Player One | Player Two: The Board Gaming Duo – Details, episodes & analysis

In April 2016, Kathleen and I played a game that crushed me in disappointment. Checking nearly every box of my gamer wishlist, Sentinels of the Multiverse came into our one bedroom apartment and left a trail of ardent thumbs down in its wake. Alas, it was not a good fit on nearly any level. It departed our collection scant weeks later in a box bound for the local Goodwill.

Fast forward six years, and Greater Than Games has released what they've designated the "Definitive Edition," promising better gameplay, better balance, better synergy, and better artwork.

Can this "Definitive Edition" make good on promises broken years after the fact??

Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Definitive Edition
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/335212/sentinels-multiverse-definitive-edition

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
www.betterwithmusic.com/

Check out our site!
www.houseofcardboard.com 

If you've listened to our podcast before or know our gaming history, you probably know that Kathleen and I came to the hobby from Magic: The Gathering. That being said, once we left Magic behind, we didn't look back. Magic: The Gathering and other head-to-head dueling games just wasn't our bag any longer.

But what about Daniel Piechnick's Radlands?

Piechnick is a seasoned Magic: The Gathering player, and one read-through of the rules will prove he knows Magic's weak spots, because Radlands goes to great lengths to fix them. But is it enough to bring us back to solve our issues with the head-to-head dueling format... or not?

Radlands
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/329082/radlands

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
www.betterwithmusic.com/

Check out our site!
www.houseofcardboard.com 

We’ve been hiding, taking stock of our place in this wild, wild year, and taking care of each other. Hopefully you and your loved ones are doing all right. We may be holed up, but we’re still playing games and pushin’ those cubes. Again, hopefully you are, too.

Rather than focus on one game, this episode is a bit of a mixed bag/State of the Board. We’ll touch on a few games we’ve been playing, like Lorenzo il Magnifico (2016), Unmatched (2019), and Rune Stones (2019), and come clean about how tough a year it’s been for us.

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
 http://www.betterwithmusic.com/ 

Check out our blog!
 http://playeroneplayertwo.tumblr.com 

Deep in the abyss of the quarantine, Kathleen and I recorded a searching and subdued episode about what is certainly considered a classic: Combat Commander. Yes, it's a war game, but essentially this is an Ameritrash skirmish game with a heavier euro points-scoring skeleton beneath those dice chuckin' trappings. Don't let a theme scare you, some classics are classics for a reason.

That being said, we'll dovetail off of our last episode (Pax Porfiriana) and talk about why people may not want to play a war game. Is it the theme? Wait, it's just the theme? If so, why? Does a war game trivialize war? Does it glorify it? Finally, is it actually a classic? And is it worth checking it out?

Combat Commander: Europe (2006) on Board Game Geek:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21050/combat-commander-europe 

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
http://www.betterwithmusic.com/ 

Check out our blog!
http://playeroneplayertwo.tumblr.com 

Pax games are a sort of micro-genre of their own. Medium to heavy-ish opaque games that smash up euro mechanics with some borderline aggressive player interactive. Oh, and they are [nearly] all historically based. I can tell you where I fall, but Kathleen has more complicated feelings. You may have heard about last year's Pax Pamir 2nd edition.

We'll discuss–probably not for the last time–the question that keeps coming up here on ye ol' podcast: Does playing a board game recreationally about difficult, tumultuous, or violent periods in history inherently trivialize them? I bet you have an opinion, because we sure do. Oh, and by the way, this game is fan-friggin-tastic.

*** NOTE: As of the publication of this episode, Pax Renaissance is currently on Kickstarter. Like, right now! ***

Finally, apologies for any slight anachronisms (for example: the Oscars). We recorded this episode about three months ago.

Pax Porfiriana (2012) on Board Game Geek:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128780/pax-porfiriana 

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
http://www.betterwithmusic.com/ 

Check out our blog!
http://playeroneplayertwo.tumblr.com 

There are two kinds of gamers around here: those who like Stefan Feld and those who do not. I would say "and those who are wrong," but I'm furloughed and I'm trying to be nicer to people–hey, we all should do it! 

Anyway, if you're listening to this in realtime, we're in the middle of a global pandemic, and most of us are experiencing social distancing. Our lives as we know them are very shaken up. In times like this, it's important to take care of ourselves, and with that in mind, on Episode 26, Kathleen and I spend a little time talking about comfort gaming. There's comfort food, so why not comfort gaming? In this house, comfort gaming equates to Stefan Feld, master of the puzzly euro design. 

We'll discuss what we like, what you may like, and common complaints leveed against his designs. 

Take care of yourselves out there. We are living through tough times. 

Stefan Feld on Board Game Geek:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/4958/stefan-feld 

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
http://www.betterwithmusic.com/ 

Check out our blog!
http://playeroneplayertwo.tumblr.com 

All right, so this may be the Player One | Player Two Podcast, but that doesn’t mean we’re happy being locked out of 3+ player games. With that in mind, we realize that some “Two Player Variants” are messier than others.

Dummy players, AI decks, or even Bot Systems are all versions of variants that allow a 3+ player game to be played by two players. In addition to the main course game here, we’ll also spend a few minutes discussing two other games’ variants we’ve experienced recently that have gotten a 3+ player game onto our exclusively two player table–with varying results.

Escape Plan (2019) on Board Game Geek:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/142379/escape-plan 

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
http://www.betterwithmusic.com/ 

Check out our blog!
http://playeroneplayertwo.tumblr.com 

We wrap up our inaugural year of the Player One | Player Two podcast a little late (hey, at least it's still January!), and talk about the 2019 games we played. Some hot hot heat, some IPs, and at least one game about trains. We also manage to squeeze in a pair of tangents on area control and Stefan Feld.

What were our favorite games of 2019? Odds are we may have already spent some time talking about them. And what were yours? Maybe we've got some overlap. Well, perhaps...

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
http://www.betterwithmusic.com/

Check out our blog!
http://playeroneplayertwo.tumblr.com 

Hobby gaming is, at its heart, a social hobby. We have lamented before that playing as two players makes it seem like you are living in a bubble–which is why we started this podcast, after all. That being said, we were very excited to get out of our little bubble by finally partaking in our first convention experience when we visited the locally hosted PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia.

We demoed games, we learned the importance of reading schedules, we ate delicious Indian food, and we left with a hot dice drafting game in our complimentary reusable Cool Stuff Inc tote.

So how was it? How was PAX as a convention? Perhaps more importantly for us: How was PAX as a first convention? 

https://unplugged.paxsite.com/ 

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar) 
http://www.betterwithmusic.com/ 

Check out our blog! 
http://playeroneplayertwo.tumblr.com 

Scaling is so important in regard to the two-player subset of board gaming. Excellent three or four player games are sometimes incomplete or unsatisfying two-player experiences.

But what happens when a game does take scaling into account, but the scaling alters the fundamental nature of the game? Maybe a game becomes more cutthroat, or demands players be more aggressive to match the same feel carried by a true multi-player game. A well-scaled game is good, but what if the game you find on the other side isn't quite the same game that went in?

Point Salad (2019) on Board Game Geek:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/274960/point-salad

Theme & End Credit Music by Javier Suárez (Jahzzar)
http://www.betterwithmusic.com/

Check out our blog!
http://playeroneplayertwo.tumblr.com