Agricola: Farmers of the Moor

So it was the last games night of the year, and the leader board was delicately poised with Adam and Sam level on 40 points. We settled down to the choice of Colosseum or Agricola: Farmers of the Moor. Yet again Colosseum was overlooked for a newer, more enticing, complex game, a decision that caused some cussing about three hours later.

Adding horses, forests and clay pits to the basic game there were also new actions that could be taken without using a family member and even more confusing (yet apt) a need to heat your house during the winter. This was particularly hard until about the eighth round when we discovered that wood burns, at which point we stopped just using piles of peat as blankets.
 

Quentin quickly established his crop growing strategy with occupations that gave bonus veg and grain whenever he took food. Sam struggled after being dealt a hand bereft of useful improvements and created some beautiful rolling pastures that were only missing animals. Andrew’s board had a little of everything, but not enough to pile up the big points. I started with a card that deducted 4 points at the end of the game but gave me one of every item and a nice leg-up at the start. I built up a stock of sheep for food and horses for points and renovated as soon as possible to reduce heating costs. Joe looked to get his crops going and his house expanded and renovated into the most magnificent neo-gothic original-feature-filled 17th Century barn conversion you’ve ever seen. By playing the yeoman farmer he was able to completely ignore livestock and concentrate on maxing out all the other scoring categories.

In a seasonal interlude the crisps and beer were interrupted by a round of some quite scary (but delicious) biscuits and tasty warm mince pies, giving the gang just enough energy to get to the end of what would be a long night.
 

If your answer to the question “Is Agricola confusing enough?” is "No, I understand every aspect of it perfectly and never have to ask for something I should have collected last round." then FotM is the answer to your prayers. It turns out though that (apart perhaps from Quentin) our answer is "Yes". Maybe as a two- or three- player game it will liven things up, but a mind-mangling range of options isn’t lacking in the original game...

As we drew to a close Quentins board looked most balanced and but for missing out on the riding stables in the last round it should have handed him victory. Only the poor workmanship of his house counted against him, while Joe scored big on house, family and garden, and I scored on horses and bonus points. The final scores saw a tie for first place:
 

Joe 45

Adam 45

Quentin 44

Sam 36

Andrew 19

The Leaderboard

All of which means a decisive two-point win this year for me (unless you count points per game in which case Sam just pips Steve, but we don’t, okay?)

	Played	Points
Adam	20	45
Sam	15	43
Joe	19	41
Andrew	23	29
Steve	6	16
Quentin	5	11
Jonny	7	10
Will	2	4
Hannah	1	1
Jon	1	1

So next year our more egalitarian points-scoring-system is going to be 1 point each for turning up as we all know that games should just be played for the joy of playing. Right guys? Group hug!

Seven wonders x 2

After last week’s cold snap played havoc with the fixture list, it was back to the usual Tuesday evening shenanigans for five regulars: Sam, Adam, Andrew, Joe and Quentin. Quentin asked for a couple of quick games as he hoped to push himself up the leaderboard before it ends for the year. As such, Seven Wonders was chosen as a swift gaming fix.

In game one, with Quentin new to the game, everyone chose side A of their wonder – the easy side. And while Adam, Quentin and Joe all had occasion to ask to redo their go, it was level-headed Sam and Andrew who streaked ahead. But despite Quentin being new to the game, he soon worked out where the easy points were and forced his way into third, ahead of the leaderboard high-fliers, Joe and Adam. Adam overloaded on military might having realised his wonder could never be built due to lack of resources, and Sam again proved that diversification, not specialisation, wins you the game as he fought off Andrew’s and Quentin’s impressive advances in the field of science with a canny mix of war, temples and guilds. Final score:

Sam 57
Andrew 53
Quentin 50
Adam 49
Joe 30

With everyone familiar with the rules once again, another game of Seven Wonders was recommended. This time everyone chose the B side of their wonder (less victory points, but more skills), except Andrew who thought the B side of the Temple at Ephesus looked a bit rubbish. Perhaps this cost him dear, as he played a listless game which lacked the focus of his earlier second place.

Meanwhile, Adam stopped building armies and tried his hand at religious blue buildings and Quentin invested heavily in guilds. However, again it was Sam who showed the way. His military might was enough to pick points off the hippy-ish non-confrontational Andrew and Joe, but his winning move was by completing his wonder so he could copy a guild from a neighbour, which nabbed him an extra six points for no outlay. Final score:

Sam 58
Adam 54
Joe 50
Quentin 42
Andrew 38

Seven Wonders is a great game for a quick battle, but if everyone knows the rules, there's very little interaction. You play your cards, pay the cost and move on to the next round which leaves it strangely unsatisfying, socially.

The Leaderboard

So now the leaderboard now looks very different as Sam picks up ten points and charges to the top. It also means he takes the highest points ratio from Steve, with 2.86 points per game. And he won five quid at Perudo as well! Is there no stopping this man?

	Played	Points
Sam	14	40
Adam	19	40
Joe	18	36
Andrew	22	27
Steve	6	16
Jonny	7	10
Quentin	4	7
Will	2	4
Hannah	1	1
Jon	1	1

Discussions are ongoing regarding the scoring system for the 2011 season. Rumours that Sepp Blatter wants a convoluted system of secret votes to decide each weeks' winner have been refuted by the Games Night regulars.

Agricola

Freezing fog fell on Bristol this Monday, with a rare Monday night session. Sam was hosting, and Andrew and Jonny were in attendance. Agricola was chosen as the night’s game, complete with minor improvements and occupations. Sam got off to a roaring start, playing an occupation that allowed him to plough a field whenever anybody else did. With that amount of arable land available, it’s no surprise that he quickly moved into grain and vegetables.

Andrew was quick to renovate his house in order to play a couple of occupations, and he also tried to pick up cheap victory points by making minor improvements but in doing so fell behind in other parts of the game. Jonny focused on rearing animals with his cattle herder, and on feeding his family with schnaps.

Scores: Sam 46, Jonny 37, Andrew 33

The Leaderboard

	Played	Points
Adam	17	34
Joe	16	32
Sam	12	30
Andrew	20	22
Steve	6	16
Jonny	7	10
Will	2	4
Quentin	2	2
Hannah	1	1
Jon	1	1

7 wonders

So, with a possible six people attending, a game large enough to accommodate all was chosen. And, although one dropped out, it seemed that everyone was up for the challenge of a new game, and so Seven Wonders was brought out. In this game, the great architectural acheivements of ancient times are recreated.

So, basically, the seven wonders of the world are built as a kind of boasting competition. As well as developing your own commodities and buying commodities off your immediate neighbour (whether they like it or not) to build apothecaries, risqué altars and the like, you can also threaten your fellow players with your military might at the same time. Never attacking, just constantly waving a clenched fist and frowning furiously. You can also develop sciences, which like the monuments in Ra score big as sets but are fairly useless in small doses. Other cards enabled cut-price trading, straightforward victory-point style buildings and in the final round, Guilds, which had all kinds of canny ways to score decent points - if you could first get, and then buy, the Guild in question. All of the above (save for spending money) contribute to your victory points at the end.

Game one was a slow affair, as you’d expect with a table full of newbies. It was made slower still by a lengthy pause halfway through while rules were consulted for a long time and then when the game recommenced, we realised there’d been a mix up in handing cards from one player to another, a central mechanic of the game. It was noted that if ancient times had been anything like this, nothing would’ve got finished and we wouldn’t be reading about them in our history books today.

Game one results

Steve 48
Adam 45
Sam 42
Andrew 34
Joe 33

Since the evening was still young when we’d finished, it was decided to try the game again. This time, with the rules fresh in our minds, the rounds flew by. The passing of the cards between players was choreographed perfectly, and everything ran smoothly.

This time, Joe took maximum points for miltary conquests (18) and Adam specialised in blue buildings (26). But it was Steady Sam who took first place, picking up points in every category.

Game two

Sam 53
Adam 47
Joe 44
Steve 43
Andrew 39

A closer look at the scoresheets throws up an interesting bit of info. Neither of the two winners ever came top in any of the categories, which indicates that diversification not specialisation is what wins you this game.

The Leaderboard

	Played	Points
Adam	17	34
Joe	16	32
Sam	11	27
Andrew	19	21
Steve	6	16
Jonny	6	8
Will	2	4
Quentin	2	2
Hannah	1	1
Jon	1	1