The Ascent of Board Games

Okay, now I'm awake enough to write some proper show notes. Episode 11 is all about "4X" games - games in which you Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate on your way to victory. The term originated in the world of computer games, but there are enough similarities - and enough interest on our poll (which you should totally go fill out if you haven't already) that we decided to do an episode on the subject. Join us as Mike experiences a temporal crisis, Brian totally fails to make the podcast more family-friendly, and Joe recaps the biggest rule-reading failure ever.
A few relevant pictures:
The classic (?) day-glo figures from the original Nexus Ops
A look at a Star Trek Ascendancy map to supplement our cryptic verbal description
Thank you for listening! As always, reviews on iTunes are a huge help for us, especially if there's a text review along with the rating. And if you'd like to interact with us, you can do so at any or all of the following:
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

It's time for Episode 10 of The Ascent of Board Games! But what could our latest topic be? Well, here are a few clues so you can deduce what the episode is about...
Steve Allen discussing his years on What's My Line?...
...and a clip from the show in which he encounters his long-time nemesis
A great overview (with puzzles!) of the legendary Martin Gardner's column in Scientific American
A board game cover that is definitely a product of its time
A set of files to help you investigate the mysterious terrorist group called Black Vienna
And a game board that hurts Jayson's brain
As always, thank you for listening. If you enjoy what we're doing, we'd also really appreciate a review on iTunes - they are a great way for the show to grow!
If you have an opinion you'd like to share with us - and we suspect you do - please drop us a line via any (or all!) of the following methods:
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Phew - we finally made it! Many apologies for the delay in this month's episode, which was primarily due to two factors:
1. It was (and is) our longest episode to date.
2. Brian and Mike were both suffering from colds, and every time they inhaled, it sounded like Darth Vader had joined the show. (We did our best to edit all of that out - sorry if any of our death-rattles slipped through.)
We promise to be back on schedule next month!
This episode, we strap on our broadswords and delve into the torchlit world of dungeon crawl games. Among other things, we learn that the podcast's Joe quotient is rather higher than previously believed...
Some relevant links that might be of interest to you: 
Ye Olde Inn, a spectacularly comprehensive online Heroquest resource
An instructional video for Dragon Strike, which is also spectacular...in an entirely different way
An occasionally dry, but still interesting post-mortem discussion of the process of making Mansions of Madness into an app-enabled board game
As always, we really appreciate your support (and patience). If you enjoy what we're doing, we'd also really appreciate a review on iTunes - they are a great way for the show to grow!
If you have an opinion you'd like to share with us - and we suspect you do - please drop us a line via any (or all!) of the following methods:
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Welcome back! This month's episode isn't about a game mechanic as such; it's about the weird and wonderful gadgets and one-of-a-kind crazy ideas that make some of our most memorable games...well, memorable. (We promise we'll be back to a more evolutionary topic next month.) You'll definitely want to visit our Instagram and/or Facebook pages to check out the photos and videos for this episode, since there are a number of gadgets that are really tough to explain in an audio-only medium. Listen on as we:
...display a truly staggering ignorance of how copyright law works!
...finally talk about a Catan game, after only 8 months!
...giggle like twelve-year-olds at the names of some problematic Keyforge decks!
...refer vaguely to a really cool gimmick that we can't actually talk about now because spoilers!
A few related items you might want to check out:
 
An online Avalanche emulator
A truly epic promotional photo for Nessie Hunt
A brief time-lapse video that manages to make Tamsk look even more stressful than it is
 
If you would be kind enough to give us a review on iTunes, we'd really appreciate the support!
If you have an opinion you'd like to share with us - and we suspect you do - please drop us a line via any (or all!) of the following methods:
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Happy Valentine's Day! This (bonus) episode is pretty much the opposite of the last one, as we go on an old-fashioned, romantic, and very silly playthrough of Barbara Cartland: A Romance Boardgame. This is a paragraph game based, as you might guess, on a few of Barbara Cartland's 700+ (!) romance novels. Since it's a paragraph game, there's a lot of reading and, well, none of us are actors or even audiobook narrators, so be prepared for a few rough patches. In our defense, the paragraphs in the game had a...lot...of ellipses in weird...places.
Note: This game was published almost 35 years years ago, based on novels that were published 40+ years ago and set 100-200 years ago. The text contains some cultural insensitivity, a LOT of gender stereotyping, and at least one scene that today would be classified as sexual assault. The books and the game are products of their respective times, and while we can laugh about the old-fashioned ideas now, that certainly doesn't mean we approve or support that kind of behavior when there are any real people involved. We hope you understand.
In case you're interested in checking out the source material (but beware spoilers!), the three stories we played through are based on:
The Dangerous Dandy - Frank and Mike's storyline
The Duchess Disappeared - Brian's storyline
The Punishment of a Vixen - Jayson and Joe's storyline
Also, here's the iTunes link for Barbara Cartland's album of love songs, and a recipe for Harira. (It'll make sense - well, maybe a tiny bit more sense - once you've heard the episode.)
We'd love it if you'd give us a review on iTunes - it's one of the very best ways for us to find new listeners.
If you have an opinion you'd like to share with us - and we know you do - please drop us a line via any (or all!) of the following methods:
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

I'm not gonna lie...this episode gets a little "inside baseball," as we delve (greedily and too deep) into the topic of what, exactly, constitutes an asymmetrical game. Hopefully we're at least able to keep it amusing along the way! If this one's not to your liking, stay tuned, as our Valentine's Day bonus episode should be a lot more light-hearted (not to say silly). Meanwhile, in this episode:
Joe goes on an angry rant about a game he claims is good!
Brian misquotes Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart!
We finally talk about Gloomhaven!
And, most shockingly, people have their minds changed on a topic via rational discussion like civilized human beings!
If you would be kind enough to give us a review on iTunes, we'd really appreciate the support.
If you have an opinion you'd like to share with us - and we know you do - please drop us a line via any (or all!) of the following methods:
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Happy New Year! In Episode 6, we talk about paragraph games, a topic near and dear to several of our hearts. Learn about the game that Frank thinks is better than Star Saga (gasp!), the game that might be Joe's favorite of all time, and the game that Mike calls "the Dark Souls of paragraph games."
If you're interested in playing (British) Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series on your PC or phone, turn to page 17.
If you want to play the classic Lone Wolf choose-your-own-adventure books online for free, turn to page 6.
If you want to hear Joe butcher several Polish game designers' names - we're all very, very sorry - fast-forward to 1:01:10.
If you'd like to see Frank's beautifully-painted Stuffed Fables miniatures, turn to page 12.
If you would be kind enough to give us a review on iTunes, turn to page 42.
If you have an opinion you'd like to share with us - and we know you do - please drop us a line via any (or all!) of the following methods:
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Merry Christmas (or other seasonal holiday(s) as appropriate to your personal preferences and/or belief system)! Our regularly-scheduled episode will be posted as usual on January 1, but we wanted to talk about our thoughts on The Year That Was, so you get a special bonus episode. (You're welcome.) We discuss our Top 5 game-related things of the year (which may be games, game-related events, game trends, or anything else that we can somehow tangentially connect to board games), our biggest disappointments of the year, and what we're looking forward to in 2019.
For some more details about some of the stuff we discuss in this episode:
Here are Part 1 and Part 2 of Dinesh Vatvani's interesting data analysis of BGG game ratings.
The epic Eldritch Horror case our friend Sean got from Lyris Laser.
You thought Jayson was kidding about his Transformers collection? Not even a little bit.
Mike's still streaming his video game adventures. Check him out on Twitch.
It's been a great year for us - thank you for listening! (Also, if Frank has talked YOU into buying something during this podcast, please let us know so we can update his score appropriately.) If you have anything you'd like to ask, share, or tell us about, please drop us a line via any (or all!) of the following methods:
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com/
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
We'll talk to you again next year!