Game Brain: A Board Game Podcast About Our Gaming Group
A podcast about Board Games and friendship, and a real life board game group! Join us every week for an in-depth look at the board gaming hobby, including board game news, reviews and much, much more.
Episodes
Tom, Trey, and Elder review El Burro.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- Jenny Nicholson's video
- Star Wars Unlimited Expansion Shadows of the Galaxy
- Guards of Atlantis II
- Blood on the Clocktower
- Concordia
- 0:31:50 Game Review: El Burro: A La Granja Game
- Find Etamar at kirbooloni.com
- Game Brain Facebook Group
- Instagram
Ben and Trey go deep into Salton Sea and also share initial impressions of Pax Penning and El Burro. Plus, the two revisit Heaven & Ale and chat about what they want out of a game store.
Ben and Paul chat about some recent plays, including Salton Sea, and then Ben shamelessly attempts to communicate to Queen Games about his missing Marrakesh expansion. Afterwards, the two explore the importance of enthusiasm at a game table and the dangers of becoming the dreaded FUN SPONGE.
The 2024 Golden Geek Award nominations have just been revealed, and we're choosing faves, making endorsements, and offering sweeping predictions on which games will win. Oh and by the way, thanks to everyone who voted and nabbed us a nom! Don't worry, we're focused on the games, not shameless self-promotion (well, maybe just a little self-promotion).
Plus, Ben, Jordan, and Paul talk about recent plays of I...
Ben and Jordan talk about recent plays of Inventions, Galactic Cruise, Twilight Imperium, Arcs, and Resist. Plus, discussion about space games — what does the concept of space bring to a game, and what makes a game a SPACE GAME (as opposed to a game set in space).
Notations to come.
Ben and Paul talk about recent plays of Inventions, Terraforming Mars, and City of the Big Shoulders. Then they do a deep dive about finger etiquette and games: why does it bother us, how do we address bad behavior, and what are the most common mistakes. Shots will be fired. Takes will be hot.
00:00 - Intro
02:33 - Inventions
14:47 - Western Empires / Mega Empires
23:25 - Terraforming Mars
29:37 - 1830
33:07 - City of the Bi...
Tom, Jordan, and Ben discuss games they had shrugged off but later came to love. Plus, recent plays of Imperium Horizons, Legacies, and El Grande.
00:00 - Intro
00:06 - Legacies
26:11 - Avalon
29:14 - El Grande
34:14 - Franchise
39:31 - Second Wind Games
41:51 - Modern Art
46:26 - Imperium Horizons
54:37 - Dune Imperium: Uprising
01:02:22 - Android: Netrunner
01:08:42 - Black Angel<...
Trey, Ben, and Dmitry review the 2024 release Let's Go To Japan.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:08:48 Games on the Brain
- 00:51:30 Game Review: Let's Go to Japan
Ben, Matt, and Paul sit down to talk about games they're going deep with (Root), and games that are brutalizing them (Cuzco). And everything in between.
00:08:04 - Traitors & Avalon
00:14:10 - Root
00:39:34 - Franchise
00:50:36 - Netrunner
01:07:10 - Cuzco
01:25:00 - Dinosaur Gauge
01:29:49 - Legacies
01:36:52 - Lunar
01:38:00 - Tournament at Avalon, Mino Dice
01:40:00 - Boon Lake: Artifacts
01:43:45 - Shikoku 1889
Special guest Jennifer Schlickbernd joins Trey to review Thunder Road: Vendetta and discuss starter modes in boardgames.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:02:35 Recent Plays
- 0:27:10 Game Review: Thunder Road: Vendetta
- Car Wars (1981)
- Thunder Road (1986)
- The White Castle (2023)
- 0:56:45 Discussion - Learning Modes in Games
Ben and Paul discuss recent plays of Bloodstones, Bruxelles 1893, and Apiary. Then they try to figure out what's the best way for a group to select a game to play. Is it a democratic process? A dictatorial one? Or maybe just a roll of the dice.
15:47 - Apiary
19:22 - Horseless Carriage
23:20 - Bruxelles 1893: The Belle Epoque
36:03 - Bloodstones
51:55 - How to choose a game?
Hosts Matt, Tom, Trey, and Ben unite for our list of the best boardgames of 2023!
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:05:10 Contest Results
- 0:18:35 Game Brain's Top Boardgames of 2023
- 0:20:04 T16 Great Western Trail: New Zealand
- 0:25:20 T16 Inferno Guelphs and Ghibellines Vie for Tuscany, 1259-1261
- 0:27:30 T13 Bloodstones
- 0:29:00 T13 Scholars of the South Tigris
- 0:32:00 T13 Thunder Road: Vendetta
- 0:34:35 12 Apia...
Ben and Paul catch up on the games they played over the 2023 holiday break. Afterwards they reflect on their favorite play sessions and new-to-them games. Strangely enough, they seem to gravitate towards their favorite meltdowns, which is a commentary on something, not sure what.
Games discussed include Marrakesh, Dude, K2, Age of Steam, and Manhattan Project 2: Minutes to Midnight.
Timestamps to come...
Trey, Tom, and Ben review Evacuation as we evacuate 2023.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:05:22 Recent Plays
- Agricola
- Forbidden Stars
- Bloodstones
- Manhattan Project 2: Minutes to Midnight
- Daybreak
- Enter the contest to win a copy of Sol:Last Days of a Star
- email us at contact@gamebrainpod.com
- 0:51:10 Game Review: Evacuation
- The games of Vladimir Suchý
- Find Etamar at kirbooloni.com
- Game Brain Facebook Gr...
Ben, Trey, and Jordan discuss the city-building, dynamic economy game Kutná Hora: The City of Silver. Plus recent plays of Horseless Carriage, Nucleum, and more.
Hosts Matt, Tom, Trey, and Ben unite for our 200th episode and revisit our favorite games from our time on the podcast.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:05:45 BGGCon Report
- 0:58:00 Other Plays
- 1:16:05 Our Favorite Games of the Podcast
A new Solo Mode has arrived, just in time for Matt to take you down the rabbit hole of Earthborne Rangers and the current LCG renaissance.
Ben catches up with Ken Kuhn of GMT Games, who talks about his company, what's coming down the pipeline, and of course 18XX (and war games too!). They also chat about recent plays of Sky Team, Evacuation, 535, Kutná Hora, The Plum Island Horror, Arborea, and 1880.
Time codes to come!
Tom and Trey review The White Castle, discuss what makes a game "elegant," and they each give their top 10 Elegant Games.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:16:50 Quick Discussion of Elegance
- 0:25:45 Game Review: The White Castle
- 0:56:30 Our Top 10 Elegant Games
- Find Etamar at kirbooloni.com
...
Tom and Elder talk about their early play(s) of Nucleum, and other recent games of note.
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