Talk Cardboard

If you've been very good boys, girls and non-binary kids this month, then and only then will you get a visit from the Die Jester who will tell you spooky stories about the board games they played. Sometimes his name is Efka and sometimes her name is Elaine. This halloween, the Die Jester is here, and they brought timestamps with them.1:22 Lodge7:37 Oath: New Foundations17:42 Grabble22:53 Upland and Prairie26:55 Undaunted: 2200 - Revolution32:05 Dead Reckoning39:24 Arthieves45:37 Vroom51:08 Planet Pioneer Meteora56:28 Dune: Imperium - Uprising56:57 Here Lies

Hot hogs! Hot Hogs! HOT HOGS!I have to come clean with you - this die jest features hot hogs. Admittedly, I am writing this description just to see how many times I can get away with HOT HOGS! So far it's five times, but I think I can maybe cram in a sixth. Hot hogs.On to the timestamps:0:57 Sidereal Confluence2:40 Here Lies7:45 Personal Demons14:25 Final Titan21:02 Annulets28:41 Boast or Nothing31:45 Daytime Minutes36:20 Dino Racer38:26 Hot Streak38:34 Container41:07 Wondrous Creatures: Winterfall46:02 Oath: New Foundations56:32 Accidental fake out ending, still Oath: New Foundations58:31 Neon Hope1:01:21 Glasgow Train Robbery1:11:28 Kingdom Crossing1:17:43 Revenant

Hark! The stars align, the constellations merge, the celestial bodies shake as the time is nigh for the die to be jest. Your only chance at salvation - roundup some board games. KARATE CHOP!On to the timestamps:1:02 ICE: Unlimited (unfortunate title)7:25 Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor12:15 Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor - Exmoor15:18 Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountain19:23 Neon Hope32:39 Sausage Sizzle33:51 Sidereal Confluence37:12 My Favorite Things37:47 Yotei41:07 The Queen's Dilemma

The month is coming to an end - thus the die is jest. Join us for the monthly roundup of board games poked and proded by the ones at NPI. And what a roundup it is! On to the timestamps:0:48 Moytura6:05 Morty Sorty Magic Shop10:40 Container15:26 World Order24:53 Boss Fighters QR28:25 Yonder32:29 dnup35:43 Line of Fire: Burnt Moon38:22 Slay the Spire: The Board Game39:22 Here Lies44:22 Cozy Stickerville48:41 Wingspan Pocket

Yes, this is the very last episode of Talk Cardboard. It's also the first episode of The Die Jest. Which is how Talk Cardboard will live on. Right here, on patreon.On to the timestamps!5:33 The Queen's Dilemma14:32 Oath16:03 Torchlit19:40 Hanami24:30 Sovereign: Fall of Wormwood29:37 Strange Slot Simulator34:26 Container39:15 Foxglove Farm42:46 The Old King's Crown44:46 Typeset

On this bonus episode of Talk Cardboard, seven more games we've played at Spiel Essen.On to the timestamps:0:00 Intro0:58 Skiwi4:12 Petal Plotters6:48 Milch mit Abführmittel10:29 GODŌ: The Five Paths12:54 Carnival of Sins18:40 Whirly Derby25:14 Winning Ticket32:43 Tornado Splash

Just for reference, the population of Klaipėda, the third largest city in Lithuania is approximately 161 000 people. The number of attendees in this year's Spiel Essen was 220 000 people, meaning they managed to cram the entirey of Klaipėda and much more into just eight convention halls and every one of those people were buying board games.I appreciate that that is maybe not everybody's jam, and aspects of it are not our jam either. But getting our mitts into a jar of Bonne Maman filled with gooey new board game releases - put a bib on me and fire up the toaster!In this special joint episode of No Pun Included and Talk Cardboard we cover 16 new releases from Spiel Essen 2025, which you can either listen to here or partake in the video version https://youtu.be/NHVLn-ZxVWsSHIRTS! Find them on https://no-pun-included-shop.fourthwall.com/On to the timestamps:0:00 Cold Open2:46 Intro5:42 Night Soil (Unranked)9:11 Bouba Kiki14:14 Nocturnis17:56 Formidable Farm/Formidabel!22:00 Tax the Rich27:44 Echoes of Time36:30 Fearless41:30 National Economy48:23 Thesauros1:00:34 biD Coin1:07:20 Kikai/Bricolage Heads1:16:46 Tag Team1:26:59 Recall1:36:14 ???1:56:10 ??2:03:33 ?2:14:53 Outro

Spinning pandas, evolving primates, and... Capitalism! We have all three for you in this episode - thankfully not all in the same game.We could have had three games about mammals, but we didn't think this through. Onto the time stamps:00:00 Cold open02:09 Intro03:45 Panda Spin18:34 Primates32:51 Tycoon India 198148:25 Correspondence

Only three games this episode? What gives? Well, in the tried and true brand tradition, we decided to go back to our original formula. But no sad trombone noises please - we're really, definitely, honestly going to make it work this time...On this episode, we have Identity - a trick taking game that promises personality, Out of Sorts - a game of inventing a cataloguing system for books in an alien library, and Magical Athlete - a game of racing a banana, a giant baby, and various other quirky things round a track.On to the time stamps:00:00 Cold open & intro05:50 Identity14:16 Out of Sorts28:57 Magical Athlete42:03 Correspondence 

There are episodes where we bring as much knowledge as we can about whatever board game we are talking about. And then there are episodes where we just want to share why something didn't click so much that we didn't want to go beyond game one. Apropos of nothing, today we'll be chatting about Brink, a "trading cubes in space" game that conceptually riffs on Catan but in execution whiffs on us.SHIRTS! Find them on https://no-pun-included-shop.fourthwall.com/On to the time stamps:00:00 Cold Open & IntroWork in Progress: 2:08 Tenby7:26 Railroad Tiles10:42 Rumble Nation18:53 Winter RabbitAudience Correspondence:25:05 Vantage, Neurodivergence in Board GamesMain Feature:31:23 Brink