CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 02/08/2012

1.       We only had 4 tonight so we played just 2 games. The first game was a new one from Jeremy called “NORENBERC”, a game about buying goods in one of the 5 guilds in the game with a purpose of being selected as the Guildmaster’s favourite at the end of each round. For doing so the player receives the current head craftsman token and a crest for game end scoring. The price of goods produced by the various guilds is different each turn but you can see what the prices will be for future rounds , so it’s a case of “buy low, sell high” to make money. In addition to the goods there are also Townspeople tokens which are ‘lodging’ at the guilds so if you pay the appropriate price in goods you can add these townspeople to your set collection for game end scoring. After 4 rounds of buying, selling, and collecting there are a series of scoring phases carried out to determine the winner. By collecting lots of token for several guilds, rather than just concentrating on a couple, Jeremy was able to score regularly. The final scores were Jeremy 39; Jon 24; Roger 18; Mike 17, a comprehensive victory. A nice looking game, with good components..

2.       At Mike’s request we played a couple of stages of the cycling game “DEMARRAGE”, as the Tour De France had been held recently. Mike explained the game by using an easy first stage over flat roads and cobbles, to get the basic movement mechanics across to the other players. Players have 4 cyclists in their team, each of varying ability. After initial set-up for a stage they move in a defined sequence using one of 3 methods, these being the sum of 2 cards ; the sum of 2 dice;  or a mixture of 1 dice and 1 card. Certain terrain hazards have to be overcome and the trick to good scoring is to get your cyclists working in a group so that they can slipstream each other and move as one, thereby saving their cards for individual breakaways near the finish. Mike won the first stage by getting3 of his 4 cyclists to finish in the top 8. However on the second stage, which involved a stiff mountain climb he struggled to keep up and 3 of his cyclists finished near the back. Jon won the second stage by getting a good group to finish high up but over the 2 stages Mike was the overall winner.

Games played and Winners were:

Norenberc  – Jeremy Hurault;

Demarrage – Mike Oakes.