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, and 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!
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.
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).
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.
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 Swap, and First Rat.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.