Satisfying, but doesn't take too long...

Satisfying, but doesn’t take too long:

Agricola

Publisher: Lookout Games/Z-Man Games
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg

Agricola meteorically became the buzz board game a couple of years ago, and it’s popularity is still waxing strong.  It is a game about building up a little farm, and making sure you have a diverse range of produce at the same time as paying the costs of your expanding agrarian empire.

Each turn players use their family members to take actions available from the main board, these fall into two broad categories of either collecting resources, or using some combination of resources to add to your farm.  At the end of a round of turns, players must also pay the bills - in game terms this is food - for each of the family members.  

Because there is such a diverse range of resources available, and a wide-ranging array of ways in which to spend them, players can focus on particular strategies, some focusing on these aspects, some on those.  It is pleasing to see the small empire grow and expand, and it is also pleasing to be able to combine one aspect of that empire with another so that it allows you yet more choices, or scores you X more points.

Points are obviously the goal here, players gain or lose them against a wide range of conditions - grain, vegetables, sheep, boar, family members, stables and so forth.  This system rewards diversification over specialisation, but because there are so many paths a player can take to achieve a desired result, the game never really feels like, game after game, you’re just fine-tuning to achieve the perfect point scoring trajectory.

Agricola hit the hobby game world by storm, republished for the English market by Z-Man Games under a pre-order system from the original Lookout Edition, it quickly rose and rose and rose in game rankings and pre-order numbers.  As the dust settled, and the game became more widely available there was still a very strong and vocal fan base for the game, but there have also been criticisms over the years as well - only natural when something becomes very popular.

Some of the criticisms deal with the theme; the theme of farming is dull.  Some about the way the theme is carried out in the game; why, if I plant grain, can’t my neighbour also plant grain.  Some simply don’t like the game.  I’m not going to refute these criticisms, no game if perfect for everybody or right for every occasion (Ca$h and Gun$ in an airport lounge is probably a poor choice of game for example).  But for my wife and I this has become a very solid game that we both enjoy playing immensely.  I love all sorts of games, and feel that the euro-ameri divide popularised in forums is a touch silly - as if I all poems in iambic-pentameter are great but anything in haiku is the product of a diseased mind.

Agricola is not the be-all and end-all of games, for my wife and I though it really is a game that feels satisfying, but doesn’t take too long.  And for many nights, after the son has been put to bed (with much general complaint and many a request for ‘jumping’ time - he just loves to jump at the moment), such a game perfectly fits the bill.

We can think, plan, see our choices grow and change our little farmlets, watch the animals frolic in the fields, eat said animals when the time requires, talk, laugh, make eyes at each other across the table and generally enjoy a nice game, in great company.  It is a pleasant way to while away an evening, and doesn’t leave us with eyes bulging from lack of sleep when the lad rises with or before the sun on the next morning!



5 other games that feel satisfying, but don’t take too long:

• Elasund: First City of Catan
• Qwirkle
• Rivals of Catan
• Stone Age
• Yspahan

Since I am thinking of games my wife and I play - the list is skewed towards games that play well with 2, China is one I would have had on the list for sure otherwise!



If you have any other games to add - post them in the comments!  I’d love to read them!

A little game to take anywhere...

Last post I wrote briefly about the fact gamers like to categorise games. Over the next 5 posts I will review 5 games that fill subjective categories; the category titles are a little more descriptive of the context I think the games would suit. This is the first of the 5, a favourite game of mine:

A little game to take anywhere:

Fairy Tale

Published by Z-Man Games.

Designed by Satoshi Nakamura.

Fairy Tale is a short playing and quite simple card game.  Players draft cards into their hands over a series of 5 ‘pass and keep a card’ turns.  Once each player has drafted their hand of 5 cards, players simultaneously play a card, applying any card effects, then a second, with effects and a third.  The final two cards in a player’s hand are discarded.

The goal of the game is to end with the most points worth of cards face up. Simple. However, there is more than that to the game.  The card effects can cause players to turn cards face down, and allow them to turn them face up.  Most importantly is the fact that most cards are a part of a scoring network, cards feed off each other for points, some multiply their score by the number of cards of that type you have face up, others tie into different cards and score points if you also have x or y.

Cards can be used to force other players to turn cards face down, but the most important form of interaction in the game comes in the drafting phase - defensively taking cards that will score well for the player next to you is important.  Of course you also want to take the cards that will score you points.  This is the ‘horns of dilemma’ players must choose between, taking cards that benefit themselves, and taking cards that benefit others.

Once a player is familiar with the game and the card effects (something that doesn’t take more than a short game or two), games of Fairy Tale can be played from beginning to end in 15 minutes or less.  It’s not the deepest and richest tapestry of choice out there in the world of card games, but it is a fun little game, where choices directly impact what’s happening in the game, and is a highly enjoyable filler.  The small box, easy rules, and fun dynamic game-play make this the little game I take anywhere.




5 other games worth a mention for this category:

• Ra: The Dice Game
• Coloretto
• Roll Through the Ages
• Court of the Medici
• R-Eco

If you have any little games to take anywhere feel free to post them in the comments below!


(edited to add publisher and designer)


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Categories

Gamers love to categorise things.  Spend ten minutes searching through the game pages on boardgamegeek and you walk away, your head a-buzz with terms like: worker placement, card drafting, action points, deck building and so forth.

These terms can be very handy for describing different games, they provide a metalanguage for talking about the mechanisms and devices used to drive the game from beginning to end; that the players must manipulate in order to play well.

Gamers also love to categorise games for occasions - what’s the best spouse game, the best two-player game, the best game to play against squirrels (Go Nuts! btw), the best game to play with an apocalypse-obsessed Mayan prophet (anything with 2012 in the title to be avoided).  Of course, like any subjective attribution, these things can be more or less useful depending on how well they align with your expectations for that category heading.  

Over the next 5 posts I will review 5 games that fill subjective categories; the category titles are a little more descriptive of the context I think the games would suit.

Stay tuned... and if you think of any fun categories - feel free to add them in the comments as we go!

Preamble and welcome...

Welcome to the inaugural post on Castle by Moonlight.  I suppose the thing to do would be to kick off with an insightful and philosophically rich discussion of some topic or other.  However, doing this would lead to a level of expectation that would far outstrip my meagre abilities.  Such a post will happen, possibly, so you’d better subscribe now in case you miss it when/if it does!

No, this post I’ll focus on the basics.  My name is Giles Pritchard, found elsewhere on the interwebs under the nom-de-plume ‘caradoc’.  As my profile states, I’m a husband and father.  I teach in a primary school - which is challenging at times but also very rewarding.  I love board games among other hobbies.

Castle by Moonlight is a blog I’ve been contemplating for some time.  While you can find me on twitter, on the worlds biggest and best board game website - Boardgamegeek, and while I contribute to two excellent podcasts - The Dice Tower and On Board Games, I’ve always wanted an online space to post about a variety of things.

Castle by Moonlight will cover all those things I enjoy; a large part of what is posted will be about board games and the board gaming hobby, but I’ll also write about teaching, podcasts and podcasting, as well as various other miscellany of interest to me.

Why ‘Castle by Moonlight’?  When I started thinking about beginning a blog I wondered a lot about whether I would be able to maintain regular postings, what it should be about and importantly, what name it should assume.  Castle by Moonlight somewhat pompously refers to myself and my life (my castle as it were), and my reflections on those things that interest me.  I’m also something of a night-owl, and love taking my telescope out to look at the moon and the planets as they (appear to) move overhead.  While a large part of what will make up the content of this blog will be about board games, I didn’t want to pigeon-hole it to one topic, so I wanted something of a generic name.  I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with it, but I had to start somewhere.

In any case, this rather hum-drum preamble to my blog should wind up and make way for (hopefully) more interesting content.  If you have any suggestions, criticisms or comments - please feel free to leave them!

Giles.