Farming in the New Year!

I welcomed in the new year with a solo game of Agricola today. It's odd to not have to work on a Thursday but have to go back in on Friday, so it is going to be an early night, and I'm all to myself, so what better way to start the year?!
I've really been enjoying the Agricola posts over on the blog Playing with Myself (and loving the blog name too), where the writer tells of his solo gaming in the Adventures of Johan.
In a tiny tribute, I present the story of:
Renee and Ayesha
Renee and Ayesha started their life together on the farm with many path choices. Clay did appear to be a good possibility for Renee, and Ayesha was going to manage the farm itself, plowing and gathering grain as much as possible. They set their sites on building a larger home, and fill it with many children, so the idea of working outside the home delivering clay was replaced with carpentry classes for Renee.
While taking classes, Renee decided to also take up brewing beer, a quick easy way to feed the upcoming family. In addition to the planting of the grain, Ayesha saved up for the baker's oven, after trading in the fireplace they had bought earlier. They were blessed three times with young'ens, and the kids were glad to help out around the farm!
They added enough rooms on to the house to hold all the kidlets, and even had a room for Mr. Wooley, their pet sheep. Even if their home was only clay, it was homey. The growing of grains was very successful, and all were fed with bread and beer. Thanks to their oldest child's interest in hedge keeping and mini pastures, they were able to build two small pastures at no cost to them at all. They were even able to save up for another fireplace, and then build it up into a cooking hearth, for cooking of the animals to go with the bread.
In the end, they realized they could have turned their clay nook into a stone mansion instead of letting a couple of the youngsters race canoes, and they had way more reeds saved up than they would ever need, now that the chillins' were heading off on to their own lives, but they had a happy life, and now Renee and Ayesha are ready to retire.

Birthday Farming

I did go ahead and buy the iTouch program Score yesterday after posting about it, it's such a great little program! And then, of course, I had to use it! So we played a three player game of Agricola, with the basic cards, and we used the variant that we would be dealt 10 cards of each Occupations and Minor Improvements, and pick the 7 of each that we wanted to keep.
You see here the final score, which I shouldn't even document because the BFF, in a rare feat, beat me! ;p Rawk Star did really well building his farm, and had more spaces covered in the end than either I or the BFF did, but he mis-managed his food, and ended up with a couple begging cards, which messed him up.
I'm excited to score more games with this great little app!

After Shock: No Agricola

So I waited until the deadline day to volunteer to teach Agricola. at the Nuke Con After Shock 2008.3, which was Tuesday, and the rest of the week found some free time to reread some of the rules, dig through the cards as there were still some I hadn't seen before, type up some notes, and Friday night re-watched the Board Games with Scott video on Agricola.
And no one signed up.
I even for a while put my cool jars of bits up on the sign up counter for enticement, but no takers. Oh, well.
I joined a few others in a cooperative game of A Touch of Evil, The Supernatural Game instead. We played cooperatively, and we creamed the bad guy. I even got in the last punch. But, honestly, the other three really, REALLY weakened the monster before my puny dice rolls got into play. He had twenty-two wounds to take, and by the time it was my turn to charge, he was down to just a couple wounds.
I also played Pandemic, three player, twice. We lost big time first, and won big time the second time. Both games seemed really unbalanced, but in opposite ways. It just depends on where the cards lay.
Also learned and played for the first time la Harve, created by the same designer who did Agricola. Very nice game, like Agricola in many ways, resource gathering, planning ahead, many steps to some things you want to do or buy, and victory points. Different in that there are way more resources, each resource can 'level up', actions are played on buildings that you or the town buy and then anyone can use (usually for pay) the building to do the action the building provides. The three guys I played with had all played together a few times, and were very kind to the beginner. I got a score that they said was in par with their first plays, so I wasn't too disappointed, and their scores were the highest they'd ever gotten, which I'd like to take a little credit for. ;p There are many buildings to come out, and since every building had victory points, I was trying to buy as many as possible, and the guys didn't mention 'till the end that usually all the buildings don't get bought, I just assumed we all try to buy the better buildings and keep buying 'till they're gone! Very fun and intricate game. The resource refreshing is random every game, and the number of players definitely would change how the game goes. There's only seven total actions in each round (and you feed after every round), so in a four player game, someone only gets one action per round. Some of the things that happen at round end, ie how much to feed, when buildings and ships come out, if there is a harvest or not, these things all change depending on the number of players as well. I do think it had 1-5, so it must have a solo element as well. I don't think I need to buy this one, yet, but only because I think we have many more games of Agricola in store at home before bringing this one home. I would like to play it a few more times though! I'm not sure if it's out in the US yet, we played from an Australian version picked up at Essen.

Agricola: Family Photo

So here's the photo of us playing Agricola on game day.
Sorry, I'm not in the shot, someone had to take the picture. ;p



Update: The comments are now corrected, Dad, so you can post anonymously.

Agricola: Family

On our family game days, I try not to be too bossy about what we will play, and just see who shows up and what they want to play. I was hoping to play Agricola, so I was glad when Dad asked about it. Since both of my kids were home this time, along with both of my parents, me and the BFF, that's six and Agricola only plays up to five. I offered to just be the teacher, and let them all play, and that way I could help anyone with their turn, but my folks opted to play as a team. This worked out great, I think, because while my Mom is a great gamer, she is a bit of an unconfident player with new games, and playing on a team with Dad gave her someone to confer with about each turn.
I wanted to introduce the game to the new players with the Family way to play. This was the first time playing Family for the BFF and I, so we were all trying something new. The Family way to play mostly means no cards, no Occupations and no Minor Improvements. The first board piece for possible actions is turned over, with a couple slight changes on actions that involve the cards; Starting Player has one food instead of a Minor Improvement, Occupation is changed to Build Stable &/or Bake Bread, and the Day Laborer is changed from two food to one food, one building supply (not sure why the change on the Day Laborer). Playing five player gave us lots of great action possibilities as well, I think I like playing five player best, lots of wood and clay available!
We had a good time playing, and ended with most of the scores pretty close, the BFF excited that he beat me by one point! Team Mom & Dad got a somewhat slighted, since there are only four stoves/ovens to be able to cook animals in, and they didn't get to buy one. They ended up having to take a couple begging cards, but if they had been able to get an oven, they wouldn't have had to beg, and would have had a comparable score. (BTW, the BFF only beat me by one point because I forgot that I had to have TWO plowed fields to get a point.)
I thought it would be fun, since the game or version was new to all of us, to do a bit of a survey about what everyone thought of the game. So here are same questions I asked everyone:

1)What did you think of the game? (BFF and I-What did you think of the Family way of playing the game?)
2)On the BGG scale, please rate the game.
3)What was the best part of the game?
4)What was the worst part of the game?
5)What’s your favorite game right now?

And here are everyone's answers:

Rawk Star Age 17

1)It was ok, pretty good
2)6
3)The little sheeples
4)First player system, I didn't like how it worked. It wasn't an incentive at the end, and if you're the last player, you're messed up
5)D&D 4.0


Artist Extreeme Age 15

1)It was fun.
2)7
3)Having to decide what to eat
4)The length
5)Munchkin / D&D


Grandpa Retired and Loving it

1)I thought it was fun, took a little long to get into.
2)7
3)I kinda liked the way it related to agriculture, to reality. You need to know that you have to eat.
4)Takes a while getting into it the first time.
5)Pegs & Jokers-depends on who you're playing with. With our volunteer friends: card games; with you guys: a board game.


Grandma Retired and feisty

1)I guess I enjoyed it, I think I will enjoy it more the next time I play.
2)8
3)Learning a new game.
4)Not understanding the rules to begin with.
5)The card game Golf / Pegs & Jokers


the BFF Forty-Something

1)I thought it was harder because getting things like grain was harder, not more than one way. was it more fun? no.
2)7 for Family, 8 for regular
3)Playing it with the family, almost a gateway game
4)Waiting between turns
5)Race for the Galaxy


ME A little older than the BFF, and he never lets me forget it

1)Not as much fun without the cards
2)6 for Family, 9 for regular
3)Playing a three generation game
4)Not having the cards
5)Agricola (did you even have to wonder?)

SSG@B&S

Yesterday was the second Sunday of the month, so time again for SSG@B&S (Second Sunday Gaming At Bryan And Shell's).
I started this family game day a couple months ago, it's not just about the gaming, it’s about the family and close friends. With the BFF’s son already a legal adult, and my two getting closer to that age every day, I wanted to set up a tradition, something that will give them an excuse to come home every once in a while after they have moved out. And the bonus is it gives my parents and brother the excuse to come over, too. My folks are retired and do volunteer work in different parts of the country, and are gone about half of the year on their trips, so it's nice to see them when they are in the state. My brother lives in the same city as we do, he actually lives across the street from the parking lot I park in for work, but just like in any busy family, we really don’t see each other that often. But since gaming was always a part of our life when my brother and I were growing up, it's still something that can bring us all together.
Yesterday was this months game day. My parents and my children played Agricola for the first time, with the BFF and I. We played the Family rules. My brother got here after we had started, but was happy to play Spore on the computer while we were farming. We also played a party game called Rapid Recall that I had picked up at the thrift store. I'll write more this week about each of these games.

OK, Just ONE More...

We knew there were animeeples, our local game store is getting some in I hear, and now there's a hint of veggimeeples!!!

Stop Talking About Agricola Already!

OK, OK!
Here's just a couple Agricola links before I move on to talking about some other game.
(There are still other games, right?) ;p

Play Agricola On-Line
I tried it just a little, and one of my people disappeared. ?? But I'll definitely try it again!

Agricola on-line Scoresheet Very cool, just plug in what everyone got for each category, and it tabulates your score.

Common Agricola Mistakes I definitely want to read through this more before th next time I play!

Game Day October: Agricola

We started a family and close friends Game Day a couple months ago. I'd been thinking about starting this for a while, I wanted for one, to have a good reason for all the teenager-almost-adult kids to come visit once a month, to start a family tradition that will carry for years. So far, they've been small, which is fine, building up the tradition. This month, yesterday, it was the smallest so far, with just the BFF and I in attendance, but that's fine, because we all gamed a lot last weekend.
Since Agricola is my hot game right now, we played two games of that. We sure discovered the differences between a two player game and a five player game!
Part of how Agricola is varied depending on players, besides having three different decks to choose from, is that some cards are only in play depending on how many people are playing. Each pack has cards for 1+, 3+, and 4+ players, so for solo play and two player, the cards available are the same. We talked about having a ghost third player, and we could roll a die to decide their turn, or just cheating and adding in the 3+ cards, but we didn't try that yet.
The cards distracted us again, I would say, and not getting things out in the right order. Some of the cards have to be played before certain activities and vice-versa, and it's still tricky to plan far enough ahead of time to get it all done properly.
We each won one game, the BFF said on the second game, he purposely took the wood before I could get it, because he thought that was how I beat him the first time. I've heard that in each number of players, there are certain resources that are harder to get, I guess wood is harder to get in a two player game.

Agricola: Rules Reading and First Solo Play

Alone on a Friday evening, the BFF at work, Rawk Star at the play he was teching for, Artist Extreeme at his dad's, I finished reading through the Agricola rules, punched out all the bits, and tried a solo game.
A couple things of note in the rules: in addition to the phase/stage thing being confusing, the rules point out the difference between person and player. Since we're using 'people' for game pieces, the term 'people' means 'family member' or playing piece, not the person playing the game, that term is 'player'. Just in case you thought you as the player had to jump onto the playing board to claim your spot. ;p
The other thing I'm not sure if I had misunderstood when being taught, but the harvest is in three phases, in order, with new animal babies being the last phase. So if you only have two of an animal and you need to cook it up to feed your family, that animal won't have a baby, because cooking one leaves you with only one. I may have played this wrong at Nuke Con, but it would have only been on the third game which I stunk at anyway.
These were my cards for my first experiment with solo play.
Trying to concentrate on getting 'some of everything', I still was distracted by the cards I got. I decided that a solo game is kind of a puzzle, since you don't have to take turns with anyone else, you just have to figure out when to do things. I did use a few cards, I had good cards that would work towards house building, but I only was able to get out 1/2 of the cards I wanted to. I was able to build wooden rooms cheaper, so I did that first, then renovated twice. I would have had a ton more points if I had been able to bring out the Chief and the Chief's daughter, since I was able to get my house up to stone. Below is my final farm, I ended up with 32 points, only having negative points for veggie and boar.

Agricola @ Nuke Con

The most anticipated game in our house recently was Agricola. (and that is pronounced ah-GRICK-oh-lah)(and yes, I am the annoying one who has corrects everyone who pronounces it like a soft drink)(and by everyone I mean every game store clerk, every potential player, even the guy who taught us the game)
Last weekend at Nuke Con, I finally got to play it. I preregistered on-line to make sure I didn’t miss it. And the guy that taught us during the slotted time was happy to teach more new players and play more games during the rest of the weekend, so I actually got to play three times. I was a little afraid that I had read and heard too much hype, like a movie where all the good parts were in the trailer, and it wouldn’t be as good as anticipated. But playing it everyday of the convention only made me want it more!
Since this is leaning toward a review, let me mention what kind of games I usually like. My official favorite game is Carcassonne. I love all it’s expansions, I love all sorts of Eurogames, give me wooden bits and I’ll be very happy. My close second favorite game, or maybe I’ll say my favorite game series, is Zombies!!! I love all things zombie and gross like that, zombie movies and comics are always watched and read, and zombies are a theme in my arts-n-crafts, too. So I’ll play any and all games related to zombies, but the Twilight Creations Zombies!!! series will always be at the top of my list. (Now if I can figure out a game with zombie meeples…) I like various card games and party games, I don’t lean toward collectable card games though, and I’m usually turned off by war themes. Good mechanics of a game will win me over, but it’s the bits I love. Gimme good bits!
Speaking of good bits, back to Agricola! (who doesn’t love a good segue?) I opened the box this morning to get the rule book out to read, and there’s all the great bits! Nothing like the smell of cardboard and wood in the morning. ;p The first thing that impressed me was that they included a bag full of baggies, for when you separate out the bits. That’s game packaging at it’s finest. There are quite a few different kinds of bits, and I had wondered if it might get confusing, but I haven’t really run into that yet, except for clay is the lighter brown disk, and wood is the darker brown disk. I’m not sure if so many kinds of bits will be confusing for younger or older players, we’ll test it out with my mom next month.
The first two games we played, we just used the E deck. The coolest part, IMHO, about Agricola is the different sets of cards, and the quantity of each, so that the cards you use each time will be different. The three sets are: E which is basic, I for Interactive, and K for Complex (remember, the game was written in German). In each set there are Occupation cards and Minor Improvement cards, and you are dealt seven of each, and with a total of over 300, depending on how many players and which set you use, the possibilities are virtually endless. There are different cards used for different numbers of players, last weekend all three games were five player games, so we used the most cards available. The cards give you ways to do things easier, or allow you to break a specific rule. But a warning for new players, when you're first learning, and someone has a card that lets them break a specific rule, it's easy to forget that they get to do it because of the card, and get confused on the actual rule. That happened to us a couple times, when someone had a card that let them bake bread at harvest time.
Since I had watched the "Board Games with Scott" video of Agricola, I had a pretty good idea of the rules before sitting down to be taught. The best thing I learned from the video was to watch the scoring. As Scott says, ‘you want a little bit of everything’, and I really kept that in mind playing my first game. I’m proud to say that the tip from Scott even helped me win a little prize! Our game teacher played with us, and since he’d played many times before, he outdid all of our scores by plenty, almost doubling them. But out of us four newbies, I had the highest score, thus the prize. Watching the scoring is one of the keys, as our teacher pointed out, it is a two point swing, having nothing of something will give you a negative point, where even only one of something will give you a positive point in most cases. I only beat the BFF by that two point swing (but don’t feel too bad for him, he watched the video, too!).
The progression of playing is interesting, the second time playing, I also did pretty good (tied for second after our experienced teacher), and tried to incorporate more of my cards. The third time, with no newbies, we advanced up to the I deck and used one of the advanced rules, where you are dealt 10 cards and have to decide on the 7 that you want. I really got too focused on the cards that time, trying to use all the cards together, and ended up messing myself up, and even having to take ‘begging cards’. Begging cards are what you want the least in this game, and what you have to take if you can’t feed your family at a harvest. I was so intent on making my cards work together, I forgot that I had already eaten my sheep, and had to take two stupid begging cards! Our teacher had been saying all weekend that everyone he had ever taught hadn’t had to take begging cards, and I messed up his good record. (Sorry, Jerry!) At the end of that game, one other player who I think won that time around gave me some good advice: try to get maximum regular score points, focus on that, not on the cards. Why didn’t I think of that?!?
I always like learning strategies from other players, I watched our teacher save up his wood and build his fences all three times we played. I figured he's had good luck with that strategy, but it didn't leave him a lot of time to get animals out. It will depend on what cards you have, I suppose, when I had animal cards, I really needed to build my fences early! Another good tip I picked up from our teacher is the difference between the stage and the round. Some cards specify stage, which is a set of rounds, and he had a player with hurt feelings when he misunderstood the card.
Now I'm off! I have a date with the rest of the rules, and all the bits, and maybe a solo game tonight.