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.