Meeple Nation Board Game Podcast

In this weeks podcast, we travel to the ancient Japanese Imperial court, were the Emperor has entrusted us to care for his bamboo garden--home of a giant panda bear, the symbol of peace. Add in some dice rolling, territory building, farming, tile placement and some killer panda bear minis and you have Takenoko . Come for the high-quality/cute components--stay for the solid game play, or vice versa...

Surviving on a deep space mining expedition on Titan is hard enough without Nathan always trying to kill you. Sure he's infected, but he doesn't have to be such a jerk about it. Join Meeple Nation as we dissect another hidden role gem like Shadows over Camelot and Battle Star Galactica. In fact, Dark  Moon originated from a homebrew game called BSG Express, based on the game, Battle Star Galactica...

This week we continue our discussion of November gaming, concentrating on Brent's report of BGG.con in Dallas. He talks about his work in the game library, hot games, Codenames LARP, the Puzzle Hunt, Poker Tournament and Game Show. He also explains his experience with Ponzi Scheme, Fische, Flupen, Frikadelen, Fresh Fish, and Rattlebones.  

In this week's and next week's podcast, we cover the ins, outs, and triumphs of our recent foray into three gaming events. Meeple Nation (mostly Brent) and the Northern Utah Gaming Guild (again mostly Brent) helped organize and run an Extra Life event to raise money for Primary Children's Hospital. We raised just over $1400 over the 24 hour event. And we gamed. Hard. Among the many games played am...

This episode we offer up advice during this gift giving season. Here are our suggestions. Let us know what you suggest! Party Games Codenames Spyfall One Night Series (Ultimate Werewolf, Ultimate Werewolf Daybreak, Ultimate Vampire, and Revolution) General Games Carcassonne: Star Wars Splendor Dixit Favor of the Pharaoh 7 Wonders: Duel   Gamer Gift Pandemic Legacy   Stocking Stuffers Bang! The Dic...

This week we discuss a deckbuilder initially released on 2009 from Rio Grande Games. Nathan has embraced and enjoyed this game with his 20 plays so far. 1-5 players compete for scarce resources and they try to build the biggest tribe. Brent's along for the ride and Ryan is a bit hesitant based on theme and some blind selection gameplay. Let us know what you think.

We interview Richard and Emily Gibbs about their game company which makes accessories and kits to make games blind accessible. Support their Kickstarter at  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/64ouncegames/braille-rpg-dice-from-64-oz-games Visit their store at http://store.64ouncegames.com/

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. With dice. Lots of beautiful dice. Yellow, blue, and the unfortunate red-shirt 6-sided dice. In this podcast, we delve into this light dice fest. We all enjoyed the theme, each player taking a role of a bridge crew member from the Original Series or The Next Generation with a unique ability to help overcome the challenges. This game is easy to lear...

In this podcast, we discuss the awesome games that are currently hitting our game tables including Arctic Scavengers, Legendary Encounters: A Predator Deckbuilding Game, Liar's Dice, Space Alert, and Machi Koro: Millionaires Row. We also give an update at the goals we set at the first of the year, and we learn that Ryan is a bad friend. We end by covering our anticipated games including T.I.M.E St...

This week we discuss board games with a horror theme that would make for an excellent time at your next  Halloween party. The games discussed range from King Of Tokyo and Betrayal at House on the Hill to Gloom and Mansions of Madness to Midnight Party and Ghosts!. Ryan details his dream Halloween  Party including plans to play Mysterium in costume, with atmospheric candles, playing up the seance....

Tile Placement games are a little too prolific to cover in a single cast, so we limited the games we cover to tile placement games where you are connecting lines from tile to tile. The games discussed include Street Car, Metro, Tongiaki, Fresh Fish, Tsuro and Tsuro of the Seas. 

Ninja Ghosts and Killer Plants of Cthulhu don't measure up to the Alien Shapeshifters who took home the prize. We discuss Smash Up by Paul Peterson. In Smash Up , you combine two factions into one deck and compete for the majority at several locations that offer victory points for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in power when the total power reached the locations breaking point. This game, and the ruleboo...

We discuss Specter Ops by Emerson Matsuuchi and Plaid Hat Games. In this deduction game, you play as Hunters guarding a secret base or as the Agent sent in to discover the secrets. The Agent tracks her moves in secret and the other players try to locate and kill the agent using unique player powers and a cool car. This is similar the Scotland Yard in game play, but in a nifty scifi universe. 

Party Games This week we talk Party Games. First we speculate on what defines a party game. Honestly, who knows? Should it play more than 6? Should it involve teams? Should it be 'light'? Then we talk about our favorite party games, why they count, and why we find them outstanding. We talk Codenames, Spyfall, Times Up!, Ca$h 'n Guns, Wits & Wagers, Liar's Dice, Game of Things, and Two Rooms and a...

We finally review  Dominion , the granddaddy of all deckbuilders. Brent and Nathan highly enjoy this new classic and have collected every expansion. We talk about  Dominion 's legacy and how the expanstion bloat nearly make the game unplayable. Brent discusses his storage solution. Nathan is soon going to have less money is his pocket, recreating said solution. Ryan, though, finds the games' theme...

We talk with Mike Adams, a NUGG member, friend, and color-blind gamer about the challenges of being color blind at the gaming table. Mike is Red/Green color blind, which means he cannot see red and green colors, including the red and green that are mixed with other colors. He has a hard time distinguishing purples and blue because of the missing red within purple. He also says distinguishing betwe...

We talk with Avonelle Wing from Double Exposure about the services they provide for Game Companies, Stores, Conventions, volunteers, and gamers. We encountered the Envoy heralds at SaltCon where they taught players new games at the con, including games in the Play-to-win program.   The Envoy website is:  http://dexposure.com/ envoy/   The Double Exposure website is at:  www.dexposure/com/home. htm...

This week we talk about Viceroy, which is designed by Yuri Zhuravlev and produced by Mayday Games and Hobby World. Viceroy is a board game of bidding and resource management set in the world of Berserk , a Russian collectible card game.   This is a beautiful and colorful collection of cards and bits with excellent artwork. The theme is stretched a bit as the characters provide fairly generic power...

From camp #GenCant, we talk about the latest buzz from  GenCon , which was two weeks prior to this podcast's release. It was all brand new to us as we recorded and gushed about new games. We hit the old favorites: Imperial Assault, Firefly, and Legendary. We also hit on new games, such as  Blood Rage, Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, Codenames, Mysterium, Star Wars Carcassonne and C hampions of Mid...

With guest host Dennis Holliday, we discuss the world of Kickstarter, focusing mostly on board games, of course. Dennis has backed over 60 projects and Brent even more. Both seasoned Kickstarter veterans discuss their experiences and joys of this crowdfunding experience. Both are positive and express that the good out way any negative experience that occur.   Ryan, on the other hand, expresses his...

Designer: Mike Fitzgerald Publisher: Eagle/Gryphon Games Players: 1-4 Ages: 10+ Play Time: 45-60 min   In this episode, we discuss how Baseball Highlights: 2045 is not a baseball simulation, but instead a tight, mechanics oriented deckbuilder, which focuses on the 'highlights' of a game of a baseball game. You don't need to like baseball to enjoy this game, and if you absolutely hate baseball, you...

This week we revisit the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. We are joined by our friend, Dennis Holliday, and we talk about the second and third base games, Skull and Shackles & Wrath of the Righteous. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is a cooperative game Ages: 13 and up Players: 1-4 (up to 6 with expansion) Time: 60-90 minutes Publisher: Paizo Publishing Designers: Chad Brown, Mike Selinker, Tanis O'...

This episode we review: Betrayal at House on the Hill Publisher: Avalon Hill Year Published: 2004 Edition: 2nd Designer: Bruce Glassco Ages: 12+ Time: 60 minutes Player Count: 3-6

In this episode we talk about games we have already reviewed and the expansions we hope to see soon. We also talk about new games we anticipate. We cover Star Wars: Imperial Assault and the Twin Shadows expansion Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Dark Moon Firefly and the new ships and new expansion, Kalidasa Ghostbusters Seafall Dark Moon

This week we review Castles of Mad King Luwdig. Designer: Ted Alspach Publisher: Bezier Games Time: 30-90 minutes Ages: 13+