In Episode 40 of Cards and Cubes, we talk about games we’ve recently played including Carnegie, Glasgow, and Treasure Hunter.
Then we have a discussion about board game streamlining prompted by Pingyao: First Chinese Banks, mentioning a variety of Vital Lacerda games, CGE games, and others. Highlights include simplicity vs streamlining, thematic integration, flow, smaller versions of larger games, and some examples of arguably insufficient rulebooks.
Games on the horizon for us this week include Stroganov, Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, and Funfair.
0:00 – Intro
0:57 – Top 10 most played games recorded on BoardGameGeek over the last 30 days
Games Played
9:52 – Carnegie
22:05 – Glasgow
27:36 – Treasure Hunter
Board Game Streamlining
33:34 – Pingyao: First Chinese Banks, rules, losses in translation, and not feeling like playing it.
35:42 – What is “streamlining?”
38:39 – Arbitrary steps, smoothness of presentation: Vital Lacerda games
41:36 – Thematic integration: Lisboa, The Gallerist, Kanban, On Mars, CGE Games: Dungeon Petz, Alchemists, Anachrony, Trickerion: Legends of Illusion
47:26 – Flow and games which feel like playing disconnected minigames
48:21 – Simplicity vs streamlining: Splendor, Azul, abstract games, Barony, Majesty: For the Realm, trick-taking games
52:00 – Smaller versions of larger games, roll-and-write, card game versions, 2-player versions: 7 Wonders: Duel, Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, Caverna: Cave vs Cave, Troyes Dice, Rajas of the Ganges: The Dice Charmers, Masters of Renaissance: Lorenzo il Magnifico – The Card Game, Mercado de Lisboa, Solenia
54:46 – Does streamlining make a game better or worse?: Race For The Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy, New Frontiers, Arkwright the Card Game
58:44 – Artificially short rulebooks and pretending to streamline: Tapestry, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Cry Havoc
1:03:25 – Concluding thoughts
Games on the Horizon
1:04:52 – Stroganov
1:11:06 – Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns
1:16:59 – Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
1:21:45 – Funfair
1:24:02 – Outro