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Episodes
Every episode of Cult of the Old your hosts Iain McAllister, Nate Owens, and Matt Thrower focus on a title from the history of tabletop games. They’ll look at the impact of the game at the time, their own critical impressions, the games ongoing influence on the modern hobby, and whether or not they would still recommend it!
Episodes
Wednesday Jun 12, 2024
Wednesday Jun 12, 2024
Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!
Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.
It is the end, dear listeners. As we stare once more into the inky black void of our season break, we contemplate our own mortality and wonder if there is anything out there between the episodes. Such musings can leave us imagining monstrosities that exist in the gaps between seasons. Entities vast and overwhelming that we can barely understand and are wise to not look at directly. Only by coming together in the warm embrace of our listeners can we stand a chance to fight back such Eldritch Horrors.
The game we are discussing for our last episode this season similarly tackles the darkness of the unknown. This game took the mythos of HP Lovecraft and turned it into a co-operative game where investigators take on horrors beyond measure to save a small town in Massachusetts. A game that arguably gave rise to the hobby game obsession with Cthulhu and was certainly one of the earliest co-operative games. Join us on a road trip to the end of space and time, in Arkham Horror.
The original game was designed by Richard Launius, Charlie Krank, Sandy Petersen, and Lynn Wills. We are mostly covering the second edition version created by Fantasy Flight Games and designed by Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson.
Show Links
Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.
Games Mentioned
Battlestar Galactica - Episode Link
Pool of Radiance
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Twilight Imperium Third Edition
Other Mentions
Ride the Lightning - Metallica
Team Links
Websites you can find the cast on
Iain
Matt
Nate
Support us on Ko-Fi
https://ko-fi.com/cultoftheold
Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/CultoftheOld
Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com
Wednesday May 29, 2024
Wednesday May 29, 2024
Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!
Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.
“The sky above the port was the color of television, turned to a dead channel”
The famous opening line of William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer, released in 1984. Only a couple of years before in his short story ‘Burning Chrome’ Gibson had defined the term “Cyberspace”. He used it to refer to a global network of interconnected computers. In publishing Neuromancer Gibson helped solidify the genre of Cyberpunk and the rest is history. Or the future. Depends on how you look at it.
Popular culture embraced Cyberpunk. We got films like Blade Runner and tabletop RPGs like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun. These games saw plucky teams of street rebels take on the shadowy corporations that ruled the future of those settings. The title we are covering tonight lets you step into the role of a megacorp, or the hackers that are taking them on. It came from the mind of Richard Garfield, who only 3 years earlier had defined a genre and upset an industry with a little game called Magic: The Gathering. Put on your mirrorshades and jack in as we take a dive into Netrunner.
Show Links
Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.
Games Mentioned
Other Mentions
Team Links
Websites you can find the cast on
Iain
Matt
Nate
Support us on Ko-Fi
https://ko-fi.com/cultoftheold
Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/CultoftheOld
Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com
Wednesday May 15, 2024
Wednesday May 15, 2024
Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!
Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.
What are we looking at this cast?
People love board games for all sorts of reasons. The satisfaction of a well executed strategy. Building the perfect engine. Riding the curve of chance to push your luck just enough. We enjoy the finely honed mixing of mechanism, theme, and setting to produce the perfect game. Our next game this season is none of those. It just wants to watch the world burn.
Having had 9 different editions over the course of its existence this game sees players donning their robes, picking up a staff, and pouring over their spell books. Not for intense wizardry research. Oh no. Just to make sure that your fellow wizards see the wrong end of a fireball and get fried by your lightning bolt. Welcome to Wiz War.
Wiz War was designed by Tom Jolly and has had various artists over the course of its editions.
Show Links
Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.
Games Mentioned
Cosmic Encounter - Episode Link
Other Mentions
Interview with Tom Jolly
Reflections on the publishing of Wiz War
https://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/a-brief-history-of-wiz-war/
Team Links
Websites you can find the cast on
Iain
Matt
Nate
Support us on Ko-Fi
https://ko-fi.com/cultoftheold
Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/CultoftheOld
Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com
Wednesday May 01, 2024
Wednesday May 01, 2024
Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!
Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.
Themes in games have become a hot topic over the last few years. As the hobby expands, people have begun to ask if we can tackle difficult subject matter in the guise of a boardgame. Designers like Cole Wherle try to answer these questions with their titles Pax Pamir and John Company.
Some themes have existed since the dawn of the hobby and the rise and fall of civilisations is one such example. From the original Tresham Civilisation game, many titles have addressed the civ building aspect of this theme. However only one game focuses on the constant wax and wane of history in a very playable time scale. The tense ebb and flow of history condensed down into a tight compact box. It’s a Small World, after all.
Small World was designed by Phillippe Keyaerts, with art from Miguel Coimbra and Cyrille Daujean. It was published by Days of Wonder.
Show Links
Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.
Games Mentioned
Cleopatra and the society of architects
Commands and Colours: Ancients
Commands and Colours: Napoleonics
Lords of Waterdeep - episode link
Twilight Imperium Third Edition
Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy
Other Mentions
Team Links
Websites you can find the cast on
Iain
Matt
Nate
Support us on Ko-Fi
https://ko-fi.com/cultoftheold
Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/CultoftheOld
Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com
Wednesday Apr 17, 2024
Wednesday Apr 17, 2024
Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!
Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.
Within any sub-culture certain things become the boogeyman. Films so terrible they are just terrible and become the poster child for the worst the form has to offer. Books so ponderous that no-one can make them to the end and everyone wonders why anybody bothers trying. Board games are not immune from this and it is of course those games that a lot of us grew up with that become the target of our ire.
That does not mean they are not worthwhile discussing and here on Cult of the Old we want to take a look at the history and impact of one of those pariahs. Yes it's time to choose if you want to be the dog or the hat, to hope you don’t go to Jail, and to see if you can get the best value properties. The game that makes Capitalism fun, Monopoly!
Monopoly was designed by Elizabeth Maggie, not Charles Darrow as you will learn in our cast!
Show Links
Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.
Games Mentioned
Monopoly: Ultimate Banking Edition
Other Mentions
Dollop Episode on The Landlords Game
Team Links
Team Links
Websites you can find the cast on
Iain
Matt
Nate
Support us on Ko-Fi
https://ko-fi.com/cultoftheold
Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/CultoftheOld
Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com
Wednesday Apr 03, 2024
Wednesday Apr 03, 2024
Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!
Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.
This Episode….
The idea of adventure draws many to different hobbies. Some go scaling mountains, while others hurtle down them. Camping outdoors brings many to the wonders of forests and lakes across the world. Even dry and inhospitable deserts hold wonders to be explored. Much as I don’t mind a bit of outdoors living, a lot of my adventures have been found round the gaming table, exploring strange places and encountering odd folk.
Roleplaying games excel at this kind of adventure but sometimes we don’t want the faff of creating a character or lumbering a friend with the responsibilities of the GM. Sometimes we want something to give us that feeling without all the work needed to run a good RPG. The next game we are talking about attempted to do just that. It’s a game that has been around for a long time and still keeps getting reprinted. We will look at why, discuss its influences and legacy, as we climb the wizards tower to the top of Talisman.
The game was designed by Robert Harris and published by Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games. It has art from Christos Achilleos, Ryszard Anotnoiszczak, Gary Chalk, and Peter Andrew Jones.
Show Links
Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.
Games Mentioned
Other Mentions
Team Links
Websites you can find the cast on
Iain
Matt
Nate
Support us on Ko-Fi
https://ko-fi.com/cultoftheold
Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/CultoftheOld
Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com
Wednesday Mar 20, 2024
Wednesday Mar 20, 2024
Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!
Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.
When we turn our minds to the subject of influential designers there is surely one name at the top of everyone’s list. Dr. Reiner Knizia. A designer with somewhere in the region of 700 titles to their name. Many of us have our favourite Knizia titles, and the hosts of this show are no exception.
The good doctor is famous for many games and is associated with many mechanisms that feature time and again in his designs. One of those is auctions. In our game tonight we will visit art auctions across the world, buying up the finest pieces, for the least amount of money and making huge profits. Or so we hope. Open the doors and put your finest pieces on display in the classic game Modern Art.
Modern Art was designed by Reiner Knizia with various artists across all the editions.
Show Links
Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mentions during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.
Games Mentioned
Other Mentions
Team Links
Websites you can find the cast on
Iain
Matt
Nate
Support us on Ko-Fi
https://ko-fi.com/cultoftheold
Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/CultoftheOld
Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com
Wednesday Mar 06, 2024
Wednesday Mar 06, 2024
Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!
Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape.
Good games being lost in the shuffle is not a new phenomenon as Puerto Rico knows only too well. Overlooked for a Spiel des Jahre award the year of release this game has always had a controversial place in the hobby. Hugely influential but with a setting that could be easily described as insensitive, this game has had a massive impact on the hobby and recently had an attempted re-release to get rid of some of the more problematic elements. We will discuss that, and everything else about this game in this episode.
Puerto Rico was designed by Andreas Seyfarth with art from Franz Vohwinkel.
Show Links
Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast. We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.
Games Mentioned
Other Mentions
Team Links
Websites you can find the cast on
Iain
Matt
Nate
Support us on Ko-Fi
https://ko-fi.com/cultoftheold
Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/CultoftheOld
Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com
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