Talk Cardboard

Age of Innovation, Raising Robots, Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation

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.
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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

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

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.
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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: Imperium - Uprising, Most Anticipated 2024

Can you believe it’s been a whole year of Talk Cardboard? Incredible! What’s a better way to celebrate the end of the year than by revisiting where we began? On the very first episode Efka talked about his most anticipated games for 2023, so today we’ll take a look at how those panned out and also take a peek at his most anticipated games for 2024.
Plus we’ll talk about Dune: Imperium - Uprising, Efka’s game of the year and share some of Elaine’s impressions of it. Finally, we saved something a little special for the end of the episode, but you’ll have to listen to find out what that is.
Thanks for sticking with us for a whole year! Here’s to another one.
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On to the timestamps:
3:35 The Ones that Got Away
20:47 Dune: Imperium - Uprising
44:09 Most Anticipated 2023 Revisited
54:15 Most Anticipated 2024

Sail, Trolls and Princesses, Evacuation

Winter months are here and a deep chill is setting over the world. A chill that can represent only one thing - Elaine and Efka’s disappointing week of board games. That’s right, it’s one of those episodes - where no one game is a standout and all of them feel like they’re missing just a little warmth. So grab a cup of hot cocoa and settle in for a grumpy cast of some grumpy cardboard talk.
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On to the timestamps:
2:08 Audience Correspondence - Contentification (for the last time)
8:16 Sail
32:23 Thank you to Mark from So Very Wrong About Games https://www.sowronggames.com/
37:46 Trolls and Princesses
55:45 Evacuation

Rob Daviau Talks Legacy, Empire’s End, Ready Set Bet, Mind Space

It’s a new episode of the Talk Cardboard podcast and I feel great! Rejuvenated even because today’s games are light, breezy, quirky and fun.
And what’s a breezier topic than the collapse of an empire? Just the thought of that warmed something inside of me, like a cozy blanket gently touching the fireplace and setting aflame. If you too would like to partake in some famine, pestilence, war, etc. you might want to give Empire’s End a spin. And if that wasn’t cozy enough, how about some real time horse gambling? Honestly, all that cozyness put my brain in a twist. Thankfully, we’re also covering Mind Space.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
1:16 Audience Correspondence - Singapore 1819
3:33 Empire's End
13:17 Audience Recommendations
14:49 Ready Set Bet
26:06 Rob Daviau Talks Legacy Games
45:00 Mind Space
56:40 Audience Correspondence - All Time Favourites

Earthborne Rangers, Forest Shuffle, Planta Nubo, Sonny Liew and 1819: Singapore

Every year in board games there’s a new fad. Legacy, polyominoes, roll and writes and trick takers. This year’s fad seems to be less genre based and more societally concious. Here at NPI every week we encounter more and more board games that reduce their use of wasteful material such as plastics. On this episode alone two of the three games discussed are 100% recyclable (if you ignore the stickers that hold the lid on the box). And the third one is themed around enviromental issues. How amazing is that?
But on top of that, they’re really interesting games in their own right. Honestly, this feels like a celebration.
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
1:43 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part One
3:51 Earthborne Rangers
27:52 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part Two
36:32 Forest Shuffle
59:10 Sonny Liew and the Two Board Games Called 1819: Singapore
1:25:31 Planta Nubo
1:42:06 Audience Correspondence - Contentification Part Three

The Best of Spiel Essen 2023

What’s the biggest event of the year? That’s right, it’s the DFS Winter Mega Sale! But right after that comes Essen Spiel, or as it is now known: Spiel Essen. Every year, just under two hundred thousand board gamers flock to an industrial city in Germany to partake in a mass consumption event where over a thousand board game titles are released over the course of one weekend and this year we have played ALL OF THEM.
Or at least tried to. We played twenty five, ate a kebab and fell asleep. But now, on this one and only episode of Talk Cardboard, we’ll rank them from worst to best and talk about each one a little bit.
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On to the timestamps:
0:56 Intro
Unranked Games:
3:13 Karvi
4:02 El Grande
5:30 Bruxelles 1893
7:30 Nana/Trio
Ranked Games:
10:25 Here Comes The Dog
12:00 Stich für Stich
13:59 Sunrise Lane
16:32 Couture
20:19 Ninja Masters
23:19 Havalandi
27:55 Tangram City
32:30 Quicksand
36:15 Extravaganza
39:14 Nuts a Go Go
43:50 Viking Sea-Saw
47:28 Tiger and Dragon
51:23 White Castle
55:55 Come Sail Away
1:00:41 The Top 3 Games from Spiel

Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall, Fit to Print, Vindication

Tell me something, which other board game podcast episode can claim to contain the entire gamut of board games in one episode? Antropomorphic animals? Check. Weirdly themed euro? Check. Fantasy campaign game? Check. Real time? Check. Randomness? Check. Strategy, tactics, abstractification? Check check and check.
In this episode we’ll take a long overdue look at Vindication, a game where you gather cubes to kill monsters, Fit to Print, a cutesy real time newspaper assembly simulator and Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall, a fantasy campaign game that signals the arrival of everyone’s most dreaded season - Campaignmass.
Find the video we mention in the discussion on contentification right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMqtgN82fUY
If you’d like to check out our bonus episodes - become a patreon supporter on https://patreon.com/nopunincluded
On to the timestamps:
2:48 Fit to Print
29:07 Audience Correspondence: Board Game Fan Fic Trivia
31:48 Vindication
46:51 A Discussion on Contentification
59:47 Kinfire Chronicles: Night's Fall