Sometimes once is enough, you know? Doesn’t mean it was bad, but it might just be that you can have too much of a good thing. We’re talking about board games that we’d recommend everyone play once, but only once. Before we hit and run, we talk about Kaivai, East India Companies, and Vantage.
Well, we finally did it. We played CATAN, and it was … good! And then we started wondering, is there anything that’s done quite the same thing that that game is doing? And then that got us wondering how many games there are like that, where it’s genuinely hard to say that nothing has done it better since. And then that got us wondering if, instead of all this wondering, we should record a podcast episode. Before we wander, we talk about Box Two, Catan: Cities & Knights, and An Infamous Traffic.
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.
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.
Yes, you could make the argument that every game is a negotiation game if you try hard enough, but for a lot of games it’s more integral to the design. We look at games that we think integrate negotiation mechanics especially well, and ask how much is too much (or too little) when it comes to negotiation. Before we compromise, we talk about Septima, and Kremlin.
There are many ways that we can accidentally contribute to gatekeeping in the hobby – pushing those who want to embrace it away. Whether it’s to those outside, or even, bizarrely, to those already in, we break down the subtle (and unsubtle) ways we do it, whether or not we mean to. Before we find the keymaster, we talk about San Marco, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, and Ghosts of Christmas.
I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it. Gateway games are an often requested topic, but we wouldn’t be us without a big old debate about them first. Are they important? Should you be trying to convert your friends at all? Isn’t every game a gateway...
Let’s just keep doing this forever. It’s question time again! After last week’s massive success, we couldn’t resist the urge to have you, loyal listener, once more do all the work for us. Before we turn the microphones around, we also talk about Brass: Birmingham, Exodus: Paris Nouveau, and Werewords. If you don’t want to miss...
Alea iacta est. Or, as the poet Robert Van Winkle translated from the original Latin, dice dice baby. Luck is an element of almost every board game there is, but it’s still a major point of contention. Whether it’s the roll of dice, or the draw of a card, randomness can make or break...