Session Report: July 19 2006 - Catan

July.19.2006 -
Settlers of Catan
- Bill+Karen+Beth+Collin+Bart+Pete+Charlie
- Winners Collin + Bill

Game 1 Bill+Karen+Beth+Collin+Bart+Pete+Charlie :

7 player Greater Catan. Lots of places to play, that everyone takes before you get a chance. Initial placement seems difficult on this map! Charlie looked to be trying a dev card strategy. Pete was poised to get 3 2-for-1 ports. But it was Collin all the way with a nice initial placement (based on statistics???) to take a handy win. My mind was muddled by our voice chat woes (first attempt to use conference server and Charlie using a not-great setup). Anyone have more comments on this game?

Game 2:

Report from Collin Bill+Karen+Beth+Collin:

Game 2 of the night featured Bill, Karen, Beth, and Collin in a game of Oceans IV. The initial placement ended up being quite symmetrical, and the rolls really made the difference in this one. Karen gained the most resources from the board, but the mix was not allowing her to do much with it. Bill was first to put to sea, but it was Collin who first discovered land and built a settlement on it. Beth, unfortunately, discovered a lot of water, and had to spend turns moving her chain of boats closer to land. Collin, Beth, and Bill all traded longest road, and the score kept changing as a result. Bill took a risk at being bandit fodder, and he built up a stash of cards. His gamble paid off as a 10 rolled at the right time, allowing him to build a settlement and two ships to take longest road and steal the game from Collin.

The faithful scribe, Collin

Session Report: July 18 2006 - Catan

July.18.2006 -
Settlers of Catan
- Bill+Karen+Pete+Collin
- Winners Pete + Collin

Game 1:

Bill, Karen and Pete played the 13 point sea map. Pete takes a risk playing his starting settlement/city on a poor number spread 6/9/4 and 6/9/5. Lucky for him, sixes were hot and eights were not. Bill, going first, got stuck with last city placement. He bet on 10 paying off for him. It was a cold year in the kingdom of Bill, as 10's were rolled maybe once.

Karen proceed to build longest road. And longer than longest road, then the longest longest road seen in some time. 19 miles long at the end, I think. The State of Florida Depart of Transportation would have been proud, as it continued right on to an island.

An early tit for tat between Bill and Karen might have been just enough to let Pete slip into an early city build. That got the resources raking in, with end game stats showing Pete producing twice as much as Bill. Ouch. Good die rolls kept Pete swimming in resources. Pete builds to an island and plays two victory cards for an end game win with one victory point to spare.



Game 2:

Report from Collin -

Collin finally gets online after a long day and finds that Karen is still
willing to play yet another game. A 2 player game on the standard settlers
map quickly starts. The clay was in short supply, and the die rolls made
wheat scarce. The robber runs rampant, cards are being stolen
everywhere. Collin manages to piece some roads together and build a
settlement on a rock port while Karen struggles for traction. This early
lead along with a victory point allows Collin to score a 10-5 win.

Welcome!

Welcome Friends!

Welcome to our Virtual Board Game Group.

Can't get out for game night? Too far away? Hell, that's what the internet is for. So stop buying stuff on ebay and join us for a game.

The VBGG is a small group of friends that gets together weekly for a skype-assisted online board game session.

On July 14, Pete ported games.hoffswell.com from protopage to blogspot.com. Because, well, he can't leave well enough alone.

With this new site, you can leave comments, thus increasing enjoyment through metagaming. Time to start trash-talking folks!

- Pete

Session Report: July 12 2006 - Catan

July.12.2006 -
Settlers of Catan
- Charlie+Bill+Collin+Karen+Beth+Pete
- Winners Pete + Karen

Welcome Charlie, to the VBGG!

Game 1 was standard settlers as Bill played a game of PutElisaToBed. 5 player standard settlers makes for a very busy map. Pete played a "Ying-Yang" stragegy, by placing on Wood, with a rock port, and Rock, with a wood port. With dice in his favor there was no stopping him. With 20 cards in hand he played for largest army and a city upgrade for the win.

Game 2 on the big crazy 6 islands map. We started at about 10:30, and Karen held everyone to short turns. The game was proceeding nicely, but Karen set sail and planted a couple of settlements on neighboring islands. Easy victory points. That, coupled with a victory point card, gave her a commanding win. The game only lasted an hour. That's pretty sweet!

Game Report: Old Games

19 old gameing sessions, transported from the old site at http://www.protopage.com/petehoffswell

http://www.protopage.com/petehoffswell

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July.5.2006 - Settlers of Catan - Bill+Collin+Karen+Beth+Bart - Winners Beth + Karen
Report from BILL:
Karen and I played with Collin and Beth and Bart joined us for a second LATE game of settlers on Wed night.

The ladies kicked our butts with Beth winning the first game of traditional 4 player Catan, and Karen winning Oceans V.

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June.29.2006 - Settlers of Catan - Bill+Karen+Marc+Bart+Collin+Pete (+Don+Clark) - Winner Bill
The crew was back in FULL FORCE with all members showing up for some online fun. We broke the bank with Skype, as it only allows 5 in voice chat. Broke the bank at ticket2ride too! Finally got a 6 player Into The Desert map running. Positioning on the big board was a big tough. Marc looked very strong after lots of 8's rolled, which he converted to longest road and the lead. But in the end bill pulls 3 victory points (out of 3 cards drawn!) for the win!

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June.21.2006 - BUST
Alright, this is getting bad. Next week, let's do it!

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June.13.2006 - BUST
Summer starting. Schedules wacked.

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June.6.2006 - BUST
Pete in Seattle.

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May.30.2006 - Settlers of Catan - Bill+Karen+Pete - Winner Pete
We went for an odd map "4 islands" tonight. It seems weird, as initial city placement is difficult as so many spots are port spots. Pete got first and last placement, leaving him with a somewhat poor send (city) placement, as all the good spots were taken up. Dice karma was the factor in this game, with Karen doing well hording resources (but loosing them to the bandit), and Bill getting almost NO 10s. Pete's 9's were shut-out for most of the game as well. But, in the end, 9's rolled in on Pete's clay factory and clay 2-for-one giving him the resources to buy up largest army and steal longest road for the win. Great game!

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May.23.2006 - Carcasonne - Bill+Karen+Pete - Winner Bill
Bill follows a recent strategy of Pete - a cluster of cities and control of the ajoining farmland. Good points! The game was close with bill winning by a mere 5 points, and Karen just one point behind Pete! Karen suffered from a disconnect, and asobrain doesn't seem to reconnect well when two players are on the same ip address.

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May.9.2006 - BUST
We're all set for a nice game when Katie up and falls off a horse, sending Pete to the ER with her. Don't worry! She's just fine. Just a BIG ouchie! Family logistics puts Bart running late, and The Goulds got lost at Lowes. I have dibs on "Lost at Lowes: The boardgame" trademark - I'll make a million! I should mark Bill as the Winner - He was online and ready go go! He gave up on us and played NWN. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

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May.9.2006 - Carcasonne - Bill+Don+Clark+Pete - Winner Bill+Pete
Mike showed up to join us, but had the typical compter java glitches, keeping him out of the game. Next time for sure! Game one was standard Carcasonne, with big battles for field and castle control. Bill takes it with some good field scores. Game two has full options, and Bill and Pete start a battle for a nice looking castle. It's all too much for the goulds to handle as they turn into pumpkins (vegitables) at 11pm. Bill takes control of the castle, only to find it fairly well boxed in. Pete starts a new grid of castles that score big points. End the end tile draws weigh to Pete's favor and he takes a commanding win.

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May.2.2006 - Catan - Bill+Karen+Collin+Paul+Pete - Winner Karen
Saturday Night pickup game. Welcom Karen and Paul! 5-player Catan on the big "standard board" Bill has a nice rock-wheat corner and is looking strong. Collin eeks out a respectful challenge and is looking good too. Paul looks good trying to corner the market on Tulips, but the dice were just not rolling for him. Endgame, and Pete totally twinks Karen with a couple of noob trades giving her the win!!! If Bart were here he'd throttle Pete for throwing the game. But we had fun anyway.

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May.2.2006 - Catan - Bill+Bart+Done+pete - Winner Bill
A nice return to Catan. Bart coached Don and we played some open strategy to have a nicely balanced game. Too bad Bill wasn't on skype - he would have seen how much we were ganging up on him. Didn't matter in the end - Bill wins!

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April.25.2006 - BUST!
Bust! Bart was the only one to show up, so kudos to him. Pete was naughty and played his free trial of DnD Online.

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April.19.2006 - Carcasonne - Bill+Bart+Pete - Winner Pete
Bill, Bart and Pete meet for a game of Carcasonne after a hiatus for spring breaks. Pete's spring break playing of Carcasonne Hunters and Gathers seems to have helped his online game. Pete barges in on a big city and field to dominate over Bill and Bart in one game. Did you know that Carcasonne is a big old castle in France? Pete's mom stayed there once.

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Mar.29.2006 - Carcasonne - Bart+Pete - Winner Bart
Bill's computer was on the fritz, and the Goulds were AWOL, so Bart and Pete played one game of Carcasonne. Bart held a commanding lead in points throuout the game, but pete managed to take over a large field. But it wasn't enough in the end-game scoring to out Bart out of the winning position. Fun game!

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Mar.22.2006 - Carcasonne - Don+Clark+Spencer+Pete - Winner Pete
Welcome Spencer! Spencer definately has the logic gene - they guy can make good moves! After a couple false-starts, we played completed a couple games of Carcasonne, Pete made good use of some big cities and fields to take the games.

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Mar.21.2006 - Carcasonne + Ticket to Ride - Don+Clark+Marc+Pete - Winners Don and Pete
Pete taught Marc, Don and Clark how to play Carcasonne. It was a slow game, as the guys figured out how to place tiles to maximize score. Once again a massive farm land developed - with Clark Pete and Don battling for control. Sneaky Don hid a second farmer behind a castle and connected him up to the big farm... for the win!

After that we had a nice game of of Ticket To Ride. Pete circled the land with longest train and a couple good scoring tickets for a handy win.

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Mar.14.2006 - Bust!

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Mar.7.2006 - Carcasonne - Bart+Bill+Pete - Winner Bart and Pete
Bart, Bill and Pete played Carcasonne at Bills several weeks ago. Nice tile-building game that's a lot of fun! We played two games, with Bart taking the first game. The second game, with the Traders and Builders option allowed Pete to be lucky cornering the market on Beer and Barley. On top of that farm lands touching 9 cities, and the pig, for some serious points. Bartimus falls to the peasant Pete. ;-) Kudos to Bill, who made the game, despite working 18 hour days. He played from work, even! We had lots of fun!

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Feb.28.2006 - Catan (Into The Desert V) - Bart+Marc+Bill+Don+Pete - Winner Bart
A stretch of 4 jungle hexes made for an interesting map. Everyone was doing pretty well, but the rolls were giving bart jungle resources nicely, and he ends up with a largest army of 5. Bill's loooooongest road, everyone elses nice building wasn't enough to get to 12 before the mighty Bartimus. Bart better start letting us win, or we arn't gonna' let him play no more. ;-)

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Feb.21.2006 - Ticket To Ride - Bart+Marc+Bill+Collin+Pete Winners Bill and Bart.
Bart, Marc, Bill, Collin and Pete got together for a couple games of Ticket To Ride. Bart dominated, as he's played, like, 40 more times than the rest of us. Dang game junkie! Bill showed his mastery of eurogaming with a nice win in is first time playing T2R online.

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Feb.15.2006 - *Bust*
Games were a bust today, with many people out for illness and/or beer. Pete, Don and Clark made a valiant effort to play Ticket To Ride, but were thwarted by the Evil Internet Underlord. Curse him and all his Bytes!

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Feb.7.2006 - Catan (Oceans VI) - Don+Clark+Pete+Marc+Bart+Bill - Winner: Bart
Oceans VI map made for a good game, with Marc and Bill showing strong builds. Bill's "go for the islands" strategy looked to be good, but Bart piled up the development cards for the largest army and victory point win!

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Feb.2.2006 - Ticket To Ride - Don+Clark+Pete - Winners: Clark and Don
Hey! We had a very nice time playing Ticket To Ride! Clark wins his very first game! Don and Pete fend off a couple bots in the second game.

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Feb.1.2006 - Catan (Oceans V) - Clark+Bill+Pete+Collin+Don - Winner:Bill
Pete takes a commanding lead with crazy 8's feeding him supplies, while Collin is humbled with his beloved 6 recource getting rolled 4 times whole game. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Clark secures longest road of 15 , but it's not enough to topple Pete's cities. Just as Pete is ready to win, In the last moment, out of nowhere, Bill plays Monopoly to pull a huge herd of sheep, builds a settlement, and takes longest road for the WIN!

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Jan.31.2006 - Catan (Std) - Bart+Bill+Pete+Marc+Collin+Don - Winner: Collin
Collin pulls of a commanding win on a very busy board. Maraton session! After one restart, and a long game, we finished up by 12:15. OUCH. Skype's great, but Marc was only 1/2 in, and Bill doesn't have the bandwidth.

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Jan.26.2006 - Catan (Std) - Bart+Bill+Pete - Winner: Bart
Very first Session. Bart wins in a close game of classic Catan. Bill Corners Sheep, Pete Monopolizes Rock, but it's not enough to hold off bart's good cards and ports.