Board Game Barrage

Sometimes once is enough, you know? Doesn't mean it was bad , but it might just be that you can have too much of a good thing. We're talking about board games that we'd recommend everyone play once, but only once . Before we hit and run, we talk about  Kaivai ,  East India Companies , and  Vantage . 01:44 - Kaivai 10:58 - Feya's Swamp 13:15 - East India Companies 21:31 - Vantage 39:41 - Games to p...

Gen Con! Where all the cool games are, before you even know they're cool. Or hot! We've got you covered, if you want to know what all the best stuff coming out of Indianapolis is going to before before anyone else, then look no further than this episode. Five games each that we're excited to hear more about at the show! Before we face the heat, we talk about Line of Fire: Burnt Moon, and Rise . 02...

It's time again to turn the tables and get your take, to feel out the collective tastes of you, the listeners of the show. It's the annual Listener Top 20! You've been sending in all of your lists (thank you!), I've been compiling all of the data (you're welcome!) - and here it is, in a convenient list format. Before we ask the audience, we talk about Flip 7 , Hot Streak , and Kolejka . 02:37 - Fl...

When playing games it's easy to fall into the trap of over-anaylsing turns, or questioning whether the move we made was the right one, or even allowing people to roll back whole turns - so we're asking if maybe we've been wrong this whole time, and we should just ... embrace it? Are mistakes interesting? Before we have any regrets, we talk about  Apiary , Wizards Cup , and Wroth . 02:43 - Apiary 1...

A dazzling place you never knew ... until now that is! We're diving deep on beloved designer Cole Wehrle in another designer spotlight. We dig back into his Roots, and explore the many Arcs that led to his Oath to revolutionize thematic board games. Before our traffic gets infamous, we talk about Toy Battle , Subjective , and Wild Tiled West . 03:43 - Toy Battle 13:51 - Subjective 22:11 - Wild Til...

Well, we finally did it. We played CATAN, and it was ... good! And then we started wondering, is there anything that's done quite the same thing that that game is doing? And then that got us wondering how many games there are like that, where it's genuinely hard to say that nothing has done it better since. And then that got us wondering if, instead of all this wondering, we should record a podcas...

Happy 333! In honour of our three hundred and thirty third episode, BoardGameGeek has decided to host an emergency session of the Golden Geek Awards, and we're here to tell you about all the nominees that satisfy the crucial conditions of being (1) good games (2) we played (3) last year. Before we open our third eye, we also talk about Einfach Genial 3D , Gazebo , and Stalk Exchange . 02:28 - Einf...

I would say that, for the most part, there's very little we won't play - but we also know what we like, and especially what we don't like. Every so often a game gets suggested that we have to say "literally anything but" to. Before we pass hard, we talk about  TRICKTAKERs , Iquazú , and Hubworld: Aidalon . 02:49 - TRICKTAKERs 11:52 - Iquazú 21:47 - Hubworld: Aidalon 31:03 - Hard pass games 32:11 -...

We've spent a lot of time over the years singing the praises of the games we love, but they can't be perfect right? Surely there's something, one little thing, that bugs us - a small blemish in our otherwise most beloved games? Before we come clean, we talk about Classified Information , S tarline Hill, Panda Spin , and SHASN: AZADI. 03:13 - Classified Information 11:54 - Starline Hill 13:35 - Pan...

We just got back from Dice Tower West, so you know what that means ... bunches and bunches of games! Between the convention, and the meetup, and just hanging out at Mark's place, we got a lot of great stuff played, and we're going to give you all the highlights, with such treats as  Moon Colony Bloodbath , Out of Sorts , and Feierabend. 04:16 - Corporate America 12:19 - Acquire 18:09 - Inside Job...

I'm not sure why you'd make a hall of fame that's not also a sidewalk, but that's exactly what BoardGameGeek have gone and done - they've curated 25 games into their hall of fame, and we're here to judge them for their choices. It's weird that they didn't come to us first, honestly. Before we deck the halls, we talk about Arborea , Beyond the Horizon , and Taiwan Night Market . 02:49 - Arborea 10:...

Okay, pay attention, this is gonna be different! We're looking at the rest of 2025, deciding what we think the most well received games of the year are going to be - but then we're going to be bidding on them, auction style. Whoever's slate ends up performing best in their categories at the end of the year gets all the glory ... and if you vote on who you think is going to win, you could get $50!...

It's finally time to cap it all off with the cream of the cream, Mark and Neilan's final set of ten games each! These are the games that we think are the pinnacle of our respective tastes, that we'd never turn down, that any person ought to try at least once. It's the Top 10 Games of All-Time! 01:48 - Mark's #10 - Age of Steam 08:17 - Neilan's #10 - Brass: Birmingham 11:21 - Mark's #9 - Arboretum...

Neilan's back to continue the journey down the lazy river of cardboard that is his top 50 board games of all time. It's games 30 through 11! I just counted, and that's twenty amazing games that I can't wait to tell you all about!  00:59 - #30 - Gloomhaven 02:58 - #29 - War Story: Occupied France 07:35 - #28 - Gaia Project 10:17 - #27 - Ark Nova 12:26 - #26 - Kemet 14:55 - #25 - Yellow & Yangtze 17...

And back to Mark! It's the soggy middle of his top 50, or as he insists on calling it, his numbers 30 through 11. That is twenty more delicious games, and he's here to tell you all about them while we continue to berate and praise him for his choices. 01:20 - #30 - Anomia 05:12 - #29 - Sidereal Confluence 08:47 - #28 - Chicago Express 11:46 - #27 - Rise & Fall 16:34 - #26 - Tigris & Euphrates 19:1...

It's meeeeeeeeeee! So if you care to find my top 50 list, look right here. The first twenty incredible games on the list that early critics are calling "surprisingly tasteful" and "delightfully roomy" is finally yours to consume. It's the greatest board games of all-time, Neilan edition! 01:10 - #50 - Anachrony 03:56 - #49 - The Vale of Eternity 05:47 - #48 - Arcs 09:05 - #47 - Bus 11:26 - #46 - W...

It's time! The grand spectacle that is our greatest games of all time is here at last! We're breaking things out a bit differently this year, so Mark's taking center stage while Kellen & Neilan mock his choices. It's the first twenty games from his list, so games 50 through 31. LET'S GOOOO! 01:53 - #50 - Cthulhu Wars 03:23 - #49 - Ricochet Robots 05:21 - #48 - The Voyages of Marco Polo 08:22 - #47...

As we approach the end of 2024, it's about time we stop, take stock, and dare I say look back at the year that's been. The highs, the lows, the mids - all the stars are here, and we're going to break them down for you with some of our favourite games, and biggest moments, and general assessment of the year that's been. Before we reflect, we talk about  Let's Go! To Japan ,  Mombasa , and  The Gang...

Gobble Bobble, here comes trouble in the form of a pairing we never thought we'd see - Bob and the Ghost Turkey have delivered us another holiday nightmare. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Before we tuck in, we talk about Tapple , Mini Rails , and Naishi . 05:48 - Tapple 11:07 - Mini Rails 17:45 - Naishi 22:56 - BGBBOB Bird Games 24:45 - ICECOOL 24:52 - Root 26:17 - Rook 26:26 - Songbirds 28:05 - Fa...

We've been to Las Vegas and back for the very unofficial recurring gathering we like to call BarrageCon (which is really just all of us hanging out at Mark's place). We had a lot of games lined up to play, and I daresay we did a pretty good job of getting through them. Here's our report back, just a bunch of impressions of a bunch of games - including Rise & Fall , Fractured Sky , and Wilmot's War...

I think it's fair to say at this point, that we've pretty firmly established each of our respective tastes when it comes to board games, whether it's for genre, theme, mechanic, whatever. There's always something, though, right? Something that flies in the face of those rules and boldly proclaims, "I like this, even though ..." Before we prove the rule, we talk about Andromeda's Edge , and  Karvi...

The Fandango Tank returns! The ever wonderful Mike DiLisio joins us again, this time to collectively cast our minds forward to some things we'd like to manifest into the board game future. We've got a mess of ideas, a veritable mixtape of miscellany that we either want to play, or hope to see more of as the hobby progresses. Before we unspool, we talk about Fishing , EGO , The Lord of the Rings: D...

So we've done a lot of these drafts before, but I don't think we've done one quite like this. This time we're each trying to draft a set of five games that we think you might agree are incredibly overrated. What does that mean exactly? Well that's up for debate too. What isn't up for debate is that you could win $100 just by voting! Before we widen our delta, we talk about Undaunted 2200: Callisto...

I'm in a bit of a quandary here, because Mark told me not to tell you what this episode is even about, but I want this description to be, well, descriptive but he's glaring at me really hard, and making a throat slitting gesture so I daren't risk it. It's about ... board games? Before we get ahead of ourselves, we talk about Binho , Stamp Swa p, and First Rat . 03:33 - Binho 07:24 - Stamp Swap 17:...

We may or may not be going to Germany (who can say), but that's where all the good gaming is gonna be, so that's what we're gonna talk about. It's almost Essen SPIEL! That sure is a lot of games debuting there though, so which ones should you care about? Don't worry, we've done the hard work for you. Before you go back to being eine faule socke, we talk about  Nekojima , We're Sinking! , Hues and...