Board Game Barrage

Latest Episodes:

#180: The Rules of Investing Jul 01, 2021

Show notes

We often talk about the burden of rules, and how in some of our favourite games, they just get out of the way. But when is that burden worthwhile; what makes the price of a heavy rules overhead worth paying? Before we maximize our returns, we talk about Crash Octopus, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, Imperium: Classics, and Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile.

02:54 - Crash Octopus 08:33 - Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition 18:47 - Imperium: Classics 30:41 - Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile 40:44 - Return on rules investment 43:15 - Dune 44:17 - Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game 44:50 - Gloomhaven 45:29 - Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization 48:15 - Pax Renaissance 49:50 - Roads & Boats

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#179: Ignorance Is Bliss Jun 24, 2021

Show notes

Sometimes it's best not to know, right? You've just played a game, and you liked it a lot, but you're not quite sure whether that faction is quite balanced, or the designers accounted for that winning strategy. Should you find out? Or is it better just to enjoy the game on its own merits? Before we disobey our thirst for knowledge, we talk about Genoa, Durian, The Search for Planet X, and Pavlov's House.

02:04 - Genoa 05:50 - Durian 10:52 - The Search for Planet X 20:57 - Pavlov's House 27:35 - Draft winners 31:30 - Pre/post-game research 33:17 - Splendor 35:30 - Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun 39:00 - Cthulhu Wars: Duel 39:46 - Chaos in the Old World 40:12 - Root 45:33 - Hallertau 46:39 - Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization

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#178: The Power of Production Jun 17, 2021

Show notes

Because making board games is hard, it's not enough just to have some solid mechanics - the best games have a production that coheres with the design. We look at some examples of games where production considerations (or lack thereof) have helped or hurt how they play. Before we executively produce, we talk about The King is Dead: Second Edition, Equinox, and Enchanted Plumes.

01:48 - The King is Dead: Second Edition 10:15 - Colossal Arena 10:15 - Equinox 22:06 - Enchanted Plumes 32:40 - Production and design 34:33 - Bunny Kingdom 35:35 - Smartphone Inc. 36:40 - A Study in Emerald (Second Edition) 37:50 - Railroad Ink 42:30 - Nidavellir 44:45 - Mountain Goats 46:26 - Red Rising 47:58 - Scythe

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#177: Fantasy Draft: BoardGameGeek Top 100 Jun 10, 2021

Show notes

Mark's trying to get us all into something he calls "sports", so as a compromise, we're doing a fantasy board game draft! We're going to pick games from the BoardGameGeek Top 100, until we each have five. Then YOU get to vote on whose draft is best, for a chance to win $50! Before we play to the crowds, we talk about Azul: Summer Pavilion, Roads & Boats, Ruthless, and Cthulhu: Death May Die.

02:09 - Azul: Summer Pavilion 11:33 - Roads & Boats 22:33 - Ruthless 29:53 - Cthulhu: Death May Die 32:46 - Drafting the BGG Top 100 34:58 - Brass: Birmingham 37:03 - Gloomhaven 39:20 - Spirit Island 40:20 - Pax Pamir: Second Edition 41:22 - Scythe 43:11 - Root 43:47 - Codenames 44:56 - Concordia 46:55 - Wingspan 47:20 - El Grande 49:05 - Gaia Project 51:40 - Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition 52:28 - Arkham Horror: The Card Game 55:14 - Clank! 56:53 - A Feast for Odin Check out the campaign for Ruthless: https://www.ruthless-game.com

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#176: Sweet Summer Lovin' Jun 03, 2021

Show notes

We've got a couple of quick questions from listeners that we thought made for some fun talking points. We're trying to figure out what the board game equivalent of black licorice is, and Before rustle in the mailbag, we talk about Trekking the World, Inkling, My City, and Ruination.

01:37 - Trekking the World 11:26 - Inkling 20:08 - My City 22:31 - Ruination 33:52 - Kemet 38:55 - Black licorice games 40:42 - Archipelago 41:12 - Safranito 42:23 - Millennium Blades 43:00 - True Colors 43:38 - Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant 44:25 - Light summer games 45:16 - Splendor 46:13 - The Quest for El Dorado 47:23 - Race for the Galaxy 48:28 - Santa Monica 48:43 - Mountain Goats 49:40 - The Resistance 50:17 - Fuji Flush

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#175: Cute As a Button May 27, 2021

Show notes

As longstanding experts on being cute, we thought we'd finally bring both of our fields of expertise to bear on one topic. It's a return to the classic top five list, and we're counting down the cutest goshdarn board games we can think of. Before things get kawaii, we talk about Nations, Mountain Goats, and Brew.

02:34 - Nations 11:54 - Mountain Goats 17:11 - Brew 29:01 - Top 5 cutest games 30:31 - Calico 32:41 - Seasons 34:50 - Battle Sheep 36:01 - Takenoko 37:06 - Camel Up 37:49 - Mountain Goats 38:24 - Patchwork 40:04 - Walk the Dogs 41:36 - Startups 43:15 - Echidna Shuffle 45:08 - Sushi Go! 46:59 - Yura Yura Penguin 49:02 - New York Zoo 50:15 - Poseidon's Kingdom 52:07 - Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small

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#174: Live Your Legacy May 20, 2021

Show notes

We played a double feature of legacy games for Cinco de Ocho Dos, which got us thinking about how our thoughts on legacy mechanics might have changed since the heady days of young Board Game Barrage. Before we open that box, we talk about Bonfire, Nidavellir, and The King's Dilemma.

02:07 - Bonfire 10:02 - Nidavellir 18:58 - The King's Dilemma 33:34 - Legacy games 34:03 - Risk Legacy 34:50 - Charterstone 40:19 - My City 47:30 - Gloomhaven 51:42 - Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 52:48 - Scythe: The Rise of Fenris 54:10 - Bunker, Battlefield, or Blown Away 54:38 - Zoned Out 55:00 - Bronze Age 55:29 - Santorini 55:45 - Mini Express Check out our new wiki at: https://boardgamebarrage.com/wiki

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#173: Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Games May 13, 2021

Show notes

We talk about so many good games on this podcast, that it might seem like there aren't enough bad games to balance it out. There's a good reason we don't often play or talk about them, but maybe every so often we ought to. Before we break bad, we talk about Scape Goat, Bunny Kingdom, Bullet♥, and Four Gardens.

02:12 - Scape Goat 08:29 - Bunny Kingdom 11:13 - Bullet♥ 13:53 - Four Gardens 20:49 - Bad games 22:01 - Trivial Pursuit 29:00 - Spicy 29:50 - Cards Against Humanity 30:55 - True Colors 32:37 - Betrayal at House on the Hill 35:11 - Money Bags 37:11 - Pucket 37:54 - Connect 4 Launchers 38:27 - Mord im Arosa 39:00 - Magical Athlete 40:34 - Panic Station 41:21 - Mascarade 41:41 - Bunker, Battlefield, or Blown Away! 42:36 - The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine 43:46 - Solo 44:06 - Renegade 44:42 - Horrified Check out our new wiki at: https://boardgamebarrage.com/wiki

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#172: Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game May 06, 2021

Show notes

After last week's love-fest made us all uncomfortable, we had to get back to what do best, spirited in-fighting. To that end, we've devised three debates around the same core: is that often criticized mechanic a design problem, or a player problem? Before we pit designers against players, we talk about Red Rising, Via Magica, and Alma Mater.

00:48 - Golden Geek Awards 04:36 - Red Rising 14:21 - Rise of Augustus 14:53 - Via Magica 20:17 - Alma Mater 29:36 - Board Game Barrage Wiki! 32:26 - Design problem or player problem? 33:11 - Player elimination 36:47 - Skull 37:55 - Secret Hitler 38:29 - Food Chain Magnate 40:33 - Diplomacy 43:40 - Alpha gamers 46:34 - Spirit Island 47:00 - Pandemic 51:31 - Kingmaking 55:50 - Rising Sun 57:04 - Cthulhu Wars 57:42 - Inis Check out our new wiki at: https://boardgamebarrage.com/wiki

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#171: A Complimentary Compilation Apr 29, 2021

Show notes

We had so many fun ideas for this week that we couldn't settle on just one! It's always great getting topic suggestions from our listeners, but not all of them can make a full episode, so we figured we'd work through some of them here. Keep sending them in! Before we spice our lives with variety, we talk about Jekyll vs. Hyde, Seikatsu, and Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road.

01:28 - Golden Geek Awards 03:55 - AwSHUX 05:57 - Jekyll vs. Hyde 14:32 - Seikatsu 21:37 - Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road 29:54 - The first game we'll play together 31:06 - Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy 33:36 - My City 35:23 - The King's Dilemma 37:22 - Ruination 41:07 - Board games we appreciate but hate 41:25 - The Estates 43:28 - Captain Sonar 45:05 - Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective 47:20 - Cosmic Encounter 49:39 - Why we love gaming with each other

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