Just because it's a thing you do, we  offer up our 2nd annual discussion and ranking of the games we encountered for the first time this year, along with the best whisky and music enjoyed whilst playing.

You'll hear thrilling descriptions of game from two lists, each 17 games long. Why 17? We don't ask "why" here at the PCP, we merely forge ahead and trounce the Goblins. We also add in top fives (or more) in whisky and music. We suggest you sample the wares and create your own pairings.

Also, since this is a spoiler free time of year, individual games will not be listed in the times below. However, in the next few days we will post our lists in our BGG Guild (https://www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/1805) which you will be able to peruse at your lesiure.

SECTORS:

05:57 -- Games 11-17 (or so), and disappoinments
40:48 -- Whiskies of the Year
52:01 -- Games 6-10 (or thereabouts)
90:16 -- The Albums You Need to Hear
110:05 -- Games 1-5 (exactly)

It's Splotter time on the old podcast. We've been spending quite a bit of time organizing and reorganizing our fledgling food empires and we're taking a little coffee break so we can tell you how it's all going. Join us and find out if schlepping drinks and flipping burgers is more fun than you remember.

MENU:

07:47 -- 2015 World Whiskey of the Year: Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye
17:43 -- Neanderthal, et al.
21:10 -- Food Chain Magnate (in-depth review)
77:03 -- Music (Samantha Crain, City and Colour, Joanna Newsom)
85:40 -- The Gallerist Postponed (we need another hour on this one)

And as promised, part two of our Essen games extravaganza; AKA, the good stuff. Nothing more to say than listen in and hold on to your wallets.

INGREDIENTS

01:03 -- The Bloody Inn
08:05 -- Grand Austria Hotel
16:53 -- 504
21:28 -- Shakespeare
31:33 -- Food Chain Magnate
45:42 -- Bretagne
60:55 -- Lignum
80:18 -- Nippon

Despite the prospect of ever orbiting schedules we have somehow collided for a long moment to record another installment of As the Podcast Turns, Essen edition. Yea us! In fact, what we recorded was so long that this will be the first of two concurrent releases today. And yeah, we know you know how to use the pause button, but it actually makes the editing job easier.

Last week we attended a small con in Bellevue that focuses on getting the most recent Essen releases to the table. A couple hundred folks attend and there seems to be at least one copy of each Essen title available to play. Much cheaper and more intimate than a trip to Germany

Between us we put in over 80 hours playing our most anticipated games. We then rushed home through a torrential downpour to tell you about it (or was it to get soaked taking our kids out Halloween night?). Anyway, sit back and enjoy the first half of our Essen game coverage. Maybe grab some strudel while you're at it.

We have come to the crossroads here at the 'cast. The external forces of life, real and imagined, have conspired against us. We are against the ropes and down on one knee, a significant cut upon the brow, bloodied, the referee close to the end of his count.  We're not sure there's anywhere to go from here and you can listen in as we consider our options.

We also get to a good selection of games, getting in depth on a few, but quick and concise overall, back in the land of reasonable show lengths

TIMES:

02:15 -- The Hard Stuff: Down for the Count???
23:30 -- Furniture for Games
27:28 -- Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
32:58 -- Istanbul
42:20 -- Roads & Boats
48:25 -- Clinic
54:25 -- The Voyages of Marco Polo
58:19 -- Murano
62:37 -- Gold West
67:40 -- Steampunk Rally
75:23 -- The Secret Question
77:30 -- Kickstarter Grumbles

Three Kingdoms Redux is currently the 2156th ranked game on Board Game Geek. It's a game we've been playing this month, one that's been on our radar for quite a while, and in this episode we're going to do our longest single game review telling you why that ranking is approximately 2150 places off.

Also, we've discovered another fine game about to hit Kickstarter, World's Fair 1893. This one has demanded to be on our table more than we expected, and we could see it garnering some silverware in 2016.

Add to this a bottle of Whisky and a handful of light games played just before recording and you have our longest episode yet (On a side note, we plan to reverse this length trend as we slouch on toward episode 100).

ATTRACTIONS:

04:44 -- Sixes &Sevens: Light Game Deathmatch (Discoveries, Mottainai, Flip City, Welcome to the Dungeon, Traders of Osaka)
19:30 -- Practicing Guitar
21:00 -- World's Fair 1893 (in-depth KS preview)
59:17 -- The Bottle of Guilt: Ardbeg Auriverdes
70:22 -- Transition
71:21 -- Three Kingdoms Redux (in-depth review)

Someone recently commented that our podcasts are almost as long as Wagner's operas. Well, seeing as we take that as a challenge, this one's epic! Sweeping! Cinematic! In 70 mm Technicolor!

After some short reviews and music talk, and  spin-offs of Eric's "When Things Went Bad" segments, we launch into our annual Essen preview. These are the games we're hoping will take some money out of our pockets. Do we play it safe? Can we find something unique, something off the radar? And how many of these games will even be available to us?

Gotta say, this is a long one, but I sure enjoyed the listen while editing.

LISTS:

03:05 -- Starfighter (review)
23:49 -- Secret Question #8
24:17 -- Tides of Time (review)
30:20 -- Bountytown
52:05 -- Music: Destroyer, Matt Pond PA, Joe Henry
64:50 -- Essen Preview, How We Do
67:10 -- A Wife's Wisdom and When Things are Forgotten
69:40 -- Shout Out Louisville
71:40 -- More Wisdom?
75:45 -- List Making & Expansion Desires
78:57 -- Essen & Beyond, 5th Choices
86:10 -- 4th Choices
95:17 -- 3rd Choices
105:00 -- 2nd Choices
112:40 -- 1st Choices
121:26 -- Honorable Mentions

Guess what kids? We've been playing games. Lots of games. New games, old games, good games, bad games, even unpublished games (like Gil Hova's upcoming charmer, The Networks). Yea games!

And now, through the miracle of the Interent, you can follow along and listen to what we think of all these games we've played. It's kinda like a sing-a-long, with that bouncy ball hopping around above the words, except we don't have video, so it's really not like that at all.

FOLLOW THE BALL:

01:50 -- Six Degrees of Aggravation
07:16 -- The Networks (Review)
53:35 -- Yellow Spot Irish Whiskey
60:54 -- We played Gen Con games at Sasquatch
63:05 -- Starfighter
69:00 -- Codenames
72:11 -- Spyfall
75:58 -- Discoveries
77:00 -- Secret Question #7
79:15 -- Viceroy
80:50 -- Isle of Skye
82:14 -- New York, 1901
86:15 -- Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot
94:33 -- Ty Con 2015 (the Seconding)
97:37 -- Kohle & Kolonie (mini-review)

Here at Punching Cardboard headquarters there is always the difference between what plans are made and what plans are realized. Here it is, our 75th show. The plan was to record something a little out of the ordinary for episode 75; the realization is our typical fare with some humor, conversation and opinions on games, whisky and music.

Still, we think that’s pretty good. After all, we wouldn’t have made it to episode 75 if we didn’t feel we were doing good things, and we wouldn’t have kept going if you all weren’t listening (Yep, we’re throwing you guys under the bus).

So if you’ve been around for a good while, thanks for putting our ‘cast into your rotation. And if you’re just coming to the party, welcome. We hope you’ll all stay on board for this ride. We may not record too many special episodes over the next 75, but we’ll probably realize 75 more episodes. Just imagine, Episode 150 — Caverna 2: the Agricola Field Recordings! (remastered edition). You know you want it. So do we. Let’s have fun together.

TRACK LISTING:

01:50 — Tame Impala / Jason Isbell
07:16 – – (Upcoming Games)
07:47 — We Give Phil Eklund All Our Money
12:14 — “Kingdom Builder? This About Kingdom Builder?”
14:00 — Thanks for the games
17:38 — (What We’ve Been Playing / Buying)
17:45 — Trambahn
22:20 — Mage Knight Expansion Troubles?
25:14 — King of New York / Sheriff of Nottingham / Citadels
29:16 — The BenRiach Septendecim, 17 year old Peated
34:13 — Barony
66:13 — Secret Question #6

Welcome to episode 74. Inside you will find a lengthy discussion about games that we have played more than any others, a tasting report on a new single malt, and a few new music recommendations.

But to top it off Jim spends about a half hour talking to Richard "Doc" Diosi of Mercury games about their upcoming reprint of Princes of the Renaissance.

So sit back and pour a wee dram and enjoy.

HEADLINES

03:45 -- Madeira Revisited
16:32 -- Interview with Richard "Doc" Diosi (Mercury Games)
27:23 -- Princes of the Renaissance
50:36 -- anCnoc 12 year old single malt
58:45 -- Tame Impala, Jason Isbell, Little Steven
68;33 -- Defend Your Ten (Our top ten most played games)
117:20 -- True Confessions
119:00 -- The Secret Q (we almost forgot)