Session Report: May 2 2007 - Sailing to San Juan

Tonga (Pete, Bill, Karen, Dana) - Winner Pete
San Juan (Pete, Bill, Karen, Dana) - Winner Pete

Spring time! Time to think about water sports, like sailing. Like maybe sailing to Tongiaki!

Tongiaki

-- kayakpete won extraordinarily with 36 points. (35:13 min.)

Nuff said?


In honor of May Day, a big party in Puerto Rico, we played San Juan next:

SanJuan

Gamemaster: fineltour sits at position number 1.
Gamemaster: kayakpete sits at position number 2.
Gamemaster: Amazon4God sits at position number 3.
Gamemaster: Lamork sits at position number 4.

-- fineltour erreichte 30 SP, davon 26 SP durch Gebaeude und 0 SP durch grosse Gebaeude. Kapelle: 4
-- kayakpete erreichte 37 SP, davon 22 SP durch Gebaeude und 15 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Amazon4God erreichte 30 SP, davon 15 SP durch Gebaeude und 15 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Lamork erreichte 25 SP, davon 20 SP durch Gebaeude und 5 SP durch grosse Gebaeude.
-- Brilliantly, kayakpete won the game with 37 points. (49:54 min.)

Pete really liked the game. But maybe that's because he won. Bill and Pete both would like to try this on the tabletop. Too bad it's only 4 player. I won't see much action on the VBGG, unless we scale to two games.

50 minutes isn't a bad time for a first-go on a game.

Gabaeude is buildings, and grosse Gabaeude is the big buildings, or buildings with question marks.

Session Report April 25 2007 - The bumpy Caylus road

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

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

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

Game One - Boy, that was fast -

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

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

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

Game 3 - Bill went swimming?

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

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

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

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

Session Report: April 18 2007 - Ozzy would be Proud

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

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


Transamerica Game 1:

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

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

Transamerica Game 2:

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

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

Transamerica Game 3:

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

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

Transamerica Game 4:

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

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

Transamerica Game 5:

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

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

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

Session Report April 11 2007 - Snowing on Catan

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next week!

VBGG UNPLUGGED - April 3 2003

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

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

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

The Attendees:

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

The Games:

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


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

SEE you next year!!!

- Pete

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

Session Report March 28 2007

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

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

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

Much enjoyment was had.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers!

A little game

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

Settlers of Catan (standard, BSW) - Winner Collin

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

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

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

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

Short report this week. Sorry!

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In fact, here we all are:

• Pete
• Bill
• Beth
• Collin
• Dana
• Karen
  

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

And now my song is done.


See ya next week on the VBGG!

Session Report February 28 2007 - BSW Domestic Disturbance

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

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

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

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

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

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

abaate
zhakaagonagaa

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

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

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

Game One:

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

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

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

Game 2:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Session Report February 14 2007 - Valentines Day Invasion

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good game!

Happy Birthday VBGG - Reflections

Happy 1st Birthday VBGG!

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



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

Howdy -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Feel free to check out the VBGG Blog at:

http://vbgg.blogspot.com

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

Cheers!

- Kayakpete

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

We play again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good Good fun!

See you next week!

VBGG Brettspielwelt How-To

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

The Setup:

Register -

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

Click here to Register at Brettspielwelt

Download the Client -

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

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

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

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

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

See the Config Tool Help Page for details

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

You are now ready to Play!

BSW Navigation Tricks:

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

Commands:

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

Here's a full command list

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

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


Where can I see my BSW statistics

Check out the site

Session Report January 31 - Ra? Rah!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the end Pete did well:

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you next week!

Session Report: January 24 - Go with what works

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

From the desk of our correspondent, Collin:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Game: Guess Which Games We Played.

Skype Transcript, for your reading pleasure:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pete rolls his eyes.



But seriously.....

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

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

"See" you next week!

Session Report: January 10 2006 - Divide and Conquer

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

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


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

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

Table 1 -

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

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

• Cities3D HomePage
• Cities3D v0.9.1 Installer

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

Table 2:

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

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

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

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