#337: Our Listeners’ Top 20 Board Games of All-Time 2025
Board Game Barrage
It's time again to turn the tables and get your take, to feel out the collective tastes of you, the listeners of the show. It's the annual Listener Top 20! You've been sending in all of your lists (thank you!), I've been compiling all of the data (you're welcome!) - and here it is, in a convenient list format. Before we ask the audience, we talk about Flip 7, Hot Streak, and Kolejka. 02:37 - Flip 7 10:40 - Hot Streak 19:47 - Kolejka 27:42 - Listener Top 20 29:05 - Agricola 29:55 - Gloomhaven 31:26 - Guards of Atlantis II 32:20 - Blood on the Clocktower 33:20 - Arcs 34:40 - Tigris &...
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#336: Happy Little Accidents
Board Game Barrage
When playing games it's easy to fall into the trap of over-anaylsing turns, or questioning whether the move we made was the right one, or even allowing people to roll back whole turns - so we're asking if maybe we've been wrong this whole time, and we should just ... embrace it? Are mistakes interesting? Before we have any regrets, we talk about Apiary, Wizards Cup, and Wroth. 02:43 - Apiary 13:43 - Wizards Cup 20:41 - Wroth 31:37 - Mistakes are fun? Vote for the listener Top 20 board games at: https://boardgamebarrage.com/top20 Get added to the BGB community map at:...
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#335: A Cole New Wehrle
Board Game Barrage
A dazzling place you never knew ... until now that is! We're diving deep on beloved designer Cole Wehrle in another designer spotlight. We dig back into his Roots, and explore the many Arcs that led to his Oath to revolutionize thematic board games. Before our traffic gets infamous, we talk about Toy Battle, Subjective, and Wild Tiled West. 03:43 - Toy Battle 13:51 - Subjective 22:11 - Wild Tiled West 30:43 - Designer Spotlight: Cole Wehrle 34:13 - Pax Porfiriana 40:03 - Root 46:21 - Oath 47:45 - Arcs 50:27 - John Company: Second Edition 56:49 - Molly House Vote for the listener Top 20 board...
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#334: Nothing's Done It Better
Board Game Barrage
Well, we finally did it. We played CATAN, and it was ... good! And then we started wondering, is there anything that's done quite the same thing that that game is doing? And then that got us wondering how many games there are like that, where it's genuinely hard to say that nothing has done it better since. And then that got us wondering if, instead of all this wondering, we should record a podcast episode. Before we wander, we talk about Box Two, Catan: Cities & Knights, and An Infamous Traffic. 02:47 - Box Two 09:18 - Catan: Cities & Knights 19:50 - An Infamous Traffic 31:58 - Has...
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#333: Gold3n G33ks
Board Game Barrage
Happy 333! In honour of our three hundred and thirty third episode, BoardGameGeek has decided to host an emergency session of the Golden Geek Awards, and we're here to tell you about all the nominees that satisfy the crucial conditions of being (1) good games (2) we played (3) last year. Before we open our third eye, we also talk about Einfach Genial 3D, Gazebo, and Stalk Exchange. 02:28 - Einfach Genial 3D 11:48 - Gazebo 19:08 - Stalk Exchange 28:43 - 2025 Golden Geek Awards 30:34 - Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth 31:09 - A Gest of Robin Hood 32:45 - Ironwood 33:09 - Compile: Main 1...
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#332: Hard Pass!
Board Game Barrage
I would say that, for the most part, there's very little we won't play - but we also know what we like, and especially what we don't like. Every so often a game gets suggested that we have to say "literally anything but" to. Before we pass hard, we talk about TRICKTAKERs, Iquazú, and Hubworld: Aidalon. 02:49 - TRICKTAKERs 11:52 - Iquazú 21:47 - Hubworld: Aidalon 31:03 - Hard pass games 32:11 - Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant 33:29 - Captain Sonar 34:04 - Citadels 35:19 - 7 Wonders 40:03 - Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition 41:03 - Battlestar...
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#331: One Thing I Hate About You
Board Game Barrage
We've spent a lot of time over the years singing the praises of the games we love, but they can't be perfect right? Surely there's something, one little thing, that bugs us - a small blemish in our otherwise most beloved games? Before we come clean, we talk about Classified Information, Starline Hill, Panda Spin, and SHASN: AZADI. 03:13 - Classified Information 11:54 - Starline Hill 13:35 - Panda Spin 25:32 - SHASN: AZADI 41:56 - Things we hate about games we love 42:39 - Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization 44:14 - Tigris & Euphrates 44:36 - Archipelago 45:09 - Cthulhu Wars 45:17...
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#330: We Played a Load of Games!
Board Game Barrage
We just got back from Dice Tower West, so you know what that means ... bunches and bunches of games! Between the convention, and the meetup, and just hanging out at Mark's place, we got a lot of great stuff played, and we're going to give you all the highlights, with such treats as Moon Colony Bloodbath, Out of Sorts, and Feierabend. 04:16 - Corporate America 12:19 - Acquire 18:09 - Inside Job 23:12 - Feierabend / Finishing Time 33:13 - Moon Colony Bloodbath 44:44 - Family Dinner: More or Less 52:00 - Mister Diamond 57:21 - Out of Sorts 1:07:16 - Dragon's Gold 1:08:13 - Carrom...
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#329: All the Stars Are Here!
Board Game Barrage
I'm not sure why you'd make a hall of fame that's not also a sidewalk, but that's exactly what BoardGameGeek have gone and done - they've curated 25 games into their hall of fame, and we're here to judge them for their choices. It's weird that they didn't come to us first, honestly. Before we deck the halls, we talk about Arborea, Beyond the Horizon, and Taiwan Night Market. 02:49 - Arborea 10:32 - Beyond the Horizon 20:43 - Taiwan Night Market 32:00 - BGG Hall of Fame 38:57 - Diplomacy 40:35 - Acquire 41:55 - Cosmic Encounter 43:25 - Civilization 45:05 - 1830: Railways & Robber...
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#328: Anticipation Auction: Games of 2025
Board Game Barrage
Okay, pay attention, this is gonna be different! We're looking at the rest of 2025, deciding what we think the most well received games of the year are going to be - but then we're going to be bidding on them, auction style. Whoever's slate ends up performing best in their categories at the end of the year gets all the glory ... and if you vote on who you think is going to win, you could get $50! Before we're going, going, gone, we talk about Nyakuza, Hooky, and Altay: Dawn of Civilization. 03:26 - Nyakuza 10:26 - Hooky 16:15 - Altay: Dawn of Civilization 27:16 - Anticipation...
info_outlineMore isn't always better, but that's sometimes a hard lesson to learn in the world of board games - we dig into an intriguing listener suggestion about how games (and gamers) can often fall into this trap. Also ... I guess we've got to plan some games for our funerals? It's a double hit of listener questions! Before we dress in black, we talk about Keydom's Dragons, Sagrada Artisans, and Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory.
01:49 - Keydom's Dragons
11:30 - Sagrada Artisans
18:51 - Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory
30:57 - Draft winner
33:56 - More isn't always better
35:25 - Rising Sun
39:18 - A Feast for Odin
39:24 - Patchwork
46:02 - Games for funerals
46:38 - Biblios
46:53 - Time's Up!
47:54 - True Colors
48:18 - Fuji Flush
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