CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 20/05/2010

1.     As we were only 6 players we played 2 long games tonight. First up was the classic game of “ACQUIRE”. This game is about investing in chains of hotels and acquiring shares in them which hopefully will rise in value. Eventually 2 chains will merge and the shareholders of the chain taken over receive a bonus for the majority shareholder and for the minority share holder and they then have options to cash in their shares for money or swap them on a 2 for 1 basis in the new larger chain. Money becomes quite tight as the chains develop and the early lead was held by Tony and Richard. Roger and Mike were strapped for cash as they waited for their chains to be taken over to raise much-needed revenue. However the long-term strategy paid off as Mike’s shares in the largest chain earned him enough money to pinch a victory by a narrow margin from Geoff.

2.     Second game was “Jet Set”, a game of building routes around Europe, placing planes on them and then flying the routes to gain the matching flight card, which gives victory points in the end. There are many combinations of departure and arrival cities, making for some difficult decisions about which routes to go for, when to raise income, when to expand the routes etc. In another close finish Richard beat Tony by 2 points, with Robert just a further point behind.

Games played and Winners were:

Acquire Mike Oakes;

Jet Set Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 13/05/2010

1.     We started with a 7-player game of “11 NIMMT”, a card game we had played before but we needed to introduce our new members to it.  Richard won the first 2 rounds and as Chris had arrived we called an early halt so that we could split into 2 groups of 4.

2.     On table 1 Mike introduced 3 players to a game called “Princes of Florence”, about building a suitable mixture of buildings and landscapes in your palace so that your personnel can create great works and earn you Prestige Points. The game involves an auction round to bid for the items you want to enhance your palace and then an Action Round when players construct their palace. The points generated by the personnel are recorded on a score track and at the end of just 7 turns the player with the most Prestige Points is the winner. The interesting part of the game is how you fit all the buildings and landscapes into your courtyard. There are many different ways to achieve this so the game bears thinking about. Alistair created 6 works in his palace which enabled him to win, just beating newcomer Lucy by 2 points.

3.     This group then played “Incan Gold” which is becoming a favourite in the club. The newcomers thought it was hilarious and it looked liked Lucy was going to win until Alistair had a great last round to snatch victory from her.

4.     On table 2 the group played “Puerto Rico”, a highly rated game, which Richard won.

5.     They then started a recent game called ”Tobago” which some had not played before. An unusual game about playing cards which give clues as to the whereabouts of hidden treasure. Once the treasure location has been determined players rush to pick it up and get a share of the spoils, and the player with the most treasure points wins. A neat game, in which Richard won again. 

6.     We finished with 8 players playing a game of “The Great Dalmuti”, a card game about getting rid of all your cards. The starting player lays a group of cards but each subsequent player must play the same number of cards but in a lower value, or pass. E.g. 3 x 10’s , followed by 3 x 7’s followed by 3 x 4’s. This continues until no player can play. They then start the next round until eventually all the players have emptied their hands and points are awarded. The sequence in which players empty their hands determines where the players sit for the next round, and this is important as certain players exchange cards before a round starts. Great fun and hugely enjoyed by all.

Games played and Winners were:

11 Nimmt Richard Piesse;

Princes of Florence Alistair Gittin;

Incan Gold Alistair Gittin;

Puerto Rico Richard Piesse;

Tobago Richard Piesse;

The Great Dalmuti Alistair Gittin.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 29/04/2010

1.     With only 6 players tonight played as one group. First up was a topical game of “Election”, a game first published in 1972 but which has stood the test of time. Geoff rose quickly in the Popularity Index so we started to campaign against him. As the board became more congested other conflicts broke out as we tried to swing the votes our way. Rob sneaked ahead and not enough parties campaigned against him to prevent the election being called early before the rest of us could complete our planned forays into other territories. In the final tally Rob’s Student vote was enough to secure him seats in London to win the game. The final seats won were Liberals 171; Conservatives 130; Socialists 104; Labour 91; Independents 86; Nationalists 50. I wonder if a similar result will happen next week ?

2.     We then played a simple card game called “Penguin Parade”, about building a pyramid of penguins in different outfits!  Rob soon sussed out the mechanism and looked a certain winner until the last round of 5, when he bombed out and Geoff tied with him. The 2 of them played a tie-break round which Rob won easily for his second win of the night.

3.     We finished with a game of “11 NIMMT”, a card game about getting rid of all your cards. We all tried to prevent Rob getting his hat trick of wins and going into the last round Geoff was just ahead, with Mike and Rob tied just 2 points behind . In a tense finish Rob had a choice of 2 places to play his card…and chose the wrong one, allowing Geoff to go out and win the game by 2 points. Hard luck Rob.

Games played and Winners were:

Election Robert Piesse;

Penguin Parade Robert Piesse;

11 Nimmt Geoff Williams

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 22/04/2010

1.     With 8 players again tonight we split into 2 tables of 4. On Table 1 we played the new game “Tobago”, a game about placing clues regarding the location of treasures and then rationing out the loot once they are found. Not easy to play first time but we eventually got the mechanisms and in a very close finish where we all finished 1 point behind each other and Geoff prevailed.

2.     The other group played “Citadels” with the expansion pack of new characters. Alistair was attacked and lost the highest scoring buildings so he just concentrated on getting some small value buildings constructed so that he ended the game when it reached 8 buildings and gained the bonus points for doing so. This tactic meant he won with only 23 points, a low score, but the second place player was on 19 points, so it worked out well for him.

3.     We revised the groupings and Tony showed Chris and Roger the game of ““Euphrat & Tigris”, which they had not played before. The game took the rest of the evening and was a very close finish, with Tony winning by 1 point from Geoff.

4.     On the other table we played “Small World” as Robert had never played it. He then proceeded to win the game by a margin of 10 points, 84, 74, 72, 71 being the final scores.

5.     As the other table were still playing we filled in with “Incan Gold” yet again. Robert won the first game easily for his second win of the night, so we played another quick game of it and Robert won again for a memorable treble !! 

Games played and Winners were:

Tobago Geoff Williams;

Citadels Alistair Gittin;

Small World Robert Piesse;

Incan Gold game 1 Robert Piesse;

Incan Gold game 2 Robert Piesse;

Euphrat & Tigris Tony Simons.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 01/04/2010

1.     With 7 players again tonight we started with a card game called “Pick Pick Nic”, a lightweight game about chickens feeding in one of the 6 meadows in the game. Players secretly play cards of the colours of the meadows and the highest value played wins the food that is there, in cubes of value 1, 2 or 3. However if another player plays a Fox card of that colour the fox eats the chickens and they grab the grub. After each round of play the meadows are refreshed with a cube placed in each one, and play continues until all cubes have been placed and the player with the highest total value of cubes won is the winner. The winner was Richard by 3 points.

2.     The same players then had another game of “Incan Gold”, which is proving quite popular. This ended in a tie between Richard and Chris, so they played on until a result was determined, and Chris was the victor.

3.     We the split into groups of 3 and 4. The smaller group played “Euphrat & Tigris”, a highly-rated game about placing tiles and counters to gain scoring counters in any of the 4 colours represented in the game. Players can do 2 actions per turn, the actions being chosen from a list of 4 possible types. As the board fills up conflicts will occur and territories are lost or gained which brings in rewards or losses. Alistair and Mike battled with each other to their detriment, leaving Geoff to build up a nice stock of scoring counters and he won easily in the end. A great game, one to consider playing again soon.

4.     The group of 4 played yet another top notch game in “Puerto Rico”. The game is about developing plantations and building on your individual boards to produce goods such as indigo, corn, tobacco, coffee and sugar and then to ship these back to the mother country by loading them on ships in the harbour. To work the fields players employ colonists that arrive at the start of each turn and place them as they wish. Each player then chooses a role to play for that turn and uses this to add buildings, generate products, sell for cash, load ships etc, a multitude of options being open to the players. In a close finish Robert managed to win by just 2 points.

5.     On table 1 a quick filler game of “High Society” was played whilst we waited for the other game to finish. This is about players bidding cheques to buy the luxury goods on offer.  They hope to gain the most prestige by having the highest total of goods at the game end. However if they are the poorest player at the end they are ‘shunned’ by society as they have ‘bought’ their way to the top so they are eliminated. To spice things up a bit sometimes the cards depict negative events such a Thief, Gambling Losses or Scandal, and the player who drops out of the auction first receives these cards, and this is to be avoided if possible. Good fun in a game that takes only 20 minutes to play and after Alistair looked likely to win Geoff sneaked in the last few auctions to gain a victory as Alistair was the joint poorest player with Mike so they were both eliminated.

6.     Then we all came together for a 7-player version of “Turf Horse Racing”, the horse betting game which was played last week. Alistair made the running for the first 3 races closely followed by Mike but Richard had a storming race 4 and took a healthy lead into the final race but he only just managed to repel a late challenge from Roger by just 1 point. Final scores for the first 3 were 27.26 and 25

Games played and Winners were:

Pick Pikc Nic Richard Piesse;

Incan Gold Chris Cook;

Euphrat & Tigris Geoff Williams;

High Society Geoff Williams;

Puerto Rico Robert Piesse.

Turf Horse Racing Richard Piesse.