First Play: Caverna (or Agricola: The Dwarf Edition)....

Agricola is definitely an obsession forming game, deep, complex, but utterly thematic with tons of variety.  It was sort of the start of Uwe Rosenberg's nose dive into complexity.  I mean, to think this guy designed great the great card games Bohnanza and Bargain Hunter and now he churns out crazily involved titles like Le Havre and At The Gates of Loyang!  Caverna definitely feels most similar to Agricola and much of the game is nearly the same.  But after muddling through one game, this definitely feels like a tribute to the Uwe fans - tons of rules exceptions, a million things to have to read at all times, and way, way too many choices.  In fact, I think teaching this to someone who hasn't played Agricola probably isn't the best idea.

So.  Many.  Action spaces!

Having said that, I enjoyed my first play but did terribly in the final scoring, despite thinking I was handling my own.  Turns out the "fingers in every pie" strategy that Agricola is known for doesn't actually work that well in Caverna.  This game actually favours some specialization.  And there are some interesting new elements - dwarf characters who go on expeditions and return with tons of loot.  But even there, near the end of the game with a high valued dwarf it's possible to have to pick 4 different rewards (resources, land, animals, etc.) from a possible 16.  And then if you pick a room for your home, you are looking at 40+ choices depending on what you have.

So.  Many.  Rewards and ruby uses!

 Honestly, I found myself just building things I could afford because the choices were too numerous.  Instead of planning ahead, I'd instead take actions and build rooms with the mindset that things fit with the direction I was going.  I find the same issue arises in Glass Road, another recent and very enjoyable Uwe game.  There are just too many options in one turn that you just end up doing what's easiest.  It seems to foster less strategy.  At least with Agricola you have one hand of cards.  That's it.  Deal with those.  Imagine having the whole deck face up and at your disposal every turn....

So.  Many.  ROOMS!!!!!

Despite the criticisms, I'd like to play it again.  The game feels more like a sandbox than any of his other games, building and playing in any direction your heart desires.  Choices piled upon choices.

But after a 2-hour game with 3 people, I will never, ever play with the maximum of 7.  Ridiculous.

Home Sweet Home.

Board Game Bash 2014

Coming up on Feb 17th, 2014 (aka "Family Day" in Ontario, Canada) the Kitchener-Waterloo region will be having its first ever board game convention. The event is called the BOARD GAME BASH. Emmanuel Bible College will be hosting the event (100 Fergus Ave., Kitchener, ON). The event will feature some fun tournaments (including a Android: Netrunner tournament at 5pm) and lots of open gaming. We will have a board game lending library free of charge to play games at the event. Also, we will be highlighting some amazing games from our sponsors with some scheduled demo's. FunGamesCafe.Com will have a retail booth setup from 12-6pm so you can purchase that amazing game you just tried in the lending library or demo. FunGamesCafe is offering free pickup for anyone who wants to purchase a specific game and pick it up at the event. Also, the BOARD GAME BASH will be giving away some amazing door prizes at different times throughout the day. And hopefully we will arrange a free math trade for the event too.

MORE INFO AT: BOARDGAMEBASH.CA

Poster below. Please help spread the word. Save the picture and post it on Facebook. Print it out and post it.

First Play: Copycat....

The hobby gaming obsession has exploded so much so over the past decade that many games have come out with themes and mechanics that reflect humourously on hobby gaming itself.  And there's so many of us suckers now that these games are even finding a market - The Boardgamegeek Game and Cleopatra's Caboose are prime examples.  Copycat, by the brilliant and weird Friedemann Friese of Power Grid and Black Friday fame, is another prime example of this.  Friese decided he wanted to steal mechanics from the top-rated games on BGG and put 'em together to create something new.  Of course, this is a not-so-subtle commentary on the endless variations of modern game mechanics that we're seeing over and over - worker placement, deck-building, you name it.  So Copycat steals the worker-placement/action card reveal from Agricola, the deck-building and coins for buying from Dominion, increasing values of unused actions from Puerto Rico, and the sliding card row from Through the Ages as well as tossing a few more clever ideas into the mix.

Red cards are useless, you know, like licenses and degrees and stuff

And I daresay that my first play of this was rather magnificent!  Once the fog had lifted from trying to parse yet another confusing Friese and Rio Grande ruleset, we really started to get into the game.  Not knowing what I was doing and not knowing that money would be really hard to come by later, I tried my classic "Chapel" strategy from Dominion of burning down my deck and then building it back up.  Unfortunately I used more actions burning my deck then building it and so had to play catch up in the end game.  But man was this fun.  Long-term strategy from the deck-building and deep challenging tactical play every round from the action spaces and the cards on hand.  And a devious decision every round for turn order - which card to give up from a hand of only 5?  Delicious.  I'm looking forward to my next play of this, I must say, and seriously considering owning a copy myself.  Highly recommended, especially if Agricola and Dominion float your boat.

And you don't have to feed your family!!!!

Action spaces and "campaign workers"

UPDATE:  2-player game is way too easy.  Fun but devoid of tension.  4-player is excellent and illustrates the many ways to scoop points.  But for length of play I think 3 players is just right. 

On The Horizon: the latest Friedemann Friese project...

The ever-strange and creative inventor of Power Grid and Black Friday has decided to create a board game using mechanics from the top ten board games of all time on BGG.  That would include the worker placement from Agricola, the card purchase from Through The Ages, deck-building from Dominion, the card-drafting from 7 Wonders, turn-order from (you guessed it!) Power Grid, and the action selection from Puerto Rico.  Huh.  Okay, I'll bite.  I'm interested to see how all this comes together....

You can see him talk about his schizophrenic design here.

Short thoughts on 'In The Year of The Dragon'...

If the brutally cutthroat Age of Steam hooked up with Princes of Florence and its very limited actions and then had a really Euro baby that was delivered by the balls-against-the-wall Agricola, you'd probably get something like ITYOTD.  It's painful, viciously strategic, and pared down to its brutal agonizing essence.  I like it.  A LOT. 
In my second game I was nice and didn't starve two other players of rice which would have killed the majority of their people.  For that I lost to both of them.  Lesson learned.


TOTALLY UNRELATED SIDE NOTE:  Stephen Finn of Dr. Finn's Games is trying to get some honest feedback on the design of his upcoming game Merchant of Death.  And he's giving away a bunch of free copies of his great card game Biblios in a contest for anyone who responds.  Check it out here and help out a great indy game developer.

Ah, the life of a farmer...

I haven't blogged as much lately as work is taking up all my time (egads, I sound like such an old man!)  But still the occasional game gets played.  Even yesterday after a full day at the office then teaching two classes at the gym, my friends were kind enough to hold the game of Agricola till I got there at 9:15 pm.  In the last couple months, this game has vaulted in to my top 5 games of all time.  The variety is endless and the tension is agonizing right up to the very end in EVERY game. 

I was reminded after this latest game of an awesome article I'd read a few months back by DC Gamer.  He took a picture of his farm at the end of the game and decided to write a history of the family.

An excerpt:

The fate of the entire budding family would change suddenly in the Winter of 1672 when Andrea, mother of three newborns, decided to brave a second visit to the haunted quarry. Having escaped the first visit with merely a couple crop circles to show for it, she was emboldened and grew perhaps a bit too daring. The extraterrestrial visitors mistook Andrea for Han Solo and froze her in carbonite. The family was devastated. Andrea, who had worked so hard to gather food, plow the fields, and grow her families home, was gone, shipped off to the ruthless Jabba the Hutt to serve his bidding. Never one to mourn in vain, Titus spent the remainder of the Winter building a Well in his departed wife's honor, so that he could feed the children she'd left behind. Learning from his mother's mistake, Bradford visited a more distant, but safer, quarry to gather stone for building a Joinery and a Basketmaker's Workshop so the family could build furniture out of wood and baskets out of reeds, both of which they could exchange for food during the harvest.

Gotta love the X-deck......

How to scare a newbie...

Wanna learn a game about farming?  Seriously, it's really easy!

You tell me: your most played games....

Writing a blog about board games means one should try and play a variety of games, not only to remain knowledgable and up-to-date, but also so one doesn't keep posting about the same damn things all the time.  Unfortunately, our group of friends tend to get hooked on certain games.  There was a good 5-6 months where we ONLY played Dominion and for the last  year or so every evening has ended with a couple hours of Tichu.  This last month I've found that all I've wanted to play was Agricola (which is quickly becoming an all-time favourite, up there with Ticket To Ride and Acquire). 

What game is your group obsessed with?  Which games do you keep going back to night after night?

RELATED:  Dominion: Prosperity is now available and I can't help but want to play it.  More treasure and bigger points could get us back into Dominion....

How to explain the first game of Agricola to beginners...

Don't tell them how the final scoring works until... well... the final scoring.  Trust me.  I now have a partner willing and interested in playing Agricola a second time.   YES!!!

Oh and don't tell them how each action works either until they ACTUALLY have the option to take the action.  Seriously.

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....

Agricola: hated the first half, loved the second....

FINALLY got a chance to play a game of Agricola last night (which I choose to pronounce like Pensacola, btw). The first rules explanation was absolutely overwhelming, I must say. It was complex to the point of ridiculousness and were about ready to give up before we even started playing. And I've read the rules before! And we were playing the Family version!!! In fact, the rules explanation and game setup took about as long as the actual game (see picture above for all the friggin' pieces....). Suffice to say, my first impressions were not good.

That confused fog followed us through about the first half of the game and then, like magic, things just started to click. The wheels started turning and all of sudden I was having quite a good time making some very painful decisions. By the end, I was enthralled, trying to make room for some cattle by building fences and trying to gather enough stone to upgrade my house for some big points. Neither happened but I happily placed second by 1 point thanks to my, er, overly "active" parents making lots of babies (see my completed happy farm below).


I like this game. A lot. I'd love to play it again, and then again, and then maybe the expert version with the cards. Will I buy it? Probably not. I really don't think my group will have the patience to learn it. I'd love it if we could get into it but I just don't see it happening. This made the rules of Age of Steam seem like kid's play and my group would barely sit through that. I think I need to find more patient friends....

Farming, farming, farming...

So I've been eyeing Uwe Rosenberg's highly rated farming game Agricola for awhile now but it just seemed too complicated to teach to my group of friends (we play a lot of Alhambra and Ticket to Ride...) That and I own Caylus and Stone Age so I'm not sure if it was necessary. Now I've been reading up on Rosenberg's Le Havre which sounds like a simpler and some say better Agricola version 2.0. Maybe I'll just go with with that one. Tom Vasel claims it is the best game of the past year. Any thoughts?

Or I suppose I could just wait for the third in Rosenberg's farming series - At the Gates of Loyang. Oh, if only money grew on trees (or in fields and pastures...)