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A podcast dedicated to solitaire board gaming.
Episodes
Saturday Nov 26, 2022
Saturday Nov 26, 2022
This week Julius talks about the game Knight Fall. This is a skirmish game in which players control either the knights or demons that are trying to attack and destroy the knights in an attempt to unseal the gates to the underworld. This is an asymmetrical game that can be soloed by playing a campaign game as the knights.
Saturday Nov 19, 2022
Saturday Nov 19, 2022
This week Julius and I revisit the tiny little 13 card micro-game Elevenses for One. In this solitaire game you play as an English maid tasked with getting tea for two ready in 15 minutes. It's a daunting task considering that the tea pantry is in complete disarray. This is a rather simple game of lining up 10 cards in the correct order but as you play each card, it may impact the subsequent cards.
Saturday Nov 12, 2022
Saturday Nov 12, 2022
We are an episode off. We normally do a Popular Mechanics show every 5 episodes. The next one will be on schedule at 280 or at least it should be. Anyway! This week Julius and I talk about skirmish games. It's not exactly a mechanic but that's okay. It was still interesting to think up skirmish solo games that I have enjoyed. Here's the list from our discussion....
- 04:26 The South Shall Rise Again (BGG)
- 06:20 Knight Fall (BGG)
- 09:25 Sentinels of the Multiverse (BGG)
- 10:30 Marvel Crisis Protocol (BGG)
- 12:47 Hoplomachus: Origins (BGG)
- 14:31 Proving Grounds (BGG)
- 15:30 Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game (BGG)
- 18:10 Ambush (BGG)
- 18:37 Red November (BGG)
- 19:17 So, You've Been Eaten (BGG)
- 20:00 Space Hulk Death Angel (BGG)
- 20:57 Skies Above the Reich (BGG)
- 22:06 Warp's Edge (BGG)
Saturday Nov 05, 2022
Saturday Nov 05, 2022
This week Julius and I talk about a game we've both been playing, So, You've Been Eaten. This is an asymetric game about mining gems from space-worm intestines. You are a miner who jumps into Space Worms and mines gems as you travel through the digestive track. You can play as either the miner or the space-worm, in either case, you are trying to survive the entire ordeal.
The game is designed by Scott Almes with fantastic art by Kwanchai Moriya.
- So, You've Been Eaten (BGG)
Saturday Oct 29, 2022
Saturday Oct 29, 2022
Julius and I are back with a look at Uwe Rosenberg's Field's of Arle. It's a lovely game in which you get to relive the lives of Mr. Rosenberg's ancestors, well, more or less. It's at least a look at what life might have been like in the province of Arle, in Germany in the 18th century (as a worker placement game).
Saturday Oct 15, 2022
Saturday Oct 15, 2022
This week I go it alone in my little lighthouse. I look at a small journaling RPG about keeping a lighthouse with, um, something supernatural underneath. In this real-time game, each day you roll a few dice and record an entry in your logbook... # of ships, weather and any brief notes. Then, you can also write in more detail about the day in a journal. There, you will keep track of your comings and goings as well as any issues with the thing under the lighthouse. It's a neat little game with a great idea that fell a little short for me.
- Log-book of the Lighthouse-keeper (Drive Thru RPG)
Saturday Oct 01, 2022
Saturday Oct 01, 2022
It's that time of year again! It's time to make your Top 20 solo games list for the annual Top 100 (Top 200) list managed by Kevin Erskine! Listen along with Julius as I prepare my list for Kevin
- 2022 Top 20 announcement & discussion thread (BGG)
- My Top 20 (29)
- Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
- Onirim
- Nusfjord
- Ragemore
- Sentinels of the Multiverse
- Castellion
- At the Gates of Loyang
- Nations: The Dice Game
- Conflict of Heroes
- Final Girl
- Navajo Wars
- Newton
- Elder Sign
- Disaster on K2
- Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
- Escape: The Curse of the Temple
- Kanban EV
- AstroNavis Merchant Advanced
- PAX
- Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island
- Imperials Settlers
- The Isle of Dr Necreaux
- Outdoor Survival
- Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game
- Hostage Negotiator
- Silverton
- Snowdonia
- Urbion/.Equilbrion
- Fields of Arle
Saturday Sep 17, 2022
Saturday Sep 17, 2022
This week Julius teaches me about the game Project L. L stands for that shape of piece in games like Tetris (or Project L), for example. This is a polyomino game in which you are collecting and upgrading pieces to fit onto boards in order to complete the boards and get points. It's a rather interesting sounding game and, by the way, the components look really good.
Saturday Sep 10, 2022
Saturday Sep 10, 2022
This week we have one of our Popular Mechancis episodes; but, this week we cheat! We don't talk about a game mechanic per se. Instead, we talk about big games. What the heck does that mean though? Julius and I talk about good games we each think are big. What are your favorite big games?
Saturday Sep 03, 2022
Saturday Sep 03, 2022
We brought in our in-house real-time game expert, Julius to discuss Paramedics: Clear. As hinted above, it is a real-time game in which you play a paramedic rushing to save lives at time runs out.
Saturday Aug 27, 2022
Saturday Aug 27, 2022
This week Julius and I finally get around to talking about the 3rd Fantasy Flight co-operative LCG, Marvel Champions. In this game you play as a super-hero trying to stop a villain from their evil scheme. The game can be played with the pre-built hero-decks or you can do some pre-game deck construction to build some really powerful heroes.
Saturday Aug 20, 2022
Saturday Aug 20, 2022
We took another 1 week break but we come back with a two game discussion! Okay, they are both small games and this episode ended up being a bit shorter than most but that's okay. This week's games are similar in that in both you are lining up cards in numerical order. Each supports 1 to 5 players and each seems fun. Mind you, Julius and I each have only played one of the two games so we can't really compare if one is more fun than other but we can both say the game we played is definitely fun!
Saturday Aug 06, 2022
Saturday Aug 06, 2022
This week Julius tells me all about the game Kingdom Rush: Monsters, based on the tower defense for mobile devices. The game's art and theme comes straight out of the video game and does a good job of copying the setting, but is it a tower defense game? Julius doesn't think so. Listen and get the scoop!
Saturday Jul 30, 2022
Saturday Jul 30, 2022
This week is one of our "long running" Popular Mechanics episodes. This time around we look at deck building in solo games and talk a bit about some we like.
- 04:11 Friday (BGG)
- 07:08 Maiden's Quest (BGG)
- 11:27 Star Realms (BGG)
- 12:15 Star Realms: Frontiers (BGG)
- 14:13 Big Book of Madness (BGG)
- 15:00 Lewis and Clark (BGG)
- 20:20 Newton (BGG)
- 20:57 Rune Age (BGG)
- 24:18 Edge of Darkness (BGG)
- 27:31 The LOOP (BGG)
- 30:14 Warp's Edge (BGG)
Games I wrote down but didn't talk about
Saturday Jul 23, 2022
Saturday Jul 23, 2022
This week, we look at a board game based on the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series originally published by Bantam. In these classic game books, you are the hero of the story and as you read through, you get to make choices that very much affect how the story continues. This was managed with a branching story in which you would read the book out of order.
This game tries to recreate that experience using one of the classic books, number 15 in the series. It does a great job of making you feel like you are reading an old CYOA book but using cards instead of a book.
- The House of Danger game (BGG)
- The House of Danger book (gamebooks.org)
If you want to explore the House of Danger, listen to episode 264.
If you would rather avoid the House of Danger, go back to episode 263.