5 Minute Initiative: A Review of The Duke from Catalyst Game Labs

For this 5 Minute Initiative, Marty and I discuss a new game from Catalyst Game Labs, The Duke. This was a Kickstarter from last year that Marty bought into and I am jealous that I didn't. It is a fabulous game. It is a mix of Chess and Checkers with the right amount of luck tossed in to keep the game always fresh and never the same. Some may not like the luck that is around which tile will come out of the bag, that is understandable, but for me, it works and works well. And I don't see analysis paralysis ever coming into play with this game. It is fast, but strategy is key from do I move a piece or add a piece to the board. In the picture below, it looks like I am winning, but it changes quickly.

Order the game, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by it. But just to be clear, we are talking about The Duke from Catalyst Game Labs, not...

And definitely not...

but I do enjoy that movie.

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Episode 15: Origins 2013 Report - Part 2

What?! Two episodes in one week? Yes, with Origins still fresh on everyone's mind, we wanted to get the last of our interviews released as quickly as possible.

This episode includes interviews with Stronghold Games, Catalyst Game Labs and Victory Points Games. In addition, my family gives their first impression of Darkest Night from Victory Points Games. And we have a post-Origins wrap-up discussion where talk about memorable moments of Origins and how it compares to other gaming conventions.

Enjoy!

Episode 15 Segments - Voluspa, Vampire Empire, Time & Space
01:11 - Stronghold Games
06:25 - Catalyst Game Labs - The Duke, Leviathan, Battletech
21:02 - Victory Points Games
24:30 - Darkest Night - First Impressions
43:03 - Origins post-con family discussion


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Episode 14: Origins 2013 Report - Part 1

This is going to be an interesting podcast because I am not on it. Why do you ask my one fan, my niece, because Marty had an incredible time at Origins and got lots of interviews and we don't want to sit on this too long. 

We had always planned to do an Origins show when Marty and his family returned, but it was going to come out in July. Well, some of this material is just so good it can't wait till July. Matter of fact, I will get to listen to it at the same time as everyone else.

Enjoy!

Episode 14 Segments:
01:37 - Catalyst Games Labs - Shadowrun Products
09:50 - Adventures on the Tabletop Documentary
27:20 - Cool Mini Or Not - Kaosball, Zombicide, Dark Age 
34:45 - Break From Reality - Damage Report, Disaster Looms
44:35 - Wizkids Games - Star Trek: Attack Wing, The Hobbit Strategy Game, Trains &Stations


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Keep Tuned to Twitter - Contest for a T-shirt

As you know if you listened to our Episode 13 podcast, Marty is going to be Origins later this week. Sometime during that week, Marty will announce a way to win one of our new T-shirts (one size only) with our logo. Just be sure to follow our Twitter feed for how to win the T-shirt. 

I am not 100% what he has in store to win it, but I am sure it will be fairly simple like bring him some Ore, or a picture with a semi-celebrity,  teach him a new game at the Board Game Room, or who knows. Good luck and love to see a tweet with you wearing it.

Episode 13: Planning, it's your best friend

First, we want to say apologize about the length of this episode. We know it is a bit long, by almost 45 minutes, but it was so stuffed with good information on Game Convention planning, we had a tough time cutting it down. Another way to look at it is, you can spend 4 to 5 hours surfing the web, looking at forum posts, and reading multiple articles or just listend to us for about 2 hours and get good info. We already did the work for you. You are welcome :)

We also had a guest on the show, Ron McClung, and we thought the interview would be 30 minutes long because he is such a busy guy, but it turned into one hour and we really hated cutting his information. Ron, as you will find out from the podcast, helps organizes RPG/Gaming conventions in the North and South Carolina area. We were very lucky to get him on the show and glad he joined us.

So, instead of reading a whole bunch of words on the screen and thus cutting your time to listen to the show down, just going to leave you with a Table of Contents to help you along.

Initial Yuck it up	3:30
Lodging at cons	5:50
Driving, got to park	11:00
Event Scheduling	13:30
SWAG, Convention Bonus	20:00
Daily survival guide	24:00
Survival Bag	27:00
Let's get funky	30:00
What is Justus Productions	38:00
Picking your first convention	50:00
Location, Location, Location	1:00:00
Scoop!!! RDTN first ever!!!	1:05:00
Gamerscodex website	1:24:00
Final thoughts	1:33:00

As always, please leave us any comments here or at Boardgamegeek or send us a Tweet. If you would like to be on the show or have something you would like us to include, please let us know. 


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Bueller, Bueller...Where have we been?

Yeah, we have been kind of absent from our duties on the blog as of late. Sorry about that. Spring is here and we have had some incredible weather in the Carolinas. What that means is the opportunity to do more chores outside. We haven't neglected gaming, just getting things posted and doing a few recordings. We are in sort of a crunch with Marty heading to Origins in two weeks. We need to get two shows done in a shorter time span than normal and we have been trying to line up people to come on the show. What does that have to do with anything? We are just running out of time. So, to catch people up this has been what is happening:

I am in the process of putting final touches on a game review for thegamerscodex.com. This has been probably one of the harder things that I have had to do in awhile. Not sure why, but the words just aren't flowing. Anyway, it should be out next week so give it a read.

Marty has tried out some new games, Tzolk'in and Terra Mystica. I hope to get over there and give them a try, but time is not looking good.

As we stated in Episode 12, we are running an Iron Kingdoms group and I am the next GM on the calendar, that happens Tuesday night. Might want to finish that up.

Marty and I have the Netrunner Tournament next weekend, so need to tweak the decks a bit if we have any hopes of not being in the bottom. 

Marty is working on other projects for the podcast that we reveal this week when we post Episode 13. The editing of that episode is really eating up his time.

Well, time to go clean out the garage. Don't you just love spring!