The Last Standee

Hi Last Standee fans! Welcome to Episode 103! You know, sometimes it's difficult to find an episode title that feels smart and has a relevance to all the topics and it's not just cacophonic. I think this episode's title it's a testament to that. I went for a "Video killed the radio star" vibe, but I didn't quite get there. Oh well! In this episode we have a heartfelt Standee Catch-up with the gang, then Fen starts right away with The Red Dragon Inn - you know it's a good one because this is a topic that they wanted to bring up for a long time (I mean, it's no Tiny Towns, but the game is stupid fun in the right hands), then Cara's there with something I am positive she called a "murder party" or something very ominously on that line, but she really meant "murder mystery". Which murder? Which mystery? Don't ask me, I'm just an intro - listen to the episode! We finish strong with Audrey and Anachrony, the heaviest game about time paradoxes and resource management we all know and love! Now that you mention it, it might be that Audrey has a thing for time machines. And swift as we started, we are at the end of the episode. What would the second E stand this time, for the one hundred and third time? No spoilers, but this time it just barely made it! Until next episode, remember, the second "E" in "episode" stands for "E".

Hello and welcome to Episode 102 of The Last Standee Podcast! This is a "surprise 2" episode with Cara and Fen, where they go on a free-range chat about electric cars, the weather and shipping woes! Oh, but also boardgames - and we have a lot to say about those. Say you want an expansion? Then Fen has got you covered - Mother of Dragons for A Game of Thrones boardgame (you know it's good because we don't talk very often about expansions). After the expansion talk though, there's Cara with Senjutsu: Battle of Japan - a deeply strategic miniature card-based skirmish/duel game which also happens to be real eye candy. And it feudal Japan is not your taste, what about Fen covering the modern classic, Sidereal Confluence? And speaking of both, did anyone catch the reference in the title? 100 internet points to the winner! Anyway, while you think at it - see you next time!

Howdy, Last Standee fans! One day, some GENIUS suggested to do something about instruction manuals with Episode 101 (you know, because 101- got it? heh). Needless to say, that GENIUS was way too ahead of their time, and that proposal is not what this episode is about. Godspeed, beautiful he or her who had this magnificent idea! May the moonlight shine on all your paths, you monumental SoB or DoB! Well, thankfully, anyway. Because when you put together the likes of Fen, Cara and Alexis to talk about TTRPGs fully unchecked and unshackled, you get the beautiful piece of listening you are observing now. And if you think of it, TTRPGs are basically entirely made of instructions manuals? No? So without further ado, here-we-go! See you next episode!

Hello and welcome back to The Last Standee Podcast! It has been SIX MONTHS, but we are here! If you have a subscription, I take that you won't believe to the notification icon. Well, we are here. How was the world doing since we were away? On second thought, don't tell me, I'll check these 3407 notification icons on my news app. By the way, it's probably fine. But let's talk boardgames! We saved the good hosts for this comeback! IT'S GREAT TO HAVE YOU AROUND! Let's get on with the episode, questions later!

dary! And welcome to Episode 99 of The Last Standee Podcast! In this episode, stars align and omens appear as we are about to kiss goodbye to two digits for good! The episode begins as usual, with a Standee Catchup with Fen and Cara, of dogs and humankind so to say. Then we begin with Freedom Five, a Defenders of the Realm game from Greater than Games: Fen does the honors here; fun fact: the game has four expansions and a promo which appear to be engulfed in a time paradox (see BGG stats!). The three of us then continue with two games from Cara's fortnightly game night - Big Shot and Qwirkle - great additions to any collection, if a little aged. To finish up, Alessio talks a bit about Odin (the Norse deity, not the number one in languages with Cyrillic alphabet), the proud winner of As D'Or 2025. And that's about it! See you next episode!

Welcome to Episode 98 of The Last Standee Podcast! This is one where we have to apologize in advance for making you listen to Alessio for a feature-length episode. No, the team is still there. It's just that it's a mess sometimes to put together speakers geographically distant, and when illnesses and shaky world situation interfere, that's a recipe for missed episodes. We pull through the best we can, though, thank you. ...It was way more informative than what I meant initially, but it's fine. THIS IS FINE. EVERYTHING IS FINE. Anyway, Alessio takes the chance of being alone in the recording to talk about niche and upcoming project, such as Eternal Decks (take it!) in the Standee Catch-up, then talks about a Canadian (nonetheless!) project of three innovative games set up in the Twisted Realms. After this, it's time to do the laundry with the review of two Unmatched sets for the new course: Sun's Origin (for two players) and Slings and Arrows (for four players) - public domain heroes, the best ones! Finally, as it's compulsory for solo episodes, it's time for the big, genre-defining solo game of the episode: this time, we talk about Legacy of Yu. Uhhh, next one is episode 99! Can't wait for it! It will be legen

Hello and welcome to Episode 97 of The Last Standee Podcast! In this episode, we TRAVEL! After the Standee Catch-up, Fen breaks ice by talking about a recently fulfilling pet project of ours from COVID times, aka Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread, from the same author as Xia: Legends of a Drift System. Then, Audrey recounts her experience with Faraway (not to be mistaken with Far Away, an entirely different game we also reviewed), a card game with an innovative scoring mechanism. Finally, Alessio closes the episode with crazy car races and wanton destruction with Joyride: Survival of the Fastest - and closes-closes the episode with all the crazy stuff that happened around it. Until next episode, fasten your seatbelt and safe travels!

Welcome to 2025, and also to Episode 96 of The Last Standee Podcast! Moderation and sobriety mark the start of the year with the A Team (Alexis-Audrey-Alessio, cue '80s music), while we learn in the Standee catch-up what everyone has been up to (spoiler: it's flu, mostly. And dealing with job market. Yeah, moderation and sobriety). After that, we begin dabbling into games (I hope you will appreciate the effort put into finding a good name for the episode) - Alessio tells us about Steam Power, a long-awaited game from THE Martin Wallace about trains and economy. Big names come to mind. The question is, is this game up to the likes of the legends of the past? (spoiler: it's an entire different thing - for the rest, you'll have to listen to the episode. After that, it's trains again, with Alexis presenting us Next Station game series. Ever wondered what all the fuss was about, or which one to pick in a pinch? Today's your lucky day, then! Finally, Audrey closes the triptych for this episode with Knight: An Avalon RPG - a French production just recently landed to international audiences. And if Space Knights of the Round Table with Saint Seiya armors doesn't even make you flinch, you have a heart of stone and I feel sorry for you (and yes, that title for a movie is taken, sorry!) Let's begin the new year with a BANG! (No, not with Bang!. Or yes, if you want - we just won't be talking about it).

Hello, hello, hello! The storm went and passed through, and the team is back at work to provide you our best quality entertainment! ...which is an assessment of _our_ best quality, not best quality in general. Anyway! After the Standee Catch-up (guest star: Pamcha!), Cara leads the team into the raging 1995 to talk about the old titan in every gamer's room, Catan! And the team has STORIES. Then, Alessio leads two very different discussions: one about the last fatigue from Nerdlab Games, Agent Avenue - a simple yet entertaining game of spies playing tag along a circular board using cards acquired through an "I cut, you choose" mechanism - the other hails back to the time we discussed Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest and has to do with unconfirmed preferences and Fen's own allegations. Finally, Fen wraps up thoughts about the state of Kingdom Death Simulator and Nova Aetas: Renaissance, the big box fatigue from Ludus Magnus Studio set in the world of Nova Aetas - alternate Renaissance with mages? Sign us up!

Welcome to Episode 94 of The Last Standee Podcast! From a certain perspective, this is a one-of-a-thing episode with fun twists and shenanigans. From another perspective, though, this is an episode where there's only Alessio. Feeling so alone that he added a text-to-speech track to keep him company! (No seriously, we had good reasons to have so few speakers these last episodes! This is one exceptional case!) Because this is TRUE SOLO, where a LONELY speaker will talk about a very appreciated SOLO GAME. Jokes aside, this is truly the best container to talk about a game which is a pretty good game, an even better story, and when everything is tied together it becomes art. We'll be talking about Eila and Something Shiny. ONE host. ONE game. ONE player. Welcome to Singularity.

Welcome to Episode 93 of The Last Standee Podcast! This episode we reach theatrical heights as we start up in comedy, trying to make an intro right; let's say that quickly turns into tragedy without pretty much of a warning. I mean, I hope you had fun listening at least half as much we had recording. Whatevs! In the Standee catch-up we get some notable excerpts from games presented at Essen SPIEL 2024 (heavy-heavy games left off on purpose) and an insight in our broken lives, then it's building time! Cara builds up momentum with Catacombs Cubes, a perhaps-too-much easygoing game of building blocks in the Catacombs series, then Alessio capitalizes on that with a well-placed rooftop, uh, talk, about Tower Up, a small 2024 hidden gem which is way more complicated to describe than to play. So, be it building with blocks or blocking buildings, this episode is very construction-centric. Discover with us what happened to Alexis! See you next episode!

Wouldn't "ensorcelled" be a good "second E" in the outro? But I digress. Welcome to Episode 92 of The Last Standee Podcast! The Standee Catch-up kicks off the episode, then it's news galore (yes, we sometimes take time to relay boardgaming news too), along with a few comments and impressions from the team and boardgame small talk. After the news segment, it's Cara's reviews time! This time, we tackle Witchcraft: Moonlight Magic, a game to wich/witch BGG community assigned a weight of 1 - but is it really all that there's to know about it? After Cara, Alessio talks about a game which is definitely not ranked 1 in weight: Hegemony: Lead your Class to Victory! That's possibly a first time reviewing a game this heavy in the podcast, how did we go?

Welcome to episode 91 of The Last Standee Podcast! In this episode, after the usual Standee Catch-up and a bit of news, we have Fen discussing Bloomburrow for Magic: The Gathering and, more widely, having a chat about the Cube Format and its applications throughout the (T/L)CG panorama. After that, Alexis guides a review with the team for the Frogdog expansion.

Welcome to Episode 90 of The Last Standee Podcast! How are you, fellas? Refreshed from vacations? Tired from their lack thereof? Meh, as usual? (seriously, let's set the bar a bit higher than "meh") GenCon has come and gone, "closing" 2024 as far as releases that will be honestly reviewed for this year will go. Essen SPIEL is behind the corner, and a new year's worth of new releases is elbowing its way in (I mean, we'll have Unmatched Ninja Turtles!), but let's do things properly. This Standee Catch-up brings a bit of news from later this August along with tidbits from our gaming lives, and after that it's Alessio talking about Compile from GTG, a surprisingly very good 1v1 card game presented at GenCon out of the blue. Next comes Audrey with her impressions about Dune: Imperium, the mix of deckbuilding and worker placement you didn't know you needed in your life. Finally, to follow up with the AI-contingent theme, there's Cara with Hive (I know, right?) and Warhammer 40000: Combat Patrol.

Simmer in the Summer! ...Feels like I wasted this intro that could have been a good title for another time. But anyway! Welcome to episode 89 of The Last Standee Podcast! Scorching hot July and Hailstorm Downpour July are hosting this beloved/belated episode with Alexis & Alessio. After the usual Standee Catch-Up (Old Man Yells at Clouds edition), we got Alexis discussing something falling out of traditional gaming categories: Vermis Book I - something someone from the '80s would call a "sourcebook", and a very cool one! After that, we get into a mini-monographic segment with Alessio discussing both Arcs: Conflict and Collapse in the Reach and Arcs: The Blighted Reach, the last addition to Leder Games' skirmish/campaign products. Hot games in hot summer- BRING IT ON!

Welcome to Midsommer! And also to Episode 88 of The Last Standee Podcast! In this episode, we'll enjoy near-synchronicity with current news, starting from the news during the Standee Catch-up! After it, Alexis gives us a synchronous look to a STILL BACKABLE RPG kickstarter project, The Hollows. After that, it's time to check the NOT-YET-RUNNER-UP for Spiel des Jahres - Captain Flip, with Alessio. Finally, it's Audrey's turn to give us a glimpse into the future with M.A.R.I. On Mars, an action programming game (that STILL WAITS to be translated to English)! Yeah, well, don't get too used to it, but it's fun to live the present!

Hi all, welcome to episode 87 of The Last Standee Podcast! This episode we cover a bit of everything, starting from the Standee Catch-up with Cara, Alessio and Alexis. After catching up, it's time to decrypt cyphers with Alexis, who introduces us to Turing Machine, a very good "multiplayer solo" puzzle game with sort-of-programmable states (do you see the tech imprint in this intro? The game's good if you are into puzzles, don't worry). Next, there's a true solo game, with recent Unreliable Wizard reprint by Salt and Pepper games (give me a subscription to Kamibayashi games!) and its fake 16-bit pixel goodness - yeah, no way those sprites that big would fit 8-bit engines. Finally, it's time for a very special episode of Cara's Reviews, with Artisans of Splendent Vale, a daring attempt at mixing compartmented campaign story with unique characters' viewpoints and clever asymmetric resource management. Is this enough to kindle your curiosity?

Hi all, and welcome to episode 86 of The Last Standee Podcast! In this episode, after the unmissable Standee Catch-up, Audrey talks about Dungeons & Dragons: Bedlam in Neverwinter, the investigation boardgame about the popular monster-hitting TTRPG. After that, Fen will review Leviathan Wilds, a production which brings back Shadow of the Colossus vibes with a bit of whimsy, and finally Alexis and the group will talk about Eat the Reich, the actual TTRPG.

Welcome to Episode 85 of The Last Standee Podcast! This episode is dedicated to very confused introspection, as we follow with increased worry Alessio and Cara talk at length about boardgames and bureaucracy. But before we get to the latter, we have an inexplicably long Standee Catch-up where we discuss the former, along with the intricacies of time loops. After we are done, Cara recounts her experiences with a Fen-favourite (yes, spelling is right) game of yore: A Game of Thrones, Second Edition by Fantasy Flight Games. Alessio follows with a new edition of a, okay still new, sports game: Trick Shot, Second Edition by Wolffdesigna. To put the cherry on top, this recipe for disasters is completed by having Alessio mangle the excellent Baba Yaga soundtrack by Kevin Macleod (a man who saved many podcasts with his excellent CC-licensed music) by showing an absolute disrespect for volume control.

Hi all and welcome to episode 84 of The Last Standee Podcast! And not just "any" episode - this is one episode from the A-Team (Alexis, Audrey and Alessio), or how we humbly call it, a triple-A episode (no seriously, why you keep following us?). After a catch-up with some news from the boardgaming world, Alessio talks us about Rebel Princess, aka the Hearts variant you didn't know you needed. Then, Audrey leads a team talk about MLEM: Space Agency, the game where cats go to outer space on their own free will and besides there are CATS WITH WEIRD FACES AND A DISCUTIBLE FASHION SENSE RIGHT IN THE COVER FFS (by the way, production value is very, very good). Finally, Alexis eases up in a review and discussion about Serious Poulp's last fatigue, The 7th Citadel!