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.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 16/08/2012

1.       7 players tonight so 2 tables were in play. On Table 1 Tony led a 3-player game of “KINGSBURG” a game of worker placement to gain influence in the Council chamber to obtain resources with which to create buildings and train troops. Within each year there are 3 seasons for doing this and in the 4^th season (Winter) the players have to defend themselves against an invading army. Each member of the Council awards different resources so the players have to determine which member to influence to their advantage. This means that there are many alternate strategies to employ, be they economic, prestige, or military, or a combination of all. The game takes place over 5 years, so just 20 turns in all to try and gain the most VPs. In a close finish Kevin managed to gain a victory.

2.       Table 2 saw Mike leading a 4-player game of “CUBA”, in which players use their 5 character cards in any order they choose to gain resources and products, trade in the market, to construct buildings, to produce finished goods or to load finished goods on the ships waiting in the harbour. As all players can obtain similar items there is fierce competition to grab the building tile you want before the other players. Similarly there is a race to be the first to load ships, a good way of earning VPs.   However there are so many ways in which to use your cards there is not room here to describe them all. Matthew was the early leader, mainly by buying votes in parliament so that he could influence the Tax and Duty Laws which apply at the end of each round. Paul built the Cigar factory before Mike did, which the latter found annoying. Mike traded his now useless tobacco to gain a lot of money but this reduced the price of the product so the others bought it cheaply. Roger built a Distillery for producing Rum from his Sugar plantation but was unlucky that the ships arriving in the harbour did not require very much of these goods. The game consists of 6 rounds, with 5 turns in each round, and it is very interactive. Scores were often very close throughout and in the final round Roger had his plans thwarted twice, firstly by Matthew using the building tile which required water, and then by Mike loading goods onto a ship that Roger was going to complete fully on his own for a healthy 10 points ! Paul continued to make good progress with loading his Cigar Boxes onto ships. In the very last play Mike was able to load one final Good for 3 VP in the largest ship, and after the points for game end scoring were awarded this turned out to be  enough for him to secure a rare victory. Final scores were Mike 73; Roger 71; Paul 71; Matthew 70.

3.       Table 1 played a game of “COSMIC ENCOUNTER”, the game in which players are alien leaders and try to establish colonies of their race in 5 of the planets outside of their home planet .To do so the players need to use force, cunning and diplomacy . According to Tom the eventual winner was Tony, “who sneakily did him down near the end”. Nuff said !!

Games played and Winners were:

Kingsburg  – Kevin Ward;

Cuba – Mike Oakes;

Cosmic Encounter – Tony Simons.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 09/08/2012

1.       9 players tonight so 2 tables were in play. On Table 1 Mike led a 4-player game of “VASCO DA GAMA”, which has one of the best game board ever produced. Players purchase Projects to sail to Africa and India, recruit Crew and captains before launching them and then try and navigate them to a selection of destinations. They gain VPs for doing so and the player with the most VPs after 5 rounds is the winner. There are several unique mechanics in the game, the most interesting one being the way actions are carried out. There are 4 ‘Action areas’ on the board, with 5 slots available in each. They cover such things as Gaining Projects, Recruitment, Character Selection and Navigation. Players have 4 Action discs which they place, 1 at a time in player order, in the Action Area of their choice and select an Action Sequence Disc from the middle, numbered between 1 and 20, to accompany it. When all the players have placed their discs the actions are executed in Action Sequence order. Therefore players cannot be sure of getting the desired result from their action. A typical sequence might be Gain money, recruit crew and captains, obtain a project, launch an expedition, but with only 4 actions available these have to planned out carefully.  Lucy launched some high-value expeditions early and stormed into a big lead whilst Jeremy, Mike and Alister built their projects slowly. Mike moved into second place with a couple of small expeditions reaching their destinations but then Jeremy began to gain ground with some large expeditions and good use of the Merchant Ship. After his slow start Alister managed to place several expeditions and overtook Mike, whilst Jeremy began to catch Lucy. Mike made a daft game-losing error by having an expedition ready to place and score 11 points but he had forgot to recruit a captain, so could not launch it..stupid boy !!. In a tense final round Alister scored well, Lucy had exactly the correct money to launch her final expedition to gain her several points but Jeremy managed to launch and complete several expeditions in this round so he emerged the winner. Final scores were Jeremy 84; Lucy 80; Alister 74; and Mike a miserable 58. All the players unanimously agreed it was an enjoyable gaming experience.

2.       Table 2 saw 5 players in a game of “TICKET TO RIDE – EUROPE”, which as been reviewed before. In a close finish that was decided by the winner of the Longest Route card for 10 points the victor was Matthew Bulpin, who was making a rare appearance at the club because of school holidays. Well done Matthew !

3.       With the arrival of John and the departure of Jerry we were still 9 players and as it was Lucy’s birthday we granted her the wish to play “THE GREAT DALMUTI”. This multi-player card game about getting rid of your cards as quickly as possible has been reviewed before. Fittingly Lucy won the first round, and the second game was won by John. Lucy did well in the third game so she was declared the overall winner.

4.       We split into 2 tables for the final session. On Table 1 Jeremy led a 3-player game of “SOBEK”, the card game about collecting sets of items along the banks of the Nile, which was reviewed recently. The game is played in a series of rounds with the winner being the one with the most points or the first to get to 100. Normally 30 points in a round is considered a good score but Mike was fortunate enough to collect 2 large sets which scored 82 points in round 1. In round 2 things were a bit tighter as John and Jeremy gained early sets. But again with a lucky draw Mike managed to score large collections again and scored heavily with another 70 points so the game ended quickly. A rare moment indeed for Mike to win a game.

5.       Table 2 saw 6 players in a game of “MUNCHKIN” which was also played recently. Silly monsters trying kill each and much back stabbing from the players led to lots of laughter. Time ran out before the finish was it was agreed to nominate Donna as the winner.

Games played and Winners were:

Vasco Da Gama – Jeremy Hurault;

Ticket To Ride Europe – Matthew Bulpin;

The Great Dalmuti – Lucy Newbury;

Sobek – Mike Oakes;

Munchkin – Donna Harris.