Rolling Dice & Taking Names Gaming Podcast: Recent Episodes
Rolling Dice & Taking Names Gaming Podcast
Podcast of a conversation by two guys who have a passion for tabletop games and happen to have mics. (Family friendly)
Tony McRee00:00:00 Intro
00:00:30 Day One
00:01:34 Baseball Game
00:02:28 Setting Up the Booth
00:03:19 D&D 50th Party
00:08:00 Asmodee Release Event
00:11:40 Lucky Duck Release Event
00:12:40 Hatchette Release Event
00:15:37 Long Line Time
00:16:51 Gametoppers
00:19:05 Day Two
00:22:23 Fantasy Flight Report
00:24:57 Plaid Hat Games
00:26:50 Floodgate Games
00:27:52 Wizkids
00:29:20 Thames and Kosmos
00:31:41 Bezier Games
00:33:57 Hobby Japan
00:37:54 Strike Tournament
00:48:24 Portal Games
00:49:58 Day Three
00:51:02 CGE
00:55:35 OP Games
00:57:32 Allplay Games
00:58:39 Flat River Group
01:00:45 Minos
01:03:00 Strike Event
01:03:46 Arcane Wonders
01:06:25 Flat River Demo Night
01:10:12 Star Wars Unlimited Draft
01:17:10 Miniature Market
01:18:48 Day Four
01:19:28 Bandai Demo
01:22:10 North Star Games
01:25:02 Off Duty Ninja
01:26:00 Strike Event
01:28:23 Chip Theory Games
01:32:05 Warhammer
01:37:00 Star Wars Unlimited Draft Again
01:41:10 Outro
Attending Gen Con 2024 is an exhilarating experience for any gaming enthusiast especially getting in that initial crowd rush going into the hall. For those that don’t know, it is held in Indianapolis and got started when D&D players got together over a weekend. It has grown into one of the biggest conventions for board games in the United States.
In this episode, we tell you about the events we attend and the new things we saw that will be coming to your gaming table soon.
Thanks for listening and see you in two weeks.
The post RDTN Episode 329: Gen Con 2024 first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin 00:00:00 Intro
00:01:24 SFGE
00:09:31 Arkham Horror RPG
00:13:05 Restoration: TMNT
00:15:43 Taste Buds
00:19:25 Portal Games
00:20:37 The Mandalorian Adventures
00:32:00 Kronologic
00:38:15 Miniature Market
00:39:32 Rock Hard 1977
01:08:40 In the Footsteps of Marie Curie
01:15:32 Gametoppers
01:18:36 Evenfall
01:32:00 Open Season
01:38:00 River of Gold
01:50:26 E-Win Chair
01:52:36 What to get at Gen Con
01:56:37 Outro
Time for our thoughts on the upcoming games that are coming out at Gen Con based on the ones we were lucky enough to play. Got to admit, some solid games and for all age of gamers. We have the light entry with In the Footsteps of Marie Curie to the heavy hitter in Evenfall or Rock Hard 1977. But looking for middle of the road, check out River of Gold. Need a little coop in your life, then try Mandalorian Adventures. And if the old grey matter needs some work, Kronologic might be something you are looking for.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg at Gen Con as we head out this week and will report back some of our other favorites when we are there.
Thanks for listening and if at Gen Con, please say Hey if you see us.
The post RDTN Episode 328: Rock Hard 1977, Mandalorian Adventures, River of Gold, Evenfall, Footsteps of Marie Curie, Open Season, Kronologic first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee 00:00:00 Intro
00:03:51 Holiday Adventures
00:09:17 Slingz
00:14:57 Rehash of Old Games
00:18:45 Taste Buds
00:29:25 Miniature Market
00:31:05 Star Tycoon
00:49:07 Cities
00:56:31 Gametoppers LLC
00:59:11 Landmarks
01:12:05 Portal Games
01:13:10 Star Wars Unlimited
01:19:49 Gamegenic
There are many games about manipulating a stock market or trying to be a Tycoon of an industry. So, when we heard about Star Tycoon, we wondered what was different from all the other games in this category. For me, two things jumped out when playing. First, the market is not the dominating factor in this game, there is a nice balance between that and your other objectives. Second, the market wasn’t the only thing contributing to how you got your resources. Like the balance this game brought into the crowded stock market games.
Cities was a quick game to play with the need to concentrate on a few objectives and not many. And when teaching the game, it might need to be pointed out. This game will promote some sort of hate drafting to keep others from amassing large number of points and while this is solitary in play, little interaction, you need to pay attention to what others are doing.
Thanks for listening and hope you are having a wonderful summer so far.
The post RDTN Episode 327: Star Tycoon, Cities, Landmarks and SWU: Shadows of the Galaxy first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee 00:00:00 Intro
00:03:38 Warhammer: Age of Sigmar 4th Edition
00:08:30 Iron Kingdom Sold
00:11:33 Mojo
00:17:25 Taste Buds
00:23:45 Gametoppers LLC
00:25:32 Yokohama
00:40:25 AI Space Puzzle
00:48:00 Portal Games
00:49:15 Has the Golden Age passed
01:01:32 Nekojima
01:06:45 Miniature Market
01:08:03 Video Game Talk
What is the Golden Age of board gaming and has it passed? We give it some thought in this episode. One of us did a deep dive, while the other thought about it while setting up the microphone. Either way, it is defined differently for each of us. But we board gamers are drawn to rules, and so titles will rise in popularity and fall, just like we discussed in one of our reviews. Eventually, things get overused which leads to a shift and themes cycle. But fear not—new games emerge, striking a delicate balance, and the golden age continues.
In summary, the golden age isn’t a fixed point—it’s a dynamic journey fueled by creativity, passion, and the love of rolling dice and taking names.
The post RDTN Episode 326: AI Space Puzzle, Yokohama, Mojo, Nekojima first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin 00:00:00 Intro
00:05:08 Movie Talk
00:09:12 Squirrel Moment
00:10:55 Define rolling
00:15:52 Taste Buds
00:21:37 Gametoppers LLC
00:22:43 Rallyman Dirt
00:38:35 Miniature Market
00:39:25 Sandbag
00:46:09 Charioteer
00:59:22 Agueda
01:05:36 Heat: Heavy Rain
01:14:07 Portal Games
01:15:06 Final Racing Thoughts
Racing board games ignite the thrill of the track, where strategy meets speed. And being from NASCAR country, we enjoy our racing games. In this episode we explore three different styles of racing games: Charioteer, Rallyman Dirt, and Heat-Heavy Rain
- Charioteer:
- Race into the winner’s circle with this set collection style racing game.
- Play your cards to either sprint ahead, damage your opponents or navigate the turn of the forum.
- Strategic card play will definitely factor in on who will win this game.
- Rallyman: Dirt:
- Rev your engines by rolling dice and completing the track in the best time.
- Push your luck as you navigate treacherous turns to outpace your opponents.
- Modular tracks, dice-driven movement, and strategic decisions are key aspects of this game.
- Heat Heavy Rain:
- Are you ready for two new tracks for Heat, then pick up this expansion.
- New elements on the track will test your hand management skills as you race into the corners.
- Draft, strategize, and sprint to the finish line while dealing with your opponents in this expansion for Heat: Pedal to the Metal
Sandbag is an anti-trick taking card game where you look to manipulate trump but in doing so help out the other players. Agueda is a collection game where you are trying to meet three scoring objectives set forth at the beginning of the game. While playing, the family compared it to Azul, but with a little less stress and hate drafting.
Thanks for listening and those back from Origins, hope you had a wonderful time.
The post RDTN Episode 325: Charioteer, Rallyman Dirt, Heat, Sandbag, Agueda first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee 00:00:00 Intro
00:04:21 Strike Tournament Updated
00:07:31 Move Story Update
00:08:45 Southern Fried Gaming Expo
00:13:22 Tokaido Duo
00:16:31 Taste Buds
00:26:37 Miniature Market
00:28:05 Skyrise
00:47:30 Portal Games
00:49:48 Squirrels: The Card Game
00:55:30 Donut Shop
01:10:25 Gametoppers LLC
01:13:09 Granblue Fantasy
01:27:32 E-Win Chair
01:29:39 Outro
Board games—those magical realms where cardboard, dice, and imagination collide. Whether you’re plotting world domination or unraveling mysteries, these tabletop adventures unite friends, families, and foes. And in this release, we hear Marty’s family tell you why that is true with their reviews of Donut Shop and Granblue Fantasy Skirmish Game.
But we also hear about a card game that fits right at home with RDTN called Squirrels: The Card Game. This Uno style game with a solid competitive flare will get the whole family involved as you see who can get rid of their nuts first.
Finally, Marty tells me about what a miss and sounds like I missed a great game night with Skyrise. Roxley has had some solid games lately and this just adds to the collection. Hope I will get to see it on the table soon.
Thanks for listening
The post RDTN Episode 324: Sunrise, Donut Shop, Squirrels – The Card Game, Granblue Fantasy first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin 00:00:00 Intro
00:01:00 Marty’s Move
00:13:15 Easter Egg in Ep 322
00:14:16 Cheerwine Festival
00:17:00 Strike Tournament Info
00:24:40 My City Roll & Draw
00:27:30 Episode Title Stats
00:32:10 Portal Games
00:33:55 Sunrise Lane
00:40:50 Path of Civilization
01:02:20 Compile
01:07:45 Gametoppers
01:10:25 Mind Map
01:18:05 Miniature Market
01:20:02 Outro (Baseball & SWU)
It’s time for the big Gen Con Strike Tournament ticket sale! You can hear all the details in the episode.
Marty struggles to get through the episode as he tries to recovery from helping his son move. But he manages to find the energy to get through reviews of four games including one of our favorite style of games, a civ style game.
If you haven’t joined yet, we’d love to have you on our Discord Server. Very laid back, lots of fun and no drama!
The post RDTN Episode 323: Path of Civilization, Sunrise Lane, Mind Map, Compile first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee 00:00:31 Intro
00:03:00 Tangram City
00:10:51 Lunar Rush
00:23:32 Game Toppers LLC
00:26:00 Unmatched: Slings & Arrows
00:34:30 Vampire Village
00:46:16 Pass Pass
00:51:44 Miniature Market
00:52:57 Vijayanagara
01:05:27 Tetrarchia
01:11:36 Portal
01:12:39 Star Wars Unlimited Update
If spatial relations are not your thing, you’re not alone. I have always had trouble seeing what shape an unfolded piece of paper would make. But I also know that I can pack a car with luggage or don’t have navigational challenges. So, games like Tangram City are good ways for me to practice the challenges that I have with spatial relations.
We also played several games that were quick hitters and enjoyable. Vampire Village has the elements in a game that we like with card passing and then card assignment. Having Unmatched bring in some classic literature was fun and makes us reflect to our high school days as we reminder Shakespeare or what little remember from the plays.
Then the new GMT title Vijayanagar was so nice. In my opinion, a COIN style game that seemed to move at a great pace and still kept the elements that make COIN so popular.
Thanks for listening and appreciate all the support.
The post RDTN Episode 322: Vijayanagara, Lunar Rush, Unmatched: Slings & Arrows, Vampire Village, Tangram City, Pass Pass, Tetrarchia first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:34 Intro
00:06:35 Stress Test
00:08:55 College Exams
00:14:05 Pick a Pen: Gardens
00:21:51 Espana 1936
00:29:47 BGG Ratings
00:33:00 Taste Buds
00:36:30 Miniature Market
00:37:56 Sand
00:50:10 Finding Atlantis
00:56:00 Portal Games
00:57:01 Dabba Walla
01:08:55 Gametoppers LLC
01:09:43 Outro
Welcome back from our captivating interlude, “Screening, Streaming, and Steaming”! Now, let’s dive into our regular musings on the freshest board games. Brace yourselves as we explore two intriguing Devir titles—because, let’s face it, Devir rarely disappoints. But hold your dice! We’ll dissect not just the production quality but also the heart of gameplay.
And then there’s Queen Games, marching in with a new lineup tailored for family play. Picture lighter fare, like a sun-kissed afternoon picnic. But here’s my confession: Spatial relations? Not exactly my forte. So, fellow gamers, bear with us as we navigate these games together!
Thanks for listening and supporting the show
The post RDTN Episode 321 – Sand, Finding Atlantis, Dabba Walla, Espana 1936, Pick A Pen Gardens first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminOne of our guilty pleasures is doing an upcoming movie review with our good buddies Dan and Chris. But let’s be truthful, Marty needs others on the show that can be insightful on movies because without them, it would just be me listening to him talk about movies. While it seems that the studios are getting back in the swing of things with plenty of releases this year, we narrowed down our selection to the following:
| MAY 3 | The Fall Guy | | MAY 17 | IF | | MAY 24 | Furiosa | | Garfield | | Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | | JUNE 7 | Bad Boys: Ride or Die | | JUNE 14 | Inside Out 2 | | JUNE 28 | A Quiet Place: Day One | | JULY 3 | Despicable Me 4 | | JULY 19 | Twisters | | JULY 26 | Deadpool 3 | | AUG. 2 | Harald and the Purple Crayon | | AUG. 9 | Borderlands | | Trap | | AUG. 16 | Alien: Romulus | | AUG. 23 | The Crow | | AUG. 30 | Kraven the Hunter |
And when all the banter is done, we then do the draft of which ones we think will make the most at the box office. I you have the time, we would love to hear your thoughts over on the Discord channel.
Thanks for listening and back to games in the next episode.
The post RDTN Episode 320 – Screening, Streaming, or Steaming – Summer Movies 2024 first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin 00:00:00 Intro
00:01:50 Tony’s Trip to Spain
00:15:45 Quoridor Pac-Man
00:21:00 Ancient Knowledge
00:27:10 Back to Spain
00:32:35 Game Toppers LLC
00:34:35 Draftosaurus
00:39:35 Iron, Blood, Snow & Mud
00:56:45 Portal Games
00:58:35 Look at the Stars
01:03:35 Miniature Market
01:05:15 Time Division
01:11:10 Outro
01:13:35 Unicorn Overlord Teaser
Marty’s dad is back to talk about another WWII themed game. Plus Tony talks about his adventures in Spain. Plus three 5 Minute Initiatives from some good filler games.
The post RDTN Episode 319: Draftosaurus, Look At the Stars, Time Division, and Iron, Blood, Snow & Mud first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin 00:00:00 Intro
00:05:00 Song Saga
00:15:45 Strike Tournament Update
00:20:25 Cruise for Tony to Avoid
00:23:45 Star Wars Unlimited Update
00:28:50 Portal Games
00:30:55 Bacon
00:36:40 Barcelona
00:55:15 Miniature Market
00:57:40 Color Field
01:02:20 Courtisans
01:07:55 Game Toppers LLC
01:09:35 Balatro
01:15:50 Outro
You like short episodes? Good, then you’ll like Episode 318.
You like short blog posts? Good, then you’ll like this one.
The post RDTN Episode 318: Barcelona, Color Field, Courtisans, Bacon first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee 00:00:00 Intro
00:01:02 Glory Days
00:08:12 Vacation Report
00:13:45 Star Wars Unlimited
00:19:30 Taste Buds
00:24:29 Miniature Market
00:26:40 Printing Press
00:33:40 2015 Game of the Year
00:43:09 Game Toppers LLC
00:45:18 Xylotar
00:52:18 Imperium Horizons
01:11:02 Portal Games
01:13:10 Alpujarras
01:19:00 Outro
Welcome back to the normal show. We hope you had a chance to listen to our favorites from 2023. When reviewing games or giving our opinion, we try and consider the game’s target audience and how well it achieves its goals, whether it’s strategy, family-friendliness, or replayability. Our perspective on the game’s complexity, duration, and enjoyment level hopefully provides insights for potential players. And by including comparisons to similar games can help readers gauge their interest based on previous experiences. If anything, we hope to help you make an informed decision about adding the game to your collection.
Thanks for listening and we are always happy to hear any feedback you have.
The post RDTN Episode 317: Printing Press, Imperium Horizons, Xylotar, Alpujarras first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee
| Time | Presenter | Category | Nominees | | 00:05:06 | Our Family Plays Games | Best Family Game | Blob PartySplitoMy Shelfie | | 00:07:50 | Dan King | It’s in the Cards | Inside JobTrickdrawBuilders High | | 00:13:12 | Tantrum House | Best coop | Unmatched Tales to AmazeBanish The SnakesThe ART Project | | 00:16:47 | The Players Aid | Historical Game | Prime MInisterTwilight Struggle-Red SeaSaigon 75 | | 00:22:30 | Grant Lyon | “It’s Alive!” | Bruxelles 1893Keep’em Rolling: Race to the RhinePrinces of FlorenceThunder Road: VendettaRobo RallySanta’s Workshop | | 00:27:19 | Our Sponsors | Miniature MarketPortal GamesGametoppers | | 00:31:55 | Ambie & Crystal | This Game has Bling | The White CastleBambooHoplomachus – Victorum | | 00:37:42 | Stephen | The Ignacy Award | Imperial Miners | | 00:42:50 | Dan & Chris | Just the Two of Us | Sky TeamMatch of the CenturySail | | 00:48:48 | David Waybright | Pass the Advil | NucleumAge of InnovationEarth | | 00:55:01 | Ignacy | All Y’all Award | Last LightThunder Road: VendettaEarth | | 00:59:50 | Blue Peg Pink Peg | Game of the Year – Tony | Dawn of UlosEmpire’s EndMatch of the Century | | 01:04:35 | Paula Deming | Game of the Year – Marty | Dawn of UlosWhite CastlePrime Minister |
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the most anticipated event of the year, the Squirrelly Awards! Tonight, we gather to celebrate the very best in board games from 2023. This evening is all about recognizing the hard work, dedication, and exceptional talent of those who have made incredible contributions to our favorite hobby. The Squirrelly Awards have become a symbol of excellence and recognition for those who have raised the bar and set new standards in their respective areas of expertise. Or that is what we tell ourselves.
We are honored to have some of the most talented and influential figures in the industry joining us tonight to celebrate our 9th year of presenting the Squirrelly Awards. So, sit back, relax, and prepare to be amazed by some of the most unforgettable performances. We hope you enjoy the show!
The post RDTN Episode 316: 9th Annual Squirrelly Awards first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee 00:00:00 Intro
00:06:35 El Grande Correction
00:08:41 I’m Not in Love is a Love Song
00:14:45 Rule Teach PSA
00:18:20 Altered TCG KS
00:24:22 Game Toppers
00:26:40 7 Wonders Architects Medals
00:31:41 Star Wars Unlimited Celebration Recap
00:48:54 Stonespine Architects
00:54:48 Portal Games
00:56:34 Total Domination
01:11:23 Tanuki
01:15:47 Miniature Market
01:16:32 Outro
Marty recently attended the Star Wars Unlimited event in Minnesota, and he graciously shared his experience with me and all you listeners. Over the years, we’ve delved into numerous Trading Card Games (TCGs), always hoping to find one that captures our excitement like Android Netrunner did. Remember, Netrunner was the TCG that kickstarted this show because we couldn’t contain our enthusiasm for its brilliance. Now, the question looms: Can Star Wars fill the void that Netrunner left behind? Will it rekindle our weekly lunchtime gaming sessions? One thing’s certain—you’ll be hearing plenty about it from us in the coming months, as our orders are already in.
And speaking of surprises, let me confess: Roll Player didn’t immediately grab me when I first played it years ago. But over time, it’s grown on me. My interest in Thunderworks Games led me to eagerly anticipate Stonespine Architects. Did it live up to expectations? You’ll have to listen to find out.
But wait, there’s more! Our unexpected delight came from Tanuki. It’s a classic case of “don’t judge a book by its cover.” This little gem might just become our go-to filler game for a while.
Lastly, Total Domination gets a turn on our gaming table. We’re eager to explore its depths, although we’ll also share any minor quibbles during our play discussion.
Thanks for listening, we really appreciate it.
The post RDTN Episode 315: Star Wars Unlimited, Total Domination, Tanuki, Stonespine Architects, 7 Wonders Architects: Medals first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:00 Intro
00:05:46 Tantrum Con
00:08:41 Cabanga
00:11:43 Skull King
00:14:04 Wine Cellar
00:18:56 Kutna Hora
00:23:15 Tantrum Con Wrap Up
00:25:47 King of Tokyo
00:27:47 Think Like a Shrink
00:32:33 Song Saga
00:40:11 The Floor
00:44:10 Portal Games
00:45:35 Aqua
00:50:47 El Grande
00:58:36 Unboxed
01:02:34 Miniature Market
01:03:45 Anunnaki
01:21:00 2GM Tactics
01:27:41 Game Toppers
01:29:27 Switch: Rising Lords
01:32:26 Outro
Lots of games to discuss, but what do you expect after another convention. Yes, we might be biased because it is in our backyard, but if you are looking for a convention to go to next year, consider Tantrum Con. It is incredibly well run by some of the nicest people you will ever meet. There was something always going on with plenty of space for open gaming.
The annual award show is just a month away, so be sure to get in your votes for the All Y’all Award. We will shut down the form on 2/17 so we have time to tabulate the votes and get the nominees over to the presenter. Thanks for taking the time to do it.
The post RDTN Episode 314: El Grande, Aqua, Anunnaki, Unboxed and Plenty More first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:00 Intro
00:03:22 Dice + Diversions
00:12:10 Miniature Market
00:14:10 Pyramidice
00:20:30 Plum Island Horror
00:41:43 Gametoppers LLC
00:44:12 Lunar
00:49:17 Apiary
01:01:41 Unmatched: Sun’s Origin
01:06:45 Portal Games
01:08:33 Forest Shuffle
01:13:27 Outro
If winter blues have you down this year, then go ahead and block your calendar for Dice & Diversions in Atlanta next year when the dates get announced. A new board game convention that is definitely something to consider. We had a fabulous time.
We got to play some of the hottest games out on the market: Plum Island Horror, Forest Shuffle, and Apiary. We are killing horrors, we are growing trees, and we are making our subjects explore and get resources. Respectively, we have a cooperative game, a set collection game, and a worker placement game. I can understand why these games are getting some attention because while all the core mechanics aren’t new, how they use them are.
I will say that in Apiary, you are not using the bee’s tongues to suck up the nectar and store it in a special stomach called the honey stomach. Nor are you having the nectar mixed with enzymes that break down the complex sugars into simpler ones. Nor are you having your bees regurgitate the nectar into honeycomb cells, where they fan it with their wings to evaporate the excess water. Instead, they are exploring planets, collecting resources and then exchanging them for honey. But wouldn’t it be cool to have them do the above!!
Lunar is a trick-taking game that will challenge your group of four. We do not recommend playing it with two even though it is possible. The next Unmatched has some really interesting characters, some that if you had sworn off of getting any more expansions, might want to take a look.
Finally, Pyramidice is a comfortable dice game that with the God cards makes it an interesting engine builder with a push your luck mechanic.
Thanks for listening and in the next show, we might get back to our silliness of long banter and short board game discussions.
The post RDTN Episode 313: Plum Island Horror, Apiary, Unmatched – Sun’s Origin, Forest Shuffle, Lunar, Pyramidice first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:42 Intro
00:04:50 Hopes & Wishes
00:13:05 Discord Plug
00:16:10 More Prime Minister
00:22:42 First 18xx Game
00:29:15 Spray Can Insulation
00:31:00 Gametoppers LLC
00:31:55 Acquire
00:39:00 Coffee Rush
00:51:54 Sorcerer’s Arena
00:56:58 Portal Games
00:58:00 Warhammer: The Old World
01:38:11 Miniature Market
01:39:41 Movies of 2023
01:48:36 Sports Talk
01:51:47 Outro
Welcome to 2024 and the 12th year of RDTN. Thanks for the continued support. We do appreciate and hopefully we can still provide you relevant information and informative reviews. Or we can just by white noise in your life for an hour or two every other week.
Don’t be surprised by hearing from the Connell clan in this episode. Marty had a captured audience over the holidays, so it was a good chance for him to get in some plays in with the family and hear their thoughts. And to be honest, when it comes to the miniature games, the Connell boys know their stuff.
The United Kingdom has had 53 Prime Ministers so far. The first Prime Minister of Great Britain was Robert Walpole, who led the government for over 20 years from 1721. Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister during World War II. Margaret Thatcher was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Rishi Sunak is the current Prime Minister and the first non-white Prime Minister
It’s fascinating to see how the role of Prime Minister has evolved over time and how each Prime Minister has left their mark on the country. But none can compare to our reigns, if given the chance, as we once again talk about our play of the game. We are only beginning to get into the strategy. In 2024, I hope we continue to bring more on that game like we did Netrunner when the podcast first started out in 2012.
Thanks for coming back and listening to us once again.
The post RDTN Episode 312: Warhammer – The Old World, Coffee Rush Sorcerer’s Arena, Acquire, 18xx Talk, Prime Minister Again first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:00 Intro
00:03:25 Charioteer
00:05:15 Ensemble
00:06:45 Santa’s Workshop
00:08:47 Thanks to our Listeners
00:12:05 January Conventions
00:17:41 Codenames Live
00:20:05 Portal Games
00:21:47 Prime Minister
00:55:09 Prime Minister Revisit
00:57:08 Gametoppers LLC
00:58:14 Ghosts of Christmas
01:07:29 Sankoré: The Pride of Mansa Musa
01:36:39 Miniature Market
01:38:10 Video Game Talk
01:41:34 Ewin Chair Shout Out (RDTN – 30% off order)
We have a new year ahead of us and we are looking forward to what is to come in Season 12 of RDTN. Thanks to all that have been with us over the years. But before we got out of 2023, we played some amazing games and one, Prime Minister from GMT, has us talking about it whenever we are together.
Got a gem to the table in a small card game that came out in 2019 and that is Ghosts of Christmas. Enjoyed the twist on how the high card below trump can change as the hand is played out. And any card game with you must make your bid is always one that I can appreciate.
Sankore from Osprey games was another big game that we got on the table. Now the biggest drawback for us was setup, but the game was probably one of those that needs many, many plays to appreciate the complexity of how to get the best score. The mechanics are straight forward, so the teach wasn’t’ bad, but how to score at the end caught us off guard. Looking forward to getting it to the table again.
Happy New Year and thanks for coming back.
The post RDTN Episode 311: Prime Minister, Sankoré: The Pride of Mansa Musa, Ghosts of Christmas first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:00 Intro – 11 Year Anniversary
00:05:51 Free League Publishing
00:08:00 Aconyte Books
00:12:55 In other News
00:14:50 Ticket To Ride – Crushed
00:17:50 Card Scene
00:24:40 Sports Ball Talk
00:28:36 Sagrada Artisans
00:31:12 Anniversary Contest
00:35:38 Portal Games
00:37:40 Nucleum
00:59:51 Tokaido Duo
01:05:22 Gametoppers LLC
01:08:19 Santa’s Workshop
01:18:27 Builder’s High
01:24:34 Miniature Market
01:26:17 Unmatched: Tales to Amaze
01:38:45 Astlibra Revision
01:45:06 Outro
Marty and I both worked in a nuclear power plant when we got out of college. Might explain a few other things, but that is why we were looking forward to Board and Dice’s new game Nucleum. I enjoyed the game and the simplicity of the actions you take. But the requirement of thinking out your next three, four, ten steps is so important in this game. It also brings with it enough interaction to create some tension between players, but nothing that can completely ruin a game for someone. It is a long (2+hrs), thinky game and if you enjoy those types, then give it a try.
But on the completely opposite spectrum is Santa’s Workshop. This is a straight up worker placement that harkens back to the times of basic place/convert resources/get victory points in worker placement games. But there is an interesting choice where you may not want to be first in certain areas because you need more material, but you give those before you victory points when you do. Two methods of play that are different enough that one method may not win out over the other.
Unmatched: Tales to Amaze is the coop version of the game if your group is not a fan of playing against one another. I enjoy coop games that ramp up quickly and this one does. Also, you can mix and match previous characters to play this game, so if you want to see Bruce Lee against aliens, bring it. Like when you can bring in early stuff to a board game.
Don’t forget to head over to our Discord channel for the contest and thanks for supporting us for over 11 years!
The post RDTN Episode 310: Nucleum, Santa’s Workshop, Unmatched: Tales to Amaze, Tokaido Duo, Builder’s High first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro – Take Two Christmas Tree Count Lawn Care Tips How To Play Videos Glass Sculpture TV Updates Episode 309a Similo Big Bomb Drop Portal Games Hitler’s Reich: WW2 in […]
The post RDTN Episode 309: Plantagenet, The ART Project, Tesseract, Tipperary, Similo, Hitler’s Reich first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeGame Toppers KS 4.0 Intro Miniature Market (Rolling10 – $10 off $75 order) Ewin Racing Chairs (RDTN – 30% off order) Scram! Sail Faeries & Magical Creatures Gamegenic Etiquette Taste […]
The post RDTN Episode 308: Empire’s End, Race to the Rhine, Jokkmokk, Sea Salt & Paper, Borderlands, The Hunt, Sail, Faeries, Scram! first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminGame Toppers KS 4.0 Intro BooBQ Bruxelles 1893 Vanessa revisits Azul Vanessa tries Tiger & Dragon Ready Set Bet Ensemble Dubious Coffee Chat Food at BooBQ Ghost Love Candy Too […]
The post RDTN Episode 307: Halloween, Ghosts Love Candy Too, Bruxelles 1893, Bark Avenue, Ensemble first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminPopular themes seem to cycles in and out of board games every few years. Right now, nature themed board games seem to be all the rage. We are getting tired […]
The post RDTN Episode 306: Do nature themes suck? first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro MegaMoose Con Reflection Coolstuff Inc News Miniature Market Info Evil Genius vs Netflix Mt Dew Voodoo Flavor Lawn Maintenance Undaunted 2200: Callisto Azul Mini Gamegenic New Products GWT: New […]
The post RDTN Episode 305: Age of Innovation, Spellbook, Timeline Twist, Inheritors, Pyramido, Powerline, Senjutsu first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminIntro Repeat Corner Sky Team with a Pilot Order of Invention One Piece Card Game Bad Things Happen 3 Ring Circus Sagrada Artisians Overboss Duel Battle Card Meeple Coffee Lorcana […]
The post RDTN Episode 304: The White Castle, Match of the Century, Inside Job, Trickdraw, Overboss Duel, 3 Ring Circus first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminWe are excited to have Dan Patriss and Chris Kirkman back on to recap the summer movies and give the results of our movie draft from the Screening, Streaming or […]
The post RDTN Episode 303: 2023 Summer Movie Recap & Draft Results first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro All Blown Up Sir E-Win Game Chair Repeat Corner Portal Games General Orders Miniature Market Five Minute Begins Now Romi Rami (5MI) Cosmotopus (5MI) Rome in a Day (5MI) […]
The post RDTN Episode 302: General Orders WWII, Cosmoctopus, Dogfight!, RoboRally, Rome in a Day, Scope U-Boot, Ashes: Red Rains, Tiger & Dragon, Romi Rami first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTwo of the most difficult games to get at Gen Con 2023 was Sky Team and Disney Lorcana. We managed to get each and will let you know what we […]
The post RDTN Episode 301: Imperial Miners, Sky Team, Disney Lorcana, Top 3 Deck Builders, CDSK first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Day 1 at Gen Con 2023 Good Games Publishing Asmodee Event Lucky Duck Get Together Wiz Kids Booth More Asmodee This didn’t happen Hatchette Event Day 1 Done Miniature […]
The post RDTN Episode 300: Gen Con 2023 first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Talk about Clover Games Workshop Easy Button MM Affiliate Link – Thank You Ready for Gen Con Box Office Surprises Flying Sucks Taste Buds Portal Games Stranger Things: Upside […]
The post RDTN Episode 299: Stranger Things Upside Down, D&D: Trials of Tempus, Star Trek: Away Missions first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro CEO Gaming Event Pocket Paragons Thunder Road: Vendetta Lawn Care Sucks Sometime The Princes of Florence Oh My Brain & Scout Miniature Market Taste Buds Gametoppers LLC Dawn of […]
The post RDTN Episode 298: Dawn of Ulos, 1212 Las Navas de Tolosa, Archeos Society, Thunder Road: Vendetta, The Princes of Florence first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminChess is the same thing over and over again. There are no expansions or variable setup. So it must not be very replayable. Au contraire! We look at the reasons […]
The post Episode 297: Does chess suck? (replayability in games) first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Various Cons Clash of Cultures – Again Carson City Movie Update and Special News Miniature Market SiliconVania Wandering Towers Portal Games Top Worker Placement Games MTG: LOTR Commander Deck […]
The post RDTN Episode 296: MTG – LotR Commander, SiliconVania, Carson City, Wandering Towers, Three Worker Placement Games first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro More Strike Tickets Traveling is Hard Going to the Mall Movies and Taste of Charlotte Vietnam Vet Visit Portal Games Saigon 75 Vaalbara Miniature Market Twilight Struggle: Red Sea […]
The post RDTN Episode 295: Saigon 75, Twilight Struggle – Red Sea, Vivarium, Vaalbara first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminThe COIN series of games from GMT Games is very popular series of games. However, the look and rules may be intimidating to gamers. I teach 3 players Cuba Libre […]
The post RDTN Episode 294: Are COIN games difficult to learn? first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminIntro The Wedding Strike Tournament Update New Contest for Tickets to Strike Drive is Full Correction Time Warhammer 40k – Big Updates Thunder Road Vendetta Gametoppers LLC Undaunted Stalingrad Motor […]
The post RDTN Episode 293: Undaunted: Stalingrad, Motor City, AH LCG Fortune & Folly, Top 5 games to rebuy first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminWith the upcoming release of Disney Lorcana and Star Wars Unlimited, the discussion of CCGs vs LCGS has popped up again. We have many years experience in both so we give you our pros and cons of each format
The post RDTN Episode 292: CCGs vs LCGs first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:00 Intro
00:03:42 Capstone Phantom Sleeves
00:08:44 Contest for Watergate
00:11:38 The Dogs
00:14:27 Strike Tournament
00:19:46 Blob Party
00:25:36 Miniature Market
00:28:00 Oros
00:47:47 Kamigami Battles: Rise of the Old Ones
00:56:07 Gametoppers LLC
00:57:45 Maria
01:18:20 Portal Games
01:20:05 The New Zelda
01:21:40 Outro
01:26:50 Folded Space Inserts
01:28:57 Outro Again
Volcanoes on islands are quite common and can be found in various parts of the world. Islands are often formed by volcanic activity, either as a result of tectonic plate movements or hotspots in the Earth’s mantle. But in the game Oros, you are the creator of volcanoes and land coming together. You are doing all this so your demi-god is praised and you are the extreme knowledgeable one. This game from Lucky Duck is one that will challenge you and your pals because it is deceptive in strategy, cooperation and even some take that as you battle for limited opportunity to gain the end goal of being the most knowledgeable.
We also continue our adventure into the war games with a classic, Maria. Based on recommendation by some very influential people, Marty picked up a copy off of Ebay. At first, was a bit concerned due to the length of the game, but the play was smooth and the rules easy to follow. If you are into these war style of games, you have gotten to play it well before us. If you haven’t, then you might want to seek it out.
A deck builder that requires you to actually pay attention to the cards you are getting from the market. That is what Kamigami requires due to the chaining of cards. This was refreshing to deal with and if you need another deck builder in your life, give it a test run. We did struggle at the end to get to the final end game, but that just might be due to our lack of familiarity with the card combos which you need to understand in these games.
The post RDTN Episode 291: Oros, Maria, Kamigami Battles, Blob Party first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:32 Intro
00:03:38 Ezra and Nehemiah
00:06:25 We need Prevagen
00:10:18 Thank You for the Votes
00:11:35 Gamegenic: Dice & Life Counters
00:14:00 Free League Publishing – Lord of the Ring 5e
00:18:18 Back to Gamegenic
00:21:17 Taste Buds
00:27:40 Gametoppers LLC (Code: RDTN15)
00:29:00 Earth
00:42:50 Wingspan: Asia
00:50:50 Miniature Market
00:52:33 Votes for Women
01:16:03 In the Footsteps of Darwin
01:22:00 Portal Games
01:24:13 Outro
Thanks to everyone who voted for us for Best Podcast over at BGG. We really appreciate the nomination but unfortunately, we didn’t win. But that is okay. A big congrats to This Game is Broken for winning this year.
Earth from Inside Up found its way to the table and understand why people are talking about it. We love our engine builder games and this didn’t disappoint. Wingspan is a favorite of mine and Donna’s, so when I purchased up Asia, was hoping that the Duet mode would help us get it to the table more often. Why? Because, already said love the engine builders.
If there is a chance for you to get a play of In the Footsteps of Darwin, do it because you might be pleasantly surprised. This is one of those games that will fly under the radar and as a filler, it doesn’t disappoint.
Finally, Votes for Women will not only educate those that play it but might even help get people to try these types of card driven map games. It is fair to assume that these games look complicated, but this is a very solid introduction to that style. Who knows, after a few plays of this game, you might convince someone to give Twilight Struggle a chance.
The post RDTN Episode 290: Earth, Wingspan- Asia, Votes for Women, In the Footsteps of Darwin first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin00:00:00 Intro
00:09:25 Guardians of the Galaxy 3
00:13:30 Fast X
00:17:03 The Little Mermaid
00:19:35 The Machine
00:24:00 Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse
00:28:15 Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
00:33:10 The Flash
00:39:00 Elemental
00:42:30 Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny
00:47:00 Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part 1)
00:50:40 Barbie
00:54:15 Oppenheimer
00:57:55 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
01:02:00 Blue Beetle
01:06:55 Movie Draft
After a 4 year hiatus, we are excited to bring back our Summer Movie preview show! Chris Kirkman and Dan Patriss join us as we looking at the biggest movies of the summer. And then draft which movies we think will bring in the most money!
The post RDTN Episode 289 – Screening, Streaming, or Steaming – Summer Movies 2023 first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:00 Klaus Teuber
00:03:40 Intro
00:08:44 Apology Needed
00:10:00 Gen Con Strike Event
00:13:05 RRR Movie
00:21:11 Flesh & Blood
00:24:55 Disney Lorecana
00:29:08 Fanroll (Code: RDTN10)
00:32:12 Gametoppers LLC (Code: RDTN15)
00:34:22 Banish the Snakes
01:06:18 My Shelfie
01:11:47 Portal Games
01:13:22 Ierusalem: Anno Domini
01:34:13 Worldbreaker: Advent of the Khanate
01:42:42 Miniature Market
01:45:44 Video Games
Legend has it that Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, but this is actually a myth. There is no evidence that snakes ever existed in Ireland, as the country has been separated from the European mainland for thousands of years. Therefore, it is more likely that the legend of Saint Patrick and the snakes is a metaphorical tale that refers to the saint’s efforts to convert the Irish people from their pagan beliefs to Christianity. And that is what you and your fellow Saints are attempting in this new GMT cooperative game. It is a toughie, liking playing with six pandemic cards.
Today, the site of the Last Supper is believed to be the Cenacle, a room located on the upper floor of a building in Jerusalem’s Old City. The building is now a holy site for both Christians and Jews, and it is visited by thousands of pilgrims each year. But you can stay at home and visit the site in the new game from Devir called Ierusalem. Yes, it is with an I.
Arranging a bookshelf is a personal preference, and in My Shelfie, it is all that matters. That and meeting specific goals. In real life, a bookshelf arrangement can depend on many factors, such as the size of the bookshelf, the number of books you have, and the type of books you have. Which is kind of what is needed in this game as well. Imagine that.
If you’re looking for a new collectible card game (CCG) to try, there are several options available on the market but sometimes there are ones that will fly under the radar. Worldbreakers might be one of them. Quick to play, ability to customize decks, and very straightforward in actions you perform. There is the battling against one another, but it isn’t like you are trying to defeat the other player’s hero.
The post RDTN Episode 288: Banish the Snakes, My Shelfie, Ierusalem – Anno Domini, Worldbreaker first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminIn this special episode, Vanessa joins Marty to talk about their trip to the Gamer’s Ranch in Missouri. They spent the weekend with a whole group of content creators including Our Family Plays Games, Man Vs Meeple, Grant Lyon, Tantrum House, Board Game Coffee, Blue Peg Pink Peg, Little Meeples, All the Meeples of the Rainbow and Danielle Standring. The event was put together by Inside Up Games, Eagle-Gryphon Games and Queen Games.
Over the weekend we got to play lots of games, participate in group activities and make some content together. One of our highlights was a special Taste Buds where we introduced our international friends to grits. And we have a Carolina Reaper chocolate bar for people to try.
We hope you enjoy our overall and make sure to check out all the great content from the other outlets!
00:00:00Gamers Ranch
00:06:15 Games and Activities
00:20:55 Taste Buds: Grits
00:39:57 Taste Buds: Carolina Reaper Chocolate Bar
00:50:26 Wrap up
The post RDTN Episode 287: Gamers Ranch Recap and Taste Buds w/ Special Guests first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:00 Intro
00:05:43 It’s in the Cards
00:09:00 No Grout Required
00:11:40 Gimme More!
00:17:45 If I can’t play Strike
00:23:40 Historical Game
00:28:22 “It’s Alive!”
00:33:37 Game Toppers LLC (Code:RDTN)
00:36:41 Miniature Market
00:38:25 Portal Games
00:40:17 This Game has Bling
00:43:29 Best 2022 Portal Game We Played
00:48:10 Just the Two of Us
00:52:48 Pass the Advil
00:59:00 All Y’all Award
01:02:45 Game of the Year – Tony
01:07:28 Game of the Year – Marty
01:10:30 Outro
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the most anticipated event of the year, the Squirelly Awards! Tonight, we gather to celebrate the very best in board games from 2022. This evening is all about recognizing the hard work, dedication, and exceptional talent of those who have made incredible contributions to our favorite hobby.
From the most outstanding designs to the most remarkable advancements in theme, components, and mechanics, we are here to honor the outstanding contributions of these individuals and teams. The Squirrelly Awards have become a symbol of excellence and recognition for those who have raised the bar and set new standards in their respective areas of expertise. Or that is what we tell ourselves.
We are honored to have some of the most talented, inspiring, and influential figures in the industry joining us tonight to celebrate these extraordinary accomplishments. So, let’s sit back, relax, and prepare to be dazzled by some of the most unforgettable performances and inspiring speeches of the year. Tonight, we come together to celebrate greatness, and we hope you enjoy the show!
The post RDTN Episode 286: 8th Annual Squirrelly Awards first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminSince we started heavily playing hobby games over 20 years ago, we see our tastes have drastically changed. We discuss how our preferences in games have changed over the years and why.
The post Episode 285: Changing game tastes over the years first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:33 Intro
00:04:10 Arcane Comforts
00:07:00 Meeple Design
00:08:40 Meeple Design Affiliate Code “RDTN10%”
00:09:19 Adulting
00:13:23 Discord 500 Members
00:15:00 Postal Fun
00:18:12 7 Wonders Edifice
00:25:34 Oreo Diet
00:27:58 Taste Buds
00:33:15 Portal Games
00:35:12 Joan of Arc – Draw and Write
00:44:40 Hoplomachus: Victorum
01:09:56 Game Toppers LLC
01:11:06 Gosu X
01:21:35 Ahoy
01:35:31 Miniature Market
01:37:35 Outro
Lots of great games here and another long review but Hoplomachus: Victorum needed the discussion. When you deal with a Chip Theory Game, it is like an onion. There are so many layers and as you talk about it, you cannot help but pull them away one by one. But two things to mention in the blog, it is a solo only game and it is like all of their games, a bit pricey. But you get a lot of game and top notch quality with this. If you do solo game, then you need to see if you can get a test drive of this one.
If you are a fan of Root, then be sure to check out Ahoy. You might hear that it is a streamline version of Root, but that isn’t fair. The game has asymmetric powers like Root and different win conditions like Root, but that to me is where the similarities end. To be honest, it is simpler to play and that is the strength in my opinion.
If you get the chance to play 2 player card games like Ascension or the other 1000+ games similar to it, okay maybe not that many, look into Gosu X. The style of the game was very captivating to me and one I want to keep exploring with the different decks in the box.
Joan of Arc, a different draw and write for sure and maybe if you haven’t played one of these games in awhile because they were all the same, give this one a read and see if it can find a place on your shelf. It has similar mechanics, but the score sheet might be different enough to catch your attention.
Thanks for listening
The post RDTN Episode 284: Hoplomachus- Victorum, Joan of Arc – Draw & Write, Gosu X, Ahoy, 7 Wonders – Edifice first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:33 Intro
00:04:42 News about Sponsors
00:06:15 RDTN Game Contest – Discord
00:11:45 Podcast Truth
00:13:37 Blank Slate
00:16:40 Dice Manor
00:21:48 Tantrum Con Reflections
00:25:48 Velonimo
00:32:15 Taste Buds – Special Edition
00:54:27 Happening at Restoration Games
01:04:12 Portal Games
01:06:49 Star Wars Deck Building Game
01:13:27 Starship Captains
01:30:05 Miniature Market
01:31:47 Blazon
01:37:55 Game Toppers LLC
01:39:18 Outro
There is a very special Taste Buds in today’s show and we hope you enjoy it. We are visited by the team from Restoration Games and believe it or not, they wanted to do this. So we were very happy to oblige them. And even after all of that, they still were willing to talk to us about the happenings in their studio.
We reflect on Tantrum Con and the games we got to play while at the show. What a great Con and not saying it because it is local, but because they do an amazing job putting this Con on.
Thanks for listening and all the support.
The post RDTN Episode 283: Star Wars Deck Building Game, Blazon, Starship Captains, Dice Manor, Velonimo, Blank Slate, Special Taste Buds first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:01:25 Intro
00:04:15 Portal Con
00:07:11 DVRs exist
00:09:40 Dealing with Inserts
00:17:39 Retrograde
00:23:47 Tantrum Con
00:26:25 Taste Buds
00:32:25 Game Toppers LLC
00:34:00 Atiwa
00:46:10 Portal Games
00:47:10 Lofoten
00:54:15 Bamboo
01:07:00 Miniature Market
01:08:01 Beer & Bread
01:14:12 1815: Scum of the Earth
01:24:56 Video Games
01:34:45 Outro
Keeping with the theme of the show, this blog was generated with ChatGPT:
As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to taste drinks, but I can provide a review of the board games mentioned based on their gameplay and mechanics. (You have no idea what you are missing)
Atiwa: Unfortunately, as of my knowledge cutoff of 2021, I couldn’t find any board game with this name. It’s possible that Atiwa is a newly released game or a lesser-known game that I’m not aware of.
Lofoten: Lofoten is a strategy board game that revolves around fishing in the Lofoten Islands in Norway. Players compete to catch different types of fish and earn points. The game has beautiful artwork and the gameplay is engaging, with players having to plan their moves and make strategic decisions. However, the game can be quite long and complex, which may not be suitable for casual players. (It kind of missed the mark here)
Bamboo: Bamboo is a fun and lighthearted board game that involves growing bamboo and feeding a hungry panda (nope). Players take turns growing bamboo and completing objectives to earn points. The game has simple mechanics and is easy to learn, making it suitable for families and casual players. However, the gameplay can become repetitive after a few rounds. (Pretty good with this one)
Beer and Bread: Unfortunately, as of my knowledge cutoff of 2021, I couldn’t find any board game with this name. It’s possible that Beer and Bread is a newly released game or a lesser-known game that I’m not aware of. (But you should get to know it, solid game)
Overall, while I couldn’t find information on Atiwa and Beer and Bread, Lofoten and Bamboo seem to be enjoyable board games with unique gameplay mechanics. However, like any board game, their enjoyment may vary depending on personal preferences and playing styles. (Even a computer can be P.C. – and yes that was bad what I just typed)
The post RDTN Episode 282: Bamboo, Lofoten, 1815-Scum of the Earth, Beer & Bread, Atiwa, Retrograde first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminRecently, we have been getting into playing historical games. We both love history and being able to play some very fun games while be able to learn something has been a treat. However, there are a lot of very complex and lengthy games out there that can intimidate new players from trying out this genre.In this episode, we list some games that are good entry points into historical games. The goal was to suggest games that are easy to learn and under one hour.
So if you are interested in these style of games, check out our list and please suggest some that we missed!
The post RDTN Episode 281: Do historical games suck for beginners? first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:37 Intro
00:06:35 Goblin Vaults
00:13:15 Mahjong
00:17:28 Galileo Project
00:26:25 Motor City
00:30:50 Fun K-town
00:33:36 Bacon Hotdogs
00:35:03 Taste Buds
00:40:21 Portal Games
00:41:10 Robotech: Reconstruction
01:02:31 Game Toppers LLC
01:03:45 Marvel: Age of Heroes
01:24:46 Miniature Market
01:25:45 Chained Echos
01:30:49 Video Game Discussion
01:34:45 Outro
Welcome back to another interesting discussion on board games, video games, and whatever else we can think of. This episode backs down the length, you are welcome. But we still do not shy away from our recent games and hope we can intrigue you in possibly playing them.
Not gonna sum them up like I normally due in the post, you need to listen. That is right, got to put a little skin in the game to find out if they were games that we enjoyed.
The post RDTN Episode 280: Marvel:Age of Heroes, Robotech-Reconstruction, Galileo Project, Motor City, Goblin Vaults first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00:35 Intro
00:06:21 The Break Up
00:07:29 The Adult Channel
00:08:36 Pets
00:12:50 Health Care
00:16:55 Taste Buds
00:26:42 Portal Games
00:26:25 Nidavellir: Idavoll
00:32:28 Game Toppers
00:33:23 John Company
01:20:50 Miniature Market
01:22:52 The Great Split
01:29:47 D&D Onslaught with Nick Yu
01:59:03 Hickory Dickory
02:06:12 Video Game Discussion
02:13:23 We are done
We are back for another year or that is the plan at this time. And to get things going, we are going to give you one of the longest discussions of a board game on RDTN. A little story about this, we had no intention of doing that. We thought and it was an incorrect thought that we could knock it out in ten to fifteen minutes. We had no plans to go into the details of the rules. But when we started talking, the thoughts and opinions just keep coming. And for that, you get are longest review on the game John Company. It will not happen again.
Hate I missed the Hickory Dickory game night, stupid work. Hope Marty is able to get that to the table because I really do want to see this game in action. One thing he says in his discussion is that people would stop by the table and ask about the game. In all fairness, that happens more often than not, but they don’t call out the game, just simply ask what we are doing or playing. They don’t point out specific parts to what is on the table.
Nick Yu, co-designer of D&D Onslaught, then joins Marty for a discussion of his game. Stupid work again causes me to miss a game. Okay, 2023 is not starting off great for getting games in. So another game I hope to see in the future weeks. Love a good dungeon crawler and looking at my game shelves, it is obvious. Be interesting to see how it compares to the ones I already have.
The Great Split, if you enjoy I split/you choose games, get a play in of this. If you will be at TantrumCon at the end of February, maybe we can get a game in. Fun game and always good when a game gives you opportunities to try out different strategies and still be competitive.
Be sure to check your emails to see if you were a winner in our 10th Anniversary Contest. We are missing about 10 responses from some winners. Thanks to all that entered and congrats to those selected.
The post RDTN Episode 279: John Company, Onslaught, Hickory Dickory, The Great Split, Nidavellir: Idavoll, Taste Buds first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminProduction issues, transportation problems, inflation, and the pandemic have all have a dramatic impact on the business of tabletop gaming. Will it get any better in 2023? Watch/Listen for our thoughts.
https://youtu.be/V5s6jMHhO58The post RDTN Episode 278: Will tabletop gaming suck in 2023? first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee 00:00:00 Intro
00:04:00 Looking back
00:37:00 CONTEST
00:42:40 Tony’s Sauna Story
00:50:30 Portal Games
00:52:05 Mille Fiori
01:06:55 Our top games from 2012-2021
01:23:40 Miniature Market
01:24:50 Rage (Tony & Donna)
01:32:50 Game Toppers
01:35:00 Wayfarers of the South Tigris
01:50:05 Dungeon & Dragons Trivial Pursuit (Marty & Vanessa)
01:58:00 Holly Jolly (Marty & Vanessa)
02:04:50 Quarto (Marty & Vanessa)
02:12:22 Ultra Pro
02:14:10 Namiji
02:17:00 Guild Wars 2
02:19:00 E-Win Racing (Code: RDTN gets 30% off)
02:26:00 Outro
First, thanks to all that have made this show last for 10 years, those that listen to us. We would not be here without your feedback, appreciation, and encouragement over these years. Hard to believe that we would have thought this would have continued as long as it has, but it has, and we will continue to do this as long as people listen. Thank you.
Due to vacation and sickness, Marty and I didn’t get to play games together, but I get to be on the other end of our show as a listener and I get to grill him in real-time on his review. Maybe we should do that more often so that we stay on track and get to the meat of the review. Something to consider in 2023.
Be sure to enter the giveaway because it is only open for two weeks beginning 12/27. Thanks to all the publishers that provided prizes and a huge thanks to Miniature Market and Portal Games for their support.
Hope everyone had some time to relax and play a few games over the holidays and looking forward to another incredible gaming year in 2023.
The post RDTN Episode 277: 10th Anniversary, Mille Fiori, Wayfarers of South Tigris, Rage, Holly Jolly, Quarto,10 Favorite Games over 10 Years first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminOh boy, it’s another Tony generated clickbait title. In this episode we look back at changes we’ve seen over the past 10 years since we started this podcast. These changes may be might be seen as favorable to some and unfavorable to others. Regardless, this hobby has seen some drastic movements over the past decade and we want to highlight a few of them.
The post RDTN Episode 276: Does tabletop gaming suck now? first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin00:00:00 Intro
00:07:30 Ticket to Ride: Poland
00:11:00 Get On Board
00:20:00 Game Toppers
00:21:20 Time of Empires
00:42:40 Portal Games
00:45:20 Basilica
00:55:20 Fun Facts
01:05:55 Ready Set Bet
01:16:02 Miniature Market
01:17:48 Edge of the Earth
01:26:15 Starcraft revisited
01:33:52 E-Win Chairs
01:36:05 OutroWe hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (well those in the US). We have lots of fun, Tony did some traveling, Marty had family in. But will still got lots of great games to tell you about!!
Also listen for the special code from Portal Games to get 20% your orders.
The post RDTN Episode 275: Ready Set Bet, Basilica, Time of Empires, Get on Board, TTR Poland first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Arkham Horror Campaign Atlantic Robot League Oh My Brain Ewin Racing Chair Toy Strong Hall of Fame Winners Taste Buds: Fruit Quack Star Wars: The Clone Wars Miniature Market […]
The post RDTN Episode 274: Fire & Stone – Siege of Vienna 1683, Brazil – Imperial, Monolyth, Star Wars – The Clone Wars, Oh My Brain, Atlantic Robot League first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin10 years ago we got hooked on the Living Card Game, Android: Netrunner. From our first play, we loved so many things about the game such as the asymmetric gameplay […]
The post RDTN Episode 273: Does Android: Netrunner Suck After 10 Years? first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Critical Foundation Chicken Ultra Pro Heat: Pedal to the Metal Village Rails Portal Games Terra Nova Hickory Dickory from PHG Gametoppers Dice Theme Park Miniature Market One More Gate: […]
The post RDTN Episode 272: Terra Nova, Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Village Rails, Dice Theme Park first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Taste Buds RDTN Update Bridal Show: Candles Ole Guacamole Black Angel Cult of the Deep Miniature Market Game Toppers Ark Nova The Thing Portal Games Virtu Splendor Duel Ultra […]
The post RDTN Episode 271: Ark Nova, Virtu, Ole Guacamole, Splendor Duel, Cult of the Deep, Black Angel first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Football Shaped Food Ewin Chair – Code RDTN for 30% Scooter Escape Room DIY Garage Door Repair Yosemite Unlock! Kids Kickstarter: Mosaic Renegade Games News University Games: Murder Mystery […]
The post RDTN Episode 270: Tiletum, Yosemite, Unlock! Kids, Neuroshima Hex – Pirates, Murder Mystery Party Case Files first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Childhood Toys Toy #1 Toy #2 Toy #3 Toy #4 Toy #5 Toy #6 Toy #7 Toy #8 Toy #9 Toy #10 Toy #11 Toy #12 Our Predictions It […]
The post RDTN Episode 269: Which toys should be in the 2022 Hall of Fame? (w/ Chaz Marler) first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminIntro Quirks MegaMooseCon Squirrel Moment Comic Hunters Durian LotR LCG Again One Shot RPGs Mistakes Happen Buy Me A Moon Pie Update Miniature Market Flying Squirrels Board Game Night Carcassonne: […]
The post RDTN Episode 268: Twilight Inscription, 3000 Scoundrels, Lacrimosa, Durian, Flying Squirrels first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminIntro MegaMooseCon Lawn Care Tips RDTN Business Crescent Moon 5 Player Interruption by Alexa Back to the show Marvel Dice Throne Scout Portal Games Yak Quartermaster General: 1914 Miniature Market […]
The post RDTN Episode 267: Quartermaster General 1914, Yak, Fyfe, Paper Dungeons, Scout, Marvel Dice Throne first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeHello Taste Buds Why are we doing this Topics that excite you What games are next Moonpie Sponsorship we wish Just talk about it Not getting it back The Sword […]
The post RDTN Episode 266: What’s Different About This Show? first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Saturday Game Red Cathedral: Contractors Too Many Cooks Power Core: Call of Cthulhu Ticket to Ride: San Francisco Cartoon Theme Song Battle Taste Buds Portal Games Flying Squirrels RRR […]
The post RDTN Episode 265: Terracotta Army, The Guild of the Merchant Explorers, Catherine, Too Many Cooks, Power Core, Red Cathedral Contractors, TTR San Francisco first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeGen Con Day 1 Portal Booth Setup Chicken ‘n Waffles Hey, how you doing? Getting ready for RDTN Meetup Moving the stuff World Cup Battle Brazil – Marty’s Take Sonic […]
The post RDTN Episode 264: GEN CON 2022 Adventures first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Road Trip Dude, Where’s My Car Gen Con – Here we come RDTN does Videos Southern Fried Gaming Expo MARTA Incident Taste Buds Ultra Pro Caesar! Seize Rome in […]
The post RDTN Episode 263: Caesar! – Seize Rome in 20 Minutes!, Kites, Pirates, Taste Buds, and Ignacy’s Visit first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminIntro Road Trip Ignacy In Charlotte Marty’s In My Wallet More Banter Taste Buds Ultra Pro Flying Squirrels Legos behind glass Leviathans is back Ghost Galaxy Puerto Rico 1897 Vikings […]
The post RDTN Episode 262: Nidavellir, Fire & Stone, Flying Squirrels, Taste Buds first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Taste Buds Expanding our Buds Mountain Dew Overdrive Abstract Academy Cathrine: The Cities of Tsarina (Preview) Ark Nova Ultra Pro Northgard: Uncharted Lands 1941: Race to Moscow Miniature Market […]
The post RDTN Episode 261: 1941 Race to Moscow, Northgard, Sniper Elite, Abstract Academy, Catherine first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeIntro Upcoming Taste Buds The Origins Adventure Mistakes Happen Durian Lives On Wingspan: Oceania Wormholes Restoration Updates Hitler’s Reich: WW2 in Europe Marrakesh Bot Factory First Rat Ultra Pro Cat […]
The post RDTN Episode 260: Gutenberg, Cat in the Box, Radlands, Sakura Arms, First Rat, Wingspan Oceania, Orlog, Wormholes first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment Intro Gen Con Strike Tournament Ignacy’s Alliance Thank you for the Support Ignacy’s USA Tour Tickets of SFGE Ignacy in Charlotte, NC Batman – Everybody Lies Gutenberg Brazil […]
The post RDTN Episode 259: Star Wars: Outer Rim-Unfinished Business, Nevsky, Portal Games preview with Ignacy first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee Intro Flowchart Lawnmower Something Stupid I Did Time Stamps Buy Me a Moon Pie Strike Tournament Taste Buds Live Codenames Live Dog Lover Not for the Faint of Heart Polynesia […]
The post RDTN Episode 258: Azul-Queen’s Garden, Port Royal, Dog Lover, Polynesia, Time Drifters first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment Intro Making stuff is hard Shipping Issues Is it Insanity The Connellson Cascading Impacts Force Majeure It cost what? Game Toppers 3.5 Rank’em The ORIGINAL At The Table […]
The post RDTN Episode 257: The Original At The Table with Burky – The Cost of Doing Business first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment Intro Rent the Runway but with T-shirts Grape Pop-tarts Magic Commander Deck Resist! Taste Buds: Flammin’ Hot Mountain Dew Ultra Pro in the House! Batman: Everybody Lies Portal […]
The post RDTN Episode 256: Crescent Moon, Batman – Everybody Lies, Resist, Galaxy Trucker, Arnak Expedition Leaders, Ultra Pro first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:35 Intro 02:45 BGG Awards – Thank You 03:51 Methodologie: Murder on the Links 14:50 Apps in Games – Correction 18:47 Little Grump Time 22:43 Taste Buds – […]
The post RDTN Episode 255: Cryptid Urban Legend, Shinkansen Zero Kai, C&C Ancients, Methodologie, Pepsi Maple Syrup first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:37 Intro 09:27 Voices in My Head 18:31 Dungeon Party 22:00 Wise Guys 31:24 Cartographers Puzzle 33:39 Portal Games 35:15 Return to Dark Tower 1:04:05 Tenpenny Parks 1:10:17 […]
The post RDTN Episode 254: Return to Dark Tower, Tenpenny Park, Decorum, First Empires, Founders of Teotihuacan, Voices in My Head, Wise Guys, Dungeon Party first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Presenter Award 00:00 Introduction 05:24 Tantrum House Why Didn’t Think of That 08:10 Geek All Stars Just the Two of Us 11:55 Man vs Meeple Gimmie More! 15:50 Board […]
The post RDTN Episode 253: 7th Annual Squirrelly Awards first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Intro 01:03 Tantrum Con 25:20 Behext 30:55 Taste Buds – Dragon Fruit 43:20 Portal Games 44:45 Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest 51:36 Squaring Circleville 1:15:15 Pathfinder: Level 20 […]
The post RDTN Episode 252: Squaring Circleville, Libertalia, Level 20, Colors of Paris, Don’t Blink, Behext first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Introduction 03:20 Hole in the Head 11:50 They Didn’t Dissolve 14:43 Only Murders in Building 17:03 More on Giveaways 20:13 Unforgiven: The Lincoln Assassination Trial 24:40 Board […]
The post RDTN Episode 251: Cuba Libre, Unforgiven, Free Radicals first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Intro 10:46 Love Letter: Jabba’s Palace 16:34 Teaching Moments 21:40 Lord of the Rings – Revised Core Set 26:49 We Need a Lawyer 29:07 Taste Buds – […]
The post RDTN Episode 250: Red Flag Over Paris, Fort Sumter, Bequest, Three Sisters, Jabba’s Palace first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Introduction 04:31 RDTN Virtual Con 11:40 Undaunted Reinforcements Rules 18:35 The Hot Challenge 22:33 Snow Days No More 25:01 Not Happy – Vandals 27:18 RDTN Discord Growing […]
The post RDTN Episode 249: Corrosion, Mini Rogue, SNK vs Capcom, Astro Knights first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:37 Introduction 11:23 Taste Buds 17:41 Slot Cars 21:21 The Hunger Revisited 23:00 5211 Azul 25:22 Portal Big Announcements: Gutenberg 31:30 Final Girl 47:00 Undaunted Reinforcements 1:02:56 The […]
The post RDTN Episode 248: Undaunted Reinforcements, Final Girl, That Time You Killed Me, Mt. Dew Spark first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Introduction 06:10 Marty’s in Your Wallet – Magic Commander Decks 12:11 The Hunger 22:28 7 Wonders Architect 28:10 Dom Pierre Kickstarter 36:28 Tony’s Holiday Adventure 39:19 Paint […]
The post RDTN Episode 247: Tabannusi, 7 Wonders Architect, The Hunger, Dom Pierre, Night at the Movies first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Intro 06:27 Jet lag 07:58 Secret Squirrel Gift Exchange 12:20 Virtual RDTN Con 14:00 Taste Buds – Pepsi Zero Mango 18:10 Flights for Vacation 22:30 9th Anniversary […]
The post RDTN Episode 246: 9th Anniversary, LOTR TCG, Soldiers in Postmen’s Uniforms, Lanzerath Ridge, Cape May first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Intro 04:45 Taste Buds – Mt. Dew Gingerbread Snap’d 08:45 Pocket Paragons 14:25 What Next? 22:50 Crowd Funding Email Updates – Are there too many? 28:00 Portal […]
The post RDTN Episode 245: Imperial Steam, Brian Boru, What Next, Pocket Paragons first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:32 Intro 03:20 Lawnmower Travesty 06:40 Taste Buds 09:54 That’s A Question 11:41 Codenames Online Again 15:43 World Series of Board Gaming Contest 17:40 Nice Buns – Big […]
The post RDTN Episode 244: Zapotec, GI Joe/Transformers Deck Builder, Savannah Park, Nice Buns, Boom Again first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:31 Intro 06:18 A New Mt Dew Taste Test 12:27 State Fair Tasty Treats 20:35 Vanessa Weighs In 22:33 Civil War Battlefield Tour 27:48 BooBQ Event 29:30 Marty […]
The post RDTN Episode 243: Unfathomable, Fangs, Horrified – American Monsters first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:32 Introduction 12:36 Thunder Road Vendetta – What Happened 21:38 How to get eyes on it 28:14 Comments are Important 36:04 What will be different on re-launch 41:15 […]
The post RDTN Episode 242: At the Table with Rob and Justin talking Thunder Road Vendetta first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTIme Segment 00:33 Intro 00:34 Music Stuff 10:05 World Series of Board Games 16:09 Strike Tournament 2022 17:22 Mountain Dew Taste Test 26:00 RDTN Discord Discussion 27:50 Secret Squirrel 29:40 […]
The post RDTN Episode 241: Dreadful Circus, Land vs Sea, Dune, Night of the Ninja, Ghosts of Saltmarsh first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTIme Segment 0:00:33 Intro 0:05:55 Lawn Care Again 0:10:40 Senior Moments – Buying Shoes 0:13:31 20 Years of Board Games 0:16:53 Pink Ticket To Ride Trains 0:19:30 Miniature Market 0:20:30 […]
The post RDTN Episode 240: Clash of Cultures, Cascadia, Machi Koro 2, Alien first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 0:31 Intro 6:05 Mt. Dew Baja Punch 8:40 Discounts on Stuff – 20% of T-shirts Sir Meeple 14:10 Taz the Dog and Amiibo 19:06 Advance Wars is now […]
The post RDTN Episode 239: WoW-Wrath of the Lich King, Origins-First Builders, Luna Capital, Paint the Roses, Lost Cities R&W first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:35 Intro 05:59 Taste Test – New Coke Zero 11:41 Kim Joy’s Magic Bakery 18:58 Puckerbutt Hot Sauce 28:06 Arby’s Dice and it’s a Hat 31:13 Miniature Market […]
The post RDTN Episode 238: Iberian Gauge, Kokopelli, Fireteam, Meadow, Dimension, The Loop, Zombie Princess, Tyrants of the Underdark, Kim Joy’s Magic Bakery first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Restoration Games 02:26 Logistics with Justin and Scott 07:02 Prior to COVID – How is it done 12:31 To distribute a Game 17:52 And what about Today 26:40 Where […]
The post RDTN Episode 237: At The Table with Justin Jacobson and Scott Morris first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers 01:10 Vanessa Intro 01:35 Intro 04:51 Ignacy is Confused 20:50 Games Workshop New Miniatures 23:00 Back to Banter 25:36 COIN Games 31:50 More Banter 32:40 […]
The post RDTN Episode 236: Ignacy is BACK!!! Eleven, Dune House Secrets, Neuroshima Hex App, Unmatched Deadpool first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers LLC 01:30 Vanessa Intro 02:00 Banter 11:10 Chicken Sandwich Taste Test 15:13 Board and Dice Puzzle Box 22:40 Contest Updates 24:50 New Capstone Game: Boonlake […]
The post RDTN Episode 235: Merv, Castle Party, Sylvion, Snakesss, Bojangles Chicken Sandwich first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers LLC 01:14 Vanessa Intro 01:34 Intro 03:10 Fast Sloths 08:35 Taste Test Time (Mt. Dew & Lemon Moon Pie) 14:26 Great British Bakeoff 19:54 New […]
The post RDTN Episode 234: Juicy Fruits, Subastral, Fast Sloths, Power Rangers Deck Builder, Mondrian Blocks first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers 01:30 Intro 02:05 DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: Summer Time 07:21 Now the Banter 14:05 T-shirt Contest from Sir Meeple 17:00 The Devourer […]
The post RDTN Episode 233: Gravwell 2nd Edition, AH: Secrets of the Order, Greece Lightning first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment 00:01 Game Toppers 02:14 Intro 04:32 McAllister’s Tea Day 08:43 Drink Subscriptions 09;56 Name That Bit Contest – $25 Gift Card to Miniature Market 12:44 New RDTN T-Shirts […]
The post RDTN Episode 232: Brew, City Builder, For What Remains, Ticket To Ride 15th Anniversary, Million Dollar Script first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers 02:04 Intro 06:54 Pepsi Peeps Taste Test 10:55 FFG Arkham Horror Expansions 15:41 Unfathomable 21:57 After the Empire 4 Hour Event 25:48 Vienna Connection 31:08 […]
The post RDTN Episode 231: Mandala Stones, Imperium, Mazescape, Unfathomable, Flesh & Blood first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers LLC 01:36 Vanessa’s Intro 02:09 Banter Stuff 21:14 A New Contest 23:30 Miniature Market 24:57 Falling like flies at Gen Con 31:00 Spiel Des Jahres […]
The post RDTN Episode 230: EOTN – Egyptian Kings, 300 Earth & Water, Board Game News first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment 00:05 Game Toppers LLC 01:36 Vanessa’s Intro 02:09 Banter Stuff 21:14 A New Contest 23:30 Miniature Market 24:57 Falling like flies at Gen Con 31:00 Spiel Des Jahres […]
The post RDTN Episode 230: EOTN – Egyptian Kings, 300 Earth & Water, Board Game News first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Game Toppers LLC 03:35 Intro 07:00 Vampire Kickstarter Delivered 10:18 Contest 12:50 YouTube #Shorts 16:10 Nubs on Soap 19:00 BGG Golden Geek Winners 26:15 Warhammer Fest 28:00 Marty’s Obsession […]
The post RDTN Episode 229: Vampire: The Masquerade Rivals and Vendetta, Mosaic first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers LLC 01:54 Intro 06:51 Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar 10:51 Reading Comics and Marty rants 18:21 Fantasy Realms Cursed Hordes 22:40 Bohnanza 26:41 Gentle Rain 30:02 […]
The post RDTN Episode 228: Cryo, Hadrian’s Wall, Rocketmen, The Game Face to Face, Gentle Rain, Bohnanza, Taste Test first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers 01:45 Intro with Vanessa 02:23 We are Live 05:00 Peep Pepsi coming our way 09:29 Another $5 Paid Out 10:56 Monster Hunter Rise 13:20 Lawn […]
The post RDTN Episode 227: After The Empire, Spartacus, Summoner Wars, Ashes Reborn, Warhammer Cursed City, Monster Hunter Rise first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:00 Game Toppers 03:00 Intro 08:14 Special Announcement 11:40 Food Discussion – Imaging that 21:25 Board Games Finally 22:00 Wonder Woman Heroclix 24:40 War Chest: Siege Expansion 27:30 […]
The post RDTN Episode 226: The Initiative, Excavation Earth, Holi, War Chest: Siege The Key: Murder at the Oakdale Club, Heroclix Wonder Woman, Southern Rails, Holi first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Category Presenter 00:37 Intro Marty & Tony 05:43 Let’s get this party started Dan King 09:40 It’s in the Cards Tantrum House 11:00 Acceptance Speech Matt Riddle 13:35 You […]
The post RDTN Episode 225: 6th Annual Squirrelly Awards first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Game Toppers02:26 Vanessa Intro02:57 Intro07:36
The post RDTN Episode 224: Maglev Metro, Rapa Nui, In a Nutshell first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro03:45 Cloudage22:56 Valentine’s26:00 Venus Flytrap28:50 Window AC Removal29:50 Stay in your lane, Bojangles31:46 Coke vs Pepsi33:25
The post RDTN Episode 223: Carpe Diem, Royal Visit, Cloudage, Sagani, Block and Key first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:28 Intro09:20 No Luck at All13:55 It’s your Birthday19:02 Fleet: The Dice Game21:15 Three Sisters Roll & Write22:56 Long Shot – The Dice Game24:20 Lasting Tails27:32 Game Sales of 202030:07 […]
The post RDTN Episode 222: Meeple Land, Umbra Via, Fleet: The Dice Game, Flying Squirrels first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Renegade Games02:20 Intro04:00 TV Shows07:35 Little Back Story15:10 After College – This is so cool20:16 Process is needed22:52 And how did Board Games enter the equation28:35 The Career in […]
The post RDTN Episode 221: At the Table with Sara Erickson, Renegade Game’s VP of Sales and Marketing first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro11:06 Major Melon Taste Test14:01 Squirrel Time14:54 Bloodborne has arrived and other Kickstarters22:09 Miniature Market23:36 Redcap Ruckus29:42 Seeders from Sereis: Episode 1 – Exodus46:57 Portal Games49:03 Renature58:33 Hallertau1:13:01 Aliens: […]
The post RDTN Episode 220: Hallertau, Seeders from Sereis: Exodus, Renature, Aliens, Redcap Ruckus first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro01:09 Strike – Gladiators continue their Dominance09:16 Home Repair20:30 Holiday Gaming – Ticket To Ride21:30 New Carcassonne23:08 Wingspan Switch App29:05 Qwixx – Mixed Color Board31:55 Fluttering Souls34:20 Disney Color […]
The post RDTN Episode 219: Cubitos, Survey Results, Disney Color Brain, How to Learn a Game first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee1:29 Intro7:37 Survey Information15:19 Birthday Games18:09 Our Wives put up with this23:40 Miniature Market24:56 Gates of Mara37:50 The King is Dead49:10 Portal Games50:31 Rococo1:01:36 Whistle Mountain1:08:59 Evolution on Switch Code:RDTNEVO1:11:42 […]
The post RDTN Episode 218: Gates of Mara, The King is Dead, Rococo Deluxe, Whistle Mountain, Anniversary Survey first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminWe have a special episode releasing today in order to tell you about an unannounced Petersen Games. Many of you are probably aware of their successful kickstarter from 2013 called […]
The post RDTN: Episode 217 Cthulhu Wars: Duel first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro02:55 Mountain Dew Merry Mashup Taste Test 06:42 Reprimanded by a Mall Cop12:45 Arkham Horror Live Play on Twitch13:45 Blood Bowl Second Season First Impressions24:30 Tony teaches Lord of […]
The post RDTN Episode 216: Beyond The Sun, Red Cathedral, New York Zoo, Blood Bowl, Little Red vs Beowulf first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro08:32 Blue Skies19:45 Join Marty on Twitch26:18 Marvel Champions Ant Man30:25 Crafting Time32:33 1 or 2 or 3 Tokens36:55 Miniature Market38:35 Dune Imperium1:08:19 Portal Games1:10:25 Lord of the Rings […]
The post RDTN Episode 215: Dune Imperium, Shores of Tripoli, Lord of the Rings Anniversary Edition, Blue Skies first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin00:00 Introduction03:00 Kim-Joy sits at the table06:30 Applying to Great British Baking Show14:04 Christmas With Kim-Joy cookbook25:15 Kim-Joy and gaming31:15 Kim-Joy designs her first board game35:30 Moon Pies and Wagon […]
The post RDTN Episode 214: At the Table with Kim-Joy first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro04:25 Listicuffs Appearance10:09 Sean Connery13:34 World of Tanks from Gail Force Nine21:40 Warcry Skaven Army22:50 Secret Squirrel26:08 Deep State33:52 Ice Cream Social no more36:07 Portal Games38:10 Lost Ruins of […]
The post RDTN Episode 213: Lost Ruins of Arnak, Tawantinsuyu,Tekhenu, Deep State, World of Tanks first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro01:24 Ewin Racing Chair – RDTN Promo Code07:10 BGG Affiliate Link & Metallic Dice Games (RDTN Code)09:30 The Curse of Strahd: Revamped11:06 The Re-Release of Strike12:33 Renegade Games Pub […]
The post RDTN Episode 212: Guild Master, Raiders of Scythia, Seastead, AH – Under Dark Waves, My City, Overlight Puzzle first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Restoration Games – Unmatched: Buffy the Vampire Slayer08:30 Lindsay – Production Super Hero16:30 Graphic artist vs Illustrator24:30 Little Lindsay35:40 Pandemic Legacy: Season 051:00 Daviau Down Time59:10 Rank ‘Em We […]
The post RDTN Episode 211: At the Table with Lindsay and Rob Daviau first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:35 Intro03:20 MTV: The Throwback Music Party Game13:14 Betrayal at House on the Hill19:40 Home Repair Sucks23:56 The Few & Cursed32:40 Cartographers Heroes35:54 Portal Games37:00 What is in the Bag50:57 […]
The post RDTN Episode 210: Honey Buzz, Cartographers Heroes, MTV Party Game, The Few & Cursed, Betrayal at House on the Hill first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro19:00 Tellstones29:00 Silver Dagger36:00 Yukon Airways41:22 Marvel Champions: Rise of Red Skull44:51 Ohanami50:00 The Broken Token51:44 Empires of the North: Barbarians57:35 Toy Hall of Fame Nominees1:10:45 Portal Games1:12:04 Tammany […]
The post RDTN Episode 209: Tammany Hall, EOTN-Barbarians, Warp’s Edge, Ohanami, Yukon Airways, Silver Dagger, Tellstones, Yukon Airways, Rise of Red Skull first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:30 Intro10:30 Patchwork Americana14:00 7 Wonders Revamp19:00 Darkfield Radio23:48 Meeple Towers29:00 Tournament at Avalon35:39 Switch Discussion42:05 Portal Games44:58 Nevada City1:00:30 Miniature Market1:01:45 Crypt Hunters1:17:15 Mercado de Lisboa1:27:10 Yedo Deluxe1:38:00 Outro1:42:30 […]
The post RDTN Episode 208: Nevada City, Yedo Deluxe, Crypt Hunters, Tournament at Avalon, Mercado de Lisboa, Meeple Towers first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro06:45 We are accountable14:30 Blinks Electronic Game19:35 Crokinole Discussion25:32 Detective Season One30:52 Rome & Roll40:46 Miniature Market42:22 Small World of Warcraft57:46 The Broken Token59:00 Alma Mater1:15:50 I Fall to […]
The post RDTN Episode 207: Alma Mater, Small World of Warcraft, Detective Season One, Mariposas, Rome & Roll, Truffle Shuffle, Blinks first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro11:36 King & Assassins18:00 Marvel Villainous25:35 Tekhenu35:04 Portal Games36:11 David Thompson – Sniper Elite1:00:33 Rank’em1:16:22 Yacht Rock1:26:37 Pop-Tarts Game1:38:38 Last Defense1:51:50 Miniature Market1:52:48 Top Five Collectible Card Games2:22:43 Vampire […]
The post RDTN Episode 206: Tekhenu, Pop-Tarts,Marvel Villainous, Yacht Rock,Last Defense, King & Assassins, Top 5 Card Games, Interview with David Thompson first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin00:00 Intro03:35 Marty tests for COVID-1912:00 Pandemic Legacy 012:35 Unmatched: Buffy13:35 New Version of 7 Wonders17:45 5er Finden20:50 10% Off HABA Games22:03 Super Skill Pinball 4-Cade 28:35 Miniature Market29:30 Glenn […]
The post RDTN Episode 205 – Glenn Drover, Lizard Wizard, Super Pinball, Vampire the Masquerade first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
admin00:00 Intro02:32 Warhammer 40k 9th Edition31:25 Other 40k Media Content37:00 The Broken Token37:45 WarCry42:05 WarCry Campaigns55:00 Age of Sigmar Soulbound RPG59:30 Character Creation1:06:15 Skill Checks1:15:35 Combat1:34:00 Soulfire1:40:10 Final Thoughts1:46:40 Miniature […]
The post RDTN Episode 204: Warhammer 40k 9th Edition, WarCry Campaigns, Age of Sigmar RPG first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:35 Intro02:50 Online Surveys03:48 Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write App05:30 Legacy Game Maybe06:18 Back to D&D and Metallic Dice Games09:45 Update Ascension Tactics12:12 AEG Dead Reckoning17:49 Hamilton – RDTN Review27:25 […]
The post RDTN Episode 203: Scooby Doo Betrayal at Mystery Mansion, Succulent, HABA Games, Top 5 Portal Games first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro01:56 Expiration is a suggestion05:12 Switch Talk09:06 Ravensburger – Jungle Cruise13:35 Stick’em22:32 D&D Online25:28 Metallic Dice Games – RDTN 10% Off Code32:45 Justin Gary – Ascension Tactics55:00 Ascension Tactics […]
The post RDTN Episode 202: Justin Gary, Ascension Tactics, Cosmic Encounter Duels, Rise of the Empire first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:00 Intro02:36 Background of Gaming06:00 Video Games with Isaac08:40 Then the Board Games13:09 What sparked the interest15:28 Back to Video Games18:00 The Gloomhaven spark27:19 Time to get educated28:41 Gloomhaven: Jaws […]
The post RDTN Episode 201: Isaac Childres Interview, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:34 Intro07:15 Food and Movies10:18 Wingspan15:08 And maybe we will not be gaming16:57 A new Grumpy thing20:17 Auditions for Co-host50:21 Portal Games51:31 […]
The post RDTN Episode 200: Co-host Auditions, Ride the Rails, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, Undaunted: North Africa, Wingspan first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 1:33 Intro 4:43 The Daughter’s Boyfriend Visit 13:50 Lorenzo Victory Snatched 17:55 CMON Virtual Con – Guilds of Cadwallon 21:43 Time to Organize 25:55 Crossed Words 30:13 More […]
The post RDTN Episode 199: Arkham Horror Dead of Night, City Builder, TTR Japan, Crossed Words, The Alpha first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 01:07 Intro 05:07 Marty’s Studio continues to Morph 07:27 Flashback – Pokemon 09:58 Everdell Crochet 13:13 TV during 2020 17:15 TV shows we both enjoy 20:43 The King’s […]
The post RDTN Episode 198: Nova Luna, King’s Dilemma, Undaunted: Normandy, Feed the Kraken first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:34 Intro03:40 BGG Polls04:57 Marty’s New Studio07:42 Marty helps Chaz again11:29 Capstone gets Terra Mystica & Gaia Project13:37 Bandannas vs Handkerchiefs15:57 Sagrada iOS app22:15 Undaunted: Normandy Online27:00 An Eldritch Dream […]
The post RDTN Episode 197: Coldest Night, Musical Chairs, Sagrada iOS, Player Count first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment01:00 Intro01:48 Pair of Dice Special Video07:00 Video Game Guild Wars 211:10 Contest #1 – Guild Wars 2 Keys15:35 Ripple Rush18:50 Jackbox Games20:52 RPG Online Night24:50 BGG Golden Geek […]
The post RDTN Episode 196: Santa Monica, The Search for Planet X, Ripple Rush, Top Grumpy Games first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:44 Intro08:11 Playing Games Online11:20 Take Time for yourself13:30 Playing Games Online again21:15 Wonder Woman Challenge of the Amazons 48:40 The Broken Token29:55 Half Truth39:10 Scurry Report – Convention Thoughts54:10 SR: […]
The post RDTN: Episode 195 – Wonder Woman, Half Truth, Pathfinder Supplement, Scurry Report Deep Dive first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment00:37 Intro20:04 War of the Ring30:09 Europe Divided34:15 Nintendo Switch Bubble Bobble42:14 Unlocking Insanity45:56 Empires of the North Roman Expansion48:49 Ettin51:50 […]
The post RDTN: Episode 194 – Great Western Trail Vs Maracaibo, Ettin, Europe Divided, War of the Ring first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment 00:00 Introduction 07:10 Let’s Get This Party Started 09:58 It’s In The Cards 12:42 Need A #2 Pencil 16:55 You Gonna Paint Those? 18:54 No Quarter Required 19:49 […]
The post RDTN Episode 193: 5th Annual Squirrelly Awards first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 00:37 Introduction 01:36 Peter Gabriel vs Phil Collins 06:04 Logical Song 11:00 Talking Toys 15:23 Now we are onto TV Shows 18:23 Time for the Games 19:49 Stampede […]
The post RDTN Episode 192: Atlantis Rising, Stellar, The Shining, Brainwaves, Stampede first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment00:29 Intro02:14 Home Updated03:00 Tantrum Con08:01 Sorcerer City again09:27 Superbowl Commercials15:28 Marty likes On Mars20:15 Tantrum Con Again24:20 Phase 1028:08 Gen Con High Hopes29:56 Instapot32:55 Lawyer Up Prototype40:12 […]
The post RDTN Episode 191: Egizia, Age of Steam, Lawyer Up first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment1:22 Intro3:37 Mountain Dew Zero6:57 Revisit of Azul9:47 Holding Back in a Game10:58 Miniature Market Changes13:23 Top 10 Selling Board Games in December15:08 Marvel LCG – Which Expansion17:37 Miniature […]
The post RDTN Episode 190: Sorcerer City, Masters of Renaissance Lorenzo il Magnifico: The Card Game, Fox in the Forest Duet first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeime Segment 01:02 Intro 05:38 Irish Gauge09:18 Little Devils11:25 Letterpress15:32 Town Builder: Coevorden20:47 Moisturize22:43 CBD23:51 The Broken Token24:40 Restoration Games26:23 Cooking with Rob 29:12 We are getting older32:00 Return to […]
The post RDTN Episode 189:Return to The Dark Tower, Irish Gauge, Little Devils, Letter Press, Town Builder: Coevorden first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment 01:02 Intro 01:44 House Update 05:34 Finger Update 13:00 Contest Update17:15 Wits & Wagers: Party Edition20:45 The Count Lawnmower Issues21:20 RTDN: The Hallmark Movies of Boardgame Podcasts25:24 5 […]
The post RDTN Episode 188: Cities Skylines, The City, Fire!, Flying Squirrels first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment 01:23 Intro 02:00 BGG Con04:47 I broke it 11:45 Back to BGG Con 22:57 Time for the Food 27:48 Return to Dark Tower 30:03 Gloomhaven Playtest 31:02 Sanctum […]
The post RDTN Episode 187: Paladins of the West Kingdom, Taverns of Tiefenthal, Miyabi first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McRee00:37 Intro01:55 World Cup03:55 Volleyball05:55 Essen – Two Days is not enough09:57 Pret-a-Porter14:14 Empires of the North17:46 Magic Turing Machine23:31 The […]
The post RDTN Episode 186: Stronghold Undead with special guest, Ignacy Trzewiczek first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
adminTime Segment00:34 Intro03:28 Klaus and Benny Teuber22:35 Rank’em30:23 Thoughts on Starfarers As part of the Tabletop Showcase Event, we have the honor of talking with Klaus and Benny Teuber. There […]
The post RDTN Episode 185: Tabletop Showcase – Klaus and Benny Teuber first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment00:44 Intro07:48 Hako Onna16:55 Gates of Delirium 20:01 BooBQ Food22:55 Revisit 183 28:05 Terra Mystica Expansion36:00 Portal Games38:03 Stronghold Undead45:00 Mega Moose Con Retrospective 50:55 Miniature Market52:15 Ankh’or58:01 Warhammer […]
The post RDTN Episode 184: Ankh’or, Stronghold Undead First Look, Warhammer Feast of Bones, Hako Onna, Terra Mystica Expansion, Mega Moose Con first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Tony McReeTime Segment00:41 Intro06:20 Dizzle09:57 Conspiracy – I tell you14:04 McRibs are back17:03 Run to the Border19:50 Gates of Delirium27:15 Last Bastion33:18 The Broken Token35:15 Bloom Town40:45 Clarification41:15 Tapestry1:14:56 […]
The post RDTN Episode 183: Tapestry, Bloom Town, War of the Worlds, Dizzle, Gates of Delirium,Annihilageddon first appeared on Rolling Dice & Taking Names.
Time Segment
00:00:32 Intro
00:01:56 Episode 181 Cleanup
00:05:10 It is that time again
00:09:10 Diamonds Second Edition
00:10:03 City of the Big Shoulders again
00:12:56 Short Term Memory stinks
00:14:33 Fall movie drought
00:17:40 Portal Games
00:19:29 Pret-a-Porter
00:40:27 The Broken Token
00:41:57 Foothills
00:46:37 No Quarter Required: Raiders of North Sea & Pandemic
00:56:39 Cloudspire
01:09:34 Final Hour with Vanessa
01:23:34 Tiny Epic Dinosaurs
01:28:02 Outro
01:33:08 Miniature Market
Cloudspire hit the table and about broke it. This game from Chip Theory Games did not disappoint us but it isn’t for the weak when it comes to understanding the nuisances. The core mechanics are easy, but the individual factions are what shine. These individual factions will need practice and patience in order to get good at this game and players will need to be on equal footing. It is one of these games that players that have a constant group will experience the biggest joy because it becomes a chess moves between players. Lot to explore in this game and if you are looking for a new lifestyle game, this might be the one for you.
Pret-a-Porter surprised us for it was not the game we thought it was going to be. We thought it was going to be a crunchy euro that comes down to who managed their enterprise the best. But this game brought out the cutthroat in us and we were doing our best to ensure the other player’s plans were messed up each round. Maybe we made too much out of the backstabbing that was going on, but every round, we heard someone complain about how their whole turn just got messed up.
The card mechanic in Foothills is one of our favorite mechanics and so glad we got this to the table as well. Hard decisions needed to be made and resource management was tight at times. Really enjoy two player games that are quick on the table and Foothills did not disappoint.
Time Segment
00:00:41 Intro
00:06:50 Glad They told Us which way was up
00:12:51 Game On Coin Sets
00:16:27 War Chest Nobility
00:24:24 Warhammer Underworlds Expansion
00:31:00 Miniature Market
00:32:26 Pax Pamir
00:38:53 Marvel Champions The Card Game
01:08:07 Portal Games
01:09:32 Sorcerer
01:16:33 Eternal Chronicles of the Throne
01:23:46 The Quick and the Undead
01:31:17 Outro
01:37:15 The Broken Token
Lots of card games were covered in this episode and that includes one of the biggest that will be coming out in the fourth quarter, Marvel Champions from Fantasy Flight Games. Marvel Champions is a coop living card game that pits players against a single villian who has a scheme that will create havoc for the hereos, or just simply rob a bank. A villian has to eat. If you enjoy Living Card Games, get your preorder in. One thing we state on the podcast that needs to be written is that the core set has everything you need to get you playing, unlike the previous LCGs where you had to buy additional copies of the core box to get additional copies of certain cards. Thank you Fantasy Flight for coming to your senses and including all we need in the core set.
War Chest Nobility expansion got an early play. Why is that game so enjoyable to play? Maybe it is the speed of play, the depth of strategy, or the constant battle of the hard decisions that you have to make. If War Chest is making it to the table, then go ahead and plan on this expansion because it gives you more decision points during your play.
Thanks for listening
City of the Big Shoulders, Era, Ecos, Blockbuster, Letter Jam, and more
00:50 Intro
06:35 Blockbuster
11:49 St. Noire
19:24 Second Chance
22:17 Letter Jam
28:57 Squirrel – Just One
30:45 WoW Classic
36:56 The Broken Token
37:45 Ecos: First Continent
43:20 City of the Big Shoulders
1:09:00 Cartographers
1:14:16 Portal Games
1:16:16 ERA
1:21:57 Meeple People Show
1:23:14 Play Like A Pirate
1:27:09 Miniature Market
Tons of games made it to the table. Marty’s family got to play a bunch of them because it is simple to get people to play games when it is 95 degrees outside and the humidity is in the mid 70s. What else would you do but stay inside an enjoy the A/C.
He and I did get in some very good games these past two weeks. City of the Big Shoulders is one that we saw at Gen Con, got excited for when we talked with Raymond Chandler, and kept that enthusiasm going as we played. Ecos got another play and still needs more because there is hidden depth here that must be explored and discovered. Then Era was on the table with all of its bits and pieces. And we finished off the week with Cartographers which was a breath of fresh air in the mark on a piece of paper games that have been coming out.
00:37 Intro
04:36 Pivot
08:57 Shipnaked Game Box
12:27 Funkoverse
14:30 Other Games in the Box
17:51 Bargain Quest
26:00 Portal Games
27:25 Flying Squirrels
27:56 Metal Gear Solid
29:38 Teburu
31:55 Come on vs Sea Mon
34:08 Renegade: Vampire the Masquerade
36:08 5211 – Yedo – Ascension:Skulls and Sails – The Dark Tower
38:44 Switch Games
41:28 The Broken Token
42:41 5 Minute: Watergate
48:31 Ragusa
1:10:14 Boards and Bits Traveler Bag
1:15:38 Traveling Again
1:16:40 Outro
1:20:00 Miniature Market
When Ragusa hit the table and we had set up done in under 5 minutes and rules in about the same time, we were impressed. The game play was solid and tight for three of the four players. The other player appreciated the play, but was no competition and that brought out the grumpy. The reason I say this is because people will think I didn’t like the game and that isn’t the case. The game was fine, the player and his play were lacking. It goes to show, that not every game is for everybody. We all have encountered it in the games we have played. So, if you get an chance, play this game. You might discover another classic to add to your collection.
In this episode, we have a bunch of guests drop by to talk Gen Con and all the great games we saw at the show. Plus a very special interview with designer – Stefan Field.
In this special episode of RDTN, Marty is joined by his sons, Adam and Travis, to discuss the brand new 2nd edition of Pathfinder. They’ll talk about the history of Pathfinder, compare the differences between the 1st and 2nd of Pathfinder, compare and contrast the 2nd edition with Dungeons & Dragons 5e. And in conclusion, give recommendations to the audience based on RPG experience.
This episode includes a Scurry Report on Empires of the North. The Connell gentlemen talk about the new Warcry miniature game. And Marty tries to channel me in a discussion on the Plaid Hat Game Abomination.
Back from vacation and not well rested, but ready to talk about games once again. Marty tells me all about some games he played while I was away on vacation and the great reactions he got when he put them on the table. All them sounded fun, but one stood out that grabbed my attention, Dark Domains. It is a worker placement that provides a twist where you must be careful because the more evil you become, the more the heroes are out to get you. After I got to play, this game is an onion with tons of layers waiting to be discovered.
As a special treat, my wife, Donna, joins me to talk about Stronghold’s game Brikks. We played this a bunch while on vacation. You can tell we are a bit sleep deprived because we go on and on during this segment. But as a bonus, Donna ranks her favorite Roll and Writes that are in the house. Hope you appreciate this and let us know so I can have her come back on for a future review.
Finally, the episode has information on how to get our first ever Promo card. This is being provided by our buddy Ignacy. He has designed a card that you can use in Portal’s upcoming game Empires of the North. We are honored that he did this and we really do appreciate it.
Enjoy the episode and hope to see some of you at Gen Con.
Marty had a great trip to Origins. There are so many good games coming out and he shares a sample of some that stood out to him.
It is no secret that we went gaga over War Chest last year. It won a Squirrely last year, that is how gaga we were for it. Well, the same designers have returned and this time, they bring us a theme that I enjoy playing in board games, World War II. Specifically, this game is about the invasion of Normandy and the attempt of the Allies to break the German lines. It comes with a scenario book that helps detail the battles that occurred during that phase of the war. It has a theme that I enjoy and a mechanic, deck building, that I enjoy and has strategy incorporating cover, line of sight, and variability with dice. Very excited for this game and look forward to more plays of it in the coming months. Also checking online, preorders are being taking at Miniature Market, so if you are interested, might want to place that preorder.
We played another roll and write, which is now officially known as RnW. It is Corinth from Days of Wonder. This is a simpler RnW but there is a mechanic that haven’t seen in these types of game. If you don’t have a play or you don’t want to use what is given to you during your turn, you can move a traveling merchant and where he stops, you get the bonus at that spot. However, he can’t cross his path again. So, you have to plan accordingly as you plot your path. If you are enjoying the flurry of RnWs, give this one a chance.
With a name like Southern Fried Gaming Expo, we just have to find out more. Marty talks to one of the organizers about the event and what he can expect when he attends as a special guest.
Thanks for listening to the show and we will be back in two weeks.
We are breaking our format a bit in this Episode by doing something we haven’t really done in the past. We list our Top 5 Games that we would not get rid of. However, there is a rule that we have to abide by, it must be on our shelves in order to be in the list. The game can’t be at someone else’s house or we have played and really liked, but never owned a copy. We must have a physical copy of the game in our possession. Some of these are out of print, but some you can easily still get.
Vanessa comes back to the mic and she and Marty review the new Imperial Settlers RnW game. She is always a joy to have on the show. After my plays of the game, I will say the mechanic of needing actions and resources something that people may have some challenges with, but after a couple of rolls, they should get it.
Enjoy the Episode and in the next one, Marty is going to knock our socks off with his Greatest Hits from Origins.
While I enjoy Imperial Settlers from Portal, I will admit that 51st State is my favorite of the two. Don’t get me wrong, not saying that one is better than the other, but as I stated in the show, I know that 51st is the easier to teach to people because you only have one deck which is why it will edge out Imperial. Once those I am teaching get the core concepts down, then I can introduce Imperial to them with the multiple races and asymmetric play that it brings to the table. But back to Allies, the next expansion to 51st State. Does the expansion Allies provide anything new and different to the game? Yes it does. It brings ways to eliminate the need to convert resources to the tokens needed to put buildings and deals into play. Which for me, seems to speed up the game play. I think it would be best if this is the only expansion you use in the game so you can take advantage of the cards and not have them buried along with the other expansions. You know how some expansions seem to migrate into the base game? I think Allies will be one of those expansions.
Z-Man Games has a new Civ-type game coming out called Hadara. At first play, this might be thought of a very light game and in my opinion, it is. But that doesn’t make it bad in any respect, just need to know that this isn’t going to be a complex game. Matter of fact, the strategy occurs during the drawing of the cards. The deciding of what to keep and let others have a chance at in the Phase B of the game is very important. Do you take the lesser of the two cards being offered in hopes that you might score them both. Some very key decisions are made at this time during the game. The speed of play was also a big plus for me in this game, enjoyed how quickly it moved. Just understand that this is a lighter game and don’t expect a big thinker.
Then we put Pandemic Rapid Response on the table and you could see the dynamics of the group change. Here is a game where being right isn’t always necessary and agonizing over your move cannot be done. Roll dice, take actions, move to the next player and go fast, that is what you need to know here. While it isn’t my cup of tea, I did enjoy this breath of fresh air on the table. If you are going to agonize over your play, then you are doomed in this game. I think the chaotic nature of this game with the right group of people would be a blast. The screaming and yelling and the communication on what to do next happening all at the same time can be a fun way to get the evening going. I would actually use this game with people at work to help teach them about Incident Command and how it is necessary when dealing with a crisis.
Three of the three Connell boys jump on the mics and explorer the 6th Edition of Shadowrun RPG by Catalyst Games. Thank goodness they took charge of this and shared their knowledge and experience because I am not sure I would have been able to bring much to the table. Adam and Travis have some key insights to this revamp and from what I heard previewing the episode, Marty enjoyed it and is looking forward to more adventures in this world.
But that isn’t the last you hear from them, because Adam and Travis are back to talk about Super Punch Fighter. Based on what I heard, Marty better bring it to game night so I can take a shot at playing it just so I can make my own opinion of the game.
If you will be at Gen Con this year and have nothing to do at 7pm on Thursday, consider buying a ticket for the RDTN Strike Tournament Dinner event at the Old Spa...
One of these days, I am going to get us down below one hour again. But it isn’t going to happen for this show. Nope. We have too much to say about the games we got to play recently.
First off is Silver from Bezier Games. Sure you have heard it from other groups, but we wanted to give you our take on this simple card game that is very similar to Golf. But what is going to set it apart from Golf are the card actions that you can do and the action of replacing two or more of the same cards with a single card. The simple game of Golf is now full of interaction, strategy, and tension. This is one of those you might need to just keep in your game bag so you have something quick to play while waiting on people or to finish the night with. The problem might be that people will keep asking to play one more time. Very enjoyable.
Next is FFG’s Star Wars: Outer Rim. This required us to bring in the Scurry to discuss and dissect this game. While it didn’t jump out the gate at first, it did grow on us. You know how after you play a game, you wonder what was missing and you spend the next 30 minutes or so realizing that had you done this, then this might have enhanced the play. Or if you had changed your tactic at this point, then the game would have amped up even more. That is when you realize that it isn’t the game, it is the fact that the players knowledge is what was missing in the first few plays and this game will only suck you down the strategy hole even more over time.
And lastly, we discuss the new game Nagaraja from Hurrican Games. If you would like to add a Two Player game to your collection, recommend you consider this one. Here is another one that once the play is done, you will start questioning your previous moves and know you will do better next time. The strategy is going to reach up and bite you on this one. I am not trying to scare you away here, because the game is easy to teach, but each decision is important. You wouldn’t think so, but it is. Even the simplest decision can come back and, like I said, bite you later. So much fun. This one is up there with The Rose King for me.
Don’t forget to go out and nominate the next video game for the Hall of Fame and be sure to check out Level3B’s kickstarter on the new game bag.
Hope everyone has recovered from the onslaught of Avengers Endgame and Game of Thrones battles and ready to get back to board gaming. We are and this episode puts five games on the table for discussion and two Kickstarters we want to bring to your attention.
Res Arcana is one of those games that you might pass by, but it is one you should give a try if you enjoyed the mechanics that are in Century Spice Road. The premise is straight forward in that you must collect resources that allow you to purchase cards that let you convert those resources into other resources that you can then eventually get victory points. But unlike Century or other games like this, there are unique mechanics in impacting other players, player powers, and cards that can help adjust your strategy during the game.
Then we played a game that fits with the theme of doom from the aforementioned shows above, Robinson Crusoe: Mystery Tales. Solid planning and cooperation are even more essential to winning than in the base game because you are carrying forward your success and failures from the previous adventures. They don’t use the term legacy with this expansion, but I believe it is. We wish you luck with your adventures and hope your team doesn’t go insane and come back to hunt you.
Wacky Races and Challenge of the Superfriends takes us back to our childhoods and watching Saturday morning cartoons so nostalgia runs rampant during this segment. Bear with us because we do talk about the games eventually.
Finally, Marty is joined by Vanessa and Adam and they discuss an expansion to one of our favorite titles from last year, Space Base and the new expansion. Straight from AEG:
- The Emergence of Shy Pluto is the first installment of Space Base “Saga Expansions”. This expansion to Space Base is a collection of story-based scenarios that introduce new content to the game via a narrative structure. Not only are new ships added, but new scenarios are included as well. Once the story is completed, it may be replayed or the contents may be added to the Space Base base set.
Spoiler Alert: Vanessa really likes it
Thanks for listening and come back in two weeks where we will tell you about the two player game Nagaraja and Star Wars Outer Rim.
The 5th Annual Movie Show with our good buddies Dan Patriss and Chris Kirkman. This is going to be a big summer of movies and we wish we had enough time to cover all the summer releases, but that would be a six hour show. Instead, we only looked at those movies that were nationwide releases, not limited releases. Then we had to take that list and shorten it up even more by voting on them so we could get it down to a manageable amount. There are so many good releases early in the summer that many of the releases in August just didn’t make the cut.
Will give a spoiler here, we didn’t have that many steaming picks this year like in previous years. Hope you enjoy the episode and we will return in our next episode with more gaming discussions.
Marty survived Robb Con and comes back with a report on his play of Wingspan and Tsukuyumi. He also escaped the cabin long enough to get in some disc golf, still a favorite recreational sport at RDTN. Man, hope to throw some plastic now that spring is here.
Then we got to play a very good implementation of the classic game Castles of Burgundy as a roll and write. Plays fast and has some very good challenging decisions to make as you mark the roll on your sheet. Definitely a keeper in our collection of roll and writes.
It must also be a throwback episode because Marty got to play Evolution for the first time, which is one of my favorite games. But the reason we got it to the table was because we were able to try out the Evolution app that was release recently on Steam and then, I got to try Oceans, the next evolution of games by North Star Games. Oceans is completely funded on Kickstarter and while similar to Evolution, it stands on its own with some of the changes in the feeding process of your species. Plus, there is a Kraken.
Finally, there is a really long Scurry Report happening in this episode because we got to play the new Fantasy Flight Games Journeys in Middle-Earth. This game will have an app associated with it. This game has mechanics you are familiar with. This game has some very nice miniatures, better than Mansions of Madness. This game will cost you a pretty penny. But if you like the Lord of the Rings, it is going to be one you will need to try. If you have a steady group of players that also like LOTR, this one is one you will strongly need to consider to add to the collection.
We are jammed full of game discussions in this episode. We revisit Camel Up Second Edition with a surprise guest. We talk about a new favorite game of Marty’s Crisis. Then we break down a new quick filler called Village Pillage that Nate Bivins brought to the table. But that is the only surprise, Marty has some special guests on to talk about the expansion for Roll for the Galaxy Rivalry. And that is not all. We play the beautiful game Call to Adventure. Want to spend some time talking about this because this game, while simple to play, is about building a story. It is important to get behind the development of the story and understand how this will drive your gameplay. There are some strategic moments in the game that can be overlooked if not careful. Hope you get a chance to get this to the table.
Now that I have a Switch, we thought it would be good to discuss an implementation of a game on the Switch. We picked Istanbul as our first one to give this a try. We have done App discussions before, but this might be the start of a recurring segment on the show. That is if we can come up with a name for the segment.
Finally, thanks to everyone who voted for us over at Boardgamegeek for best Podcast in 2018. Finally voting is going on and regardless if we win or lose, we are honored to just be nominated. Thank you so much
I told Marty that we should occasionally change the secret word to the Green Room. By keeping the same code, past people could show up and request to come back on the show. Luckily that has not happen yet, but we were lucky to have Justin Jacobson and Rob Daviau make another guest appearance on the show. The last time they were on, Fireball Island was launched on Kickstarter and we all know how that turned out for them. This time, they tell us about the new Unmatched Battle of Legends. Also, it seems “moonpie”, “squirrel”, and “lawnmower” aren’t very strong codes.
We rez from the dead the segment In a Nutshell and talk about a couple of games that we got to the table and a 21 Questions Game online.
. We had a dice chucker called Kapow. This was one that is a filler and ramps up very quickly. Hidden strategy on building and constructing your dice to combat your opponent. Combo Fighter is a card battle game that rewards those that can card count. Tudor has a unique method of changing the base actions through the collection of rings and their position on a cardboard hand. What makes this difficult is the only way to get the rings is by moving up to the top in the throne room. And if someone displaces you, then they can take your ring. Interesting mechanic in the game.
We also played many Kickstarters and give our opinions on them. They are either already active or will soon be active. One of these was designed by a Nate Bivins who has been on the show before and is part of the Scurry Report. This seems to be Kickstarter season, so lots of competition for your dollar. I know I have passed up some incredible ones, but the temptation is too great on some of the ones we talk about in this episode.
It is time for the 4th Annual Squirrelly Awards. These are our picks from 2018 that stood out during the year for us. Just like the previous three years, our friends were gracious enough to stop by and do the presentations and we were lucky to even have some designers and publishers in the audience to accept the awards. We want to thank everyone that was involved in this project and hope you appreciate it.
We return in two weeks to our regularly scheduled program.
Sorry for the back to back long episodes. However, we have a good reason. First, Sara Erickson from Renegade Game Studios dropped by and wanted to tell us about Mike Elliot’s new game, Terror Below, that is currently on Kickstarter. Don’t worry, it is funded but if you have any doubts on if you are backing or have questions, maybe Sara will have the answers you seek. She also was subjected to a Rank’em, something we haven’t had the opportunity to do in awhile.
Next comes to fairly lengthy discussion about two games that we go to the table. Raccoon Tycoon from Forbidden Games is a very enjoyable commodities game that is fast to teach and play. We also are finding that the various strategies work well so no set winning one and anytime we have an hour to get a game in, it is a good bet we will reach for it. If you want to try out a commodities game, we can’t recommend this enough. Components and art are top notch and the price at Miniature Market makes it tough not to get.
Beta Colony by Rio Grande Games was a different style of game that employed a dice mechanism similar to the one that is used in Lorenzo, but they took it one more step with the “rolldell” in the center of the board. Everyone is using the same dice pool, but how you use it in determining your actions is different between players. There is no competing for spaces, so the game is more about how well you strategize during your turn.
Finally, Vanessa and Marty discuss Precious Cargo from Winning Moves Games. Maybe Marty will keep her doing these reviews and we can get more reviews to the Podcast.
The next episode is our annual award show and all the votes are in and the presenters are lined up. Hopefully there will be some surprises in 2019.
We have guests on for this show and we get chatty with one guest. He is such a great friend to the show and it is hard keeping it short. Stephen Buonocore does a deep dive with us on what it takes for a game to get noticed in today’s market and have staying power. Think about it. How many times do we all hear about this great game that is out and within a month, crickets. We ask Stephen what does it take to make it last or how can Stronghold renew interest in games that have received the Squirrel treatment by game players. Stephen even talks about Stronghold’s catalog and how things in hindsight were a sure thing, were not that way at the start. And it would not be a visit without Stephen doing some pitching on the upcoming games, but we try and challenge him to tell us how is he going to keep the spotlight on them.
Marty and I also have been discussing the upcoming convention Tantrum Con in Spartanburg, SC. Well, why should we try and guess at what is happening when we can bring Tantrum House on to tell us about it. Sarah and Melissa join us and in RDTN fashion, we end up talking about more than just Tantrum Con. We are really looking forward to the convention except for the early morning drive.
And we would not be a board gaming podcast if we didn’t talk about a game. We got in the hot game from Gen Con called Everdell. This is a great worker placement, engine builder that has a unique twist where there are not defined rounds where everyone advances at the same time. But it goes back to our discussion with Stephen, do you still hear about this game, well you should. Very assessible game for people to get into.
Thanks for listening and we are about a month away from our annual award show The Squirrely’s. If you haven’t voted in the All Y’all Award, be sure to visit this link and cast your vote. Nominations will be closing soon.
We are back from our break and ready to tackle another year of board gaming podcasting. Or as a listener pointed out to us, making background noise. We love comments like this because they truly keep us grounded and never take offense to them.
Anyway, in this episode we discuss our events over the holidays, do a Flying Squirrel segment, and give impressions of two games that made it to the table. Master of Wills by Stormcrest Games is a deck building card game that has a twist on winning the game. Your score is determined at the end of the eighth round based on the number of citizens you have on your side of the board. When you pick a Citizen card at the start of your turn, they will have abilities on them that will impact the game by allowing you to play special cards from your faction deck that you built prior to the start. There are different factions in the game allowing for increased replayability. This one is straight forward, but very tactical and made for fun games.
Too Many Bones: Undertow was the next beast on the table and it needs to come back. We had some false starts but once we got up and running, things went really well and enjoyable. I keep visiting Chip Theory’s website and keep reminding myself to hold off and maybe get a bundle at Gen Con. I want the additional characters and I look forward to getting this game on the table again. One thing we didn’t mention in the show that impressed me was how well written the encounter cards were, in my opinion. I said I wanted the flavor text to be read and I think that is the reason why. It is a costly game, but for what you get, I can understand the price point.
We also announce our winners for the celebration of our 6th anniversary. Thank you again for taking time to listen to the podcast and we are excited to bring you another year of background noise.
Time for a new year and we are trying to get things planned, at least for the first quarter. But to get the New Year started off right, we bring you three game discussions and a discussion about doughnuts.
One game we got to play was the new one from AEG called Scorpius Freighter. What makes this game different is the three action tracks. You have to advance around them to get things done, but each track is a game timer and when one of the tracks meets the requirement for game end, it is done. Very interesting mechanic and one making us wonder how we could have done it different. It is also one of those games that it ends and you just don’t believe you have enough time to get it all done. You must be efficient, or so it seems.
Marty got to play the new Pandemic: Fall of Rome and I got in Black Orchestra. Both coop games and based on our discussion with each other, we both want to get together and play them again. I really did enjoy Black Orchestra and hope to get my wife to try it since she is a big coop game fan. I can easily understand why this is in the top on many people’s lists.
Happy New Year and hope 2019 is starting off in good fashion for you.
It has been six years since we started this podcast and there is no stopping us now. We are having such a good time, we are having a ball and so we aren’t going to stop now. And to celebrate the 6th year, we are giving stuff away because based on how Marty assembles a leaf bagger for his mower, this could have been it. He survived and shared his exploits in this episode.
Marty’s is joined by his oldest son, Adam, and they discuss the new Warhammer Quest game Blackstone Fortress. I got an early listen and I hope I get a play of this soon. I am sure he will talk some more about it with all three boys at home over the holidays. Fireball Island was on the table and it is what it is. What do I mean by that? It is a very light game that brought out the laughs. We were cheering more for the marbles than anything else in that game. I am sure as it hits the table more, we will discover some strategy and game play that we missed in the initial plays, even games like no.slotzo.com have strategies, so it shouldn’t be that hard. Finally, CMON’s new game Victorian Masterminds got some plays. This is also, in my opinion, another light game. Simple and fast to play. I think there is more to this game than we are seeing, but I will say it needs to be played with four people.
Don’t forget about our contests and we appreciate all the support you have shown this year. Looking forward to 2019 where we are already in full planning mode. If you have any helpful suggestions, please send us an email or drop by the BGG guild and post your thoughts.
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BGG Con has come and gone and Marty was there and he relives his adventures, including raiding a mini-bar and squatting in an area that was not meant for them. And when they found out they should not be there, what do you think they did? Well, I was surprised by the answer. The list of games played in Dallas included: Cerebria, Keyforge, Just One, Underwater Cities, Cryptid, Railroad Ink, Shadows: Amsterdam, The Estates and Time’s Up! (Eric Lang’s rules). If all the games, that is the one I hate I missed because it sounded like a blast and second, I always enjoy playing Time’s Up.
Brass gets a full blown discussion because it deserves it. For me, Tony, there is a love/hate relationship going on with this game. It is a game that I know I can play better and should play better, but it is eluding me. It is a game that is simple to play that I know I can get others to play, but the subtilties might get loss which could ruin the play . You need to play this game and see how it strikes you. See if this game would be one to replace a network building game like Terra Mystica, Railways of the World, or even Ticket to Ride. Yeah, would this game be a next step game from Ticket to Ride or is it too much?
Newton was the follow up to one of our favorite games, Lorenzo il Magnefico. Cards on the table here, we had a rough start with this one. We confused ourselves with one of the actions which might have tainted our play a bit. Once we got past this confusion, we started getting into it, but it was over before we knew it. You could see everyone strategizing their turns and trying to maximize the round so they could get the most out of it. Some very NEAT mechanics in this game. Before you start playing, make sure you understand the iconography in the game and everyone understands the tableau in front of them. Once you have those explained, go for it.
Remember “A Good Game is a Good Puzzle”
The annual BooBQ event at Marty’s happened and we got not only our feedbags on, but we also got some gaming on. We were able to play the new edition of Arkham Horror. If you have never have played Arkham, recommend that you do, but find someone that knows how to play to teach you and doesn’t add house rules. The rules are tough to get through the first time, but worth the reward. The game can be really intense at times, especially when things might hinge on the balance of a dice roll here and there. Overall, a great gaming experience and a must have in the coop collection.
We also got to play Shadows: Amsterdam, which was excited to play after seeing it at Gen Con. I really enjoy Mysterium and Codenames and, in my opinion, this is a smash-up of both games. If you enjoy the real-time mechanic in a board game, then you need to try this game when it comes out. Extraordinary Adventures: Pirates is a light racing game that is currently on Kickstarter and has funded. This will be one game where you can introduce people to the deck building mechanic without it being so in their face and the main focus. Do want to correct something that was said in the podcast because I smashed up the names of their previous games. Forbidden Games has produced Railroad Rivals and Raccoon Tycoon and I completely ran the two together. Sorry about that.
Don’t forget we want your opinion, so please fill out the annual RDTN Survey. It is short and sweet and should take less than one of our 5 Minute Initiative segments to complete.
Episode 157 does not have a guest, but all is not lost. We actually get down to some board games. That is right, what an idea for a board gaming podcast. First, we have the a game picked up for publishing in the USA by Stronghold called Calimala. It is not to be confused with the word that means squid in Italian as some kept saying noat the game table. This was released in 2017 and was a big hit at Essen, so we heard cause we weren’t there. The game is designed by Fabio Lopiano, which was his first game, and who also designed Ragusa that will be out next year. If you are interested in how Fabio came up with design, be sure and check out his Designer Diary on the BGG site or click on this link.
Moving away from raiding Vikings to warring kingdoms trying to build civilizations in the 800s, Renegade has released Architects of the West Kingdom. That is about much as I am going to give you as it comes to theme. If you want to try and force more theme then this game is supposed to be during the time of the Carolingian Empire where you probably remember the name Charlemagne from your history books. Develop the best civilization which will help you get more Victory Points and if you have the most, you are a winner. As we state in the episode, this game’s engagement might have been challenged had it not been for the ability to capture other player’s workers. And when I first heard about capturing workers, I was very skeptical, but it works and does it very well. I was concerned that it would be a game of backstabbing and diplomacy, but it wasn’t. Plain and simple fun worker placement game. Give it a try.
Last but not least was Ascension: Delirium. One of my favorite expansions in the Ascension line is Dreamscapes. Not really sure why other than I enjoy the additional “currency” of Insight that must be obtained and allows you to spend to really help boost your deck. So when Justin Gary was talking with us at Gen Con about Delirium and mentioned Insight was back and there was a die, I got excited for this expansion. While the randomness that a dice brought to the game doesn’t sit well with everyone, some might enjoy it because it brings a bit of gambling in hopes that the dice will roll what you need to help you during your turn. While I was okay with that part of the game, I really liked the introduction of the new keyword Fate that adds an auction mechanic to the game. I am looking forward to combining Delirium with Dreamscape because I believe it will make players have some very interesting choices during the game.
Enjoy the episode and return back in two weeks where we talk about the Third Edition of Arkham Horror.
Back to the regularly scheduled show…
Ignacy is here! We love having him on. Not only is he a great designer, but he is funny, and he has some incredible stories to share. If you have some time and want to waste it, go back and listen to previous episodes with Ignacy. You can tell how his command of the English language changes and just how much we digress. It is so sad. We get to talk about his hot game Detective and what is in store for it in the future. We explore his new Essen releases Monolith Arena and Imperial Settlers: Amazons. We go to some dark places and we find out that being a famous designer is not always a great thing.
We also got to play an early release of Monolith Arena and it did not disappoint. I really enjoy when a game meets my expectations. I had hopes that this game would give me the satisfaction Neuroshima Hex and with the monolith, add a layer of strategy and depth that I didn’t realize at first was missing. The game did just that. This is another game that is perfect for that time when you have under an hour to play a game. It is quick to setup and fast to play, once you know the icons.
As always, thanks for listening and please let us know your comments or thoughts.
Over the six years of doing the Rolling Dice & Taking Names podcast, we have been privileged to have some of incredible designers drop by the show and talk. Once again, the show is graced by another well-known designer who really doesn’t need much introduction. Martin Wallace took some time from his game designs to discuss his new game Wildlands.
Wildlands is being produced by Osprey Games and already has one expansion and a second following in first quarter of 2019. This isn’t a typical Wallace game, but the depth and strategy are there as you would expect. Martin mentions during the show about the use of the Interrupt in the game and just how strategic it is. To be honest, it is something we had not even thought of during our plays. So, the next time it is on the table, we will sure to be taking it into consideration.
Be sure to catch the other content produced this week by the other creators that are part of Tabletop Showcase.
Thanks for listening and be sure and check out our next episode when Ignacy stops by to discuss Portal’s new game, Monolith Arena.
Episode 154 has an extended discussion on the new game from AEG called War Chest. We really enjoy abstract games and this one was no exception. The rules are straight forward, the production top notch, and the strategy is where the game really stands out. It is not going to be Chess deep and it might play a bit fast for some players, but for me, it stays on the table the right time. It is a beast to carry around, but it would be the type of game you could play while waiting for others to finish up a game. Better yet, this game really lends itself to tournaments in structure and style of play. This might be a good side project for Marty to do at our local game store.
We mention a few other games that we got to play, but haven’t played together or enough to do a Five Minute Initiative on, so they ended up in the Flying Squirrel segments. Other good chunk of the show was spent talking about the Finalists for The Strong Toy Hall of Fame. Nothing like saying you are old when toys you played with as a kid show up on the list for being inducted into
the Hall of Fame. Then again, you know you are getting older when baseball and football players are getting inducted into their respective Hall of Fames. Tell us who you think should be inducted in our BGG guild, there is a survey running as we speak.
Thanks again for listening and just a heads up, we have back to back episodes in the coming weeks, so don’t think your Podcast software is broke. And also, here is a link if you are interested in helping out the Hurricane Florence victims in the Carolinas.
While on vacation, Marty was able to find someone who obviously had nothing to do and filled in for me. David Waybright, from Man vs Meeple, was kind enough to take on the challenge of being grumpy. He failed, but that is okay. We still really appreciate the effort. David and Marty talk about Tiny Epic Mechs that is on Kickstarter now and has already blown past $300k, no chance of this not funding at $15,000. David and Marty also spend time and no telling how many takes doing a 5 Minute Initiative on Cryptid from Osprey Games. Since I haven’t played it, I am interested in their thoughts on it and whether or not I will be taught by Marty or if this is one I will learn on my own. Those two also decide that they need to explore hype for a board game and how it impacts expectations, sales, and initial plays. Don’t want to “hype” this discussion to much so you will not be let down when you listen to it.
But before I left on vacation, Marty and I did two reviews as well. Gizmos from CMON is a simple engine builder that will be on the table again. Taj Mahal is a reprint by Z-Man Games that we were like, what just happened here. This game made us want to break it out again right away. We are so glad this game is back out.
When we return in two more weeks, hopefully we will have a plan and a show but with the hurricane in the Carolinas, it has put a damper on many plans. We hope that if you were impacted, you are safe and those that you know are as well.
Nostalgia gives us that feeling of a melancholy time from our past when we were happy and can be brought on from a smell, a sight, or even the buzz of a motor vibrating a piece of metal. That is right, we got to enjoy the rebirth of Electric Football from Tudor Games recently and the moment we pushed the button to cause the players to move and I heard that familiar sound, I was filled with nostalgia. I remember playing this game with friends and the excitement as we watched our players “move” across the field like we were at a real football game. We didn’t have a local NFL team in Charlotte back then and this was our way creating our own memories of going to a game. Not only that, we were the coach. We had our playbook and the satisfaction of watching a receiver run a route to perfection and score was a huge sense of accomplishment. But don’t forget the curiosity this game creates because as a kid, I wanted to understand how it worked. Why did the vibrating metal make those little plastic tabs move across the board.
With Tudor Games celebrating 70 years of football, which I didn’t realize it was that old, and the resurgence of board games, this is something you need to check out. With refined rules, an application to help with the flow of the game, and the ability to design even more complex plays, Electric Football from Tudor Games just makes smile.
Then we moved on to fantasy football and not the one where you draft pro players of today. We are talking the stream lined version of Blood Bowl which is now Blitz Bowl. When I tried Blood Bowl, I enjoyed it, but y’all know me, long play time is not my thing. So with Blitz Bowl, my ears perked up and I was interested. I will say, this game was more of a chess match than a football game for me. It was about player pieces on the board and the strategy that was associated with them. Not so much about getting a touchdown. Anyway, other than the dice not being kind, this was a fun one on the table.
Finally, the episode is around our exploits at Mega Moose Con. This is a local con put on by Scurry Reported Mark Kale and he and his team do an incredible job. Thanks to everyone we say and got to play games with over the weekend.
One of the hot games coming out of Gen Con was Villainous by Wonder Forge. Demo table was always full, showed out all copies, which would make you think that this would be a hard game to get. Nope, you can pick it up at Target along with many other titles that Target is carrying exclusively. But wait, I say it should be easy to get, but all the stores around me have it sold out, not sure in your neck of the woods. If you are in the same situation, according to the Target website, the game can be shipped to your local store within four to seven days for free pickup. There you go, you can still get the game, just have to wait a bit. Don’t be expecting deep gameplay here, but this game might surprise you.
We also discuss the pros and cons of Keyforge and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Champions and why one is beating out the other for us. We also bring the Flying Squirrel segment back to the show and discuss a topic that will need some input from the audience, what comics should we be reading right now?
Thanks for listening and be sure to join our BGG guild if you haven’t already.
This is our Gen Con recap show and we have joining us, like he had a choice, is Rodney Smith from Watch It Played. We discuss the shiny things we saw at the show and the adventures we had while there. Marty and I were also lucky enough to sit down with Joe Manganiello and discuss his new line of clothes Death Saves. We even have time to discuss the recently released game Railroad Rivals by Forbidden Games. Love my train games and this is a straight forward pick up and deliver game where you are trying to manipulate the prices of stocks that you are collecting so you have the most money at the end. What makes this game different is the strategy of placing the city tiles in hopes of connecting more than one route which if done, can greatly benefit you in the game.
There were other games we played, but didn’t go into any details. The breakdown of the show is in the table below, so hopefully that will help you navigate to the parts you might want to hear.
Episode 149 is a long episode. Sorry, but that is what you get when we cram a bunch of game content into an episode. We have a guest joining us, nobody special, just Chaz. We invited him to come on so he and Marty could tell you all about the new game Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game. It is getting some incredible praises right now, so the hype engine is working hard. I have yet to play it, but looking forward to it based on what Chaz and Marty were saying. And from watching videos, there is just something appealing about how the game works that I will not be scared to break it out with the lighter gamer crowd.
Need to warn you now, we really don’t have a lot of grumpiness to report in this episode. In the two five minute segments, enjoyed both of those games and look forward to playing them again. Play Fusion/Games Workshop is knocking it out of the park and really scared with Champions. Scared in that it might take me back down a path of buying into a trading card game again. If you don’t want to have anything to do with a TCG, then the discussion around this game is worth just skipping. If you do though, you will miss out on probably two really nice mechanics that they have built into this game.
Istanbul the Dice Game will be a game I would even try and get my wife to play because of the speed of play, the light strategy, and the teaching ease of this game. Simple actions for people to follow and once again, doesn’t grow stale on the table. One ding that I failed to mention was the setup, took a little while, but that can be decreased with individual bags and maybe someone not putting out all the gems and just one to track the progress on each area.
Marty returns from Origins and he informs me that he has a game that will change my sour attitude of late. I tell him to take his best shot and he pulls out Coimbra from eggertspiele. But before I spoil the episode, need to point out that I have been in a slump with games lately. It seems that while the majority of the games are very enjoyable, I haven’t had one to knock it out of the ballpark lately. You know, one where you just sit back and let the experience pour over you once the game is done. Matter of fact, people are wondering if Grumpy Tony was here to stay. So, Marty drops Coimbra on the table as I have said. He says he knows I will like it because it has two of my favorite elements in a game: drafting and dice determining value. This game did bring back a smile to the face and not only due to the elements listed before, but just the simplicity of the rules and the iconography on the board. It was a pleasure learning this game and even though my score didn’t reflect a solid play, I was very pleased with the outcome. Because this game left such an impression, we had to give it a long discussion.
Century Eastern Wonders got some plays. This follow up to Century Spice Road had a challenge to overcome since everyone will be comparing the two games. Does the game keep the simplicity that was so enjoyable in Spice Road? Did it become overly complicated? How can you add a mechanic without breaking the core game? During the 5 Minute Initiative, we talk about these questions and give our thoughts on which we like more, Spice Road or Eastern Wonders.
More importantly, we announce our Gen Strike Tournament – Round 2. Unlike last year and because space is a premium, we have decided to host a dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory @ 5:45 on Friday, August 3. This is open to the first 80 people. Since this will cost us some money, we need to make sure that if you plan on attending, you have skin in the game as well. Therefore, we are selling tickets for $10 on our Podpledge page, link is here. What does $10 get you? You will get a soda, bread, salad, choice of an entrée and ice cream. That is pretty good deal for a dinner during Gen Con and we know you have to eat. Also, Miniature Market will be giving away a special gift for all those in attendance and we can’t thank them enough for this. There will be giveaways such as gift cards to The Broken Token and games of course. And since there is food, we have found some special guests that will be in attendance: Rodney Smith, Chaz Marler, Rob Daviau, Ignacy Trzewiczek, Robb & Christina Rouse and who knows who else. We continue to work on this event and hope to make it something you will be talking about after Gen Con. Oh, I forgot the most important thing, we will host the Strike Tournament to determine Gladiators in an Arena or Dice in a Bowl. There is a deadline on when you have to have your tickets purchased by, so do not delay.
Marty returns with the wonders and not so wondrous sightings from Origins 2018. The Vendor and Game Hall were where the wonders occurred and at the hotel, there was the not so wondrous sightings due to his roommates. One thing about Origins that I always appreciated was the chance not only to play the new games, but to also get in the old games as well. Origins has a nice, relaxed atmosphere about it and if you haven’t attended, maybe someday you can. I know I hope to get back there.
Marty’s middle child Travis takes over the review corner and schools his father on Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Soul Wars. I remember the days when I had that passion for a miniature game kind of like Travis has for Warhammer. He is into the lore and really enjoys what Games Workshop is releasing these days. No wonder it is contagious for Marty. If you are thinking about dipping your toe into this or jumping back in, listening to an “expert” on the subject. So glad Travis took my place on this, I would not have done it the justice he does.
But, I had some passion this show as well for the expansion to my 2017 GoTY, Lorenzo il Magnifico. Houses of Renaissance introduces family powers and a new tower to help you gain ultimate control of the region. I always enjoy when an expansion adds some meat to a game without changing it dramatically and in my opinion, this expansion did just that. So, if you enjoy Lorenzo as much as I do, highly recommend picking this up.
As always, thanks for listening and our next episode will begin to explorer the games from Origins 2016
In 1991, Avalon Hill published the game History of the World. Looking back at pictures of this game, you can just imagine what people thought of it. You have this huge sprawling map, little miniature armies, plastic cities and fortifications, and dice. I would have seen this and gone, why would I want to play another type of Risk. But we fast forward to 2018 and Zman Games is re-releasing it. The armies are just normal colored Sorry styled pawns, the board is still incredible, there is a catapult and dice. And once again, I would ask why do I want to play another type of Risk. But I am glad that I did. I am now wishing I had the original from 1991. Instead of those stupid baseball cards, I could have been buying this game and playing at the apartment. Where is that time machine to go back and tell myself to pick this up. Sell that Ken Griffey Jr. Upper Deck card and buy this.
If I haven’t convinced you to try the game, ask yourself, why would Z-man be re-releasing it in today’s board game world if it wasn’t a solid and enjoyable game. There isn’t that much too it, and it is fairly easy to teach. Actually, I would say you could use this games first round to teach the rules without really handicapping players. One thing that is a given, Marty is not a big fan of dice rolling games at times, but even he smiled with this one. I mention the downtime in the show, but looking back, it wasn’t that bad and I think with ever play, it will go incredible fast. Thank you Z-man for bringing this one back to us since we missed it the first time.
What is so surprising from our next game is how it is a deceptive take that game. Dragon Castle from CMON can be pretty nasty with the wrong type of players. I know in our first game, we were not going after each other, but any other game, the gloves are off. But how can that be in a game where you are simply collecting tiles of the same color and symbols to try to score victory points. It all comes down to the one action of discarding a tile to get a victory point. That action, if planned right, can really mess someone up. But be careful, it can also open the board up for others, so you have to be very strategic. So there is the hidden depth that you may not expected from this game on you look at the box cover and flip it over to look at the contents. Must warn you, if people are just concentrating on their board, then this game could fall flat.
Gorus Maximus should be live on Kickstarter, it was schedule for 6/11/2018. If you are interested in the game, be sure to check out their Kickstarter page as well as Inside Up’s home page.
Thanks for listening and all the support. Marty is at Origins this week, so if you are there, go find him for a ribbon and maybe a Moonpie.
After our report on Council of 4, we decided that the Scurry Reporters needed to come back and help us with our comments on CMON’s newest release Way of the Panda. Prepare yourself, their isn’t a Grumpy Tony in this review. I am sure you are surprised by this, but this one was well received by the group. But we need to caution you, don’t let the Pandas on the cover mislead you into thinking this is a cutesy game. This is a thinker and euro out the gate. You could have anything on this board and achieve the same result in my opinion. Hope to have this one back on the table soon.
Then it is time for High Society by Osprey Games and there are differing opinions on this one. Yes, this is a classic that is being remade, so obviously it has something going for it. But did it need an update. The artwork is incredible, compared to past remakes, and the production is top notch, so if you like bidding games, then this remake might be the thing for you.
Thanks for listening, giving comments over on the BGG guild and posting the reviews, we really do appreciate the support.
And a big congrats to Nate for the addition of the new little meeple in his life.
Episode 144 is a heavy game centric episode. We have gotten in plenty of games and with Episode 143 being about movies, we needed to make sure we talk about the games we played before we forgot what we had played. On top of the games, we also were visited by Bezier Games to demo their newest offerings. We sat down with Matt at our local game store Carolina Tabletop Games and he was patient with us while we did all we could to explore the new treasures he was putting on the table. We got the chance to play the expansion to Whistle Stop, which is still a favorite game of mine, the new social deduction/collection game Werebeast, One Week Ultimate Werewolf, which is on KS right now, and Werewords Deluxe, one of Marty’s favorites. Werebeast caught me off guard because I enjoy the hidden set collection type games and was pleasantly surprised how this game pulled it off. I am never keen on player elimination in a game, but for this game, it worked and after the first player was eliminated, the game soon came to an end, so there wasn’t much downtime and this was with a five player game.
Four games and a tutorial we played over the past month are also part of this episode. There really wasn’t a stinker on the table either. The tutorial was our prep for Hannibal & Hamilcar, which is going to be a beast and a blast to play. Really looking forward to the tactical nature of it, as long as somebody doesn’t have AP during the game. Crystal Clans by Plaid Hat had us with the solo crystal to track how much you spent to summon your army. Then it kept us engaged with the diversity of each clan and the quick play. This will give Shadespire a run for the table time over the year, especially as more clans and potential for deck building comes about. This game has a bunch of potential, hope Plaid Hat doesn’t fumble the ball on this one.
But don’t want to neglect the simplicity of Prowler’s Passage either even though it is light game it still provides thought provoking strategy. It isn’t going to blow you away, but I can see where this two player game will get some plays this year. It reminds me of 7 Wonders Duel and I really enjoy that game, but it is more simpler which is a good thing. Finally, Raiders of the North Sea, I have heard so much about this game that I really looked forward to playing it. The mechanics were there and the choices were tough, but the game got long, which after much reading, can happen. But, with all of us being new to the game, I can see how we might not have recognized this setup and had we, we could have probably made the game progress at a quicker pace. Either way, another game that can get back to the table anytime.
Don’t forget about all the contests going on, just go check out our webpage for more information. And we really do appreciate the reviews of the show, regardless of the ratings.
Just a heads up, this is our indulgent show where we get to spend time with Dan Patriss and Chris Kirkman talking not about board games, but about the 2018 summer movie releases. This is the fourth year and it is interesting how many of the ones we discuss are sequels. Heck, most of them are sequels, very few are originals movies. Guess it is always best to keep producing what has worked in the past. Throughout the show, three people were in on a joke that was completely lost on me, hope you pick up on it. I knew they were doing it, but had no clue why. Thank goodness Marty adds little nuggets at the end of the show.
We will get back to the games in the next episode, but until then, remember what the great film critic Roger Ebert said:
No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.
I think that quote can apply to board games as well.
Don’t forget to enter our contest.
Once again, we get easily distracted in this Episode, but it is a justifiable reason. I need to find a new lawn mower so that I am not spending my weekend mowing, but playing board games. Here in the Charlotte area, mowing is something you start at the beginning of April and usually don’t stop until the first of November. Heck, I have even had to mow before Thanksgiving when we had a fairly warm, wet fall. But once you make it through that discussion, we have three really good discussions about soon to be released or just released games.
Don’t miss Space Base if you are a dice fan. This one is going to have people going crazy over it because they will start talking about how it is their next Machi Koro or something they wanted in addition to other simple dice games. It isn’t a brain burner, but a really fun luck based engine builder that keeps the whole table involved to the end. If you are like me with the love for dice games, then you might enjoy this game.
Shards of Infinity, deck builder, Justin Gary, Stone Blade Entertainment, enough said. Yes, I am biased. Yes I have been dying to play this since I heard about it. Yes, I have 18 games of Ascension going on right now on the iPad. But you might be surprised about our overall thoughts about this game. However, you will wait to find it when it comes back in stock, sorry. In talking with Stone Blade, they understand the issue and are working towards resolution with Ultra Pro.
Council of 4 is a hit and a miss at RDTN. There is some goodness there and then there is some issues and hopefully we discuss them so you can decide if this is a game you would like to play if you didn’t play the original version. I will always play it because I have the love/hate relationship going on with that game. It scores a 7.2 average rating on BGG with over 1000 ratings, so you know something is there. I think if you go into the game realizing that, as Nate points out in the Scurry Report, this is a race, then your play experience might not be as disappointing as what I experienced. But the AP in this game has to go or lessen over time or one can hope.
We know that Mr. Jacobson and Mr. Daviau are making their rounds to talk about Fireball Island: Curse of who we can’t say until it is funded. And we didn’t want to be left out of the media blitz. Hopefully, our sit down with them will be informative and help you decide on how much money you are willing to drop on this classic. If anything, be sure to check out our questions at the end where Rob’s true personality shows up.
Our games in this episode include the classic Middle Earth Quest (MEQ) by Fantasy Flight and Flamme Rouge by Stronghold Games. Don’t have a lot to say about MEQ other than I am glad I got to experience the game. The length of the game would make it hard to get to the table, but would play it anytime. Flamme Rouge will be a game we get on the table a bunch in the future. So fast and easy to play and teach. The only downside is setting up the track each time, but once that is done, you could easily do a best of 3 racing series in under an hour. Understand that people have been raving about this one for some time and wish we had been right there with them. You will be hearing about this again when we get the expansion to the table.
We have an announcement to make. While we are very sad to see Funagain’s online store slowly close and support of the show stop, we are happy to announce that Miniature Market is picking us up as one of our sponsors. Marty and I couldn’t be happier about this and what it will mean for our listeners. Miniature Market has committed to us support for our contest and ways for a listeners to save money throughout the year. Matter of fact, if you visit this link, you will find a special discount code to enter during checkout. Who knows where this will end up, but we are very excited to have Miniature Market as a sponsor of RDTN. Not sure I used the link enough, so here it is again.
When was the last time you encountered a game and you finished the play and were not sure what just happened at the table? I had that experience with Noria from Stronghold Games. This is not to say it was bad thing that happened at the table, don’t get me wrong. It was just different, which can be exciting in today’s world of board gaming. Here was a game that took a core mechanic that I enjoy, engine building, and put it on its ear with three turning gears. We have played some tough games over the past year, but this one caught me by surprise. Reading the rules, didn’t seem to be anything special. Watching the videos, nothing jumped out at me. But once I was in charge of my own economic gear machine, it got very real. But once you solve the engine part, you now need to think about how to get the scoring done for a win because others can really mess with your strategy, so you need to be adaptable. Try this game, even if you are not a fan of engine builders, it might surprise you.
We also talk about the new expansion Clank!, The Mummy’s Curse by Renegade Game Studios. I enjoy base Clank!, even though I think it is lacking when it comes to being able to cull your deck of unwanted cards, but I really like Clank! In! Space!. So was curious if The Mummy’s Curse was going to add enough to base Clank! to make it the game to play of the series.
Be sure and enter our contest for a chance at a $10 gift card to Miniature Market. Five lucky winners will be drawn. You can enter the contest below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for listening and appreciate any feedback you can give us.
We are actually doing something that was asked for by the listeners of RDTN, we are looking at some older games in our 5 Minute Initiative Segment. The first one is a personal favorite of mine, Stone Age. Aside from the awesome wood dice and leather cup, I really enjoy the aspect of pushing your luck when collecting resources and I find it to be the next step in complexity for those new to board games. Marty has a different opinion on this and he tries to convince me why. Also, how can you not enjoy a game with a love shack in it.
We talk about a Kickstarter that we were able to try that is being brought to you by Cryptozoic. Cult: Choose Your God Wisely is an attempt to bring the Elder gods into the world and make yours be the one that goes off on destroys everything. Before you pass on this one, consider if you like multiple paths to victory, area control and backstabbing your friends, then you might want to go watch a video or two on their page.
And finally, we must say good-bye to Funagain Games. Like everyone else, we found out about them closing their online doors via email and it did sadden us. They have been great supporters of the show and to our listeners with our giveaways. However, they realized that after 15 years, they needed to make a business change and decided to go to brick and mortar stores.
Time for the 3rd Annual Squirrelly Awards. For those of you that are joining us for the first time, welcome to a unique type of award show. We want to make sure you understand this isn’t a typical award show. This is our way of recognizing the games that we played last year and really enjoyed with some different if not bizarre categories. Also, we are joined by many awesome people for the board gaming world to help us with the presentations. Some you may know, some you may not, either way, be sure and check out their contributions to the hobby by clicking on the link below.
2017 was another fantastic year in board gaming with an incredible amount of content released. So much content, that we didn’t get all we wanted to the table and we are sure many great games were missed. Please let us know some of your favorites so that we can be sure to try them.
Once again, thanks to everyone who made this another great show and be sure to let Marty know what a terrific job he did in editing this episode. We return in two weeks with the normal stuff and a new segment where we go back and play a game from many years ago.
Hippocampus and Nociceptor
We spend a good portion of this episode discussing the new game Castell from Renegade Games. While what you do on your turn is simple, the complexity is driven from the advance planning that needs to be done. This is not a game where you play your turn, rinse, and repeat. No, you need to be thinking two, three, shoot, to the very end of the game if you want to be successful and pull of the best human tower, a Castell, as possible. This game, when done playing, is like others where you will find yourself thinking about the strategy for the next play. But due to the randomness, it will not be cookie cutter, you will need to adapt.
Pulsar 2849 from CGE was another thinky game that we put on the table, but the randomness of the dice and the limited actions on your turn can keep you from being able to plan ahead. You will have a strategy, but it will not be detailed like Castell, but more on how you will maximize your points this turn and hope that you have built your engine up enough to score major points at the very end of the game, while keeping your opponents in check.
Both of these games will be back on the table this year, or I can only hope.
Finally, we have a contest! Have fun with this as you can use the Grumpy Tony image to make your own meme or box cover. You can send your submission via Twitter using #GrumpyTonyRDTN, post in our BGG Guild, on our Facebook page, or send an email to rolldicetakenames@gmail.com. We’ll pick our top 3 and send the winners a RDTN Mason Jar (shipping to US only). Make us laugh!*
*And there might be one more in the future
One of the first games that I introduced my family and friends to was Nuns on the Run. One of the draws of that game is the number of people that can play this hidden movement game. But, one of the biggest faults of the game is the Line of Sight where you have to constantly check and ask “Can I see you, can I hear you”. So it was refreshing to get to play Hunt for the Ring without having to constantly check on these types of conditions. While the player count was lacking, there were Nine Ringwraiths, this can be forgiven for the lack of line of sight checks and the use of dice to activate powers. Also on the table for this episode is the very deceptive game Heaven & Ale. This game has simply mechanics to teach but some very tough decisions to make during gameplay. The game has many pros but there are cons as well such as AP and complicated scoring at the end until you have played the game and seen it in action. However, this game will get you thinking.
We also talk about two more games and one app in our new segment, In a Nutshell. This segment is where we talk about games that we got to play and something we hope you get to try. And the Flying Squirrels are back and our predictions for 2018.
Thanks for listening
We start of the new year with a game that we were excited to hear about in 2017. Gaia Project by Zman games is one the table and since it is similar to one of Marty’s favorite games, Terra Mystica, we had to do it right. Therefore, we start off in our first show of 2018 with a Scurry Report. And if that wasn’t enough, Vanessa joins Marty for a 5 Minute Initiative on Renegade’s new game Topiary. And we go over your thoughts on the show in our survey review. Really, less cowbell, I think someone was pulling our leg.
We can hardly believe it has been 5 years since we started the podcast. There have been many great moments, many not so great moments, but one thing is for sure, it has been a fun adventure. We can’t say thank you enough to those that listen, the publishers and designers that have showed us support, and the other board game media individuals that have given us their time. And of course we want to say a big thank you to our sponsors: The Broken Token, Portal Games, and Funagain. And what better way to celebrate than with a new logo that you see here. And if you want a Mason Jar with the new logo, we will be taking orders once they arrive. Be sure to come back here for more information on how to get one.
But it isn’t all about reminiscing, we discuss a new game from Renegade Games called Pie Town. This is a simple worker placement that has an interesting mechanic with dice as the workers. It isn’t one of those games that will require you to agonize over each move and might be a little redundant in the beginning, but once the engine is set up, then the battle for who makes the best pies begins. Nice art and components, but this is a Renegade game, they are making it so we expect nothing less.
In celebration of the 5th year, we brought out Fog of Love to see just how compatible we are and should we continue this podcast. There is one thing we need to caution you about with this game, it isn’t meant to be played as a gamer’s game in our opinion. You need to get in the character that has been developed at the beginning. The RPG element is the strength of the game and probably will help you determine if this is one for you. We had fun with the game, but found ourselves getting out of character. This is only a two player game and can be found in all places, Walmart.
Be sure to fill out our survey to be entered into our contest and once again, thank you for supporting us for all these years.
Whistle Stop by Bezier Games has given gamers another train game that incorporates tile laying, resource collecting, and set collection, all the things that scratch that itch in a game for us. But does it deserve a place on the shelf, hang around for 5 minutes and you will have your answer. The Scurry Reporters are back and they give us their thoughts on the newest game from Fantasy Flight, Battle for Rokugan. And we get to hear all about PAX Unplugged from Marty as he tells us about the adventures in Philly. Wish the same rule applies for Philly as it does for Vegas.
Be sure to check back with us in two weeks for our 5th year anniversary. Many announcements and we determine if we are compatible or not by playing the game, Fog of Love.
After playing Gentes, we thought all the goodness had come and gone for the year. But no, we are here to tell you that once again, we get blindsided by two games: Bastion and Sidereal Confluence. When will the madness end? How are we going to narrow down our selections for the Squirrely Awards? And on top of that, Marty goes to Pax Unplugged and I am sure he has more to add to the pile.
Bastion is a coop game from Z-Man that was out in 2015 and they have made it available for all to consume. We saw this at Gen Con and we were intrigued by this simple tower defense game. What seemed to be a straight forward coop game turned into a strategy game that caught us off guard. It went from go defeat this guy to now, wait, you need to do this, so I can do that and then he can do that because if you don’t then this will happen and then this chain occurs and so forth and so on. Give this one a try if you like coop games.
Then the Excel spreadsheet game hit the table, Sidereal Confluence and man did it have us scratching our head and in the dark, but not in a bad way. It had player interaction, engine building, multiple strategies and depth, so much depth that we can’t wait to get this back on the table again. Will have to say if it wasn’t for the trading, this game would have floundered a bit, but with the trading, it took it up so many levels. In an engine builder, if your plan comes together, even if you don’t win, there is still satisfaction and that is what happened here. For those that enjoy these types of games don’t miss it.
But not everything was rosy on the table and we discuss that as well. And also, special guests come on the show as Marty heads to Pax Unplugged and has a slumber party with some people you may already know. Listen to these familiar voices talk about Necromunda.
Thanks for listening and all the support.
We have a new contender for our game of the year, Gentes. This is one of those games we wish we had gotten to the table sooner than later and we are kicking ourselves because of it. And now, we will spread the word and the game is hard to find and we apologize for that. We are not apologizing for the game being hard to find, but for the fact we are bringing it to your attention so late. We have reached out to some publishers and told them they really need to take a look at this game and see about getting it picked up if they can. If you find it in YLGS, would not hesitate if you like those middle weight Euro games, although playing games all day is not recommendable since it could be harmful for health, since living an active life and having a good diet is necessary, since there are many diet options online, and you can find more info about it here.
BooBQ was a big success with food, games and fellowship, and they even provide healthy food for people who want to stay fit and healthy using a good diet and supplements like the korean panax ginseng you find online. So many games, we are not going to do anything more than just touch on them with high level discussions. And then there were the ones that we have yet to sit down and play together that we need to give a mention too. If you have Ascension on the iPad and want to play sometime, let me know. I am always looking to help someone’s win percentage.
We have added some updates to our Jack Vasel action, so be sure and take a look if interested. You can click here and get to the item. Regardless of what we send you, you know that you are helping a good cause and thank you so much for looking.
We are back and we have tricked another designer to come on to the show. Ted Alspach joins us and talks about the follow-up to Castles of Mad King Ludwig, The Palace of Mad King Ludwig. To answer the question right away, yes, they are different games and you need to hear what Ted says about it to determine if you will consider giving it a spin when it comes out next year.
And what would a show be without a few game discussions. CMON’s Richard the Lionheart was on the table and will be back, it was a fun game. Alien Artifacts was played and needs another few or ten plays to get down to the nuts and bolts of this engine. And then there was the filler from our pal Nate Bivens, the up and coming designer, with his first release Sundae Split.
Plus another contest to celebrate 10K in Twitter Followers.
I am back and ready to get back in the rut of life. You know, play a game, talk about a game, play a game, discuss food, and so on. It is good to be back and to put two different games on the table. Plan B Games showed us Azul at Gen Con and said to keep it hush hush. Well, we did but now we can tell you about it in a 5 Minute Initiative. Then, Osprey Games was kind enough to let us try out the re-implementation of Martin Wallace’s London. This is going to take multiple plays in order to fully appreciate this game. There are so many different aspects of this game that we couldn’t contain it in 5 minutes. Either way, we hope you get the opportunity to give this one a try.
Tony is on vacation for this episode, but before he left we were able to record our views on Codenames:Duet and Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time. While he’s gone, Rich Sommer from Cardboard! joined me as co-host to help navigate this episode.
Plus we have our second Scurry Report where we talk about the massive adventure game, 7th Continent. And my son joins me for a segment to share his thoughts on the new miniature game from from Games Workshop, Shadespire.
It’s a been while, but we are excited to have Portal Games founder and game designer, Ignacy Trzewiczek, back on the show to tell us about the upcoming game Alien Artifacts. Plus he gives some insight on other titles that his company is working on.
We also talk about our first experiences with Dragonfire from Catalyst Game Labs and Hafid’s Grand Bazaar from Rather Dashing Games. And if that wasn’t enough we cover Nmbr 9 from Z-Man Games in a 5 Minute Initiative.
Our Gen Con report is here and it is a hefty one. It might have been shorter had a special guest not joined us, but he was forced to participate or we wouldn’t let him go to bed. Rodney Smith joins us on this episode as we recount our events at Gen Con. The daily festivities are recounted and not much gaming because, well, Gen Con is about seeing the stuff that is coming and hearing about what is planned for the rest of the year. Also, it doesn’t help that there are 60,000+ people at the Con and we are all trying to get to the hotness. Also, please don’t forget to support Rodney on his crowd funding campaign.
Even with that many people, it never felt that crowded. Now, don’t misunderstand, there was a crowd, but you could move and patience went a long way when you were on the floor. And when the vendor area closed, there were plenty of opportunities to attend other events, some you paid for, others were free.
We also want to say thank you to everyone who attended the RDTN meetup at the Omni Bar, it exceeded our expectations. The Strike tournament was a hit and the final battle was epic.
We also want to thank those companies that sponsored the prizes during our meetup, without them, we would have still had the event, but it wouldn’t have had that humph! (Portal Games,Restoration Games,Stronghold Games,The Broken Token,Capstone Games,Osprey Games,CMON,Big Potato Games,Passport Games,CGE)
You can visit our Facebook page for pictures from our trip!
Surprise, surprise, surprise. That is right Renegade Studios is releasing Clank! in Space at Gen Con. Talk about keeping things under wraps and making a huge a splash, Renegade might have done it. If you like Clank and you like space themes, give this game a try. It builds on the mechanics of Clank!: The Deck-Building Adventure and adds some solid additions. One of those additions is the factions on cards where if cards from the same faction are played on a turn, their special abilities trigger. This is a solid component that it really can add strategy to the market as you look at what to buy during your turn. Was looking forward to seeing Thunderstone Quest at Gen Con, but this might still a little of that thunder in the deck building world.
The Climbers was released in 2008 and is being brought back to us gamers by Simply Complex which is part of Capstone Games in 2017. This is an easy to play game with a ton of strategy that even creates moments of take that. As you play the game, it is so cool to watch the tower grow and see it morph into a skyscraper. However, there are cases where players can almost be eliminated and thus not be fun for those left on the lower portions of the tower. This is one of those games that maybe for the older gamers, it will be a nice one to break out periodically, but this definitely has the staying power with younger gamers.
Gen Con is this week and we are very excited to be attending and for the first time, together. Hard to imagine, but Marty and I have never attended Gen Con at the same time. Last time that I was in attendance was in 2012, so I know I am in for a shock to the system. I joked during the show about being confused and lost, but how can you not be? This is a huge show and there will be so much to take in. If you can’t make it to Gen Con, be sure to take part in Gencant which is now in its third year and headed up by our incredible friend @425Suzanne.
If you are lucky enough to be attending, here is our schedule:
Thanks for listening and look forward to our next show where we data burst our thoughts on Gen Con.
Episode of epic proportions is upon us. Isaac Vega returns to the show after being sent away to an island to contemplate what is next for Plaid Hat Games. In this interview, Isaac talks about the future of Ashes and the new game Crystal Clans. While no dates are given, it is always nice to hear that things are still in the works. There might even be some nuggets on Mice and Mystics thrown into this interview.
We give the new game Skyward from Passport Games the five minute treatment. This is a fast game with a unique twist to the card drafting mechanic. Instead of players picking their cards one at a time, the dealer determines the distribution by placing them in piles equal to the number of players. They must be very careful in their distribution for while they control what cards go where, they get the last pick of the pile. There is strategy involved in the process and thus could cause the game to slow down, but not to the point of being painful.
Flying Squirrels return to the show as we have some quick topics to discuss and a new segment called The Scurry Report. This segment is where we are joined by other members of our gaming community and we talk about a recent game that we played. Hopefully, there will also be some moments that we can pick on one another.
Another contest, so be sure to see our post with the entry form on our website. Thanks for listening.
Episode 123 is just full of the latest and greatest games to hit your shelves. We spend a lot of time talking about a very deep Euro called Lignum that is being brought to you by Capstone Games. This is one of those games where you might need to take a deep breath before you dive in, but it isn’t that bad to learn and is very straight forward. Where it jumps up and bites you is in the amount of planning you need to do, not just in your current turn, but in future turns. But, please, don’t let the terms heavy, meaty, complex drive you from this game. If you get a chance to play it, walk through the board as in doing a “fake” round and you will be ready to go. So easy to understand with the board face up and in front of you.
Restoration Games is killing it with their re-release/re-skinning/re-branding of the games Indulgence and Downforce. If you like racing games where it doesn’t matter who wins, because you win by guessing the correct winner, then you really need to try Downforce. It is a fun, fast game and has yet to disappoint. But there is a caveat to that statement, player count in this game does matter, so higher is better. Can’t wait to see the final production of Stop Thief so that we can see if Restoration is going to go 3 for 3.
We also have a contest, so be sure and go fill out the form if you want to win a game.
We are well rested after our recent vacations and back at the mics. Because of the vacations, we have a backlog of games, so we have four for you in this episode. We also revisit our vacations and our experiences. As always, Origins was a blast for Marty and he got to sample the food at the vendor hall, the food at MELT, and of course the food at the North Market. Oh, and he played a few games. If you haven’t checked out the video of him and Chaz as they closed out Origins, you can see it here.
Rocky Mountain Gaming Vacation was an incredible adventure for me and my wife. The lodging was great and the hiking was an awesome experience. First, nobody was trampled by a moose, attacked by a bear, or bitten by a squirrel. But there were plenty of pictures with squirrels and moose poop. Oh, and also some good gaming was had during the vacation. Next year is in Park City, Utah and we are trying to decide do we go again or not.
Since there are four games in this episode, not going to go in depth on any of them. Near and Far is another great Red Raven game that if you enjoy Above and Below, you need to give this one a try. Sentient will be one of those games that is going to get mixed thoughts from people, but not from us. Lovecraft Letter is well, Love Letter with a new theme, but at least it is a theme we can enjoy. Pit Crew gets nothing but three F’s, it is Family Fun Filler for sure.
Okay, been hanging out with Chaz to much. Congrats to our winners of the Screening, Streaming, or Steaming contest. And here is the link to the Gen Con Event that Marty mentioned.
As part of the Tabletop Showcase series, Eric Lang returns to RDTN for a discussion on his newest game from CMON, The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire. Eric goes over the design process and the things he hoped to accomplish with this euro-game that based on the theme, you might not expect it. Our discussion takes us from the start of the project to the final graphic design. Eric was a very gracious guest and provided us some great insight.
Don’t forget about the contest sponsored by Tabletop SHOWCASE. You have until 6/30/2017 to enter and you can get to the contest page HERE.
Marty and I would like to give a special thanks to Rich Sommer for coming onto the show and providing us with the Cocktail while gaming. Rich does a similar segment on his show that is always a treat to listen to, even if you do not partake in the spirits. Here are the links to The Godfather and The Godfather II drinks.
Be sure to return for Episode 122 where we discuss our events at Origins and the Rocky Mountain Gaming Vacation as well as another game review.
In this jam packed episode we spend time on the new CMON game called Lorenzo il Magnifico. To say it was a unique experience might be putting it somewhat mildly. The game is not hard to learn or play, but there are some really taxing decisions that must be thought through. However, we are not talking analysis paralysis type decisions, but ones where you know what you want to do and you go and do it only to say, “Oh crap, I can’t do that.” We heard that most of the night when playing. What would cause these events? Well, it is the tightness of the resources. This game doesn’t allow for you to squander them away, you really have to be on your toes. Will this game replace any other euro in your collection, we can’t say, but we can say give it a try for sure.
Next on the table was Century: Spice Road. This game is being called Splendor 2.0 because of how it plays so similar to Splendor. We are not saying that here at RDTN. This game should be judged on the merits it has going for it. Century is one of those game where you will find yourself planning 4 or 5 steps ahead and feel like you are in a race constantly with the other players. You will need to always be looking for alternate moves and not count on what you had planned being there. Maybe you do that in Splendor, but that is not the feeling we had when we played Splendor.
Must apologize for the technical difficulties in the show. We had an interview ready to go with Emerson and due to internet issues where he was, we couldn’t pull it off. And by the time he got to a reliable service, Tony was gone on his vacation. So, Marty took the helm and lead the discussion. Sometimes even we get bit due to technical difficulties.
Next episode is our first Tabletop Showcase and Mr. Eric Lang is back to tell us all about his new CMON game, The Godfather: Coreleone’s Empire. Eric is always a treat being on the show and he didn’t disappoint this time.
Thanks for listening and supporting us, we really appreciate it.
Conventions are upon us and it is all being kicked off by International Table Top Day. We hope you had a good experience and played a few games on April 29th. What is so interesting is that we went old school this year and pulled out some classics and enjoyed them. Just goes to show that you really do need to take a look at what might be collecting dust on your shelf and give it a try and who knows, you might even discover something that makes you wonder how you lived without that game in the past. Or better yet, you might discover a rule to a game that you know cold, but then something that never has occurred happens and there is an “Ohhhh, I didn’t know that” moment.
Marty got to enjoy CMON Expo in Atlanta again and while the games where good, the food was incredible. He got to see some of the newest games to try, but there was a minor issue due to limited amounts of the games. However, it was still a great experience and the swag bag was incredible. Speaking of new CMON games that are coming out, The Godfather will be out at the end of June and if you missed the announcement, it is going to be the first game in the collaborative effort known as Tabletop Showcase. We are teaming up with Watch It Played, The Secret Cabal, Drive Thru Review, Pair of Dice Paradise, and Board Game Replay to bring a week long series media content on a featured game. You can find more information on the website by clicking in this area.
Our game for this episode a great two player game called 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis. People have said that this game gives you a flavor for the epic scale Twilight Struggle and even though we haven’t played it, if it is anything like 13 Days, we would like it. 13 Days is so simple but yet, very deep and well worth your time to give it a try. Plus it is at a great cost point. However, be sure to have the BGG website handy for there will bound to be questions.
Don’t forget that the contest for guessing the box office draw on opening weekend for the movie Wonder Woman. Deadline to enter is May 31st.
Coming back for its forth year, our annual summer movie preview show. This is our break from board gaming to explore our second favorite hobby, watching movies. The episode is all about the summer movies that will be out in 2017 and just what we think of them. There are no tomatoes given out, we do not speculate on Oscar potential, we are simply discussing whether we think this movie is worth seeing or not. The rankings have changed this year thanks to the great suggestion by Josh Schwin from our BoardGameGeek Guild, so a little explanation is in order.
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Screening: This was the Box Office ranking and if we say that it is a Screening, then we plan and believe it is worth going to the theater to see.
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Streaming: This was the Red Box ranking and this is a movie that may not be worth the expense to see at a theater and we can easily wait for its release to some type of streaming platform
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Steaming: This is a movie that while it may not be a bad movie, we have no interest at all in seeing. Then again, it could be just a pile of steaming crap.
To help us get through the movie list, we are joined once again by our good buddies from the Carolinas, Dan Patriss and Chris Kirkman. As some of you may already know, Dan is the lead host for the podcast The Geek Allstars. His podcast is about Board gaming, video gaming, MMO’s, movies, TV, tech, sports, and all things geek that come to mind. Yeah, straight from his BGG Guild page, we have no shame here. His co-host or “other guy” is Chris Kirkman, who has his own Podcast, The State of Games. Chris is also part of the Greater Than Games board game studio which is know for Sentinels of the Multiverse, VivaJava, Bottom of the 9th, Brewcrafters, and Exoplanets to name a few.
Don’t forget about our contest this year as it correlates to our yearly draft of which movies we think will be the big box office draws. You can fill out the survey by clinking on this link or viewing our webpage.
The three games in this episode created different reactions for us. One of them will be a jewel in our collection. One did not get the love that others have shown it. And finally, one created a split among us, something that seldom happens on RDTN. However, Unfair, Ethnos, and The Captain is Dead should not be missed.
Ethnos might make you raise your skepticism thinking that it is just another set collecting game, but there is plenty of strategy in this one. If you are on the fence with Ethnos, check out the Watch It Played video and maybe that will help in your decision.
Unfair is a pure engine builder with the theme of trying to build the best theme park. Like all engine builders, you will increase the efficiency of the engine as you learn the cards. One of the nicest features of the game is it comes with six genres to add to the replay-ability of the base game. The number of genres you pick from depends on the players and they all get shuffled together. Each genre has a different aspect too it, so it helps add to the randomness of the game. But at its heart, it is an engine builder.
The Captain is Dead is a co-op game that offers play up to seven people. Support for that number of people without being a social deduction game is tough to find and truly a gem in the cooperative gaming world. Another high point was that the A.P. in the higher player count did not show up. In our plays, people pretty well knew what needed to be done. All in all, three very solid games worth a look for sure.
In the Kickstarters we mentioned, the Big Viking Mats is off and running and is almost half way to the funding goal. Went back and looked at all options when it comes to finding a game mat to fit the table and while there may be some cheaper options, you really need to look at the type and quality of mat. I found a 4×8 mat for $50 and come to find out, is was great for the floor in a horse stall. But it is so heavy that it would not work for a gaming table. Big Viking Mats is a very good option and Paul is looking to be as accommodating with the design as he can be.
Chariots of Rome is also off and running and coming to the first turn in their funding. They have a ways to go, but plenty of time so far. This isn’t one of those huge scale racing game, but a fun frolic through the Circus where you are pushing your luck and trying to out think your opponents. Be sure to watch all their videos on their KS page to get a really good idea what the game is about.
Be sure to check out the two apps we mentioned as well: Tokaido and Terra Mystica
In our next episode, we go back to the movies for our summer preview and be sure to watch this space for how to enter in our next contest.
After many attempts to get the segment to rise from the ashes, we were successful in rezzing Chit Chat for this episode. We are honored to have Mandi Hutchinson join the Chit Chat team, so please be sure to be on your best behavior while she is here. However, Suzanne is use to y’all so carry on as normal. In the segment, we tackle the dilemma of how do you cull your games and, without a doubt, there are many ways to look at it. We are just going to present our ways from the simple to the completely ridiculous* and hope that you will contribute some of yours on either the RDTN Guild or Facebook Page.
Assault of the Giants by Wizkids games is the big review in this episode. This is an area control game where giant
factions are battling for ordning points by completing events or battling with other clans on the board. The game is based on the Dungeons & Dragons adventures and comes from the story the Storm King’s Thunder which was published in 2016 and is often seen as one of the best adventures for 5th edition. The premise of that story is that the giants are running a muck and the small folk must battle the giants or be crushed. This game uses the very start of the story where the giants have emerged. Players control one faction on the board and play command cards to do the various actions. The game is straight forward and fairly easy to teach. Most importantly for us, the game makes us want to play it again because we had a nagging sensation that we could have done better. If you get a chance to give this a try, be sure to do it.
We also have two 5 Minute Initiative reviews based on two new card games. Jump Drive is from Rio Grande Games and is from the Race for the Galaxy universe. This is a clearly a filler that might help you with Race or Roll for the Galaxy in a generic way, but it would be stretching it to say it is an intro to either of those games. Don’t give this too much analysis, it is a filler game. The other game is Moons from one of our local designers, Robert Burke. This trick-taking card game is not a filler and is similar to the card game Diamonds by Stronghold Games. There are some nice one offs to a standard card game that is enough that you might not want to pass up a play if you get the opportunity. Both games are not without their minor faults from a big point swing in Jump Drive to the advantages that the asteroid cards have in Moons. But, we would still play them if brought out on the table.
Be sure to check out the Secret Cabal crowd funding that is going on if you are so inclined. One other thing, if you have yet to write a review or rank RDTN over at iTunes, we would greatly appreciate it.
Definition of gibbous
1 a : marked by convexity or swelling
b of the moon or a planet : seen with more than half but not all of the apparent disk illuminated
2: having a hump
It is no secret that we like games that have some type of asymmetrical component to it and VAST: The Crystal Caverns has this. The fact that each individual has their own “powers” and play style is what brings us to the table for this game. But, the individuality doesn’t keep the interaction down because everyone must help one another at times in hopes that they are able to score their winning condition when the time is right. One thing that would scare us for sure in designing this game is how to balance this game with all this individuality. But thank goodness they did achieve it. And due to the individuality, you will spend time getting good at one, then realize you got four more to go, so the replays will be in this game. There has been some negative comments out in the community, but you do owe yourself at least one play of this game.
We also got to try the Aztec expansion for Imperial Settlers which we were lucky enough to demo back in July of 2016. We enjoy Imperial Settlers and this expansion will hopefully get the game to the table more. The Pray mechanic and Blessing resource are truly a new and innovative approach for this type of game. Instead of a dry get resource, use resource repetitive play, you know have the randomness that these games are lacking at times. Also, there was an error on a card that delayed this game coming out until Portal was able to reprint this one card and stick in each expansion. That goes a long way in showing the type of company you are dealing with because they could have just pushed the expansion out and had people contact them for a replacement. Well done Ignacy, well done.
It is exciting that Stop Thief got funded, but wait till you listen to Justin tell us about the plans for Restoration Games. They are already working on more games and will be making announcements at Gen Con. We tried, man did we try to get him to Spill the Beans, but he was tight lipped. He did promise to come back and we will surely have him back on the show and hopefully Rob Daviau will join us.
We hope you enjoy the brand new segment that is being brought to you from the creative mind of Chaz Marler. In this new segment, we will debate the aspects of various positions people take in the mechanics, themes, and design of board games. Now that it has been typed, that sounds a little heavier than anticipated. We hope to continue to have this segment in a regular fashion and love to hear comments and suggestions on how to make it even better.
We overview two games with our 5 Minute Initiative format in this episode. Rum & Bones, Second Tide is a follow up from CMON that adds some new mechanics that were not present in the original. If you want a good little dice chucker, then this might be a game that you need to check out. Don’t get us wrong here, there is some strategy around planning the moves, determining the quickest course to the needed victory points, but when the battles rage, it comes down to the dice.
They Who Were 8 is the other game we talk about. This one is a deceptive game in that what seems to be a simple “cube” pusher, suddenly becomes a real thinker. You will find yourself trying to out guess your opponents and thinking you have the game one, when suddenly, things shift on you and you are now trying to play catch-up to everyone else. Be sure to read the final scoring a couple of times before sitting down to play because failure to do it correctly will cause you to have a distaste in your mouth
Travis, Marty’s son, sits down and talks to us about the BGG Golden Geek 2016 RPG winner, 7th Sea. So, if you are curious why it won, be sure to give this a listen. Travis speaks to the system it uses and the setting. Most importantly, he mentions that everything you need is contained in one book and not spread over multiple books. If you are looking for a pirate themed RPG, you should give this one a look.
Once we had recorded and edited the episode, we got some excited news from Portal Games. They have announced one of their big games coming out in 2018, Detective: A Modern Crime Boardgame. We decided this news was worth adding an additional segment at the end of the episode so that we can provide details that we gathered from the North American Portal Games Representative, Chevee Dodd.
Thanks for listening as always and be sure and fill out our poll on what games you would like to hear our thoughts on in upcoming episodes.
We have been trying for weeks to get Mare Nostrum Empires by Academy Games by Academy Games to the table and it is a shame that it took so long, but https://www.c9bets.com/ have helped us crack it at last. Yeah, it is a good game, but you will need to listen to just what it was that impressed us so much about it. Will say it is one of those games when you are done, you sit back, contemplate the play, and, for us, we need to do it again because you know you could have done better.
Conflict of Heroes: Guadalcanal was a game that also needed to get to the table. We have been wanting to try a chit based wargame just to see how we like it. It isn’t like there are a few waiting to be played, but we really wanted to give this a try for it seemed easy to get into and should build up as we play more missions. It was very surprising how easy it was to read the small chits and all the data was right there in front of us. There was also some very handy guides that came with the game. Great, we now have two games fighting for time on the table.
Kingsport Festival: The Card Game from Passport Games was a different experience. It wasn’t a bad game, but we experienced a bunch of downtime. Now it could be that we were all reading the cards over and over and thus slowed down the game. Then again it could be that the game just didn’t have much interaction at all. But, the cards could have been possible done without text thus speeding up the play or after multiple plays, you will know the cards. What is really funny is that they are calling this a card game, but it also requires the use of dice on every turn. Either way, want to get a chance at playing this again.
A lot of work and time are put into turning a game into a fully funded reality and through the help of Kickstarter, some actually make it to the market. We talked about Cosmic Run: Rapid Fire by Steve Finn, the designer behind Biblios. This game is a two player dice implementation of Cosmic Run that came out last year. One of our favorite games from 2015, Champions of Midgard, has an expansion KS going on now that adds a fifth player which is just a small part of the expansion. Then there is one that ended already, but you can still order from from the developers site called Dungeon Dealer. This is nothing more than a deck of cards that let you set up a dungeon pretty quickly for your RPG. Maybe this will get the Lord of the Rings RPG to the table. But wait, there is more, be sure to check out Zen Bins, because we know you have gotten into Star Wars Destiny like we have. These bins will help organize your decks for your tournaments and making carrying there easier.
Thanks for listening and as always, appreciate any feedback you can give us.
Another year has past and that brings us to the coveted award ceremony of RDTN, The Squirrelys. This is the show where we decide our games from 2016 that need some recognition. While most of the awards are the standard ones you hear about on other shows, we also like to throw out the odd one here and there. If you missed the Squirrelys from last year, then you need to know that this show has presenters from other podcasts and acceptance speeches from some of the winners. Yeah, it isn’t just us talking about the best of the best, but it is our attempt to mimic the award shows that are bombarding our senses during this time of year. And just like normal awards, we are sure there will be some controversy over the selections. Truthfully, we hope there is some to drive discussion and the selection committee would love to know your thoughts and possible ideas for the 2018 Squirrelys.
But looking back, 2016 was a banner year in board gaming as we were hit with many solid games. Now, it doesn’t mean there weren’t any stinkers, but there were probably more good games this year than we all realize. Shoot, there were probably games that flew under the radar because of the number of games competing to be on your table. Hopefully this will also hold true in 2017. Maybe, just maybe there will be that game that will blindside us again more so than 2016. Or even yet, we say that 2017 was even better than 2016, but that will be hard to imagine. Then again, we were saying something similar at the start of 2016 as we looked back on 2015.
Enjoy the show and thanks for listening. This show is probably one of the more tedious for Marty to edit. Too bad they don’t offer an award for best editing of a podcast.
And if you are so inclined, we would appreciate a nod over at the BGG Nominations as well.
It was over 100 episodes ago when our wives joined us on RDTN. It only took four years for them to forget about that experience and join us again beyond just a game review. They enlightened us on where they thought RDTN would be in four years and how things have changed in the four years since we started this adventure. We then tricked them into playing The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game so we could do a group review. We hope you enjoy them coming back and remember, the next four years will fly by until they return again. Maybe, if they get some praise, they will come back on sooner than later.
We had some time to capture a few Flying Squirrels for the show since the ladies left a little early and how we have gone down the rabbit hole with Star Wars Destiny. Be sure and check out the Kickstarter for Delve by a good friend of the show Pete Shirey. It is tile laying, dice rolling, dungeon delving game. Delve, I get it now. Have you ever noticed just the amount of kickstarters that come out this time of year. There a another big one from CMON and then there is Railways of Nippon. How is someone to decide on what to get and still have some money to spend on Star Wars Destiny boosters. Then there are accessories and little projects as well that need some love.
Hope you enjoy the show and please be sure to post a review if you get a chance, we really do appreciate it.
Gamelyn Games has been killing it with all their Tiny Epic series, but they are expanding into the next realm with their newest Kickstarter Heroes of Land, Air and Sea. This is a 4x game without the hours of play that are often associated with these types of games. We were able to get this game on the table, learned and played in under 2 hours. Even with the few questions on the rules, the game was very easy to grasp and understand. Best of all, the downtime in this game was limited with only the start of each round being the speed bump as everyone thought through their next series of actions to perform in the coming round. But once the round got started, we were off and running. Before long, the game was over. Will admit, it might have taken longer had we been more aggressive with the other each other thus slowing down resource production, but still we made good time.
There is also a 5 Minute Initiative in this episode on the very light filler from CMON, Raise Your Goblets. Now, some of you may know this as another name, Toast!. It was a Kickstarter that did not get funded, but made its way into a game. So, there is always hope for games, even if they don’t get funded. I would drag this game out to get the evening going with people before I break out the meaty games. CMON has had some solid hits with their lighter games lately, Potion Explosion, Ta-Da!, and now Raise Your Goblets.
It is time for the 2017 Squirrelys, our annual award celebrating games from 2016. But there is one category we need your help with and that is the All Y’all Award. This is the award for what the RDTN listeners believe should have been the top game of 2016. You can enter three choices in the survey and the winner will be whoever gets the most points. Isn’t that the way all winners are determined by whoever gets the most victory points? You may enter your picks as many times as you want, but only one entry per email address will be accepted in the drawing. This drawing is for your choice of a $25 Broken Token eGift Card or Funagain Games. All entries must be received by 1/31/2017 at midnight.
We enter a new year by starting off pretty strong. We have four 5 Minute Initiatives and we interview the Sadler brothers about a new game they designed for Megacon Games. The game the Sadlers designed is based on the Myth Universe, but aside from having roots in the universe, it is a standalone game, so you will not need Myth to play. You can use the miniatures from Myth if you want as an added bonus, but they are not necessary. The game is a coop game and should be released mid to late summer. If you are interested, be sure to check out the Kickstarter that starts the first week in January.
One thing that I, Tony, would like to point out in the blog that might not have come through in the show or might give the wrong impression is about the game Oracle of Delphi, Marty and I are not saying it is a bad game just that it is one that out of all the Feld games, is not one we would play first. There were many items that just rubbed us wrong in this game and the fact that we played Jorvik soon after, made the conclussion even more prevalent. The game has things I really like in games. It has a modular map for adding replay ability. It has dice, it has simple objectives, and it has multiple options to help you throughout the game. The downtown or A.P. wasn’t strong with this game either. But the fact that Marty has had run away leaders and the frustration I felt while playing was large, it just left us with a bad aftertaste. But like the Geico Raccoon commercial, you really need to try this game for yourself.
As far as deck builders go, Clank! is a good one for sure, but I think I liked Tyrants of the Underdark more. However, Clank! is so easy to teach and I can see where the board, sweet bag, unique endgame, and push your luck aspect can really draw people into that game. Jorvik is a great mid to light euro that anyone will be able to catch on and be able to play. But recommend that you go through the cards with everyone before playing so they know what to expect each season and can somewhat have a strategy. Adrenaline is just fun to play and the whole aspect of dwindling points when people get killed ensures that there is no gang up on anyone. There is no meanness to this game because people just need to understand that their character is nothing more than a way for people to score victory points. And with there being no downtime or punishment for getting killed, people are never out of the game. Be sure and check it out if you get a chance.
Oh, and we pulled a Legendary Darth Vader in our Star Wars Destiny booster packs. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
Hard to believe that this is our 4th Year Anniversary show. It doesn’t seem that we started doing this that long ago. However, if you were to ask our families, they can’t believe that it has only been four years. What is nice is that the excuse “for the show”, now actually has some weight with them. They understand that this is something we love creating. Also, we couldn’t have done the show for four years without their support and the support of this incredible community. Hopefully this wave of incredibleness will never end and if it begins to fade, we will still be around until it comes again.
Star Wars Destiny from Fantasy Flight is going to be one of those games that could easily suck you in. The CCG model is one where you need to decide if you are going to be in it for fun or to crush your opponents. Crushing your opponents will probably come at a cost and one where you may have to wait for the market to stabilize. However, if you take a look at the going rate for the Super Rare Green Goblin “Gobby”, it hasn’t come down in well over a year. And if you think that Lord Vader is going to drop in price so you can get that other dice you need, you can probably not count on that happening anytime soon. The one thing we would suggest, find someone to go in with you to buy a booster box, have a draft party and hope for the best. We have been doing this since our first CCG love and will probably do it again product is easier to get.
Thanks to Jamie Keagy from the Secret Cabal for this incredible GIF!
Paris Connection is a fun gateway game that is showing up on many tables, not because it is a new game, but because it is a good game that suddenly became very affordable due to deep discounts. There is no denying that it is a good gateway game for you to try, but maybe not one to put in the collection unless you need something that can hide as a stock market game behind the clever train theme.
Finally, here is the link to the annual survey we are asking you to complete by January 1st @ 00:00 EST. You will have a chance at a $25 gift card from either FunAgain Games or The Broken Token, your choice. Three people will be chosen at random and each will receive one. Good Luck!
We had the opportunity to sit down with Geoff Engelstein to talk about his new game The Fog of War, published by Stronghold Games. We are all aware of Geoff’s Space Cadet series and his recent release of The Dragon and Flagon. However, Fog of War is a departure from Geoff’s normal type of game. We ask him why the change and specifically going into the World War II era where there are many games that already exist with this theme. One item about his game that you might want to be sure you understand is that there are no “dudes on the map”. It is a card game where you are trying to bluff your opponent so that you can gain control of areas. Supply lines must be considered and various operational phases come into play that can impact outcomes. The game is long, people reporting over 90 minutes of play and this is a two player only game.
Marty also talks about the various demos he got to play at BGG Con and the shenanigans that he was part of. If you got to attend BGG Con this year, hope you enjoyed it and had as much fun as he did. More importantly, Marty was shown something that just takes our breath away. Once again, Ignacy is the freakin’ man. Thank you
Thanks for listening and always happy to hear your comments. Our annual survey comes out soon, so hope you will take the time to fill it out. Yes, we will probably bribe you somehow to get you to do it.
Episode 106 was a Beast of Burden for us, but it was a labor of love. We have played two of the newest games that are out now, A Feast for Odin from Z-man Games and Great Western Trail from Stronghold Games. We do not go into a full review of both the games, but we use our 5 minute initiative format wear we touch on each game at a high level and discuss our Pros and Cons. In the outro, we do go back and revisit, but it is a discussion on which we liked better and why that was the case. Don’t get us wrong, both games are really good, solid games and aside from what we think, you need to do yourself a favor and try both.
The local con MACE was held in Charlotte, NC over the weekend of 11/11 to 11/13 and we had a very good time. Happy to see all that could attend. The organizers have done a great job in giving people a place to play as well as have some tables for open gaming. One thing that always happens is that while we are there for 18 hours, it is never enough time.
One of the big things done at MACE, which is probably why time was gone before we knew it was demoing the game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle for the Envoy Team. If you are interested in joining the team, head over to their website and read through what it takes as far as time commitment. One of the neat aspects of being on the Envoy Team is doing the splashes where one weekend, a game is demonstrated across the USA. Check it out if you think you might have the time for this.
One final thing in this episode is a visit from Nick Medinger who is the COO at Funagain Games. We all love playing games and the joy we get when we see a package on our doorstep knowing what goodness is inside. But it is amazing what it takes to get the games to us or our local game stores and Nick shares some of that knowledge. More importantly, we wanted to know what was going on at Essen this year and hoped he would share with us some of the hotness from that con.
We heard about the new Arkham Horror: The Card Game earlier this year when an image was leaked. Well, it is a reality now and we begged, pleaded, gave up our first borns to get a review copy and it was worth it. We liked it so much, we wanted to spend a good while discussing it on our show and really go into the game. Hopefully we provide you with enough information that you can decide if this is an LCG that you might want to invest in. Spoiler: We are in for the long haul.
Marty was able to go down to Atlanta and take part in the GTS Come and Play event. This event allows retailers the chance to see some of the games that are not familiar to them, but we, as fans, know all too well. While there, he interviewed some of the publishers to find out what was coming out in 2016 in time for the holidays. Many things we all know about, but there are some little nuggets of information in these interviews. But then there is Buonocore too. We love this guy.
Conventions are coming to a close and we get to attend our local con, MACE It is celebrating its 20th year which is a great feat for a small convention. It has morphed greatly over the years and is now a convention for all tastes. There is plenty of RPGs going on, miniature gaming, and the board game area grows and grows each year. Pretty soon it will outgrow the hotel it is in. However, we hate that it competes with another great event in our area, Gamer’s for Cures up in Raleigh. This is an event that Dan Patriss from The Geek All-Stars runs each year to benefit the Turner Syndrome Society. One year, I will get to it.
We do want to point out the the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund auction is going on right now over at Board Game Geek and if you get the chance, be sure and check out some of the great items being listed. On top of JVMF, the Extra Life campaign is also going on everywhere and we would love to hear if you were able to participate.
Thanks for listening, we really do appreciate it.
To get in the mood for Halloween, we played two Cthulhu based games this month. First up was Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu by Asmodee games. This is a re-theme of the original Pandemic that has really been streamlined. We had heard that they had done this, but until we sat down and played it, didn’t realize just how much was removed. The trading is simpler, the use of cards to create effects when “outbreaks” occurs is a nice added feature, and the ease of travel helps getting around the map quicker. However, these changes don’t make this an easier game. The complexity is still here, but maybe without the analysis issues that sometime plague the original Pandemic.
Mansion of Madness is our next game and while we didn’t sit down and play together, we both had very similar experiences with the game. While really enjoying the game, the issue of glossing over the flavor text as the game goes on is one that seems to hold true for all of the FFG Arkham Horror type games and applies here as well. It is great to have the flavor in the beginning but then somewhere during the play, everyone is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, just tell me what have to roll to win. At least with the app, you can also quickly bypass it as well. Man, imagine if they had put a timer in it so you had to wait for the NEXT button to light up because they want you to read the text.
Rocky Mountain Gaming Vacation organizer, Michael Canavan stopped by the show and talked about Tony’s one convention next year. It is a small con, but at Breckenridge in Colorado. It took a location that offered hiking, rafting, and site seeing to get his wife to a gaming con. If you are interested, please check out the site and if you are on the west coast, you might want to give it a consideration. If you just want to see Tony suffer from Altitude Sickness, then this will be a must.
And finally, we rehash our summer movie picks and how we did. Marty was the big winner by grabbing the three big blockbusters this year and Tony came in a respectable third. If you are interested in the final results, you can see them posted in our BGG Guild. Thanks to everyone you played in the contest this year and hope you will back again next year.
Intro
00:37
Guild Ball Starter Box
3:11
Rant Time
4:35
Youtube Videos
8:40
Qwixx Thoughts
9:45
Karibou Camp Overview
12:50
Panic Lab Overview
15:26
Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
17:40
Broken Token
22:50
Rocky Mountain Gaming Vacation
23:45
Recap of the Box Office/Red Box/Trash Box
41:30
Mansion of Madness
54:15
This might be unprecedented with four “reviews” in one show and the length is just barely over an hour. So, it is possible to compress goodness into a small package. Plus we got some squirrels to let out and discuss with everyone. We know that miniature games like Warmachine, Guild Ball and Tanks is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you have been thinking about trying out a miniature game, hopefully, we gave you enough insight to help you start digging into something.
Those of you that got the Kickstarter copy of Empires, you will not be disappointed with your purchase. We are concerned that the final battle might put some people off, but we did enjoy it. It is kind of like the game rising up to play equalizer at the end and remove the Victory Points of the planets at the end of the game. This element of chance does bring excitement to the final end game for scoring. The fact that the guy who is controlling the planet could be wiped out and you are lucky enough to get control with a lucky draw, some will not like it, but it is a nice twist. We can not emphasis enough the importance of the cubes and getting more of them during the game. We also failed to battle during the game as much as we should have, but after the initials plays, this will change over time.
Here is the survey for your ideas on the Pint Glasses and we are serious, if it isn’t necessary or a good idea, tell us. In no way or fashion are we married to doing this. But hey, might as well ask.
Marty was able to work his magic at Gen Con and got a preview of a board game from Riot Games. Well, one thing lead to another and we got the opportunity to interview Chris Cantrell and Rick Ernst, part of the team behind Mechs vs Minions. This game is due out in October and it isn’t one that you need to back and will get later. When you order it, it will be on its way to your door. Between now and mid October, you are going to be inundated with pictures and videos. This game is gorgeous and those pictures will not do it justice.
But being pretty doesn’t make it a good game. It is a co-op game, so if those types of games aren’t your thing, then you might need to bypass it. However, if you like co-ops, then you need to take in all you can between now and October. We will be releasing more thoughts as we continue to play the game, but will not be spoiling the missions at all. Not sure how far we will get in it, it is a tough game for sure.
As you can see below from the list, we hope the questions we asked help peak your interest in this game and you dig into over the next month.
Now that Episode 100 is in the rear view mirror, we can’t rest on our laurels. Then again, maybe we should have gone out on a high note and not released Episode 101 (Money for Nothing), but we couldn’t help ourselves. The Flying Squirrel segment is back and in it we have some mini reviews of games and some educational information.
We have a full review of the game from Formal Ferret Games The Networks. Short answer is, we like it a bunch. This game is about getting viewers for your TV station by selecting TV shows, acquiring Stars and securing Ads. The game plays fast, easy to teach, and strategy is quickly picked up by new players. If you like your lighter card drafting games with a solid theme, give this one a glance or at least get a play in.
And we would like to thank everyone who entered the @RDTNgamefail contest for $50 CSI gift card offered by the Dice Tower Network. The one that Marty and I* picked was sent in to our Facebook page from Bryan Winter. He said:
Played a one shot d&d this year for a friend’s bachelor party. This was only the 2nd time I had ever played. The group started in some northern location where the place was covered in snow and we all had to roll to see how our characters handled the harsh weather. I rolled and 1 and my character played the first hour of our adventure unconscious being carried by my fellow party members #RDTNgamefail
*Used what I learned form this episode
**PAWNG: Plays always with Non-Gamers
It has been a Long and Winding Road getting to our 100th Episode. We want to thank everyone for all the support as we made it to this milestone and we are already looking at how to continue to make it better as we begin the next journey to 200! In order to show our appreciation and due to the generosity of Funagain Games, we are able to hold a contest to celebrate our 100th episode be giving away a $100 Gift Code to their site. It is simple to get entered into the contest, either like us on Facebook or join our Boardgamegeek Guild. We will draw a name from that pool of names. Do not delay because the contest will end on 9/6/2016.
To celebrate our 100th show, we wanted to bring as many people onto the show as we could, but Google Hangout limits to 10 and so it was a hat pull. With the group, we were able to play Match Game. You know, the one where contestants fill in a BLANK in a sentence and hope the six panelists matched their answer. In the RDTN Match Game, the task is even harder. Not because the questions are more challenging, not because they were cryptic, but because of the crew that was playing, that was the challenge. Just take a look, this was going to be a train wreck, so hope you enjoy it.
Marty went to Gen Con and represented us well. He wrangled up some Gen Con Squirrels and brought them home for y’all to hear. One has a very unique accent and we hope you understand it. Either way, the boy was spent when he got home, but the trip was well worth it. It is going to be another good year for us board gamers.
Once again, thanks so much for supporting and listening to the show. We really do mean it when we say we couldn’t do this without you. Don’t forget to enter into the Funagain $100 giveaway, the cutoff time will be here before you know it.
We are on the road again and at our new local convention MegaMooseCon. We finally got to play two games that everyone has talked about or been talking about, Scythe and Millennium Blades. These are not full blown reviews with game discussion, you can find that elsewhere. We discuss the pros and cons of both games and we admit that we will need to get more plays in, especially Scythe.
MegaMooseCon was a great and will only get better. Mark Kale did a fantastic job organizing and providing space for all the games. Yeah, there was concerns being 30 minutes south of Charlotte, NC. Would the crowd show? How was the facility? What about food and drinks? Will there be enough space? 150+ people, very clean facility, food truck and local restaurants, and space for plenty of growth next year, no concerns now. We mention this in the show, but love the fact that the tables and student chairs were very comfortable. Admit that they were set for like 8 people, but that gave us plenty of room to spread out Scythe and not worry about being cramped at the table.
We also talk some more about Simurgh and how it played. Is it just another worker placement game or does it have a little something different? You have to give it a try and determine for yourself. The game has some unique characteristics like the limited amount of resources you can keep and the placement of cards to open up more options for placing of workers. Either way, give it a try if you get a chance.
The next show is our 100th Episode and we hope it goes as planned. We are going to try and do something similar to a game show with podcast celebrities. Who knows if this is going to work. We will also announce another contest as well as the winners from our past two contests. Thanks for listening, we really do appreciate it. Also, we want to remind everyone of Rodney Smith’s Indiegogo campaign that has a month left. He is almost at 100% and hopefully he will reach it shortly.
In this episode, we have two interviews with game designers. Our first is with the brother design team, Adam and Brady Sadler. They were on our show in Episode 79 discussing Warhammer Quest and not having learned their lesson, returned again to talk with us about their new project The Walking Dead: No Sanctuary. This project is currently running on Kickstarter until 8/1 and has made it to the lofty goal of a quarter of a million dollars. One of the neat aspects of this KS is that Cryptozoic is offering you two price points to buy this game. One with minis and one without. It would be nice if more publishers would give us that option when buying. It is very hard for some of us to drop $120 on a game with minis and not have any idea if we will like it. By giving us the option to by the standees version and then possibly get the minis later, more might be willing to take a chance on the game. Now, we understand that the Cryptozoic IP games have had some challenges, but with the Sadler team behind this one, there is hope that this will be a big success.
We then drove down to Atlanta to see our good buddy, Ignacy Trzewiczek. He was kind enough to spend over 10 hours with us playing all types of games. More importantly, we got to experience the Cry Havoc game that is coming out at Gen Con. The miniatures are great, the art is outstanding, and the gameplay is solid. And even though it was late, we got to try out First Martians. While the game is some months away, the demo gave us the feel of how it mimics Robinson, but we could see the improvements that will be coming. Oh, and Steve Avery was there as well 🙂
Please be sure to enter our contests for the Scott King Gaming Calendar and the Gale Force Nine Tyrants of the Underdark.
Before we talk about Episode 97, Play the Game Tonight, we want to bring to everyone’s attention, specifically those of us with R.E.D.S.*, Rodney Smith’s, a dear friend of ours, Indeigogo Campaign. This is the first place we go to for help with rules and how to play videos. He is also a great guy, so even if you can donate at the $5 level, it will mean a bunch to him.
We came back from Origins with a bunch of new releases and we need to get them played and share our thoughts with everyone. We are in for a very good 2016 and if Origins is any indicator of what is to come, then Gen Con is going to mind blowing when it gets here. Now, there are a few that were not stars, but the level seems to raise each year, so while these games don’t jump out, they should not be overlooked. Tyrants of the Underdark by Gale Force Nine was the standout in the bunch and because it is so good, we are holding a contest to win yourself a copy. Head over to this Google Form, be sure to fill out all the answers in order to be counted, and we will pick a winner randomly from those entries.
Looking back at the list, there is a game for about everyone’s taste. We have card drafting, deck building, area control, worker placement, set collection, auctioning and games for all ages. But how do they take these mechanics in another direction might be how these games will win you over. Take Piratoons from Stronghold Games for example. Here is a game where you are set collecting, auctioning, and card drafting. With the set collecting, you get points for matches, but if you constantly are going for the set, you might be sacrificing something else and it will hurt your score at the end. To help speed things along in the card drafting, Piratoons puts a timer on the players, but it isn’t a maximum, but a minimum where players can’t call time to stop the drafting until it has run out. Very neat way for the tempo of the game to be maintained and add a strategic element.
One more thing, it is a little early to be planning your calendar selection for next year, but one of our favorite guys, Scott King, is doing his Kickstarter for 2017 Gaming Calendars. He has photos of all board games and I am sure that he has twelve of your favorites. If you are on our site, then you see his pictures in our banners as they scroll by. But that is not all. Scott is also an author, game reviewer, podcaster, etc. Wish I had that energy. Well, he is offering two listeners a chance at win his base calendars, so once again, go fill out this Google Form and we will pull a random name from the entries and award them a calendar. Be sure and fill out all the answers to be eligible.
All contests from this show will be open from the posting on the show on 7/12/2016 to 8/6/2016 at 23:00 EPT.
*R.E.D.S. = Rule Explanation Deficiency Syndrome
This episode is all about our adventures at Origins for it has come and gone and it did not disappoint. It was great seeing familiar faces and meet all the new faces. Thanks to everyone that said hello and hope your experience was an enjoyable as ours. We were able to demo a bunch of prototypes and played new and old games. We bathed in all the shiny stuff in the vendor hall (Stronghold, Passport, Portal, etc) and some of us tasted the many delicacies at the North Market. We have many pictures posted over at our Facebook page if you want to take a look at the happenings going on while we were there.
We do want to make sure that you are aware of a few games we saw. Adrenaline by CGE caught us off guard and we were not expecting the gameplay experience we encountered. If you are at Gen Con, please get by the CGE room and hopefully you can see it in action. Then there was the new Emerson Matsuuchi game Caravan. So simple and straight forward and it will not be a game changer, but it might put other games like Splendor on the shelf for awhile in our humble opinion. While we were there for four days, it didn’t seem it and there were so many other games that we didn’t get to see. Maybe at future Origins, we can have a team of RDTN Squirrels going out and bringing back nuggets that should have our attention. Well, a podcast can dream can’t it.
Thanks for listening and share with us any experiences you had at Origins over in our BGG Guild.
Two of the biggest games that have come from Plaid Hat Games had designer Isaac Vega behind them and we had the opportunity to talk with him in this episode. Dead of Winter is going to have an stand alone expansion come out this year, The Long Night. We know that everyone is chomping at the bit to get their hands on it. Well, Isaac tells us all about it and how you will get more of this and more options with that and how it continues to develop the story. Or if you haven’t had the opportunity to find a copy of Dead of Winter, then you can just start with The Long Night and be sure to follow the advice of Isaac on what scenario you need to begin with in that game..
Then we get to talk about some little card game called Ashes and there is some interesting tidbits that Isaac shared with us. For example, get ready for the Errata for a card in the coming months. We all knew it would happen eventually, all card games end up needing to be adjusted as more and more cards get added, but we can all get through this together. We also hear about the new expansions that are coming out and how Ashes is really doing well not only in the States, but all over the world.
Isaac was kind enough to answer questions from the BGG Guild and since this is his first time on the show, he got to play Rank’em. Been awhile since we did a Rank’em, so reminder that the rules are simple, rank the three items however you want and tell us why.
We are going to jump right into this episode with a review 51st State and Crazy Karts two new games from Portal Games. Now, we know Crazy Karts has been getting some not so favorable opinions expressed and we agree that it isn’t without faults. However, we believe that this game is worth trying on your own because it brings a fun group experience during game night. With those we have taught, they have enjoyed it and it might take a few plays to get everyone getting into the swing of the game.
The next game we talk about, 51st State, is one that did not disappoint us. If you like Imperial Settlers and didn’t get to try 51st State when it was released in 2010, we got a strong feeling you will like this game. The game is easy to teach and easy for people to pick up. Some reviews have said they like the old version over this new one because it has removed a lot of tactics and is over quickly. Having not played the old, can’t say if that is the case or not, but the speed of play and length are things we diffidently liked about this game.
Enjoy the episode and if you are at Origins, please come and say hello.
Having not learned from his last appearance or he has a short memory, Rob Daviau, designer of countless games and co-designer behind the #1 game on Boardgamegeek, has returned to the our show to discuss his next game Seafall. We all know that Rob is known for his Legacy series style games, but little did he know that this game design was going to be his legacy. What you may not be aware of is that Rob’s hobby is cooking and he steps us through how to prepare steak with a perfectly rare center to a seared crust on the outside.
But the show isn’t all about cooking, though I got a feeling we could have talked all night about it. We then jump into the meat of the show, Seafall*. We hear the inspiration behind the game, discuss various rules and tactics, and the various variants that can be used if you don’t have a steady playgroup. You can just hear the passion in Rob’s voice for his creation, his Indian Jones game in the Age of Sail. One of the many outstanding elements of the game is that the story book, while everyone has the same book, people will not have the same experiences. This means that in our mind, you could play this game a second time and have a different experience. Seafall usually takes about 15 games to reach the end of the story with each game going about 2 hours, according to Rob. However, if groups decide, they can extend out the game plays by never reaching a milestone by the time the game ends.
Pandemic Legacy players need to understand that Seafall is competitive and there is going to be diplomacy in this game. While the rulebook is long, there only five basic actions, so don’t be scared by the length. Either way, we will be preordering this game from Plaid Hat and securing the metal coins. Also, we want Plaid Hat to know that when they backed Rob, they backed a winner.
*See what I did there?
CMON Expo in Atlanta, GA is a great small con and we could not have been happier to have been able to attend this year. Between getting to play all the new cool Cool Mini or Not games and prototypes, we got to hang out with great designers, podcasters and Rodney Smith. What is great about the small con is the level of personalization you can experience while there. You can actually relax and enjoy your surroundings and never feel like you need to rush here and there. And the location was top notch with great dining nearby, easy to access transportation, and The World of Coca-Cola. What other Con can you go to and get to taste 100 flavors of Coke. Okay, it is better than it sounds.
There are a few games that we saw there that really stood out for us. First was Bloodbourne: The Card Game. There was something about how quickly it played and the multiple options to win that really stood out. Next was Masmorra: Duneons of Arcadia. Here is one that we backed and happy that we did. Even though this was an early prototype, the models were outstanding and what you would expect from Cool Mini or Not. Then there was the game The Goodfather, an Eric Lang design. Enough said about this one, just save enough money to get it. One last game to mention is Potion Explosion. Not sure why, but it was a game that more plays over the weekend would have been a joy. This game will be on the shelves of RDTN when it is released by Cool Mini or Not in 3rd Quarter.
Word to the wise, some minis are sharper than others and can cause puncture wounds.
It has been a year since we did the last summer movie preview show with Dan Patriss and Chris Kirkman. Funny how that works. Anyway, while the show has some very interesting board gaming information at the start, we spend the majority of the time talking about the upcoming 2016 summer movies. We know, we know, we are a board gaming podcast, but this is always one of our favorite shows to do. It is always fun to just hear everyone’s different perspectives on the upcoming releases. You can tell that Marty and Chris are about the finer points of movies and take into account the various directors, producers, special effects and so forth and Tony and Dan are wanted to just be entertained and being disconnected from the real world while watching.
Item of note from this show is Kirkman’s discussion on Pax East and how it is becoming very board gamer friendly. That was some good information for this con may not be one people would think to go to for board gaming. They may imagine that in order to get to the board gaming area, they need to go through the kitchen to get to some dark, dingy room in the back. Something to think about for 2017 and Boston is a great city to visit if you have never been.
Be sure and head over to our Google Form and enter a contest. Yes, this is one of those contests that you enter and forget because it doesn’t end until 10/1/2016. Don’t wait either, we are going to close off entries by 5/17/2016 around 11pm. Yes, you will already know how well Captain America is doing at the box office, but who wasn’t going to put that one on their list. Then again, that could be a strategy and see how it is doing and see if you think there is going to be a bigger movie later. Full rules can be found on the Survey form.
Anthropomorphic:
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described or thought of as having a human form or human attribute
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ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things
Two reviews in this episode along with 2 minute discussions mostly on Kickstarter stuff. The first review is on the 9th expansion for the deck building game Ascension, called Dreamscape. We know there are people out there that enjoy talking it down, but it gets love here at Rolling Dice & Taking Names. For Tony, it is the only game that he is constantly playing on his Ipad, next to Cookie Jam. For Marty, it is a deck builder that he can appreciate, even though the art isn’t to his liking. We have different opinions about the new Insight mechanic, but if you are a fan of Ascension, you should check it out. Also, if you want to play online, shoot damcree a challenge, just be sure to set it for 28 days.
West of Africa, which is on preorder at Funagain, was the next game on the table. This is a very interesting game and one that might sneak up on you. Your first play may have you thinking, that was interesting, but how is this any different than the other dozen euro games I play. Well, as Marty points out, you better have a Plan B ready to go because of the simultaneous selection, you never know when things could go south. So, how many of your Euro games force you to do that. Then there is the whole how to break a tie mechanic in this game that is really awesome. Did we mention that if you don’t come to the table with a Plan B then you will find yourself playing catch-up at times.
When the squirrels get let loose during our Flying Squirrel segment, they bring back an abnormalamount of Kickstarter news. We punished them for this and hope they will do better the next time. Once again, the big Summer Movie Episode is our next release, so be sure to pick up some popcorn between now and then.
*Correct to location of Armada Games, it was stated I-77 on the show, they are off of I-75.
**Yes that was the second time there was a flush on the show
Based on the poll over in our BGG Guild for what game to review next, we followed the advice of our members and reviewed the game Commissioned. If you are not familiar with the game, it is a coop, cube manipulation, deck building game based on the history around the time of the spread of Christianity. The game is not in your face on the theme, but it brings to life the events that were going on during that time through the game’s mechanics. You are facing trials that are out to hinder your progress as you try and accomplish the goals of your chosen scenario. This game has been compared to the inverse of Pandemic, but with the deck building, it is more than that.
We decided to go check out Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition on an Encounters night. We have dabbled in the RPG world many times, but were curious how the new edition was different than the old and with other systems we have tried recently. The shop was very crowded and the noise was very loud, but that did not dampen the fun we had playing.
Finally, we debate the recent interview that was done at GAMA with Asmodee North and their reasons behind their pricing policy changes. Research was done because we even asked our local store owner his opinion on these changes. It is fair to say that we understand these stances, but the reasons just don’t match up to our experiences in the various hobbies we have been part of over the years. Beware, minor ranting will be done.
Congrats to Chris G. from our guild on his win in the first annual RDTN NCAA Guessing Game Bracket Challenge. He beat about ten other people who had no clue on the NCAA Basketball Brackets so take it for what it was worth.
Time for our yearly visit with Ignacy Trzewiczek and as always, it was a blast. He was upfront with the plans at Portal games this year and talked to us about 51st State, Cry Havoc and the new game Crazy Karts that was announced at GAMA 2016. We also got to share in a designing session with Ignacy on the challenges he is facing with First Martians. Our input might get us some credit on the box. Okay, that might be a stretch because we didn’t help one bit. We went into great depth about the app that will be used in First Martians and found it interesting how decisions you input into the campaign may impact games later down the line. Yes, that is legacy style, but without changing the rules and board. He also was kind enough to answer our questions from the guild.
We also discussed a new card game the Battle of Sularia that was funded on Kickstarter and you know how we love card games. What is different about this game is the use of two “resources” to play cards. One resource lets you place sites or play special cards in your resource site and the other which is generated by the sites played let you play soldiers to the battlefield. Very unique and if you are interested, give them a look. Punch-It is going to release an expansion on Kickstarter in April so that shows a commitment to the product for now. Also, for more information, take a look at Lance’s video.
We also talk about GAMA 2016 held during the week of March 14-18. There were live feeds going on and in one of those, there is an interesting discussion going on between Anton Torres from Fantasy Flight (Asmodee North) and W.Eric Martin of BGG. Here is a link to the video, and if you go to the 4:25:00 mark, you can do your homework assignment from our show. And yes, the notes are on a piece of wood, we were not messing around.
It always amazes me on how things repeat themselves, time and time again. Fifteen years have passed since Marty and I got into CCGs and now, Marty’s son is getting into Magic. Because of this, Marty is reliving the excitement of opening new packs, trading cards and even sharing in the joint venture of buying a full booster box through his son. And then the anniversary of Pokemon is upon us, talk about a rehash from the past. This makes me want to pull out my daughter’s Pokemon cards and give them a try and see how the game fairs after all these years. Like I said, it is funny how things tend to come back around.
More importantly, we also got to sit down and play a few games recently and wanted to share our thoughts on them. The first is B-Sieged by CMON. This is one of those games that will smash in the face, ask if you are okay, and then do it again. This game reminds us of many scenes from the Lord of the Ring movies. Now we know how the armies felt at Helm’s Deep or on the other side with the Orcs trying to assault Minas Tirith. Either way, it looks like a never ending battle with little hope.
Titan Race is a very light game that also fell under our critique. It is a fun family game if the family enjoys doing a little take during their gaming time. But if you think about it, many family mass market games have a take that type of mechanic in them, so this game should not be an issue for anyone if they have played Sorry, Trouble, or Aggravation. Either way, Titan Race is one of those games that there is more strategy laying in the underlying game than you realize.
As we mentioned in the show, there is a joint contest going on between many podcasts to get your hands on a shiny insert. If you haven’t entered yet, please head over to here.
We have the honor of having Dan King, the Game Boy Geek, back on the show. He stopped by and said he wanted to revisit not only his predictions about games at GenCon but redeem his Rank’em answers from Episode 72. Normally we don’t allow people to replay Rank’em, but in this case and the epic fail we had last time, we couldn’t say no to Dan. Also, since he was stopping by, we were able to take the time and ask him about his recent graduation from the Stephen Buonocore University on Shameless Plugs. Just kidding, but we were curious that since he has gone out on his own, how his recent Kickstarter was going and asked him to explain the various levels.
We finally get a review in for an episode. We know, we know, novel idea. So we talk about the card game 6 Nimmt! We love card games and this is one of those that is appropriate for many ages and can play up to ten people. There might be more strategy to this game than some people realize. You really need to pay attention to the cards that are being played and think not about your next card, but that one a few plays away. Even though it is a light game, there is a slight take that to it but not in a mean way. When someone takes a bunch of bulls, you can’t help but get a little smirk on your face, especially if you are the one that caused it.
We have returned from the awards and we spend our time catching up on all the news. Big announcements from Portal, Z-man, Plaid Hat, and tons of other publishers. They are beginning to release their plans for 2016 and this is just the start. So with all this news coming out, we ask the question during the Chit Chat segment on are we becoming board game overloaded? Think about it for a second. Wasn’t it just last week when we received news from Essen about all those new releases? So maybe it was much longer ago, but it just doesn’t seem that long ago.
Suzanne also tells us about her new job over at the Board Game Breakfast. She is now the face for Kickstarter campaigns if you hadn’t heard. She tells us about the workings behind that segment and more importantly, she gives us a glimpse into how an item gets on her radar. Following that riveting discussion, we discuss a topic submitted by a listener on if games were to be equated to say a fancy dinner, fast food dinner, and a home cooked meal, which games would go into those categories. Please, by all means, tell us which games would fill those spots for you.
We also do an overview of the Kickstarter Escape Room in a Box that is currently active. We were surprised by this demo. Yes, the skepticism was high and we were caught off guard when we played it because this could be something very fascinating at your next party. It isn’t the same as going to an Escape Room, but it is a lot cheaper.
The last thing is the link to our announcement of the Podpledge page. Also if you want to just get the shirt, head over to Analog Gamer.
A lot of people will make lists of their favorite games from the previous year and we are no different, sorry. But, we thought how could we differentiate our best of 2015 from other lists that are out there. And so, The Squirrelys were born. That is right, a show that celebrates our best games from 2015 based on topics that only we would come up with. But that is not all, we have assembled a cast of individuals to help us with announcing and presenting of the awards.
Yeah, we were in jest on some of the awards, but some we are serious about. We hope you enjoy this episode and let us know what you think of our choices over in the BGG Guild.
Next episode we will be back to our normally board game show.
The start of the new year is upon us, but before it began, a boatload of games were played over the holidays and probably one of the biggest Epic Fails in playing a board game occurred. Have you ever had one of those games that was just not going right, things were not working out the way it should and come to discover that after you played the game, you were doing something wrong. It wasn’t anything to make the game play wrong, it just made the experience not good. But on a happier note, we had many enjoyable gaming experiences over the holidays.
Unfortunately, we did discuss our impression of Star Wars VII, thought we could avoid it, but everyone else has been doing it. If you want to skip it, we understand and have clearly indicate when it is going to start in the show and you can find the time below. Speaking of Star Wars, when we talk about the SW: Risk game, one of the biggest complaints I heard over the holidays is just how unfair it is. They said the Death Star shouldn’t be blowing stuff up that easily or the rebels shouldn’t have it that easy to blow up the Death Star. This was from the same group, so it isn’t like one side was just saying. So, what does that tell you? Tells me if both sides are complaining, then maybe it is balanced 🙂
Lastly, Marty and I do a different style of review for Stronghold Second Edition. One of us discusses the Attacker and the other is the Defender. Just like in the game, we go back and forth discussing the options as if we were going through the phases in the planning part of the game. Quick spoiler, we really like the game. Yeah, the rules are a mess, but we will be happy to help you with questions.
As always, please leave comments here, Facebook page, or BGG Guild.
Well, the end is upon us. We have completed another year of podcasting and we thought, hey, for our Third Anniversary show how about we answer some questions. And as I always say when someone says “I got a question”, I respond back “I got an answer, maybe they will match”. And this has never been more true than in this show. When we thought of doing this, we were concerned that only our mothers would send in some questions, but we were very surprised by the response we got and we thank you for it especially since our mothers didn’t come through. Some of the questions were very thought provoking on our part, some were no brainers, and others just caused a squirrel moment. Hopefully we covered all that were asked and some answers may make you sit back and go “Really?”.
This is the last show for the year and we will return in January ready to take on 2016. We look forward to returning next year with more reviews, Flying Squirrels, and bring back our regular guests. Who knows what will occur in 2016, but hopefully we will continue to entertain, inform and make fools of ourselves. Thanks for listening in 2015 and please don’t hesitate to drop us a line either at our BGG Guild, Facebook Page, or here.
Be sure to come back to our website later today for an announcement on how we plan to celebrate our 3rd Anniversary.
This one is recorded live at BGG Con and we share some of our highlights and low-lights that occurred over those five days. We went last year, had a blast, and decided to return. Once again, time well spent and a great time was had by all, but it wasn’t always perfect as you will hear.
Someone got a little testy during one game, but we will not mention names in this blog, only in the show. We got to see plenty of friends and fellow members of the guild and moonpies were flowing when available. It still amazes me how many gamers there were, the number of vendors that showed up, and the abundant library that had about anything you wanted to play. Even with the reduction in the number of tickets sold, it still was packed to the gills during the weekend so table space was at a premium. However, people were very cordial to on another and while finding space to play was daunting, it could be found.
But a place full of gamers was not enough for us. Oh no, we had to go and try our wits in an Escape Room. The question is, the picture you see in the post, is that before or after the room? You just have to listen and find out. Regardless, it was a great experience and I recommend it for anyone who might want to try their luck and smarts.
Somethings barely mentioned in the show because we think the name dropping would have gotten out of hand were some great demos we got to sample by known designers Eric Lang, Mike Fitzgerald, Emerson Matsuuchi, and Rob Daviau. We hope to see these new games in 2016, but one thing we know is that what we tried was either being signed or very close to getting a commitment for a printing. So, the momentum continues in this hobby with little signs of slowing down.
Like Leif Erikson, we explored undiscovered lands looking for treasures and riches in this release. Okay, maybe we don’t find new lands, but we did review Blood Rage by Eric Lang, the area control style game that pits you against other clans for glory and while Marty has said on past shows that area control just isn’t his cup of mead, this game has his attention. You can’t deny that this game from Cool Mini or Not is beautiful, but we do get in a somewhat heated discussion over the scoring. Champions of Midgard by Ole Steiness is also discussed and this game is right up my alley with worker placement and the added bonus of dice. The games that I have played so far have all been very close in scoring which makes me enjoy the game even more, but then again, I just enjoy worker placement games.
Being fall, the squirrels are on the loose gathering acorns and they invaded the show again. We got some short reviews, close out on a Kickstarter, some groans and complaints as only Marty and I can do. We are off to BGG Con this week and if you are going to be there, please say hello.
The Green Room at RDTN studios has been worn out with all the guests we have had recently. Adam and Brady Sadler drop by to discuss the new Fantasy Flight game Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game (WQ:ACG) that they designed. We listen to them tell us why it isn’t Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, we discover how it compares to LOTR LCG, talk about Folklore: The Affliction and we learn what it takes to be a Heavy Metal Historian. We also dragged some news out of them, okay, maybe we didn’t get a scoop, but they spend time talking about their soon to be released Kickstarter Dark Frontier. Dark Frontier is based on the Myth fantasy world. They had us buying it for it was kind of like a Tower Defense game and well, maybe it isn’t really. That was four minutes of the show that was like a roller coaster for us.
Marty and I also take time to talk about The Gallerist, Pandemic Legacy, and Blood Rage, three games that are all the rage right now. We do not give out any spoilers in Legacy and this should be the last time we mention it in the show as far as what I am playing. Blood Rage was very enjoyable game and a very hot game right now. But admittedly it may not be for those that don’t like the in your face type of game. But do yourself a favor if you get a chance, play the game just to experience how all the mechanics come together. And did you know that Twitter can be more than just a bunch of nonsense posting. How so you ask? Marty used it to get a better understanding of The Gallerist from the designer. Amazing, this internet thing might catch on.
Enjoy the episode.
Segment, Time
The Gallerist, 2:25
Pandemic Legacy, 4:30
Blood Rage, 7:10
Portal Games Announcement, 10:55
WQ:ACG , 18:15
Folklore: The Affliction, 46:40
Dark Frontier – their new game, 52:00
Rank’em, 56:06
Outro, 01:10:00
[\table]
If you were to go into the RDTN archives, you would hear us talk a bunch about Pandemic. It was probably one of the first games that really started us down the road to hobby board gaming. And if you had told me that when we started this podcast that we would have gotten the opportunity to talk with the designer Matt Leacock not once but twice, I would of told you to get the heck out of here. But if you had then said we also get to discuss the collaboration between Matt and Rob Daviau, a game designer that truly needs no introduction, you would be picking me up off the floor. But that is what we bring to you in this episode. No, no, you need not thank us, just enjoy the show for that is thanks enough.
Matt and Rob were very gracious with their time and share with us what it took to bring Pandemic Legacy to birth. There are no game spoilers in this episode. If you aren’t sure that this game, which is spreading throughout the world like the Bubonic Plague, is for you, then we ask the two men behind it to help you make that decision. We also pepper in questions given to us from our RDTN Guild members to find out what makes these two guys tick. With Rob being a first time guest, you know that means another game of Rank’em.
If you are doing a Board Gaming Podcast, you must always pay your respects to the Podfather by having him on your show. It is just how it is done in the gaming world. Alright, kidding aside, Stephen Buonocore, owner of Stronghold Games, joins us to discuss his upcoming Essen releases plus more. Yeah, he has been making the rounds, but it is very exciting time for Stronghold games with huge releases coming in the next few months. We got to hear more about 504, Stronghold 2E, Porta Nigra, and a bunch of other upcoming games. But if you already know all about those games, then jump to
where we ask Stephen to answer questions from our BGG Guild. Some great questions were posted and we got almost all of them answered. Marty and I were also able to spend a day gaming with Scott Morris, you know him as Tox, and Pete Shirey who works for CoolMiniorNot. We got to play three games with an audience on hand, ate a breakfast that about caused us to become comatose, and then drove home in the start of the rain that has dominated the South.
Eric Lang is on the show people. Marty and I had a great time interviewing Eric about his new game The Others: 7 Sins. It is a Cool Mini or Not release and is blowing up Kickstarter like all CMON games seem to do. Eric takes you through the birth of the game, explains the concepts of the game, why he picked a 1 vs many game, and explains the various concepts in the game. We then ask Eric to answer some questions from members of the RDTN Boardgamegeek Guild. And being a guest on the show for the first time, we subject him to a Rank’em. Don’t skip this one guys, it is pretty darn solid. Okay, after the last one we did, this one is INCREDIBLE!!
Marty also shares his experiences with the games The World of Smog: On Her Majesty’s Service and Rum & Bones, both from Cool Mini or Not. While these are not full reviews, Marty does go into gameplay, talks some pros and cons of both, and hopefully gives you some idea on if you would enjoy playing these games or not.
One last item, our buddy Dan Patriss over at The Geek Allstars is beginning his campaign for his annual charity drive for Turner Syndrome Society. Every year, he and a bunch of good friends hold a 24 Hour Gaming Marathon at a local store in Raleigh, NC. If you are so inclined, head over to his website and check out what they have posted so far and see how it went last year.
Plus don’t forget to enter our Broken Token contest for an insert of your choice (deadline for entry is October 6)
The ladies are back for another episode of Chit Chat. We continue our relationship discussions about games, but this time, it is all about your worse experience with a blind date. You know, your friends set you up to play this great game only to have one of your worse experiences in gaming. Either the chemistry wasn’t right or it wasn’t something you would enjoy. The ladies will also share with you a couple of games that they played recently that might deserve your attention.
We also talked about some quick filler games we played. Everyone is talking about Codenames and The Grizzled and we share our opinions of the game. One that you might not heard about is Mafia de Cuba and there are some differing opinions about the game between Marty and I. Nothing earth shattering, but it just shows our difference in opinion of these type of deduction games. Marty also talked about New Salem that I didn’t get to play and after listening to him talk about, kind of glad I missed that one.
If you are so inclined, be sure to check out Rodney Smith’s fundraiser.
As we have said many times, pre-constructed deck games or hand management games* are what pulled us into this hobby and it is what we get all excited about when a new pre-constructed constructed deck game comes out. So, needless to say, we were really looking forward to doing this episode because it is in our wheelhouse. We take a look at Vs. System 2PCG by Upper Deck and Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn by Plaid Hat Games. Even though Vs is based on the older 2004 system, it has been brought up to 2009 standards, but not 2015 standards. Meanwhile, Ashes is going to set the constructed card game community on fire with its game play, mechanics, and art. Hopefully as they expand it, they don’t break it.
Marty and I also throw in a quick overview of Mage Wars Academy since all three of these card games are coming out this year. There will be a more indepth review of this
game in a later episode. Enjoy the show and hope you got your entries in for the Dice Tower Contest which closes on 8/25/2016.
*Hand management games are games with cards in them that reward players for playing the cards in certain sequences or groups. The optimal sequence/grouping may vary, depending on board position, cards held and cards played by opponents. Managing your hand means gaining the most value out of available cards under given circumstances. Cards often have multiple uses in the game, further obfuscating an “optimal” sequence. (Source: BGG)
Gen Con is over and the Connell family made it back alive and full of stories. To keep it from being the Marty Gen Con review, his wife Vanessa, the wonderful voice that introduces what is in the show, joins us for a special Flying Squirrel segment. Once all that is said, Marty and I go into a deeper dive on Forbidden Stars. We compare it to our first love in board gaming, Starcraft. We all know that Corey Konieczka was part of the design team for these wonderful games and love how the placing of the orders/actions on the board was carried forward from Starcraft to Forbidden Stars.
And then comes the big announcement for a special Dice Tower Network contest that runs in August. Please listen closely to all the ways to enter the contest and good luck. Google Form Link for contest
One of the most prolific reviewers on the Dice Tower, Dan King the Gameboy Geek, joins us for this episode to discuss what games we are looking forward to at Gen Con. Since Marty is the only one of us going to the convention, Dan and I are kind of making a list of things we want him to check out and report back on with his opinions. Hopefully some of the games we mention are on your list as well. Then we drag Dan into a round of Rank ’em that in itself was a very unique experience. We obviously needed to play test those questions before we presented them to Dan, but live and learn.
For all those going to Gen Con, be sure to find Marty to get your Moon Pie and 1st Player Squirrel token, both are limited in supply. If you have time, be sure and pick up tickets for the Grudge Match going on Friday night. Also drop by our sponsors, The Broken Token and Portal Games and if anything let them know you heard about them on our Podcast, it is much appreciated. For those like me that are not attending, be sure to participate in the @Gencant activities and check out the website here. We are offering up a prize along with tons of contributors, publishers and just really nice people. What a great time to be part of the hobby.
Suzanne and Rhiannon are back and we discuss a topic suggested by a BGG RDTN Guild member on what game we think is our soulmate. That is right, is there a board game out there that would be one that you could settle down with and thus live out your life just playing that game. Now in real life we know that there will never just be one game for us to play, but it was a fun debate among the four of us. I not only love board games but also build your own crossword
Marty and I review a game he got at Origins called Stockpile. I must say that I was very surprised by this game and was initially concerned that it might be a tad boring because economic games are that to me. But what a breath of fresh air and one game I will pick up for myself instead of trying to borrow Marty’s copy all the time.
We also give our initial impression of Fantasy Flight’s Forbidden Stars that we have been chomping at the bit to play. This one is going to take another few plays to get a full feel for the game, but initial impression is it worth the time investment to discover if you might like it or not.
We also want to thank our newest sponsor Portal Games and for those heading to Gen Con, be sure to visit their Store and place your order for delivery at the show.
And here is the Battle of the Board Game Networks Video.
In this Episode, we are going to cover a not so new game, one that came out in 2012, Terra Mystica and its expansion Fire and Ice. We also hear from Marty on the adventures down at CoolMiniorNot Expo and the games he got to play. He really enjoyed himself and if you are in the Atlanta area in May 2016, consider this small little Con. We of course have some Flying Squirrel moments to discuss the happenings in the gaming community and things that just cause me to shake my head at. There is even an actual squirrel moment in the show, so happy hunting.
And yes, these are my accommodations in Alaska
In this episode, Love Rollercoaster, guest host Rodney Smith (Watch It Played) and I discuss our trip to Origins. And what better way to cover all the different topics of Origins than Flying Squirrels.
In addition, we compare and contrast various aspects of Origins, GenCon and BGG Con.
Meanwhile, Tony is still playing Yukon Cornelius somewhere in Alaska. Hopefully he’ll make it back safe and sound in time for Episode 70.
We spend a good portion of the show talking about Roll for the Galaxy, a game that not only has our attention, but the attention of our wives and we get to hear their thoughts. That is right, bad enough we get to hear our wives opinions off the air and now you get to experience it on the air. For my wife, she has not been on since Episode 11 and so I was very happy when she said she would be willing to come on and discuss the game. That should say something on just how much she likes this game. It is #2 on her list, with Pandemic being #1. Vanessa, Marty’s wife, has been on since Episode 11, but once again, she was willing to take time from her new responsibility, see picture to the right, and discuss Roll for the Galaxy.
Flying Squirrels includes a discussion on my new favorite two player game Jaipur and a must buy expansion for Terra Mystica according to Marty.
Enjoy and please leave comments over at the guild. Always love those reviews on iTunes.
It has been awhile and we recognize it, but it is just the two of us for this show. Much of the show is on our critique of the new game from Cool Mini Or Not – Xenoshyft Onslaught. Marty and I have different opinions on this game, which is no surprise here, but what was the surprise was where the difference came in.
I do have to give a big thanks to my Co-host for doing this Kickstarter, which allowed us a chance to play it. Just think, it was almost a year since Marty was exposed to the game at the CMON Expo.
We introduce our new segment in the showing called Flying Squirrels. This is intended to be quick discussions on topics that have caught our attention. This way we keep ourselves focused and mostly on task.
Finally, Taylor is back for another Statistically Speaking. We talk about what it means to have expectations of your rolls in dice games. He makes an interesting argument about city placement in Catan that I had never considered before.
Don’t forget to enter our contest for a copy of Xenoshyft, just follow this link over to survey. We decided to try Google Survey this time, so hope this doesn’t confuse you.
We deviate from our normally scheduled program and bring to you the 2nd Annual Summer Movie Box Office, Redbox, Trash Box episode. The concept is simple, we review a shortened list of summer movies, 27 in all, and talk about whether we would go see them at the theater, rent them, or not even waste our time. We are lucky to have Dan Patriss from The Geek AllStars joining us again this year and he brought along some of his baggage with him, Chris Kirkman from Dice Hate Me games. It was great having them on the show to add different views to the program and someday we can only hope that the Transformer discussions will end. If you don’t give a rat’s behind about movies, then we hope you come back to Episode 67 when we get back on board games. Either way, be sure to silence your cell phones, no texting during the show, and be sure to deposit your trash when you leave the theater. Enjoy the show.
We are very fortunate to have Ignacy Trzewiczek (Tsch vi tcheck) owner of Portal Games on the show this week. As many of you know, he is the designer behind Robinson Crusoe, Imperial Settlers, and Stronghold. Like many of you, I had no idea how Ignacy got his start and so glad he shared with us his early years. Also, we learn about early games he designed, the different cultures that you must consider when designing games, and what it takes to pull off going to a con as a game company.
He then gives us an exclusive on his upcoming releases Tides of Time and Rattle Battle, Grab Da Loot. Both will be at Gen Con, so hurry over to Portal booth to snatch up your copy assuming everything goes well with logistics. We then get into a game of Rank’em which includes a hint from Ignacy on how to win at Robinson. We were very lucky to have Ignacy on the show and hope you enjoy listening to the show as much as we loved doing it.
That is right, this is how you say it in Polish:
Look out, Chaz is in the house again so you might want to just get ready for an episode that is nothing but Squirrel moments. Sure we talk about the happenings in the board gaming world, but we spend much of our time talking about his Mockumentary that he did for the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund. The winning bidder received a 30+ minute tribute to their gaming glory at a competition where they beat some heavy hitters in the gaming community. The people that appear in this small film are Tom Vasel, Eric Summerer, Rodney Smith, Joel Eddy, Hunter Shelburne, Rhiannon Ochs, and many others. But it wasn’t just these heavyweights, Marty and I got parts as well.
Chaz then pulls a switch-a-roo on us and makes us play our own game – Rank’em. His topics actually had some thought behind them. Enjoy the show and be sure and check out Chaz’s youTube channel when you get a chance if you don’t already.
Recorded on 4/6/2015
Back by popular demand or maybe because there was a throat punch involved, Rhiannon and Suzanne. We spend our time discussing the news from GAMA, what caught our eye, and how Fantasy Flight seems to be leveraging a particular IP. If you had asked me when I first saw Star Wars as a kid, did I think it would be around when I was approaching 50 years of age, I would have told you that you were crazy. Same goes for Star Trek, but in all fairness, it doesn’t have the draw like Star Wars. So, we can make fun of Fantasy Flight for hitching their wagon to that name brand, but I am grateful they did for it gives them the financial ability to explorer other ideas that may not be feasible.
Like to give a shout out to Matt Franz over at our BGG Guild for suggestion the theme song music topic, that was a great idea. Hope you enjoy that segment.
Matt Leacock has been making the rounds to promote his new game Thunderbirds, published by Modiphius Games and we were lucky enough to be including in his tour of podcasts/video channels. Some of us even got to interview him twice. The Kickstarter is doing incredibly well as you can imagine and was funded I believe in one day. While this game has my interest, I am already stretched thin on my KS dollars for the year, so I am going to pass until it hits retail.
Matt then took some time to talk with us about his Pandemic series and a little about Pandemic Legacy but unfortunately he can’t spoil anything yet and we all have to wait. He did mention what most of us have already heard, that it is atwelve month campaign, there are two cover art boxes out there, but it is the same game, and it was great working with Rob Daviau. One thing I hadn’t heard that was news to me was that they signed off on the game and it was ready to print. Zman is saying that they had 52,000 pre-orders for this game which is incredible in my opinion.
This was a really fun interview with Matt and we appreciate him taking his time to come on our show. Here is a link to the shop we were talking about with the Game Pimper T-shirt if you are interested.
The monster from Johnny Quest, best episode ever 🙂
Has it already been two weeks since our last show? Man, time is moving quickly and spring is upon us, or at least in the Charlotte area. So, time to get outside, do some weeding, pruning, and get the gardens ready for planting. But before we do, Marty and I got the chance to play Deus and for me, I really enjoyed it. Do yourself a favor and find someone who has the game and give it a play. It is a nice mix of various mechanics from other games, but it doesn’t feel like they were forced together at all. I get to talk about Pandemic: The Cure and if I think it is more than Just a Game as stated by Rhi on a previous episode. Marty tells us what the family thinks of Imperial Settlers and if you missed his tweet on trying to read the cards, reposting image here..
And the Triad is complete. We have concluded our back to back to back shows and I don’t know about you, but I am spent. We are very honored to have on the show Donald and Erik from On Board Games. We talk to two guys that have seen a bunch of change in the industry and get them to reflect back on the dark days of gaming and compare it to today’s enlightened world, they are completely obsessed about the victory over full tank champs that they get with P4rgaming and now they want to share their experience.
I get to introduce a new segment, Statistically Speaking, that I hope turns out to be a plus for the show. My goal for this segment is to help us play our games smarter without a huge deep dive into the world of statistics. We all think we know something about statistics, I mean who doesn’t know that you have a 50-50 chance with a coin, or a 1 in 6 chance to get a number on a dice, but are we truly using the terms correctly. I mean, statistically speaking, I got a 50% chance of this segment falling flat on its face, okay, maybe greater chance than that.
Thanks for listening and don’t forget we have two contests going on currently.
What is this you say, another episode only a week away from the last one we released. Marty and I had some unfinished business after the Happy Mitten Episode and needed to get out the goodness to y’all. Marty does a great job explaining the XCOM game and if things keep going the way they are, he might have it up for trade. Even with his pain of the dice in the game, he gives it a Game to Buy on the RO Scale.
I review a Dr. Finn game Let Them Eat Shrimp! which I believe has made its way around the game reviewer circle. For what it is worth, if you have young kids that enjoy Blokus, you might want to think about this game. Or if you are like me and have elder parents, you might want to think about this game. Placing tiles strategically helps those of advanced years keep spatial relations in my opinion. I am sure some person at the Helsinki Institute did research on it, but I am too lazy to go look for it.
Next we talk about the new TMG game Harbour that I really enjoyed and so glad Marty did the Kickstarter for it. But, you, our listeners, have a chance at winning a copy of the game. Just head over to our survey and supply some really simple answers and based on our favorite answer for why you need a new worker placement game will determine the winner.
We then discuss to big news events and two Kickstarters that may or may not be your cup of tea, but wanted to bring them to your attention. Go check out Wizard Dodgeball and Tic Tac Toe Tee for more information if you are interested
For The Broken Token contest, you have to tweet to @DiceAndNames a picture of why you need a 7 Wonder Insert or Dead of Winter Insert to win. Or you can post a picture as described above on the BGG Guild Contest thread. Either one will get you in this contest. Contests end as stated in Episode 59.
Wow, that didn’t go as planned. We had this entire episode planned to bring in the guys and gal from Happy Mitten Games, discuss their podcast, their Kickstarter for Aether Magic. and then a bunch of other big announcements. Well, one thing lead to another, and bam, we were out of time and didn’t get to all of the news we had. But the sacrifices have to be made and you dear listener will get a bonus with RDTN rolling out another episode as soon as next week if that plan goes well. I will say this has got to be one of the best Rank’ems we have had on the show so be sure to check it out. Once we finally got HMP out of the studio, we talk about the Cryptozoic Kickstarter for Ghostbusters and Stronghold’s announcement for publishing a new version of Ignacy’s Stronghold. I am very excited about the this because I love the original game.
Enjoy the show and if you get a chance, head over to BGG and rank us with the other Podcasts in the Golden Geek Awards. Marty and I are very surprised and humbled by this honor and want to say thanks to everyone that helped us get there. And we don’t make this stuff up: Wombat
In this episode, Marty tells us about the new Feld game AquaSphere that he just received from TMG which he backed via Kickstarter. I compare Defenders of the Realm which I traded Robinson Crusoe for at BGG Con to Pandemic and determine if it was a good trade or not. Suzanne Sheldon and Rhiannon Ochs join us again for another Chit Chat session where we just catch up since we haven’t talked in a bit and discuss what is going on in their Internet life. Matter of fact, Rhi drops a sort of bomb on us on the changes happening over at Spooning Meeples. We explore the new RDTN grading scale for games, inspired by Rhi thus named accordingly as the RO Scale. It is real simple because that is all Marty and I can handle:
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It’s a Game
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It’s a Good Game
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It’s a Great Game
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It’s a Game I’ll Buy
Don’t forget to check out the newest addition to the board game table builders at BoardGameTables. One last thing, the Draco Magi Contest prizes were stated incorrectly in the show, but this is actually an upgrade. We are giving away a copy of the game, a mat, and 2 posters. To participate, go to the this page.
Not sure how many of you use BGG to record your plays, but at the start of the year, we decided to try and record our game plays as best we could for 2014. It just surprises me that even after feeling like I played a bunch of games this year, my stats are not as high as I thought they would be. I also didn’t realize just how many are the same ones we play again and again. It goes to show you, you play only what your group is comfortable playing.
Marty and I then ask what is a good gateway game that came out in 2014 to handle the issue above and we couldn’t come up with one. Can you think of a gateway game of 2014? Let us know via BGG, Twitter, Facebook, or here. Love to hear your opinion.
Marty then sits down for a one on one interview with me about the new Kickstarter from Gamelyn Games – Tiny Epic Galaxies. It is funded, blowing past goals, and Marty likes it. I think he has funded all the Gamelyn Games and this is no exception. Enjoy the show.
Our stats for 2014
For our last podcast of the year, Marty and I discuss Imperial Settlers at length. We talk about our likes and dislikes and Marty gives you a quick run-through of the game. Okay, maybe not so quick, but sometimes it is hard not to go into some detail as you discuss the likes and dislikes.
We also go over our survey results for 2014 and want to thank you so much for participating. If you were a winner, you will receive an email from us requesting your mailing address and permission to release your name. We will see you 2015!
Survey Results:
Let me start off by apologizing for the mic issue we had with Greg Spence. Marty and I could hear some of the popping while we were recording, but thought it might be just from the transmission and not on his end. So, you will hear an occasional pop when he talks. But don’t let the discourage you from listening because some great information from Greg. We have a couple of exclusive announcements during the interview plus just how Greg got started with his business. We also talk about For Sale, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and a Tony Tantrum.
For this episode, Suzanne and Rhiannon come back to the table for some Chit Chat and we talk about the happenings at BGG Con. I am sure you are tired of hearing about it and understand because that is how I felt about Gen Con, but I will go on record as saying this has been my favorite of all the big Cons that I have attended. I saved up my allowance to go and glad I did and I am already looking at next year if I can swing it. We got to play tons of games, met amazing people, and never felt rushed at the show. The only thing is to make sure you go with a buddy or know some people going because I can see where it might be daunting to go by yourself. Either way, plan on attending at least once, I am glad I did and I was very apprehensive before we left.
If you are interested in taking the survey, click here
At the start of this year, Marty and I wondered if 2014 was going to be an adjustment year for the board gaming hobby. Similar signs appeared in other hobbies right before they either went through an adjustment or even collapse. The baseball card hobby had a surge in manufacturers and this lead to a dilution in the product and eventually, many went under. Comic books soon become the hot collectible and everyone jumped into the market only to see the same thing occur that happened in the baseball card world. And what the heck happened to all those beanie babies? Anyway, Chaz Marler recently did a video series for Boardgame Breakfast discussing the same thing that Marty and I have discussed in previous episodes. So, we asked Chaz to join us for this episode to pontificate on what is to come for the hobby. We aren’t being doomsayers, but we are curious what will happen and how the board gaming hobby avoids history that other hobbies experienced.
One key difference that I believe is different is that people are not “collecting” and spending big bucks like they did in the other hobbies. Oh wait…
Right before we were set to record, Marty called an audible and wanted to talk about the new announcement from Fantasy Flight and how they are going to cycle their Living Card Games and the reboot of A Game of Thrones. He was able to get Hunter Shelburne from Weaponsgrade Tabletop to join in the discussion. I understand the need of FFG to make this move, how do you keep the game alive, continue to make sure new players can join, don’t break the game with new releases and the list can go on and on. But one thing I know for sure, there is plenty of discussion on all these items and there may not be a right or wrong answer because it depends on where you are in the LCG family. Enjoy the show
The Big 5 0. That is right, we have made it to Episode 50 and we did not hold back. We introduce a new segment Chit Chat with two very well known contributors in the gaming community, Suzanne and Rhiannon. You recognize Suzanne from her Boardgame Breakfast segments on games for tablets and such. Suzanne was also one of the main organizers of GenCant 2014. Rhiannon of course is from Spooning Meeples and can carry on a gazillion conversations on Twitter. They join Marty, I chime in occasionally, in a discussion about helping your significant other find the joy in the gaming hobby.
We are then honored to have Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold Games join us and discuss the banner 2014 year that his company has had. We learn how Stronghold got its start and just how much goes into running a small gaming company especially when it isn’t your full-time job. Then Marty and Stephen begin their love feast discussion on Panamax and I try and muscle my way in with Diamonds. Seriously, if you love card games and those that you game with do, get this game.
We also want to give a big shout out to Eric Summerer for providing us with our intro to celebrate our 50th show and The Chalk for featuring our logo recently on Boardgaming Breakfast.
Once again, Tony is on a lavish vacation leaving me behind to produce an episode of the show. So I decided to bring in someone who knows me even better than Tony. My wife, Vanessa.
We recently just got back from a family trip to New York Comic Con. In this episode we share our adventures at NYCC and compare it to other conventions we’d been too. In addition, as southerners, we give our first impressions of visiting New York City.
Next, we discuss and rate the current Comic Book shows on TV.
Finally I mention a few Kickstarters you may want to check out.
In this 5 Minute Initiative we look at the deck builder, Star Realms. This is game hot on the table and on digital devices. Easy to learn, plays fast and lots of replayability. And with expansions announced, this game is going to have some legs.
This episode is just us this time. We were recovering from our marathon with the Geek All Stars when we recorded this episode. We talk about the upcoming gaming convention in Charlotte called MACE which is being held November 7-9, 2014. It is at the Hilton Charlotte University Place if you can find time to come down. Marty and I hope to hold a tournament that weekend if the logistics work out. We are still ironing out the details, they are rather rough, but it will be for the charity Turner Syndrome Society. This is the same charity that the Geek Allstars support with their 24 hour gaming marathon. You can find more information about this event at Gamers for Cures. We have also received a pass to MACE that we will be giving away to someone that our listeners nominate.
One more important thing in the episode is Catalyst Game Labs sent us some of the expansion packs for their new game Shadowrun: Crossfire. We are giving these away to four listeners who get us a picture. We can’t thank Catalyst enough for providing us with this giveaway of their expansion. Marty gives you all the details in the show but two things to remember: use #RDTNShadowrun and only available to listeners in the continental United States, sorry. The expansion cost less than shipping if we were to send it over the pond.
And all the links we promised:
And now the good stuff
Our show is graced by another awesome guest, Chaz Marler from Pair of Dice Paradise. Chaz is known for his YouTube videos on Thrift Store Games, Game Reviews, and most recently helpful insights on what it means to have an introvert personality and still be a board gamer. We discuss his webseries, his Indiegogo campaign, and games we have played recently. Near the end, I get to mention a new game that should be on Kickstarter soon called Knee Jerk and we all weigh in on how this game is not for old people like myself but might be for you.
And on a very important topic, Marty puts out a request for someone to send him a Scooter Pie because he wants to compare it to a Moon Pie. In all accounts, they are the same, but he wants to see for himself.
In this episode, we have two special guest stars on our show, Lance Myxter and Lee Shelton. Some of you know Lance from his youTube channel Undead Viking Videos and Lee you have heard us mention his name many times on our show as our resident go to guy for Netrunner and teaching games. Both gentlemen were kind enough to talk to us about the recent news with the merger between Asmodee and Days of Wonder and then share their thoughts on how to teach games. Then of course, we had to hear about their Gen Con experience as much as it pained us, okay, me. Lance talks about Five Tribes, Panamax, and Shinobi Clans and Lee tells us about Tragedy Looper, Subdivision, and Red.
I wanted to document the discussion about teaching games because it will be easier to reference here then go back and listen to the show again and I am sure I will need to pull it up time and time again. So our guest recommend the following tips on teaching
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Have one teacher at the table. We have heard this many times before, but it deserves repeating.
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Make sure that your players put their phones away and you have their attention.
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Don’t be afraid to let them ask questions during the instruction because that is how we all learn is by asking questions. In other words, don’t just blurt out rules and then see if there are questions at the end.
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Teaching a game is easier if you are not an active participant. Yeah, that doesn’t sound like fun, but sometimes that is what you need to do.
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Keep the rules simple at the start and let the game get started if possible. We learn more when we have examples.Know your
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Get to know the players if you can. Are they familiar with the style of game? Have they played similar games? What games do they like? All this can help you know at what level you need to teach the game.
That is right, we got a contest* for you. Scott King has graciously offered our listeners a chance to win a print from one of the images in his 2015 Gaming Calendar Kickstart. To hear more details, got to listen to the show, but you can enter the contest by going to this link.
Marty and I review the promos that we received from Chris Handy and his KS for Pack O Game games. For a big whopping $6 per game, some might be of interest to you, so be sure and check them out. FFG’s announcement of Star Wars Armada and XCOM got our attention and then we try to guess what big surprise will still be announced by FFG at Gen Con. We weren’t exactly right, but we were both sort of close, we thought it would be some type of Decent game and yeah, it was. Great minds think alike. Okay, that was a bit of a stretch. As the title suggests, Kemet was played by Marty and we get to hear that experience. One final item, Marty talks about his new game Dead of Winter by Plaid Hat Games which arrived just in time for Gen Can’t 2014.
For those that were able to take part in the Gen Can’t 2014 Non-convention, hope you had fun and wish you luck if you entered into the contest over there.
*Scott King calendar contest is unfortunately only available to those in the continental United States. Sorry about that, but if we could figure out how to safely get our Owl to fly stuff over the ocean, we would open it up.
Marty and I took some time out of our busy Gen Can’t schedule to throw together a report to highlight our early experiences so far this year. We give reports on the accommodations and food we had and how the gaming library compares to what we are use to. Be sure to check out other reports and experiences by doing that Twitter thing #GenCant2014. Also, be sure to get into the contest by submitting a picture to twitter of how you are enjoying Gen Can’t and include #GenCantContest.
For all the information, prize list and rules, be sure to head over to the unofficial official website gencant.wordpress.com.
Thanks again to everyone for making this the best four days of gaming at home!
Amazing what a vacation can do to your rhythm and timing, not that I really had any, but Marty was patient as I get back up to speed in this episode. Once again, a big shout out to Rodney Smith for sitting in last episode and if you haven’t checked out his Indiegogo campaign yet, be sure to give it a look.
What goodness do we have for you in this episode? Well, Marty gives us a quick review of the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. We then get back on track and talk about our pre-orders (Among the Stars, Panamax and more) and various crowdfunding items that have our attention such as Scott King’s 2015 Gaming Calendar, Mantic’s new Dungeon Saga, Chris Handy’s Pack of Games, and Dice Hate Me Games’ Compounded: Geiger Expansion.
Way too much goodness out there and on top of that, GenCon releases. Wonder what an ’89 Rookie Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr is worth these days so I can sell it and support all this goodness.
We then get to our main segment and share our top 5 list on why we are glad we are NOT going to GenCon. This is also our At the Table question for this month so be sure to head over to our guild on BGG and tell us why your are glad you are not going GenCon. We have been told that group therapy helps during these times.
Enjoy the show and thanks for listening, we do appreciate it!
The show must go on while I was on vacation and Marty was able to find someone, well in my opinion, way over qualified to fill my chair. You guys are in for a real treat as Rodney Smith from the Watch It Played incredible gaming YouTube series guest stars on this episode. They discuss the awards from Dice Tower and Spiel and their thoughts on the winners and how could Kemet not win. They then do a great job with the At the Table question and abuse my write up in the forum. Based on suggestions from our listeners, the segment has been shortened. See, we listen.
In this episode, Alex and Todd talk about deciding what objectives or goals you want to accomplish over the course of a game that will best maximize your game play towards a path to victory.
If you’d like to comment on this episode or ask questions to Todd/Alex, please do so on this thread on the guild page at Board Game Geek.
Note: The previous two episodes are embedded in the following
Episode 1
Episode 2
Summer is upon us and down here in the South, humidity and heat chase us inside so we get more opportunity to play games and boy did we get some games in this past two weeks. Like the title says, we were on a Feld kick to the point where Marty broke the drought again of not buying a game and took advantage of the Barnes & Noble sales and picked up his own copy of Trajan. I can’t wait to borrow it.
We continue our delve into the Marvel Dice Master world with an Organize Play event at our game store. While it wasn’t a tourny or draft event, it was a chance for us to demo the game, play against other people, and talk about the likes and dislikes of the game. Don’t get us wrong, we like the game and while it is fun, we continue to struggle with the strategy to use. That night we saw the Black Widow Super Rare and the Green Goblin “Gobby” and saw how they performed. One thing for sure, the luck of the roll can make or break you in that game. As I said in the podcast, I was down 1-11 in life points and the gentleman I was against pulled two Black Widows from his bag and both rolls resulted in energy, no characters. I pulled a Cyclops and rolled a level 3. With what was on the field already, Cyclop’s ability to kill everything when he attacks, allowed me to pull out a win. Some will hate this about that game, but right now, it doesn’t bother me.
Enjoy the show and don’t forget about the At The Table question over at BGG.
I have been trying to trade a game on Boardgamegeek for over a month now and when Marty and I talked about having Mark, gentleman from the gaming club, on the show, it was one of the topics he actually suggested we talk about. I was like, great, now I can learn what I am doing wrong. Well, it boiled down to that I am not doing much wrong, need to expand my want list a bit, but it just takes time and persistence and one will occur. Mark also introduced us to Math trades and that about blew our minds so be sure to click on the links below to get better info on that topic. Anyway, good discussion on the show and while I am sure many are aware of these options, we still thought it might help those that have never tried it. Dice Tower Game of the Month is Ticket to Ride and we discuss why that game is still great even after ten years. Go ahead, you know you want to play it again, so take it off the shelf and give it a play. Or go drop $80 on the 10 year anniversary edition. In the past month, I know I have played it at least five times with people who have never played it. Matter of fact, my daughter just used Ticket to Ride to introduce board gaming to her boyfriend’s family. Insert maniacal laugh here as we bring others into the hobby.
The links for the show:
BGG Math Trade Announcement
Video Tutorial on Math Trades
On-Line Want List Generator Information
Somebody on the show got to go to Atlanta and attend the CMON Expo and we are lucky to hear all about it. Marty got some good info about a new game, Xenoshyft, that Cool Mini or Not has coming out that will not have miniatures and if you want to hear more, be sure and check out the video over on our youtube Channel . We continue to discuss the adventures with Marvel Dice Masters and our concerns over Super Rares. We also have one of my favorite returning segments in the show, At the Table, where we discuss Buyer’s Remorse. I deal with this all the time when buying stuff, just how I am.
Achievement unlocked, we have broken the two hour length podcast. We debated for a bit on if we should split this into Part I and Part II, you know, keep in the theme of what is currently going on with TV shows as their season wrap up and give you cliffhangers. So, asked Marty why we couldn’t do that and he made an excellent point along the lines that once you got them hooked, reel them in. So we are going to get you invested in the show for the first hour and you will think I have spent this amount of time, might as well stay for the next hour as well.
For this episode, we are so happy to have with us Dan Patriss from Geek Allstars. He was kind enough to give up two hours of his time to sit with us and talk gaming, their podcast, and the big item, Summer Movies. Yes, we go on a tangent or as Dan says in his show a Dangent and talk about rather the movies coming out this summer are worthy of our money at the box office, at Red Box, or should just go into the trash (trash box). Love to hear your opinions on the movies this summer.
The other big item is the Dice Tower Network game of the month. May’s game is from the Dungeons & Dragons Wizards of the Coast series. In summary, after we revisited the game, I went out and put on my BGG trade list the Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game and hope to get it in a trade sometime in the future.
We are big fans of the coop game Eldritch Horror from Fantasy Flight Games. The mechanics are good, the theme is enjoyable and win or lose, it’s always a great gaming experience. So obviously we were excited to get our hands on the latest Eldritch Horror expansion Forsaken Lore. It contains a new Great Old One, new encounters for the existing Great Old Ones and lots of new items and spells. So is it worth getting and risking going even losing more of your sanity? Listen and find out.
One of my supervisors back in the day had an expression he would use when we ran into tough times in the control center. He would tell us that “Somedays it’s chicken, somedays it’s feathers.” Well, as it relates to Marvel Dice Masters by Wizkids, we got nothing but feathers. We were able to get our booster gravity feed from Potomac Distribution, but the starter sets have been very elusive to us and thus we have had nothing but feathers here in Charlotte, NC. But you can download a way to play without the starters from Wizkids but that only gets you the action cards. You still have to find boosters in order to play and those are missing in our area as well. So we do some ranting about the limited availability, collectible games, and the overall production quality. But the 99 cent price point just makes it so tempting and we will probably keep collecting.
We discuss the concept of Breadth vs Depth in gaming and then get to a great At the Table on Pet Peeves.
In reference to the City of Heroes, here is the video I remember:
City of Heroes
We are keeping with our title naming structure by using Pink Floyd’s Sheep but it also ties in nicely with our main content of the Dice Tower Network Board Game of the Month discussion on Catan. True, I could have gone with Another Brick in the Wall, but that would have been too easy for Marty to figure out at the start of the show. I still enjoy playing Catan with people and have not played any of the expansions yet, which is odd. Going to have to rectify that in the coming year.
The big news in this show is the Stronghold announcement about them working with Artipia and bringing their game line up to Northern America, Australia, and Asia. This is outstanding news and we bow to Mr. Buonocore for making this happen. I am very excited about getting my hands on Among the Stars and those in our Game Club better be ready for some plays come September when it is released. Not only will we have ATS coming our way, but Drum Roll, Briefcase, and Shadows over the Empire. Yes, exciting news. If you want to catch a neat how to play video go here.
Also, we announce a new contest as promised because we hit the 1000 follower mark on twitter. Not bad for a bunch a Southern guys. Anyway, the contest is open to those in the US due to shipping costs, sorry but we are a low budget production. I wish we could send it overseas, but the prize isn’t worth the postage.
Thanks for listening and here is the breakdown:
For this episode, we were honored to have Anthony Racano from Cardboard Jungle on our show. We are all over the map with this one so be sure and check out the time table below to give you an idea of the topics we have on the show. Now hidden in the show is someone from the Bronx trying to talk Southern and myself trying to talk like someone from Boston. There is no way I could have pulled off the Bronx. We had a great time with Anthony and let me tell you, the guy knows his stuff when it comes to our gaming hobby. We do go on a brief tangent on sports, but we bring it back and talk about various sports games that are on the market.
One item we want to point out that has our interest and we want to make sure gets some notice is the current kickstarter Board Games: Now Blind Accessible. It is funded, but consider helping them along the way.
It has been a few months in coming, but it is finally here, our episode on two player games. We talk about two new games, one is Diskwars from Fantasy Flight and the other is from Entroplay. What game from Entroplay is it? Can you guess what it is? Need a hint, take a look at the picture and see if you can figure out. Also, we failed to mention that in our Two Player History of games, we did do Magic and the reason we didn’t stick with it, we felt we were so far behind in the game, it was not worth trying to get into it. We have also tried it many times over the years, but we just never commit to it due to the CCG element.
Thanks for listening and sorry for some of the words missing. I have swapped computers and for some odd reason, the recording would drop a word here and there. I hope to have it fixed before the next show.
Another episode for your review. One of our main topics is teaching games to others. As more and more people discovery the goodness of board games, those of us that have played for awhile get labeled as those that know the rules and should be able to teach others. Kind of like being the person in the office that knows something about technology, therefore you can fix anything wrong with a computer or the network. Just because you enjoy the hobby, that doesn’t make you an expert. I am secure enough to admit that I am not very good at teaching games and so when I try and explain a game to new players, I do my best realizing my faults. I tend to over-simplify a game, or fail to give the key strategy points in a game.
But people all learn differently and when you have different styles in a game, like those that just want to play and learn versus someone who has to hear the rules from start to end before you play, you have got a rough game ahead, Teaching a game is an art and for those that do it well or put yourself out there, I salute you. There are many people out there that try and do youtube videos on the web to teach you, but the two I enjoy the most are Watch It Played and Rahdo also known as Richard Ham on BoardGameGeek. I bet you have heard of them both.
It has been awhile since our last 5 Minute Initiative so we thought we would throw one out between our next to Episodes. Marty and I discuss Eldritch Horror and our likes and dislikes of this game. That is right, there are some drawbacks for us, but for me, I think I enjoy this one the most out of the Cthulhu series by FFG. Below are some Pros and Cons that we threw together to help you with the game if you haven’t played it yet.
Marty and I spend this episode talking with some cast members from the web series Board with Life. That is right, Board with Life. Donald, Casey, Niki, and Jonathan tell us how they got started doing this, what it takes to do a web series, their favorite games, and talk about their successfully funded kickstarter for Season 2. One of the things that a remember most about this interview is that it takes 4 to 5 hours to pull together one of their Bits. So as you look over the catalog, you can just see how much time goes into doing these segments. One of my favorites because we can all relate to having to either explain our hobby or how we have tried to teach others. By the way, Sorry can be just as mean as Nothing Personal, okay, maybe not. But as you listen to the show, you will get why we named Episode 33 the way we did.
This episode is a little light on game discussion, sorry about that. We are in a lull coming off the big holiday rush and well, we did this coast down as we gear up for another year. In this episode, Alex and Todd visit us again with their second installment of War College where they discuss the idea of reconnaissance in board gaming. Marty and I discuss a challenge for our listeners to take part in over at our BGG forum and we also close out our At The Table for February which asks the probing question, what game(s) would you play if stuck inside with a snow storm going on outside. At the time of this writing, we are expected to get 4 to 8 inches of snow in our area and for us. That is a bunch of snow that can keep us off the streets for 3 days depending on temperatures the next day. As such, this At the Table couldn’t have come at a better time.
Enjoy the show and if you haven’t watched our terrible acting jobs yet and have 3 minutes of your life to give up, check us out here.
We are very excited to get this episode out because we had the opportunity to talk with Robert Burke and Richard Launius about their upcoming collaboration Draco Magi. This is a game you have heard Marty and I talk about on previous shows. It is a card game that has incredible artwork (see below) and strategic play. The game is out on Kickstarter now and will have a price point of $15 for USA residents. I am a backer without any hesitation and was #4, I think.
We also discuss Marty’s experience at SCARAB and my recent failure at teaching Robinson Crusoe
Talk about starting off the new year with a bang, I got to make a youtube video for my company and Marty was kind enough to tweet it on our @DiceAndNames account. So, for those of you watching the polar bear baby walk for the first and not me talking about the polar vortex, now is your chance to view. Got to the bottom of this posting and click on play if you want to see someone not use a green screen correctly.
Long episode for us, lots to discuss on the game play over the Holidays. We revisit Frances Drake, but only briefly, we promise. Be sure to check out the RDTN BGG forum for Jan/Feb At the Table question.
*One clarification, during the recording, Marty and I associated Mansions with Richard and the game was actually designed by Corey Konieczka. Sorry about that Corey.
Almost four months after Gen Con, Gravwell is finally out for purchase at various outlets. Marty and I have been talking about the game for some time and realized that we have not done a 5 Minute Initiative for this great game. We have corrected that with today’s posting. The game was designed by Corey Young and this is his first entry into the gaming world. He has mentioned in his tweets that he is working on other games for 2014 and we look forward to his sophomore offering. Gravwell can be purchased for $23.99 online with a MSRP of $35.00. In the box you will find:
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1 Game Board
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30 Game Cards (26 play cards and 4 ship/emergency stop cards)
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6 Spaceship Miniatures
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1 Round Tracking Token (the white pawn)
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1 Rulebook
The full rules can be downloaded here.
Give our 5MI a listen on Gravwell and just know that we really like this great filler game. Oh, Corey if you reading this and need playtesters for your next game, let us know :)Was that to much of a shameless plug…
That is right, one year ago this month, Marty got us to sit down and begin the podcast show Rolling Dice & Taking Names. The plan was to just have fun and really just talk about gaming. Thanks to all who have listened to the show, given us some feedback along the way, and even participated in the show. We look forward to 2014 and hope to keep bringing you game information, news and just thoughts about this great pastime/hobby.
In this episode, Marty tells me all about the game Francis Drake which he got to play at our local game club. We discuss the game Coup and after playing, Marty was right, it isn’t another Resistance, thank goodness. I actually like this one even though there is player elimination. We have put some of our favorite highlight clips in the show from past episodes. I am sure there are better ones out there, but these make us smile. Finally, we have a solid At the Table segment on what people are hoping to receive this year from the game club and our BGG forum.
Intro
1:30
Francis Drake Boardgame
5:30
Coup Card Game
28:00
Highlight Segment 1
37:18
At the Table – December
40:10
Outro
54:00
Highlight Segment 2
1:04:00
As you all know if you have listened to some older episodes, Marty and I really started getting into the gaming world with Decipher’s Lord of the Rings TCG. During that time, we signed up for the online version of the game developed by Worlds Apart in hopes it would give us some more opportunities to play the game that we enjoyed. It really didn’t catch on with us, but we tried online card games again by delving into Magic the Gathering Online. I still have an Xbox version, a PC version and even purchased Ascension to add to my collection of card games that I can do online. I play every once in awhile, but not that often.
So where am I going with this? In this episode, we share an interview with Corey Jones, President and CCO of Cryptozoic, and he talks to me at Gen Con about HEX. Some of you might have backed HEX, you know, the Kickstarter that got $2.3 million. Corey gives a high level overview of the game and answers some of my questions about how they plan on maintaining fairness and handle trading of the cards. Because it is a MMO TCG, I might find myself involved in another online card game, at least for a brief amount of time.
Marty and I also got to play Robinson Crusoe and as you know, we have been chomping at the bit to play. Therefore, we share our thoughts on the game and then get on our Soap Box, sorry about that, and we later learn the lack of supply should be somewhat remedied in mid December. One last thing, I sat down with a fellow Dice Tower Network podcaster, Chris Norwood, and we discussed a game he designed that is currently in the hands of Game Salute.
Robinson Crusoe Discussion
6:00
Soap Box about Zman
19:30
Corey Jones Interview
24:55
Discussion on Hex and iOS games
42:00
Chris Norwood Interview
54:00
More Eldritch Horror Discussion
1:03:30
We are out of here
1:08:30
Enjoy the show and thanks for listening
So as far as the best comedy TV shows go, Marty and I agree that one of the best was WKRP in Cincinnati and the Thanksgiving episode ranks up there as one of the funniest shows ever done. So in honor of that show, we use one of the great lines to title our episode. If you have never seen that episode, listen to our show and then go watch that episode, you will thank us.
So what do we have for you in this episode, it goes something like this:
MACE Con discussion – 0:00
Eldritch Horror thoughts – 2:45
War College with Todd and Alex – 21:06
At the Table: Biggest Turkey Game – 46:40
Enjoy the show and be sure to send us your At the Table for December, what game are you looking for under the tree.
This episode is unlike any other episode we have done. Basically, Marty had an idea that we should play a game and then discuss our strategy while recording. I will support any idea that allows me to play a game. So, Todd (who you have heard many times on the show) and Alex (Mr Game Club) came over to Marty’s to play Lords of Waterdeep and it only took three months to schedule. We play the game and then record a show on how it went. Man, the birds were very loud that night.
There aren’t many segments to this show, so I am going to forgo the usual times for the segments but I do want to point out an important announcement from The Geek All Stars about their Charity event around the 4:15 mark of the show. You can find out more information at the website.
Enjoy the show
Download
They’re here…
This is our Halloween episode and we have the ladies returning to the show. I am not saying that their return is scary or the segment will give you nightmares, but the episode was released near Halloween thus it is our Halloween show. I am also not hinting that the title of the show is any reflection on marriage, just thought it would fit with the time of year, that is all. Now that those clarifications are out of the way, let’s talk about the show.
MACE Convention activities, find out how to play Nothing Personal and Eldritch Horror is discussed. Casey and Vanessa (first appearance in Episode 11) give their thoughts on how to get your significant other involved in gaming and really do give some great advice. Marty and I discuss for our own benefit what is Spiel, Essen and the Spiel des jahres and the games we have looked into that will be at the show. We also have our Halloween ‘At The Table’ and the results from our request for you to send in your answers. Finally, if you haven’t seen the post over at BGG, we got a new contest running, but it ends 10/25 @ 7pm, so act fast if you are interested in the prize.
A bit of whinning
2:20
MACE Convention
10:30
The Ladies
20:00
Back to the us
48:30
At the Table (Halloween)
53:15
Essen
57:30
RDTN Contest
01:13:30
Enjoy the show!
In this 5 Minute Initiative, Marty and I discuss the new Privateer Press deck building game Warmachine: High Command. The game was designed by David Carl who also did Heap for PP and part the Warmachine MKII team. High Command sales for $29.99 online with a MSRP of $44.99. In the box you will find:
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89 Cygnar cards
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89 Khador cards
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89 Protectorate of Menoth cards
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89 Cryx cards
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15 Winds of War cards
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15 Location cards
Marty does a great job of going over the game and how it is played. The full rules can be downloaded here.
Hordes: High Machine was just released, but it plays the same way and can be played with Warmachine. If you are looking at a different deck building game, give High Command a try. And listen to our 5MI for our personal thoughts on the game.
Ever since Origins 2012, Marty and I have been looking at games that involve some type of dog fighting mechanic. At Origins, we tried Leviathans by Catalyst Game Labs and we enjoyed the game, but held off on getting it because, well the cost was just a little much for us. Then came X-Wing and now Star Trek Attack Wing. How do you decide? I even got a chance to play Star Trek at Gen Con 2013, but I am still on the fence, unsure of which game would I enjoy more. So, Marty and I sat down at YLGS and played X-Wing and then had a discussion in the Episode to compare the three systems. And at the end, we still haven’t decided which to purchase.
Also in this Episode, Marty discusses his family’s adventures in Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and Lords of Waterdeep Expansion. Finally, we close out with our discussion on the upcoming MACE convention in Charlotte, NC on November 15-17.
Intro
3:00
Kickstarter – Bones II
4:20
Lords of Waterdeep Expansion
17:40
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
22:30
Interview: Scott D’Agostino Wizkid Games
35:25
Star Trek Attack Wing, X-Wing
45:00
Eldritch Horror Announcement
1:07:00
Marty and I got to play a game that surprised the both of us called Rise of Augustus (Asmodee) or just Augustus (Hurrican) depending on the publisher. The game was designed by Paolo Mori who is also known for Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game (Wizkids), Pocket Battles (Zman), and Libertalia (Asmodee). Augustus sales roughly for $27 online with a MSRP of $39.99. In the box you will find:
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88 Objective Cards
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50 Wooden Legions
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23 Mobilisation Tokens
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12 Reward Tiles
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1 Cloth Bag
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1 Scorepad
The objective of the game is to have the most points when a seventh objective is collected by a player. Each player starts with three objectives and as they complete one, they get to pick from five that are laying out on the board.You complete an objective by covering up the icons with your legion meeples. To cover up an icon, it must be drawn from the bag by the town crier. That is the basics of the game and Marty goes into more detail in the show. Overall, Marty and I really did like the simplicity of the game but there is enough strategy that would make even the hard core gamer enjoy it. This is actually one that I am looking to add to my collection because it would work well with my gaming group. There is enough suspense from the drawing of the tokens and enough strategy to keep everyone engaged. And with 88 objective cards, this game offers a considerable amount of replay-ability.
Download the English rules here
Yes, we promised not to use song titles awhile ago, but this one just fit. In this episode, we do one final batch of Gencon 2013 interviews. We still have a few left, but those will be spread out over the year. One of the big items in this episode is the chance to win $2000 at Square Shooters, the guys that brought you the dice that have the playing card suits on them. Be sure to listen to that as well as head over to their website to find out more details. We are still working out the details for a video and please be sure to send us your response for our At The Table segment. The question for October is: What game do you play to get you in the mood for Halloween?
Intro – Run for you life Candyman
1:00
Marty’s has a Brilliant Idea
2:30
RDTN Podcast Projects
7:30
Augustus Game Overview
10:00
Ted Alspach – Ultimate Werewolf Inquisition
15:00
Dan Yarrington
25:15
Melody – Smirk and Dagger
34:15
Sean Garrity – What’s He Doing In There?
39:35
Square Shooters – Win $2000
42:06
In Closing
48:00
The Cool Stuff Inc contest has come to a close and thanks to everyone who took the time to either join our BGG guild, do an iTunes Review, or fill out the survey. If you did each of those, thank you three times.
Congratulations to Traci Weiland, the winner of our drawing. Over in the BGG forum, we got a post going to help Traci figure out on to spend that money, so if you are so inclined, give some helpful advice but she has decided on Memoir ’44 but sure the mind can be changed.
Marty and I are still reviewing the comments received and all the feedback is really helping us structure the show in the future. So in this episode we discuss Marty’s experience at Dragon Con in Atlanta, the survey results, and and interview with Patrick Connor of Arcane Wonders.
Dragon Con
.1:15
Survey Says
27:00
Patrick Connor – Mage Wars
49:26
Closeout
01:05:00
Yaya, Marty and the boys
Pretty Graphs from the survey
Episode 21 continues the Gen Con coverage with various interviews that designers and producers were kind enough to give me. And let me again say sorry for calling Mr. Buonocore by the incorrect first name. I do not know why that was stuck in my head, but boy did I blow it.
Cool Stuff Inc. $50 Gift Card Contest
2:00
Seth Jaffee – Tasty Minstrel Games
4:00
Stephen Buonocore – Stronghold Games
21:30
Corey Young – Gravwell
33:15
Richard Launius – Legends of the American Frontier
45:10
Closing Remarks
58:00
Stick a fork in it, Gen Con 2013 is done. Marty and I talk about a newbie’s experience at Gen Con, mine. We discuss some of the games I got to demo, some of the people I talked to, and just the overall experience.
Game: Eldritch Horror Discussion
4:30
Game: What’s He Building in There
14:30
Game: Gale Force Nine, Firefly
19:00
Gen Con Tip 1: Decide to go and commit
23:00
Gen Con Tip 2: Take a friend
26:45
Privateer Press: High Command
31:00
Dice Tower Experience
33:00
Gamers and Bikers come together
42:30
Gen Con Tip 3: You can always buy later
45:00
Fantasy Flight In-Flight Report
48:00
Catalyst Game Labs Interview
53:30
Close out
1:07:00
Since we recorded this podcast, Marty and I have had the opportunity to play Shadowrun: Crossfire Demo from Catalyst Game Labs and we are both looking forward to this one. Additional Interviews are in coming in Episode 21 so stay tuned, we will have it out shortly.
Chaos & Alchemy is a game designed by Michael Iachini and published by Game Salute. At this time of this writing, the game is live on Kickstarter
In the game, you play the role of an alchemist who is performing experiments in order to learn how to turn lead into gold. Experiments are in the form of cards that can be drawn during the game and can be played on your turn when you have successfully performed experiments.
Success or failure of an experiment is determined by rolling three dice and comparing the value of each die to the current value of the fortune die. If it is equal to or higher, that counts as a success, if not, it counts as a failure. Successes can be used to draw more cards into your hand or to play cards from your hand. Cards can be experiments that count towards the games goal of 10 points, they could be action cards that give an instant ability or they may be misfortune cards played on other players in order to make it harder for them to reach their endgame goal.
If doubles are ever rolled on the dice, the player will re-roll the fortune die giving a new value that future experiments must meet.
This is light, fast game that involves a lot of player interaction. As with any dice game, a certain amount of luck is involved, but sometimes it takes luck to succeed in a laboratory.
Here is my family’s thoughts on the game.
Yes, the year long wait is over and Gen Con is on us. While many of the board gaming faithful will not be able to attend, it is estimated that there will be over 41,000 people in attendance this year. And here at RDTN, I, Tony, will be in attendance for the first time. It is scary, it is daunting, and I am clueless. So Marty spends some time giving me advice and how to prepare for Gen Con in the first part of the show. We then hear from others on what games they are looking forward to and then we smoothly transition into our Top 5 games. As always, our closing thoughts include various nuggets of wisdom and more importantly how to win the $50 CoolStuffInc Gift Card.
Gen Con Food Advice
4:00
Parking at Gen Con
6:10
Bags to take to Gen Con
8:20
At the Table
12:05
Our Gen Con Top Five
18:30
Closing Thoughts
56:00
CoolstuffInc Contest Reminder
01:02:00
One of our first blogs was on a Kickstarter called Dungeon Roll designed by Chris Darden and brought to market by Tasty Minstrel Games. The game arrived and Marty and I wanted to get a 5 Minute Initiative out quickly on this game after our initial plays. There is a great How To Play video out there and the rules are quick and simple. As I state in the podcast, you roll dice to set your adventurers, the dungeon lord rolls dungeon dice depending on the level of the dungeon you are on, defeat the monsters with your adventurers, and see if you want to go on with that level defeated based on what is left in your party of adventurers. Each player gets to go to the dungeon three times and whoever has the most experience points at the end of the third delve wins. Once again, the How to Play video does a great job of explaining, give it a watch.
Marty and I both enjoy this game as a filler and the theme really is a positive for this push your luck type of game. All dice games have down time, but since the dungeon lord is a different person and they have something to do, there is less in this game than in others in my opinion.
At this price point and the quality of the dice, these bad boys are solid, and with future expansions planned, this could be a good game to add to your shelves if you are looking for a Zombie Dice replacement.
In this segment, Marty and I review a prototype copy of the card game The Agents, which is currently on Kickstarter. The game is a card game, plus on my side because I love card games, that involves a lot of interaction between players. In the game, you are trying to score 40 victory points before you opponents by playing Agents in a shared area known as the Faction. Factions are shared between the opponent to your left and the opponent to your right. So, you are sharing two sets of cards (factions). This concept is very important to the game for it provides one of the means to score points and causes interaction in the game between players. You also have missions that score points and these missions are only for you. So you must balance between your factions and missions to secure victory.
Marty spends the first part of the episode discussing the rules and you can get them here. One thing we forgot to mention in our discussion is that drawing cards from the draw piles is not automatic, you have to spend victory points in order to draw cards so you are having to judge when to give up points to get cards. Another nice mechanism in this game to make you have to think.
If you aren’t sure this game is for you, they have the print and play ready to go along with the rules, so give it a try. This game has been backed by RDTN and we look forward to receiving our copy.
At Origins, my family had the privilege of previewing a new game from Derpy Games called NanoBot Battle Arena. This is a tile laying game where the goal is to take your set of NanoBots and make the longest chain possible. Meanwhile, your opponents are trying to thwart your plans as they seek to create the longest chain.
Currently the game is in the funding process on Kickstarter with game entry point of $25, but the fine folks at Derpy Games sent us a prototype copy to play and give our thoughts on. Since my family had played it at Origins, I thought it might be good to get their thoughts on the game especially since this can also be viewed as a very family-friendly game. Well, one way to measure how good something is comes down to if you are willing to take the time to tell or teach others about it. That is exactly what my sons did, they taught others how to play.
So what were everyone’s thoughts on the game? Listen to this installment of the 5 Minute Initiative and find out!
We promise that this will be the last song reference we use for the naming our podcast. Ok, let me restate that to say, we will do our best to refrain from using song references in our episode titles. Who am I kidding, I am sure Marty and I will do it again.
In Episode 18, Marty and I talk on a genre know as Party Games. These games are the ones you bring out to get the party going, keep the party going, end the party, or kill the party, depending on the crowd and the game. These games serve a great purpose of getting people involved and socializing with one another. Party games can’t be all bad either or TV networks wouldn’t do shows involving games.
We also bring back one of our original segments Casual Corner. Marty talks about Dixit and I give my two cents on my favorite party game Wits and Wagers.
For your listening pleasure:
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GenCon Discussion – 02:00
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Big Announcement – 05:00
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Video Games…what? – 09:15
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What are you playing – 13:15
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Casual Corner – 18:25
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Party Game Genre – 29:00
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The Party Game Cast – 45:54 (Dice Tower Network Fellow Podcast)
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Hooyah Game Review – 47:10
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Garden Dice Game Review – 50:45
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At the Table – 59:00
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Closeout – 1:02:00
For those that don’t know, Minus Garfield (01:00)
Here is a picture of the play mat we walked away with at our Netrunner Tourny
Have you ever been playing a game and wished that they people you were playing with would just get a clue and have better manners? Of course you have, Marty and I discuss some of the things that we believe should be just common knowledge among us gamers when it comes to courtesy. Now we know that we are generally preaching to the choir here, but I know we have all been guilty of this from time to time. I know that I did a major faux pas by leaving a game near the end, but time just ran out and I should have realized that this game would not end by the time I needed to leave. To quote Gomer Pyle “Shame! Shame! Shame!”, I should have known better.
We also spend time talking about Marty’s adventures at Origins, the games we are playing (Tzolk’in, Pillars Expansion, The Duke), and a brand new segment called At The Table.
Origins Report
3:05
Games we are playing
13:00
Gamer Etiquette
20:48
Ask before touching
25:08
Put things where they belong
28:01
Take time to learn the rules
30:30
Rules Lawyer – I object!!
34:10
Lose the Cell
36:30
Finish what you started
38:10
Analysis Paralysis
39:15
Credit the Player, don’t blame dumb luck
42:45
RSVP
45:25
At the Table (New Segment)
47:50
Closeout
52:10
That is right, channeling some Pat Benatar for Episode 16. Over two years ago, Marty and I got involved in Warmachines. We are still only dabbling in the hobby, but it is going good so far. I will admit, there are some things that I am not a fan of in the game, but I was surprised at how much I enjoying painting the models, which I thought would not be the thing I liked about this hobby.
We invited Steve, you know the guy that did our logo, to help us discuss miniature gaming since he has had a very long career in the hobby. We explorer the history, talk about what is going on now in miniatures, and we even have our first inadvertent embarrassing sound on our podcast.
For your listening pleasure:
History of Wargaming (in our minds)
8:24
Social Interaction in Minis
26:00
Painting – It is not a Barrier
32:00
Miniature Games – All we have tried
35:00
Terrain in Miniature Games
38:30
Historical Gamers
41:00
Rules, Rules, Rules
44:30
The New Trend – RPGing in Miniatures
49:00
Sum it up
57:30
The Funny Sound
59:46
HG Wells book on Miniature Gaming
For this 5 Minute Initiative, Marty and I discuss a new game from Catalyst Game Labs, The Duke. This was a Kickstarter from last year that Marty bought into and I am jealous that I didn’t. It is a fabulous game. It is a mix of Chess and Checkers with the right amount of luck tossed in to keep the game always fresh and never the same. Some may not like the luck that is around which tile will come out of the bag, that is understandable, but for me, it works and works well. And I don’t see analysis paralysis ever coming into play with this game. It is fast, but strategy is key from do I move a piece or add a piece to the board. In the picture below, it looks like I am winning, but it changes quickly.
Order the game, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by it. But just to be clear, we are talking about The Duke from Catalyst Game Labs, not…
And definitely not…
but I do enjoy that movie.
What?! Two episodes in one week? Yes, with Origins still fresh on everyone’s mind, we wanted to get the last of our interviews released as quickly as possible.
This episode includes interviews with Stronghold Games, Catalyst Game Labs and Victory Points Games. In addition, my family gives their first impression of Darkest Night from Victory Points Games. And we have a post-Origins wrap-up discussion where talk about memorable moments of Origins and how it compares to other gaming conventions.
Enjoy!
Episode 15 Segments – Voluspa, Vampire Empire, Time & Space
01:11 – Stronghold Games
06:25 – Catalyst Game Labs – The Duke, Leviathan, Battletech
21:02 – Victory Points Games
24:30 – Darkest Night – First Impressions
43:03 – Origins post-con family discussion
This is going to be an interesting podcast because I am not on it. Why do you ask my one fan, my niece, because Marty had an incredible time at Origins and got lots of interviews and we don’t want to sit on this too long.
We had always planned to do an Origins show when Marty and his family returned, but it was going to come out in July. Well, some of this material is just so good it can’t wait till July. Matter of fact, I will get to listen to it at the same time as everyone else.
Enjoy!
Episode 14 Segments:
01:37 – Catalyst Games Labs – Shadowrun Products
09:50 – Adventures on the Tabletop Documentary
27:20 – Cool Mini Or Not – Kaosball, Zombicide, Dark Age
34:45 – Break From Reality – Damage Report, Disaster Looms
44:35 – Wizkids Games – Star Trek: Attack Wing, The Hobbit Strategy Game, Trains &Stations
First, we want to say apologize about the length of this episode. We know it is a bit long, by almost 45 minutes, but it was so stuffed with good information on Game Convention planning, we had a tough time cutting it down. Another way to look at it is, you can spend 4 to 5 hours surfing the web, looking at forum posts, and reading multiple articles or just listend to us for about 2 hours and get good info. We already did the work for you. You are welcome 🙂
We also had a guest on the show, Ron McClung, and we thought the interview would be 30 minutes long because he is such a busy guy, but it turned into one hour and we really hated cutting his information. Ron, as you will find out from the podcast, helps organizes RPG/Gaming conventions in the North and South Carolina area. We were very lucky to get him on the show and glad he joined us.
So, instead of reading a whole bunch of words on the screen and thus cutting your time to listen to the show down, just going to leave you with a Table of Contents to help you along.
Initial Yuck it up
3:30
Lodging at cons
5:50
Driving, got to park
11:00
Event Scheduling
13:30
SWAG, Convention Bonus
20:00
Daily survival guide
24:00
Survival Bag
27:00
Let’s get funky
30:00
What is Justus Productions
38:00
Picking your first convention
50:00
Location, Location, Location
1:00:00
Scoop!!! RDTN first ever!!!
1:05:00
Gamerscodex website
1:24:00
Final thoughts
1:33:00
As always, please leave us any comments here or at Boardgamegeek or send us a Tweet. If you would like to be on the show or have something you would like us to include, please let us know.
In this episode, Marty and I explore our various dives into Role Playing Games (RPGs), what we enjoy, and why have they seem to be gaining popularity again. I will be the first to admit that RPGs were not top on my list of games to play through the years and mainly because of the experience I had with my first adventure in AD&D. But times have changed and many RPG systems have made some great additions to a genre that would often scare the average gamer away. Plus, the Internet and technology have really made an RPG session into more of a tabletop game at times with miniatures terrain and other components to help those, such as myself, become more engaged in the adventure.
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RPGs have changed over time 08:00 (Mazes and Monsters)
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What RPGs have we tried or hope to try 35:00
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Savage Worlds
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Dragon Age*
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Pathfinder
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Star Wars – Edge of the Empire
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Dark Heresy
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Shadowrun
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Iron Kingdom Role Playing System 54:45
Don’t forget to check out Free RPG Day
*I screwed up when talking about Dragon Age when I was talking about what happens when you roll doubles and the stunt points you get. When you roll doubles, your Dragon Dice determines the number of stunt points you get. Sorry about that.
So how do you respond to the question “Whatcha’ playing?” Do you take time out to explain the game in simple terms or even invite the people to sit down and watch? If it is in your local game store, you probably have no issue with this question and welcome the inquiry. What about when you are in a more public place like a fast food location, how do you respond? Marty and I discuss our responses in this 5 Minute Initiative.
In this episode, we step back and as a gift to them for Mother’s Day, we let them take over the mic. Ok, we begged and pleaded with them to do the show because Marty and I thought it would be a great addition to our normal podcast. We were lucky to have Todd join us again and his wife Casey was more than happy to join in the party.
It is always fun to hear others perspective about the board gaming hobby, but when it is your spouse, you might cringe at first to hear what they think. Luckily for us, we have three great wives that support our hobby and participate when the chance presents itself, so there is no battle of the sexes going on here.
In this episode, the ladies really get into the family side of gaming and how it grows the family, and teaches children social skills.
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Introductions
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Kids and gaming
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Effects of the gaming lifestyle on the family
We hope that they make their way back to the show, but any kind words will help us in our begging in the future.
How do you know if it is a good game or not? What is your “I like it” criteria? Well, in this 5 Minute Initiative, Marty and I discuss one of our criteria for determining if we like a game or not, how long we talk about it after we play it. We all know what the Watercooler Effect is, where you stand around and discuss the latest ballgame, or last night’s The Walking Dead with friends. Well for games, it is how long we talk about a game after we play, how long we keep bring it up at future gatherings and so forth.
So what are some of your ways to measure if you like a game or not?
10 D10 for 10th Episode
We have achieved double digits in our number of podcasts!!! I know it doesn’t seem like much being only #10, but hey, when you set goals and you achieve them, you got to celebrate them. The next goal is to make it to #26 which will mean we have achieved a full year of podcasting. That is right, we have a full year planned and already working on year two.
So in this episode, we discuss how to hold a game night. Marty and I know that a bunch of this stuff is common sense, but it might not be something you think of right away. Of course you are going to have drinks out, of course you will have game appropriate snacks, but did you plan enough room for all that stuff and the game? It is the little things that can really make the night enjoyable for all and make it so it is more than a one shot.
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Atlanta: Nerdiest city in America (01:30)
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The Hostess with the Mostess (03:52)
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Filler Games (27:00)
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Casual Games for Game Night (31:30)
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Wrap it up (41:00)
Download
Just watched the Dice Tower Video on the 10 games not to play with angry people and it got us thinking, what games get under our skin especially when we lose.Now, we love playing games and generally don’t have an issue when we lose, because it is all about how you play the game that matters. Yeah, right, losing stinks and you can’t help but feel a little anger, it is natural. So, what games get under your skin?
In Episode 9, we talk about worker placement games. Next to card games, these have become some of my favorite games to play. They provide the strategy that I enjoy in a game as well as just enough luck to keep the game interesting. And more importantly, they tend to drip with theme. And it is the theme that will help you decide on the type of worker placement game because there are a bunch out there.
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What is Worker Placement 8:26
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Casual Corner: Lords of Waterdeep 15:16
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Closing thoughts 47:00
Enjoy the show and until next time, keep rolling dice and taking names.
In this short segment, Marty and I discuss our opinions on whether or not social deductions games like Resistance, Resistance: Avalon, Ultimate Werewolf are good games or not. This discussion came about from our recent interview with Alex on how to form a game club and how he liked to finish the night with this type of game. I am not a big fan of these games, where Marty does enjoy them. Give it a listen, post your opinions, especially those that help me win this discussion.
In Episode 8, Marty and I invited to the show the founder and leader of The Queen City Gaming Club, Alex. We had always planned to bring Alex on the show for without his commitment to get this club going, Marty and I may not have discovered some of the games we have grown to love nor discovered this incredible community of gamers that goes beyond those playing trading card games.
But what makes this show even more appropriate this week is that Saturday, March 30 is International Tabletop Day. So with this day getting so much notice, you might be able to actually get a game club going and we hope this show can give you some advice and things to avoid as you get started.
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The first segment is all about the history of the club and what it takes to get going (2:16)
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We then talk about some of the tough decisions you have to make (21:17)
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Finally, we discuss the future of our club and how community service is becoming part of the club (38:00)
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International Tabletop Day (01:01:30)
As I listened to the finally version of the show, which Marty went beyond the call of editing, I did walk away with a few key items that I will go ahead and share:
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Use Meetup as your means to get it started
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Expect drama because we are people, but deal with it when it happens
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You need to be willing to ask for volunteers and be willing to take it when given
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This is a club for social enjoyment, not a club to make money.
Enjoy the show
At our local game store, we asked the owner who purchases deck protectors. Expecting to hear that it is mixed from and card players to board game players, we were caught off guard when he responded that it was mostly the people that play card games, i.e. Magic and the likes. Well, that just floored us, so Marty and I decided to use this 5 Minute Initiative by giving a PSA for deck protectors and how and why they should be used in protecting your board games that use cards.
Now we will admit that sometimes they are not practical for every game (ie Dominon) due to what it does to storage and so forth, but for games where your cards are constantly being pawed at, Cheeto molested, shuffled, tossed, and even snorted to remind us all of what rainbows smell like, why would you not use them.
Hope our enjoy our mini-rant on why you should sleeve’em to protect’em.
Roll the dice and take a listen to Episode 7. In this episode, we talk about dice games, what we think makes a good dice game, and just how people love dice.
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The first segment is about various dice games, how they have gone beyond Yahtzee, and the way the market is now bleeding over into other categories, but using dice as the main component of the game (01:47)
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In Casual Corner, Marty discusses the game Quarriors! by Wizkids Games. (15:15)
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We also touch on how dice aren’t used just in games, the variety of dice, and some other accessories you might need when playing dice games. (34:10)
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We then try a new segment called “What’s Your Point” where we debate how dice games need to allow the player to minimize luck. (44:26)
Hopefully the show will give you new ideas on how to take dice to a new level in your gaming activities.
Eminent Domain brings pictures to mind of the Federal Government taking control of your land or property for the good of others, whether you like it or not. In this game by Tasty Minstrel Games, you are the government, or at least that is how I look at it, and you are claiming planets whether the inhabitants like it or not.
Maybe not that dramatic, but Eminent Domain is a deck building game with a unique spin of having roles like the game Puerto Rico that keeps the game fast paced with minimal downtime between players. You have various actions you can take as the lead and other players can follow. Ultimate goal, get the most victory points before the end conditions of the game are achieved.
Marty and I discuss the game in this 5 Minute Initiative and the anticipated release of the expansion to the game and what we hope is included to make this great game even better.
Download
Marty had this brilliant idea that we should do 5 minute podcasts to discuss stuff that is going on in the gaming world. Stuff like:
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Game Reviews
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Game Reports
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Interesting News
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Local Tournament Reports
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Rants
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etc.
The rules of the show are simple, we got five minutes to get our ideas out and if the time runs out, we stop. So the first podcast in this format will be on a game that seems to really be getting momentum in our area, Android: NetRunner by Fantasy Flight Games. It is another one of their Living Card Games which is a huge thumbs up from us because of reasons we reveal during the show.Thanks for giving it a listen
Episode 6 is out for debate. We were lucky enough to have Todd join us for this episode in which we discuss Eurogames vs Ameritrash. To help people have some idea what we are talking about, here are the definitions as found on BoardGameGeek:
Ameritrash n. A catchphrase for “American style boardgames”. In general, this means games that emphasize a highly developed theme, player to player conflict, and usually feature a moderate to high level of luck. Examples of classic Ameritrash games include Axis & Allies, Dune, Cosmic Encounter, Talisman, and Twilight Imperium. See the Ameritrash page for more information
Euro / Eurogame n. synonym for German game. This term emphasizes the more frequent publication of German-style games in other countries in Europe.
Ok, that didn’t help as much as I had hoped, so give the podcast a listen and hopefully it will become even clearer.
During the podcast, Todd mentions a book which he read to prepare for the show. That is right, there was actually sources used in the show. That is why we bring on the guests, to help raise the level of this show. Anyway, the book Todd mentions is Eurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board Games by Stewart Woods.
Just remember, that when you are looking at games and think, is this a Eurogame or Ameritrash, you will know it when you see it.
Potter Stewart
Episode 5 is out for consumption and it is all about Coop games, one of our favorite style of games.
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In the first 5 minutes, we don’t jump into Coop games so don’t be confused, we talk about our gaming experience with Twilight Imperium (00:00)
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We then talk about a whole bunch of coop games that we have played or would like to play going from those we consider intro (Forbidden Island, Flash Point) up to the hard core (Arkham Horror) (05:01)
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In Casual Corner, we talk about Pandemic. We love this game and it shows. We mention the new release and below are the images to help you understand the reference. (30:10)
And sometimes we get confused between actors, but it is understandable, see they look the same.
The title says it all, this episode we focus on football games from the past and games that we are playing now that have a football theme .
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First segment is all about the great football games of the past and one of our favorites electric football. I can’t believe that has been around since 1948 and what was even more amazing is what it costs today. Makes me wish I still had my old set. (01:40)
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This episode’s Casual Corner is all about… well give it a listen to see (15:10)
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Also in this episode we have a special guest join us. Steve, the guy behind the awesome, new, inspiring logo, talks to us about Blood Bowl. (19:49)
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Finally, Marty gives his impressions of a new miniature game by Mantic Games called Dreadball. (34:43)
Enjoy the show!
Episode 3 is out for consumption. In this podcast:
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Marty and I attempt to explain our understanding of the various card games out on the market. We talk about CCGs or TCGs and the juggernaut known as Magic: The Gathering. The new system of Living Card Games is discussed and the various games that use the mechanics of deck building and card drafting. (00:00)
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Casual Corner is all about Dominion, the game that started the wave of deck building games. (34:30)
Hope you enjoy the show and listen for Marty as he tells us what rainbows smell like.
Our 2nd episode of Rolling Dice & Taking Names is now available.
In this episode we have:
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Casual Corner – Ticket To Ride
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End of year picks – Top Game, Best Gaming Experience, Biggest Disappointment, Biggest Surprise
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Games we are looking forward to in 2013
Feel free to leave comments and suggestions.
Thanks for listening and Happy New Year!
Note: We had some technical difficulties with Tony’s microphone that we did not realize until we have finished recording. We apologize for this and it will be fixed in the next episode.
Our premier episode of Rolling Dice & Taking Names is now available.
In this episode we have:
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Introductions
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Casual Corner – Settlers of Catan
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Gift ideas for Christmas – Smash Up, Star Fluxx, Wits & Wagers, Pandemic, Pit and Dixit
Feel free to leave comments and suggestions.
Thanks for listening. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas