Raanana Session Report, in which I teach Agricola

Participants: Laurie, Jon, Daniel, Rochelle

Ellis was in the middle of moving. He should be back next week.

Race for the Galaxy

Laurie 40, Jon 38

I arrived early and Laurie chose this as a two-player game for us. We played with no specific two-player rules, just one role each round.

I picked too many 6 point cards early on and had to toss most of them out. Still, I didn't fare too badly. I played the 6 pointer that makes other developments cost 2 less early on, and then I mistaken played a development which I thought gave me another 2 discount on further developments, but I noticed later that it gave 2 discount on worlds, not developments. That put a kink in my plans.

Laurie meanwhile started taking victory points early and ended the game when I only had 9 buildings out. My second mistake was not to realize that this was going to happen and to build in what was sure to be the last round, instead of uselessly produce. Really, the only thing that bothers me about this game is the way that it suddenly ends and the way one player can rush the ending out under another. I would like the game a lot more if it simply went 12 rounds or something.

Agricola

Daniel 34, Jon 29, Laurie 26, Rochelle 23

We started the explanation for this at around 8:30 and finished the game at just before 12. It's an odd game in that it has a lot to explain, and even during the game there is a sense of being overwhelmed, but the basic flow is easy to grasp. This is in contrast to other games that are difficult to explain but not overwhelming once the game is in play, like Princes of Florence, or remain overwhelming and also hard to understand the flow, like Puerto Rico.

Daniel insisted that we draw and keep our fourteen cards, rather than do something to ameliorate the luck factor, since it would only do to help the newer players. In fact, I drew reasonably well; nobody had any real game killers.

I played unusually with a lot of occupations and minor improvements, all of which helped me get points but not food. I didn't have a good food engine and so occasionally had to scramble for food at the last moment. I played a card early on that gave me four wood but also gave any player who ended the game without any negative points a five point bonus. That seems like overkill, since the person who has no negative points is typically winning anyway. I often end the game with no negative points, so I thought it couldn't hurt me.

Unfortunately, in the last two rounds when I needed at least one of the Plow actions (I had an improvement that let me plow three fields, rather than one), both were taken before I could get them. Not only did this leave me with negative spaces, it also left me scrambling for food, lacking points in the food items (I was also going to plow them, and no one else could effectively plow), and forced me to give up several other items since I had to use my actions elsewhere. It represented at least a 10 point loss for me.

Laurie also experienced people blocking what she needed on various occasions. She finally took the Start Player action, but didn't feel like it did much for her. Daniel is the only one who finished with no negative points, and the five points he got from my occupation card handed him the clear victory.

Day 18: Shabbat in Dallas

Shabbat

Shabbat was with my friend David. He made a vegetarian meal for us (pizza, with a tofu one for me). Friday night we also went to a "tish" reception for a visiting rabbi. Many of the other synagogue members were away for another member's wedding (or something), so it was a low-key reception.

At the tish the ewish geography was thick. I think there comes a point in Jewish geography when it's just a way of turning the conversation back to yourself. "I went to Cornell and ..." "(interrupting) Oh! I have a cousin who went to Cornell!"

Lunch and several shiurim at the synagogue, and I still felt sick, so I slept for nearly the rest of shabbat. We packed up and raced back to BGG.con with the expectation that I was supposed to finish up the scoring and present the award for Spare Squares.

Back at the Con

Like my arrival on Tuesday, everything was already done by the time I got back. Participation in the game was good (over 50 submissions). Most of the entries were in track A, which had 12 perfect scores. The rest were in the other tracks, each of which had a single winner. Owing to wanting to get through the awards ceremony as quickly as possible, Aldie simply announced the winners. I didn't get to tell a joke I had prepared for the announcements.

Still, I shook hands with the winners and heard some good things about the game, which appeared (despite the color problem) to have gone fairly well.

After this, I finally got in touch with the remaining people who were selling me used games.

Nadine and I played a game of Agricola with Jim Ginn and Chris Brooks. Jim played some amazing food production cards, but didn't follow through with the rest of the goods (animals, farm spaces, etc). Nadine didn't seem to move anywhere, except for her clay house. Chris did well with animals and house, etc, but I managed to squeak a 2 point victory over him in the end.

It was a good game, especially the company. Chris and Jim are just two of the nicest people I know.

We left early to go back to the hotel room, eat some kosher frozen dinners, repack for tomorrow, and sleep.

Raanana Session Report in which Abraham wins Agricola because he had better cards

Participants: Jon, Abraham, Ellis, Peleg

Quest Adventure Cards

I promised the company who sent me this game to give this a review. I had tried it once before and found it lacking, so I was determined to try it one more time. It was still lacking.

Abraham and I gamely gave it a go. We drew random cards and played them whenever we could. We ran into some rules questions, which didn't matter too much.

And then, simply by luck, the game ended before we could score the  last quest, which resulted in a tie. Even though I was winning by a great number of points. Even if Abraham could have ended it, he had no incentive to do so.

Agricola

Abraham 39, Jon 24, Ellis 24, Peleg 21

First plays for Ellis and Peleg, something like third or fourth play for Abraham.

I found it a challenge to explain the game as simply as possible, even though Ellis and Peleg are both pretty smart gamers. But we started without too much trouble and everything ran pretty smoothly. Still, a few finer points of the scoring rules tripped at least Ellis up around the game's end.

Since it was the first play for two out of the four players, we simply dealt 7 occupations and minor improvements to each player, rather than do any kind of draft, which is what we would normally (and really must) do. As a result, everyone but Abraham had one or two good cards and the rest mediocre of useless cards. Abraham ended up with god-like cards, including a free early family member, lots of free early food (and the Well, nearly for free), and bonus points up the wazoo.

Abraham scored more bonus points than I've ever seen in a game - 19, but we all really thought he would be scoring even more than that. As we watched them pile up, I was sure that he was at least 10 to 20 points ahead of the nearest competitor, who I was pretty sure was me. (In fact, he would have scored another 5 bonus points if everyone didn't allow me to take back a play I made on the last round in favor of a better play that blocked him.)

Abraham's board was complete, but mostly minimum, and he scored only 12 points for people and nothing for buildings. Ellis also had an even, mostly minimum board with a full people count but only 1 bonus point. Peleg also had an even, minimum board, but he had 8 empty board spaces, which counteracted his 4 room stone house. And only 1 bonus point. I had minimum in most things, maximum vegetables, a full board, a clay house, full people, and 8 bonus points.

Ellis wasn't looking terribly impressed, mostly because Abraham had a good early lead from his cards and there wasn't much we could do about it. However, the prospect of drafting cards appeared to spark his interest in giving the game another go.