Innovation
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Innovation is a civilization card game by designer Carl Chudyk in which players progress through the ages of history playing developments, scoring points, and acquiring achievements needed to win. The game features wildly broken card combos, lots of player interaction, and a surprising depth for a small box. It is the #1 favorite game of both the Red Tank and the Blue Tank.
Featured Episodes
Episode 358: Our Listeners' Top 20 Board Games of All-Time 2026
Oh man, oh man, it's time that we ask you (yes, you) to tell us (yes, us) what your favourite games are, because for one time a year, it doesn't matter what we think about games, but you better be ready to tell us what you think about games. A lot of you did, so here it is, the listener top 20! Before we ask you to do all the work, we talk about Emberheart, Gods & Mortals, and Feya's Swamp. |
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Episode 351: Combined Top 50 Games of All-Time 2025 Draft: 30-11
Happy new year! We're back to continue the very peaceful, collaborative, kind endeavour that is coming together to harmoniously assemble our top 50 games. It's been nothing but chill, friendly vibes, and we expect that to continue into 2026. It's the next twenty games on our definitive top 50 board games... of all-time! |
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Episode 343: Fantasy Draft: Card Games
The draft's back! This time it's card games, and we're picking the bestof what ought to be a staple of any good collection. We love card games, we love drafting games, and you love winning money, so be sure to vote for whoever you think drafted the best set, and you could win a $100 gift card! Before deal everyone in, we talk about Money!, Venture, and Fishing. |
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Episode 342: Oops! All Foreplay
There's any number of subtle innuendoes we could've gone with, but this is what we're doing I guess. If you haven't got there yet, we're talking about games that aren't just slow rides, but instead leave you gasping for more right as they climax. Before we finish, we talk about No Loose Ends, Eselsbrücke, and The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. |
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Episode 337: Our Listeners’ Top 20 Board Games of All-Time 2025
It's time again to turn the tables and get your take, to feel out the collective tastes of you, the listeners of the show. It's the annual Listener Top 20! You've been sending in all of your lists (thank you!), I've been compiling all of the data (you're welcome!) - and here it is, in a convenient list format. Before we ask the audience, we talk about Flip 7, Hot Streak, and Kolejka. |
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Episode 331: One Thing I Hate About You
We've spent a lot of time over the years singing the praises of the games we love, but they can't be perfect right? Surely there's something, one little thing, that bugs us - a small blemish in our otherwise most beloved games? Before we come clean, we talk about Classified Information, Starline Hill, Panda Spin, and SHASN: AZADI. |
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Episode 324: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2024: Neilan's 50-31
It's meeeeeeeeeee! So if you care to find my top 50 list, look right here. The first twenty incredible games on the list that early critics are calling "surprisingly tasteful" and "delightfully roomy" is finally yours to consume. It's the greatest board games of all-time, Neilan edition! |
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Episode 304: Our Listeners’ Top 20 Board Games of All-Time 2024
Oh man, oh man, I always love this one. It's the latest edition of the Listener Top 20! We asked you all to submit your lists of your favourite board games, and we collected, collated, and compiled all of that beautiful beautiful data using a magical formula to get THIS: The definitive rankings of your collective taste in board games. Before we throw it to you, we talk about Shuffle and Swing, Mythwind, and Cat Blues: The Big Gig! |
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Episode 299: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2023: 10-1
We made it! We've arrived at last at the final ten(-ish) games, in fact, our TOP TEN (or so?) favourite games of all time. Thanks for joining us again on this yearly pilgrimage, as always it's the journey that's the important thing - but that's not to say that there isn't some exciting moving and shaking to happen at the destination. That said, it's time to pass out on the couch. |
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Episode 295: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2023: 50-41
It's tiiiiiiime! It's the top fifty! That's right, the much anticipated, much celebrated, much imitated (we definitely did it first) event of the season is here. We're counting down each of our favourite fifty games of all time! Or at least, for right now! It's a beautiful, beautiful thing, and we'd love if you pulled up a chair and joined us for it. |
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Episode 288: Less is More
A little prune, a little embellish, a nip, a tuck, and a flourish, and we can get this thing just how we like it. We're looking at all the little things that we'd like to see more of, all the things we'd like to see less of in the world of board games. Before we giveth and taketh away, we talk about First in Flight, Tramways, and Wandering Towers. |
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Episode 285: Starting is Easy, Finishing is Hard
It's such an important part of the design and often overlooked - the end game trigger. The conventional wisdom for most things is to start strong and finish strong, so we look at some of our favourite ways that games can end. Before we reach the end of the road, we talk about Robot Quest Arena, Mr. President: The American Presidency, 2001-2020, and Expeditions. |
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Episode 267: Our Listeners’ Top 20 Board Games of All-Time 2023
I always love this one. It's the time of the year where we look at what your favourite games are, and discover whether there are any exciting movers and shakers in what you've been playing! It's the BGB Listener Top 20! Before we check in with all of you, we talk about Tower of Babel, Great Western Trail: Argentina, and Jump Drive. |
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Episode 260: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2022: 10-1
Here it is, the one we've all been waiting for, the Board Game Barrage top ten games of all time! It's been a long road and we'll wrap it up by seeing some old favourites ... and maybe a few new faces? Old or new, these are the thirty games we enjoy the most (at least, right now.) We loved sharing these lists with you and hope you've enjoyed listening to them! |
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Episode 256: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2022: 50-41
It's top fifty season! That's right, it's the time to reflect on every single game we've ever played, and see how we feel about them in the year of our lord, 2022. We sort through the chaff, and from it we weave a beautiful golden strand we call our top fifty greatest games of all time. Grab a glass, and join us. |
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Episode 225: Itchy, Tasty
With the middle of the year rapidly approaching, we've acquired our fair share of games that we're really itching to play. We talk about what's recently made its way into our collections that we just can't wait to get to the table. Before we break out the back scratchers, we talk about Ivanhoe, Freshwater Fly, Vindication, and Cryptid: Urban Legends. |
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Episode 218: Our Listeners’ Top 20 Board Games of All-Time 2022
Wow, hundreds of you sent in your favourite games, and it was absolute chaos. But we got all the data together, cleaned up the typos, and crunched the numbers via a super secret algorithm, and here we are, your favourite games of all-time! For this year, at least. Before you take the stage, we talk about Schotten Totten 2, For Science!, and The Bridges of Shangri-La. |
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Episode 212: Two Can Play At That Game
It's the triumphant return of the terrific trio - you know exactly who we mean - to talk about games where one of us would have to be left out. That's right, it's two players only at this table, and we're talking about our favourite games that fit the bill, and why we love them. Before we one-three-nine-take-two, we talk about Undaunted: Normandy, Fields of Arle, and That Time You Killed Me. |
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Episode 210: No One Man Should Have All That Power
Few things feel better than those moments in board games that make you feel powerful. Whether it’s playing the perfect card, pulling off a perfectly executed turn, or splashing down that giant mini, we look at some of our favourite power plays in board games. Before we corrupt absolutely, we talk about Biblios: Quill and Parchment, Cryo, and Origins: First Builders. |
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Episode 208: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2021: 10-1 (ft. Tom Brewster)
It's the grand finale of the event of events that is the BGB Top 50 Games of All-time! These are our ten absolute favourite games, and, fittingly, it's a bumper episode with more than one surprise. Joining us in the peanut gallery this week, it's none other than the manic imp of Shut Up & Sit Down himself, the absolute mad genius that is Tom Brewster. Buckle in, it's going to get weird. |
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Episode 205: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2021: 40-31 (ft. Monique & Naveen)
We're back for the second part of the year's greatest celebration, it's the top fifty! We've got thirty more incredible games to talk about this week, as we get into our games ranked 40th to 31st. This week in the peanut gallery, critiquing our picks, we're thrilled to have Monique (the Lavender tank herself) and Naveen of Before You Play! |
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Episode 204: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2021: 50-41 (ft. Mike Dilisio)
It's time. The event of the year is upon us, as we begin counting down our FIFTY. FAVOURITE. GAMES. OF. ALL. TIME. We're kicking it off where you kick off all good top 50s, with our games ranked 50th to 41st favourite games. And we've also invited Mr Delicious himself, Mike DiLisio of The Dice Tower, to pick apart our choices from his lofty perch in the peanut gallery. Let's go! |
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Episode 192: Fantasy Draft: BoardGameGeek 301-400
A new list of a hundred games to draft, and it only gets harder and harder. We're each picking a standalone collection of five games in a snake draft format. And the best part is you could win $50 just by voting on your favourite collection! Before we get to clubbing, we talk about Regicide, Dice Miner, and Let's Make a Bus Route, and SCOUT! |
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Episode 163: Our Listeners' Top 20 Board Games of All-Time 2021
Wow! We asked for your top twenty lists, and boy did you deliver. We've crunched the numbers on the hundreds of submissions, and created what we think is the definitive list of BGB listeners' favourite board games. Now let us tell you how we think you did. Before we outsource our work, we talk about Santa Monica, Steam Works, and Cthulhu: Death May Die. |
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Episode 158: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2020: 10-1
It's the big one! We've come at last to the grand finale of the Board Game Barrage Top 50 Games of All Time ... Top. Ten. Baby. These are our absolute favourite games, forty (thirty?) all together, that we'd just about never turn down a game of. Thanks for joining us on this ride, it's been wild. |
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Episode 154: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2020: 50-41
It's here at last, the big event! Yes, it's the first episode of the yearly ritual we inventively call the Board Game Barrage Top 50 Games of All Time. |
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Episode 147: The Great Compromise
At least in some things, you've got to give a little to get a little, but what would you give to get what you want? We're coming up with our big board game compromises, the things we'd happily trade away to fix some of our biggest frustrations. Before we deal with the devil, we talk about Lost Ruins of Arnak, Ohanami, and Beyond the Sun. |
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Episode 145: Zero to One Hundred: $100 Collection Triple Triumph
We weren't going to let Kellen have the last word on what makes the perfect $100 collection, so the 139 squad is here to finish it out. Forgot the premise? You've lost all your board games, and only have $100 to rebuild it; what do you buy first? Before we make every penny count, we talk about Cosmic Encounter Duel, Hundreds of Horses, Billionaire Banshee, and Floor Plan. |
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Episode 144: Zero to One Hundred: Red Tank’s $100 Collection
It’s an awful notion, but bear with me. What if you lost your entire board game collection, and had to rebuild it from scratch? Here’s the catch, you only have one hundred dollars. We try to predict what the Red Tank would do, before he talks us through what makes the cut, and why. Before we rebuild, we talk about 5211, Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan, and Cóatl. |
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Episode 137: Past Its Prime
Some games are built to last, and no, we’re not just talking about the … R-word. For others, the high highs of early games must give way to the dawning realization that all is not well. We look at reasons we might end up moving past games we once held in high regard. Before we overstay our welcome, we talk about Sandstone, Ctrl, The Fox in the Forest Duet, and Unmatched. |
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Episode 134: CHAOS!
Some board games (and board game podcasts) thrive on chaos, which absolutely isn't the same thing as randomness. All of this has happened for a reason, it's just ... hard to tell what those reasons are exactly. Before we blame the butterfly, we talk about Path of Light and Shadow, Jixia Academy, and Chaos in the Old World. |
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Episode 121: FANTASTIC Four with Mike Walker from So Very Wrong About Games
Mike Walker from So Very Wrong About Games joins us to talk about games that we add to our collection, not for ourselves, but (gasp) for others. Sometimes you do what you have to placate your so-called friends, and their awful taste. Before we begrudgingly acquire games, we talk about The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, Solo, Renegade, and Horrified. |
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Episode 104: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2019: 10-1
Here it is, the episode you've all been waiting for, the grand finale, the culmination of five weeks of episodes. These are our top ten favourite board games of all-time, games that we absolutely adore, and would happily play at a moment's notice. Heck, we'd even play the games on each others' lists ... on, you know, birthdays and special occasions. That's how good they are. |
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Episode 100: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2019: 50-41
We made it! The big one-oh-oh. That's a thing people say, right? We're starting a five episodes series, working our way down each of our top fifty games of all time. We'll discuss what might make a game move up or down our list, celebrate the highs that the hobby has to offer, and talk about a heck of a lot of amazing board games. Buckle up! |
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Episode 99: Sore Today, Strong Tomorrow
It's getting close now, can you feel it? Or are you just feeling sore from the game you just lost? We're talking sore losers and sore winners: people who are hard to be around when they lose or win a game. What can you do to avoid being that person, and what games bring out the worst in us? Before we fight our feelings, we talk about Paris: New Eden, Glory to Rome, and No Swap No Pay. |
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Episode 61: Beware of the Cyber
Electronic board games! What will they think of next?! There's been a trend of more and more board games being translated into web and mobile apps, so join us as we make the jump to cyberspace. Before we plug in, we also talk about Heul doch! Mau Mau, Architects of the West Kingdom, and revisit Nusfjord. |
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Episode 53: Objection!
Objectivity is a nice goal, but what does it mean for board game criticism? Are there elements of board game design that we can have factual conversations about, without invoking our personal biases? We debate this in the only way we know how. Before we start shouting, we talk about Hyperspace, Gùgōng, and Wingspan. |
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Episode 51: The Best of Times
We throw back to our very first episode, with our biggest surprises and disappointments of the year gone by. 2018 was a year of highs and lows, but sometimes you just don't see them coming. The difference between expectation and the final product is what this week's episode is all about. Before we gaze back wistfully, we talk about Akrotiri, Blue Moon City, and This Guilty Land. |
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Episode 50: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2018: 10-1
Top ten, baby! We finally made it. And thus concludes our five part series of our favourite games of all-time. Frankly, we were changed by the experience, and will never be the same again. We hope you were too. |
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Episode 46: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2018: 50-41
We're counting down to our 50th episode, and what better way than to give our definitive lists of our 50 favourite games of all time?! You've been asking for it, so we've only gone and done it. Brace yourselves, we're just getting started. |
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Episode 43: My Triumphs, My Mistakes
We're getting introspective this week, weighing up the mistakes we've made in our collections, and reflecting on our earlier selves. Would you reset your board game collection? What games might you not buy if you had to do it all over again? Before we turn back time, we also talk about Between Two Castles Of Mad King Ludwig, Claustrophobia, and KeyForge: Call of the Archons. |
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Episode 18: You Get What You Give
Skill and experience should be important parts of determining the winner of a game, but what about new players? Accessibility is important too, so, where's the balance? We also talk about High Society, Rising 5: Runes of Asteros, The Tea Dragon Society Card Game, and Inkognito. |
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Episode 17: The Best Things in Life Are $20 or Less
What games can you get for $20? Quite a few really good ones, it turns out. We also discuss Scythe, Watson & Holmes, and Mansions of Madness: Second Edition. |
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Episode 8: Just Deserts
Trapped on a desert island and forced to bring only five board games? We've all been there. And we're going back. To the island. The board game island. |
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Episode 4: Buy Buy Buy
How many board games do you need? If you're Mark, you need them all. Before we get there though, we also talk about what we've been playing, namely, John Company, Coffee Roaster, Adrenaline and Innovation. |
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