The Ascent of Board Games

We're back to wrap up our discussion on "sandbox games," and this part stretches the definition a bit; there's at least one game here where it's not the map that's bigger than you can explore in one game, but the rule set itself. (Yes, it's a Frank special.)

What game does Joe describe as "a beautiful mess"?

Frank is doing things in his new obsession and all he can say is "...and apparently, this matters."

What are your favorite sandbox games? What have we left off our list? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds!

As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!

Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com

Email: [email protected]

Discord: https://discord.gg/tdH3QAn 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social

Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/

And, very occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

This month, we're here to talk about what we're calling "sandbox games" - games that have bigger maps and/or more content than you can possibly explore in a single game, but which aren't built as long campaign or legacy games. Thus, you need to take some notes and carry information - and, in some cases, rules - from one game to the next.

Also, one brief apology: Your Humble Editor has been quite sick these last few weeks, and thus this episode is, let us say, more "lightly edited" than usual. I think I've gotten most of the myriad sniffles, cat noises, drink slurping, and other background noise, but it's still not up to my usual standards. Mea culpa.

We definitely remembered the first game on our list before we started. Yup.

A couple of games with shaky debuts but stellar sequels.

CORRECTION: Around 25:50, Frank refers to Lands of Galzyr as a "very Swedish game," but the game and its publisher are in fact Finnish. Our apologies! Thanks to eagle-eyed listener @raaf on Discord for straightening us out!

Glowy LED buildings! What do they do? We don't know!

You can hear just how shot my voice currently is at the very end of the episode, so...yay?

What are your favorite sandbox games? Which ones do you think we'll discuss next month? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds!

As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!

Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com

Email: [email protected]

Discord: https://discord.gg/tdH3QAn 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social

Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/

And, very occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

HOO boy, this one has been an odyssey. Between computer hardware failures, file corruption, ice storms, and assorted other real-world chaos, it's a bit of a surprise that this episode made it out at all, much less on time. But it's here! Join us as we talk about games where one or more players are looking to win the game in a completely different way from everyone else.

Is Joe the first person ever to compare the Bene Gesserit to Babe Ruth? We think so.

High praise: This game is "A fun expenditure of human time."

We digress briefly into discussing Jubensha, the Chinese LARPy RPG craze that's making its way to the U.S.

We learn of yet another massive gap in Mike's geek culture experience.

Frank tells us about "Nemesis - the party game!"

Do you have any favorite examples of games with weird alternate victory conditions? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds!

As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!

Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com

Email: [email protected]

Discord: https://discord.gg/tdH3QAn 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social

Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/

And, very occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

Well, now that THAT's over with (THAT being the year 2025), it's time to see what we're looking forward to in 2026. A list made of our hopes and dreams for the new year, shared with all of our beloved listeners.

We've discovered Frank's weakness. (It's Mothra.)

Brian really loves early-stage concept art.

Frank reveals Mike's perfect game - a Legacy game comprised entirely of stickers.

"When in doubt, kill a Nazi."

Not a board game, but a fun set of puzzles for people who like word searches that quickly get out of hand.

What are you looking forward to playing in 2026? What are we overlooking? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds!

As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!

Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com

Email: [email protected]

Discord: https://discord.gg/tdH3QAn 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social

Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/

And, very occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

As we head into the last days of 2025, it's time for our traditional look back at our favorite games and game-related events of the last 12 months. Discussions include:

The best game shipping wrapper we've ever seen.

A really impressive deck-builder that you can't get for love or money...

...or CAN you? 

A game box even bigger than last month's!

Blood on the Clocktower, but solitaire...and on a PC?

Frank cheats and adds a computer game to his list, as usual...but so does Mike?!?

What have we missed? What was your favorite board game of 2025? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds!

As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!

Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com

Email: [email protected]

Discord: https://discord.gg/tdH3QAn 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social

Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/

And, very occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!