CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 25/08/2011

1.       12 in attendance at the start so we split into 3 groups. On table 1 a group of 5 players played “METROPOLYS”, a game about populating areas on the map of a city landscape with buildings by means of a unique system. Players have a set of buildings in different heights, numbered 1-12 , and in a turn one player starts the auction by laying a building of any value. The next player can add a building of a higher value in an adjacent area or pass. This chain of building continues until all but one player has passed and that is the building that is constructed. ‘Losing’ bidders retrieve their pieces for future auctions. Certain tokens, mostly beneficial but some bad, are picked up if a player builds in a particular area. The auctions continue until one player has played all of their buildings and Victory Points are calculated. Each player has a secret agenda such as “most buildings on the edge of the city” or “most buildings in areas with bridges”, and these score VP’s along with some of the tokens gained. The winner was Paul, who won easily.

2.       Table 2 saw 3 other players playing “TOBAGO”, which has been reviewed before so is not repeated here. Geoff and Roger gained some treasure cards early, whilst Mike collected amulets for use later on. When Mike used these to gain a treasure he was unfortunate enough to draw the dreaded skull card and lose all his treasures, which effectively put him out of the game.   Roger and Geoff continued to fight it out the lead but Roger won with a late surge of treasure cards and the final scores were Roger 41; Geoff 31; Mike 20.

3.       Table 3 was run by Tony who introduced new players Brian and Jamie to “SMALL WORLD”, which was played last week.  In the end Rob won on a tie-break from Brian.

4.       Table 1 played yet another game of “7 WONDERS” with the same 5 players. After her recent absence Lucy was back to demonstrate her superiority yet again with another victory.

5.        Table 2 played a 3-player game of “SAVANNAH TAILS”, which has been reviewed before. In a close finish Mike won on the tie-break by being on the inside as he tied with Geoff, with Roger just 1 space behind.

6.       Tony explained the game of “ZOOLORETTO” on table 3, the game about populating your zoo with various species of animals. A highly entertaining game, good to introduce new members. With his previous experience of the game Tony was the victor.

7.       Table 1 decided to play another game of “7 WONDERS” to try and spread the victories around but rather predictably the winner once again was Lucy.

8.       Table 2 decided to play the motor racing game “AUSGEBREMST”, but due to a misunderstanding of the rules they had a false start and had to start again. With only 3 players the game system ‘played’ the other 3 cars in the race in a random draw fashion and these cars got in the way of the ‘real’ players !.  Geoff was usually in the front runners and he eventually ran out the winner by some margin from the other 2 players.

9.       Table 2 then finished their session with the quick dice-rolling game of “SUSHIWOCK IM GOCKELWOK”. There was much pinching of tiles between the players which saw fortunes fluctuating, which made for an amusing game and in the end Mike’s high-value sushi saw him through to victory.

10.    Table 1 played the last game of packed evening with a 7-player outing of “THE GREAT DALMUTI”, at the request of Rob. Much hilarity was forthcoming from the table, especially from the newcomers,  and in the end Tim emerged as the victor.

A really fun-packed evening  with a record number of games played. Thanks to all who took part.

Games played and Winners were:

Metropolys – Paul Bulpin;

Tobago – Roger Skull;

Small World – Rob Piesse;

7 Wonders Game 1 – Lucy Newbury;

Savannah Tails – Mike Oakes;

Zooloretto – Tony Simons;

7 Wonders Game 2 – Lucy Newbury ( again);

Ausgembremst – Geoff Williams;

Sushizock im Gockelwok – Mike Oakes;

The Great Dalmuti – Tim Havenith.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 18/08/2011

1.       10 in attendance at the start so we split into 2 tables initially, and then 3 tables. On table 1 a group of 5 players played “LAND UNTER”, the card game about saving yourself from drowning whilst on a lighthouse. The twist in the game is that each player gets to play all the different hands in the game once only. To the surprise of all Mike actually came out the winner by a narrow margin from Geoff.

2.       On Table 2 Tony led a group of 3 other players in “SMALL WORLD” the game of selecting a faction to gain VP’s by conquering territories and then sending them into decline when they have served their purpose.  Many combinations of faction are possible, which give the game its appeal. It has been reviewed before so is not repeated here. To her own amazement and delight Poppy was the eventual winner with 107 points from Jerry’s 98.

3.       With the arrival of 2 more players a third Table was created and 3 players played “OREGON” which was played last week. The winner by a single point was Rob Piesse from his brother Richard.

4.       Table 1 saw 4 players in a game of “NAVEGADOR”, which has been reviewed before. First-time players Imogen and Rachel soon grasped the mechanisms and everyone enjoyed the game. Rachel’s use of the Market gained her lots of cash with which to build shipyards so she was able to build ships cheaply. Paul went down the church route to obtain cheap workers but was unable to get the vital privilege tile he wanted before the game ended. Imogen had lots of colonies so scored well with those and Mike had lots of cash from his use of the Market. Rachel’s shipbuilding eventually paid off as she ended the game with a lot of ships on the board as well as gaining the last navigation tile. She won by 3 points from Paul, with Imogen 3^rd and Mike 4^th.

5.       Table 3 played a quick game of “JAMAICA” to fill in the time whilst they waited for other games to finish. The winner was Rob again for his second victory of the evening.

6.       As people left a final group of 4 players played “RA”, in an attempt to find something that Rob couldn’t win, as he had not played it. However he started with a good score in the first epoch and led at that stage. Seasoned gamer Tony soon corrected that position by scoring well in Epochs 2 and 3 and Roger was not far behind. Tony ran out the winner with 49 points to Roger’s 48, Rob scored 41 points and Mike was an embarrassing last with just 1 point !!

Games played and Winners were:

Land Unter- Mike Oakes;

Small World- Poppy Jabelman;

Oregon- Rob Piesse;

Navegador- Rachel Dunn;

Jamaica- Rob Piesse;

Ra- Tony Simons.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 04/11/2011

1.       11 in attendance at the start so we split into 2 tables initially, and then 3 tables. On table 1 a group of 6 players played “SCREAM MACHINE”, the card game about building a theme park with various attractions and getting the public to visit your park rather than someone else’s.  Paul gained lots of points by being the one with the lowest value rides and thereby attracting the Cheapskate punters. The other player could not compete with this so he was the eventual winner.

2.       On Table 2 Mike led a group of 3 other players in “TROYES”, in an attempt to get other opinions on this game, which has received a mixed reception. There’s much to explain at the start and some players found it slightly bewildering but eventually after a couple of rounds of play the mechanisms became clearer. Roger had plenty of money and placed workers at different sites in the city, giving him variable dice to roll. Mike concentrated on the religious aspect by obtaining white dice and built several levels of the cathedral. Rob and Kevin went down the Civic and Military route, using the powers of their workers to convert yellow dice to red and with those they chose to try and combat the event cards and place cubes on them. This gained them a hoard of Victory Points. In round 5 Mike placed several workers in the principal buildings so that he could roll more dice than any other players, and that meant that Roger was ejected, leaving him with no dice to roll at all!. In the next round, the final one, Mike failed to roll the high numbers he wanted to complete his planned move and this blew his chance. Roger used his money to place a worker so that he gained 6 VPs, which moved him ahead a bit. Rob and Kevin continued with their militarist strategy and gained a few more VPs. At Game End scoring almost every player had enough money to gain maximum of 6 VPs so Mike’s secret agenda meant very little. Roger’s worker placement gained him more VPs than anyone else but Rob and Kevin also scored well with their secret agendas so the final scores were Kevin 41; Rob 38, Roger 35; Mike 28. All 3 players said they would play again as they now knew the mechanisms well enough, so that will be arranged for the near future, after which a better opinion of the game can be gleaned.

3.       Table 1 played “OREGON”, a game of worker placement to gain VPs as the territory gets settled by stores, ports , railways and churches.   Alister thought he had done enough to win until Paul had a fantastic last move to gain 14 points and snatch a victory.

4.       Table 3 saw 3 players in a game of the club favourite “TICKET TO RIDE”. As the mechanisms are well-known the game progressed quickly and Jerry emerged the victor.

5.       With some departures we were left with 6 players and Mike volunteered to drop out to explain the quick filler game “FELIX” to the other players. This is a card-based auction game of 9 rounds of play in which cards containing picture of cats and dogs are secretly placed under cards for auctions and then players either bid to stay in, or drop out and take the money on offer at the current auction. The card under this auction is then revealed so the remaining players have a better idea of what the final set of cards will be worth. This continues until all players but one have passed and they pay their final bid to the bank and receive all the 5 cards placed. The twist is that some cats are valued positive and some are negative. Furthermore there are Big dogs and Small dogs to be played. If a Big Dog is present they chase away the highest positive cat, reducing the value of the final set. If just a Small dog is present they chase away the highest negative cat. Just to complicate it more, if more than one dog card is played they chase each other and no cats are chased at all ! Some spirited bidding took place and Kevin was unfortunate to pay a large bid, only to find a Big dog under the last card which drove away a positive cat worth 15 VPs. A good quick filler game, easy to play and the eventual winner was Rob

 

Games played and Winners were:

Scream Machine Paul Bulpin;

Troyes Kevin Ward;

Ticket To Ride Jerry Jabelman;

Oregon Paul Bulpin;

Felix Rob Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 04/08/2011

1.       9 in attendance at the start so we split into 2 tables. On table 1 a group of 4 players played “SETTLERS OF CATAN – Traders version” . This variant of the popular game introduces the element of trading, whereby players visit one of the 3 cities on the board to collect a commodity and then they have to deliver it to one of the other 2 cities who want that commodity in order to receive gold coins and the token, which is worth 1 VP. To do this they have a Caravan which starts its movement points(MP) on 4 and these points are used to traverse the roads between the 2 cities. Using your own road costs 1 MP, using another players road costs 1 MP, plus 1 gold coin to the ‘owner of the road, to cross a section without a road costs 2 MPs. This takes planning, and the player can temporarily increase their MPs by discarding a Wheat card to add 2 MPs. A further complication is that we played with the barbarian option and 3 barbarian figures are in play throughout, placed upon the roads. To pass a barbarian costs 3 of your MPs, which slows down your progress. They can be removed upon the roll of a 7, and you place the barbarian of your choice, either on an intersection to thwart the other players, or on an existing road owned by an opponent, in which case you take a Commodity Card at random from that player. All other aspects of Settlers as present but the victory points target is 13. Freya quickly upgraded her settlements to cities and was lucky enough to receive lots of sheep. She traded these in on a 4:1 basis to get the commodities needed to build roads connecting her 2 cities. She also upgraded her caravan by spending commodities, so that she received more Gold when she traded in her goods. The other players were somewhat left behind in this so they never really caught up with her. Jerry managed to build a reasonable network and ended up with 9 points, Mike built the largest army and ended with 8 points, and Poppy finished just behind on 7 points. A pleasing version of this franchise which needs to be played again to become more competitive.

2.       On Table 2 the other 5 players played “ELFENLAND”, the route-building game which has been played before so is not described in much detail here. There are 20 cities in the game which require a visit, and that is very rarely achieved but Rob managed 19 of them. Alister bemoaned his luck that every route he chose was ‘modified’ by the other players so his progress was of the slow variety.

3.       Table 1 then played the quick game of “CLANS”, about nomads moving around the land until they become isolated and the villages formed are scored. The game has been described before so will not be repeated here. The result was in doubt until the very end but Freya managed to sneak through by 1 point for her second victory of the evening.

4.       Table 2 finished their session with “MANILA”, the game about sailing punts with commodities on them up to Manila and hoping to avoid the pirates. A double whammy by the pirates enabled Rob to grab loads of cash so he became Harbourmaster rather easily and this enabled him to sail serenely to a clear-cut victory, the final scores being Rob 158, Alister 101, Roger 81, Kevin ( first outing) on 61. Always good for a laugh, one of the most popular games in the club.

Games played and Winners were:

Settlers of Catan-Traders version  Freya Freestone;

Elfenland Rob Piesse;

Clans Freya Freestone;

Manila Rob Piesse.