Round 11, Turn 2: "Praga Caput Regni" with Ben

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
  • Merkator
  • Arborea
  • Pirates of Maricaibo
  • 20 Strong
  • kCaloria launches on Kickstarter
• 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
  • Evacuation
    • ThinkerThemer's review
  • Revive
  • Voidfall

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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
  • Sol: Last Days of a Star
• 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 Apiary
• 0:37:10 11 Horseless Carriage
• 0:43:15 10 Rats of Wistar
• 0:46:15 9th Stationfall
• 0:50:08 8th Earthborne Rangers
• 0:54:50 7th White Castle
• 0:59:05 6th Kutná Hora: The City of Silver
• 1:03:10 5th Voidfall
• 1:09:28 4th Nucleum
• 1:16:05 3rd Age of Innovation
• 1:24:45 2nd Evacuation
• 1:33:40 1st Hegemony: Lead your class to victory

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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 Group
-  Twitter
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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
  • Sol: Last Days of a Star
  • Tabletop Network
  • Daimyo: Battle for Japan
  • Rats of Wistar
  • Kutná Hora: The City of Silver
  • Apiary Space BEES!
  • Evacuation
  • White Castle
  • kCaloria
• 0:58:00 Other Plays
  • Ur: 1830 BC
  • Septima
  • Evenfall
• 1:16:05 Our Favorite Games of the Podcast
  • Ben #3 - Red Cathedral
  • Matt #3 - Ark Nova
  • Trey #3 - Imperial Steam
  • Tom #3 - Barrage
  • Ben #2 - Hegemony: Lead Tour Class to Victory
  • Matt #2 - Age of Innovation
  • Trey #2 - War of the Ring: The Card Game
  • Tom #2 - Imperial Steam
  • Ben #1 - Barrage
  • Matt #1 - Barrage
  • Trey #1 - The Transcontinental
  • Tom #1 - Pipeline

-  Find Etamar at kirbooloni.com
-  Game Brain Facebook Group
-  Twitter
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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!