As we approach the end of 2024, it's about time we stop, take stock, and dare I say look back at the year that's been. The highs, the lows, the mids - all the stars are here, and we're going to break them down for you with some of our favourite games, and biggest moments, and general assessment of the year that's been. Before we reflect, we talk about Let's Go! To Japan, Mombasa, and The Gang. 01:52 - Let's Go! To Japan 10:17 - Mombasa 15:05 - The Gang 21:00 - Looking back on 2024 22:01 - Arcs 27:54 - Cascadero 29:29 - Slay the Spire: The Board Game 31:17 - Wilmot's Warehouse

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Gobble Bobble, here comes trouble in the form of a pairing we never thought we'd see - Bob and the Ghost Turkey have delivered us another holiday nightmare. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Before we tuck in, we talk about Tapple, Mini Rails, and Naishi. 05:48 - Tapple 11:07 - Mini Rails 17:45 - Naishi 22:56 - BGBBOB Bird Games 24:45 - ICECOOL 24:52 - Root 26:17 - Rook 26:26 - Songbirds 28:05 - Fancy Feathers 28:15 - The Bird Told Me to Do It 29:09 - Piepmatz 32:17 - Wingspan 32:28 - Penguin Party 33:44 - Angry Birds: Star Wars - Jenga Rise of Darth Vader Game

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We've been to Las Vegas and back for the very unofficial recurring gathering we like to call BarrageCon (which is really just all of us hanging out at Mark's place). We had a lot of games lined up to play, and I daresay we did a pretty good job of getting through them. Here's our report back, just a bunch of impressions of a bunch of games - including Rise & Fall, Fractured Sky, and Wilmot's Warehouse! 02:26 - Harvest 07:18 - Fractured Sky 18:13 - Penguin Party 22:10 - San Marco 27:14 - EGO 31:45 - Barony 37:30 - Rise & Fall 49:49 - Wilmot's Warehouse 56:45 - Tiny Laser Heist 1:01:32 - Nekojima 1:02:45 - Bottle Imp 1:07:45 - The Vale of Eternity 1:11:53 - Shogun

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I think it's fair to say at this point, that we've pretty firmly established each of our respective tastes when it comes to board games, whether it's for genre, theme, mechanic, whatever. There's always something, though, right? Something that flies in the face of those rules and boldly proclaims, "I like this, even though..." Before we prove the rule, we talk about Andromeda's Edge, and Karvi. 03:05 - Andromeda's Edge 13:15 - Karvi 23:32 - Exceptions to our Gaming Tastes 24:47 - Through the Ages 26:41 - Ark Nova 30:57 - Stationfall 34:04 - Thunder Road: Vendetta 35:35 - Terra Mystica

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The Fandango Tank returns! The ever wonderful Mike DiLisio joins us again, this time to collectively cast our minds forward to some things we'd like to manifest into the board game future. We've got a mess of ideas, a veritable mixtape of miscellany that we either want to play, or hope to see more of as the hobby progresses. Before we unspool, we talk about Fishing, EGO, The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth, and Key Market (Second Edition). 02:57 - Fishing 03:03 - I Made You a Mixtape 11:31 - EGO 21:00 - The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth 27:46 - Key Market (Second Edition) 40:49 - Things we'd like to see Please check out the Kickstarter for Mike and Dan's game, I Made You a Mixtape: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cabbagedan/i-made-you-a-mixtape

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So we've done a lot of these drafts before, but I don't think we've done one quite like this. This time we're each trying to draft a set of five games that we think you might agree are incredibly overrated. What does that mean exactly? Well that's up for debate too. What isn't up for debate is that you could win $100 just by voting! Before we widen our delta, we talk about Undaunted 2200: Callisto, Nature, and Barcelona. 03:37 - Undaunted 2200: Callisto 13:10 - Nature 23:00 - Barcelona 31:22 - Overrated Games Draft  37:07 - Nemesis  39:10 - Frosthaven  41:15 - Star Wars: Rebellion 45:19 - Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition 47:37 - Earth 48:45 - Wingspan 51:19 - 7 Wonders Duel 52:24 - Mechs vs. Minions 53:17 - Everdell 55:43 - Crokinole 58:52 - Caverna: The Cave Farmers 59:55 - Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon 1:01:24 - On Mars  1:02:45 - Lost Ruins of Arnak 1:04:13 - Catan

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I'm in a bit of a quandary here, because Mark told me not to tell you what this episode is even about, but I want this description to be, well, descriptive but he's glaring at me really hard, and making a throat slitting gesture so I daren't risk it. It's about ... board games? Before we get ahead of ourselves, we talk about Binho, Stamp Swap, and First Rat. 03:33 - Binho 07:24 - Stamp Swap 17:04 - First Rat 30:16 - ??? 34:47 - Agricola 34:47 - Bohnanza 36:28 - Patchwork 37:05 - A Feast for Odin 39:02 - Power Grid 39:43 - Friday 40:06 - Fearsome Floors 41:25 - 504 42:40 - Fast Sloths 43:03 - Fresh Fish 44:44 - Ra 45:28 - Tigris & Euphrates 46:45 - Lost Cities 46:52 - Yellow & Yangtze 47:23 - Blue Lagoon 47:43 - The Quest for El Dorado 48:22 - My City 49:13 - Through the Desert 49:28 - Ingenious 50:59 - Schotten Totten

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We may or may not be going to Germany (who can say), but that's where all the good gaming is gonna be, so that's what we're gonna talk about. It's almost Essen SPIEL! That sure is a lot of games debuting there though, so which ones should you care about? Don't worry, we've done the hard work for you. Before you go back to being eine faule socke, we talk about Nekojima, We're Sinking!, Hues and Cues, and Colorful.

02:46 - Nekojima 09:01 - We're Sinking! 15:31 - Hues and Cues 15:31 - Colorful 22:09 - Essen SPIEL 2023 Preview 22:57 - Æterna 25:32 - Babylon 27:17 - Bus & Stop 28:55 - COSCA: Take Over the Mafia 31:54 - Galileo Galilei 33:41 - SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence 34:39 - Fishing 37:19 - AI Space Puzzle 38:59 - Zero to Hero 40:51 - The Gang 42:46 - Golden Cup 45:09 - Black Forest 50:02 - Battalion: War of the Ancients 53:01 - Beyond the Horizon 56:10 - Asian Tigers: A Story of Prosperity 58:16 - Skull Queen 58:38 - King of Tokyo: Origins 59:15 - Penguin Airlines 1:00:18 - Dungeon Exit

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It's about people, right? Below all the mechanics, after all the rules explanations, beyond every crushing loss and glorious win, what really matters is people we're playing with. Some games make that more apparent than others, and we're here to celebrate that. Before we realize it's about the friends we made along the way, we talk about Arcs, and Luthier.

03:02 - Arcs 19:26 - Luthier 37:11 - Games that make you feel good about people 41:11 - Codenames 42:05 - Decrypto 43:09 - Time's Up! 43:38 - Telestrations 43:56 - Fuji Flush 44:04 - Mino Dice 46:01 - Word Slam 47:00 - Krazy Wordz 47:43 - Just One 48:16 - Pictures 48:44 - Stationfall 51:12 - The Estates 51:37 - Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant 52:16 - The Resistance 52:16 - Blood on the Clocktower 52:55 - The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31

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The only thing worse than coming away from a first game with a really bad impression, is when it takes a really long time to shake. Imagine all the amazing games you're not playing because of one bad first game! Whether we saw the error of our ways or not, we're reflecting on the times that games left a mark that took a long time to fade. Before we make our impression, we talk about Things in Rings, Yedo: Deluxe Master Set, and Harmonies.

01:51 - Things in Rings 10:29 - Yedo: Deluxe Master Set 24:03 - Harmonies 30:05 - Draft winner! 32:48 - Bad first impressions 33:49 - Brass: Birmingham 33:49 - Hansa Teutonica 34:49 - Agricola 37:25 - Race for the Galaxy 37:37 - Tigris & Euphrates 39:04 - The Great Zimbabwe 39:51 - Ark Nova 41:25 - Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization 42:43 - 7 Wonders Duel 45:29 - Ginkgopolis 46:51 - Arcane Academy 49:24 - Century: Spice Road 50:37 - John Company: Second Edition 52:27 - Stationfall 53:58 - Hanabi 56:10 - Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra

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It's awards season, which means that Germany's back to tell us what games are popping off over there. And that also means we're back to tell you what we think about what they think. More than that - we're looking through the annals of Spiel des Jahres history to drafting the winningest games of all the winners! Which means you too can be a winner of $100! Just vote! Before everyone's a winner, we talk about Chess, Vabanque, The Mandalorian: Adventures, and Path of Civilization.

04:06 - Chess 10:27 - Vabanque 14:06 - The Mandalorian: Adventures 20:14 - Path of Civilization 31:00 - Spiel des Jahres 2024 Review 36:19 - Spiel des Jahres Fantasy Draft 38:43 - El Grande 39:33 - Codenames 41:12 - Azul 42:29 - Dominion 43:02 - Wingspan 44:36 - The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine 45:22 - The Quacks of Quedlinburg 45:46 - Hanabi 46:21 - Cascadia 47:26 - Just One 49:52 - Camel Up 50:49 - Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King 51:58 - Sky Team  53:04 - Dixit 53:33 - Challengers!

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Feel Better Walker!!