Play Agricola Online 1-4 Players

Well, what do you know? It was bound to happen. Looks like someone figured it out.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/345804

Session Report: I am epic fail as a farmer.

Session Report: I arrived late. Apparently Scott, Brian and Sean played Glory to Rome and RftG while they waited for me. They had given up hope when I cam sauntering in late, with my work laden bag of heavy. And I joined them for a game of Agricola that had ALMOST started. And one game was followed by another, and another.....

But I am epic fail as a farmer. I really am. I do not do well at the game. EVER. I am the same mediocre player. Three games in a row of not doing well, with a personal high score in a multiplayer game of 35 :). I tried the grain and veg strategy. I tried the expand my family and home strategy. I tired the a little bit of everything strategy. And I fail. And yet i love the game. I really do. It is so much fun, and so utterly frustrating. So much love for the game. Almost as much as Tikal. One of these days I will win. One of these days.

Bonus Gaming

Early on we had Jon, Michael, Jacqui and I. So we broke out the Race expansion ... well the new homeworlds, anyway. Jacqui was the separatist colony (look at 2 extra cards during exploration, +1 military), Jon was the Ancient Race (Gene Windfall, only keep three cards instead of four at the start) and Michael was the Damaged Alien Factory (Alien Production world, but you have to discard a card to produce). Two of the new homeworlds are shown below. We didn't use the Doomed World...
I randomly rolled for my HW and got Epsilon Eridani (from the base set). I had a great hand, assuming that I got one more military, so I explored +5. Fortunately for me the opening was slow (with Jon trading and Michael producing). Early on, it seemed that we got into a ping-pong rhythm, two people trading one turn, the other two trading the next (since most everyone was on a windfall). Eventually things sorted out. Michael got out the trade league, a few other small planets and tourist world, so he could consume x2 vp and trade ("6 Cards, 6 VP, please"). Jon had put out an early Pan Galactic League (+2 VP per green world, +1 per military) and a contract specialist. The PGL paid off nicely, earning him more cards than he spent over the course of the game, as well as 12-ish VPs. I did get a reasonable start which included the mediocre new economy, but I needed a bit of luck (an explore +1, hoping to get a good card and a bonus card to spend paid off) and I got a huge piece of luck when Jacqui settled on the final turn that I developed, allowing me to end the game before Michael got in an 8 or 10 point consume. (I dropped New Galactic Order and the Lost Alien Battlefleet, for a total of 13 VPs. Those two items allowed me to eke out victory, 39 to 36.

We broke out Glory to Rome with Chris, but Tiffany arrived so we switched to Stage II. Michael has added to the list of categories where he has successfully stated the theme, but only as an off-hand comment and not an actual guess. He also got a theme on the first clue, when the correct answer was so awkwardly worded ... well, you try. The answer to the first question is "The left field fence at Fenway Park." I think Chris won, but I'm not sure. I lost, although I did get a few categories.

Next was celebrities. We did have a simpson, a superhero, but no muppets. We also had Oda Nobunga, Benjamin Disraeli, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, Han Solo (that was a brutal combination, all put in by one evil person), the surprisingly difficult 3rd rounder Tom Hanks (I considered putting in Otm Shank, but decided not to), Aaron Copeland, Bon Jovi, Peter Cottontail, Bugs Bunny (twice), the Trix Rabbit and Gregor Mendel.

After that the inevitable split occured. Jon and Michael got the band back together, with the help of some aspiring groupies (Thanks to J&M for letting Rebecca and Aidan play). The rest of us became farmhands. Chris quickly got out the devastating-looking occupation that let him pay to take the first action (and then let it revert to the start player and go around the table normally, so he could get his second action before anyone else got the first). But the real impact play was Tiffany's "You must pay me a food to go on the grain space." This froze that space out for most of the game ... which made my grocer (stack 8 goods, buy them one at a time for one food each) powerful, since the first or second item was a grain. I also dropped the outrider, who gives grain when you take the newest action. I quickly had two grain, and played some acreage (basically, two fields for grain) and had 3 grain fields before the second harvest. Combined with the master brewer (convert 1 grain to 3 food) and I was off to the races. Chris got the first family growth, but was on the bleeding edge of hunger. I got the next two family growths and never had problems feeding my family.

After that the full band played a set or two, and things dispersed... thanks to everyone for showing up!

Monday, Described

Scott and I showed up and chatted for a while ... nobody else was appearing, so we broke open Race. That worked, and soon there were five of us (Dennis, Sean and Travis). We held the first semi-irregular "Ted Kostek Memorial Beowulf game" where Dennis exhibited his typical poor strategy of choosing to fail the risks. (Actually, I think we got two rules wrong, so his loss is asterisked. He'll have to try again to get the official bad luck record). Just as we were putting this away Al arrived, so the circle was complete. We split into Baseball and Agricola.

I taught Al and Travis, Chris decided that work was optional (good choice) and off we went. I've got several plays under my belt (pushing ten, now) but there are so many occupations and improvements that I'm still seeing new cards each game. I think that there are critical points, but each game is different and still enjoyable. I've upped my rating to an '8', which still makes me one of the haters! Amazing. Al put out a pretty amazing engine to get extra clay and convert clay to food without actions, but I walked through the traffic and pulled out the win.

After that we played Modern Art. My strategy of only selling worthless paintings didn't work.

And then home we went.