Shut Up & Sit Down

In this considerably 153rd episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Ava, Tom and Quinns are talking all about stories. First Ava and Tom dive deep into the watery archipelago of Sleeping Gods, and then Tom and Quinns trade water-cooler gossip about their ridiculous times with Hostage Negotiator: Career. There’s bells and swamps and influencers and ghosts. It’s truly the podcast that has everything!

Have a lovely weekend, folks!

In this nastily 152nd episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Tom and Quinns get shonky while talking about two games against the clock! We ramble for far too long about Egizia, a game of rivers and building monuments - before then chatting about Regicide, the hot new card game that’s got everyone a-bubblin’. We also talk a tiny bit about The Crew, and Tom does a bad joke twice!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

In this rapidly 151st episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Ava and Quinns are climbing mountains and swinging from trees to tell you about some board games about climbing mountains and swinging from trees.

Quinns introduces us to Trek 12, a game of mapping out mountains, roping numbers together and some clever envelopes. Then Ava wants to be a bit over-familiar with Fast Sloths, a game of hitch-hiking sloth racing.

In this wobbly 150th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, a freshly-jabbed Tom and perfectly off-kilter Matt are ready to tell YOU about SOME GAMES!

Matt regales us with the story of him crushing my space station in Star Scrappers:Orbital! We pretend to know all about wargames with Freedom! Tom rambles about his UKGE adventures in a smushed up-special!

And before you listen to this most excellent podcast, dear listener; a fun tidbit. We were going to do a big chunky roundup of all the exciting things Tom saw at UKGE, but so much of it was sufficiently interesting or strange that we’re going to save it for future, more in-depth coverage. Stay tuned for some opinions, and some hot, hot games!

It's a very special episode of the SU&SD podcast! Are you gonna learn about drugs? NO.

Instead, Matt done a big ol' interview with tabletop veteran and fabulous man Andrew Navaro. Andrew used to be the head of the legendary design studio Fantasy Flight Games, then became the director of Chip Theory Games, and now he represents Earthborne Games, a brand new publisher with a focus on sustainability.

Enjoy, everybody!

In this industrious 148th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Quinns and Tom are jumping into two varyingly bleak economic games. The Cost is an asbestos-mining infrastruct-em-up with a beige board and some bleak commentary, while Arkwright: The Card Game takes Arkwright’s cutlery manufacturing to a more compact place.

In this exceedingly 147th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Ava and Tom are talking about two games that couldn’t be more different! We’re getting trapped in a ‘bullet hell’ in Level 99 Games’ Bullet♥, and Ava trapped a bunch of her friends in a kind of ‘Pork Hell’ in TEETH: Night of the Hogmen!

Apologies for the lateness of this week's podcast! This site's own Tom Brewster has fallen ill with Covid-19. Tom's okay, but in his own words, "It sucks."

In this emergency episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, we're presenting one of our favourite panels from the most recent AWSHUX, our "Away SHUX" online convention. In it, Quinns has a terrific talk with his favourite Go YouTuber, In Sente, a.k.a. Michaela Galluci.

The pair shared their favourite tips for teaching complex games to people, but eventually succumbed to the temptation of just talking about Go. Did you know that it's a good game? It's a good, good game. If you missed Quinns' review of Go last year, definitely check it out.

We hope you're having a great weekend, everybody. Your regular podcast will be back next week.

In this mischievously 146th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Quinns, Ava, and Tom are going back to Oxford one last time for a night of card games, libraries, gardens and gratitude.

We’re looking at Atheneum, Ohanami, Similo and No Thanks! Four games with a lot of cards and not a lot in common! It’s almost entirely games we’re a bit ambivalent about! Is that exciting? I do hope so.

In this chilly 145th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Matt, Ava, and Tom are popping off into space! Do you want anything? We’ll be back in 5 minutes - but I’ve not got my keys so you’ll need to let me in thanks x

First we’re getting cold with Cryo - a game left us just a little nippy. We’ll then be negotiating ourselves into oblivion with Moonrakers - a game that has less connective tissue to the bond film of the same name than you might think!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

In this hungrily 144th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Quinns, Tom and Ava are locked in a room together! A week long gathering of your verifiably rowdy hosts kicked off with three cracking reprints of lovely older games, and then we all did a podcast about them!

We start with Big Daddy Kniz’s Royal Visit, move to Cornwall for Martin Wallace’s Tinner’s Trail before jumping across the pond for a steamboat race in Mississippi Queen!

Due to a live record, some of the trips and erms have been impossible to excise, so expect a slightly more chaotic pod than usual. We were very excited to be playing games together.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

In this willingly 143rd episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Quinns and Tom are going on an adventure(s)! Keep your hands and feet inside the box at all times - especially as we lower the lid over the top of your head and slide you into a Kallax. It’s where we keep all the adventures.

We’re going on ADVENTURE through ARNAK in the Lost Ruins of Arnak! We’re going on an ADVENTURE through TIME in The Loop! And last but not least, we’re going on a CARD GAME through FANTASY in Fantasy Realms!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

In this frankly 142nd episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Ava and Tom have been left alone again, and proceed to gush for almost an entire hour about the hottest hotgame right now: Oath! They shouldn’t let us get away with this stuff.

I can only promise that we do get to ‘how to play’ in this podcast, but it made sense for us to get whimsical about the victory conditions first to frame the rest of the rules, because they’re quite special.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

In this cuddly 141st episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, we’re taking a breather with a brew, and a couple of gentle games with cosy, cosy themes! We’re (k)notting our whats with The Whatnot Cabinet, trailing fairies in Fairy Trails, and… doing something else unusual in Herbaceous!

In this decadently 140th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Boardgame: The Podcast, we’re talking about a couple of hot-button-games that we’ve come over all tepid about. We’ll first guide you into the asymmetrical port of Merchants Cove, before serving up a delicious mug of mathematical coffee in… Coffee Traders!

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

In this butt-clenchingly 139th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, we’re talking all about manuals! Do not try to escape, you have been warned! Thrills abound as Matt and Ava jungle-gym their way through a forest of Adobe products, kerning, and intriguing observations - all centered around RATS: High Tea at Sea - the roll and write that we think is quite good! No need to ask for any other opinions, we are the professionals, after all.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

Live and scary from AwSHUX 2021, it’s Quinns, Tom and Ava! Apologies for the incredibly unhinged energy on this one, it was powered by nerves and I’m also editing it at 1 in the morning! What a combination!

We’ve got an absolutely brutal lineup of games on this one, folks. We’re talking plants, gardens and sheds in Three Sisters, we’re slapping down a bunch of little wooden towers in Medina, and we’re serving up hot hot murder on our pals in Night of the Ninja.

BUT WAIT! There’s more! At the tail-end of this pod, embark on an odyssey of AwSHUX previews! Tom and Quinns will battle it out in an arena of hyperbole - armed with 26 separate previews that they’ve ruthlessly whittled into the silliest segment around!

In this indubitably 137th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Tom and Quinns are producing decibels about two games that they are both a bit excited about! First off we’ll ramble about Nidavellir’s moody dwarves and chunky coins before taking a break in the wilderness of Cascadia; a land of solitary bears and salmon on the slalom.

We then finish this pod off with some very brief thoughts on recent video reviews for Cubitos and Stardew Valley: The Board Game - so if you need thoughts on rolling, growing, moving, and crowing… then you’ve come to the right place on your Friday evening! What luck!

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

In this imperceptibly 136th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Ava, Tom and Quinns chat about two chunky pieces of cardboard chicanery about people in history going places and taking what they find. Anno 1800 and Stroganov are up for discussion and traveling in opposite directions in more ways than one.

Have a lovely weekend!

In this whimsically 135th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Tom and Quinns chat about a number of single-player pen-and-paper map-drawing/journal-making role-playing games - or ‘Solo RPGs’, for short. We’ll be digging deep into Delve, thinking back to Field Guide To Memory, and shooting upwards to be Alone Among The Stars, each game a new designer and a new direction.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

In this floaty 134th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Matt and Quinns peek through a collection of cumulonimbi to deliver their verdict on just one game: CloudAge! Expect a dash of opinion, some twists of chatter, and just one unexpected visitor. We’ve got it all!

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

In this old-fashioned 133rd episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast Tom and Ava have been left on their own, and are abusing the privilege with a personal campaign to get some wonderful, fusty old European games reprinted. Come join us on a journey across a continent! We’ll be making friends with weird faces in Saint Petersburg, stealing some surprisingly colourful bricks from The Palaces of Carrara and getting grandiose in Spain with El Grande.

It’s weird for us to cover so many out of print games, but don’t worry, these are all currently available to play online through BoardGameArena or Yucata - so put your feet up for the no longer a very mystery tour, because I just told you all where we’re going, oops!

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

In this mysterious 132nd episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Tom, Quinns and Ava clamber aboard a raft of games that’s gently sailing down a river made of...dreams… Do not get into the water, the dreams are also full of plague.

We’re going to be rambling about an absolute bunch of games that, when combined, would make up our perfect post-covid boardgame night. If you want to be surprised by each addition to our lists then click play! Or if there’s anything in particular you’d like to hear about, we’ve got all the games timestamped below.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

In what is clearly the 131st episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Matt, Tom and Ava are going to continue recent pod-tradition and natter about just the one game, thanks.

That’s right, it’s Faiyum! A game about being both (a) in Egypt and (b) confused! Happens to the best of us. We’re going to be chatting about how it really works, how it sort of works and how it doesn’t work in a hodgepodge chat about one of the stranger board game offerings of 2020.

We had some technical difficulties with this one, so apologies if things feel a bit bumpy. It suits the game in question!

In this freshly-pressed 130th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, we’re making amends. "The Beefcast" left the team torn in two, sundered, ruined... borked beyond repair. Now? It’s time to rekindle the fire, and what better way to do so than talk about the man that broke us? That's right, it's time to talk 'Kniz.

Take a seat as Quinns and Tom natter about recent video review stars My City and Modern Art, with a little wiggly chat about The Quest For El Dorado smashed in the middle. We also take the time to make plenty of great behind-the-scenes podcasting errors, for your pleasure!

In this juicy 129th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, it’s time for business, baby! Join Matt and Tom for a conversation about Carnegie, where our thoughts doth runneth over. Literally. We aimed to keep this one short and sweet but then Matt got ever so excited about history - something that we like to call ‘a nerd move’, in the biz.

Think of this one as the ‘one-two-punch’ of board game podcasts, if you will. A first half that basks in the utter joy of the thing, and a second where reality rears its ugly head at our barred doors. We just wanted to enjoy a game about a hard day’s work, reality! Why do you always spoil our fun?! I JUST WANTED TO CRUSH A WHOLE UNION IN PEACE!!!

Have a lovely weekend!

In the unbelievably 128th podcast we spend a surprisingly long time chatting about Vampire: The Masquerade - Vendetta, a game with as much blood as it’s got colons! This pink-hued game doesn’t take a rose-tinted view of the source material, which Quinns and Matt get deep into a big nostalgia blanket for. How sweet! Eventually we might even talk about the game. We wrap up with some racist beans, and a surprising experiment with Tom’s pockets!

Have a lovely weekend!

In this garishly 127th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Podcast, Matt, Tom and Ava have a meandering little chat-a-thon about Dune Imperium - a spicy hot game that at least two of the folks on the podcast... aren’t all that hot for. I bet you can’t guess who.

We’re trying a bunch of new formats to see what fits in our new world of weekly pods - so, as always, your thoughts and feelings are appreciated.

Have a lovely weekend!

In this frighteningly 126th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Podcast, Ava and Quinns try their very own best to convince our very own Tom to play their favourite Uwe’s. What’s an Uwe? I thought it was a big sheep, but I’ve been wrong before.

But before the great Uwe Showdown - where we discuss games as great and diverse as Nusfjord, Glass Road, A Feast for Odin and Le Havre - we first have a neat little discussion about Hallertau; the biggest and bumpiest box of bricks, bits and bobs that Germany has EVER seen. Does it live up to the hype? What’s the bottom line? And most importantly… How many beans?

We tried to keep this one shorter, as per the new podcast-a-week project, and we failed miserably! Please enjoy our nonsense rambling for close to an hour, until we start to get knackered.

Have a lovely weekend!

WELCOME to the 125th SU&SD GAME OF THE YEAR PODCAST! Because technically, every game is a game of the year! Why? Because it came out that year, dummy! That’s just maths!!!

On this timely episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Podcast, the four musketeers gather once again to chat about just one game that they each think deserves Game Of The Year status in 2020. Who will win? Will their game be from this year? Will they even chose a game at ALL! Answers to these questions and more can be found… right here!

Thanks to our amazing community, podcast transcripts are available here, and are usually completed within a week or so of the podcast's release.

Have a lovely weekend!

It's a podcast! And you know what that means… it’s Friday time! Wait...

On this rambling 124th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Podcast Ava, Tom, and Quinns chat about a couple light and silly games to brighten the mood before plunging headfirst into a big greasy barrel of eurogames. Master Word and Sticky Chameleons don’t stand a chance, guzzled up before your very ears like boardgame hors d’oeuvres. The main course? Alhambra, Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road and Beyond The Sun - each course more chunky and crunchy than the last. Get cosy and settle in for a banquet of the most enticing mechanics that boardgames have to offer...

Have a lovely weekend!

Oh no. It happened again. Tom pitched a segment to management, and look at what happened. An entire half of a podcast, absolutely ruined.

On this delectably 123rd episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down Podcast, join an incredibly tired Tom, Matt and Ava to discuss a smattering of games, most of which are juuuust fine. Sandwiching this podcast are twin discussions about Thurn Und Taxis and Under Falling Skies - and in between? It’s Tom’s Family GameZone, where we’ll (?) discuss (?) such riveting (?) titles as Cupcake Academy, What’s Missing?, Mr. Face, MonsDRAWsity, and Herd Mentality. Help!

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

On this week’s BUMPER BOX podcast we’ve got SIX entire GameBoards for you to picture in your head as we loosely describe them with words and, quite frankly, a lot of noises? This podcast is really great if you’re a young child and want to hear a bunch of cool new ways you can make sounds with your mouth.

What games are we going to create frequencies about this time, I hear you ask? We’ll be chatting about the unusual themes of Zestrea, the beautiful butterflies of Mariposas, the wonders of the internet in Sumatra, and sheer, unadulterated organisation in Maglev Metro. Then, to round it all out, we have a ramble about Fleet: The Dice Game and Troyes Dice - two games with the same core that couldn’t be more different. That makes it sound like a mid 90s comedy that stars Danny DeVito and Dwayne Johnson. Does that exist? It might already exist.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody

It’s podcast time, and you’re all invited! Does our generosity know no bounds? In this ghoulishly 121st episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast, Quinns, Ava and Tom once again settle into the lavishly upholstered podchairs to scream words about boardgames into a wall.

NEW YORK ZOO (04:02)! MARIA (19:38)! LITTLE TOWN (40:06)! THE KING IS DEAD (55:41)! These are all words bellowed in an order that one would assume makes them titles for games - and we will run with that assumption to save everyone the embarrassment. We promise they are real and we didn’t just madlibs this podcast’s games into existence. We’re not on that level just yet.

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

In this politely 120th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Podcast Tom, Quinns and Ava grab themselves three microphones, one twitch chat, and a whole month of preparation to best beam podrays into your brain… LIVE!

Broadcast live and silly from AwSHUX 2020, this episode sees Ava and Tom delve into Mottainai and A Game of Thrones: The Board Game - the two very different boxes chosen for their respective application videos. Betwixt these two discussions we ramble about the infinite flowcharts of Combat Commander and Dominant Species, before settling on lighter fare with Legendary: A James Bond Deck Building Game - a box that asks the question: ‘what if bond(s)’? We then wrap up with brief, punchy chats about putting your friends into a bind in Oriflamme, and putting your kangaroos into buns in New York Zoo

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

In this venomously 119th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Podcast Ava, Quinns and Tom gather around the podfire to burn every game they own in a ritual that can be traced hundreds of years into the past. It’s to keep it at bay.

This week we politely disagree about Village Green (01:51), tut about Glasgow (10:43), and aggressively grumble about Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Crypt Hunters (23:05). Then, the gloves come fully off for an all out argie-bargie over a load of Kniz’ - Through the Desert and Blue Lagoon (31:20)! Tigris & Euphrates and Yellow and Yangtze (48:42)! They’re all here, and they’re all loudly shouting each other and I want to go home now please, Quinns did a swear.

Hark! Tom, Matt and Quinns have eaten the sacred pod-beans and soon opinions will grow from their open mouths. Please remain calm, the procedure is perfectly natural.

Specifically, these potent, home-grown opinions will relate to the board games of Renature (01:41), Pictures (17:33), The Search for Planet X (34:12) and Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy (49:50). There's also some organic chat about Ride the Rails, Paranormal Detectives and Decrypto.

In this preposterously 117th episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast Quinns, Ava and Tom are going absolutely LIVE to the UK Games Expo, threatening to snarf endless pizza in Fort, crunch the numbers in 18Chesapeake, and do ‘Good Japanese Business’ in Yokohama. Then, in a secret less-than-live twist, they’ll yoko-yammer-on-about 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel for far too long.

Apologies for some occasionally crunchy audio at times on this one, and have a great weekend, everybody!

Three sentient puddles have gathered to sit in rooms made of hot to talk about board games made of card. That’s right, it’s become quite warm all of a sudden and the company has been liquidated to cope, but not in that way, in the other way. Look at what you made us do.

In this hideously 116th episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast, Matt, Ava and Tom return to Undaunted: North Africa, Struggle Imperially with Imperial Struggle, and wait patiently for the moon to hit their collective eyes like the big pizza pie that is Sonora (?!?), before finally having a rambly chat about Far Away.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Picture it now; you’re sitting in a lovely english garden in the midst of summertime. You’ve got a delicious cup of iced Bovril in your hand, and the sun is warming the grass under your feet. Life is bliss. Suddenly, a tall sweaty man and a short sweaty boy leap the fence - cracking open warm cans in mid-air - fistfuls of board game bits clutched in their four greasy hands. It’s time to podcast, baby.

In this undeniably very 115th episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast, Tom and Quinns resume the age-old tradition of shirtless podcasting - kicking off with a chat about The Deadlies, before pinging over to Super Skill Pinball: 4Cade. Then, Quinns gets wistful about his foray into Fields of Arle, and we end on a highly controversial chat about Undaunted: North Africa. Strap in.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

It's a full house, baby! In this episode of the podcast Ava and Quinns discuss FIVE games, each and every one of which they are IMPRESSED BY. Has that ever happened on the podcast before? We're not going back to check. That could take *minutes*.

Quinns can offer some early impressions of Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 (04:15), Ava's been dueling a stranger in Innovation (19:36) (and you can read Ava's splendid roundup of Chudyk's games here), there's a lovely drawing game called Geometric Art (34:12), a revisit of Spirit Island (41:12) and we close the show with some impressions of the hot new card game Spicy (57:35).

In this positively 113th episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast, Tom and Quinns have a totally normal conversation between two dudes in their houses with NEARLY all of their clothes on their respective bodies.

Contained therein are discussions of everything from Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion to Team3, as well as a double-bill of SPOOKY MONSTER GAMES in Hako Onna and Anomaly. We also take a little amble through solo-RPG land, returning to the wonderful (horrible) world of Thousand Year Old Vampire, and a discussion about Artefact - a game where you can finally be what you’ve always dreamed; a clarinet.

This one was a pleasure to record - forgive the rather long running time on this one, we were just having too much fun.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

On this week’s episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast, Matt, Tom & Ava sit around in a board game soup, rambling about a series of games that we’ve been playing in the darkest reaches of lockdown - and even go so far as to talk about some digital card games! The horror.

Join us for a bumbling episode where we talk about everything from the raucous Forgotten Waters to the pensive and tense The Crew, as well as a quick chat about Gloomhaven and its upcoming mini-adventure Jaws of The Lion. We’ll also be talking about all the recent games we’ve been streaming - such as the delectable 1s and 0s of Slay The Spire, and the existential dread of Mothership. Last, but not least, we'll be giving some positively DANGEROUS thoughts about Wingspan, a game that everyone can agree is QUITE NICE.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Are current events getting you down? Ha ha. That's our little joke. Of course they are.

But in this episode of the podcast, Ava and Quinns are here to remind you through the magic of tabletop, things can always be worse! There's the threat of adorable animals drowning in Isle of Cats (02:43), a world-devouring demon invasion in Planet Apocalypse (12:53), the startling cruelty of medieval Italy in Antiquity (24:17), as well as the bum-punishingly long Western Empires (46:01).

Quinns, Tom and Ava voyage boldly into the great boardgame unknown, this time without Matt’s assistance on the technology side of things! The result? A podcast that’s deeply flawed. Am I going to triple-check the edit to make sure the audio isn’t slipping and sliding around, crashing into itself like an ouroboros of waveforms? I’m sure you’ll be able to guess the answer to that question by just listening to it.

This week, we get covered in eldritch goop while talking about Cthulhu: Death May Die, barraged by dice AND pirates in Madeira, turned into candles with a Thousand Year-Old Vampire, and utterly BAFFLED by the interlocking systems in The Defence of Procyon III! We’ll also be talking a little about the games we’ve looked at recently, and discussing that stream.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

You, at the back! Was it you that ordered a chat sandwich? Was it with ramble bread and discussion filling - extra… stream schedule?

Look. I spent ages trying to make a joke about this podcast being ‘like a sandwich’ - with the strong base of classic Eurogames (Terra Mystica and Hansa Teutonica) wedged between the spicy hot filling of Root Underworld and Frosthaven. But there you see my problem; the filling is on the outside and the bread on the inside and that just ‘AINT a sandwich, chief. And then where does Mr Cabbagehead’s Garden fit in? The pieces are all there, but my brain won’t make them fit - the sandwich metaphor falls apart like a… like a… wet… sandwich. Dang it, just listen to the podcast.

This week’s episode is extra chunky and was a lot of fun to edit! I Hope YOU (yes, you!) enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Look, I’m really sorry that I sat on the podcast intro music but what am I supposed to do, check every seat for audio files before I sit down? I know it’s a bit crushed and quiet, but if we give it enough love and care then it’ll spring back soon enough, I’m sure - and I can always do my own version of the music for the time being… Oh the podcast is meant to be out… today? I’ll see what I can do…

This podcast may contain traces of trains - perhaps more than a trace, even, as Matt and Quinns discuss both Russian Railroads and 1889: History of Shikoku Railways in the space of just one hour. I know, it’s all getting a bit exciting. Squashed between those discussions like a fun filling in a games sandwich, Tom yammers on about Calico, Pax Pamir 2e and Watergate; games that somehow all contain the same levels of tension and despair in spite of their wildly differing themes.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

‘Ello ‘ello ‘ello, wot’s going on ‘ere then? Looks and sounds like there are three english men crammed inside one english cupboard talking about a series of “board games” from who knows where. That’s a recipe for disease-based disaster right there. City of the Big Shoulders? You’re certainly crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in here, though one of you is a bit smaller than the others. I’ve heard it’s as good an economic euro as any, though I, for one, prefer my commodity speculation games a little less beige. Last Bastion? I’ve heard that one’s a pretty dandy co-operative game, but personally I felt the fantasy redesign was a little lacking.

Wait, I swear on me nan’s ghost that I saw more games in here when I first burst in. Are you hiding ‘em? What’s that on there? Is that a game on your mobile device, Mr Lees? Is it Vlaada Chvatil’s classic tableau-builder, Through The Ages? You of all people should know those is contraband, as they remind people of ‘the time before’, when they could play games with their friends around their tables spreading all their germs. Not any more. You’re going to prison, but seen as we can’t go outside, I’m locking you in your own dishwasher. It’s for the best.

Welcome to the loosiest, goosiest episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast yet, where three adults try to have a conversation via the internet without talking over each other all of the time. Experience the mixed results contained therein! Marvel at how 5 games are spread thinly over an hour of your life, like existential marmalade made of cardboard and opinions. What games, specifically - I hear you roar? I was getting there, no need to get impatient.

This week we’re bobbing around on an ocean of average in Flotilla, drinking some questionably garnered tea in Alubari: A Nice Cup Of Tea, and pelting druids with rocks in Cairn. Sandwiched amidst these activities one can find a brief segue through the eccentric Tokyo Game Show, and a brief visit to the ancient tabletop colossus that is The Castles of Burgundy. Also in this podcast: meandering chats about how the team is faring under quarantine, and a few brief teases of potential bread-based content.

DISCLAIMER: The thumbnail for this podcast contains more business than is actually contained in this podcast. Instead, on this short, sleepy episode, a tired old Matt and a sickly young Tom have a meandering chat about just four games.

‘That’s not enough games for my Friday night podcast-listening session!’ I hear you cry, panicked and approaching a point of crisis. Fear not, listener, as this winding little journey will take you through the staggering quite goods of Stockpile, the crushing it's fines of Big City  and Orleans Stories, before a twist ending where they were all Nemesis all along. Not only that, but there are tiny little trails along the way - a tease of City of the Big Shoulders, for sir? Maybe a trickle of Little Town? It’s all here and it’s all in audio form in this very 105th Shut Up and Sit Down Podcast.