May 11, 2025

Navigating Loss and Gaming!

In this episode, hosts Joe Mahaffey and James Engelhardt discuss a range of topics from personal loss to the latest in board games. They reflect on the recent passing of Joe's mother and how it impacted their podcast schedule. The conversation shifts to the news of Hasbro scrapping Project Sigil, a virtual tabletop initiative, and the implications for the gaming community. They delve into game reviews, including 'It's a Wonderful World', 'Mothership', and 'La Corsa', highlighting their mechanics and gameplay experiences. The hosts also share insights on quick games for couples and discuss exciting Kickstarter projects like Propolis and The Western Reaches, showcasing the evolving landscape of tabletop gaming.

Show Notes

Season 4, Episode 4

Welcome

Navigating Loss and Gaming

Board Game News

How to play what is on our tables

James

In It’s a Wonderful World, you are an expanding Empire and must choose your path to your future. You must develop faster and better than your competitors. You’ll carefully plan your expansion to develop your production power and rule over this new world.

It’s a Wonderful World is a cards drafting and engine building game from 1 to 5 players. Each round, players will draft 7 cards and then choose which ones will be recycled to immediately acquire Resources, and which ones will be kept for construction to produce Resources each round and/or gain victory points.

When a card is fully built, it’s added to the player’s Empire to increase the player’s production capacity for each round. The mechanical twist being that the production phase works in a specific order. You'll have to plan your constructions carefully!

For a deeper insight of the gameplay, please follow this link : It's a Wonderful World - First steps

In addition to the base game, players can also enjoy expansions boxes introducing an innovative Campaign mode. Each Campaign offers a storyline to follow and many gameplay twists. At the end of each campaign, players will open a reward booster to unlock new cards, enhance their base game and keep a memory of what happened during the campaign. All the campaigns can be replayed and don’t imply game components destruction.

More info on the Campaign mode : It's a Wonderful World - Campaign Mode

—description from the publisher

The Lacorsa Grand Prix Game is an exciting and fast-paced game that captures the drama and tactics of grand prix racing. Lacorsa is easy to learn, allowing you to jump right into the action.

It's designed for 2-6 players, takes 15-60 minutes to play, and is suitable for ages 14 and up.

The game's strategy, though seemingly simple, offers a depth of gameplay that will keep you on your toes. It incorporates elements of bluffing, tactical positioning, strategic planning, and a touch of luck, truly capturing the spirit of a race in 15 minutes or less. With a competitive group, you can find yourself immersed in the game for hours, always striving for that winning edge.

Lacorsa boasts a beautiful design, with components that are not only sturdy but also exude a sense of quality. The sleek box and compact board allow for easy set-up and portability, making it the perfect game to take on the go. With Lacorsa, you're not just getting a game, you're getting an experience.

The game draws inspiration from Italian motor racing culture. "La corsa" translates simply to "the race" in Italian. With this in mind, Lacorsa transports you back to a simpler time of racing and gaming.

Join us and experience the thrill of racing in style.

INCLUDES:

Premium wooden playing board with Beech inlays, folds out to 24"

Lacorsa playing cards (78)

Lacorsa grand prix racecar injection-molded playing pieces (6)

Racecar marker cards (20) to keep track of your car

Six-sided die

Sporting Regulations rulebook

Championship table scorepad (50 sheets)

Joe

You are a marine researcher seeking to find and observe an array of aquatic life in the colorful Sunlight Zone, ghostly Twilight Zone, and pitch-black Midnight Zone of the world's seas and oceans. In Finspan, the fish you discover over four weeks will generate a series of benefits as you dive deeper into the ocean.

Each dive site specializes in a key aspect of expanding your research:

Grow your collection of fish.
Discover freshly laid eggs.
Hatch eggs into young and consolidate young to form schools.
The winner is the player with the most points gained from fish, eggs, young, schools, and achievements.

—description from the publisher

In The Isle of Cats Duel — a competitive, standalone game designed specifically for two players — you are citizens of Squalls End on a rescue mission to the Isle of Cats and must save as many cats as possible before the evil Lord Vesh arrives. Each cat is represented by a unique tile and belongs to a family; you must find a way to make them all fit on your boat while keeping families together.

The Isle of Cats Duel replaces the card drafting from the original The Isle of Cats game with a new movement system. Guided by an Oshax cat, players take turns moving around the island. Where you move determines which cats, treasures, and lessons you can access and will shape the options available to your opponent on their next turn.

In the end, the player who best balances rescuing cats, completing lessons, and limiting their opponent's options will prove themselves as the ultimate cat rescuer.

—description from the publisher

In Everdell Duo, you either compete against your single opponent or play co-operatively with another player to earn the most points. You accomplish this by placing workers to gather resources, then use those resources to play cards face up in front of you, creating your own woodland city.

Cards may be played from your hand or from the face-up area on the board called the meadow. However, only cards touching the sun or moon token may be played from the meadow, and players move these tokens each time they perform a turn. Therefore, planning for and timing which cards you play is critical.

Each game you try to achieve various events, the requirements of which differ from game to game, making certain cards and combinations more important to pursue.

The game lasts for four seasons, then players add their scores to determine the winner. If you're playing co-operatively, check the requirements for the chapter you are playing to see whether you have won.

—description from the publisher