CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 28/10/2010

1.       Despite a few absences we had 3 new players, including a couple of youngsters, to swell the number to 11. Table 1 started with “PENGUIN PARADE”, a light card game about building a pyramid of penguins, a game we have played before. Newcomer Matthew Bulpin was the winner.

2.       Table 2 saw 4 players engaged in “INDUSTRIA”, a game of building different factories and technologies through a series of 5 Epochs in order to gain victory points. The factories and technologies are auctioned off each turn, along with some resources like Stone and Wood, plus enhancements such as Ports or Railway Lines. In a simple turn sequence the players firstly receive income, then they bid at auctions to obtain the items on offer, then they take it in turns to construct factories or technologies they have acquired, providing they have the resources and money to do so, and then the start player token moves round. Certain buildings bring instant victory points when they are constructed. If a player does not have a certain resource needed to build they must buy it from a player who has factory that does produce it or buy it from the bank if allowed to do so. This cash flow is important as the money in the game is very tight. Another way to earn VPs at the game end is to construct adjacent factories or technologies that are connect by a path or a line. By doing so they will collect 3 VPs per connection at game end. The enhancements they gain throughout the game are worth 2 points for each factory in which they are present, another way to get VPs. Finally any money left at the end is converted into VPs at the rate of 3 per point, so yet another way to earn points. Putting all this together needs a bit of thought to get the right resources to build the right factories or technologies. The auctions are key to this but there are many ways to win. Robert held an early lead as he constructed some factories. Lucy collected a sizable amount of money by accepting auction bids for her lots. Mike and Chris moved slowly along the VP track by usually building just one item per epoch, so they fell behind. However by Epoch 3 Lucy had caught Robert and with her discounts gained from her buildings she was able to build further factories at low cost and moved ahead in the scoring. Chris made a late rally but all too late and the final scores were Lucy 45; Chris 39, Robert 37, Mike 35

3.       To help the new players Table 1 played the enjoyable horse racing game “WINNERS CIRCLE”, a club favourite, and one that was reviewed earlier. The newcomers enjoyed the mechanics of the game but sadly did not make a winning debut and Geoff was the eventual winner.

4.        The newcomers had to go at this point as the youngsters were under 10, so we split into 2 groups of 5 and 4. Table 2 played “PUERTO RICO”, to complete their session, and Luke was once again unlucky to be picked on.  He made the mistake of sitting on Richard’s left and as the former build several quarries he was able to construct buildings at a discount and won easily. So for once Lucy was off the winner’s rostrum, a rare occurrence!!.

5.     Table 1 introduced Chris to “HANSA”, a clever trading game based upon shipping goods around Europe in the days of the Hanseatic League. Players spend money to sail a ship to a port, purchase goods there and pay the player with the largest market share in that port and then they sail on to try to deliver the goods to a port where they have a market presence and if so they can convert the goods into victory points. However this is done at the cost of reducing their market influence by one token so they may no longer be the leading force in that port in the future. Money is tight in the game so players cannot always do what they want. As there is only one ship in the game each player moves it on their turn so it’s very rarely in the port that a player wants at the start of their turn. Roger gained a lot of income for his markets and this enabled him to sail more than the others and to collect more goods which he turned into victory points. The final scores were Roger 53, Mike 42, Geoff 41 and newcomer Chris 28.

Games played and Winners were:

Penguin Parade Matthew Bulpin;

Industria Lucy Newbury;

Winners Circle Geoff Williams;

Puerto Rico Richard Piesse;

Hansa Roger Skull.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 21/10/2010

1.       With Mike absent for the first hour the players split into groups of 3 and 5. The latter played “CANAL  MANIA” on table 1, a game about the building of the canal network in the 1800’s. Players select contracts to build a canal and then by acquiring cards of certain type of construction they build the route between the 2 cities mentioned on the contract and receive victory points when they do so. Furthermore goods of various colours are ‘manufactured’ in certain cities and at the end of their turn players can deliver these goods to other cities using their canals, plus sometimes the stretches of their opponents and gain more VPs. Building is not straightforward as there are mountains to overcome, and also the other players build into cities that you need to connect, which is annoying. The game lasted around 2 hours and Robert managed his network to good effect to score a relatively easy victory.

2.       Table 2 saw 3 players engaged in “CITIES” whilst waiting for Mike to arrive. Players are trying to build a city which is the most attractive to tourists by making large parks and putting attractions close together. They guide the tourists to their favourite spots to earn victory points. The tile draw is random so players have to decide whether wait for the perfect tile to increase their score or change their planning. The game played quickly enough for 3 games to be completed and Roger, Lucy and Tony each won a game so honours were even.

3.       With Mike’s arrival Table 2 then played a 4-player version of “LE HAVRE”, a game which was played a couple of week’s ago and Lucy scored a stunning victory. This time things were a lot closer with Tony in attendance and fierce competition broke out for the vital building or resources. Once again Lucy positioned herself to receive regular income and built some useful buildings. Tony was her closest pursuer, with Mike and Roger somewhat distant. In the final turn Tony came close to catching Lucy but she was able to ship some goods to earn enough coins to win, with the final scores being Lucy 110, Tony 98, Mike 62 and Roger 48, so once again the “queen of the boards” came out on top!!

4.        Table 1 played “DIXIT”, to complete their session, and Robert gained an early lead with Geoff a long way behind. However Robert then slowed down and Geoff and Richard made up ground rapidly, with Richard just sneaking a win in the end.

5.       Table 2 played a strange Japanese card game to finish with, called “FALLING WATER”. Each player has a set of cards in 3 colours and different values. Each turn a card is revealed which dictates the scoring values for all 6 rows on a grid, in 2 colours. Players try to place their cards in columns on a grid from the bottom upwards until the grid is complete in such a way that they will win a row when it is scored. Now for the weird bit, each row is examined from the top down and the player with the highest value wins the card associated with that row. The card they played on the next row is ‘trumps’ for the next row and that is determined and so on until all 6 rows have been resolved. Players then count the points value of the cards they have won and subtract the lower value of one colour from the value of the other to get their score for the round. So 3 points in Red minus 1 point in blue = 2 points scored. If a player is the sole one to score no points at all they gain 3 points, if multiple players do this they score zero points. Mike was dismayed to realise that having won all 6 tricks the total of the 2 colours balance out so he scored zero!! In a game of 4 rounds the scoring was very low and Tony won with 4 points, to Lucy’s 3 and Mike and Roger had 2 points each. As I said a weird game.

Games played and Winners were:

Cities game 1 Roger Skull;

Cities game 2 Tony Simons;

Cities game 3 Lucy Newbury;

Canal Mania Robert Piesse;

Le Havre Lucy Newbury;

Dixit Richard Piesse;

Falling Water Tony Simons.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 14/10/2010

1.       With 7 players in total, we split into 2 groups.  On table 1 a group of 4 players played “WALLENSTEIN” at Alistair’s request. This game is a conflict game which is played in a total of 8 rounds, the rounds representing 2 years, each of 4 seasons. Each round  the players secretly place their 10 action cards face down on their personal display for subsequent execution. In a clever bit of design these cards are multi-purpose, as they can be used to gain income, construct buildings, grow wheat or increase military strength. Once players have completed this task the control deck is shuffled and each action numbered 1-10 is performed in turn. The player’s action cards for the round are taken into consideration and resolved. This means that players build houses, palaces etc and gain influence in certain regions, they build up military strength for later conflict to seize control, they get money to buy things, or they store wheat to feed their people at the end of the turn.  One of the unique features of the game is the way of settling conflict. The game contains a tower with ledges inside it, into which the competing players throw their military units and the cubes which drop out into the tray at the bottom indicate the result of the battle. Some cubes ‘stick’ in the tower, whilst some left from previous conflict suddenly descend, which often leads to a surprising result. It’s tricky deciding in which turn to take money, or exercise conflict, and all the time as you expand your empire you need to have enough wheat to feed all your people! The scores for area control , most buildings in a region, most buildings of each type etc are taken at the end of each year, i.e. after round 4 and 8. Alistair chosen wisely and with just a little luck he scored a whopping 24 points in Year 1, which compared favourably with Roger’s 4 points, but the latter suffered badly in conflict. Alistair also won year 2 with a further 23 points, so he ran out a clear winner with 47 points, to Tony’s 35, Paul’s 22, and Roger’s demise continued and he finished with 8 points.

2.       Table 2 saw 3 players engaged in “WINDS OF PLUNDER”, a pirate game about sailing around the Caribbean and visiting ports to enhance your fearsome reputation. In doing so the players gain victory points and either increase their weaponry, increase their crew strength,   gain provisions or obtain a map of Buried Treasure (this is a pirate game after all). However the game resolves around the direction of the wind and in a clever system mechanic at the start of each turn the players secretly dial up on their compass which direction they want the wind to be for the next turn and ‘vote’ with a series of wind cubes. When all players have done this the result of the vote is declared and that is the wind direction applied. In this way some players may not get to go where they want, and can even be landlocked. Each player then sails to their next port and receives the appropriate resources for doing so. If they wish they can plunder other players resources! They then perform their choice of 3 Action Points to gain cards, or play cards, or gain extra wind cubes. The game plays in 9 rounds and the leading player shifts constantly throughout the game. Richard and Mike were running very close throughout until the final round when Richard gained a large number of points, sufficient to pass Mike and claim victory. Luke struggled at first after being landlocked twice , caught up in the middle game, only for Richard to scupper his recovery, the dastardly seadog!!

3.        Table 2 then played “METRIC MILE”, at Mike’s request, as he had turned a ‘pencil and paper game’ into a board game about the classic athletics distance. In the game players are dealt 2 famous athletes who all have different movement abilities,  depending upon which Running Mode they are in, and indications of stamina, and a like or dislike of leading the race. In current race running order the players choose the Running Mode each turn in reaction to their position in the race, and throw 4 dice, 2 of which determine how much stamina they expend that turn. The other 2 dice are added together and the result compared with their athlete’s table of movement for that mode. The player’s pieces are then moved around the track to indicate the status of the race. The game plays in 10 turns, with the 4 laps represented by turn 1, then turns 2&3, then turns 4,5 & 6, and finally lap 4 by turns 7,8,9 &10. Sprinting gives the athletes a much larger movement but can only be employed in Lap 4. If a player runs out of stamina they must consult the Tieing-up chart and they slow down dramatically. The winner is the athlete who advances furthest around the track. As he knew the game it wasn’t surprising that Mike won the first game but only by 2 spaces from Richard, with Luke a distant 3^rd, but he had suffered some bad dice rolls. The players decided to have another race and Luke resolved to save his Irish athletes stamina for a Sprint finish and he was justified in this as he came storming through from the back to gain a memorable victory. The game can be played by up to 8 players and is a good simulation of the real thing as you have to constantly alter your decision depending upon race condition at the time of your go. Those with a lot of stamina might try ‘Forcing’ the pace to make the others play catch up but if they lose a lot of stamina in doing so they have to ‘Ease’ back to have enough left for the Sprint finish.

4.       Some players then left at 10.30 so the 4 remaining players played the card game “HATRICK” to end the session. The cards depict baseball caps in 3 colours Red, Blue and Green and the players want to win tricks such that they gain lots of cards in one colour, as these are positive points, but not in the other colours as each card counts as a negative point so they have to keep this in mind when playing a card to a trick. There was only time for 2 rounds so not a complete game but at the end of play Mike had scored 18 points to Alistair’s 12, with the other players a remote 3^rd and 4^th.

Games played and Winners were:

Wallenstein Alister Gittins;

Winds of Plunder Richard Piesse;

Metric Mile game 1 Mike Oakes;

Metric Mile game 2 Luke Williams;

Hattrick Mike Oakes.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 07/10/2010

1.       We had only 5 players in total, so we split into 2 groups.  On table 1 a group of 3 players played “LE HAVRE” at Mike’s request. This game is about building the port of Le Havre from its humble beginnings. Players gather different resources on offer at the quayside and use them later to construct new buildings, which will give them victory points at the game end. However although they own the building any player can use it if no other player is present in it. The buildings yield benefits to the player who uses it, such as the Abattoir turning Cattle into Meat for food purposes, or The Charcoal Burner turning Wood into Charcoal for power purposes. There are many options available on a players turn and logical decisions need to be taken to maximise the opportunities to advance your position. After each round of play the inhabitants must be fed and the number of food units required increases as the game goes on. Therefore players have to constantly generate this food or they may have to pay for it using victory points they have gained. In later stages players can construct ships if they have the right materials and power resources to do so and this means that food supplies are imported, which helps alleviate the position. The players have to sometimes adjust their strategy in the light of what has occurred and this makes it a good game in my opinion.  Lucy soon understood what was required and built up a great combination of buildings with which she slowly took control of the game and ran out a most convincing winner, as Mike and Roger had to spend victory points to feed their people. A bit embarrassing but the final scores were Lucy 111, Mike 33, Roger 16. Well done Lucy!!!.

2.       Table 2 saw 2 players engaged in “ARKADIA”, a game about building a 2-tier castle. Players use builders, cards, workers, and neutral workers to build houses in Arkadia. Houses are built with the seal of one of 4 families; this family gave the building order and will get the building player its seal. These seals can be changed for victory points. But seals are subject to changing values. The growing castle (every time a house is built, players also build on the castle) has the 4 seals on it as well, which decides the value of each seal. The castle is also the game's timer: once the second tier is built, the last round starts. The player with the most gold wins. It was a first-time play for Alistair but he managed to win a very close game against Geoff.

3.        All 5 players came together to play “ISLAS CANARIAS”, a game that Geoff introduced us to on 23^rd September, so the details are not reproduced here. However Lucy was new to the game but once again she grasped the mechanics quickly and won clearly from Roger to gain her second victory of the night. Mike was a woeful last again. 

Games played and Winners were:

Le Havre Lucy Newbury;

Arkadia – Alistair Gittin;

Islas Canarias Lucy Newbury.