109 (BG) - LEGEND OF THE FOUR KINGS

Board Games & Tabletop: Pawel has insisted on having his annual RPG slot, so we let him talk about the latest edition of Legend of the Five Rings by Fantasy Flight for a good chunk. Next up is the proper gaming section for proper people, where we enjoy the new deckbuilder Hand of Fate: Ordeals by Hand & Make, which is based on the video game of playing a deadly game of card-based adventure against the Dealer. Finally, Chris and Euan have gone back to a classic as they introduced a new board gamer to the archaeological fun that is Thebes by Queen Games, with its interesting time-spending mechanic. Gotta dig up the dirt! Enjoy!

Legend of the Five Rings (04:49)

Hand of Fate: Ordeals (25:36)

Thebes (45:04)

This episode hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Pawel Daruk

Music by the hosts, with Jokin Etxeberria

This episode recorded and produced by Chris Hanratty

Logo by Rebecca Horner

100 - FIFTY YEARS

It's 2065, and the team have decided to take a look back at fifty years in the gaming podcast business, sharing their favourite memories from the past. Warning: This episode contains extreme amounts of bullshit. And also a new theme tune. Enjoy!

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by the hosts, with Jokin Etxeberria

This episode recorded and produced by Chris Hanratty

099 (BG) - THE BIG FLAKE

It's the final tabletop episode before the Episode 100 Special! This week, we give Pawel more reasons to never play RPGs with the rest of us, before letting him delve into his latest Kickstarter acquisition Deep Madness, a co-op sci-fi board game with a Lovecraftian twist. We then have some fun by revisiting a couple of older games, the robot-programming chaos of RoboRally, and the co-operative superhero card game Sentinels of the Multiverse. Enjoy! (Your loincloth has perished.)

Deep Madness (09:43)

RoboRally (35:33)

Sentinels of the Multiverse (51:56)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty and Dave McCreary

096 (BG) - CONSPIRACY THEORIST

Board games this week as we chuck ourselves into the co-operative modern crime-solving game Detective by Portal Games, take on Plan B Games' popular abstract strategy game Azul (said with a dramatic voice), and finally get round to talking about one of Chris's favourite games of all time, the original Colosseum by Days of Wonder! Enjoy!

Detective (02:48)

Azul (29:06)

Colosseum (48:00)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty and Dave McCreary

093 (BG) - TABLETOP SCOTLAND

Chris, Euan and Dave bring an episode with a bit of a difference, as they talk about their experience at Tabletop Scotland in Perth on 2nd September. Enjoy!

Games talked about in this episode:

Legends Untold by Inspiring Games (04:50): www.inspiringgames.com/legends-untold

Wibble++ and Yogi by Stuff By Bez (17:35): www.stuffbybez.com

Tilis: Exploration (Playtest Zone) (27:08)

Covert (39:20)

Links to other things we talked about:

Tabletop Scotland's Website: www.tabletopscotland.co.uk

The Giant Brain: www.giantbrain.co.uk

Unlucky Frog: www.unluckyfrog.com

Meeple Like Us: www.meeplelikeus.co.uk

More Games Please: www.moregamesplease.com

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

Email us: firstplayertoken@gmail.com

091 (BG) - CITYBUILDING, BUNNIES, AND SANDPAPER

The first post-summer holiday board game episode starts with a long dissection of Isaac Childres's latest Kickstarter Founders of Gloomhaven, a game of city building and mass confusion. We then have some fun creating rabbit fiefdoms in the colourful card drafting and area selection game Bunny Kingdom, and we finally lick some sandpaper as we get stuck into the classic 1980s game of German politics, Die Macher. Enjoy!

Founders of Gloomhaven (01:30)

Bunny Kingdom (34:54)

Die Macher (52:27)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow T

his episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

Email us: firstplayertoken@gmail.com

089 (BG) - WAR NEVER CHANGES

It's board games time this week and Chris, Pawel and Dave all hit the wasteland in Fantasy Flight's sandboxy Fallout Board Game based on the hit video game series. Also this week, Dave keeps battering Chris's queen bee in Hive, and the team revisits party game Deception: Murder in Hong Kong just for laughs. Enjoy!

Fallout (04:34)

Hive (34:15)

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong (52:53)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

075 (BG) - CITADELS OF MADNESS

Games talked about in this episode: Chris, Euan and Dave bring you a board episodes this week, talking about some games that have been sitting on the shelf for a while. Enjoy!

Games talked about in this episode:

Mansions of Madness (02:20)

Seafall (18:30)

Citadels (38:05)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

Recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty and Dave McCreary

072 - (BG) SCI-FI ZOO

Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave are back after their winter break to bring you some New Year board games chat! We also have a bit of an announcement about changes to the podcast for the future, so listen up at the back! On top of that, Dave has fun with his first ever podcast recording duties by twiddling all the knobs while Chris is speaking. Enjoy! Games talked about in this episode:

Zooloretto (06:55)

Hegemonic (19:30)

Century Spice Road (51:50)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk and Dave McCreary Music by Euan Glasgow Recorded and edited by Dave McCreary

070 - THE ACCIDENTAL RIO GRANDE EPISODE

Pawel has returned from his Japan trip, and Chris, Euan and Dave spend a good ten minutes grilling him about it while Pawel gives them capsule toy souvenirs (live unboxing, folks!). It's then straight on to the board games, as the lads have accidentally had a very Rio Grande Sunday at the weekend, with plays of some classic Euros which they'll tell you all about: Princes of Florence, Attika, and Stone Age! Enjoy!

Princes of Florence: 12:22

Attika: 36:27

Stone Age: 49:22

Note: The next board games/tabletop episode will be in January, as we will be taking our usual Christmas/New Year break after the next video games episode, which should be out next week. Cheers!

067 - HORNED RATS & ANNOYING ORCS

Euan takes over hosting duties for this video games episode as Chris is feeling a bit under the weather (not drunk), which starts with him verbally wandering on his continued journey through 90s gaming with Fallout, and a little bit about Command & Conquer. Pawel then talks us through Warhammer: Total War 2, the latest instalment in the planned trilogy. Also, Chris gives his dying throat a workout by taking us through the cosmetic changes to Fortnite's Battle Royale, before talking about the good and bad bits of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and finishes up with a quick chat about ridiculously difficult platformer Cuphead. Enjoy!

Fallout: 02:01

Total War: Warhammer 2: 09:45

Fortnite Battle Royale: 29:28

Shadow of War: 38:26

Cuphead: 49:03

064 - RAGING SPIRITS FORGING DICE

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We're back with another tabletop games episode, this time talking about two board games with gorgeous artwork: Dice Forge, in which the players are constantly changing the physical faces of their dice to suit their needs and strategy, and Spirit Island, a fully co-operative game of angry gods and spirits (the players) who are repelling foreign invaders from colonising their lands. Enjoy!

Dice Forge: 02:30

Spirit Island: 25:45

057 - ONE-EYED HONEY MONSTER

This week's video games episode begins with looking up Pawel's name on Urban Dictionary for kicks, before the lads actually start talking about some video games, starting with a very brief return to Neon Chrome and then a much, much longer chat about another roguelike, Unexplored, which Chris has been enjoying immensely. Euan then goes back a good few years to talk about Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, in anticipation of a new Call of Cthulhu game being released later this year. Pawel brings us forward into the 2010s (or is it back to the 1940s?) as he chats about the RTS game Company of Heroes 2, set on the Eastern Front during World War 2, before Chris has some silly fun with one-vs-many horror survival game Friday the 13th: The Game. Enjoy!

Unexplored/Neon Chrome: 5:04

Call of Cthulhu: 23:40

Company of Heroes 2: 35:00

Friday the 13th: 47:03

056 - JAPANESE MORNING

Chris, Euan and Pawel have a 66% Japanese episode with two games from designers from the land of the rising sun, starting with Tragedy Looper, a "1 versus many" time-travel board game in which the good guys are trying to prevent tragedies from happening by, uhhh, letting them happen a couple of times. Next up is Fairy Tale, a light, fantasy-themed card game of set collection and with multiple ways of scoring points. Pawel then ruins the Japanese theme of the episode by talking some more about Arkham Horror: The Card Game, and specifically about its standalone adventures and expansions such as Dunwich Legacy. Dave also gives a message from beyond the grave. (Note: Dave isn't actually dead) Enjoy!

Tragedy Looper: 3:18

Fairy Tale: 26:32

Arkham Horror Card Game: 40:30

055 - EGYPTPUNK, CYBERPUNK, CLICKPUNK

Chris, Euan and Pawel bring you another video games episode! Chris kicks off with an update on two VR games, first asking Pawel about his experience with Star Trek Bridge Crew and then a short bit about his own playthrough of Farpoint. Euan then talks about the strange Egyptian sci-fi old-school style indie RPG Void Pyramid and how he's been stalking its mysterious designer known only as "A Hagen". Chris jacks himself into Neon Chrome, an addictive and well designed top-down cyberpunk shooter with roguelike elements, while Pawel returns to the Gabriel Knight series with the 20th Anniversary remake of Sins of the Father. Also, more vague politics. Enjoy!

Star Trek Bridge Crew/Farpoint: 3:20

Void Pyramid: 13:04

Neon Chrome: 26:10

Gabriel Knight Sins of the Father: 41:04

054 - THE RED RAVEN

Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave bring you the missing board games episode from last week! This week we give most of the episode over to Ryan Laukat and Red Raven Games, as we give our first impressions of the newly-arrived story-telling/adventuring game Near and Far. We also chat about one of Euan's favourite games, The Ancient World, where the players are attempting to unite groups of people under their banners to fight off the threat of attacking Titans. Although Pawel thinks the humans are the real monsters. Finally, we return to Captain Sonar, after Chris and Euan managed to get a full eight-player real-time game of this incredibly fun team-based submarine-commanding torpedo-firing stealth-running mine-dropping game of wits. New video games episode will be out later this week! Enjoy!

Near and Far: 2:30

The Ancient World: 25:30

Captain Sonar: 46:10

050 - PUSHING BUTTONS

Chris, Euan, Pawel, and even Dave are talking board games this week, with Vlaada Chvatil's 2008 real-time panic-inducing game Space Alert taking up a decent chunk of the episode, as Pawel describes his love for pushing buttons that do nothing while Euan gives him a telling off for not listening to the Captain. Also in this episode, Chris and Euan go through their first game of The Colonists, a fairly new worker management Euro-style game which has a focus on efficiency and burning your brain. Enjoy!

048 - TORPEDOES READY!

Chris and Euan are joined by guest host Dave for some chat about some of the board games we played on International Tabletop Day, beginning with some team-based submarine fun in Captain Sonar, a game of hidden movements, outwitting your opponents and panicking about your vessel's systems! We also finally got around to playing Waggle Dance, a worker placement game which uses dice to represent bees in the players' hives as they compete for nectar, hatch eggs, and make honey. Last up we revisit The Pursuit of Happiness, a strange Game of Life-esque game where you live through the entire life of a person, and the ultimate goal is to be happier than anyone else when the stress of old age finally kills you. Enjoy!

046 - GANDALF, OR SOME SORT OF DUMBLEDORE

Chris, Euan and Pawel are joined in this episode by their gaming chum Dave to talk about tabletop games! Dead of Winter, the truly semi-cooperative zombie survival game, is first up this week, as the fingers of blame are pointed in all directions. Pawel then gets his names confused as he talks about Mage: The Ascension, which is set in the World of Darkness (not Warcraft), and is definitely not the entirely fictional board game Mage Quest. Lastly this week, the lads give another spoiler-free update on their Gloomhaven adventures, with Dave giving some input into what he describes as a bonkers game. Enjoy!

044 - A GAME OF BACKSTABBING

Board games chat with a full compliment of Unnecessaries! This week we talk about A Game of Thrones, the tense game of area control and political treachery set in Westeros which the lads and their pals played recently, during which Chris confused Pawel with an alliance and an unlikely winner came from nowhere. Also in this episode is the app-driven XCOM board game, which simulates the management and bureaucracy side of the XCOM video games (it's more fun than it sounds), and also Discworld: Ankh-Morpork, the lovingly-created light board game set in the world created by Terry Pratchett. Enjoy!

Chris (Martell), Euan (Greyjoy), Pawel (Tyrell), Dave (Lannister), John (Stark), and Neil (Baratheon) play the game of extended backstabbing set in Westeros.