CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 27/09/2012

1.       6 players tonight, which included Dave, a visitor from the Bath Games club, so we split into 2 groups of 3. Table 1 saw 3 players playing “VILLAGE”, the new game which was played last week. Dave and Jeremy were playing the game for the first time and both enjoyed the experience. Mike and Dave took the early lead by going travelling whilst Jeremy was visiting the market almost every turn to pick up Customer tiles for game end scoring. Mike was ‘killing off’ his members hoping to be the only one to get 5 of his family in the Village Chronicle and to stop the other players matching it, but Dave sent a member travelling and he died quickly and that gave him a 5^th entry, so eroding a 5-point margin for Mike, which proved crucial in the game end scoring. Jeremy made a late entry into travel to close the gap and his Customer tiles totalled 19 points so things were close at the top. In the final countdown the scores were Dave 49; Jeremy 45; Mike 41, so those extra 5 points Dave got for his 5^th death proved vital.

2.       Table 2 saw Kevin, Paul and Jerry playing a game of “AGRICOLA”, the game where players select actions from a multitude of choices to construct their farm, and populate it with animals or grow vegetables, They increase the size of their family to create more workers, to increase production, but these folk require feeding so players need to take account of that fact, by killing cattle, or making bread, if they have the resources to do so. This is all driven by a card system which meshes several mechanics together in a brilliant way. Jerry was ‘beaten up ‘ badly in his efforts and did not bother to total up his negative score but the other 2 finished very closely, with Kevin just edging Paul out by 31 points to 29.  

3.       All 6 players got together for the final game of “7 WONDERS – LEADERS”, the variant which adds a twist of players selecting a Leader card to add to their display ( if they can afford it) from 4 initial cards dealt to them. These cards add various powers which affect the subsequent game play. As always with this game there was the frustration of the right resources not being available from your neighbours , in this case Glass was in short supply. Paul built up a vast military strength, aided by his leader of Julius Caesar, but his other leader generated him a load of cash throughout the game giving him 9 victory points in the end , which proved crucial. Dave had to suffer the ignominy of finishing behind Mike, the perpetual loser, and the final scores were Paul 65; Jeremy 61; Kevin 58; Jerry 51; Mike 48; Dave 46.

Games played and Winners were:

Village – Dave the visitor;

Agricola – Kevin Ward;

7 Wonders – Paul Bulpin.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 20/09/2012

1.       7 players tonight so we split into a 3 and a 4. Table 1 saw 3 players playing “CARCASSONNE”, in one of its many variants. From the scores I was given it seems as though Jerry dished out a thrashing, as the final scores were Jerry 205; Lucy 170; Roger 48.

2.       Lucy had to go after her game and with the non-arrival of Richard and his friends Jerry and Roger played a 2-player version “CARGO NOIR”, the black market smuggling game which has been played before, Jerry was in sparkling form again winning with 125 points to Roger’s 105.Well done Jerry !!

3.       On table 2 Mike and Paul introduced Kevin and Jon to the game  of “VILLAGE”, the game in which players have a family of 11 meeples which they ‘manage’ through their lives to perform certain jobs or activities to gain Prestige points. The game was played last week so the description is not repeated here. Paul once again tried to get plenty of his family into the council chamber and the Church. Mike trained Craftsman with a view to get good harvests, whilst Kevin was the only one to go travelling early on. Jon collected lots of influence cubes, so he was able to have a second go at the Market, which enabled him to build up an impressive number of customer sales. When the mass took place both Mike and Paul failed to get their novice monk drawn from the bag, whereas Jon was lucky each time so he built up a strong holding in the Church, which scored him PP regularly each turn. Meanwhile Kevin continued on his travels and turned lots of grain to Gold, which he used to buy PP’s via his high position in the Council Chamber. There was a late rush to get family members to die to occupy the final spots in the Village chronicle. Kevin managed 5 to score 12 PP, whilst Mike managed 4 to get 7 PP. In the final scoring we discovered that Jon had accrued 24 points for his customer tiles, as significant total. Kevin scored 18 for his travel exploits whilst Mike and Paul only picked up small pockets of points.  Final scores were Jon 76; Kevin 68; Paul 48; and Mike 42, in his usual last place. Both newcomers to the game enjoyed it, although it took nearly 3 hours to complete and we couldn’t fit in another game.

Games played and Winners were:

Carcassonne – Jerry Jabelman;

Cargo Noir – Jerry Jabelman;

Village – Jon Binmore.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 13/09/2012

1.       Just 4 players tonight so we play 2 solid titles, the first of which was “TINNERS TRAIL”, Lucy’s birthday present from Tony. In this game, players acquire pockets of land in Cornwall in which they construct Mines, add steam pumps and ports to drain the water from the mines, to lower the cost of extracting the ore before they actually mine the tin or copper ready to sell at market. Each of the actions available in the game cost varying amount of Action Points and each player has 10 points at their disposal. Once all players have spent their 10 points the round ends and 3 things take place. The players sell their tin and copper to raise capital. They then decide how much of their capital to invest in the future of the mining industry, Finally the top 2 players in the current turn order get to prospect some unused territory for mineral deposits. The game continues in this fashion for 4 rounds. In the later rounds trains arrive in Cornwall and these enhance the mining capacity and help drain the mine. At the end of round 4 the total VPs acquired via investments are summed and the player with the most is declared the winner.  Lucy acquired a couple of mines which proved fruitful early on, whilst Paul invested heaps of cash in the futures market. Mike made his usual stupid mistake which meant he didn’t drain his mine sufficiently to make the mining profitable. Jerry had a nice group of adjacent territories which he drained effectively to lower the price of mining and he started to catch the 2 leaders up. However in the final round both Lucy and Paul managed to make sales totalling over 50 £ so they were able to invest in the higher values futures. Final scores were Lucy 103; Paul 93; Jerry 80; Mike 52. Well done Lucy, a great start to using your birthday present !!.

2.       Mike then introduced his new purchase of “VILLAGE”, the game in which players have a family of 11 meeples which they ‘manage’ through their lives to perform certain jobs or activities to gain Prestige points. These include things such as Craftsman, Traveller, Councillor or Clergy. Members at the farm can perform the Harvest from which players can acquire coins, or equipment or livestock, which they may later sell to customers wanting those goods at Market.  They can use the Family action to breed more members onto the farm. Most of the actions have an associated cost, which in this game is ‘time’. The advance of time is marked on player’s farmsteads and when the marker passes a certain point one of the family members must die, the oldest being first to do so. They are entered in the Village Chronicle if there is space, for which they will later obtain Prestige points. If the relevant page is ‘full’ the poor soul is placed in one of the anonymous graves to score nothing. The game has a variable number of rounds and when one of the 2 game End conditions is met, players have one final action and the various Prestige Points are counted and a winner is declared. Lucy and Jerry did a lot of Travelling for which they both received 14 PPs. Lucy coupled this with an aggressive marketing strategy and sold several times at the market. Paul and Mike concentrated on the council so that they could obtain extra cubes with which to perform extra actions. Paul used his effectively to place the most family members in the Church, for which he scored heavily at the end. Mike bemoaned his luck, as his members trying to enter the Church were not drawn from the bag so he didn’t score many for those few that did. Eventually Mike ran out of members at the farm and had to take plague cubes to bring some more on, which meant that some of his PP-earning members died !! We thought that Jerry was the likely winner until Lucy managed to perform an extra ‘double purchase’ at the market which won her the game, on a tie-break from Paul. Final scores were Lucy 70; Paul 70; Jerry 64; Mike 48. Well done Lucy again, a second win on the night.

Games played and Winners were: 

Tinners Trail – Lucy Newbury;

Village – Lucy Newbury.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 30/08/2012

1.       8 players to start with tonight so 2 tables were in play. On Table 1 Mike, Matthew and Paul, played another game of “UNION PACIFIC”, as Matthew had enjoyed it so much last week. This time we didn’t let Paul grab all the UP shares but he did build a lot of trains on the Red line. Mike and Matthew fought over the Greens for most of the game but Paul took control of several other companies. Paul and Matthew scored well for their UP shares. Mike was always trailing the other 2 throughout but Paul’s multiple scoring enabled him to win for the second week running.  Final scores were Paul 183; Matthew 173; Mike 155.

2.       As Table 2 were involved in a long game when John arrived at just before 9.00 he joined Table 1 in a game of “DETROIT/CLEVELAND GRAND PRIX”. In this card-driven game players bid for ownership of racing cars at auction before each race and they then play 1 card in turn to move the cars around a tight circuit, with many chicanes and blocking positions. The cards have various combinations of the 6 cars in the race upon them, and the trick is to play a card that helps you and also hinders the other players. Each race lasts only 1 lap and prize money is paid out according to the finishing positions. After the first race Paul and John were the leaders, whilst Mike actually lost money on his investment. In the second race Mike bought 2 cars in an attempt to catch up, but this failed to materialise. Matthew and Paul both purchased 1 car each for $10,000 and Paul won this race also, yielding $240,000 profit. This meant that Paul waltzed away with a convincing win. Final scores were Paul $570,000; Matthew $320,000; John $310,000; Mike $250,000.

3.       Table 2 saw 5 players in a game of  “BATTLESTAR GALACTICA”, a co-operation game in similar vein to Shadows Over Camelot, inasmuch as 1, or maybe 2, of the players are secretly Traitors trying to destroy the Mother ship and the ‘good guys’ are trying to land back home intact. Lots of pieces , cards, tokens and die rolling involved with the situation constantly changing. Once the Traitors ( in this case Kevin and Tony) were known  the other 3 ( in this case Tom, Jerry and Jeremy) struggled to defeat the attacks. However in a close finish they just managed to scrape home. The game lasted over 3 hours, so any future interested parties should be aware of this.

Games played and Winners were:

Union Pacific – Paul Bulpin;

Detroit/Cleveland Grand Prix – Paul Bulpin;

Battlestar Galactica – Tom, Jerry & Jeremy.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 23/08/2012

1.       13 players tonight so 3 tables were in play. On Table 1 Jerry led a group of 4 in “SETTLERS OF THE STONE AGE”, a game which was last played on 21/06/2012 so is not reviewed here. All the players enjoyed this version of Settlers but as Jerry knows it well, and started with an early lead, he was never headed. Final scores were Jerry 10; Lucy 4; Roger 4; Poppy 3.

2.       Table 2 saw Mike leading a 4-player game of “UNION PACIFIC”, which he brought because he know that Paul was bringing along 2 11-y-o-boys, his son Matthew and his friend Will, and Mike thought they would like it. The game is about expanding any of the 10 railway companies in the game and acquiring shares in those companies, from which you will gain dividends, and it is the player with the most money after the end of the 4^th scoring round who is the winner. The game is driven by 2 packs of cards, Track cards and Shares cards, the first of which denotes a track type and players choose from 4 cards in their hand to do either a) extend the network of any railway or b) to lay down shares in companies in readiness for scoring. If they extend the network they can take a share card from either any of the 4 face-up cards or from the blind pack. They will be trying to gain sufficient cards in a company so that when they do the other option of laying down shares they will gain overall control of that company, which will yield more money. As nobody ‘controls’ the track building in a turn players can extend the line of a company they do control to make it worth more.  The 4 scoring cards are shuffled into this share deck at the start of the game so players do NOT know when scoring is going to occur.  When it does, the length of each of the 10 companies is determined and that is the amount of money that goes to the major shareholder at that time. The second share holder receives half, and there are rules for tied holdings. So 4 times in the game the players receive income so they are working towards extending lines they control, or trying to obtain shares in other companies with a view to taking over control of them from other players. There is one other way of scoring, this being the shares in the eponymous Union Pacific. These can only be acquired by secretly swapping a share of a named company for a UP share. At every scoring round the dividend for UP shares is allocated and this rises throughout the game to denote its increasing importance within US railroading. All the scoring rounds were close with very little difference between the players. However Paul was building up a good supply of UP shares which he declared in time to gain $20 million for being the major shareholder in the last round. The final scores were extremely close, these being Paul 138; Will 137; Matthew 136; Mike 134. All players enjoyed it, with newcomer Will requesting that he come again next week and play the game once more.

3.       Table 3 saw 5 of the ‘heavies’ in the club playing “CYLADES”, a beautifully-produced game in which players are trying to gain the favour of one of the 5 gods each turn in order to get the resources they provide towards the building of a metropolis in the Greek Island. However only 1 player can have the favour of each God per turn so in a mechanism similar to Amun-Re there is a lot of bidding, counter-bidding, fighting etc to determine who gets what. This generated much laughter amongst the players. In the final rounds Tony was able to outbid several opponents due to his accumulated wealth, sufficient enough to gain the last piece of the 4 tiles needed to build a metropolis and to win the game. All 5 players stated how much they enjoyed the game.  

4.       Whilst the other 2 tables were involved in long games Table 1 had completed their second game, this time “SMALL WORLD”, a particular favourites of Jerry’s, for which he owns numerous expansions. However our reporter states that in the last round the Were-Pixies ran amok to beat the Maurauding Elves and the Alchemist Gypsies and gain Lucy a victory. Final scores were Lucy 124; Jerry 116; Roger 97.

Games played and Winners were:

Settlers of the Stone Age – Jerry Jabelman;

Union Pacific – Paul Bulpin;

Cyclades – Tony Simons;

Small World – Lucy Newbury.