There can be only one. We review A la Carte and Fresco, the final two nominees for the Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year) and predict the winner before the official selection.

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Dexter and the Chief explore Ubongo, Moritz talks about the history of SPI, and Geoff interviews the artist for his upcoming game. We finish off our recent contests, and compare Castle Panic to Forbidden Island. Our feature of this show is our top ten pick-up and delivery games.

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Themes in boardgames are a favorite subject of mine. I'm sure I've said before how interested I am in the themes these games of ours have. Some themes instantly attract me to a game, while others are an immediate turn-off. When I'm playing a game, I particularly enjoy historic theming on the cards, or historic notes within the rulebook. You'd think that makes me a theme-gamer. I certainly

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The Prize. Movies have the Oscars. Games have the Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year). We play and review Dixit, Identik, and Roll Through the Ages - three of five nominees - in an effort to predict the winner later this month.

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Yeah, I lost my old call-in number, the same one the show has had for five years. I haven't completely given up hope, and I may ask for your help in getting it back, but for the moment any audio feedback should instead go to 206-337-7401. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Now that the first decade of the new century & millennium is past, Dave & I reflected on what that ten-year span meant for boardgames. Back in late 2007 he & I recorded a "decade+1" retrospective for episode #75, but that had a little different focus. For that earlier show, we tried to talk about our own introduction and growth in the hobby, like what games we first learned about & played, how

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In this show, we give a couple of character stereotypes, talk about the future of game publishing, and the horror of moving games. The Dice Tower gang give info and tips for Origins 2010, and Geoff eulogizes Marvin Gardner. Erik talks about D6 shooters, Giles about Traders of Carthage, and we finish up the show with our top ten games that give 'bang for the buck'.

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Smoke monsters need not apply. We assemble a team to hunt mystical treasures in Forbidden Island and flip medieval coins to construct castles and cathedrals in Builder's Duel.

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In this show, we talk about why Eric logs his game plays, why Scrabble is annoying, and why old games can be great. Dexter and the Chief talk about Cartagena, Eric talks about Entdecker, and Tom talks abou You're Bluffing! Moritz talks about the history of Avalon Hill, and we end the show with our top ten Word games. We have a new contest - to enter, fill out the survey at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEhJbTFLYWpQSm01LTcybm9UdDh0V3c6MQ

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By the way, you can subscribe the comment feed in order to keep up with comments on all of this blog's posts without having to remember to check them.

The flurry of good comments & discussion following the recent podcast about boardgame theming was split between those posted right here on the website, and others on a Boardgamegeek thread. Though that's fine, it makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better to facilitate them more on one location than the other. And though I'd really prefer to have the comments archived here, with the podcast itself,

All in favor, say Y. From the temples of Assyria to the pachyderms of Bombay, we review two titles from publisher Ystari Games.

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In this episode, Tom and Eric talk about Vasco da Gama and the "Cult of the New". Tom reveals where he is relocating, we start a new contest for an interesting new game, and we talk about some of the latest gaming news. Brad talks about Winsome reprints, Mortiz talks about 3M, and Mark talks about gaming magazines. Finally, we end the show talking about what we like about game companies, and what are our top ten board game companies?

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Hmm, I'm not sure. Since I set this site up in the prehistory of podcasting, it's built on a complicated mix of three different hosting accounts (libsyn for the podcast files, GoDaddy.com for my webhosting, and Blogger.com for the blog editing interface). Now after five years one of those tools has changed how it works, which means I need to tweak settings I haven't touched in that long. (And,

Like peas and carrots. We serve up your recommended daily allowance of games featuring fruits and veggies including: Fruit Fair, a la Carte, and a Hoosier classic.

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In this show, we take some time talking about the top ten games that have replaced other games in our collections. Dexter and the Chief talk about Take it Easy, Brad goes over Age of Steam, Tom reviews 10 games in 9 minutes (or something like that), and Moritz talks about the evolution of Lord of the Rings. We review Wits and Wagers: Family, do Conventional wisdom, and talk about some recently played games - including our never ending online game of Stone Age.

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100 Spiel-related trivia questions written by listener David Schuth. Solve the puzzle, send us the answer.

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Dice. Tiles. Cards. We celebrate hitting triple digits with 3 reviews that fit our slogan, including an in-depth look at Macao.

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In this episode, Eric reviews a pile of games, Moritz discusses Mozart and games, and Geoff defends High Society. Dexter and the Chief go over Long Shot, Tom rants against publishers' lack of respect for dads, and Adam gives us some Dominion variants. Ryan gives more instructions on how to properly teach a game, and Eric talks about Ra: the Dice Game. Finally, we give our top ten stress-inducing board games, along with guest Charley Eastman.

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Tricks are treats. We explore the history and evolution of trick and trump games from Pinochle to modern titles like Triumvirate, Sticheln and Die Sieben Siegel.

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