The Spiel - Mp3 Version

Games around the globe. We report back from our latest adventure in Europe, covering the International Spieltag in Essen, Germany and filming a travelogue in Belgium.

Going the distance. We review Milestones, a road building game that mixes abstract strategy with custom rondels, and dive into Smash Up, a genre bending card game chock full of pirates, ninjas, zombies and robots.

Con-clusions. We finish our GenCon coverage with 15 interviews including chats with artists, board game cafe owners, publishers, and Ken St. Andre, designer of Tunnels & Trolls, the 2nd role playing game ever published.

More gab about games. Our GenCon coverage continues with a collection of interviews including chats with a renowned dice collector, a balloon artist and the cast of characters from board games come to life PLUS conversations with noted industry publishers.

Unconventional conversations. We dive into GenCon with a dozen interviews with some industry giants (Richard Garfield, Bruno Cathala), some influential newcomers (TableTop, The Game Whisperer) and some great game publishers.

Magic words. We review Sidibaba, a game that pits a team of players against the Leader of the Thieves in a timed race to find treasure and escape. We also look at an innovative dice driven train game, Rolling Freight.

That first step is a doozy! We review Rio d'Oro, a dice game that pits adventurers in a race to collect gold across a rickety 3-D bridge.

Use your grey cells. The Kennerspiel des Jahres recognizes the best strategy game of the year. From a deadly mountain peak to the bandit filled desert to the workshops of a medieval town, we review the 3 nominated games and try to predict the winner.

The big red pawn. From high stakes dice to story telling donkeys, our award season coverage continues with in-depth reviews of Vegas and Eselsbrücke, the final two nominees for the Spiel des Jahres, the most prestigious trophy in the game playing world.

Kids at heart. From dragonknights and toad slime to cheese stealing ghosts, we review the 3 nominees for the Kinderspiel des Jahres, Germany's Children's Game of the Year, and try to predict the winner.

Win-win-win. The Spiel des Jahres is more than Germany's Game of the Year. It's an institution. And home to the 3 most prestigious awards in the industry. We begin our award coverage with a review of Kingdom Builder, 1 of 3 Spiel des Jahres nominees.

Fun from the frozen north. We review 3 titles from Russian publisher Right Games: Evolution, Potion Making Practice and The Enigma of Leonardo.

Find 'em hot and leave 'em wet. Firefighter Captain Brian Strange visits the padded cell to give us an expert's perspective on Flash Point - a board game of teamwork, burning buildings and daring rescues.

Think inside the box. That's exactly what Adlung Spiele does. Their card games redefine the notion of what card games can be. We review 8 titles: choosing roles, flipping carpets & slapping bugs. So many kinds of fun, all from a simple deck of cards.

Canoes and cannonballs. Join us for an in-depth review of A Few Acres of Snow, Martin Wallace's deck building board game. We row through the rivers and forests of the North to settle the fate of the French & Indian War.

The whole pint. We settle a patch of land on the banks of Plum Creek, reviewing Walnut Grove - a fast, fun mash-up game that includes tile laying, worker placement and a rondel.

Gone fission. We review The Manhattan Project, a game where players race to build an atomic bomb, plus we look back at an influential classic: Advanced Civilization.

So nice, they named it twice. Dave reports back from Toy Fair 2012 with 10 interviews, plus a review of a new family card game, Let's Take A Hike.

What's next? We review Airlines: Europe and Fortuna, two middle weight games that can draw new players deeper into the hobby - games that strike a great balance between strategy and fun in under 90 minutes.

Deck building: the next generation. From galactic conquest to warring gods, we review Core Worlds and Ascension: Storm of Souls, two of the newest titles in the genre.