CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 25/03/2010

1.     With 7 players tonight we played a ‘community’ game first and then split into 2 tables. First up was a re-run of “Turf Horse Racing”, the horse betting game which was played last week. Mike failed to score any points at all on the first race, after which Chris held a narrow lead from Geoff. This was reversed in Race 2 when Geoff had a good round and Chris fell back with the others closing up. Race 3 was highly competitive and Roger made a late run as Geoff failed miserably. Chris recovered sufficiently to steal the victory with 19 points and Geoff and Roger tied on 17 points

2.     On table 2 Tony introduced “Small World”, a game of controlling different factions attempting to civilize the world, all with different abilities and aims. Each player chooses a faction and grabs various territories on the board, after which they score victory points. If they decide the faction has served its purpose they send it into decline and choose another faction with which to score points. Players are constantly attacking each other to gain territories so the game is highly interactive. Tony and Mike did not employ their powers as well as Roger and Richard so it became a 2-horse race for victory and the game was tied when scoring was completed. Richard won the game on the tie-break by having control of more territories on the board at the end.

3.     On the other table the 3 lads played ”Space Junkyard”, a new game where Space has become a giant dumping ground for jettisoned components and derelict spacecraft.  Players navigate through a sea of asteroids and recyclable parts, collecting resources and salvaged ship modules in a quest to build the largest and most complete starship. Rob quickly grabbed the concept, being the youngest, and romped to an easy victory.

4.     Next game up was a 3–player game of “Montego Bay”, the game about players using their workers to obtain barrels of goods for loading on ships in the bay. The ships are of varying size and players will score when the ship is full and it sails. The victory points shown on each ship are allocated according to which players has contributed most to the completed cargo. The way in which the workers collect the barrels is quite thought-provoking and yet amusing at the same time. Instances can arise whereby players actually have to remove barrels from the ships of partially loaded ships, thereby reducing their chances of victory points. Chris gained a large lead early in the game and the other 2 never really got close to him.

5.     Table 2 finished their session with 2 games of “Razzia”, a card game about secretly sending gamblers to any one of 6 dens in the game to obtain the money that is there. However players also have coppers in the same colours as the dens and they might send a policeman to arrest any gamblers there. They are corrupt as they then take the loot for themselves. If more than one gambler or policeman are present at a gambling den the ‘strongest’ player present offers a deal to the ‘weaker’ player to split the loot.  If they accept no duel takes place; if they decline a shoot-out occurs with the winner taking all the cash.  “Razzia” handles up to 8 players and is a good interactive filler, so much so that we played 2 games before our finishing time.

Games played and Winners were:

Turf Horse Racing Chris Cook;

Small World Richard Piesse;

Space Junkyard Robert Piesse;

Montego Bay Chris Cook;

Razzia game 1 Roger Skull;

Razzia game 2 Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 18/03/2010

1.     With only 6 players tonight we stayed together as a group and played 3 games during the evening. First up was a re-run of “Don Pepe”, the gangster game which was played last week. With 6 players early losses were inevitable and Geoff was soon down to just one mobster left. However he hung on until the last 3 mobs were left  after some serious damage caused by cakes blowing up. Mike had a poor start but by staying in until the end he picked up some regular income, enough to enable him to pass Roger who had already been eliminated.

2.     Game Mike introduced the group to “The Boardgamegeek Game”, in which players play the role of a games manufacturer who wish to sell their games in the 6 shops present on the board. They have a secondary objective to collect games from other players to form sets, which will score points at the end. The game is driven by placing tiles in shop windows and then using the roll of 3 dice to determine from which shops the players will purchase their games. Much manipulation of the dice ensues to satisfy this requirement and players can frustrate their opponents by doing this. The lead changed hands several times during the game but by collecting 3 complete sets Alistair scored heavily at the end for a comfortable win.

3.     As it was Cheltenham NH Festival week we finished up with a horse racing game called “Turf Horse Racing”. This is a betting game which uses a special dice to decide how the horses move. Much laughter arose from the game and it was voted a success. With a storming last 2 rounds Robert  swept through to victory.

Games played and Winners were:

Don Pepe Mike Oakes;

Boardgamegeek game Alistair Gitting;

Turf Horse Racing Robert Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 10/03/2010

1.     We split into 2 groups of 4 tonight, playing on 2 tables. First game up was “Bombay”, a game new to Tony and Roger. It involved using elephants to transport bales of goods between locations, using a series of linked pathways. The prices for delivering goods fluctuate during the game and the lead changes hands regularly.  Mike established a good link of palaces which earned him much gold as other players passed through them and this was enough to secure a rare win for him.

2.     On table 2 the lads played “Ad Astra”, a space trading game. Chris has played the game several times and used this to good advantage to secure a win.

3.     Back on table 1 the four of us played “Diamonds Club”, a game about acquiring mines, producing gems from them, and then using these gems to build various features in your own personal garden. These include fountains, orangeries, temples, deer park etc, plus forested areas. The mechanism for obtaining the various gems is quite clever and the scoring options are multi-faceted and it produced a close finish between Mike and Tony, with the latter prevailing in the final countdown.

4.     On table 2 the lads took on “Don Pepe”, a game of gangsters trying to grab the most money before everyone finally dies. The gangsters are all seated around a table and they play various cards which enable them to knife, shoot or drug their opponents to eliminate them. During this process they earn money from illegal enterprises. The unique feature of the game is that players can make a cake and send it round the table. When their turn comes round again the cake explodes and any adjacent gangsters are killed. However players can either move around the table or send the cake further round the table to avoid being removed themselves and exposing other players to the danger, so the game is highly interactive and very amusing. Despite having only one of his gang remaining Richard managed to manoeuvre his cake to eliminate his opponents and win the game by having the most loot.

Games played and Winners were:

Bombay Mike Oakes;

Ad Astra Chris Cook;

Diamonds Club Tony Simons;

Don Pepe Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 03/03/2010

1.     Whilst we waited for the late arrival of the Piesse Brothers 4 of us played the short game of “Hey, That’s My Fish”. A simple game about collecting fish from a large ice flow. However as players collect fish they form holes in the ice which can leave other players isolated ( or should that be “ice-olated” . Roger ran away with the game in the end by having a “whole shoal” to himself.

2.     With the arrival of Chris and Alistair 7 of us played “Incan Gold”, a game of collecting treasures. It involved brinkmanship deciding when to bale out of the mines due to impending disasters. Chris didn’t and perished, Alistair was more prudent and narrowly beat Richard.

3.     When Robert Piesse arrived we split into 3 groups, one of 5 to play “Caylus”, and the other 3 played a variety of small games. Caylus is a resource management game about building various parts of a castle and is quite involved…a proper gamers game .It took over 2 hours and Chris was always in a leading position and held it until the end, despite a late surge by Alistair and Mike to close the gap. Richard claimed he might have won if there had been one more round…hmmm, maybe next time ??

4.     On the other table Geoff introduced Maria to the game of “Oregon”, about building farms, ports and churches in the state of that name. He duly won but only narrowly from Roger.

5.     Geoff then explained the card game “King Lui”, whereby players take food items from the proliferation on display but they must be careful not to eat more of an item than the King does, as that would be rude, wouldn’t it ? If they do hey won’t score for that item so the game is all about keeping a balanced diet. Geoff’s prior knowledge enabled him to win.

6.     The small group then played a quick card game “Coloretto”, and interesting set-collecting game which is popular within the hobby. Maria was hustled by the other two and Geoff gained a narrow win over Roger.

7.     The larger group played a second game of “Incan Gold” to finish up the evening. Mike blew his chances when failing to get out of the mine in time and lost a lot of treasure. Chris gained a win by just one point in a tense finish.

8.     On the other table Geoff introduced another card game called “Archaeology”, a game about achieving expedition goals. In another tight finish Geoff beat Roger by one point to claim a fourth victory of the evening !!   

Games played and Winners were:

Hey That’s My Fish ! Roger Skull;

Incan Gold game 1 Alistair Gittings;

Oregon Geoff Williams;

Kings Breakfast Geoff Williams;

Caylus Chris Cook;

Coloretto Geoff Williams;

Archeology Geoff Williams;

Incan Gold game 2 Chris Cook.

Well done Geoff on a 4-timer !!