Thursday 16 June 2011

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 16/06/2011



1.       Several members were absent but we still had 10 in attendance so we split into 2 tables. On table 1 Mike introduced 2 other club members to “TROYES”, which was played last week and despite the need to explain the concept and the rules we still managed to finish in just over 2 hours. Tim admitted he was struggling a bit at first but he steadily built parts of the cathedral. Mike was accumulating lots of money whilst Lucy was placing a number of citizens on the Activity cards. Tony was bemoaning his luck but still seemed to be exploiting other peoples’ die to gain plenty of Influence and VPs. The combined failure to counter certain event cards meant that the Neutral citizens gained positions in the principal buildings, leading to fewer die being available to the players. At game end, the results hinged on who completed the hidden objectives best. Every player had plenty of money so they all scored the maximum VP’s for Mike objective, which cooked his goose. Lucy scored best for her citizens on the board, Tony has lots of Influence and citizens in the buildings but these 3 players failed to build in all levels of the cathedral so they had to yield some VPs for this. Tim did not have to give up any VPs and scored 6 VPs for having contributed 7 cubes to the cathedral building, and this was enough for him to gain a close victory from Tony, with Lucy just behind and Mike a miserable 4th. Tony did not rate the game too highly at 6/10 but Lucy thought it would improve with further playings and scored it at 8/10 and offered to play it again. Mike still thinks that with the many combinations of activity cards and event cards that the game offers a new take on games with dice.
2.       Table 2 saw 6 players playing “SHARK” which Freya was playing for the first time. The game has been reviewed before so is not repeated here. The winner this time was Jerry.
3.       With 3 players leaving Table 2 they continued with” MANILA”, which was played last week, but this time with only 3 players, so there was less competition for the places on the punts or the pirates spaces. Roberts managed to amass a cash total of 145 to win the game easily.
4.       Table 1 played “ZOOLORETTO”, which Tim and Lucy were playing for the first time. Together with Tony they soon filled up their enclosures with the various animals, leaving Mike with a load of rubbish. Tim was cash-rich but couldn’t find the requisite animals to complete his enclosures. Tony remodelled his layout to gain more VPs but in the final 2 rounds of play, more by luck than skill, Mike acquired the 2 tiles needed to complete the 2 largest of his enclosures for maximum points and somehow snatched a win, to the surprise of the others.
5.       With just over 30 minutes remaining Mike introduced Tim and Lucy to the card game “HATTRICK”, in which players try to win as many cards as they can in ONE colour, for which they score 1 point for each card, whilst they lose a point for each card they win in the other colours. Mike was stitched up late on in the first round by winning tricks in colours he didn’t want, so Lucy and Tony were the 2 leaders. In the second round Tim fared really badly, winning tricks in all 3 colours, which meant he scored zero points. Tony and Lucy continued to fight out the lead but despite our efforts we couldn’t reduce Lucy’s score sufficiently to stop her winning. For 2 rounds the scores were Lucy 27, Tony 23, Mike 14, Tim 4. The game is normally played over 4 rounds so we might have caught Lucy, but unlikely given her ability.
6.       Table 2 finished with another club favourite “MONTEGO BAY”, which this time proved Paul with a victory.

Games played and Winners were:
Troyes Tim Havenith;
Shark Jerry Jabelman;
Manila Robert Piesse;
Zooloretto Mike Oakes;
Hattrick Lucy Newbury;
Montego Bay Paul Bulpin.

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