Shelley and I cover two of our recent Essen acquisitions:

Royals by Peter Hawes from Abacusspiele

and

Versailles by Andrei Novac and NSKN Games

Shelley and I get Trains and its first Map Expansion to the table for a conversation on deck building with the addition of play to a board, then try out two from last year's Essen as well.

Trains + Map Expansion (Dominion with a board - which changes things in interesting ways!) by Hisashi Hayashi from AEG

Steam Park (great art and 3-D pieces!) by Buonfino, Silva and Sorrentino from Cranio Creations

SOS Titanic (innovative use of a spiral-bound book for the board/co-op) by Cathala and Maublanc from Ludonaute

Enjoy!

Recorded after getting a chance to play some titles that people brought to Meeplefest back in August, here are THREE two games and one expansion from Japanese designers:

Too Many Cinderellas (some interesting ideas about narrowing the possible choices for the title character) from Taikikennai Games

Isaribi (fishing and selling at market with special helper who facilitate the action) by Hisashi Hayashi and from Japon/OKAZU

Machi Koro Sharp (the second expansion for the buzz-worthy game from Essen 2013) by Masao Suganuma and from Foxgames/Grounding

Enjoy!

Shelley and I tackle the second 1/2 of BGG's Essen Preview, looking at games from publishers M-Z, as well as spending some time discussion Days of Wonder's latest, Five Tribes from Bruno Cathala.

Shelley and I go through the Essen Preview, highlighting games from publishers A-L, and also discuss a game we got a chance to play that will be available at Essen - La Granja from Spielworxx.

Head over to the guild on BGG to discuss the games YOU are anticipating. Next week we'll deal with M-Z!

The group continues our discussion with more on camels (and the inclusion of Through the Desert in the mix), along with some iOS games that have been ported over, Tzolkin, Russian Railroads, and Glass Road. We then delve into the topic of teaching games to others, as well as the need to CHOOSE fun when heading to the gaming table.

Playing experiences are a primary topic on this episode as Dave Gullett joins the gang from last week and delves into what makes a new game OK, though he loathes learning new games. Then Susan McKinley Ross talks about Qwirkle's move to iOS and German licensing, and we discuss getting total strangers to buy 'our' games. App versions are part of the discussion too.

Istanbul

Hanabi

Paperback

Qwirkle

Susan McKinley Ross joins in on the mics (along with last week's crew) and Erik Oliver shows up for a discussion of the games that sparked debate and enjoyment over the course of the weekend. Those games include

Norderwind (North Wind)

Hollywood

Advanced Civilization

18XX

Freedom

Nations

Maskmen

Glass Road

Camel Up

Das Letzte Kamel

Castle Dice

Power Grid

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Candy, Ric, Joe, Kevin, and Brett join Shelley and me for a conversation about the SdJ nominees/winners, what a 'game' is, and whether BGG needs to be more user friendly or is 'just right' as Goldilocks would say.

Ted, Doug, Ric, Denis, Paul and a couple others join Shelley and me for a discussion of the state of Kickstarter, prototypes, development, and playtesting. Then we talk about some of the latest titles we were able to get to the table.

The group spends some time discussing SdJ and KdJ nominees and winners, then delve into a deeper discussion of design and publishing led by Ted's experiences in the field.

Enjoy!

Shelley returns to Agricola for a compare/contrast after her playing and discussion of Caverna from Episode 421, then we try out a city-building game from Mercury Games - The Capitals by Thiago Boaventura - and finally try out TAJ, the last of Chris Handy's forthcoming tiny-box games that is currently on Kickstarter.

Agricola by Uwe Rosenberg from Z-Man

The Capitals by Thiago Boaventura from Mercury Games

TAJ by Chris Handy from Perplext

Remember, if you can, pledge to the podcast on PayPal at garrettsgames@mac.com

Shelley and I finally get the BIG box game Nations to the table, building our civilizations as best we could, then try to throw punches to knock each other out in TKO

Nations by Rustan and Nina Hakansson, and Einar and Robert Rosen from Lautapelit.fl

and

TKO by Chris Handy from Perplext

Remember to keep spreading the word about our site change, and consider donating to the podcast by going to PayPal and donating to garrettsgames@mac.com.

Enjoy!

Shelley and I began tackling the dregs of Essen 2013 with Pelican Bay and Packet Row, then enjoyed a quick forthcoming dexterity game called FLY.

Pelican Bay by Jacques Zeimet from Drei Hasen in der Abendsonne

Packet Row by Henrik and Ase Berg from White Goblin

and

FLY by Chris Handy from Perplext

Enjoy! And if you're here at the site and can help defray the cost of the podcast, please donate on PayPal at garrettsgames@mac.com

Thanks!

Shelley and I finally do some heavy lifting this week, getting Uwe Rosenberg's monster Agricola sequel CAVERNA The Cave Farmers to the table for a couple of plays in a row. Then we talk about another of these wonderful forthcoming 'gum packet-sized' games from Chris Handy. This week GEM is on the docket.

Caverna The Cave Farmers by Use Rosenberg and published by Lookout Games.

and

GEM by Chris Handy and published by Perplext (soon to be on Kickstarter)

Enjoy!

This week Shelley and I look at another Essen 2013 (yep they're still out there!) that we borrowed from Ted & Toni, then discuss the first in a great batch of forthcoming games.

Citrus by Jeffrey Allers and published by dlp Games

and

HUE by Chris Handy and soon to be Kickstarted!

Enjoy and thanks for listening! Send your comments to garrettsgamesATmac.com or go onto our guild at BoardGameGeek.com for more information and conversation.

This week's episode features two reviews of older games, but includes the recent expansion for one.

Tokaido by Antoine Bauza + the Tokaido Crossroads expansion from Fun Forge

Royal Palace by Xavier Georges from Rio Grande/Filosofia/Hans im Gluck

Pagoda from AEG and Vikings from Rio Grande get discussed this episode.

Shelley and I check out Helios with a first play (more on this one next time too) and also pull another oldie (is it a goodie??) off the shelf after 5 years: Comuni.

Helios by Martin Kallenborn and Matthias Prinz from Hans im Gluck and Z-Man

Comuni by Accitttocca and Virginio Gigli from Elfinwerks, HUCH, and TenkiGames