Board All The Time

Board All The Time Episode 22

Hey hey BATT Family! Thanks for coming on back for the next full episode of the show! We apologize for the extra week on the release of this episode. There has been a lot of personal stuff going on with all three of us over here. That said we're trying out a new editor! So hopefully episode 23 will sound amazing and not have to have been done by Mark! This week's episode though we get to introduce a brand new segment, the Mechanics Shop, where we're going to be doing deep dives into a specific mechanism each time we do it. The goal is to look at that mechanism from a variety of different gameplay angles through the lens of a variety of different games. We are going to be skipping doing a rotating segment when we do these though since the segment will be longer than usual. Like normal, hit us up with any thoughts or comments you may have especially on if you like the new content or not!
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:03 - What's Been on the Table
00:09:26 - The Mechanics Shop: Worker Placement
00:43:32 - Why Did I Play That: Kronologic: Paris 1920
00:57:44 - Table / Shelf / Trade
01:23:29 - Contact Info / Sponsors 
01:25:00 - Outro
--- Notes!
1) This one was a beast to edit. Mark had to do a lot more splicing and rearranging than in any episode prior. Pretty sure that he managed to make it all as seamless as he could but thanks for the patience for the extra time while this episode came out!
2) We never really defined what a "worker" is in a worker placement game. For simplicity sake, a worker is a piece of some kind (a token, a miniature, a die, whatever) that you are going to place somewhere on the board and take the action granted by that space. It's not an overwhelming concept, but it isn't always just a meeple or whatever.
3)  And technically there is SOME direct player interaction with the poison and constriction tokens and such, but Mark NEVER uses thoses when they play. Peaceful Ark Nova all day!
4) If you'd like to play games with Mark on BoardGameArena, his handle is: MetroMacWag. He'll happily play Ark Nova or many other things.
5) 
6) 
7) 
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Reviews: Kingsburg 3rd Edition / Edition Comparison

Hey hey BATT Family! Today Mark is going to dive very heavily into Kingsburg 3rd edition. This is a review of the game as a whole and a comparison of the various editions of the game. The various aspects of all three will be discussed so if you're a long time fan of the game or a new player, you'll be able to find something here. Kingsburg is a dice worker placement, resource management game that has high modularity through it's various expansion modules (mostly built into the box) and plays from two to five players in about forty-five to seventy-five minutes depending on player count. 
As a heads up, if you've played the game before, you can skip right into the Artwork / Components / Iconography section because literally none of the rules have changed at all from the prior editions.
We hope you enjoy the review and Kingsburg itself! Feel free to hit us up on any of our regular contact methods to let us know what your opinions are on Kingsburg! 
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:16 - How the Game Plays
00:07:49 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:09:00 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:18:55 - Differences in Expansion Content / Replayability
00:23:55 - Solo Mode / What's to Like, What's to Dislike 
00:27:21 - Recommendations
00:29:00 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) Apologies for the audio buzz on this episode. When I was recording it, we were trying some things out with new mics and in my standard recording cans I didn't hear it. I'm hoping it doesn't come through for regular listeners, but I was hearing it in my more sensitive editing cans. I've since replaced the speakers that caused that issue though, so that shouldn't recur.
2) If you do know about those scenario cards in 2nd edition, let me know what's going on with them. I'm happy I've got them certainly, but it's just baffling I can't seem to find much information about them. 
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Reviews: S’mores Galore

Hey hey BATT Family! Today we are going to be reviewing S’mores Galore which was provided to us by Grand Gamers Guild. This is a very lightweight, family game where you'll be drafting cards from the center of the table, managing a hand of cards, and fulfilling contracts by scoring S'mores themselves. 
We hope you enjoy the review and S’mores Galore itself! Feel free to hit us up on any of our regular contact methods to let us know what your opinions are on S’mores Galore! 
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:38 - How the Game Plays
00:04:25 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:06:23 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:09:23 - Replayability
00:12:14 - What's to Like, What's to Dislike
00:14:47 - Recommendations
00:16:31 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) We don't have any special notes here!
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Reviews: Pass

Hey hey BATT Family! Today we are going to be reviewing Pass which was provided to us by Grand Gamers Guild. This is lightweight, ladder climbing/card shedding game for 1-4 players and takes approximately 15 minutes to play. 
We hope you enjoy the review and Pass itself! Feel free to hit us up on any of our regular contact methods to let us know what your opinions are on Pass! 
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:30 - How the Game Plays
00:03:46 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:06:11 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:08:23 - What's to Like, What's Not to Like
00:11:17 - Recommendations
00:13:33 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) I have no idea why we didn't do our standard breaks and titles with this review, I'm blaming it on recording really late and just really enjoying the game as we did so. We had played a bunch of it and sat down to record and apparently forgot all of our manners. 
2) I call the game a ladder climbing game at the start and then just keep referreing to it as a shedding game. Both terms are so often used together that it makes sense why I'd slip up like that but for clarity's sake: a ladder climbing game is one where you have to play consistently ascending (or descending) card values. A shedding game is one where you're trying to run out of cards first. Normally the two are linked as you're trying to get rid of you cards by playing higher sets together, etc.
3) At time of editing, we had not received anything saying that the origin of the game was incorrect. If I do get an update, it will be changed and noted here in these notes.
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Board All The Time Episode 21

Hey hey BATT Family! Thanks for coming on back for the next full episode of the show! If you've joined in after our recent interview with Jamey Stegmaier, thanks for coming back around! This week we got to have a dear friend of the show on to discuss the effects of colour vision issues in board gaming and the ways that games try and handle that - successfully and otherwise. We should note that it is a conversation with only one person with those colour vision issues, so his experience is replicable to his singular experience. But hopefully it helps provoke some thought and lets you hear some other opinions you may not have had the ability to yet! This episode we're also talking some games provided to us from Hobby World and Bellows Intent as well as finally getting Scott to play Ethnos and how that treated him. Like normal, hit us up with any thoughts or comments you may have!
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:55 - What's Been on the Table
00:06:06 - Topic of the Week: Colour Vision Issues in Board Gaming
00:31:08 - Why Did I Play That: Ethnos
00:40:15 - Table / Shelf / Trade
00:54:22 - Rotating Segment: The Archives
00:58:45 - Contact Info / Sponsors 
01:00:07 - Outro
--- Notes!
1) We should mention that this episode was recorded prior to the tariff stuff all dropping, which is why it wasn't mentioned in this episode. We're certainly not going to keep hammering on that topic as there isn't much we can directly do about it, but if you're wondering how we go from the interview we did to this episode, that would be why.
2) You can also hear just how long it's been since we recorded this since Scott was talking PopiCon at one point. Just general reshuffling of stuff between all the various issues of the past couple months. 
3) Scott was right! There was a third bigger expansion to Tiny Towns. Fortune, Villagers, and Architects (which released in 2024!). 
4) So it turns out that Scott's Archive game of Get Bit, we talked about in episode 19! Because I guess, let's just rip the curtain right away for this set of episode notes: The episode you heard as E19 was originally intended as E21 and this was to be E19. We figured since we had *just* had MacWagCon the previous weekend, we'd talk about it and release it while it was all fresh in our minds. So we recorded this PRIOR to MacWagCon where we summarily played Get Bit. But because it was better explained here, I decided to leave it in. 
5) And we did play Bob Ross: the Art of Chill (actually after we finished recording!). Scott enjoyed it, but I'll let him provide his commentary on it at a later date.
6) Also, my dog coughed an enormous amount through this episode. I decided to not stick you with that very odd, repetitive noise but that last tag made me laugh regardless.
7) And for those of you that have asked, my younger son is thankfully fine. The hospital stay went fine and he's back home and bouncing around like normal at this point. Sorry for the delay on the episode, we appreciate the patience. 
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Board All the Time Interviews: Jamey Stegmaier on the Tariff Situation

Hey hey BATT Family! We had an incredible opportunity to sit down with Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games to discuss the current tariff situation, how it effects his business and the larger gaming industry as a whole, and some of the solutions he thinks could make the situation easier for everybody. We had a little bit over a half hour of his time and we stuck pretty closely to that. We have edited this conversation for clarity's sake, but other than that the conversation is presented as it was recorded. Scott and Mark were at the BATT studio in Indiana and Jamey joined in remotely from his office in St. Louis. 
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about what was discussed here, please feel free to reach out!
---
Notes!
1) Jamey did provide his article that he researched supply chain labour certification. It is located here, https://stonemaiergames.com/how-can-we-fix-this-together-tariffs-manufacturing-and-a-solution/, and you can find all of his sources within that link. 
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Board All The Time Episode 20

Hey hey BATT Family! Welcome back to another main episode of the pod. This week, since we're on a five, we've got a guest with us as we do our Top Ten Games that We Enjoy Teaching! It's a bit of an askew topic to go with, but it was selected by our guest (Erik!) and it was a fun list to go through. This did end up taking two passes to fully record as the first version of it was lost in the flood (boo!). At this point though, that should be the last time you see/hear that as an excuse because we're well beyond everything that was effected by it now. So we hope you enjoy the list and be sure to hit us up and tell us what your favourite games to teach are! 
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro / How We Met
00:01:56 - List Selection Criteria
00:03:28 - Scott's 10
00:05:01 - Erik's 10
00:06:14 - Mark's 10
00:10:18 - Scott's 9
00:11:58 - Erik's 9
00:13:23 - Mark's 9
00:15:26 - Scott's 8
00:18:13 - Erik's 8
00:19:56 - Mark's 8
00:22:10 - Scott's 7
00:24:27 - Erik's 7
00:26:17 - Mark's 7
00:27:58 - Scott's 6
00:29:27 - Erik's 6
00:32:46 - Mark's 6
00:34:54 - Scott's 5
00:37:09 - Erik's 5
00:39:02 - Mark's 5
00:43:47 - Scott's 4
00:49:08 - Erik's 4
00:52:04 - Mark's 4
00:53:10 - Scott's 3
00:55:09 - Erik's 3
00:57:30 - Mark's 3
00:59:51 - Scott's 2
01:01:59 - Erik's 2
01:03:36 - Mark's 2
01:05:38 - Scott's 1
01:06:47 - Erik's 1
01:09:26 - Mark's 1
01:12:18 - Contact Info / Sponsors
01:13:40 - Outro
---
Notes!
1) Sorry for the all of a sudden laughing at the intro of Erik's number 10. There was a great bit that just derailed the conversation we were all laughing at right before. You'll likely hear that in the next Odds and Ends episode.
2) Ironically, I had a conversation with my brother this past weekend where he told me he's never played Yahtzee. Whoops.
3) I have to now admit that Amun-Re is my favourite Reiner Knizia game. Whoops again! That said, I do enjoy the teach of High Society more, so I stand by it's inclusion in the list. And we did end up playing it after recording!
4) If it sounds like you may have missed part of the conversation during the Hogwarts Battle segment - that's because you did. The guys got distracted by comparing it to other games in it's series and it became a fairly convoluted conversation where even I had to ask which game we were talking about. So hopefully the segment comes across more naturally than I'm thinking it did because it's really late as I'm editing and I was very confused the second time around too.
5) I left the thing about gaming meta jokes in because we're in the process of recording our Board Gaming 101 episode to help you understand all of our terminology! If you have anything you're questioning or don't know the answer to, hit us up on any of our contact methods and let us know which ones we should define! (Also my exasperation is largely because we're all in this space, it seems wild they'd never heard of a point salad before.)
6) If it feels like there's not a ton of conversation about Werewolf in Erik's number 2, that's because MOST of what was there got cut for future Odds and Ends episodes. We tangented hard by just telling crazy stories.
7) This was recorded about 6 weeks before MacWagCon so it's entertaining to me that Captain Sonar showed up for two episodes in (what became) a row. Also, I meant to say First Mate instead of Navigator. ---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Reviews: Inferno

Hey hey BATT Family! Today we are going to be reviewing Inferno which was provided to us by Grand Gamers Guild. This is heavy, economic Euro game for 1-4 players and takes approximately 1 hour per player to play. 
As a pre-emptive note: we do start the discussion by mentioning the extremely heavy theme and how you're not representing good people (at all). If you would like to skip straight to the game play itself and the rest of the content, go to 2:14. Otherwise, just know that that's there. 
We hope you enjoy the review and Inferno itself! Feel free to hit us up on any of our regular contact methods to let us know what your opinions are on Inferno! 
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:35 - How the Game Plays
00:08:31 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:11:21 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:17:54 - Scott's What to Tell Others / Replayability
00:22:02 - Solo Mode / Mark's What to Tell Others / Recommendations
00:25:19 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) The only note to put in this review is that just through the course of editing it, it made me want to pull it out and play it again. That's how good this game is.
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Reviews: Belgian Beers Race Dice

Hey hey BATT Family! Today we are going to be reviewing Belgian Beers Race Dice which was provided to us by Grand Gamers Guild. This is roll and write game for 1-4 players and takes approximately 30-45 minutes to play. We hope you enjoy the review! Feel free to hit us up on any of our regular contact methods to let us know what your opinions are on Belgian Beers Race Dice! 
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:21 - How the Game Plays
00:07:01 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:08:29 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:14:09 - Solo Mode
00:15:14 - Recommendations / What to Tell Others
00:18:49 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) No real notes here this time around. We said everything we needed to there and would love to see what a second pass at this game would look like. 
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music. 

Board All The Time Episode 19

Hey hey BATT Family! Thanks for your patience while this one came out a bit late. Please see the note below. But we had MacWagCon 2025 happen and we wanted to talk through all the games! We got to play an enormous amount of stuff over three days of gaming and it was a great array to be able to discuss. In addition to all of those we take a very quick jaunt through what can make a teach a difficult time (we'll definitely be revisiting this topic in the future) and unpacking the trauma that Scott ended up enduring in this week's Why Did I Play That?. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll catch you next week as we release Episode 20, our Top Ten Games That We Enjoy Teaching!
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:56 - What's Been on the Table
00:17:50 - Topic of the Week: Complications with the Teach
00:26:05 - Why Did I Play That: Captain Sonar
00:37:44 - Table / Shelf / Trade
00:58:56 - Rotating Segment: The Archives
01:05:40 - Contact Info / Sponsors 
01:07:04 - Outro
--- Notes!
1) Apologies on this episode being a week late. The week that I was intending to sit down and do this editing, we had a severe family emergency. When we got back home from that a few days later, we went through terrible storms and our power was knocked out for three days. Certainly not intentional to have all that happen, but thankfully all is well at this point.
2) Here's the link for Quinns doing his "Mastering the Teach" video. It's great and I still review it occassionally. https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/how-to-teach-board-games-like-a-pro/
3) We said Hues and Clues at one point, we meant Hues and Cues. Whoops.
4) We aren't sponsored by MeepleSource, but I do love them dearly. If you want to check out their incredible Cat Lady resources, they're here: https://meeplesource.com/proddetail.php?prod=CatLady
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
We're on BlueSky now and loving it! At this point it really feels like BlueSky is for board gaming, so definitely check us out on there at https://bsky.app/profile/boardallthetime.bsky.social
If you would like to check out Mark's Top 100 list, it can be found at: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/347553/top-100-games-2024-edition
If you'd like to help support the show and assist with the hosting costs, you can do so with our Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/boardallthetime
Our Discord server, which is still in Beta, can be joined at https://discord.gg/VbRWEpc6
We'd like to thank our sponsors as well:
Robin's Nerd Supply: www.robinsnerdsupply.com
Eco Owl Press: www.ecoowlpress.com 
We'd also like to thank SoulProdMusic for the intro/outro music.