Meeple Nation Board Game Podcast

Matt and Barbara join us for another News episode. We talk of Hero Realms, Pathfinder App, Cthulhu Realms App, Descent: Road to Legend App, Campaign Manager, Game Bags, SpielSoap, two versions of Caravan. We also report the newly announced Spiel des Jahres nominees including Codenames, Imhotep, and Karuba.

You're in the trenches in the first World War, trying to stay alive long enough to return home with your grizzled old friends. The threat are bullets, combat, toxic gas, night, winter, and rain. The only way to survive is a little planning, teamwork, and a whole lot of luck. The Grizzled is a cooperative game for two to five players from Fabien Riffaud and Juan Rodriguez.   We've had mixed experience with the difficulty of this game, but most of the buzz is that it is hard to win, especially with five players. The great thing is that this little game is fun, even you lose.

In March, at SaltCON 2016, we sat down and talked with Seth Hiatt of Mayday Games. We talk about a number of their products including Twist of Fate, a microgame that is finishing up on Kickstarter at the time this podcast is released. Seth talks about manufacturing, shipping, and the benefit of being Euro Friendly.

This week's podcast come to you from Skye, the largest and most northerly major island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, with soft sand beaches, gently sloping hills and impressive mountain. We're not there, unfortunately. Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King is an economic, territory building game from Mayfair Games. For 2-5 players and for 60 minutes, Isle of Skye will task you to create the best kingdom in your effort to lead y our clan well enough to become King.   This is a tile laying game, but the real game involves a unique scoring system and mastering a shifting economy. This game seems like it will be a hit for your intrepid hosts, but you're going to have to listen to the podcast to find out for sure.  

We interview the awesome dudes, Seth Jaffee, Michael Mindes, and Andy Van Zandt, from Tasty Minstrel Games (www.playmtg.com) at SaltCON 2016. We've got the insights from a game designer, an owner and a developer.   Seth caught us up on his game designs, his work on the Eminent Domain series, and his future releases. Michael talks about the latest releases of TMG and what we can expect in the near future. Andy talks about what it means to be a game developer, his latest projects, and how he likes living in Utah.  Don't miss a second of this insider episode.

We’ve hit another 5th episode so it is time for Industry News! Don’t forget to enter our contest on Meeple Nation Off Air on Facebook.   0:00 - 0:47 Introduction 0:48 - 3:07 Mombasa, World 192 of 504 and Ryan hates Stocks 3:08 - 4:59 Contest for Gold West from Tasty Minstrel Games - Ends May 1, 2016 5:00 - 5:53 The Grizzled: At Your Orders 5:54 - 7:51 Star Trek Frontiers 7:52 - 10:12 Descent: Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition - Road to Legends Companion App 10:13 - 13:30 Charterstone 13:31 - 16:50 Santorini Kickstarter ends April 27, 2016 16:51 - 18:15 Legendary Encounters: Alien Expansion 18:16 - 19:23 Codenames Pictures 19:24 - 20:39 Legend of the Five Rings LCG coming in 2017 from Fantasy Flight Games 20:40 - 22:24 Mistborn: House War 22:25 - 23:16 Galaxy Quest 23:17 - 24:17 Munchking CCG 24:18 - 24:58 Political Kickstarters are bad 24:59 - 26:06 C.O.G. (The Cabinet of Gadgetry) 26:07 - 28:07 Star Trek: Ascendancy 28:08 - 29:21 Star Trek Panic 29:22 - 31:29 Ave Roma on Kickstarter until May 4, 2016 31:30 -

One thing we know for sure: Saucermen are jerks. Except that Brent, for some reason, likes the Saucermen. Something is wrong with Brent. Might be that alien tech sticking out the back of his neck. Rocket Patrol unite. We have to rescue Brent!   Space Cadet: Away Mission is a 1-6 player cooperative adventure game with Retro spacemen fighting aliens, slugs, and space bugs on a modular board. The aliens, including Saucermen, Leaders and a Brain-in-a-jar, act in specific, rule-driven patterns. The game is scenario based with random setups and random encounters, which allows for great replay value.

Months worth of work goes into running a board game convention. We sit with the Organizers of SaltCON and discuss the past, present and future. Join us in our newly formed Facebook Group, Meeple Nation Off Air, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MeepleNationOffAir

This week we interview the members of HUGG, Herriman Utah Gamer Girls, a board game club of women. I use the word interview loosely, as HUGG takes over the Nation, explaining their love of heavy board game, strict competition, and the importance of integrity of the game. The worst insult within their group is that someone "isn't a real gamer." We found out quickly that they are all real gamers. Find out how the group was formed, their favorite games, and a little trash talk about who is the most competitive.

Join Meeple Nation as we host a live podcast as a panel at SaltCON, a board game convention in SLC, Utah. We talk to several guests about how they approach attending conventions, including the big one--the long CON, whether that is GenCon or BGGCon or another convention. We grilled two professionals, Ryan Bruns from Mayday Games and Ben Hillyard from Daedalus Productions about attending conventions as a dealer. We also interview Claudine Finlay and Julie Balazs from HUGG about why they love gaming at CONs. Also, we interview Brent Mair. He's kind of a big deal.

Meeple Nation celebrates episode 100! We talk with Barb and Matt about reaching this milestone, talk SaltCON, our local board game convention, and discuss board game news of the day, including new or newly announced games, Kickstarters, and some related events. Games discussed include Goonies, a possible new fantasy version of Star Realms, Pack O Games 2, and expansions to Mysterium, Dominion, Imperial Assault and Dead of Winter. Join the Nation as we look forward to the next 100 episodes.   Pack O Games 2 Kickstarter ends April 2, 2016  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/713947418/pack-o-game-set-2-wee-strategy-games-for-on-the-go The Manhattan Project Energy Empire ends April 7, 2016  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/miniongames/the-manhattan-project-energy-empire-board-game Darklight Memento Mori ends March 28, 2016 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/53406598/darklight-memento-mori-miniatures-dungeon-crawler The Lazy Gamer ends March 31, 2016 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/878938288/the-lazy-

Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game, is a cooperative game for 1-4 players based on the Warhammer property from Games Workshop. This Fantasy Flight game is played mostly with cards, with a few supporting items such as custom dice, and health and exploration tokens. Each player takes the role of one of the four heroes in the box and uses unique Fight, Explore, Aid, and Rest cards to survive the dungeon and kill the evil nemesis. Our games took 30-120 minutes to complete. Ages 14 and up.

In October of 2015 we noticed a number of threads complaining about games that get used up or cannot be replayed for other reasons. We sit down and talk about these games

Everyone likes expansions, right? Especially good ones? This episode we talk expansions for games we have already reviewed. Roll for the Galaxy: Ambition, is the first expansion for this popular dice game. It adds a slightly accelerated start with new black leader dice, and new starting planet and factions. We first discussed Roll for the Galaxy in Episode 37. Firefly has a number of expansions, including the big box Kalidasa. If you want more Firefly reach back into our archives and listen to Episodes 9 and 12. Star Wars Imperial Assault now has a smaller box expansion, Twin Shadows, and a bigger expansions, Return to Hoth. We discussed the base game in Episode 61.

It has been six months since we last discussed Kickstarter, and Jeff Siadek joins us to explain why publishers use Kickstarter. Jeff's project, Battlestations Second Edition! Tabletop Starship Simulator, is currently on Kickstarter, with an end date of March 3, 2016. This is Jeff's tenth kickstarter, with a relaunch of his flagship game, Battlestations. His company, Gorilla Games, has been around for twelve years, and Jeff has been in the industry even longer than that. Join us as we discuss Battlestations, and how Kickstarter is allowing Jeff to make this game even better.

No one likes a lying cheaterface when playing board games, but what about all of the games that have made lying, cheating, and bluffing core mechanics of game play. This week on Meeple Nation, the primes discuss games with these mechanics such as Sheriff of Nottingham, Coup, Werewolf, Cockroach Poker, Intrige, Lifeboats and Illuminati. We all hate cheating as a mechanic, but find out our take on Bluffing and Lying as core mechanics and hear a few stories of cheaty-cheaterfaces in our past games. Nate owns up, and Ryan finally agrees to let it go. Brent just shakes his head in judgment at us both.

This week we review the game, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

This week, we discuss all things Pandemic, including spoiler free talk of Pandemic Legacy. Luckily, we have Barb and Matt back to keep things from getting too hostile. Everyone seems to like this game, except for Ryan. What's wrong with Ryan? Join us to find out. We cover Pandemic (2008) by Matt Leacock, including the expansions In the Lab (2013) and On the Brink (2009). We also discuss Pandemic: The Cure (2014) and Pandemic: Contagion (2014). And finally a bit about Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (2015). Again no Spoilers.

Your caravan arrives in the fabled Sultanate of Naqala. The sultan is dead. Do you have what it takes to maneuver the five tribes, invoke the old Djinns, and gain enough influence to fulfill the prophesy and become the new sultan?   Five Tribes is a clever, meeple-heavy work placement game where the workers are already in place on the table and you use a Mancala-like movement on your turn to maneuver the five tribe and gain points. Designed by Bruno Cathala and released in 2014 by Days of Wonder, Five Tribes is a game played best with player of the same experience level and low analysis paralysis. 

We finally review Mysterium! For this seance, we all put on our Medium caps and find meaning in our dreams, conveniently provided by the ghost player in the form of full art cards. Mysterium was designed by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko. The English version was released in 2015 by Asmodee.   The Meeple Nation Primes are joined by Barbara and Matthew Allen as we gush about this outstanding and unique gaming experience. Saying Mysterium is like Clue meets Dixit just doesn't do enough to convey the awesomeness of this game.