I've seen some good links in the past, for explaining BSW for noobs. Please repeat them for me here again.


I gave BSW a try a couple years ago, but found the perpelixity factor/learning curve too high compared to my enthusiasm level for trying it.

Now I'm ready to give it another try. This time I'm determined to figure out how to navigate through the GUI and the "world" to get to the point where I'm actually playing.


This is the BSW I'm talking about, as FYI for any newbies
http://www.brettspielwelt.de/

Jim Cote's (ekted) BSW for Beginners thread is a good place to start

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/77942

(there are definitely some other additional good resources around here as well that I just can't remember where they are at the moment... I think there was a 5-part series that someone did a while back)

Boomer's Brettspielwelt Portal

Although the UI has changed a bit, especially in the Game Manager, this should still help you with the basics.

Checkout the Quick Start, Commands, and Etiquette sections.

The Instructions page is also good (although outdated) way to give you a feel for how some of the game User Interfaces work. In my experience this is one of the biggest barriers once you have mastered basic commands (some of game interfaces are just plain unintuitive).

Yep... joelamer did a great 5-part series.

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/97448 - Registering and Starting Up
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/97450 - How To Start the Games
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/97452 - Typical Game Play
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/97454 - Player Levels and Communication
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/97457 - BSW Client and Town System

Additionally, I got a lot of information on Boomer's BSW page. However, I don't know how much longer it will be up, or if it will continue to be updated. I know the forums have kind of died.

http://brettspielwelt.info/

What would be really handy is a series on how to actually go about playing some of the games - BSW has some of the worst designed interfaces I've ever seen.

Last time on I tried playing Settlers and Bohnanza, and I'm afraid to say I gave up and pulled out of both games because I couldn't work out how the hell I was supposed to do things.

Can you recommend any BSW games that don't have confusing interfaces, for newbies to start out on?

The only game I play regularly on BSW is Attika - I didn't find that too hard to figure out.

Power Grid and Ra are pretty straightforward too.

Carcassonne
Halali
Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck
Lost Cities
Packeis am Pol
Transamerica
VerfliXXt

My geeklist (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/4239) has links to useful info, as well as some info on the games. There are links to all of BSW's help pages (with instructions and interface info), and I've also added a few comments here and there about the interface.

I do believe that the BSW Settlers of Catan would fast track it straight into the Hall of Fame for Worst Game Interface Awards if such awards were ever given out. Even BSW fanatics sing songs around the (virtual) camp fire about how bad that interface is (that and the Stubby Index Finger song).

/channel BoardGameGeek
/save

There are usually friendly people in that channel, especially during the north american evenings. Ask there and you are likely to find someone who will teach you a game.

That's the most painless way to get started