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Published — 07. Mai 2026 ⏭

BGB Podcast #360 – Guessing Golden Geeks Galore

✇Board Game Barrage
Von: Orange Tank
07. Mai 2026 um 10:59

 

 

It’s long been said that we’re the foremost experts in knowing which way the awards winds blow, so we’re putting our talents to use guessing, nay, predicting, nay, deciding who the winners in the Golden Geeks are going to be. Before we geek out, we talk about Chronicles of Crime: 2400, Quarto, and Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

04:07 – Chronicles of Crime: 2400
12:00 – Quarto
16:13 – Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon
30:16 – Golden Geeks 2025

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

04:07 – Chronicles of Crime: 2400
12:00 – Quarto
16:13 – Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon
30:16 – Golden Geeks 2025

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.

The post BGB Podcast #360 – Guessing Golden Geeks Galore appeared first on Board Game Barrage.
Published — 22. April 2026 ⏭

Arydia leads Golden Geek nominations with nods in six categories, Vantage and Fate of the Fellowship up for five each

✇https://boardgamewire.com/
Von: Mike Didymus-True
22. April 2026 um 12:37

Co-op fantasy adventuring game Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread has scored six nominations in the 20th annual Golden Geek Awards, which are selected and voted on by BoardGameGeek users.

Cody Miller’s “green legacy” design, which can be fully reset after each dozens-of-hours-long campaign, is up for heavy game of the year, most innovative game and best thematic game, as well as for the best artwork, solo game and co-op game categories.

Fellow open-world exploration game Vantage, designed by Scythe and Viticulture creator Jamey Stegmaier, is challenging across five categories this year, as is Pandemic creator Matt Leacock’s spin-off design The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship.

Both those titles will battle it out for the Medium Game of the Year prize, which is also being contested by popular releases including Galactic Cruise, Eternal Decks and fellow Stonemaier Games title Finspan.

Eternal Decks, a limited communication co-op game designed by Hiroken, has picked up four nominations

Other titles picking up nominations across multiple categories included Eternal Decks, Star Trek: Captain’s Chair and Hot Streak, with four each, while Magical Athlete, Molly House, Luthier, Galactic Cruise, Corps of Discovery, The Old King’s Crown, Speakeasy and The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era all picked up three nods.

The Golden Geeks is one of board gaming’s highest profile awards, as well as being among the earliest of the major competitions to unveil its winners each year – with the Dice Tower Awards falling in May, the Spiel des Jahres in July and Deutscher Spiel Priese in October.

Notable awards which have already named their winners this year include France’s highest-profile board game prize, the As d’Or, which picked Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini’s Toy Battle in its main prize for 2026.

Toy Battle is nominated in two categories in the Golden Geeks: best two-player game and best wargame. The latter category will see the title go up against a huge variety of different designs, including Memoir ’44-inspired Star Wars: Battle of Hoth, whist-themed English civil war strategy title A Very Civil Whist, and heavyweight GMT Games releases such as Congress of Vienna and Seljuk: Byzantium Besieged, 1068-1071.

As well as published board games, the Golden Geeks also features categories for best print and play design, best board game app and best podcast.

Voting will be undertaken by BoardGameGeek users who have paid an annual support fee in any year, who pay a one-time 20 GeekGold fee, or who have purchased an avatar on the site. They will rank nominees in individual categories, with voting set to end on April 30.

Last year’s Golden Geeks saw Arcs, the hybrid trick-taking wargame from Root and Oath designer Cole Wehrle, win a trio of awards, while fellow space-themed game SETI notched up a pair of wins.

This year’s Golden Geek Awards nominations in full:

2-Player Game
Azul Duel
Duel for Cardia
Everdell Duo
Flamecraft Duals
Iliad
Star Trek: Captain’s Chair
Star Wars: Battle of Hoth
Tag Team
Toy Battle
Zenith

Artwork & Presentation
Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
Eternal Decks
Galactic Cruise
Hot Streak
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Luthier
Magical Athlete
The Old King’s Crown
Speakeasy
Vantage

Cooperative Game
Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
Corps of Discovery: A Game Set in the World of Manifest Destiny
The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era
Eternal Decks
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Nemesis: Retaliation
Regicide Legacy
Take Time
Unmatched Adventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Vantage

Expansion
Castle Combo: Out of the Oubliette!
Clank!: Catacombs – Underworld
Dune: Imperium – Bloodlines
Earth: Abundance
Heat: Tunnel Vision
The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth – Allies
Lost Ruins of Arnak: Twisted Paths
Sea Salt & Paper: Extra Pepper
SETI: Space Agencies
Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy

Innovative
Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
Corps of Discovery: A Game Set in the World of Manifest Destiny
Eternal Decks
Hot Streak
Light Speed: Arena
Molly House
Moon Colony Bloodbath
The Old King’s Crown
Tag Team
Vantage

Light GOTY
Duel for Cardia
Flamecraft Duals
FlipToons
The Hobbit: There and Back Again
Hot Streak
Magical Athlete
Railroad Tiles
Star Wars: Battle of Hoth
Take Time
Toy Battle

Medium GOTY
The Druids of Edora
Eternal Decks
Finspan
Formaggio
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Moon Colony Bloodbath
Sanctuary
Skara Brae
Vantage
Zenith

Heavy GOTY
Ada’s Dream
Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era
Galactic Cruise
Luthier
Molly House
The Old King’s Crown
Speakeasy
Star Trek: Captain’s Chair
Sweet Lands

Party Game
Alibis
Barbecubes
Brick Like This!
La Cuenta
Hitster Rock: Bob!
Hot Streak
Light Speed: Arena
Magical Athlete
Take Time
Wine Cellar

Print & Play
52 Duels
Chronicles of Civilization
Crosswhords!
Dungeons of the Oak Dell
Elevation (fan expansion for Android: Netrunner)
The Promise
Rise of the Oak Dell
Terra Mystica: Fan Factions

Solo Game
The Anarchy
Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
Corps of Discovery: A Game Set in the World of Manifest Destiny
Deckers
The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Skara Brae
Star Trek: Captain’s Chair
Unstoppable
Vantage

Thematic Game
Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
Galactic Cruise
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Luthier
Molly House
Moon Colony Bloodbath
Nemesis: Retaliation
Speakeasy
Star Trek: Captain’s Chair
Vantage

Wargame
Battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars
China’s War 1937-1941
Congress of Vienna
Cross Bronx Expressway
Fields of Fire: Deluxe Edition
General Orders: Sengoku Jidai
Seljuk: Byzantium Besieged, 1068-1071
Star Wars: Battle of Hoth
Toy Battle
A Very Civil Whist

Best Podcast
Blue Peg, Pink Peg
Board Game Hot Takes
Board Games Insider
Decision Space
Five Games for Doomsday
Game Brain: A Board Game Podcast About Our Gaming Group
Shelf Stable: A Board Gaming Podcast
Space-Biff! Space-Cast!
Sporadically Board with Mike and Dan
Talk Cardboard

Best Board Game App
Ark Nova
Carnegie: The Board Game
Cascadia Digital
Caverna
The Isle of Cats
Kingdomino: The Board Game
MicroMacro: Downtown Detective
Reiner Knizia’s My City
SpaceCorp
Watergate – The Board Game

The post Arydia leads Golden Geek nominations with nods in six categories, Vantage and Fate of the Fellowship up for five each first appeared on .

Published — 16. September 2025 ⏭

The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship v1

✇The Esoteric Order of Gamers
Von: Universal Head
16. September 2025 um 06:42

… and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

Keep it secret! Keep it safe! The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship rules & reference!

The Pandemic system has spawned quite a few games now, and while I’m not a big fan of co-operative games, I hoped that The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship would be different enough to offer a new and, for me, better, experience. And all the elements are here to make a more compelling game – it just seems that co-ops still aren’t for me.

The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship boils the books down to a series of objectives you must complete before the final push to drop the Ring into the Crack of Doom. These can be mixed and matched to create scenarios that concentrate on various parts of the tale – for example, the taking of Isengard and the battles in Rohan – or you can just choose a random set of them. Each player controls two characters and must complete 4 actions with one, and 1 action with the other, on each of their turns. Your hand of region cards has icons on them that allow you to pay for some of those actions or get dice re-rolls. At the end of each player’s turn, a number of shadow cards are drawn according to the threat level, and these cards dictate the movement of troops along battle lines on the board as they head inexorably towards the strongholds of the good guys, or move the Eye of Sauron and the Nazgûl around the map. Occasionally, Skies Darken cards will pop up that, among other things, instruct you to shuffle the shadow card discards and put them back on top of the deck, in true Pandemic fashion.

I appreciate that this game is an interesting and very thematic evolution of the Pandemic system, but unfortunately I find the constant maintenance required by that system – moving the troops around the map in little conga lines, shuffling the cards back on top of the deck – pulls me out of the game’s theme. I sometimes found myself in situations where I had nothing I could do with my characters (probably my poor playing, but still…) Crucially, I simply can’t seem to get excited about winning or losing against a game system rather than real-life opponents. And finally, while the included dice tower is a solid, attractive bit of gimmickry, I found the game’s graphic design lacking a unified direction and a little bit amateurish. So in the end, while I can definitely see why this game has been reviewed so well and why so many people will love it, after a couple of plays, I realised it just wasn’t for me and I decided to sell it on to someone who would enjoy it more.

For more detail, check out my video review! And of course, you can find this summary in my amazing rules app, Tabletop Codex.

Published — 04. September 2025 ⏭

BGB Podcast #342 – Oops! All Foreplay

✇Board Game Barrage
Von: Orange Tank
04. September 2025 um 10:28

 

 

There’s any number of subtle innuendoes we could’ve gone with, but this is what we’re doing I guess. If you haven’t got there yet, we’re talking about games that aren’t just slow rides, but instead leave you gasping for more right as they climax. Before we finish, we talk about No Loose Ends, Eselsbrücke, and The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

01:24 – No Loose Ends
09:08 – Eselsbrücke
19:33 – The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
33:52 – Comings and Goings
37:44 – Games that finish strong
40:17 – Agricola
40:44 – Splendor
41:14 – The Voyages of Marco Polo
44:03 – Terraforming Mars
45:28 – Blood on the Clocktower
46:57 – Innovation
47:49 – Rumble Nation
49:50 – Moon Colony Bloodbath
52:12 – Dominion

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.

The post BGB Podcast #342 – Oops! All Foreplay appeared first on Board Game Barrage.
Published — 27. August 2025 ⏭

Unboxing The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship!

✇The Esoteric Order of Gamers
Von: Universal Head
27. August 2025 um 00:55

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us

Peter unboxes The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship by Z-Man Realms!

Pandemic is a game that doesn’t really excite me much anymore, and I’ve played the spin-off Clone Wars and been underwhelmed. But this new evolution of the system by Matt Leacock has received great reviews and I’m very much looking forward to trying it out. In the meantime, here’s an unboxing, partial graphic design critique, and at the end, a tip to make the spectacular dice tower look even better!

Making high quality tabletop gaming content at the EOG takes time and money. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter or making a donation so I can continue this work! Thankyou!

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