The Ascent of Board Games

Welcome to February! In honor of the shortest month, we've created a "lightning round" on the topic of our favorite word games. We hope you find some new favorites, and/or tell us about some of your current ones!
Referenced in this episode:
Vincent Price (yes, that Vincent Price) does a commercial for a boxed version of Hangman (yes, that Hangman).
Another vintage commercial for an obscure yet cool-looking word game called RPM.
What does Scrabble look like in Arabic? Like this.
Several computer-based word games, including:
The obligatory Wordle
Its malevolent cousin, Absurdle
The Guess Word! Forehead app 
Babble Royale (a/k/a Scrabble crossed with PUBG)
As usual, we'd love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next, or maybe give us an iTunes review. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter - however you prefer to share your opinions with us. As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments. Happy new year, and stay safe out there!
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/
And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a 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!

As promised, here's a little bit of bonus content from our 2021 wrap-up episode, with a little commentary on the games we DIDN'T discuss in that episode, as well as a look ahead games we're especially looking forward to in 2022.
Included in this mini-sode:
We discuss Jayson's latest obsession, which is now becoming a board game, plus another game he can play with those models if the official one doesn't turn out well.
Joe tells us about his plan for a Kingdom Death: Monster RPG, run in Shadow of the Demon Lord, with a world built in The Quiet Year, as inspired by the latest season of The Adventure Zone. (As usual with KD:M. we may have gotten a little punchy here.)
Frank is looking forward to this game so much, he totally forgot its name.
Blah blah blah website blah blah Facebook blah blah Twitter blah blah blah iTunes review. 
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a 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! We mean it this time...no, really...please?
This month we're taking a look back at the good times in 2021 - yes, there were some - as we discuss our favorite games from the past year. We also have some additional material on the games we DIDN'T discuss, as well as a look ahead to 2022, but Your Humble Editor is tired enough that that's going to be released as a special bonus episode in a week or so in order to keep THIS episode from being any later than it already is.
Included in this episode:
"Hey, guys...that's not how frogs work." (Well, Mike, the frogs aren't the only thing that's a mile high...) Possibly the weirdest game we've discussed all year, and Frank didn't even pick it! 
Joe confuses an episode of this podcast - which he was in - with Shut Up & Sit Down. (If only their subscribers and sponsors would do the same!)
Mike's insane Initiative journal (WARNING - spoilers, and an F-bomb, within!)
Did you just say "Slurp Gerblers"? (Yes, and we wish they hadn't.)
What top game is described as having "Frenchiness"? (It's totally a word, shut up.)
We TOTALLY all remembered the excellent Dune Imperium. 
Plus a few links to things that are mentioned in this episode, but exist outside it:
A link to watch Mike play the Arkham Horror LCG every Sunday, and other games on other days. 
The iOS Aeon's End turn order app Jayson recommends
A place where you can give us an iTunes review (hint, hint!)
As usual, we'd love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter - however you prefer to share your opinions with us. As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments. Happy new year, and stay safe out there!
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/
And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a 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 winter holiday(s) of your choice! If you're having trouble fitting everything you need to do this month into your calendar, listening to our discussion of spatial arrangement games...well, probably won't help, but hopefully it'll at least be entertaining, and might even provide some last-minute gift ideas.
We ask and answer many questions in this episode:
How many times (and how many ways) can we say "tetrominos" in one episode? (With "cromulent" coming a close second.)
What game does Joe describe as "like you're making a stained glass window of anger and rage"?
"Mommy, where do meeples come from?"
How do you build a city out of forced labor?
Remember when the boxes of the Alea Big Box series of games were considered big?
What's the board game equivalent of a Metroidvania? (Whatever it is, Frank threatened to knife us over it.)
What does it take to get Frank to say something nice about Asmodee?
And here are some pictures that might help supplement our audio-only descriptions of these games:
Schmidt Spiele's Acquire, which does NOT feature a corporation named "LIQUOR".
The souped-up elevated version of Axiom, a/k/a "Escher Chess".
Explosion! at the Chit Factory.
The obligatory link to CollegeHumor's classic Tetris God video.
One side of La Boca.
Bärenpark, now with monorails!
All this, plus Mike's dog Samus crashing the ending...more or less literally. Enjoy!
As usual, we'd love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter - however you prefer to share your opinions with us. And if you have the time to leave us a review on iTunes, we'd be very grateful indeed!
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments!
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/
And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a 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!

Hi folks! We're back to talk about the cumbersomely-named "simultaneous selection games," which covers everything from Rock-Paper-Scissors (and its ancient antecedents) to Gloomhaven. Your Humble Editor had a pretty rough month, so the audio on this one may likewise be a bit rougher than usual, but hopefully it's not too bad. Thanks for understanding!
Featured in this episode:
Mike tries to explain the difference between Rock-Paper-Scissors and Diplomacy, and the rest of us do NOT get it.
Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock did NOT originate on The Big Bang Theory, thankyouverymuch.
We learn about a very colorful remake of the Star Fleet Battle Manual.
We discuss some of the many, many Lost Worlds gamebooks(and related series) that were released in the 1980s. (And that page isn't even an exhaustive list...)
Mike introduces a game about which literally everything he remembers is wrong.
Joe practices for a future in which he testifies before Congress.
As usual, we'd love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter - however you prefer to share your opinions with us. And if you have the time to leave us a review on iTunes, we'd be very grateful indeed!
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments!
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/
And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a 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!

For a lot of us, the past year and a half has been kind of a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey blur. To celebrate (?) that, here's an episode on some games that use time travel as a mechanic, not just a theme. Sadly, Jayson was not able to join us for recording in this particular timeline, but we talk about him anyway. Learn what game Frank thought was so bad, he destroyed it "for the good of the world." Some visuals we mention in our audio show include:
Time Tripper, which started out with some very plain components but has gotten a lot of very nice fan-made upgrades.
The board for Timeline, which is...let's say "rustic."
THE CONE OF TIME.
And given that we're enormous nerds, we talk about a lot of time travel stuff other than board games, including:
Movies (like Timecrimes, Primer, Boss Level, and the obligatory Back to the Future)
Video games (like the Zero Escape series, 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel, and Her Story - which is not about time travel, but still relevant). Speaking of video games, have you checked out Mike's Time Travel Tuesdays series on his Twitch channel?
And even a novel!
Whether in the past or the future - or even RIGHT NOW - we'd love to have you visit our website and let us know what episodes we should record next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter - however you prefer to share your opinions with us. And if you have the time - time, get it? - to leave us a review on iTunes, we'd be very grateful indeed!
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments!
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/
And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a 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!

Hey, you know how we mostly talk about games we like on this show? Well, here's a change of pace for you! That's right, here's an entire episode on games we think you shouldn't play - either because they're unplayable as written, wracked by production errors, or just really, really bad. Don't give up hope, though - we do have recommendations for better games that we think you should play instead. Listen along as:
None of us can remember which of Fast Food Franchise and Food Chain Magnate is which.
Mike is very annoyed that he didn't get to play one of the games you should never play.
The ritual of Throwing A Die, and its origin in...[checks notes]...boring goat-fondling? 
When the nicest thing you can say about a game company is, "They make really nice bags."
Was this Kickstarter a troll, a money-laundering scheme, or just a series of really terrible ideas? The world may never know.
And, of course, we have plenty of other random links and stuff!
A fascinating video about Tank (Turn) Tactics, a game deemed too divisive to release, as well as a longer one from the Game Developers Conference.
Jerrycans are amazing.
This game doesn't work at all? Dice Tower approved!
Coma Ward's (truncated) retrospective design blog.
The Dragon's Tomb teaches Jenga!
We'd love to have you visit our website and let us know what episodes we should record next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter - however you prefer to share your opinions with us. And if you have the time to leave us a review on iTunes, we'd be very grateful indeed!
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments!
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/
And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a 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!

Hi! It's us again! (Well, "us" minus Mike but plus Sandi.) This month we're talking about tech trees and skill trees, two similar sets of mechanics that Frank has been a little obsessed with lately. There are lots of 4X games and lots of dungeon-crawling campaign games, plus a few others we snuck in here and there. Plus more opinions, sass, and stories about Sandi's crossbow!
We've added a bunch of new options to our Upcoming Episodes poll at our website, so please swing by and place your votes! Of, of course, you could comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter - whatever your little social media heart desires. And if it desires to leave us a review on iTunes, our little social media hearts would be very grateful indeed!
By the way, this is the Sidereal Confluence card Joe is describing at around 25:05, and this is the original (and obviously much clearer) version.
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments!
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/
And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a 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!