Session Report December 20 - Does Santa play Risk?

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!

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

Session Report Oct 25 - Let there be trains

Session report Oct 25
Ticket To Ride (3)
- Beth, Karen, Dana, Bill, Bart, Pete
- Winners Dana, Karen, Pete

We had 3 smooth games of Ticket To Ride by Days of Wonder. This is a easy game to pick up, yet has enough strategy to be engaging. We play this while camping with the kids, and used to play online lots!

Welcome back Bart! Long time, no see in the VBGG. Hope you get in the habit of joining us once again!

Well back to Online for us. Dana, having not played much anyway, clicked his way to victory handily in the first game.

Karen the noob seemed to pick the game up just fine and won the second game nicely!

And Pete, in the third game, rushed his trains to take everyone off guard. With only two tickets, he beat Dana out by 4 for the win.

The VBGG pretty much started with games of Ticket To Ride. And with good reason. Quick easy play. Solid system. Fast and fun!

Thanks to everyone that showed up this evening, and look forward to next week! Remember to drop a comment with any opinions on tonight's games, or what you might want to play next week!

Session Report Oct 18 - Hey, that's my Hut!

Session report Oct 18
Lost Cities (1), Hey, that's my fish! (3), Clans (1)
- Collin, Beth, Pete and Dana
- Winners Collin, Collin, Dana, Pete, Dana
- Looser: Bill, who had to work late.

Ok, so who invited this Dana character anyway? He trapses in here with this "I don't know how to get this going" stuff, and "I don't got skype" hooey. I think we've been hoodwinked!

Welcome Dana!

We finally got Dana (Skype: fineltour) online to play some games with the VBGG. And boy did he. Pete played a quick game of Lost cities as the Collin and Beth came online. Lost cities is a really nice filler game. Easy enough to play. Nice theme. I bet it's more fun with real cards. Well, Dana picked it up quick enough. He clobbered Pete. Pete admits a couple dumb moves, but didn't intentionally throw the game.

4 online, time for a nice warm-up game. It's been a while since we've gamed, so off to Pcakeis am Pol, or Hey that's my Fish! Yeah, well, Hey, that's Fish! After figuring out that you have to place your starter penguins on flows with only 1 fish (silly me), we were off to some good jumpin. Dana once again figured it out pretty quick and won another one. What the heck! Who invited this guy, anyway! In the end Dana won two and Pete won one.

[EDIT 10/19: Oops! Had Dana down for winning 3. He actually one 1, with Collin winning 2. Sorry Collin! -ed]

There is some sort of strategy with this game. And it's not just heading to the biggest piles of fish. That's your tactics tip for the week. Ha ha!

Beth bowed out and da' boyz moved on to a game of Clans. Pete thought he might have another chance to win with these two noobs. Pete had a good strategy: "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that rule". and "Gee, I didn't know it worked like that...". He thought he had a good thing going, but the first village formed without Pete in it. Everyone's at, like, 20 points, and Pete's got zero. Oops! I will admit. Data has a bit of knack for the tactics on an abstract game such as this. Heck, He excels at ANYTHING that doesn't throw DICE.

Ah, but seriously. It's great to have Dana join us at the VBGG. Hope to see him back for our regular weekly sessions. He's just got to get a headset. That barbie talk-o-matic microphone he had wasn't cuttin it. More like cuttin' out, it was. :-D

Perhaps next week we can take a stab at an oldie but goodie with the vbgg: Ticket To Ride. Pete got a renewal on his membership and can once again host games. So be sure to stop by Days of Wonder and make sure your login is working, you remember the password, or you register! Ticket to Ride is just that much better when you don't have to score your trains. ;-)

In the Shadow of the Emperor Online

In the Shadow of the Emperor Online is a new open beta of a boardgame by Hans im Glück that might be worth checking out.

Anyone have any comments on this?

Session Report Sept 27 - Lost Meeples

Session report Sept 27
Lost Cities, Carcassonne
- Karen, Bill and Pete
- Winners Bill and Pete (Tie)

Bill and Pete tried out Lost Cities on BSW. Fun two player card game that has pretty good ratings. It's actually lots of fun. We didn't keep score. ;-) I highly recommend Lost Cities as a two-player filler game.

Karen Bill and Pete played Carcassonne Princess and Dragon. Collin joined in as a spectator. Nice feature of BSW. We had lots of fun eating Cherry, Lemon and Lime meeples. Now that we understand the rules, it was good fun! Pete had a nice 15 point lead with 28 tiles left. In the end game, pete's ahead by 20 points but bill's hot the fields locked up tight.

-- kayakpete scored 79 points during the game, and in the final scoring 1 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 16 points for cloisters, 0 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- Lamork scored 53 points during the game, and in the final scoring 3 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 7 points for cloisters, 33 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- Amazon4God scored 46 points during the game, and in the final scoring 14 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 0 points for cloisters, 6 points with farmers, as well as 0 points for goods.
-- Excellently, Lamork und kayakpete obliterated the opposition with 96 points. (75:00 min.)

Woah! TIE! Bill 96, Pete 96, Karen 66.

Bill has the Princess and Dragon expansion on his definate buy list now. I agree! Lots of fun munching meeples!

Session report Sept 20
Catan standard 3 player
- Karen, Bill and Pete
- Winner Karen and Bill.


Karen wins game 1 nicely. Bill and Pete got mad and demanded a second game to get revenge.

Bill waltzed away with the second game with an island to his own, and some nice fours. Rock+Wheat build cities strategy.

Session Report: September 13 2006 - Clans

Clans (BSW) (2 games)
- Bill, Karen, Beth, Pete
- Winner Pete, Beth



We played a couple games of Clans. It's fun because it plays quickly.

-- kayakpete won the game impressively. The victory was with 37 points. (21:27 min.)
-- But will [Beth]magennis win the next game so brilliant with 55 points? (14:23 min.)

Catan (Map: A New World (V))
- Collin, Karen, Beth, Pete
- Winner Karen

The map is pretty interesting that is very islandy, and players must place the ports at game beginning. Game progresses pretty evenly with Collin, Karen and Pete tied up to almost the end. 27% of the rolls were bandit! Crazy bandit 5 times in a row and stuff. Fun fun! In the end Karen pulled off largest army for the win.

Session Report: September 6 - Penguins and Clans

Session report September 6

Hey, that's my fish! (BSW) (5 games)
- Bill, Karen, Beth, Pete
- Winners Bill, Pete, Pete, Beth, Beth

We fired up BrettSpielWelt with new BSW comers Beth and Karen. After the normal struggles learning the interface, we got Hey, That's my Fish! Also known as Packeis am Pol. This is a very quick little filler game where you move penguins around a rapidly disintegrating board, catching fish. Watch where you move, so you don't find yourself stranded on a little iceberg with no more fish to catch!

Pete demoed this game at GenCon and thought it would be a nice easy game for starters on BSW. It went over well! Poor Karen, she lost two games to Pete and one to Beth by only 1 fish! Beth caught on quick to win the last two games. She pulled a nice jump on Pete, leaving him stranded early in the final game.

Game 1: Hey! That's my fish! - winner Bill (over Pete)
Game 2: Hey! That's my fish! - winner Pete (over Karen, Beth) Pete by one point over Karen!
Game 3: Hey! That's my fish! - winner Pete (over Beth, bill, Karen) Pete by one point over Karen
Game 4: Hey! That's my fish! - winner Beth win (over Pete, bill, Karen)
Game 5: Hey! That's my fish! - winner Beth win (over Pete, bill, Karen) by 1 over Karen!

Clans (BSW) (1 game)
- Bill, Karen, Pete
- Winner Pete


Ok, we're on a roll. Let's try another new game, now that we have access to the hordes of BSW games. Clans is a nice eurogame that was a Spiel Des Jahres nominee in 2003. It rates a very respectable 6.8 at Boardgamegeek. Check out their Clan Page . True to German game form, this has very simple rules, but great depth of strategy and tactics. It plays quite quickly as well. We finished our first "figuring it out" game in less than 1/2 hour. The fun twist about this game is that you actually are not sure what color your opponents are playing! Also true to eurogame style, the score was close. Pete, perhaps a bit more familiar with the rules, eked out the win. Muahahah.

-- Overwhelmingly, kayakpete dominated the game with 51 points. (25:58 min.)

If you haven't registered for Brettspielwelt, you should do so. Click the link to the right, click on the British flag to get it into English, and register!

Great night of gaming. See you next week!

Session Report: September 5 - Backgammon and Carcasonne on BSW

Session report September 5

Backgammon (BSW)
- Pete and Bill
- Winner Pete.

Bill Challenged Pete to a Backgammon re-match, and warm-up using the BSW interface. BSW can be a little ticky to get used to, that's for sure. Once you learn it, I don't think it's too bad, however. Pete won by about 6 bolts, due to a couple good doubles.

Carcasonne (BSW)
- Pete (kayakpete) and Bill (Lamork)
- Winner Pete.

Gamemaster: lamork sits at position number 2.
Gamemaster: The game begins! (Started by kayakpete; with 2 players).
-- Using Inns and Cathedrals Expansion.
-- Using Traders and Builders Expansion.
-- Using The Princess and the Dragon Expansion.

Pete and Bill tried out Carcasonne on Brettspielwelt. The interface takes a little getting used to, and lacks some nice features we are used to in asobrain. But it does work, and has the Princess and Dragon expansion. It took us a bit to figure it out, but woah - Cool! When a dragon tile shows up this dragon romps around the board and eats your meeples! Gaah! It was a mighty battle. Just when you thought you had a city or field, here comes the dragon to threaten it.

We were a little slow since we had to learn the new interface and rules. But it was worth it:

-- kayakpete scored 160 points during the game, and in the final scoring 0 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 7 points for cloisters, 38 points with farmers, as well as 10 points for goods.
-- lamork scored 162 points during the game, and in the final scoring 0 points for roads, 0 points for cities, 8 points for cloisters, 24 points with farmers, as well as 20 points for goods.
-- The game went pointedly, and produced kayakpete as the winner with 215 points. (80:06 min.)

Final score - Bill: 214, Pete: 215! Pete wins by one point by virtue of a big field that slipped Bills watchful eye.

Session Report: August 30 2006 - Catan

Session report August 30
Catan standard 3 player
- Karen, Beth and pete
- Winner Pete.

Quick 3 player game where Pete did initial placemets last, but ened up with Year of plenty AND road building for a quick looooogest road. Nice even game with everyone at 8 points around the final turn. Pete pulls ahead on resurces with plenty of spots to build settlements. He does so for the win.

Session Report: August 23 2006 - Catan

August.23.2006 -
Settlers of Catan
- Bill+Karen+Beth+Beth
- Winners Bill+Collin

Bill Karen Beth and Charlie played a killer game of Catan. Collin, in his infinite wisdom, decided that it would be a good idea to help Beth out with lots of "sound advice". Unfortunately it was in vain, as Karen romped all over the board, and had kick butt dice rolls. The bandit was on her side, and karma was at 100%! Wait.. that's not right. Karen had all her stuff on 4. And she was gettin' nothing until the end, when her ship came in - the 4 rolled to give her the resources and the game.

Spiel By Web play by email games.

Good evening!

I came across SpielByWeb , a Play By Email type boardgame site. They have several good games that you play via email, or PEBM. They are graphically based, but games would take days instead of minutes.

Is anyone interested in playing a game of Tikal with me? We would play via web with email notifications when it's your turn. Tikal is fairly easy. I'm interested to try the game out, and spielbyweb.

Post a comment if interested.

Session Report: August 16 2006 - Carcasonne

August.16.2006 -
Carcassonne
- Bill+Pete+Collin+Beth
- Winners Bill+Collin

Back to trusty Carcassonne! Bill and Pete logged into AsoBrain to find some updates. Cleaner graphics, and working well! In Game 1 Bill and Pete had a brutal battle for a massive field and a city or two. It was pretty heated! Great game! In the end Bill slipped in an extra farmer to take a massive field. That, and controlling all 3 recources gave him a solid win.

In game 2 Collin and Beth joined Bill and Pete for a second game of castle building. City battles seemed to rule the day, as farmers seemed to take a back seat. Bill's computer rebooted itself, and he morphed it Robot-Bill, a horrible player! Dang Bots!

In the end, Pete managed to take a large field then combine some other smaller fields to get a nice field bonus. Collin ruled resources, taking wine and cloth, and tying pete for bread.

It was neck and neck in the final scoring, with Collin and Pete's scores crawling up. But *BAM* in the end the bonus resource score gave Collin a commanding win! Wow. Another good game!

Session Report: August 15 2006 - San Juan

August.15.2006 -
Brettspielwelt Play Test - Backgammon and San Juan
- Bill+Pete
- Winners Xorik (Non VBGG member)

Bill and Pete decided to give Bretspielwelt a go. We got things working NO Problem. Not that we knew how to play any of the games, however!

We started easy with a quick game of backgammon. Bill was a bit rusty, and could remember which way to go. A few clicks got us on track. Pete wins!

Ok, on to a more interesting game: San Juan. San Juan is a nice card game with quite nice depth. Pete had played a different computer version before, and knew a tiny bit. As we sat there wondering what to do, Xorik joined us, and offered to teach. He did, and beat us. We didn't do half bad, however.

-- kayakpete erreichte 24 SP, davon 16 SP durch Gebaeude und 8 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Xorik erreichte 30 SP, davon 24 SP durch Gebaeude und 6 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- lamork erreichte 25 SP, davon 17 SP durch Gebaeude und 7 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 1
-- The opponents of Xorik had to concede, with 30 points the victory was simply greatly. (48:30 min.)

It's a fun game! I suggest we play more.

San Juan at Boardgamegeek

San Juan at Brettspielwelt

See you!

Session Report: August 2 2006 - Catan

August.2.2006 -
Settlers of Catan
- Bill+Karen+Beth+Charlie
- Winners Bill

Bill is on a rampage! Where's Bart to provide compitition? He can't be stopped!

Bart and Pete got called into cousin moving service. As the scenario set up, Sarah rolled a double-zero on the percentile. Her professional mover friend showed, Jeff, up! He, coupled with the big horse trailer, for the win!

Sesssion Report: August 1 - Catan

August 1st 2006
Settlers of Catan (4 islands)
- Bill+Karen+Pete
- Winners Bill


The "Tuesday Night Pickup Game" continues to see players show up. Pete had last/first placement giving him a nice starting position on an 8 and a 6 in a bit of a crowded island. But the 8's were all but gone. Oddly we saw 5 12's in 6 or 7 rolls further skewing the dice statistics. The bandit was on a rampage too.

Bill grabed largest army and stole longest road from Karen for a 12 point win.

Session Report: July 26 - Catan

July.26.2006 -
Settlers of Catan (Oceans 4)
- Bill+Karen+Beth+Collin?
- Winner Bill


Pete was busy trying to win a game of Paint the Living Room, which he eventually lost. But the VBGG carried on with a rosing game fo Something that someone won.

Still waiting on a session report for this one.

Session Report: July 19 2006 - Catan

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

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

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

Game 2:

Report from Collin Bill+Karen+Beth+Collin:

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

The faithful scribe, Collin

Session Report: July 18 2006 - Catan

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

Game 1:

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

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

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



Game 2:

Report from Collin -

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

Welcome!

Welcome Friends!

Welcome to our Virtual Board Game Group.

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

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

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

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

- Pete

Session Report: July 12 2006 - Catan

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

Welcome Charlie, to the VBGG!

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

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

Game Report: Old Games

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

http://www.protopage.com/petehoffswell

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

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

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

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

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June.13.2006 - BUST
Summer starting. Schedules wacked.

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June.6.2006 - BUST
Pete in Seattle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mar.14.2006 - Bust!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bart's Settlers of Catan Strategy

Tips and Tricks on Catan Strategy from Bart, lifted from an email March, 2006 -

Initial placement pointers

1. Review board for scarce resources think about grab them, especially if they are wheat or ore. (if you are the only one with wheat you can name your price)

2. If possible don't start without wheat, everything but roads needs wheat. You need at least a little bit of this or if you can't get that then build to a good port to trade for it.

3. Don't place on edges or deserts unless there is no place else, even if there is a port on it. Getting resources on 3 numbers at the beginning of game is way better then being able to
trade 3 for 1. But if you have to play on an edge try to get a port.

4. Try to balance out the numbers you will get resources on. If you build both settlements on 8s you will be in a feast or famine situation. either the dice will kill you or you will get a ton of resource and then get burned by a 7. Try to get it so you get something on a 8,6,5,9 and you will be sitting good.

5. Try to have 4 out of the 5 resource types on initial placement even if some of the numbers are bad.

6. Don't try to place one settlement in the sheep field (3 sheep resource) and then grab the sheep port (same goes for other resources, sheep just an example) I used to love doing this, but it doesn't work. You end up scaring everyone so you get the robber and you end up having to pay double resources for everything (instead of one wood and one clay you pay 4 sheep)

7. If you are placing last, make sure to keep in mind that first one is a settlement, second is a city, think about which resources you want on the city. Also remember that your second placement get the three resources around it. Getting something like a wood, clay, and sheep is big because you almost have your next settlement or you can build a road. This can give you a quick jump in the game.

8. Look at the 6s and 8s first for placement but also look at the 9s and 5s. Sometimes they are better placements then the 8s and 6s plus they don't get burned by the robber as much.

Strategies

There are basically two strategies that I follow. Which one you follow depends on your init placement. I also don't play with seafares much so adding ships to the mix probably changes this.

If map is weak on ore or wheat, or your init placement makes you weak on this then you are stuck going for a lot of settlements and lr strategy. Try to make your last settlement placement on wood and clay that gives you an extra road on turn 1 or 1/2 your next settlement. Don't race for longest road just make sure you are only 1 or 2 roads from taking it. Make sure you are building settlement along the way, 2 roads then settlement, 2 roads then settlement. This strategy is hard to win with, only good if you are the only one with clay or wood, or it the map has no Wheat or Ore. When you are placing roads try to box in other people if possible and make sure you are not getting boxed in.

If you are strong in wheat and ore with some sheep then you can go for a city/vic point/largest Army win. You are shooting for 4 cities and either largest army or 2 victory points. After placing your settlements concentrate on first getting them turned into cities. Then build two more settlements and then focus on buying cards and getting them turned into cities. Must have strong placement in wheat and rock with decent sheep for this. If you do then you don't even need wood or clay. (This is the strategy you should have gone for last time we played on line, You are totally rocking in ore and wheat and sheep. I thought you had the best placement on the board when we started, but you did a sort of longest road and settlement, my mind is on drugs strategy and used your ore port to trade in all your ore when you should have been building cities and building cards)

Trading

WATCH WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING!!!!! Don't just trade quickly, put thought into it. If you are going for longest road strategy, don't trade wood and clay to some who is playing the same strategy. Don't trade anything to someone you are trying to beat to a settlement placement. Always ask 'what is he going to do with that?' before you trade with him.

Don't trade with anyone on their turn during the first 2 rounds unless it enables you to build a settlement or city on your next turn. Most trades in the first 2 turns are people trying to get there 3rd settlement. If you let someone else get the jump on you with an extra settlement or city upgrade in the first 3 turns it can kill you.

Never, never ,never trade with the leader who has over 6 points. Think very hard about trading to anyone else once they have over 6 points. It is really easy for them to build something then nab lr or play 2 vic points to win the game.

Really good players only trade when they get something really good and don't give someone else to much. Newbies trade all the time without much thought.


Misc

Next game I will help you, give me a chance to tell you to back a move out, or go ahead and ask me if that is a good or bad move.

Always review the skill of the players and burn or screw over the most skilled players during the start of the game.

When figuring out who has the most points in the game, count every unused dev card as a point or a possible largest army.

Robber placement. Always look at the leader as the victim first, but also keep in mind the resources you need and what the victim might have. If you are dying for clay and someone has a city on clay, you might get one. Also if you did not manage to balance the numbers burn the numbers you don't have, (if you are on 8s, put it on a 6). Also keep in mind the resource you are closing. At the beginning of the game clay and wood are good to close off to others because roads and settlements need that. Later in the game, wheat and ore are good to stop cities and dev cards.

Always keep an eye on what the other people are doing. With the on-line game it is to easy to forget about everyone else and only look at your cities, settlements and cards. Watch the other people play there turn, watch were they build, figure out the strategy they are using, if at the start of your turn you can't say what everyone else did since there last turn review the log (I always have to do this for Pete cause he plays so damn fast)