Episode 79 - Sandbox Games, Part 1

Episode 137 of the The Ascent of Board Games podcast, hosted by The Ascent of Board Games, titled "Episode 79 - Sandbox Games, Part 1" was published on March 2, 2026 and runs 49 minutes.

March 2, 2026 ·49m · The Ascent of Board Games

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Summary

This month, we're here to talk about what we're calling "sandbox games" - games that have bigger maps and/or more content than you can possibly explore in a single game, but which aren't built as long campaign or legacy games. Thus, you need to take some notes and carry information - and, in some cases, rules - from one game to the next. Also, one brief apology: Your Humble Editor has been quite sick these last few weeks, and thus this episode is, let us say, more "lightly edited" than usual. I think I've gotten most of the myriad sniffles, cat noises, drink slurping, and other background noise, but it's still not up to my usual standards. Mea culpa. We definitely remembered the first game on our list before we started. Yup. A couple of games with shaky debuts but stellar sequels. CORRECTION: Around 25:50, Frank refers to Lands of Galzyr as a "very Swedish game," but the game and its publisher are in fact Finnish. Our apologies! Thanks to eagle-eyed listener @raaf on Discord for straightening us out! Glowy LED buildings! What do they do? We don't know! You can hear just how shot my voice currently is at the very end of the episode, so...yay? What are your favorite sandbox games? Which ones do you think we'll discuss next month? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds! As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them. As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming! Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com Email: [email protected] Discord: https://discord.gg/tdH3QAn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/ And, very occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved. Thank you for listening!

Episode Description

Also, one brief apology: Your Humble Editor has been quite sick these last few weeks, and thus this episode is, let us say, more "lightly edited" than usual. I think I've gotten most of the myriad sniffles, cat noises, drink slurping, and other background noise, but it's still not up to my usual standards. Mea culpa.

We definitely remembered the first game on our list before we started. Yup.
A couple of games with shaky debuts but stellar sequels.
CORRECTION: Around 25:50, Frank refers to Lands of Galzyr as a "very Swedish game," but the game and its publisher are in fact Finnish. Our apologies! Thanks to eagle-eyed listener @raaf on Discord for straightening us out!
Glowy LED buildings! What do they do? We don't know!
You can hear just how shot my voice currently is at the very end of the episode, so...yay?

What are your favorite sandbox games? Which ones do you think we'll discuss next month? Come visit our Discord server to chat with us and other like-minded game nerds!

As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them. As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!