CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 05/04/2012

1.       In spite of the impending Easter break we had 8 players in attendance. On table 1 3 players played the ever-popular “INCAN GOLD” as a filler awaiting Roger’s arrival. The winner was Paul.

2.       On table 2 Mike introduced Jerry and Poppy to the abstract game “MENSA” by Reiner Knizia. From a choice of 6 tiles placed on their rack, and hidden from the other players, the game involves placing tiles which consist of 2 joined hexagons, each of which contain one of the 6 colours in the game. Players score points in the colour for each adjacent tile that matches ones already on the board and mark their progress on their individual player board and replenish their rack back up to 6 tiles. Being a Knizia game the twist is in the scoring, for as they progress along their board in the 6 colours a players score is the lowest valued colour at any one time. Therefore it’s no good rushing ahead on 5 of the colours and ignoring one colour languishing on say square 2, for 2 will be your score. Players try to set up good scoring opportunities, sometime in 2 colours at once to keep their scoreboards moving, but other players often thwart their plans. Mike was struggling to pick any yellow tiles early on so the 2 Jabelmans thought they had the game won, with Jerry making steady even progress and looking the likely winner. However Mike eventually got the tiles he wanted and in a late surge his yellow marker moved rapidly up his board to gain victory with 12 points. Jerry had 10 and Poppy 9 points.

3.       Table 2 then played “MOSAIX” so that Zak could join in. The game was reviewed on 08/03/2012 so see detail there. Mike was playing the game for only the second time and he struggled to place the dice combination effectively in the early stages. He improved near the end and it looked like a tie between Mike and Jerry until we examined Zak’s score and found that he had sneaked a win. Final scores were Zak 104; Mike 93; Jerry 93, Poppy 73.

4.       Table 1 saw 4 players engaged in “ENDEAVOUR”, which was played on 08/12/2011, so see detailed review there.  Paul was favourite to win again as he knows the game well but Rob managed to gain victory by just 1 point !!.

5.       With Zak departed Mike introduced Jerry and Poppy to “BIG BAND”, a game that had been in his loft for some time and never played. It is a set collecting game in which players are trying to assemble the best band of musicians. The card deck contains musicians and event cards and these are placed face down on the board, a street map of New Orleans, and collected one per round by the players moving around the grid and picking up a card. Some event cards have to be played immediately, whilst others can be kept for subsequent play. Each musician card belongs to 1 of the 5 categories in the game and has a value for scoring purposes. However, being musicians, they have ‘temperamental’ attributes shown on the card and sometimes they won’t play with other certain musicians, or insist on being the ‘star’ so won’t play in a band in which they are not the highest scoring member. Some musicians improve their value when teamed with others so there is a bit of variety in them. After 8 rounds of collecting there is a bargaining phase each round where players can trade cards with each other…maybe seeking that missing Tuba player, or getting rid of a surfeit of drummers.  To score at game end a band must contain at least 1 member of the 5 categories but can have multiple musicians if they are compatible. The value of the highest scoring band will be the winner. We found the collecting mechanism to be uninteresting and the bargaining phase was frustrating, as once players knew you were trying to get rid of a ‘bum’ card they would not trade with you. When they drew a new musician players had to constantly re-evaluate their band set up so there was a lot of analysis. Maybe the game would be different with more players but unlikely, so it will not to be brought along to the club again. For the record the winner was Poppy with 916 points, Mike was on 904 with Jerry on 680, but he had the troublesome Black Kathy Barnes in his band and she reduced the scoring of all males by 50%.  Without her in the set up Jerry would have won.

6.       We split into 2 groups of 3 to finish our session. On table 1 we played a speed version of “OREGON”, which was most enjoyable and always close. Mike thought he had finally done enough to win a game of this but with a last-move building of a Church, Kevin moved closer and his Gold counters enabled him to pass Mike, with Rob in third place.

7.       Table 2 saw 3 players engaged in a game of “CARGO NOIR”, which was played on 08/12/2011 so see review for that date for details. In a close finish Paul secured the victory by just 5 points.

Games played and Winners were:

Incan Gold – Paul Bulpin;

Mensa – Mike Oakes;

Mosaix – Zak Jabelman;

Endeavour – Rob Piesse;

Big Band – Poppy Jabelman;

Oregon – Kevin Ward;

Cargo Noir – Paul Bulpin.