CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 19/01/2012

1.       With 13 players in attendance we split into 3 groups. On table 1 Jeremy led a group of 4 playing “ASSYRIA”, in which players expand their tribe from a starting zuggerat by placing huts along adjacent hexes on the board, and which is irrigated by 2 rivers. However for these to survive you need to have the necessary foods cards in the right combinations to feed them, otherwise they will be removed. For the surviving huts players receive ‘income’ in the form of camels, and VP’s for the placement of their huts, plus additional VPs for the number and height of their zuggerats. They will use the camels to pay for actions on various parts of the board. These cover such things as building another zuggerat, adding to the height of an existing zuggerat, constructing wells, buying a feeding card, placing huts on some interim VP scoring tracks, which also give benefits at certain stages in the game. As with similar games of this nature you cannot do all you want, so you have to plan your moves carefully, and be aware of what your opponents are doing to maximise your score. The feed cards come in pairs and are selected in turn order but the group you select indicates the turn order for the following turn, so the sequence constantly changes. Being a new game to us all we made some decisions which were maybe not the best but that is normal first time out. Alister suffered by being trapped in a corner and unable to expand so he lagged for the whole game. Mike led early on but Rob and Jeremy were racking up points on the interim VP track and they broke away. Final positions were Jeremy, Rob, Mike, Alister.

2.        On table 2 a game of “DOMINION” took place with Freya and Poppy joined by Paul and Roger. Freya chose the combination of cards decks once again but for once she did not romp away to a clear victory, this time only winning by a small margin.

3.       The group enjoyed it so much that they played another game of “DOMINION” with a different set up. This time Paul concentrated on getting lots of Garden cards and a deck of over 50 cards and with this he was able to gain the required scoring cards for an clear-cut victory.

4.       On table 3 a long game of “SMALLWORLD” was taking place with 5 players. The game has been reviewed before on 18 Aug 2011, so is not repeated here. The eventual winner was Tim.

5.       We then re-organised the groups and on Table 1 Mike led 6 players in the lightweight game of “MONTGOLFIERE”. In this card-driven game players are trying to get their balloons to as high an altitude as possible in each of 3 turns. They all have an identical deck of 24 cards which they shuffle and draw 7 cards from the top. They select a card simultaneously to play and the phase is resolved in a defined sequence. The player who plays the highest unique ballast card goes up 1 level. If other players one level below had played a hook card to this player they will take a free ride. However if any weather cards have been played, and the number of them is uneven, it is determined as ‘bad weather’ and the player goes DOWN, instead of up!. The hooked played simply remove their hooks. There is also a Supermotor card which, if played, enable a player to go up 2 levels, but in ‘bad weather’ the movement is reduced to 1 level.  Again players can hook to this player if they are 1 level below. The real fun is caused by the Sleeping Gas cards, which can be played on ALL balloons that are 1 level below the player and all their actions are ignored for this phase of play…which can be very annoying. When all 24 cards have been played the final positions are scored and a 2^nd and 3^rd rounds are played to determine a winner. Newcomer John and Lucy scored most in the first round with 12. In round 2 John and Rob were the high achievers  and round 3 saw John again a top scorer with 12, along with Tim. Final scores were John 35; Rob 29; Lucy 27; Tim 27; Alister 24; Mike 24. Well done John on your debut win !!

6.       We split up again and whilst we waited for Table 2 to finish we introduced John to “SUSHIZOCK IM GOCKEKWOK” , at the request of Rob. Needless to say he won the game, but only narrowly from John.

7.       Mike led 4 players in the game of “RAZZIA”, in which players play cards from their hand of 5 cards to try and gain the loot held at one of the 6 gambling dens in the game. If they are alone at a den they gain all the money; if they are there with another player a duel takes place to determine how the money is split. However if another player plays a policeman for this den they arrest the gamblers and take the money for themselves; if there is more than one policeman played for the den once  again a duel takes place to split the proceeds. After all the money chits have been gambled for the player with the most accumulated wealth is the winner. A lightweight game which is good fun to play. Alsister came out on top by a small margin, mainly as a result of winning a duel with Mike, in which Mike had refused an offer of part of the proceeds and elected to fight for the lot…who said “greed doesn’t pay” ???

8.       The remaining 4 players played the game of “TOURNAY”, the card version from the designers of “TROYES” but a different game in itself. Due to time constraints they were unable to complete the game but for the scoring that had taken place Paul is credited with the victory as he was leading at the time. The players thought it was a very good game and it will be reviewed in full when a complete game has been achieved.

Games played and Winners were:

Assyria – Jeremy Hurault;

Dominion  Game 1 – Freya Freestone;

Dominion  Game 1 – Paul Bulpin;

Smallworld – Tim Havenith;

Montgolfiere – John Binmore;

Sushizock im Gockelkwok – Rob Piesse;

Razzia – Alister Gitten;

Tournay – Paul Bulpin.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 12/01/2012

1.       With just 8 players in attendance we split into 2 groups of 4. On table 1 Jerry led a group playing “DOMAINE”, in which players create different domains and by playing cards they extend them, or add knights to existing territories for offensive and defensive purposes, or add fences to other parts of the board to create new domains. They receive VP’s of 1 for each wood in their control, plus income of 1 for each mine they also happen to have. To play a card each turn costs a variable amount of money and this is very tight. If they cannot pay for a building action they have to discard 1 card to the chancery and receive the income from it. This makes the cards available for other players to pick up in subsequent turns. The VP’s gained are recorded on a track on the edge of the board and the players are trying to be the first to reach the King token which is placed further around the track. Jerry took an early lead by creating 2 smaller domains with lots of woods, whilst Mike concentrated on getting a larger single domain. Freya and Poppy contested another corner of the board. Freya thwarted Mike’s attempt to take over one of her domains and extended her own to gain VP’s. She intended to encroach into Jerry’s domain but Jerry placed an extra knight in it to repel the attack. The other players failed to spot that Jerry was constructing a large domain and when he completed this he gained many points, which meant he was close to winning. Mike made a spirited attempt to close the gap but didn’t have enough money to play one of his powerful cards so the result was beyond redemption. Final positions  were Jerry, Mike, Freya, Poppy.

2.       On table 2 Tony led a group of 4 playing “DRUM ROLL”, which was played last week and reviewed in detail there, so is not repeated here. As the other players had not played before it took some time to explain it and the whole game took 2 and half hours to complete, but was well received by those who took part. Not surprisingly, Tony was the winner.

3.       On table 1 Mike and Freya introduced Jerry and Poppy to “DOMINION”, which they had not played before. Freya chose a ‘gentle’ combination of 10 action cards types for easier explanation. She helped Poppy to understand how the game works and Poppy was a willing pupil, building a neat hand of actions which gave her plenty of buying power and a ‘long’ turn. Mike suffered from her thief card and her Spy card, ‘losing’ Gold on several occasions which thwarted his own building ambitions. Jerry plodded along but failed to get the right combinations in his 5 cards to make huge progress. Freya used her Moneylender wisely and constructed the first Provinces for 6 VP’s each. Poppy was matching Freya steadily but as 2 of the Action card decks were exhausted Freya decided she had enough points to win the game so she ended it on her next turn. She was right as the final scores were Freya 38; Poppy 31; Jerry 24 and Mike a measly 15 ! The Jabelmans enjoyed the experience and wanted to play the game again at a future date.

Games played and Winners were:

Domaine - Jerry Jabelman;

Drum Roll – Tony Simons:

Dominion – Freya Freestone.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 05/01/2012

1.       A bumper attendance returned after the break for the Festive Season with 14 players in attendance, including a new member Richard. On table 1 6 players played the game of “INFINITE CITY” to introduce Richard to the club. The game has been reviewed before and scoring is often close. In this game Roger and Poppy tied on points but Poppy won on the tie-break.

2.       On table 2 Paul led a group of 4 playing “ROYAL PALACE”, the game about moving around a French Palace to gain the required components needed to enlisting nobles from the courtyard, which give Victory Points. A beautiful looking game with plenty of interaction which has been reviewed before . Not surprisingly Paul was the victor.

3.       Table 3 saw the debut of Tony’s present from Santa, the new game of “DRUM ROLL”. A set collecting game about building up a troupe of circus performers who will appear in a European capital city to gain VP’s and then move on to another destination. Beautiful artwork and a mesh of interesting systems make this a great first publication for the Greek authors. The game is driven by 3 decks of cards, these containing Circus performers in 5 categories; a deck of employees such as Agents, Popcorn Sellers, Orchestra etc;  and Investment Cards which give temporary benefits. Players have 3 dobbers which they place on the Action spaces in turn. These yield either a cube of a specific colour; money from ticket sales, a chance to buy an investment card, the opportunity to recruit 1 performer; the opportunity to recruit an employee. With 5 options and only 3 dobbers you can’t do everything you want to do so you have to plan, and there are restrictions on the number of players that can perform certain actions. The performers require the cubes to improve their status from 1 up to 3 stars; you need money to pay for your actions and you need to recruit performers for game-end scoring purposes. To build up to the first show a track showing 7 possible rounds is used. After round 5 the players vote whether to put the show on or not. If the latter is the outcome a further round is played, and the same happens after round 6. At round 7, or earlier if the vote has so decided, the players perform their ‘show’. Each performer generates resources, either money, or cubes, or discounts according to the star status. Certain Investment cards give VPs according to the status of the performers used and their ‘City’ agenda yields more VPs if you have the type of performers that the city wants to see. However ALL salaries have to be paid so you had better stashed away enough money to do so or you will lose VPs. This process is repeated 2 more times with players steadily building up the size of their circus and the status of each of them. Very few VPs are earned in the 3 rounds with the major scoring occurring when the players ‘flip’ their performers. In doing this they gain VPs but LOSE the benefit the performer gives. At Game End several bonus scores are allocated for a series of conditions; the largest troupe, having a variety of all 5 types, having all 3-star performers in your final show etc and these can be crucial. Tim and Lucy led the scoring for most of the game but Tony and Mike were building up larger troupes and they scored heavily at the end. Tony won the game by 2 points from Mike due to an investment card which gave him points for the number of employees he had, in his case 4 points. A 2-hour game but well received and a candidate for game of the year in my opinion.

4.       Table 1 played the card game “FLUXX”, in which the cards played change the rules as you go along. A quick game to play, lasting 15-20 minutes and the winner was Roger.

5.       Table 2 saw 4 players playing “OREGON”, to introduce Richard to the game. It was played a few weeks ago and is not reviewed here. The winner was Imogen, making a guest appearance.

6.       Table 1 thinned out which left 4 players for a game of “DOMINION”, much to the delight of Freya and Rob, who both like this game a lot. Needless to say Freya was the winner yet again.

7.       Table 3 reduced to 5 players and they played “BOHNANZA”, a club favourite. Richard and Kevin were playing it for the first time but they soon entered into the spirit of the frenzied trading required to plant and reap your fields of beans. Much laughter is generated in this game which makes it such a pleasure to play. Scoring was tight, with Rob eventually winning with 20, followed by Kevin and Mike on 18, and Richard on 17.

Games played and Winners were:

Infinite City - Poppy Jabelman;

Royal Palace – Paul Bulpin;

Drum Roll – Tony Simons;

Fluxx – Roger Skull;

Oregon – Imogen Bulpin;

Dominion – Freya Freestone;

Bohnanza -  Robert Piesse.