Strengthen Bonds: an async Twilight Imperium podcast

Episode 20 - Campaign Games (with sarbor)

sarbor joins us to talk about campaign games in Twilight Imperium! If you've ever wanted a sort of "legacy" aspect to TI, this is a great way to get into it. 
0:34 Async tournament 3!2:24 sarbor!5:22 Campaign TI games19:20 How do I get started with my own campaign game?22:20 Fog campaigns and fun Fin maps25:49 Why we love Arborec31:57 Various updates

Episode 19 - Mailbag Episode #1

BLT is traveling, so instead of coming up with anything useful to say, he let the Discord server tell him what to say instead. He also may have almost lost his voice before recording.
0:37 Mailbag questions!
19:55 Tech of the week - PDS 2
22:45 Various updates

Episode 18 - Who's Your Favorite Leader?

BLT shares the latest from Sigma's leaders tournament, codytct's list of the best Taylor Swift song for each faction, and the first Async Rank Commander! (pally)
Also the "p's" are kind of loud this time, I'm still experimenting!
 
2:00 - Best thing I saw this week (Taylor Swift song mapped to TI4 factions!)
4:52 - Stats thing of the week (Sigma's leaders tournament)
8:43 - Weird game mode of the week (Drrek's "Musical Planets")
10:47 - Tech of the week (Cruiser II)
13:48 - Weird rules thing(s) of the week
17:02 - Various updates
Show notes
Taylor Swift TI playlist from Fin: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr_r3TlSujzdvZfj5JU0ZT4dkMEcoJwQP 
Leader Tournament Leaderboard from Sigma: https://challonge.com/ti4lead
Round 4 of voting for Leader Tournament: https://forms.gle/rGtYRokbY6WqKqV29

Episode 17 - pally Plays Even More Async TI than Argo

pally joins the podcast to talk about what makes TI fun, some of his favorite stories from games, Daxcive (or is it Dacxive?) Animators, and of course, Arborec.Also BLT continues to experiment with sound settings and isn't sure this one was the best :P1:05 pally joins the show! 1:47 On dialing back how much TI we play2:58 On novelty of TI wearing off over time6:32 Weird game modes bring more novelty10:27 The stories TI lets us experience12:52 The glorious async TI community and pbd200017:16 How pally found TI (and TI vs Eclipse)21:07 On winslaying and the importance of winning to getting people to stay with the game23:14 BLT is accused of winning too many games with random shard pulls25:08 On eliminations30:45 On winning from behind and pally's love of resources (over influence)34:00 Arborec!!39:06 Tech of the Week - Dacxive Animators46:27 A couple of final stories from the fog51:20 Various updates

Episode 16 - Give the Devs a Shoutout!

BLT opines about factions again, and encourages folks to use Sarbor's shoutout channel to send good vibes throughout the community (for devs, or for anyone!)
1:00 - Best thing I saw this week - Sarbor's shoutout channel2:43 - Anecdote of the week - Kaiser and BackAtMatt4:10 - Stats thing of the week - TIGL faction win rates6:13 - Tech of the week - Light/Wave Deflector9:01 - Weird rules thing of the week - Saar docks get wrecked10:31 - BLT's tier list (tier C-1: 13 Muaat, 14 Empyrean, 15 Arborec, 16 Argent, 17 Creuss, 18 Yin)16:45 - Various updates

Episode 15 - pbd2000 is a Ton of Fun

1:20 - BLT's SCPT qualifer win3:00 - susan's excellent treatise on mutiny5:46 - Best thing I saw this week - pbd20008:20 - Anecdote of the week - IronMandalorian almost uses the Argent hero for victory9:26 - Weird game mode(s) of the week - Bunkerdraft and Wekkerdraft12:04 - Stats thing of the week - Sigma's survey on Relic ranks16:00 - Tech of the week (Fleet Logistics)20:18 - Weird rules thing of the week (rifts affecting weird kinds of movement too)21:52 - Various updatesShow notesSusan’s guide to Being a Pleasant Habitual Murderer https://docs.google.com/document/d/144B9ikAVa6s2_NxzT5eQSlBSiThbYN85fhJSmtYz7nM/edit Picture of wekkerdraft: https://discord.com/channels/943410040369479690/1011689148563853423/1201621361114759168 Sigma’s survey on relicshttps://discord.com/channels/409096158372167683/767851684708745217/1200666791463112764

Episode 14 - Y’all Love Titans and Naaz-Rokha

1:07 - Best thing I saw this week (Will's stats)3:10 - Most and least played factions4:06 - Weird game mode of the week - FoW30, FoW41, and Ghoti fishing (hat tip to hawkeye52, whose idea that last one was)7:30 - Weird rules thing of the week - what you have to declare before sabos9:40 - Tech of the week - gravity drive12:50 - Brief chat about having guests on the show13:38 - BLT's faction tier list: C Tier (bottom half)18:10 - Various updates (incl. PBD2000)Notes:FoW30 also had gravity rifts everywhere, and you'd lose your ships on a roll of 1-4 — it was hard!

Episode 13 - A Brief History of Async TI4, with somno

somno joins the show to talk about the history and pre-history of the async TI4 server, from BoardGameGeek play-by-forum games 6 years ago, to getting all the  image files loaded up for the maps, and seeing the community grow from 20 to 2000.
1:17 - Best thing I saw this week
3:12 - Tech of the week - Self-Assembly Routines
6:10 - somno!
7:00 - Starting on BGG forums, descriptions of early maps, needing a host/GM
9:36 - somno's intro to TI4
10:30 - On GMing early games and uploading all the image files
16:26 - On perfectionism 
17:40 - Moving to Discord and the beginning of the bot (TerTerro)
22:30 - The community growth
25:20 - Shoutout to various developers, and the joy of both backend improvements and buttons
28:15 - Googley-eyed stroters, Jack-o-war suns, and cucumber fields
31:30 - On being an admin for a huge community
35:10 - Weird rules thing of the week
36:08 - Various updates
---------
Map images from somno: 
PBF#1: https://cf.geekdo-images.com/guv2EVIJuqNSQDPsyG4xXg__original/img/Yk9Svwvq5nbjjd6KAt3Muk5BWJA=/0x0/filters:format(jpeg)/pic4041742.jpg  
PBF#2: somno's first game as a host and the first iteration of his map file: https://cf.geekdo-images.com/aQBcLp0ajxOkdiW39YFHSQ__original/img/ish7C1f0gY96Zo9LwTEuFhpm3F4=/0x0/filters:format(jpeg)/pic4034391.jpg 
PBF#5: second iteration of the map file. First tech board and planet overview. And the Sweet Candy colour. Theoretically no more status blocks needed at this point: https://cf.geekdo-images.com/CoKfnFSl9PzvbfzpY-Ffyw__original/img/ROvdB7dXjwhbAFA4IeD3dtDH2Wo=/0x0/filters:format(jpeg)/pic4307474.jpg 
PBF#9: 8p game with some wacky house rules and a couple of custom tiles that still exist today and are in the bot: https://cf.geekdo-images.com/sqb0srJK8Nyded3LRFjoCA__original/img/Z_0vugCVEH5GdeVVR1OoO0Feb4A=/0x0/filters:format(jpeg)/pic4475849.jpg 
PBF#43: the Ordinian Scenario from Codex I, featuring HolyTiSpoon as Nekro. Also a refined tech board I made somewhere in between. You can definitely see the roots of the tech board we have today: https://cf.geekdo-images.com/UGBTzR8QtwSAdvVlYCYczw__original/img/A6eZlANqwRV-h7f5RWMCndUSFeM=/0x0/filters:format(jpeg)/pic6029555.jpg
PBF#64, a full 5p PoK game on the final version of the map file. Several known faces here: https://cf.geekdo-images.com/JLw4rAXdEucrzBCXxcZiXA__original/img/eGK55nmu_wxpzqILiULHi8XojNc=/0x0/filters:format(jpeg)/pic6832767.jpg

Episode 12 - Flight of Fancy Became An Agent by Strengthening Bonds

Flight of Fancy joins the show to talk Argent Flight, playing factions that aren't strong, beating BLT in a Ministers game with the Strengthen Bonds secret, and whether BLT likes mayo on his BLTs.
0:55 - Async Rank Update1:53 - Flight of Fancy joins the show3:00 - Getting into TI4 and Async TI46:20 - On playing fast8:01 - Argent Flight (of Fancy)12:55 - Argent's starting tech (and why you should go green/yellow)19:58 - Tech of the week: Neural Motivator24:02 - Does BLT put mayo on his BLT?25:37 - Async TI and parenting28:54 - Bot updates

Episode 11 - Tournament 2 Semifinals and Fog of War

BLT congratulates the Tournament 2 Semifinalists, invites you to play F(r)og of War, and fails to invite a guest or to make progress on his faction tier list.
1:42 - Best thing I saw this week - Tournament 2 quarterfinals are finished
3:47 - Weird game mode of the week - Fog of War
10:43 - Tech of the week - Predictive Intelligence (gah!)
14:52 - Weird rules thing of the week - Spatial Conduit Cylinders + PDS II
17:05 - Various updates