Tom is stuck in traffic, so Julie and Eric take control to discuss what it takes to setup a booth at Essen. How do you get all that stuff overseas, and how do you minimize what has to come back? And of course, there are Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops.
Rest assured that every topic we address here at SVWAG will be utterly comprehensive and final, unless and until we decide to address it again. Thus, when we discuss tile-laying games, we perforce will cover all of them, each and and every one, and failure to specifically mention any title means it does not exist and must be scrubbed from all records as a revisionist lie.
01:41 AYURIS: Kutná Hora: The City of Silver (Ondřej Bystroň, Petr Čáslava, and Pavel Jarosch, Czech Games Edition, 2023)
Games Played Last Week:
04:55 -Caper: Europe (Unai Rubio, Keymaster Games, 2022)
As the days grow shorter and the air turns crisp, fall arrives with its pumpkin spice, lawn maintenance, and Halloween decorations. The season invites cozy gatherings, a time when board games find their way to kitchen tables and living rooms, bringing people together in shared strategy and laughter. It’s the perfect backdrop for diving into rich, immersive games that stretch the imagination and challenge the mind.
This fall, three standout titles offer distinct flavors of strategic depth. Aeterna spans eras, asking players to draft cards and manage resources across shifting historical landscapes, testing tactical foresight. Tianxia, set in China’s Warring States period, blends politics, trade, and tower defense as players vie for prestige while fending off nomadic invaders. It’s a Euro-style game with layered mechanics and historical nuance. Meanwhile, Wroth provides the challenge of area control and alliances that can suddenly turn cold just like the air outside. Together, these games reflect the season’s introspective mood, where complexity and strategy take center stage.
This year’s National Toy Hall of Fame finalists celebrate both nostalgia and innovation for us. From timeless tabletop classics like Catan, Battleship, and Trivial Pursuit. Or for those toys that make us scratch our head and say really — thus soft balls of Snow. Iconic toys like Furby and Tickle Me Elmo bring a wave of 90s tech nostalgia for your kids, while Spirograph and Connect Four remind us of our childhoods.
Thanks for listening and be sure to head over to our Discord channel and discuss not board games, but who do you think should be in the Toy Hall of Fame.
This week, join Jules, Dana and Adrian as they chat about the games hitting their table. Dana has been surviving the harsh desert conditions in Desperate Oasis. Jules has been journeying through the mystical landscapes of Faraway. Adrian continues to rabbit on about Barrage and its expansions - because apparently one dam episode wasn't enough!
This plus our Question of the Pod recap and finally ending with what has us fired up! (yee-haw)
New Question of the Pod: What game will you always go "all in" for?
PATREON
Hey there, BBQ fans! Guess what? We’ve got a Patreon! By joining, you’ll unlock exclusive content, gain access to a members-only section of our Discord where you can help shape the show, and so much more. Plus, your support will help us grow and bring some awesome new projects to life in 2025.
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Thanks a million for being amazing! We’re committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive community, and you all make it special. See you at the BBQ!! https://www.patreon.com/BoardGameBBQ
This weeks guest is host of Orkenspalter TV and face of 2025's Essen Spiel, Mháire Stritter. We talk about writing, being a YouTube personality and the art of the LARP...but which games did she choose?
Shelley and I begin our Essen 2025 Preview this week, first checking out one of the new titles that will be available at the fair:
Parks and Potions by Chris Eastridge from Moon Saga Workshop
then we begin our journey through the halls, starting with Hall 2, 1/2 of which is dedicated to "Expert" titles, then head into the biggest hall, Hall 3.
Thanks as always to our sponsor Bezier Games!
You can follow along with our discussion of Essen releases and see my notes on them on this Google Doc:
Ambie, Crystal, and special guest Amanda Panda discuss a couple games they played recently (which all happen to be from AllPlay), including Slambo!, Llama Llama, Tearable Quest, Alibis, and Waddle. Then, we talk about relaxing or cozy games that we like and what can make a game relaxing (or the opposite of relaxing).
Check out Amanda on all her links!
Dreaded continuity! We're following up Episode 41 from seven years ago about the games that started our love for board games! After those first loves, what really got our hearts aflutter with the joy that the hobby had to offer? Before we yearn, we talk about Der Fliegende Holländer, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.
02:52 - Der Fliegende Holländer 16:03 - The Hobbit: There and Back Again 27:14 - The games that made us 29:11 - Deception: Murder in Hong Kong 32:54 - Mage Knight Board Game 36:33 - Francis Drake 39:33 - Two Rooms and a Boom 42:44 - Survive: Escape from Atlantis! 46:46 - Grand Austria Hotel 49:53 - Dead Last 55:26 - Rising Sun
Opener: The games we played at the second BGTG Online Mini-Con
Closer: Essen is almost here, and I'll still follow it (but not anticipate it) For a long time I've wanted to have a boardgamer's discussion about different sports...as games. I don't mean sports boardgames, or season/league play. Nor do I mean franchise management. I mean the physical game itself, on the field, with its rules. Sure, a sport is a physical activity. An enormous part of the resulting play comes from the athletic prowess and physical skill of the players. However, there's a lot of strategy in the best sports games. It's part of what makes them fun to watch, to discuss, to second-guess, and so on. Whether it's football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, or tennis, these games have rules, they have scoring systems, they have strategic texture. Right? If you don't see that, then it might explain why you don't care for sports.
Maybe all sports have strategic texture. It's much harder for me to see in something like the dash races on the track or in a pool. Those seem to be much more measures of sheer physical athleticism. Though even in races, I've heard runners talk about the strategy for a race, especially with the energy management and psychological contest against other runners. However, I'm really focusing on sports that have more rules, more scoring. I think these provide greater opportunity for players and teams to differentiate from each other by their strategy. Sometimes it comes from the coach or manager, such as when managing the clock. Part of the reason this is a solo episode is that I've always had difficulty getting others to understand what I'm talking about. Or perhaps no one is interested! Whatever--I decided to record this episode by myself and find out what kind of response it generates. If you are a sports fan--and a boardgamer--does any of this make sense to you? Did I forget something? Especially with the sports I don't follow so much (soccer, basketball, hockey), I'm sure that I did. Boardgamers seem to gravitate toward baseball, a game that offers the opportunity for deep study and second-guessing. I'm anticipating some reaction there. -Mark
Hey Now Cabalists! Today Don and Jamie share their time at one of the best game stores they've ever experienced - Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Then the gang dives into a bunch of games they've been playing, including The Presence, Mythwind, Etherstone, Shackleton Base, and Age of Galaxy. Don, Chris, and Jamie throw down a feature review of Tea Garden from Tomas Holek and Capstone Games. And after Tony T’s legendary news segment, the gang tackles a slew of listener questions like what types of players we most enjoy gaming with, whether Kickstarting board games has become too volatile, and how to handle the dreaded phrase: We got it, let’s just play. The Presence: 00:08:42, Mythwind: 00:17:16, Etherstone: 00:28:33, Shackleton Base: 00:36:06, Age of Galaxy: 00:46:26, Tea Garden Review: 00:59:59, News with Tony T: 01:32:18, Short Topic Extravaganza: 02:27:30. Check out our sponsors Restoration Games at https://restorationgames.com/ and Game Toppers at https://www.gametoppersllc.com/.
This Game is Broken is a comedy board game panel show with Matthew Jude, Dave Luza, Paula Deming, Nick Murphy and Mike Murphy. We play a lot of nonsense games full of role playing and trivia as well as other fun stuff which can be found at the links below.
"A quipu usually consists of cotton or camelid fiber cords, and contains categorized information based on dimensions like color, order and number. The Inca, in particular, used knots tied in a decimal positional system to store numbers and other values in quipu cords. Depending on its use and the amount of information it stored, a given quipu may have anywhere from a few to several thousand cords. [...]
Inca administration used quipus extensively for a variety of uses: monitoring tax obligations, collecting census records, keeping calendrical information, military organization, and potentially for recording simple and stereotyped historical "annales"."
Chelsea Steenbock, Chair of Play with Your Food, joins me for a wide ranging conversation. We talk about how games have shaped our lives and how our passion for play enables us to build community and serve others.
Clef and Tim return from Age of Steam Con in Kansas City and talk about all the disc golf and Age of Steam they played. We cover a few Age of Steam maps, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion and Crystal Palace.
Board game talk starts at 34:51!
Join the discord at discord.gg/s8hYtWkMS3 and visit punchboardparadise.com for more info on PPCon 2026!
Music by Hey Disarray
Reviews of Moon Colony Bloodbath and Come Sail Away. All the pegs dive into the Esen Spiel preview list to share their top picks and spotlight the hidden gems you need on your radar discussion starts at {00:35:51}.
Thank you to our sponsors: Queen Games and Grand Gamers Guild.
Anmelden
