Punchboard Paradise

06/01/2025

It’s that time of year! Make sure to fill this out to get your top games of all time included listeners” top games episode:

Hey Punch Bunch! We want to collect and put together a Punch Bunch Top 25 of All Time list for the next episode. Please answer the questions below and we will go over the results on the next episode.

22/11/2024

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18wood/18royalgorge
4 more days! It’s fully funded! You’ll want to get in on this one. I know it’s said a lot, but this is much faster playing. It has really fun historical elements - watch the video- and it is made for the new player and the old player alike since it has some really interesting Macguffins like building as much track as you can afford and investing in steel which pays money when people build lots of track! It’s really a unique one for the collection and even Clef has enjoyed his plays!!

22/11/2024

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18wood/18royalgorge
4 more days! It’s fully funded! You’ll want to get in on this one. I know it’s said a lot, but this is much faster playing. It has really fun historical elements - watch the video- and it is made for the new player and the old player alike since it has some really interesting Macguffins like building as much track as you can afford and investing in steel which pays money when people build lots of track! It’s really a unique one for the collection and even Clef has enjoyed his plays!!

A highly thematic, fast-paced game set in a euro-inspired world of historic gunslinging and railroad tycoons. - 18 Royal Gorge

20/10/2024

Age of Rail: South Africa got played yesterday. We’ll give our thoughts soon, but it is essentially South African Rails reprinted and has some shades of Wabash Cannonball aka Chicago Express. And Clef might play it again!

20/10/2024

Taking some time to run through the playbook of Red Dust Rebellion. Exciting stuff!

09/09/2024

We recently got in a play of the upcoming Luthier from . It may not look like it, but it happens to be a pre-production game. Really great bidding/worker placement mechanism here. Listen to the episode that drops Wednesday to hear more of what we thought.

01/07/2024

Chad had to leave a little early, so his last play was Saturday night. Or Sunday morning-at least when it ended. This would also explain why Chad completely spaced getting pictures of the board. 1822PNW was a great riff on the 22 family with associated companies that can start out on the board that take the place of concessions of other 22 titles. This has the effect of being kinder to newer players as it is less to plan for because you can merge your minors as soon as you have an open route to connect to the associated companies. It was a 3 player game which felt pretty rich. But it was fun that everyone could get an E train and run it a few times. With some hand holding Chad ran a behemoth Seattle timber company that ran for big big money early and often. But ultimately Andrew P. caught him in the end with two very profitable majors. Lots of fun with the Euro combos when auctioning and assigning lots of privates. Thanks to Phil and Andrew for a great teach and a fun time.

01/07/2024

day 3 was started with a favorite, 1871 the Old Prince. Hope someone finally publishes this thing soon since Chad’s print and play skills are weak. This one has great a great auction with active player putting a private up for bid then if the two players left off the active player pass, the next player is forced to pay for it at face value. Also companies can only be started if there is a spot to start them which depends on the phase of the game. And one player is also the owner of the Union Bank which gets extra stock every round making the game a one vs many. Chad was actually very proud of his route synergy in the Northwest but he really probably lost the game in the auction after offering up the Union Bank last he thought he was the only one who could pay for it. Unfortunately active player is last in ties. Also Chad failed to push trains enough in the end. Winner: first time player of the Union Bank.

01/07/2024

End of day 2 Chad has just enough brain power left to get killed by his much smarter buddies in 18Neb by Dan Campbell -Omaha native! This tight, quicker games plays 3 or 4 (designer has recommended 3) unless you want a really mean game. It was played at 4 and there were constant gasps as people continually cut others off tokening others out of lucrative runs through the center of the state. Another feature is the two smaller companies that open later in the game and can only run one train - one that’s already been rusted. Is that meant to be a comment in how behind the times Nebraskans are? Great fun even though Chad nearly ran Big Red into the ground.

01/07/2024

Friday morning some very good friends at coaxed Chad into 4 player 18USA which is a much more variable 1817 - the beast with crazy financial shenanigans that include shorting stock shares. The game lasted between 8-9 hours, and though Brain burning, was great fun. Shorting overvalued stock and challenging it to rise to the occasion is great fun. The map is big and fun to discover since it can be quite variable, as opposed to 17 which has been played so much by for so long that it has a lot of prescribed actions. It was great fun, Chad’s only win of the con, and everyone agreed something must have gone wrong. One friend did manage to have about 27 loans between his 3 companies…

30/06/2024

The next game for Chad at was Railways of the Lost Atlas, a just delivered sandbox title from that seemed like it might be trying to be all things to all people. Hard to say if it succeeds or not based off of one play since there is incredible modularity and variability. You can build the map you will be playing in to start the game for one thing. Then there are many different scenarios for short or long games based on number of rounds (there may have been a bank breaking option for ending the game). There are private with crazy abilities that are drafted Rochester style. There are headquarters and hostile mergers add-ons. We played 3 player shorter scenario (it was going long with rules look ups). And we added in hostile mergers. There were some really cool combos with some of the privates, but the hostile mergers didn’t happen very often. My friend who had played it at said that he loved hostile mergers at 5 and there game ended relatively quickly with a bankruptcy. Off of that play he ordered it. So it seems there’s definitely a great game for many, but you may have to dig a bit to find your preferred flavor.

30/06/2024

First game of was a favorite, 1848. Chad needed one more round to make enough to pull away from the pack. But the players conspired to end the game with Bank of England giving out too many loans. Great breezy game with plenty to play with financially, but also fun routes to run.

25/05/2024

One of the most popular games at was Inventions from Vital Lacerda and games. We were sent a copy for the library as well as some raffles and the game was continuously on tables. It's a thinky one that depends on getting chains of actions together despite a surprisingly tight limiting worker placement system.

20/05/2024

Whoo! is in the books. We didn't get everything up here on the board, but this wipe board is a healthy sampling of 4 full days worth of gaming. Even more important are the people that were there. Punch Bunch, you are the best! And thanks again to our sponsors for helping make it a blast.

18/05/2024

getting in the annual epic game of Dune from . Laughs, tears, friendships made, friendships totally broken 10 minutes later.

17/05/2024

At everybody is playing PPCON opoly for raffle tickets. Every task you complete of a color family wins potential tickets. Thanks to our sponsors

17/05/2024

17/05/2024

has begun! Check out the skull trophy and plaque for our Skull King tournament sponsored by !