It's Alarming How Charming It Is To Be A-Farming...

Agricola (board game) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

...was a lyric from a Who album from long ago which was running through my head on Saturday night as, after a delicious meal, we returned to Uwe Rosenberg's "Agricola", one of the highest rated games on Boardgamegeek.

This time we played my friend "Paultro"'s highly "pimped" copy with all its "animeeples" and "vegimeeples" including three different types of wooden piece representing food which is simply a cardboard disc in the original version.

I commented that I really like the game (I have my own copy in fact) but never seem to score very highly. I then made the mistake of saying that I always get the same score. This was asking for trouble and sure enough I ended up with a score one lower this time, surprisingly equalling Paultro's own, as I had thought he was doing rather better than me. On this occasion his brother had played much better and beat us by a considerable margin with Paultro's partner coming second. I was thus joint last again and continuing my losing streak.

I

The german game designer Uwe Rosenberg at the games fair "Spiel 09" at Essen, Germany. Deutsch: Der Spieleautor Uwe Rosenberg auf der Spiel 09 in Essen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

very much enjoyed the game though and it was interesting to vary my strategy this time, playing more cards (minor improvements and occupations) than I normally do. The lady of the house scored highly on family members at the end, which is a strategy she's used before while Paultro looked to have a well-fenced livestock ranch. I belatedly got into arable farming and had very little fenced losing me a number of minus points for empty spaces on my board. The winner also picked up a number of good points for having stone rooms, something the rest of us hadn't got as far as building.

Agricola (Photo credit: Will Merydith)

 I once again found it very satisfying to play, with at every turn, multiple options I would have liked to take but having to select just two or three. With hindsight I probably should have played fewer cards, one of which for instance never got used at all.

"'Gric" was followed by a filler new to all of us but one that has actually been around since 1997 and quite highly rated on "The 'Geek": For Sale

This is by Stefan Dorra and, while not very popular with our female gamer, the rest of us found it a nice game to round off with.

It's a game that refines auction games to their essence and does its very basic job simply and well. None of us were very confident at first. The question of whether to bid high or low is not obvious, given that you don't know what the other chap is going to do, and it is a game of bluff and counter bluff. Do you hold back when a desirable card comes up because you know it will attract big, perhaps bigger, bids or will you find everyone thought the same thing and you could have acquired it for next to nothing?

Animal from boardgame Agricola Deutsch: Spielfigur aus dem Brettspiel Agricola (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Agricola winner also ran away with the first "For Sale" but I was unexpectedly lucky with the timing of my opponents bids in the second half of the final game.

Another smashing evening with the "Goldstone Gamers" rounded off with another cup of tea and some delicious home-made cake.

Animal from boardgame Agricola Deutsch: Spielfigur aus dem Brettspiel Agricola (Photo credit: Wikipedia)