So Very Wrong About Games

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#109: Omnibus Questions Mar 17, 2020

Show notes

All of your burning questions shall be addressed! Why is there something rather than nothing? Quid est veritas? War, huh! What is it good for? Why do birds suddenly appear every time a Knizia game is near? Rest assured that the topics covered are vast--Macross, objectivism, fictional Thai kick boxers, and so much more. Featuring special guests Dan Thurot (spacebiff.com), Charlie Theel (playerelimination.com), and Kellen and Mark from Board Game Barrage (boardgamebarrage.com).
AYURIS: Discover: Lands Unknown 2m33s (Corey Konieczka, Fantasy Flight, 2018)
Games Played Last Week:
-Blitzkrieg! 4m27s (Paolo Mori, PSC Games, 2019)
-Horizon Wars: Zero Dark 6m56s (Robey Jenkins, Self-published, 2020)
-The Fox in the Forest Duet 10m35s (Foxtrot Games, Renegade Game Studios, 2020)
-Mezo 12m22s (John Clowdus, Kolossal Games, 2019)
-Mega Civilization 17m40s (Flo de Haan, John Rodriguez, & Francis Tresham, 999 Games, 2015)
-Battle for Biternia 24m31s (Chris Faulkenberry, Stone Circle Games, 2018)
-Piratenbillard 28m33s (Reinhold Wittig, ABACUSSPIELE, 1959)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Kwapinski ushers in the Dark Ages 31m07s
-Meeple Circus goes giant 32m22s
-Minimizing the sting of isolation during COVID-19 22m59s
Topic: Omnibus Questions 37m00s
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#108: Clinic Deluxe Mar 10, 2020

Show notes

Warning: there is some implied discussion of the existence of the health care field in this week's review. No jokes were made about current viral events, though, and given the general low-brow nature of this podcast that's a minor miracle. The only jokes about current affairs are related to hip hop, and even those references are dated to over twenty years ago.
Games Played Last Week:
-Street Masters: Aftershock 2m47s (Adam Sadler & Brady Sadler, Blacklist Games, 2019)
-Stephenson's Rocket 4m55s (Reiner Knizia, Pegasus Spiele, 1999)
-Lorenzo il Magnifico 9m19s (Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli, & Simone Luciani, Cranio Creations, 2016)
-Mardi Gras Madness 12m50s (Mark Burlet, Arthur Franz IV, & Ben Jennings, Uplink Underground Games, 2020)
-Horizon Wars: Zero Dark 18m25s (Robey Jenkins, Self-published, 2020)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Walker Watches Steamwatchers 21m52s
-Ginkgopolis Reprint 23m53s
-Clean Queen Kickstarter? 24m48s
-Coronavirus Cancellations: CMON Expo 26m46s
-Uwe Rosenberg's New York Zoo 27m46s
Feature Game: Clinic: Deluxe Edition 28m42s (Alban Viard, AVStudioGames, 2019)
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#107: Playing for Second Mar 03, 2020

Show notes

Some of you might be unfamiliar with the traditions surrounding birthdays in Canada. They are savage affairs, drenched in blood and feats of suffering. I mean, there's the cake, sure, and that part is pretty benign--except for the baking of it, come to think of it, where the birthday girl or birthday boy is expected to remove the cake from an oven with their bare hands and devour the thing whole; then comes the declaration of threats, where the horribly burned, frosting-seared celebrant mounts a nearby table and screams doom to their enemies. Let's not get started on what kind of gifts are considered appropriate.
AYURIS: Stephenson's Rocket 1m36s (Reiner Knizia, Grail Games, 2018)
Games Played Last Week:
-Empyreal: Spells & Steam 3m44s (Trey Chambers, Level 99 Games, 2020)
-Egizia: Shifting Sands 11m05s (Acchittocca, Flaminia Brasini, Virginio Gigli, Stefano Luperto, & Antonio Tinto, Stronghold Games, 2019)
-Root: The Underworld Expansion 13m39s (Patrick Leder & Cole Wehrle, Leder Games, 2020)
-Pax Renaissance 18m58s (Matt Eklund & Phil Eklund, Sierra Madre Games, 2016)
-The Estates 21m42s (Klaus Zoch, Capstone Games, 2018)
-Assault on Doomrock 25m11s (Tom Stasiak, Beautiful Disaster Games, 2014)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Into the Spider-Verse for Marvel United (Walker's obsessed) 27m54s
-The Liberaion of Plaid Hat Games? 29m23s
-Toy of the Year! Pictionary Air 30m44s
-The Next Game that Matters: Phantom Division 32m09s
Topic: Playing for Second 33m03s
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#106: Posthuman Saga Feb 25, 2020

Show notes

Would you like a job at Asmodee? Well guess what, if you need any replacement parts from them, you've just been drafted to work as their support staff. Best of all, your salary is nothing! Are we doomed to become ever more curmudgeonly, rambling to young gamers about how "back in my day, we got replacement parts just by sending an email" and the the young 'uns would be all like "Ok, Millennial, but what's an email?"
Games Played Last Week:
-Quartermaster General WW2 2m25s (Ian Brody, Ares Games, 2019)
-Mars Open: Tabletop Golf 5m19s (Dennis Hoyle, Bellwether Games, 2018)
-Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North 7m53ss (Joanna Kijanka & Ignacy Trzewiczek, Portal Games, 2019)
-Blitzkrieg! 10m57s (Paolo Mori, PSC Games, 2019)
-SEAL Team Flix 15m47s (Pete Ruth & Mark Thomas, WizKids, 2018)
-Empyreal: Spells & Steam 17m50s (Trey Chambers, Level 99 Games, 2020)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Secret Operation: Social Deduction Robots 24m10s
-Asmodee's Parts Replacement Policy 25m33s
-Scooby-Doo Escape Rooms 30m40s
-Stefan Bruck Retires 31m23s
-Zen Garden Grows 32m16s
-Epic: The Card Game Digital 32m55s
-Walker Is Dubious About Marvel United 35m15s
-More Batman, More Plastic 36m05s
Feature Game: Posthuman Saga 36m49s (Gordon Calleja, Mighty Boards, 2019)
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#105: False Expectations Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

On must acknowledge that in many instances, pre-judgment is an adaptive advantage--I don't mean with respect to people, but in terms of being able to sift through the endless data with which we are constantly bombarded. Most of our concepts are pre-fabricated little categories that we can shove sense data into in order to make sense of the world (there's your Kantianism in three seconds for you). In boardgaming, were seventeen releases hit the market while I was typing this sentence, it can be handy to use heuristics or prejudice--I won't play games by designer or publisher X, for example. Then again, it is our thankless task to submerge ourselves wholesale into the hobby's output without fear or favour, and so we must try to overcome such self-imposed limits when we can.
AYURIS: Battle for Rokugan 2m07s (Molly Glover & Tom Jolly, Fantasy Flight, 2017)
Games Played Last Week:
-Troyes 4m11s (Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, & Alain Orban, Pearl Games, 2010)
-Hanabi 9m40s (Antoine Bauza, ABACUSSPIELE, 2010)
-The Shipwreck Arcana 9m40s (Kevin Bishop, Meromorph Games, 2017)
-Top Gun Strategy Game 11m08s (Prospero hall, Mixlore, 2020)
-Pipeline 16m18s (Ryan Courtney, Capstone Games, 2019)
-Northern Pacific 21m48s (Tom Tussell, Rio Grande, 2013)
-Sakura Arms 23m55s (BakaFire, AEG, 2016)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Ghost Adventure 27m01
-Cindr: Date a Dragon 28m05
-Sonora: "Flick and Write" 29m28s
-Waiting on Siege of the Citadel 30m18s
-Coronavirus Uncertainty 31m36
-Dragon Dice Refuse to Die 33m38s
Topic: False Expectations 35m32s
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#104: On Mars Feb 13, 2020

Show notes

One must learn as a child that just because something is difficult does not mean it isn't worth doing. Sometimes we here at SVWAG feel that the corollary for adults is that just because something is difficult doesn't mean it is worthwhile. Some hard things should just be avoided. It's hard to drive a nail through your own skull, but it doesn't follow that it's necessarily a prime opportunity for self-improvement that ought to be pursued. Unrelatedly, Vital Lacerda games.
Games Played Last Week:
-Street Masters: Aftershock 2m32s (Adam Sadler & Brady Sadler, Blacklist Games, 2019)
-Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King 6m11s (Andreas Pelikan & Alexander Pfister, Lookout Games, 2015)
-The Resistance 7m40s (Don Eskridge, Indie Boards & Cards, 2009)
-Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire 10m25s (David Sanders, Games Workshop, 2017)
-Food Chain Magnate: The Ketchup Mechanism & Other Ideas 13m49s (Jeroen Doumen & Joris Wiersinga, Splotter, 2019)
-Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North 21m36s (Joanna Kijanka & Ignacy Trzewiczek, Portal Games, 2019)
-Pretense 24m13s (Jason Tagmire, AEG, 2015)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Pay extra for early access to Kanban EV? 28m42s
-Brick and mortar retail for Renegade early access? 31m36s
-Walker wonders about Wonderland's War 32m58s
-SHUX 2020: Oct. 16-18 36m06s
-Marvel United 37m08s
-Mindclash's Perseverance 38m43s
-Nuremberg Toy Fair 2020 miscellany 39m20s
Feature Game: On Mars 41m19s (Vital Lacerda, Eagle-Gryphon Games, 2020)
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#103: Virtues of Popularity Feb 04, 2020

Show notes

My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.
AYURIS: Level 7 [Omega Protocol] 2m34s (Will Schoonover, Privateer Press, 2013)
Games Played Last Week:
-Guards of Atlantis II: Tabletop MOBA 6m38s (Artyom Nichipurov, Wolff Designaa, 2020)
-Las Vegas Royale 11m13s (Rudiger Dorn, alea, 2019)
-Tiny Epic Tactics 12m59s (Scott Almes, Gamelyn, 2019)
-In the Hall of the Mountain King 16m20s (Jay Cormier & Graeme Jahns, Burnt Island Games, 2019)
-Die Macher 21m06s (Karl-Heinz Schmiel, Spielworxx, 2019)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-More toys for Era: Medieval Age 26m58s
-Kickstarter Police: Wherefore art thou? 27m56s
-Banning Golden Bell, that's where 29m39s
Topic: Virtues of Popularity 31m33s
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#102: Imperial 2030 Jan 28, 2020

Show notes

Rarely has a game been as deeply, frighteningly cynical as Imperial. We are sadly inured to the notion of vast military conflicts; and we are sadly inured to the corrupting influence of enormous wealth; but never before has a game combined the two and posited the Schlieffen Plan as a gambit to improve the marginal rate of return of someone's portfolio. Oh, my RRSP is Russian firepower, by the way.
Games Played Last Week:
-Papillon 1m42s (J.B. Howell, Kolossal, 2019)
-Talon 3m47s (Jim Krohn, GMT Games, 2016)
-On Mars 7m20s (Vital Lacerda, Eagle-Gryphon, 2020)
-Deception: Murder in Hong Kong 10m34s (Tobey Ho, Grey Fox Games, 2014)
-Principle Dilemma 12m37s (Joe Tanowski, Self-published, 2019)
-Las Vegas Royale 21m14s (Rudiger Dorn, alea, 2019)
-Sushi Roll 23m22s (Phil Walker-Harding, Gamewright, 2019)
-Cthulhu: Death May Die 25m43s (Rob Daviau & Eric M. Lang, CMON, 2019)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Wiz-Kids' Clash of Cultures 28m23s
-Grimslingers Two 30m14s
-Marvel United 31m39s
-Hansa Teutonica Big Box, Eventually? 33m01s
-Tortuga 2199 34m24s
-Truffle Shuffle, for some reason 35m03s
Feature Game: Imperial (Mac Gerdts, PD-Verlag, 2006)/Imperial 2030 (Mac Gerdts, PD-Verlag, 2009) 35m32s
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#101: New Year's Resolutions Jan 21, 2020

Show notes

Eventually a charge becomes so tired and rote that it becomes accepted without critical thought--but so often these hackneyed claims are false. Knizia games are themeless is a good example. Canadians are polite is another. The one that rears its ugly head this week is Walker's insistence that he is bullied, which has definitely got to count as attempted gaslighting at this point. On the plus side, a New Year's resolution is made and then immediately fulfilled in the same episode! That is efficiency.
AYURIS: Gaslands 5m23s (Glenn Ford & Mike Hutchinson, Osprey Publishing, 2017)
Games Played Last Week:
-Blue Moon 8m32s (Reiner Knizia, KOSMOS, 2004)
-Barrage 11m08s (Tommaso Battista & Simone Luciani, Cranio Creations, 2019)
-Corporate America 14m54s (Teale Fristoe, Nothing Sacred Games, 2013)
-Papillon 16m34s (J.B. Howell, Kolossal, 2019)
-Secret Hitler 20m53s (Mike Boxleiter, Tommy Maranges, & Max Temkin, Goat Wolf & Cabbage, 2016)
-Reavers of Midgard 22m40s (J.B. Howell, Grey Fox Games, 2019)
-Cthulhu: Death May Die 29m49s (Rob Daviau & Eric M. Lang, CMON, 2019)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Repos Productions Swallowed by Asmodee 32m43s
-Smooth Rollout for CMON's Time Machine 33m06s
-From the Root Team, Oath 34m04s
-Foundations of Rome 34m40s
-Breakout in TO: March 20-22 35m19s
-Star Realms Goes Huge 35m49s
-Société des Auteurs de Jeux on Bernard v. Mythic Games 36m48s
Topic: 2020 New Year's Resolutions 42m11s
2019's Resolutions 42m27s
2020's Resolutions 48m27s
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#100: Year in Review 2019 Jan 14, 2020

Show notes

Better late and wrong than never wrong, am I right? Wait, that doesn't make sense. Suffice to say that we wanted to be as certain as we could this year, as past years offered rather significant asterisks on our best-of lists--but this year, with only minor exceptions, we're pretty confident we played the games most likely to make the cut. I'm sure this sense of certainty and comprehensiveness will last perhaps as long as late January.
Games Played Last Week:
-Blood Rage 2m09s (Eric Lang, CMON, 2015)
-It's a Wonderful World 4m40s (Frédéric Guérard, La Boîte de Jeu, 2019)
-Battle for Biternia 8m03s (Chris Faulkenberry, Stone Circle Games, 2018)
-Istanbul 12m58s (Rudiger Dorn, Pegasus Spiele, 2014)
-Marvel Champions: The Card Game 15m30s (Michael Boggs, Nate French, & Caleb Grace, FFG, 2019)
-Codenames: The Simpsons 16m06s (Vlaada Chvatil, CGE, 2019)
News (and why it doesn't matter):
-Kemet 2.0: Blood and Sand Updates 19m01s
-Mixlore and Prospero Hall 20m13s
-Cosmic Encounter Two-Player? 21m01s
-FFG's RPG Last Gasp: KeyForge 22m07s
-Traintopia: All Trains, All the Time Is Back! 22m45s
-Pascal Bernard v. Mythic Games 23m27s
-Kolossal Games' Ongoing Eclipse Shenanigans 24m25s
-Riot Games to Publish New Boardgames 29m31s
-Patreon News: Presents! 30m16s
Topic: 2019 in Review Extravaganza
Personal Top 10s 32m12s
SVWAG Game of the Year 2019 54m34s
Other Categories 56m42s
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