This week we talk about the game Aleph Null by Tony Boydell and published by Capstone Games.  The art is by Alex Leigh and music by Nicholas O'Neill.  I did not include music as I mentioned I might do, primarily because I didn't see it available on-line for public consumption.

Anway, this game is about summoning the demon Baphomet, the Sabbat Goat.  It's a bit creepy and would be creepier if not for the excellent and light-hearted art by Alex Leigh.  Either way, it's a really fun game in which you are trying to cast a ritual to summon Baphomet by playing cards from your hand and slowly using them up to do magics with the hope of finally completing the ritual as expected.

• Aleph Null (BGG, Capstone Games)

This week Julius and and daughter join this week to talk about the very lovely Wild Gardens.  This is a game about foraging for natural ingredients to put into your delicious recipes. It's a beautiful game that reminds of Studio Ghibli animations - think Totoro. 

• Wild Gardens (BGG, Rose Gauntlet)

This week Julius and I are back with a Popular Mechanics episode.  The mechanic this time around is "animals".  That is, we are talking about games with animals in them and feature animals.

Oh, we also resolve a contest about 6 minutes in.  If you have entered any recent contests on this show, listen in to see if you won.

Anyway, animals!  These are games that feature animals in the theme!

• 05:21 Arkham Horror: Barkham Horror (BGG, FFG)
• 06:39 Contest resolution
• 10:23 Agricola (BGG)
• 12:20 New York Zoo (BGG)
• 15:22 Food Chain Island (BGG, ButtonShy)
• 19:11 Bullfrogs (BGG)
• 22:18 The Animals of Baker Street (BGG)
• 23:47 Honey Buzz (BGG)
• 26:03 Defenders of the Wild (BGG)
• 27:40 Nekojima (BGG)

This episode is a bit different from the typical episode and that it doesn't really talk bout a game.  This week I have the pleasure of talking to Al Leduc, the designer of Yukon Airways.  Julius and I discussed this game two weeks ago.  I found the designer notes in the beginning of the rulebook really interested so I invited the designer to come talk about the back story of the game.  I found the conversation interesting because it gives some perspective to theme of the game and, hopefully, makes the game more interesting for those folks that are playing it.

• I think this is the Taco Bar at the confluence of the Wind River and the Peel River in the Yukon. (Google Maps)

This week Julius and I look at solo drafting games along with the helping, I'm sorry to say, of some barking dogs.  We talk a bit about what is or isn't a drafting game and briefly go over a half dozen or so games worth looking into.  While editing, I realized we completely overlooked a very obvious choice... Gates of Loyang. Darned, darned, darned.  It's an excellent example because the drafting mechanism in solo is much better than the multiplayer drafting.

• 03:45 - Clank! (BGG)
• 04:25 - Cascadia (BGG)
• 05:50 - Nations: The Dice Game (BGG)
• 07:30 - Hostage Negotiator (BGG)
• 12:55 - Canvas (BGG)
• 14:45 - Mechs vs Minions (BGG)
• 17:00 - PAX (BGG)
• 19:30 - Ilse of Cats (BGG)
• 21:50 - Imperial Settlers (BGG)
• 23:45 - Sylvion (BGG) & Aerion (BGG)
• 26:00 - Suburbia (BGG)
• 29:50 - Lux Aeterna (BGG)

This week Julius introduces us to a game called Yukon Airways by Al Leduc.  In this game, you play a pilot flying around the Yukon Territories and carrying passengers to various locations in a large and sparse region of Canada.  I believe the game is set in the mid-1900s but I'm not entirely sure about that.  Spin it!

This week we talk about a game I've had for years but only finally gotten around to playing it.  It's a game of gladiatorial arena combat for one or two players.  You compete in various arenas around the world in famous sites like El Dorado, Xanadu and Atlantis!  The game brings a large mix of gladiators to play with and is highly tactical.  It's a lot of fun but it's not a perfect game.  Check out what I think...

• Hoplomachus: Origins (BGG, Chip Theory Games)

This week Julius and I popped out an old favorite of ours.  It's Sentinels of the Multiverse, the original edition.  We talk about this unwieldy super-hero game and what we think of it.  How's it aged, considering there is now a second edition out that "fixes many of the problems" with the original. Neither of us have played the new one so we don't have that to taint our opinions!

• Sentinels of the Multiverse (BGG)
• Sentinels of Earth Prime (BGG)

This week Julius brings us another episode with his son.  The talk about the escape room style game Echoes: The Microchip.  This game is part of the Echoes series which includes audio interactions in the game.

Echoes: The Microchip (BGG)

This week Julius and I discuss worker placement games.  Drat, I forgot to write down the games we talked about in order.  I'll have to do that later on when I listen to the episode once it comes out.  If you want an exact, clickable list and you don't see it in the notes in your podcast player, visit 1PlayerPodcast.com and view the episode notes there.

Drat.

• 04:20 Agricola (BGG)
• 05:15 Feast for Odin (BGG)
• 05:55 Nusfjord (BGG)
• 07:10 Parks (BGG)
• 09:20 Caverna Cave vs. Cave (BGG)
• 10:00 Coldwater Crown (BGG)
• 12:40 Paladins of the West Kingdom (BGG)
• 16:40 Steam (BGG)
• 23:10 Kitchen Rush (BGG)
• A few games where mentioned in passing
  • Harbour (BGG)
  • Kanban EV (BGG)
  • Lost Ruins of Arnak (BGG)
  • Maquis (BGG)
  • Robinson Crusoe (BGG)
  • Manhattan Project: Energy Empire (BGG)
• 27:40 Far Space Foundry (BGG)

This week Julius tells us about his smartphone or, really, about his smartphone empire.  Smartphone, Inc. is a game in which you build a multinational smartphone company to rival any Android or iPhone!  Julius tells us all about interesting looking game with so-so art.  At least I think the art is so-so.

Note: This week we suffered some audio issues.  The quality is up to our normal standard but occaisonally the software we use, Zencastr.com, froze and we would have to restart.  I cut out some of that nonsense but you'll still come across some weird cuts.  I used dice rolls to mark those spots.

Unexpectedly, this week Julius tells us about this co-operative Back to the Future game.  Just in case you lived under a rock in the 80s, Back to the Future is the classic sci-fi movie featuring Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd and a Delorian.  Actually, it's based on all three movies in the Franchise.  It being that this is a movie tie-in game, you (or at least I) would expect to be pretty poor.  However, it was published by Ravensburger and they make pretty decent games.  This one sounds pretty darned cool!

• Back to the Future: Dice Through Time (BGG)
• Back to the Future (iMDb)
• Back to the Future Part II (iMDb)
• Back to the Future Part III (iMDb)

I actually only ever saw the first one.  Should I go watch the other two?

Don't be alarmed - this is not the final hour of this podcast!  Actually, we are talking about a game called Arkham Horror: Final Hour from Fantasy Flight Games.  It being an Arkham Horror game, you can pretty much guess what this game is about and like.  If you do, you'll be half right and half wrong.  Thematically, this is pretty much the same game as Arkham Horror or Arkham Horror: The Card Game.  You are running around fighting monsters and cultists while trying to stop some GOO from showing up.  Mechanically speaking, however, you will be surprised.  This game feels and plays very differently from other Arkham Horror games.

• Arkham Horror: Final Hour (BGG, FFG)

This week it's not actually episode 350 but just a filler to let you know things are busy around here.  We'll be back in a few weeks.  In the meantime, don't forget to enter in the Ragemore contest!

This week Julius tells us about a dice placement game called Artemis Project by Grand Gamers Guild.  This is a really nice looking game with some fantastic artwork and great components.  You are trying to colonize one of the moons of Jupiter, Europa, by mining and sailing the seas for stuff.  Check out what we (especially Julius who has played it) think about this game.

Incidentally, there is a real Artemis project by NASA.  It's stated goal is "With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before".  It looks like the goal is to have this done by 2024 with the first unmaned mission in the project landing on the Moon 2022.

• Artemis Project (BGG, Grand Gamers Guild)
• Artemis Program (NASA)

This week Julius and I embark on a new journey of exploring interesting game mechanics.  We start off with multi-use cards.  It's more than which card should I play play.  It's which card should I play and how should I play it?  That mechanic, when done well, adds for interesting choices.

• 03:33 Bruge (BGG)
• 04:00 La Granja (BGG)
• 07:00 Oh My Goods! (BGG)
• 09:00 Lewis and Clark (BGG)
• 11:30 The Bloody Inn (BGG)
• 14:50 Imperial Settlers (BGG)
• 17:20 Gloomhaven (BGG)
• 18:00 Newton (BGG)
• 19:00 Race for the Galaxy (BGG)
• 19:30 Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (BGG)
• 22:30 Batman: The Dark Night Returns (BGG)
• 24:20 Rove (BGG)
• 25:25 Spaceshipped (BGG)

This week we talk about the slasher film game Final Girl by A.J. Porfirio of Van Ryder Games.  This game is built on the foundation of Hostage Negotiator and expands on that system to make a fun but creepy game about trying to survive in a horror movie while a killer is after you.

This is a modular game series in which you need to buy at least two boxes to play, the core box with rules and a Feature Film box with a killer and location to play in.  With multiple Feature Films, you can mix and match killers for more variety in your games.

• Final Girl (BGG, VRG)
• Kickstarter Season 2 late pledge (Gamefound)

This episode is a family affair!  Julius and his son discuss the game Sprint, in which you play as the Turtle trying to race the Hare to the finish line!  This is a co-operative game that can easily be played solo.  Check it out.. is this a game you should get?

I'm starting to feel like I'm trapped in a time vortex as this week Julius tells me about yet another time traveling game.  This time, our crack team of time agents must stop the dastardly Professor Evil from stealing famous works of art from throughout time, lest he locks them in his own private vault for all time.

This is a relatively simple to play co-op game in the general style of Pandemic.  That is, a player does stuff and then bad stuff happens.  This game handles that bad stuff with dice rolls and it seems to work well enough.  Check it out!

• Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time (BGG, Asmodee)

This week Julius and I have a quick chat about Bismarck Solitaire, a book game published by Worthington Games in an effort to quickly and efficiently deal with the global shipping crisis created by the pandemic.  It's a light wargame in which you play as the famous German warship, the Bismarck and travel the Atlantic Ocean (not the English Channel & North Sea as I thought during the recording) trying to find British Warships and sink them.  The fact that I wasn't sure what body of water you are can in give you an idea how light the game is.  Well, sail the ocean and find enemies to sink while you plot a coarse on the map.  What is really different about this game is that you actually are writing in the book as you play.

• Bismarck Solitaire (BGG, Worthington)
• Waterloo Solitaire (BGG, Worthington)

According to a BGG thread, these are announced but not yet released

• Braveheart Solitaire
• Gettysburg July 1 and 2 Solitaire
• Antietam Solitaire
• Coral Sea Solitaire
• Stonewall in the Valley Solitaire

Julius and I look at the game Newton by Simone Luciani & Nestore Mangone.  This is a really interesting action selection game with some neat mechanisms.  Each round if you take subsequent actions of the same type, they become stronger and the types of actions are all very different.  It feels like a worker placement game in that you can never do as many things as you really want to.  The game was out of print for a couple of years but is now available again.

• Newton (BGG)
• Newton: Great Discoveries (BGG)
• Newton & Great Discoveries (BGG) ⇦the current edition!

This week Julius and I talk about the game Skyline Express.  This game seems to mix, trains, air travel, maybe steampunk and a post-apocalyptic past to bring you a fun experience but seems to fall short for Julius.

'

Skyline Express (BGG)

This week Julius tells us about City: Skylines a cooperative city building game by Rustan Håkansson, who designed Nations & Nations: The Dice Game.  Cities: Skylines is based on a video game IP and sounds like a big 'ol jigsaw of a game.  Check it out!

This week Julius and I gush about the game PARKS based on the US National Park system and the fantastic art from 59parks.net.  In this 1-4 player game, you play as hikers hiking through the parks, buying gear and filling your canteen along the way as you collect parks.  At it's heart it is a resource management game without enough time to collect all the resources you want.

• PARKS (BGG, publisher)
• 59parks.net (website)
• Field Notes Brand notebooks(website)

This week a sick Albert tells Julius all about Hallertau.  It's a really interesting worker placement farming game by Uwe Rosenberg.  Yes another one!  As per usual, this is a fun game with lots interesting choices, cool mechanics and more bits that fit in a normal sized box.

• Hallertau (BGG)

This week Julius and I talk about the time travelling game The LOOP.  More specifically, Julius tells me about the game.  It's got strikingly fantastic garish art and interesting game play.  Note that both of those facts are good things.

• The LOOP (BGG)

This week Julius and I look at something a bit different.  The Curioius Correspondence Club is a subscription service that will send you an escape room style mystery every month.  It comes in the form of a letter with all kinds of papercraft items that you use to solve the mystery.

Each letter is just about self contained, other than the internet you need to enter the final answer once you have solved all the puzzles.  You can also look at layered on-line hints if you get stuck with a puzzle.

The Curious Correspondence Club (website)

You ship got a bit too close to the sun and are now being pulled in. Sadly, your ship is suffering malfunctions due to the intense heat of the sun.  You need to rep[air all the modules as they break around you and divert power to the engine so you can escape the Sun's gravity.

This week we have a small episode in which I teach Julius the small game Solar Storm.  This is a fun little pandemic style cooperative game in a very small package.

This week I interview Elli Amir, designer of the game Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate.  This is a two player card game with a solo campaign mode which will be coming to Kickstarter in March.  I really enjoyed this conversation with Elli, not only did they talk about the game and the solo mode for the game but they told me a bit about the process of commissioning art for a game.  I really enjoy hearing the backstory for games and game design.  This was a really good conversation and I look forward to seeing more of the game, which can be tried for free on Tabletopia!

• Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate (BGG, website, Tabletopia)
• How to play video (YouTube)
• Solo playthrough (YouTube)
• Mailing List (website)

This week Julius tells us about the Plaid Hat Games game, Forgotten Waters.  This is a family friendly piratical adventure on the high seas.

• Forgotten Waters (BGG, Plaid Hat Games)

Today Julius and I bring back a classic game to the table.  We are looking at the 2013 Solo PnP Design Contest game, Maquis by Jake Staines.  The second edition of this game was just published so we look at it again.  The published version is quite a nice package and very well worth looking into.

• Maquis (BGG, Side Room Games)
• Maquis New Content for first edition (Side Room Games)

Julius and I talk about the RPG Ironsworn, designed by Shawn Tomkin.  The game is a full fledged RPG that can be played solo or co-operatively and can work equally well either way.  It's set in a fantasy world that you define.  It's quite a good game... and really an excellent RPG all around.  It's available for free to download or you can purchase physical copies of the book.  If the fantasy setting isn't your thing, you can check out the upcoming Starforged game based on the same system.

Also, I joined the guys at the More Games Than Time to help celebrate their 1 year anniversary.  Check out the episode, linked below.

• Ironsworn (RPGGeek, website, DriveThruRPG)
• Starforged (RPGGeek, website, late pledge)
• More Games Than Time (episode 13)

This week Julius and I discuss the no longer latest campaign for the Arkham Horror card game.  I am writing of Innsmouth Conspiracy.  In this campaign, you get to explore Innsmouth and environs and have all sorts of interesting adventures.  This is part 1 of 2 episodes.  In this part, we cover the first four campaigns.  Just a note, but part 2 will not be the next.. give it a bit of time :)

Come listen.. we are labelling this a spoiler episode as it will give away some of the story and a small bit of strategy.  However, it's a very small bit of strategy.  Based on what I learned from Julius, I doubt I will have more success the next time I play.

• Arkham Horror: LCG (BGG, FFG)
• Innsmouth Conspiracy (BGG, FGG)
• In To Deep (BGG, FFG)
• Devil Reef (BGG, FFG)
• LotR: Murder at the Prancing Pony (BGG, FGG)

This week, I teach Julius about Fire of Eidolon from Magic Meeple Games and designed by Michael Lipton.  It's a fun little Pandemic style game in which you expand the dudgeon as you explore it and then watch it crumble away as you race to collect the Fire of Eidolon and get out before becoming trapped forever.

I really like this game with all the variability in set-up and options.  Julius is less impressed and says he'd rather play Forbidden Island.

• Fire of Eidolong (BGG, Magic Meeple)
• Forbidden Island (BGG)

Hi folks!  Another chat with a solo content creator. This time, it's with Jon, the host of the Tale of the Manticore podcast.  This show is a hybrid solo RPG playthrough/ dark fiction podcast. The podcast is a serial story in which "the dice determine" the fate of the characters.  A story is being told and crafted by playing a solo game of Dungeons and Dragons.

Jon does an amazing job of producing a high quality show.  This is an excellent example of what can be accomplished by playing an RPG solo.  It's done without an emulator and Jon takes the role of both character and DM, though primarily DM.  It's an excellent show worth listening to and easy to binge and catch up!

• Tale of the Manticore (website)
• One Shot in the Dark (Drive Thru RPG)

In which we resolve a long standing contest for The Last Lighthouse and then discuss the solitaire legacy game Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom.  This is such a neat sounding game that Julius convinced me to order a copy!  That rarely happens.

This week Julius and I talk to Jason Tagmire of Button Shy games.  We talk about small games, design contests and the upcoming game ROVE.  It's going to be released on the Button Shy website on Black Friday.  Check it out, it's a neat little spatial puzzle of a game.

• ROVE (BGG, Button Shy)
• Button Shy Games (website, Discord, Patreon)
• The Button Shop (website)

This week Julius and I talk about the game Cascadia, the game of the Pacific Northwest, designed by Randy Flynn and published by Flatout Games.  This is a tile laying game in which you are placing tiles with a mix environments and populating them with a variety of animals to try and maximize your score.  It's pretty abstract but it's pretty fun and you can try the solo game on-line to see what you think.  I can say, we like it.

This episode features my Golden Retriever, Kaylee, barking in the background throughout the episode.  I removed a lot of the barks but there is only so much I could do.  Later on, she got into the room I was recording in and started eating the catfood out of the bowl.  I hope all that noise is not too distracting!

• Cascadia (BGG, Flatout Games, online solo game)

It's back to the table for us with Pandemic: The Cure.  This is the classic game of world saving, dice chucking fun.  The game is a dice version of the now classic Pandemic.  Julius and I revisit the game and see how it holds up.

• Pandemic: The Cure (BGG, Z-Man)

This week I talk about Storm Above the Reich, a GMT game designed by Mark Aasted & Jeremy White.  This is a WWII game in which you simulate the German air defense against American bombers.  You control a group of fighters that try to engage and bring down the American bombers.  The game is a stand-alone sequal to Skies Above the Reich and can be integrated with it to get a much longer campaign game.  I quite enjoyed the game and hope the podcast does a fair job of giving you a sense of what it's like.

Shame on me for also forgetting to mention that GMT currently has Skies Above Britain on their P500.  This is the British equivalent of the game.

Finally, I had my Covid booster yesterday and just feel worn out today.  If I did a poor job of editing this week, well, more poor than normal, then blame that.

• Storm Above the Reich (BGG, GMT)

Not really discuss but also check these out.

• Skies Above the Reich (BGG, GMT)
• Skies Above Britain (BGG, GMT)

This week, Julius talks about Solenia.  In this game, you ply the winds of a tiny planet trading for goods and stuff on a giant yellow airship.

• Solenia (BGG)

This week I return to interviewing other solo podcast hosts.  This time around, it's Steve Morrison of Errant Adventures.  The podcast features playthroughs of solo games.  Each game spans multiple episodes and after over 40 weekly episodes he's still on his third game.  We have a long rambling discussion centered around solo roleplaying as well as his podcast.  I hope you enjoy!

• Errant Adventures (Internet)
• Tale of the Manticore (Blogspot)
• The Bad Spot (YouTube)
• Arcane Flora/Strrrbuck (Arcane Flora, twitter)
• Red Markets RPG (RPGG, internet)

This week Julius and I delve into the realm of point and click video games... sort of.  We are talking about a point and click board game, or more precisely, book game.  Cantaloop: Breaking Into Prison is an analog game that plays, looks and feels like a classic point and click adventure, think The Secret of Monkey Island or Grim Fandango from Lucas Arts.  Just, there is no clicking in this game as it's all based on a book.

• Cantaloop (BGG, Lookout Games)
• Point and Click adventures (GameRant)
• Grim Fandango (VGG, internet)
• Loom (VGG)
• The Secret of Monkey Island (VGG)
• How to say Friedemann Findeisen (YouTube)

This week I teach Julius about the game Coldwater Crown.  This is a game in which you are competing in a fishing tournament to get the most trophy points.  Like a modern dance competition, there are trophies available for just about anything you do.  Come hear what someone that doesn't like fishing think about this game.

• Coldwater Crown (BGG, Bellwether Games)

This week, Julius and family talk about the game Twinkle.  This is a dice game were you are trying to make constellations.   Keep in mind, stuff doing with space and stars is often very mathy.  This game seems to be no exception... huzzah! 

• Twinkle (BGG, V Games)

This week Julius tells us about the game Red Rising, published by Stonemaier Games.  This game is based on the novel series by the same name by Pierce Brown and let's you play the role of house attempting to rise in power.  This is a pretty abstract card game that is really a rummy game at heart.  Enjoy!

• Red Rising game (BGG, Stonemaier Games)
• Red Rising series (Pierce Brown)

This week Julius tells us about the Lookout Games city building game, NEOM.  It's a game about building a futuristic city but really it's a tile drafting game like 7 Wonders but with tile placement.

• NEOM (BGG, Lookout Games)

This week Julius and I talk more about games that aren't games.  I bought two new Mazescape mazes, published by Devir games.  These are fun little mazes that required folding and unfolding the page in different ways to be able to solve the maze.  Julius and I also briefly talk about two other games that are both very similar, Friedemann Friese's Folders mazes and Monument Valley.

Folders is basically the same idea as Mazescape but a bit simpler in that you are just trying to find the exist.  Monument Valley is a very successful video game with a similar idea of travelling through a shifting maze.

• Mazescape Ariadne (BGG)
• Mazescape Labyrinthos (BGG)
• Friedemann Friese's Folders (BGG Store)
• Monument Valley (Official website)

This week Julius talks with Joe Slack, designer of Relics of Rajavihadra.  This is a puzzle game, think Think Fun's Rush Hour or River Crossing.  These are fun spatial puzzles include large pieces to play with, grab in your hand and move about.  I really enjoy these kinds of games, or puzzles, as you prefer.  This one sounds pretty cool!

• Relics of Rajavihara (BGG, Crazy Like a Box)

This week I tell Julius about the bag building, worker placement game Groves.  It's an interesting little game with just fantastic art by an independent publisher, Letiman Games.  Check it out.  There's stuff to like and stuff not to like about this game.  Oh drat, I just realized this is out of print.

• Groves (BGG, Letiman Games)