Board All The Time

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. 

Reviews: Ovation

Hey hey BATT Family! Today we are going to be reviewing Ovation which was provided to us by Grand Gamers Guild. This is an action selection, resource management, set collection game for 1-4 players and takes approximately 30 minutes to play. We hope you enjoy the review and moreso enjoy the game! Feel free to hit us up on any of our regular contact methods to let us know what your opinions are on Ovation! 
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:34 - How the Game Plays
00:04:26 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:05:50 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:12:14 - Replayability / Solo Mode
00:19:13 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) When discussing the ticket system, Mark says a word as "wane" instead of "wan". That's just Midwest accent, but you tomato/tomato yourself on that if he's wrong or not.
2) Not long after that, Mark does mention the solo mode and it's designer without referencing their name. The solo mode was designed by David Digby, not by Kirsten Lunde who did the main game. 
---
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 18

Hey hey BATT Family! We hope you've taken the time to check out our Kickstarter preview content that we've gotten to release recently, we've been really enjoying playing everything to support some folks. Regardless, on this episode we talk game balance and why it matters, play a game that Mark hated in 2021 and unintentionally played again for this episode, and managed to weirdly cross over on too many things in the other segments. We hope you have a great time with the episode and that you'll let us know what you think about everything by hitting us up!
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:30 - What's Been on the Table
00:05:10 - Topic of the Week: 
00:19:53 - Why Did I Play That: Hardback
00:31:18 - Table / Shelf / Trade
00:50:27 - Rotating Segment: Surprise Party
00:57:21 - Contact Info / Sponsors 
00:58:43 - Outro
--- Notes!
1) The old fashioneds comment was due to a random Wisconsinite stopping my grandfather during our vacation when he ordered one. I don't particularly care for them, but you better believe I learned how to make them like a master to ingratiate myself to him when Natalie and I started dating. 
2) During Hardback, Scott says Single Player Solitaire. He naturally meant Multi-Player Solitaire, but that's the type of stuff you get when you record without scripts.
3) Sorry for needing to use a prop in the explanation of the Marrek Murders, but it was far simpler to have Scott understand while looking at it. If you'd like to see more of what I'm talking about, there's a decent photo someone put up on BGG that'll help you get this. https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8675978/final-girl-the-marrek-murders
4) I know the point that I was trying to make when I clearly get flustered and frustrated (flustrated?) when talking about Dice Throne's complexity, but I do find it funny while editing it that I couldn't even keep a straight thought because I was so annoyed.
5) I didn't mean to take over Scott's Surprise Party entry, but that mostly came out like that in the edit. We were recording late one night and Scott was flagging pretty hard at that point. So I came in with my opinions to keep the conversation moving and see what we could prompt out of him.
6) Apparently this was prop night for me. This is why Scott keeps saying we need to add video. If that does happen, that's more reason of why I need an editor. 
---
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. 

Shadows: Heroes & Monsters (from Keun Games) Kickstarter Preview

Hey hey BATT Family! We're back again today with another Kickstarter preview for you! Thanks so much again to Keun Games for supplying us with a copy of the Shadows: Heroes & Monsters as well as the parts to upgrade into second edition. Shadows is a game that presents itself as a PvPvE card game and it fulfills that promise as the targets on the field are plenty and varied. This new edition plays up to four players (a common request from players of the first edition) and brings new rules and quality of life improvements over the prior edition. Shadows goes live on March 18th on Kickstarter, so go ahead and listen to our preview and then go over and save the campaign for it's launch date to be a day one backer!  
Please check out the Kickstarter and their website to find their other games:
Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keungames/shadows-heroes-and-monsters-2nd-edition?ref=b6qgka
Keun Games Website: https://www.keungames.com
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
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. 

Scales of Fate (from IV Studio) Kickstarter Preview

BATT Family! We finally get to spill all of our thoughts out on the newest obsession here in the studio. Scales of Fate is the newest game from IV Studio and a new two-player only game set in the world of Veiled Fate. If you've been listening to BATT, you know that Veiled Fate is Mark's number one game so the chance to get in on this preview was huge for the team. The game does not disappoint in the slightest. Thanks so much again to IV Studios for supplying us with the prototype copy of the Deluxe Edition of Scales of Fate. 
 
Kickstarter Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ivstudios/scales-of-fate
BGG Page: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/437356/scales-of-fate
 
IV Studio Website: https://www.iv.studio/
IV Games Website: https://shop.iv.studio/
---
You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com.
We can be found at www.boardallthetime.com and on Facebook at Board All The Time. 
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 17

Hey hey BATT Family! We're back with our next main episode! We hope you really enjoyed the Live! episode from PopiCon, we had a blast recording that one. Last week didn't have an off-week release unintentionally between returning from vacation, an absolute nightmare of a week at work, and preparing for MacWagCon (the studio honestly has probably never looked better). This week though we get to talk about theme and what brings us to games, finally getting Scott to play one of my all time favourite games, and a return to one of our favourite rotating segments. 
---
This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:58 - What's Been on the Table
00:05:38 - Topic of the Week: What's In a Theme?
00:29:31 - Why Did It Take So Long To Play That: Aquatica
00:40:58 - Table / Shelf / Trade
01:02:05 - Rotating Segment: Visions of the Future
01:16:19 - Contact Info / Sponsors 
01:17:41 - Outro
--- Notes!
1) I know when talking about Skymines I could have said Moonbasa instead of Space Mombasa and frankly I'm as disappointed in myself as you are. 
2) Not sure what or why that weird metronomic popping is there for a few a bit around the 30:20 mark, but it appeared to be buried within the audio itself and I couldn't clear it out. Apologies! I'm still trying to get better at audio engineering!
3) It is ironic that we discussed theme for so long in the episode and then Faraway's gets discarded out of hand so fast when talking about it. The game was taught to me without using that theme and unforunately nothing in the gameplay reinforces it so I just kind of breezed past it.
---
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 LIVE: Top Ten Games That Need a New Edition

Hey BATT Family! We recorded this episode LIVE!!! at PopiCon 2025 on January 31. We're presenting it to you here largely unedited to just give you that live experience (and also have you see all the stuff that normally gets edited out!). We had a blast with this one and we're looking forward to our next time we get to do this. 
---
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.