Board All The Time

Reviews: Time to Panic

Hey hey BATT Family! Welcome to our series of reviews for the brand new, small box IV Studios games. In this review we'll be taking a look at Time to Panic. In Time to Panic, you're trying to repair a shattered timeline in this fully cooperative game for 1-4 players, taking approximately 30-45 minutes per session. Your goal is to fully align a series of cards numbered 1-36 into as correct of an order as possible. We were provided this copy by IV and as such this is a sponsored review of the deluxe edition of the game that will be available at Gen Con later this week. 
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:01 - How the Game Plays
00:08:36 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:10:20 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:14:03 - Solo Mode / Player Count / Replayability
00:18:03 - What's to Like, What's to Dislike 
00:23:40 - Recommendations
00:25:16 - Final Thoughts 
00:26:39 - Outro
--- Notes!
1) Once more, you can find IV Studios at Booth 2239 at Gen Con and the game will be releasing at $30. 
---
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: Vantage

Hey hey BATT Family! Welcome to our review for Vantage. This is not a sponsored review, but Jason and I were provided our copies of the game as compensation for working the booth at GenCon. We refer to this within the episode itself, but to be clear we were given the game to learn and play so that we could accurately teach it at GenCon. Stonemaier did not ask for this review and we did get permission to do this ahead of time just in case. Regardless! We like the game quite a bit. If you're concerned about any spoilers here, we drop our scores within the first few minutes before explaining anything at all about the game so that way you don't have to worry about that. We actually managed to not spoil any of the content through our discussions but we also get that certain audiences don't want to know anything beyond the basic dice/card interactions before opening the box and we wanted to respect that. Vantage is a huge open world sandbox game comprised of over 1700 cards for 1-6 players and was designed by Jamey Stegmaier over the course of eight years. Come crash land on the planet with us to learn what we thought about the game and then once you've gotten to do so let us know your opinions on it at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com!
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro / Scores / Non-Spoiler Comments
00:03:08 - How the Game Plays
00:10:25 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:15:01 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:22:58 - Replayability / Player Count / Solo Mode
00:30:12 - What's to Like, What's to Dislike 
00:53:01 - Final Thoughts 
00:56:29 - Outro
--- Notes!
1) Jason definitely jumped in and helped me explain the game a bit because of how late things were when we recorded and I just started forgetting a couple of key things. So thanks for the assist Jason!
2) Around the 40 minute mark you can just hear Mark's 4 year old jumping in the background for a couple minutes. It's not loud but it is there, so sorry about that. The joys of having a basement studio.
3) Scott was around for this entire recording session. He just let Jason and I go nuts and didn't have much additional to add beyond what we all said.
---
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. 

Gen Con 2025 Preview: The Games

Hey hey BATT Family! GenCon 2025 is ONE WEEK AWAY! That means that it is perfect timing to get out the GenCon preview list. We recorded this list on July 9th when there were 499 games on the list. While another 70 or so were added since then, we're all still extremely happy with our lists and will still be looking for these games in particular. Scott, Jason, and Mark have all gathered to make sure that we're telling you about 30 different games that we are excited to check out and hopefully bring home from the con in one way or another.
We hope that you enjoy this episode and you let us know what you're looking forward to on BlueSky or by emailing us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com. As a reminder, Mark and Jason will be teaching Vantage at the Stonemaier/MeepleSource booth at location 2909 this year and Scott will be demoing it in the play hall not too far away on Thursday and Friday mornings. Come say hi!
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro 
00:02:02 - Honorable Mentions
00:08:40 - List Selection Criteria
00:11:24 - Scott's 10 (Guild Lands)
00:12:29 - Jason's 10 (Tinco)
00:13:20 - Mark's 10 (Habemus Papam)
00:14:50 - Scott's 9 (Ace of Spades)
00:16:06 - Jason's 9 (Alibis)
00:16:47 - Mark's 9 (Escape from the Moon)
00:17:45 - Scott's 8 (Gibberers)
00:19:17 - Jason's 8 (Sprocketforge)
00:20:42 - Mark's 8 (Ofrenda)
00:22:10 - Scott's 7 (Mythical Dice)
00:23:19 - Jason's 7 (Zenith)
00:24:40 - Mark's 7 (Spooktacular)
00:26:22 - Scott's 6 (Solar Gardens)
00:27:52 - Jason's 6 (Unstoppable)
00:29:44 - Mark's 6 (Four Doors)
00:31:30 - Scott's 5 (Petiquette)
00:33:43 - Jason's 5 (Grand Central Skyport)
00:36:20 - Mark's 5 (Pillars of Heracles)
00:37:34 - Scott's 4 (Digit Code)
00:39:26 - Jason's 4 (Journey to Tir na Nog, Blessings and Burdens)
00:40:59 - Mark's 4 (12 Rivers)
00:42:53 - Scott's 3 (Temple Code)
00:44:47 - Jason's 3 (Pillars of Fate)
00:46:05 - Mark's 3 (How to Save a World)
00:48:15 - Scott's 2 (Kronologic: Cuzco 1450)
00:50:44 - Jason's 2 (Dark Quarter)
00:52:25 - Mark's 2 (Iliad)
00:54:30 - Scott's 1 (FlipToons)
00:58:00 - Jason's 1 (Vantage)
01:01:20 - Mark's 1 (Timber Town)
01:03:38 - Final Thoughts 
01:05:39 - Outro
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Notes!
1) Mark failed to actually say the name of his number nine. The game being discussed is "Escape from the Moon".
2) Scott failed to correctly say the name of his number eight! We were on fire at this point, but in our defense it was almost 2am when we started recording all this! His number eight is actually Gibberers from Hobby Japan.
3) Mark has since played Zenith. IT'S SO, SO GOOD GUYS.
4) We've gotten some preview copies of Pillars of Fate and the other retail IV games that you'll be getting reviews of VERY SHORTLY. Mark likes Pillars A LOT. It's a good thing too, because he's gotta pick up the copy he already bought!
---
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. 

The Games That Made Us - Star Fleet Battles

Welcome back to extra BATT content! This episode is a return to our series of The Games That Made Us. While Mark is finishing up the edit on the GenCon preview, we still wanted to make sure that we gave you content today the way we promised on BlueSky. So here is Scott talking about his love of Star Fleet Battles, a game by Stephen V. Cole from 1979 by Amarillo Design Bureau and Task Force Games. Scott got suprisingly whistful after listening to the edit of this, so while it may not have the heft of the HeroQuest episode, it's clearly still a game that he holds with deep affection. If nothing else, it's just fun to hear about another older game! And we'll give a sly little announcement here in the notes: Mark was recently gifted a number of old games from the 60s and 70s. We'll be doing a new segment soon called "Dusting Off:" where we go back to these decades old games to see how they may (or may not) have influenced the gaming hobby and if they're still worth going back to today. We hope you enjoy this episode and we'll catch you on the next one very shortly. 
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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 gaming, so definitely check us out on there! 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: Tales of Tails

Hey hey BATT Family! We have another sponsored review from Hobby World, this time their family game Tales of Tails. This is a light weight, take that, dungeon crawler featuring dogtaurs. It's a game for 2-4 players and lasts approximately 30-45 minutes. 
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:40 - How the Game Plays
00:02:30 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:05:22 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:13:31 - Replayability
00:14:22 - What's to Like, What's to Dislike 
00:18:48 - Recommendations
00:20:33 - Final Thoughts / Outro
---
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: Space Bureau

Hey hey BATT Family! We are back with another sponsored review, this time provided by Hobby World. Space Bureau is an action selection, pick up and deliver game for 1-4 players. It has a fun vibe about it and will appeal to players that like to build action networks and explore a galaxy. The game will play over 14 turns per player and give you a surprising amount of opportunity to do plenty of actions on each turn. We hope you enjoy this review and you let us know if you've gotten to try it yourself and what you think of it!
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:46 - How the Game Plays
00:03:39 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:05:20 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:08:39 - Replayability
00:09:52 - What's to Like, What's to Dislike 
00:12:42 - Solo Mode 
00:13:19 - Recommendations
00:15:03 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) Just beceause Mark prefers Starry Night Sky to Wormholes, doesn't mean you shouldn't try Wormholes out. It's a really solid game. He just wants it to let you use the wormhole network you've all built for more than five turns at the end. If you like that ramp up and slam to a stop, it might be a great game for you. 
2) Also, just for transparency, while we play the game with each other at least once we do each play the games we review with other play groups as well. With this one, we just sat down and recorded it right at the end of a play session and that was just on top of our heads.
---
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 23

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. Things just haven't been slowing down. We're considering taking a small recording break during the month of August to just slow down, finalize a bunch of things (the website finally!), and play all the new games. Oh and there may be a new logo coming too! OOooo. Regardless! This week is a fun one! Due to popular demand, we returned to the Mechanic's Shop to talk Trick Taking. Then Mark got Scott to play one of his favourite dudes on a map games, and then we talked a wide variety of the games in the Table/Shelf/Trade segment. We did choose to leave off the rotating segment this week due to length, but you'll find that in the next Odds and Ends episode, due out the week of GenCon! Come back on our next episode for our GenCon preview!
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:46 - What's Been on the Table
00:02:57 - The Mechanics Shop: Trick Taking
00:42:13 - Why Did I Play That: Nexus Ops
00:50:05 - Table / Shelf / Trade
01:06:57 - Contact Info / Sponsors 
01:08:21 - Outro
--- Notes!
1) This one was a beast to edit - AGAIN! Between us going off on huge tangents during the what's been on the table segment (leaving that bare two minutes behind) and having to make the trick taking conversation followable, it just took a minute. 
2) One of the fun parts of the Euchre conversation was just talking through all the variations styles of playing a game like it. Scott and I played the same game but in incredibly different ways and that's not even including all the playstyle differences. For being as proscribed of a game as it can be, there's a lot of moving parts and calculations to be made.
3) There is an argument that Mark is being a hypocrite by saying he doesn't like bidding games and then picking Lunar because it needs you to win a certain amount of tricks. The difference between the two, and why I defend this, is that bids are normally placed before a round happens whereas needing to win a range of tricks like in Lunar allows you to adjust your play on the fly and gives some flexibility that you don't have to hit a specific number. 
4) Brian Boru has since left Mark's collection. That said, Arcs has come in since as well, so you'll get some content around that soon enough.
---
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. 

Realm of Reckoning (from IV Studios) Kickstarter Preview

Hey hey BATT Family! We are stoked to take part in the Kickstarter launch for IV Studios' next game, Realm of Reckoning. We spent an enormous amount of time with it because we did enjoy it as much as we did. This is a two to five player area control, drafting, bidding game that takes around ninety to one hundred twenty minutes to play. It is currently on Kickstarter and can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ivstudios/realm-of-reckoning. The base edition of the game starts at $89 but does have a variety of extra materials you can pick up as well. You've heard us say it before, but the mad scientists at IV are back at it and have provided an incredibly unique and genuinely fascinating game to play. We had a ton of things to say and tear apart with this one, so this preview episode is about double our regular length because we do feel it needs it. This is by far IV's heaviest game but it still manages to be quite approachable. So check out the episode and then go check out the Kickstarter!
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:35 - How the Game Plays
00:08:33 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:14:44 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:25:08 - Replayability / Player Count
00:30:24 - What's to Like, What's to Dislike 
00:43:15 - Recommendations 
00:45:43 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) We recorded this shortly before the announcement of the rules for the two player version of the game had been finalized and announced. So part of the conversation here is discussing a couple of things related to being a three player minimum game.
2) We also discussed early on in the rules teach that there will always be nine reckonings. According to the two player rules, that will still be the case as you are not allowed to get rid of reckoning cards from the simulated player's stack. There was a 2p gameplay video released, so if you'd like to check it out you can do so at IV's channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4SVj-_iwGI
3) Check it out on Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ivstudios/realm-of-reckoning (We did not get to experiment with any of the extra stuff like the playmat or metal monuments so we don't have any information there.)
 
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You can email us at boardallthetimegaming@gmail.com. We'd love to give you some Kickstarter coverage as well if you've got a game you're wanting more content for!
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: The First Tsar: Ivan the Terrible

Hey hey BATT Family! This time around we've got another review copy that was provided to us by Hobby World of the game The First Tsar: Ivan the Terrible. This was designed by Stan Kordonskiy with art by Michele Esposito. If you like tactical, light-to-midweight Euro games then there is a lot in this box for you to check out. We did come out pretty split on the game, so we hope you enjoy the review and The First Tsar itself! Feel free to hit us up on any of our regular contact methods to let us know what your opinions are on it! 
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:14 - How the Game Plays
00:08:43 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:10:32 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:14:04 - Replayability / What's to Like, What's to Dislike 
00:19:11 - Recommendations 
00:20:22 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) No notes this time around!
---
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: Neodreams

Hey hey BATT Family! We've got another review for you this week, Neodreams from Hobby World and designer Ivan Lashin. Spoiler alert: we both really, really like it. This game was given to us by the team at Hobby World, so keep that in mind but I really truly think you can be really pleased with this game. 
We hope you enjoy the review and Neodreams itself! Feel free to hit us up on any of our regular contact methods to let us know what your opinions are on Neodreams! 
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This episode's segments:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:43 - How the Game Plays
00:06:18 - Learning Curve / Ease of Teach
00:07:37 - Artwork / Components / Iconography
00:12:38 - What's to Like, What's to Dislike 
00:16:47 - Final Thoughts / Outro
--- Notes!
1) I made a comment about how the game replayability could be a concern after the "fifteen or twentieth" play. That number is pretty high, especially for a lot of modern gamers so I probably could have said fifth or tenth but we also have already played it in that play count and I've still enjoyed it so .... take that as you will?
---
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.