I really haven't visited central Europe as much as I should have. I wonder if some time we should try to gather together somewhere (Germany and the Netherlands look like the Dvonn hubs on LG, though France is reasonably well represented too.) for a meet and perhaps a friendly tournament? Would others hypothetically be interested, and if so, where more accurately are people situated? I'm in the Helsinki area, and am prepared to travel anywhere where there's a wide selection of good beer :-D

Then we have to go central, i.e. Belgium, for having a good beer. :)

Next month there will be the huge games fair in Essen, the perfect place to meet :-) I will be there, as well as a lot of other Dvonn / Gipf players I know.

Kris Burm has also been present there for the past years. If you have never been there before, plan to visit it this year or maybe next year. Last year there were over 150.000 visitors, all boardgame players.

See: http://www.merz-verlag.com/spiel/index.php4

Looks perfectly dreadful.

Hypothetically I'm interested :-)

It depends on location and date. Currently I have my foot in a cast, so I'm less mobile (won't travel, not even to work or the shop daily).

I'm based in Utrecht, The Netherlands (quite central ;-)). By the way: the supply of international beers is limited in Germany (hard to get Belgian beers ;-)), though we have decent German beers of course.

Jan has mentioned that Ducosim (a Dutch boardgame play organisation) has its own boardgame fair December 16th. See http://www.ducosim.nl/

I know Jan was thinking of playing Dvonn there with some people, if there are enough people interested. Perhaps even invite Kris Burm.

Essen is also not too far away, with a bit over 2 hours I can be there by train.

I was planning to go to Essen, however much of my group is not too sure so will have to see about that. But then, if I go to Essen I'm not going to waste my time playing yet more DVONN (there's more games to life ;) So how about a dedicated meet somewhere in Holland or Belgium? Not too many Belgians on LG strangely but it's very central for French, German and Dutch players. We could crash Kris Burm's place if someone has the address?;) Then again, aforementioned Utrecht is very close to us (me and Moira).

I'm only available until mid-november though, after that I'll again be in New Zealand for some time.

Is RoRoRo coming as well? ;)

I wouldn't expect to spend more than 0.02% of the time sober if it were to be Belgium :-D . Then again, Utrecht don't look too shabby. :*)

RoRoRo's not very portable currently, but I'll see what I can do. He's never more than an SSH away though.

I know most of the places your link mentions, FatPhil. And for the distance: it's doable to walk from Ledig Erf via Bert's Bierhuis (shop) to Belgie, hop by Oudaen and off to Olivier. Jan Primus is not on the route…

Ssh can be arranged, though a pub with wireless is rare I think…

No objections to Utrecht ;-)

Looks like I am going to Essen after all, and Moira will be coming as well. We'll probably go on the sunday. Anyone planning to be there?

It appears that getting to Holland isn't as cheap as I first hoped, so I'll need to do a bit of saving in order to make a trip over there, and should probably make a proper holiday of it next year rather than just a long weekend. A friend who wants to do some beer-tourism with me has hinted that March would be a good time for him.

Ok. It all suits me. Travelling from Finland may be pricy yes… I would have doubts with coming over to Finland as well… But let's see how many people would be interested in a meet this year :-)

Next year _again_ would be a valid option for me as well.

How many people are going to Essen? I won't. My mobility - and time - is not as good as I hoped.

Essen was already this week, so your question is a bit late ;-) I was there and bought the latest Gipf series game Tzaar, which is very nice and has many similarities with Dvonn. It would be nice if it would come to LittleGolem.

Any Dvonn meet in the Netherlands (or within reasonable distance from it), I will try to attend.

Ok, rephrase: how many of you guys (and girls) went to Essen? Meet any LittleGolemers?

Tzaar.. Haven't heard of it yet. Interesting. I thought Kris finalized his project :-)

I was in Essen, I met quite a few Dvonn players, but none from LittleGolem that I am aware of. Tzaar is the replacement of Tamsk in the Gipf project. Tamsk is taken out of the series since it does not fit so well in it. With Tzaar it now really is completed.

I was in Essen and got myself a copy of TZAAR, but I didn't bother hanging out at the gipf stand.. too many other things to do:)

I like Tzaar.. it has many similarities to Dvonn but is quite a different game all the same. It would be great to see it up on LG (or Biskai, but I can never be bothered to start every game myself, so here's hoping for LG). Will definitely bring my copy to any Dvonn meet.

Alright.. I guess a Dvonn meet would be next year (don't see it happening this year). Anybody preferences for a location? Good opportunity for playing TZAAR :-)

Just for reference, my g/f & I are thinking about plodding down to plucky little Belgium in order to go to A weekend retreat for meditation and spiritual well-being, and might do so via other parts of the low countries, between two consecutive weekends. Dvonn could certainly be on my agenda (as could other GIPF games).

Any interest? We'll probably be booking flights in the next couple of days, and haven't decided in which direction (both in time and geography) to extend our Belgian trip.

Let me know if you are planning to cross Belgium's north border. I'm about 80km north from that beer festival.

Would be a good reason to dust off my dvonn and yinsh sets.

That border's always been on the cards!

Here's the plan, as it currently stands:

Wed 25th Feb - Amsterdam, .nl (arrive in the afternoon)

Fri - Brussels, .be overnight

Sat 1st Mar - Cantillon open day and Zythos Beer Festival, .be, probably stay in Antwerp overnight

Sun 2nd Mar - Zythos Beer Festival, .be, probably stay in Antwerp overnight

Wed 5th Mar - Amsterdam, .nl (leave in the morning)

Nothing apart from the flights is confirmed _yet_, but will be doing various sad touristy things, so Bruges will be high priority while we're south of the border. It's entirely reasonable to stop off in Utrecht for an evening while wandering down south or heading back up north, for example. Playing lighting dvonn against a human would I'm sure be much more fun than playing against bloody RoRoRo, who'll be staying at home.

If anyone has general touristy 'must see' advice for a couple who've not really been to the Low Countries before, feel free to shout or private message me.

Wed 27th

Must see at the Low country: the own made land; lowest ever with it's rebuild VOC ship the Batavia: in Lelystad (my home town); good place to meet?\

Moira.

Of course, I studied the polders in geography at school, but I've never actually been to them. I quite like maritime museums too, so that sounds good. (And here I must plug the Vaasa museum in Stockholm, which blows all other such museums quite literally out of the water!)

We might have a chance to head east to the 'southern sea' at either the start or end of our trip, but it will need careful planning.

At the end of your trip then, because I will leave tomorrow to England for a few days and then again off the friday in the week after. So probably the best day will be wednesday the 27? Well just let me know, I will keep an eye on this forum.

Thurday 28 in Amsterdam is also a possibility

Thursday 28 in Amsterdam is perfect for us, we'll be there all day and all night.

Anyone waving a Dvonn/Einstein/whatever board at me anywhere near any of the following locations will be bought a drink! (Methods of recognising me can be provided if need be, I guess.)

Wed 27 -> Amsterdam - Got to be Arendsnest reallyThu 28  Tourism + socialising in Zotte, Gollem, Arendsnest, wherever...Fri 29 -> Brussels - day tourism, evening in Delirium Café,Sat  1  day -> Zythos Beer Festival, evening -> BrusselsSun  2  morning - work out where head is, day -> ZBF again, evening -> BrugesMon  3  Tourism + evening in ’t Brugs Beertje, Bier Tempel, ...Tue  4 -> (Antwerp quickly? ->) Amsterdam, shopping in cracked kettle.Wed  5 -> away, with 2 rucksacks full of bottles.

Sorry, Utrecht, maybe next time. But I promise you, Schaapmans, that I'm looking forward to that pub crawl :-D

Allright thursdayevening 28-2 19:00 at the Zotte?

It's a plan! Our hostel is *right* opposite Zotte, so that's nice and convenient. I'll privmsg you my GSM number to prevent nightmare scenarios. (Which for those who are shy or plan to be spontaneous can also be found at http://www.asdf.fi/ )

Pity I've missed this one :-(

Next time, I'd like to be there. How was it?

I wish I lived closer, as I'd love to pop down again. And next time, there will be a no-smoking rule in pubs, which will help me enjoy the beer even more!

HI,

Anyone ever played on http://boardspace.net?

Im posting it here because its not very bussy over there and there are great players here!

U can play al gipf project games in realtime. Great if you wanna play a full game.

Check it out and see if you like it.

Hope 2 see some of you there.

Kind regards

MRGREEDY

No, I only play here. Everyone over there should join here for dvonn games!

However I'm desperate for an excuse to visit the low countries again, so approve of resurrecting this thread. I think Anna and I will be hitting Zythos again this year, so perhaps a bigger meet can be organised this time. With or without dvonn is OK (pefer with), without beer is a physical impossibility! (As in it would actually violate the laws of physics.)

What are the plans of where and when of a Dvonn meet? Would be fun to see some peeps IRL :-) And have a good beer and a game of Dvonn.

@FatPhil: That reminds me on my college times… You know the shortest physicist joke? Two physicist pass by a bar.

I've spent most of January travelling (Belgium a couple of weeks back, Cambridge/London right now) so probably won't be able to afford another trip before summer, and London's already booked me for then.