Growing pains

On the trip back to the train station Paul admitted that he had been very tired this evening. We speculated that this might have been the reason why he had been in such fine playing form, posting two wins on the night. Was it possible that his weariness meant he had no other energy to draw and deflect away attention from formulating efficient strategies?..... Maybe.

We started off the first of tonights Bracknell league games with the crop building card game Nile. We had never played it with three before as it had previously always been a bit of a 2 player filler. James and I struggled to get crops planted of a diverse enough nature, whereas Paul gave a summary demonstration of crop rotation. I got stuck with a hand full of Papyrus and no chance to lay it as flood after flood of Papyrus came off the deck to prevent me from planting. After the third deck had been worked through our final harvest decks were revealed. Paul got at least two of everything where I was lacking in one type and James in two.

Paul - 2
Chris - 1
James - 0

Table cloth thematically sound

7 Wonders was happily unboxed next and the executive board decision was taken to use the B sides of the wonders. James got Giza with its appetising 20 points, Paul the Colossus of Rhodes, with only 2 stages, and mine was the Temple of Artemis with it's fairly uninspiring victory points.

Players strategies took a familiar path as sciences where largely ignored (By the end of age 2 I was the only player to have one) buildings quickly gobbled up and, Paul and I vying over the military.  In the third age Paul took the best guild which gave points for neighbours buildings and I was taking the best blue cards owing to the fact I was the only person that could use glassware. Luckily for me everyone was still ignoring sciences so I was able to add to my solitary one to make three of the same type and a valuable nine points.

Chris - 47
James - 41
Paul - 40

Finally we took on another game that up until now had only been played as a two player, Citadels. James and I were just working up to something that might have resembled tactics, if you cocked your head to one side, squinted and jumped up and down in a figure of 8 when Paul laid his 7th and 8th buildings. James and I had 4. Damn.

Paul - 27
Chris - 20
James -13


The table so far - Paul and James are joint second only separated by the order of the alphabet.

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Chris	4	4	2
James	3	3	4
Paul	3	3	4

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

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.

Paul makes his Point

Before the main meal of the evening in the form of Nexus Ops a few small game nibbles were partaken. Hey That's My Fish is becoming a firm favourite with us for its simple play and set up, and surprising depth for game that only cost me a tenner. After two quick games I had collected a victory in each but by only one point in the second game. After musing what the game would be like with two sets mixed in and 8 people playing (Septcon anyone?) we moved onto a new game Nile. 

Nile is a card game of fairly simple mechanics where you take on the mantle of an ancient farmer along the flood plains of the Nile. Your task is to plant crops and harvest them if you are lucky enough each turn. It has the feel of lots of other games merged into one. It plays very fast once you have the turn sequence down and there is a nice amount of stitching up that you can do. The scoring borrows from Euphrat and Tigris where you score your weakest crops first.

In the two games we played Paul won one 5 - 1 and I tipped my game 2 - 1.

So to Nexus. Paul got to take the sometimes powerful first turn and right from the off he was marching across the board spoiling for a fight like I had called his beer a shandy. Probably coming off better in regard to revealing bonus tiles, Paul's massing ranks were making headway into my controlled areas. In a futile attempt to stem the flow I tried to get in behind his defences only to see my away party squashed lazily like a dopey fly. Despite all that I still was managing to keep in touching distance. In a last ditch attempt at victory I went for all out attack taking on a series of soft targets to gain victory points to take my total to 12 (The winning amount). It all came down to one last roll. My warrior only needed to roll 2 or over on the D6. It came up a 1. The next round Paul's onslaught returned my posterior to me with and with it my crushed hopes and dreams…...