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

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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!

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

Everybody won!

Session Report - March 5 2008 - Short and Sweet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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?

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.)