Salton Sea, Arcs

There is a duality in first time plays, at least when you’re playing with a mind to reviewing. One path leads to potential, the other to the bin. A first time play can reveal quirks and kinks that promise an interesting second or third or fourth and beyond plays; exploration and indulgence. It can equally reveal a design you never wish to revisit. On today’s episode - two board games. Arcs and Salton Sea. A remix of space board games and a trudge through the bleak world of mining lithium. Each a representative of both polar opposites of first impressions.

Articles and websites discussed in the episode can be found here:

Vote for your favourite podcast in the BGG Awards: https://boardgamegeek.com/geekawards/boardgame

From Wingspan to Wyrmspan: An Accesibility Journey - https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/157687/from-wingspan-to-wyrmspan-an-accessibility-journey

Rolling with Two: Wyrmspan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifMREbPv1Zk

Colorbling Games - https://colorblindgames.com/

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

1:46 Intro

2:49 Flavor Text

9:13 Salton Sea

41:46 Weight vs Subject

45:02 Arcs

1:15:03 Outro

7th Citadel, Wyrmspan

This episode we only cover two games, but we had so much to say it ended up being a full length episode anyway. Which isn’t a surprise really when you end up with two follow ups for two massively succesful games. It’s the follow-up episode! And if you strain your thinking really hard, you could even argue that this very episode is a follow up to previous episodes, and thus thematically represents the games themselves. It’s nice when things like that line up perfectly. Please enjoy our chatter on 7th Citadel (sequel to 7th Continent) and Wyrmspan (sequel to Wingspan).

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

0:38 Intro

2:44 7th Citadel

34:15 Wyrmspan

Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze, Witchcraft!, Revive

“What’s good?” you might ask me. Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. Just board games. Three specific board games that are, in fact, good and COINCIDENTALLY are all featured on this episode of Talk Cardboard. What a treat! A threefer. A co-op boss battler that’s good, a solo deck-builder that’s good and, wait for it, a EUROGAME that is very good! It’s good games vibes only. Enjoy!

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0:00 Cold Open

2:00 Intro

3:17 Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze

22:08 Witchcraft!

38:41 Revive

Age of Innovation, Raising Robots, Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation

A remake, a new take and an expansion walk into a bar. The barman says, “what’ll it be?” They all reply “something fresh.”

Was that too mean? I think that was too mean, especially since at least (and also at most) two of the games discussed in this episode are pretty great. And one of them is okay. We revisit the classic Terra Mystica in it’s new more thematically demure incarnation, we explore how Raising Robots riffs on Wingspan and Efka finally gets to play the expansion to his favourite game of all time - Sidereal Confluence. Let me tell you folks - it’s been bifurcated.

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0:00 Cold Open

2:48 Intro

3:43 Age of Innovation: A Terra Mystica Game

33:22 Raising Robots

53:23 Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation

Dune: War for Arrakis, Daybreak, Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

More and more board games are adopting eco themes! Whether it’s Daybreak and it’s simulation of climate change or Dune: War for Arrakis and Dune’s enviromental themes and… uh… one or two plastic miniatures or Ticket to Ride Legacy and… um… all the railroad constru…. You know what nevermind, welcome to board games! It’s board games everyone, aren’t they good? So good those board games. Are they good? It depends on which one it is. And thus enters the board game reviews. They’re here. Enjoy it.

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On to the timestamps:

00:00 Cold Open

1:27 Intro

2:30 Audience Correspondence: Green Appreciation

6:08 Dune: War for Arrakis

38:26 Daybreak

59:07 Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

Dune: Imperium - Uprising, Most Anticipated 2024

Can you believe it’s been a whole year of Talk Cardboard? Incredible! What’s a better way to celebrate the end of the year than by revisiting where we began? On the very first episode Efka talked about his most anticipated games for 2023, so today we’ll take a look at how those panned out and also take a peek at his most anticipated games for 2024.

Plus we’ll talk about Dune: Imperium - Uprising, Efka’s game of the year and share some of Elaine’s impressions of it. Finally, we saved something a little special for the end of the episode, but you’ll have to listen to find out what that is.

Thanks for sticking with us for a whole year! Here’s to another one.

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On to the timestamps:

2:08 Audience Correspondence - Contentification (for the last time)

3:35 The Ones that Got Away

20:47 Dune: Imperium - Uprising

44:09 Most Anticipated 2023 Revisited

54:15 Most Anticipated 2024

Sail, Trolls and Princesses, Evacuation

Winter months are here and a deep chill is setting over the world. A chill that can represent only one thing - Elaine and Efka’s disappointing week of board games. That’s right, it’s one of those episodes - where no one game is a standout and all of them feel like they’re missing just a little warmth. So grab a cup of hot cocoa and settle in for a grumpy cast of some grumpy cardboard talk.

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On to the timestamps:

2:08 Audience Correspondence - Contentification (for the last time)

8:16 Sail

32:23 Thank you to Mark from So Very Wrong About Games ( https://www.sowronggames.com/ )

37:46 Trolls and Princesses

55:45 Evacuation

Rob Daviau Talks Legacy, Empire's End, Ready Set Bet, Mind Space

It’s a new episode of the Talk Cardboard podcast and I feel great! Rejuvenated even because today’s games are light, breezy, quirky and fun. And what’s a breezier topic than the collapse of an empire? Just the thought of that warmed something inside of me, like a cozy blanket gently touching the fireplace and setting aflame. If you too would like to partake in some famine, pestilence, war, etc. you might want to give Empire’s End a spin. And if that wasn’t cozy enough, how about some real time horse gambling? Honestly, all that cozyness put my brain in a twist. Thankfully, we’re also covering Mind Space.

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On to the timestamps:

1:16 Audience Correspondence - Singapore 1819

3:33 Empire's End

13:17 Audience Recommendations

14:49 Ready Set Bet

26:06 Rob Daviau Talks Legacy Games

45:00 Mind Space

56:40 Audience Correspondence - All Time Favourites

Earthborne Rangers, Forest Shuffle, Planta Nubo, Sonny Liew and 1819: Singapore

Every year in board games there’s a new fad. Legacy, polyominoes, roll and writes and trick takers. This year’s fad seems to be less genre based and more societally concious. Here at NPI every week we encounter more and more board games that reduce their use of wasteful material such as plastics. On this episode alone two of the three games discussed are 100% recyclable (if you ignore the stickers that hold the lid on the box). And the third one is themed around enviromental issues. How amazing is that?

But on top of that, they’re really interesting games in their own right. Honestly, this feels like a celebration.

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On to the timestamps:

1:43 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part One

3:51 Earthborne Rangers

27:52 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part Two

36:32 Forest Shuffle

59:10 Sonny Liew and the Two Board Games Called 1819: Singapore

1:25:31 Planta Nubo

1:42:06 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part Three

Kinfire Chronicles: Night's Fall, Fit to Print, Vindication

Tell me something, which other board game podcast episode can claim to contain the entire gamut of board games in one episode? Antropomorphic animals? Check. Weirdly themed euro? Check. Fantasy campaign game? Check. Real time? Check. Randomness? Check. Strategy, tactics, abstractification? Check check and check.

In this episode we’ll take a long overdue look at Vindication, a game where you gather cubes to kill monsters, Fit to Print, a cutesy real time newspaper assembly simulator and Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall, a fantasy campaign game that signals the arrival of everyone’s most dreaded season - Campaignmass.

Find the video we mention in the discussion on contentification right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMqtgN82fUY

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On to the timestamps:

2:48 Fit to Print

29:07 Audience Correspondence: Board Game Fan Fic Trivia

31:48 Vindication

46:51 A Discussion on Contentification

59:47 Kinfire Chronicles: Night's Fall

Kieron Gillen, Great Western Trail: New Zealand, Schadenfreude, Freelancers

Are games even real? According to Kieron Gillen, they certainly bleed into reality and reality bleeds into them. According to Great Western Trail, New Zealand isn’t even real. So who’s to say?

On this episode of Talk Cardboard we review Schadenfreude, the little trick taking game that could, chat about the absurd comedy that is Freelancers, take an early peak at Great Western Trail: New Zealand and chat to Kieron Gillen about his comic book and role-playing game DIE.

For more on DIE, here’s the links provided at the end of the interview in clickable form:

Kieron’s Newsletter - https://buttondown.email/KieronGillen

DIE RPG - https://diecomic.com/rpg/

Rowan, Rook and Decard - https://rowanrookanddecard.com/

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On to the timestamps:

00:59 Intro and Audience Correspondence - Review copies

6:32 Schadenfreude

19:31 Freelancers: A Crossroads Game

37:07 Audience Correspondence - Dinged up Cards

39:56 Interview: Kieron Gillen and DIE

1:07:53 Great Western Trail: New Zealand

Earth, Lacuna, Voidfall

From Earth to Space to the abstract void in between, this episode has a little bit of everything, including a game that made Efka feel like he had to give a rating. That’s right, a bona fide numerical value asigned to the perceived quality of a game. What will they think of next? Verdicts? Comparisons? In the future, anything will be possible.

On this episode of Talk Cardboard we review the many many card game Earth, the impossibly adorable abstract two player only game Lacuna and share our first impressions of the heaviest euro game of the year - Voidfall.

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On to the timestamps:

0:00 Review Copies and NPI

6:13 Earth

25:20 Audience Correspondence - Game Wear and Tear

31:01 Lacuna

45:21 Audience Correspondence - Aeon’s End

52:16 Voidfall First Impressions

Sustainable Board Games with Andrew Navaro, Dorfromantik: The Board Game, Ancient Realm, Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold

What if we don’t make games that last forever is the question Andrew Navaro, head of Earthborne Games is asking us. His answer is Earthborne Rangers, a game that will perish, but not before it lands on our doorsteps.

On this episode of Talk Cardboard we interview Andrew about Earthborne Rangers and his vision for a more eco-responsible board game scene.

We’ve also got reviews for Spiel des Jahres winner Dorfromantik: The Board game that’s all about a chill time laying tiles, Ancient Realms - a little game that fits in your pocket from the designer of Sprawlopolis and Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold - big legacy campaign deckbuilder that’s more ambitious than it is impressive.

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On to the timestamps:

5:16 Audience Correspondence: Obsession

13:59 Ancient Realm

28:02 Dorfromantik: The Board Game

39:53 Audience Correspondence: NPI Directed by

43:43 Sustainable Board Games with Andrew Navaro (Interview)

1:15:09 Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold

1:40:46 Audience Correspondence: Rulebook Assessment

Trailblazers, Isle of Trains: All Aboard, Beast

Everybody always says, “Talk Cardboard is paving the way in board game podcasting!” and this episode it’s certainly true. We have biking, hiking, kayaking, train-ing, and hunting (along routes), which is the most path in any board game podcast ever.

On today’s episode we’ll cover the cute but deadly Trailblazers, the old fashioned but sleek Isle of Trains and the gorgeous, voluptuous and strange Beast.

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded

On to the timestamps:

6:12 Audience Correspondence: Methods of Teaching Games

9:32 Trailblazers

29:53 Isle of Trains: All Aboard

47:11 Audience Correspondence: Imperial Onions

52:26 Beast

1:17:15 Elaine hates Hidden Movement games

Undaunted: Battle of Britain, Hamlet, Autobahn

Sometimes you sit down to play some board games for a future podcast episode and you find yourself not particularly digging any of them? It happens. It’s a thing. It could happen to you. This week it happened to us.

Whilst we weren’t especially jazzed about Hamlet, didn’t find Undaunted: Battle of Britain worth the trouble and at least one of us really didn’t get on with Autobahn, that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t like them either. Or maybe you’ve already played them and disagree - dear listener, you should write in.

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded

On to the timestamps:

5:55 Audience Correspondence: Past Games

10:21 Undaunted: Battle of Britain

33:44 Hamlet

46:17 Audience Correspondence: How do you learn games?

51:07 Autobahn

Next Station: London, Skymines, Maquis

Welcome back, welcome back, it’s like we’ve never been gone. After a brief interruption Talk Cardboard returns to your ears and consequentially to your brains to deliver all the board game that it needs.

Today’s brain ticklers include drawing a map of the London Underground in Next Station: London, a dose of helium 3 in Skymines and some good ol’ fashioned resisting in Maquis

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

On to the timestamps:

2:12 Audience Correspondence – Crispy Pancake Foods

10:37 Next Station: London

28:39 Skymines

58:36 Audience Correspondence - Board Game Canon

1:08:26 Maquis

Distilled, Worldbreakers, Res Arcana

Every Talk Cardboard episode is a journey, and in this episode that journey is competitive card games, competitive card games with engine building and destroying the engine with hard alcohol (not necessarily in that order).

Today we’re taking a look at Distilled, an aspirational game about being a small time distillerer in a world of big alcohol, Wordlbreakers: Advent of the Khanate, a magic the gatheringalike card battler that’s punching very far above its weight and Res Arcana, a distillation (no pun intended) of Race for the Galaxy style card engine building with the world’s smolest deck.

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

On to the timestamps:

4:14 Audience Correspondence – Past Games

23:13 Res Arcana

42:25 Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate

1:03:05 Distilled

You can find the study on game component rolling probabilities here https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/12119/components-dice-tossing-meeples-houses

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Horseless Carriage, Rolling Heights, Ginkgopolis

Building building building. If you like building (or buildings) you will enjoy at least one of the board games covered in this episode in which you build buildings, buildings and also cars. How's that for a build up? No? Let me construct some clarity.

Today we'll talk about Ginkgopolis, a tile laying city building classic hidden gem, Rolling Heights, a city building game where you roll meeples and Horseless Carriage, a car constructing game from famed board game publisher Splotter Spellen. And finally, a real treat, an interview with famed speculative fiction author Adrian Tchaikovsky who reveals which modern board games he wrote into his novels.

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

On to the timestamps:

2:49 Audience Correspondence – Past Games

18:04 Ginkgopolis

34:48 Rolling Heights

52:40 Interview – Adrian Tchaikovsky

1:08:09 This is the timestamp to avoid the spoilery question (it will make sense when you listen)

1:15:53 Horseless Carriage

Episode Thirty - Mindwright

Hey everybody - it’s a calculator party! Bring out your Casios and we’ll get down with spreadsheets like it’s 1799. On today’s podcast not only do we tackle the mini-beast that is Arkwright: The Card Game but give an early scoop on Mind MGMT and a brief glance at Murano: Light Masters.

Timestamps:

• Murano: Light Masters - ( 03:04 )

• Arkwright: The Card Game - ( 20:00 )

• Mind MGMT - ( 37:35 )

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a comment below.

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Episode Twenty Nine - Dinosaur Building Blocks

Three board games enter, one board game leaves. But only having endured the harsh nature of Elaine’s and Efka’s critique. That’s the No Pun Included podcast and it’s back once again for the twenty ninth time.

Timestamps:

• Dinosaur World - ( 06:50 )

• Exit Advent Calendar: Mystery of the Ice Cave (no spoilers) - ( 28:31 )

• Magnate: The First City - ( 41:16 )

If you enjoyed this episode, leave a comment below. Unlike our YouTube videos, there’s no other sensible way for you to have a nice chat with us, or maybe even some other listeners. Who knows? You might even find a friend.

You can also subscribe to the Podcast via:
RSS, iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, and also searchable on Google Podcasts