CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 23/02/2012

1.       With Mike a late arrival 7 players commenced with the popular “7 WONDERS”, the most-frequently played game in the club. You are all familiar with the mechanics of the game so no need to repeat them here, suffice to say the winner was Lucy.

2.       The players then split into 2 groups of 4. On table 1 Jerry introduced Poppy to the game of “OREGON”, see review of 15^th December 2011 for details.  Jerry was always in the lead and despite a slight closing by Mike and Roger mid-game Jerry was never headed and he won comfortably.

3.       On table 2 Kevin introduced 3 other players to the game of Agricola but this was abandoned after some 30 minutes as the explanation was taking too long. The group decided to play “INFINITE CITY” instead and this coincided with Mike and Roger being available from the other table, to make up a group of 6. The game review of 10 February 2011 explains it in more detail. Much back-stabbing went on in this game with Mike trying to restrict Rob and Kevin, whilst Lucy annoyed us all by building Plazas, which meant we had no choice where to place our next tile. In a close finish sadly Rob won with 18 points by pinching one of Mike’s Silver tiles, with 3 other players tied on 17 points, one with 16 and Mike trailed in last with 14.

4.       Lucy departed, so 5 players played “MONTGOLFIERE”, the game about ballooning trying to reach the moon, see review posted on 19^th January 2012. A highly interactive card game in the lightweight category. We played 3 rounds and the scoring was very close but to the surprise of everyone Mike emerged the victor in a close finish with 29 points, 3 players had 27 points and the last player 26 points. That makes 3 wins for Mike in 2012, maybe the ‘good times are back’!

Games played and Winners were:

7 Wonders – Lucy Newbury;

Oregon – Jerry Fabelman;

Infinite City – Rob Piesse;

Montgolfiere – Mike Oakes.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 09/02/2012

1.       Despite the snow warnings 10 players turned up but we split into the surprising groups of 3 and 7 players. On table 1 Jeremy introduced Mike and Roger to the game “BURGUNDY”, in which players use the pips from their 2 die to execute various actions on the board. From a starting position of 1 castle on the riverbank they are trying to expand their princedom by the acquisition of  tiles representing various terrain types (farms, mines, river, buildings etc) and placing them on adjacent spaces on the board. Upon doing so they might gain various bonus placements or victory points or goods tokens, but like many games you can’t do everything. Although the actions available to the players are based upon dice rolling there is a feature whereby by playing worker tokens the player can add or subtract 1 to /from a dice roll to suit their purposes, so it’s not all down to luck. A very attractive board, nice components and a mechanism that is fairly easy to pick up after the first few rounds of play. Mike was the slowest to start scoring VP’s but then he had a storming round and leapt into the lead, with Jeremy and Roger some way behind. However by completing certain types of terrain first Jeremy was storing up VP tiles for game end scoring so it was obvious the lead would not last. Roger struggled a bit mid-game but was catching up near the end but Jeremy continued to outscore the other 2 and he eventually claimed the win. Definitely a game to play again.

2.       The reason for the unusual player split was that the other 7 players wanted to play “SHADOWS OVER CAMELOT”, the co-operation game about saving the kingdom of Camelot from the evil clutches of “The Traitor”.  The game was reviewed on 31/03/2011 so is not reviewed in detail here. The game resulted in a collective win fopr the team as eventually Camelot was saved from the Traitor, who turned out to be Kevin.

3.       On table 1 Jeremy had to leave early so Roger and Mike played a 2-player version of “DOMINION” whilst they waited for Camelot to finish. Mike gained the early VP cards but then struggled to get enough Treasure cards to buy more. Roger started to gather up the final few Province cards and looked likely to win but the final countdown showed that Mike was the winner, a rare sight indeed !!.

4.       At this point the group reduced to 5 players and we tried the new game “Hunting Party” but we hit what looks like a game flaw after about 20 minutes so we abandoned the game and chose the ever-popular “INCAN GOLD “ instead, as we all knew it. The gremlin cards came out early to make for some low scoring but Mike managed to stay in long enough in one round to gain a haul of 16. In another rare sighting Mike continued to gather treasure at a high rate and he eventually won with 50 points with Roger second on 48. 2 wins in one evening for Mike, no wonder the elements outside were of an unusual nature, the world’s gone mad!!

Games played and Winners were:

Burgundy – Jeremy Hurault;

Shadows Over Camelot – a collective win;

Dominion  – Mike Oakes;

Incan Gold – Mike Oakes.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 02/02/2012

1.       With 9 players in attendance we split into 2 groups. On table 1 Mike led a group of 4 playing “DOMINION”, to introduce new member Donna to the game. Without the use of Freya’s phone app to choose a deck configuration we reverted to the old-fashioned rule book and chose Big Money. Paul built a great configuration which generated lots of cash, enough to buy several Provinces so he romped away to a clear cut victory, final scores being Paul 46; Donna 34; Mike 28; Jerry 21.

2.       As Donna enjoyed the experience she requested a further game of “DOMINION” and she chose the configuration Village Square from the rulebook. This time Paul did not get all his own way and Donna and Jerry fought out the lead. Mike’s deck was hopeless and he laboured at the back. The Provinces expired very quickly in this game, which seemed to finish in just over 30 minutes. The final scores were Donna 32; Jerry 28; Paul 21; Mike 16. Congratulations to Donna on her first win !

3.       On table 2 a group of 5 played “CASH ‘N GUNS” , the fun, bluffing game in which players ‘negotiate’, with their guns, over the splitting of loot in a gangster’s warehouse. Pure silly fun where you can’t trust anyone to be your friend. The eventual winner was Freya.

4.       The same group then got down to some ‘serious’ gaming with Freya’s birthday present of “SCREAM MACHINE”, the card game about constructing a Theme Park with various Rides and Food outlets to attract customers who need an adrenalin fix . The game was played on 11 August 2011 so is not reviewed here. The eventual winner was Rob.

5.       As their game did not take too long table 2 next played “ZOOLORETTO”, the game about populating your zoo enclosures with various animals you import, and sometime breed from. Highly interactive, the game was last played on 03/11/2011 so is not reviewed here. The eventual winner was Kevin.

6.       Back on table 1 the players undertook “DOMAINE”, a good game for 4 players which Donna and Paul were playing for the first time. The game was played recently on 12/01/2012 so a full review can be found there. Whilst the other 3 players were building small domaines and scoring the odd few points Mike was languishing on zero VP’s. However he was quietly managing to construct a large domain which when eventually constructed earned him enough VP’s to take the lead. Some conflict ensued between Donna and Jerry so they jousted on the VP track whilst Mike had to keep an eye on Paul, who looked as though he might steal his large domaine. Paul was squeezed out of completing another domaine by Donna and Jerry so he was back in second place when the game reached the very last round and it looked as though Mike was going to get a rare victory. However the final play meant Mike had to spend money on an extra knight to secure his domaine from attack from Paul but this led him to have the least money in hand. The other players received VP for their cash and Paul scored sufficiently to draw level with Mike and deny him an outright victory. GR-R-R !!!

7.       With some players leaving Table 1 reduced to 3 players which Mike used to introduce Donna to ““SUSHIZOCK IM GOCKEKWOK”, the quick filler game which has been reviewed before. A few boisterous exchanges of tilse took place before the game ended in another tie, this time between Donna and the luckless Mike.

8.       The remaining 4 players played the game of “OREGON”, the game about founding buildings and settling in the western US state, The game was reviewed on 03/03/2010 so is not reviewed here. The eventual winner was Kevin for his second win of the evening.

Games played and Winners were:

Dominion  Game 1 – Paul Bulpin;

Dominion  Game 1 – Donna Harris;

Cash ‘n Guns  – Freya Freestone;

Scream Machine – Rob Piesse;

Zooloretto – Kevin Ward;

Domaine – tie between Paul Bulpin & Mike Oakes;

Sushizock im Gockelkwok – tie between Donna Harris & Mike Oakes;

Oregon – Kevin Ward.