's Dragons , Sagrada Artisans , and Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory . 01:49 - Keydom's Dragons 11:30 - Sagrada Artisans 18:51 - Hegemony: ...
Jun 13, 2024•50 min
It's back, and it's spicier, more harrowing, and more lucrative than ever before! It's the Fantasy Draft, and this time we're changing things up by asking you not to vote for favourite games, but for the set that you think will still be relevant ten years from now (AKA the far flung future). Vote to stand a chance to win a gift card for one hundred dollars! Before we say things we'll regret in a decade, we also talk about London (Second Edition) , and Spectral. 02:58 - London (Second Edition) 12...
May 30, 2024•51 min
And by guess, I of course mean predict . Okay, you all know whether we're right or not by now, but cast your imagination back to a time where we had only the nominees for the 2023 Golden Geeks, and had to use nothing but our wits to determine the winners. How naïve/prescient we were! Before we divine the future, we talk about Ironwood , Kutná Hora: The City of Silver , and Slay the Spire: The Board Game . 02:41 - Ironwood 10:39 - Kutná Hora: The City of Silver 22:07 - Slay the Spire: The Board G...
May 16, 2024•1 hr 2 min
What? Your podcasters are evolving! While we're certainly steadfast in some of our opinions (ahem, Biblios ) we were curious to reflect on how we've changed - nay, grown - in the years since we started. What do we feel differently about with regards to the games we like, and how we approach the hobby? Before we moult, we also talk about Twinkle Starship , Pirates of Maracaibo , and Skyrise . 01:45 - Twinkle Starship 12:42 - Pirates of Maracaibo 23:16 - Skyrise 35:23 - How we've changed 39:42 - D...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Sometimes a game has a conceit so good, that it's the only description you need to sell someone on it. Let's call it the hook. Do all games have them, or is it something that only a certain subcategory of game can get away with - and why don't they all just print that on the box cover? Before we get the hook, we talk about Havalandi , Courtisans , 12 Chip Trick , and Dune Imperium: Uprising . 02:55 - Havalandi 11:25 - Courtisans 18:59 - 12 Chip Trick 26:10 - Dune: Imperium - Uprising 41:09 - Gam...
Apr 18, 2024•58 min
Oh man, oh man, I always love this one. It's the latest edition of the Listener Top 20! We asked you all to submit your lists of your favourite board games, and we collected, collated, and compiled all of that beautiful beautiful data using a magical formula to get THIS: The definitive rankings of your collective taste in board games. Before we throw it to you, we talk about Shuffle and Swing , Mythwind, and Cat Blues: The Big Gig ! 02:17 - Shuffle and Swing 14:11 - Mythwind 27:07 - Cat Blues: T...
Apr 04, 2024•1 hr 4 min
We made it all the way to Dice Tower West in Las Vegas (and some of us made it out), and we're ready to talk about all of the amazing games we played over there, between outings for pinball and sushi. If you were there, thanks for hanging out with us! Stick around for talk about Faraway , MLEM: Space Agency , ito , Cascadero, and more! 01:08 - Faraway 12:20 - Medici 19:33 - MLEM: Space Agency 26:48 - ito 35:24 - Cascadero 44:09 - Mino Dice 49:54 - Unboxed 54:36 - Beowulf 55:55 - Of What's Left 5...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 8 min
We're back with the terrible acronym and the branding nightmare that is BGBDOG - I don't even know what it stands for to be honest, but this week we're turning the spotlight on an incredible force in the industry, Vlaada Chvátil, touring his incredible games all the way through to the true modern classic that is Codenames . Before we check in on our favourite Czech, we talk about Wyrmspan , 3 Ring Circus, and La Famiglia: The Great Mafia War . 02:01 - Wyrmspan 12:29 - 3 Ring Circus 23:29 - La Fa...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 6 min
