Session Report - May 30: Power Bills be Dammed

Power Grid - Karen, Beth, Dana, Pete - Winner Pete

Ok, that Power Grid last week? That was sorta fun. That was a lot of fun! Let's do it again. Dana takes the west by himself, while Pete takes the inexpensive spot around Boston. Beth and Karen share the middle states.

-- Now kayakpete has won incredibly with 17 points! (89:30 min.)
Amazon4God: 16 Städte,
kayakpete: 17 Städte,
magennis: 12 Städte,
danar: 10 Städte,

We think that the area control aspect might be critical to winning. You need to block your opponents so they can't build the stuff they want. Good to watch that.

Session Report - May 23: Turn on the AC, Mom!

Power Grid - Bill, Dana, Pete - Winner Pete


Just three showed up anywhere near the 9pm meet time, so we thought we'd give Power Grid a try on BSW. A refreshing round of "Not Bad!" by all three. Karen and Collin came in half way through to watch.

Power Grid seems to be pretty a pretty close race, at least for us beginners. We ended up tied in the end.

Pete wins, but only by a nose! Bill had two less Electra less than pete.

-- kayakpete won the game fascinatingly. The victory was with 17 points. (90:04 min.)
kayakpete: 17 Städte, Lamork: 17 Städte, fineltour: 17 Städte,

We found it to be fun, and worth trying with more.

Add one more game to the VBGG shelf!

Session Report: May 16 - Paso Fino in San Juan

San Juan (Bill, Karen, Dana, Pete) Winner Dana
San Juan (Beth, Collin, Karen, Pete) Winner Beth

While Liz clicks on Paso Fino links, we fire up a game of San Juan. Just 4 players, but that's all that are here! We get into it with a bit of "hey, it's your turn", and a bit of open strategy conversations. As we play online, we realize that you can't really tell if people know it's their turn. Are they looking at the board, or are they busy petting their cat (or ukulele). "Hey, it's your turn!" is a common phrase heard on Skype.

Karen pressures with quick builds, seemingly looking to end the game before others are ready (a common Pete strategy, used in Ticket to Ride). But -

-- Amazon4God erreichte 27 SP, davon 21 SP durch Gebaeude und 6 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- fineltour erreichte 39 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 16 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- kayakpete erreichte 22 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 24 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 7 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- fineltour won the game brilliant. The victory was with 39 points. (50:44 min.)

But it's not enough. Pete thinks people should make thinking sounds as they take their turn, just so the other players know they are actually paying attention.

"Hmm.... mmmm..."

"Hey, it's your turn Pete!"

"I know, didn't you hear me thinking?"

Woo woo!

Maybe this time is a good time to mention Moritz Eggert's "Black Pawn" curse. Listen to The Dice Tower Episode 93. Moritz talks about his Cursed Black Pawn at 30 minutes into the show - The Black Arpat. Great, great stuff.

I hope you can get a chance to listen to Moritz describe the Black Arpat.

Game two! The girls are all over this game. Beth's first game, but she seems to pick it up just fine, stomping with perfecture followed by silver. Karen built silver first, and kept her flush in cards.

-- magennis erreichte 39 SP, davon 24 SP durch Gebaeude und 15 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- IceFire2112 erreichte 20 SP, davon 16 SP durch Gebaeude und 4 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- kayakpete erreichte 25 SP, davon 14 SP durch Gebaeude und 11 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 37 SP, davon 19 SP durch Gebaeude und 18 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- magennis won the game in an exemplary fashion. The victory was with 39 points. (53:54 min.)

wee woo! We all agree that San Juan is a rightly fun game. Especially with our current appreciation of Puerto Rico, it's nice to be able to play this online.

Session Report: May 9 2007 - Fearsome Floors!

Fearsome Floors (Dana, Collin, Beth, Karen, Bill, Pete) - Winner: Dana
Fearsome Floors (Dana, Collin, Beth, Karen, Bill, Pete) - Winner: Dana

Hey, that's entertaining. Fearsome Floors is a game where the players move their poor victims through a dungeon, trying to evade the monster that will eat 'em.

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by fineltour; with 6 players).
-- These game options are active: invisible.
-- If fineltour hadn't gotten 2 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so classy victoriously. (63:41 min.)

Ok. We try again.

Discovered that it is a very good strategy NOT to cluster your dudes together. Them's that stay together get eaten together.

Bill, Dana, Pete all went out, but Dana got 3 out!

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by fineltour; with 6 players).
-- These game options are active: invisible.
IceFire2112: oh jeez, i'm crying!!!
-- Now fineltour has won masterfully with 3 points! (52:29 min.)

We all had a good laugh with this one. It's strategy might be a little basic, but it is different than , say, Pedro. Good fun!

Session Report: May 2 2007 - Sailing to San Juan

Tonga (Pete, Bill, Karen, Dana) - Winner Pete
San Juan (Pete, Bill, Karen, Dana) - Winner Pete

Spring time! Time to think about water sports, like sailing. Like maybe sailing to Tongiaki!

Tongiaki

-- kayakpete won extraordinarily with 36 points. (35:13 min.)

Nuff said?


In honor of May Day, a big party in Puerto Rico, we played San Juan next:

SanJuan

Gamemaster: fineltour sits at position number 1.
Gamemaster: kayakpete sits at position number 2.
Gamemaster: Amazon4God sits at position number 3.
Gamemaster: Lamork sits at position number 4.

-- fineltour erreichte 30 SP, davon 26 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 4
-- kayakpete erreichte 37 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 15 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 30 SP, davon 15 SP durch Gebaeude und 15 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 25 SP, davon 20 SP durch Gebaeude und 5 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Brilliantly, kayakpete won the game with 37 points. (49:54 min.)

Pete really liked the game. But maybe that's because he won. Bill and Pete both would like to try this on the tabletop. Too bad it's only 4 player. I won't see much action on the VBGG, unless we scale to two games.

50 minutes isn't a bad time for a first-go on a game.

Gabaeude is buildings, and grosse Gabaeude is the big buildings, or buildings with question marks.