CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 29/07/2010

1.     2 tables in play this week. On table 1 the group of 4 played “IMPERIAL” a game about players investing in different nations, maximising their profit by building factories and the like to increase productivity and therefore the wealth of the country , then selling their investments at a profit before taxing the countries to penalise other players who are still investing in that country. Players can expand their holdings by waging war with neighbouring countries, so the game is a mixture of business and aggression. Tony , being the owner of the game won, but only by a slender margin.

2.     On Table 2 the remaining 6 players played “UNION PACIFIC”, a railway game set in America about expanding any one of the 9 railroads in the game and then collecting share certificates in the various companies. Later on, as an alternative to building track, players can declare some of their shareholding acquired in previous rounds and they need to have done that before any of the 4 scoring cards are revealed. Once this happens each companies share value is determined and this is the amount paid out to the majority shareholder at the time, with the secondary shareholder getting half. There is a constant battle to obtain more share certificates and to sometimes take over control of a company from other players. A highly interactive game, with fluctuating fortunes and a variable game end as the scoring cards are shuffled randomly into the shares deck. By a fluke there were 2 scoring cards adjacent to each other so this meant that Geoff scored heavily in these 2 rounds before other players had a chance to expand their interests and he maintained this advantage until the end, despite a late challenge from Ian.

3.     The group then played the card game “6 NIMMT”, introducing it to our guest player Guy. In each round players start with 10 cards, each being a different value. It is about getting rid of your hand of 10 cards and scoring the least penalty points for those cards you pick up in play. The game is played over several rounds until one player reaches a total of 66 penalty points or more and then the player with the lowest score is declared the winner. Despite Mike winning the first round with zero points he failed to maintain that level and Geoff was in excellent form again and scored his second win of the evening.

4.       Guy then dropped out so Table 2 were down to 5 players and they played “PENGUIN PARTY”, a silly little card game about building a pyramid of penguins according to various rules. If a player cannot add to the construction of the pyramid they pick up penalty chips to the value of how many cards they have left in their hand at the time. If a player manages to get rid of all their cards in a round they pay 2 penalty chips back into the pool. After a series of 4 rounds 3 of the 5 players each had 3 chips in front of them so it was all to play for in the final round, in which Ian managed to get rid of all his cards to emerge the winner.

Games played and Winners were:

Union Pacific Geoff Williams;

6 Nimmt Geoff Williams;

Penguin Party Ian Fleming;

Imperial Tony Simons.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 22/07/2010

1.     2 tables in play this week. On table 1 the group of 4 played “DEMARRAGE!” a game about managing a team of 4 cyclists in the Tour de France. We played 2 stages, a flat stage to introduce the Piesse brothers to the system and then a longer stage with a steep mountain climb in the middle. Mike won the first stage but Geoff’s better grouping of his team, plus the sprint bonuses, gave him the overall points lead. Mike tried to lead from the start of the second stage but several falls meant his team dropped back. Robert kept his team together so they were able to slipstream to good effect and he won the stage but once again Geoff’s grouping enabled him to score more points and he won the overall game.

2.     Table 2 opted for “TICKET TO RIDE EUROPE”, a game about building various routes to cities in Europe to match the destinations on the tickets drawn at the start. There are points values on each ticket, the harder the route the more points they are worth. Players extend the routes throughout the game by drawing cards of various colours from a draw deck and then cashing them in to connect further cities and score interim points for doing so. An interactive game as other players will be constructing routes which pass through ‘your’ cities so sometimes it’s not easy to build the shortest route. Sometime you will need even more cards than usual to build tunnels to extend your route. As one of your options you can obtain further tickets to give you more opportunity to score but you must be careful as the game winning conditions are that you score points for each completed route but you lose the same number of points if you fail to connect it. Lucy picked up the game mechanics quickly and stormed to an easy victory by a wide margin.

3.     Table 1 then played “CITADELS”, a club favourite about employing different characters each turn to build districts of a city, the object being to build the best city. Luke suffered badly from the start, his characters being assassinated 3 times so he was unable to build any districts. Players can employ a thief and rob other players of gold so even if you have build up resources you don’t always get a chance to use them. A game of varying fortunes but on a good night for him Geoff scored his second win.

4.       Table 1 then played  “DIE MAUER”, a clever secret bidding game which was played on 10^th June, so see report about the game there. Richard came out on top, just like last time.

5.       Table 2 were engrossed in a game of “EL GRANDE”, a classic area domination game with many twists as it unfolds. Mike took an early lead but that meant he was a target for the other players so he quickly lost his advantage. Lucy and Tony placed their pieces well to score steadily and broke away from the others. Tim put in a strong finish as Mike continued to struggle so he gained third place and Roger made some late headway to almost catch Mike. Once again Lucy showed how well she has taken to the gaming hobby by romping away from Tony in the final round for yet another easy victory. Well done Lucy!! 

6.       Table 1 waited for the others to finish by playing aquick  game of “HECKMECK”, the game about collecting domino-styles pieces with worms on them. A dice-rolling fest, with much hilarity as players can steal pieces from other players. Luke almost made a remarkable comeback from a hopeless position as he battled against the Piesse brothers but eventually his luck ran out and in the end Robert won. 

Games played and Winners were:

Demarrage Geoff Williams;

Ticket To Ride Europe Lucy Newbury;

Citadels Geoff Williams;

El Grande Lucy Newbury;

Die Mauer Richard Piesse;

Heckmeck Robert Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 08/07/2010

1.     2 tables in play this week. On table 1 the group of 4 played “SANTIAGO”, a, game about planting vegetables in fields and then hoping to persuade the Overseer to irrigate the fields so that they don’t perish. A unique bidding system for control of the Overseer makes this game different. Players score points in the end for the size of their adjacent fileds of the same crop and the number of workers in the filed. Clever little game, which was won by Tony, the experienced one !

2.     Table 2 opted for “ATLANTIC STAR”, a card game about building up shipping lines to visit various routes. Strong competition for the cards makes the bidding a bit fierce. Eventually the players run out of money to buy the cards and have to reduce the value of their completed shipping lines to raise more cash. However by doing so they drop down the order of merit on the scoring track and sacrifice victory points, so it’s a tough decision. Luke waited until the last round to complete the highest –scoring Blue route and that gave him a storming total to win easily.

3.     Table 1 then played “SAN MARCO”, a smashing little game about placing your workers in any of the areas of Venice so that you have control when the Doge visits, and thereby score victory points. The unique things about this game is that the players take it in turns to create hands of cards for each player and they offer these with a series of penalty points attached to each one. The other players choose which options to take and then act upon them. The trick is to make your offers attractive enough so that you get the cards you want. Very interactive and one the result is difficult to determine right up to the end, but Tim eventually won through.

4.       On table 2 the other players played “WINNERS CIRCLE”, an updated version of the club favourite “Turf Horse racing”. It was discovered that Lucy worked in Coral’s betting shop for 3 years and she put this knowledge to good use and romped away with a victory by a wide margin. Well played Lucy !!.

5.       We split into different groups to play the last games of the evening. On table 2 4 players played “BOHANSA”, a card game about planting your crops in fields and then harvesting them. Essentially a trading game as you need to obtain cards from other players to increase the yield from your fields, but they will want a good deal in return so you had better make it sweet. Played in 3 rounds the game is quite quick but once more the result is not clear until the final count has been made. A good little filler, in which Rob was victorious by just 1 point.

6.       Table 1 had 5 players playing MISSION RED PLANET”, a space game about sending craft to distant stations and populating them. Lots of competition between the players to get their pieces on the craft before they launch so that they can control the stations. In a tight finish Richard came through to win. 

Games played and Winners were:

Santiago Tony Simons;

Atlantic Star Luke Williams;

San Marco Tim Havenith;

Winners Circle Lucy Newbury;

Bohansa Robert Piesse;

Mission Red Planet Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 01/07/2010

1.     2 tables in play this week. On table 1 the group of 4 played “DIXIT”, an ease-in game of the clubs new favourite. Robert managed to win this time round.

2.     Table 2 opted for a mega game of Reina Knizia’s “The Lord of the Rings”. An extensive movie-tie co-operative game very well themed on the book.  This being a game of many “bits”, it takes a little while to set up. Two noobies at this game meant we needed to spend some more time explaining the game (even a brief explanation can take 20 minutes!) We just started when we realised we were low on Hobbit Cards.  Arrrggghh!! I’d used them for another concept game I was working on (me being Chris that is) and had left them at home!  A quick dash and 15 minutes later we were (finally) under way.  With 6 of us playing we had to play with the Sauron Expansion, which allowed Richard to take the part of “The Dark Lord” and try and knobble our Fellowship of Hobbits before we could throw The One Ring into the Cracks of  Mount Doom in Mordor (anyone guessed I’m quite a fan of Lord of the Rings, yet?).  We got quite far, only about 6 spaces away from succeeding, before Richard/Sauron finally got us when even Gandalf could no longer help us!  .

3.     Table 1 then played “CUBA”, a game of obtaining the right commodities, such as stone and wood and water to construct buildings and factories to make Cigars and Rum which will eventually be loaded onto ships waiting in the harbour. However to achieve that you need to  play the right cards in the right sequence, which is not easy in this game. Plenty of chances to stitch other players up, but its satisfying when you pull off a great deal. Very interactive and one of the heavier games in our collection. Geoff’s previous knowledge of the game enabled him to win. 

4.       On table 2 the other players played “Dixit” again to finish the session. A close game, but noobie at it (Chris) won through, by a reasonable margin in the end.

Games played and Winners were:

Dixit game 1 Robert Piesse;

Lord of the Rings Richard Piesse;

Cuba Geoff Williams;

Dixit game 2 Chris Cook.