Claim OwnershipOperation: Game Night
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© 2025 Operation: Game Night
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Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
95 Episodes
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We swap stories with Tiffany from Tiffs Board Games and share the best “new to us” plays that defined our year, from gentle family co-ops to solo epics and evergreen euros. The thread that ties them together is clean design, strong arc, and table moments that stick. • Victorian engine-building and gossip in Obsession • Family laughs and tension in First Orchard • Trinket Trove’s turn-order bidding and quick teach • Rebirth as a clean, scalable Knizia tile-layer • Cast...
What if you had to carve Reiner Knizia’s legacy into stone—just four games to represent a career that spans genres, decades, and thousands of tables? We are pumped to be joined by Bitewing Games’ Nick Murray to help us do exactly that, starting wide with party‑ready card games, heavyweight strategy, and auction masterclasses, then narrowing to a final four that balance impact, accessibility, and pure design brilliance. We revisit Essen stories and the reality of publishing while putting big ...
A first-timer’s crash course at PAX Unplugged turns from chaos to clarity after a late badge pickup, an impulse buying spree, and an anchor meetup with designer Paul Solomon at the Game Head booth. We share hard-won tips on planning, scheduling, demoing smart, and making the most of crowded play spaces and overwhelming choices. • arriving late on Friday and missing badge pickup • early Saturday push, exploring vendors outside the expo hall • expo hall overload, impulse spending, ...
We roast the perfect smoked turkey, rescue a podcast from broken texts, and marathon board games until the table begs for mercy. Retro hardware meets Switch advice, while a koi dilemma becomes a quiet lesson in stewardship and starting fresh. • Brining, drying, buttering and aromatics for smoked turkey • MLEM highlights and Pinatas’ second-to-last trick strategy • Magical Athlete chaos and playful stakes with a pickle bet • Flip Seven’s quick teach and score-tracking tips • Analog Pocket nos...
A podcast takeover with heart, dice, and a little chaos: we hijacked Games Y Mas to say thanks and to build your holiday game bag with confidence. We start by unpacking the three mechanics that made our year brighter—deck building for agency and momentum, push your luck for laughs and energy, and RPG-style progression for that sweet feeling of earned growth—then connect them to real games that work at actual tables with actual families. Jared makes a spirited case for deck building, from Arn...
The road was quiet, the horses were not, and our dice had other plans. We jumped into Dungeons & Dragons 5e with a veteran DM guiding us through a one-shot that quickly became a masterclass in what makes tabletop role-playing so compelling: real choices, shared imagination, and the wild variance of a d20. From a dwarf fighter built to tank to a half-orc monk chasing precision, our party learned how character ideas collide with probability—and why that tension is half the fun. We break do...
Jerry returns with stories of a surprise Azul date night, a rediscovered $100 Vegas mini-game, and fresh takes on gateway games that can coax non-gamers into regular play. We swap strategies for The Quest for El Dorado, pitch Redwood for photographers, and plot the path to Arnak. • Azul wins as a fast, colorful date night gateway • Travel-sized components and the power of quick replays • Ruins and trick-taking nostalgia with upgrades • The $100 World Series mini-game and what to do with it •...
We draft two original civilization board games with only $30 and 10 rounds, forcing bold choices on theme, mechanics, designer, art, publisher, box size, player count, and length. One becomes an insect super-civ of tech and diplomacy, the other a two-player city builder about climate resilience. • rules of the $30, 10-round Civ game draft • insect colony vs environmental adaptation sub-themes • tech trees and diplomacy vs resource management and city building • designer picks and why reputat...
We pivot from a planned board game origin to a candid catch-up on leadership growth, masculine archetypes, stadium joy, and sobering screen stories. Between a Steelers defensive explosion and a YMCA Wi-Fi meltdown, we land on what helps friendships and teams thrive. • origin story mix-up and light chaos • leader development course insights and self-awareness • archetypes of mature masculinity and practical feedback • Steelers defensive resurgence and stadium renaming • Halloween hot dogs, fa...
We share first impressions of The Hobbit: There and Back Again, a roll-and-write that blends dice drafting with a story you can feel across eight evolving chapters. From dwarf paths to riddles in the dark, we highlight why the theme lands, where solo stumbles, and how table tempo creates tension. • components, setup, and how drafting works • chapter variety and how goals change • path drawing, bread, swords, and first‑to bonuses • gollum puzzle chapter and ring scoring • storm pass risk and ...
We debrief Falcons, the U.S. Air Force Academy board game, walking through how it plays, where it shines, and who will love it most. Theme and art carry a brisk time-track system, with competitions and events adding light strategy and table banter. • time-track movement around the Terrazzo • academics, training, action cards and how they interact • competitions with simultaneous reveals and odd second-place wins • character tokens as hidden points and tie-breaks • milestone challenges of Rec...
We unpack how Origin Story fuses classic trick-taking with character-building powers, letting you charge abilities with stamina and choose between hero or villain scoring for sharp, thematic pivots. We weigh the balance of chaos and control across player counts, praise the production, and flag who will love this design. • core must-follow trick-taking with love as trump • story cards that grant powers and reshape hands • stamina as a pre-round budget to charge abilities • hero or villain ide...
A streaming giant just picked up one of the most beloved board games on Earth, and our imaginations ran wild. We set out to answer a big question: how do you turn Catan’s trade, tension, and that pesky robber into stories worth binging? With friend of the show Vic from Games Y Más, we pitch three directions that could each anchor a different corner of Netflix’s slate. First up, an animated family adventure in the spirit of Toy Story and Wreck-It Ralph, where forgotten classics like Chess, Mo...
A foggy graveyard, rattling dice, and a familiar voice rising from the crypt—Jared’s back, and we’re cracking open a night of stories that blend family life, hobby joy, and the kind of plans that keep a gaming calendar buzzing. We kick off with life updates, a very sweaty “fall” in Alabama, and a detour into adaptive spooky video games that learn your habits and dial up the tension. From there, we trade kitchen war stories about a pizza stone gone rogue and the humble fixes that turn hosting ...
Bidding in space shouldn’t feel this tense, but Ego makes every card you play—or don’t—matter. We explore why this Bitewing Games re-imagining of Reiner Knizia’s Beowulf clicks: a modular journey across alien worlds, a smooth checklist of actions, and auctions that crescendo at just the right moments. The premise is charmingly sharp: act as ambassadors, manage offense tokens, and convert small advantages into a final scoring burst without tipping into disaster. We unpack the core escalating ...
We break down Money! by Reiner Knizia, a quick blind-bidding card game where scoring thresholds and trio bonuses create sharp, swingy decisions. We compare it to High Society and other Knizia auctions, talk player counts, and share who should consider adding it to a shelf. • core rules overview and scoring thresholds • trio bonuses and their swing potential • blind bidding and market swap decisions • reading opponents and timing value shifts • three player flow versus larger groups • compari...
A duel at a Wonderland tea table shouldn’t feel this sharp—but Madcala turns classic Mancala into a fast, tactical fight that rewards nerve and clean planning. We sit down with this two-player brawler from Druid City Games and unpack why the lighter weight, tight turns, and gorgeous production make it so easy to teach yet surprisingly tense to master. From stitched neoprene to plastic shards and a chunky doubler, the table presence invites you in; the shard economy and plate effects keep you ...
A fading crown. A table full of secrets. We’re diving into The Old King’s Crown—a heavy, heady blend of bluffing, bidding, and brutal clashes—where every season reshapes the map and every decision echoes across years. We unpack how the game’s sketchbook-fantasy art direction and sharper final production help a complex ruleset breathe, why the seasonal flow is the quiet teacher that keeps turns focused, and how a single overbid in spring can save (or sink) your endgame in year five. We map th...
Ever wished you could role‑play on your own terms—no scheduling headaches, no thick rulebooks, just a notebook, a deck of cards, and your imagination? We dive into the art of solo tabletop RPGs and how a few elegant systems can turn small moments into big stories. From late‑night radio confessionals to crumbling castles and whispered hallways, we share the titles that pulled us in and the tricks that kept us playing. We start with Void 1680 AM, a music lover’s dream that turns card draws int...
A single die, 30 weird racers, and more table noise than most epic euros—that’s the promise we chased and found in Magical Athlete. We open the box to screen-printed meeples that feel like pocket totems, talk through why the reprint’s art taps straight into Saturday-morning nostalgia, and explain how a clean draft plus four escalating races turns simple rules into shareable stories. If you’ve ever wanted a game that your non-gamer friends, your kids, and your strategy group can all love for d...
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