Episode 457 - Coronation 2024
Release Date: December 23, 2024 |
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Running Time: 26 min |
In our season finale, two award winning games earn our Meeple Crown for 2024. These games embody the essence of Major Fun and The Spiel of Approval. Congratulations to Life in Reterra and Daybreak!
Episode 456 - Faraway
Release Date: Dec. 22, 2024 |
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Running Time: 33 min |
Greetings, travelers! You are about to embark on an epic journey of exploration and adventure. The mysterious land of Allula stretches out before us. Some magical force makes it impossible to map.
You’ll need to plan each stage of your trip carefully - meeting locals and helping them when you can. You might even stumble onto an ancient sanctuary along the way. Only when you return will we know whose journey proved to be the most successful.
Faraway is a game where players catalog a grand adventure by playing eight cards in a line from left to right. Then, the journey back begins and each card will score in reverse order from right to left. Build the best expedition to earn the most fame and respect.
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Episode 455 - Life in Reterra
Release Date: Dec. 21, 2024 |
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Running Time: 39 min |
The world today, the civilization we know, will fade one day soon. And over time, the planet will reclaim much of what was once ours.
But that is not the end for us. Humans are resilient. When the world shifts, we adapt. We evolve. We survive.
And so, years later, new communities are now rising up, rebuilding on our ruins, rediscovering relics and knowledge. Each player plants the seed of a new society across asphalt, forests, deserts, grasslands, and the sea. How will you improve and enhance your cozy little corner of civilization? Your choices will shape Life in Reterra. Can you craft a new way of living where everyone in your community can thrive?
In Life in Reterra players build a new world on top of the old, placing terrain tiles and buildings to form communities. Buildings will unlock new rules and scoring potential and the very shape of the lands you create will help your new society succeed.
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Episode 454 - Age of Comics
Release Date: Dec. 20, 2024 |
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Running Time: 58 min |
It all begins in your drafty, seventh floor closet-of-an-office in Manhattan - your publishing empire- built, not from novels or biographies, or the news of the day, but from comic books! A man of steel, a caped crusader, a mighty Amazon princess - these characters have stirred the imagination of America’s youth and made publishers mountains of cash.
With the right story, the right art, a head for business and a lot of moxie, you can build a fan base for a new hero and claim a spot in this ever expanding pantheon.
Age of comics is a worker placement board game set in the golden age, a period from the late 1930s to the mid 1950s. You’ll manage every aspect of your company from hiring talented creatives to marketing and sales, hoping to push your titles up the charts, earning more fans and more money along the way.
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Episode 453 - Flip 7
Release Date: Dec. 19, 2024 |
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Running Time: 23 min |
Imagine the love child of Blackjack and Rummy raised with the doting influence of its uncle Stud Poker. That's Flip 7. Try to assemble a set of 7 cards one by one each round in a race to rake in big points. This is press your luck at its finest.
The choice seems simple: hit or stand. Stand to play it safe And bank your points. Hit to extend your set and your score. But is the risk worth the reward? A single matching card will bust you back to nothing!
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Episode 452 - Forest Shuffle
Release Date: Dec. 18, 2024 |
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Running Time: 40 min |
We are surrounded by a vast and verdant network. It has shaped our lives, our history, our culture, our evolution for millennia. These are superorganisms, capable of meaningful communication over great distances and across species and are most likely conscious on a level, we can barely begin to understand.
And yet, most humans today see them as a little more than a natural resource we are entitled to harvest or an obstacle to be cleared.
Let’s get real. It is not an exaggeration to say that the entire world of modern games would cease to exist without them. You might be able to imagine a game without wooden components, but what about paper? Or cardboard? This hobby we love and share has deep roots in the world’s forests.
In Forest Shuffle, players create their own network of trees, hoping to form a balanced habitat for creatures, large and small. Whether you plant a sapling a sycamore or a mighty oak, each tree card in your forest provides a home for life. Above and below, to the left and the right, insect, amphibian, mammal, bird, plant and fungus cards can be played, each according to their need. Growth always comes at a price, though. For some things to thrive, others must fall to the forest floor and be given up to the clearing.
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Episode 451 - Tiny Laser Heist
Release Date: Dec. 17, 2024 |
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Running Time: 32 min |
The big new exhibit at the Museum features four famous jewels from around the world. Crowds flock to see them sparkle every day. After tonight, though, there wont be a single gem left in the place.
Teams of expert burglars have come to town with one goal in mind: a robbery for the ages. Which crew leader can bring together the right combination of skilled help to make this one last big score? Can you disarm the locks and carefully move the gems between the alarms while avoiding the unknown obstacles other thieves might put in your way? The clock is ticking… can you pull off an epic tiny laser heist?
Tiny Laser Heist is a semi cooperative dexterity game where players attempt to rob gems from a mini 3d museum using tiny hands to manipulate locks and avoid tripping elastic lasers guarding each room. For each gem you steal you and your team will earn big bucks but beware people who aren’t on your team can play cards to make your job even harder!
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Episode 450 - 1902 Méliès
Release Date: November 29, 2024 |
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Running Time: 109 min |
You may have seen this image and not know where it comes from: a large moon with a human face is hit in the eye by a rocket. This iconic scene comes from the silent film: Le Voyage dans La Lune (Journey to the Moon). It is one of the first science fiction movies ever made. The creative force behind the film was Georges Méliès. Stage magician turned filmmaker, Méliès built a glorified barn in his Paris garden as a studio where the entire production was made.
In the game, you are one of Méliès’ assistants. Every aspect of the film will require planning and organization between many departments: scenery, costumes, special effects, actors, and the camera. And once the each scene is shot, each frame needs to be hand colored and spliced together in just the right sequence to follow the script. If your efforts stand out, Méliès will take you on as a protege, opening the first door to a new career, here in 1902 at the dawn of the film industry.
ALSO FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
Lucio Rodriguez stops by with a history segment on the life and career of Méliès.
Noted BGG game reviewer Roger Leroux joins us at the table for another installment of The Meal. Roger shows us how to make peanut butter cups form scratch and pairs his recipe with a game where candy takes center stage.
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Episode 449 - DroPolter: Ghost vs Palm Muscle
Release Date: October 31, 2024 |
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Running Time: 256 min |
In the wee hours of the darkest night it comes. That pesky ghost bumping thumping and booing its way into your room. It isn’t scary, but it sure is annoying. Who can sleep with all that racket? Tonight, though, you are ready! You have all your lucky charms held tight in one fist. If you can drop them in just the right order, you can nab the ghost and send it to bed!
Dropolter: Ghost vs Palm Muscle is a whimsically absurd dexterity game. Drop the right combination of charms and grab the ghost to earn a bell. Collect five bells to win. Be careful, though. The bells you earn, you keep in your hand as you play. If you drop them, you lose those points!
ALSO FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
A travelogue of our grand adventure to Europe. Five guests from around the world tell us about their experiences at Spiel 2024 in Essen, Germany.
Artur Mittlebach and Pedro Fatuch from Brazil
Elijah Djan from South Africa
Paco Garcia from Spain
Katherine Rosland from Norway
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Episode 448 - Barcelona
Release Date: September 23, 2024 |
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Running Time: 76 min |
From 1700 to 1850, Barcelona grew from a small town of 34,000 residents to a bustling city of 160,000. Steam powered textile mills and chintz printers pulled thousands of new citizens into the increasingly tight quarters of Barcelona’s medieval city walls. Living conditions were appalling for all.
Ildefons Cerdá, a civil engineer, measured life expectancy for Barcelona’s poor at under 20 years and only 38 for the wealthy. This led to an outcry to take down the old battlements and expand the city.
When the walls finished falling in 1859, Cerdá had a plan - a modern city grid divided into blocks. Each neighborhood would have wide streets for carriages and new electric trams, common areas for all to gather, limits on building sizes and heights, and essential services in each area allowing easy and equal access for all. Sadly, Cerdá died before his full dream for Barcelona could be implemented.
BUT that is where you come in. You and your fellow players are builders of this new Barcelona. Each new intersection in the city grid adds many layers of possibilities and actions. How will you attract new citizens to the area? New streets? New tram lines? New city services? How and where will you build each new block? And with Cerdá gone, will you stay true to his vision? Avante garde modernist architecture like the incredible La Sagrada Familia cathedral might have a place in this new Barcelona with your help. Your decisions will shape the future of Europe’s first truly urbanized city.
ALSO FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
Paco Garcia from GMS Magazine and So Play We All provides two delectable recipes popular in Barcelona for our cooking segment, The Meal.
Bruce Voge stops by to tell us about one of his favorite games: Unmatched!
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