CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 25/11/2010

1.    Table 1 played  another game of “WITCH TRIAL”, a card game which was introduced last week. There was much jostling at the start but after a build-up of court fees Allister swooped in to pick up the big prize and get the win.

2.       On Table Mike introduced 3 other players to “MYKERINOS”, a game about prospecting a land for control which will then appeal to certain patrons in the game. These patrons will be used in subsequent rounds to enhance movements and to provide valuable end-scoring opportunities. Players have a certain number of cubes allocated to them each turn and they use these to place upon a region on the board with a view to gaining control of certain parcels of land when everyone has passed in that round. There are specific rules about placing but these can be enhanced by using the powers of the patrons a player controls. Each region is scored and the victor gets to chose one of two options, these being to place cubes in the Museum for game end scoring or to grab one parcel of land, which comes with another patron’s favour. The second highest gets the second parcel or places a cube in the museum. If there are any parcels left to allocate the 3^rd and 4^th place in the region will get them. Players score interim points if these are shown on the parcels of land they collect but the real scoring occurs at game end after 4 rounds. Players score 5 points if they have managed to attract a complete set of 5 different patrons ; if they have  second complete set they score again. The cubes in the museum will be placed in a room valued any one of 2, 3 or 5 points, and the players calculate a score by multiplying the value of the highest value times the number of cards they have for that patron. This is added to their current score. Tony did well in the latter type of scoring, by having cubes in room 5 for several patrons and having 3 cards for that patron, scoring 15 points for each one. He romped away with the win scoring over 50 points whilst Mike was second with 30-odd and Geoff and Roger trailing behind. The message seems to be “get cubes in the museum”.

3.       Table 1 played “CHAOS IN THE OLD WORLD”, a game of mystical powers of various gods. Each god’s distinctive powers and legion of followers grant you unique strengths and diabolical abilities with which to corrupt and enslave the Old World. Players are trying to seek domination by corruption and conquest, but they must vie not only against each other, but also against the desperate denizens of the Old World who fight to banish you back to the maelstrom of the Realm of Chaos. Every turn you corrupt the landscape, dominating its inhabitants, and battle with the depraved followers of rival gods. Each god has a unique deck of gifts and abilities, and can upgrade their followers into deadly foes. Definitely a game for lovers of this sort of thing and Luke started very strongly, mainly at the expense of Paul. Everyone closed up towards the end but a strong finish in the last round enable Luke to grab the win.

4.       Back on Table 2 Mike introduced some of the players to “DAS AMULETT”, a game about collected jewels in 7 different colours to build your own amulet and the first to do so is the winner. At the start the jewels are placed randomly in various regions on the board, each region being a different type of terrain and requiring different types of Metal Cards with which to win the auction for the jewels contained within it. Players acquire Spell Cards in an auction each turn and they use their powers at appropriate times to collect more Metal Cards, or gain a discount off a bid at the auctions and many other varied things. The clever mechanism is that the numbers of Energy Stones used in the winning bid are placed upon the Spell Card. Each spell uses up energy at different rates so at the end of each turn players must spend the appropriate number of energy stones. Once the stones are exhausted the Spell Card is returned to the table. To gain jewels the active player select a counter at random which indicates how many regions will be visited in a round.  The winner of each auction in a region takes the jewel of their choice and then moves to an adjacent region where another auction takes place. This continues until the requisite number of regions has been visited. Play continues in this fashion until one player is able to claim victory. Chris took an early lead by winning a region and using his spell to take both jewels in the region. He repeated this until his spell expired. Allister also had a good start by winning in a region with a Pyramid, and his spell enabled him to take both jewels as well. Mike and Roger had spells which enabled them to make other players spell lose energy stones more quickly and they used those to slow Chris and Allister down. Tony and Geoff started to gain jewels too and then Mike used his spell that gave him better powers in regions adjacent to the Great Wall to gain jewels. Towards the end of the game 5 of the 6 players had 5 jewels and 1 had 4 jewels so it was anybodies game to win if they could get the right cards for the right region. By cleverly moving jewels around such that the ones he wanted were in adjacent regions to the current action Chris found himself winning an auction to secure the 7^th jewel and complete his amulet.

Games played and Winners were:

Witch Trial Allister Gittins;

Mykerionos Tony Simons;

Chaos in the Old World Luke Williams;

Das Amulett Chris Cook.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 18/11/2010

1.    Table 1 played “WITCH TRIAL”, a card game in which players represent lawyers in this humorous, psuedo-Colonial courtroom trial. Each player attempts to prosecute victims and make money by winning the case. All lawyers pair a Suspect with a Charge card to represent the case they are prosecuting. However, money can also be made by defending the cases that other lawyers are working on. When a case comes to court, players add their Evidence cards, and make Motions and Objections, in order to sway the jury to their side. Then the case is either settled by plea bargain (an agreement by lawyers to divide the case money) or by the jury (a 2D6 dice roll of 13 or more which includes all card modifiers played on this case). A fun game, in which the lawyer with the most money wins. Much laughter was generated and Allister thought he had won convincingly but Maria came a close second by successfully defending the last case, and she lost by just 5 points.

2.       Table 1 saw 4 players engaged in the new release “LONDON”. Players rebuild the city after the Great Fire, from cards selected during their turn. As with a lot of games, London is about scoring the most VPs. Players manage their hand, selecting cards to play into their building display by laying them out in a line. At some point a player will choose to run his city and they can activate their buildings in whatever order they prefer. The resulting actions can generate money and VPs, reduce poverty or have some other effect specified on the card, sometimes penalising the other players. Some cards have an entry cost which must be paid before the action can be performed. The poverty cubes are a great hindrance and players must be careful not to generate too many of these if they are to have a chance of winning the game. The components looked good, the final scoring was tight, but Tony emerged the victor.

3.       We then split into 3 groups and Table 3 played “METROPOLYS”, the city-building game that was introduced last week, so no need to elaborate here. Allister left his building until late and finished strongly but failed to catch up on Mike’s early lead.

4.       Table 2 played a silly card game called “THE TOTALLY RENAMED SPY GAME”, and the text being read out aloud by the players amused those on other tables. In the game , players take on the role of villains building their remote fortresses and capturing secret agents. When one is captured, he can be killed right away, but what's the fun in that? The real points come when you slowly reveal your secret plan to him, or leave him to be eaten by sharks. Of course, that's where the risk is too, and the longer you postpone the kill, the greater the likelihood that another player will produce a card that allows the agent to escape and destroy your fortress. Richard was the winner.

5.       Back on Table 3 4 players played “SETTLERS OF CATAN”, as Lucy and Maria has not played it before. Mike adopted a strategy to upgrade his starting settlement to a city and was lucky with the dice rolls to produce a lot of commodities which he traded to build yet another city, giving him 4 points.  Maria took the lead when she built the longest road but this was soon taken off her by Lucy, who built a road of 10 length. Allister moaned at his lack of resources but did eventually get up to 9 points. Mike continued to gather plenty of commodities and he was able to trade these in for lots of stone and wood so that he won the game by building a road length of 11 and taking the 2 point card from Lucy. 

6.       Table 1 saw 5 players engaged in a club favourite “PUERTO RICO”, the game about players occupying  plantations with the incoming colonists and constructing buildings to process the produce, which they eventually load onto ships and transport it back to home. The game was reviewed in earlier sessions so is not repeated here. As the players knew the game well the scoring was very close, with Richard winning with 51 points and Tony and Rob tying on 48 points. Luke and Roger were not really in contention.

Games played and Winners were:

Witch Trial Allister Gittins;

London Tony Simons;

Metropolys Mike Oakes;

The Totally Renamed Spy Game Richard Piesse;

Settlers of Catan Mike Oakes;

Puerto Rico Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 11/11/2010

1.       With 8 players in attendance we split into 2 groups of 4. At Tony’s request Table 1 played “TIDE OF IRON”, a World War II game played in pairs. Tony and Luke took on the Piesse Brothers and they won a conflict that took the whole evening to resolve. The components in the base game allow players to simulate the dramatic struggle that took place between American and German forces in Northern Europe during the years 1944 and 1945. The game is  Scenario-based , with the available forces, objectives, map, and victory conditions being set by each given scenario. It features loads of plastic figures, including soldiers, equipment, heavy weapons, and combat vehicles, cards, dice, cardboard markers, and modular game boards that will represent the customizable terrain of game. All the players seemed to enjoy it.

2.       Table 2 saw 4 players engaged in “DOGE”, a game in which players secretly place their ballot votes in a choice of 7 districts of Venice, the purpose being to win the subsequent election and thereby gain control of the Advisor of that district and send him to another district where he will vote for you there. In addition the winner of the election gets to place 2 houses in the district, the runner-up gets to place one house. This action is the crux of the game as within each district there is a row available for palaces to be built. The cost of building a palace starts at 3 houses and increments by 1 for each palace built by the players, the highest total required being 7 houses. The victory conditions are 3 fold, these being building 1 palace in all 7 districts; building 7 palaces in 5 districts; or building 8 palaces in 4 districts. This means that there are several ways to win, and when coupled with the secret ballots it provides an interesting and tense game. In the end all players except Mike had  reached an objective but because Lucy went for the 7 palace option she won on the tie-break !!

3.       Table 2 then played a game of “METROPOLYS”, a game about building the city with parks, houses, lakes shopping malls etc. Each player has a series of buildings rated from 1 to 12 and they place them on the board adjacent to the last building placed, by increasing numbers. In this way the ‘chain’ of building continues until all but one player has passed and they get to construct their building. The unsuccessful builders get their buildings back to use again. At the start of the game each player has a ‘secret’ objective for which they will gain Victory Points. Examples are having buildings next to statues, or next to bridges, etc so the players will be trying to get their buildings constructed in the most advantageous spots. In addition there are a series of 3 types of tokens placed at the start, which the winning builder collects and they contribute to victory points as well. The game has more depth than appears at first and was well received by all the players. As usual Lucy soon sussed out a path to victory and by some clever play she collected several valuable tokens as well as getting her building next to statues, her secret card. She romped away for her second win of the evening. Well done Lucy!!

Games played and Winners were:

Tide of Iron Luke Williams & Tony Simons;

Doge Lucy Newbury;

Metropolys Lucy Newbury.

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CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 04/11/2010

1.       With 9 players in attendance we split into 2 groups of 5 and 4. Table 1 played “POWERGRID”, a club favourite about building power plants and networks connecting cities, and then getting the resources to generate the power and supply your network. The chosen map was Germany and there was little conflict for city building early on. However this changed mid-game and Mike was squeezed out, whilst the others kept pace just behind the long-time leader Alister.  He was always ahead right to the end where he held on for his first victory in the game.

2.       Table 2 saw 4 players engaged in “GIGANTEN”, a game of driving your truck to prospect for oil hidden under the many derricks on the board. Once oil was discovered players then had to transport it back to their own depots, where they tried to sell it for a profit. The game is driven by the drawing of various multi-purpose cards which permit movement, the issue of share certificates, and some ad hoc events such as extra oil discoveries or extra movements. The game is ‘controlled’ by the progression along a track of the scoring train and players can only transport new oil back to their depots if they are behind this train, so movement is crucial. The bidding for cards is done by using shares certificates in an auction and this can be quite tense, as they also need to be kept for the selling process later on. They also have to be aware that they need to sell their oil at the depot in good time or else it will ‘spoil’ and be lost, thereby losing the investment. The winner is the one with the most money when the controlling train reaches the end of its track. All 4 players were in close contention throughout with Tony just holding on ahead of newcomer Chris.

3.       Table 2 were reduced to 3 players with Chris’s early departure so they played a game of “NEUE HEIMAT”, a tactical bidding game about building the highest scoring houses in three building rows. The levels are different coloured cubes with numbers from 1 to 6 on it, which are dealt via auction in each round. The first one of a new colour you purchase fixes this colour as yours for the rest of the game and the final scoring. Players also bid for additional pieces to shorten (or lengthen) the lanes and rooftops to finish the houses. You pay with cheques, each of 1 million euros and can establish an "illegal cashbox", counting at the final scoring, too. The game ends, when there are two rows completed. The houses on these score positive points, regarding the numbers on the levels and the rooftops, the ones in the third row are scored negative. Despite Tony owning the game he was denied a second win of the evening by Richard.

4.        Table 1 completed their session with “THURN UND TAXIS”, a game about building a network of post offices in Germany. The players collect cards for various cities and when they have a linked route of 3 cities or more and sufficient horse power to travel the distance of the link they ‘declare’ the route and score victory points for it. There are points to be gained in several ways, such as linking cities of 3 particular colours, or for the various lengths of the routes ( range 3-8), or having built a post office in each of the areas of the board. The game ends when one player has placed all their post offices, any post offices remaining in other players hands score -1 point. Players then total up their victory points and the one with the most is the winner. Scores were Alister 35, Geoff 32, Roger 28, Mike 27 so Alister gained his second win of the night.  Well done Alister !!, 

Games played and Winners were:

Powergrid Alister Gitten;

Giganten Tony Simons;

Neue Heimat Richard Piesse;

Thurn und Taxis Alster Gitten