Episode 262 - 10 YEARS OF BLITZ
May 28, 2026
It's our 10 year anniversary episode! In this special episode, Ambie and Crystal reminisce about how the podcast started and what's happened with it in the past 10 years. Then Ambie has a special trivia game for Crystal to celebrate the 10 year anniversary! We also have a special announcement at the end of the episode. And check out our new merch!
Intro: 0:00
Merch Sale!: 0:41
10 Years of Blitz: 1:41
10 Year Trivia Game: 21:52
--Question 1: 22:49
--Question 2: 24:56
--Question 3: 26:11
--Question 4: 26:58
--Question 5: 28:15
--Question 6: 28:59
--Question 7: 30:10
--Question 8: 31:58
--Question 9: 33:20
--Question 10: 35:42
--Bonus Question: 39:06
Announcement: 41:03
Outro: 43:11
Bloopers: 44:15
Things mentioned this episode:
This episode was sponsored by Grey Fox Games. Use the code "BLITZ2026" to get 10% off your entire cart.
Board Game Blitz's theme song was composed by Andrew Morrow.
Transcript
[00:00:06:23 - 00:00:39:23]
Crystal: Hello and welcome to episode 262 of Board Game Blitz, a podcast about all things board games that you can listen to in less time than it takes to convince your dog that no, they do not need a second dinner. Board Game Blitz is sponsored by Grey Fox Games. This week, we're celebrating our 10-year anniversary! We reminisce about the past, share some of our favorite moments, and then Ambie has a surprise game for me to play. And make sure to stick around to the end of the episode because we are making a very big announcement! And now here are your hosts...
Ambie: Ambie
Crystal: and Crystal
[00:00:39:23 - 00:00:54:06]
Ambie: To celebrate our 10-year anniversary, we're having a sale on our merch store. So you can check that out at merch.boardgameblitz.com. You can get some t-shirts or stickers or anything of our merch. I'm wearing some now, so is Crystal.
Crystal: Yeah!
[00:00:54:06 - 00:01:07:04]
Crystal: Although mine technically isn't board game related, but it kind of is because it relates to our Discord. We talk about shenanigans a lot. And so I took a Star Trek quote and put it on one of our shirts because it has shenanigans in it.
[00:01:07:04 - 00:01:36:13]
Ambie: And I'm currently wearing a board game mosaic made by my kid of a skull, like a sugar skull. So I have some drawings of some art from my kids on the merch store too. And we also have three new designs on the merch store. I made board game fireworks design. I made a snow-eeple, snow meeple design. And my kid made another board game mosaic of a rainbow meeple. So check those out. Everything's on sale. Yay!
Crystal: Yay!
Ambie: merch.boardgameblitz.com.
[00:01:36:13 - 00:02:19:02]
Crystal: All right. It's been 10 years, Ambie. We've kind of been building to this episode over the past couple of episodes. We've been talking about how our anniversary was coming up. And so for our anniversary, we wanted to do a little bit of a look back and you actually got a request from friend of the show and fellow podcaster, Amanda Panda. Like Amanda is a very good friend of mine and like is friends with Ambie too. And she does not remember our origin story. And so because Amanda doesn't remember it, we're going to tell you all again. So if you've heard our origin story like a hundred times at this point, you're going to hear it again.
[00:02:19:02 - 00:02:25:09]
Ambie: Well, we haven't told it a hundred times. So if you've heard it a hundred times and you've listened, relisten a lot.
[00:02:25:09 - 00:03:02:12]
Crystal: That's true. You know what? That's awesome if you've done that. And we haven't told it in a little while. I think, you know, occasions like this are when we tend to bring it out. But yeah, I think many of our newer listeners might not be aware of how the podcast started or why it started. And so we'll get into the way back machine and I'm not making any time machine noises like I did in the last episode. But we're going to head back to 2015, the year before the podcast launched, because that was actually when the seeds of the podcast were planted and started to germinate. So how did that happen, Ambie?
[00:03:02:12 - 00:03:15:05]
Ambie: So there was a Reddit thread. I don't have the link to it. I wonder if I could find it, but this was like in the summer of 2015 or something or fall. I don't know. But there was a Reddit thread saying that, like, what was missing in board game podcast, I think.
[00:03:15:05 - 00:03:21:01]
Crystal: Yeah. Somebody asked, like, what, you know, what doesn't exist? Like, what isn't there in board game podcasting, basically? Yeah.
[00:03:21:01 - 00:03:35:08]
Ambie: And I think, like, some of the responses were like short board game podcasts because all the board game podcasts were an hour or longer at that time. And also women in board game podcasts because there were any that were hosted by women. And then-
[00:03:35:08 - 00:03:41:05]
Crystal: Not a single one. Like none. There were there were some podcasters, but they were always on podcasts with men at that point.
[00:03:41:05 - 00:03:58:26]
Ambie: Yeah. So there were none that were entirely women. And so in that thread, three of us commented. I don't remember who started the thread, like the comment thread, but someone said-
Crystal: Yeah, I don't either. We should try and find it, maybe.
Ambie: Yeah, we should find it. But anyway, one of us said, oh, I'm a woman. I could do that. And then someone else replied, me too.
[00:04:00:08 - 00:04:09:00]
Ambie: And then the other also was like, oh, I need to like something like that. And so that was Crystal, Cassadi, and me. We all met on Reddit in that thread.
[00:04:09:00 - 00:04:54:12]
Crystal: I mean, none of us had ever spoken to one another in any other capacity at that point. We literally were just like, I'm a woman. I could make a podcast. And then we started private messaging each other on Reddit and then eventually moved that conversation to Facebook. And at the time, Cassadi was actually pregnant with her daughter. And so we did decide that we wanted to start a podcast, but we didn't want to jump in too quickly. We at the time had some friends who were podcasters who we reached out to to kind of get some advice from. And we wanted to kind of wrap our heads around things first. We wanted to get to know each other a little bit first. And we wanted Cassadi to be able to deal with her pregnancy and the birth of her baby before we started things as well, because that's a lot to deal with.
[00:04:55:13 - 00:05:05:13]
Crystal: Yeah, so we met in the summer of 2015 and then spoke online on and off for the next, what, like nine-ish, nine or ten months.
[00:05:05:13 - 00:05:23:11]
Ambie: Yeah, we launched in, oh, I guess May.
Crystal: Yeah, May of 2016.
Ambie: May of 2016, yeah. You and I actually met once in person in 2015 after we had spoken on Reddit.
Crystal: after the Reddit thread.
Ambie: because I went to Vegas with my friends and then so we had like a brunch and met you.
[00:05:23:11 - 00:06:26:03]
Crystal: Yeah, we went to one of the fancy brunch restaurants at one of the casinos here. And I was so nervous because like while I talked to you, like I didn't know your husband or any of your friends. And it was like a fancy restaurant. And so I was just like, I was like, oh, my gosh. And it was definitely like it wasn't a bad meal, but it was like kind of quiet and awkward because I think none of us like what to do. Like, hi, you're a human. I'm a human. We don't know each other very well yet, but maybe we're going to someday. Yeah. And to be clear, while most board game podcasters, at least at the time, tended to come from people who gained together in person, like people who were in the same game group or in the same family or whatever else. We were also unique in that we lived in three different parts of the country. Cassadi was in the Midwest. I'm in Vegas. Ambie is in California. And so we also had the both opportunity and kind of downside that we weren't playing games together either. And yet we wanted to talk about games together.
[00:06:27:13 - 00:06:34:05]
Crystal: So, yeah, we launched in May of 2016. Our first episode was a little bit rough.
[00:06:35:26 - 00:07:36:00]
Crystal: Ambie and Cassadi were both, they are kind of both more introverted personalities. And I am definitely not that. So the early episodes, like I'm one of those people that like I don't like silence. I have to fill it. And so if nobody was talking, I was talking and we did get feedback early on. It was like, Crystal should shut up. The others talk. And I was like, I promise you, I'm giving them time. I'm giving them opportunities. Like, I promise I want them to talk. I don't want to talk this much.
Ambie: Yeah, it wasn't Crystal's fault.
Crystal: It was hard at first. Yeah, like it was I mean, it's even for me, like I was very nervous. And that's probably why I was also so talkative, because that was the it was the opposite problem for me. Right. You're all nerves. We're kind of keeping you more reserved than mine. We're just making me word vomit all over the place. But yeah, we picked our format like we stuck with our format for the most part. Yeah, like we've dropped segments
Ambie: We got rid of some...
[00:07:36:00 - 00:07:42:25]
Ambie: Cause we...
Crystal: Yeah, we originally...
Ambie: We had etymology and accessory of the week.
[00:07:42:25 - 00:09:39:28]
Crystal: Yes, the accessory...
Ambie: The accessory did not stay for very long.
Crystal: It did not last very long. We realized pretty quickly that board game accessories, there aren't enough of those to go around for a long time. And my etymology segment, we got so much feedback over the years that it was a lot of people's favorite segment of the show. And so there was never a point where we said we're not going to do etymology anymore. It was just I had covered pretty much like all of the main board gaming or even just gaming adjacent words. I had also covered the etymology of non-gaming words in certain contexts. Like for anniversary episodes, I would do things like the etymology of the word anniversary. And while people enjoyed that, I realized at a certain point, I can't just keep picking random words to do an etymology segment. Yeah, I was inspired by one of my favorite podcasts, The Allusionist. And I actually reached out to Helen Zaltzman from The Allusionist before we launched the show and asked her for advice. Like I just cold messaged her and she responded, which is adorable and still mind blowing to me because she's like famous. And she was so very kind. We also got a lot of early advice and help from Chris Michaud, who was at the time a host of the Flip the Table board game podcast. And Chris is still a very good friend of ours and a good friend of the show. We've gotten to do a lot of stuff with him over the years, which has been really, really fun. But yeah, those early episodes, you can tell that we as a threesome had not really developed a good rapport or like a rhythm with one another. And it didn't help that we're recording remotely because there's even if even if you have real time, good video software, inevitably there's even like a slight delay. And that makes it really easy to talk over each other. And that happened a lot in the early episodes and we would have to like back up and like fix things and stuff.
[00:09:39:28 - 00:09:46:16]
Ambie: I think also in the first few episodes, we didn't have video. We just like had audio or something for... was it just the first one?
Crystal: Well, that's true.
[00:09:46:16 - 00:09:52:29]
Ambie: Or.. I don't remember.
Crystal: Yeah, like we didn't see each other's faces and that was made it like impossible to know when anyone was talking.
[00:09:54:07 - 00:10:35:13]
Crystal: We also while we saw each other on video for many, many years, we didn't actually start putting the video part of the podcast out until somewhat recently.
Ambie: Yeah, like within the last couple years, I think.
Crystal: The word podcasting has lost all meaning at this point because now podcasts are almost all videos and that is not what podcasting was ever intended to be. But content mill keeps turning. So but yeah, we I'm glad that we started doing the video because it's been neat to be able to show off things visually, even though we're still making sure that the audio side of things is complete enough that you don't have to watch us on YouTube to get what's happening.
[00:10:35:13 - 00:11:06:13]
Ambie: Yeah, I agree. But yeah, like I did listen back to some of our earlier episodes and like it was still good for first first episodes. And I think like not that much has changed other than like we've gotten better at podcasting and stuff. But like behind the scenes and stuff, a lot of it is still the same similar format. We still like talk about recently played, have a thematic segment. Like I still edit it. I used to try to edit down to 30 minutes or less like if it hit 30 or above like 30:01, I would not like that.
[00:11:07:14 - 00:11:09:08]
Crystal: You had to find a second to cut out somewhere.
[00:11:09:08 - 00:11:21:24]
Ambie: Yeah, so I would cut out... But then after a while, I eventually I got over that. I was like, I think you were like, no one cares except for you. And I'm like, you're probably right.
Crystal: Which is honestly pretty true.
[00:11:21:24 - 00:11:55:24]
Ambie: Yeah
Crystal: We also had a few other things like I had noted when we were starting that I really liked podcasts that had like a recurring gimmick as part of the podcast. And so we incorporated that into our intro and outro. We always have in our intro the less time than it takes to. And I put something silly in there, often related to my own life. If you go back through those episodes, I wonder you can probably like chart good and bad times in my life based on what I put in that piece.
[00:11:55:24 - 00:12:08:11]
Ambie: Sometimes it was related to the theme, I think.
Crystal: That's true. I did. I did also relate to the theme.
Ambie: I think it used to be related to the theme more. And then like as we were repeating themes and stuff, it started just being more about your life.
[00:12:08:11 - 00:12:48:00]
Crystal: I was like, I just need something here. And then in the outro, we always have the little mini song parody, which is basically an homage to the board game song parodies that Ambie was doing before we even started the podcast and still has continued to do over the years. I always pick the song and write the lyrics and then just make Ambie sing it. And so it's been fun because I listened to music growing up a lot more than Ambie did. So I have a little bit more knowledge in like different songs. And so I've gotten to introduce Ambie to a lot of music over the years, which has been really fun. And like every now and then Ambie will message me. She's like, I listened to the whole song. It was awesome.
[00:12:49:07 - 00:13:32:05]
Crystal: That was always fun to introduce new music to you. And I used to pick those things deliberately, which most of our listeners probably don't know. Like like episode 67 probably had a song from 1967 in it or like that. I was trying to match things up a lot of the time, but we never actually said we were doing that. And I don't think anyone ever noticed because at a certain point it just became random. And I know I'm certain we've repeated songs because I we probably... Cassadi was maintaining a spreadsheet for us early in the podcast with like everything that we did. Like here was the word for the etymology segment. Here was the song parody. And that was awesome. And then when Cassadi left the show, we didn't keep that up.
[00:13:33:16 - 00:13:44:25]
Crystal: So, yeah, I don't know if you could if you asked me how many songs we've parodied. I don't know. I mean, it theoretically should be around 262, but it's probably I would guess it's closer to like 240.
[00:13:46:07 - 00:14:01:03]
Ambie: Yeah. So we didn't actually have a song parodies in the first episodes.
Crystal: Oh, we didn't?
Ambie: No. Yeah. Until Episode 17 was the first time we had a song parody.
Crystal: Nu-uh. What were we doing in the outro?
Ambie: Well, we'll get to that later.
[00:14:02:13 - 00:14:04:10]
Crystal: Okay. Oh, no.
[00:14:05:25 - 00:14:11:08]
Crystal: Oh, that's... okay. Ambie has a game for me later. And apparently that might have something to do with it.
[00:14:11:08 - 00:14:17:20]
Ambie: Apparently this is how I figured out. Researching for this trivia game is how I figured out that.
[00:14:17:20 - 00:15:20:26]
Crystal: Amazing. We would be remiss if we did not mention Grey Fox Games, who has been our sponsor for many, many years now and has always supported us. Joshua Lobkowicz, specifically from Grey Fox, kind of became a good friend of mine over time. And like, we referred to each other as best frenemies when we would see each other at cons, because every time we played a game together, we always were just like going at it like we were, you know, and it was a very fun, antagonistic board game relationship. But we're so grateful to Josh and the whole team, Shane and everybody at Grey Fox for their support of us over the years, because while we probably would have still made the show without them, their support has really been beneficial in a lot of different ways. And I think it helped kind of legitimize us a little bit more to some listeners, you know, to have a sponsor like that means something. And so we're very, very grateful that they stepped up to sponsor us and have been with us now for so long.
[00:15:22:00 - 00:15:30:19]
Ambie: Yeah, the time is so weird, because at first it seemed like we did it so long before we had a Patreon or a sponsor or anything, but now it's been like so long.
[00:15:31:25 - 00:15:38:10]
Ambie: And like, it was so long before I had kids. But now I like I've had kids for more than half of the podcast.
[00:15:38:10 - 00:16:01:16]
Crystal: Yes, in the time that we've been doing this podcast, like you and I were both somewhat newly married when the podcast started, like relatively new within a couple of years. Cassadi had her baby right before the podcast started. You had twins, I got divorced, I got remarried. We've both moved at certain points.
Ambie: I've moved multiple times.
[00:16:01:16 - 00:16:04:08]
Crystal: There was a whole darn pandemic.
[00:16:04:08 - 00:16:19:13]
Ambie: Three or four or five times, I don't know.
Crystal: The fact that it's now been longer since the pandemic started than podcasting pre pandemic literally does not make any sense in my head. Like it feels like the pandemic was kind of just yesterday and it really isn't anymore.
[00:16:19:13 - 00:16:20:26]
Ambie: Yeah, that is weird.
[00:16:20:26 - 00:16:50:19]
Crystal: Yeah, right? I think we've done a really good job of kind of running with all of that. You know, life changes, things changes. We've never missed an episode. And that's mostly thanks to Ambie, because there were at least a couple of times where we almost did and Ambie stepped up and helped like with her kids or whatever else if I wasn't available. And also your kids have done some really cool bonus episodes for us, which are some of my favorite episodes of the podcast is the ones I'm not on.
[00:16:52:22 - 00:16:54:13]
Ambie: Mine too, but I'm also biased.
[00:16:57:02 - 00:17:04:07]
Crystal: I loved when I also got to be with the boys on the podcast. Like getting to talk with your boys is always a blast. And I love it.
[00:17:04:07 - 00:17:10:13]
Ambie: And then when I gave birth, I was out for a couple of episodes. And you had some guests. And guest hosts.
[00:17:10:13 - 00:18:08:18]
Crystal: Yeah, I had guests join me and co host with me. And then you were still editing the podcast. Even postpartum, which is mind blowing and amazing. And it just proves so fabulous and dedicated you are. So yeah, just kudos to you for all of the work that you've done over the years in that regard.
Why don't we talk about some of our favorite happenings or moments related to the podcast over the years? I know for me, I really loved like even though it was something we weren't able to continue. We did two years of BlitzCon way back when we did a 50 person convention and then a 100 person convention. So we're not we're not talking like Gen Con here, folks. We're talking like a conference room at a motel or a hotel. But those weekends that we did BlitzCon were some of my favorite gaming experiences of the past 10 years, like really awesome, friendly, welcoming people getting together and playing board games together.
[00:18:08:18 - 00:18:24:25]
Ambie: That was fun. Yeah, I liked the first time we all met in person was like a year after we had started the podcast at MeepleCon in Las Vegas.
Crystal: MeepleCon 2017!
Ambie: Yeah. And we filmed our music video.
Crystal: Oh my gosh. Yes! Our music...
Ambie: Our anniversary.
[00:18:26:04 - 00:19:40:02]
Crystal: If people haven't seen our music video for Ballroom Blitz parody Board Game Blitz, like please, please go find that because we had so much fun making it and we did get permission from Sweet. Like the band who sings Ballroom Blitz, we got permission from them to parody their song in writing.
Ambie: Yeah, you got permission.
Crystal: So I was very proud of that. Yeah. Admittedly, it was like they're like lawyer or like somebody weird who responded to the email. It wasn't like one of the band members, but I don't care. It counts. We also had a lot of really fun meetups with fans and friends of the podcast over the years, often at conventions. Like I remember at Dice Tower Con, what is now Dice Tower East, but it was Dice Tower Con at the time in Florida. We did a meetup and we ordered like we had deep dish pizzas delivered, which is such a weird food for a meetup. But it was like somebody had recommended them. I think I don't know. We got deep dish pizzas and we had a Pogs tournament. Like we made custom Board Game Blitz Pogs and we had a Pogs tournament. And honestly, people had a blast. Like people were laughing their booties off and that was a really fun time.
[00:19:40:02 - 00:19:44:20]
Ambie: That was cool. Like a bunch of different podcasters made custom Pogs as a thing.
[00:19:44:20 - 00:19:59:18]
Crystal: Yeah. Like we just, we were like, hey, we found somebody who makes custom Pogs who also wants to do this. And a few others did. I still have Blitz Pogs, a few of them left somewhere. But yeah, I don't know if I have a lot anymore.
[00:19:59:18 - 00:20:15:22]
Ambie: Yeah. I think I still have a good amount. I also have like some dice with our old logo, which is like, it's just the text with the I's, the hourglass that I made.
Crystal: It was a good logo though.
Ambie: Yeah. For a amateur or not even amateur, just like a non graphic artist.
[00:20:15:22 - 00:20:32:14]
Crystal: And then shout out to Rebecca, friend of the show who ended up making our newer logos that we utilize now even to this day. Just gorgeous work. And we were really, really appreciative of her beautiful work in creating those logos for us.
[00:20:32:14 - 00:20:33:03]
Ambie: Yeah.
[00:20:33:03 - 00:20:52:20]
Crystal: We could probably talk for hours about all of the things that we've done. You know, we've hosted Strike tournaments. We did live streams on Twitch where we ate gross jelly beans,
Ambie: Oh yeah!
Crystal: ...and I literally threw up on a live stream.
[00:20:54:11 - 00:21:48:13]
Crystal: We raised a ton of money for a bunch of really awesome charities through a bunch of different organizations and most notably Extra Life and also alongside the Tabletop Live Network that we've been we were part of for a few years. And that to me is kind of one of the things I think that I'm most proud of is that we didn't just create something new in the world of board game podcasting, but we've put good into the world in a number of different ways. Like in you know, we've taken our platform and used it for good in like a bunch of times. And that I'm really, really proud of. And I'm really grateful that we have had those opportunities and that the people who follow us and listen to us have supported us in those endeavors. Yeah, well, I imagine some people might want to know more. They can always ask us questions in our discord. But you've got a game for me.
Ambie: I do.
[00:21:51:18 - 00:21:54:20]
Ambie: It's our 10 year anniversary game.
[00:21:56:09 - 00:22:06:02]
Ambie: So this is a trivia game for you. I have 10 questions and they are about the first 10 episodes for podcast.
Crystal: Oh my gosh.
Ambie: The theme is 10.
[00:22:06:02 - 00:22:07:12]
Crystal: I'm gonna get them all wrong.
[00:22:08:16 - 00:22:21:02]
Ambie: I don't know. Well, the theme is 10. So let's because 10 year anniversary the first 10 episodes. So I listened to all of the 10 episodes, which is what I was saying earlier. I did listen to them.
[00:22:21:02 - 00:22:26:20]
Crystal: Well, I have not re listened. So I see how good it is. Spoiler alert, it's not good.
[00:22:26:20 - 00:22:44:02]
Ambie: I did not make this game for you to like do well in it. So don't worry about doing well. It's more of a like joke game kind of like a look back game.
Crystal: Okay, alright.
Ambie: So this is where we're looking back at early years. I guess it's 10 episodes, not years.
Crystal: Yeah, early weeks.
[00:22:45:19 - 00:23:06:23]
Ambie: Early months. Yeah. All right. So first question number one, rank the following in order of the number of times they were said in the first 10 episodes by these people. So Ambie saying 18xx, Cassadi saying dice or die, and Crystal saying Battlestar Galactica or BSG. So that person saying that thing.
[00:23:06:23 - 00:23:41:08]
Crystal: Yes, I get I get the premise. Okay. Well, this is kind of easy. I hope because you didn't play 18xx games when the podcast started this. I know. So I'm going to say that you're probably the lowest with saying 18xx. I'm going to guess that Cassadi saying dice or die is like she doesn't like dice or die games. But I feel like she probably said those words a lot, maybe talking about how she doesn't like them. And then hopefully I wasn't at the top with Battlestar Galactica or BSG. I'm going to put myself second.
[00:23:41:08 - 00:23:43:28]
Ambie: Yeah, you got it right! So for a bonus,
[00:23:45:00 - 00:23:48:13]
Ambie: how many times were each of them said?
Crystal: Oh, gosh. Okay.
[00:23:48:13 - 00:24:11:04]
Ambie: That's for the bonus one.
Crystal: So for 18xx, I don't remember when you first played one, but like it would have been probably toward the end of the first time at 10 episodes if it was in there at all. So maybe like a handful of times, maybe like I don't know, like five and then for Battlestar Galactica or BSG, I'll say 10. And then for dice or die from Cassadi, I'll say like 20.
[00:24:11:04 - 00:24:18:21]
Ambie: All right. So for 18xx, it was nine times. I actually said it first in the episode five.
Crystal: Okay, okay.
Ambie: Battlestar Galactica was 10.
Crystal: Nuh uh?!
[00:24:20:25 - 00:24:28:14]
Ambie: But what's weird is in Episode 10 or something, you said Oh, I've said BSG like five times in every episode, but you'd only said it in like two episodes.
[00:24:28:14 - 00:24:46:07]
Crystal: All I know is that in the past when I had listened to other people's podcasts, if they brought up something a lot, I noticed it. And so I think I assumed that other people would notice that about me and think I talked about Battlestar Galactica all the time.
[00:24:47:13 - 00:24:55:23]
Ambie: And then Cassadi's dice was 15.
Crystal: Okay, I was pretty close.
Ambie: One bonus point for the getting Battlestar Galactica exactly. All right.
[00:24:56:23 - 00:25:02:01]
Ambie: Next question. How many times was the word blitz said in the first 10 episodes?
[00:25:05:16 - 00:25:08:13]
Ambie: I'll give you a point if you're within like five, I'll say
[00:25:08:13 - 00:25:37:17]
Crystal: Oh, gosh, that's still really I mean, I don't even know where to start. Okay, well, we'll just so like intro, outro, like it's gonna be said like bare bare bare minimum, I would say probably like at least four times an episode. So we're up to 40 right there. And then we probably didn't say blitz a ton in the midst of the episodes. At least I don't think so. I'm gonna go with 50 just a nice round 50.
[00:25:37:17 - 00:25:42:21]
Ambie: Unfortunately, it was 71.
[00:25:43:22 - 00:26:08:22]
Crystal: 71. Oh, my gosh. That's amazing. I love that we said blitz 71 times in 10 episodes. Hey, you know what? That means our branding we were making sure people knew we are Board Game Blitz.
Ambie: Yes, we were.
Crystal: Blitz. There were people that were confused early on. Because if you said it out loud, people would hear Board Game Bliss, which was a retailer from Canada. And so we were like, blitz, blitz, blitz.
[00:26:09:26 - 00:26:14:22]
Ambie: Yes. All right. Question three. How many bloopers were in the first 10 episodes?
[00:26:14:22 - 00:26:49:00]
Crystal: Oh, I don't think there were as m- Well, because I know we had a lot of mistakes like in our recordings. But I don't know how much of it was funny enough. Or if you were like really including bloopers at the beginning, I think you were.
Ambie: I was.
Crystal: But probably not as much? Okay, okay. So how many bloopers like individual clips at the ends of the episodes, right?
Ambie: Yes.
Crystal: Okay, I will say 20.
Ambie: No, it was 10.
Crystal: Okay. I should have gotten lower. I figured it will probably wasn't that many.
[00:26:49:00 - 00:26:56:18]
Ambie: But so I guess like four of the episodes didn't have bloopers, but the other ones did.
Crystal: Oh, okay,
Ambie: because we were perfect.
Crystal: I always loved our bloopers.
[00:26:57:22 - 00:27:02:00]
Ambie: All right. So in the first episode, what did we use to bleep out swear words?
[00:27:02:00 - 00:27:55:13]
Crystal: This Okay, no, no, no, I remember this we so Cassadi's corgi Boomer kept barking during our recording session. And we had not made a decision prior to that recording session about what kind of language we wanted to use on the podcast. And obviously, we are all adults. But we kind of on the fly, like Cassadi said a relatively tame swear word while she was talking. And I we had a moment where we were like, Oh, do we want to swear on the podcast? Is that a thing we want to do? And I as a group, we kind of decided that we were going to forego that just to make our podcast more approachable. Like so if you have kids, you can put it on and you don't have to worry about them hearing words that they maybe don't want to hear yet. So yes, Boomer was barking and you use Boomer's bark to edit out Cassadi's swear words from that very first episode.
[00:27:55:13 - 00:27:57:27]
Ambie: Yeah, you got it! Yes!
[00:27:59:10 - 00:28:06:24]
Ambie: And for a bonus point, how many bark covering swear words were there?
Crystal: I'm gonna guess three.
Ambie: Oh, no, there were two.
[00:28:06:24 - 00:28:13:00]
Crystal: Okay. I knew it was more than one but not very many.
[00:28:13:00 - 00:28:21:02]
Ambie: So yeah, close. All right, question five. Our first episode was posted on May 26 2016. When was our 10th episode posted?
[00:28:21:02 - 00:28:31:04]
Crystal: What? Okay, well, I mean, I could just theoretically look at a calendar.
Ambie: You are allowed to look at the calendar.
Crystal: Oh, I am. Okay. I don't want to go all the way back to 2016.
[00:28:32:17 - 00:28:37:27]
Ambie: It's not that hard to go back to.
Crystal: Oh, that's true. Okay, I'm going back. Here we go. Okay, so then
[00:28:37:27 - 00:28:41:10]
Ambie: you just can't look at like our website or like our
Crystal: No, I'm not looking at our website.
[00:28:41:10 - 00:28:43:16]
Crystal: I'm looking at the calendar on my computer. That's it. So that would be... 2, 3...
[00:28:45:21 - 00:28:49:09]
Crystal: 9, 10. So I'm gonna say September 29.
Ambie: No.
[00:28:50:22 - 00:28:53:25]
Ambie: Haha!
Crystal: Wait. Okay. So obviously this was a trick question.
Ambie: I tricked you!
[00:28:55:27 - 00:28:57:19]
Ambie: It was September 15 2016.
[00:28:58:27 - 00:29:09:19]
Ambie: So the next question is a result of this question. We had one bonus show which was actually posted on an off week in the first 10 episodes. What was it?
Crystal: A bonus show...
[00:29:09:19 - 00:29:30:04]
Crystal: Ooh, because I know we did an interview with Suz Sheldon, but I think that was like a normal episode. I don't think we called that a bonus episode. And I don't remember. Was it like did somebody go to a convention and like record stuff? No, I don't remember. I really don't know.
[00:29:30:04 - 00:29:33:15]
Crystal: What is it?
Ambie: It was TIME Stories Spoiler cast.
[00:29:33:15 - 00:29:34:28]
Crystal: Oh, yeah.
[00:29:34:28 - 00:29:36:27]
Ambie: I had forgotten about this too.
Crystal: I forgot that we did that!
[00:29:36:27 - 00:29:56:01]
Ambie: Yeah.
Crystal: Wow. Yeah, because we had talked about doing like when we played the other TIME Stories scenarios that we were going to do it again. But then TIME Stories kind of, you know, jumped to the shark, so to speak.
Ambie: Yeah. And also like, hard to remember.
Ambie: Yes, very difficult to remember. That spoiler cast was fun to record though.
[00:29:56:01 - 00:30:08:18]
Ambie: It was. Fun fact: It was also the first episode that was over 30 minutes. And the only episode over 30 minutes until episode 17, which is I guess, I guess episode 17 is when, when I gave up. I don't know.
[00:30:10:07 - 00:30:19:25]
Ambie: All right. So question seven. How much- this is going to be like a if you get close thing- how much total time in hours, minutes and seconds was the first 10 episodes?
[00:30:19:25 - 00:30:24:08]
Crystal: Okay. Well, you've kind of already given me a little bit of a help.
[00:30:24:08 - 00:30:28:15]
Ambie: That's true. Okay, I'm not sure how close you'll get points for. We'll see.
[- 00:30:29:10]
Crystal: Okay, so if we have 10 episodes, if they were all exactly 30 minutes, then that would be five hours. Exactly. We know that that won't be the case. I think a couple of the early episodes were actually kind of short. Like I think our thematic discussions weren't super long, although with three of us, it was sometimes hard to fit things into. We had one that was longer than 30 minutes, but I'm still gonna I'm gonna err on the side of shorter. So I'm gonna say four hours, 44 minutes and 17 seconds.
Ambie: Oh my gosh.
[00:31:02:22 - 00:31:03:15]
Ambie: Wow. Okay, you get a point for that.
Crystal: What? What is it?
[00:31:06:01 - 00:31:09:12]
Ambie: Okay, it was four hours, 44 minutes and 26 seconds.
[00:31:10:20 - 00:31:20:11]
Crystal: No, like I swear to you. That is a completely random guess. No one will ever believe that we did not rig this.
Ambie: Yeah.
[00:31:20:11 - 00:31:36:27]
Ambie: So it's four hours, 44 minutes and 20 seconds if you like add up the times that are rounded. But then if I put like all the things together, like smooshed them all together in one file and looked at the time, it was four hours, 44 minutes and 26 seconds because I guess some of them got rounded down by the milliseconds or whatever.
[00:31:36:27 - 00:31:55:01]
Crystal: So yeah, anytime I do a thing like this, it just proves to me that I must have some wasted potential that I'm not utilizing in my life. Like I literally almost said 42. And then my brain was like, no, 44. And I don't know why like that's what happened in my head.
Ambie: Wow.
[00:31:55:01 - 00:32:20:06]
Crystal: That's crazy.
Ambie: Yeah, that's good. All right. So question number eight. So we didn't actually have a song parody snippet in our outro until episode 17, which I mentioned earlier, I guess episode 17 was a lot of firsts. Okay. In the first 10 episodes, we tended to use the phrases with blitz in them. Hence the lots of blitzes. But the first episode did not have blitz in the sign off. What was the sign off for episode one?
[00:32:21:13 - 00:32:26:00]
Crystal: Oh, did we say something like stay bl-... Oh, okay. It didn't have the word blitz in it?
[00:32:26:00 - 00:32:32:20]
Ambie: It did not have blitz. So I think we stay blitzy was in the bloopers because I think you attempted that and decided not to do it.
[00:32:32:20 - 00:32:57:07]
Crystal: How do I remember that though? That's the thing. Like I just, I was like, stay blitzy. Like that felt like a thing, but that wasn't even in the episode. How do I, my brain is very strange.
Ambie: Yeah, I think it was in the bloopers.
Crystal: I can't remember what I was doing five minutes ago, but I can tell you what's in our bloopers from our first episode. Okay, so then what would we have signed off with? Was it just 'bye everyone' and nothing else? Like...
Ambie: No.
Crystal: Okay.
[00:32:58:10 - 00:33:03:05]
Crystal: Something about games like keep playing games or something like that. I don't know.
[00:33:03:05 - 00:33:06:18]
Crystal: That's my, I'll just guess.
Ambie: All right. It was get your game on.
[00:33:06:18 - 00:33:15:13]
Crystal: Get your Oh, no. I kind of remember coming up with that and then hating it after. And that's probably why we changed it.
[00:33:16:15 - 00:33:27:19]
Ambie: And I can tell you the other ones after the next question. Alright, so question nine, we used to alternate doing the outro. So it wasn't just the same person every time. How many times did each person do the outro in the first 10 episodes?
[00:33:27:19 - 00:33:36:28]
Crystal: Oh, okay. Well, was it... Did we all three do the outro? Or was it just you and Cassadi? Because I know I was doing I think I was doing the intro still. Maybe.
[00:33:36:28 - 00:33:40:08]
Ambie: Yeah, you did the intro. I'm not gonna tell you though...
Crystal: Okay.
[00:33:40:08 - 00:33:51:24]
Crystal: Okay, so I think I think that since I was doing the intro, I wasn't doing the outro maybe. So I'm gonna guess you did it five times and Cassadi did it five times.
[00:33:51:24 - 00:33:57:11]
Ambie: No, Crystal, you actually did it four times. I did four times and Cassadi did it twice.
[00:33:57:11 - 00:34:04:21]
Crystal: Okay, now I'm kind of remembering that I think you guys were scared to do them. And so I was just like, give it to me. I don't care. Whatever.
[00:34:04:21 - 00:34:08:29]
Ambie: That's probably Yeah, because I would have guessed that you also didn't do the outro.
[00:34:08:29 - 00:34:15:13]
Crystal: But yeah, I'm.. you guys were probably like, Oh, I'm gonna mess it up. Or you know, I was just like, whatever, I'll do it.
[00:34:15:13 - 00:34:30:05]
Ambie: Like, yeah, just so you.. you did the outro the first time. And then I did the second time. And it was 'don't listen to counterfeits, just stick with the blitz.' And then Cassadi was, Cassadi was episode three, 'find bliss in the blitz.' And then you, 'hasta la blitza baby.'
[00:34:32:01 - 00:34:40:05]
Ambie: And then me, 'one blitz two blitz red blitz blue blitz.' That really added to the blitz count. And then me again.
Crystal: Okay.
Ambie: 'if I blitz, I sit.'
[00:34:40:05 - 00:34:44:20]
Crystal: I think there were bloopers about the one the blitz the fish, the blitz fish.
[00:34:44:20 - 00:34:53:07]
Ambie: And then Cassadi, 'remember a quitter never blitzes and a blitzer never quits.' And then me, 'keep your wits about you but share the blitz with everyone you know.'
[00:34:53:07 - 00:34:54:15]
Crystal: Oh, I like that one.
[00:34:54:15 - 00:35:03:18]
Ambie: And then you, 'We'll keep blitzing from game to game, putting this right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that this next blitz will be the blitz home.' And then you again.
[00:35:03:18 - 00:35:07:27]
Crystal: I literally put a Quantum Leap reference in our first episode.
[00:35:07:27 - 00:35:25:26]
Crystal: Oh, I'm such a nerd.
Ambie: And then Episode 10 was, 'Blitz. The Final Frontier. These are the episodes of three women who love gaming. Their continuing mission to explore strange new games. To seek out more fun and new cool accessories. To boldly podcast like no women have done before.'
[00:35:25:26 - 00:35:39:23]
Crystal: Okay, I'm amazing. I mean, no one is surprised I made a Star Trek reference in the first 10 episodes because yeah, y'all know how much I love Star Trek. But oh my god, I love it. I totally forgotten about those.
[00:35:41:05 - 00:35:59:04]
Ambie: All right, so question 10. How many games that we talked about, in the recent game section only, in the first 10 episodes, can you name? So like for our recent games, how many of those games can you name?
Crystal: Uhh.... I'm just like, I don't know.
Ambie: I'll give you like, you can guess 10 things, I guess, to try to get 10 points.
[00:35:59:04 - 00:36:11:00]
Crystal: Okay, okay. Okay. Um, I think Carcassonne was mentioned in one of the first 10 episodes.
Ambie: Yes, Cassadi mentioned it in the first episode.
Crystal: Okay, I think Dice Forge also was mentioned early.
[00:36:11:00 - 00:36:13:01]
Ambie: I do not see Dice Forge on my list.
[00:36:13:01 - 00:36:18:29]
Crystal: No, okay.
Ambie: No.
Crystal: What about Castles of Burgundy? I bet Cassadi talked about that one.
Ambie: No.
Crystal: No?
[00:36:18:29 - 00:36:24:07]
Crystal: Okay.
Ambie: No, I think maybe later.
Crystal: How about Viticulture?
Ambie: I do not see Viticulture. Nope.
[00:36:24:07 - 00:36:52:21]
Crystal: Okay. Oh gosh, now I'm forgetting the name of it. Broom Service. Did any of us talk about Broom Service?
Ambie I don't see it, no.
Crystal: No? Because I'm trying to think of like what existed and was popular around like 2015 2016 time period. How about Kanban from you? I don't know when Kanban came out.
Ambie: No, I did not.
Crystal: Okay, no Kanban. Well, if you did kind of give me help maybe earlier saying that you started talking about 18xx games in episode five. So I'm going to say that an 18xx game was definitely mentioned.
[00:36:52:21 - 00:36:57:19]
Ambie: Yes, I did like 18xx genre. 1830. Yeah.
[00:36:57:19 - 00:37:12:02]
Crystal: Okay. I wonder if you also mentioned any of your other like train games that you like. What's the one it's the one word like you secretly have trains in colors and you're making the routes with the trains and you dang it. What's it called?
[00:37:12:02 - 00:37:17:28]
Ambie: I think you're thinking of Paris Connection.
Crystal: Yes, that is what I'm thinking of, Paris Connection.
Ambie: No, I did not talk about Paris Connection.
[00:37:17:28 - 00:37:32:08]
Crystal: Okay, no Paris Connection. How about Kingdom Builder?
Ambie: I guess not.
Crystal: Okay. How about Battlestar Galactica? Did I recently play it in those episodes? Or did I just talk about loving it?
Ambie: I think you just talked about loving it. You didn't play it.
Crystal: Good for me.
[00:37:35:19 - 00:37:52:19]
Crystal: Was Sagrada out at that point? I'll guess Sagrada. I know I would have talked about it at some point. I don't know if it was out at that point. It may have been like 2017 or something when it came out.
Ambie: I do not think so. No.
Crystal: Okay. When did I start talking about Kingdomino? When did it come out? I'll say Kingdomino just because I know I would have talked about it if it was around then.
[00:37:52:19 - 00:37:55:25]
Ambie: No, that came out later.
Crystal: Okay. Yeah.
[00:37:56:26 - 00:37:57:18]
Crystal: I think that's.. how many have I guessed?
[00:37:57:18 - 00:38:04:11]
Ambie: I think that was 10 or 11 that you guessed.
Crystal: I'm not surprised that I don't remember those.
Ambie: So you got two from that.
[00:38:05:14 - 00:38:06:04]
Crystal: Hey, you know what? I'm proud of that.
[00:38:06:04 - 00:38:27:05]
Ambie: I'll go over. I, the games I talked about were Ghost Blitz. That was the first game mentioned.
Crystal: I should have known that one. I should have remembered that.
Ambie: Then CO2. So another Vital game. Tak.
Cristal: Okay. See, I knew there was going to be a Lacerda in there.
Ambie: Yeah. FUSE, Arkwright, 18xx, Dark Moon. Oh, Dark Moon is when we talked about Battlestar Galactica.
Crystal: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
[00:38:27:05 - 00:38:50:15]
Ambie: Okay. Chicago and Northwestern, German Rails, and Captain Sonar. So there were other train games, but not ones that I have played since.
Crystal: Okay.
Ambie: And then you talked about Medieval Academy, Runebound, City of Remnants, Qwixx, Awesome Kingdom, Quantum, Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deckbuilding Game, and Star Trek: Ascendancy.
Crystal: Okay.
Ambie: And Cassadi talked about Carcassone, Parfum, Pixel Tactics, The Networks, Seasons, Puerto Rico, Onami, and Marrakech. How do you say it? Marrakech?
[00:38:50:15 - 00:39:03:24]
Crystal: Marrakech. Yeah, I think.
Ambie: Marrakech.
Crystal: I should have remembered that she talked about Seasons. I think she really loved that game. But yeah, Medieval Academy, of course I was talking about Medieval Academy back then. I literally just recently was like, I need to pull that off the shelf. I still love that game.
[00:39:03:24 - 00:39:14:26]
Ambie: All right. Those were the 10 questions, but I have a bonus question that's not about the first 10 episodes. So our first time doing our top 100 games list was in 2018. What were our number 10 favorite games?
[00:39:14:26 - 00:39:18:03]
Crystal: Each of our number 10?
[00:39:18:03 - 00:39:19:20]
Ambie: Yeah, just the number 10.
[00:39:19:20 - 00:39:20:05]
Crystal: Okay.
[00:39:21:21 - 00:39:24:07]
Crystal: For me, I'm gonna say...
[00:39:25:10 - 00:39:28:25]
Ambie: Ooh, for you. It is a game that has been mentioned already by you.
[00:39:28:25 - 00:39:34:11]
Crystal: I was thinking maybe, I'm gonna say Sagrada. That's what I put for my number-
Ambie: Yes! Woo hoo!
Crystal: Is it really? No!
[00:39:35:17 - 00:39:35:23]
Ambie: Yeah!
[00:39:35:23 - 00:39:37:07]
Ambie: I'm giving you two points for that.
[00:39:37:07 - 00:39:50:28]
Crystal: Okay. For Cassadi, I'm actually gonna say Castles of Burgundy, even though that wasn't one of her... Yeah, no? Okay.
Ambie: Nope. It was Istanbul.
Crystal: Istanbul. Okay. And then for you, let's go with...
[00:39:50:28 - 00:40:02:25]
Ambie: It is not a game that has been mentioned.
Crystal: Let's see.
Ambie: I don't even know if you remember this game.
Crystal: Well, that doesn't give me hope. It's so long ago.
Ambie: It's a quiet game.
Crystal: SHH
Ambie: Not that quiet.
Crystal: Okay.
[00:40:04:04 - 00:40:05:25]
Crystal: That would have been really funny.
[00:40:05:25 - 00:40:13:09]
Ambie: It's a game that has all of my favorite genres.
Crystal: Okay. That means it's real time.
Ambie: Except for real time.
[00:40:13:09 - 00:40:21:26]
Crystal: It's cooperative. Oh, okay. So not real time, but it's cooperative and quiet. Magic Maze wasn't out back... Oh, wait. No, no. Magic Maze came out in like 2017.
[00:40:21:26 - 00:40:24:03]
Ambie: Not super quiet. Just quiet voices.
[00:40:25:07 - 00:40:27:00]
Crystal: Oh, oh, oh, oh. Uh, Witness.
[00:40:27:00 - 00:40:34:06]
Ambie: Yes!
Crystal: Yay!
Ambie: I'm giving you two points.
Crystal: I still never played that, but you've talked about it a bunch of times and I've always said I was curious.
[00:40:34:06 - 00:40:39:13]
Ambie: All right. I gave you two points for that. So your final score is 10.
Crystal: Oh, perfection.
[00:40:39:13 - 00:41:00:08]
Crystal: It could not be any better. Oh, yes. Love it. Love it. Amazing. And, Ambie, thank you so much for putting together that game and taking all of us on a little walk down memory lane. This has been so much fun. And as we mentioned in the intro of the episode, please stay tuned for a special announcement.
[00:41:03:20 - 00:43:10:20]
Crystal: Hey there blitzketeers, we wanted to thank you for giving us your time and your support over the last 10 years. When we started this podcast, we were trying to create something unique that would simultaneously allow us to share our love of the board gaming hobby, while also providing an alternative to the mostly male-only world of board game media that existed at the time. We were also happy to provide something more digestible for board game fans who didn’t want to listen to podcasts that lasted an hour or longer. We’ve loved seeing board game media become more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming since we started the show, with so many new voices and faces talking about the board games that they love.
To say that the world of podcasting has changed over the past 10 years is a vast understatement. Today, many celebrities and big influencers have their own podcasts. Short-form media exists on numerous platforms, and many skilled creators are making amazing content that is both entertaining and easy to consume. If a board gamer wants to consume content about board games, their options are seemingly infinite in comparison to how things were 10 years ago, and that's a good thing. It also means that our show doesn't serve the same purpose that it did when we started it.
So, for all those reasons and more, the Board Game Blitz podcast will be coming to an end in a few months. We didn't want to catch anyone off guard, and we still have some amazing things planned, including our very special final episode that we will be recording together in person.
There will be plenty of time for goodbyes in the upcoming months, so in the meantime, we will keep being blitzy and talking about the board games that we love. And our YouTube channel and social media pages will still be around after the podcast ends, so you'll still have ways to interact with us even after that time. And our Discord will remain as well, so our community will remain intact going forward. That's it for now, we love you all, thank you so much.
[00:43:10:20 - 00:43:11:17]
Ambie: Thank you!
[00:43:13:00 - 00:44:08:09]
Ambie: And that’s it for this week’s Board Game Blitz. Visit our website, boardgameblitz.com for more content and links.
This episode was sponsored by Grey Fox Games. If you’re listening to this episode the day it comes out, you have one day left to secure your copy of the new Reavers of Midgard expansion, which is on Kickstarter til May 29. And if you want to buy any other games at greyfoxgames.com, you can get 10% off everything in your order with the code BLITZ2026 at checkout!
Join the blitzketeer community on discord for game nights, discussions and more by following the link in the show notes.
Support the show by leaving us a rating and review on your podcast provider or by getting some official Blitz swag at merch.boardgameblitz.com
Want to just give us money (and enjoy some unique perks)? Check out our Ko-Fi page at ko-fi.com/boardgameblitz today!
Our theme song was composed by Andrew Morrow.
Until next time,
We’ve come a long way
From where we began
And we told you all about it
In this podcast, my friend
Bye everyone!
Crystal: Bye!
[00:44:15:17 - 00:44:33:17]
Ambie: merch.boardgameblitz.com and you shan get... you shan get? You can get.
Crystal: Can or should? Either one.
Ambie: Oh, is that what I was saying? I don't even know. Okay. That might be...
Crystal: Oh, I do that literally every day. I combine words so I can interpret that phenomenon so well when other people do it.
[00:44:35:15 - 00:44:44:22]
Crystal: So, because we like, the word "shenanigan" is "shenanigan"? I said it weird. I don't know how to even say the word "shenanigan". Uh, yeah.
[00:44:45:09 - 00:44:58:18]
Ambie: Check out our Ko-fi page at ko-fi.com/boardgameblitz.com. I mean... Today. Okay.
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