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.