CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 29/07/2010

1.     2 tables in play this week. On table 1 the group of 4 played “IMPERIAL” a game about players investing in different nations, maximising their profit by building factories and the like to increase productivity and therefore the wealth of the country , then selling their investments at a profit before taxing the countries to penalise other players who are still investing in that country. Players can expand their holdings by waging war with neighbouring countries, so the game is a mixture of business and aggression. Tony , being the owner of the game won, but only by a slender margin.

2.     On Table 2 the remaining 6 players played “UNION PACIFIC”, a railway game set in America about expanding any one of the 9 railroads in the game and then collecting share certificates in the various companies. Later on, as an alternative to building track, players can declare some of their shareholding acquired in previous rounds and they need to have done that before any of the 4 scoring cards are revealed. Once this happens each companies share value is determined and this is the amount paid out to the majority shareholder at the time, with the secondary shareholder getting half. There is a constant battle to obtain more share certificates and to sometimes take over control of a company from other players. A highly interactive game, with fluctuating fortunes and a variable game end as the scoring cards are shuffled randomly into the shares deck. By a fluke there were 2 scoring cards adjacent to each other so this meant that Geoff scored heavily in these 2 rounds before other players had a chance to expand their interests and he maintained this advantage until the end, despite a late challenge from Ian.

3.     The group then played the card game “6 NIMMT”, introducing it to our guest player Guy. In each round players start with 10 cards, each being a different value. It is about getting rid of your hand of 10 cards and scoring the least penalty points for those cards you pick up in play. The game is played over several rounds until one player reaches a total of 66 penalty points or more and then the player with the lowest score is declared the winner. Despite Mike winning the first round with zero points he failed to maintain that level and Geoff was in excellent form again and scored his second win of the evening.

4.       Guy then dropped out so Table 2 were down to 5 players and they played “PENGUIN PARTY”, a silly little card game about building a pyramid of penguins according to various rules. If a player cannot add to the construction of the pyramid they pick up penalty chips to the value of how many cards they have left in their hand at the time. If a player manages to get rid of all their cards in a round they pay 2 penalty chips back into the pool. After a series of 4 rounds 3 of the 5 players each had 3 chips in front of them so it was all to play for in the final round, in which Ian managed to get rid of all his cards to emerge the winner.

Games played and Winners were:

Union Pacific Geoff Williams;

6 Nimmt Geoff Williams;

Penguin Party Ian Fleming;

Imperial Tony Simons.