Crazy Castles

Normally when I get home after a games night, I can’t wait to sit down and start writing up the evening’s events. Not this time, because during this evening I was ambushed by a sudden presentation of a ledger (to keep track of scores and such) and a board game, Robinson Crusoe, all in appreciation of my efforts on the blog. Well, thanks a lot, everyone. I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun. Except for just now, when I’d rather be going through the rules of my brand new game.

The evening began with me and Sam playing Agricola: All Creatures... which Sam had just got back after lending it to someone about eighteen months ago. He got a bit of a rule refresher from me and the rule book, and we ploughed through the game in double quick time because Andy was expected shortly. Sam’s lack of familiarity with the rules didn’t hinder his natural strategic nous.

Sam 32
Andrew 31

Andy arrived mid-game, and introduced us to Ziegen Kriegen. This is a trick-taking card game over eight rounds except the highest number of possible points changes each time, so if you score too many, you can go bust. Sam liked it, but I wasn’t keen. Maybe I’m missing on some strategic aspects, but it seemed to be based solely on what hand you were dealt.

I don’t want to suggest it’s only down to luck but we played two games and all three of us got a win! In the first game, I got no low cards at all, so I crashed out with too many points.

Sam 12
Andy 3
Andrew OUT

Then we played again and I had a better hand this time and got a joint win.

Andrew 16
Andy 16
Sam 11

Anyway, after this, Anja arrived and we played Sam’s new favourite, The Castles of Mad King Ludwig. This game of building castles room by room according to certain rules (which change each time you play) is easy enough to pick up. But the bonuses at the end are pivotal, which I didn’t quite get at first.

Anja, too, found her naturally tendency towards neatness and order worked against her, since one of the bonuses for this game was points for each external entrance. But she finished the game with none at all, and felt slightly peeved that the game didn’t reward completed castles. Sam’s experience counted, as he maximised his bonuses.

Sam 112
Andy 92
Andrew 66
Anja 65

Finally, we ended on Take It Easy. Categories for the people drawing the tiles were Billy Bragg songs (Sam), characters from Tolkien books (Anja) and Beatles songs (me). I was impressed with Anja’s knowledge of Middle Earth, and she was pretty good at her first game of Take I Easy, too. We hadn’t realised this at first, and it wasn’t until she asked if she could put the tiles anywhere that we asked if it was her first game.

Sam 576
Andy 439
Anja 424
Andrew 409

And with that, we were done. Off into the night, my new game and book just about fitting into my new rucksack. All that’s left is a look at the fledgling form table.

						Points
Sam	1	1	2	1	5	10
Andy	2	2	1	2	5	12
Andrew	4	3	1	3	5	16
Anja	3	4	5	5	5	22

The adventures of sheer luck

Dusk on Tuesday brings Bristol’s finest out to the best games night there is for miles around. This week it was Joe who was hosting, and Martin, Adam, Sam and I arrived first, with Steve and Anja expected shortly.

To fill the time until their arrival, rather than talking to each other, we thought we should play a game, even if it meant Adam reaching awkwardly over his plate of chips and between various condiments when it was his turn. We chose No Thanks, because it’s a good game. I poo-poohed my “take the lowest card” strategy in favour of a “take a fairly low card” strategy. Not much of an improvement. Me, Martin and Adam were swept aside by Sam’s high-card tactics and by Joe’s joining of cards 28-24, with plenty of chips in reserve.

Joe 11
Sam 13
Martin 20
Andrew 27
Adam 36

There was still no sign of Anja and Steve so we played Timeline. An excellent game (if you know history) and a perfect excuse to see Joe’s automatic shuffler in action.

Once the game got going, we placed our bets and showed our ignorance. Wrong guesses were, for the most part, only out by a decade or two. I think I made the least accurate guess of the evening: Apparently, microbes were discovered in the 1500s, and not in the late 1800s as I had thought. But I still battled back to run out joint winner with Joe and Martin. Sam came second with Adam in third, having made one correct guess.

From the invention of writing to

walking on the moon, in one evening

1= Joe
1= Andrew
1= Martin
2. Sam
3. Adam

By now, Steve and Anja were here. The seven of us decided to split into two groups of four and three. Adam, Sam and Joe went for Russian Railroads. Me, Martin, Anja and Steve chose A Study In Emerald. This had been mentioned in emails before the evening, and I’d got the idea into my head that this was some kind of cross between Mr Jack and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective.

My discovery that the storyline included giant octopuses and was based on a short story by Neil Gaiman was offset by the fact it was designed by Martin Wallace. But my initial doubts grew into convictions during the game. It crammed into one game the secret identities of Revolution, the rule of avoiding last of High Society, the deck-building of Dominion, the sudden endings of Palaces of Carrara, and the area-control of, oh, lots of games.

A country called "Gary"

The secret identities bit didn’t work at all, as I accidentally attacked my team mate, and then the next go, before I could undo my mistake, Martin saw which way the game was going and chose an option that luckily allowed him to end the game. A bit of an anti-climax, frankly.

We were in two “teams” but since the winning team came first and second, I’ll just put the points as we ended.

Martin 18
Anja 13
Andrew 11
Steve 7

After this, Steve and Anja went back home. The game of Russian Railroads still had half an hour to go, so Martin and I sped through a game of two-player Agricola. We scooped up wooden meeples like poker chips, and before you knew it, I’d lost again 52-30, despite Martin’s disgusting battery farming of horses. There must be a law against this.

Finally, RR came to an end. Martin and I marvelled at the final round scoring of 100+ points, and that’s before bonuses. It seemed like one opportunity after another to add to your score. In the end, Sam won, using an improved version of the strategy he used last time. The first time we played, the three of us ended 14 points apart. That didn’t happen this time:

Sam 482
Joe 424
Adam 397

By now it was almost eleven. We drew this evening’s entertainment to a close. Joe insisted he could clear away the bottle-strewn, meeple-infested table after we’d gone. And so, we went.

On the form table, while Gonz is away in Spain, Sam takes the opportunity to steal top spot. It’s a narrow margin, though. Only the "best most-recent score" rule separates them. Despite coming last, Steve actually improves his score. But the big winner tonight is Joe, who replaces two “6”s and a “1” with two “1”s and a “2”, sending him up from ninth to fourth.

						Points
Sam	1	2	2	1	2	7
Gonz	2	1	2	1	1	7
Martin	1	1	3	2	3	10
Joe	2	1	1	3	3	10
Steve	4	1	3	3	1	12
Andrew	3	1	4	3	3	14
Hannah	1	3	4	3	4	15
Anja	2	3	2	4	5	16
Adam	3	3	5	2	3	16
Will	3	2	5	5	5	20
Matt	5	5	5	5	5	25

Love games.

Friday was Valentines day and what better way to spend it than with your old mate playing board games. And before everyone out there thinks that maybe I'm some sort of prehistoric oaf I'll have it be known that Jacquie was cordially invited to join in but declined. For some reason.

As the wind howled away outside Paul took advantage of his opportunity to choose all the games for the evening.  For the second time in a week it was Lords of Waterdeep. Even so I very happy to see it brought out again. Early activity saw both players establish bonus producing Plot Quests, helpful buildings and a few Mandatory Quests. On two player Lords you receive 4 agents to start with therefore you are pretty much completing a quest if not two every round. If 4 and 5 player is a resource restricted marathon 2 player is a abundant riches sprint. The rounds turned over quickly and even though most choices are obvious it's still fun to do.

For the second time in a week I managed to screw up the final scoring and this time we both stood staring at the board pouring over it discussing Paul's nice win and impressive 10 completed quests when I noticed that my three plot quests tucked under my tavern hadn't been counted. Paul met this with a typically understated "Ah well" and I managed to pip him.

Chris - 204
Paul - 196

Still in resource grabbing mode Paul selected Mini Agricola next. Paul's balanced approach meant that I was almost forced into producing the gaming worlds largest sheep farm, complete with petting zoo. Both our farms layout would've given Feng Shui masters a serious headache. Totting up the scores showed that maxing out on sheep out weighed the negative bonus points for not getting enough horses and cattle. The game seems a little unfairly balanced in this aspect. It is only possible to get a maximum 14 of each (Allowing for breeding) if you picked them up from the first round and then you need your opponent not to keep nicking them. So my 23 sheep was something of a strong tactic.

Chris - 49
Paul - 40

Finally, to reflect current affairs, we shuffled the cards to Nile where each turn is prompted by a flood card which forces a harvest. Somerset should have piles of Flax, Wheat, Papyrus, Lettuce and Castor when this season is all finished. I struggled to get any Flax in this game and Paul knew this making sure I had to rip out the crop each opportunity he got. In the count up my solitary Flax card fell short of the required 2 needed to even push the scoring to the next highest crop. Paul won in all areas.

Paul - 2
Chris - 1

The Gaming Dead

Chris and James were exhausted. Half-term dads syndrome. Chris had hauled his family to London Zoo while James had, well, buried stones and twigs in the garden (his son’s idea*). Less exhausting than a trip to the zoo, but James did have to hold the bucket for the soil and was forced to watch. All the time. “Watch, Dad. Dad, watch. Put your phone away and watch me.”

If real life was ‘worker placement’, James and Chris might have placed themselves elsewhere yesterday. As they couldn’t, because it’s not (shame), they were baggy-eyed and delirious by the time kids had gone to bed and they settled/slouched into two-player conflict.

First up, Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small. James hasn’t played this that often, so while all the symbology was familiar from the big version, he couldn’t really remember what to aim for, and how fast to aim for it. Chris claimed similar, though he could have zonked and been talking in his sleep. Somehow, James assembled a neat Tetris-like arrangement of horses and sheep. Chris developed a farm with wide-open spaces for unknown reasons. (It would have hurt less, perhaps, if he’d nodded off and  fallen face-first into it).

What would be the worst game to fall face-first asleep into? El Grande with its Castillo, maybe?

The scores were added. James won. They compared scores to the old scorecards Chris collects (it’s a passion) and chortled nervously at their pathetically low scores, eyes darting to and fro, frantically trying to spot something they’d done wrong. Something they hadn’t added points for. But no. Shame-faced, that game was packed away sharpish.

(And Chris had spent the day looking at creatures in fences. You’d have thought he’d have put that to use).

James 34, Chris 27.

Next up, James’ fondness for Carcassonne, the first set, was catered for. Normally a casual game where  life is put to rights through wise debate as the tiles are idly considered and twiddled between finger and thumb; or mercurial banter fizzes between players or they talk nostalgically about childhood (they both had Demon Driver – and loved it (such low standards of realism in 1980!)). But this night, chatter was subdued as they stared bleary-eyed and tried to concentrate.

With little effect. The whole game was a bit of a botch-job as the simplest rules seemed forgotten. James found a tile next to his Opal Fruits he seemed to remember taking off the pile several turns earlier when Chris had halted proceedings to check the rulebook to see if gaps were allowed. Both players, perhaps from post traumatic stress disorder, made huge mistakes. Chris was in constant commentary mode, regularly announcing how beaten he clearly was, with James’ farmers dominating three quarters of the tiles.

But when it ended, Chris was shocked to find he’d won. James had carefully dominated a large area with just three completed castles in it. Chris got more points from his weedy little patches and won.

Chris 116, James 112.

*James’ son is 4 so there’s yet hope he’ll grow out of ‘planting stones’. One day.

Bad case of the runs.

Last Wednesday Paul accepted my call to arriving a little earlier to try out Netrunner. After my inconclusive opening session with James I was keen to have another stab with the rules still fresh in my mind and that new game excitement still bubbling away. In the days since playing James I had been swotting up on the rules and trawling the forums to gain clarification on some aspects that had befuddled me.

Paul absorbed the rules impressively quick although an open hand set of turns was necessary to embed the process. I took the role of the Corporation as I felt it was a little trickier to handle first time round. My one game experience showed as Paul understandably hesitated over which cards to lay however the battle lines slowly drew up and turns rotated faster.

By now Paul was making frequent runs to search for my elusive agendas and coming away with nothing or only information on what my next cards were. Still I was getting stumped by exactly what some cards where telling us. In some cases it became clear, after a discussion, the appropriate action to take, others we left to be clarified later. In the meantime I was scoring agendas and had built a formidable defence. However, one area which I had left weakly covered was my deck of draw cards (R&D). Paul played an event card which allowed him to access the three top most cards on my deck on completion of a successful run. Swatting aside my flimsy protection he accessed the deck and revealed two agenda cards worth 3 points each. We were tied at six points each, the next score out would win the game. Two turns later I had it. 8 - 6.

The game was still missing something. Paul felt that a lot of his cards were too weak or too specific to be of any use. On my second game I still felt that it was crying out for a list of card explanations. 

I'm going to give it one more go to see if I can get to grips with it. Last week I was excited to play again but after my second game a lot of my enthusiasm has wained.

We then had 30 minutes to squeeze a game in before the kids turned up so we opted for little Agricola. Paul's rustiness on this game was greater than mine coupled with a nasty tactic I employed where I nicked the extra expansion field and compacted his farm.

Chris - 50 odd

Paul - 40 odd.

After dinner had been eaten and children packed off to bed, James arrived ready to play our second instalment of Taj Mahal. This one was another nail biter with the scoring positions remaining close all game. James even admitted toward the end that he was actually pretty tense as we went into the final round. However James it was who had managed his hand, done the maths and made the special cards work for him the best at the end trotting out the winner.

James - 54

Chris - 47

Paul - 43

Paul was then offered the choice of games to play next due to his third place in Taj Mahal (Which we might make a thing). He selected a strong favourite of his Alhambra and showed why by wiping the floor with both of us. Scoring a wall of twenty plus in each scoring round is never a bad thing. I did my usual trick of walling myself in, using up vital moves in rearranging the tiles and James had one of those games where he just couldn't get started.

Paul - 178

Chris - 128

James - 98

Two men don't play Cube Quest shocker!

So Paul and I are two thirds of the way through Trans Europa when we started trading our favourite game board based funnies. Possibly initiated by a lame gag that I tried, I regaled / reminded my politely smiling opponent of the time we were all playing Civilisation at my shared flat in Uxbridge. Sam searching around for the right combination of resource cards was heard to exclaim, "Aargh, I'm two fucking short!". Ha! Paul then retold his tale where I was about to leave Sam's for a long late night drive home. On announcing I was quite tired Sam offered "Well you could just crash". Perfect!

Anyway, last night's events didn't offer up any similar gems but it did see three games played out. I was feeling decidedly dodgy due to a persistent neck pain that sometimes makes me quite giddy and sick. Paul proposed that we stick to shorter games and so Roll Through The Ages got a second run out in a week. It was Paul's turn to cop all the pestilence in a reversal of real life events! I was a wash with lovely goods and even had 56 on the stone track. Never seen that before.
Chris 1st
Paul 2nd

Then it was Trans Europa in which I was playing hard ball to Paul's gentleman Jim. In each round I was somehow managing to pip him by one track. The game took a little longer than the advertised box time.
Chris 1st
Paul 2nd

Then we unhoused little Agricola. I had taken the set to my dads for the weekend in the faint hope that we might rekindle our playing of games together. It lasted up until I said "and this little board is your farm". Father is not one to be seen playing with little wooden sheep and cows.

In this closely fought episode though I managed to pip Paul to the post by accumulating more points for things than he did. There was to be no rejoicing in shared victories today.

Chris 1st
Paul 2nd

(At work don't have the scores)

Coming out of the cupboard

This evening, a non-GNN games night was arranged at Roll For The Soul, a café that sounds like it’s already a gaming heaven, but the “Roll” but actually refers to bicycles, not dice. I don’t think we have any games about bicycles, but they didn’t seem to mind.

By the time I arrived, the first game had already begun. Hannah, Adam and two women (who I assumed were Sustrans-types but were, in fact, real people who had come out of curiosity) had started with Galaxy Truckers. They had, however, paused for food so Adam and I had two games of speed chess. It was the first time I’d played the game for years, and Adam won both times.

By then, food had been eaten and another attendee had arrived: Tim. He and I played a game of Agricola: All Creatures. I taught him the rules, and he seemed to get the hang of it awfully quickly, and it ended in a draw: 36 all. Adam, of course, pointed out there is a tie-breaker, and technically speaking Tim won, but he only did that because Adam does not rejoice in shared victories.

Galaxy Trucker had finished by then, with Hannah victorious, and the two newcomers set off with, hopefully, a new appreciation for Eurogames. A man arrived, whose name escapes me, and the five of us sat down to play Ticket To Ride.

Before long, Judith arrived, and she took over from the unnamed man. Whereas previously, he had been simply picking up cards (not, in itself, a bad idea: Adam and Tim had been doing the same) she began building tracks.

I was the first to build and, on a whim, I also build a long but unnecessary six-link railway for 15 points. This turned out to be my best move, as the region around the alps soon became full and I had to send my long track around the south of the map and up to Moscow via Turkey. Not very efficient, but it was all I had left.

The game progressed, and we noticed people looking in the window at us, so we arranged the box so people could see the name of the game. And, during Ticket To Ride, people from the café came up to watch us and said “Oh, it’s a bit like Settlers/Risk” and I had to bite my tongue to not snap back “It’s nothing like Settlers/Risk!”

Near the end of the game, Judith discovered that unfinished route cards counted against any final score and so in a fit of sheer joie de vivre, she stocked up on extra route cards to try and counter the impact. In the end, she did finish in the black. By nine points. She still finished in last. I came fourth, one point behind Hannah and, amazingly, Adam and Tim came joint first. Adam was forced to go home rejoicing in a shared victory, whether he liked it or not!

By now, with our double-checking the scores and putting things away, the café was closing, with chairs already up on tables. We sallied forth into the central Bristol evening, having played a board game or two in full view of people, and the world didn’t come to an end! We must try it again sometime.

We gamed, we swore, we conked-out

Games weekends are to GNN what oases are to Nomadic tribes in the Sahara. A chance to group together, shelter from the harsh realities of life and, mostly, have a drink. This weekend was called to squeeze in as much gaming time into Anja and Steve's lives before the pitter patter of tiny feet starts waking them up at ungoldy hours.

I forgot my notebook, so my recollections may be vague or even just plain wrong. I managed to squeeze all the results onto both sides of an Agricola scoresheet, but in no particular order. In fact, there's one set of results that I don't know what the game is. It's the one with Ghent in it. That's all I remember about it, really.

We arrived at the cottage on Friday afternoon and soon noted how much smaller it was than the last one. Sure, it slept five quite comfortably, but we were entertaining up to nine (ten, including little one-year-old Tristan) so it was a bit of a squeeze. Plus, the bathroom was Condensation City, with the walls almost permanently wet.

No room in the fridge? Lucky it's cold outside!

The first issue on arrival was the curious situation of: no mobile signal, but we did have wifi. We were, at the same time, connected and yet not connected to the outside world. Adam went out to payphones and high hills, looking for a way to call people, but with no success. He ended up going all the way to Jon's house to tell him where the cottage was, but while Adam was out, Jon, Steve and Anja all arrived.

As for the games, what were the highlights?

In Ascending Empires, Jon spends ten minutes convincing Steve to attack Sam, not him. Finally persuaded, Steve flicks his ships in Sam's direction only to find he doesn't have enough firepower. When Steve challenged Jon on this point, Jon responded with "Why did you listen to me?"

My gaming achievement of an otherwise poor weekend was beating Sam twice at Mr Jack within three rounds, once as detective, once as evil killer. Meanwhile, Steve enjoyed Mr Jack but he criticised the game's lack of genuine Whitechapel atmosphere.

Mid-Cuba

Power Grid: In the final decisive round, Jon, Adam and Morag were chasing two houses. Bidding wars were fierce and when Jon found out he'd paid too much for the house and couldn't afford to power it, he simply bought up everyone else's fuel as a spoiling tactic, thus handing the win to the forward-planning Hannah.

Stanley's taste in films proved to be a hit.

Stanley was adorable when he explained how he didn't usually play all the rules to Ascending Empires because he was "a little bit smaller". He did, however, come third in a five player game of Carcassone (above Steve and Morag) and beat his sleepy dad at morning games of two-player Agricola and Carassone. I hope that made up for him having to eat on the floor because there wasn't a scrap of table-space left in the house.

Trans America. In the third round, three of us had cities in the north-east but it seems that each was waiting for the others to build there first, allowing Anja to take the round, go from third to first, and send us all crashing out. In terms of proportion, it was the biggest win of the weekend (Anja 7, Steve 14, Andrew 15, Sam 17).

The Resistance offered up it's usual mix of drama and disaster. Drunk, tired and emotional. That's my excuse for accidentally playing a success card in the final round, when I should've played a fail. These sort of things happen all the time in espionage. Also, why didn't we see the signs in game one when Adam went to check something in the instructions, and his hands were visibly shaking?

Fimo cows and wooden sheep

And after a very long Saturday, which involved swimming in the morning for some and ended in The Resistance until half past midnight, there wasn't much energy for gaming on Sunday morning. I slept until ten, and Adam and Stanley mostly played games on Adam's computer before we packed up and ended the weekend at Jon's house with a big brunch and a final few games.

As for the ultimate weekend winner, let us all throw our hats in the air and give a loud "huzzah" to Hannah, who won both points and points ratio to walk away as the undoubted champion. Sam won on the medal table.

Rooms for Manoeuvre

Back in the eighties raves were convened at short notice, and attendees would have to jump through a series of logistical hoops - picking up signals, signs and prompts - to get their fix of tabs, dancing, and seeing deities in a field. So it was again last night, as Joe, Andrew and I plumped for a little gaming session late in the day. 

First, I had to get the kids to sleep, so after a couple stories and some singing I was scraping the ice off the car, headed to Andrew's via the shop for a bottle of pale ale (see: tabs). Once there we played a quick game of Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, shovelling crisps into our mouths and waving our hands in the air. We both left it a little late picking up animals, as though we didn't want their faeces and hoofprints muddying up the place. After a last minute rush on sheep, I triumphed due to my magnificent collection of horses (5) and timber-built cottage:

Sam 26

Andrew 11

we parked the XR3 in a lay-by and jumped the fence

Just as we were counting up, the call came in. Joe's table had been cleared of condiments and he was good to go. We were in the car moments later, checking the rear view mirror for the bizzies and listening to 808 State. 

Joe had pulled the oldest trick in the book: he'd got a game out of the box already, so our dreams of High Frontier were checked at the door. The game in question was Africana, and as players we took on the role of colonialists pillaging the continent in question during the 1800s. It was a little bit Ticket to Ride-with-imperialism, as we set off on adventures (by placing our pieces on the correct starting point on the map) and completed them by being the first one to arrive at the end point. If that sounds overly competitive, well, there are several adventures at any one point so you can get yourself on more than one to weight the odds in your favour - something Joe seemed very adept at, as he led the early running.

You can also collect pages from a book that reward you for a single destination (ie the starting point is immaterial) and during the game your options are one from picking up cards, travel (using cards), or buy a page from the book. Joining an adventure doesn't take an action, you just have to be in right place on the board. 

this is what Toto were actually singing about

It's nice to look at, and reasonably quick to pick up. It's also hard to judge who's winning - both Andrew and I assumed from an early stage that Joe was walking away with it, but our late surges saw us both overtake him, with me grabbing a narrow victory:

Sam 53

Andrew 45

Joe 44

There was time for a short game, and with zero debate we chose Biblios, a game we've played a lot of recently without tiring of it. This one felt a canny affair, and I certainly had the perception halfway through the game that I had far too much gold in my hand and not enough colours. But Joe didn't have enough gold, and sacrificed his green cards to pick some up - I'm not sure what happened to Andrew...

Sam 8

Joe 6

Andrew 0

And with that, we called it a night, wending our way to Micheldever services for a carton of orange juice and a blueberry muffin.*

* at this point I should probably confess - in case you haven't guessed - I never went to a rave, and my dancing is a bit like this.

Lording it again

So this Monday it was just myself (Chris) and James to do battle over a table top. I was keen to play Lords of Waterdeep again and had given it to James to read the rules over the weekend. Learning from last week I didn't hang about with the quest making and bounded into a quick lead. James still feeling his way amassed adventurers (Or whatever they are called) and money. By mid game however, James had caught me up by putting his resources to good use and it became a lot more cat and mouse. Coming into the final round it really wasn't clear which way it was going to go. The key deciding factor was probably when I laid a Mandatory Quest on James with my second agent. (Sorry Andy but I like them and kept them in!) It was just enough to prevent him from completing an additional big quest.

The difference still was only 10 points in a keenly fought match. James was impressed, another LoW convert!

A familiar scene

We finished the night with Agricola - All creatures small and big. In this game I got my tactics all muddled and created a too restrictive farm, not allowing adequate space stick livestock. Across the table James had a well ordered farm bristling with baaing sheep and neighing horses. Although I recovered with a whole lot of pigs James took the winners rosette for best farm in show....

Not Another Agricola Report!

In the same way Andy Murray tournament finals arrive in a bunch after a long barren period so do game reports on Agricola. I had been looking forward to being the first person to report on Agricola - All creatures Big and Small when what d'you know, Mr Morrison of Bristolshire, pips me to the posting. 

My purchase was was never in doubt though. A two player version of a game I love, cheap, with rave reviews was always going to lighten my pocket. Paul agreed to play straight away after my 'reveal' and the rules were quickly digested. With our experience of the classic version, we found the game to play nice and quick save for our occasional moments of AP while we snuffled around for a good strategy. Early on I decided to get a few special buildings and an even spread of livestock. Paul went into sheep farming like a Welshmen with a fetish and in the end ran out of time (Which does come round quickly) before he could get any moo cows.

In the end my strategy bore out as I won 46 to 37

It had ended quite quickly and so we set it up again for a return match. This time Paul went to all livestock in a big way and romped to victory 53.5 to 35. The play time was much quicker and found we had a big enough window for yet another round, the decider! By now we were playing very rapidly and the strategies were much tighter as reflected in the final scoring. It was so close, a draw, and Paul winning by going second, that we did a recount. In the tally I noticed that I had a stall all covered in cows. A one point increase to me and 2 - 1 on the night.

Not Chris' house, but close enough.

We managed to squeeze in a very quick game of Nile before we made a dash for Paul's train.

Overall we both loved this version of Agricola. Andrew is right in the fact you can't do that much to influence each others game as such, but it is a game of subtlety and the order of which you place you workers is key.

All Creatures Great and Short

I've found with games that generally speaking the cheaper options don't tend to stand the test of time. There are exceptions of course, but for every No Thanks there are plenty like Sabateur and Archeology who get one play then are quietly traded away. So that was what was going through my head on my periodic visits to Area 51 as I eyed up Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small. Basically Agricola for two, this game leered at me with it's "look, only £25" price tag and the fact it was like Agricola, but simpler, shorter, and seemingly well-received on the geek. But I guess what finally clinched it for me was realising that at £25 it wasn't actually that cheap after all. Sold!

Andrew and I played tonight and I think we would both declare it a hit. Partly because you get the Agricola flavour without monopolising the evening, but also because without the worry of feeding your family the strategy shifts to a less complex but still engaging battle of wits - that involves the usual worker placement and building purchases but the pattern-forming aspect of how to utilise your farm to a greater degree than it's big brother.

The aim of the game in fact is to maximise your farm's animal population - as many as you can of the four available options. So all the buildings bar one are about animal storage and there's no corn or vegetables to been seen. It's Agricola-light to be sure, but rather than simply feel dilute there's a genuine  shift here to a game that stands alone on its own merit.

Our game was closer than the score suggests, as Andrew's building specialising and early farm expansion looked to have put him in the box seat, only for a dearth of cows and pigs to count against him in the final reckoning:

Sam 42
Andrew 35.5

Then we played Biblios! Andrew had his revenge in another testosterone-fuelled battle.

Andrew 9
Sam7

We called our deciding arm-wrestle a draw and I high-fived my way into the night.

Games! What kids do when they're not sniffing glue.