CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 13/09/2012

1.       Just 4 players tonight so we play 2 solid titles, the first of which was “TINNERS TRAIL”, Lucy’s birthday present from Tony. In this game, players acquire pockets of land in Cornwall in which they construct Mines, add steam pumps and ports to drain the water from the mines, to lower the cost of extracting the ore before they actually mine the tin or copper ready to sell at market. Each of the actions available in the game cost varying amount of Action Points and each player has 10 points at their disposal. Once all players have spent their 10 points the round ends and 3 things take place. The players sell their tin and copper to raise capital. They then decide how much of their capital to invest in the future of the mining industry, Finally the top 2 players in the current turn order get to prospect some unused territory for mineral deposits. The game continues in this fashion for 4 rounds. In the later rounds trains arrive in Cornwall and these enhance the mining capacity and help drain the mine. At the end of round 4 the total VPs acquired via investments are summed and the player with the most is declared the winner.  Lucy acquired a couple of mines which proved fruitful early on, whilst Paul invested heaps of cash in the futures market. Mike made his usual stupid mistake which meant he didn’t drain his mine sufficiently to make the mining profitable. Jerry had a nice group of adjacent territories which he drained effectively to lower the price of mining and he started to catch the 2 leaders up. However in the final round both Lucy and Paul managed to make sales totalling over 50 £ so they were able to invest in the higher values futures. Final scores were Lucy 103; Paul 93; Jerry 80; Mike 52. Well done Lucy, a great start to using your birthday present !!.

2.       Mike then introduced his new purchase of “VILLAGE”, the game in which players have a family of 11 meeples which they ‘manage’ through their lives to perform certain jobs or activities to gain Prestige points. These include things such as Craftsman, Traveller, Councillor or Clergy. Members at the farm can perform the Harvest from which players can acquire coins, or equipment or livestock, which they may later sell to customers wanting those goods at Market.  They can use the Family action to breed more members onto the farm. Most of the actions have an associated cost, which in this game is ‘time’. The advance of time is marked on player’s farmsteads and when the marker passes a certain point one of the family members must die, the oldest being first to do so. They are entered in the Village Chronicle if there is space, for which they will later obtain Prestige points. If the relevant page is ‘full’ the poor soul is placed in one of the anonymous graves to score nothing. The game has a variable number of rounds and when one of the 2 game End conditions is met, players have one final action and the various Prestige Points are counted and a winner is declared. Lucy and Jerry did a lot of Travelling for which they both received 14 PPs. Lucy coupled this with an aggressive marketing strategy and sold several times at the market. Paul and Mike concentrated on the council so that they could obtain extra cubes with which to perform extra actions. Paul used his effectively to place the most family members in the Church, for which he scored heavily at the end. Mike bemoaned his luck, as his members trying to enter the Church were not drawn from the bag so he didn’t score many for those few that did. Eventually Mike ran out of members at the farm and had to take plague cubes to bring some more on, which meant that some of his PP-earning members died !! We thought that Jerry was the likely winner until Lucy managed to perform an extra ‘double purchase’ at the market which won her the game, on a tie-break from Paul. Final scores were Lucy 70; Paul 70; Jerry 64; Mike 48. Well done Lucy again, a second win on the night.

Games played and Winners were: 

Tinners Trail – Lucy Newbury;

Village – Lucy Newbury.