All the Games We Played at Essen Spiel - RANKED

One thousand five hundred plus games released over four days is a HOT WEEKEND in board games and the Elaines and Efkas of this world were in attendance. Did we play all 1500 games? No. Did we play the hot ones? Yes. Did we play the weird ones? Yes. Did we play the good ones? Oh my yes yes yes. So grab a warm beverage, plonk yourself into a comfy chair and write off the next hour and a half because we bring you informed coverage of all the games that we played and what you should be on the lookout for in the next three months of board games. What a time to be alive.

This podcast is now also available on video!

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

1:40 Intro

4:15 15 - Milkuro

6:44 14 - Rock Rubber Scissors

8:58 13 - Potato Tomato

11:18 12 - Bomb Busters

17:45 11 - Overparked

21:09 10 - Big Two

26:17 9 - Bottle Imp

30:50 8 - Civolution

41:33 7 - Altay: Dawn of Civilization

49:56 6 - Seas of Strife

53:36 Joint 5,4,3 - ???

1:01:29 Joint 5,4,3 - ???

1:06:14 Joint 5,4,3 - ???

1:18:55 2 - ???

1:24:32 1 - ???

Kronologic, Nucleum (+Australia), Cities

Folks, folks and folks, please come join us for a marvelous carboard celebration through time, energy and cities. Gaze your eyes to Paris in 1920 and marvel at the deductive action of Kronologic. Now turn those eyeballs further east towards Germany and amaze yourself with the fantabulous power of Nucleum and finally, fly up and up and up and then look down for a birds eye view of cities in Cities. It’s a show like no other and that show is called Talk Cardboard.

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

2:48 Intro

3:42 Audience Correspondence: Convention Demo Learning

8:45 Kronologic: Paris 1920

19:52 Audience Correspondence: Board games in libraries

25:29 Nucleum + Nucleum: Australia

1:09:31 Audience Correspondence: Wilmot's Warehouse

1:13:26 Cities

1:25:40 Outro

Joyride, Invincible, Wilmot's Warehouse

Vroom vroom it’s time to kaboom! Or something along those lines because today’s feature game is all about smashing cars into other cars. It feels like we’ve seen this type of game over and over through time, from Rock’n’Roll Racing to Mario Kart to Twisted Metal to Carmaggedon - the world is full of games that let you cause car accidents on purpose. But let me tell you, it’s never been done like that in cardboard. Joyride is a delight!

And there’s other games too! We take a look at the somewhat bland and reliable Invincible: The Hero-Building Game and the charming Wilmot’s Warehouse in its new board game incarnation.

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

0:39 Intro

1:44 Audience Correspondence: Qualia

5:29 Joyride: Survival of the Fastest

30:58 Audience Correspondence: Standardized Size

34:29 Invincible: The Hero-Building Game

53:19 Audience Correspondence: More Haggis Letters

55:29 Wilmot's Warehouse

Harvest, War Story: Occupied France, Dorfromantik: The Duel

Cute, but deadly! We used to dance under that name but you could also use those three words to describe today’s selection of games.

Harvest is a farming worker placement game so cloyingly sweet you could squeeze condensed milk out of it. Is it good? Jury’s still out.

War Stories: Occupied France is the unlikely combination of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective and Undaunted - how does that even work? We’ve got the scoop.

And finally… Dorfromantik: The Duel. Last year’s adaptation of Dorfromantik to board game form was low key our favourite light tile layer. But now naturally come the spin-offs and we’ve got some takes.

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Go Listen to So Very Wrong About Games

1:34 Cold Open

3:35 Intro

4:30 Audience Correspondence - Horror Games

12:25 Harvest

28:30 Audience Correspondence - Haggis

30:44 War Story: Occupied France

48:40 Audience Correspondence - More Haggis

51:26 Dorfromantik: The Duel

1:00:24 Outro

Leviathan Wilds, Through the Desert (Bazaar), Spectral

Hello boardgamers and boardgamees, how are your MEEPLES? Do they need feeding? Watering? Some TLC? Or do they just need a good dose of the Talk Cardboard podcast to refresh that wooden noggin? Well worry not young meeple trainer, we’ve got a new episode digitally bumbling its way to you right now.

A real smorgasboard of delights this week as we take a look at three very different games to suit very different needs. Spectral is a strange melange of deduction and Keyflower style bidding? Does that even work? Does it make sense? Is Ryan Courtney the only designer that can pull this off?

Talking of designers that can pull things off, how about none other than Reiner Knizia himself, who, believe it or not, designed another game. Except he designed this one quite a long time ago and also made a very fresh expansion for it right now. Through the Desert is a mean mean classic and Bazaar is a mixed bag of modules to add some zest.

And finally, a board game based on a beloved video game (unofficially) that doesn’t just work but maybe even surpases its insipiration? Leviathan Wilds is the tabletop version of Shadows of the Colossus and there are moments when it towers above it.

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

1:05 Intro

3:03 Spectral

30:25 Through the Desert (+Bazaar Expansion)

56:55 More letters on Salton Sea

1:01:40 Leviathan Wilds

Two Player Special: Run, Haggis, Harrow County

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.

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

2:04 Intro

4:08 Run

24:31 Haggis

37:07 Harrow County

Agemonia, Terra Nova

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.

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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

Salton Sea, Arcs

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/

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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

7th Citadel, Wyrmspan

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).

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

0:38 Intro

2:44 7th Citadel

34:15 Wyrmspan

Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze, Witchcraft!, Revive

“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!

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0:00 Cold Open

2:00 Intro

3:17 Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze

22:08 Witchcraft!

38:41 Revive

Age of Innovation, Raising Robots, Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation

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.

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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

Dune: War for Arrakis, Daybreak, Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

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.

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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

Dune: Imperium - Uprising, Most Anticipated 2024

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.

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On to the timestamps:

2:08 Audience Correspondence - Contentification (for the last time)

3:35 The Ones that Got Away

20:47 Dune: Imperium - Uprising

44:09 Most Anticipated 2023 Revisited

54:15 Most Anticipated 2024

Sail, Trolls and Princesses, Evacuation

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.

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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

Rob Daviau Talks Legacy, Empire's End, Ready Set Bet, Mind Space

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.

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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

Earthborne Rangers, Forest Shuffle, Planta Nubo, Sonny Liew and 1819: Singapore

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.

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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

Kinfire Chronicles: Night's Fall, Fit to Print, Vindication

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

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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

Kieron Gillen, Great Western Trail: New Zealand, Schadenfreude, Freelancers

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/

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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

Earth, Lacuna, Voidfall

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.

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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

Sustainable Board Games with Andrew Navaro, Dorfromantik: The Board Game, Ancient Realm, Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold

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.

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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