Yes, this is the very last episode of Talk Cardboard. But there is a sort of continuation. More on that in the episode itself.

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On to the timestamps!

5:33 The Queen's Dilemma
14:32 Oath
16:03 Torchlit
19:40 Hanami
24:30 Sovereign: Fall of Wormwood
29:37 Strange Slot Simulator
34:26 Container
39:15 Foxglove Farm
42:46 The Old King's Crown
44:46 Typeset

Just for reference, the population of Klaipėda, the third largest city in Lithuania is approximately 161 000 people. The number of attendees in this year's Spiel Essen was 220 000 people, meaning they managed to cram the entirey of Klaipėda and much more into just eight convention halls and every one of those people were buying board games.

I appreciate that that is maybe not everybody's jam, and aspects of it are not our jam either. But getting our mitts into a jar of Bonne Maman filled with gooey new board game releases - put a bib on me and fire up the toaster!

In this special joint episode of No Pun Included and Talk Cardboard we cover 16 new releases from Spiel Essen 2025, which you can either listen to here or partake in the video version https://youtu.be/NHVLn-ZxVWs

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open
2:46 Intro
5:42 Night Soil (Unranked)
9:11 Bouba Kiki
14:14 Nocturnis
17:56 Formidable Farm/Formidabel!
22:00 Tax the Rich
27:44 Echoes of Time
36:30 Fearless
41:30 National Economy
48:23 Thesauros
1:00:34 biD Coin
1:07:20 Kikai/Bricolage Heads
1:16:46 Tag Team
1:26:59 Recall
1:36:14 ???
1:56:10 ??
2:03:33 ?
2:14:53 Outro

Spinning pandas, evolving primates, and... Capitalism! We have all three for you in this episode - thankfully not all in the same game.
We could have had three games about mammals, but we didn't think this through. 

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Onto the timestamps:

00:00 Cold open
02:09 Intro
03:45 Panda Spin
18:34 Primates
32:51 Tycoon: India 1981
48:25 Correspondence

Only three games this episode? What gives? Well, in the tried and true brand tradition, we decided to go back to our original formula. But no sad trombone noises please - we're really, definitely, honestly going to make it work this time...

On this episode, we have Identity - a trick taking game that promises personality, Out of Sorts - a game of inventing a cataloguing system for books in an alien library, and Magical Athlete - a game of racing a banana, a giant baby, and various other quirky things round a track.

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On to the timestamps:

00:00 Cold open & intro
05:50 Identity
14:16 Out of Sorts
28:57 Magical Athlete
42:03 Correspondence 

There are episodes where we bring as much knowledge as we can about whatever board game we are talking about. And then there are episodes where we just want to share why something didn't click so much that we didn't want to go beyond game one. Apropos of nothing, today we'll be chatting about Brink, a "trading cubes in space" game that conceptually riffs on Catan but in execution whiffs on us.

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On to the time stamps:

00:00 Cold Open & Intro

Work in Progress: 

2:08 Tenby

7:26 Railroad Tiles

10:42 Rumble Nation

18:53 Winter Rabbit

Audience Correspondence:

25:05 Vantage, Neurodivergence in Board Games

Main Feature:

31:23 Brink

Well, Hot Dog! Do we have an episode for you! We peruse the lofty promises of Vantage, try to keep ourselves on track in Railroad Tiles, discuss whether selling doughnuts at night is really worth your time in Taiwan Night Market, and Efka tells us about angry dice you can chuck about in the bath, in Wroth. 

But wait! That's not all! The main game on our podium is Hot Streak - which not only has a hot dog, but also a fish, a bear, and HM the Queen herself in a game of racing, falling down, getting back up again, and trying all over again. Phew. 

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On to the timestamps:

00:00 Cold Open & Intro

Work in Progress: 

00:54 Vantage
19:14 Railroad Tiles
25:01 Taiwan Night Market
28:26 Wroth

Audience Correspondence:

36:19 Gaming Tables

Main Feature:

41:23 Hot Streak

Pew pew kaboom! That's the sound of every child's living nightmare - their toys coming to life and unleashing an arsenal of deadly weaponry in their bedroom. Many a sleepless night I've had in my youth with this vivid imagery - blood, guts, plastic viscera strewn across my chewbacca rug - which might I add, also comes alive and eats the other toys... anyway, turns out they made my nightmare into a board game and you can now play it.

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On to the time stamps:

0:00 Cold Open

Work In Progress

0:56 The Old King's Crown
6:24 Ensemble
12:19 Haggis

Audience Correspondence

16:14 Trick Taking

Main Feature

27:51 Toy Battle

Good news, we're still on holiday. Better news - we're still doing the holiday cast, which means more free podcast more delivered to more you. Moorish! You know what else is moorish? Trees! Just can't get enough of those suckers. And you know where trees live? That's right, in Germany. And you know what Germany has? Autobahns. But also forests.

Apropos of nothing, let's talk about a board game called Black Forest which is about a forest in Germany.

Once again, no timestamps because we're still on holiday and it's still just one game in the episode. You'll be fine.

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Good news, we're on holiday. Better news, we're not leaving you without podcast. It's a smaller episode, yes, but it is Talk Cardboard delivered right to your door, for free! Mmmmm, free podcast, what could be more delicious? Oh, I know, human suffering! If you feel like what you need more in your life is a cardboard simulation of robots slaughtering endless amounts of flesh bags on the moon, Moon Colony Bloodbath has got you sorted.

Not doing timestamps cause we're on holiday. Also, it's just one game. You'll be fine.

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Sharpen your papercuts because it's time to put cards face down in front of you and simultaneously flip them face up! The Old King's Crown is maybe the year's most exciting game and we've got an exciting early scoop!

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SHIRTS! Find them on https://no-pun-included-shop.fourthwall.com/

On to the time stamps:

0:00 Cold Open
1:40 Intro

Work In Progress

2:08 Emberleaf
11:19 Hot Streak
22:00 Project L
26:24 Survive the Island

Main Feature

31:06 The Old King's Crown

Efka opens our review of Eternal Decks with "This is the main candidate for Game of the Year 2025" and if you need a better endorsement to learn about a cool new board game, I can't think of one. And I'm Efka. This and more in this week's Talk Cardboard.

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On to the time stamps:

0:00 Cold Open
1:30 Intro

Work In Progress

1:59 Barony: Royal Edition
6:25 In the Shadows: Resistance in France 1943 - 1944 (DNF)
10:08 Emberleaf
14:32 The Old King's Crown

Audience Correspondence: 

21:34 Blue Prince

Main Feature

28:46 Eternal Decks