Adjacent Hex

Adjacent Hex #11 - Sound the Hunting Horns With Geek & Sundry's annual "International Tabletop Day" looming, the guys are joined by special guest, Eric Fortier, to talk about the distribution of promotional materials and what that means to a completionist collector. Zach talks about how he didn't get to play a single game at the last ITD because he was chasing promos all over the northeast and Doug explores the differences between casual and competetive collectors. We also talk about some of the promotional items we've had to scramble to get our hands on over the years, some of the hoops we've had to jump through, and offer some suggestions as to how the distribution of promos can be improved to become less of a burden on both gamers and game companies. Featured Games this month: -Dead Men Tell No Tales -Pathfinder Adventure Card Game -Dead of Winter -Don't Turn Your Back -Thunderbirds -Fury of Dracula -Big Book of Madness -King of Tokyo/King of New York Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com. Catch us live on Twitch bi-weekly at twitch.tv/anotherletdown

Adjacent Hex #10 - Enjoy The Silence Doug and Zach have recently discovered a subset of cooperative games employing a limited communication mechanic. We decided to go deep on this idea and examine how players can maximize their communication. We look closely at what makes these games fun as well as how we approach them knowing ahead of time that the games MAY increase the normal amount of tension within a gaming group in a very fun and exciting way. Featured Games this month: -Rex -Dragon's Gold -Compounded -Elder Sign -World Of Yo-Ho! -Fury of Dracula -Hanabi -The Grizzled -Mysterium -Witness -And Then We Held Hands... Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com. Catch us live on Twitch bi-weekly at twitch.tv/anotherletdown

Adjacent Hex #9 - The Myth of the Complete Collection It's the middle of winter and the team gets reflective around this time every year. This time, we start picking apart the games we bring to the table and how we add them to our collections in the first place. Who plays them? What are the themes and major mechanics? Do we have too many of one type? Featured Games this month: -Dead of Winter -Bang! -Pandemic: The Cure -B*Sieged: Sons of the Abyss -Bloodrage -Twilight Struggle -Jamaica -Bottom of the 9th -Manhattan Project -Machi Koro -Fantasy Frontier Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com. Catch us live on Twitch bi-weekly at twitch.tv/anotherletdown

Adjacent Hex #8 - Doug Predicts the Future The announcements are coming fast and furious and it's prediciton time. The guys look at the most anticipated games of 2016 as well as their resolutions for the coming year. The crew also looks at trends on Kickstarter and other funding sources and tries to figure out how that will change to handle an ever expanding batch of games. Featured Games this month: -Star Realms: Colony Wars -Gears of War: The Board Game -Colt Express -Big Book of Madness -Xanadu -Fantasy Business -Game of Phones -...And Then We Held Hands... -Cosmic Encounter -Star Wars Rebellion -Gloomhaven -7th Continent -Evolution -Scythe Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com. Catch us live on Twitch bi-weekly at twitch.tv/anotherletdown

Adjacent Hex #7 - Twilight Imperium Doesn't Fit in Zach's Stocking Just in time for the holidays! The race to grab those last minute stocking stuffer games is ON! Zach and Doug detail some of their favourite quickie games that are tailor made to fit in stockings of all sizes! The crew also goes deep on where to find certain games especially last minute and what makes a stocking stuffer game worth buying. Featured Games this month: -Exploding Kittens -Bang! -Epic Card Game -Xia -Bottom of the 9th -We Didn't Playtest This At All -Love Letter -Chrononauts -Machi Koro -Fluxx -Don't Get Fired -Star Realms -Angry Dice -Catan Dice Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com. Catch us live on Twitch bi-weekly at twitch.tv/anotherletdown

Adjacent Hex #6 - Party Like It's Middle School Zach finds himself in charge of organizing a game night for his middle school students and faces the age-old connundrum of which games are the right ones to bring. Doug analyzes party games in terms of similarity of concept, teachability, game speed, and suitability for the middle school audience and recounts some recent experiences he's had with party games. Featured Games this month: -Cards Against Humanity -Resistance -Coup -One Night Ultimate Werewolf/Vampire -Two Rooms and a Boom -Roots: A Game of Inventing Words -Pictionary -Mafia -Apples to Apples -Fluxx -Funemployed -A Terrible Time -Concept -Tellestrations Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com. Catch us live on Twitch bi-weekly at twitch.tv/anotherletdown

Adjacent Hex #5 - Halloween is Game Night The market is FULL of zombie, werewolf, vampire, Cthulhu, and alien encounter games and we find ourselves doused in them every year around Halloween. There are many that are good and at that point it comes down to personal preference. Zach and Doug examine their selection processes and the games that have made it into their horror collections as well as why some games didn’t make the cut despite being fun and engaging. Featured Games this month: -Zpocalypse -Don’t Turn Your Back -Arkham Horror -Level 7 Invasion -A Touch of Evil -Last Night on Earth -Mansions of Madness -Betrayal at the House on the Hill -Zombies!!! Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com. Catch us live on Twitch bi-weekly at twitch.tv/anotherletdown

Adjacent Hex #5 - Halloween is Game Night The market is FULL of zombie, werewolf, vampire, Cthulhu, and alien encounter games and we find ourselves doused in them every year around Halloween. There are many that are good and at that point it comes down to personal preference. Zach and Doug examine their selection processes and the games that have made it into their horror collections as well as why some games didn’t make the cut despite being fun and engaging. Featured Games this month: -Zpocalypse -Quarriors -Don’t Turn Your Back -Arkham Horror -Level 7 Invasion -A Touch of Evil -Last Night on Earth -Mansions of Madness -Betrayal at the House on the Hill -Zombies!!! Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com. Catch us live on Twitch bi-weekly at twitch.tv/anotherletdown

Since Zach is a teacher and Doug works for the Department of Education, teaching is always at the front of our minds. It’s important to have an approach to teaching whenever you sit down to learn a game with a group of people. Team Adjacent Hex has observed several different methods for learning games over the last month and we are eager to share our findings with our listeners! Featured Games this month: -Ashes: Rise of the Pheonixborn -Mysterium -Codenames -Pathfinder Munchkin -Legendary Encounters -Gloom -Ticket To Ride Nordic Edition -Roll For the Galaxy -Castles of the Mad King Ludwig Adjacent Hex is proudly hosted by AnotherLetDown.com Your hosts are Zach Denoncour and Doug Osterhoudt You can reach Zach on Twitter at @denonczd and Doug at @itsoktolaff The Adjacent Hex e-mail account is adjacenthex@anotherletdown.com.

This month on Adjacent Hex, Zach and Doug talk about games that have in some way let them down. Many of the games we play, and even some of the ones we love, can be disappointing in some way. Why do games do this and what are some signals that a gamer can look for to avoid being let down in the future? We also look briefly at some of the upcoming (at time of recording) events in board gaming and some unexpected publicity that the board game industry received of late. Featured Games this month: Battlelore, Spy Alley, Enter The Dungeon, Alchemy!, Lords of Waterdeep, Sheriff of Notingham, Gloom, Galactic Strike Force

In this episode Zach and Doug take a look at game expansions and the physical space they occupy on a shelf. Games featured this month: Sentinels of the Multiverse, Elysium, Clash of Cultures, Firefly: the Board Game, Harbor, Tiny Epic Kingdoms, Merchants and Marauders, Blood Bowl: Team Manager

In the first episode, we explore some of the ins and outs of cooperative gaming, some of our favourite examples of cooperative games and some that we are looking forward to. We learned a lot both about podcasting and about our own opinions during this episode and we are excited to be recording ADJACENT HEX on a monthly basis and we encourage topic suggestions in the comments below.