CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 27/09/2012

1.       6 players tonight, which included Dave, a visitor from the Bath Games club, so we split into 2 groups of 3. Table 1 saw 3 players playing “VILLAGE”, the new game which was played last week. Dave and Jeremy were playing the game for the first time and both enjoyed the experience. Mike and Dave took the early lead by going travelling whilst Jeremy was visiting the market almost every turn to pick up Customer tiles for game end scoring. Mike was ‘killing off’ his members hoping to be the only one to get 5 of his family in the Village Chronicle and to stop the other players matching it, but Dave sent a member travelling and he died quickly and that gave him a 5^th entry, so eroding a 5-point margin for Mike, which proved crucial in the game end scoring. Jeremy made a late entry into travel to close the gap and his Customer tiles totalled 19 points so things were close at the top. In the final countdown the scores were Dave 49; Jeremy 45; Mike 41, so those extra 5 points Dave got for his 5^th death proved vital.

2.       Table 2 saw Kevin, Paul and Jerry playing a game of “AGRICOLA”, the game where players select actions from a multitude of choices to construct their farm, and populate it with animals or grow vegetables, They increase the size of their family to create more workers, to increase production, but these folk require feeding so players need to take account of that fact, by killing cattle, or making bread, if they have the resources to do so. This is all driven by a card system which meshes several mechanics together in a brilliant way. Jerry was ‘beaten up ‘ badly in his efforts and did not bother to total up his negative score but the other 2 finished very closely, with Kevin just edging Paul out by 31 points to 29.  

3.       All 6 players got together for the final game of “7 WONDERS – LEADERS”, the variant which adds a twist of players selecting a Leader card to add to their display ( if they can afford it) from 4 initial cards dealt to them. These cards add various powers which affect the subsequent game play. As always with this game there was the frustration of the right resources not being available from your neighbours , in this case Glass was in short supply. Paul built up a vast military strength, aided by his leader of Julius Caesar, but his other leader generated him a load of cash throughout the game giving him 9 victory points in the end , which proved crucial. Dave had to suffer the ignominy of finishing behind Mike, the perpetual loser, and the final scores were Paul 65; Jeremy 61; Kevin 58; Jerry 51; Mike 48; Dave 46.

Games played and Winners were:

Village – Dave the visitor;

Agricola – Kevin Ward;

7 Wonders – Paul Bulpin.