This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas step into the opening mission of War Story: Occupied France, a story-driven experience set in a world of uncertainty, difficult choices, and scarce resources. From the very first decisions, the game asks players to act with incomplete information, weighing risk and consequence in ways that feel both tense and meaningful.

They discuss how the branching decision system drives the narrative forward, why every resource feels precious, and how even the combat leans into that same choice-driven design. Encounters unfold through smart decision trees that keep the action engaging and surprisingly exciting. It’s a thoughtful, immersive take on storytelling games—one that left a strong first impression after just a single mission.

This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas revisit Architects of the West Kingdom, returning to one of Garphill Games’ most approachable takes on worker placement. With a mitt-full of workers in hand right from the start, the game flips the usual scarcity on its head, encouraging bold plays, clever timing, and plenty of interaction at the table.

Revisiting it several years later, the hosts reflect on how the game now feels lighter than they remember—still strategic and satisfying, but firmly in the realm of classic worker placement. That said, the familiar Garphill charm shines through, delivering a design that’s clean, engaging, and consistently fun. Sometimes it’s nice to return to the foundations and appreciate just how well they were built.

This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas set the games aside and look back at the year that was in Past Plays: 2025 In-Review. From plays and player counts to favourites, surprises, and patterns they didn’t expect, the hosts dig into the stats behind a year at the table.

It’s a reflective, numbers-forward episode with the same honest takes and good-natured banter—celebrating what they played, what stuck, and what shaped their year in board gaming.

Pray, compose yourselves and adjust your waistcoats; this week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas ascend the grand staircase of society with Obsession, a most refined contest of reputation, refinement, and relentless social manoeuvring in Victorian England. Estates are improved, guests are entertained, and every polite invitation carries quiet ambition beneath its lace-trimmed sleeve.

The hosts delight in the careful orchestration of servants, the art of curating just the right social circles, and the satisfying puzzle of planning the perfect evening at precisely the proper hour. Behind the formal bows and courteous smiles lies a deeply rewarding strategic experience where efficiency and elegance go hand in hand.

It is all civility, calculation, and controlled chaos where fortunes rise over tea, and one poorly timed soirée may cause quite the awkward gossip. One must, of course, keep one’s composure.

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, to the Grand Stage of Strategic Sorcery!
This week, Jordan and Thomas don their sparkling capes and perfectly waxed moustaches as we dive into Trickerion: Legends of Illusion, Mindclash’s masterwork of misdirection, meticulous planning, and marvellously crunchy decision-making.

Prepare for an evening of elaborate illusions, last-minute pivots, and more brain-twisting calculations than a magician has pigeons up his sleeves. Trickerion asks you not only to plan five steps ahead, but also to gracefully recover when your rival illusionist steals your spotlight (and possibly your assistants).

Join us behind the velvet curtain as we scheme, rehearse, conjure, and catastrophically overthink our way through one of the most delightfully thinky games in the hobby. The Prestige awaits… if we can remember where we put our Trickerion shards.

This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas take the throne in It’s a Wonderful Kingdom, a clever blend of kingdom-building, resource planning, and fantastic use of the “I cut, you pick” card selection. The duo digs into the game’s standout systems—from its escalating resource production to the tricky mind games of offering cards your opponent might want… or might regret.

While not every mechanism reaches legendary heights, there’s still plenty here to enjoy: smooth turns, satisfying engine-building, and just enough bluffing to keep both players second-guessing every choice. It’s a kingdom that may not be perfect, but it’s certainly a wonderful place to spend an evening plotting, planning, and politely sabotaging your fellow ruler.

This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas each venture to ancient Skara Brae - separately, but in spirit together! With Thomas away, the hosts both took this Garphill Games 2025 Ancient Anthology release for a solo spin, exploring how this powerhouse cranks the resource management dial all the way up to eleven. Sixteen resources? Check. Tight decisions? Absolutely. That unmistakable Garphill settlers card magic? You bet.

Both hosts found that Skara Brae truly shines as a solo experience, feeling less like a variant and more like the way the game was always meant to be played. They discuss the razor-sharp resource and action economy, the deep strategic tension, and why it’s one of Garphill’s most satisfying and finely tuned designs yet.

This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas venture into the Black Forest. Uwe Rosenberg’s 2024 update to Glass Road is a blend of brain-burning euro strategy and pastoral charm. True to form, it’s a game of careful timing, clever planning, and that signature Rosenberg tension that keeps every move deliciously tight.

The hosts dig into what makes Black Forest stand out: those brilliant resource wheels that spin the entire game into motion, the razor-sharp action economy, and the satisfying balance between personal engine-building and interactive play. Once again, the match came down to a perfect tie; proof that in the Black Forest, efficiency is everything and every move counts.

It’s classic Uwe: serene on the surface, savage underneath, and oh so satisfying to play.

This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas descend into the shadowy depths of Warhammer Underworlds: Nethermaze, where blades flash, ghosts wail, and victory is as fleeting as a skaven’s courage. Thomas commands Skittershank’s Clawpack—swift, sneaky, and just a bit stabby—while Jordan leads Lady Harrow’s Mournflight, drifting through walls and dreams alike with eerie elegance.

The hosts trade blows and banter in equal measure, marvelling at how Nethermaze blends razor-sharp tactics with deck-driven chaos. They chat about how every activation feels like a duel of wits, how the setting drips with dark atmosphere and compare this streamlined version of the Warhammer universe with its larger cousin. 

It’s a haunting, hilarious, and heart-pounding clash beneath the Mortal Realms—where the dead don’t rest, and the skaven don’t stop scheming.

Hear ye, hear ye! Gather ‘round the podcast hearth, noble listeners, for this week on Current Plays, Sir Jordan and Sir Thomas taketh up their quests in Tales of the Arthurian Knights. In this most wondrous game of adventure and fortune, our gallant hosts dost wander through the lands of Camelot, meeting maidens fair, dragons foul, and many a fate most strange.

Verily, their latest play did bring such mirth and merriment that they could scarcely read the storybook for laughing most heartily! ‘Tis not a game of conquest nor crowns, but of tales well told and memories forged in jest and joy. For in Tales of the Arthurian Knights, victory mattereth little—’tis the journey, the fellowship, and the folly that maketh legends endure.

So don thy cloak, sharpen thy wit, roll thy dice, and join us at the Round Table once more. Huzzah!

This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas warp through space-time with Anachrony from Mindclash Games - a sprawling, cerebral sci-fi masterpiece that proved time travel can actually work on the tabletop. Designed by Dávid Turczi and the Mindclash team, this one’s part worker placement, part paradox management, and all brain burn.

The hosts dive into how Anachrony nails its impossible theme of time travel by borrowing resources from the future, but needing to pay them back on future turns or risk tearing reality apart. It's a game that set our hosts on a long-term love affair with both the designer and publisher. With sleek exosuits, branching timelines, and enough temporal tension to make a Vulcan raise an eyebrow, Anachrony is a heavy euro that perfectly marries mechanics with an impossible theme.

Boldly go where no worker has gone before!

The mechs are marching once again! Bringing the weird for October, this week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas venture into Expeditions by Stonemaier Games and strap in for the Gears of Corruption expansion. This twist on the Scythe universe adds even more depth, danger, and delightful decision-making.

They talk about how the corrupted gears move the tempo of play in a great direction. The changes that this expansion brings are all winners and take Expeditions from great to greater! sharpening what was already a strong design. It’s everything they love about a Stonemaier title, wound tight and running smooth.

Class is in session on Current Plays! This week, Jordan and Thomas don their academic robes for Alma Mater from Eggertspiel, a brainy euro where you’re not just running a university, you’re shaping the very curriculum of the Renaissance. Recruiting professors, publishing books, attracting the best students… it’s all here, wrapped in colourful production and crunchy mechanisms.

The hosts chat about how tight the economy feels, the struggle of keeping on top of everything, and which parts of the design really earn top marks. It’s equal parts lecture hall and brainy brawl, and by the end of the episode, only one dean will graduate with honours. Veni, Vidi, Valedictorian.

This week on Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas step through a portal into the elemental realms with Dwellings of Eldervale. Designed by Luke Laurie, this game smashes together two genres you wouldn’t expect to share a table: euro-style worker placement and “dudes-on-a-map” fantasy brawling. The result? A magical mess that somehow makes perfect sense.

From carefully managing resources to summoning dragons and waging epic battles, every turn feels like a tug-of-war between brains and bravado. The hosts chat about how the design balances its euro roots with ameritrash flair, why the fantasy theme sings, and how the plethora of player factions makes every game unique. It’s a game where your meeples can build cozy little dwellings one moment and get eaten by a Dread Crocodile the next—and honestly, that’s the kind of chaos we’re here for.

Gather ye ‘round the base of Mount Olympus and get ready to wage war in Ancient Greece! In this episode of Current Plays, we dive into Cyclades: Legendary Edition, where gaining the favour of the Gods is the only way to win. The auction-style bidding system steals the spotlight, forcing players to outwit and outspend each other for divine favour. Jordan and Thomas learned the hard way that a 2-player game feels more like a skirmish than a saga—but with four at the table, the Gods truly smiled upon us. Epic clashes, dramatic bids, and some surprise attacks made it one for the legends. Truly, the Muses themselves came down from Mount Helicon to deliver inspiration for this heroic epic!

Pack your specimen jars and polish your spectacles because it’s time for an expedition in the Galápagos! In this episode of Current Plays, Jordan and Thomas set sail with Darwin’s Journey and quickly discover it’s survival of the sharpest mind. They gush over the game’s top-notch design, delight in its intricate mechanisms, and admit that every choice feels like a real evolutionary challenge. It’s brains over brawn, strategy over luck, and definitely one of those plays that proves natural selection favours the best board gamer.

This week on Current Plays, we journey into Middle-earth with The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. The hosts dive into what was done right with this iteration of two large properties, from its thematic immersion to clever systems. But, trouble stirs in Mordor as our adventurous hosts also unpack their ongoing frustration with the Pandemic system, dissecting why it drags down the otherwise great experience for them. Is this Fellowship worth joining, or does the Pandemic system drag this game down like a falling Balrog?

This week your hosts tackled Æterna, by Martin Wallace and published by Ares Games. Vie for power in ancient Rome by conquering distant lands to bring back spoils and build buildings for the people, but too much wealth and power will incur the wrath of those people! Check out our thoughts on this weighty euro.

This week, Jordan and Thomas discuss the 2023 sensation Dune: Imperium - Uprising, by Paul Dennen, and published by Dire Wolf. Dune: Imperium - Uprising is a worker placement and deck-building game based on the Dune IP. Its thematic elements and excellent design make it one of the best games in our collections.

Your intrepid hosts Thomas and Jordan discuss their current play of Tiletum, the medieval European game of trading and cathedral building. This time, at 3-players! Wow!