Board Game Barrage

We've spent a lot of time over the years singing the praises of the games we love, but they can't be perfect right? Surely there's something, one little thing, that bugs us - a small blemish in our otherwise most beloved games? Before we come clean, we talk about Classified Information, Starline Hill, Panda Spin, and SHASN: AZADI.

03:13 - Classified Information
11:54 - Starline Hill
13:35 - Panda Spin
25:32 - SHASN: AZADI
41:56 - T...

We just got back from Dice Tower West, so you know what that means ... bunches and bunches of games! Between the convention, and the meetup, and just hanging out at Mark's place, we got a lot of great stuff played, and we're going to give you all the highlights, with such treats as Moon Colony Bloodbath, Out of Sorts, and Feierabend.

04:16 - Corporate America
12:19 - Acquire
18:09 - Inside Job
23:12 - Feierabend / Finishing Time
33...

I'm not sure why you'd make a hall of fame that's not also a sidewalk, but that's exactly what BoardGameGeek have gone and done - they've curated 25 games into their hall of fame, and we're here to judge them for their choices. It's weird that they didn't come to us first, honestly. Before we deck the halls, we talk about Arborea, Beyond the Horizon, and Taiwan Night Market.

02:49 - Arborea
10:32 - Beyond the Horizon
20:43 - Taiwan...

Okay, pay attention, this is gonna be different! We're looking at the rest of 2025, deciding what we think the most well received games of the year are going to be - but then we're going to be bidding on them, auction style. Whoever's slate ends up performing best in their categories at the end of the year gets all the glory ... and if you vote on who you think is going to win, you could get $50! Before we're going, going, gone, we...

It's finally time to cap it all off with the cream of the cream, Mark and Neilan's final set of ten games each! These are the games that we think are the pinnacle of our respective tastes, that we'd never turn down, that any person ought to try at least once. It's the Top 10 Games of All-Time!

01:48 - Mark's #10 - Age of Steam
08:17 - Neilan's #10 - Brass: Birmingham
11:21 - Mark's #9 - Arboretum
17:35 - Neilan's #9 - Time's Up!
20...

Neilan's back to continue the journey down the lazy river of cardboard that is his top 50 board games of all time. It's games 30 through 11! I just counted, and that's twenty amazing games that I can't wait to tell you all about! 

00:59 - #30 - Gloomhaven
02:58 - #29 - War Story: Occupied France
07:35 - #28 - Gaia Project
10:17 - #27 - Ark Nova
12:26 - #26 - Kemet
14:55 - #25 - Yellow & Yangtze
17:09 - #24 - Undaunted: Stalingrad
...

And back to Mark! It's the soggy middle of his top 50, or as he insists on calling it, his numbers 30 through 11. That is twenty more delicious games, and he's here to tell you all about them while we continue to berate and praise him for his choices.

01:20 - #30 - Anomia
05:12 - #29 - Sidereal Confluence
08:47 - #28 - Chicago Express
11:46 - #27 - Rise & Fall
16:34 - #26 - Tigris & Euphrates
19:14 - #25 - Hegemony: Lead Your Clas...

It's meeeeeeeeeee! So if you care to find my top 50 list, look right here. The first twenty incredible games on the list that early critics are calling "surprisingly tasteful" and "delightfully roomy" is finally yours to consume. It's the greatest board games of all-time, Neilan edition!

01:10 - #50 - Anachrony
03:56 - #49 - The Vale of Eternity
05:47 - #48 - Arcs
09:05 - #47 - Bus
11:26 - #46 - Wilmot's Warehouse
13:03 - #45 - Sp...

It's time! The grand spectacle that is our greatest games of all time is here at last! We're breaking things out a bit differently this year, so Mark's taking center stage while Kellen & Neilan mock his choices. It's the first twenty games from his list, so games 50 through 31. LET'S GOOOO!

01:53 - #50 - Cthulhu Wars
03:23 - #49 - Ricochet Robots
05:21 - #48 - The Voyages of Marco Polo
08:22 - #47 - Zoo Vadis
10:53 - #46 - Wilmot'...

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 - Mo...

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...

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 - Frac...

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 - Kar...

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 ...

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 - U...

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 - Ag...

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
0...

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 peo...

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 Har...