CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 31/03/2011

1.     10 members attended this week, so we played on 2 tables. Table 1 started with 4 players in “SHADOWS OVER CAMELOT”, a co-operative game with lots of wonderful bits and great presentation. Different from many of the games we play because the players have to work together to defeat the game, but perhaps one of the players has been secretly dealt the Traitor card and they are trying to make the team fail. The 7 quests include such things as Finding Excalibur, locating the Holy Grail, defeating Invading Armies, conquering Black Knight etc and players play cards and move their pieces to enable this to happen. The game system ‘plays’ siege engines to try and defeat Camelot so sometimes players have to play cards to counter this, providing of course they are not the Traitor!! As a result of resolving any conflict swords are placed on the famous Round Table, these being coloured Black or White. If at any time there are 7 Black swords on the table the team has lost, but for every victory they add White swords to counteract it. This all adds up to a neat gaming experience. The team of Lucy, Kevin, Luke and Tony were ‘seiged-out’ of Camelot, but nobody was a Traitor so there was no clear winner. However  Luke was declared the winner because of his contribution.   

2.       Table 2 saw 6 players playing “SHARK”, which has been played a lot recently. Jerry and Poppy were playing it for the first time. Paul quickly built up a strong holding in 2 of the 4 shares in the game, which he then sold to avoid major losses if the share price tumbled. Mike had a balanced portfolio which gave him regular income each time any share rose in value. Roger bought heavily into Yellow shares which then to his dismay crashed. At game end Mike thought he had finally won a game, only for Paul to declare greater wealth and snatch victory. With 6 players the game took longer than expected so maybe it plays better with 4 players.

3.       Table 1 played a 4-player game of “SEISMIC”, in which players place hexagonal highway tiles to build long, complete sections of highways, scoring points for each tile as well as bonus points for the ending "intersection" tiles in their routes. Scores aren't tallied until the end of the game, because at any time, earthquakes can occur, destroying tiles along the most-built direction leading out from the central "San Andreas" tile. Players constantly need to be claiming as many long roadways as possible while ensuring that their highways aren't the ones that are going to be destroyed if and when an earthquake occurs. Much laughter seemed to be generated by the players involved and it was Luke who smiled most at the end as he was the winner.

4.       Table 2 reduced to 4 players and played a couple of quick games of “GIRO GALOPPO”, a family horse racing game which uses cards to move the contestants.  A race takes around 15-20 minutes, and the first game was won by Paul, the second game by Geoff.

5.       Table 2 then played a 4-player game of “DURCH DIE WUSTE”, the game about extending your camel trains into the desert to try and connect to water holes, which have VP’s of 1-3, to connect to Oases, which have VP’s of 5 each, or to enclose a series of spaces, which will be worth 1 VP each at game end. Game turns are simple enough, consisting of choosing 2 camels from the general supply and extending your ‘network’, but there are certain restrictions about where you can place, Players will often thwart your plans, leading to frustration. Paul was obviously on good form as he enclosed 2 large areas which gave him 18 VP’s at the end, Roger had collected lots of VP’s from Water holes, whilst Mike and Geoff were some way behind. Paul eventually won from Roger by 4 points.

6.       Table 1 finished their evening with 2 quick games of “GIRO GALOPPO”, the winner being Kevin and Luke, so surprisingly Lucy was winless for once !!.

Games played and Winners were:

Shadows over Camelot Luke Williams;

Seismic Luke Williams;

Shark Paul Bulpin;

Giro Galoppo -1 Geoff Williams;

Giro Galoppo -2 Paul Bulpin;

Durch die Wuste Paul Bulpin;

Giro Galoppo -3 Kevin Ward;

Giro Galoppo -4 Luke Williams.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 17/03/2011

1.     11 members attended this week, so we played on 3 tables. Table 1 started with 4 players in “CHAOS IN THE OLD WORLD”, a game with lots of bits which has been reviewed before. The winner was Robert.

2.       Table 2 saw 3 players playing “LAST TRAIN TO WENSLEYDALE”, a railway game where the aim of the game is to move stone, cheese, and passengers from the Dales to the major trunk routes served by the North Eastern Railway and the Midland Railway. Valleys play a large part in dictating where you can build track. Once you have built a line you must acquire second hand engines and rolling stock to move the goods and passengers that your line connects to. Such a line quickly becomes unprofitable and it pays to have one of the two major companies take it over from you. With 2 of the players playing the game for the first time it was no surprise when Tony emerged victorious

3.       Table 3 played a 4-player game of “KELTIS”, a card game where each player is trying to lay down cards in front of them in either a descending or ascending sequence. The cards are in 5 colours and for each card laid the player advances one of their markers along the track for that colour. The track shows victory points to be gained at game end and at the start the positions are negative points, so you are encouraged to build in all 5 colours. Along the tracks there are hidden counters which when turned over reveal a bonus situation , which either be gain VP’s immediately, or Move another marker along its track, or keep a diamond for game end scoring. The game plays quickly and it’s not exactly straightforward which marker to move each turn. You want to get out of the negatives, but you also want to be the first to get those bonus tiles. Despite a slow start Mike managed to pull clear in the last few rounds to win from Jerry

4.       Table 3 then played “ON THE UNDERGROUND”, which was played a few weeks ago and Jerry and Poppy both liked it. Pamela was new to the game and Mike offered her help with understanding it. This proved to be a fatal error and everything went right for Pamela and she forged clear of the rest from the start. However Poppy made a late challenge by moving the Passenger over her lines in successive turns and close the gap to just 1 point at the end, to leave Pamela with a narrow victory..

5.       Table 2 played a 4-player game of “PUERTO RICO”, a club favourite. In a very close finish Richard had 49 points, with the runners-up on 47 and 45 points.

6.       With the departure of several players at 10.00 p.m. 3 players were left to play “MONTEGO BAY”, the game about obtaining barrels of rum to load on ships and thereby gain victory points. Due to a mistake by both Mike and Roger a ship was left in the harbour for Geoff to score and from what looked like a a hopeless position Geoff swooped through to win on the very last turn. 4 points covered all 3 players.

Games played and Winners were:

Chaos in the Old World Robert Piesse;

Last Train to Wensleydale Tony Simons;

Keltis Mike Oakes;

On the Underground Pamela Simons;

Puerto Rico Richard Piesse;

Montego Bay Geoff Williams.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 10/03/2011

1.     10 members attended this week, so we played on 3 tables. Table 1 started with 5 players in “JAMAICA”, the game about pirates sailing round a 1-lap course, attacking and plundering as they do so. The game has been reviewed before so will not be repeated here. Despite stating throughout that he was doing badly Paul was the eventual winner from Allister.

2.     Table 2 saw 4 players playing “ABER BITTE MIT SAHNE”, a family game about slicing up a pie into several portions, all of which are not necessarily of equal size! The pies consist of several different ingredients and players are trying to get the most of a type of ingredient for scoring purposes, and the player who’s turn it is ‘cuts’ the pie to make the various portions attractive to their opponents, hoping to keep the piece that suits themselves, but this does not always happen. A lightweight game of fun for which the eventual winner was Luke.

3.       Table 1 then played “ATTILA”, the area control game based upon the invading hordes from Northern Europe trying to take control of regions around the Mediterranean.  An interesting little game that plays in just over the hour. The owner of the game, Geoff, was the eventual winner, having played the game more times than the others.

4.       Table 2 played “MARAKECH”, the carpet market game that Jerry introduced a few weeks ago. The game was won by his daughter Poppy.

5.       On table 3 Mike led a game of “SYLLA”, a game about using influence in ancient Rome to gain tokens in the 3 colours used in the game. The game is played in 5 phases, each phase consisting of 7 action turns. The turns provide the chance to elect a First Consul, recruit workers, construct buildings, gain money, vote on which events are prevented, construct Great Works and deal with famine. The tokens represent health, leisure and civic spirit and the value of these tokens rise and fall on a score track, depending upon which nasty events occur. Players study the layout for a particular turn and then have to decide how to use each turn to their advantage… do they go for buildings to increase their wealth or do they recruit Vestal Virgins and and Legionaires to influence the voting in later stages.  There are several sub-systems at work here and it’s difficult to decide which strategy to adopt. Kevin found the constant evaluation of the pieces in play each turn somewhat irksome and there is a lot of analysis going on, so he was not hugely impressed with the game.   Roger led from the outset by having protection against Famine which the others did not have, Ben moved up in the penultimate turn and by design he became very wealthy. This almost gave him victory in the last turn but Roger held on by a couple of points, with Kevin a close third with a late surge and Mike a distant fourth. The general opinion was that players needed to know the effect of all the cards and combinations to get the best out of the game. It may make another appearance if the same players can be persuaded to try it.

Games played and Winners were:

Jamaica Paul Gulpin;

Aber bitte mit Sahne Luke Williams;

Attila Geoff Williams;

Marakech Poppy Jabelman;

Sylla Roger Scull.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 03/03/2011

1.     13 members attended this week, so we played on 3 tables. Table 1 started with 4 players in “TOBAGO”, the game about driving around an island to discover hidden treasures. It seems as though the players enjoyed it from the comments heard afterwards. The winner was Rob.

2.     Table 2 saw 4 players playing “QUORIDOR”, a family game about moving pawns and building walls. Players are trying to get their pawn from one side of the board to the other. The building of the walls inhibits the player’s progress, so it can be quite competitive. The eventual winner was Poppy.

3.       Table 3 saw 5 players playing the game of “STEEL DRIVER”, a railway track building and shares game from the prolific Martin Wallace. In phase 1 of a turn players take it in turns to select a railroad company from those on offer, players then bid  cubes to gain control of this company, for which they receive a share in that company. This is repeated until all the companies have been auctioned. In phase 2 the companies are played in turn order and the controlling player will use the cubes in their company to build a section of track between 2 cities, extending the network by doing so. The amount of money earned for this action is recorded on an income track and this is repeated until all companies have built track or decided to pass. The revenue for the turn is paid out and all controlling interests are returned for the next auction round. Players continue to gain shares until all shares have been issued. In the final round some coloured cubes are placed on cities of the matching colour and then, one at a time, the players controlling the companies take one cube from a city that ‘their’ line is connected to. They are trying to gets sets of 3, 4 or 5 colours, as this will generate the most revenue in the final scoring. When all cubes have been allocated the final revenue is awarded and the player with the most money is the winner. Not surprisingly this was Tony as he had played before. Richard was miffed to discover that he had fared worse than Mike, but he will have to live with the shame.

4.       Table 2 played “LORDS OF VEGAS”, a new game to the club and brought along by new member Ben. 4 Players contested the ownership of various casinos which were built along the famous strip, and it appeared that there was a certain amount of gambling in the dice rolling to alter the balance of power. An attractive looking game which was enjoyed by all the players, each telling their tale of woe as to why they had not won. The eventual winner in a very close finish was Jerry.

5.       Table 1 played the expansion version of the game of “THURN UND TAXIS”, another club favourite, which as always was competitive.  The eventual winner was Lucy.

6.       With the departure of Jerry, Poppy and Luke tables 2 and 3 split into a 2-player and 4-player group. On table 3 Tony and Richard played “TWILIGHT STRUGGLE”, which they had contested before. Reports suggest that Tony was the winner but in slightly contentious circumstances but that maybe just Richard being mischievous.

7.       On Table 2 Mike led a team of 4 in showing Ben the game of “LONDON”, yet another Martin Wallace title. The game has been described before so it will not be repeated here. Paul pursued the ‘Take Loans’ strategy, which he did offset by building a shop to get money to pay them off. Ben followed the ‘minimal poverty cubes strategy’. Mike tried to be cute by only having 2 stacks of building cards but he did not buy sufficient boroughs to offset the increasing poverty cubes. Roger had a mixed strategy of all the above. With the need to get Ben to the station to catch his train home the game had to end prematurely. However with his low poverty cube count Ben caused the other players to give up lots of Victory Points, so he was the clear winner.

8.       Table 1 played a quick game of “HECKMECK” to complete their evening, in which Geoff was the winner.

Games played and Winners were:

Tobago Robert Piesse;

Quoridor Poppy Jabelman;

Steel Driver Tony Simons;

Lords of Vegas Jerry Jabelman;

Thurn und Taxis Lucy Newbury;

Twilight Struggle Tony Simons;

London Ben Braine;

Heckmeck Geoff Williams.