CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 15/03/2012

1.       We had 9 players in attendance. On Table 1 Tony led a group of 4 playing the game “PRET-A-PORTER”, a business game based around the cutthroat fashion industry. You will need to recruit models, acquire premises and new techniques to produce designs that win the fashion shows in the 4 locations that are putting on displays each game round. The game looks good, as you might expect for a game based on fashion, with lots of bits, individual player boards, tokens, card stock and by a quick glance during play it seemed to me to have similarities with “Drum Roll”. The game took all evening to play because of a lengthy explanation for first-time play but Kevin, Rob and Paul were all unanimous in their praise of the game. If the same 4 can get together next week the playing should be reduced and we will have a better understanding of how good the game is.

2.       Lucy brought a new member along, Kelly Brown, so on table 2 Mike led a series of small games to introduce Kelly and Jon, our other new member, to the hobby. We started with a club favourite “OREGON”, the game about placing settlers and building on a mapboard of the US state. Seeing as it is one of Lucy’s favourite games it was little wonder that she stormed away to an easy victory, with Kelly 2^nd, Jon 3^rd, and Mike a miserable 4^th

3.       We then played one of Mike’s favourite games “RAZZIA”, the game about sending gamblers to one of the 6 dens in the game in the hope of grabbing the loot on offer. However sometimes other players send a corrupt copper to the same den and they arrest you but pocket the loot for themselves. A simple game to explain but quite amusing as you are chuffed when you arrest someone to steal ‘their’ money or you manage to get away with a pile of loot unchallenged with the sole gambler at one den , as Roger did on several occasions. However it was the 2 newcomers who eventually came through, with Kelly winning with $400,000 to Jon’s $385,000, a close thing.

4.       The group of 5 then played “BOHNANZA”, the bean-planting game. See review of 5^th January for details. Once again a fun-filled trading game with a close result. The eventual scores were Roger 13; Jon 11; Lucy 9; Mike 6; Kelly 5.

5.       To continue the theme of playing quick games for the benefit of our newcomers we then introduced them to “HECKMECK”, the dice-rolling game about collecting worms for a barbecue. Roger and Jon held the most tiles for most of the game with the other 3 only getting a brief ownership from tome to time. When the last tile was taken and the count of worms took place Jon was found to be the winner for his first victory. Well done Jon !

6.       Another quick game made it to the table in “INCAN GOLD”, an all-time club favourite. Too many disaster cards came out too early for Lucy and she scored a miserable low total as a result. The other players put up a close contest but Jon emerged the victor with 27 points to Roger’s 22, Kelly’s 21 and Mike’s 20. A second win for Jon.

7.       The session ended with 4 players as Lucy departed. We played “FELIX”, the card game about placing cats, dogs and rabbits secretly in a sack and then playing a poker style hand with players dropping out of the bidding and the winner collecting the cards on offer for the current round. Some cards are positive scores whilst some are negative so the players have to carefully consider if it is worth staying in the auction or not. The game is played over 10 rounds and Mike did not partake in too many early auctions, preferring to drop out early and build a reserve of cash for later rounds. Roger won a couple of large value auctions but by winning a pot worth 16 points on the last round Mike eventually won by just 5 points from Roger.

Games played and Winners were:

Pret-a-Porter – Kevin Ward;

Oregon – Lucy Newbury;

Razzia – Kelly Brown;

Bohnanza – Roger Skull;

Heckmeck – Jon Bradford;

Incan Gold – Jon Bradford;

Felix – Mike Oakes.