Session Report June 21: Slow Train from Ann Arbor

TransAmerica (Collin, Beth, Bill, Karen, Dana) - Karen
TransAmerica (Collin, Beth, Bill, Karen, Dana) - Collin
TransAmerica (Collin, Beth, Bill, Karen, Dana) - Bill

Thanks, Collin, for submitting this fine report, as Pete tried to recover from a busy few days in Ann Arbor...

It was Wednesday night, and Pete was still on his way back from Ann Arbor. Bill was balancing the checkbook and Karen was playing a game of get-Elisa-to-bed. Dana was in the twilight zone of the internet with a flaked out router. Beth was at her monthly Keno group with the ladies of the neighborhood, and Collin was sitting at his computer, wondering if a game was ever going to get going. Finally at about 10 o'clock we were ready to begin. Beth got home, Elisa was in bed, Dana figured out he really wasn't connected to the internet, and Bill figured, "Eh, maybe the
checkbook will balance itself if I wait long enough"

What to do with 5 tired gamers with only an hour to go? Why the house rules variant of Transamerica, of course! Beth, Bill, Collin, Dana, and Karen got down to business. The first round of the first game was truly nasty. With everyone starting
on the green west coast cities, Karen lucked out with everyone building close to her cities and she went out early. Way early. Collin had to lay 11 track sections to complete his track. This allowed Karen to take a commanding lead and win game 1 handily.

Game 2 started out a bit more even, and lasted longer. There were enough rounds for each color group to be used as the starting point. This game had an unusual round where Karen, in an attempt to get to Boston, builds through Washington and New York, completing both Dana and Collin's cities during her turn. In the end, Collin won in a close game.

Game 3 was also close, with Bill, Collin, and Dana battling it out near the top at the beginning of the third round. However, Karen had to build all the way to Duluth when Bill went out, and had to build this massively long track to get there. This gave Bill the narrow win over Collin.

Fun, fast games! See you next week!

Session Report: June 13 2007 - A horse by any other name still smells as stinky

Greetings gamers!

Ra: Paul, Karen, Pete - Winner Pete
Ra: Paul, Karen, Beth, Pete - Winner Paul
Ra: Pauk, Karen Beth, Bill, Collin - Winner Collin


Summer schedules are settling in, and we are finding that some people are having a tricky time making the 9pm start. Something to do with Wednesday Night Sailing. Sheesh. They definitely have their priorities mixed up.... or do they...

After polling the masses, I've discovered much hums and haws in regards to moving days. So, having not gotten a resounding "DO IT", we are going to leave things on Wednesday for now. Feel free to skype it up on Tuesdays at 9pm, however! That is still "pick-up game night". Who knows, maybe you can find another VBGG'er out there looking for a game.

We currently have a few regulars that have a tough time making the 9pm game. That's ok. We almost always get multiple games in during one session. Just skype in, and wait for the next game to start. This worked pretty well last night, as we see players adding in from game to game.

And they all cheered Rah Rah for Ra!


Game one, and Paul learns the game quickly -

-- kayakpete scores 3 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 7 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- gtlion scores 7 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
magennis materialisiert sich aus milliarden winziger Teilchen.
-- kayakpete scores -2 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 16 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- gtlion scores 14 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 18 (Total: 29) points.
-- Amazon4God scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 28 (Total: 61) points.
-- gtlion scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 6 (Total: 37) points.
-- Amazon4God won the game overwhelmingly. The victory was with 61 points. (56:49 min.)

Game 2:

Gamemaster: Amazon4God sits at position number 1.
Gamemaster: magennis sits at position number 2.
Gamemaster: gtlion sits at position number 3.
Gamemaster: kayakpete sits at position number 4.
-- These game options are active: invisible.
Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by kayakpete; with 4 players).
-- These game options are active: invisible.
-- Amazon4God scores 2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 8 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- gtlion scores 5 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- kayakpete scores 3 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 0 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores -2 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- gtlion scores 8 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- kayakpete scores -2 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 21 (Total: 33) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 21 (Total: 37) points.
-- gtlion scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 15 (Total: 38) points.
-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 14 (Total: 25) points.
-- Wow, gtlion just put it away with 38 points. Impressively. (33:12 min.)

Game 3:

Gamemaster: magennis sits at position number 1.
Gamemaster: gtlion sits at position number 2.
Gamemaster: Amazon4God sits at position number 3.
Gamemaster: Lamork sits at position number 4.
Gamemaster: IceFire2112 sits at position number 5.
Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by Amazon4God; with 5 players).
-- magennis scores 11 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- gtlion scores -2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores -4 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 7 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- gtlion scores 0 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 2 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 1 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 13 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 5 (Total: 33) points.
-- gtlion scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 16 (Total: 24) points.
-- Amazon4God scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 14 (Total: 28) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 13 (Total: 20) points.
-- IceFire2112 scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 14 (Total: 37) points.
-- The game went extraordinarily, and produced IceFire2112 as the winner with 37 points. (32:31 min.)

Beth's comment in the final round: "Crap it all."

Schedule Review - POLL

Greetings!

We have been running for many months with a Wednesday Night GameNight. In the past, we used to do Tuesdays.

With everyone starting new summer schedules, it's a good time to review this, and think about a possible shift.

Weekends: NO. Goes against the foundation of the VBGG - To play games when you normally couldn't!
Mondays: Nope! Too close to the weekend.
Tuesdays: MMMM MAYBE!
Wednesdays: Yeah, but some people sail on wednesdays, or work late.
Thursdays: Nope! Pine Creek Bay boat night. Bunches of gamers are supposed to be boating on Pine Creek Bay.
Fridays: NO! That's the weekend starting, what are you thinking?!

So, I guess Tuesdays, or leave on Wednesday.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the schedule -

Tuesday or Wednesday?

Session Report: June 6 2006 - Bitte erbrechen Sie nicht sich auf dem Zug

Transamerica (Beth, Collin, Karen, Bill, Dana, Paul) - Winner Karen
Transamerica (Beth, Collin, Karen, Bill, Dana, Paul) - Winner Collin
Transamerica (Beth, Collin, Karen, Bill, Dana, Paul) - TIE Bill + Dana

Welcome to Paul, the newest VBGG! Paul is from the East. He is the mighty Alhambra builder. All hail!

The stars were not aligned correctly this night. We had a false start on San Juan, followed by issues with Pete's network. A couple false starts on Power Grid. AHH! Our multiple game starts annoyed some users, as we entered games with an automatic gameyell inviting some 600 players to join us. Ha.

Here's how to rectify that:

When you are the first one entering a room, you will click on the room.
Click, but don't let go! You will get a 3-option button. Select the top or the bottom choices, beitreten (join) or zusehen (watch). Don't select the middle option! If you do, you will invite all BSW players to join your game!

• Beitreten (join): you join the game immediately.
• Eröffnen (open): you join the game immediately and send a gameyell to find players at the same time, too
• Zusehen (watch): you are only beamed to the game room.

For the VBGG, DON'T Eröffnen!!

Not that if you are simply /ghooking pete or something, you have nothing to worry about. It's Pete, that usually is first in the room, that was mucking things up!

The Game Manager is great. Read more about the Game Manager

Back to games -

We decided to take it easy on ourselves because of the time. That and a nice intro for Paul would be good. It's back to a nice easy game - Transamerica!

Round three falls right in Karen's lap, and leader Bill builds for 10 points. OW!

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by IceFire2112; with 6 players).
-- IceFire2112 achieved his goal.
-- Lamork achieved his goal.
-- Amazon4God achieved his goal.
-- Brilliantly, Amazon4God, scores 8 points, leaving the opponents no chance. (17:30 min.)

Game 2:

Game two pete is busy figuring things out, and Collin wins!

Wee hoo! I know it went 12:30 min.

Last game

-- Significantly, Lamork und fineltour, scores 7 points, leaving the opponents no chance. (23:41 min.)

It sure would be nice if Transamerica would sort of display everyone's scores. It doesn't in the text box, however, so I can't paste it into the report!

Pete's working on cleaning up the .prop file a little more. Stay tuned for updates!

See ya!