Pandemic Check-In 2

We are once again temporarily back, although (hopefully) this time it is going to be less temporary! This time around, we are reflecting on the last two years and specifically focusing on remote gaming. We talk about we we liked about the experience as well as the things that didn’t particularly work for us. We also have a discussion about the King’s Dilemma as a test case for remote gaming, as Mat and Other Matt compare their experiences of playing it in person with Aaron who played it mostly remotely. Finally, we have another conversation about the future of the show.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:35] - Catching Up
[00:06:29] - Outlining the Episode
[00:07:31] - Pros of Remote Gaming
[00:22:59] - Cons of Remote Gaming
[00:41:40] - King’s Dilemma: In Person vs. Remote
[01:11:20] - The Future of the Show

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Pandemic Check-In

We’re (temporarily) back! This is a bit of special episode and breaks from any of our normal format as we just wanted to catch everyone up on what we’ve been doing over the last year. So join us as we talk about our gaming adventures during the pandemic, including games that we’ve played over Zoom, Tabletop Simulator, and a little bit of gaming within social bubbles. We also talk about our experiences with the upcoming Roll Player Adventures from Thunderworks Games. Finally, we talk a little bit about the future of the podcast and when you can expect to hear from us regularly again.

[00:00:00] - Disclaimer
[00:00:58] - Introduction
[00:07:22] - Social Deduction Games over Zoom
[00:13:20] - RPGs over Zoom
[00:27:00] - Other Games over Zoom
[00:29:54] - Twilight Imperium 4th Edition on Tabletop Simulator
[00:42:24] - Other Games on Tabletop Simulator
[00:45:43] - Digital Implementation of Board Games
[00:48:18] - Campaign Games in Social Bubbles
[00:55:18] - Roll Player Adventures
[01:05:24] - The Future of the Show

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 60: Vincent Dutrait

Today we’re looking at games that both have artwork created by the extremely talented Vincent Dutrait. First we take a look at Museum and then we discuss Treasure Island. Then, in our broader view, we have a short conversation about how artwork impacts gameplay for us.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:55] - Vincent Dutrait
[00:02:20] - Museum
[00:23:39] - Treasure Island
[00:38:26] - Comparison
[00:46:32] - Other Games with Art by Vincent Dutrait
[00:49:22] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 59: Marvel

Sorry for the short delay in getting this one out to you, but it will be worth the wait! We’re going back to theme today and discussing two games set in the Marvel Universe: Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game & Marvel Champions. We start off the episode a bit uncharacteristically by having a discussion about our favorite Marvel characters, but then the rest of the episode is the usual game discussion that we provide. We end things with a conversation about what games from our collections that we would save from a burning building (after Aaron gives a major safety caveat about the dangers of house fires).

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:59] - Marvel
[00:06:13] - Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
[00:22:22] - Marvel Champions
[00:36:30] - Comparison
[00:44:14] - Other Marvel (or other Super Hero) Games
[00:48:28] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 58: Engine Building

Today we’re taking a look at two recently released games that use engine building in two different ways: Fantastic Factories and Ecos: First Continent. We then have a conversation about the cult of the new and the balance between playing new and old games.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:16] - Engine Building
[00:01:44] - Fantastic Factories
[00:17:35] - Ecos: First Continent
[00:37:44] - Comparison
[00:45:24] - Other Engine Building Games
[00:48:43] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 57: Social Deduction

We are going back to one of Aaron’s favorite categories: social deduction. We’re covering a large span of time between games as we’re talking about the classic Ultimate Werewolf and the soon to be released Blood on the Clocktower. Please note that we have not played the official release of Blood on the Clocktower and we’ve only played with a print and play version, so we will not be discussing any of the game components. Finally, in our Broader View, we talk about metagaming.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:57] - Social Deduction
[00:02:45] - Ultimate Werewolf
[00:16:55] - Blood on the Clocktower
[00:34:40] - Comparison
[00:45:16] - Other Social Deduction Games
[00:49:05] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 56: Tableau Building

Today we are talking about two games that both have players building a collection of cards in order to chain different effects in the game: Everdell and Wingspan. Both games also have the adorable overlap of involving animals, as well as being very popular. And speaking of popularity, in our Broader View, we have a conversation about the impact of hype on the hobby.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:06] - Tableau Building
[00:02:38] - Everdell
[00:17:59] - Wingspan
[00:34:55] - Comparison
[00:44:02] - Other Tableau Building Games
[00:47:00] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 55: Star Wars

With the release of The Rise of Skywalker, we wanted to take the opportunity to geek out over Star Wars and talk about two games from within the Star Wars universe: Star Wars: Rebellion and Star Wars: Outer Rim. Then, in our Broader View, we have a conversation about narratives in games.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:50] - Star Wars
[00:02:44] - Star Wars: Rebellion
[00:19:24] - Star Wars: Outer Rim
[00:34:07] - Comparison
[00:44:23] - Other Games either about Star Wars or like Star Wars
[00:47:24] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Board Game Kiki Episode 8: PAX Unplugged 2019

We weren’t looking at the calendar very closely when we decided to do a Kiki for our last episode because we didn’t realize that we’d be doing back to back Kikis so we could talk about PAX Unplugged! But we had a lot of fun in Philadelphia this year so we wanted to talk about what we saw and the games that we played. We’ll be getting back to our regular format for the next episode.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:04] - PAX Unplugged 2019
[00:08:26] - Oath
[00:11:41] - The Shivers
[00:15:03] - Divinity Original Sin: The Board Game
[00:16:34] - Arkham Horror: Final Hour
[00:21:14] - Paranormal Detectives
[00:25:46] - The Magnificent
[00:30:55] - Fantastic Factories
[00:34:04] - Corinth
[00:37:09] - Deep Blue
[00:41:23] - Ecos: First Continent
[00:45:26] - Blood on the Clocktower
[00:57:23] - The Helios Conspiracy (Megagame)

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Board Game Kiki Episode 7: Holiday Gift Guide

We wanted to put together a list of suggestions for gaming gift ideas for the holiday season. We go through ideas for gamers, new gamers, non-gamers, and gamer couples. We’re still not sure what our next episode is going to be, but we’re hoping to be inspired at PAX Unplugged!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:03:14] - Holiday Gifting & Gaming
[00:06:07] - Gifts for Gamers
[00:06:28] - Root
[00:07:51] - Res Arcana
[00:08:40] - Crown of Emara
[00:08:57] - Taverns of Tiefenthal
[00:10:37] - Obscurio
[00:12:03] - Marvel Champions
[00:16:48] - Gifts for New Gamers
[00:17:19] - Viticulture
[00:18:07] - Wingspan
[00:20:10] - Quacks of Quedlinburg
[00:21:13] - Azul
[00:23:11] - Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
[00:24:23] - Scythe
[00:26:16] - Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure
[00:27:35] - Everdell
[00:29:30] - Blood Rage
[00:31:04] - Gifts for Potential Gamers
[00:31:31] - Lost Cities
[00:32:02] - Horrified
[00:33:07] - Disney Villainous
[00:33:56] - Social Deduction Games (The Resistance, The Resistance: Avalon, Secret Hitler, Coup, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, & Crossfire)
[00:36:29] - Exit Games (The House of Riddles, The Haunted Rollercoaster, & The Mysterious Museum)
[00:39:09] - Just One
[00:40:32] - Gifts for Gamer Couples
[00:40:44] - Lost Cities & Schotten Totten
[00:41:56] - Fog of Love
[00:44:30] - Memoir ‘44
[00:45:14] - Arkham Horror: The Card Game
[00:46:55] - Terraforming Mars
[00:47:21] - Fake Outro & PAX Unplugged
[00:47:58] - Star Wars Outer Rim
[00:48:59] - Outro

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 54: Deduction

First off, we’d like to apologize for our unplanned, unannounced one week hiatus! Aaron was busy writing a murder mystery party that we did last weekend, so we’re just catching up on our other nerdy endeavors. And while we’re talking about scheduling, we believe that we’re going to have an episode releasing on December 2nd, but there is a chance that it won’t release until December 9th. We’re pretty sure that it’s going to be a Kiki about holiday gift ideas.

Anyway, onto the actual episode itself! Today we’re talking about two deduction games: Mystery of the Abbey and Awkward Guests. In our Broader View, we have a discussion about pacing in games. We touch very quickly at the end of the episode about how all 5 of us should be at PAX Unplugged this year, and we’re really excited about it!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:02:15] - Deduction
[00:04:05] - Mystery of the Abbey
[00:19:46] - Awkward Guests
[00:35:16] - Comparison
[00:45:42] - Other Deduction Games
[00:49:13] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 53: Mystery +

We’re calling this episode Mystery + because both of the games that we’re talking about our mysteries with a little bit of a stretch, but the truth is that this episode could have been called a lot of things because these games have a lot in common. The games that we are talking about our Deception: Murder in Hong Kong and Obscurio. Then, in our Broader View, we start out with every intention of having a conversation about maintaining balance at the table when you are in a GM-like role in a game, but we go all over the place and end up having a conversation about how bad we are at playing games with kids.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:46] - Mystery +
[00:01:41] - Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
[00:17:15] - Obscurio
[00:34:52] - Comparison
[00:45:14] - Other Mystery Games with a Little Bit Extra
[00:48:09] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 52: Habitat Building

The episode length is a little bit longer than usual because we are talking about two games with a lot going on with their strategy and we really wanted to dig deep into them. The games we’re talking about today are Underwater Cities and Terraforming Mars. Later, we have a discussion about games where repeated plays allow additional strategies to emerge. At the very end of the episode, we put out a call for suggestions on games or comparison suggestions from the audience. So if you have an idea that you’d like us to talk about, please feel free to send us an email or contact us through boardgamegeek or any of our social media pages!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:03:19] - Habitat Building
[00:03:55] - Underwater Cities
[00:21:46] - Terraforming Mars
[00:38:16] - Comparison
[00:47:20] - Other Habitat Building Games (or something like that)
[00:51:41] - Broader View
[01:03:57] - Call for Suggestions

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 51: Flip & Write

Today we’re pressing our luck with our success of having all five hosts on the show next week and repeating the process while talking about two Flip & Write games: Welcome To… and Cartographers. Then, in our Broader View, we talk a little bit about our opinions on player turn length.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:55] - Flip & Write
[00:02:11] - Welcome To…
[00:17:04] - Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
[00:33:23] - Comparison
[00:44:28] - Other Flip & Write Games (Or games that make us think of these games)
[00:48:21] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 50: Anniversary Extravaganza

Today not only marks our 50th episode, but it is also our 2 year anniversary of launching this podcast! To celebrate, we each picked a game from our first 49 episodes to revisit and discuss how our opinions on it have evolved over additional plays. Thank you to everyone that has supported us over the last 2 years, and we are looking forward to another 50 episodes with you!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:09] - Second Anniversary Extravaganza
[00:04:31] - Mat’s Choice: Cerebria: The Inside World
[00:12:09] - (Other) Matt’s Choice: Ticket to Ride
[00:22:29] - Jameson’s Choice: Cryptid
[00:34:29] - Aaron’s Choice: Mansions of Madness Second Edition
[00:42:41] - Josh’s Choice: Root
[00:53:27] - Looking Toward the Future

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 49: Stefan Feld

The recording of this episode ended up going on for a crazy long amount of time, so if something in the episode sounds a little bit weird, it’s probably because a 5 minute non-sequitur or tangent was edited out. With that out of the way, today’s category is games by designer Stefan Feld, and we’re looking at Trajan and Castles of Burgundy. Then in our Broader View, we talk about longevity of board games. What you won’t hear is our conversation about board game canon in the Broader View, but you will at some point in the future!

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:08] - Stefan Feld
[00:03:09] - Trajan
[00:20:40] - Castles of Burgundy
[00:38:29] - Comparison
[00:47:11] - One other Stefan Feld game, and then some other games
[00:51:38] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 48: Arkham Horror Files

So while editing this episode, we realized that we kept referring to the series of games that we talk about in this episode as the Arkham Files, when in actuality the name of the series is the Arkham Horror Files! Hopefully everyone will be able to forgive the faux pas. But in this episode, we’re talking about Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror Third Edition. In our Broader View, we talk about what we like about games that share a universe, and what other games we would like to see expand their universe into other games.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:01:03] - Arkham Horror Files
[00:01:39] - Eldritch Horror
[00:16:08] - Arkham Horror Third Edition
[00:29:27] - Comparison
[00:45:23] - Other Games from the Cthulu Mythos
[00:49:20] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 47: Television

We accidentally completely lost our sense of time in this episode, so it unfortunately ended up a little bit shorter than we usually like, but the end result should make up for the play length! Today, we’re talking about two games that share a theme of competing television networks: Primetime and The Networks. In our Broader View, we have a conversation about fiddly bits.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:32] - Television
[00:02:46] - Primetime
[00:19:16] - The Networks
[00:29:54] - Comparison
[00:38:34] - A couple games with a show theme and some other games
[00:41:08] - Broader View
[00:50:40] - Programming Note

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 46: Magic

Today we’re talking about the games Seasons and Res Arcana, and we called the category magic, but the connection between these games is a lot less general than that. Later, in our Broader View, we talk about the advantages and disadvantages in common types of variable set ups in games.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:51] - Magic
[00:01:41] - Seasons
[00:21:00] - Res Arcana
[00:36:15] - Comparison
[00:45:12] - Other Games with a Magic Theme (Except for Josh’s choice)
[00:48:29] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.

Episode 45: Dungeon Crawling

In this episode we are looking at two cooperative games where players are each playing as a miniature on a board and exploring a dungeon: Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft and Warhammer Quest Silver Tower. Then, in our Broader View, we talk about how games are adapted into other games and what the relationship is between the feelings players get in the different games…or at least, we try to talk about that.

[00:00:00] - Introduction
[00:00:33] - Dungeon Crawling
[00:00:57] - Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft
[00:18:20] - Warhammer Quest Silver Tower
[00:33:08] - Comparison
[00:45:01] - Other Dungeon Crawling Games (For the Most Part)
[00:49:09] - Broader View

Men on Board is part of the Dice Tower Network of podcasts. Find other great podcasts at https://www.dicetower.com/dice-tower-network.