CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 08/07/2010

1.     2 tables in play this week. On table 1 the group of 4 played “SANTIAGO”, a, game about planting vegetables in fields and then hoping to persuade the Overseer to irrigate the fields so that they don’t perish. A unique bidding system for control of the Overseer makes this game different. Players score points in the end for the size of their adjacent fileds of the same crop and the number of workers in the filed. Clever little game, which was won by Tony, the experienced one !

2.     Table 2 opted for “ATLANTIC STAR”, a card game about building up shipping lines to visit various routes. Strong competition for the cards makes the bidding a bit fierce. Eventually the players run out of money to buy the cards and have to reduce the value of their completed shipping lines to raise more cash. However by doing so they drop down the order of merit on the scoring track and sacrifice victory points, so it’s a tough decision. Luke waited until the last round to complete the highest –scoring Blue route and that gave him a storming total to win easily.

3.     Table 1 then played “SAN MARCO”, a smashing little game about placing your workers in any of the areas of Venice so that you have control when the Doge visits, and thereby score victory points. The unique things about this game is that the players take it in turns to create hands of cards for each player and they offer these with a series of penalty points attached to each one. The other players choose which options to take and then act upon them. The trick is to make your offers attractive enough so that you get the cards you want. Very interactive and one the result is difficult to determine right up to the end, but Tim eventually won through.

4.       On table 2 the other players played “WINNERS CIRCLE”, an updated version of the club favourite “Turf Horse racing”. It was discovered that Lucy worked in Coral’s betting shop for 3 years and she put this knowledge to good use and romped away with a victory by a wide margin. Well played Lucy !!.

5.       We split into different groups to play the last games of the evening. On table 2 4 players played “BOHANSA”, a card game about planting your crops in fields and then harvesting them. Essentially a trading game as you need to obtain cards from other players to increase the yield from your fields, but they will want a good deal in return so you had better make it sweet. Played in 3 rounds the game is quite quick but once more the result is not clear until the final count has been made. A good little filler, in which Rob was victorious by just 1 point.

6.       Table 1 had 5 players playing MISSION RED PLANET”, a space game about sending craft to distant stations and populating them. Lots of competition between the players to get their pieces on the craft before they launch so that they can control the stations. In a tight finish Richard came through to win. 

Games played and Winners were:

Santiago Tony Simons;

Atlantic Star Luke Williams;

San Marco Tim Havenith;

Winners Circle Lucy Newbury;

Bohansa Robert Piesse;

Mission Red Planet Richard Piesse.