CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 13/01/2011

1.    We were 9 players again. On Table 1 Mike led a game of “ROYAL PALACE”. The game depicts a palace with several rooms and a courtyard with 36 nobles wandering around waiting to be recruited.  Each player has a supply of servants which they introduce to the Palace and using movements points they move the servants to the different rooms to gain the ‘resources ‘ there, such things as royal seals; gold and privilege cards. If they have a servant placed at the Office they can then use these resources to enlist a noble from the courtyard, which gives either a large number of Victory Points at the end of the game, or sometimes give a small bonus feature each turn, like extra gold, extra movement points, or additional servants. As the game progress the cost in gold for enlisting reduces by 1 for each empty adjacent space in the courtyard so some nobles can be gained quite cheaply later on. The game ends when there is 12 or less servants remaining in the courtyard on the starting players turn, and then just one more turn is played. The player with the most victory points is the winner. Richard employed his servants wisely to gain lots of resources. Mike collected large amounts of gold to buy privilege cards but those drawn were not the ones he wanted. Tony concentrated on getting servants along the courtyard walls to gain Victory points. Richard managed to enlist 2 nobles in his last turn which gained him enough victory points to overtake Mike to win. Scores were Richard 56, Mike 49, Tony 45, Alister 40.

2.       Table 2 played “SHARK”, a share-trading game driven by rolling 2 dice, one which depicts one of the 6 areas on the board, and the other which colour share is to be introduced there. Players form chains of the same colour which increases their share price.  By buying into shares they make profit on these shares. They can also sell shares on their turn, which might be wise if it looks like the chain is going to be taken over. If this happens the ‘lost’ colour share price drops by the number of pieces involves and players owning those shares have to pay for the losses incurred. The newly-merged larger chain increases in value so a few battles ensue to have the right shares when the game ends, which is when one shares reaches a price of 15 or all the tokens of one colour have been placed. The player with the most money is the winner, and in this case it was Roger.

3.       Table 1 played the railway game “VOLLDAMPF”, in which players build track in various locations in order to transport goods from one city to another . They receive income for each section of track passed over in the delivery. Sometimes they need to use other players track so it’s a game of co-operation. To buy the cards to build the track they bid money at auction and to get enough money they need to take loans. This is the crux of the game as at the end of each turn the players subtract the amount of loan certificates from their income, so an income of 7 with 4 loan certificates gives only 3 money as a reward. Play continues for a defined number of turns with players progressing along the income track as they deliver more goods. At the end they move down this income track 1 space for each loan. The player who is furthest along the income track is the winner. Mike and Tony co-operated during the early stages whilst Alister made good progress with very few loans. In the end Tony was able to deliver 2 big earning contracts and this was enough to give him victory from Mike by 2 points.

4.       Table 1 finished with the simple card game “KATHAI”, in which players collect trade cards with a view to selling goods at one of the 5 markets in the game. They can trade cards with other players to gain more cards of a type they require. When they sell goods they gain points for the number of cards used, plus a variable bonus. Scoring is very tight and the scores were close, with Mike being lucky enough to make a trade worth 4 points on the last turn on the last turn. Scores were Mike 14, Alister and Roger 13, Tony 12 and Geoff 11 .

5.       Table 2 played the game of “CHAOS IN THE OLD WORLD”, which has been reviewed before. A very attractive board, with a myriad of pieces and cards and dials to determine the outcome of various battles. Near the end 3 players has achieved certain victory conditions but closer examination showed that Richard was the eventual winner.

 
Games played and Winners were:

Royal Palace Richard Piesse;

Shark Roger Skull;

Volldampf Tony Simons;

Kathai Mike Oakes;

Chaos in the Old World Richard Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 06/01/2011

1.    9 Players returned after the festive break. On Table 1 Tony led a game of “MUNICIPIUM” by Reiner Knizia. Based upon a Roman theme players are each in control of a powerful family and try to strategically place their family members in the various institutions throughout the municipium and gain the support of the citizens: Scholars, Merchants, Soldiers, and Priests. At various times during the game, if a player has the most influence in an institution, the player can exert the power of that institution and gain the support of certain citizens. Meanwhile, the praefect moves around the municipium and players strive to have the most influence in the institutions that he visits, thereby earning his favour. Each of these institutions have unique powers, and players must decide how and when to use them. The player best utilizing their power will become the most influential family in the municipium. A slightly confusing game that needs another outing. The winner was Lucy.

2.       Table 2 used the games that Santa had brought the Piesse brothers. The first of these was “ACQUIRE”, a classic game about building hotel chains, acquiring shares in them and then eventually merging the chain with other hotels to make profit. In a tight finish Mike and Roger both made the mistake of not investing in shares in the largest chain which gave the majority holding to Richard and denied them both a share of the final dividend. This proved costly as Luke was able to make a lot of money from his holdings and swept to a late victory.

3.       Table 1 played the race game “JAMAICA”, which has been reviewed before. Once again Lucy prevailed, maintaining her good standard from last year.

4.       As table 2 were still playing Acquire table 1 played a silly card game called “FELIX” as a filler. In this game based upon the old pub game of spoof you try to predict the outcome of what cats have been secretly put in the sack. The player who stays in the auction until the end of a round gains all the cards. However if there are dogs present instead of cats they ‘chase ‘ away the high-scoring cats, so the prize may not be worth as much as the winning player bid. After the game duration of 10 rounds Paul was the eventual winner.

5.       Table 2 then started on another Piesse offering, this time a 5-player game of “SETTLERS OF CATAN”. This took over 2 hours to complete as the competition for resources was fiercer than usual for this game. Mike looked out of it when all the other players ganged up on him and Richard looked favourite to win as he was near to completing the Longest Road. Near the end Mike and Roger both had 9 points but Richard was still looking good on 8 points. However some successive dice rolls of the same number gave Mike enough multiple resources that he could trade in on his turn for the necessary cards to upgrade a  settlement to a City to reach 10 points. A lucky win.

6.       To finish their session table 1 played a couple of games of “DAVID & GOLIATH”. Tony won the first game and Geoff the second.

Games played and Winners were:

Municipium Lucy Newbury;

Acquire Luke Williams;

Jamaica Lucy Newbury;

Felix Paul Gulpin;

Settlers of Catan Mike Oakes;

David and Goliath game 1 – Tony Simons;

David and Goliath game 2 – Geoff Williams.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 09/12/2010

1.    Despite the continuing low temperatures we had 8 players in attendance this week. On Table 1 Paul led a game of the new release “LONDON” and introduced Allister to the game.  Because of the need to explain the mechanisms to the new player it took over 2 hours to complete but once again all the players enjoyed it. Luke kept his building stacks to mainly 4 in number throughout, a clever strategy. Roger and Paul struggled to get rid of poverty points so they were always in trouble. Luke managed to get rid of all his poverty points near the game end, which meant that Roger and Paul lost many VPs. On his debut Allister was surprised to finish second, but this shows that the game can be played at different levels of knowledge. There was much analysis made at the end and all agreed that the game was a good one and it will be played a lot in the future.

2.       On Table 2 Mike introduced Lucy to ”INDUSTRIAL WASTE” which Tony and Geoff had already played. It is basically a card game about acquiring resources for your factory, fulfilling an order and gaining money for it. Each time you do this you generate pollution and this is recorded on your individual factory board. At the end of each turn you need to pay for the workers you have employed. Money is tight in the game and there is the opportunity to take loans but they must be paid back before the game end, otherwise they count as lost VPs. By playing certain cards a player can introduce innovation to either use less resources, less workers or generate less pollution. This is important as there is just one ‘Accident’ card in the deck and when this is discovered the players examine their current standing for pollution and get heavily penalised financially for being in either the Yellow zone or even worse, the Red zone, and they also reduce their earning power for fulfilling orders by 1. A neat series of mechanisms that has a variable game end condition so it’s difficult to predict who the winner is. A good business management game, which Geoff won, with Lucy second. Mike and Tony had too many unpaid loans at the end so they suffered for this.

3.       As Table 1 had still not finished table 2 turned to another clever auction/set collection game  this time “NEFERTITI”. This game is about players visiting different markets on the board with their servants in the hope of securing the right to acquire cards with different artefacts shown on them, and sometime a Royal Seal for use later in the game. The players are trying to build up sets of the same types which will bring them VPs at game end, but other players sometimes start collecting the same type and that devalues the set. Those who have acquired a Royal Seal can spend it to employ one of the 12 characters in the game which give special one-off powers, such as enhanced interim scoring, have 2 turns in succession, stealing a card from other players, gaining extra money etc. The way in which the markets are scored is novel and the whole game plays neatly in around 45-60 minutes. Tony and Lucy fought out a close finish with Tony just edging ahead in the last play as he had one Royal Seal left and this gave him 3 VPs, enough to take him past Lucy. Mike was a distant third, with Geoff trailing in 4^th.

 
Games played and Winners were:

Müll & Money Geoff Williams;

Nefertiti Tony Simons;

London Luke Williams.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 02/12/2010

1.    Due to the snow and other commitments we only had 7 players in attendance this week. On Table 2 Mike led a game of the new release “LONDON” and introduced Luke to the game.  Because of the need to explain the mechanisms this game took over 2 hours to complete but all the players enjoyed it. Paul used his buildings wisely and this enabled him to obtain 3 shops at one point, all earning him good money. He had planned to use this to pay off the loans he had taken out. He also had several buildings which did not flip so they were active for some time, and this kept his poverty points low.  Mike, Roger, and Luke maybe built too many stacks in their building display and kept gaining poverty points as a result. Mike thought he had a chance of being the one with the lowest poverty points at game end and he thought this might bring him into contention but Paul even managed to achieve that in his last turn. This meant that when all loans had been repaid, and victory points tallied up he ran out a clear winner with 60-odd points to Mike’s 35, Roger’s 21 and Luke’s 19. A classy victory for Paul but maybe the others have learnt a bit about how the cards inter-relate.

2.       Whilst this was going on Table 1 had 3 players playing a game of “PUERTO RICO”, a club favourite. In a tight finish Richard was victorious with 49 points and Robert and Tony tied on 46 points.

3.       As Table 2 had still not finished the 3 other players turned to “COSMIC ENCOUNTER”, an update of a fine game from the past. Each player is the leader of an alien race. The object of the game is to establish colonies in other players' planetary systems. Players take turns trying to establish colonies. The winner(s) are the first player(s) to have five colonies on any planets outside his or her home system. A player does not need to have colonies in all of the systems, just colonies on five planets outside his or her home system. These colonies may all be in one system or scattered over multiple systems. The players must use force, cunning, and diplomacy to ensure their victory. In another close finish Tony was victorious this time.

4.       As Table 2 had still not finished Table 1 played another game of “COSMIC ENCOUNTER “to finish the session. This time Richard came out on top.

Games played and Winners were:

Puerto Rico Richard Piesse;

Cosmic Encounter game 1 Tony Simons;

Cosmic Encounter game 2 Richard Piesse;

London Paul Bulpin.