1 Player Podcast

It's back to the table for us with Pandemic: The Cure.  This is the classic game of world saving, dice chucking fun.  The game is a dice version of the now classic Pandemic.  Julius and I revisit the game and see how it holds up.

• Pandemic: The Cure (BGG, Z-Man)

This week I talk about Storm Above the Reich, a GMT game designed by Mark Aasted & Jeremy White.  This is a WWII game in which you simulate the German air defense against American bombers.  You control a group of fighters that try to engage and bring down the American bombers.  The game is a stand-alone sequal to Skies Above the Reich and can be integrated with it to get a much longer campaign game.  I quite enjoyed the game and hope the podcast does a fair job of giving you a sense of what it's like.

Shame on me for also forgetting to mention that GMT currently has Skies Above Britain on their P500.  This is the British equivalent of the game.

Finally, I had my Covid booster yesterday and just feel worn out today.  If I did a poor job of editing this week, well, more poor than normal, then blame that.

• Storm Above the Reich (BGG, GMT)

Not really discuss but also check these out.

• Skies Above the Reich (BGG, GMT)
• Skies Above Britain (BGG, GMT)

This week, Julius talks about Solenia.  In this game, you ply the winds of a tiny planet trading for goods and stuff on a giant yellow airship.

• Solenia (BGG)

This week I return to interviewing other solo podcast hosts.  This time around, it's Steve Morrison of Errant Adventures.  The podcast features playthroughs of solo games.  Each game spans multiple episodes and after over 40 weekly episodes he's still on his third game.  We have a long rambling discussion centered around solo roleplaying as well as his podcast.  I hope you enjoy!

• Errant Adventures (Internet)
• Tale of the Manticore (Blogspot)
• The Bad Spot (YouTube)
• Arcane Flora/Strrrbuck (Arcane Flora, twitter)
• Red Markets RPG (RPGG, internet)

This week Julius and I delve into the realm of point and click video games... sort of.  We are talking about a point and click board game, or more precisely, book game.  Cantaloop: Breaking Into Prison is an analog game that plays, looks and feels like a classic point and click adventure, think The Secret of Monkey Island or Grim Fandango from Lucas Arts.  Just, there is no clicking in this game as it's all based on a book.

• Cantaloop (BGG, Lookout Games)
• Point and Click adventures (GameRant)
• Grim Fandango (VGG, internet)
• Loom (VGG)
• The Secret of Monkey Island (VGG)
• How to say Friedemann Findeisen (YouTube)

This week I teach Julius about the game Coldwater Crown.  This is a game in which you are competing in a fishing tournament to get the most trophy points.  Like a modern dance competition, there are trophies available for just about anything you do.  Come hear what someone that doesn't like fishing think about this game.

• Coldwater Crown (BGG, Bellwether Games)

This week, Julius and family talk about the game Twinkle.  This is a dice game were you are trying to make constellations.   Keep in mind, stuff doing with space and stars is often very mathy.  This game seems to be no exception... huzzah! 

• Twinkle (BGG, V Games)

This week Julius tells us about the game Red Rising, published by Stonemaier Games.  This game is based on the novel series by the same name by Pierce Brown and let's you play the role of house attempting to rise in power.  This is a pretty abstract card game that is really a rummy game at heart.  Enjoy!

• Red Rising game (BGG, Stonemaier Games)
• Red Rising series (Pierce Brown)

This week Julius and I talk more about games that aren't games.  I bought two new Mazescape mazes, published by Devir games.  These are fun little mazes that required folding and unfolding the page in different ways to be able to solve the maze.  Julius and I also briefly talk about two other games that are both very similar, Friedemann Friese's Folders mazes and Monument Valley.

Folders is basically the same idea as Mazescape but a bit simpler in that you are just trying to find the exist.  Monument Valley is a very successful video game with a similar idea of travelling through a shifting maze.

• Mazescape Ariadne (BGG)
• Mazescape Labyrinthos (BGG)
• Friedemann Friese's Folders (BGG Store)
• Monument Valley (Official website)

This week Julius talks with Joe Slack, designer of Relics of Rajavihadra.  This is a puzzle game, think Think Fun's Rush Hour or River Crossing.  These are fun spatial puzzles include large pieces to play with, grab in your hand and move about.  I really enjoy these kinds of games, or puzzles, as you prefer.  This one sounds pretty cool!

• Relics of Rajavihara (BGG, Crazy Like a Box)

This week I tell Julius about the bag building, worker placement game Groves.  It's an interesting little game with just fantastic art by an independent publisher, Letiman Games.  Check it out.  There's stuff to like and stuff not to like about this game.  Oh drat, I just realized this is out of print.

• Groves (BGG, Letiman Games)

This week Julius and I talk about the dice game OctoDice.  This is a small roll-n-write set in the AquaSphere universe.  AquaSphere is a game by designer Stephan Feld, who is known for making point salad games.  Just about everything you do, you get points.  This game, by Christoph Toussaint is also a point salad game.  It's light and fun for me, but Julius finds it much less satisfying.  Find out why!

• OctoDice (BGG)
• AquaSphere (BGG)

This episode is a revisit to the zombie avoiding game Raxxon.  This game was originally published by Plaid Hat games and is now owned by the large corporate Asmodee.  In this prequal to Dead of Winter, a large corporation has been turning people into zombies.  Your goal is to get as many all healthy people out of the city as the zombie population grows.  Fortunately it's a small city with only 30 healthy people and 30 zombies.

This is an interesting game of manipulating cards on a tableau to remove the healthy characters.  The act of doing this means that over time you have more unhealthy cards in the tableau and that just makes the game harder and harder.  It's interesting and it's really hard (for me) but if played well (like Julius) you can actually win!

Anyway, check out this older game.  It's worth revisiting.

• Raxxon (BGG, FFG)
• Raxxon fan made scenarios (joepinion)

This episode Julius and I talk Gloomhaven.  Julius has the big giant original game and I have the baby brother Jaws of the Lion.  We talk about the two game and compare them a bit.  Check out what we think in this longer than normal esisode.  Then go listen to the latest episode of Meeple, Myself and I to hear what Jason, an unabashed Gloomhaven lover things about the two games.

• Gloomhaven (BGG)
• Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (BGG)
• Meeple, Myself and I (podcast)

This week Julius teaches us about Underwater Cities.  Listen carefully though.. this game is overflowing with ocean puns.  Actually, Julius tossed in more puns than I had realized until I started editing.  I can't fathom how he comes up with them, but regardless, the game itself is really interesting.