CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 09/12/2010

1.    Despite the continuing low temperatures we had 8 players in attendance this week. On Table 1 Paul led a game of the new release “LONDON” and introduced Allister to the game.  Because of the need to explain the mechanisms to the new player it took over 2 hours to complete but once again all the players enjoyed it. Luke kept his building stacks to mainly 4 in number throughout, a clever strategy. Roger and Paul struggled to get rid of poverty points so they were always in trouble. Luke managed to get rid of all his poverty points near the game end, which meant that Roger and Paul lost many VPs. On his debut Allister was surprised to finish second, but this shows that the game can be played at different levels of knowledge. There was much analysis made at the end and all agreed that the game was a good one and it will be played a lot in the future.

2.       On Table 2 Mike introduced Lucy to ”INDUSTRIAL WASTE” which Tony and Geoff had already played. It is basically a card game about acquiring resources for your factory, fulfilling an order and gaining money for it. Each time you do this you generate pollution and this is recorded on your individual factory board. At the end of each turn you need to pay for the workers you have employed. Money is tight in the game and there is the opportunity to take loans but they must be paid back before the game end, otherwise they count as lost VPs. By playing certain cards a player can introduce innovation to either use less resources, less workers or generate less pollution. This is important as there is just one ‘Accident’ card in the deck and when this is discovered the players examine their current standing for pollution and get heavily penalised financially for being in either the Yellow zone or even worse, the Red zone, and they also reduce their earning power for fulfilling orders by 1. A neat series of mechanisms that has a variable game end condition so it’s difficult to predict who the winner is. A good business management game, which Geoff won, with Lucy second. Mike and Tony had too many unpaid loans at the end so they suffered for this.

3.       As Table 1 had still not finished table 2 turned to another clever auction/set collection game  this time “NEFERTITI”. This game is about players visiting different markets on the board with their servants in the hope of securing the right to acquire cards with different artefacts shown on them, and sometime a Royal Seal for use later in the game. The players are trying to build up sets of the same types which will bring them VPs at game end, but other players sometimes start collecting the same type and that devalues the set. Those who have acquired a Royal Seal can spend it to employ one of the 12 characters in the game which give special one-off powers, such as enhanced interim scoring, have 2 turns in succession, stealing a card from other players, gaining extra money etc. The way in which the markets are scored is novel and the whole game plays neatly in around 45-60 minutes. Tony and Lucy fought out a close finish with Tony just edging ahead in the last play as he had one Royal Seal left and this gave him 3 VPs, enough to take him past Lucy. Mike was a distant third, with Geoff trailing in 4^th.

 
Games played and Winners were:

Müll & Money Geoff Williams;

Nefertiti Tony Simons;

London Luke Williams.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 02/12/2010

1.    Due to the snow and other commitments we only had 7 players in attendance this week. On Table 2 Mike led a game of the new release “LONDON” and introduced Luke to the game.  Because of the need to explain the mechanisms this game took over 2 hours to complete but all the players enjoyed it. Paul used his buildings wisely and this enabled him to obtain 3 shops at one point, all earning him good money. He had planned to use this to pay off the loans he had taken out. He also had several buildings which did not flip so they were active for some time, and this kept his poverty points low.  Mike, Roger, and Luke maybe built too many stacks in their building display and kept gaining poverty points as a result. Mike thought he had a chance of being the one with the lowest poverty points at game end and he thought this might bring him into contention but Paul even managed to achieve that in his last turn. This meant that when all loans had been repaid, and victory points tallied up he ran out a clear winner with 60-odd points to Mike’s 35, Roger’s 21 and Luke’s 19. A classy victory for Paul but maybe the others have learnt a bit about how the cards inter-relate.

2.       Whilst this was going on Table 1 had 3 players playing a game of “PUERTO RICO”, a club favourite. In a tight finish Richard was victorious with 49 points and Robert and Tony tied on 46 points.

3.       As Table 2 had still not finished the 3 other players turned to “COSMIC ENCOUNTER”, an update of a fine game from the past. Each player is the leader of an alien race. The object of the game is to establish colonies in other players' planetary systems. Players take turns trying to establish colonies. The winner(s) are the first player(s) to have five colonies on any planets outside his or her home system. A player does not need to have colonies in all of the systems, just colonies on five planets outside his or her home system. These colonies may all be in one system or scattered over multiple systems. The players must use force, cunning, and diplomacy to ensure their victory. In another close finish Tony was victorious this time.

4.       As Table 2 had still not finished Table 1 played another game of “COSMIC ENCOUNTER “to finish the session. This time Richard came out on top.

Games played and Winners were:

Puerto Rico Richard Piesse;

Cosmic Encounter game 1 Tony Simons;

Cosmic Encounter game 2 Richard Piesse;

London Paul Bulpin.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 25/11/2010

1.    Table 1 played  another game of “WITCH TRIAL”, a card game which was introduced last week. There was much jostling at the start but after a build-up of court fees Allister swooped in to pick up the big prize and get the win.

2.       On Table Mike introduced 3 other players to “MYKERINOS”, a game about prospecting a land for control which will then appeal to certain patrons in the game. These patrons will be used in subsequent rounds to enhance movements and to provide valuable end-scoring opportunities. Players have a certain number of cubes allocated to them each turn and they use these to place upon a region on the board with a view to gaining control of certain parcels of land when everyone has passed in that round. There are specific rules about placing but these can be enhanced by using the powers of the patrons a player controls. Each region is scored and the victor gets to chose one of two options, these being to place cubes in the Museum for game end scoring or to grab one parcel of land, which comes with another patron’s favour. The second highest gets the second parcel or places a cube in the museum. If there are any parcels left to allocate the 3^rd and 4^th place in the region will get them. Players score interim points if these are shown on the parcels of land they collect but the real scoring occurs at game end after 4 rounds. Players score 5 points if they have managed to attract a complete set of 5 different patrons ; if they have  second complete set they score again. The cubes in the museum will be placed in a room valued any one of 2, 3 or 5 points, and the players calculate a score by multiplying the value of the highest value times the number of cards they have for that patron. This is added to their current score. Tony did well in the latter type of scoring, by having cubes in room 5 for several patrons and having 3 cards for that patron, scoring 15 points for each one. He romped away with the win scoring over 50 points whilst Mike was second with 30-odd and Geoff and Roger trailing behind. The message seems to be “get cubes in the museum”.

3.       Table 1 played “CHAOS IN THE OLD WORLD”, a game of mystical powers of various gods. Each god’s distinctive powers and legion of followers grant you unique strengths and diabolical abilities with which to corrupt and enslave the Old World. Players are trying to seek domination by corruption and conquest, but they must vie not only against each other, but also against the desperate denizens of the Old World who fight to banish you back to the maelstrom of the Realm of Chaos. Every turn you corrupt the landscape, dominating its inhabitants, and battle with the depraved followers of rival gods. Each god has a unique deck of gifts and abilities, and can upgrade their followers into deadly foes. Definitely a game for lovers of this sort of thing and Luke started very strongly, mainly at the expense of Paul. Everyone closed up towards the end but a strong finish in the last round enable Luke to grab the win.

4.       Back on Table 2 Mike introduced some of the players to “DAS AMULETT”, a game about collected jewels in 7 different colours to build your own amulet and the first to do so is the winner. At the start the jewels are placed randomly in various regions on the board, each region being a different type of terrain and requiring different types of Metal Cards with which to win the auction for the jewels contained within it. Players acquire Spell Cards in an auction each turn and they use their powers at appropriate times to collect more Metal Cards, or gain a discount off a bid at the auctions and many other varied things. The clever mechanism is that the numbers of Energy Stones used in the winning bid are placed upon the Spell Card. Each spell uses up energy at different rates so at the end of each turn players must spend the appropriate number of energy stones. Once the stones are exhausted the Spell Card is returned to the table. To gain jewels the active player select a counter at random which indicates how many regions will be visited in a round.  The winner of each auction in a region takes the jewel of their choice and then moves to an adjacent region where another auction takes place. This continues until the requisite number of regions has been visited. Play continues in this fashion until one player is able to claim victory. Chris took an early lead by winning a region and using his spell to take both jewels in the region. He repeated this until his spell expired. Allister also had a good start by winning in a region with a Pyramid, and his spell enabled him to take both jewels as well. Mike and Roger had spells which enabled them to make other players spell lose energy stones more quickly and they used those to slow Chris and Allister down. Tony and Geoff started to gain jewels too and then Mike used his spell that gave him better powers in regions adjacent to the Great Wall to gain jewels. Towards the end of the game 5 of the 6 players had 5 jewels and 1 had 4 jewels so it was anybodies game to win if they could get the right cards for the right region. By cleverly moving jewels around such that the ones he wanted were in adjacent regions to the current action Chris found himself winning an auction to secure the 7^th jewel and complete his amulet.

Games played and Winners were:

Witch Trial Allister Gittins;

Mykerionos Tony Simons;

Chaos in the Old World Luke Williams;

Das Amulett Chris Cook.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 18/11/2010

1.    Table 1 played “WITCH TRIAL”, a card game in which players represent lawyers in this humorous, psuedo-Colonial courtroom trial. Each player attempts to prosecute victims and make money by winning the case. All lawyers pair a Suspect with a Charge card to represent the case they are prosecuting. However, money can also be made by defending the cases that other lawyers are working on. When a case comes to court, players add their Evidence cards, and make Motions and Objections, in order to sway the jury to their side. Then the case is either settled by plea bargain (an agreement by lawyers to divide the case money) or by the jury (a 2D6 dice roll of 13 or more which includes all card modifiers played on this case). A fun game, in which the lawyer with the most money wins. Much laughter was generated and Allister thought he had won convincingly but Maria came a close second by successfully defending the last case, and she lost by just 5 points.

2.       Table 1 saw 4 players engaged in the new release “LONDON”. Players rebuild the city after the Great Fire, from cards selected during their turn. As with a lot of games, London is about scoring the most VPs. Players manage their hand, selecting cards to play into their building display by laying them out in a line. At some point a player will choose to run his city and they can activate their buildings in whatever order they prefer. The resulting actions can generate money and VPs, reduce poverty or have some other effect specified on the card, sometimes penalising the other players. Some cards have an entry cost which must be paid before the action can be performed. The poverty cubes are a great hindrance and players must be careful not to generate too many of these if they are to have a chance of winning the game. The components looked good, the final scoring was tight, but Tony emerged the victor.

3.       We then split into 3 groups and Table 3 played “METROPOLYS”, the city-building game that was introduced last week, so no need to elaborate here. Allister left his building until late and finished strongly but failed to catch up on Mike’s early lead.

4.       Table 2 played a silly card game called “THE TOTALLY RENAMED SPY GAME”, and the text being read out aloud by the players amused those on other tables. In the game , players take on the role of villains building their remote fortresses and capturing secret agents. When one is captured, he can be killed right away, but what's the fun in that? The real points come when you slowly reveal your secret plan to him, or leave him to be eaten by sharks. Of course, that's where the risk is too, and the longer you postpone the kill, the greater the likelihood that another player will produce a card that allows the agent to escape and destroy your fortress. Richard was the winner.

5.       Back on Table 3 4 players played “SETTLERS OF CATAN”, as Lucy and Maria has not played it before. Mike adopted a strategy to upgrade his starting settlement to a city and was lucky with the dice rolls to produce a lot of commodities which he traded to build yet another city, giving him 4 points.  Maria took the lead when she built the longest road but this was soon taken off her by Lucy, who built a road of 10 length. Allister moaned at his lack of resources but did eventually get up to 9 points. Mike continued to gather plenty of commodities and he was able to trade these in for lots of stone and wood so that he won the game by building a road length of 11 and taking the 2 point card from Lucy. 

6.       Table 1 saw 5 players engaged in a club favourite “PUERTO RICO”, the game about players occupying  plantations with the incoming colonists and constructing buildings to process the produce, which they eventually load onto ships and transport it back to home. The game was reviewed in earlier sessions so is not repeated here. As the players knew the game well the scoring was very close, with Richard winning with 51 points and Tony and Rob tying on 48 points. Luke and Roger were not really in contention.

Games played and Winners were:

Witch Trial Allister Gittins;

London Tony Simons;

Metropolys Mike Oakes;

The Totally Renamed Spy Game Richard Piesse;

Settlers of Catan Mike Oakes;

Puerto Rico Richard Piesse.