Simple, Yet Intriguing

Chris and Luke are joined by special guest Alisha Giroux, artist and graphic designer of Gazebo, to chat about the game and the work that goes into board game art. Later, they dig deep about nooks, patios, gazebos and dominos and how they all work within the world of Gazebo. Alisha can be found at https://www.instagram.com/_asmeesh -- 00:00 Intro 01:03 Interview and discussion with Alisha Giroux 1...

Chris, Luke and Mechanic Mechanic Matt look at and place their votes for the 5 awards and twenty nominated games for the upcoming boardgamearena.com awards! Check it out and vote here: https://bga.li/awards2026 -- 0:00 - Intro 7:15 - Best Casual Game 17:20 - Best Regular Game 27:57 - Best Expert Game 41:28 - Best 2-Player Game 54:00 - Best Brain Teaser 1:03:45 - Overall Favourite 1:08:00 - Next We...

Wrapping up our Anniversaries trilogy (until our first 2026 play!), we talk Khan of Khans - a very light card game set in the world of Glorantha. Luke also waxes loquacious about a trilogy of games - Nova Luna, Sanagi, and Framework. -- 00:00 - Intro 00:52 - What We (Luke) Played This Week (Nova Luna, Sanagi, Framework) 13:39 - Khan of Khans discussion 25:31 - aha! moments 36:13 - How Has it Aged?...

Whose chateau will the king visit? Which nightclub will attract the most famous guests?? How are these connected??? All of your most burning questions answered on this week's episode. Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced by: Sophie Shin Socials: Matt Winquist Artwork by: Samm Ruppersberger

Debuting a concise new series to kick off our 2026 run, the lads are covering Classic Art to commemorate the 30th anniversary of its original 1996 release. We also chat French Toast, a recent release by AllPlay and the ever-magnanimous Peter C. Hayward. -- 01:01 - French Toast discussion (What We Played This Week) 06:56 - Classic Art Discussion 17:26 - Aha! Moments -- Hosted & Edited by Luke O...

Happy new year! 🎉Another year around the sun, another retrospective episode where we get the whole crew together to discuss the games we played, the challenges most of us catastrophically failed, and what we're looking forward to in 2026. --- Hosted & Edited by Luke O'Grady, Chris Lemieux, Sophie Shin, & Matthew Winquist Produced by Sophie Shin Socials by Matthew Winquist Art by S...

🚀Our final lap around the SILOS system takes the lads through a high-stakes galactic race that's fun for the whole family! Includes amicable chatting about 12 Chip Trick, as well as comparisons of ORBIT to other race & racing games. --- 00:00 - Intro 01:26 - 12 Chip Trick discussion (What We Played This Week) 07:43 - ORBIT discussion 22:29 - aha! moments 29:31 - Game of Games: top 5 SciFi...

👽 The lads wax enthusiastically about EGO, the exciting, interactive, and tough-to-categorize 2nd entry in the Cosmic Silos Trilogy from Bitewing Games about being better at making friends than your friends. Featuring banter about 'Waddle', a clever little penguin posturing game from Allplay & Corné van Moorsel. -- 00:00 - Intro 00:36 - Waddle Discussion 05:37 - EGO Rules & Discus...

👾 Our latest 100% human-created episode covers the 2025 Reiner Knizia release SILOS from Bitewing Games, wherein skinsuits abound and cows are finally given their due. Featuring banter about recent Pandemic system game 'Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship', Star Wars games, and IP games in general. -- Chapters: 00:00 - Standard Earth Greetings 03:00 - Fate of the Fellowship discussi...

Feast your ears on todays' double-feature-episode, where the lads reveal how little they know about Chess as well as their inability to distinguish the color green from the color magenta. Also featuring a quick discussion of CMYK's Magenta series! Chapters: 00:57 - Tower Chess Discussion 10:38 - Fives Discussion 23:33 - CMYK Magenta collection -- Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lem...

🎪 The usual circus that is this podcast continues with our penultimate Taiki Shinzawa episode! We speak briefly on the 2025 game Tag Team (from Scorpion Masqué, by Gricha German & Corentin Lebrat) before introducing the main act: Big Top (from Allplay, by Taiki Shinzawa), a fantastically clever auction game. Ta-da! 🎉🐘🎩 Hosted & Edited by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced b...

This week, Luke and Chris continue on their Taiki Shinzawa journey with two trick-taking games: 2020 Planet etuC and 2022 Pin Combi Trio. Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced by: Sophie Shin Socials: Matt Winquist Artwork by: Samm Ruppersberger

Luke and Chris continue their journey through the games of Taiki Shinzawa. This week, join them as they chat through two unique card games: Cowardly Bat and Maskmen ! Chapters: 01:23 - Cowardly Bat discussion 09:44 - Maskmen discussion 19:45 - Aha! moments 23:53 - BGG Trivia! Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced by: Sophie Shin Socials: Matt Winquist Artwork by: Samm Ruppersber...

It's a trick-taking double feature extravaganza as Chris and Luke kick-off the new Taiki Shinzawa miniseries with Nine Lives and Ghosts of Christmas! Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced by: Sophie Shin Socials: Matt Winquist Artwork by: Samm Ruppersberger

I! AM!! BEOWULF!!! Join the crew as they check in on Chris’s 2025 board game challenge—playing games based on movies! This week, we’re diving into a reimplementation of Reiner Knizia's Kingdoms: Beowulf: The Movie Board Game . Chapters 00:00 - Spoiler warning 00:46 - Introduction 03:01 - Beowulf (movie) recap 13:27 - Beowulf: The Movie Board Game discussion 31:56 - Aha! moments Hosted by: Luke...

In today's episode (alt title 'How to Master your Dragon') Chris & Luke bandy words about the notoriously rules-light yet compelling game, Dragon Master. 🐉 We also debate whether this is a tile laying game at all! 🤷 Tally ho! Chapters: 00:00 - Hello 00:47 - Intro & what we played this week (Halo Flashpoint) 05:20 - Dragon Master Rules & Basics 11:52 - Game Discussion 27:08 - Aha! Mom...

This week, Pangea is splitting and the crew fight for world dominance as they chat through Knizia's pre-historic dice rolling/tile laying classic: Genesis (2006) . Chapters 00:00 - Intro 02:38 - What did we play this week? 09:06 - Genesis discussion 16:50 - Aha! moments Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced by: Sophie Shin Socials: Matt Winquist Artwork by: Samm Ruppersberger

This week, Chris and Luke are praying to the gods of Easter Island as they chat through Knizia's blind auction / tile laying (maybe?) game: Orongo (recently re-released as Nyakuza). Chapters 00:00 - Intro 00:55 - What did we play this week? 09:03 - Nyakuza discussion 21:44 - Aha! moments Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced by: Sophie Shin Socials: Matt Winquist Artwork by: Samm Ru...

What do freelance fantasy space-whale photography and the establishment of profitable medieval realms have in common? That the boys talk about both of those themes in this episode! Chris and Luke bandy words about the classic tile-laying game Cosmolancer (originally released as Kingdoms), as well as the 2025 Spiel des Jahres awards (a very timely discussion), and the warm feeling of harming your f...

In this ✨premier episode✨, the lads continue laying tiles in order to collect gems and/or guide butterflies. Join Chris and Luke as they highlight the classic Knizia game Indigo (re-released & re-themed as Butterfly Garden)! Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Banter: On Rulebooks 08:46 - Butterfly Garden explanation 13:42 - Butterfly Garden discussion 18:08 - Theme & Production 21:49 - Aha!...

We continue our adventures in Tile Laying with The Boys as Luke & Chris chat Mille Fiori - on glassblowing, card drafting, and pattern building in beautiful Venice. Featuring surprise banter topic - going to Deep Space! Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 01:00 - Going to Deep Space (MLEM Banter) 04:48 - Mille Fiori explanation 09:01 - Mille Fiori (boardgame) discussion 19:16 - Theme discussion 22:22 - Mi...

The crew is back with a shiny new Knizia series: Tile Laying with the Boys! Luke & Chris welcome our very own Mechanic Mechanic Matt to chat about the first game in the series: Rebirth . Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:02 - Get to know Mechanic Mechanic Matt! 12:50 - How to play Rebirth 19:09 - Rebirth Discussion 36:56 - Aha! moments Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Guest: Matt Wi...

It’s time for a challenge check-in! The crew returns to see how Sophie’s board game resolution is going, diving into the depths of deduction in Sleuth and the wordy wheeling and dealing of BuyWord —both from the prolific designer Sid Sackson. Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced by: Sophie Shin Socials: Matt Winquist Artwork by: Samm Ruppersberger

This week, the crew present you an offer you can't refuse: Gang of Dice ! Plus, they rank all the games of their Cubes So Nice They Named it Dice: Dice Guys Finish Last series. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:33 - What did we play this week?  08:28 - How to play Gang of Dice 12:00 - Gang of Dice Discussion 17:45 - Aha! moments 27: 02 - Series rankings Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux...

Lace up your sneakers! This week, the crew are diving headfirst into Reiner Knizia's Decathlon — ten dicey events, one questionable champion... Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:27 - What did we play this week? 11:53 - How to play Reiner Knizia's Decathlon⁠ 14:56 - Reiner Knizia's Decathlon⁠ Discussion 26:19 - Aha! moments Hosted by: Luke O'Grady & Chris Lemieux Produced by: Sophie Shin Social...