Played a good crop of games recently, but time (or the lack of it) prevents me from writing a full review for everything so here is a condensed list:-
Through The Ages x2
Le Havre
Dominion x2
Age Of Steam
Age Of Steam is a new one to me; I played it for the first time last week & loved it - even though I did terribly & Huggy declared my score was 'embarrassing' & that his 'Auntie Mildred could have done better'! I really like the difficult decisions to make over how many shares to take each turn as taking to many could mean you'll pay out too much to the shareholders when calculating income & debt. Take too few & you may not have enough to do what you want each turn. Genius! AoS is also very competitive as each player wants to get his/her tracks into the best positions on the map - especially if there is a lack of a coloured city or cubes - as it may force other players using their tracks to deliver goods & thus bumping up their opponent's income.
Now I know why they say this is Martin Wallace's Magnus Opus!
Monday 9 March 2009
Sunday 1 March 2009
27th Feb (Julian & Ester's)
Not content with just the previous evening's game, I went to Julian & Ester's for some more gaming on Friday evening. We first played a quick game of Kingsburg, which I really like, but J & E weren't as keen. I won by a clear margin.
Next we played the combined game of Zooloretto & Aquaretto which we had spoken about trying since I had the former & they had the latter. I had wondered whether it would feel like too much to contend with since this is effectively two games as one. Surprisingly, it works quite well - the rules remains the same for Zooloretto under its rules & Aquaretto under its rules, but when you place tiles in the trucks at least one truck need to be filled with Z tiles & another with A tiles. Also, you cannot put Z tiles with A tiles (have you noticed I'm fed up with typing the same names already?!) so there is an extra element of considering which tiles you want to place & there can be difficult decisions when more than one truck has tiles you'd really like & which you'd need most.
The game did last a long time but we enjoyed it & I did not end my 100% losing record to Zooloretto/Aquaretto to them - Ester won on 53pts, Julian had 51pts & I had 47pts.
We then got St Petersburg out for J&E to try, but it didn't seem to be going down well & we agreed to switch to something else. So we had a couple of games of Felix:The Cat In The Sack. This is a fun & quick game of blind-bidding & has some screwage factor involved. The three of us (plus a dummy 4th player) gets a hand of 10 cards (one is removed at random before the start) with cats, dogs & a rabbit. There are 7 cats with points of 15, 11, 8, 5, 3, -5 & -8, one rabbit with 0 points & two dogs (used to scare away cats). Each round, all players choose a card (random for the dummy) to put face-down in a row & the first one is put face up. The players then bid to buy the whole row; when the first player passes, he/she takes their bid back & gets 4 more coins. The 2nd card in line is then turned face-up & the remaining two players bid - the person who passes also takes their bid back & gets 6 coins. The winner pays his/her bid to the bank & turns the two face-down card up - if a Big dog has been played, it scares away the highest value cat. If a Small dog is played, it scares away the biggest negative (or lowest positive) valued cats; if there are two or more dogs, they all cancel each other out. The game proceeds for 9 Rounds in total & the winner is the one with the most points & money remaining combined. I won one & Ester won the 2nd.
Next we played the combined game of Zooloretto & Aquaretto which we had spoken about trying since I had the former & they had the latter. I had wondered whether it would feel like too much to contend with since this is effectively two games as one. Surprisingly, it works quite well - the rules remains the same for Zooloretto under its rules & Aquaretto under its rules, but when you place tiles in the trucks at least one truck need to be filled with Z tiles & another with A tiles. Also, you cannot put Z tiles with A tiles (have you noticed I'm fed up with typing the same names already?!) so there is an extra element of considering which tiles you want to place & there can be difficult decisions when more than one truck has tiles you'd really like & which you'd need most.
The game did last a long time but we enjoyed it & I did not end my 100% losing record to Zooloretto/Aquaretto to them - Ester won on 53pts, Julian had 51pts & I had 47pts.
We then got St Petersburg out for J&E to try, but it didn't seem to be going down well & we agreed to switch to something else. So we had a couple of games of Felix:The Cat In The Sack. This is a fun & quick game of blind-bidding & has some screwage factor involved. The three of us (plus a dummy 4th player) gets a hand of 10 cards (one is removed at random before the start) with cats, dogs & a rabbit. There are 7 cats with points of 15, 11, 8, 5, 3, -5 & -8, one rabbit with 0 points & two dogs (used to scare away cats). Each round, all players choose a card (random for the dummy) to put face-down in a row & the first one is put face up. The players then bid to buy the whole row; when the first player passes, he/she takes their bid back & gets 4 more coins. The 2nd card in line is then turned face-up & the remaining two players bid - the person who passes also takes their bid back & gets 6 coins. The winner pays his/her bid to the bank & turns the two face-down card up - if a Big dog has been played, it scares away the highest value cat. If a Small dog is played, it scares away the biggest negative (or lowest positive) valued cats; if there are two or more dogs, they all cancel each other out. The game proceeds for 9 Rounds in total & the winner is the one with the most points & money remaining combined. I won one & Ester won the 2nd.
26th Feb - down on the farm again...
A couple of weeks ago (or three); me, Nick, Keith, Julian & Ester had played Agricola. We all wanted another game, so had arranged it for last Thursday. Nasty Nick had borrowed my copy of the 'Gric the week before to take a proper look at the cards & Paul B let Nick's secret out; he had been practising! Apparently it was a couple of games, but who knows what the truth really is...!
I decided to try out a combination of the E, I & K decks; dealing out 3 from E, 2 from I & 2 from K for each player's Occupations & Minor Improvements. The early part of the game was notable because the action boards suddenly filled up with bonus goods/food. Nick had a couple of great Minor Improvements that were also cheap; Private Forest (cost 2 Food - get 1 Wood on each even-numbered space) & Chicken Coop (cost 2 Wood/2Clay & 1 Reed - get one Food for the next 8 Rounds), while Ester also played the Pig Whisperer Occupation (giving her 3 Boar at various Rounds).
At first, it seemed as though me & Nick were doing better out of the 5 of us; I had got a good field/grain supply & conversion (to Food) going courtsey of my Field Watchman (when you take 1 Grain, you may also Plow one Field) & my Wood-Fired Oven (convert any number of Grain into 3 Food with the Bake Bread action). Nick was swimming in resources - I can't remember if he had also played any further cards or whether he had been taking them when they had stock-piled at least once, but whatever he was doing was clearly working so I had no doubt he would be putting them to good use! Keith, Julian & Ester were also chugging along fine without looking like they were really struggling.
Now, I don't know what happen to me but it somehow went belly-up for me at some point. Perhaps I hadn't developed my farm enough or didn't have enough Family members, but suddenly it seemed as though I had too many things to do and - the horror! - my Food supply looked like drying up as I was committing my workers to other actions than Bake Bread. In an effort to salvage my farm, I played the Ceramics Minor Improvement (receive 2 Food, the Pottery (Major Imp.) now costs you nothing) & this is where I think I was beginning to have a bad day; somehow, I missed the words 'costs you nothing' & so didn't pick up the Pottery until near the end of the game - D'OH! That would have been a big, big help had I taken it earlier. To make things worse, on the penultimate turn, I forgot all about Food & did other actions... then realised I didnit have any Food for my two Family members. Nada, zilch, zero! So I had to give up FOUR Grain to feed them & then on the last turn, I took lots of Clay which gave me 2 Food & 3 Bonus points with the Pottery. I still had to take TWO begging cards!!! I felt like throwing my toys out of the pram as a result of my own stupidity...!!!
By game end, both Nick & Keith had got a larger Stone Hut with 4 or 5 Family members each & approximately the same number of unused spaces. Though I thought it was most likely Keith had won since he had something of everything & Nick had no Fields, Grain or Vegetables...
Final scoring;
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/ Sheep/Boar/Cattle/Unused Spaces/Fenced Stables/Clay Hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/Points for cards/Bonus points)
1st - Keith: (2/4/1/1/2/2/1/-3/2/0/6/15/1/0) = 34pts.
2nd - Nick: (-1/4/-1/-1/2/1/1/-4/2/0/8/12/8/2) = 31pts.
3rd - Ester: (2/4/1/-1/1/4/1/-2/1/2/0/6/2/0) = 21pts.
4th - Matt: (3/2/-1/-1/2/3/-1/-4/2/3/0/6/4/-3) = 15pts.
5th - Julian: (-1/4/-1/-1/3/-1/3/-5/2/0/0/6/1/0) = 10pts.
I decided to try out a combination of the E, I & K decks; dealing out 3 from E, 2 from I & 2 from K for each player's Occupations & Minor Improvements. The early part of the game was notable because the action boards suddenly filled up with bonus goods/food. Nick had a couple of great Minor Improvements that were also cheap; Private Forest (cost 2 Food - get 1 Wood on each even-numbered space) & Chicken Coop (cost 2 Wood/2Clay & 1 Reed - get one Food for the next 8 Rounds), while Ester also played the Pig Whisperer Occupation (giving her 3 Boar at various Rounds).
At first, it seemed as though me & Nick were doing better out of the 5 of us; I had got a good field/grain supply & conversion (to Food) going courtsey of my Field Watchman (when you take 1 Grain, you may also Plow one Field) & my Wood-Fired Oven (convert any number of Grain into 3 Food with the Bake Bread action). Nick was swimming in resources - I can't remember if he had also played any further cards or whether he had been taking them when they had stock-piled at least once, but whatever he was doing was clearly working so I had no doubt he would be putting them to good use! Keith, Julian & Ester were also chugging along fine without looking like they were really struggling.
Now, I don't know what happen to me but it somehow went belly-up for me at some point. Perhaps I hadn't developed my farm enough or didn't have enough Family members, but suddenly it seemed as though I had too many things to do and - the horror! - my Food supply looked like drying up as I was committing my workers to other actions than Bake Bread. In an effort to salvage my farm, I played the Ceramics Minor Improvement (receive 2 Food, the Pottery (Major Imp.) now costs you nothing) & this is where I think I was beginning to have a bad day; somehow, I missed the words 'costs you nothing' & so didn't pick up the Pottery until near the end of the game - D'OH! That would have been a big, big help had I taken it earlier. To make things worse, on the penultimate turn, I forgot all about Food & did other actions... then realised I didnit have any Food for my two Family members. Nada, zilch, zero! So I had to give up FOUR Grain to feed them & then on the last turn, I took lots of Clay which gave me 2 Food & 3 Bonus points with the Pottery. I still had to take TWO begging cards!!! I felt like throwing my toys out of the pram as a result of my own stupidity...!!!
By game end, both Nick & Keith had got a larger Stone Hut with 4 or 5 Family members each & approximately the same number of unused spaces. Though I thought it was most likely Keith had won since he had something of everything & Nick had no Fields, Grain or Vegetables...
Final scoring;
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/ Sheep/Boar/Cattle/Unused Spaces/Fenced Stables/Clay Hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/Points for cards/Bonus points)
1st - Keith: (2/4/1/1/2/2/1/-3/2/0/6/15/1/0) = 34pts.
2nd - Nick: (-1/4/-1/-1/2/1/1/-4/2/0/8/12/8/2) = 31pts.
3rd - Ester: (2/4/1/-1/1/4/1/-2/1/2/0/6/2/0) = 21pts.
4th - Matt: (3/2/-1/-1/2/3/-1/-4/2/3/0/6/4/-3) = 15pts.
5th - Julian: (-1/4/-1/-1/3/-1/3/-5/2/0/0/6/1/0) = 10pts.
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Thurs 19th Feb - Chicago Express
Last week saw a new game of mine hit the table, one which I had been extremely keen to try; Chicago Express (Queen Games).
This is a train game of sorts, but has more to do with investing in the four companies at the right time to gain money than laying down routes. This was one of the most eagerly-awaited games released in Essen 2008 & a revamped/better-looking edition of Wabash Cannonball from 2007 (Winsome Games).
The basic premise involves trying to extend your companies’ routes into Chicago via cities & profitable areas as quickly as possible for income. In each round, there is a limit to the three different actions that players can take; Auction (bidding for a share in one of the four companies that the active player chooses), Extend (where you lay down up to three trains of one company – usually one that benefits you) & Develop (where you increase income for companies in a given city/mountain/forest). Despite the simple & few possible actions, there are a lot of complex dynamics involved in strategising which is the best option for you & who you invest in because, very possibly, whatever you do is going to have some immediate benefit also for your opponents! Once Chicago is entered, which means a lot more income for the companies lucky enough, the Wabash company also enters play.
There is a lot of assessing the situation as the game develops to determining what to take advantage of. Great fun, but I haven’t worked out what the best strategy is! I won the first game by miles ($136) then lost the second game by miles ($44). Definitely one I want to try again very soon!
This is a train game of sorts, but has more to do with investing in the four companies at the right time to gain money than laying down routes. This was one of the most eagerly-awaited games released in Essen 2008 & a revamped/better-looking edition of Wabash Cannonball from 2007 (Winsome Games).
The basic premise involves trying to extend your companies’ routes into Chicago via cities & profitable areas as quickly as possible for income. In each round, there is a limit to the three different actions that players can take; Auction (bidding for a share in one of the four companies that the active player chooses), Extend (where you lay down up to three trains of one company – usually one that benefits you) & Develop (where you increase income for companies in a given city/mountain/forest). Despite the simple & few possible actions, there are a lot of complex dynamics involved in strategising which is the best option for you & who you invest in because, very possibly, whatever you do is going to have some immediate benefit also for your opponents! Once Chicago is entered, which means a lot more income for the companies lucky enough, the Wabash company also enters play.
There is a lot of assessing the situation as the game develops to determining what to take advantage of. Great fun, but I haven’t worked out what the best strategy is! I won the first game by miles ($136) then lost the second game by miles ($44). Definitely one I want to try again very soon!
Various gaming in February
Well, I haven't been blogging on this as much as I was previously. That's partly due to being a bit busy and/or lazy at times, but I've also had quite a lot of repeat plays of the same games lately so it felt somewhat redundant to write about the same ones again & again... so I'll just stick with a brief re-cap.
A couple of weeks ago - me, Keith, Julian, Ester & Nasty Nick all sat down for Agricola at the Legion. Nick was the only new person to this although J&E had only had one game of it previously. Keith is proving to be the master of all things farming lately, so I was looking forward to locking horns with him once again. Unfortunately, he ran away with the game on 39pts - followed by me on 23pts, Nick on 22pts, Ester on 12pts or so & Julian doing remarkably bad with... -5pts! Keith had a very well-rounded farm; plenty of stone hut rooms, family members, animals, pastures, etc whereas I always felt I was struggling for food & so my precious actions were taken up gathering food tokens more often than I'd've liked. Nick was narrowly behind me & Julian's farm was, in a funny way, appalling! Lots of unused spaces, one sheep & no grain/veg... he also had picked up a total of SEVEN begging cards! But he had played the Medicant occupation which allows to you get rid of two begging cards before scoring. I think his downfall was he had a lot of cards that would work well together & spent too much time laying a lot of them down. By then, it was too late to get his farm up & running as it should have been.
I've also been to Julian & Ester's place a couple of times, where we've had repeat plays - namely Pillars Of The Earth, Stone Age (the last time was with the mini Huts expansion tiles added), Zooloretto, For Sale, Modern Art & a couple of other new games to either me or them. Some good sessions going on!
A couple of weeks ago - me, Keith, Julian, Ester & Nasty Nick all sat down for Agricola at the Legion. Nick was the only new person to this although J&E had only had one game of it previously. Keith is proving to be the master of all things farming lately, so I was looking forward to locking horns with him once again. Unfortunately, he ran away with the game on 39pts - followed by me on 23pts, Nick on 22pts, Ester on 12pts or so & Julian doing remarkably bad with... -5pts! Keith had a very well-rounded farm; plenty of stone hut rooms, family members, animals, pastures, etc whereas I always felt I was struggling for food & so my precious actions were taken up gathering food tokens more often than I'd've liked. Nick was narrowly behind me & Julian's farm was, in a funny way, appalling! Lots of unused spaces, one sheep & no grain/veg... he also had picked up a total of SEVEN begging cards! But he had played the Medicant occupation which allows to you get rid of two begging cards before scoring. I think his downfall was he had a lot of cards that would work well together & spent too much time laying a lot of them down. By then, it was too late to get his farm up & running as it should have been.
I've also been to Julian & Ester's place a couple of times, where we've had repeat plays - namely Pillars Of The Earth, Stone Age (the last time was with the mini Huts expansion tiles added), Zooloretto, For Sale, Modern Art & a couple of other new games to either me or them. Some good sessions going on!
Sunday 8 February 2009
7th Feb - Gaming at Julian's & Ester's
I met Julian & Ester at their place in the evening for some more gaming; having already played the previous two nights, we clearly hadn't had quite enough of games!
Knowing they both liked (especially Ester) Stone Age & the resource-management games such as Agricola, even if the latter is fairly complex due to the number of options, I thought Pillars Of The Earth would hit the right buttons with them. So we kicked off with that... after a little explaining of the rules, they understood the aim & flow of the game after the 1st year, which showed as they played really well.
1st - Matt, 47pts
2nd - Ester, 43 pts & 8 Gold
3rd - Julian 43ps & no Gold.
Next up, we played Modern Art which I had not got round to playing since I bought it, so was looking forward to it. The different types of auctions in the game gave all of us a bit of pause for thought as there were certainly times for me where I found it difficult to read the situation & potential bids of Julian & Ester, especially the sealed bids. I had a disasterous first round in which I pulled in a miserable amount of money for my paintings compared to J & E. From the 2nd auction round onwards, I paid more attention to trying to get a good ranking for the artists I already had in my hand that had a good amount of prior value in previous rounds. This paid dividends as I was able to catch up by game end:-
1st - Ester, $500k approx.
2nd - Matt, $391k.
3rd - Julian, he gave up counting but had less than me! Approximately $350k.
Both me & Julian got a good laugh at Ester's bidding antics; she was spending money & more money like there was no tomorrow... typical of any woman. The biggest overstatement was when I said to Julian he couldn't lose with Ester bidding like she was; turns out she won convincingly. Not bad for someone who said she 'didn't give a f*** about what she was paying out' (not that she didn't enjoy the game)!
3rd game, we played Dominion using the First Game set-up; I was keen to see how they would like it. A very unfamilar type of game for them, but they soon got the hang of it. I deliberately started buying cards to draw in the money for Provinces; Villages & Smithys to get extra cards & action, then onto the Markets & Militia, as well as a good sprinkling of Silvers & Golds. Once I started to put some of the combos together, J & E's faces were a picture! It took a while to finish given they were learning the cards, etc... so I picked up most of the Provinces, but they did manage to get some as well & Duchys... Ester ended the game by picking up the last Province, which was a bit of a blow to Julian as he had the money to get it next!
Final score:-
1st - Matt, 50pts
2nd - Ester, 34pts
3rd - Julian, 33pts
We decided on Zooloretto for our last game, where they demonstrated their liking for this light & quick game...
1st - Ester, 31pts
2nd - Julian, 27pts
3rd - Matt, 23pts
Another great session, which left me really knackered once I got home at 1am in the morning!
Knowing they both liked (especially Ester) Stone Age & the resource-management games such as Agricola, even if the latter is fairly complex due to the number of options, I thought Pillars Of The Earth would hit the right buttons with them. So we kicked off with that... after a little explaining of the rules, they understood the aim & flow of the game after the 1st year, which showed as they played really well.
1st - Matt, 47pts
2nd - Ester, 43 pts & 8 Gold
3rd - Julian 43ps & no Gold.
Next up, we played Modern Art which I had not got round to playing since I bought it, so was looking forward to it. The different types of auctions in the game gave all of us a bit of pause for thought as there were certainly times for me where I found it difficult to read the situation & potential bids of Julian & Ester, especially the sealed bids. I had a disasterous first round in which I pulled in a miserable amount of money for my paintings compared to J & E. From the 2nd auction round onwards, I paid more attention to trying to get a good ranking for the artists I already had in my hand that had a good amount of prior value in previous rounds. This paid dividends as I was able to catch up by game end:-
1st - Ester, $500k approx.
2nd - Matt, $391k.
3rd - Julian, he gave up counting but had less than me! Approximately $350k.
Both me & Julian got a good laugh at Ester's bidding antics; she was spending money & more money like there was no tomorrow... typical of any woman. The biggest overstatement was when I said to Julian he couldn't lose with Ester bidding like she was; turns out she won convincingly. Not bad for someone who said she 'didn't give a f*** about what she was paying out' (not that she didn't enjoy the game)!
3rd game, we played Dominion using the First Game set-up; I was keen to see how they would like it. A very unfamilar type of game for them, but they soon got the hang of it. I deliberately started buying cards to draw in the money for Provinces; Villages & Smithys to get extra cards & action, then onto the Markets & Militia, as well as a good sprinkling of Silvers & Golds. Once I started to put some of the combos together, J & E's faces were a picture! It took a while to finish given they were learning the cards, etc... so I picked up most of the Provinces, but they did manage to get some as well & Duchys... Ester ended the game by picking up the last Province, which was a bit of a blow to Julian as he had the money to get it next!
Final score:-
1st - Matt, 50pts
2nd - Ester, 34pts
3rd - Julian, 33pts
We decided on Zooloretto for our last game, where they demonstrated their liking for this light & quick game...
1st - Ester, 31pts
2nd - Julian, 27pts
3rd - Matt, 23pts
Another great session, which left me really knackered once I got home at 1am in the morning!
Fri 6th Feb - Agricola & Domaine at Keith's
Having already arranged to meet at Keith's with Julian & Ester at Keith's place earlier in the week, there was some uncertainity about whether we would because of the overnight snow that had stopped many people from going to work. Thankfully, it seemed to stop & thaw a bit so we went ahead for the session...
We kicked off with a 4-player game of Agricola as me & Keith wanted another game, while Julian & Ester had heard about it being the current #1 on BoardGameGeek so they wanted to give it a go. With a rules explanation for them, we were off & running using the E-Deck of Occupations & Minor Improvements.
This felt like an awkward game for me; I never felt like I was being as efficient as I could be with my worker placements for the action spaces. My end strategy became clear to me as I looked through my occupations; I had the Wooden Hut Builder which gives you one bonus points per room in my Wooden Hut. I normally aim for a Clay Hut at least, if not a Stone Hut, for the points at game end but decided to play this Occupation by game end. Very quickly, I laid down an Occupation card & a Minor Imp card that would help me out with my initial food supply; Basketmaker (convert 1 Reed into 3 Food in each Harvest) & the Minor Imp allowed me to convert Grain into 2 Food at any time with needing to Bake Bread. As a result, I started by taking Reed when I could & sowing Grain. Keith played the Potter occupation to convert 1 Clay into 2 Food in each Harvest at some point - sounds tasty(!) Ester also had one Occupation; Seasonal Worker (take a Grain or Vegetable when using the Day Labourer action space, depending on which Round it is), which Julian didn't play any Occupation if I remember right.
As seems to be his favourite strategy, Keith quickly built a 3rd room & took the Family Growth actio space in Round 5 when it came up for a 3rd family member. I did the same two Rounds later before the Harvest. Again, Julian picked up at one stage that my farm didn't look very accomplished, before adding: ' you're going to do it again, aren't you?' - he is very perceptive with my playing style!
A quick summary of each of our farms:-
Keith - 4 Stone Hut rooms & 5 family members, with a good number of everything; fields, pastures, animals, stables, grain & vegs. Only two unused spaces.
Matt - 5 Wooden Hut rooms (for the bonus points) & 5 family members; very similar to Keith's in terms of having something of everything, perhaps a bit less. 3 unused spaces.
Julian - 2 Clay Hut rooms & only 2 family members. A decent number of fields & pastures, but was let down by having no boar or cattle. 3 unused spaces.
Ester - 3 (I think) Wooden Hut rooms & 3 family members. Plenty of pastures with animals of each category, but she was let down by having no fields & SEVEN unused spaces! I think I knew who was in last place...
Final scoring
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegs/Sheep/Boar/Cattle/Unused Spaces/Fenced Stables/Clay Hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family Members/Points for cards/bonus points) :-
1st - Keith (2/3/1/2/2/2/2/-2/1/0/8/15/1/0) = 37pts.
2nd - Matt (3/2/1/1/2/2/1/-3/1/0/0/15/3/5) = 33pts.
3rd - Julian (2/3/1/1/1/-1/-1/-3/0/2/0/6/1/0) = 12pts.
4th - Ester (-1/3/-1/1/1/2/1/-7/0/0/0/9/1/0) = 9pts.
Great fun had by all, but the most important things was that Julian & Ester really liked it despite the array of options available. Now that they have a better idea of what they're trying to do, next time should be closer.
~~~~~~
We decided to play one more game & Keith suggested Domaine. He was the only one who had played & I also have this in my collection so I was keen to give it a try. After a rules explanation, we were off.
At first, I was a bit unsure about the best approach & strategy to go for, but it soon became clear that starting a territory quickly is key to score a few points & get some income from mines. I was soon getting 3 coins from owning three different mine types & had managed to control 3 towns for 6VPs so was in the lead at one stage. Keith attacked & took these two villages, but I went back at him & regained them. Julian controlled three of the same type of mines to get bonus points(? or something else).
Late game, it became clear that with territories expanding we were starting to help one another out by enclosing some of their castles & giving them VPs. The crucial point came when it appeared that Ester had perhaps unwisely put a village & a forest on my side of a border; the potential territory that I could take as a result would give me 9pts, enough to win the game automatically. Poor Keith looked for a way to prevent this, but conceded & it was down to whether or not I had the right card to finish the territory... I did!
Final score:-
1st - Matt, 31pts.
2nd - Keith, 24pts/25pts?
3rd - Julian, 20pts?
4th - Ester, about 8pts.
We kicked off with a 4-player game of Agricola as me & Keith wanted another game, while Julian & Ester had heard about it being the current #1 on BoardGameGeek so they wanted to give it a go. With a rules explanation for them, we were off & running using the E-Deck of Occupations & Minor Improvements.
This felt like an awkward game for me; I never felt like I was being as efficient as I could be with my worker placements for the action spaces. My end strategy became clear to me as I looked through my occupations; I had the Wooden Hut Builder which gives you one bonus points per room in my Wooden Hut. I normally aim for a Clay Hut at least, if not a Stone Hut, for the points at game end but decided to play this Occupation by game end. Very quickly, I laid down an Occupation card & a Minor Imp card that would help me out with my initial food supply; Basketmaker (convert 1 Reed into 3 Food in each Harvest) & the Minor Imp allowed me to convert Grain into 2 Food at any time with needing to Bake Bread. As a result, I started by taking Reed when I could & sowing Grain. Keith played the Potter occupation to convert 1 Clay into 2 Food in each Harvest at some point - sounds tasty(!) Ester also had one Occupation; Seasonal Worker (take a Grain or Vegetable when using the Day Labourer action space, depending on which Round it is), which Julian didn't play any Occupation if I remember right.
As seems to be his favourite strategy, Keith quickly built a 3rd room & took the Family Growth actio space in Round 5 when it came up for a 3rd family member. I did the same two Rounds later before the Harvest. Again, Julian picked up at one stage that my farm didn't look very accomplished, before adding: ' you're going to do it again, aren't you?' - he is very perceptive with my playing style!
A quick summary of each of our farms:-
Keith - 4 Stone Hut rooms & 5 family members, with a good number of everything; fields, pastures, animals, stables, grain & vegs. Only two unused spaces.
Matt - 5 Wooden Hut rooms (for the bonus points) & 5 family members; very similar to Keith's in terms of having something of everything, perhaps a bit less. 3 unused spaces.
Julian - 2 Clay Hut rooms & only 2 family members. A decent number of fields & pastures, but was let down by having no boar or cattle. 3 unused spaces.
Ester - 3 (I think) Wooden Hut rooms & 3 family members. Plenty of pastures with animals of each category, but she was let down by having no fields & SEVEN unused spaces! I think I knew who was in last place...
Final scoring
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegs/Sheep/Boar/Cattle/Unused Spaces/Fenced Stables/Clay Hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family Members/Points for cards/bonus points) :-
1st - Keith (2/3/1/2/2/2/2/-2/1/0/8/15/1/0) = 37pts.
2nd - Matt (3/2/1/1/2/2/1/-3/1/0/0/15/3/5) = 33pts.
3rd - Julian (2/3/1/1/1/-1/-1/-3/0/2/0/6/1/0) = 12pts.
4th - Ester (-1/3/-1/1/1/2/1/-7/0/0/0/9/1/0) = 9pts.
Great fun had by all, but the most important things was that Julian & Ester really liked it despite the array of options available. Now that they have a better idea of what they're trying to do, next time should be closer.
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We decided to play one more game & Keith suggested Domaine. He was the only one who had played & I also have this in my collection so I was keen to give it a try. After a rules explanation, we were off.
At first, I was a bit unsure about the best approach & strategy to go for, but it soon became clear that starting a territory quickly is key to score a few points & get some income from mines. I was soon getting 3 coins from owning three different mine types & had managed to control 3 towns for 6VPs so was in the lead at one stage. Keith attacked & took these two villages, but I went back at him & regained them. Julian controlled three of the same type of mines to get bonus points(? or something else).
Late game, it became clear that with territories expanding we were starting to help one another out by enclosing some of their castles & giving them VPs. The crucial point came when it appeared that Ester had perhaps unwisely put a village & a forest on my side of a border; the potential territory that I could take as a result would give me 9pts, enough to win the game automatically. Poor Keith looked for a way to prevent this, but conceded & it was down to whether or not I had the right card to finish the territory... I did!
Final score:-
1st - Matt, 31pts.
2nd - Keith, 24pts/25pts?
3rd - Julian, 20pts?
4th - Ester, about 8pts.
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