One of the under-appreciated virtues of an auction game is that each session can provide its own economy. While daunting to new players, who don't know what things might be worth, their flailing speculation actually helps determine what things are worth. If they buy that share of red for a squillion moneys, guess what, that is what that market would bear. At least for now, that is. Some jerk might then get the next share for two cents and a smile, but watching those economies develop differently every time is part of the magic.

Games Played Last Week:

01:22 -Snow Planner (Akashi, Soragame Studio, 2024)

04:24 -That's Not a Hat (Kasper Lapp, Ravensburger, 2023)

05:45 -Guards of Atlantis II (Artyom Nichipurov, Wolff Designa, 2022)

10:27 -Iberian Gauge (Amabel Holland, Capstone Games, 2017)

18:17 -Medici (Reiner Knizia, AMIGO, 1995)

23:08 -CATAN: Starfarers Duel (Klaus Teuber and Benjamin Teuber, KOSMOS, 2023)

28:46 -Mythwind (Nathan Lige and Brendan McCaskell, Open Owl Studios, 2023)

News (and why it doesn't matter):

31:08 Star Realms 10th Anniversary edition and Star Trek Star Realms

31:41 Satoshi Matsuura illustrates Yield

31:56 Iliad and Ichor from Reiner Knizia and Bitewing on Kickstarter

32:53 Imperial Borders--massive numbers of troops on a massive map from Larry Summers

33:44 Feature Game: Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan (Gordon Calleja, Mighty Boards, 2024)

While we pride ourselves on our internationalist focus here at SVWAG, we have been remiss in our multilingualism lately. While we reliably rendezvous with French on a semi-regular basis, a skosh of Japanese here and there, a quantum of Latin periodically, and whatever language AYURIS pretends to be, our Spanish could use some work. We thus devote ourselves to utter three whole words of Spanish in this episode.

01:30 AYURIS: Dwellings of Eldervale (Luke Laurie, Breaking Games, 2020)

Games Played Last Week:

03:36 -Federation (Dimitri Perrier and Matthieu Verdier, Explor8, 2022)

06:40 -Successors 4th Edition (Richard H. Berg and Mark Simonitch, PHALANX, 2022)

12:10 -Knarr (Thomas Dupont, Bombyx, 2023)

13:13 -TRICKTAKERs (Hiroken, Joyple Games, 2021) [EDIT: Mark mistakenly claimed that there is no English edition, but this is incorrect]

16:40 -Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan (Gordon Calleja, Mighty Boards, 2024)

22:03 -The Plum Island Horror (Hermann Luttmann, GMT Games, 2023)

26:36 -Sky Team (Luc Rémond, Le Scorpion Masqué, 2023)

28:45 -Slay the Spire: The Board Game (Gary Dworetsky, Anthony Giovannetti, and Casey Yano, Contention Games, 2024)

35:42 -Gaia Project (Jens Drögemüller & Helge Ostertag, Feuerland Spiele, 2017)

37:47 -nana (Kaya Miyano, Mob+, 2021)

40:48 -Murray the A**hole Frog (Jenna Felli, Devious Weasel Games, 2024)

46:04 -Jenga Maker (Uncredited, Hasbro, 2022)

48:32 -Arcs (Cole Wehrle, Leder Games, 2024)

News (and why it doesn't matter):

55:33 Game Brewer, publisher of Stroganov, Oak and Gugong, calls it quits

55:51 Star Wars: X-Wing and Armada terminated by Atomic Mass Games

56:56 Hans im Glück starts asserting its ownership of the word "meeple"

57:30 Mike Hutchinson and Planet Smasher Games' possible future products: Perilous Tales/Gaslands XL box sets?, Space Gits merging dexterity and miniatures, and more

59:26 Topic: The 180

There are certain portentous events that presage massive upheaval and transformative revolution, both good and ill--Mark regards travel as one of these cataclysmic convulsions (ill), but the same is true of the arrival of the man known as Doctor Stallone (good). Both have coincided in the world of SVWAG this week, a confluence more consequential than the great passage of Halley's comet that prompted the original quote of "Après moi, le déluge." There's just a lot, people.

01:33 AYURIS: Flamecraft (Manny Vega, Cardboard Alchemy, 2022)

Games Played Last Week:

03:12 -Dune: Imperium--Uprising (Paul Dennen, Dire Wolf, 2023)

06:17 -Anunnaki: Dawn of the Gods (Simone Luciani and Danilo Sabia, Cranio Creations, 2023)

10:08 -Ra (Reiner Knizia, alea, 1999)

13:19 -Skyrise (Gavan Brown, Sébastien Pauchon, and Adam Wyse, Roxley, 2024)

16:37 -Medici (Reiner Knizia, AMIGO, 1995)

22:13 -Stroganov (Andreas Steding, Game Brewer, 2021)

26:53 -Blitzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 Minutes (Paolo Mori, PSC Games, 2019)

29:05 -Radlands (Daniel Piechnick, Roxley, 2021)

31:05 -Root (Cole Wehrle, Leder Games, 2018)

33:40 -Paku Paku (Antoine Bauza, Ravensburger, 2017)

34:26 -Project: ELITE (Konstantinos Kokkinis, Marco Portugal, & Sotirios Tsantilas, CMON, 2020)

36:47 -Orléans (Reiner Stockhausen, dlp Games, 2014)

38:14 -Tower of Babel (Reiner Knizia, Hans im Gluck, 2005)

39:27 -Telestrations (Uncredited, USAopoly, 2009)

41:11 -Beyond Balderdash (Laura Robinson and Paul Toyne, Canada Games Company, 1993)

43:30 -Quest (Don Eskridge, Indie Boards & Cards, 2021)

46:23 -Calico (Kevin Russ, Flatout Games, 2020)

47:55 -Legacy of Yu (Shem Phillips, Garphill Games, 2023)

49:51 -BattleCON: Unleashed (D. Brad Talton, Level 99 Games, 2020)

53:07 -TEAM3 GREEN (Alex Cutler & Matt Fantastic, Brain Games, 2019)

News (and why it doesn't matter):

55:32 Tapple After Dark...? Uh, no thanks

56:28 Race for the Galaxy Roll & Write from Tom Lehman

57:04 Walker tells lies that evoke a greater truth

57:50 Check out Mark's video game podcast, All My Best Friends Are Digital