Episoder
-
I don’t know about you, but I think there’s something special about the momentum of two player games. The tension, the back and forth. The sensation of making a clever move is so much more palpable than in any other player count. Today we’ll take a look at three two player games, each interesting in its own way, and also two more on our bonus episode.
Our friend Jon from JonGetsGames has designed a game called Spring Cleaning, which we mention in the episode, you can pre-order it here: https://www.newmillindustries.com/store/p/spring-cleaning-preorder or you can play it online on boardgamearena.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
0:00 Cold Open
2:04 Intro
4:08 Run
24:31 Haggis
37:07 Harrow County -
Dear listeners, it’s never been clearer to us that board games have entered into a new era - the era of the size race. Each month publishers are competing to release a bigger campaign game than the one before and in terms of scope, Agemonia is definitely in the running for the lead. In terms of box size it’s no slouch either, looking eerily similar to that 32 pound Frosthaven box. To provide some contrast and levity, the second game on this episode is Terra Nova, a sleeker, slimmer, smaller and shorter version of its big sibling - Terra Mystica.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
0:00 Cold Open
1:46 Agemonia
41:34 Agemonia content warning start
45:49 Agemonia content warning end
48:22 Audience Correspondence - Salton Sea
55:52 Terra Nova -
Manglende episoder?
-
There is a duality in first time plays, at least when you’re playing with a mind to reviewing. One path leads to potential, the other to the bin. A first time play can reveal quirks and kinks that promise an interesting second or third or fourth and beyond plays; exploration and indulgence. It can equally reveal a design you never wish to revisit. On today’s episode - two board games. Arcs and Salton Sea. A remix of space board games and a trudge through the bleak world of mining lithium. Each a representative of both polar opposites of first impressions.
Articles and websites discussed in the episode can be found here:
Vote for your favourite podcast in the BGG Awards: https://boardgamegeek.com/geekawards/boardgame
From Wingspan to Wyrmspan: An Accesibility Journey - https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/157687/from-wingspan-to-wyrmspan-an-accessibility-journey
Rolling with Two: Wyrmspan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifMREbPv1Zk
Colorbling Games - https://colorblindgames.com/
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
0:00 Cold Open
1:46 Intro
2:49 Flavor Text
9:13 Salton Sea
41:46 Weight vs Subject
45:02 Arcs
1:15:03 Outro -
This episode we only cover two games, but we had so much to say it ended up being a full length episode anyway. Which isn’t a surprise really when you end up with two follow ups for two massively succesful games. It’s the follow-up episode! And if you strain your thinking really hard, you could even argue that this very episode is a follow up to previous episodes, and thus thematically represents the games themselves. It’s nice when things like that line up perfectly. Please enjoy our chatter on 7th Citadel (sequel to 7th Continent) and Wyrmspan (sequel to Wingspan).
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
0:00 Cold Open
0:38 Intro
2:44 7th Citadel
34:15 Wyrmspan -
“What’s good?” you might ask me. Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. Just board games. Three specific board games that are, in fact, good and COINCIDENTALLY are all featured on this episode of Talk Cardboard. What a treat! A threefer. A co-op boss battler that’s good, a solo deck-builder that’s good and, wait for it, a EUROGAME that is very good! It’s good games vibes only. Enjoy!
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
0:00 Cold Open
2:00 Intro
3:17 Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze
22:08 Witchcraft!
38:41 Revive -
A remake, a new take and an expansion walk into a bar. The barman says, “what’ll it be?” They all reply “something fresh.”
Was that too mean? I think that was too mean, especially since at least (and also at most) two of the games discussed in this episode are pretty great. And one of them is okay. We revisit the classic Terra Mystica in it’s new more thematically demure incarnation, we explore how Raising Robots riffs on Wingspan and Efka finally gets to play the expansion to his favourite game of all time - Sidereal Confluence. Let me tell you folks - it’s been bifurcated.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
0:00 Cold Open
2:48 Intro
3:43 Age of Innovation: A Terra Mystica Game
33:22 Raising Robots
53:23 Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation -
More and more board games are adopting eco themes! Whether it’s Daybreak and it’s simulation of climate change or Dune: War for Arrakis and Dune’s enviromental themes and… uh… one or two plastic miniatures or Ticket to Ride Legacy and… um… all the railroad constru…. You know what nevermind, welcome to board games! It’s board games everyone, aren’t they good? So good those board games. Are they good? It depends on which one it is. And thus enters the board game reviews. They’re here. Enjoy it.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
00:00 Cold Open
1:27 Intro
2:30 Audience Correspondence: Green Appreciation
6:08 Dune: War for Arrakis
38:26 Daybreak
59:07 Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West -
Can you believe it’s been a whole year of Talk Cardboard? Incredible! What’s a better way to celebrate the end of the year than by revisiting where we began? On the very first episode Efka talked about his most anticipated games for 2023, so today we’ll take a look at how those panned out and also take a peek at his most anticipated games for 2024.
Plus we’ll talk about Dune: Imperium - Uprising, Efka’s game of the year and share some of Elaine’s impressions of it. Finally, we saved something a little special for the end of the episode, but you’ll have to listen to find out what that is.
Thanks for sticking with us for a whole year! Here’s to another one.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
3:35 The Ones that Got Away
20:47 Dune: Imperium - Uprising
44:09 Most Anticipated 2023 Revisited
54:15 Most Anticipated 2024 -
Winter months are here and a deep chill is setting over the world. A chill that can represent only one thing - Elaine and Efka’s disappointing week of board games. That’s right, it’s one of those episodes - where no one game is a standout and all of them feel like they’re missing just a little warmth. So grab a cup of hot cocoa and settle in for a grumpy cast of some grumpy cardboard talk.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
2:08 Audience Correspondence - Contentification (for the last time)
8:16 Sail
32:23 Thank you to Mark from So Very Wrong About Games https://www.sowronggames.com/
37:46 Trolls and Princesses
55:45 Evacuation -
It’s a new episode of the Talk Cardboard podcast and I feel great! Rejuvenated even because today’s games are light, breezy, quirky and fun.
And what’s a breezier topic than the collapse of an empire? Just the thought of that warmed something inside of me, like a cozy blanket gently touching the fireplace and setting aflame. If you too would like to partake in some famine, pestilence, war, etc. you might want to give Empire’s End a spin. And if that wasn’t cozy enough, how about some real time horse gambling? Honestly, all that cozyness put my brain in a twist. Thankfully, we’re also covering Mind Space.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
1:16 Audience Correspondence - Singapore 1819
3:33 Empire's End
13:17 Audience Recommendations
14:49 Ready Set Bet
26:06 Rob Daviau Talks Legacy Games
45:00 Mind Space
56:40 Audience Correspondence - All Time Favourites -
Every year in board games there’s a new fad. Legacy, polyominoes, roll and writes and trick takers. This year’s fad seems to be less genre based and more societally concious. Here at NPI every week we encounter more and more board games that reduce their use of wasteful material such as plastics. On this episode alone two of the three games discussed are 100% recyclable (if you ignore the stickers that hold the lid on the box). And the third one is themed around enviromental issues. How amazing is that?
But on top of that, they’re really interesting games in their own right. Honestly, this feels like a celebration.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
1:43 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part One
3:51 Earthborne Rangers
27:52 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part Two
36:32 Forest Shuffle
59:10 Sonny Liew and the Two Board Games Called 1819: Singapore
1:25:31 Planta Nubo
1:42:06 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part Three -
What’s the biggest event of the year? That’s right, it’s the DFS Winter Mega Sale! But right after that comes Essen Spiel, or as it is now known: Spiel Essen. Every year, just under two hundred thousand board gamers flock to an industrial city in Germany to partake in a mass consumption event where over a thousand board game titles are released over the course of one weekend and this year we have played ALL OF THEM.
Or at least tried to. We played twenty five, ate a kebab and fell asleep. But now, on this one and only episode of Talk Cardboard, we’ll rank them from worst to best and talk about each one a little bit.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
0:56 Intro
Unranked Games:
3:13 Karvi
4:02 El Grande
5:30 Bruxelles 1893
7:30 Nana/Trio
Ranked Games:
10:25 Here Comes The Dog
12:00 Stich für Stich
13:59 Sunrise Lane
16:32 Couture
20:19 Ninja Masters
23:19 Havalandi
27:55 Tangram City
32:30 Quicksand
36:15 Extravaganza
39:14 Nuts a Go Go
43:50 Viking Sea-Saw
47:28 Tiger and Dragon
51:23 White Castle
55:55 Come Sail Away
1:00:41 The Top 3 Games from Spiel -
Tell me something, which other board game podcast episode can claim to contain the entire gamut of board games in one episode? Antropomorphic animals? Check. Weirdly themed euro? Check. Fantasy campaign game? Check. Real time? Check. Randomness? Check. Strategy, tactics, abstractification? Check check and check.
In this episode we’ll take a long overdue look at Vindication, a game where you gather cubes to kill monsters, Fit to Print, a cutesy real time newspaper assembly simulator and Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall, a fantasy campaign game that signals the arrival of everyone’s most dreaded season - Campaignmass.
Find the video we mention in the discussion on contentification right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMqtgN82fUY
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
2:48 Fit to Print
29:07 Audience Correspondence: Board Game Fan Fic Trivia
31:48 Vindication
46:51 A Discussion on Contentification
59:47 Kinfire Chronicles: Night's Fall -
Are games even real? According to Kieron Gillen, they certainly bleed into reality and reality bleeds into them. According to Great Western Trail, New Zealand isn’t even real. So who’s to say?
On this episode of Talk Cardboard we review Schadenfreude, the little trick taking game that could, chat about the absurd comedy that is Freelancers, take an early peak at Great Western Trail: New Zealand and chat to Kieron Gillen about his comic book and role-playing game DIE.
For more on DIE, here’s the links provided at the end of the interview in clickable form:
Kieron’s Newsletter - https://buttondown.email/KieronGillen
DIE RPG - https://diecomic.com/rpg/
Rowan, Rook and Decard - https://rowanrookanddecard.com/
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
00:59 Intro and Audience Correspondence - Review copies
6:32 Schadenfreude
19:31 Freelancers: A Crossroads Game
37:07 Audience Correspondence - Dinged up Cards
39:56 Interview: Kieron Gillen and DIE
1:07:53 Great Western Trail: New Zealand -
From Earth to Space to the abstract void in between, this episode has a little bit of everything, including a game that made Efka feel like he had to give a rating. That’s right, a bona fide numerical value asigned to the perceived quality of a game. What will they think of next? Verdicts? Comparisons? In the future, anything will be possible.
On this episode of Talk Cardboard we review the many many card game Earth, the impossibly adorable abstract two player only game Lacuna and share our first impressions of the heaviest euro game of the year - Voidfall.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
0:00 Review Copies and NPI
6:13 Earth
25:20 Audience Correspondence - Game Wear and Tear
31:01 Lacuna
45:21 Audience Correspondence - Aeon’s End
52:16 Voidfall First Impressions -
What if we don’t make games that last forever is the question Andrew Navaro, head of Earthborne Games is asking us. His answer is Earthborne Rangers, a game that will perish, but not before it lands on our doorsteps.
On this episode of Talk Cardboard we interview Andrew about Earthborne Rangers and his vision for a more eco-responsible board game scene.
We’ve also got reviews for Spiel des Jahres winner Dorfromantik: The Board game that’s all about a chill time laying tiles, Ancient Realms - a little game that fits in your pocket from the designer of Sprawlopolis and Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold - big legacy campaign deckbuilder that’s more ambitious than it is impressive.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
5:16 Audience Correspondence: Obsession
13:59 Ancient Realm
28:02 Dorfromantik: The Board Game
39:53 Audience Correspondence: NPI Directed by
43:43 Sustainable Board Games with Andrew Navaro (Interview)
1:15:09 Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold
1:40:46 Audience Correspondence: Rulebook Assessment -
It’s time to get schooled! Always wanted to say that and finally I have a good reason because today’s guest on the show is none other than Zoe Bee who’ll teach us about board games as educational tools.
Oh but wait, there’s also board game reviews. A hot new release that asks us to save cats (again) - Race to the Raft, a hot old classic that’s got a shiny new coat - Ra, and a hot hidden gem that we finally got around to playing - Obsession.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
00:00 Cold Open
3:01 Audience Correspondence - NPI Geometry
8:28 Race to the Raft
31:08 Audience Correspondence - Hidden Movement
33:24 Ra
45:59 Board Game Education with Zoe Bee
1:12:47 Obsession: Pride, Intrigue, and Prejudice in Victorian England -
Everybody always says, “Talk Cardboard is paving the way in board game podcasting!” and this episode it’s certainly true. We have biking, hiking, kayaking, train-ing, and hunting (along routes), which is the most path in any board game podcast ever.
On today’s episode we’ll cover the cute but deadly Trailblazers, the old fashioned but sleek Isle of Trains and the gorgeous, voluptuous and strange Beast.
If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: [email protected]
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
6:12 Audience Correspondence: Methods of Teaching Games
9:32 Trailblazers
29:53 Isle of Trains: All Aboard
47:11 Audience Correspondence: Imperial Onions
52:26 Beast
1:17:15 Elaine hates Hidden Movement games -
Sometimes you sit down to play some board games for a future podcast episode and you find yourself not particularly digging any of them? It happens. It’s a thing. It could happen to you. This week it happened to us.
Whilst we weren’t especially jazzed about Hamlet, didn’t find Undaunted: Battle of Britain worth the trouble and at least one of us really didn’t get on with Autobahn, that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t like them either. Or maybe you’ve already played them and disagree - dear listener, you should write in.
If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: [email protected]
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
5:55 Audience Correspondence: Past Games
10:21 Undaunted: Battle of Britain
33:44 Hamlet
46:17 Audience Correspondence: How do you learn games?
51:07 Autobahn -
Welcome back, welcome back, it’s like we’ve never been gone. After a brief interruption Talk Cardboard returns to your ears and consequentially to your brains to deliver all the board game that it needs.
Today’s brain ticklers include drawing a map of the London Underground in Next Station: London, a dose of helium 3 in Skymines and some good ol’ fashioned resisting in Maquis
If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: [email protected]
On to the timestamps:
2:12 Audience Correspondence – Crispy Pancake Foods
10:37 Next Station: London
28:39 Skymines
58:36 Audience Correspondence - Board Game Canon
1:08:26 Maquis - Vis mere
