GWJ Online Boardgame Group

Official Game nights are Wednesdays starting at 8PM Eastern Standard Time Meet up in the Ventrillo Server.

Official Games for this upcoming Wednesday: Check the end of the thread, as the OP will likely not be updated with them for the time being.

Official EU Game nights are ALSO Wednesday at 8PM Greenwich Mean Time!

Feel free to organize other evenings and/or get other games going during the official evenings - especially games we've played before! 7 Wonders, San Juan, Pandemic, Power Grid, etc - all games we've played. Check the thread for rules explanations and such - they're there somewhere.

----------------------------------------
Play by Email games are ongoing!
Right now, there are games of Tikal on SpielByWebongoing, as well as Wallenstein and Through the Ages.

Check the thread regularly for new PBEM games opening, or create your own and post it in the thread! So far we've had great turnout.

-----------------------------------------------
Steam Group is up! http://steamcommunity.com/groups/gwjbg

GWJ Vent info can be found here. Meet here and/or in the Steam Chat for events!

Long story short - the goal of the group is to enable a platform for announcements and events to get people together to play boardgames online or by email using the variety of different platforms online, and to help each other learn to use both the games and the platform.

------------------------------------------
Sites to play online board games:

BrettSpeilWelt - The biggy, with the most selection. Register and download the client. List of games is here.

Board Game Arena - a nice simple site, with good UI, that supports Dominion, Race for the Galaxy, Stone Age, Puerto Rico, and others.

Days of Wonder - official site, but allows you to play Ticket to Ride, Memoir 44, and Gang of Four online. If you have a DoW game you can get a full account, and there is a pay for play credits system

Game Table Online It's the single best in Rabbit's opinion. 1960, axis & allies, battle cry, acquire, etc ...

Isotropic - An excellent, quick, and simple place to play Dominion and all expansions

Yucata - Lots of lesser-known games.

Boite A Jeux - Has Agricola, among other things.

http://www.slothninja.com/ has Martin Wallace's After the Flood and the hard to find Tammany Hall.

JSR - web based interface for playing 7 Wonders. In French, and tricky to navigate at first (see BGG thread), but good when you persevere. Note: Turns are asynchronous unless you get a group together. Also probably superceded by the BSW version.

---------------------------------------
Sites for Play By Email Games:

SpielByWeb - Probably my favorite of the bunch, the game interfaces are great and it does a good job notifying you when it's your turn. Tikal is awesome PBEM.

MaBiWeb - Small selection but good interface.

Yucata - Lots of lesser-known games.

Through the Ages - Fantastic implementation of Through the Ages. Unfortunately the site tends to go down somewhat frequently.

-----------------------------------------------
Resources to learn to play boardgames

Board Games with Scott - Video Tutorials of Board Games

The How To Play Podcast- Audio Tutorials of Board Games. Some of these are quite long, but that's because he actually goes into some basic strategy and thoughts about these games as well, which I find helpful as it goes beyond just a rules explanation.

Both are excellent resources, but both are unfortunately incomplete lists - these guys do these in their spare time so not every single game available is out there!

For games not available on those two podcasts, you will likely be able to find a PDF online by googling, or a youtube video with an explanation. There is also an iPhone app that has boardgame rulebooks on it, though I forget what its called.

I recommend that everyone interested in participating learn to play Dominion and Seven Wonders, as these are nice, short games to play while we're waiting for someone, or while some people are being explained the rules to another game.