CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 24/06/2010

1.     2 tables in play this week. On table 1 the group of 4 played “Glory to Rome”, a card game about controlling officials in Rome, constructing various buildings, all with the purpose of gaining the most fame points. A highly interactive game in which returning student Luke was just pipped by 1 point by Rob.

2.     On table 2 a group of 5 played the new release “Age of Industry”. This game is about building railway links to various towns on the board and constructing Cotton Mills, Iron Works, Coal Mines, Factories, Ports etc. Players then ship the goods produced by these towns via the railway links to the ports to generate income, which they use to expand their business empire even further. Money is tight in this game and players take out loans to finance their enterprises. They pay interest each turn on these loans so they try to pay them off as soon as possible. There are different strategies to adopt and the players have to react to what their opponents are doing.   In a very tight game Tony thought he might win but Richard was able to ship one last lot of Goods and this secured him the win by 5 points.

3.     Geoff departed early so we mixed the group up again and table 1 played a 3-player game of “Land Unter”, a light card game about saving your people from drowning. The players each play the same hands so the winner is the one who makes the best use of the cards when they receive them.  Upon his return Luke Williams was the winner. Welcome back Luke !!

4.     On table 1 5 players played “Dixit”. In this family game players are dealt 6 large cards upon which are printed some bizarre pictures. In each round one player is the “storyteller”, and they use a simple phrase to describe the card they have chosen and place it face down on the table. The other players select a card from their hand which they think best matches the clue given. They then vote for what they think the Storyteller’s card was. Points are awarded according the outcome of the voting, and each player receives a new card, and the next player is the new storyteller. The trick is to construct a phrase that entices the others to vote for your card, but not too obvious such that they all vote for it, as you get no points for that. An entertaining game in which Lucy was far too good for us and romped away to win.

5.     Table 2 played another game of “Glory to Rome” and this time the winner was Richard.

6.     Table 1 finished with another game of “Dixit”, and except for Mike who was appallingly bad this was closely fought out. Lucy was unable to repeat her earlier triumph and Rob managed to sneak a win by 1 point from Tony.

Games played and Winners were:

Glory to Rome game 1 Robert Piesse;

Age of Industry Richard Piesse;

Land Unter Luke Williams;

Dixit game 1 Lucy Newbury;

Dixit game 2 Robert Piesse;

Glory to Rome game 2 Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 17/06/2010

1.     2 tables in play this week. On table 1 the group of 6 played “Metro”, a game about building a network of underground train lines to try and connect the cities on the cards dealt to you at the start. Other players will divert the route to suit themselves so the game can be quite competitive. It ends when the last route is built and the players count up the number of tiles in their routes and score 1 point for each tile. Geoff was the winner.

2.     This table then played a riotous game of “Jamaica”, a pirate game about racing around a track laid out on the ocean. Many chances to steal food, gold and cannons from your opponents involving dice rolls so many loud cheers were heard. Geoff should have won again but was pipped by Richard

3.     On the other table the strategy civilisation game of “Antike” took place. This involves creating armies, sending them to adjacent lands and building cities there. In subsequent turns these cities generate production of iron ( to build more armies), marble( to build temples) and Gold  to pay for developments in technology. By accomplishing various actions, such as building 5 cities, or building 3 temples, the players gain character cards and they move further along the scoring track. The game is won by the first player to gain 9 cards. Tony achieved this and the game lasted 2 hours.

4.     On table 1 6 players played “The Great Dalmuti” a quick card game about getting rid of the cards dealt to you as quick as you can. After each game the players change places to reflect their finishing position, with the best player being named the Great Dalmuti. Richard achieved this on 3 separate occasions but the group decided that the 4^th game would be the decider and he came last or the Greater Peon as it is known. The final winner was Alistair.

5.     Table 2 played a 5-player game of “Durch die Wuste” which was played recently. It is about building camel trains through the desert and gaining points for connecting to oases and water holes. The winner was Richard by a few points from Mike.

6.     Table 1 finished with a game of “Manila”, in which players invest in punts which transport various commodities up the river from the harbour to Manila. A good gambling game and Chris was well behind when he had the good fortune to hire 2 pirates and steal the loot from 2 ships and ended up by winning the game. 

Games played and Winners were:

Metro Geoff Williams;

Jamaica Richard Piesse;

Antike Tony Simons;

The Great Dalmuti Alistair Gittin;

Durch die Wuste Richard Piesse;

Manila Chris Cook.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 10/06/2010

1.     We started with a 6-player game of “Die Mauer”, ( Masons). In this game each player starts with 5 pieces of wall, 1 tower and 1 gate and the object is to get rid of all your pieces by being the successful mason as often as possible in the building of a city wall. Players take it in turn to be the ‘mason’ for that turn and each player then secretly chooses a piece and places it in their hand. Depending upon the items chosen either the mason gets to build a piece or one of the other players gets to build instead. There are rules about which pieces can be placed next to each other and it’s a game of double–guessing your opponents moves to try and be first to rid yourself of all your pieces. Richard sneaked yet another win.

2.     With Chris’s arrival we split into 2 groups. Table 1 played “The Golden City”, a game to place you pieces in such a way that you contribute the most to the building of a city in the middle of an island. Entry from the ports is via a network of roads and you need to collect cards that depict the terrain that you wish to traverse as you make your way to the centre.  There are bonus cards to be picked up which give you victory points but these are fiercely contested over. The winner was Tony.

3.     On the other table the game of “Darjeeling” took place, in which players send their tea collectors to pick up tiles which depict a particular brand of tea. They are attempting to assemble enough tiles to generate crates of the product to load on the boats that are in the harbour. They earn points for this in a unique system which constantly changes the value of each product. Chris took a commanding early lead only to stall midway to be overtaken by Rob. Alistair was a slow starter but generated a lot of crates in one go so soon caught up. Mike made a significant move to take the lead but Chris took the game with a high-scoring manoeuvre which took him past the target of 100 points.

4.     We then split up again. On table 1 the new favourite “11 Nimmt” made yet another appearance, and the game was won by Chris.

5.     As table 2 had not finished their game on table 1 they played a game of “Carcassonne” to fill the time. This produced yet another win for Chris.

6.     Table 2’s game was a new issue called “Atlantic Triangle”, about merchant ships travelling from Europe to trade goods for some slaves in Africa, which were then subsequently shipped to the New World where they were traded for the various goods like cotton, tobacco, sugar etc. These then needed to be shipped back to Europe to earn revenue, thereby forming the triangle of the title. The revenue was used to purchase more ships, trade goods, and the cycle was repeated. Players earned victory point cards via certain actions. Event cards are played to affect the sequence by introducing pirates or storms or to empty various ports of goods, which make scoring the victory points quite difficult. The game is won when one player gains 10 victory points and Richard, with his ships loaded with muskets, was able to beat the [pirates and gain some victory points. He also traded more effectively than the others for a clear win.

Games played and Winners were:

Die Mauer Richard Piesse;

Golden City Tony Simons;

Darjeeling Chris Cook;

11 Nimmt Chris Cook;

Carcassonne Chris Cook;

Atlantic Triangle Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 03/06/2010

1.     We were 6 players to start with and we knew that Chris would be joining us later so we started with “Turf Horse racing”, which introduced newcomers Tim and Lucy to the game. By betting on similar horses  Tim and Lucy set the early lead and with a stunning finish by Silver Blaze in the last race Tim was able to secure his first victory since joining us.he and Lucy won easily with scores of 26 and 21 and Rob was third on 10 !!

2.     With Chris’s arrival we split into 2 groups. Mike introduced Tim, Lucy and Richard to “Durch duie Wuste”, a game of building camel trains through the desert. The players are trying to connect to water holes and oases, to pick up tokens, whilst at thye same time they try to enclose empty areas of desert, as these also bring points. A nice looking game, taking about 20 minutes to explain and about 30 minutes to play. Lucy won with 83 points , beating Richard on 74. This was Lucy’s first win since joining us.

3.     On the other table a group of 3 played “Ticket to Ride – Europe”, an expansion of the base game. Rob looked the likely winner but was unable to connect the cities on his final card and the reduction of points meant that Chris sneaked in with a narrow win.

4.     Tim and Lucy had to go at this stage so the remaining 5 players played “Adel Verpflichtet”, a game about collection art treasures and exhibiting them in a castle. However doing so invited the other players to send thieves along to steal things, and if a Detective card was played by another player they nabbed the thieves, put them in prison, and gained victory points for doing so. An unusual method for moving your piece around the scoring track  made this game of the year in 1990 when it was first published. The group seemed to like it and Mike looked the likely winner until the thieves of Chris and Richard stole some items from his final collection, which enabled them to display a more powerful collection of their own and they passed him, with Chris the outright winner.

5.     We did not want Chris to gain a hat trick of wins so the rest of us made him ‘Mr X’ in our final game of “Scotland Yard”, a game whereby the 4 players were detectives trying to capture the elusive ‘Mr X’, who was hiding in London. Chris was almost caught on 2 early occasions but he was finally nabbed on turn 17, so we claimed this as a team win as he lost !!

Games played and Winners were:

Turf Horse Racing Tim Havenith;

Dürch die Wüste Lucy Newbury;

Ticket To Ride Europe Chris Cook;

Adel Verpflichtet ChrisCook;

Scotland Yard the other players, as Chris lost.