Sometimes the title of a review writes itself, right? I just got back from a cabin con with some friends. Full disclosure: I just drove up for one day, not the whole weekend, as I had some other plans on the Sunday. But no matter, the joys of getting gamers together away from the hustle and bustle of life for a weekend (or even for one day) are innumerable. Cabin cons are perfect places to play those big, meaty euros or thematic games that might not get played on a regular game night. So what if Too Many Bones takes three hours — time is of no moment at a friend con. The only downside is for t ..read more

If I have to explain the theme of Sherlock 13 to anyone in the United States or Britain, I’ll close this blog tomorrow. There are very few IPs as ubiquitous as the legend of Sherlock Holmes. In a separate blog, I need to list out my top five incarnations of Sherlock amidst the steady stream of television, movies, books, and games that have come out, for sure. The allure of Sherlock to me is the art of deduction, where Sherlock and his pals take what seems like ordinary facts that have no connection yet can eliminate those improbable elements that lead to only one conclusion. As a kid, we enjoy ..read more

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-fvxmr-15c65e3 Gumbo Live! is back with a new season! In our fifth show, we visit with the krewe from Meeple Town, Dean and Deron, long-time friends and now long-time podcasters about board games! We chat about the transition to Deron as the new co-host, with a surprise visit(?), and then get right to the games, games, games! Floe The Magnificent Xylotar Exhibition: 20th Century Mind Space Finally, we played a long time favorite game from Steve “The Name Father” called Meeple Town Building Committee or something like that. BJ didn’t quite get the rules ..read more

Wingspan was one of our favorite games when it came out in 2019. In fact, if I ever re-visit the Fleur de Lis awards from 2019, I would probably move Wingspan up in place of Reavers of Midgard, because I have definitely played more of Wingspan since then. Throw in a great conversation with Elizabeth Hargrave on Gumbo Live! (back before we upgraded from pretty low res cameras!), a bunch of interesting expansions so far, and my wife and I were hooked for a while: As good as Wingspan has been, and as gorgeous as the artwork and production turned out to be, I was fairly ambivalent about the theme ..read more

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-r2dcv-15ab4b1 Gumbo Live! is back with a new season! In our fourth show, we visit with Ben Hammer about his brand new game coming soon to Kickstarter WE ALL TAKE FROM THE RIVER. It’s a resource management and social deduction game that also gives insight to keeping a river and its estuary clean from pollution. It’s Ben’s first design, and he not only designed the game but did all the artwork himself.  We also talked about a spicy hot game that Steve played recently called SKOVENTYR, a one to four person game designed by famed automa designer Morten M ..read more

When I played the OG Cascadia the first time, I remember thinking that there was nothing new in the game, but that the combination of familiar mechanisms was done so well that it was a keeper in my collection. I knew it would be challenging for experienced games, easily taught, and even more easily expandable. (I was right — check out our review of Cascadia: Landmarks for proof). Looking back, it’s no surprise that the Spiel des Jahres jury felt the same. So when the team at Flatout Games reached out to us about a new flip-and-roll-and-write version of Cascadia, I knew we had to try it. It’s ..read more

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-buzed-15a6343 BJ and Jeremy played Barcelona and Rats of Wistar on a recent Twitch Tuesdays in the Gumbo Pot, but before the euro game goodness started, they took a look at two projects on Kickstarter right now for some first impressions:   Logic & Lore from Weird Giraffe Games, a two player card game all about deducing the cards already in your tableau; and Cascadia: Rolling Hills from Flatout Games, a multiplayer flip-and-roll-and-write game from Randy Flynn! You can check out the Cascadia Rolling Hills crowdfunding project right here: https ..read more

I broke up with area majority games a long time ago. “It’s not you, area majority games, it’s me”. At least, that’s what I imagined saying when I made the decision. I’m not opposed to a once-in-a-blood-moon visit if someone picks some two hour dudes on a map game, but I’d much rather play a beige game focused on some ancient city’s history. I know one of the reasons that I’m not a fan. I don’t like the fact that I never seem to see the optimal moves in each game. Or, it might be that those types of games are all about Finishing First. I don’t see players having any joy by improving their lot e ..read more

Today’s game got on my radar for two reasons: interesting artwork and an unusual theme. I’ll admit to not knowing very much else about Ptolemy before I played it, but just based on those two things, I knew I wanted to try it. (Yes, I am a very shallow gamer sometimes.) Thanks to Nick from Austin, I was able to wrangle a copy. Ptolemy is a two player card game designed by Geonil and published by Schemers from Korea. You may know Geonil from a 2021 game called Jekyll vs Hyde that has gotten a lot of good buzz here in the States. Unlike Geonil’s card playing version of Victorian battlers, Ptolemy ..read more

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-mvxch-1598c18 Gumbo Live! is back with a new season! Our third show was a big thrill — thanks to our friend Carla Kopp at Weird Giraffe Games, we were able to chat with Jason Hager & Darren Reckner (a/k/a “The Durdles”) about their new game on Kickstarter right now called LOGIC & LORE!  We also talked about some spicy hot games we’ve played recently, including: Rumble Nation Sweet & Spicy a/k/a Spicy card game Unmatched Adventures: Tales To Amaze (which they designed!)  Finally, we played THE WHO SAID DAT game, Cincy style, with Th ..read more