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.
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