Boardgames To Go 256 - Spiel des Jahres Deep Dive 2026 (with Jonathan Takagi)

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Openers: Mark: Kraftwagen and old podcasts like CubeLove Jonathan: Cocktail Games, and what will I do when the "old masters" pass away? Closers: Jonathan: Do we have too many good games? Here's what Bruno Faidutti says. scroll down for English Mark: How old is "an old game"? Does 2019 count? Jonathan Takagi @jtakagi My friend Jonathan Takagi returns to the podcast to talk about the upcoming Spiel des Jahres award. Not just the SdJ, we also talk about the Kennerspiel and Kinderspiel awards for "expert" and kids' games, too. And not only that, but Jonathan is known for digging past the three nominees for each award, deeper into the recommended games, too. Only the nominees can be picked for the top awards (announced live on July 12 and broadcast on YouTube). Nonetheless, sometimes we find amazing, "hidden gems" in the recommended lists, games that we may not have otherwise heard about. First we cover the Kennerspiel games. Nominees: Boss Fighters QR, Moon Colony Bloodbath, and Rebirth. Along with the Recommended list: Sanctuary, Frosted Blooms, Foundations of Metropolis, and Tag Team. Next it's the Kinderspiel titles. Nominees: Boo Party, Mookie Island, and Verflixt Verzaubert. Plus the Recommended list: Little Stinker, Half-and-Seek, and Paleolino Finally the big prize itself, the Spiel des Jahres. Nominees: Cozy Sticker Ville, Jinxo, and Morty Sorty Magic Shop. And the Recommended list: Hot Streak, Meister Makatsu, Take Time, Toriki, Toy Battle, and Wilmot's Warehouse. -Mark

Opener: Another online Games Day for podcast listeners Closer: Games BGG-weighted over 4 are never for me! (Never say never...) The folks on Discord gave me several good ideas for an episode. So good, in fact, that I decided to save them for a time when I could to more prep, have a co-host, or both. That meant I needed something else to feature this time. Since I often talk about the old games I play (10+ or even 25+ years old), this time I decided to change it up and highlight several new games I'd played. Because really--I'm always playing new games, usually ones that friends bring over or I find online. Once in a while they're even my own new acquisitions. It's just that so many of the newest, hottest games are in a complicated, overlong euro style that doesn't match my preferred kind of boardgame. "So many"...but not all. Here are the games & their publication dates that I set out to discuss in the episode. You'll see they're all from 2025-26, though I do include a couple notable ones from 2024. Still new, though, yeah? 7 Wonders Dice (2025) Hutan Life in the Rainforest (2025) Biathlon Blast (2025) Formidable Farm (2025) Oranges & Lemons (*2024) Orbit (2025) Star Wars Battle of Hoth (2025) Wingspan Americas expansion (2026) - Hummingbirds RA & Write (2025) 1975 White Christmas (2025) Tenby (2025) Piñatas (2025) 3 Witches (2025) Tango (*2024) One Round (2025) Well, after the episode, longtime listener & collaborator Greg Pettit took me to task for a bunch of "new" games that still maintained a connection to the past! Though he generously credits me with this as an intentional bit of creative control, it wasn't! It merely highlights my tendencies. The title of this episode is very apt. The part after the ellipsis is essential! I kept thinking, "That's a reprint. That's an expansion. That's just a new setting for C&C. That's another reprint. Where's all the 'New'?" Even some of the new were from old designers. Then I remembered "...for an Old Guy." Ahhhh. I get it now. Touché, Monsieur Pettit. 🤺 -Mark

Opener: I encourage listeners to join me at the OG guild's online game convention, OG Fest: Maispiele Within the last month I turned 60. Does that make me old? Officially? Whether it does or not, I'm still playing games. Which is what I discuss in this episode--what it's like to turn 60 in this hobby, as well as reflecting on what it was like when I turned 50, 40, 30, 20, 10...and even 0! Those were all personal milestones in some way--what did it mean for me as a gamer? In getting ready for this episode, I realized I kept thinking about time in three major ways: •  When I turned another milestone age (60, 30, whatever, and how old my kids were then) •  How long I'd been in the hobby at that point •  What the calendar date was, and what important things were happening in the hobby then (game releases, websites, the larger culture, etc.) It was an interesting exercise, thinking about all those things. Is my journey through life as a gamer anything like yours? Finally, I thought a little into the future--what will things be like for me as a gamer when I turn 70? I'm sure I'll still be playing, but it will be when I'm retired, living a thousand miles away from here. Will I be playing the same games? Going to some of the same conventions? Meeting new people or still focusing on my longtime gamer friends? -Mark

My annual Mark Madness contest is over, and co-host Adam Brocker joins me to wrap it up. Adam won the prediction contest last year, and this was his prize...a side job to work with me! Now we have a new winner, Mark363, who I am working to locate. If he's willing, in 2027 he will join me to run the next version of this contest. In 2026 Adam had suggested we take a closer look at games that were designed by pairs or teams of designers, in contrast with their solo work. With that in mind, we set up four divisions of sixteen game titles apiece. One division was centered around Wolfgang Kramer's solo and partnered design work, then another with Alan R. Moon, one more with Bruno Cathala, and a final centered around the mostly-Italian designer collaborations. After everyone made their predictions, we started voting for the games we liked best, wanted to win, or for any other reason. Gradually games were knocked out in a series of 1v1 matchups, leaving Azul, Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders Duel, and Grand Austria Hotel as our Final Four. In the end, Ticket To Ride was the ultimate winner, which meant Mark363 had done the bes with his predictions.

For the third year in a row I made it to Dice Tower West. Not only that, I enjoyed that convention with DaveO and other buddies. Not only that, but once again DaveO was my partner-in-crime for insisting we dedicate one day of our convention to focus on older boardgames. By "old" we mean games that are at least 25 years old. When we started this tradition that mean games published in in the last century, last millenium--1999 or earlier. Now, however, we can include games published all the way up to the year...2001 or earlier! That still leaves plenty of old favorites and dim memories we want to rediscover.   We give a quick rundown about the games we played, then spend the rest of the time talking about our favorites from the weekend, as well as fielding some listener questions (posted in advance on the Discord server!) about OG games. -Mark

The Sweet 16 is already done and we're on to the Elite Eight. That means just two remaining titles in each of our four divisions, so almost like a mini, division-level championship in each one.  From Germany it's either Azul or 6 Nimmt, then from America it's Diamant or Ticket to Ride. From France we'll either have 7 Wonders Duel or Sea Salt & Paper, and from "Italy" it's either Grand Austria Hotel or Barrage.  

BGTG 252C - Mark Madness 2026 (2nd Round [of 32])   1st round votes are in, now each successive round moves quickly—just three days. 2nd round voting due March 18 at noon BGG-time in Texas (UTC-5).   How are you voting? For the games you enjoy the most or the ones you predicted to win (based on what you imagined OTHERS would vote for)? I've heard the latter is like how a political primary works.   Close calls & Blow-outs • Vikings squeaked by Wandering Towers via a single vote • Same for Nucleum over Anachrony   • Meanwhile, Top & Down only GOT one vote compared to El Grande, losing 2% to 98 • Similarly Cleopatra & SOA over SOS Titanic, or 7 Wonders Duel over Terror in Meeple City, Diamant/Incan Gold over Andromeda, or Memoir 44 over Warriors. (I told you there were some gimmes in the first round)   But what about Ticket To Ride over Elfenland? 96% to 4%??     Regarding Designer Teams contrasting with individual designers, there doesn't seem to be any pattern in the results yet. That is, designers' individual efforts are not favored over their collaborations…or the other way around. It's just whatever is the better game?   However, thinking about has led me to offer some half-baked theories and observations.   All (almost): the collaborations tend to be with people from the same country, speaking the same language. I'm sure this is naturally easier Kramer: I think the games with collaborators are more "gamer-y" Moon: I think his collaborations are more "lush" Cathala: Similar to Kramer "Italians": Don't know! But looking forward to Nucleum vs Barrage

The first round is underway! Go vote at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/375187/mark-madness-2026-designer-teams

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Play along and predict the winners at https://challonge.com/MarkMadness2026 Predictions must be submitted by March 13 to be in the contest Mark Johnson @MarkEJohnson Adam Brocker @abrocker The calendar says March so that means it's time for "Mark Madness" again, my podcast-hosted voting contest. Like its namesake sports tournament, Mark Madness is where 64 games are pitted against each other in successive rounds of single-elimination votes. As before, I took the winner of llast year's contest, Adam Brocker, and asked him to co-host this year's contest. Adam told me he's interested in the designers behind our games, specifically when famous designers partner with others or create other games on their own. Just thinking about boardgame designer partnerships makes me immediately think of Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling, though there many others. Kramer himself has done many games on his own, other famous ones with Kiesling, still more with Ulrich, and that's not all. Before long, we realized that we could have a 16-game subset "Division" of Kramer games, which happen to feature German designers. Alan R. Moon is another famous designer who's worked alone or with others. Sure enough, that American designer primarily (but not exclusively) has worked with other Americans on their collaborations. Same for Bruno Cathala with the French designers (or French-speakers from nearby Belgium). With those three divisions established, we just needed one more to fill out the contest. Turning to Italy, some of the hottest games and designers come from that country & community. A little bit unique from the divisions previously devised, the Italians appear to work together in small groups that overlap and change from game-to-game. That itself is fascinating. Play along! I hope we get a good number of folks who submit their own official predictions at challonge.com, which is free. Some have already done it. You've until March 13 to submit your guesses, so you need to move quickly. Then the voting rounds will start via Geeklist polling. As you can see from the chart above, the successive rounds of this voting will start happening every three days: On March 15 we'll have the results of the first round, when 64 teams are winnowed down to 32 survivors. Then it proceeds to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, and Championship. Who will be the winner? We expect to do "micro-episode" podcasts throughout the month to talk about each round. They'll show up in your regular feed, and I will link them here, too. -Mark

Opener: 7 Wonders Dice Closer: Mark Madness 2026 (with Adam Brocker) preview - Register for free and make your predictions at https://challonge.com/MarkMadness2026! I've recently come back from a vacation in Germany. Once upon a time in this hobby, that really meant something significant. Germany was the worldwide headquarters and creative generator for boardgaming. Gamers in other countries hung on scraps of information, imported products, and had to learn a little of the German language to really be an active part of strategy boardgaming. In a way, that extra effort was also part of the fun, a level of commitment & dedication that went way beyond what it took to be a videogamer or cinephile. But, it's also true that it was a barrier to wider growth of the hobby.    I'm talking about 20-30 years ago. Now, in 2026, it's notably different. I don't think we even speak "Gamer German" any longer! 😀 Also, a boardgamer's trip to Germany doesn't have to include much about boardgames. That was the case with me. I can now acquire & play just about everything I'd want from the ease of my American home with internet access. At the same time...I've still got those 1990s roots in "German boardgaming," as we use to call our hobby, that I looked around and made some observations on this trip. That's what I share in this podcast. -Mark