CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 03/11/2011

1.       With a bumper attendance of 14 all 3 tables were in play and lots of games were played. To start on table 1 Tony led a group playing “FAST FLOWING FOREST FELLERS”. In this game each player has 2 loggers, one male and one female and they have different movement abilities shown on cards. Players shuffle their pack of cards and choose 3 at random, from which they will play 1 and then replenish. The ‘track’ depicts a river flowing downstream in a series of hexes and the players move the number of hexes according to the card they play. If they end their turn on a  hex containing  arrows indicating they move 1 addition hex in that direction.  Some are favourable, most are not. Additionally some logs are placed in the river at the start to form a sort of barrier to progress but with the correct strength of card the players can ‘shove’ the logs into the path of other loggers, to slow them down. Quite an amusing game which is pitched at the family level. Tony was the winner.

2.       Table 2 saw 5 players involved in a game of “DOMINION”, the card-deck building game. Peregrine the visitor had brought along his large boxed set so a scenario was chosen to introduce new players to the game. The first game was close but Kevin eventually emerged victorious on his debut.

3.       With the arrival of Chris the players played another game of “DOMINION”, this time with a more elaborate scenario involving Alchemy. It seems that this was much more difficult to play and took longer to complete. The eventual winner was Peregrine.

4.       On table 3 Mike introduced 3 other players to the Ystari game “YS”. This game is a combination of secret auctions to gain territorial control and a stock market manipulation, all of which generate victory points. In a game that last only 4 turns there is much for the players to consider. Very briefly they have a series of 9 brokers, in values 0-4,  which they place upon the various locations in the city of YS, or in the various parts of the stock market. The purpose of the placement is to gain control of a territory , or to influence the stock market in their favour. However in a neat twist they have to place one broker face-up and one face-down, so other players do not fully know what your strength is in a particular area. In a game turn players’ place 8 of their tokens so you cannot do everything you want. The parts of the city are evaluated and the gains issued to the winners. These can be gems of their choice, a fixed amount of VPs, a card to use of their next turn to assist their cause or a black gem, which counts for game end scoring. Once the city is evaluated the stock market placements are resolved , which allocate gems to winning players, and the prices of all 4 types of gem are adjusted upwards or downwards accordingly. The gems are hidden behind a player’s screen as they are used to determine the victory points at the end. Play continues in this fashion for 4 turns and then end game scoring occurs. Players earn points for the number of black gems they have collected. Then the 4 types of gems are evaluated, with the highest value one being scored first. Players reveal their holdings and points are awarded in the sequence 24, 18,12,6 for places 1-4. In similar fashion the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th gem colour is scored but in reduced values. These final scores can dramatically affect the result, as players with the highest holding in say the 2 highest valued gems can gain 44 points and shoot along the VP track. Much to admire in this game, which provided plenty of replay value. Alister led toward the end with his commercial sections scoring well by clever use of one of his cards. However Jeremy concentrated on building the Port sections and gathered lots of black stones , which gave him 20 points at Game end, enough for a close victory. Paul was a respectable third place but Mike was hopelessly last….again !!

5.       Table 1 played the Motor Racing game “DAYTONA 500”, a classic of its day, setting the tone for the later generations of car racing games. Players play cards from their hand to move the depicted colour car shown a specific number of spaces. They are trying to hinder the progress of their opponents whilst obtaining the best outcome for themselves. Blocking occurs, especially through the narrow corners, where the unlucky victims are forced wide and lose valuable spaces. The eventual winner was Tony.

6.       Table 3 continued their night of Ystari games with “BOMBAY”, a lightweight family game of using elephants to visit depots to pick up goods of various colours and then deliver them to a city that wants that particular goods. Players are restricted to 3 Action Points per turn, and some actions cost money so progress is not as swift as they would like. Alister built his 5 palaces very early and received money(VP) from the bank every time a player passed through his palaces, building up a nice score. The others attempted to deliver goods to the 4 cities on the board, gaining money and tokens for doing so.  Jeremy did best at this, always seeming to deliver a type of goods that attracted the highest return. When all players have had 4 actions in a turn a new round is started, the markets are re-seeded with goods and a new round begins. After 4 completed turns Game End scoring occurs for the number of Palaces and Guides each player has collected, and the Number of different cities visited. Despite his early lead Alister was caught again near the end by Jeremy.

7.       On Table 2 the return of “INCAN GOLD” took place, much to the delight of Rob, as this is one of his favourite games. A card game in which Gems cards and Disaster cards are turned over and players decide whether to take flight with the treasure they have stored in their tent so far, or stay for another round to increase their haul, but running the risk of a 5^th Disaster card  turning up, and losing the lot !!. Not surprisingly Rob ran out the eventual winner.

8.       On Table 1 only 3 players remained so Tony introduced “IF WISHES WERE FISHES”, a game about fishermen catching the highest value fish and then trying to sell them for the best prices. Of course the other players will try and hinder this so things are not straightforward. The most intriguing thing seemed to be the purple worms with which players lure away the fish from each other. In a close finish Kevin won with 83 points, with Geoff and Tony both on 82, always the sign of a good game. A bit childish in appearance but it seems there is a gamer’s game lurking in there , judging by the comments of the players.

9.       Table 3 were reduced to 3 players also so Mike introduced the others to a quick game of “TUTANCHAMUN” by Reiner Knizia. Players start on the designated number on the scoring mask (26 in our case)and are trying to be first to reach zero. A quirky game where artefacts in different value and distribution are placed ‘snake-like’ leading to an altar. In turn players move their piece from the back of the ‘snake’ to an artefact and claim it for themselves. However they cannot go backwards to claim artefacts they have passed. Once all the tokens for a particular artefact have been collected it is scored, the player with the most of that type gain its value, 2^nd gains half value and third(if present) gains half again. Play continues in this way with players scoring at different rates and intervals until one player reaches the zero target. Paul collected some high-scoring sets and looked certain to win until Mike and Jeremy scored some lower valued sets frequently and closed the gap. Eventually Mike reached 6 points and managed to close a type with exactly that value to snatch a win, much to Paul’s disgust.

10.   Table 2 were last to finish on a marathon night, by playing “ZOOLORETTO”, the game about filling enclosures in your zoo with animals of the same type. The game has been reviewed before so is not repeated here. The final scores were extremely close, these being Chris 30, Rob 29, Peregrine 28, Roger 25.

Games played and Winners were:

Fast Flowing Forest Fellers- Tony Simons;

Dominion game 1 – Kevin Ward;

Dominion game 2 – Peregrine the visitor;

Ys – Jeremy Hurault;

Daytona 500 – Tony Simons;

Bombay - Jeremy Hurault ;

Incan Gold- Rob Piesse;

If Wishes were Fishes – Kevin Ward;

Tutanchamun – Mike Oakes;

Zooloretto – Chris Cook.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 27/10/2011

1.       With 10 players in attendance tonight we split into 2 groups of 5. Tony had already arranged for his group to play “STEAM”, the slightly easier version of “Age of Steam”. He explained the game to the others, most of whom were playing it for the first time. The game mechanics are well-known, based upon choosing an action from the available options each turn and then executing those in turn order. Players can extend their lines, upgrade their engine to a more powerful one, deliver goods first to gain revenue etc. The path to victory depends upon spotting where to build, when to upgrade, and there will be conflict for routes throughout the game. Not surprisingly Tony’s experience enabled him to win the game but all the other players thoroughly enjoyed the game.

2.       Table 2 saw the other 5 players also involved in a railway game of sorts, this being “ON THE UNDERGROUND”. In this game the players have the ability to construct 2 different coloured lines upon the map of the London Underground system, with the purpose of moving the sole passenger in the game along their lines to gain victory points. The route the passenger will take each turn is determined by examining the 4 destinations currently in play and placing your 4 pieces of track to the best advantage. Sometimes it is necessary to use the other player’s lines in order to make points yourself and this gives the game a co-operative flavour. There are other ways to score victory points, these being to connect to national rail stations for 1 point, to build into a terminus for 2 points and gain a branch line token(more later), to connect stations on the board which contain 2 like icons for 3 points, and most rarely to construct a circular loop and score points according to how many stations you enclose. Players use their branch line tokens to build track away from their existing routes to take advantage of new opportunities that arise from the card display. Scoring was very close throughout and at one stage 4 of the 5 players were all tied for the lead with the 5^th player close behind. Mike was one piece of track away from completing a loop which would have scored 8 points but Jerry noticed it just in time and built upon the very track section that Mike wanted…taking one for the team!!. The players jostled for the lead until the destination cards ran out and Mike thought he had done just enough to win but Roger built a final terminus to gain 2 points and snatch victory by one point, with Poppy just a further point behind in 3^rd place.

3.       On table 1 Tony led the players in the card game “BOHNANZA”, the game about planting fields of beans and trading with the other players to turn these into gold. The unique thing about this card game is that when you receive cards into hand( 3 each turn), you are NOT allowed to order them, and they must be placed at the back of the hand when drawn. This means that to get the cards to the front that you want to play in your turn you must trade with other players to get them ‘out of the way’. The trading element is good fun as offers and counter offers are made between the current player and the others. A neat system and a good little filler which plays in around 45 minutes. Jeremy was the eventual winner.

4.       Table 2 saw 4 players ending the session with the business game “TYCOON”. In this game players buy flight tickets to enable them to jet around the world to any of the 9 international cities in the game, and then they can build either hotels or factories in that city. On subsequent turns they can expand this empire or fly off to another city and build there. In this way the ‘control’ of a city constantly changes and players have to keep an eye on their competitors. Once any one player has built their first 6 hotels a Payday occurs at the end of the round and players earn money for the presence in the cities, the individual city control is scored for 1^st and 2^nd place and factories receive revenue depending upon the progress made in that city. A further 6 hotels are added to the player’s portfolio and a 2^nd and 3^rd rounds are played until the final hotel is built. If players run out of money(very easy to do) they must fly off the board and take out one loan. This constitutes their turn and sometimes they have to stay off the board and take out a further loan to fund their future building plans. Loans can be repaid with interest when a Payday occurs or they can be extended until the next Payday when they must be repaid but at a more punitive interest rate. The game ends on the 3^rd Payday and when all income has been received and loans repaid in full the winner is the one with the most money. Rob built his factories in cities which he then expanded to be the most progressive and he scored heavily in 2 cities to enable him to cruise to victory by a wide margin, with Mike 2^nd, Kevin 3^rd and Roger 4^th.

Games played and Winners were:

Steam- Tony Simons;

On the Underground- Roger Scull;

Bohnanza- Jeremy Hurault

Tycoon- Rob Piesse.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 29/09/2011

1.       With 12 players in attendance tonight we split into 3 groups. On table 1 Geoff led 3 players in a game “STEEL DRIVER”, a railway building game that is more about getting shares in the 6 companies in the game for money at the end. A neat mechanism exists whereby each turn the companies are up for auction and players bid cubes to gain control. The amount of the bid is important as these go into the companies coffers for use in the building phase later on. In build order, which varies each turn, players controlling each company build connections of routes between a series of cities on the American map board and they gain share value by doing so. Each company is valued and players receive money for their current share holding. The game last just 5 turns of this auction/build sequence until the game end is determined. At this point a load of coloured cubes are placed upon cities on the board and then, one by one, players take turns to pick up a cube from a railroad line that they control and place it in that company’s box. They are trying to get cubes of different colours as they will form a higher value final dividend for that company. When this is complete the players receive final dividends for each share they hold in the various companies. A highly interactive game which is interesting once you have grasped the sequence of play. Alister managed to squeeze a close victory.

2.       Table 2 saw 3 players on “SETTLERS OF CATAN – TRADERS AND BARBARIANS”, which was played recently. Jerry and Poppy, who known the variant well, soon upgraded their caravan movement to a higher value and were able to deliver goods quicker than Mike, who concentrated on building roads between the 3 cities on the board for use later on. Mike’s progress was further delayed by the others placing barbarians on his routes when he did eventually move commodities. Jerry delivered the most commodities and by upgrading his settlements to cities he was soon able to reach the target of 13 points, with Mike on just 8 and Poppy on 7 points. A clear-cut victory.

3.       On table 3 Tony led a 6-player game of the ever-popular “POWERGRID”, in which the target was to power 13 cities. Players who were experiencing the game for the first time really liked it but experience told in the end and Rob was the eventual victor.

4.       Table 3 reduced to 5 players so they played the Reiner Knizia title “MEMBERS ONLY”. The game is a betting game about predicting how many of the 5 specific events will occur at the end of each round of play. Players are dealt a hand of cards and they will try to predict a number for one of the events and place one of their betting tokens on the board. As an example they could predict that there will be ‘6 or more Cups of Tea’ at the end of the round. They will then play 2 cards to the table display. In this way the other players will have more information of what the probable outcome will be and they will bet accordingly. To add a twist some cards have a “NO !!” icon and if played they negate the category already played, so in our example other players could reduce the ‘Cups of Tea’ count to below 6 and the bet would be lost. At the end of each round the winning bets are scored and marker moved down a scoring track. All losing betting tokens are lost so the players have less to bet with next round. In a final twist the game ends when at least one token has passed the 5 marker in all 5 categories and then only those tokens values at 5 or higher count for scoring. So a player could have 2 token scoring 10 each for a total of 20 but no others below the 4 line and they would be beaten by a player with 3 tokens on the 7 line, giving 21. This means that players need to spread their winning bets on the 5 categories to increase their chances of winning. After a slightly barren spell Lucy got back to winning ways and emerged the winner.

5.       Table 1 and 2 combined to play the quick filler “BALLOON RACE”, a lightweight game about getting balloons to the finishing lines and having the 3 colours on your cards amongst those. Plasters keep their objective secret and they throw the dice in turn and they can move ANY balloon they want. Most spaces move the balloon forward but some move it backwards so giving you the chance to stuff a balloon you are not interested in. Some squares cause balloons to be struck by lightening and return to the start, whilst others cause the balloon to deflate and they cannot move at all until resurrected. To the great surprise of all Mike won the game so a replay was immediately ordered. 

6.       The second game of “BALLOON RACE” was much more competitive with many setbacks incurred on the various balloons but the eventual winner was Alister for his second win of the evening.

7.       This final group played “BATAVIA”, which Alister and Roger were playing for the first time. An auction for new cards is conducted each turn and the winning bid is distributed equally between the losing players, so money never leaves the game, it circulates. Thereafter In turn players play cards of one of the 5 nations in the game to gain control over that nation. They then have 2 choices of action, they can either pick up 2 more cards from the deck or move their explorer to a tile of a nation they control  which is face-up on the board and pick it up. This gives 2 benefits; they place a commodity crate of their colour in the warehouse of the goods picked up( of which there are 5 spaces in each), which will be used for game end scoring purposes; they also have the chance to cash in the tiles in exchange for Victory points if they are of different nations, i.e 2 different = 2 pts, 3 different = 6 points, 4 different = 10 pts etc. The number of cards played is the choice of the player but they have to beware of the total cards in play at any one time, as once this reaches 25 the pirates attack and ALL cards of ALL Players of the numerical highest nation at that time are lost and they lose control. An important factor is that once a player has moved their explorer to pick up a tile they cannot go backwards along the display , so they have to look ahead to try and get control of a nation that has the commodity in which they are trying to get control for game end purposes. During the game it is difficult to predict who is winning, which makes for an interesting game, especially as there are several was to score. At game end there are 4 types of scoring these being a) the warehouses for the commodities are evaluated and the controlling player receives the victory points, with ties being shared. b) the player who reached the end tile first receives 4 points. c) the player with the most money in hand  receives 5 points. d) players receive 2 victory points for each nation they control at game end. Roger reached the end tile first and Geoff had the most money. Mike had cashed in a few sets along the way and controlled some of the cheaper warehouses but his total was passed by Alister, as he controlled the warehouses which gave the highest victory points, and he controlled more nations. This completed a treble of wins for Alister, so he voted himself “Man of the Match”.

Games played and Winners were:

Steel Driver – Alister Gittin;

Settlers of Catan – Jerry Jabelman;

Powergrid – Rob Piesse;

Members Only – Lucy Newbury;

Balloon Race Game 1 – Mike Oakes;

Balloon Race Game 2 – Alister Gittin;

Batavia – Alister Gittin.

CHIPPENHAM BOARDGAMES CLUB – 29/09/2011

1.       With 9 players in attendance tonight we split into 2 groups. On table 1 Mike introduced Jerry, Poppy and new member Jeremy to “ROYAL PALACE”, the game about enlisting nobles from a courtyard to construct a palace, i.e. Victory Points. Briefly the mechanics are to place your courtiers onto the board at the gate; use your current movement points to move courtiers to various rooms, from a choice of 8; then do the Action associated with those rooms in any order you choose. The various rooms give you gold, or prestige cards or more importantly the seals of the King and Madame Pompadour. Players use these ‘resources’ to enlist a noble for the appropriate cost and they gain VPs for doing so. Some nobles also grant temporary favours (one-off) or permanent favours (each turn), so the choice of which noble to take is important. Players continue with this process until there are 12 or less nobles left in the courtyard on the starting players turn and then one final round is played.  A very clever and different system which was enjoyed by all the players. Jeremy enlisted nobles of low VPs but they gave him increased movement; Mike enlisted those with high VP’s but not too many; Jerry enlisted the most nobles and vitally he gained 2 nobles in the last turn to gain a close victory from Jeremy, with the final scores being Jerry 66; Jeremy 62; Mike 55; Poppy 49.

2.       Table 2 saw Roger introduce 4 players to “FISCHE FLUPPEN FRICKADELLEN”, which was played last week. With only limited knowledge of the game this proved difficult and when Chris Cook arrived the players abandoned it in favour of “EKETORP”. There seemed to be lots of laughter emanating from the 6 players as they elected to battle against each other to gain stone. In Eketorp, players build Viking strongholds upon the Swedish island of Öland. The goal of the game is to collect the most valuable blocks to build your own fortress, either by winning battles on the resource spaces or by stealing blocks from other Vikings. Each turn, new resources appear and the players secretly plan their Viking movements. After all the placements are revealed, the Vikings battle each other for blocks (with the losers sent off to the field hospital to recover). The game ends after a set number of rounds, or when one of the players has succeeded in finishing their fortress. As the owner of the game Chris soon took the lead but he became the target for all the other players. He looked a certain winner with one round to go but Paul sneaked in with a great last round to claim victory.

3.       On table 1 Jerry and Poppy had to leave but Rob arrived so a 3-player game of “SUSHIZOK IM GOCKELWOK” took place. The dice-rolling, domino-collecting game has been described before so is not repeated here. Suffice to say that in a close contest debutant Jeremy won his first game in which the final scores were Mike 5, Rob 6 and Jeremy 7. Congratulations Jeremy and welcome to the club!

4.       Table 2 reduced to 4 players to play “NIAGARA”, as it was a quick game to play. The game is about sailing your canoe down the river to collect various jewels. However the flow of the river is unpredictable and canoes often overshoot their intended target and are swept over the waterfall, much to the amusement of the other players. Alister had a cunning strategy (which is not revealed here) and won the game easily.

5.       As Table 1 were still involved in their game the same players played another game of “NIAGARA”. Alister employed the same strategy as before (no longer a secret) but still claimed an easy victory.

6.       On table 1 Mike introduced 4 other players to “TRIBUNE”, based in ancient Rome. For each game a Victory Condition card is chosen and for our game we used the easy beginner option that listed 7 conditions  of which any 3 had to met. These include things like 4 different faction markers, 3 legions, 25 dinari, 8 laurels etc. Players place their followers on various parts of the board so that they perform actions to obtain cards, and maybe take over control of one or more of the 7 factions in the game, taking the spoils from doing so, and try to reach their objective. Some very clever mechanisms are involved in this process and the quality of the components and the game play are first class. In a close finish most players had achieved at least 2 of their objectives when Paul claimed a win by getting his third objective. All players agreed that it was a good game and worth repeated play.

Games played and Winners were:

Royal Palace – Jerry Jabelman;

Eketorp – Paul Bulpin;

Sushiwock im Gockelwok – Jeremy Hurault;

Niagara Game 1 – Alister Gittin;

Niagara Game 2 – Alister Gittin;

Tribune – Paul Bulpin.