At first, Sam and I told Jonny of the wisdom of taking a field whenever possible to help with feeding your tribe. Wisdom that Joe poo-poohed, insisting there were other ways to win. And as it turned out, Joe’s poo-pooh made a surprise appearance at the end of the game.
I played my usual game of having a game plan at the start, and then immediately deviating from it the moment some easy points came up. As such, I leapt into an early lead. But I became painfully aware that everyone else was building up a healthy stack of cards while I had none. Sam stuck to his “lots of farms and a big family” tactic. And if it’s good enough for Agricola, then it’s good enough for Stone Age, right? But it did mean he was left behind in building up a presence on the scoring track in the early stages.
Jonny seemed to find his feet very fast, and I started feeling nervous that I’d end up last as he soon caught me up on the scoring track. Joe, meanwhile, played it cool, quietly chipping away at his collection of flint axes in the corner of the room.
A major feature of the game were the “party cards”, where four dice are rolled (in a four player game) whose results correspond to a particular resource for distribution amongst the players. These became very popular as people wanted an extra chance at a field/axe/gold. Joe became famous for holding great parties with gold and farms being handed out. Sam’s parties, meanwhile, usually ended with people carrying home bits of clay or wood.
Recently, I've been playing Stone Age as a two player game, so I found the four-player version quite a nerve wracking affair as I tried to guess what people would chose as I tried to work out what was best for me given what might be still available when it was my go again.
When the game ended, Joe’s poo-pooh was vindicated. He didn’t just win, he won handsomely: His collection of axes proving a viable substitute for an arable lifestyle. Perhaps this game portrayed that period in pre-history when hunter-gatherers lived side by side on equal terms with the first tribes to cultivate the land.
Or perhaps not. Either way, here are the scores.
Joe 153
Sam 122
Andrew 103
Jonny 84
The leaderboard...
| Played | Points | Ratio | |
| Sam | 27 | 111 | 4.11 |
| Joe | 24 | 106.5 | 4.44 |
| Andrew | 29 | 105.5 | 3.63 |
| Adam | 20 | 100.5 | 5.025 |
| Quentin | 9 | 40 | 4.44 |
| Hannah | 7 | 34.5 | 4.9 |
| Chris | 5 | 20.5 | 4.1 |
| Jonny | 6 | 18.5 | 3.1 |
| Steve | 4 | 16 | 4 |
So as we head toward the last week of the season, it looks like only a massive collapse would scupper Sam’s chances. Joe pushes into second place, but can he bridge that 4.5 point gap in one session?
I made a couple of errors but nothing that would have made up 31 points - Joe, as you say, was vindicated. Well played Mr B.
ReplyDeleteThanks chaps. Great games, as ever. Stone Age remains a favourite — some games lean too much toward the confrontational, some too little — SA gets the balance spot on.
ReplyDelete