Then, once Adam, Steve and Anja, we decided on a couple of high-stakes games of Tsuro. High stakes because anyone coming last risks a massive seven points on the form table. As it was, people tended to crash out in pairs (you know, like Thelma and Louise or Bonnie and Clyde. That's how cool board games are) so that the worst anyone got was five points.
1. Steve
2. Adam
3= Anja
3= Sam
4= Chris
4= Andrew
5. Paul
1. Adam
2. Andrew
3. Steve
4= Paul
4= Sam
5= Chris
5= Anja
After this, we split into two groups. Sam, Steve, Paul and Anja chose Alhambra while Chris, Adam and myself decided on old pre-blog favourite Agricola. And the set-up of the shared table reflected the social standing of the themes involved. The Moorish nobility one side, building their towers, arcades and seraglios, took up two-thirds of the table in spacious luxury. Meanwhile, us three poor farmers crammed our various boards and cards into what was left of the table top.
I'll leave it for someone else to fill us in with the details of the game of Alhambra, but it ended thus:
Sam 120
Steve 103
Anja 100
Paul 77
Meanwhile, in Agricola, I made the early running by playing a couple of cards which loaded the board with wood and clay for me to collect. In fact, I was the only one to really make use of my occupations and minor improvements. Adam, however, is an old hand at this, and his early statement of "I love it when you get rubbish cards because then you don't have to think about them" is not to be dismissed lightly.
I ran out of steam towards the end, relying too much on killing livestock to feed my family, so those points went begging. Chris seemed to be in a good position mid-game, with a bit of everything. But he seemed haunted by his last game of Agricola where he scored only one point, and didn't seem convinced by Adam's and my "advice" to avoid options that we so obviously wanted for ourselves.
In the final round, Chris debated whether or not to make a choice solely to stop Adam from winning, or go for maximum points for himself. Of course, Adam told him how he could get maximum points, which Chris then did. After the points were counted up, we did wonder if choosing to stop Adam might have put Chris into second place, because of the number of begging cards Adam would've had to take. But instead it ended:
Adam 39
Andrew 30
Chris 22
But Agricola is a great game, and it's been too long since I last played it. Chris and I were a bit rusty on the rules at first, but soon got into the swing of things. Plus, the "Wild Boar!"* joke is still as funny as it ever was. And always will be.
Meanwhile, Jonny holds onto first place, despite a spirited last minute dash up the table by Adam. However, there may be one more games night before the end of the month, so it's not over yet. Joe might be able to squeeze an evening into his busy diary. In the meantime, the Form Table looks like this...
| Points | ||||||
| Jonny | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Quentin | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10** |
| Adam | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
| Steve | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| Andrew | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| Sam | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 14 |
| Joe | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| Hannah | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Anja | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
| Chris | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 22 |
| Paul | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
* said in the manner of "Wild Boys" by Duran Duran
** the decay rule – people with five results registered, after a while, will find their score go down one point per week if they don't attend for three weeks. It may sound harsh, but it stops the regulars getting resentful. If they attend another evening, all decay points are removed.
Ooh, good old Agricola. Did Adam really win by not playing any of his cards? If so I'm v. impressed.
ReplyDeleteHe played some toward the end. I did that thing of looking at them during the game and going, "Hmm, I should played that two turns ago."
ReplyDeleteAlhambra went like this:
ReplyDeletePaul and I made a reasonable conveyance of the rules - almost as if Joe had been there - to appraise Anja and refresh Steve. Then we played. It's such a simple game and so linear that there isn't much more to say than that, except for the orange cards reluctance to appear meant we watched a garden slowly rot for half of the game, and Paul suffered on the victory track for not developing his wall as much as the rest of us. I managed to get first place in Gardens and Chambers on the final round, which was enough to see me into first.
Very nice evening, thanks all.
Alhambra does a very good job of making the totting up of scores exciting, doesn't it? Although Agricola (and 7 Wonders etc.) has scoring over multiple categories, you're not competing for the top spot in those categories, and the shifting positions on the score track keeps you guessing (in most cases) until the last minute.
ReplyDeleteYeah, a good evening's gaming. Lets do it again tonight!
ReplyDeleteI played about four minor improvements after taking starting player or renovating, but all of my occupations were rubbish. Which was lucky as then I didn't spend time going "Hmm, I should have played that two turns ago" or using up food and turns to play them...
If Chris had gone for me on the last turn I'd have been eight food short with three people left to place - so if I picked up clay, bought a fireplace and ate most of my sheep I might have pipped Andrew. Still, extreme gentlemanliness from Mr Smith which left me quite humbled.
-and humbling Adam counts as a WIN
ReplyDeleteYou should be able to eat your family if you run out of food. If you think about it, in game terms it makes perfect sense; you're deprived of 3 points per family member that gets eaten, unless you manage to rebirth them before the game ends. One person can feed two family members, unless they were born in a harvest round in which case they can only feed one. I'm going to write to Uwe Rosenberg and suggest it.
ReplyDeleteWhat?
Hey yeah! Every game needs a cannibal holocaust variant...
ReplyDeleteHungry Hungry Hippos: Cannibal Holocaust! New from Hasbro.
ReplyDelete