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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 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 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 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 257: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2022: 40-31
I hope you all had a good holiday break, but it's time to get back to business. The very serious business that is the top fifty greatest games of all time. We return to our heroes in what the enthusiasts call phase two, and boy are things heating up! Thirty more incredible games that we absolutely love are coming right at you. |
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Episode 228: Bob Is Beautiful
It's easy to get lost in mechanical discussions of games, and forget to appreciate them as physical creations. There can be beauty in games, and we're here to get to the heart of it the only way we know, the one on one fight to the death that we call BGBBOB. Before we get skin deep, we talk about First Empires, Mille Fiori, and Foundations of Rome. |
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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 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 206: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2021: 30-21 (ft. Mike Walker)
What better way to send off the year than part three of the party to end all parties, the BGB Top 50! We're adding thirty more incredible games to the list, with our 30th to 21st favourite picks. This week, we have the Black Tank, Mike Walker of So Very Wrong About Games tearing apart our choices from the peanut gallery! |
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Episode 202: Your Fulfilled Potential
Looking back on the past made us all reflective. For instance, remember 166 episodes ago when we promised to play all those games on our shelves of shame? I thought you might. We're revisiting our crimes of yesteryear, and checking in on how guilty we are. Before we audit our past selves, we talk about Warp's Edge, Carolus Magnus, and Unfathomable. |
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Episode 177: Fantasy Draft: BoardGameGeek Top 100
Mark's trying to get us all into something he calls "sports", so as a compromise, we're doing a fantasy board game draft! We're going to pick games from the BoardGameGeek Top 100, until we each have five. Then YOU get to vote on whose draft is best, for a chance to win $50! Before we play to the crowds, we talk about Azul: Summer Pavilion, Roads & Boats, Ruthless, and Cthulhu: Death May Die. |
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Episode 172: Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game
After last week's love-fest made us all uncomfortable, we had to get back to what do best, spirited in-fighting. To that end, we've devised three debates around the same core: is that often criticized mechanic a design problem, or a player problem? Before we pit designers against players, we talk about Red Rising, Via Magica, and Alma Mater. |
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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 156: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2020: 30-21
It's the dark middle chapter of the Board Game Barrage Top 50 Games of All Time. Time to call in a new director, change things up, and get subversive. Well, if there were any directors who'd still work with us. This week, we're barreling through our twenties in what we like to call reverse numerical order. |
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Episode 115: Gone But Not Forgotten
There's only so much space on our shelves, so games don't always stick around forever, but that doesn't always mean that we don't like them. There are many reasons that a good game might get the boot, so let's talk about them. We count down our top five favourite games we got rid of! Before we pay our respects, we talk about Through the Desert, Lords of Hellas, Troyes, and Watergate. |
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Episode 102: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2019: 30-21
It's the season of giving, so our gift to you is more of our favourite board games of all-time! We're only just halfway, so get comfortable in front of the fire, grab an eggnog, and join us for thirty more incredible games. Oh, you got us something too? Ah. Socks. Thanks. |
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Episode 48: Top 50 Games of All-Time 2018: 30-21
Okay, we're past the middle. It's all downhill from here, but the good sort of downhill. We're counting down our fifty favourite board games, in part three of what the world is calling our most ambitious endeavour yet! Well, we're calling it that. |
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Episode 44: Red Letter Episode
It's your time to shine! We field questions from you, our adoring fans, in our first ever Q&A episode. You sent us the important topical issues you've been yearning for our take on, and takes ye shall receive. Before we line up in front of the mic, we also talk about Blokus, Brass: Lancashire, and Teotihucan: City of Gods. |
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Episode 42: We've Been Co-opted
Not everything has to be a competition, because this week we're talking about cooperation. I know, it's weird, in some games, you're not actually trying to beat the other players! We're counting down our favourite co-op games, "favourite" of course being a relative term in Kellen's case. Before we put our heads together, we also talk about SSH, Just One, and Hamsterrolle. |
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Episode 36: Your Unfulfilled Potential
What’s your white whale? The one game you’ve been itching to get to the table for ages, but for whatever reason, just never have? Well, call me Ishmael, ’cause we’re counting down not just one, not five, but ten games each that we haven’t played, but really want to. Maybe this’ll be the kick in the pants we need … but probably not. Before we dust off our shelves of shame, we talk about CIV: Carta Impera Victoria, Raxxon, and Scythe: The Rise of Fenris. |
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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 3: Double Dragonfly
Rising Sun! Everyone's talking about it, and so must we. It's our feature topic this week, but first, a brief look at what else we've been playing: Spirit Island, Hardback and Decrypto. We close the show with a look ahead to what we're hoping to play. |
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