First Player Token, a short board game review show

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. That means I usually review older games, but I like to play new games, too. So here’s a FIRST PLAY review of a new game that I think you might like! Today we’ll take a look at Tí...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we build the technologies and societies needed to fight climate change in Daybreak! Daybreak is a 2023 game published by CMYK and designed by Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace. In this cooperative board game, up to four players take on the role of world powers like the U.S. and China enacting climate action policies. The goal of the game is...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we celebrate four years (and 50 episodes) of the podcast by recommending my top five games to start your board game collection! I started First Player Token to provide some advice to people who like playing board games with family and friends but maybe get a little overwhelmed when shopping for board games at Target or Barnes & Noble....

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. That means I usually review older games, but I like to play new games, too. So here’s a FIRST PLAY review of a new game that I think you might like! Today we’ll take a look at Co...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we put on our funny Viking hats and go plundering in Raiders of the North Sea! Raiders of the North Sea is a two to four player game published in 2015 by Garphill Games. It was designed by Shem Phillips with art by Mihajlo Dimitrievski. The game is about building your Viking crew, raiding settlements, and bringing back plunder for your chi...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we board the Jolly Roger and steal from treasure from a Spanish galleon in Tortuga 1667! In Tortuga 1667, players take on the role of pirates attacking Spanish ships near the island of Tortuga and stealing their gold. Half of the players are secretly working for the British and half for the French. At the start of the game, you know which...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In The Wolves, we build our packs and carve out our territory! The Wolves is a 2022 game designed by Ashwin Kamath and Clarence Simpson with art by Pauliina Linjama and a quality production from publisher Pandasaurus Games. In The Wolves, between two and five players each controls a pack of wolves vying for territory across a wilderness. This game is richl...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we try to save the planet from a relentless alien invasion in Under Falling Skies! Under Falling Skies is a 2020 board game designed by designed by Tomáš Uhlíř published by Czech Games Edition with art by Petr Boháček and Kwanchai Moriya. It’s a solo game about repelling an alien invasion that clearly takes some inspiration from the film I...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In The Blood of an Englishman, we see if Jack can steal the goose that lays golden eggs from the giant at the top of the beanstalk! In 2016, Renegade Games published a two-player card game inspired by “Jack and the Beanstalk” called The Blood of an Englishman. One player takes on the role of Jack, attempting to steal the giant’s treasure through a series o...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, I try out a new format by giving very brief reviews of ten games I played at our local board game convention, Tennessee Game Days, earlier this fall! Tennessee Game Days is an event held each spring and fall here in Nashville, Tennessee, where people come from around the state and the region to spend a few days in hotel convention rooms pl...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we try to figure out if our opponent put the poison in our glass or in his glass in the game In Vino Morte! In Vino Morte is a 2016 game designed by Chris Anderson with art by Ben Toz and published by Button Shy Games. It’s inspired by that classic scene in The Princess Bride where the Dread Pirate Roberts and the scoundrel Vizzini face of...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. That means I usually review older games, but I like to play new games, too! That leads me to this bonus episode you’re listening to right now. Instead of a scripted and highly ed...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  In this episode, we see what happens when heroes from stories and legends battle it out in Unmatched! Unmatched is actually a series of games from Restoration Games. That company specializes in taking older games and redesigning them for a modern audience. They have “restored” games like Downforce, Fireball Island, Thunder Road, and Dark Tower. Unmatched...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. That means I usually review older games, but I like to play new games, too! That leads me to this bonus episode you’re listening to right now. Instead of a scripted and highly e...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  In this episode, we battle for the honor of hosting the king in our chateaus in Royal Visit! Royal Visit is a 2021 game designed by Reiner Knizia with art by Karl James Mountford and published by Iello Games. It’s a two-player game, with players occupying opposite ends of a valley hoping to attract the visiting king to their magnificent chateaus. The art...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. In this episode, we become Scottish chieftains expanding our lands in… Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King! The Isle of Skye is one of the large islands off the northwest coast of Scotland, famous for its stunningly beautiful landscape and as the home to the Scottish clans of MacLeod and MacDonald. This mountainous land suitable for fishing and farming is...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.   Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. That means I usually review older games, but I like to play new games, too! That leads me to this bonus episode you’re listening to right now. Instead of a scripted and highly...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  We reviewed the game Mysterium in our last episode, and Emily and I had a great time recording her “color commentary” about the game. Mysterium is all pictures and no words, and my artist wife had a lot to say about the game! I only used a few minutes of our conversation in the episode, so I thought I would share an extended cut here as a bonus episode. W...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  In this episode, we work together to solve a murder in the game with no words… Mysterium! Mysterium is the English name for a 2013 Polish game called Tajemnicze Domostwo designed by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko. It’s a cooperative game where two to seven players work together to solve the mystery of a murder in about 45 to 60 minutes. Like the cla...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. That means I usually review older games, but I like to play new games, too! That leads me to this bonus episode you’re listening to right now. Instead of a scripted and highly ed...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  In this episode, we take a look a game that you’ll want to know about if you’re tired of playing tic-tac-toe… Gobblet Gobblers! Gobblet Gobblers is a 2003 game published by Blue Orange Games, and it turns tic-tac-toe into a genuinely fun game. In the box, you’ll find four long wood pieces that you fit together like a tic-tac-toe board, along with twelve p...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  In this episode, we work together to catch a sneaky, pot-pie-stealing fox in the cooperative kids game Outfoxed! Outfoxed is, I’m pretty sure, the only board game where players take on the role of detective chickens. You see, Mrs. Plumpert’s prize pot pie has been snatched by a sneaky fox, and it’s up to a plucky group of detective chickens (or is that ch...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  In this episode, we build cities and farms and roads in the modern classic, Carcassonne! Carcassonne is a tile-laying game. Players take turns drawing square tiles and adding them to a common medieval landscape. On your turn, you draw a tile and place it somewhere on the landscape, making sure that the sides of the new tile match the sides of any adjacent...

Text us your thoughts about this episode. Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. But recently, the 11-year-old has been on a kick to play new games, that is, games he’s never played before. That makes it hard to play a game repeatedly with him, but it does me...

Text us your thoughts about this episode.  In this episode, we try to avoid a pandemic like it’s the 14th century by escaping the city on an apple cart in Bristol 1350 ! Bristol 1350 is a lively game for up to nine players about escaping the Black Death in Bristol, England, in the 14th century. Publishing a game about escaping a pandemic during a pandemic is something of a bold move, but it’s exac...