CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 08/03/2012

1.       11 players in attendance tonight, including new member John Bradford.  On table 1 Tony led a 5-player game of “BIG CITY”, the game about constructing various buildings in various plots in a city and scoring VP’s for doing so. The initial city plan is constructed from 6 of the 8 boards in the game, on which are printed numbers for each group of 10, i.e 11-19; 21-29; 31-39 etc. Players are dealt 6 cards, 1 from each of the groups 1-6, and they use these in combinations to build the various buildings, which can be 1, 2 or 3 in size, if they have the required card combination. The buildings score different points, plus a bonus if certain conditions are met. 2 other features drive the game, the first being the Tramcar line. Players have the option on their turn to construct up to 2 lengths of the line, and for any player who constructs a building that is adjacent to the line their VP’s for that build is doubled. The second key feature is the Town Hall, of which there is only one building (not surprising is it? ). When this is constructed then other Special Building like Banks, Post Offices and Cinemas can be built, if they meet the required criteria. A further option the players have is to increase the city plots by adding another board but they score no VP’s for this. The city builds up impressively with the plastic moulded pieces and scoring happens in bursts. Alister secured an early lead by building the Shopping Mall and scoring 30 points for doing so. Other players built Businesses and Residences, some along the tramline to double their score. Tony opened up the ‘second phase’ by building the Town Hall and he caught Alister up by building the second Shopping Mall, and despite minor bursts of scoring by the others he was never headed and won comfortably in the end.

2.       Table 2 saw 6 players playing “INFINITE CITY”, see review for 10 February 2011 for a fuller description. The eventual winner was Jerry in a close finish. 

3.       On table 1 7 players played “BOHNANZA”, the bean-planting game. See review of 5^th January for details. Due to the large number of players the game took longer than usual. Much laughter ensued, mainly due to Tony (hereafter known as Betty) and his interaction with Donna. Trading was ferocious between the players, with many cards being kindly donated as they tried to gain a competitive edge. In a very tight finish Alister won with 12 points, with 3 players on 11, one player on 10 and one on 9. Huge fun, despite the time taken.

4.       Table 2 were in the middle of a game of “DOMAINE” when Jerry unfortunately spilt beer all over the game, so it was abandoned. The 4 player took up “MOSAIX” instead, a dice game in which the faces are covered with the symbols of Circles, Triangles and Crosses. Players throw 4 dice and from the resultant throw they arrange the dice into a sequence which they enter on their own personal 7x7 grid. They are trying to get as large a group of one symbol as possible for scoring purposes but as their grid fills up this becomes more difficult to achieve. A lightweight game of 20-30 minutes, for which the winner was Jerry, to make him feel better about the mishap with his game.

5.       The session ended with Kevin leading 9 players playing the new party-style  game “THE RESISTANCE”.  At the start of the game players are dealt cards which gives them an identity of whether they are a Spy or a Resistance member. They keep this information secret from the other players until the game leader calls for ALL players to close their eyes, then he calls for the Spies only to open their eyes so that they can see who the other Spies are, and then everyone closes their eyes again. Then the first of 5 missions begin with the Leader selecting a number of players to go on mission 1 and the whole group then vote simultaneously whether they are happy or not with the selected crew. If they are, the mission goes ahead with the nominated crew. These players then decide by secret vote whether the mission is successful or not. These votes are collected by the Leader who then reveals them and announces the result. If the Spies win a Red counter is placed against the Mission, if the Resistance win a Blue counter is placed against the Mission. The next player becomes the new Leader and the process is repeated for subsequent missions until either side gains 3 successes.  Armed with limited knowledge about who was selected for a mission and what the outcome was the players try to deduce which players are on ‘their side’ and try to gain the overall victory for their team. Our first game took about 20 minutes and fined with a 3-0 win for the Spies so we were able to play a second game and this time the outcome was much closer but the Spies still defeated the Resistance.

Games played and Winners were:

Big City – Tony Simons;

Infinite City – Jerry Jabelman;

Bohnanza – Alister Gitten;

Mosaix – Jerry Jabelman;

The Resistance – The Spies win.