Friday, October 1, 2010

A farmer's life is for me...

Played Agricola for the second time in my life last night.  The first game I'd played left me wondering, the second has me hooked.  There's something wonderfully rewarding about watching your pastures and farmyards expand, watching your family grow, and seeing your crops and livestock become plentiful enough to sustain you through the winter.  I think I know what I want for my birthday this month.

Oh, and I realize I'm like 4 years behind all you serious gamers.  Sorry, I've been playing Acquire....

8 comments:

  1. DOOODE guess what the boys got me for my birthday ??? LE Havre... and then AND THEN... since then I have gotten to play it... 6 times... SIX in a week because everyone is really feeling it. I like Agricola but I like Le havre better actually, I find Le Havre to be more balanced, perhaps that's just me (although my group mostly agrees) :D

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  2. Agricola is better for two reasons (1) same or greater depth but SHORTER (2) watching a farm grow is funner than a collection of buildings and boats. It seems more organic (ha has)

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  3. That's odd... in principal you have a point. But having played both many times I can safely say regardless of logic, Le havre is more enjoyable for me. And interestingly about almost all of my gamer friends I have asked about it agreed (probably about 10-15 people)...

    The only one who didn't is the one who owns Agricola... and I suspect part of her hesitance to jump ship is the money she invested in Agricola. I find the luck of the cards can overly help/screw you over and that isn't so much an element in Le Havre.

    I would be very curious to know how many times have you played both? A Whether you own either game (aka which one or both). The logic about liking the one you have doesn't work for me because I said I like it more than Agricola after having played Agricola at least .. 6+ and Le Havre only twice and I didn't spend any money on the game it was a gift which takes away the 'influence' of supporting you financial output in what you say. :D

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  4. Perhaps you should have worded that... You like Agricola better for two reasons.. :D I can actually list many reasons why I think Le Havre is a better more strategic game... but it's just my opinion, hence I said I liked it better than Agricola rather than poopahing on the game itself :D

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  5. I have yet to play both enough to say who I agree with BUT... on Magda's side, the Occupation and Improvements can totally swing a game with the right combo. On Jeff's side, Le Havre takes FOREVER! That's why I've only played it 2.5 times (yes, we aborted a game as it was taking too long...)

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  6. Ah yes... BUT if you know how to play.. it's actually MUCH faster, like significantly less that the on the box time. Where as I have never seen Agricola be less than the time usually takes much longer than the 30mins per player.

    We played three player le havre, which is supposed to take 3 hours I think? in less than two including set up and put away. Each to their own, both are good games my point was I like playing Le Havre more :)

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  7. We've never managed the full version of Le Havre, just the short version. And that is still a long game. It's rare trying to cajole my wife into a three hour complex game . . . so I'm very cautious about buying them now.

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  8. hu we played the 5 player short version and it took 2 hours.. with one person who had never played before. The problem I think people are running into is at least one person need to really know how to play. Even better if you all know how. It's kinda like Caylus like that.
    One thing that made a huge difference on time was set up and clean up we put all the resources in little tub we just open and put on the board.

    All that said the first couple of times we played it was long as fuck. :) fortunately I enjoyed it.

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