Every day people stop us on the street and say “But, Elaine and Efka, why did you rename the podcast?” What an excellent question real person on the street - we renamed it because Talk Cardboard is all about talking to OTHER PEOPLE about cardboard. All kinds of cardboard. Flat, corrugated and even board game. So we talk to you, dear listeners, especially when you write in. But we also talk to our guests! And today’s episode features our very first and so far very best guest. That’s right, it’s Jessie Gender, you can find more of her things on https://www.youtube.com/@JessieGender1

Also in today’s episode: Heat, Votes for Women, Turncoats and Canvas.

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

On to the timestamps:

4:53 Canvas

14:06 Heat: Pedal to the Metal

38:24 Jessie Gender a.k.a. Jessie Earl Interview

1:03:35 Turncoats ( https://mildamatildagames.wordpress.com/turncoats-2/ )

1:20:17 Votes for Women

Jessie Gender, Heat, Votes For Women, Turncoats, Canvas

This episode is jam packed with exciting board games and has a reference to clotted cream - that's right - it's the scone episode! A tasty delicious dessert for your ears full of rich indulgent cardboard. What's especially exciting is that we've got a little bit of everything for everyone - from very light to very heavy, all pretty great in their own ways so if you're looking to enrich your collection - this week is definitely full of good recs. Enjoy!

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

On to the timestamps:

4:00 Audience correspondence - Historical Wargames and MILDA MATILDA

13:02 Yokai Septet

23:23 Audience correspondence - Rulebooks

30:10 Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

44:58 Great Western Trail: Argentina

1:04:12 Aeon Trespass: Odyssey (first impressions)

Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, GWT: Argentina, Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game, Yokai Septet

There are many famous Paul Deans in the world, but today we’re only interviewing one of them. Maybe one day we’ll get a chance to talk to some of the others, but honestly, why bother, we already got the best one. We got a chance to talk to Paul about what it’s like having left the board game industry and how he feels about board games right now.

This is far from the end though. Brace yourselves because you are entering the land of numbers, voxels and vertices and you can only emerge by listening to us review three abstract board games (which may or may not be card games).

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

Our patreon campaign can be found on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded and our pledge drive video can be found on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrhnOHw-akc

On to the timestamps:

5:53 Audience correspondence - GWT: Argentina, Aeon Trespass Publisher Write-in, Colour Vision Difference

16:06 Wind the Film! (Photograph)

31:11 That Time You Killed Me

44:16 Intereview Guest: Paul Dean

1:19:56 Koi Koi

1:43:48 Audience correspondence - Torturing Efka

Paul Dean, Wind the Film!, That Time you Killed me, Koi Koi

Every Talk Cardboard episode is a journey, and in this episode that journey is competitive card games, competitive card games with engine building and destroying the engine with hard alcohol (not necessarily in that order).

Today we’re taking a look at Distilled, an aspirational game about being a small time distillerer in a world of big alcohol, Wordlbreakers: Advent of the Khanate, a magic the gatheringalike card battler that’s punching very far above its weight and Res Arcana, a distillation (no pun intended) of Race for the Galaxy style card engine building with the world’s smolest deck.

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

On to the timestamps:

4:14 Audience Correspondence – Past Games

23:13 Res Arcana

42:25 Worldbreakers: Advent of the Khanate

1:03:05 Distilled

You can find the study on game component rolling probabilities here https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/12119/components-dice-tossing-meeples-houses

Distilled, Worldbreakers, Res Arcana

Welcome back, welcome back, it’s like we’ve never been gone. After a brief interruption Talk Cardboard returns to your ears and consequentially to your brains to deliver all the board game that it needs. 

Today’s brain ticklers include drawing a map of the London Underground in Next Station: London, a dose of helium 3 in Skymines and some good ol’ fashioned resisting in Maquis

If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that's dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com

On to the timestamps:

2:12 Audience Correspondence – Crispy Pancake Foods

10:37 Next Station: London

28:39 Skymines

58:36 Audience Correspondence - Board Game Canon

1:08:26 Maquis

Next Station: London, Skymines, Maquis

More and more board games are adopting eco themes! Whether it’s Daybreak and it’s simulation of climate change or Dune: War for Arrakis and Dune’s enviromental themes and… uh… one or two plastic miniatures or Ticket to Ride Legacy and… um… all the railroad constru…. You know what nevermind, welcome to board games! It’s board games everyone, aren’t they good? So good those board games. Are they good? It depends on which one it is. And thus enters the board game reviews. They’re here. Enjoy it.

If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded

On to the timestamps:

00:00 Cold Open

1:27 Intro

2:30 Audience Correspondence: Green Appreciation

6:08 Dune: War for Arrakis

38:26 Daybreak

59:07 Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

Dune: War for Arrakis, Daybreak, Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

A remake, a new take and an expansion walk into a bar. The barman says, “what’ll it be?” They all reply “something fresh.”

Was that too mean? I think that was too mean, especially since at least (and also at most) two of the games discussed in this episode are pretty great. And one of them is okay. We revisit the classic Terra Mystica in it’s new more thematically demure incarnation, we explore how Raising Robots riffs on Wingspan and Efka finally gets to play the expansion to his favourite game of all time - Sidereal Confluence. Let me tell you folks - it’s been bifurcated.

If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded

0:00 Cold Open

2:48 Intro

3:43 Age of Innovation: A Terra Mystica Game

33:22 Raising Robots

53:23 Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation

Age of Innovation, Raising Robots, Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation

This episode we only cover two games, but we had so much to say it ended up being a full length episode anyway. Which isn’t a surprise really when you end up with two follow ups for two massively succesful games. It’s the follow-up episode! And if you strain your thinking really hard, you could even argue that this very episode is a follow up to previous episodes, and thus thematically represents the games themselves. It’s nice when things like that line up perfectly. Please enjoy our chatter on 7th Citadel (sequel to 7th Continent) and Wyrmspan (sequel to Wingspan).

If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded

0:00 Cold Open

0:38 Intro

2:44 7th Citadel

34:15 Wyrmspan

7th Citadel, Wyrmspan

Cute, but deadly! We used to dance under that name but you could also use those three words to describe today’s selection of games.

Harvest is a farming worker placement game so cloyingly sweet you could squeeze condensed milk out of it. Is it good? Jury’s still out.

War Stories: Occupied France is the unlikely combination of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective and Undaunted - how does that even work? We’ve got the scoop.

And finally… Dorfromantik: The Duel. Last year’s adaptation of Dorfromantik to board game form was low key our favourite light tile layer. But now naturally come the spin-offs and we’ve got some takes.

If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded

On to the timestamps:

0:00 Go Listen to So Very Wrong About Games

1:34 Cold Open

3:35 Intro

4:30 Audience Correspondence - Horror Games

12:25 Harvest

28:30 Audience Correspondence - Haggis

30:44 War Story: Occupied France

48:40 Audience Correspondence - More Haggis

51:26 Dorfromantik: The Duel

1:00:24 Outro

Harvest, War Story: Occupied France, Dorfromantik: The Duel

Vroom vroom it’s time to kaboom! Or something along those lines because today’s feature game is all about smashing cars into other cars. It feels like we’ve seen this type of game over and over through time, from Rock’n’Roll Racing to Mario Kart to Twisted Metal to Carmaggedon - the world is full of games that let you cause car accidents on purpose. But let me tell you, it’s never been done like that in cardboard. Joyride is a delight!

And there’s other games too! We take a look at the somewhat bland and reliable Invincible: The Hero-Building Game and the charming Wilmot’s Warehouse in its new board game incarnation.

If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded

On to the timestamps:

0:00 Cold Open

0:39 Intro

1:44 Audience Correspondence: Qualia

5:29 Joyride: Survival of the Fastest

30:58 Audience Correspondence: Standardized Size

34:29 Invincible: The Hero-Building Game

53:19 Audience Correspondence: More Haggis Letters

55:29 Wilmot's Warehouse

Popular tracks tagged #talk cardboard