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PODCAST

So Very Wrong About Games

A podcast about all manner of hobby games by Mike Walker and Mark Bigney. Bad games don"t go easy on you, so we don"t go easy on them. Thorough analysis via reviews, news, and discussion of topics in gaming. We take context seriously, we value your time, and we"re not into hype. Just because games are fun doesn"t mean we can"t take them seriously, and just because we take them seriously doesn"t mean we can"t have fun.

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All Episodes

72:00

#359: Gibberers

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/05/13

"gibber--intransitive verb:to speak rapidly, inarticulately, and often foolishly"-Merriam-Webster"gibberer--noun:the hosts of SVWAG"Games Played Last Week:01:17 -Sausage Sizzle (Inka and Marcus Brand, 25th Century Games, 2012)05:22 -Landmarks (Rodrigo Rego & Danilo Valente, Floodgate Games, 2024)09:11 -Skara Brae (Shem Phillips, Garphill Games, 2025)14:20 -Moving Company (Guo Jiahui & Wu Ying, Whales Entertainment, 2025)16:49 -First Rat (Gabriele Ausiello & Virginio

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58:45

#358: Tricky Edge Cases

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/05/06

Chaka Khan, let me rock youLet me rock you, Chaka KhanLet me rock you, that's all I wanna doChaka Khan, let me rock youLet me rock you, Chaka KhanLet me rock you, 'cause I feel for you-Chaka Khan, "I Feel for You"01:26 AYURIS: Barcelona (Dani Garcia, Board&Dice, 2023)Games Played Last Week:03:10 -Snap Ships Tactics: Swarm Box (Josh Derksen, Snap Ships, 2025) 10:13 -Battle of Mekaverse (Reiner Knizia, Kids Logic, 2024)15:34 -Everdell Farshore (James A. Wilson & Clarissa A

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70:11

#357: Post-Easter Update

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/04/29

While we pride ourselves in playing more games in a week than many play in a month, when we take a week away from the SVWAG studio we often face a truly herculean backlog of games to discuss. This two-week period is no exception. Rest assured, we would never leave our dear listeners in the lurch, so we will keep you updated so you need not miss a thing.01:00 AYURIS: Race to the Raft (Frank West, The City of Games, 2023)Games Played Last Week:03:40 -Knarr (Thomas Dupont, Bombyx, 2023)06:42 -Quin

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69:31

#356: Endgame Scoring

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/04/15

Tiebreakers are arguably a kind of endgame scoring. I respect the fact that they are invariably necessary (I mean, if for no other reason than if they're omitted some smartass like me will complain). That said, clearly if the scoreboard goes to 200+ I don't imagine we'll be hauling out the second tiebreaker condition all that much. Frequently the endgame conversion of resources to points already serves as a tiebreaker anyway. 01:48 AYURIS: Nidavellir (Serge Laget, GRRRE Games, 2020)Games

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73:21

#355: Rise & Fall

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/04/08

When is a thing like another thing? Is Albedo like Core Worlds? Is Cat Blues like Rummy? Is Through the Desert like Go? Is a nudge as good as a wink to blind bat? Are all Roll & Writes inferior to Roll a 6, Win a Cookie? Is Christophe Boelinger France's Vlaada Chvátil? Probably, because it's all just like Mage Knight in the end. Games Played Last Week:04:46 -Street Masters: Tide of the Dragon (Scott McFall, Adam Sadler, Brady Sadler, and Mitch Schroeder, Blacklist Games, 2022)09:45

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76:01

#354: 20th Century Games

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/04/01

People have favourably described our physical appearances as "borderline tolerable" and "just short of hideous", and that was just our mothers. In light of this, we put ourselves forward as candidates for all manner of game show. Mark is quite fond of Rice-a-Roni and thus would be more than happy to just have a consolation prize, and Walker just wants to spin something as hard as he can. Better reinforce your props.01:43 AYURIS: Archeos Society (Paolo Mori, Space Cowboys, 2023)Games

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58:10

#353: Rebirth

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/03/25

In logic, conditionals are always true if the antecedent is false. You can't falsify the conditional if the conditions aren't met. For example, if Mark can bench 500 pounds, then vinegar tastes like cotton candy. Rest assured that I ain't benching that much, so don't worry about it; the conditional is true. Similarly, I can invite pretty much whoever I want to SVWAGCon. Fareed Zakaria, Olivia Rodrigo, and Jordan Mechner? Sure, they're all invited. They don't know about us,

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75:57

#352: Ascending Empires: Zenith Edition

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/03/18

I was donating blood while wearing my Transformers Converse shoes, and two different phlebotomists commented positively about them. "We have won the cultural argument," I said, deliberately burying the lede that demographic destiny is probably the chief cause. I suspect that the same forces explain increased societal acceptance of toys, and board games are not immune. Thank goodness!Games Played Last Week:01:22 -Guards of Atlantis II Arcane Hero Pack (Artyom Nichipurov, Wolff Designa,

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69:17

#351: Flexing New Muscles

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/03/10

As is readily apparent from the show's subject matter and our general presentation, we here at SVWAG are stone-cold jocks who excel at the sports and are thoroughly ripped. We trust the launcher and never ever skip leg day.00:57 AYURIS: Expeditions (Jamey Stegmaier, Stonemaier Games, 2023)Games Played Last Week:03:04 -Coloretto (Michael Schacht, ABACUSSPIELE, 2003)07:16 -Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game (Emerson Matsuuchi, CMON, 2025)14:20 -Mega Civilization (Flo de Haan, John Rodriguez, and

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59:52

#350: Beyond the Horizon

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/03/04

Despite the welcome relative absence of anthropomorphic animals this week--aside from some sundry ducks in Lorcana--we see a lot of animals and various critters this week. We eschew sacrifices to a dodgy snake in Imperium, we fling sheep with abandon, we throw down with some wrestling bugs, and that's on top of comparatively mundane animal husbandry in Keyflower. Mark offered some unflattering comparisons between Walker and various animals during Crokinole, but that doesn't quite count.Games

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65:28

#349: A Plowful of Games

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/02/25

While we hate to confirm your most reductive of preconceived notions, snow removal in Canadian cities is no joke. The fleet of vehicles required to allow for daily life in even a small Canadian city after major snowfall is impressive. The balletic dance of some of their formations while in operation calls to mind the precise of mid-air refuelling. 01:03 AYURIS: Ra (Reiner Knizia, alea, 1999)Games Played Last Week:04:07 -Mistborn (John D. Clair, Brotherwise Games, 2024)09:17 -Cerebria: The Inside

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64:15

#348: SETI

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/02/11

Colour nouns are essentially arbitrary; how one decides to chop up the visible spectrum of light is a matter of contingent taxonomy. Some languages have one noun for both blue and green, for example. English has a word for light red (pink) where other languages don't. Russian similarly has a word for light blue. And then there's magenta, which we can all agree is a scene and a half. Games Played Last Week:02:35 -Fruit Fight (Reiner Knizia, CMYK, 2025) 06:55 -Fives (Taiki Shinzawa, CMYK,

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65:11

#347: How Expansions Can Fail

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/02/04

Our upcoming convention, July 25th-27th 2025, is in its planning stages! We have a venue but nothing much else yet. Not even a name! Suggestions welcome. Mark quite likes So Very Wrong About Games Fun Times Good Vibes Only Trans Rights Are Human Rights Boardgame Jamboree, but he worries that it might be too pithy. Few things are off the table! Special guests? Maybe! Fabulous prizes? Well, prizes, definitely. More like obligatory prizes.03:08 AYURIS: Undaunted: Battle of Britain (Trevor Benjamin and

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96:14

#346: 2024 Year in Review

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/01/28

If you can choose to be the regular version or the spicy version, you obviously choose the spicy version. I mean, sure, the capsaicin may sting, but one assumes that the canonical version is caliente. Put another way, would you prefer "SVWAG" or "SVWAG en fuego?" The choice is clear. It is a corollary of sorts to Winston Zeddemore axiom that when someone asks you if you are a god, you say yes.Games Played Last Week:01:33 -Under Our Sun (Maximilian Lichtner and David Poluda,

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67:15

#345: Thunder Road: Vendetta

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/01/21

"Robert! This here is velvet--not velveteen. A gentleman must learn the difference."-Gilbert Fontaine de la Tour D'Haute RiveGames Played Last Week:01:53 -Fishing (Friedemann Friese, 2F-Spiele, 2024)08:04 -Revive (Helge Meissner, Eilif Svensson, Anna Wermlund, and Kristian Amundsen Østby, Aporta Games, 2022)10:46 -SCOUT (Kei Kajino, Oink Games, 2019)14:33 -MLEM: Space Agency (Reiner Knizia, Rebel Studio, 2024)16:53 -Unconscious Mind (Laskas, Jonny Pac, Yoma, and Antonio Zax, Fantasia

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62:52

#344: Only at Certain Player Counts

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/01/14

The editorial department of So Very Wrong About Games has several sub-divisions, and admittedly the orgchart gets a bit baroque at this point. The rules errors office is technically a sub-branch of the fact checking desk, but it is funded out of the game design sub-budget. This muddies the line of accountability, and as anyone who works with gibbons can tell you, this is not ideal. 03:53 AYURIS: Lacrimosa (Gerard Ascendi and Ferran Renalias, Devir, 2022)Games Played Last Week:05:20 -Endeavor: Deep

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67:11

#343: Fromage

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2025/01/07

It has come to our attention that there has been a great deficiency in SVWAG through the years, namely our shameful neglect of the French language. The sheer Gaul!Games Played Last Week:01:34 -The Isle of Cats Duel (Frank West, The City of Games, 2024)04:28 -Res Arcana: Lux et Tenebrae (Thomas Lehman, Sand Castle Games, 2019)08:00 -Worldspanner Factions (Brett G. Murrell, Worldspanner, 2024) 2003, 201317:44 -The Crew: Mission Deep Sea (Thomas Sing, KOSMOS, 2021)20:30 -Atiwa (Uwe Rosenberg, Lookout

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53:45

#342: Sheep in Wolves' Clothing

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/12/31

Trust the launcher.01:28 AYURIS: Darwin’s Journey (Simone Luciani and Nestore Mangone, ThunderGryph Games, 2023)Games Played Last Week:03:49 -Iron Forest (Brian Gomez, Brain Games, 2024)10:22 -Slide Quest (Nicolas Bourgoin & Jean-François Rochas, Blue Orange, 2019)14:00 -The Gang (John Cooper and Kory Heath, KOSMOS, 2024)17:08 -Harmonies (Johan Benvenuto, Libellud, 2024)19:23 -Set a Watch (Mike Gnade and Todd Walsh, Rock Manor Games, 2019)23:12 -Endeavor: Age of Expansion (Jarratt Gray, Burnt

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56:48

#341: Holiday Catch-Up

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/12/24

Walker's glorious return portends a bumper crop of games to discuss, so we will forego a feature game or topic this week in favour of a deluge.02:11 AYURIS: Stationfall (Matt Eklund, Ion Game Design, 2023)Games Played Last Week:07:08 -Tiny Mini Golf (Kamis Kamiński, Self-published, 2023)12:46 -Green Team Wins (Nathan Thornton, 25th Century Games, 2022) 15:33 -Flip 7 (Eric Olsen, The Op Games, 2024)18:08 -The LOOP (Maxime Rambourg and Théo Rivière, Pandasaurus Games, 2020)20:20 -Civolution

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71:59

#340: Frustration with Randomness

So Very Wrong About Games ·

2024/12/17

In addition to having to struggle with new hardware on account of gravity murdering his tablet of 10+ years, we now must try to adjust to capturing the sweet, sonorous tones of the elusive Jimbo. It's hard to get audio levels right when the mic's compressor itself swoons from sheer bliss. 02:43 AYURIS: Revive (Helge Meissner, Eilif Svensson, Anna Wermlund, and Kristian Amundsen Østby, Aporta Games, 2022)Games Played Last Week:06:28 -Civolution (Stefan Feld, Deep Print Games, 2024)19:45

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