64 episodes

A monthly podcast dedicated to the history, evolution, present state, and future potential of our favorite board games.

The Ascent of Board Games The Ascent of Board Games

    • Leisure
    • 4.9 • 14 Ratings

A monthly podcast dedicated to the history, evolution, present state, and future potential of our favorite board games.

    Episode 54 - Sports Games

    Episode 54 - Sports Games

    WARNING: This episode is cursed. We had to record it (or parts of it) no less than three times, and we still had Frank drop out unexpectedly for a few minutes. (Don't worry, he didn't say anything important.) But it's here now, and it's full of sports games! Rotisserie Baseball! Electric Football!! SO MUCH GOLF!!!
    Tipp-Kick, still going strong after 100 years! (Here's video of a few professional soccer players from Germany's Bundesliga having a game.)
    Electric Football, where plastic players slowly and erratically vibrate across the field. (There's video for this one too.)
    Arnold Palmer holding a golf club tipped with Arnold Palmer holding a golf club...
    "This is the better game, although it's unplayable..."
    Our first simulationist dexterity game!
    And one more video, just because it's ridiculous - Boccerball!
    Thanks as always for listning! If you have a few extra minutes and a generous heart, why not leave us an iTunes review? It really helps us find new listeners 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 Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter (for as long as Twitter still exists). 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!
    Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
    Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
    Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
    And, 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!

    • 1 hr 13 min
    Episode 53.2 - Paragraph Games Revisited, Part 2

    Episode 53.2 - Paragraph Games Revisited, Part 2

    More paragraphs! More stories! More smart-assery! More great quotes like:
    "Yay for Finns!"
    "Like Tales of the Arabian Nights, but much better." (!!!)
    "The story is a lot more...wordful."
    "I'm not the final boss..."
    "Frank gets a point for Arc Knight Miniatures, which I don't know if we even talked about on the episode."
    Welcome to all of our new listeners, and welcome back to our returning friends! If you have a few extra minutes and a generous heart, why not leave us an iTunes review? It really helps us find new listeners 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 Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter as long as Twitter still exists. 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!
    Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
    Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
    Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
    And, 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!

    • 55 min
    Episode 53- Paragraph Games Revisited, Part 1

    Episode 53- Paragraph Games Revisited, Part 1

    To listen to our new episode, read paragraph 234. To listen to our original paragraph games episode, read paragraph 191.
    234: You listen to a podcast in which:
    Jayson scores 3 points with a single game.
    Joe's discussion of Awaken Realms games becomes a meditation on time and aging
    Germany (and KOSMOS, specifically) steal Frank's and Brian's childhoods 
    We learn about "The Adventures of Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marion, and the Other Guy"
    Mike underestimates the value of a light source
    As always, we'd love it if you took the time to write us an iTunes review, as it really helps us find new listeners 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 Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter as long as Twitter still exists. 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!
    Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
    Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
    Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
    And, 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!

    • 58 min
    Episode 52.2 - Expansions, Part 2

    Episode 52.2 - Expansions, Part 2

    If this is the expansion to our first expansions episode, does that make it an Expansionception?
    We find Joe's definition of Hell.
    Mike and Joe dislike the Venus Next expansion for several reasons, but mostly because they're 12 years old.
    Frank introduces us to The Death Book, an essential expansion which has no effect on the rules or play of the game.
    As always, we'd love it if you took the time to write us an iTunes review, as it really helps us find new listeners 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 Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter as long as Twitter still exists. 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!
    Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
    Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
    Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
    And, 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!

    • 44 min
    Episode 52 - Expansions, Part 1

    Episode 52 - Expansions, Part 1

    Hi folks! Are you enjoying our podcast? Do you want even MORE of our podcast? Good, because here's the first part of our Expansion episode, wherein we talk about the first, worst, and best game expansions in our experience. Discussions include:
    What was the first expansion? This thread on the Geek suggests that Frank's choice (and thus ours) may be wrong.
    Joe has trouble remembering the name of a spaceship that is also the name of the expansion the spaceship is in, which he's already said several times.
    Not only does Mike think this expansion is bad because it makes the game too hard, but it also "pushes the game over the shark." (We know what he means.)
    Mike believes that this BGG Top 100, Kennerspiel des Jahres-winning, multi-million-copy-selling game is "not good"...because its expansions are good? (We do NOT know what he means.)
    How do you like YOUR Spidicules? 
    Sometimes the best expansion for a game is a completely separate game (we're looking at you, Noun Noun: Noun).
    We introduce The Kingdom Death-Middara Game Text Quantity Spectrum.
    As always, we'd love it if you took the time to write us an iTunes review, as it really helps us find new listeners 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 Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter as long as Twitter still exists. 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!
    Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
    Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
    Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
    And, 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!

    • 54 min
    Episode 51 - Looking Forward to 2023

    Episode 51 - Looking Forward to 2023

    Happy New Year! Last month, we took a look back at our favorite gaming things from 2022; this month, we're talking about some of the games we're looking forward to in 2023. Contents include, but are not limited to:
    Jayson sounds very, very sad post-sinus surgery (but he's doing fine now, promise). Donations of giant mecha or plastic miniatures should be sent to Jayson. Donations of cash should be sent to the podcast.
    Brian has some serious questions for past Brian.
    We explore the value of self-examination in anime combat.
    Mike is egregiously behind on his essential videogaming requirements.
    Joe teaches us about the Russian fox experiment; Mike has objections.
    Frank names his "best computer game ever made;" Brian has objections.
    Jodorowsky's TRON?!?
    As always, we'd love it if you took the time to write us an iTunes review, as it really helps us find new listeners We'd also love to have you visit our website (although Podbean has made some recent changes to it that mean some stuff isn't in the right place at the moment) 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 Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter as long as Twitter still exists. 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!
    Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
    Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
    Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
    And, 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!

    • 1 hr 26 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
14 Ratings

14 Ratings

hofzinsers ,

Qualified and Unique

This quickly became my favorite board game pod. Gamers taking games that have enough experience their perspectives matter. Sprinkled with history and crunch and we have a winner. Great content!!

cstaufer ,

Top notch podcast

I’m a big of fan of the board game content that the Ascent of Boardgames panel produces on a regular basis.

The format is currently a history of x genre of game. What I find fascinating is this groups’ ability to find random games that you’ve probably never heard of relating to the current topic.

Vastly superior to other board gaming podcasts that I listen to.

Definitely worth your time, and a must check out.

paleitman ,

Great podcast with extremely intelligent insight

AoB is my go-to to get a really deep understanding of what makes games work (or not!) The content is very approachable and covers a wide variety of types of games. It helps me understand the underpinnings of the games I love, and has suggestions for more I'd like to try.

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