Push Your Luck Podcast Ep 75: Chris Cantrell from Riot Games!

Hey everyone! This episode is quite special and exciting for me because we interviewed Chris from Riot Games about Mechs vs Minions, their first foray into the boardgaming world! Brian joins me as we chat with Chris about their thought processes and its especially intriguing for me because I am in both the video game and tabletop gaming world and its fascinating that a video game company decided to try their hand at publishing a boardgame when typically, its the other way around.

So check out our episode here!

Push Your Luck Podcast Ep 73 & 74

Hey everyone!

Website is not dead but i am focusing a lot more on my video reviews ;p nevertheless, wanted to let you know about Ep 73 & 74.

In Ep 73, I chat with my friend Brian Kang who just had his virgin experience at GENCON 2016! He was a volunteer demo staff and I asked him if he will recommend it to anyone, what he assumed and what he actually experienced at GENCON 2016. It is definitely a very different experience when I was with Asmodee last GENCON and I think a large part of it is now FFG is in charge of the volunteers group in North America. Its a pity though because I had a lot of fun there and I wished Brian had the same experience as I did. Oh well...

In Ep 74, I chat with Brian again on Captain Sonar and our thoughts about it. I still can never fully get into real time games like this mostly because I keep harboring the idea that mistakes can and will happen and you can never truly mitigate it and as such my own personal enjoyment when I win or lose is somewhat tainted...

Push Your Luck Podcast Ep 72: Can't Stop the Sackson Part 2: Golden Ages

Hey everyone! Episode 72 is released! Alexander Bevier joins me as we chat about Sid Sackson again and his involvement in a golden age just before the current one that most people did not seem to know! We also chat about golden ages past and why it happened and what may have caused their decline.

Here's hoping that our current golden age won't end anytime soon!

Check out the episode here
http://feeds.feedburner.com/PushUrLuckPodcastpulp

Push Your Luck Podcast Ep 71: What's in a theme?

So after Brian's article on Mombasa, we had a discussion and wanted to talk more about themes and sensitivities, specifically why certain themes are chosen given how stereotypical it can be and possibility inaccurate representations can be found and it can then be perceived as insensitive. I invited Geoff to come and chat with us. I did invite a few others but due to scheduling conflict they could not make it but I will try and invite them again in the future to chat as I think this is a interesting and important topic to talk about.

A few disclaimers as you listen to the podcast:

a) we don’t claim to be experts, we just want to have a discussion, based on our experiences and ourselves as individuals

b) what we hope to achieve is some form of awareness to everyone who maybe listening to this podcast, some food for thought if you will

c) get other people thinking, talking and even discussing about this, be it if they are a publisher, designer or gamer

Please feel free to leave your comments and how you feel here in the blog post. Alternatively, please head to the guild on BGG and discuss there as well!

Podcast here

Thanks for listening!

Push Your Luck Podcast Episode 70: Top 7 Underrated games!

Joel Eddy from Drive Thru Reviews join Eric as they chat about the Top 7 games in they feel are underrated. That is, they are really fun games that deserve more love than they currently are receiving in the boardgame community.

Games covered: Zombie State: Diplomacy of the dead, Helvetia, Vineta, Khmer, Milestones, Divinare, Vanuatu, Dark Darker Darkest, Liberte, Fleet, Galaxy Defenders, Homeland the game, Sentinel Tactics, Space Cadets and Space Cadets Dice Duel.

Link to What's Your Game NIPPON giveaway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usYBdvVNJnI

Push Your Luck Podcast is a WHOOOP WHHOOOOP member of the Dicetower network. Visit our website www.pushurluckpodcast.com, follow @duckizz on twitter and subscribe to our youtube channel youtube.com/duckizz for other random blabbering and video reviews - VISIT NOW!

You can check out the podcast here
http://feeds.feedburner.com/PushUrLuckPodcastpulp

Agree? Disagree? What are your underrated games? Let us know in the comments below!

Push Your Luck Video Ep100! + Contest!

I review Nippon, a 2015 release by @WhatsYourGameEU and designed by @Sentieiro and @paulosoledade! Medium weight, action selection and area control game by the dynamic duo that will surely melt your brain with the numerous paths to victory! 

Intro to the episode: 00:05

Special Guests! : 00:25

Intro to the game: 07:34

Components: 09:24

Rules: 11:36

Review and Contest: 29:18

This is a VERY SPECIAL episode for me because its my 100th and I could not have done it without the gracious and generous support from my friends in the boardgame industry! Since this is my 100th, I am holding a contest! The details are in my video.

Some other contest details:

a) Contest is open to all! What’s Your Game will send a copy of Nippon to you.

b) Winner will be randomly selected from all entries.

c) Contest will end on 29 Feb and I will pick the winner on 1st March. 

Remember to follow me on twitter @duckizz and leave me suggestions and comments so I can improve! Good luck for the contest!

Many many many thanks to What’s Your Game for this review copy and for sponsoring the contest!

https://youtu.be/usYBdvVNJnI

Interview with Alexander Pfister!

So after playing Mombasa, which is an awesome game, I wanted to chat with the designer, Alexander Pfister because he also designed other games that I really liked, for example Broom Service. I wanted to find out more about his design process and specifically how Mombasa was "born". We initially tried an audio interview but due to technical issues, we had to follow up with a written interview instead. Here are the questions and answers:

The Politics of Mombasa

Mombasa is a very heavy game, with what seems like twenty different mechanics going on at the same time. Its main mechanic is a neat take on deckbuilding, but the game also offers some area control, light worker placement, and even a personal point track that everyone else can only marginally interfere with. Mombasa somehow harnesses these into a fun and coherent whole, as Eric explains in his 98th video. He recommends buying and playing the game on its mechanical merits alone, but for me, the most interesting part of the game is its theme.

You see, though Mombasa is an abstract strategy euro, it has a decidedly political statement printed on the front of its rulebook that explains the theme:

Push Your Luck Podcast Ep69!

Woot! 1st episode of 2016! Sorry it has been so long because we are both on holidays and enjoying ourselves and playing loads and loads of games!

This episode we talk about Jon's Best of 2015 geeklist and also a few games we have played recently.
Games covered are:

german railroads

dojo kun

automania

between 2 cities

mombasa

portao para o mundo, lisboa

nippon

karuba

7 wonders duel

argent: the consortium

broom service

the voyages of marco polo

grand austria hotel

codenames

the pursuit of happiness

watson & holmes

Also take note Push Your Luck Video will be releasing its 100th video soon! There will be a contest as well so subscribe to the channel and keep an eye on it!

The podcast can be downloaded here

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PushUrLuckPodcastpulp

Stats for 2015!

Another year has ended and it was a great year for gaming I must say! Especially since I had a chance to volunteer for Asmodee at their booth at GENCON 2015!

So here are my stats:

total games played: 301

total unique games played: 137

total 2015 unique games played: 57

2015 Games I played

1 codenames

2 pandemic legacy s1

3 the grizzled

4 rights

5 arboretum

6 troll

7 blood rage

8 broom service

9 discoveries

10 dragonwood

11 elysium

12 exploding kittens

13 kraftwagen

14 new york 1901

15 queen’s architect

16 shakespeare

17 the voyages of marco polo

18 xcom

19 above and below

20 air alliance

21 bad medicine

22 baseball highlights: 2045

23 best treehouse ever

24 between 2 cities

25 bomb squad academy

26 cacao

27 caffeine rush

28 chew

29 dark seas

30 dolmen

31 eternal dynasty

32 food chain magnate

33 fool’s gold

34 the great dinosaur rush

35 GEM

36 guns & steel

37 isle of skye

38 joraku

39 lanterns

40 letter tycoon

41 matcha

42 mottainai

43 my village

44 nevermore

45 ophir

46 parfum

47 pi mal pflaumen

48 risk star wars edition

49 nyet

50 specter ops

51 starfighter

52 stockpile

53 tides of time

54 trambahn

55 war band: against the darkness

56 warehouse 51

57 the world of smog