inconsequential ruminations

This brought back a few childhood memories.

Three of us played Agricola for the first time last night. Chris bought an expensive, but really nicely made, set of paste-ups from Andy Merritt. I hope that Z-Man sell the cards separately, so he does not have to buy another set.

Agricola is as good as advertised. I see no reason to play Caylus again. I have been thinking about it ever since.

This is the fourth Uwe Rosenburg game I have played (Bohnanza, Babel, Schnäppchen Jagd) and the only one I have liked. I did not think he had it in him.

The rules are simple enough, but understanding how to play well is tough. Luckily Chris had played the solitaire Flash version and several two player games, so he was able to stop us getting frustrated.

As others have said, the best thing about Agricola is that it manages to be both an intricate “system game”, while being very thematic. Frank Branham’s comments about the game are spot on as usual, although I totally disagree with his comments about the Geek.

Some have criticised it for being multiplayer solitaire, which is a valid point, but the competition for actions stops that being a problem for me. Also, Chris Farrell makes the criticism that this is a fixed-fun game, so better with fewer players, but this just makes me think I should buy it so I can play it with Vanessa.

If you want some more (better written) comments and a nice summary of the mechanics, check out the Spotlightongames review.

9/10 for now.