Meeple Overboard!

2017 is wrapping to a close, and it has been a great year for games.  So, looking forward, let's talk about gaming goals!  If you haven't checked out artofboardgaming.com to find Joe Coming's 2018 Board Game Bucket List.  Also, we learned that the person who created the 10x10 challenge is Sarah Reed!  You can find her on Twitter at the handle @EuroGamerGirl to follow her!  Also, we review Whistle Stop, an adorable train game by Scott Caputo, published by Bezier Games.  And if you want to hear our last Christmas song of the year, go check out our YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7OGBjDewAM

Hey all, have a very Merry Christmas, and we hope you enjoy the 1-Hour special episode, featuring a question and answer session with some great questions we received.  Thanks for all who contributed your questions, and we'd love to hear more in the future.  Also, The Pirates of the Caribbean and Evanescence might be coming by to grace us with a few Christmas tunes.  Hope you enjoy!

A few months ago, we did our Top 5 games that we haven't played but want to.  So today, as we near the end of 2017, we talk about the games we finally got to play and how they met our expectations.  Hope you all enjoy.  Also, we'll give our Top 5 Christmas movies, and lastly, review Tzolk'in: the Mayan Calendar.  Make sure to submit your questions to us for next week's Q&A episode!  Thanks.

Jess "BoardGame_Girl" Davis, the director of Marketing and Sales and avid instragram user joins us today to tell us about her role at Artana Games and the experience of an American in the Essen Spiel Fair for the first time.  Thanks to Jess for an amazingly fun interview, and make sure to follow her on Instagram @boardgame_girl or Twitter @boardgame_girl1 for all of her great posts there. Go check out her Essen haul.  And enjoy song number 2, Up on the Rooftop.

COMPONENTS!  Everybody loves 'em, but who's got the best ones?  We've got three unique opinions in this Top 5 list: Chris', Wendy's, and one of our listeners who recommended this topic, Frankie LaFave.  We're really glad he suggested the topic, which was a tough one for us, but after some real consideration, we've come up with lists we're proud of.  We hope you enjoy, and let us know what are YOUR favorite game components!PS - if you enjoy the Christmas music we've done, you can find more on YouTube at:   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Dfh60m_pN7kRLMsrA617Q/videos?shelf_id=0&view=0&sort=dd  or search for "We Three Yis" on YouTube.  Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving from us here at Meeple Overboard!  In today's episode, we describe just a few of the reasons we're grateful to be in the hobby in our Thanksgaming segment.  Then we talk about the rich history of butter  (rich, get it?  eh?  eh?), and instead of a single review, we're doing 8 mini reviews all cram packed into about a minute each.  The fans picked the games to compare, so if you want us to try this again and you have a recommendation, then share it with us!

Technology in board games is controversial, so let's talk all about it! We've researched a fun little bit into the history of tech in games, and it flows all the way until now, with the recent release of First Martians by Portal Games.  Ignacy Trzewiczek and Portal Games are known for Robinson Crusoe, so how does First Martians stack up?  We'll give our full review in Game Time!

Legacy Games are all the rage!  Well, like the 5 of them that exist.  But Pandemic Legacy Season 1 was probably many player's first foray into Legacy games (though Risk Legacy was the original), and has caused quite a bit of controversy. We're joined by Joe Comings, a self-described convert to Legacy games, as we discuss why they work, what changed his mind about them, and to give a review of Pandemic Legacy Season 1, with spoilers from only the first few games.  Why spoilers?  If you're hesitant to try it yet, we want to give you some of the meat to tell you that it's worth trying!  Spoilers are only in the second half of the episode, with clear warning.  Hope you all enjoy!

We love worker placement games!  Should we have done a Top 5 list of them?  Well that decision was out of our hands, because Aaron Williams won a contest of ours and got to choose our next Top 5 List.  He contributes his own very good list as well, so join us for a lot of great game recommendations in the Worker Placement genre.  Have a suggestion for a Top 5 list?  Send it our way and we'll consider it, or look out for our little contests on social media!

Essen is in the air!  As a follow-up to last week's discussion about why Expansions are so great, this week we talk about why to not get expansions sometimes.  Then we discuss why names of countries are so different in different languages.  And finally, we review Iello Games' Mountains of Madness by Rob Daviau, a game where the madness really ramps up.  

What would it be like to golf on Mars?  Don't worry about terraforming or colonizing, just play a fun nine holes.  We're reviewing Mars Open Tabletop Golf by Bellwether Games.  The kickstarter goes live on November 7th, so get the early scoop exclusively on our podcast or our YouTube channel.  Oh, ps, we're launching a YouTube channel!  We also talk about wanting, nay, salivating over expansions, and the pronunciation of GIF.

Ahh, the old race track, where friends and strangers meet to place bets on which colored vehicle or dog will cross the finish line first.  But how about a game where you get to race down the track, AND place the bets.  We review Downforce by Restoration Games.  We also discuss games for the Halloween Holiday, and Kefir soda.

Sagrada!  It's beautiful, it's dicey, and it's reviewed on today's episode. We also talk about how to have fun while losing. And we list the Top 5 things for villains to stop doing in books, movies, and TV shows.  Thank you to all those who have prayed for, sent thoughts to, or donated to Las Vegas over this last week.  If you look at the hashtag #VegasStrong, you will see inspiring stories of people banding together to help the community.  We and our families are safe, so let's help take care of those who need support.

A Top 5 List!  Games that are really fun to teach!   AND we're joined by some of the coolest podcasting couple around, Married with Board Games.  Spencer and Lara Williams share their top 5 lists on this topic as well, so maybe you can find some games you'll enjoy teaching, or share with us what are your favorite games to teach!

If you're looking at different gaming table options, and particularly looking for an affordable, but professional option, then check out our review of Game Toppers by Kevin Burkhardsmeier.  This is a system that turns any table into an amazing looking game table with plenty of accessories available, customized play surfaces, and a great price point.   Check out their website at GameToppersLLC.com or their kickstarter page which is live until October 25th!

Winter is coming, or if you're in the world of Dead of Winter, it has already come!   We'll review the game that started the the line of games and comic book series!  We'll also talk about playing with newbies, and if you should hold back.  And in Random Rally, we discuss the Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias about not recognizing one's own need for improving skills.  It's a great episode with a lot of fun topics to it.  Enjoy!

Want to learn about how to realistically get a gaming table?  We've got some suggestions.  We also discuss the not-at-all confusing realm of Negative Prefixes in English, and lastly, give our full review of Century Spice Road.  Hope you enjoy!Check out Dan Hughes' podcast at http://thisgameisbroken.libsyn.com/website  and I do recommend you check it out!

Tim Fowers, designer of Burgle Bros and Fugitive, has a new game on Kickstarter called Now Boarding.  This is a cooperative games with real-time phases about delivering passengers across the United States.  It's chaotic and requires a lot of working together.  Now Boarding is the kind of cooperative game that hits a great balance where every player contributes and has to carry their own weight.  It’s really unique, unlike any other game that I’ve played before, and I do recommend you check it out.  It's not without its dislikes, which we'll discuss in the episode as well to give you a full review.  Hope you enjoy.

There are so many great games out there, and many we've wanted to play for a while, but some we just haven't gotten to yet. So, we made a Top 5 list of them, recommended by one of our listeners, Wayne, who contributed his own Top 5 as well.  Get to know our interests in gaming a little bit in this list.  This list isn't about upcoming games, but games that have already been out for a little while that we just haven't connected with.  If you like the idea of recommending some topics and participating in the discussion, reach out to us on social media or by email at meepleoverboard@gmail.cominstagram.com/meeple.overboardfacebook.com/meepleoverboardtwitter.com/meepleoverboard

We're sorry for the delay. There have been technical problems with the Internet and air conditioning in the home, but we've finally posted the episode.  It's exciting, the classic showdown of wood versus plastic!  And then, we'll discuss some spelling.  Lastly, we'll review the most divisve game in our collection, and that we've possibly ever played, Broom Service!  Be part of the discussion on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or on our guild at boardgamegeek.com/guild/2946