Podcast #103: Welcome to the Ketchup Age

Look out! Podcast #103 is charging towards your fragile human body like the untameable beast of content that it is. Be shocked, as we wrangle with Clinic! Gasp in horror as we consume Irish Gauge… whole! Listen as we swirl the sequel to Welcome To… around in our mouths, and last but not least: be kind of bummed out as we talk about why Maracaibo is… a bit bad? Oh! And of course we’d also got some chat about Era, which is not bad at all but VERY PLASTIC. Since recording they’ve announced an expansion, but we’re not sure that affects our feelings much at this stage. Time will tell!

This episode also features fleeting special guest appearances from Clipcut Parks, Food Chain Magnate’s latest expansion; The Ketchup Mechanism, and two games with ‘letter’s in their name. Technically all the games have letters in their name, but these ones literally have letters in their name. You’ll see what we mean. 

We also talk a little about recent video reviews! Well, one video review, because Quinns got so excited about the prospect of playing Azul: Summer Pavilion, that he forgot to talk about his review. It tends to have that effect on people.

Tap below for full timestamps and more info!

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GAMES NEWS! 03/02/20

Tom: See Ava, I told you that a board game camping trip would be a valuable team-building exercise for the two of us – isn’t this wonderful? The great outdoors, a roaring fire –

Ava: This isn’t anything to do with camping or board games. We’re just sitting in an underpass throwing dice into an empty KFC bucket.

Tom: Look, it might not be ‘fun’ or ‘a game’ but I’ve got to playtest Bargain Bucket Quest before it hits Kickstarter. Fancy a s’moredgame?

Ava: That’s just a marshmallow wedged between two Catan hexes.

Tom: Fine, if you’re going to smash my dreams one-by-one, then at least have the decency to do so whilst telling me about the latest board game news!

Ava: First up is the news that Castles of Tuscany is a thing that exists. This is a follow up to Stefan Feld’s Castles of Burgundy, but we have yet to see how similar it is, or how different it is, or just about anything about how it is. It’s coming soon from Alea, and I’ve rarely been so excited by simply the NAME of a thing.

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GAMES NEWS! 26/08/19

Quinns: Ava, you must dampen the news and lift it to my forehead. Brighton is experiencing the last big, thick heatwave of the summer. I don’t know if I’ll survive.

Ava: It’s not just Brighton! It’s a bank holiday, so air all across the United Kingdom has turned into a thick, hot porridge, and I’m so glad we get to slip into a nice cool bath of news together.

Quinns: Ah, I forgot. Not only do the banks get a day off, so does air.

Not news, though! The news never stops, and we never stop never stopping it. Onwards!

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GAMES NEWS! 04/02/19

Quinns: How was your weekend, Matt? I got in some of our first playtests of Blood on the Clocktower. Adopting the role of a devious moderator, I cast a room full of players into a cutthroat logic puzzle that had them doubting not just their friends, but themselves. As I stalked back and forth with my grimoire that held all of the game’s secrets, men screamed, women died, and the forces of evil proliferated in the shadows.

Matt: I had IBS

Quinns: Oh no

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