CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 16/09/2010

1.       We had 12 players in total, including newcomers Chris knight and Karen Skull.  A total of 9 games were played. On table 1 a group of 5 players started with “BOHANZA”, a card game about planting your crops in fields and then harvesting them. Essentially a trading game as you need to obtain cards from other players to increase the yield from your fields, but they will want a good deal in return so you had better make it sweet. Played in 3 rounds the game is quite quick but the result is not clear until the final count has been made. A good little filler, in which Rob was victorious in a close finish.

2.       Table 2 saw 4 players engaged in “ON THE UNDERGROUND”, a game in which players have pieces of track in their own 2 colours and in turns they build the London Underground network on the game board by extending the lines by 2 pieces of track. After extension a large piece representing the ‘Passenger’ will travel on the lines to either 1 or 2 of the 4 Destination cards currently on view and for each colour used on the journey the players will score a victory point. Now the quirk is that the ‘Passenger’ is lazy and will visit the nearest station adjacent to where they currently stand, using as few line changes as possible. If the line is incomplete he/she will walk between unconnected stations, but only via the shortest walk. So players have to view the 4 Destination cards and construct their lines to ensure that the Passenger will use their colours when travelling. You try to construct a decent network such that even on other player’s turn the Passenger will travel along your lines. Play continues until there are less than 4 destination cards left and the one with the most victory points is the winner. A highly interactive game in which you sometimes have to give points to your opponents in order to score some yourself. Careful study of the fixed Underground map is needed to build the best lines. In a close finish Roger was victorious by just a single point ! 

3.       On the next table 3 newcomer Karen was introduced to “FINCA”, in which players collect fruit in various combinations to satisfy the requirements of 1 or more of the 10 markets currently open. To deliver the fruit they need to have the use of a donkey, who can carry a maximum of 6 pieces of fruit. To gain fruit and donkeys the active player moves one of their the pieces around the blades of a windmill ( that being what a Finca is) and they collect pieces of fruit in accordance with how many pieces in total are standing on the blade they arrive at, and add a donkey to their collection when they pass certain squares. When they deliver to a market they collect the tile representing it as victory points, but they lose the use of their donkey which is returned to the pool. Player interaction is high as anyone can deliver to any market if they have the right combination. There are scoring bonus tiles available if a player can complete a ‘set’ of 1-6 deliveries, and a further bonus tiles worth 5 points is allocated when an area is emptied of markets. In a close game where fortunes fluctuated the final scores were 56 points for each of the 3 players so the tie-breaker came into play. Mike had 10 fruits left, Karen 11 and Maria had 12, so Maria was declared the winner. A lovely colourful game that plays differently every time and is great fun to play. 

4.       Back on table 1 they played “MANILA” in which players invest in punts which transport various commodities up the river from the harbour to Manila. By successful delivery players gain money and the share price of the delivered commodity rises. However players can gamble that ships will not arrive safely and they gain money by investing in that outcome. A twist is that there are pirates available for hire and at certain points in a game round they may board a ship bound for Manila for free, rather than paying the transportation costs. In the later stages of a round the pirates can take control of a punt, chucking the other players off and gaining the money and share prices rises solely for themselves. Another highly interactive game which always gives pleasure. Alistair bemoaned his luck in that every punt he invested in failed to deliver, and the victor was Robert, for his second win of the evening.

5.     Table 2 played “MONTEGO BAY” to introduce newcomer Chris Knight to the game. This family game about gaining barrels to load onto ships in the harbour of Montego Bay which will eventually sail and earn them victory points. The way in which your player pieces move around the harbour to gain the barrels leads to much  fun as you can sometimes force your opponents out of a lucrative warehouse into one in which they spoil any barrels already loaded! Another close game, with Geoff coming out on top.

6.       On Table 3 Mike introduced  Karen to the dice game “HECK MECK”, a game about gaining dominoes that contain a variable number of worms. Players place any gains in front of them but they can be stolen by other players if they roll the exact value of the tile, so the lead is constantly changing. A ‘push-your-luck’ game that caused lots of laughs and Mike encouraged Karen and Maria to take gambles, which of course failed. Several times players failed to score in a round so they lost one of the tiles they had collected so this led to a low scoring game, in which Karen came out the winner with 4 worms to Mike’s 3 worms and Maria, a miserable 1 ! Well done Karen, and welcome to the winners enclosure!!

7.     Mike then explained the simple card game “TEACHERS PET”, a quick card game about bidding cards simultaneously to try and win Positive cards or NOT to win negative cards. A simple enough aim but the way the cards are played causes much hilarity, with surprising results. As the owner of the game Mike won the first game so it was decided to play another game and this time Karen came out on top .

8.     Table 3 finished with the classic card game “COLORETTO”. In this game there are cards in 6 colours and players collect cards with the aim of getting 3 ‘good’ suits and none of the others. They score positive points for the good cards and negative points for the others. The way in which cards are obtained is clever and yet the game plays quickly. With his prior knowledge of the game Mike was the winner .

Games played and Winners were:

Bonhanza Robert Piesse;

On the Ungerground Roger Skull;

Finca Maria Skull;

Manila Robert Piesse;

Montego Bay Geoff Williams;

Heck Meck Karen Skull;

Teachers Pet game 1 – Mike Oakes;

Teachers Pet game 2 – Karen Skull;

Coloretto Mike Oakes.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 19/08/2010

1.       We had 8 players in total, including a first time guest Shane.  With Mike unable to attend at the start due to an external meeting 7 players started with “THE GREAT DALMUTI”, a game last played on July. Players are dealt a hand of cards which range from 1-12 and they have to get rid of their cards as soon as possible. The player who is first to do so is deemed to be the ‘Great Dalmuti’ and bosses the other players around for the next turn. The last player to go out is deemed to be the ‘Greater Peon’, the lowest of the low, and they have to do the Dalmuti’s chores, and even give up 2 of their best cards to the Dalmuti in the next round! Players score points according to the sequence in which they get rid of all their cards and change seating order for the next round. Surprisingly skilful and yet good lightweight fun, with much laughter caused by the sequence of card play,  and the game was eventually won by Lucy.

2.       With Mike in attendance we split into 2 groups of 4.  On Table 2 Mike introduced the players to the game of “TRIBUNE”, in which players acquire cards by visiting various  locations in Rome, with a view to gaining enough ‘influence’ to take over control of one or more of the 7 factions in the game. This control gives the players different benefits such as faction tokens, victory laurels, more money, legions, scrolls, favour of the gods and eventually a Tribune tile. For each game a particular Victory Conditions card( from a large choice) is selected which lists maybe 7 conditions and players have to achieve say any 4 of the 7 to win, so players will be adopting different strategies to do this. The benefits gained by taking over factions go towards achieving some of them. Players are limited to 5 workers each to visit the locations on the board so they cannot always do all they want to each turn, making for difficult decisions. A highly-interactive game, with great production values which all the players enjoyed. Geoff looked like being the winner until visitor Shane managed to gain the final pieces need to fulfil 4 conditions on the card. 

3.       On the other table 4 players played the classic game of “PUERTO RICO”, in which players select to act out a different role each turn from a choice of 7, in order to construct buildings, produce goods, trade in a market, load goods on to ships bound for the homeland. Each turn a ship arrives on the island with new colonists and these are distributed to the players to employ as they wish to pursue their chosen goal. Another highly-interactive game, with many options, many different strategies to employ and fully enjoyed by all the players. Throughout the game players earn victory points by shipping goods and also they gain points at the end for satisfying certain conditions listed on buildings they have erected. In a close game there was only 25 points covering all 4 players but Richard eventually came out on top.

4.     Table 2 played “MONTEGO BAY” a fun family game about gaining barrels to load onto ships in the harbour of Montego Bay which will eventually sail and earn them victory points. The way in which your player pieces move around the harbour to gain the barrels leads to much  fun as you can sometimes force your opponents out of a lucrative warehouse into one in which they spoil any barrels already loaded! Another close game, with Geoff leading for most of it but Shane and Luke closed fast in the latter half of the game and Luke finally gained a long overdue victory with a storming last round in which he loaded 14 barrels!. Well done Luke!!

5.     Table 1 finished with the dice game “HECK MECK”, a club favourite filler that was reviewed last week so is not repeated here. Richard gained his second win of the evening.

Games played and Winners were:

The Great Dalmuti Lucy Newbury;

Tribune Shane Mclean;

Puerto Rico Richard Piesse;

Montego Bay Luke Williams;

Heck Meck Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 12/08/2010

1.       We had 8 players in total, including some newbies so Mike looked after them to start with. On table 1 a group of 4 established players played “URSUPPE”, this being the ‘heavier’ long game. Players control a series of amoebas and try to survive as they evolve into life. Many pieces in the game and they propagate and drift around a pond according to the rules of nature and start to compete in the restricted space of the pond. Players then start to break the rules and have to modify to continue to exist.  For instance, instead of going hungry, your amoeba could learn to attack foreign amoeba for food. Or perhaps your amoeba could be taught to need less food to survive. Either way, this is a very interesting take on the game of life. Luke made an early blunder and was ‘abandoned’ by the other 3 players so had no chance of surviving. Roger took an early lead from Tony and Rob and maintained that with consistency and eventually gained a convincing win.

2.       On Table 2 the remaining 4 players played “AUF HELLER UND PFENNIG”, in which players takes participants to a medieval marketplace that looks remarkably like a plain 5 x 5 matrix for square tiles. Each turn, players place tiles onto the board that modify (either positively or negatively) the amount of money to be made by the shops that share that tile's row or column. They can add the wares of their chosen value (1-4) to any row/column in order to gain money when the grid is completely full. Once this happens each stall is valued and money paid out, or paid in if negative. Players get their wares valued 1 back but lose all other wares. Three times the board is filled with tiles and shop money is earned, after which the player with the most money wins. Mike gained the most in the first round with Richard and Tanya struggling. Maria made good progress in the following rounds to close the gap. However Mike scored enough in the final round to win by 11 pfennigs from Maria

3.       This same group then played “WINNERS CIRCLE”, introducing it to our new player Tanya. It’s about a series of horse races involving 7 horses and each round the players decide upon which horses to place their 3 bets in the hope of making money. The movement for each horse is determined by throwing a dice with different symbols on it and players choose which horse is to receive the benefit from the movement shown. The positions in the race are constantly changing as players advance a horse on which they have a bet or perhaps try to ‘nobble’ a horse in which they have no interest and therefore do not want it to win.  Mike and Maria made gains in the first race but Richard was really stuffed. Tanya soon picked up the mechanics in the game and made progress and in the final race she really cleaned up with a solo win which earned her enough cash to overtake Mike and Maria and win her first game. Well done Tanya !!

4.     This group of 4 played “TEACHERS PET” a quick card game about bidding cards simultaneously to try and win Positive cards or NOT to win negative cards. A simple enough aim but the way the cards are played causes much hilarity, with surprising results. As the owner of the game Mike won the first game so it was decided to play another game as we waited for the other table to finish .

5.     Mike was the target for the second game of “TEACHERS PET” and looked to be out of it by being ‘unlucky’ to pick up some negative cards early on. However, with some astute play he managed to gain some late positive cards at the end and just won by gaining 10 points to Tanya’s 9 !!

6.     We swapped formations and on table 2 a group of 5 played “HECK MECK” a dice game about gaining dominoes that contain a variable number of worms. Players place any gains in front of them but they can be stolen by other players if they roll the exact value of the tile, so the lead is constantly changing. A ‘push-your-luck’ game that caused lots of laughs but Rob was in fine form and won the game by a large margin.

7.     Table 1 played a 3-player game of “AUF HELLER UND PFENNIG” to introduce Roger to the game. Mike was unable to repeat his earlier success and with Tony being the owner of the game he skilfully placed his pieces with much more sense that the other two and really cleaned up, scoring heavily, laughing loudly, a veritable ‘Master Class’. Roger was a gallant second.

8.     Table 2 decided to have another game of “TEACHERS PET” to complete the evening. Once again some unusual card playing led to people gaining negative cards they didn’t want and much laughter could be heard. Richard finally gained his first win of the evening but for Luke it was another sad demise.  

Games played and Winners were:

Ursuppe Roger Skull;

Auf Heller und Pfennig –game 1 Mike Oakes;

Winners Circle Tanya Jurkiewicz;

Teachers Pet –game 1 Mike Oakes;

Teachers Pet –game 2 Mike Oakes;

Heck Meck Robert Piesse;

Teachers Pet –game 3 Richard Piesse;

Auf Heller und Pfennig –game 2 Tony Simons.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 05/08/2010

1.     We had 7 players in total. On table 1 a group of 4 played “SHEAR PANIC”, a game with lovely plastic pieces representing sheep. There is even a black sheep in the set!! The sheep move around the 4 fields on the board so that they are in the right place to mate, then fatten up, then get sheared. Lots of foul play, with sheep being herded around to somewhere they don’t want to go and overall a really enjoyable fun game. Lucy was in great form yet again and won the game.

2.     On Table 2 the remaining 3 players played “TOWER OF BABEL”, in which players collect cards depicting different types of building cards which they can use later to construct one of the 8, yes 8, Wonders of the World. They do this by visiting a Wonder to try and build it , and attracting offers of help from their opponents. They can accept this help to build it but at a cost, or they can reject the offers and build it themselves. They record their effort by placing pieces onto the wonder. When a Wonder is completely built it scores points and these are distributed in accordance with who has made the biggest contribution, so this facet is constantly changing. There are action cards to be gained by completing a Wonder and this adds the chance element to the game. This brief review cannot fully describe the constantly changing of the balance in the game, and the multiple ways to score. Furthermore there are 2 ways in which the End of Game is triggered so players have to keep an eye on that. A highly interactive game, in which Richard took an early lead and by scoring many second places when Wonders were built  he maintained this advantage until the end for a clear-cut win.

3.     This same group then played “ATTILA”, introducing it to our guest player Rob. Players play cards represent one of the 6 tribes in the game invading Europe and they gain influence over that tribe for doing so. Other players do the same and the influence chart which shows all 6 tribes is constantly changing. Once a region on the board has 4 pieces in it peace treaty negotiations take place and the ‘weakest’ tribes(s) are thrown out and the victory points awarded to whoever has the most influence over each tribe. This continues over 4 epochs with the influence track playing a bigger part as the board gets crowded with the tribes expanding their empires into further regions and causing more scoring. A neat game that plays in under the hour and once again Richard was in good form by establishing a sizable lead which the other players could not peg back for his second win of the evening.

4.     On table 1 the group of 4 played “HAMELN” a family game about players buying houses in the town of Hamlyn, marrying, having children, and generally making a good life for themselves. However this idyll changes once a plague of rats arrive and players try to protect themselves from the vermin by employing the fabled Pied Piper….if they can find him!  Players score victory points for their houses, influence , money and possession of the cat. However they should try not to lose children to the Pied Piper, as this scores negative points. An attractive looking game which was won by Lucy, yet again…this girl has to be stopped!!

5.     Table 2 played a quick card game called “HATTRICK”, in which tricks are played 2 at a time from a deck of 60 cards, 1-20 in 3 colours. Players are trying to gain as many cards in ONE colour but as few as possible in the other colours, as their score at the end of a hand is 1 point positive for each card in their longest suit and minus 1 point for each other card they have won.  Its sometimes difficult to avoid picking up unwanted cards if you are collecting say Reds as your long suit and have say a 15 Green left in your hand and you pick up 3 or 4 of the blighters!. Richard completed his own ‘Hatrick’ of wins by scoring 10 points to Geoff’s 9.

6.     All 7 players came together for the final game of “6 NIMMT”, a game about getting rid of the 10 cards dealt to you by placing them on a grid of 4 rows. The player who places the 6^th card in a row wins the other 5 cards in the row, which will count as penalty points against them. The winner is the player with the lowest score when the game ends. So you need to play cards which avoid completing the row, not easy when the grid is constantly changing. We were desperately trying to stop Lucy winning her third game of the evening and only just achieved that by ganging up on her. To much ‘friendly cheering’ from the others this happened and Tony scored 20 points to Lucy’s 24, so objective reached. A really classic end of evening game.  

Games played and Winners were:

Shear Panic Lucy Newbury;

Tower of Babel Richard Piesse;

Attila Richard Piesse;

Hameln Lucy Newbury;

Hattrick Richard Piesse;

6 Nimmt Tony Simons.