It's a full house this week, as Len is joined by Ian Boudreau, Luke Plunkett, Mike Williams, and Ruth Cassidy to perform a bit of an autopsy on Millennia, C Prompt and Paradox's take at a Civ-like historical 4X. We all came away with a bit of a bad taste in our mouths about it, to varying degrees, and we spend a fair bit of time trying to explain why – and set aside some time to talk about what we did like.

This is a preview of this month's Patreon episode. Check out the extended version at Patreon.com/3ma! Join Len, FatherLorris, and Lord Lambert as we get the NoCB Cast band back together to talk for 3.5 hours about Paradox Tinto's "Project Caesar," which is probably Europa Universalis 5. Okay, let's be real: it's definitely Europa Universalis 5. We break down the first four dev diaries, everything Johan has ever said about the project on the forums, and talk a bit about the year 1337 – which was not confirmed as the new start date when we recorded this, but has been at this point. So we nailed it. We're very smart. Please clap.

Len, Jon, and Mike Williams deal out a hand or two of Balatro. It's poker? Sort of? Not really? Poker with boss battles. Poker with booster packs. Poker with tarot cards? We don't hold our opinions close to our chest as we try to apply some kind of taxonomy to this indie surprise hit.

Len, Jon, and Mike Williams sit down to discuss the strategy and strategy-adjacent demos that caught our eyes in Steam Next Fest. Jon played 50 (!) of them, and several were actually good! Also like, where are all the aliens, for real though?

Len, Mike Williams, and Nerium Strom take a look at the strategy and strategy-adjacent games coming in 2024, discuss which ones we're most interested in, make some predictions, and discuss the awful state of the industry for workers this year so far.

Is this a Winter of Wargaming? Len and Ian are joined by Brian "Chef Lu Bu" Smawley to dig into Warhammer 40K as a setting through the lens of the flagship tabletop miniatures game (particularly the recent 10th Edition). We go over a bit of lore, run through the factions, talk about our favorites, discuss how we got into the hobby, and why it may or may not be for you.

Len, Rowan, and Ian gather 'round the Yule Log for an extended discussion on the year that was 2023 in strategy games. There was a lot of good and a lot of bad. There were a lot of people talking about "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year" that didn't really know what they were talking about. We share our personal picks and tease out a theme to encapsulate an eventful stretch of time.

Len, Rowan, and Luke have gathered around the hearth to revisit Against the Storm for its 1.0 launch. With one veteran and two greenhorns in tow, we discuss how this survival city-builder has changed since Early Access and why it's still so satisfying and refreshing to play.

Listen to the first five minutes of our November Patreon episode for free, and then hear the full one hour and 15 minute interview by subscribing at Patreon.com/3MA! Len had a chance to chat this month with Michele Pirovano, the (almost) solo developer of dotAGE, a game we all had a great time with this year. They discuss how board game design has had a positive influence on the world of strategy video games, how it could continue to do so, the struggles of being an indie dev, and why the upcoming genre of roguelike city-builders works so well.

100 episodes ago, we declared that video games are over. Did they ever come back? Also, what's this dotAGE game with authentic medieval chiptune music Overwhelmingly Positive user reviews?