CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 19/05/2011

1.       In addition to 10 members we had a couple of guests this evening. Tony and Sue Balecke from Melksham came along to demonstrate their family board game “GB RACERS”. With Tony explaining the rules 6 players contested a series of races in which movement is as a result of throwing 2 dice and applying the outcome to their 2 cars. By using throws strategically players can land on various ‘bonus’ squares on the track, which grant either grant extra movement to the current player, or by some quirky mechanism to the car that is currently in last place, or the chance to throw the 20-sided “GB” dice to increase movement. There are some tactics to consider as to how to allocate your dice throws and a race seems to take around 30 minutes, sometimes quicker if someone threw a couple of 20’s on the GB dice. Once 3 cars have crossed the finish line points are awarded for all the cards and they are recorded on a score sheet. Further races take place until one player has amassed a total of 77 points and after the final race has been completed the player with the most points is declared the winner. The club members didn’t like the 20-sided dice, feeling that is had to much of an effect, there were some issues with the colours of the squares, but overall not a bad family game. As usual Lucy demonstrated her ability to win most games she plays and was declared the victor.

2.       Tony and Sue Balecke were introduced to some of our games, starting with “ABER BITTE MIT SAHNE” the game about slicing up a cake which was reviewed last week. Both enjoyed the experience, especially as Sue emerged as the winner !

3.       Whilst all the new stuff was being actioned on the other table Table 2 played a 5-player game of the popular share-trading game “SHARK”. Most players thought they were in with a chance of winning until Jerry caused a market crash of shares held by other players, which didn’t affect him and he duly won the game.

4.       Table 2 then played “NAVEGADOR”, with Mike explaining it to 3 others who had not played it. We were time-boxed to complete the full game so we ended it early but most of the stages had been completed. In a close finish there was a tie between Alister and Roger, with the latter winning by being in passion of the ‘Navegador’ tile. Paul didn’t really take to the game and expressed his dismay. Alister was luke-warm at first but accepted that there was some logic to the sequence of play. However Mike loved the game, even though he came last again…just goes to show you can’t please all the people all the time,and that is why we all have favourites and games that we just don’t like.

5.       Table 1 ended their session with “CARCASONNE”, the ever-popular tile-laying game about building a city with surrounding farms and monasteries. Kevin was the eventual winner.

Games played and Winners were:

GB Racers Lucy Newbury;

Piece of Cake Sue Balecke ;

Shark Jerry Jabelman;

Navegador Roger Skull;

Carcasonne Kevin Ward.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 12/05/2011

1.       9 members attended this evening so we split into 2 tables of 5 and 4. Table 1 started with “ABER BITTE MIT SAHNE” the game about slicing up a cake which was reviewed a few weeks ago. Tony and Fiona were the early leaders but Lucy scored an impressive 34 points in round 3, which was matched by Tony. Mike improved in the last round at the expense of Tony, which enabled Lucy to win the game…piece of cake for her really !!

2.       Table 2 opened with the popular “7 WONDERS” which is becoming staple fare. In yet another close finish the final scores were Kevin 46; Geoff 40; Paul 38; Roger 34.

3.       Table 1 then played “TRAUMFABRIK”, the game about filmmaking in Hollywood. Players use contracts to bid at auctions to recruit directors, actors, cameramen, special effects and music all of which go towards completing various films in their studio. Once a film is completed the value of it is scored and then the player receives a victory point chit to that value. If they are the first to complete a particular category of film they receive a statuette scoring 5 victory points. After a complete round an ‘oscar’ worth 5 VP’s is awarded to the player with the current highest scoring film. Play continues in this way for 4 rounds and then final scoring occurs and the player with the most VPs is the winner. By completing a total of 5 films Geoff scored heavily on his chits to secure an easy victory.

4.       Table 2 played “TINNERS TRAIL”, a great game by Martin Wallace based upon the tin and copper mines of Cornwall.  Players have 10 action points to use each turn, which can be spent in many different ways, each using up a certain number of action points. These include building a mine, recruiting miners, building ports, constructing adits, installing water pumps etc. Players are trying to pump water from their mines before they extract the minerals and therefore gain a better yield. Every time they go mining they add more water cubes to the site which makes it become uneconomical. The competition to employ these various actions is the crux of the game and it is driven by a mechanism whereby the player who is ‘last’ in the action chart gets to move next and if they spend action points which moves them ahead then the ‘new last player’ is next to play. This makes decision making quite difficult and players have to view their options closely. After production the players always sell their produce at the appropriate market price, which varies each turn. They then have the option to invest some of their capital in ‘shares’ on a track on the board, these being VPs at the end of the game. They have to keep a certain amount of money back to fund their operations for the next turn, so more decision-making here. The game lasts just 4 turns and packs a real punch. Tony was the winner.

5.       Table 1 ended their session with “TRANSAMERICA”, a simple train game about building tracks across a map of the USA to link the 5 cities which are dealt into your hand at the start of each turn. Players can use 2 points each turn, to lay either 2 single tracks or 1 double track. They build their network up along with the other players and eventually they merge tracks with the other players. Once this is achieved they can build on the end of the new enlarged network, which enables them to reach their objective. Once one player has completed their route the remaining players calculate how many steps they are away from completing their network and these count as points against them, and they move their scoring train along the scoring track. Once any one player has reached the end of the scoring track the game is over and the player who is furthest from the end is declared the winner. Geoff won the first round and then Kevin took over as leader. After a poor start Mike managed to win the last 2 rounds and emerged as the victor, to everyone’s surprise !!   

6.       Table 2 reduced to 3 players and tried the tile-laying game of “CRONBERG”. A hexagonal board is created from triangles and players place their pieces at intersections which they then try to surround by buildings to score points. Comments afterwards seem to imply that the game would have worked better with more players. Roger was the eventual winner.

Games played and Winners were:

Aber Bitte Mit Sahne Lucy Newbury;

7 Wonders Kevin Ward;

Traumfabrik Geoff Williams;

Tinners Trail Tony Simons;

Transamerica Mike Oakes;

Cronberg Roger Skull.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 21/04/2011

1.       Due to Easter Holidays we had 6 members attend this week, so we played on 1 table only. 5 of us started with “SAN FRANCISCO”, the game about rebuilding the city after the great earthquake of 1906. Tiles representing 3 different categories of building are placed randomly in a grid of the city and the players try to place their ‘building rods’ such that they surround a tile and claim the points for rebuilding that part of the city. On each players turn a contract card is turned over which dictates how many players will get to place a rod and the basis on which the contract is resolved. This will be one of 3 methods, either by the playing of Influence cards, by the playing of Cheques, or by the use of ‘auction chits’. The twist in the game is that when a bid in the Influence cards is revealed any ties means that the players are eliminated from that auction and the resolution passes to the next lower bid. So in a 5-player game the bids of 9, 9, 6, 5, and 3 will result in the player bidding 6 winning the auction. If the auction card indicated 2 players will get to place a rod then the bidder of 5 will also get to place. The cheques are resolved by players simply adding cheques to their bids until every one bar one has passed. The ‘Auction chits’ are chosen secretly and revealed and if one player is the only one to choose a particular category of tile they get to place a rod. If more than 1 player chooses the same category they resolve it by secretly bidding up to 5 cheque cards and the highest total wins. When a tile is built it is turned over and the relevant points on it are awarded to the builder as Prestige Points. Furthermore one of the ‘bonus cards’ is turned up. These enable players to gain more money or more influence points or to move building rods. They are resolved by bidding in the same way as above, or sometimes every player gets the chance to perform the action depicted. The bonus card is placed on a grid on the board, in which there are 12 spaces and this dictates the length of the game, which ends as soon as the last card is placed. Kevin started out with an early lead by building some low values tiles and Lucy soon caught him up by doing the same. Mike waited for his chance to build the more prestigious Town Hall tile for which he received 10 points and closed on the leaders. Some spirited bidding by Geoff and Roger meant that they soon closed the gap but the amounts being bid were rising all the time, so those who kept money back were able to win the later auctions. Despite a late effort Lucy couldn’t quite catch Kevin who held on for the win by 3 points by building a tile late on.

2.       Paul had joined us by this time so 6 of us played “7 WONDERS”, the card game that has been reviewed recently. Mike and Kevin were beaten up on the Military front, both scoring -6 points in that category. Mike never recovered but the others all scored well in different categories and the final scores were very close, these being Paul 50, Kevin 49, Lucy 48, Roger 44, Geoff 40, Mike 29.   

Games played and Winners were:

San Francisco Kevin Ward;

7 Wonders Paul Bulpin.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB - 07/04/2011

1.     Due to absences we had 8 members attend this week, so we played on 2 tables of 4 players each. Table 1 started with “ZOOLORETTO”, the boardgame version of the very popular card game Coloretto. The theme here is that players are trying to fill the compounds in ‘their’ zoo with animals of the same species, of which there are 8 in the game, or to add vendor stalls for the benefit of their customers. In turn order players have a choice of one of 3 actions, they can either add a tile to the lorries that deliver to the zoos, or they can perform a financial transaction such as disposing of unwanted animals, remodelling their zoo, buying animals from other players, building an extension to their zoo, or they can take delivery of the contents of one lorry and place them in their zoo. Taking the last-named action ends their participation in the current round. Each player’s zoo has 3 compounds of different size and players place their animals or vendor stalls as they wish. Once a compound is filled the player immediately receives 1 or 2 coins, useful for later on, and the compound will score victory points in the Game End scoring.  Sometimes if they have acquired a breeding pair the player can have babies of that species to help fill their compound. Any tiles gained that cannot be placed are placed in a player’s barn , from where they can be purchased by other players or used by the owning player to remodel their zoo to better advantage later on. The game ends once tiles are taken from the last pile and after completing the current round the players add up the VP’s of their compounds and their vendor stalls but they subtract any points for items still in their barn. Luke was undone by have several species in his barn at the game end and this is reflected in the scoring, the result being Jerry 28, Poppy 27, Mike 22, Luke 19.

2.       Table 2 played “RHEINLANDER”, a game where players match cards in their hand with tracts of land adjacent to the River Rhine to form duchies. They expand these territories so that they can subsequently build castles, cathedrals and cities to improve their score. Because the game is based around a river players can build along both banks and from several parts of the river so attacks often take place to either stop an opponent advancing or to take over control, from that opponent.  As players become more powerful they can build bastions to defend their areas, they can build churches which enable them to add bishops to the board and the players with the most bishops can become the Archbishop, which grants even more power! Of course the other players will no doubt launch a counter offensive to take this away from you. The game end scoring was very close, with Allister winning on 39 points, Kevin and Roger tied on 38 and Geoff came 4^th.

3.       Table 1 played the card game “BOHNSANZA”, in which they play cards to populate fields of beans which they eventually sell at market, the bigger the filed the higher the reward. The way to get a bigger market share is by trading with then other players for bean types that they require, and this is quite frantic and interactive. The game is played in 3 rounds, with fortunes fluctuating throughout. A very close game ended in a tie, the final scores being Luke 12, Mike 12, Poppy 11, Jerry 10.

4.       Purely by coincidence Table 2 decided to play the “BEAN TRADER”, which is the board game version of the card game played on table 1. Players acquire contracts to supply certain types of beans to the various German cities depicted on the colourful board, for which they will receive money. The problem is that they have acquire these beans in different cities, and the prices of the products tend to rise, and then they have to play a certain number of cards to move from one city to another along the various routes in order to sell the beans they have purchased and take the reward. If a player ends their move in a city in which another player is present they can trade beans with each other, adding to the commercial flavour of the game. There is a neat method of the way in which the cards that have been played are replaced back in your hand, which adds interest to the game. A good conversion of a card game but it does take longer to play than the card game, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The eventual winner was Allister, as he had the good fortune to deliver two high-value contracts early on, which meant he had the money to buy more products in subsequent turns and thereby deliver more contracts.   

Games played and Winners were:

Zooloretto Jerry Jabelman;

Bohnsanza tie between Luke Williams & Mike Oakes;

Rheinlander Allister Gittins;

Bean Trader Allister Gittins.