Session Report: January 24 - Go with what works

Transamerica (Karen, Collin, Bill) - Winner Karen
Transamerica (Karen, Collin, Bill) - Winner Collin
Transamerica (Karen, Collin, Bill) - Winner Collin
Transamerica (Karen, Collin, Bill) - Winner Collin

From the desk of our correspondent, Collin:

Pete and Dana joined us for some Wednesday night fun, but both had to
bug out early before any games were played. However, Karen was able
to join us. After unsuccessfully trying to get Collin's laptop to
host Cities3D, Bill, Karen, and Collin went to BSW and played
TransAmerica.

Collin needed to first game to shake the rust off from
not playing last week, but from then on he proved to be a master
track layer, sweeping the next three games in a commanding
fashion. Was it luck? Was it skill? We'll chalk it up to a little
of both. Karen took the first game, but that was all the glory she
was able to grab. Bill had a bit of trouble finding some traction,
but was able to turn things around and make a good showing in the final game.

Scores:
Game 1: Karen 8, Collin 3, Bill 0
Game 2: Collin 9, Karen 2, Bill 0
Game 3: Collin 9, Karen 4, Bill 0
Game 4: Collin 10, Bill 7, Karen 0

[Perhaps Bill let 'em win. Boosting their confidence only to trounce them next week? -Ed.]

See you next Wednesday for what will hopefully be a full-bore game of Settlers or 2010!

Session Report: January 17 2007 - Who's on first?

The Players: Dana, Bill, Karen and Beth Versus Pete

The Game: Guess Which Games We Played.

Skype Transcript, for your reading pleasure:

Pete: "So, what'd you guys play last Wednesday?"

Player 1: "Oh, you wanted to know that didn't you. Hmm... not sure."

Player 2: "Well, we did try to play Risk, but we didn't have a network engineer around."

Player 1: "Yeah, and I couldn't RTFM. Nor could I even find the router manual if I wanted to."

Pete: "Ah yes. Hosted games can be tricky. But for Risk, you just need to disengage the fimcombublator and set your forswanger to flibbith. Try that next time."

Player 1: "Riiight. That's helpful, Pete. Thanks a lot for that. Perhaps you would share your code on Days of Wonder, so we can play without you."

Pete: "Now why would I do that. Next thing I know you'll be wanting to borrow 20 bucks."

Player 2: "Well, yeah, but I'd buy a game with it!"

Pete rolls his eyes.



But seriously.....

Bill, Karen, Beth and Dana fired up Brettspielwelt for a game of piranha pedro and a few more games of Transamerica. Fun was had by all, as far as I can tell. Everybody won, except Pete who was suffering from a long day and a cold. He turned in early.

Oh! Lisa, Dana's better half, did join for a game of Transamerica as well. Welcome to the VBGG Lisa!

"See" you next week!

Session Report: January 10 2006 - Divide and Conquer

Table 1:
Settlers of Catan (5-player map) (Beth, Bill, Pete) - Winner Beth

Table 2:
TransAmerica (Karen, Collin, Dana) - TIE Karen + Collin
TransAmerica (Karen, Collin, Dana) - Winner Dana
TransAmerica (Karen, Collin, Dana) - Winner Karen
TransAmerica (Karen, Collin, Dana) - Winner Dana
TransAmerica (Karen, Collin, Dana) - Winner Karen


Well, it was a shaky start! Started Transamerica. Crashed, and more players showed up. We're up to 6! Hey, let's try out Fist of Dragonstones - It's 6 player! No! The online version is only 4! I know, let's play Catan with the new Cities 3D game client! Gaa! Not all of us have it installed! And it requires a windows upgrade (.net)!

So the group, for the first time in VBGG history breaks in Two! Beth, Pete and Bill managed to get into a Cities3D session, and split from Karen, Collin and Dana, who went off to play TransAmerica. Two separate skype sessions for the two tables, and a single chat session to keep the VBGG together. It seemed to work well!

Table 1 -

The new Cities3D interface is very pretty. Functionality is pretty much the same as S3D that most of have played in the past. We found there to be some nice improvements to the interface, particularly in trading. The new version, however, is under heavy development. We see some of the functions (like tournament start option) missing, and experienced a couple bugs. We did get one game off without a problem.

Note! The VBGG is currently using Cities3D 0.9.1. You need to be at this version! Please uninstall, first, any old versions before you install this one! If you don't you will get some nasty bugs! "It says I rolled a 9!" "No you didn't! You rolled a 7!" Yaaah!

• Cities3D HomePage
• Cities3D v0.9.1 Installer

Be sure you get this installed so you will be ready when the VBGG decides to play Catan!

Table 2:

Who knew they could lay train track across the mighty Mississippi so fast! Karen, Dana and Collin hammered out 5 games of Transamerica. There is definitely something to be said for a game you can knock out in 20 minutes. Really lots of fun! Bart got the boardgame for Christmas as well. We've found that it plays very nicely on the tabletop.

Game 1: Karen 10, Collin 10, Dana 0
Game 2: Dana 8, Collin 7, Karen 0
Game 3: Karen 9, Dana 8, Collin 0
Game 4: Dana 11, Collin 8, Karen 0
Game 5: Karen 5, Dana 4, Collin 0

Karen comes out on top. Was it Luck? Was it Skill? Was it ruthless tactics? Hey, and what the heck happened to Dana in game 1? Maybe the Table 2 players will elaborate on their train-building feats.

Thanks, everyone, for you continued regular participation in the VBGG. See you next week!

Session Report January 3 - Beth's been workin' on da Raaail Roooad

Transamerica (Beth, Collin, Pete) - Winner Beth
Transamerica (Beth, Collin, Pete) - Winner Beth


Woo Woo! Pete taught Beth and Collin Transamerica on Brettspielwelt.

Beth seems to have picked it up quite nicely. The first game took some time as Pete's internet connection crashed. It was a right pain to get things back up, but we eventually did.

-- Incredibly, magennis won the game with 2 points. (53:07 min.)

Ok, now Collin's got it figured out, and we are off to game 2. Lookin' not so good, and Beth quickly plays to a win again!

-- Now magennis has won excellently with 7 points! (17:41 min.)

Well, it's not whether you win or loose, it's how you play the game. Wait a sec. Collin and Pete didn't play the game all that great either! Drat! Well, let me re-phrase that old cliche - It's not whether you win or loose, it's if you had fun.

Well, that we did. Tonight was Beth's night. Enjoy it while it lasts, cuz da boyz gonna be gunnin' fer ya after this woopin'! ;-)

Cheers!