9th December - Agricola again

I went to Keith's place for some more Agricola since we wanted to have another crack at it. Once I found Keith's place, I immediately thought he was already living in a Stone Hut - what could be more thematic than that?!

Game 1 - this was almost an identical replica of Keith's first game the week before; he quickly built a 3rd room in his Wooden Hut & got an extra family member immediately. He built his pastures & got some sheep in there, which worked out well as he played the Spindle (1 extra food in the Harvest for 3 sheep; 2 food for 5 sheep) for a Minor Improvement quite early on. Using the Seasonal Worker (Occupation) has was soon taking vegatables & sowing quite a lot of them for food. He didn't grow any grain the whole game & incurred -1pt, though he did manage to covert his Wooden Hut up to a Stone Hut & get 4 family members by the end of the game. He did unfortunately end with 5 unused spaces again!

Me; I decided to go for a different Major Improvement strategy to do something else than the Cooking Hearth (which I seem to find myself drifting into doing too often for my liking); I had an Oven (Cooking Oven?) in my Minor Improvement hand which would allow me to convert 2 grain into 5 food each, so I bought the Clay Oven (Major Imp) & trashed it for the Oven in my Minor Imp hand. I waited on building a 3rd room until I had enough wood for 3 stables, which I then laid down & later fenced all 3 in. I focused on having a bit of everything by game end...

Final Scoring:-(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/Sheep/Pigs/Cattle/Unused spaces/Fenced stables/Clay hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/ Points for cards/Bonus points)

Keith - 1/3/-1/4/3/2/3/-5/1/0/6/12/3/0 = 32
Matt - 2/3/3/1/3/3/3/-2/3/3/0/9/3/0 = 34

Close game!

Game 2 - this one was much more interesting. I had a brilliant combination pair of Minor Improvements (Fishing Rod & Raft) that was going to allow me to pick up 2 extra food when I used the Fishing action space (3 extra food from round 6), so I was eaily picking up 5-7 food each time I used this! Keith again was going to expand his Hut asap for a 3rd room & 3rd family member,... until I blocked him by taking the Reed he would have needed for the expansion. Clearly, this is Damen's influence! I picked up the Well and, later on, the Basketmaker's Workshop as Major Improvements - a lot of extra points. Keith decided to try & cover his whole farm for no empty spaces & played a good Minor Improvement that gave him 3 bonus points for covering 8 spaces with pastures - this meant he had one massive pasture with only a few sheep in it; very free-range stuff! We both got to a Stone Hut - I had my Conservator in play as an Occupation (may convert a Wooden Hut to a Stone Hut without need to go to a Clay Hut first), so that came in handy.

We both had a very good rounded out farm each, but I had a couple of minus points...

Final Scoring:-(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/Sheep/Pigs/Cattle/Unused spaces/Fenced stables/Clay hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/ Points for cards/Bonus points)

Keith - 3/3/4/2/2/2/3/0/1/0/6/12/1/3 = 42
Matt - 4/3/2/4/3/3/-1/-2/0/0/6/9/7/2 = 40

Again, very closely fought (or should that be farmed?) & thanks to Keith for the shortbread & lager!