How many games is too many? 200? 100? 50? 11? Which games would you eliminate if your significant other decided that the shelves in your house could be put to better use. We look at this question by deciding which ten games we would keep if we had to reduce our collections. Feel free to play along.

ITEMS:

05:32 -- Old Pulteney Navigator
11:55 -- Viewer Mail, Scheduling, and Other Bits-o-Buisiness
15:41 -- Kickstarter Hype, Bookshelf Games and Life Expectancy (Guildhall, Yokohama & others, in brief)
44:17 -- Are You Listening?
53:57 -- Speaking of Radiohead
64:22 -- Nina & Pinta (teaser)
67:50 -- Reducing Our Collection to 10 Games

Hello and welcome to another packed episode designed to keep you company on your long commutes. Eric returns to the mic and we discuss Radiohead, John Doe, Princes of the Renaissance & Arkwright giveaways, and HeavyCon 2016 before launching into our dissection of Level 99's Millennium Blades. Packed, I said.

This one was interesting to edit. As I listened to our in-depth discussion about Millennium Blades I kept thinking of more things to say about the game itself. And though we gave it about an hour of exposure, I felt we left something on the table. Still, you should get a good idea about this unique, fascinating, maddening, and fun game. Enjoy.

BOOSTER PACKS:

04:43 -- Princes of the Renaissance Giveaway Update
06:22 -- Arkwright Giveaway Teaser
12:23 -- Revisiting the Euro question
21:43 -- Virtuosity: The Soulless Euro of Music
25:31 -- John Doe & The Only Song About Relationships You'll Ever Need.
29:23 -- Radiohead Adoration
45:45 -- HeavyCon 2016
52:28 -- Shameless Prototype Plug
63:33 -- Millennium Blades (in-depth)

You are about to embark on a journey back in time. Back to harsh landscapes and unforgiving environments. And dice rolls. Lots of dice flying everywhere.

Come with us to find out how to coerce your lowly ape-like ancestors on the path to being human. And then learn how to keep them alive as they hunt and forage in harsh Arctic climes. We're going all in on Phil Eklund's Neanderthal and Greenland in this one. Welcome to the wayback machine.

ERAS:

07:52 -- Princes of the Renaissance contest announcement.
13:36 -- Heading to Heavy Con
15:25 -- MMA or UFC, What???
19:30 -- To Euro or not to Euro, what is the answer?
44:33 -- Neanderthal & Greenland (in-depth)

Have you been looking for a living card game that you can dive right in on without worrying about constant updates? Don't want to buy two (or three) core sets? Are you a reformed Magic player who wants to scratch that itch without going back down the rabbit hole? Can Plaid Hat games help you with their entry into the genre, Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn? We'll suss it out for you right here. Right now. Definitively. Or something like that?

Also, gaming with kids. Should you even bother. I mean, of course you want to game with your kids, so let's discuss how to do it. 

All this and more in Episode 89. Don't be fooled by false endings.

CHALKBOARD:

00:34 -- Amrut Fusion Single Malt
13:20 -- Weedy Poker
16:05 -- More Games Acquired
17:54 -- What You Want & What We'll Do
26:50 -- Gaming With Kids
60:30 -- Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn (fairly in-depth)
101:50 -- Get Sleep and Avoid Divorce.

Welcome to the PCP Magiporium, performances every Thursday through Sunday. We have mechanics and mystics, apprentices and assistants. Escape artists are chained in tanks of sea water. Illusionists will conjure impossible creatures. Rabbits will pop from hats. Monkeys will fly. Minds will clash. Look! What's behind that cloud of smoke?

You'll want to see a show every week, so arrive early for the best seats. This week, Trickerion! All secrets will be revealed. 

TRICKS:

06:30 -- Port Charlotte Heavily Peated Single Malt
13:07 -- Trickerion: Legends of Illusion (in depth)

Scotland or Japan? It's the question on everyone's minds. Who's minds, you ask? Where ya been? No one's talking about Kardashians or Trumps or hunky Canadian dudes who somehow get to run countries where people eat poutine and slide rocks across frozen, swept water. Nope, it's all about a place full of craggy rocks and craggy people vs. the land of Hello Kitty and Karaoke.

And like Chris Hardwick after The Walking Dead we're here to talk you through it, to lend support as you try to sort out your feelings about those places and some games based on them. It's a tough one, too. Do you lightly follow a path through the windswept shores, rocky hills, and green pastures on The Isle of Skye in search of sheep and fine whisky, or do you build and run factories in Nippon, spreading your goods, and ships and trains out across the whole of Japan? Who knows? We don't, but were gonna talk about it anyway.

DESTINATIONS:

04:29 -- Some Games We Encountered
13:30 -- The Joy of Rockin' Live
23:57 -- Isle of Skye (in depth)
73:34 -- Nippon (in depth)

I'm sick, and it's difficult to come up with a clever paragraph or two to introduce our 85th episode, so I'll just lay it out in a simple fashion.

On this podcast you will hear our interview with Mercury Games' Richard Diosi, who will be giving you the lowdown on the reprint of Princes of the Renaissance. You will hear a lot of game talk, including an in-depth examination of Pax Pamir. And of course, we have a dram and a little fun along the way. Please excuse the coughing and enjoy.

TIMETABLE

08:52 -- Princes of the Renaissance (interview and specifics)
36:24 -- Park Safely (rant)
40:15 -- Games and our Dynamic Ratings?
57:55 -- Can a Game be too Heavy?
68:46 -- Connemara Peated Single Malt
76:06 -- Pax Pamir (in-depth)

Welcome to our first episode in 2016. We seem to have settled into a pattern of releasing a show just about once a month. We can sustain this, I think. And maybe add a few more into the mix when time allows. So consider this the first of about 15 for 2016

In this episode we take on a couple of your questions and answer them with a fairly lengthy discussion, trying to turn over every stone in the sandbox. We also take an in-depth look at The Gallerist, including an amazing two-minute drill from Eric (He got the ball all the way to the twelve yard line before the clock ran out).

We throw in a little talk of whisky and philosophy, but games come under a great deal of scrutiny in this one.

ATTRACTIONS:

04:04 -- A Question of Questions
07:04 -- A Question of Balance and Weenies
31:30 -- A Sandbox named Absurd
46:40 -- Horrible Bosses
51:55 -- Oban, Distillers Edition: Distilled 1999, Bottled 2014
61:03 -- No Fun February
62:55 -- Kickstarter Dos (Millennium Blades) & don'ts (Thrash 'n' Roll)
71:56 -- The Gallerist (in-depth)
131:38 -- Russian Railroads: German Railroads (a quick word)
135:50 -- Secret Question