Boardgames To Go

Mark Johnson
  • 4.7 (44)
  • GAMES
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Mark Johnson's occasional & opinionated podcast about family strategy boardgames

  1. 1D AGO

    Boardgames To Go 253 - Retro Games at Dice Tower West (with DaveO)

    For the third year in a row I made it to Dice Tower West. Not only that, I enjoyed that convention with DaveO and other buddies. Not only that, but once again DaveO was my partner-in-crime for insisting we dedicate one day of our convention to focus on older boardgames. By "old" we mean games that are at least 25 years old. When we started this tradition that mean games published in in the last century, last millenium--1999 or earlier. Now, however, we can include games published all the way up to the year...2001 or earlier! That still leaves plenty of old favorites and dim memories we want to rediscover.   We give a quick rundown about the games we played, then spend the rest of the time talking about our favorites from the weekend, as well as fielding some listener questions (posted in advance on the Discord server!) about OG games. -Mark

    1h 22m

  2. MAR 21

    Boardgames To Go 252D - Mark Madness 2026 (Elite Eight with Adam Brocker)

    The Sweet 16 is already done and we're on to the Elite Eight. That means just two remaining titles in each of our four divisions, so almost like a mini, division-level championship in each one.  From Germany it's either Azul or 6 Nimmt, then from America it's Diamant or Ticket to Ride. From France we'll either have 7 Wonders Duel or Sea Salt & Paper, and from "Italy" it's either Grand Austria Hotel or Barrage.

    29 min

  3. MAR 17

    Boardgames To Go 252C - Mark Madness 2026 (2nd Round of 32)

    BGTG 252C - Mark Madness 2026 (2nd Round [of 32])   1st round votes are in, now each successive round moves quickly—just three days. 2nd round voting due March 18 at noon BGG-time in Texas (UTC-5).   How are you voting? For the games you enjoy the most or the ones you predicted to win (based on what you imagined OTHERS would vote for)? I've heard the latter is like how a political primary works.   Close calls & Blow-outs • Vikings squeaked by Wandering Towers via a single vote • Same for Nucleum over Anachrony   • Meanwhile, Top & Down only GOT one vote compared to El Grande, losing 2% to 98 • Similarly Cleopatra & SOA over SOS Titanic, or 7 Wonders Duel over Terror in Meeple City, Diamant/Incan Gold over Andromeda, or Memoir 44 over Warriors. (I told you there were some gimmes in the first round)   But what about Ticket To Ride over Elfenland? 96% to 4%??     Regarding Designer Teams contrasting with individual designers, there doesn't seem to be any pattern in the results yet. That is, designers' individual efforts are not favored over their collaborations…or the other way around. It's just whatever is the better game?   However, thinking about has led me to offer some half-baked theories and observations.   All (almost): the collaborations tend to be with people from the same country, speaking the same language. I'm sure this is naturally easier Kramer: I think the games with collaborators are more "gamer-y" Moon: I think his collaborations are more "lush" Cathala: Similar to Kramer "Italians": Don't know! But looking forward to Nucleum vs Barrage

    10 min

  4. MAR 13

    Boardgames To Go 252B - Mark Madness 2026 (1st Round of 64)

    The first round is underway! Go vote at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/375187/mark-madness-2026-designer-teams

    5 min

  5. MAR 8

    Boardgames To Go 252A - Mark Madness 2026 (Introduction) with Adam Brocker

    Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Play along and predict the winners at https://challonge.com/MarkMadness2026 Predictions must be submitted by March 13 to be in the contest Mark Johnson @MarkEJohnson Adam Brocker @abrocker The calendar says March so that means it's time for "Mark Madness" again, my podcast-hosted voting contest. Like its namesake sports tournament, Mark Madness is where 64 games are pitted against each other in successive rounds of single-elimination votes. As before, I took the winner of llast year's contest, Adam Brocker, and asked him to co-host this year's contest. Adam told me he's interested in the designers behind our games, specifically when famous designers partner with others or create other games on their own. Just thinking about boardgame designer partnerships makes me immediately think of Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling, though there many others. Kramer himself has done many games on his own, other famous ones with Kiesling, still more with Ulrich, and that's not all. Before long, we realized that we could have a 16-game subset "Division" of Kramer games, which happen to feature German designers. Alan R. Moon is another famous designer who's worked alone or with others. Sure enough, that American designer primarily (but not exclusively) has worked with other Americans on their collaborations. Same for Bruno Cathala with the French designers (or French-speakers from nearby Belgium). With those three divisions established, we just needed one more to fill out the contest. Turning to Italy, some of the hottest games and designers come from that country & community. A little bit unique from the divisions previously devised, the Italians appear to work together in small groups that overlap and change from game-to-game. That itself is fascinating. Play along! I hope we get a good number of folks who submit their own official predictions at challonge.com, which is free. Some have already done it. You've until March 13 to submit your guesses, so you need to move quickly. Then the voting rounds will start via Geeklist polling. As you can see from the chart above, the successive rounds of this voting will start happening every three days: On March 15 we'll have the results of the first round, when 64 teams are winnowed down to 32 survivors. Then it proceeds to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, and Championship. Who will be the winner? We expect to do "micro-episode" podcasts throughout the month to talk about each round. They'll show up in your regular feed, and I will link them here, too. -Mark

    33 min

  6. MAR 1

    Boardgames To Go 251 - German Vacation

    Opener: 7 Wonders Dice Closer: Mark Madness 2026 (with Adam Brocker) preview - Register for free and make your predictions at https://challonge.com/MarkMadness2026! I've recently come back from a vacation in Germany. Once upon a time in this hobby, that really meant something significant. Germany was the worldwide headquarters and creative generator for boardgaming. Gamers in other countries hung on scraps of information, imported products, and had to learn a little of the German language to really be an active part of strategy boardgaming. In a way, that extra effort was also part of the fun, a level of commitment & dedication that went way beyond what it took to be a videogamer or cinephile. But, it's also true that it was a barrier to wider growth of the hobby.    I'm talking about 20-30 years ago. Now, in 2026, it's notably different. I don't think we even speak "Gamer German" any longer! 😀 Also, a boardgamer's trip to Germany doesn't have to include much about boardgames. That was the case with me. I can now acquire & play just about everything I'd want from the ease of my American home with internet access. At the same time...I've still got those 1990s roots in "German boardgaming," as we use to call our hobby, that I looked around and made some observations on this trip. That's what I share in this podcast. -Mark

    50 min

  7. FEB 2

    Boardgames To Go 250 - This and That Again

    Openers: The Hobbit: There and Back Again, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game Although it's true that episode #250 is a milestone, this podcast passed that some time ago. Between all of the extra episodes for BGGcons and Mark Madnesses, plus the occasional double-episodes in the old days, I don't know how many podcasts have actually been released. (My podcast host Libsyn says it's almost 400.) So this isn't an anniversary episode, just another "regular" one where I share some thoughts about games & the hobby overall. Although I missed EsCon in January (and Gulf Games last summer) due to illness, I still managed to play a bunch of games last month, including several at SoCal Games Day. I've described this event before. This was the 94th one of those, and I have a special fondness for them…maybe more than they even deserve! In the podcast I forgot to mention how they offer me the chance to play with my regular friends, and also other gamer friends that I don't see as often. Besides the games, part of the day was going out to lunch at an Italian deli and just talking. Can't believe I forgot to mention that! Closer: More comments & griping from me about how there aren't enough boardgames that are really about their subject matter. I think of this most of all when I'm visiting somewhere, and I wish there was a game I could play & learn/appreciate my vacation more. -Mark

    1h 12m

  8. JAN 1

    Boardgames To Go 249 - Annual Retrospective & Feedback

    Here we are at another season already. The podcast has now reached it's 22nd season, which is a small miracle. We just keep chugging along. If anything, I think it now has a solid core of listeners and participants that feel like they're going to stick with me. :-)   With BGStats, it's now even easier for me to see my final tallies for the games I played last year. Plus, I can separate out the digital ones from the in-person plays. Though as you'll hear in the podcast, a bunch of those digital plays are as real as anything, thanks to live play and voice/video connections. I expect that trend will continue to be an important part of my hobby. After talking about those statistics and some more meta thoughts at the end of the year, I jump into some questions & comments from listeners. I used to do this regularly. Now, perhaps the Discord server itself serves some of that function. But it's still nice to respond on the podcast to questions. I'll probably do that again sometime. -Mark

    51 min
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4.7
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About

Mark Johnson's occasional & opinionated podcast about family strategy boardgames

Information

  • Creator
    Mark Johnson
  • Years Active
    2005 - 2026
  • Episodes
    296
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright (c) 2005-2013 by Mark Johnson
  • Show Website
    Boardgames To Go

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