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394

In this show, we talk about Five Tribes, Xia, Krosmaster Junior, Mystery Rummy # 5 - Escape from Alcatraz, X-com, and Pressure Cooker.  We are joined by a host of contributors offering strategy, Christmas gaming, old games, and how to build a game group.  We have a tale of amazement and one of horror, and bring back gaming stererotypes!  Finally, we end the show with our favorite ways to play Catan.

In this show, we talk about Five Tribes, Xia, Krosmaster Junior, Mystery Rummy # 5 - Escape from Alcatraz, X-com, and Pressure Cooker. We are joined by a host of contributors offering strategy, Christmas gaming, old games, and how to build a game group. We have a tale of amazement and one of horror, and bring back gaming stererotypes! Finally, we end the show with our favorite ways to play Catan.

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393

In this show, we talk about Witness?, OWACON, Bullfrogs, Captains of Industry, Imperial Assault, and Cubo.  We also answer a pile of questions, and end the show with our favorite games from 15 years ago - the year 2000!

In this show, we talk about Witness?, OWACON, Bullfrogs, Captains of Industry, Imperial Assault, and Cubo.  We also answer a pile of questions, and end the show with our favorite games from 15 years ago - the year 2000!

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392

In this show, we talk about Empire Engine, Artificium, Kings of Israel, Robot Turtles, Cthulhu Wars, Hyperborea, Pints of Blood, and Dogs of War.  We have a tale of horror and of amazement, Mark talks about his kids, Mary about Tichu strategy, and Brian about Mancala.  Tom discusses why the Dice Tower is about games, but especially the people who play them; and we end the show with our favorite dice found in games.

In this show, we talk about Empire Engine, Artificium, Kings of Israel, Robot Turtles, Cthulhu Wars, Hyperborea, Pints of Blood, and Dogs of War. We have a tale of horror and of amazement, Mark talks about his kids, Mary about Tichu strategy, and Brian about Mancala. Tom discusses why the Dice Tower is about games, but especially the people who play them; and we end the show with our favorite dice found in games.

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391

In this show, we talk about Shadow Throne, Murano, Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age, Canterbury, and Tesla: Master of Lighting.   Greg talks about the new Counter magaizine, Bill gives tips for running a game event, and we answer a pile of listener questions.  Finally, we go back ten years, and talk about our favorite games from 2005.

In this show, we talk about Shadow Throne, Murano, Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age, Canterbury, and Tesla: Master of Lighting.  Greg talks about the new Counter magaizine, Bill gives tips for running a game event, and we answer a pile of listener questions. Finally, we go back ten years, and talk about our favorite games from 2005.

2013
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Best Game Theme of 2013
Early in the history of the United States, slavery was an institution that seemed unmovable but with efforts of men and women across the country, it was toppled. In Freedom: The Underground Railroad, players are working to build up the strength of the Abolitionist movement through the use of notable figures and pivotal events. By raising support for the cause and moving slaves to freedom in Canada, the minds of Americans can be changed and the institution of slavery can be brought down.

Freedom is a card-driven, cooperative game for one to four players in which the group is working for the abolitionist movement to help bring an end to slavery in the United States. The players use a combination of cards, which feature figures and events spanning from Early Independence until the Civil War, along with action tokens and the benefits of their role to impact the game.

Players need to strike the right balance between freeing slaves from plantations in the south and raising funds which are desperately needed to allow the group to continue their abolitionist activities as well as strengthen the cause.

The goal is not easy and in addition to people and events that can have a negative impact on the group's progress, there are also slave catchers roaming the board, reacting to the movements of the slaves on the board and hoping to catch the runaway slaves and send them back to the plantations.

Through careful planning and working together, the group might see an end to slavery in their time.

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Year Published: 2012
Designers: Brian Mayer
Publishers: Academy Games, Inc.
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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Antoine Bauza
Publishers: Repos Production
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Ole Steiness
Publishers: Common Man Games
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Cédrick Chaboussit
Publishers: Ludonaute
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Corey Konieczka
Publishers: Fantasy Flight Games
2013
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Most Innovative Game Winner of 2013
In Terror in Meeple City (formerly known as Rampage), you arrive in Meeple City as a gigantic, famished, scaly-skinned monster! Your goal: Dig your claws and dirty paws into the asphalt, destroy buildings, and devour innocent meeples – in short: sow terror while having fun. The monster who has caused the most damage after the carnage finally ends wins the game.

The buildings in Meeple City are comprised of floor tiles and meeples, with the meeples serving as pillars that support the floors. Four wooden vehicles are on the ground in the eight neighborhoods in the city. Each monster, which consists of a wooden paws disc and a wooden body, starts in one corner of the game board. On a turn you take two actions from four possibilities, repeating an action if desired:


Move: Pick up your monster body, flick the paws disc, then place the body back on the disc.
Demolish: If your paws are on the sidewalk surrounding a building, you can pick up your monster body, drop it onto a building, then collect any floors that have no meeples on them.
Toss a vehicle: If you're in a neighborhood with a vehicle, you can pick up the vehicle, place it on your body, then flick the vehicle at a building or another monster.
Breathe: Even while away from sidewalks with no vehicles, you can cause destruction by placing your chin on your monster's body and blowing across the board.


Monsters tend to be messy when obtaining meals, but if you knock meeples off the city board, you might be punished for letting food go to waste, costing you a tooth or letting other players take an additional action. After your two actions, you can eat unprotected meeples on the ground in your neighborhood, but you can eat only as many as the number of teeth you have. If you knock another monster to the ground, you break off one of its teeth, thereby keeping it from stealing your food! Meeples come in six colors, with the colors representing different types of inhabitants: blue (journalists), green (military), yellow (blondes), grey (old people), red (heroes), and black (businessmen). For each set of six you collect in your stomach, you score 10 points at game's end. You score points for collecting floors and teeth, too, and you can also score for achieving the goal on your character card.

In addition to the character card, each player has a power card and a superpower card unique to his monster, with the former lasting the entire game and the latter being a one-shot effect that's revealed only upon use.

Terror in Meeple City includes rules for monsters that evolve over the course of the game, that lose points for meeples not in sets, and that want to combine two game boards to allow for play with up to eight players.

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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Antoine Bauza
Publishers: Repos Production
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Most Innovative Game Nominee of 2013
Year Published: 2012
Designers: Brian Mayer
Publishers: Academy Games, Inc.
Year Published: 2012
Designers: Jacques Bariot
Publishers: Matagot
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Mike Selinker
Publishers: Paizo Publishing
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Scott Nicholson
Publishers: Stronghold Games
2013
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You find yourself in a dystopian cityscape with a few workers at your disposal to make your mark on the world. Like most people in dystopian fiction, your workers are oblivious to their situation. This world is all they've ever known, and you may use them at your whim.

The world as we know it has ended, and in its place the city of Euphoria has risen. Believing that a new world order is needed to prevent another apocalypse, the Euphorian elite erect high walls around their golden city and promote intellectual equality above all else. Gone are personal freedoms; gone is knowledge of the past. All that matters is the future.

The Euphorians aren’t alone. Outside the city are those who experienced the apocalypse firsthand—they have the memories and scars to prove it. These Wastelanders have cobbled together a society of historians and farmers among the forgotten scrap yards of the past.

There is more to the world than the surface of the earth. Deep underground lies the hidden city of Subterra, occupied by miners, mechanics, and revolutionaries. By keeping their workers in the dark, they’ve patched together a network of pipes and sewers, of steam and gears, of hidden passages and secret stairways.

In Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, you lead a team of workers (dice) and recruits (cards) to claim ownership of the dystopian world. You will generate commodities, dig tunnels to infiltrate opposing areas, construct markets, collect artifacts, strengthen allegiances, and fulfill secret agendas.

Euphoria is a worker-placement game in which dice are your workers. The number on each die represents a worker's knowledge—that is, his level of awareness that he's in a dystopia. Worker knowledge enables various bonuses and impacts player interaction. If the collective knowledge of all of your available workers gets too high, one of them might desert you. You also have two elite recruit cards at your disposal; one has pledged allegiance to you, but the other needs some convincing. You can reveal and use the reticent recruit by reaching certain milestones in the game... or by letting other players unwittingly reach those milestones for you.

Your path to victory is paved with the sweat of your workers, the strength of your allegiances, and the tunnels you dig to infiltrate other areas of the world, but the destination is a land grab in the form of area control. You accomplish this by constructing markets that impose harsh restrictions of personal freedoms upon other players, changing the face of the game and opening new paths to victory. You can also focus on gathering artifacts from the old world, objects of leisure that are extremely rare in this utilitarian society. The dystopian elite covet these artifacts—especially matching pairs—and are willing to give you tracts of land in exchange for them.

Four distinct societies, each of them waiting for you to rewrite history. What are you willing to sacrifice to build a better dystopia?

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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Jamey Stegmaier
Publishers: Stonemaier Games
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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Jason Kotarski
Publishers: Dice Hate Me Studio
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Jamey Stegmaier
Publishers: Stonemaier Games
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Peter Hawes
Publishers: Kayal Games
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Ryan Laukat
Publishers: Red Raven Games
2013
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Best Family Game of 2013
Game description from the publisher:

Gear up for a thrilling adventure to recover a legendary flying machine buried deep in the ruins of an ancient desert city. You'll need to coordinate with your teammates and use every available resource if you hope to survive the scorching heat and relentless sandstorm. Find the flying machine and escape before you all become permanent artifacts of the forbidden desert!

In Forbidden Desert, a thematic sequel to Forbidden Island, players take on the roles of brave adventurers who must throw caution to the wind and survive both blistering heat and blustering sand in order to recover a legendary flying machine buried under an ancient desert city. While featuring cooperative gameplay similar to Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert is a fresh, new game based around an innovative set of mechanisms such as an ever-shifting board, individual resource management, and a unique method for locating the flying machine parts.

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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Matt Leacock
Publishers: Gamewright
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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Antoine Bauza
Publishers: Repos Production
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Scott Nicholson
Publishers: Stronghold Games
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Aureliano Buonfino
Publishers: Cranio Creations
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Paolo Mori
Publishers: Hurrican
2013
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Best New Designer Nominee 2013
Early in the history of the United States, slavery was an institution that seemed unmovable but with efforts of men and women across the country, it was toppled. In Freedom: The Underground Railroad, players are working to build up the strength of the Abolitionist movement through the use of notable figures and pivotal events. By raising support for the cause and moving slaves to freedom in Canada, the minds of Americans can be changed and the institution of slavery can be brought down.

Freedom is a card-driven, cooperative game for one to four players in which the group is working for the abolitionist movement to help bring an end to slavery in the United States. The players use a combination of cards, which feature figures and events spanning from Early Independence until the Civil War, along with action tokens and the benefits of their role to impact the game.

Players need to strike the right balance between freeing slaves from plantations in the south and raising funds which are desperately needed to allow the group to continue their abolitionist activities as well as strengthen the cause.

The goal is not easy and in addition to people and events that can have a negative impact on the group's progress, there are also slave catchers roaming the board, reacting to the movements of the slaves on the board and hoping to catch the runaway slaves and send them back to the plantations.

Through careful planning and working together, the group might see an end to slavery in their time.

Read more Read less
Year Published: 2012
Designers: Brian Mayer
Publishers: Academy Games, Inc.
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Best New Designer Nominee 2013
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Cédrick Chaboussit
Publishers: Ludonaute
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Matthew Dunstan
Publishers: Days of Wonder
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Rustan Håkansson
Publishers: Lautapelit.fi
Year Published: 2013
Designers: Jamey Stegmaier
Publishers: Stonemaier Games
2013
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Scoundrels of Skullport adds new content for Lords of Waterdeep. It’s not one, but two, complete expansions: the sprawling dungeon of Undermountain and the criminal haven of Skullport.

Each thrilling location has unique characteristics and offers new play options, including new Lords, Buildings, Intrigue, and Quest cards.

Owners of Lords of Waterdeep can use one or both of these new subterranean locations to add depth to their game experience. There’s also a new faction, the Gray Hands, so now a sixth player can join in the fun!

The Undermountain Module

Undermountain is a vast and multileveled dungeon beneath Mount Waterdeep that once served the crazed wizard Halaster as a site for magical experiments. Now it is a labyrinthine maze with few refuges for weary adventurers.

The rumored wealth of Undermountain entices adventurers to brave the mysteries and monsters beneath the City of Splendors. The risks and the rewards are greater for undertaking Quests that require more Gold and Adventurers.

The Skullport Module

Skullport—also known as the Port of Shadow—is nestled in the heart of Undermountain, deep below the streets of Waterdeep. It is a haven for nefarious crimes, underhanded deals, and back-alley murders. Those who visit Skullport do so at their own peril, for around every corner are new ways to make people disappear.

The Skullport module includes a new resource: Corruption. Unlike Adventurers and Gold, having Corruption in your tavern penalizes you at the end of the game.

Each Corruption token in your Tavern at the end of the game is worth negative Victory Points. The exact negative value depends on how much Corruption has been collected throughout the game; the more corrupt you and your fellow Lords are, the more Corruption hurts your score.

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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Chris Dupuis
Publishers: Wizards of the Coast
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Year Published: 2013
Designers: Christopher Badell
Publishers: Greater Than Games, LLC
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