Mark and Walker praise the themeless Hansa Teutonica and proceed to break down what makes for successful themes in games, leading to unexpected agreement on many things Star Wars.

Games played last week:
1:18 -Castles of Burgundy (Stefan Feld, alea, 2011)
2:46 -The Expanse (Geoffrey Engelstein, Wizkids, 2017)
5:27-Die Fiesen 7 (Jacques Zeimet, 999 Games 2015)
6:54 -Tribune: Primes Inter Pares (Karl-Heinz Schmiel, Heidelberger, 2007)
8:19 -Imperial Assault, especially Legends of the Alliance (Justin Kemppainen, Corey Konieczka, Jonathan Ying, Fantasy Flight, 2014)
11:52 -Project: ELITE (Konstantinos Kokkinis, Sotirios Tsantilas, Artipia Games, 2016)
13:56 -Kingdomino (Bruno Cathala, Blue Orange, 2016)

14:34 Feature Game: Hansa Teutonica (Andreas Steding, Argentum Verlag, 2009)

News (and why it doesn’t matter):
33:27 Renegade offering pre-orders for Altiplano
33:59 BoardGameGeek End-of-Year Membership Drive
35:22 CMON putting out Munchkin games, Eric Lang doing Munchkin CCG
36:34 Mayfair Games no more?

37:46 Topic: Theme