Punching Cardboard

Latest Episodes:

Episode 158 -- Wind Shear on the Tarmac Aug 16, 2019

Show notes

It's been a pretty lazy Summer here in the Pacific Northwest; hence, we are pretty lazy at the moment. We find ourselves without a deep take on a game here, so we wander lazily around a number of game sessions and offer up some first impressions. This one's really pretty much about playing games.

Cheers. LAZY AFTERNOONS: 00:16:35 -- Joe's Light Game Roundup 00:25:41 -- Play it Now! Games with 2 Players 00:36:49 -- Food Chain Magnate (session) 00:45:22 -- Too Light & Too Long: SpaceCorp? 00:50:17 -- Pipeline (first take) 00:56:43 -- Lords of Hellas (first take) 01:11:10 -- Agra & Lowenherz (on the table again) 01:13:41 -- Crusader Kings (first take) 01:23:16 -- Outpost (first take) 01:28:48 -- Star Wars: Outer Rim (first take) 01:41:20 -- Call to Post (session) 01:49:10 -- Not 2:18 (was something cut?)

Episode 157 -- Free, Easy, and Error Prone Jul 25, 2019

Show notes

There is no particular order to the order in which we talk about games in this episode.

We have a free-wheelin' conversation covering several games to kick things off and then go off on tangents for awhile before a couple deeper dives, including all the mistakes we made.

I mean, come on, who presents their mistakes as a feature of a game conversation? That's just how we do I guess. Enjoy.

CRITICAL ERRORS:

00:04:26 -- Freewheelin' Game Chatter 00:24:08 -- A Wir Sind Das Volk Tournament update 00:29:43 -- The Gen Con Non-Preview Segment featuring Pusher Joe. We're Sorry. 00:58:24 -- Birthday Gaming: Escape Plan (a five-player revelation) 01:17:48 -- Aberlour 16 year old 01:25:38 -- Downfall: Mistakes Were Made (in-depth, kinda) 02:12:00 -- Retro Spins #1: Beth Orton's Central Reservation 02:16:31 -- Dark & Money Heist (sexy)

Episode 156 -- Random Teeth and Paperwork Jul 11, 2019

Show notes

Here we present a nice little boardgame stew peppered with a bit of digression and topped off with morally ambiguous book. A hearty Summer meal, kinda like a pasty in Phoenix in the middle of July, except it's games.

Made sense to me when I wrote it. Enjoy.

COMMODITIES:

00:13:24 -- Homestretch with Middle-Schoolers 00:22:02 -- Customer Service: The 7th Continent Replacement Cards 00:26:04 -- Less Stranger Things, More Patriot Please 00:31:17 -- PCBA and other Computer Games 00:38:31 -- The Teeth of Dominant Species and the Paperwork of 18XX 00:57:23 -- A Session of Pax Pamir, 2nd Edition 01:20:00 -- Yinzi: The Shining Ming Dynasty (in-depth) 01:59:57 -- The Painter, by Peter Heller

Episode 155 -- The Siren's Call Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

Everything old is new again.

We spend a couple hours discussing games that are maybe a bit long in the tooth. Do they hold up? Are their technologies still viable in this modern world?

We also talk about some new old music and old new whiskey. MECHANICS:

00:09:47 -- Caylus or Doing Taxes (Joe's choice) 00:14:37 -- Two Versions of Pax Pamir 00:23:25 -- A Little Glen More off the Shelf 00:26:30 -- Yinzi (first take) 00:40:36 -- Q&A and Whiskey 01:11:05 -- The Quiet of Night and High Lonesome Recollections: Western Stars 01:33:07 -- Agricola (in-depth) 01:52:20 -- Agricola: Farmers of the Moor (in-depth)

Episode 154 -- I Got a Lot of Problems With You People Jun 05, 2019

Show notes

Not you people. Not you, the listeners. But when you put 9 people in a house for a week things can get lively. I wonder why they've never made a TV show about this.

So here's what we recall of our annual trip to Colorado, at least the games portion of it. Lots of games

CHAPTERS:

00:03:46 -- A Festivus of Thank Yous 00:17:25 -- Safe Travels 00:24:56 -- Condottiere (session strategies) 00:34:47 -- Carolvs Magnvs (first take) 00:43:20 -- El Grande (in-depth) 01:03:23 -- Roll For the Galaxay: Rivalry (first take) 01:16:07 -- Macallan Edition 3 01:24:20 -- The Dream Syndicate, These Times 01:31:54 -- Sidereal Confluence (in-depth) 02:02:36 -- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Patrick Radden Keefe

Episode 153 -- Rocks, Rocks, Rocks May 15, 2019

Show notes

A pretty full show.

We cover three Euro games of various weights, several albums that have found their way into rotation and a dram of fine Scotch. Also, a heated discussion about the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones.

Now, who needs more rocks?

PLOT POINTS:

00:11:12 -- Game of Thrones, Penultimate edition (SPOILERS!!!!), Now With More Mandalorian 00:44:55 -- Concordia Venus (session) 01:00:30 -- Agra Again (another session report) 01:15:06 -- The Macallan Edition #2 01:24:24 -- King Gizzard, Trapper Schoep, Fontaines D.C., Little Steven, Craig Finn (new albums) 01:32:33 -- Glen Hansard, The Wild Willing and the idea of album sequencing 01:47:44 -- Architects of the West Kingdom (in-depth) 02:22:13 -- The Marx Brothers Meet Salvador Dali (next book selection??)

Episode 152 -- No Lack of Fatalism or Jolly Ranchers May 02, 2019

Show notes

I will never fly again. I will never fly again. I will never fly again. I will never fly again. We played Escape Plan. I will never fly again. I will never fly again. I will never fly again. I will never fly again. I will never fly again. Enjoyed a dram of the BenRiach Horizons. I will never fly again. I will never fly again. Not Leet. I will never fly again. I will never fly again.

DELAYS:

00:07:42 -- Are You Watching Game of Thrones (Spoilers) 00:20:25 -- Last Ditch Effort (Games on the Stack) 00:24:41 -- The Journey of a Lifetime (Jim vs. the Airlines Round 2) 01:21:03 -- Escape Plan (in-depth) 02:08:20 -- Episode X: A False Hope (Call to Post Edition) 02:15:52 -- The BenRiach Horizons 12yo Single Malt (Nutty Lemons) 02:22:50 -- Tigerman

Episode 151 -- Light Quiet Minds Apr 15, 2019

Show notes

Sometimes, after recording, I'm uncertain as to whether the episode is worth releasing.

Sometimes we go into the recording session thinking we have very little to say.

Episode 151 met both of those conditions. Yet, in the editing, all seemed well, and in fact, it felt as though much good was accomplished. Whether you agree or not is another matter completely.

MEDITATIONS:

00:15:45 -- 10 Days of Silence 00:32:02 -- Culling the Social Media Some More 00:35:43 -- The Games People Play (Part 1) 00:38:15 -- World's Fair 1893 (in-depth revisited) 00:59:49 -- Snow Tails (in-depth) 01:16:16 -- It's Okay to Lighten Up 01:24:30 -- Nikka Whisky From The Barrel 01:36:49 -- The Games People Play (Part 2: Electronic Ramble Edition) 02:22:26 -- Not Suffering 02:27:07 -- No Rants

Episode 150 -- For Example, to Exemplify Mar 27, 2019

Show notes

Welcome to our 150th episode extravaganza! And by extravaganza we mean the same ol' same ol'. A few games, an album, a book, some banter, a disagreement or two.

Parades and fireworks not included. MILESTONES:

00:12:44 -- Great Western Trail: Rails to the North (in-depth) 00:40:46 -- Lowenherz (session) 00:59:43 -- Mercury Rev, Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete Revisited 01:14:20 -- Quartermaster General: The Cold War (in-depth session) 01:48:00 -- Spoonbenders, Daryl Gregory 02:20:25 -- The State of the Podcast 02:39:22 -- Loss

Episode 149 -- Stupid and Doomed Feb 28, 2019

Show notes

We execute all the plans we never had. Rather, we have no plan and decide to abandon the plan we don't have. In other words, this one is just a loose conversation touching on a slew of games, a couple artful albums, and a damn fine dram of whisky.

Enjoy.

GAME PLAN:

00:15:08 -- Sessions (Game of Thrones, Aquasphere, Calimala, Thunder Alley, Agra) 00:35:05 -- Destiny 2 00:36:50 --Civ Games 00:53:51 -- Kilchoman 2008 Single Malt 01:02:16 -- Music (Dan Mangan, Charles Lloyd, Lucinda Williams) 01:20:18 -- Q&A

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