VBGG - Virtual Board Game Group

Session Report - November 5 2008 - Beth is the Mayor of San Juan

2008-11-06T10:13:00.000-05:00

San Juan was the game of choice tonight. Karen, Beth, Dana and Collin played the first game after a long wait to upload BrettSpielWelt. Collin used the chapel strategy and discovered it prevented him from building as fast as the others. Most of us were building a lot of production buildings. Beth ended up winning it in the end with the Guild Hall, a couple of monuments, and City Hall.

-- IceFire2112 erreichte 32 SP, davon 18 SP durch Gebaeude und 7 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 7
-- magennis erreichte 39 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 16 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 34 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 12 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- fineltour erreichte 31 SP, davon 25 SP durch Gebaeude und 6 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Now magennis has won classy with 39 points! (40:37 min.)

After Dana left, Karen, Collin and Beth played a second game of San Juan. The game changes a bit with three players. Beth had the gold mine which helped a little bit in the first game, but with three players no one selects the role of prospector. Again we saw lots of production buildings and Guild Halls, but Collin didn't see that darn aqueduct card until the very end of the game. Beth ends up winning this game too. Kind of nice since she hasn't been to the Wednesday night VBGG in quite some time.

-- IceFire2112 erreichte 33 SP, davon 19 SP durch Gebaeude und 14 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- magennis erreichte 34 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 12 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 25 SP, davon 21 SP durch Gebaeude und 4 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Excellently, magennis obliterated the opposition with 34 points. (40:10 min.)

Session Report October 8 2008 - Better late than never

2008-11-05T10:30:00.002-05:00

Collin reports:

A short night at the VBGG. Brian, Dana, and Collin showed up ready to play. Bill popped in briefly, but had other fish to fry. So the three players set off on a thrilling ride through the German countryside, playing a game of Thurn und Taxis. Brian got to go first, which in this game can get you at endgame. Collin jumped out with an early hit to have all the white areas and a 7 length train, but Dana kept scoring every chance he got. Collin triggered end game, which meant Brian was done, but Dana had one more turn. With that he completed a small train and got enough bonus points to take the victory. Well played! Scores: Dana 30, Collin 27, Brian 18.

And Dana Reports as well -

I couldn’t make it last week since I was busy learning how to lose at HeroClix, but I did log on last night. Sadly Team Speak was down. I don’t realize how much I prefer Team Speak until it doesn’t work. Anyway, we had three people : Colin, Brian and myself. Both Colin and I wanted to take a swing at T&T. Other than the fact that we kept getting the same city (3 Budweis came up in a row followed by 3 Lodz) which clogged up the available cards, things went well. All three of us went after the “world traveler” bonus, but most of the points seemed to go in big runs. One example was my third score where I played a six long route which completed two “region” bonuses and one of the “length” bonuses. Seemed like all of us built a couple small routes getting set up and then got some big point runs. Colin pulled off a 7 length run which also scored the white “region”. Anyway, lots of fun. We managed to pull off a game in less than an hour. Personally, I wish it was a little shorter so we could have gone two games, but I was pretty wiped out and the wife came home, so I just called it a night. Now if we could only get a couple more people…J

Session Report September 17 2008 - Where have all the Gamers Gone?

2008-09-19T11:04:00.002-05:00

Report in from Dana -

So, bit of a slow night. Brian and I were the only two to show up, so we decided to go for a potluck. Started out with Lost Cities in Brettspeilwelt and used the Continue feature. Of course, I agreed before I realized that the score was cumulative and I’d lost the first round by more than 100 points. I actually managed to win the second round. By 4 points. Not catching up that way. Third round was like the first round, but not quite as severe. He had positive points and I…didn’t. So, score one for Brian.

Then we decided to flip to Gameboardonline and tried out Turbo Hearts. It is not the nicest Hearts interface I’ve seen (personally I’m partial to the Puzzle Pirates Hearts interface), but it is the only TURBO hearts interface I’ve seen and allows you to play with bots if you don’t have 4 people. For those that don’t know, turbo uses the normal rules but has four special cards that affect the score of whomever takes them and plays for a set number of hands. Queen of hearts is worth 13 points, ace of hearts doubles the point value of all hearts, ten of clubs doubles all point values taken and jack of diamonds is worth -10 points. You can also “charge” (reveal the cards face up before the trick starts) to double their value, but you can’t play them on the first trick of that suit. You can use charged cards in combination. So if you capture a charged 10 of clubs and charged queen of spades, you get 104 points for the round. If you capture 4 hearts and a charged jack of diamonds and a non-charged 10 of clubs, you get -32 points! Anyway, Lisa watched over my shoulder and the game was a lot of fun, but the scores REALLY flop around and in the end, a bot managed to take the win. Score one for computers.

I wanted to let Lisa see 10 Days in Africa since I’d almost picked it up at Gencon. Had a good setup. Actually, the problem was I had two good setups that just didn’t work with each other at all, so I wound up replacing all of one of them. We almost went through the whole deck, each looking for a specific card before Brian found what he needed. I’d tried swapping things up a bit and managed to have 9 days in Africa. Still, score another for Brian.

At that point, we decided to call it a night. Good games.

Session Report September 11, 2008 - Close the windows, it's cold outside

2008-09-11T09:18:00.003-05:00

Greetings!

A nice session of gaming this past evening, with a couple games being played.

Things started out really nice and friendly like with Karen kicking butt in a game of San Juan against Dana and Brian

Beth joined later, and they playd Thurn and Taxis. Here's Beth's report:

Hi Pete,

Just thought I would send you the second game stats that we played tonight.

Karen, Beth, Dana, and Brian played Thurn Und Taxis. Dana and Brian were trying to avenge themselves since Karen had thoroughly creamed them in a game of Puerto Rico. Beth had just joined at 9:45, and had never played Thurn Und Taxis before. Brian and Karen were doing well at the beginning of the game with some early runs and chit collecting. Then Dana was making long runs which bumped his score up. Beth ultimately finished the game with the first run of seven, but Brian pulled it out in the end. Very close game.

Brian - 23
Beth - 21
Dana - 20
Karen - 8

Thanks for the submitted reports!

Pox Nora

2008-09-04T15:55:00.001-05:00

Pox Nora is an online CCG. I can't tell if the individual games are for 2 players, or what. It's sort of cool? Base game is free, but then you get hooked in to buy expansions.

http://www.poxnora.com

Session Report July 30 2008 - Verflixxt

2008-07-30T20:47:00.002-05:00

Pete, Brian and Paul played Verflixxt. Fun!

Brian taught us how to play, and we muddled our way through. It's sort of like that pirate game Carthagia.

Brian 34
Pete 16
Paul 13

-- Now brian7 has won overwhelmingly with 34 points! (27:18 min.)

Session Report July 16 - 10 Days In Holland?

2008-07-16T20:42:00.003-05:00

New Game! New Game!

10 Days in Africa

We had fun learning and playing 10 Days in Africa. It's pretty simple game, that is maybe on par with Transamerica, as a quick, fun game. We spun off a few games easily.

Too bad it's only 4 players. It would be fun with more, if it was possible.

Game 1:
brian 10
pete 6
dana 5
karen 5

Game 2:
Dana 10
Pete 7
Karen 5
Pete 4

Game 3:
Dana 3
Pete 5
Brian 5
Karen 2

Game 4:
Dana 10
Karen 8
Pete 7
Brian 4

Session Report - July 9, 2008 - Sleeping Bots

2008-07-09T22:09:00.002-05:00

Ok. We played Robo Rally!

Phase 1: take a while to get everyone into the game
Phase 2:Watch Brian kick our butts
Phase 3:Shoot each other even though you didn't mean to.
Phase 4:Get seriously lagged as Pete's computer goes to 100% CPU
Phase 5:Watch Brian Kick our butts again

Brian kicks butt! We all hate this game! ;-)

See you next week.

Session Report - July 2, 2008 - VBGG ShowDown

2008-07-07T18:24:00.001-05:00

Beth reports on the evening's game of -

Vegas Showdown!

Hey Pete,

Here are the scores from our game tonight:

Dana - 56
Collin - 48
Brian - 48
Beth - 43
Karen - 38

We played an exciting game of Vegas Showdown. It was Collin and Beth's first time playing on www.gleemax.com, so that took some time at the beginning, but we agreed that the interface of the game went well. Slots were bought up early in the game, as well as the game rooms and restaurants. The worst event card combination happened with the no publicity and having to outbid another player by two places. Dana pulled it out at the end with all of that fame!

Submitted by Beth Magennis

Game Table Online now Free

2008-07-02T12:28:00.002-05:00

Another online gaming site has come into the *free* mode, that the VBGG loves so much.

Boardgame News Reports that Game Table Online is now free to join.

They have some interesting games including

Condottiere
Kill Dr. Lucky
Lord of the Fries
10 Days in Africa
Euphrat & Tigris

And others....

So be sure to sign up today for a Game Table Online account at http://www.gametableonline.com/

Session Report - June 25, 2008 - Acquire

2008-06-25T22:23:00.001-05:00

Hi!

Yes we are still gaming. I've been out with other stuff for WEEKS, so there's been no session report, despite regular gaming sessions.

But I made it back today, and we got right into acquire.

FUN, but frustrating.

Acquire!

Pete's back after a long hiatus of other things dragging him away.

Game 1:

brian7 47,800
dana 40,400
lisa 34,600
pete 28,900
karen 24,400

game 2:

Karen 42,300
lisa 30,600
dana 29,900
pete 27,600
bill 20,400

Hope to see you next week!

If I could only ACQUIRE some time!

2008-05-27T20:27:00.003-05:00

Greetings!

Nice Gaming up at Camp Greenwood over the weekend. The casual gamer crowd greatly enjoyed Bhonanza, For Sale, and BANG! The gaming geeks got a couple games of standard Settlers of Catan in, with some impressive wins in close games. Fun was had by all!

I had good fortune to play Acquire over the weekend as well. A highly rated game at the geek, and a old standard, so I hear. The camp director gave me the camp copy that had never been played. Probably has been sitting there for years.

It's even Game #5 at the geek, and currently ranked #56.

Now check this out:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=gleemaxgames

They have:

Acquire
Robo Rally
Axis and Allies
Vegas Showdown
Guillotine

They are currently in Alpha testing, but I read that the games are solid.

So, we should be playing these while it's still free.

Anyone up for some new games online?

Unfortunately, I will be studying for my Cisco certification exam that is on Thursday this week, so I'm afraid you will have to count me out for yet another week. Then, this weekend, I'm off to Brooklyn for a few days, flying back next Wednesday night.

Just when will I be back!?!

Who knows... Ask me after my my test is done. That's all I can think about!

Session Report - May 21 2008 - You've got Mail

2008-05-22T07:43:00.005-05:00

Greetings!

Another nice Session, with Pete being too busy with what's its, and who's whats. Teamspeak server seems to shut itself down on occasion, leaving us stranded back to Skype for voice chat. So, if it's down, and Pete's not around to kick-start it, well, then, see you on skype!

Game 1: San Juan - Winner ?

Dana, Karen, Bill and Brian played a game of San Juan. I think they had fun. I'm pretty sure someone won. I really like San Juan. Nice relaxing game to play. I thnk the group would probably like Tichu as well. We've just gotta figure it out! Yeah, it's a 4 player game as well.

Game 2: Thurn and Taxis - Winner Dana

Dana seems to have this game down pretty well. I think he's won more than his fair share, hasn't he?

Karen provides us a screen shot that shows Dana kickin butt. You know, Karen, you should maximize your screen by double-clicking the title bar. Then you would be able to see all those little bits. ;-)

Karen says:

Dana wins TNT with 29 points. Brian and Karen get 17. Bill remembers how to play and gets 10.

Did you know -

Thurn und Taxis was a princely house in Bavaria in 16th century that was key to the creation of a mail system for europe.
Thurn and Taxis won Spiel Des Jares in 2006?

Session Report - May 14 - Beer and Whine

2008-05-14T20:49:00.003-05:00

San Juan -

Brian claimed nice draws to dominate a game of San Juan -

-- brian7 erreichte 30 SP, davon 30 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- kayakpete erreichte 25 SP, davon 16 SP durch Gebaeude und 9 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- fineltour erreichte 22 SP, davon 14 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 8
-- Amazon4God erreichte 22 SP, davon 12 SP durch Gebaeude und 10 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Excellently, brian7, scores 30 points, leaving the opponents no chance. (35:24 min.)

Power Grid -

Oh man, kept screwing up. Nice. You can't screw up in Power Grid, you will get left behind.

Whine whine!

-- If Amazon4God hadn't gotten 15 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so famously victoriously. (82:13 min.)
fineltour: 12 Städte, Amazon4God: 15 Städte, brian7: 11 Städte, kayakpete: 11 Städte, Lamork: 10 Städte,

Session Report - May 7 2008 - Better Nate than Lever

2008-05-14T09:10:00.002-05:00

Here's the report for last Wednesday! Sorry for the delay - Pete

Pete,

Since I was the winner, Karen said I should give you the results of our game. :)

Karen, Bill, Bryan, and Beth played Pillars of the Earth. Beth received the extra victory point in the Priory card at the first round, which ultimately gave her several victory points during the game. Even though Bill had a rough start, he gave Beth a scare toward the end with lots of metal and the organ grinder as well as the glass blower. Beth won without the use of any workers requiring metal. The final score of the game was:

Beth - 48
Bill - 45
Karen - 40
Bryan - 37

See you soon!

-Beth

And a note from Karen:

I had the best game of my life tonight on Trans-America! I won with 12 points!

-- The victory of Amazon4God was planned super and ended with 12 points. (11:49 min.)

Doesn't that mean she didn't lose a single round?

Session Report - April 30 2008 - Spring and sprung and the indigo is blooming

2008-04-30T20:44:00.003-05:00

Greetings!

San Juan-

Dana, Lisa, Brian and Pete sat down to a couple games of San Juan.

Pete shows off his skill learned from many games of race for the galaxy.

-- danar erreichte 24 SP, davon 6 SP durch Gebaeude und 8 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 10
-- kayakpete erreichte 34 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 11 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- brynna erreichte 27 SP, davon 15 SP durch Gebaeude und 12 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- brian7 erreichte 30 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 8 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Greatly, kayakpete won the game with 34 points. (31:23 min.)

Game 2, and they get it in gear!

-- brian7 erreichte 41 SP, davon 24 SP durch Gebaeude und 17 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- danar erreichte 38 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 16 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- brynna erreichte 29 SP, davon 19 SP durch Gebaeude und 10 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- kayakpete erreichte 31 SP, davon 21 SP durch Gebaeude und 10 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Isn't it great how brian7 won the game so distinguishedly with 41 points? (31:16 min.)

Game 3 Woah! Danar cooks up 3 silver mines, with the library. Wow Look at this score:

-- danar erreichte 44 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 22 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 26 SP, davon 26 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- brynna erreichte 35 SP, davon 18 SP durch Gebaeude und 17 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- kayakpete erreichte 32 SP, davon 18 SP durch Gebaeude und 14 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- If danar hadn't gotten 44 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so overwhelmingly victoriously. (33:40 min.)

Fun fun!

Session Report: April 16 - Spring as sprung, so have the pirates

2008-04-16T20:42:00.003-05:00

Greetings!

It's a beautiful day outside, but the sun went down, so we are gamin!

Table 1:

Cartagena -

Brian taught us Cartagena, and Pete had actually played it on the table top last weekend.

-- brian7 reached a score of 36.
-- danar reached a score of 26.
-- kayakpete reached a score of 12.
-- The game went extraordinarily, and produced brian7 as the winner with 36 points. (24:19 min.)

Thurn and Taxis -

This one Pete's played on the table top too, but never on BSW. So we did! Brian did well for having never played before. Pete did terrible for having played before!

We all agreed that this one could be played over and over.

-- 29 points let danar grab the whole thing greatly! (53:41 min.)

Dana 29
Brian 18
Pete 3

Pete sucks.

Table 2:

Ticket To Ride -

Bill Lisa Karen - Bill Wins
Bill Lisa Karen - Karen Wins
Bill Lisa Karen - DumbBot Wins!

Pete is interviewed in Pulp Gamer Podcast

2008-04-13T20:50:00.002-05:00

Check out the interview with Pete at Pulp Gamer. Pete's a moderator for the Catan Online World. The guys at Pulp Gamer interviewed the new moderators of the English rollout of the popular online implementation of Catan.

Session Report April 2 2008 - Have fun building the cathedral!

2008-04-02T21:21:00.004-05:00

Table 1: Pillars of the Earth

VERY close game. Dana tried for the Gold strategy again, but his opponents were a little more together this week. Pete went for generic production, but got the bell maker in the end for an extra 8 points.

Remember. Every VP counts. Every one.

-- But will Lamork win the next game so phenomenally with 49 points? (68:15 min.)
Bill 49 (with 5 gold)
Pete 49 (and 4 gold)
Brian 44
Dana 43

Table 2: San Juan two player

Collin and Karen played San Juan

Game 1:

Collin won the first one 40 to 28.

Game 2:

-- IceFire2112 erreichte 32 SP, davon 18 SP durch Gebaeude und 14 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 38 SP, davon 19 SP durch Gebaeude und 19 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- The game went without equal, and produced Amazon4God as the winner with 38 points. (26:22 min.)

Marmalade Dog 2008 - GameFest Report

2008-04-01T11:34:00.002-05:00

Good day!

Here's a special treat for you - A report by Dana on our recent day spent at the Marmalade Dog game fest in Kalamazoo, MI:

Greetings all, hope everyone had a good weekend, I know we had a great time down at Marmdog. A quick report :

Despite a much smaller con than previous years (probably half as big as last year), there were plenty of board game and things going on. We arrived early (9:30 ish) and did a quick recon of the room before getting down to some games.

Fire and Axe : Ben and I started out by playing a Viking settlement type game with a demo-er. Interesting game where you trade, pillage and settle Europe. I focused on trade and settling while Ben went after the trophy for “Bloodiest Axe”. I pulled out a strong victory, but we both enjoyed the game. It did seem a bit long coming in at 2 hours, though repeated play would probably reduce that to 90 minutes. (Why can’t people come up with good/quick demo versions?) Winner: Me. My Rank : 8/10 (Ben gave it a 7 due to length.)

Evo : Pete and his kids showed up and we tried out a Mayfair game for the kids. The player’s all start with one dinosaur and begin shifting around a Catan-like board looking for a comfortable terrain while reproducing. Every round, you get points for the number of your dinosaurs and then spend them on evolution tiles in hopes of surviving better until a time track runs out. The constantly changing climate can easily wipe out massive numbers of dinos. The biggest factor here was careful timing of “special” cards which allow you to really warp the game. Examples including “Tough babies” (you can attack with your newborn babies), climate cards (that change the climate or your ability to survive it) and others. The kids really seemed to like the fact that as you purchase evolution cards, they get placed upon a picture of your species in increasingly improbable fashion (like Danny’s six legged dino or another that I saw with a tail half a mile long). Ben liked it enough to play another game with another father/son team that was there. Winner : Ben and I tied and then Ben won his second game. Rank 7/10 (Ben gave it a 10).

SPANC: Bill, Karen, Pete and I tried out Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls. With really hot, fun art by Phil Folgio! What’s not to like? Well, the game play mostly. The guy teaching us was pretty awful too, but it was the gameplay that I really disliked. You get 4 catgirls at random with 4 stats. Four challenges come up each round and you pick one catgirl to give the challenges a try. Roll on a couple dice to get under your stats (with “Toys” giving you bonuses to stats). Defeating challenges (particularly all 4 before anyone else can) gives you Toys and loot and Poolboys (who are Loot and Toy). I miss Xenophile, a game with really hot artwork and an actual fun gameplay. Winner : Me. My Rank : 3/10

Pandemic : Pete had to go soon, but we tried out a couple games of Pandemic before he left. Five deadly viruses are spreading across the globe and you have to work as a team to defeat them. Fast and fun game. Every round, you act to stop the diseases and then reveal two additional cities where viruses pop up. One of the most interesting aspects was that at four points in the game, the discard pile of cities where the virus appears reshuffles and then gets placed back on top of the draw pile. So, the same cities keep coming up until you can cure that particular disease. First game we thought we were winning until we suddenly realized we lost and then realized we’d actually won a few turns earlier. Second game, we lost by a turn or two. I think this one’s a winner, even though we kept losing. My Rank 8.5/10

Cleopatra’s Palace [Cleopatra and the Society of Architects - SIC] : Pete left, so Bill, Karen and I decided to play a quick game while waiting for Lisa to finish her RPG game. I am a huge cheapass fan. Fancy pieces are fine, but I prefer good game play. Still, we tried out Cleopatra’s Palace which has a very nice setup with big plastic pieces to resemble columns, sphinxes mosaics and obelisks. It’s a basic collect cards and build stuff game. We were actually talking about how boring it was DURING the game. One interesting aspect is you can build more easily if you’re willing to accept a little corruption and every time you build, there’s a chance that a sacrifice must be made (giving up victory points but the person who gives up the most victory points reduces his # of corruption tokens). I easily built the most due to a reckless willingness to corrupt myself thinking that I’d just outbid my rivals and reduce that corruption. Never happened. So I went into the end with as much corruption as a New York City politician. Which means that at the end of the game, I get fed to crocodiles before calculating the winner. I had a 40 point lead in victory points, but those crocodiles were not impressed. Winner Karen. My Rank : 5/10.

Pitstop : No idea. Ben played this game and said it was very good.

[Is is referring to Pitchcar Mini]

We picked up a little dinner and then played a tabletop 7^th Sea game set in Florida while Ben watched a movie on the DVD player we brought. More crocodiles! A couple of my tweaks seem to work out pretty well. Florida works out as a nice setting.

Bill and Karen took off, but we hung out for a little while and shopped (Four boxes of Crimson Sky for $1!?). Talked to Eric (Squirrel boy). Won 12 sets of Heroclix for $7 at the charity auction. Then home again, home again. Overall, it was a fun little con.

Session Report March 26 2008 - Look Ma, we built a castle!

2008-03-26T21:46:00.004-05:00

Pillars of the Earth - Collin, Beth, Dana, Pete - Winner Dana

-- fineltour won the game super. The victory was with 46 points. (59:57 min.)
Pete 39
Beth 35
Collin 33

That played Really quick! Very nice! I really think we should play this game more. I had a bit of trouble remembering everything, so I just built stuff for vps as much as I could, and upgraded workers along the way. I got stuck with endgame showing up before I expected it.

Dana played a nice 3 gold (6x) for 1vp. Then sold off his metal reserves at the market to clean up in end game vps.

Beth really had some excellent placement strategies. She always seemed to be plopping her master builders down where I wanted to go.

Collin complained on master builder draws, and something about being stupid in the end game. I didn't see it!

This was fun!

Looks like everyone's COW beta test accounts have expired to regular free accounts. You can play Catan there, but that's about it. The Beta test is shutting down, so this is not surprising.

The cow is about 8 bucks a month right now. I can't see the VBGG members subscribing. We're pretty happy with the Free games we are playing now, yes?

Pete played a brutal game of Diplomacy online the other week. Anyone up for web-based diplomacy? 1 turn a day, 0 on weekends?

Session Report - March 19 2008 - Catan Online Elasund

2008-03-19T22:04:00.005-05:00

Greetings!

Brian, Beth, Collin and Pete played Elasund with great success on COW. We had a great time! The game definitely takes a little longer with 4 than it does with two. But, still fun!

The Bug List:

On rare occasion the dialog menu may be missing. Very odd obscure bug. Happened to us 3 times. Once when Moving the robber (The move ship icon was missing, stuck on a pointer), and once when an OK dialog was supposed to appear after placing a permit. If you type in the chat window, it should come back. That fixed it for use easy.

We don't see how you can rotate the big building.

We don't see that it lets you build same-size buildings over each other.

When a row is full, and you roll that row, it still gives you the option to build a building permit on that row.

Anyway, All looks good until someone builds over your building! Then there you are, scrambling to get back in the lead!

Final Score:

Brian: 7
Beth: 10
Collin: 8
Pete: 8

Beth played very nicely with good production across the board, and nice 1/3 of the Church. It was once again a close game as pete was ready to win on the next round (if the gold came!)

FUN!

Finished in about 2 hours, with a bit of analysis paralysis. Should be able to go a bit quicker with more plays.

Session Report - March 12 2008 - 100'th Post!

2008-03-19T22:01:00.001-05:00

And wouldn't' you know, we played like 100 games of Transamerica!

Everybody won!

Session Report - March 5 2008 - Short and Sweet

2008-03-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Hi Pete,

Dana had a new strategy tonight, when you get the guild hall; you hang on to it to the end of the game.

This strategy got him 20 points in the final game, because of he had 10 production buildings.

-- Unparalleled, danar smashed the opposition's hopes with 42 points. (25:54 min.)

Gary Gygax, 'Father of D&D,' Dies at 69

2008-03-04T15:46:00.002-05:00

Tis a sad day -

Gary Gygax pass away this morning, after suffering from poor health for some time.

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/report-gary-gyg.html

Dungeons and Dragons was a key part of my childhood.
The Role-playing gaming world owes him a debt for gratitude - may the net sing praises of Gary Gygax!

Session Report - Feb 27 2008 - COWs came home

2008-02-27T21:55:00.004-05:00

The VBGG joins the Beta Test of Catan Online World

Out of all of our jaunts into online gaming, I would have to say that this has been one of the smoothest starts to a new game. We are more experienced now, and the COW interface is definitely better than others we use. The consensus was that COW was quite playable, and the VBGG is looking forward to trying different games, such as Cities and Knights.

Bart and Pete are lovers of Catan the Cardgame, and are looking forward to trying that out.

We took just a bit to all relocate to Würfelbach, and wander around the city. LadyCassandra tried to invite us all in for tea in her new home, but the door was locked. Aww!

Using Teamspeak with great success for managing communications on two tables. That's really nice! Thanks to everyone for using Teamspeak.

On to the game results.

Table 1: Pete, Bart, Lisa, Beth -

Standard Catan, our very first go. Pete placed pretty silly, as this game was more for learning.

Bart got totally starved out of resources, and Pete got a nice windfall. Pete rolled on wheat, Rock and sheep to stack dev cards and make 4 cities nicely.

Pete 10
Bart 5
Beth 7
Lisa 5

Table 2: Karen, Dana, Collin, Bill -

Standard Catan

No detailed report from table 2 yet. Other than The robber tried to make Bill loose, but he held on another round to win.

Karen 6
Dana 5
Collin 4
Bill 10

Beta Comments:

Dana registered, but seemed to register as a german, as his interface is in German. We think he did something wrong.
It would be great if you could look at dice statistics with popup window (ala cities3D), they are always fun to look at.
Card Animations during trade are slow. For all users on Table 1.
Seems like other animation lags as well, like dice rolls?
It would be nice to be able to create "private tables" We do this with mode "invisible" on BSW, then ghook friend. Or just password a game, that would be ok?
It would be nice if you could turn invisible on and off during a game.
Animation issues in the city, where the user name doesn't erase properly. Like magicmagennisisisisisisisisisisi as the player moves west.

Session Report - Feburary 20 2008 - New Convoy

2008-02-21T15:49:00.004-05:00

The group, minus Pete picked up Convoy as a new game to add to the list. Here's the report from Karen:

Learning a new game when 5 of the 6 players had never played before is not a good VBGG move.

But it is a fun game nevertheless.

Collin wins because Brian has a penalty card that kept him from a tie. Dana's strategy of buying all of the tickets does not do well.

Gen Con Broke

2008-02-17T10:42:00.003-05:00

Gen Con has filed for Chapter 11, but says Gen Con Indy will go on as planned.

Read Boardgame News' report

What happens next?

Will WOTC buy the whole thing?

A diminished role of Gen Cone may be just what other game fests across the country need.

Session Report - Feburary 13 2008 - Ticket to Speak

2008-02-14T10:25:00.003-05:00

Team Speak seemed to work. Just remember to increase the bit rate on the codec when creating a new room/table, the default bitrate sounds awful.

Beth and I joined late, and watched the 4 player TTR with Dana, Lisa, Brian, and Karen. Not sure who won.

Then we split into two games, three players each - Brian bowed out for the evening.

Game 1 Table 2: Collin, Paul, and Lisa. Paul went out west, Lisa Played the middle, and Collin went up north and down the east coast. While Paul had the longest route, Collin outscored everyone in total tickets and points for cars played. Lisa, unfortunately, had a 12 point deficit for not completing a route. Final score Collin 117, Paul 113, and Lisa 79.

Game 2 Table 2: We switched up players, with Beth joining Collin and Paul. Collin kept all his beginning tickets, but they were all small value runs. Paul absolutely commanded this one, scoring the most for train cars played, highest point value routes completed, and longest run. Final Score: Paul 128, Beth 94, Collin 93.

Report from Beth:

Game 1 Table 1: Beth, Dana, and Karen: Beth forced endgame and was the only one with all completed tickets. Dana had longest route. Dana 142, Beth 112, Karen 98. (Karen probably sent screenshot to you, Pete)

Game 2, Table 1: was Dana, Lisa and Karen - no idea who won that one.

But here's the final board. Congrats to Dana:

Voice Chat with TeamSpeak

2008-02-08T21:24:00.000-05:00

Greetings fellow gamers -

For the past year we have been using Skype as our voice communication system. Skype works fairly well, but has the following problems:

Crashes on occasion (which is very disruptive)
Limited to 6 people
Cumbersome to "invite" people
Large overhead in memory
Can't move easily between tables

I think it is time to try an alternative. I have been testing TeamSpeak, and find it to be a pretty solid system. It has the following advantages:

Remote server (low overhead to users)
Small memory footprint
Doesn't crash
Channels, allowing users to just join a chat channel (what we call a table)

create new channels
move between channels

Free
Easy

I would like to try this for a future VBGG session! So, without further ado, here's what you need to do!

Step 1: Download client

http://www.teamspeak.com/?page=downloads

Select the Teamspeak2 client for Windows. (The first one. For windows. The 5 meg or so one)

Step 2: Install and Run program

Y'all know how to install a program, don't you?

Step 3: Connect to Pete's Server

See the Teamspeak status box on the right? Click on the server name or channel to connect.

If all went well, you just heard "Link Engaged". Woot!

Step 4: Set your audio and push to talk

Click Settings -> sound input/output settings from the menu
Select push to talk radio button
click the set key
press the Ctrl key (this is your push to talk button)

Nice! Whenever you want to talk, just press and hold the Ctrl key on your keyboard.

Step 5: Test (if there's nobody online to test with)

Put on your headset
On the same settings panel above, click Activate local test mode
hold down the ctrl key
say "I'm so cool! I r leet haxor!"

It worked! Click deactivate test mode, and close. You are done!

When you join Pete's TeamSpeak sever, you will be in the Default Channel. You could move to other channels, or create your own.

Note that Teamspeak is a simplex chat system. That you must press push to talk to chat. This will help us get a quieter chat session, as we won't have to listen to room noise or ukulele music.

Hope it works well for us! If not, well, we'll go back to Skype.

Pete's TeamSpeak server is up 24 hours a day. Just IM Pete, and he can try to meet you there for a test!

THANK YOU!

Note -

You may want to add the server to your teamspeak client directly, so you don't have to visit the vbgg page here to connect. Try this in your teamspeak client:

Click Connection
Click Connect
Right Click Servers, and select Add Server
Give it a name, like VBGG
set server address to www.hoffswell.com
Set nickname to your name
Click Connect

Session Report - February 6 2008

2008-02-07T18:18:00.000-05:00

Greetings!

Reports follow. Thanks so much for those that submitted!

Collin Magennis to pete 11:33 PM

While waiting for Bill to join up, Collin, Beth, Dana, Lisa, and Karen played a quick game of TransAmerica. While Karen won the first round, she ended up being happy that scores don't go into negative. Collin wins with 10, followed by Beth with 7, Lisa with 3, Dana with 2, and Karen, um, triggering the end of the game.

-- Gigantically, IceFire2112 won the game with 10 points. (20:44 min.)

Bill joined up, and we split into two tables of San Juan.

First game had Bill, Dana, and Collin at one table, and Karen, Lisa, and Beth at the other.

Bill and Collin both tried the guild hall strategy, while Dana started with the chapel strategy. Bill played it just a little better than Collin, and won the game. Dana's chapel strategy worked well, tying Collin for second.

-- IceFire2112 erreichte 31 SP, davon 15 SP durch Gebaeude und 16 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 36 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 14 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- danar erreichte 31 SP, davon 19 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 12
-- Heavenly, Lamork smashed the opposition's hopes with 36 points. (29:55 min.)

Game two we mixed up the tables, with Dana, Beth, and Collin on one table, and Bill, Karen, and Lisa at the other.

Collin went the guild hall route again, with Dana choosing that route as well. Beth went the chapel route. This game started slowly, with everyone making use of their original starter indigo plant. Collin ended up the game with 4 silver smelters, and eeked out a 1 point win over Dana and Beth.

-- magennis erreichte 40 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 8 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 9
-- IceFire2112 erreichte 41 SP, davon 29 SP durch Gebaeude und 12 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- danar erreichte 40 SP, davon 18 SP durch Gebaeude und 22 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- The victory of IceFire2112 was planned in an exemplary fashion and ended with 41 points. (37:03 min.)

Good games all!
Collin

Karen Fitz La Barge to Pete 11:45 PM

While Transamerica wasn't Karen's game tonight, San Juan proved to be.

Utilizing the market hall, a plethora of silver smelters produced so many cards in the first game that she threw away over 15 cards --all due to the fact that a tower was no where in her cards. However Karen still managed to corner the victory by a slim margin of 34 points.

In the second game, the combination of four silver smelters with a guild hall and a palace produced 41 points and busted the competition (including Bill who had won his first game in the evenings tourney set up. )

The biggest hero of the night however proved to be Collin. He sent over Pete's Brettspielwelt client file so that Karen could reload it and get rid of her mini-screen problem. (See photo.) Thanks Collin! You are a true gamer and a gentleman as well!

--
Karen Fitz La Barge

Session Report - January 30 2008 - Snow train

2008-01-30T21:34:00.000-05:00

Hello!

Transamerica

Collin 0
Karen 0
Beth 7
Pete 4
Brian 9

-- Wow, brian7 just put it away with 9 points. Greatly. (20:09 min.)

Carcassone - lots of expansions

We are playing laaaaate... game finishes at midnight.

-- IceFire2112 scored 50 points during the game, and in the final scoring 0 points for roads, 4 points for cities, 14 points for cloisters, 18 points with farmers, as well as 20 points for goods.
-- brian7 scored 93 points during the game, and in the final scoring 2 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 8 points for cloisters, 39 points with farmers, as well as 10 points for goods.
-- kayakpete scored 148 points during the game, and in the final scoring 0 points for roads, 9 points for cities, 0 points for cloisters, 0 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- magennis scored 76 points during the game, and in the final scoring 0 points for roads, 7 points for cities, 0 points for cloisters, 12 points with farmers, as well as 20 points for goods.
-- Amazon4God scored 103 points during the game, and in the final scoring 0 points for roads, 3 points for cities, 0 points for cloisters, 44 points with farmers, as well as 10 points for goods.
-- kayakpete as King of the game scores 23 points for all completed cities.
-- IceFire2112 as Robber Knight of the game scores 28 points for all completd roads.
-- But will kayakpete win the next game so famously with 180 points? (134:23 min.)

I am reminded why we don't play this game so much.

Session Report January 23 2008 - Two Trains

2008-01-23T21:14:00.000-05:00

Snowing like crazy outside! Snow day?

Table 1 Game 1-
Ticket To Ride
Bill, Dana, Pete, Lisa

Lisa has like a Million games under her belt, so we expect her to win...

... But pete's feeling good tonight

Pete and Dana tie for longest track, but Pete nailed 6 tickets.

Pete - 144
Dana - 124
Bill - 96
Lisa - 111

Table 2 Game 1 -
Ticket To Ride
Collin, Brian, Beth

Collin has 68 points of tickets, but Brian gets longest path, and wins!

Collin - 125
Brian - 138
Beth - 117

Table 1 Game 2 -
Ticket To Ride
Bill, Dana, Pete, Lisa

Pete and Dana tied for longest again! Wow, that's a close game. Pete only had two cards.

Pete - 115
Dana - 113
Bill - 75
Lisa - 112

Table 2 Game 2 -
Ticket To Ride
Collin, Brian, Beth

Collin - 76
Brian - 140
Beth - 91

Table 1 Game 3 -
Ticket To Ride
Bill, Dana, Pete, Lisa

Pete - 138
Dana - 141
Bill - 133
Lisa - 129

Cheers!

Session Report - January 16 2008 - Good turnout

2008-01-16T21:37:00.000-05:00

A great turn out! 9 players today!

Game 1 - Transamerica - Lisa, Brian, Karen, Pete - Winner Brian

-- brian7 achieved his goal.
-- Overwhelmingly, brian7 obliterated the opposition with 12 points. (20:32 min.)

Game 2 (table 1) Fist of Dragonstones - Dana, lisa, beth, paul, and Collin - Winner Paul

in fist of stones, Paul 3, collin 2, dana 1 and lisa 1

Paul won!

Game 2 (table 2) Caylus - Pete, Karen, Bill Brian - Winner Brian

Well, the game from the get-go was Brians. He seemed to lead the whole way! Karen and Pete were having an off night.... If you muck up in Caylus, well, there's no forgivness. Bill made a respectible play in the end, but the tower section was filling quickly on the castle.... not good!

Pete - 33
Bill - 43
Karen - 46
-- 72 points let brian7 grab the whole thing incredibly! (84:22 min.)

Click on the board for a larger image!

Game 3 (Table 1) Ticket 2 Ride - Dana, lisa, beth, Dawn, and Collin - Winner Lisa

Lisa 130, Collin 117 (both tied for longest route), beth 90, dana 78, and Dawn (Paul's wife) 75

Pete's Collection

2008-01-11T17:44:00.000-05:00

I maintain my game collection online.

Pete's Game Collection

See a game you want to play? I'll be sure to bring it to our next face-to-face gaming session.

Cheers!

2008-01-11T17:32:00.000-05:00

Conquer Club

Risk all your armies on a daring continent grab. Use diplomacy to coordinate a group assault on the game leader. Feel the thrill of victory as you eliminate your last opponent.

Welcome to Conquer Club, an online multiplayer variation of a popular world domination board game.

Designed for the casual gamer, playing Conquer Club is not a time consuming process. You can take your turn in 5 minutes with your morning cup of coffee or in between classes. A game typically lasts several days, but hardcore risk takers can play multiple games at once and stay up all night strategizing their next move.

In order to password-protect a game, you need to pay. Boo!

Session Report - January 9 2008 - Returing to Ticket to Ride

2008-01-10T13:47:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since we've played Ticket To Ride online. It was quite refreshing to get back to it! Dana opened his new shrink-wrapped copy of T2R just to get the online gaming code.

Brian showed his normal gaming prowess by whooping us yet again at a never before played (by him) online game.

Collin played well on table 2, taking two games as well. Next time Brian and Collin should be on the same table, yeah!

Session Report January 9 -

Ticket To Ride - Brian, Karen, Bill, Dana, Pete

Brian built long, and built fast

Dana 86
Karen 72
Pete 50
Brian 121
Bill 125

Brian and bill tied for longest train.

Ticket To Ride - Pete, Dana, Brian, Bill

We all pretty much finished together, but Brian comes out ahead.

Pete 121
Dana 86
Brian 138
Bill 125

Ticket To Ride - Karen, Beth, Collin

Collin stayed out west, letting Karen and Beth duke it out in the congested
railways out east. While Collin was a bit lonely out there, his strategy
paid off He took longest track, and completed all his tickets.

Karen 82
Beth 107
Collin 137

Ticket To Ride - Karen, Dana, Collin, Bill

Last game of the night - Bill, Karen, Dana, and Collin played. Just as in
game 2, Collin worked out west, picking up some long runs, and completed the
most number of tickets. Bill ran away with the longest run, and would have
won the game, except for forgetting to complete a two car length track that
resulted in a 20 point swing in his final score. In the end, Collin wins!

Collin 130
Bill 112
Karen 102
Dana 99

Session Report: January 2 2008 - Name-That-Game

2008-01-04T11:13:00.001-05:00

Greetings to a new year!

Pete's off playing with his ukulele, so we have reports from Karen and Collin:

At karen's table, they played a mystery game. I'm taking guesses in the comments below. I bet someone who played it actually gets it right. Here's your clue:

-- Lamork erreichte 28 SP, davon 20 SP durch Gebaeude und 8 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 32 SP, davon 21 SP durch Gebaeude und 6 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 5
-- brynna erreichte 28 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 5 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- magennis erreichte 26 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 7 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 2
-- But will Amazon4God win the next game so unparalleled with 32 points? (33:52 min.)

At Table 2, we have Collin reporting in:

And beer for the horses!"

Table two had Brian, Dana and Collin playing Thurn and Taxis. Dana and Collin had the upper hand with having played the game once before, but Brian quickly caught on. Both Dana and Collin tried to trigger endgame by placing all their milestones, instead of scoring the 7 length carraige first. Collin almost did it, but erred in his turn, allowing Dana to grab the bonus for triggering endgame. In the end, Dana wins with 29, followed by Collin with 26, and Brian with 23.

-- Now Fineltour has won pointedly with 29 points! (84:51 min.)

Long game, but with practice, I think this game could get down to about an
hour in length.

Collin

Session Report: December 26 2007 - What's Santa's favorite game?

2008-01-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

TransAmerica (Bill, Karen, Dana) - Winner Karen

Report from Bill.

-- danar connected all her cities.
-- Without Lamork's 10 points, the game may never have ended so phenomenally. (13:18 min.)
- The opponents of Amazon4God had to concede, with 6 points the victory was simply overwhelmingly. (13:21 min.)
- The victory of Amazon4God was planned masterfully and ended with 9 points. (13:19 min.)
-- Amazon4God won the game in an exemplary fashion. The victory was with 6 points. (15:25 min.)

Session Report - December 19 - "Do you know the way to San... Juan?"

2007-12-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

We have a fine pre-Christmas turn-out with 8 players showing up for another Virtual Board Game Group gamenight.

A quick split to two tables, and we're off!

Table 1 - Pete, Beth, Karen, Bill -

Karen suggests what is starting to become a favorite, San Juan:

Pete goes for the city hall strategy, but adds in a couple of handy buildings to get there, and a fully triumphant arch. Bill has massive production, but can't quite beat Pete -

-- kayakpete erreichte 42 SP, davon 24 SP durch Gebaeude und 18 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 39 SP, davon 27 SP durch Gebaeude und 12 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 28 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 11 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- magennis erreichte 36 SP, davon 20 SP durch Gebaeude und 15 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 1
-- If kayakpete hadn't gotten 42 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so in an exemplary fashion victoriously. (41:30 min.)

Pete bows out for the night, and the table caries on with a second round. And yet again the winner only wins by 3 points. Are close finishes a mark of a good/fun game? Maybe so.

Here are the second game results for San Juan.

-- Lamork erreichte 35 SP, davon 21 SP durch Gebaeude und 14 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 27 SP, davon 27 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP
durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- magennis erreichte 38 SP, davon 16 SP durch Gebaeude und 18 SP
durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 4
-- Now magennis has won distinguishedly with 38 points! (39:08 min.)

Table 2 - Collin, Brian, Dana, Lisa, as reported by Collin:

Group 2 consisted of Dana, Lisa, Brian, and Collin

Game 1: Ra!

"Here comes the sun...."

This turned out to be a challenging game, with Lisa and Brian playing for
the first time, and Dana trying to recall his strategy. Lisa was strong out
of the gate and crushed everyone in the first epoch. Dana suffered with
bidding coins that did't allow him to win many auctions, in fact, he didn't
win any auctions in the last epoch. Brian was strong in the second round
with his Nile tiles scoring points for him. Collin used the monument
strategy, and, it was just enough to score a 2 point victory over Brian.

-- brian7 scores 8 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- danar scores 10 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- brynna scores 14 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- brian7 scores 11 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 7 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- danar scores 4 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- brynna scores 4 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- brian7 scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 16 (Total: 45) points.
-- IceFire2112 scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 30 (Total: 47)
points.
-- danar scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) -8 (Total: 16) points.
-- brynna scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 4 (Total: 32) points.
-- The victory of IceFire2112 was planned extraordinarily and ended with 47
points. (50:04 min.)

Game 2

"Do you know the way to San... Juan?"

Brian decided to head off to "Z"land, so Dana, Lisa, and Collin played San
Juan. Another new learning experience for Lisa. With both Collin and Dana
trying to coach her on some of the finer points of the game, it was hard to
tell if they were more a help than a hindrance. Dana tried the chapel
strategy early on, and used the Guild Hall for extra points for production
buildings. Collin got the Guild hall early along with 2 silver smelters,
and was able to get the cards rolling often to build frequently. In the end
Collin's ability to build many times forced the game to end with both Dana
and Lisa with 3 blank spots in their field. It was enough to hold off Dana,
who scored 12 points off his chapel.

-- IceFire2112 erreichte 41 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 18 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- brynna erreichte 30 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 7 SP durch grosse
Gebaeude.
-- danar erreichte 39 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 10 SP durch grosse
Gebaeude. Kapelle: 12
-- The game went without equal, and produced IceFire2112 as the winner with
41 points. (50:35 min.)

Good games everyone, and Merry Christmas!

Session Report - December 12 - We got the Power!

2007-12-17T08:58:00.001-05:00

Game Log Dec 12

Pete seemed to be really running away with the game, building low cost purples quickly then the purple multiplier. But, as you can see, this was not a strategy that worked:

San Juan, bill, karen pete

-- kayakpete erreichte 24 SP, davon 14 SP durch Gebaeude und 10 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 26 SP, davon 14 SP durch Gebaeude und 12 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 25 SP, davon 19 SP durch Gebaeude und 6 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- The victory of Lamork was planned in an exemplary fashion and ended with 26 points. (29:38 min.)

Some of the subtle strategy and tactics is of Power Grid are starting to be uncovered. As seems is always the case, careful calculation in the final rounds will lead to victory.

Close game!

Powergrid
Karen, bill, dana, Brian, pete

-- Wow, Danar just put it away with 17 points. Outstandingly. (134:36 min.)
Danar: 17 Städte,
Städte, kayakpete: 16
Amazon4God: 14
Städte, ebri7: 14 Städte,
Städte, Lamork: 13

Session Report - December 5 - TrainsAmerica

2007-12-17T08:56:00.000-05:00

Game Log - Dec 5

Busy time of the year! Didn't stop us from having some games on a Wednesday night:

San Juan:

-- kayakpete erreichte 31 SP, davon 21 SP durch Gebaeude und 10 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 27 SP, davon 20 SP durch Gebaeude und 7 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 26 SP, davon 21 SP durch Gebaeude und 5 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Wow, kayakpete just put it away with 31 points. Gigantically. (33:54 min.)

Trainsamerica

LadyCassandra verdichtet sich aus einer Wolke glitzernder Partikel.
-- Lamork achieved his goal.
-- kayakpete achieved his goal.
-- Amazon4God connected all her cities.
-- Amazon4God connected all her cities.
-- Masterfully, Amazon4God smashed the opposition's hopes with 7 points. (18:34 min.)

Transamerica

Wow! one round!

-- kayakpete achieved his goal.
-- Isn't it great how kayakpete won the game so without equal with 13 points? (5:24 min.)

transamerica

-- Amazon4God connected all her cities.
-- Lamork achieved his goal.
-- kayakpete achieved his goal.
-- Amazon4God connected all her cities.
-- Notably, Amazon4God won the game with 10 points. (19:42 min.)

Transamerica

-- Lamork achieved his goal.
-- danar connected all her cities.
-- danar connected all her cities.
-- danar connected all her cities.
-- danar won the game unparalleled. The victory was with 10 points. (20:47 min.)

Transamerica

-- brynna connected all her cities.
-- danar connected all her cities.
-- Amazon4God connected all her cities.
-- brynna connected all her cities.
-- Wow, Lamork just put it away with 6 points. Impressively. (17:27 min.)

Session Report: November 14 2007 - Thurn and Taxis First Go

2007-11-16T08:36:00.000-05:00

San Juan: Paul, Dana, Bill, and Karen (Winner Bill)
Thurn and Taxis: Bill, Karen, Dana, Collin (Winner Bill)

San Juan: Paul, Dana, Bill, and Karen

Collin came in late and watched the game. Dana, Bill and Karen all completed their build tiles on the last turn. Bill played the monument strategy pretty well, and won the game.

-- Lamork erreichte 41 SP, davon 25 SP durch Gebaeude und 16 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- fineltour erreichte 24 SP, davon 24 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 33 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 10 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- G.t.Lion erreichte 28 SP, davon 16 SP durch Gebaeude und 12 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork won the game impressively. The victory was with 41 points. (43:38 min.)

Thurn and Taxis: Bill, Karen, Dana, Collin

First time on this one, and the learning curve was steep at the start, but a few turns into it, we were doing fine. Paul had to duck out early, so Bill Karen, Dana, and Collin played. Bill got the hang of getting bonuses early, and raked in the points. Watch out, unused milestones at the end of the game penalize you! Bill wins for the seoncd time tonight!

-- The opponents of Lamork had to concede, with 24 points the victory was simply impressively. (94:10 min.)

Session Report: November 7 2007 - Where's the what?

2007-11-16T08:34:00.000-05:00

TransAmerica - Dana, Bill, Karen, Paul - Winner Dana
Fearsome Floors - Dana, Bill, Karen, Paul, Beth, Collin - Winner Dana

Where's the beef?

With Collin, Beth and Pete nowhere to be found, Dana (despite his microphone
problems), Bill, Karen and Paul played a quick game of TransAmerica, hoping
the no-shows would just be late.

Paul had two bad rounds putting him close to death, but he won the third
round. Bill had bad last round, dropping him to third. Dana played it safer
than Karen, winning the game.

Beth and Collin show up, and a spirited game of Fearsome Floors ensues. We
all took a moment to refamiliarize ourselves with the game, and then some
serious munching occurs. With 18 characters on the board, there the monster
was never in short supply of players to eat. In the end with players
clowding around the door, the monstar gets close and goes on a rampage,
eating several people. Dana is fortunate, and pulls out the win.

-- If fineltour hadn't gotten 2 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so
distinguishedly victoriously. (77:04 min.)

See you next week!

Session Report - October 31 2007 - Of Course We Play Fearsom Floors!

2007-11-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

Report From Collin -

Fearsom Floors - Beth, Paul, Collin - Winner Paul
Transamerica - Beth, Paul, Collin - Winner Collin

Happy Halloween!

3 brave players showed up for some ghoulishly delightful games in a Halloween edition of VBGG!

What to play while all the ghosts, goblins, and witches are about? Why Fearsome Floors, of course! What better way to spend our time than to dash about trying to avoid being eaten by the monster lurching around the dungeon. Beth, Paul, and Collin were our intrepid (foolish?) explorers, hoping to make it out alive! The monster found plenty to eat, unfortunately, most of the time it was Beth's characters who got chomped. Collin had a brilliant play where a couple of his opponents' characters were devoured, and had one of his characters escape the blood bath first. However, that was nothing compared to Paul, who was able to whisk his next three characters to safety very quickly. Nice job, Paul!

-- Fabulously, G.t.Lion, scores 3 points, leaving the opponents no chance. (71:09 min.)

Bill stopped in for a short chat in the middle of the carnage, explaining that the power had finally been restored at their house. Hard to do the VBGG without a steady supply of electrons running to your house. We're glad everything turned out OK!

With their nerves shot, and time running short, Beth, Paul, and Collin moved on to something a little more, um, "normal" - not to mention shorter. Wait! What's that sound? Some high pitched whistle! It's getting closer! It's.... it's.... Arrrrrgh! Oh, it's just a train whistle! Transamerica has rolled into town!

The first few rounds were pretty tight, with everyone within one or two points of each other. Suddenly, Beth had a bad round, and was on the verge of elimination. That round featured a brillant piece of misdirection strategy by Paul, and it worked very well for him. However, the next round was not in his favor, and he was close to elimination himself. Beth won that round, and held off the executioner for a short bit. However, in the end, it was all for naught. Collin played a solid, steady strategy, either winning the round or only being one or two track lengths from finishing, and ended up winning the game.

-- Now IceFire2112 has won unparalleled with 6 points! (44:31 min.)

Good games everyone! We hope to see more of you next week!

Session Report - October 24 2007 - German San Juans?

2007-10-29T10:02:00.000-05:00

San Juan - Bill, Beth, Karen Dana - Winner Karen

While Pete was in Seattle (But not on the San Juan islands), the crew played Puerto Rico (But not in German).

But, here's the report, in German, anyway. :-)

On 10/25/07, Karen wrote:

Guten Morgen Pete!

Unser spiel var Puerto Rico. Es var fiele spass!

Meine Mann, Bill hat auch Risk gespielt im das geselbe ziet von wier haben Puerto Rico gespielt. Das is varum Bill hat nich gut getan.

Bis spater!

Karen

On 10/25/07, Pete wrote:
meine deutsch ist nicht so gut.

was spiel ist es.

tag von seattle

On 10/24/07, Karen Fitz La Barge wrote:
> -- fineltour erreichte 36 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 19 SP durch
> grosse Gebaeude.
> -- Lamork erreichte 35 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 13 SP durch grosse
> Gebaeude.
> -- Amazon4God erreichte 40 SP, davon 25 SP durch Gebaeude und 15 SP durch
> grosse Gebaeude.
> -- magennis erreichte 30 SP, davon 24 SP durch Gebaeude und 6 SP durch
> grosse Gebaeude.
> -- Super, Amazon4God, scores 40 points, leaving the opponents no chance.
> (56:20 min.)
>
> Sometimes being sick and not thinking too much about your strategy works.
> Build, build, build strategy takes the game again.
>
> K
>
>
> --

>

Session Report - October 17 2007 - Watching The Detectives

2007-10-18T08:34:00.000-05:00

Hoity Toity - Beth, Collin, Pete, Paul, Dana - Winner Collin

Paul, Pete, Bill and Karen started a nice peaceful game of San Juan, only to have BSW totally crash. Bummer! We gave up as Beth, Collin and Dana showed up.

The web-based game team (Pete, Dana, Karen and Bill) have been playing Hoity Toity this week. We thought it would play much better real time, so we tried it out.

http://www.spielbyweb.com/game.php?games_id=34137

Karen, Bill, Pete and Dana played at Table 1 (Not really a VBGG Wednesday night game, so I won't mention that Karen kicked our butts on that one), and Beth, Collin, Pete, Paul, and Dana sat at table 2. Yes, you read that right. Pete and Dana played two games of Hoity Toity at once. It was not pretty, as in the end game Pete played a Detective, when he should have exibited, costing him the game.

Well, maybe he threw it, just to give someone else a chance to win. Yeah, let's stick with that.

SpielByWeb is a valid engine for Wednesday night VBGG sessions. We hope to play more of the games there.

Session Report - October 10 2007 - Caylus? Where's that?

2007-10-10T22:20:00.000-05:00

Slow start today, with BSW acting weird. Well, at least we'll blame them.

Table 1 Caylus - Karen, Bill, Paul, Pete - Winner Karen
Table 2 Caylus - Collin, Beth, Dana - Winner Dana

Table 1:

Karen moved in on the standard two factory strategy. Bill held off the other one, but it was enough to keep her flowing. A couple rounds of good money, and she cinched it.

Pete booked good points on a couple building builds, and the castle, moving him from last to second.

Paul says he needed just one more turn.

Karen 65
Pete 58
Paul 51
Bill 46

-- Without Amazon4God's 65 points, the game may never have ended so without equal. (114:47 min.)

Table 2:

Close game! Dana picked up 30 points in the end scoring. Very handy. Collin's happy with his game, doing pretty well on earlier castle builds, and building buildings. He made it into the blue buildings.

Oddly, they didn't use the inn at all, and only used turn order change once!

Dana - 96
Collin - 95
Beth - 57

-- Classy, fineltour smashed the opposition's hopes with 96 points. (114:26 min.)

Note that the two games finished within 21 seconds elapsed time.

First SpielByWeb game Complete!

2007-10-09T13:54:00.000-05:00

Greetings friendly Gamers!

The first VBGG sponsored pay-by-web game has been completed! Karen, Bill, Dana and Pete played a game of Tikal, and took 9 days to do it!

http://www.spielbyweb.com/game.php?games_id=32924

Dana scored very nicely in the last round to push Pete out of the lead:

Karen: 88
Bill: 77
Pete: 96
Dana: 107

We had a good time figuring out the game on our own for the first few days. The next game should be a little more interesting, as we all know how to play.

Tikal is a very nice game, with many decisions to make and strategies to follow. We think that the play-by-web system may work for a Wednesday night VBGG session. If anyone's interested in Learning and Playing Tikal, just let us know!

Go check out SpielByWeb. Playing games "offline" is sort of like communicating via Email instead of IM. It definitely has some benefits!

And now we have one more opportunity to play.

Anyone else interested in another SpielByWeb game? Tikal? Something Else?

Session Report: October 3, 2007 - Life of Brian

2007-10-04T11:46:00.000-05:00

Transamerica (Brian, Dana, Karen) - Winner Brian
San Juan (Brian, Dana, Karen) - Winner Brian

Thanks to Karen for this session report!

The night belongs to Brian!

In a slow night where only three of the faithful decided to brave the fiber optic cables to join for VBGG, there was only to be one victor.

Brian put Dana and Karen away at Transamerica where he won overwhelmingly with 7 points.

Then Dana and Karen taught Brian San Juan. Brian caught on to the game strategy very quickly and built a quarry and a library in order to halve his building costs. Dana utilized the ever popular Chapel method, and tucked away a lot of the town's monuments in the chapel catacombs. The few monuments that slipped past Dana's catacomb collection tended to head over to Brian's corner, and he pulled off a triumphal arch trifecta with three monuments for an 8 point addition to his 40 point winning score. Karen's 37 points were made up of a couple of wandering monuments, a guild hall and palace that will come in handy as she heads inside to lick her wounds over this severe defeat!

Session Report - September 26 2007 - Bag O' Builders

2007-09-26T20:46:00.000-05:00

Pillars of the Earth (Collin, Dana, Pete, Beth) - Winner Pete

Another trip to that little town. What is the name of that town anyway? Anyway, it was fun!

Dana started with a gold strategy, but quickly left it as he ran out of money. That and an oops on selling his mortar mixer.

Collin just couldn't get traction, blaming a bad round 2.

Beth had a good game, but came into end game with no metal, nor high vp production.

Pete focused on making vp, and came into the final round with 2 metal.

Collin - 31
Dana - 44
Pete - 49
Beth - 36

-- kayakpete won the game in an exemplary fashion. The victory was with 49 points. (68:14 min.)

Great game!

Session Report: September 19 2007 - Pillars of the Earth

2007-09-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

Pillars of the Earth (Pete, Dana, Brian, Karen) - Winner Karen
Pillars of the Earth (Beth, Collin, Bill) - Winner Bill

I've been wanting to play Pillars of the Earth for some time, but was scared to try to figure it out on BSW. Bill bought the boardgame at Gencon, and we figured it out. We really like it. It's a bit easier than Caylus.

I think we can get a 4 player game down to 60-80 minutes, at least.

At Table 1, Brian lead very nicely with the priory bonus. But there was some serious production going on with the craftsman. In the end, Karen got a couple metals to run right by everyone.

Pete - 42
Dana - 43
Brian - 46
Karen - 49

-- Greatly, Amazon4God, scores 49 points, leaving the opponents no chance. (108:11 min.)

At Table 2, Beth, Collin and Bill duked it out. Interesting, as they didn't use the Market nearly as much as table 1. We figure that the market is more in play in the 4 player game.

It's close coming into the final round, and the event card is everyone is getting a metal! OUCH! Beth is not set up for any metal crafting... she's gonna be out.

And it's down to the wire!

Beth - 42
Collin - 49
Bill - 51

And it's a Labarge night! Great game, great fun!

See you next week!

Session Report: September 12, 2007 - There's BEANS in them there hills!

2007-09-14T12:17:00.001-05:00

Report once again from Collin, as Pete behaves at his 15th wedding anniversary.

Bohnanza (Paul, Collin, Dana) Winner Dana

9/12/07

There's BEANS in them there hills!

With the new school year in full swing, and schedules being crazy, it was alight turnout for gaming this week. Dana, Paul, and Collin show up, and are looking for something different. Collin suggests playing Bohnanza. With the first experience a few weeks back under their belts, they start out, making a few tactical mistakes along the way, but they make it through. Bill joins after the game start, but elects to observe and learn the game. There was lots of trading of beans going on, with the game being pretty close throughout. Dana gets the final cards, and when the final bean harvest occurs, They end in a three way tie!

-- IceFire2112 reached a score of 17.
-- G.t.Lion reached a score of 17.
-- fineltour reached a score of 17.
-- fineltour, G.t.Lion und IceFire2112 won the game greatly. The victory
was with 17 points. (80:50 min.)

Bohnanza has room for 3-5 players, and is slightly less brain taxing than
Power Grid. It will also move along quicker. As the learning curve
progresses, I think this game can be seen in the regular rotation.

See you next week!

Session Report: September 5, 2007 - Where's Pete?

2007-09-14T12:16:00.001-05:00

Pete's off messing around with Marc and Jan's wedding planning. Fun!

So Collin brings up the report once again:

Another late start, and the crew arrives at BSW and watches Brian, Heather, and a friend of theirs playing a game of Tongiaki. The late comers figure that game is going to go on for a little while longer, and figures playing a game is more fun than watching a game, so they hit the standby of Transamerica.

Game 1: Bill, Karen, Beth, and Collin start off, and Beth and Karen race to see who can get to 0 first, but they tie. Collin is no match for Bill, who wins impressively. Final score: Bill 10, Collin 5, Beth and Karen 0.

Game 2: Brian's Tongiaki game is over, so he joins us. This time it's Collin and Karen racing to the bottom, and once again, Bill is victorious! Bill 9, Beth 6, Brian 5, and Karen and Collin finish with 0.

Late start, so not much gaming this week. Hopefully next week will have an
earlier start.

Session Report: August 29, 2007 - Trains!

2007-09-14T12:14:00.000-05:00

Collin Reports!

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

It was a late start to gaming, so we played some quick games of TransAmerica!
Beth, Bill, Brian, Collin, Dana, and Karen whipped out some games in short
order. Some games were tight, but the last two were blowouts.

Game 1: Dana and Karen duke it out, and the game ends with the two of them
tied.
-- Amazon4God und fineltour won the game fascinatingly. The victory was
with 4 points. (18:53 min.)

Game 2: Brian plays a good game, and Collin is glad that you can't get
negative points in this game.
-- Isn't it great how brian7 won the game so pointedly with 6 points?
(20:22 min.)

Game 3: Bill's turn to shine, and he runs away with it.
-- The victory of Lamork was planned overwhelmingly and ended with 12
points. (15:45 min.)

Game 4: As impressive as Bill's win was in the previous game, Collin's win
is even more resounding.
-- Wow, IceFire2112 just put it away with 13 points. Excellently. (15:18 min.)

Fun was had by all. See you next week.

Session Report: August 22 2007 - Who needs sleep anyway?

2007-08-22T21:19:00.000-05:00

Greetings gamers!

PowerGrid: Brian, Beth, Dana, Collin, Pete - Winner Brian

Marathon session lasting until midnight! Well, it's been a while, and we had a slow start as Dana's BSW freaked, and sailing stragglers got in.

Off to Powergrid! It's a thinking person's game, as is. You need to calculate out your expenses. Buy your plants, buy your pipes, buy your resources. Spend Spend! Think Think Think!

Pete pinned Dana in the corner at the end of phase 1, but it only allowed him to save cash for nice plant builds in a later turn.

Brian got the machine rolling, and was looking great coming into endgame.

Pete made a brilliant move, and bought two oil, when he needed three, leaving most of his plants watching the windmills go round and round. What a putz. That's what he gets for playing the uke between turns.

Game ends at Brian pulling off a pretty commanding win. Dana was very close on his heels, however.

-- If ebri7 hadn't gotten 16 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so masterfully victoriously. (118:23 min.)
kayakpete: 11 Städte, ebri7: 16 Städte, magennis: 14 Städte, IceFire2112: 11 Städte, fineltour: 14 Städte,

See ya NEXT WEEK!

Session Report: August 8 2007: Heather and Brian sittin in a tree, T-O-N-G-I-A-K-I.

2007-08-14T08:13:00.000-05:00

Whilst Pete played boardgames in the campground, the VBGGers carried on with normal operations. Here's the report from Collin -

The diehard faithful VBGGers gathered for yet another adventure on
BrettSpielWelt. Brian taught Karen how to play Lost Cities. It is a
two player card game with stackable cards like solitaire that has
suits of five colors.

After that, Brian, Heather (Brian's wife - a newbie to our game night), Karen, and Beth played a long game (63:59)of Tongiaki. Despite weird interface obstacles, Beth was able to pull out a victory with 26 points. There were several Kings and Queens on various islands making navigation difficult. Gentle cruise ship treatment of others turned into pirate vengeance towards the end of the game. Heather ran out of ships (not seen that before) and had to use ships on her other existing islands. Heather has proven to be a worthy opponent. Welcome aboard!

Session Report: August 1 - Field Of Beans

2007-08-01T21:48:00.000-05:00

[Posted Late!]

Bohnanza - Brian, Pete, Collin, Karen, Dana - Winner: Dana

-- brian7 reached a score of 9.
-- kayakpete reached a score of 6.
-- IceFire2112 reached a score of 8.
-- Amazon4God reached a score of 8.
-- fineltour reached a score of 11.
-- But will fineltour win the next game so outstandingly with 11 points? (103:57 min.)

Session Report: July 25 2007 - Summer Sun, Had me a Blast

2007-07-31T07:47:00.000-05:00

San Juan (Karen, Dana, Collin) - Winner: Karen
San Juan (Karen, Dana, Collin, Bill) - Winner: Collin
San Juan (Karen, Dana, Collin, Bill) - Winner: Bill

While Pete's on vacation out west, Collin once again fills in with this week's session report. Thanks Collin!

A small week for the VBGG. Karen, Dana, and Collin discussed Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hollows while waiting for others to show. Beth had gotten
up early, and decided to call it an early night. The book discussion
ended, and Bill wasn't back from sailing, so we were off to San Juan!

Game one had Collin wondering where everyone was getting their cards
from. He passed on several build turns due to lack of cards. Bill was
able to observe the game from the midpoint onward, but by that point it was
all Karen and Dana. In the end, Karen wins by 2.

-- IceFire2112 erreichte 18 SP, davon 18 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- fineltour erreichte 29 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 12 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 31 SP, davon 23 SP durch Gebaeude und 8 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- Excellently, Amazon4God won the game with 31 points. (31:33 min.)

Bill joined for game 2, and this time Collin was able to get the cards
rolling in early and often. In the end, the combination of City Hall,
Palace, Triumphal Arch, Hero, and Statue proved to be overwhelming, and he
wins in a landslide.

-- IceFire2112 erreichte 46 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 24 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 30 SP, davon 20 SP durch Gebaeude und 10 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- fineltour erreichte 37 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 20 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 30 SP, davon 21 SP durch Gebaeude und 9 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- 46 points let IceFire2112 grab the whole thing phenomenally! (37:08 min.)

Game 3 had Karen and Collin trying the Chapel strategy, allowing them to
tuck away one card per turn as a Victory Point. Dana went to the extreme
with the Guild Hall and all production buildings strategy, while Bill also
used the Guild Hall and production building strategy, but was somewhat more
balanced. In the end, Collin and Karen's strategy didn't do so well, and
Dana almost pulled it off, but it was Bill who pulled it out.

-- fineltour erreichte 38 SP, davon 20 SP durch Gebaeude und 18 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 40 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 18 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 32 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 7 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 8
-- IceFire2112 erreichte 33 SP, davon 19 SP durch Gebaeude und 8 SP durch
grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 6
-- Without Lamork's 40 points, the game may never have ended so
excellently. (39:16 min.)

Great games everyone! See you next week!

Session Report: July 18 2007 - Trainin' the N00b

2007-07-31T07:45:00.000-05:00

Report from Collin:

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

Trainin' the n00b....

The VBGG extends a cordial welcome to our newest member, Brian! Brian (BSW
= brian7) joined us as a result of a connection made at this years canoe
trip. He is an avid gamer, and was gracious enough to put us through the
paces in the Cities and Knights expansion of Catan that he
brought. Welcome Brian!

With Dana needing to nod off early the first four of us decided it was a
night for Transamerica, with the house rules variant. Bill and Karen both
ended up winning that game with a score of 11, while Collin and Dana tried
to out race each other to have the lowest score, but the counting stops at
zero! Ouch!

Beth joined up, and so did Brian, and we played more games. With Brian on
board, we played the last 3 games without the house rule. Karen had
another good game, with Brian putting on a good showing in his first VBGG
game. Final score was Karen 10, Brian 9, Collin 7, Bill 4, Dana 2, and
Beth 0.

The third game had Beth and Collin racing for the bottom, leaving Bill and
Dana to battle for the top. Bill wins by a nose! Bill 8, Dana 6, Brian 4,
Karen 4, Collin and Beth both had 0.

Final game of the night, and Dana needed to bow out, but Lisa was able to
step in and play - welcome Lisa! Unfortunately, coming in cold put Lisa at
a disadvantage. Collin and Brian battled it out, and Collin wins a close
one: Collin 9, Brian 8, Karen 6, Bill 5, Beth 5, and Lisa 0.

TransAmerica certainly is a quick one to play, and it works well in large
groups. With a growing VBGG membership, this game will be a keeper. See
you next week!

Session Report: July 11 2007 - The forgotten day

2007-07-11T20:29:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick release of a session report for July 11!

Summer is keeping people, namely Pete, busy. But, it was nice to see that we had a chance to get a few rounds of Lost Cities in!

Lost Cities - Pete, Dana - Winner Dana
Lost Cities - Pete, Dana - Winner Dana
Lost Cities - Pete, Dana - Winner Pete
Lost Cities - Paul, Dana - Winner Paul
Piranha Pedro - Collin, Beth, Pete, Paul, Dana, Bill - Looser Beth
Piranha Pedro - Collin, Beth, Pete, Paul, Dana, Bill - Looser Bill
Piranha Pedro - Collin, Beth, Pete, Paul, Dana, Bill - Looser Collin
Piranha Pedro - Collin, Beth, Pete, Paul, Dana, Bill - Looser Collin

-- Overwhelmingly, fineltour obliterated the opposition with -2 points. (8:54 min.)
-- kayakpete (-4), fineltour (-2)

-- If fineltour hadn't gotten 28 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so fascinatingly victoriously. (9:07 min.)
-- kayakpete (18), fineltour (28)

-- If kayakpete hadn't gotten 41 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so fantastically victoriously. (8:11 min.)
-- fineltour (-26), kayakpete (41)

-- If gtlion hadn't gotten 40 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so greatly victoriously. (10:20 min.)
-- fineltour (1), gtlion (40)

-- IceFire2112, Lamork, kayakpete, gtlion und fineltour won the game impressively. The victory was with 1 points. (10:41 min.) (Magennis looses)

-- Prominently, gtlion, IceFire2112, magennis, fineltour und kayakpete won the game with 2 points. (9:22 min.) (Lamork looses)

-- The victory of magennis, Lamork, kayakpete, fineltour und gtlion was planned classy and ended with 2 points. (5:19 min.) (Icefire2112 looses)

-- 1 points let gtlion, Lamork, magennis, fineltour und kayakpete grab the whole thing classy! (14:46 min.) (Icefire2112 looses)

Session Report: June 27 2007 - Doldrums

2007-07-02T07:51:00.000-05:00

Tongiaki - Karen, Paul, Bill, Beth and Collin - Winner Collin, I mean, Beth

Our fine contributor, Collin, chimes in with another report. Pete went to bed early only to be woken up at midnight with a stomach flu. Pete Looses!

Another fine day in the VBGG world. Neither Collin nor Bill had a sailing
conflict, so gaming was the order of the evening. After a brief delay,
Beth, Collin, Bill, and Paul started a game of San Juan. Things went fine,
until Paul's internet connect burped, and he was unable to reconnect to the
game. At least it was a learning experience for Paul, so next time he
won't be starting from scratch.

Karen was now available to play, so she joined Paul, Bill, Beth and Collin
in a game of Tongiaki. The word to describe this game was nice. People
were nice to each other, and sailing your opponents off into oblivion
didn't happen as much this time around. In the end, Beth wins by two
points over her closest competitor. The game was pretty tight, with only a
7 point spread between the high and low score.

-- Now magennis has won outstanding with 33 points! (65:40 min.)

Next week Wednesday is July 4! Go and enjoy the fireworks! See you in two
weeks!

Collin

Session Report June 21: Slow Train from Ann Arbor

2007-06-21T06:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-13T20:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-06T23:15:00.000-05:00

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

2007-06-06T21:28:00.001-05:00

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!

Session Report - May 30: Power Bills be Dammed

2007-05-30T21:55:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-05-23T21:54:00.000-05:00

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

2007-05-16T20:37:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-05-09T20:57:00.000-05:00

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

2007-05-02T20:15:00.000-05:00

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.

Session Report April 25 2007 - The bumpy Caylus road

2007-04-27T09:29:00.000-05:00

Piranna Pedro - Bill, Dana, Collin and Beth
Piranna Pedro - Bill, Dana, Collin and Beth
Piranna Pedro - Bill, Dana, Collin and Beth
Caylus - Bill, Dana, Collin, Karen and Beth

Whilst Pete snoozed, the games went on. Bill reports on this week's fun:

3 games Piranna Pedro,Bill Dana Collin and Beth, waiting for Pete and Karen to show up.

Game One - Boy, that was fast -

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by Lamork; with 4 players).
Pio erscheint ploetzlich aus dem nichts.
Pio loest sich in Luft auf.
-- Extraordinarily, fineltour, magennis und Lamork obliterated the opposition with 2 points. (6:10 min.)

Game Two - Two points? Is that good or bad? I don't remember.

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by IceFire2112; with 4 players).
-- But will Lamork, magennis und IceFire2112 win the next game so impressively with 2 points? (5:21 min.)
Lamork verlässt das Haus hinaus nach Smallville
Lamork tritt durch die Tür in das Haus.

Game 3 - Bill went swimming?

Gamemaster: magennis sits at position number 3.
Gamemaster: IceFire2112 sits at position number 4.
Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by IceFire2112; with 4 players).
-- In an exemplary manner, IceFire2112, magennis und fineltour obliterated the opposition with 2 points. (9:32 min.)

And then they moved on to, of all things, Caylus! Can you believe Pete slept through the VBGG's first attempt at Caylus online? Serves him right for being such a lazy bum.

Then to Caylus as Karen shows up
No Pete?
Skype keeps dropping Karen all night, then finally BSW drops Karen 1/3rd of the way through the Caylus match. Caylus is less forgiving on reconnecting.
It was 10:40 and we decided to call the game. Karen was in the lead, with everyone else but Collin close on her heals.

Thanks to Bill for the report. See you next week!

Session Report: April 18 2007 - Ozzy would be Proud

2007-04-18T20:18:00.000-05:00

We went off the rails on a Crazy Train tonight, with a few rounds of Trans America. It was lots of fun!

Transamerica (Bill, Karen, Dana, Beth, Collin, Pete) - Winner Bill
Transamerica (Bill, Karen, Dana, Beth, Collin, Pete) - Winner Collin
Transamerica (Bill, Karen, Dana, Beth, Collin, Pete) - Winner Karen
Transamerica (Bill, Karen, Dana, Beth, Collin, Pete) - Winner Pete
Transamerica (Bill, Karen, Dana, Beth, Collin, Pete) - Winner Dana

Transamerica Game 1:

Pete lost the first round horribly, but won the next two, but wasn't enough. Lost to Bill by one point.

-- Without Lamork's 7 points, the game may never have ended so enormously. (13:51 min.)
Bill 7
Pete 6
Karen 0
Data 0

Transamerica Game 2:

Collin is out of the gates with two rounds won, but then hosed it on the third round. But everyone's still in! one more round. In the end Collin rocks.

-- Fantastically, IceFire2112 dominated the game with 6 points. (27:10 min.)
Pete 3
Dana 3
Bill 4
Karen 0
Collin 6
Beth 3

Transamerica Game 3:

For game game 3 Dana suggests some house rules! Each round you must start in the same color city. We started on east, then to south east, north then middle. AND THEN green west! Lots of rounds. Crazy! Karen got it in the end.

Dana 0
Bill 3
Collin 1
Beth 1
Karen 8
Pete 5

Transamerica Game 4:

Holy cow. House variant again. Take a look at this score. Nuf Said. Quote form Beth: "But I had NINE!", commenting on the fact that she was kicking our butt into the final round. Look at these crazy scores -

Dana 0
Bill 0
Collin 1
Beth 0
Karen 0
Pete 3

Transamerica Game 5:

House variant, but this time Dana whomped our butts. He wins the first two rounds handily and finishes fine in the final round to take a commanding win.

Dana 12
Collin 4
Beth 0
Bill 4
Karen 7
Pete 5

This was quite an entertaining session. Everyone had lots of fun.

Session Report April 11 2007 - Snowing on Catan

2007-04-11T22:11:00.000-05:00

Settlers of Catan (Cities 3d 5 islands) Collin, Beth, Karen, Bill, Pete - Winner Beth

We got a nice big game using the the Cities3D interface. We thought we saw a couple bugs, but we managed to finish the game. We agreed that it would probably be better to stick with sea3d until cities3d moves forward a version or 3. Most notable was some turn skips (possible user errors, however) and the error message that pops up every time someone builds a city.

We played 5 islands, with every one pretty much staking out an island with one settlement, then invading someone else's with another. Pete was on the middle island. Early on, Pete held a good lead, but couldn't convert it in end game. The key is to set sail for the other islands, to get the landfall settlement victory point. Pete didn't, and it killed him.

The Fickle Finger of Fate poked Collin but good. A few turns of poor resource production allowed his nearby opponents to move into his space. Bitter was he. He actually made a decent showing given the dice cast him. But you can only go so far with limited land and resources.

Beth was a bit vested in 6's. And it paid off as 6's seemed to come up a lot. We missed the statistics chart that sea3d offers. End game saw Beth starting her turns with LOTS of resources. One turn with 27! With that kind of stockpile, it's no problem to keep your longest road and build a quick settlement for the win.

The game seemed to run a bit long. I think we need to play settlers a bit more, as we seemed to be a bit slow.

We also need to put some more miles on Bill's Cities and Knights of Catan expansion!

Pete is actively looking at the other BSW games. There are several more complex games that may be quite enjoyable for the VBGG. Given our normal 5-6 player group, that cuts out a bunch of the 4-player games....

Until next week!

VBGG UNPLUGGED - April 3 2003

2007-04-10T13:24:00.000-05:00

Yes, we've done it! We've had our first VBGG-sanctioned gaming session! It's spring break week, and anyone that was unlucky enough to go on a vacation or had to work missed a fun day of gaming at Pete's house.

It's spring in West Michigan. The snow was deep on the ground, and it's too cold to go outside. Looks like it was going to be a White Easter. And it was.

Pete opened the doors of his home to any VBGG gamers that wanted to sit down and play. Beth showed up and played games all day, with several others coming in the afternoon and evening.

The Attendees:

Beth
Pete
Ben (Bart's son)
Collin
Bill
Karen
Dana
Katie (Pete's daughter)
Bart
Patrick
Gayle
Liz

The Games:

Nexus Ops
Cabndamir: The First Settlers
Tongiaki
Scrabble
Shadows over Camelot

Everyone was winners on a fun-filled game fest. Thanks to everyone that showed up to play games and visit. It was a really nice day.

SEE you next year!!!

- Pete

Session Report: March 28, 2007. Yay for the other guys.

2007-03-28T20:54:00.000-05:00

Session Report March 28 2007

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

Ah, Ra. Fine game. Fine fine fine. How much is the luck of the draw, versus the smarts of your bids? I can't say. I can barely click in the right place on this day.

Game 1 started out on fire for Pete, but it went down from there. Bill started in the dumps but came back. In the end Collin wins the tie with Bill.

Much enjoyment was had.

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by kayakpete; with 4 players).
-- These game options are active: invisible.
-- kayakpete scores 16 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 7 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 5 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores 0 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 5 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 4 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 5 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

Amazon4God Reality cracks in half as Amazon virtually appears.
magennis: i like your tag line karen

-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 7 (Total: 33) points.
-- IceFire2112 scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 24 (Total: 46) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 32 (Total: 46) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 16 (Total: 36) points.

-- IceFire2112 won outstanding with 46 points. (31:55 min.)

In the second game, both Pete and Bill click on the wrong spot. They must be trying to let the others have a chance at winning. Bill is that kind of guy. And Pete, sometimes, would just rather play the uke, than win. Well, that's his excuse, and he's sticking with it.

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by kayakpete; with 5 players).
-- These game options are active: invisible.
-- kayakpete scores -2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 13 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 5 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 4 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores 6 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 3 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores -3 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 7 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 11 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 6 (Total: 20) points.
-- Amazon4God scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 24 (Total: 50) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 15 (Total: 22) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 27 (Total: 49) points.
-- IceFire2112 scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 13 (Total: 38) points.

-- Amazon4God won phenomenally with 50 points. (39:58 min.)

Karen just eeks Bill out by one point in the end.

Cheers!

A little game

2007-03-25T20:52:00.000-05:00

Session Report: March 21, 2007. First day of Spring in Catan.

2007-03-21T22:03:00.000-05:00

Settlers of Catan (standard, BSW) - Winner Collin

A close game, with Karen and Pete close to 10 points, but Collin stole longest road from Karen for the win.

-- 10 points let IceFire2112 grab the whole thing outstandingly! (98:48 min.)

First time we tried the BSW Catan interface. Not bad. Not as nice as Cities3D, but ok to play.

We did get cities3d tested and running well. We should be set to go on that next time. Assuming everyone has downloaded and installed it.

Short report this week. Sorry!

Session Report: March 14 2007 - Jump left. No, your other left!

2007-03-14T21:09:00.001-05:00

Piranha Pedro (Beth, Bill, Karen, Pete) LOOSER Karen
Piranha Pedro (Collin, Bill, Karen, Pete) LOOSER Bill
Piranha Pedro (Collin, Bill, Karen, Pete) LOOSER Bill
Piranha Pedro (Collin, Bill, Karen, Pete) LOOSER Bill

Sorry! Been a bit delayed getting the report out. I forgot to write it!

I hope I logged the Piranha Pedro session correctly. Here you go!

Karen Looses :
-- Without magennis, Lamork und kayakpete's 2 points, the game may never have ended so considerably. (16:28 min.)

Bill Looses:
-- But will IceFire2112, Amazon4God und kayakpete win the next game so famously with 2 points? (6:52 min.)

Bill Looooser:
Pete is an idoit and jumps on his own piranha even tho he goes first.
-- If IceFire2112, kayakpete und Amazon4God hadn't gotten 2 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so extraordinarily victoriously. (8:13 min.)

Bill pulled a pete and stepped first go onto a fish.
-- If kayakpete, IceFire2112 und Amazon4God hadn't gotten 1 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so pointedly victoriously. (8:55 min.)

Session Report: March 7 2007 - Let's take a cruise to Hawaii

2007-03-07T23:17:00.000-05:00

Tongiaki (Bill, Karen, Collin, Beth, Dana, Pete) - Winner Beth
Tongiaki (Bill, Karen, Collin, Beth, Dana, Pete) - Winner Pete

Time for a new game! Pete picked up Tongiaki from Tanga a few weeks ago in TangaTrash. After a play he didn't like it so much. Then he played over the weekend with more people. Not bad!

Might as well try it out on BSW. Brettspielwelt has gotten to be easier on us now that we've played several games on it. The interface is better known by everyone, and we seem to have less crashing. Most sensible members have moved over to the BSW client, as opposed to the website. Those that have not will soon be playing Piranha Pedro on the ice chunks out in Lake Michigan. You, Bill, have been warned.

Game one went swimmingly, as we learned the rules, and just how treacherous the seas can really be. Many ships were lost. In the end it was a 20 to 20 tie between Dana and Beth. Tie-breaker #1, most islands, tied! Tie-breaker #2, least boats, Beth came out on top!

-- The opponents of magennis had to concede, with 20 points the victory was simply greatly. (35:17 min.)

Ok, everyone's got it now. The strategy and tactics in Tongiaki are not obvious from the get-go. I think it takes a game to really start to get into it. And we did in the second game. Back and forth island battles seemed to be the norm, and there were no qualms about setting the opposing tribe on a sure path to Davy Jones.

In the end, Pete had a nice daisy-chain to move himself on to a couple islands, and boot everyone but Karen off Hawaii. Hawaii's no fun if you are the only one there, however. Pet left Karen crying on the beach, and moved on to a couple more islands, and some nice ship sinkings.

-- Heavenly, kayakpete dominated the game with 24 points. (64:05 min.)

This game should NOT take this long. Hopefully the analysis paralysis will subside in future games.

It seemed to be a hit, and the general consensus was to give it another play. Maybe it will survive better than Clans? Time will tell.

If you have not registered properly on BSW by now, you are missing out on game stats that are kept up at BSW. You can see Pete's Score and Bills, for example.

In fact, here we all are:

One of these links is not like the others.
One of these links just doesn't belong.
Can you guess which link is not likes the others.
Before I finish my song.

And now my song is done.

See ya next week on the VBGG!

Session Report February 28 2007 - BSW Domestic Disturbance

2007-03-02T11:35:00.000-05:00

Transamerica (Dana, Bill, Karen) Winner - Felix
Transamerica (Dana, Bill, Karen) Winner - Phoebee

We started off with some excitement to move to Puerto Rico. In a sad coincidence, BSW PULLED PR from their games list on the very same day. The buzz is that the online rights to the game have been moved to another company. Perhaps Msoft for Xbox? Who knows. All we know is that we were left out.

We tried another version we found online, but had difficulty getting everyone hooked up. Installing new software during a vbgg session is always a bad idea. It's frustrating and time consuming. And usually doesn't work.

Pete was pulled out on a feline domestic disturbance. Dana, Bill and Karen moved back to Transamerica. No report on who won, so Pete's cats win by default.

Session Report: February 21 2007 - Ra's suns melt snow

2007-02-21T21:56:00.000-05:00

Ra (Beth, Collin, Bill, Karen, Pete) - Winner Bill
Ra (Beth, Collin, Bill, Karen, Pete) - Winner Collin

abaate
zhakaagonagaa

It's a big snow melt here in the Land of the Ottawa Indians. Their hearts must have lifted even more than ours do as the weather becomes more bearable. Who did they blame for the cold? Who did they thank for the warmth? Probably not Ra. But maybe the mighty sun?

We turned to Ra, and it's awesome sun disks for a couple rounds of Nile-drenched pharaoh fun. The game plays fast. Fast enough to melt ice, and keep Pete from playing his ukulele between turns. Too bad for Pete, but everyone else was perhaps happy.

Out of the gate, Pete scolds Colin for calling Ra when holding the largest 16 sun disk. Why call Ra when you can win the bigger auction, he thinks. Well, what does Pete know, anyway. Collin fully trounces his final score. But it's Bill whom the sun (or Ra) shines on the brightest - He wins game 1.

Game One:

-- Lamork scores 3 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- kayakpete scores -5 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- Lamork scores 11 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 2 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 2 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- kayakpete scores 1 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 13 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 25 (Total: 49) points.
-- Amazon4God scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 9 (Total: 21) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 16 (Total: 30) points.
-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 9 (Total: 15) points.
-- IceFire2112 scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 7 (Total: 32) points.
-- Without Lamork's 49 points, the game may never have ended so without equal. (45:14 min.)

Game 2:

Ok. Everyone's warmed up now. Let's play again! Bill seems to have a solid strategy down, and bids quickly, while everyone else ponders there moves once again in game 2. Decisions are sometimes not easy in Ra. Sometimes ya gotta think.

And smack talk. Pete tries to twist the game his way with a couple "You should by that"'s, and "You'd be wasting your money"'s. He shows better in game 2. A 4-way tie for lowest pharaoh? Ouch.

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by IceFire2112; with 5 players).
-- Amazon4God scores 14 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 14 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 4 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- kayakpete scores 10 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- Amazon4God scores 3 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores -7 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 3 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 0 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- kayakpete scores 1 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- Amazon4God scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 10 (Total: 37) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 29 (Total: 34) points.
-- IceFire2112 scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 11 (Total: 38) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 15 (Total: 29) points.
-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 16 (Total: 37) points.
-- The opponents of IceFire2112 had to concede, with 38 points the victory was simply impressively. (41:49 min.)

We are all now getting to understand the game. Simplistic strategies of last week won't work anymore. Everyone, including Ra, sees what you are doing. And you aren't going to get away with it! Look at those second-game points. The spread is 9 points between 5 players, and 4 points between 4. Now that's classic Kinizia-close gaming.

Just wait until the VBGG discovers Puerto Rico. Ooooh man, is that gonna shine!

Session Report February 14 2007 - Valentines Day Invasion

2007-02-15T12:27:00.000-05:00

Invade Earth (Mars) Karen, Bill, Dana, Pete - Winner Karen

We've finished our first game of Invade Earth! Play time is a factor with the VBGG's 2 hour schedule. But, with practice, this game could probably be pulled off in that time. We ran a bit over, as we had a false-start trying to load an old game, and a kid succumbing to a bit of the stomach flu in turn 2. Yucky!

In classic risk 2210 style, assemble mods seemed to be the zinger of the day. Dana pulled of a continent in the start, with Pete and Karen very close. Dana quickly found his hold tenuous , and retreated to the moons. Karen, confidently took over a large swath of the board.

Pete had a nice nest, but was a little to aggressive. Choosing not to "spread and defend", he broke a treaty pushed a force against Karen to reduce her lead. Break a treaty with Karen? Bad idea. Pete suffered heavily under Karen's returning wrath.

Karen finished her turn 5 first with a commanding lead. Bill Took it away with some nukes that destroyed some convenient bonus.

Dana, however, pulled out the acient rule: "On Valentines day, Girls Win." A couple well placed nukes toppled bill from the lead, and gave Karen the win.

Good game!

Happy Birthday VBGG - Reflections

2007-02-08T23:09:00.000-05:00

Happy 1st Birthday VBGG!

It's been just over one year since we started the Virtual Board Game Group. I would like to thank my gaming friends for the fun week in and week out at our regular sessions. It's been great!

In my reflection, I found myself telling our story. The Podcast, the DiceTower has been having a bit of a discussion about online board gaming. I had to give my two cents. Here's what I said:

Howdy -

I'm a long time listener to the Dice Tower. New to the forums, however!

I thought I would chime in on the current ongoing discussion of Online Gaming, and how it does (or doesn't) support the hobby of Board Gaming.

Online boardgames emulate table-top games very well, except in one regard. As Tom has attested to, the socialization component does not make the transition from the table top to the PC well.

Online gaming does have an advantage, however. It is convenient. There are always games starting and opponents to play against. As a working parent, finding time during the week to game with friends is neigh impossible!

So it's a double-whammy. Socialization mechanisms are lacking in online board gaming and people want quick, convenient, games. Well, that's not a good way to emulate table-top gaming!

My board game group wanted to try to match the table top gaming experience a little closer. We wanted to play with friends. We wanted to chat between turns. We wanted to smack-talk. Yet we wanted the convenience of being able to play during the week, when there was no time to get together face to face.

Enter the VBGG. A year ago I formed an arm of our small gaming group, and called it the Virtual Board Game Group (VBGG). We have played almost every week since it's inception. I believe our success lies in the efforts to promote socialization. Here's what we did:

* Meet once a week, after all kids are put to bed, and chores are done.
* Strictly end gaming at a certain time, as people have work the next morning
* Use Skype to allow voice communications between players
* Blog all activity as an archive, and information tool

This formula has allowed us to not only get a lot more gaming in, but also maintain friendships. We add socialization to Online Gaming, and convenience to our gaming hobby.

Feel free to check out the VBGG Blog at:

http://vbgg.blogspot.com

I'll post a copy of this note over there, as my group will find it interesting as well. Feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers!

- Kayakpete

Thanks to you all for the good fun AND friendship over the past year. I look forward to the next, as we continue to have fun at the VBGG.

Session Report February 8 2007 - The Delight of Pushing Your Luck

2007-02-08T23:07:00.000-05:00

Transamerica (Bill, Pete, Karen, Dana) - Winner Bill
Transamerica (Collin, Bill, Pete, Karen, Dana) - Winner Collin
Ra (Collin, Bill, Pete, Karen, Dana) - Winner UNKNOWN
Ra (Collin, Bill, Pete, Karen, Dana) - Winner Collin

Transamerica for the starting game tonight. Bill walloped us in the first game with some lucky city draws. Or was it luck that his opponents were laying track for him? Perhaps so. All I know is that I (Pete) Got stuck with Boston waaaay in the north east. Ouch!

#1 -- The victory of Lamork was planned brilliant and ended with 13 points. (16:27 min.)

Game Two and I'm stuck in Boston again. Hey, I thought this was a RANDOM draw! This time it's worse... I've got the north-midwest city, and am all alone crossing the great lakes. Meanwile everyone else works together to get out quick.. It's a quick game, as I loose 9 points in a round to end the game quickly. Collin takes it.

#2 -- Wow, IceFire2112 just put it away with 9 points. Gigantically. (16:58 min.)

Back to Ra! Collin suffers through the first learning game, as we teach him some of the subtleties of tactics in the game of Ra. He starts picking it up quickly. I seem to have forgotten to log the winner on this one. I guess we can chalk it up as a learning session anyway.

We play again!

Dana plays a Call-Ra-Lots strategy that seems to actually do rather well for him. Collin struggles with, what I suppose could be termed, noobie bidding woes. When you first start to play Ra, it seems difficult to figure out exactly how much an auction might be worth. When would you bid 5, but not go as high as 7? Tough call to be sure. But that's part of the fun.

Everyone has a good laugh as Dana pushes his luck. The ra track is at 8 and Dana's alone with a free sun disk.. One more Ra tile, and the round's over. He goes from one tile at auction to a full eight, and then proceeds to buy the lot for the #1 sun disk. Sweet!

Not sweet enough. Karen's piles of monuments pushes her into the lead in the end. Well played!

-- kayakpete scores -2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 8 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 4 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores 3 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Amazon4God scores 8 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 8 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- IceFire2112 scores 7 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 4 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 10 (Total: 21) points.
-- Amazon4God scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 18 (Total: 44) points.
-- fineltour scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 16 (Total: 38) points.
-- IceFire2112 scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 15 (Total: 32) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 13 (Total: 27) points.
-- Significantly, Amazon4God obliterated the opposition with 44 points. (61:12 min.)

Good Good fun!

See you next week!

VBGG Brettspielwelt How-To

2007-02-06T23:06:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows that Brettspielwelt can be a bit overwhelming. The user interface isn't exactly friendly! Here's a quick guilde on how to make your BSW experience just a little better

The Setup:

Register -

It's worth it to register for the BSW. Then your statistics are tracked. If you have two gamers in the same house at the same time, then you MUST be registered.

Click here to Register at Brettspielwelt

Download the Client -

Yes, yes, you can simply go to BSW and play, but you are risking java wackyness! You are much better off downloading the BSW client that has a java virtual machine built in. Here's how to do it.

Click here to download the client.
Install it
Download Pete's Prop File
Move it to C:\Program Files\BrettspielWelt and replace the old (german) brettspielwelt.prop file
Start your new BSW client (in your start menu)

Note! You should do this BEFORE VBGG game night. The client will connect and update itself. This can take some time!

Once you are in, you need to make a minor toolbar change:

* right-click on the blank part of the toolbar, next to the ? help menu option
* Select configure
* In the right blue box, select Menu
* Click the blue left arrow to move the menu option to your toolbar.
* Click OK
* type /save on the chat line at the bottom of the window

See the Config Tool Help Page for details

If you don't see the bottom chat window, resize your window to be a to be more narrow and more tall. you will see it.

You are now ready to Play!

BSW Navigation Tricks:

Click Menu, select VBGG, and select the option you want, or use the following

Commands:

/ghook (user) - move to the game table that user is in
/join - join a game
/start - start a game
/reset - reset a game before start
/remove (user) - Remove user from game
/masterreset - reset a started game

Here's a full command list

What was that horrible sounds? What are these chat boxes?

Yeah, turn them off. Click on Channels menu option and uncheck SPV_EN and SPV (QP-F). They are good for meeting other people to play with, but not for the VBGG.

Where can I see my BSW statistics

Check out the site

Session Report January 31 - Ra? Rah!

2007-02-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

Ra (Beth, Bill, Dana Pete) - Winner Beth
Ra (Beth, Bill, Dana Pete) - Winner Pete

Pete had the good fortune to play Ra with Marc and Ernie (his dog) last weekend. Ra ranks very highly at Boardgame Geek. Number 11, in fact! There is a balance in the game that is so very typical of a Reiner Knizia design. Ra takes about 30 minutes to play. Perhaps less, once you are proficient playing.

In game one Pete floundered through getting every up to speed on the game, along with figuring out the BSW interface. As per the norm, it's not obvious how to play. "Where do I click?" is the phrase of the evening. One troublesome part of BSW's implementation is that the tile scoring is not directly at hand. We utilized a Ra pdf scoring sheet found at BGG. The Rules for Ra ar'nt bad either.

But we got it going! in the end, Beth pulled off the win in what might have been a close game? Who knows. Some of Knizia's games are always close.

-- kayakpete scores 0 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 3 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 8 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 5 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores 5 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores -2 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 0 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 9 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 18 (Total: 33) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 23 (Total: 34) points.
-- fineltour scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 26 (Total: 44) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 22 (Total: 46) points.

-- 46 points let magennis grab the whole thing fantastically! (56:35 min.)

Next round up! In game 2 we were starting to see some of the subtle strategies of Ra come out. Bill managed, for example, to win the 3 highest sun tiles at auction leaving himself for what might be thought of as an excellent position for the next epoch. Pete, however, seemed to call Ra on him with little 3 and 4 tile auction blocks, making it seem a shame to spend his 11, 12 or 13. Tricky!

In the end Pete did well:

-- kayakpete scores 15 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 3 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores 4 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 2 points in the ancient age (2665 - 2155 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores 4 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- fineltour scores 1 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- Lamork scores -1 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).
-- magennis scores 3 points in the middle age (2130 - 1650 B.C.).

-- kayakpete scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 26 (Total: 55) points.
-- fineltour scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 10 (Total: 24) points.
-- Lamork scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 18 (Total: 31) points.
-- magennis scores in the modern age (1555 - 1080 B.C.) 20 (Total: 35) points.

-- In an exemplary manner, kayakpete won the game with 55 points. (33:35 min.)

Everyone enjoyed this game, but thought that there might be some advantages to playing face-to-face over the table. Especially for beginners. And, perhaps, with any player interaction game, there's always something lost in the translation to the virtual world. Auction and bluffing games, however, may suffer more so than other games.

Add one more game to the VBGG shelf. Ra! Good fun!

See you next week!

Session Report: January 24 - Go with what works

2007-01-25T07:45:00.000-05:00

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?

2007-01-22T20:56:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

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!

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

2007-01-07T21:13:00.000-05:00

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!

Session Report December 20 - Does Santa play Risk?

2006-12-20T23:25:00.001-05:00

Dana Discovered Invade Earth, a online multi-player version of Risk 2210. Risk 2210 is one of the group favorites when it comes to table-top play. It's great to add this to the VBGG game shelf!

Invade Earth plays pretty much just like Risk 2210. Benefits typical to boardgames ported to online play are seen, such as easy dice rolling, and accounting. We managed to play two full rounds without to much problem with the interface. Most exciting, game-play wise is the ability to have private side-bar chats with players. This could really make diplomacy a lethal tactic. Karen should love that.

Since this was our first go with Invade Earth, we mostly left strategy in the closet. Everyone pretty much controlled a continent after initial army placement except for Dana, who was playing last. Yeah, well, it wasn't about winning . It was about learning the interface.

That's easy for me to say, seeing as I started with a solid hold on Australia, with a couple countries deep of defense. After two rounds I was in pretty good shape. Something tells me that I won't have that luxury next time.

Play time looks like it will be quicker, as game chores will be sped up greatly. We think, however, that a single game will still take more than a the regimented VBGG game session of two hours. But that's OK! A save game option is included that will allow us to play a single game over multiple sessions

Session Report December 13 - Go west Engineer! No, East!

2006-12-13T22:59:00.000-05:00

Transamerica (Bill, Dana, Marc, Pete) - Winner Bill
Transamerica (Dana, Marc, Pete) - Winner Dana
Transamerica (Dana, Marc, Pete) - Winner Dana

Welcome back Marc, after a lengthly hiatus for the VBGG. Good to have you back!

We were thinking about it, and we decided to go for it - Transamerica on Brettspielwelt.

In Transamerica players actually build tracks that are used TOGETHER. This is opposite of Ticket2Ride where my track is mine, and yours is yours. The trick is to take advantage of your opponents track building, allowing you to connect your cities first. You have 5 secret cities to connect, one in each area of the country. So do your opponents. Take your turn. You can build two tracks (or 1 red track (mountains and rivers). One a single player has all of their cities connected, the round ends. Everyone else finishes out their tracks, and subtracts 1 (or 2) per track built to finish! The game ends when someone reaches 0.

Bill tapped into his vast tome of rail-building knowledge (eurorails, iron dragon, yada yada) to kick serious butt in Game 1:

- Wow, Lamork just put it away with 11 points. Pointedly. (45:21 min.)

Ok. So we were noobs. It took a while. Bill had to bow out so Karen could use the computer. So we were left to try again. This time it went quicker, with Marc really figuring it out. Too bad Dana had figured it out as well. He took game 2:

-- Excellently, fineltour dominated the game with 10 points. (14:55 min.)

Pete has yet, at this point to even win a single round. (and thus the quick game #2) It's starting to remind him of the Ticket To Ride game last week. Well, in that game he could at least blame his opponents for taking his routes. Not this time. Well, even all the friendly track around wasn't enough to get Pete back on (track) for game 3. Dana and Marc took commanding leads, and battled it out closely as Pete managed to make it a speedy game by beeing the big l00zer again. In the end Dana eeked out a win over Marc by a slim 2 points.

-- fineltour won outstanding with 8 points. (22:26 min.)

Transamerica is a really nice game. Quick and easy to play. It will work well as a camp game with the kids for sure. Plays much quicker than Ticket2Ride, and has some excellent strategy (and a bit of luck). Pete "just happened" to pick up a discount copy today off Tanga. ;-) We'll see it hit the table sometime this winter. Good, as it plays up to 6 players!

Dana and Pete agreed that it was more fun than Clans. I think it probably has more staying power than Piranha Pedro as well.

Read up on Transamerica on the Brettspielwelt English Info site .

See you next week!

New online Settlers of Catan

2006-12-13T08:08:00.001-05:00

Good evening VBGG'ers!

Bill just came across Cities3D , the next version of Sea3d, that we have been using as our online Settlers of Catan server and client.

Cities3D supports all expansions of Settlers, including the newest Cities and Knights of Catan! This is a tremendous expansion for the original game, and changes game play greatly. The interface has been spiffied up to look prettier as well. GOOD STUFF!

Be sure to take a moment to download and install the new version. It's easy!

Download: Cities3D v0.9 Installer

See you online!

Session Report December 6 - Boys Win

2006-12-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

Session report December 6

Piranha Pedro - Pete, Beth, Dana, Bill, Karen - Looser: Beth
Piranha Pedro - Pete, Beth, Dana, Bill, Karen - Looser: Karen
Ticket To Ride (US) - Beth, Karen, Bill, DAna, Pete. Winner Dana
Ticket To Ride (EU) - Collin, Karen, Bill, DAna, Pete. Winner Bill

Good night for da boyz, it was. Piranha Pedro two games LOST by the two girls. Two more games of Ticket To Ride won by the boys.

Special note. Pete lost the T2R EU game badly. He's such a girl. He, however, blames everyone else for taking his track. What a boy.

Next week we hope to add another interesting game to the mix. Taking suggestions. Take a look at the BSW games listed at The BSW English Help Page.

2006-12-05T13:13:00.000-05:00

BrikMechWar

Overview

Brik Mech War (BMW) is a miniature battle game, with the minis created out of Legos! The game is designed for easy play, specifically by young lego builders in the 6-10 year old range. The theme of the game revolves around Mechs (Mechwarriors)doing battle. While this the theme has already been ported to a lego platform in a game called Mechaton, I wanted to design a game that was a little simpler, and required less dice. We also wanted to work with my son and nephew, taking into account their ideas.

Check out the BrikMechWar Rules!

Session Report November 29 - Piranhas Eat Penguins

2006-11-30T11:51:00.000-05:00

Session report November 29

Hey, that's my fish! (BSW) - Pete, Beth, Dana, Bill - Winner Bill
Hey, that's my fish! (BSW) - Pete, Beth, Dana, Bill, Karen - Winner Pete
Piranha Pedro - Pete, Beth, Dana, Bill, Karen - Looser: Beth
Piranha Pedro - Pete, Beth, Dana, Bill, Karen - Looser: Bill

Long live the VBGG! 5 players showed up for a regular Wednesday night session. Coming into the winter season, we should see regular activity for the next few months (if we can make it through Xmas, that is...)

We started with some warm up as everyone got online with Hey, that's my fish! on BSW. It's interesting to see people get better at strategy and tactics on this game the more we play.

-- kayakpete erreichte 19 Punkte, davon 4 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 10 Plättchen).
-- magennis erreichte 21 Punkte, davon 2 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 13 Plättchen).
-- fineltour erreichte 26 Punkte, davon 4 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 15 Plättchen).
-- Lamork erreichte 30 Punkte, davon 3 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 19 Plättchen).
-- Unparalleled, Lamork won the game with 30 points. (9:50 min.)
-- Klasse, Lamork hat das Match mit 1 Siegen gewonnen.(Distanz: 1)

Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by kayakpete; with 4 players).
-- kayakpete erreichte 33 Punkte, davon 2 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 20 Plättchen).
-- magennis erreichte 14 Punkte, davon 3 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 10 Plättchen).
-- Lamork erreichte 24 Punkte, davon 3 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 15 Plättchen).
-- fineltour erreichte 25 Punkte, davon 5 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 12 Plättchen).
-- kayakpete won the game considerably. The victory was with 33 points. (9:26 min.)
-- Klasse, kayakpete hat das Match mit 1 Siegen gewonnen.(Distanz: 1)

It's too bad you can't actually MAKE a penguin jump off an ice flow. Wait.. I think there's a game that would fulfill this desire...

Enter Piranha Pedro! We were at a loss as to what to play next. Pete decided to give Piranha Pedro a go. A quick read of the rules and we were ready to go. Well, not quite. Dana's computer decided hosting the Skype session AND loading Java was just a bit too much, and decided to have a fit. We fired up a game to learn the interface while he rebooted.

Piranha Pedro's a simple game where you try to guess what your opponents will do, and make your move accordingly. It's a game of bluffing, guessing, and card counting. We had a delightful time trying to keep Pedro out of the water, and piranhas! This game plays well with the sound on (command: /sound on), as opposed to other squacky games. There's not a lot of depth to it, and it plays fairly quickly. I think it's a great filler game for the VBGG. At this point, I'd say better than Hey, that's my fish!. Here's the scores and play times. Note that the first game wasn't counted as Pete threw the game to let Dana get back in.

-- The victory of Amazon4God, magennis und Lamork was planned pointedly and ended with 2 points. (11:27 min.)
-- Unparalleled, Amazon4God, Lamork, fineltour und kayakpete won the game with 2 points. (21:43 min.)
-- 1 points let Amazon4God, kayakpete, magennis und fineltour grab the whole thing impressively! (14:27 min.)

Long live Pedro! Long live the VBGG!

Session Report Nov 22 - Turkey Train

2006-11-22T22:57:00.000-05:00

Session report Nov 22
Ticket To Ride (US) - Dana, Pete - Winner Pete
Ticket To Ride (europe) - Dana, Pete - Winner Pete
Ticket To Ride (europe) - Collin, Beth, Dana, Pete - Winner Dana

3 Games off T2R to take it easy before the Thanksgiving weekend break. Pete trounced Dana with the "build it long and fast" strategy. It seems that you can steal an end game turn or two from your opponent by doing this. In the end game, Dana was stuck needing another turn or two. Pete made a loop east to west, across the bottom of the map, and back through the middle.

Game two on the Europe board, and Pete stuck to build quick, make points, and don't take lots of tickets strategy once again. A bit closer this time, and Pete drained his train yard just one turn before Dana could close more stuff. Another win for Pete

Beth and Collin joined in for the last game of the night on the Europe map. Collin couldn't get cars to the cities he needed, but was the leader on points coming into endgame. The Stockholm 8 length tunnel will do that for ya! Beth and Collin, new to the board, figured out how to build tunnels. The hard way. ;-)

In the end Dana trounced quite handily by using no stations, having only 3 tickets, and well played track. Going out first is a great bonus. He did so and smashed everyone is score.

Woooooo wooo! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Session Report Nov 8 - Spicy Meeples

2006-11-09T11:01:00.000-05:00

Session report Nov 8
Hey, that's my fish - Bill, Karen, Bart, Pete
Carcassonne Princess and Dragon - Dana, Bill, Karen, Bart, Pete
- Winners Bill, Bart

We decided to get Bart into the BSW, and played a quick game of Hey, that's my fish! Bill captured a nice flow to himself, giving him a win by 8 points over Pete. Hey, that's my Fish! is a 4 player game max on BSW

-- kayakpete erreichte 26 Punkte, davon 2 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 16 Plättchen).
-- Lamork erreichte 34 Punkte, davon 3 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 18 Plättchen).
-- Amazon4God erreichte 18 Punkte, davon 2 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 12 Plättchen).
-- hawkeye00 erreichte 20 Punkte, davon 3 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 12 Plättchen).
-- Greatly, Lamork obliterated the opposition with 34 points. (12:42 min.)
-- Klasse, Lamork hat das Match mit 1 Siegen gewonnen.(Distanz: 1)

Ok, we couldn't figure out what to play, so we played Carcassonne, Princess and Dragon. Time to eat meeples! With 5 players, the scores stay low, meeples get eaten, and lots of down time. Long game!

Pete had 2 points for a good part of the game until the fairy came to hang with him for 3 turns or so. Much fighting over fields that was only made more complex with the dragon swooping in to mix it up. Fun! The climax of the game was a huge field being left barren of farmers due to dragon. Karen was up and got a full 4-side city tile, so she couldn't take the field! Next up pete pulls a princess tile and can't take the field either! GAA! Bill takes and holds the big field for 27 points, but it's not enough to topple Bart.

Bart wins, but there is some question as to how it scored. Pete had 46 points in second place after scoring greatly for cloisters.

-- kayakpete scored 16 points during the game, and in the final scoring 10 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 14 points for cloisters, 6 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- Lamork scored 10 points during the game, and in the final scoring 0 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 0 points for cloisters, 27 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- hawkeye00 scored 29 points during the game, and in the final scoring 2 points for roads, 6 points for cities, 7 points for cloisters, 12 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- fineltour scored 12 points during the game, and in the final scoring 3 points for roads, 12 points for cities, 7 points for cloisters, 9 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- Amazon4God scored 20 points during the game, and in the final scoring 2 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 0 points for cloisters, 9 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- If hawkeye00 hadn't gotten 56 points, then the game wouldn't have ended so incredibly victoriously. (99:45 min.)

Fun Game!

Next week will find Pete in Hawaii, so carry on without him!

Session Report Nov 1 - Settlers of Europe by Train

2006-11-01T22:49:00.000-05:00

Session report Nov 2
Ticket To Ride (2) - Bart, Bill, Dana, Pete
Catan (Standard) - Beth, Karen, Collin
- Winners Bart, Pete,

Don checks in to tell us of his new new toy, a
1958 Chrysler Biscayne fully restored. Congrat's on the new
baby, Don!
More picks on photobucket.

We read the rules and played Ticket To Ride Europe, for the first time! Bart had played once or twice before, but didn't have all the rules memorized. We figured it out, and found the strategy and tactics to be quite different than Ticket To Ride.

Tunnels make it quite interesting. Once you build a tunnel, you draw 3 cards. If any of them are wild or the color you used to build the tunnel, then you have to pay up more! The luck factor is slightly annoying, but it does add a bit of excitement to the track building.

Bart pulled a nice score on completing lots of cards to win game 1 pretty nicely. There was tremendous bunching in the south-east corner of the map that made for an odd game (or so we thought, despite it being our first go on this map). Pete was a huge looser, with lots of cars in the yard. Dana pulled a respectable second place.

Game two saw the players a bit more spread out. Some minor conflicts around Germany. Pete, however, sneaked a longest train (using all his cars), and the Stokholm 8 length 21 point tunnel in the end to leave everyone short a turn or two. The early game end strategy, plus high score tracks, plus complete of only 3 cards, gave Pete a nice win. Strategy pays off two weeks in a row.

Dana picked off second place again. A contender!

In the other table, Karen, Beth and Collin played a somewhat relaxed a standard settlers game. A close game, with Karen 9, Beth 9, Collin 10! Beth calls it "the game of stupidity".

Finally, we did a quick run-through on how to log in to BSW and get a game started. Pete updated the link on this page to better connect to the bsw, and showed Beth and Karen how to start up and join a game.

-- Amazon4God erreichte 23 Punkte, davon 2 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 13 Plättchen).
-- magennis erreichte 15 Punkte, davon 3 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 9 Plättchen).
-- IceFire2112 erreichte 32 Punkte, davon 2 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 18 Plättchen).
-- kayakpete erreichte 29 Punkte, davon 2 Punkte in der Endwertung ( 19 Plättchen).
-- Now IceFire2112 has won outstanding with 32 points! (11:58 min.)
-- Klasse, IceFire2112 hat das Match mit 1 Siegen gewonnen.(Distanz: 1)

Sher Gut!