Shut Up & Sit Down

Welcome, diners! Take your seats for the very 104th Shut Up & Sit Down podcast. Enjoy a salty fish supper alongside Oceans, a haggis and a whisky with Glen More II: Chronicles, or a rubbery old hot-dog with Rallyman GT. All options are served with opinions from our cardboard sommelier Matt Lees, and a side of steaming hot takes from our acrylic potwash, Tom Brewster.

Speaking of sides, this week’s podcast features a smorgasbord of canapes, vol au vents and other esoteric snacklets in our detour through Tom’s exclusive, invite-only Party Game Zone™. You can find us in the cordoned off area, chatting about a series of games that you could bring to a party, and smattering of games that you should bring to a party. No +1s are permitted, and BYOB(oardgames).

We also have a post-dinner keynote speech about recent videos on the site - including the palpably divisive review of Bunny Kingdom. Quinns and Tom aren’t on speaking terms after that one, on account of the attempted murder.

Have a lovely weekend all!

Look out! Podcast #103 is charging towards your fragile human body like the untameable beast of content that it is. Be shocked, as we wrangle with Clinic! Gasp in horror as we consume Irish Gauge… whole! Listen as we swirl the sequel to Welcome To... around in our mouths, and last but not least: be kind of bummed out as we talk about why Maracaibo is... a bit bad? Oh! And of course we'd also got some chat about Era, which is not bad at all but VERY PLASTIC. Since recording they've announced an expansion, but we're not sure that affects our feelings much at this stage. Time will tell!

This episode also features fleeting special guest appearances from Clipcut Parks, Food Chain Magnate’s latest expansion; The Ketchup Mechanism, and two games with ‘letter’s in their name. Technically all the games have letters in their name, but these ones literally have letters in their name. You’ll see what we mean.

We also talk a little about recent video reviews! Well, one video review, because Quinns got so excited about the prospect of playing Azul: Summer Pavilion, that he forgot to talk about his review. It tends to have that effect on people.

Back once again like a renegade podcast, the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast is back in action and ready to wrestle with your ears and your brain. Let’s not bury the lede - we’ve got a formal introduction to make this week, with the official addition of Mr Tom Brewster to the team. He’s lovely, and you’ll be hearing and seeing a bunch more of him in the months to come.

In this episode of the podcast we dive back into Suburbia, explore The King’s Dilemma, and dabble with Abomination and Finger Guns at High Noon as well as plenty of others. We also have a rather lovely reading of Tactics and Tactility by Ava Foxfort as a break from all of this ghastly pod-wrestling.

Due to exciting new technological discoveries, you can now expect a new episode to drop on Friday every other week! Thanks to the patience of those who love the podcast and have missed it over the last few months, you’re the best.

Ringing in the new year with a podcast recorded *checks notes* ... last year, Matt and Quinns are coming right at you from PAX Unplugged, with a plethora of exciting games to chat about. If you'd rather watch this episode and pretend you were there, we've got you covered with a lovely "YouTube Video". It'll never catch on.

If you've been missing the podcast over the last few months, don't be alarmed - we'll be back in regular action very soon. Thanks all!

Congratulations all, you’ve made it! It’s the very 100th Shut Up and Sit Down podcast! Gosh, the podcast hill is so high up here that I’m pretty sure I can see episode 43, fumbling around in that bush with a sandwich.

Matt and Quinns are briefly joined by Pip for an sleep-deprived natter about some interesting games. Obscurio (16:14) sounds like Wizard-Dixit with traitors, and incredibly summoned a cheer from the crowd simply for use of the word “acetate”. Tumblin’ Dice (21:05) got a little love, but probably deserves more than anyone can give it, before Matt then went on to talk about playing the award-winning RPG Mothership (24:50) - a sci-fi horror system that conveys the relatable experience of waking up after a very long time and immediately being attacked by stress.

We were thrilled to find that many of those who’d managed to check it out at SHUX finally understood the hype from our review of Blood on the Clocktower (35:13) - a beautiful beast that is more than the sum of its frankly dastardly parts.

Delving into Vast: the Mysterious Manor (39:58) - an asymmetrical game in which you can literally play as the mysterious manor - left us with mixed feelings about pacing but strong feelings towards skeletons, before we finally talked about food and/or animals with Yum Yum Island (45:36) and Nickelodeon Splat Attack! (50:06).

Apologies for the quality of the audio in this episode - we had some issues with the room that we weren’t able to resolve. If you’d like to listen to this episode with “moving pictures”, you can also watch it here, on Youtube!

100 episodes is truly "big potatoes" - thank you so much for listening!

In what is still definitely *not* our 100th episode, Quinns and intern Ben are grappling with some truly epic boxes. As is the SU&SD motto, "We grap so you don't have to."

For starters, these two summon the energy to discuss their 12 hour(!) game of Western Empires (02:32). Then there's chat about the byzantine challenges of hit Kickstarter games Cloudspire (18:05) and Skulk Hollow (29:38). Quinns reveals he can't pronounce cacao in a segment on sprawling eurogame Teotihuacan: City of Gods (37:05), before the two round things off with some lighter games, namely Yokai (43:06), Detective Club (46:57), and Combo Fighter (53:06).

In this episode, Matt, Quinns and Ben report live from a secret hideout. Matt's been breaking the rules of Gloomhaven (discussed at 26:54) while Quinns has been ignoring the laws of new, superb expansion Bunny Kingdom: In the Sky (50:12), and the cops could bust them at any moment.

The group also discuss the bizarre Undo games (02:56), the video game-inspired Super Motherload (10:05), the delightfully three-dimensional ShipShape (20:42), the wild grasping of Lords of Hellas (36:20) and the disappointment of Cerberus (48:02).

Matt, Quinns and Ben are circling podcast #100 like talkative nerds circling a numerical drain. Quickly! Before they slip away, why not listen to them talk about the games?

On this podcast there's chat about party game We're Doomed! (02:23), classic card game For Sale (10:00), 2010 smash hit Alien Frontiers (15:40), the enigmatic Wooly Wars (23:26), hot new box Air, Land & Sea (30:03) and Kickstarter behemoth Cerebria: The Inside World (40:11). There's also a lovely reader mail this week asking which games have the best Endgame Energy

Also, if you're a geologist who would like to contribute to our discussion of sand, please do leave a comment. We're clearly idiots, and we need all the facts that we can get.

Having just arrived back from Belgium's fantastic Zomerspel tabletop convention, Matt and Quinns were inspired by Belgian chips to create this episode of our award-winning podcast. It's long, crunchy, filling and if you eat nothing except this podcast then you will probably die?

Games discussed in this episode include the fascinating Taverns of Tiefan Thal (01:51), the taut little Feld game Carpe Diem (13:48), the simple-yet-delightful Luxor (26:47), the gross-yet-charming Silk (33:13) and the simply superb Rail Pass (49:37). Matt and Quinns also discuss some of the video reviews they've been working on, including Pipeline (1:00:58) and Too Many Bones (1:06:54).

Enjoy, everybody!

Fans of our award-winning board game podcast should know that the pod-apult is armed and ready.

Contained in today's payload are impressions of the party game Stay Cool (02:45), the excellent Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid (09:01), the frighteningly intense Letter Jam (21:42), the adorable Welcome to Dino World (29:22), the heavy roll'n'write Rome and Roll (38:19) and the world's first "boxed megagame", Vampire: The Masquerade – Blood Feud (43:28).

Finally, following on from team SU&SD having recently discovered the joy of using pencils to write on paper, we've just now learned about BOOKS! Specifically, the book Top 10 Games You Can Play In Your Head, By Yourself (49:35).

Enjoy, everybody.

Just who are druids? What are they doing? And is it safe to "dip" with them?

We can't be sure, but we can tell you that the following games are discussed in this podcast: tableau-builder Res Arcana (02:38), cuboid contest Dice Throne (11:50), hidden role game Insider (20:10), cult hit Three Kingdoms Redux (26:56), new expansion Isle of Skye: Druids (37:21) and the staggering in scale Batman: Gotham City Chronicles (42:47).

At last, we close out the podcast with a tempting question from our mailbag (55:54). If we could force board game fans the world over play one thing, what would we choose?

In this special episode of our award-winning podcast, Matt and Quinns talk about their trip to Danish board game convention Fastaval.

Games discussed include the superb Hansa Teutonica (02:56), the as-yet unannounced Deep Blue (12:02), the also-unannounced Auto (15:50), Flamme Rouge’s unnamed campaign expansion (24:05), That’s Not Lemonade (35:43) and Mid-Life Crisis (45:23).

Finally, we close with a discussion of Fastaval itself, and what makes it so magical (59:18). Is it the terrifying, viking-like cleaning crew? Is it the black tie award ceremony? Is it the unparalleled gender equality, or the world-class roleplaying games?

It's all of these things, and more. Huge thanks to the organisers for choosing us as this year's guests of honour.

Recently, Quinns was tasked with hosting a 7 player game night, and rose to the challenge with Herculean vigour.

In this episode, Matt, Quinns and intern Kylie discuss his breathtaking efforts. That means talking about Watson & Holmes (03:00), Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space (12:14), and a little card game called Bourré (19:55). Incidentally, Bourré is probably the only time that SU&SD will ever crossover with the NBA. Afterwards, the group slims down for a chat about some 3 player games, namely Gùgōng (27:34) and Chinatown (38:30).

Finally, the team answers a quick reader mail asking what table is best for board gaming. Big or small? Square or circle? That's right! We are beyond parody.

The 93rd ever episode of the SU&SD podcast begins with Matt and Quinns discussing Klaus Wunderlich, before then talking about people talking about us talking about Blood on the Clocktower (02:05). With a bit of luck, this should clear up some misgivings surrounding our glowing review.

There's then chat about the hot new roll'n'write Corinth (10:08), the superlative expansion A Feast for Odin: The Norwegians (18:36), an additional superb expansion, Space Base: The Emergence of Shy Pluto (27:32), the oh-so-nearly-a-SU&SD-video-review Monolith Arena (32:42) and the fantastically inventive game Alone (43:52).

Finally, the mailbag returns! We chat about which games offer the best emotional rollercoaster of feeling very clever, and then very dumb (01:05:27).

All aboard! In this very special tram-isode, your favourite board game podcast is going on a journey.

This chat makes stops at the enormous new Race for the Galaxy spinoff New Frontiers, both expansions for Kemet, namely Ta-Seti and Seth, and The Quest for El Dorado, before terminating at the bizarre game of Tramways.

After that, Matt had to dash off to hospital for an "adrenaline test". We're not sure what that is, but we're pretty sure it involves him putting on electrodes and then doing a kickflip. Good luck, Matt!

It's a podcast! You know the drill, everybody. Recover your audio tubing from the protective sheaths and retreat to your listening hutch.

In this episode Matt and Quinns share their experiences with Wingspan (you'll find the NPI review here), Chronicles of Crime (our SHUX Preview here), Franchise and Woodlouse Chaos, before strapping on their tuxedos for the annual Pearple's Choice Awards, which we last celebrated back on podcast #73.

Who will win Best Game? Best Production? Best Designer? And will SU&SD's audience finally decide that mum and dad... are bad and wrong?

Enjoy the show, everybody, and thanks again to clg6000 for putting these awards together.

Oof! Matt and Quinns have thundered unsteadily into 2019 with a podcast overloaded with games.

There's Blackout: Hong Kong (again), Just One (a party game), Sumer (which isn't a board game), Quacks of Quedlinburg (which is a board game), Schummel Hummel (or "Cheating Bee"), The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 (a game of the film), Pipeline (which doesn't have that many pipes actually) and Gen 7: A Crossroads Game (our first disappointment of the year).

After that, we're sad to report that the structural integrity of the podcast collapsed, killing everyone inside.

Extra special thanks to musician and super cool guy Mr. Steve Davit for hooking us up with those sexy new musical stings, and helping us to make our 2019 that much brassier.

Matt and Quinns are joined in this episode by Microsoft Powerpoint(!) to discuss their experiences with a selection of hot new board games. They're talking about the trashed monks of Heaven & Ale, the unattainable carrots of Reykholt, the questionable fishing practices of Captains of the Gulf, the bad nouns of Trapwords and the passive-aggressive parapets of Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig.

In a rare mailbag double-bagger, the pair then field two questions, one about the phrase "The Teach", the other about theoretical business ventures for SU&SD. Quinns wants to open a new telephone hotline and Matt wants funding for... erm... well, it's not exactly clear.

This podcast is also available as a video, which includes the 20 minute Q&A with the audience at the end.

My goodness. We always say this, but... have we ever had so many luminary board games on one podcast?

In this episode, Matt and Quinns discuss the twin games of Cockroach Salad and Cockroach Soup, a discovery so exciting that Quinns has since hunted down all of Drei Magier's "Ugly Animals" games. The pair then move on to chatting about the wicked worldbuilding of Neon Gods, the dexterity magic of Men at Work, the small-form joy of Targi, the BEHEMOTH box that is Lisboa, and finally their game of the podcast, Blackout: Hong Kong.

We also answer a particularly tricksy question from our mailbag. If Chess had never been invented, how do we think it would be received today?

Enjoy, everybody!

Matt, Quinns, Paul and Pip gather beneath a stormy sky to discuss games of WIT and CHANCE. Dare you ENTER their CEREBRAL LABYRINTH?

The challenges ahead include Shadows: Amsterdam, The Shipwreck Arcana, Cryptid (a bit), Kung Fu Zoo, Illusion, Wavelength (coming to Kickstarter soon), High Tea Assassin from The Edible Games Cookbook, and finally, their game of the show, Blood on the Clocktower.

What awaits you at the centre of their fortress of the mind? That would be telling... but suffice to say, Matt is in possession of a package that he's wanted to give away for quite some time.

This podcast is also available as a video!

You dice are bleeding, you say? Not to worry! It's nothing a podcast won't fix.

Matt and Quinns kick this one off with a big, hairy discussion of Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, which segues into a discussion of legacy games in general. The expected "era of legacy games" is failing to materialise, and they offer some theories as to why.

Next up they chat about the smooth operations of V-Commandos, which is about to be re-implemented as an official Assassin's Creed board game. After that they discuss their time spent nursing cubes back to health in the disturbing (and entertaining!) facilities of Dice Hospital, which was a fun surprise for them both. Finally, they consider the carefully orchestrated fish feasts of Uwe Rosenberg's Nusfjord.

Oh, your dice are still bleeding? Oh dear. Well, try to not get it on the carpet. That's our advice.

Come on up! Make yourself at home in our twiggy podcast nest, where Paul and Quinns are ready to regurgitate some warmed-up board game knowledge into your waiting beak.

This episode features the quietly fabulous tile-laying of Gunkimono. There's Taj Mahal, the fourth in a fantastic series of beautiful Reiner Knizia remakes. We've had a first play of Trade on the Tigris, a new negotiation game from the designer of Space Cadets. Quinns talks about how GKR: Heavy Hitters is almost his favourite game of all time, if it could just be combined somehow with Critical Mass (see podcast #84). Also, like the rest of the internet, we've begun playing Root and can't seem to stop.

Finally, the pair chat about a reader mail asking when, and where, we'd consider playing board games for money.

Can you hear a distant rumble of people applauding, firing party poppers and doing synchronised donuts in their cars? Don't panic! Nothing could be more natural when our post-Gen Con podcast rolls around. It's possible that there's never been such a diverse and exciting array of games tucked into a single SU&SD podcast.

Today, Paul and Quinns exchange first impressions of Keyforge: Call of the Archons, Fantasy Flight's new collaboration with Richard Garfield where every deck ever printed will be unique to you. Up next is Gen 7, the dramatic and curious sequel to Dead of Winter that takes place aboard a generation ship. Then there's Nyctophobia, a game where all but one player is blindfolded and being hunted by a murderer. Critical Mass, which might be the best game of mecha-on-mecha violence ever made? Railroad Ink, which is the first roll-and-write game we've found that could steal the throne from Welcome To. And the pair close by talking about The Estates, which is both the meanest and most devious game of auctions that Quinns has ever experienced.

Among those six games are no less than four contenders for the prestigious SU&SD Recommends badge. You heard it here first- the rest of 2018 is going to be absolutely fabulous.

Pop on your monocle and climb into your biggest chair, because this is a podcast where we are most definitely the bad guys.

First off, Matt and Quinns discuss the be-hyped box of Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game with the help of some royalty-free music. Next, the pair shatter a few dreams with their description of Disney's Villainous board game. There's then a quick discussion of Cryptozoic's Wallet, in which a mob boss has the wallet of a... 9-year-old boy? Finally, the group plumb the depths of Google in a few rounds of Weird Things Humans Search For.

Enjoy, everybody! And look forward to podcast #84, because it's gonna be a stormer.

Everybody, pick up your pencils! No, you're not having another stress dream about being back at school. We've just finally found a roll-n-write game that we absolutely love. It's called Welcome To, and podcast #82 starts with an explanation of what it is, and why you should get excited for the release date in September.

And that's just the beginning of this... peculiarly positive cast. Paul and Quinns soon move on to the happy kitchens of Wok Star (3rd edition), there's talk of the fun they had in Fungi, and of the surprisingly strong Champions of Midgard. There's also some disappointment about Village Attacks, but it wouldn't be a SU&SD podcast without some vigorous complaining, would it?

Finally, the pair end with a particularly sticky reader mail. Has their taste in games changed with time? And if so, how?

Hot damn! We've got some smokin' exclusives for you today. In this podcast we chat about our playtest of Reef, the next game in the series that brought us Azul. We gossip about Newspeak, a great-looking code-cracking game that will be arriving on Kickstarter imminently. We offer our thoughts on the fabulous labour of love Museum, which has yet to make its way to Kickstarter backers. Matt lays out his controversial verdict on Fantasy Flight's Fallout board game!

As temperatures continue to rise, the boys discuss their secret pastry playtest from Jenn Sandercock's Edible Games Cookbook, and talk about what to do when busy board game conventions become too hot to handle.

Finally, we approach a fiery finale where... oh dear. It seems the temperature of this podcast is reaching dangerous levels. Please, whatever you do, don't click play! Podcast burns are NO JOKE

Oho, this episode of the award-winning Shut Up & Sit Down podcast has more scoops than sweet shop, and is just as sweet.

We found out that learning geography CAN be fun in the tense game of Destination X. We learned that Lowlands is the best Uwe Rosenberg game since A Feast for Odin, and it isn't even designed by Uwe Rosenberg. We learned that the amazing-looking Starship Samurai is, perhaps, not as good as we were hoping. And we learned that Quantified - an upcoming game you've definitely never heard of - is a thought-provoking co-op game about surveillance and big data.

We also found out that the vikings that hang around outside the UK Games Expo are not to be trifled with, as Matt narrowly escapes being skewered by an actual spear. Finally, we implemented the OMEGA PROTOCOL: A quick-fire round of questions that were tweeted to us by the audience, right then and there. Huge thanks to everybody who came down and contributed to the veritable cyclone of questions that followed.

Excuse me, are you ready to report for jury duty?

In this episode of our award-winning podcast, Matt, Quinns and Paul discuss the hellish lumber management of Lignum, the lumbering hell-management of Huns, they have a troubling conversation about Holding on: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr and have a good laugh about Band Manager: The Boardgame.

After that? This show throws open the doors of the SU&SD law courts.

Matt claims that Quinns threw away his copy of Pandemic Legacy Season 2, and is requesting that he pays £65 in damages. Quinns would prefer not to pay the fee and has invited a real-life lawyer, his friend Clark Burscough, onto the podcast. Will he be proven guilty, innocent, or somewhere in between?

This podcast is also available as a video.

Rain falling on cracked windowpanes. Once-boisterous assembly rooms, now silent. Mr. Paul stalks the halls of his once-proud lamp factory, his mind a warren of regret. How did my business venture go so wrong?

Excitingly, this week on the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast Paul and Quinns discuss their experience of running 19th century factories in the ENORMOUS game of Arkwright.  Also, there's chat about why Quinns didn't get along with the beautiful new edition of card game High Society, the pair once again discuss the superb NMBR 9, and Quinns talks about being a brave weather fairy in the game of Broom Service.

Finally, the pair take their shoes off and paddle around the mailbag to answer not one, not two, but three little questions! Don't come in, the water's cold and full of jigsaw puzzles and binding agreements.

HONK! After a long journey, the latest Shut Up & Sit Down podcast is now docking with your ears. The pinnacle of opinion-container technology, it's 400 metres long bow to stern (but you shouldn't feel a thing since it's largely metaphorical).

The thing is, the boys have finally played Container, a ridiculous economic game that'll be enjoying a similarly ridiculous new "Jumbo" edition in July. This podcast also contains chat about Decrypto (see Paul's recent review) and Medici, each of which deliver big experiences in small containers.

Finally, we spend a whopping 25 minutes discussing two games: Brass: Lancashire, which is the new edition of classic game Brass, and Brass: Birmingham, the hot new "sequel". We've now played both of these much-anticipated games, and you know what? Going against Quinns' Brass video review, Shut Up & Sit Down can finally recommend Brass. But you'll have to listen to find out why...

Enjoy, everybody!

It's been a while since the last podcast, but we've not been idle! Like a board game version of Nintendo's Kirby, over the last month the team has been sucking in experiences and now we're going to expel them at you in a 90 minute special episode. Boomf!

In order of appearance, Matt, Quinns and Paul discuss The Mind, Cardline: Animals, Bye-Bye Black Sheep, Kemet: Set (which is so new it doesn't even have a Board Game Geek page!), Treasure Island, Fireball Island (which has just 8 days left on that Kickstarter) and Bunny Kingdom. That might be more games than we've ever had on a podcast before, and you know what else? They're ALL GOOD.

Finally, we soothe our aching jaws with a gentle chat about what makes kingmaking (one player causing another player to win) enjoyable in a game, and what makes it frustrating. Lovely stuff.

This week, Matt, Paul and Quinns reunited in a hotel! We didn't record them all crying with joy for five minutes straight, but we did record them sitting down afterwards to discuss some board games.

First off, the team discuss stress-testing some of their favourite games from the last year at the 2018 Game Developer's Convention in San Francisco. Did Ethnos, Fog of Love, Azul or Barenpark buckle under pressure?

But wait, there's are new games too! Matt has thoughts on the as-yet unpublished Puzzlegami, Leigh joins the team to describe the as-yet unfinished Four Empires, and Paul provides some thoughts on Star Wars: Legion and Age of Steam.

Enjoy, everybody!

Everybody, please remain in your seats with your seatbelts securely fastened. We're expecting some turbulence.

Some turbulent discussions of board games, that is!

In this one and only 74th episode of the SU&SD podcast, Matt and Quinns discuss their weird wooden mates in the Journeyman expansion for Isle of Skye. They chat about stabbing nightmares with pencils in Stuffed Fables, which might be best described as "Toy Story directed by Tim Burton". There's a discussion of the grand game of War of the Ring (second edition), and the real-life backache it gave Quinns. Finally, the two offer their smokin' hot first impressions of Rising Sun, a beautiful game about Japan (but not) where you fight wars (but you don't) and negotiate alliances (but not really).

Enjoy, everybody!

Who's this, arriving fashionably late in a limousine? Why, it's only a new podcast discussing the winners of the 2017 Pearple's Choice Awards!

Quickly, cinch up your black tie or crawl into the nearest dress before joining us on a discussion of the best games of last year. There's reflection on Gloomhaven, Sagrada, Inis, Captain Sonar, Fog of Love, Azul, Consulting Detective, Twilight Imperium 4th edition and so, so much more.

You also get to hear the team collapse in on themselves like a dying star when exposed to the madness of the Best Expansion category. Just what is an expansion for?!

Huge thanks to forum user clg9000 for organising such a fun event.

IS THIS THE END FOR OUR HEROES?!

Matt, Paul and Quinns were last seen launching an expedition to get to the top of the Shut Up & Sit Down review stack. They talked about wanting to scale games like Mountaineers, A Tale of Pirates, The Climbers, the second edition of London and the Munchkin Collectible Card Game (which actually sounded... quite good?).

They were also talking about getting to the bottom of a thought-provoking reader mail. It's rumoured that it questioned whether pirating board games became an ethical grey area in some countries.

Today we found this recording. It's the only evidence we could find that they're still alive. Come home safe, boys.

Matt and Paul regroup for a post-festive ramble through the wilderness of sentient cardboard. Paul shares some thoughts on Legacy of Dragonholt and Celestia - which Matt is comedically unable to recall too clearly. Meanwhile, Matt has been toying with the free co-op app for Imperial Assault - and compares his experiences with this to the recently-reviewed Gloomhaven, for your pleasure / horror.

We then talk a little about the shocking phenomenon of fake board games, as covered by Paul in this week's news, and finally cap off the first pod of the year by addressing the hard-hitting issue of S.N.A.C.K.S. Basically, Paul is mildly interrogated about cookies.

Who - in truth - is the real cookie monster? Only the cold hands of time will decide. Thanks for listening!

Who's feeling cosy? In this final, festive podcast of 2017 Matt and Quinns tuck themselves beneath the Christmas tree before cutting it down for victory points.

That was an oblique reference to the first game the pair discuss, the noble Photosynthesis. The boys then get far too excited about cubes and the possibilities thereof in the absurd game Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant. They then discuss Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, the new Games Workshop board game showcasing beefy people hitting one another with hammers.

Finally, we read out a heartwarming love letter to the Play By Forum section of the SU&SD forum, and read out our last ever Folk Game of the Month, with a little discussion about depictions of mental health in fiction. Best wishes to everyone who has trouble at this time of year.

Oh my goodness! Apologies if anyone was looking for a board game, we seem to have them all here.

In this 69th installment of the SU&SD podcast Paul chats about Charterstone and explains Ex Libris. Matt is fascinated by Fabled Fruit, Fast Forward: Fortress and Fast Forward: Flee. Quinns catalogues Clans of Caledonia and flaps his lips about the Flamme Rouge: Peloton expansion as well as the free Flamme Rouge app, which contains all-new game mechanics.

Importantly, we also have our new podcast feed set up and working. If you're not seeing episodes 68 or 69 in your podcast feed then you're subscribed to the wrong feed. Search for "Shut Up & Sit Down" in your podcast player until you find this new, improved feed that has the latest episodes, and delete the old feed (which you can see here).

Thanks for listening, everybody!

Matt and Quinns took to the stage at PAX Unplugged for this Very Special Phillysode! The first segment, "Card games that made us feel bad", includes chat about Capital Lux, Hanamikoji and Plums. Then there's "Eurogames that are actually quite good", featuring Pie Town and Altiplano. Finally, the boys move onto their game of the show, and possibly the year: Jacob Jaskov's Fog of Love. Surprising no-one, Matt and Quinns' first simulated relationship had chemistry but was horrible for everyone involved.

This podcast was followed by an extensive audience Q&A which can be found here in our video of the event. The boys were asked to recommend an out-of-print game, how they pick games during a game night, which video they most enjoyed putting together, whether Matt's hair is affected by the tides and more!

The answers may surprise you.

Sixty six podcasts. Can you imagine such a thing? Try and picture sixty six podcasts lying jumbled-up in a big pile. You can't, can you?

Well, today we've made things even stranger by releasing the 67th SU&SD podcast, a spoooOOOoooky Halloween special in which we forgot to do any Halloween-related content of any kind. Instead we talk about how Matt's been groovin' on Gloomhaven, Paul "actually really quite likes" Azul, Quinns did his Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 review and there's even talk of the blue beast that is Lisboa. Lovely stuff!

(It all goes downhill towards the end, though, with Quinns trying to coin the word "handfeel" and begging Paul to review Sidereal Confluence instead of Charterstone. When will that boy get it together?)

Our 66th ever podcast has been removed, hot & crispy, from the aging oven of our minds!

In this instalment Matt, Paul and Quinns try and unpick all of the games they played at SHUX 2017. That means chat about Shifty Eyed Spies, Bargain Quest, Hanamikoji, Edge of Darkness, Space Base, When I Dream and Quinns getting a bit aggressive about Meeple Circus (again). We also preview the upcoming expansions for Inis and Lords of Vegas, which we had literally no idea were going to be playable at our own event.

Finally, we can't resist closing the podcast with a tease of the gigantic reviews we're all working on right now. Quinns is playing Pandemic Legacy: Season 2, Matt's enjoying Gloomhaven, and Paul's about to crack open his copy of Charterstone. It's going to be a fun end to the year, everybody!

Drop everything! Our 65th ever podcast is live, Paul is talking about A Dog's Life and Quinns is on about something called Yummy Yummy Pancake. These are the releases you've been waiting for, right?

...No? Not to worry. We've also got Quinns' exclusive thoughts on the new Netrunner core set and Paul's advance review of Unearth, as well as chatter about Legend of the Five Rings, Donner Dinner Party and Cities of Splendor. Also, Quinns has finally played the game that Paul called Uwe Rosenberg's greatest work ever, A Feast for Odin. Will the pair agree, or will this be Caverna all over again?

Enjoy, everybody!

Buckle up, everybody! The 64th ever Shut Up & Sit Down podcast is here, and it's something of a round the world special.

It's Quinns and Paul in the driver's seat once again as they discuss their journey Between Two Cities with the new Capitals expansion. Paul's desperate to discuss the weird creatures he met during Train Heist. The pair examine the fast cars and small components of Pit Crew. Quinns abruptly remembers that he has the first expansion for Captain Sonar, and talks about that a bit. Finally, Paul recalls his time in parts unknown, playing World Championship Russian Roulette.

But our automotive notions don't stop there! This week we have a particularly extravagant folk game played by the employees of a car rental business. What's going on behind that plain-looking desk? More than you could imagine.

Enjoy, everybody.

You know what doesn't get enough kudos? Bags. Big ones, small ones, soft ones, leathery ones. Where would we be without bags? Walking home from the shops, clutching cucumbers to our chest with onions in our armpits, that's where.

Our 63rd podcast is all about great games with some great bags. Paul's been building (and cursing at) stained glass windows in Sagrada, Quinns has been carelessly eroding his car in the amazing Automobiles (see our review of that one here), and this time we remember to have the chat about Orleans that was meant to go the previous episode. Inspired by these three titles, Shut Up & Sit Down's campaign for More Bags In Games begins next week. Please send money now.

Could you give two figs about bags? Are they "Not your bag"? Not a problem! Paul and Quinns also provide some early impressions of the ludicrously pretty Wasteland Express Delivery Service, and answer a reader mail about why long games lead to a special kind of exhaustion.

OH MY GOODNESS our 62nd podcast ever is here! This episode is all about older games, so why not join Paul, Matt and Quinns as they creep across the board game scene like a pack of daring botanists through primeval jungle, jealously cataloguing and scrutinising all that they find.

Paul's been inspecting the darling buds of Bruges, a Stefan Feld classic that we're expecting a reprint of any day now. After that, Matt and Quinns continue their analysis of the bloomin' brilliant Tigris & Euphrates, chat about their time with the somewhat-toxic Zombicide: Black Plague and run through a field of Railways of the World.

Returning home after this educational hike, the boys read an email about ghosts and answer another email asking why we haven't reviewed the excellent Game of Thrones: The Card Game (second edition). Finally, we discuss a folk game sent in anonymously by an ambulance crew. What could possibly go wrong?

Who's hungry? The 61st ever SU&SD podcast is here, and it's an uncomplicated buffet of board games. Do you like it when we talk about board games? Then this is the podcast for you!

You can start by letting Matt, Pip and Quinns whet your appetite with talk of the questionable New York Slice and the evocative chaos of Kitchen Rush, and afterwards they can spill the beans on the excellent Secrets, the spicy NMBR 9, and the first expansion for Not Alone. For the cheese course, you can listen to them discuss the beauty of Lazer Ryderz and the silliness of Four Elements.

But I hope you left room for dessert, because the gang also played the new game from Vlaada Chvátil. It's called That's a Question, and (dare we say it?) it's his most divisive game yet, and not always in a good way...

You told us the three games that you were most excited about at the UK Games Expo, and we listened. Now it's time for you to listen as Matt, Pip and Quinns discuss their early impressions of all three: The Godfather: Corleone's Empire, First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet and Barenpark.

But that's not all! Straining the very limits of what can be squeezed into 60 minutes of chat such that this podcast threatens to split open like an overstuffed sausage, you'll also find discussions of Catch the Moon and Costa Rica, as well as the world's first "actual play" of The Champion of the Wild. If you too would like to joust on the back of a kangaroo or nudge an otter up Mt. Everest, that game will be coming to Kickstarter later this year.

Sorry about the imperfect audio quality on this one! By way of apology, we're uploading our 61st podcast in just a few hours. It's an audiostravaganza!

In this shellshocked edition of the SU&SD podcast, Matt, Paul and Quinns crawl out from their writing-trenches to discuss the mammoth feature we published this week: SU&SD Take On The BoardGameGeek Top 100. As a postscript, they discuss the dozens of phenomenal games that are cruelly, criminally absent from BGG's fabled list.

Are you disinterested in crimes against arbitrary inventories? Not to worry. Matt also chats about his tiny dice in Star Wars: Dice-Tiny, Paul discusses the impractical politics of Imperial 2030, Quinns has finally rolled around in Roll for the Galaxy and, for some reason, there's also there's a discussion of Ghostbusters: The Board Game II and whether ghosts can move through other ghosts. Ugh.

Do you have any thoughts on ghosts you'd like to share? Please, leave a comment and feed Paul's growing mania.

Here's a question for you. What contains Fields of Arle, Spoils of War, Conflict of Heroes and Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs?

That's right! The answer is "A fistfight over an archaeological dig site in Northern Germany." But another valid answer would be the 58th ever SU&SD podcast, wherein Paul and Quinns discuss all of these games. What's more, Quinns reveals the results of his months-long experiment using the BG Stats app.

After all of that excitement the boys relax by dipping into the mailbag for a question on why board games seem to be getting more expensive, and close the podcast by talking about the noble art of marble racing. Enjoy, everybody!

(Thanks to BGG User Steph Hodge for this podcast's header image!)

Spoils of War, Fields of Arle, Conflict of Heroes, Conflict of Heroes: Guadalcanal, marbles

Quickly, man the battlements! The podcastle is under attack from deadly waves of silence. Secure the chat parapets, and brace the gates of opinion!

In episode 57 of our award-winning podcast Quinns offers thoughts on I'm the Boss!, the first Sid Sackson game that this site has ever covered, while Paul takes a look at the new edition of Citadels, the first game to ever appear on SU&SD. Quinns has also played an advance copy of the much-hyped Century: Spice Road, while Paul rounds off this week's Fresco review by talking about that game's expansions.

There's combat juggling in the folk game section and the boys chat about why Virgin Queen was Quinns' lowest point, but perhaps the biggest surprise comes during our mailbag segment. We've received a reader mail that's made us question our entire attitude towards not just box inlays, but board games in general. Listen in horror as one listener's expensive opinion spreads across the very fabric of SU&SD, like a spilled glass of wine.

Century: Spice Road, century, I’m the Boss!, fresco, Citadels