GWJ Online Boardgame Group

matttutor wrote:

Given that I am not (and doubt I will ever become) a premium member, a part of me feels guilty about asking this but I guess I am ultimately OK with it.

I would like to play/ try Feast for Odin, Parks, 7 Wonders Duel and or Patchwork - can someone please invite me? (async, slow/steady gameplay)

I also want to try Great Western Trail - if you do also, let me know and I can create a game (or another Alpha game of interest ... I won't know how to play it but ...)

What is your BGA username? I'm down for all of the above! Just did a learning game of Great Western Trail with some other Goodjers and I'd be interested in trying it again. Feast for Odin will be new to me but happy to learn, and 7 Wonders Duel and Patchwork are both good fun. I'm Dreaded Gazebo on there.

pizzaddict wrote:
cheesycrouton wrote:

If you all start up another Rallyman GT game, I'd like to join. Thanks!

Game is open, I had sent an invite to a player on BGA with the name cheesycrouton, but they weren't part of the GWJ group so wasn't sure it was you.

Oops, I missed the invite. I did join the GWJ group now, so hopefully I'll be notified in the future.

matttutor wrote:

Given that I am not (and doubt I will ever become) a premium member, a part of me feels guilty about asking this but I guess I am ultimately OK with it.

I would like to play/ try Feast for Odin, Parks, 7 Wonders Duel and or Patchwork - can someone please invite me? (async, slow/steady gameplay)

I also want to try Great Western Trail - if you do also, let me know and I can create a game (or another Alpha game of interest ... I won't know how to play it but ...)

mattutor, I'm sorry that didn't take. My bad...too many games going on. I will definitely keep an eye out in the future.

matttutor wrote:
Keithustus wrote:

BGA question:

friend of mine signed up for BGA and already went premium, is trying to get a game going with us two and another friend. How exactly does inviting friends supposed to work? Is there a place I can see all the invites I've been sent? I have seen a top-of-main-page horizontal banner once or twice, but is that the only way to see if you've been invited to a table? Doesn't seem to show them in "!" notifications or "..." chat as I'd expect.

Ah, the mysteries of the BGA UI...

Hard to test this out as I cannot invite myself to a game, but I believe your "invitations" would appear in your current "list of games" - meaning a seat is saved for you at those game tables, so it gets added to your current tables/games.

[EDIT] - OK, testing a little. Does not appear in the '!' notifications. DOES appear in the games in progress as I stated. DOES appear as a banner across whole webpage (no idea how that works on phone/mobile).

AND you can configure your profile settings so that you receive an email notification for invites. Handy ... ?

matttutor wrote:
matttutor wrote:
Keithustus wrote:

BGA question:
Is there a place I can see all the invites I've been sent?

[EDIT] - OK, testing a little. Does not appear in the '!' notifications. DOES appear in the games in progress as I stated. DOES appear as a banner across whole webpage (no idea how that works on phone/mobile).

AND you can configure your profile settings so that you receive an email notification for invites. Handy ... ?

All of that unreliably. My new-user, premium friend has tried inviting me and another new user to Carcassonne games…at least four times. I have never been emailed about those despite having that setting to do so. I have seen a homepage banner—once—and accepted that, but have never seen any of those other games/invites listed in my “view all current tables” / “your games in progress” page except for that one. The only game-invite email I have ever received was for the BTS game that started on the 12th. We suspect that game invites cancel quickly if not all players confirm them rapidly?

That’s true. I don’t know how rapidly but I had a few open tables that I linked above, and they were all canceled within a few days, after we didn’t fill them.

I've posted a few new game tables:

* Saint Petersburg: https://boardgamearena.com/table?tab...

* Dragon Castle: https://boardgamearena.com/table?tab...

* Railways of the World on the Mexico map: https://boardgamearena.com/table?tab...

Saint Petersburg and Dragon Castle are both fairly rules-light and should be easy to learn async if you've never played before. They are also a bit shorter on play time so don't go on forever.

Railways of the World is a bit more involved. The rules are actually not too complex but there is an auction for turn order every round (where a round consists of three actions) so that auction can slow things down a bit async. It's still one of my all-time favorite board games though so if async is my opportunity to play it so be it!

I joined Dragon Castle, which I've played before, and St. Petersburg, which I haven't. Also posted another table for Agricola, which can be accessed here:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?tab...

Rules I toggled:
* Enable C & D cards
* Draft 10 occupations & minor improvements, keep 7
* "Competitive" mode (says it prevents drawing a few overpowered cards)

Anyone's welcome to play! I'll check back in a day or so to see if we have any takers, so the table doesn't close for lack of interest (like last time).

I joined the Railways to the World game (JNacht on BGA). I'll also look for that Agricola game, and I'd be up for joining a lot of the other games mentioned - Odin, Great Western Trail, etc.

Bump! Anyone interested in Agricola? Join here:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?tab...

LastSurprise wrote:

Bump! Anyone interested in Agricola? Join here:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?tab...

I was going to leave room in 'gric as it's not my favorite, but what the heck. Playing games is better than not playing games

YES! One more for the game. If I don't have another by tomorrow, I'll start us with 3.

::Natus blunders drunkenly into two heavy Rosenberg games he has little experience with::

The rest of you are just playing for first through third.

Do you play any games synchronously? I have a group of old work buddies that play once or twice a month on TTS and it's been a blast. While I'm not opposed to async play, it would be fun to get together to play and learn a board game with you folks in a more interactive way.

fuzzyslug wrote:

Do you play any games synchronously? I have a group of old work buddies that play once or twice a month on TTS and it's been a blast. While I'm not opposed to async play, it would be fun to get together to play and learn a board game with you folks in a more interactive way.

Absolutely. I have the unfortunate habit of leaving the tab for BGA open on my browser. In between work stints, I will look at the Real Time tables of some of my favorite games and see how full they are. Sometimes I'll jump in if just a fourth is needed.

But other than a few years ago, I personally haven't played live with Goodjers, and we have our own Discord channel to use.

Speaking of synchronous games (I'm EST and can play late) , I'd love to play

A Feast For Odin
Tigris & Euphrates
St. Petersburg
Jaipur

And, of course, 7 Wonders: Duel if there are other interested parties.

Is Tigris and Euphrates in bga alpha?

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Is Tigris and Euphrates in bga alpha?

It sure is!

Bubblefuzz wrote:

Is Tigris and Euphrates in bga alpha?

It's very well done, but then I love that game.

Ooh, if there's a spot going sometime drop me an invite. Be appreciated. Never played it but hear good things.

I'm open to try out Tigris & Euphrates on BGA. I've played it a couple of times on Tabletop Simulator and enjoyed it. I've played its sister game Yellow & Yangtze a lot more via the digital app version (it's very well done) and currently prefer that one, probably because it's more familiar to me.

Happy to play synchronously if we can all find a suitable time across time zones, otherwise async is also good.

For those not aware, there's a channel on the GWJ discord for planning online board games that may help sort out dates/times.

So I tried to start a T&E asynch game, but it's still in Alpha, so you may need to request access here to the "playtest group." I couldn't invite anybody who wasn't a part of it. Which is annoying.

Just played Lost Ruins of Arnak with friends last night. It's fine....much like Dune: Imperium. We'll see if it has legs (not boots, haha). I'm curious to know what are Goodjers "can't miss" games on BGA.

Natus wrote:

So I tried to start a T&E asynch game, but it's still in Alpha, so you may need to request access here to the "playtest group." I couldn't invite anybody who wasn't a part of it. Which is annoying.

That shouldn't be the case, only the room creator should requite alpha access. There are some oddities with starting alpha games as I think it initially treats them as realtime, but you can convert to turn based. You do have to directly invite, can't just pass along the room link.

I just set up a room and sent out some direct invites, we'll see what happens.

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:
Natus wrote:

So I tried to start a T&E asynch game, but it's still in Alpha, so you may need to request access here to the "playtest group." I couldn't invite anybody who wasn't a part of it. Which is annoying.

That shouldn't be the case, only the room creator should requite alpha access. There are some oddities with starting alpha games as I think it initially treats them as realtime, but you can convert to turn based. You do have to directly invite, can't just pass along the room link.

I just set up a room and sent out some direct invites, we'll see what happens.

Clearly, your meta T&E skillz far surpass mine. Thank you!

Natus wrote:

Just played Lost Ruins of Arnak with friends last night. It's fine....much like Dune: Imperium. We'll see if it has legs (not boots, haha). I'm curious to know what are Goodjers "can't miss" games on BGA.

I also thought Lost Ruins of Arnak was just fine the first time I played but I've enjoyed it more each game I've played thereafter. I tend not to play the more complex games on BGA, as I prefer playing those live on Tabletop Simulator or at a real table.

Here are a few of the games that I currently enjoy the most on BGA:

- Targi
- The Castles of Burgundy
- 7 Wonders Duel
- Beyond the Sun
- Lost Ruins of Arnak
- Welcome To
- Santorini
- Rallyman: GT
- Russian Railroads

Cheers for the T&E invite, will watch a quick overview vid later to see what's what.

Mmm... My faves on bga....

... 10 of my bga faves in no particular order...

Agricola
Targi
7 Wonders Duel
Tzolkin
Russian Railroads
Innovation
Dungeon Petz
City of the Big Shoulders
Castles of Burgundy
A Feast for Odin

... and a bonus alpha 11th spot...
Great Western Trail

Bubblefuzz wrote:

... 10 of my bga faves in no particular order...

Agricola
Targi
7 Wonders Duel
Tzolkin
Russian Railroads
Innovation
Dungeon Petz
City of the Big Shoulders
Castles of Burgundy
A Feast for Odin

... and a bonus alpha 11th spot...
Great Western Trail

I see we have some similar faves Of the ones not on my list, I've played Tzolkin a couple of times on BGA and haven't quite grasped its mechanics yet. Great Western Trail didn't work for me async but it's a very good game. City of the Big Shoulders is a great game, haven't tried on BGA yet. A Feast for Odin is high on my to-play list, will try on Tabletop Simulator first before BGA. Dungeon Petz I've played a couple of games on BGA and enjoyed that one. Innovation looks intriguing, I wouldn't mind trying that one out on BGA.

Tried the new Blood Rage implementation with friends over the weekend, and it's a rare BGA miss for us. There are too many things that happen in F2F Blood Rage that are lost when playing it online like this, and it really loses something. We kept missing basic information about what people had played, and there was no opportunity to read body language, nonverbal communication, even deal-making and negotiation pretty much goes out the window. Blood Rage is one of our favorite games and we'll continue to just play in person every once in awhile.

I'm also in a 6-player async game of 7 Wonders Architects and while the implementation itself is great, playing it asynchronously is atrocious. You can probably play an entire game in 20 minutes real-time, but this is going to last a month at the rate we're going.

Boudreaux wrote:

Tried the new Blood Rage implementation with friends over the weekend, and it's a rare BGA miss for us. There are too many things that happen in F2F Blood Rage that are lost when playing it online like this, and it really loses something. We kept missing basic information about what people had played, and there was no opportunity to read body language, nonverbal communication, even deal-making and negotiation pretty much goes out the window. Blood Rage is one of our favorite games and we'll continue to just play in person every once in awhile.

We had bugs in our early Beta game, and I sure wouldn't play any of these games virtually if you're looking for tells, signals, deal-making, or negotiation, though I wonder how much of that goes on in BR. My experience with the Lang games of this sort is that they are largely on rails. Sure, there's maybe a bit of "attack him, he's winning!", but Diplomacy this is not.

Boudreaux wrote:

I'm also in a 6-player async game of 7 Wonders Architects and while the implementation itself is great, playing it asynchronously is atrocious. You can probably play an entire game in 20 minutes real-time, but this is going to last a month at the rate we're going.

I'm with you. I wouldn't go near any 7 Wonders game asynch.