Game(s) Played:
Session – Ora Et Labora
Game: Ora Et Labora
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
Players: 1 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 180 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Worker Placement
Player(s):
We haven't played a heavy euro game (anything that takes more than 2 hours average) since the end of 2013 when we last played Caverna. This is largely due to the time commitment required which would result in the chosen game being the one & only game we would get to play for that month's session. I've talked about playing Ora Et Labora with Gideon, Edward & Moses before and it has kind of been sitting in the wings for a few months now. Since our regular meeting spot was having an event later in the morning (poor administration by yours truly as the organizer), we decided to reconvene in my own home and go ahead with Ora Et Labora since we were now in a more cosy setting. Joining us today is a new friend, Liew, who found out about our meetup through a new facebook group I put my event up on, "Boardgame Stragglers 2.0 Event Page".
I've finally gotten the tools needed to do a proper timelapse video. Sadly my battery ran out about halfway through the game and I should have pulled back the focus to encompass more of the gaming table. Some points for me to learn for future recordings. Without further ado, here is a timelapse of half our game of Ora Et Labora. I haven't levelled up sufficiently to figure out how to put in the respective Player's scores at the end. Ideally for certain types of games, I would like to put in a score tracker as well although the nature of a timelapse video might make this feat one degree shy of being impossible.
In a change of format from the usual, let's go straight into who won our match of Ora Et Labora!
Results Of Game(s)
My end game heartland state
The Peat Coal Kiln (gives Peat Coal) and the Fuel Merchant (sell Peat Coal for $$$) were my two buddy buildings, giving me a nice 8 coin surplus every two actions and then using my Prior to build and take a simultaneous action. My job thereafter was to try and create synergy between my Settlements and being absolutely annoying to Moses by building the buildings he wants that I couldn't use and using his Prior every chance I got.
Liew's super lean but efficient heartland
Liew had two really good buildings: the Priory (which allowed him to use any building with a Prior in it) and the Harbor Promenade which gave him wine to use other Player's buildings for the wine. In the end it was the Shipyard that gave him the necessary Ornaments (4 VP) to turn into Reliquaries (8 VP) and pull out the win.
Moses' heartland with lots of space
Moses focused on buildings that gave lots of stuff like the Builders' Market (Pay 2 Coins for stuff) & the Financed Estate (Convert 1 Coin for stuff). This was to help him forge ahead with his Wonder strategy and technically he should have been the first to get a Wonder but me building the Chamber of Wonders seemed to have tilted him enough that he never really recovered, sacrificing opportunities to build Settlements, getting into expansion late but getting a slight recovery by building the Palace (net surplus of 15 VPs).
Edward's super busy, packed to the forests heartland
Edward was the first to trade 13 different goods for 1 Wonder using my Chamber of Wonders. But I think he shifted focus towards having enough fuel & food for his Settlements and never really geared up to get another Wonder. His was the most clogged Heartland and was literally clearing as he built.
The actual results will shock you
Winner – Liew (176 VPs)
Second – Moses (162 VPs)
Third – Edward (151 VPs)
DISQUALIFIED – Justin (176 VPs)
Whilst I was writing out my tips for the "Play Better" segment, I was going through my pictures and if you are familiar with Ora Et Labora but missed it the first time, you should scroll up to the first picture of my end game to discover why I was going "Oh no, oh no, oh no" and ended up DQing myself.
TIP #1 – Money Is Super Important
Photoshop skills lacking
If you're absolutely new to Ora Et Labora and are not sure which of the 6 basic goods you should be aiming for, I suggest that you keep an eye out for opportunities to make lots of Coin. The rationale behind this is that Coin is the means with which all built buildings in a game become available for your use. You may have been a step too late to snatch a building from another Player but by palming that Player a Coin, the function of the building remains open for your use. Having Coin basically means that you have that many more Actions available to you each turn.
Aside from also needing Coin to expand your territories (the cost increases as supply diminishes), it can also be a strategic move to block another Player's bonus action with their Prior. Bonus actions are covered in Tip #2.
TIP #2 – Bonus Actions Can Give You A Real Edge
The Prior, or the "Dude With The Hat" as we call him, has a really important hat
Under normal rules, building a building card and placing a clergyman into a building to use its function are two separate actions. However, the Dude With The Hat (DWTH) has a bonus action whereby if you haven't used him yet, you can build a building card and immediately place the DWTH into the newly built building and use its function, saving you an extra turn. More importantly, if another Player only has his DWTH available, you can force that Player to use his DWTH by paying the Player a Coin to use any one of the Player's buildings, thereby denying the Player the bonus action of the DWTH. Also, you get to really tilt someone like Moses.
More Bonus Actions are available in some buildings
There are quite a number of buildings in the game that allow you to take bonus actions, many of them coming particularly from Cloister (yellow colored) buildings which have a special rule of needing to be built adjacent to another Cloister building. Sadly I failed to observe this rule and having committed the cardinal sin of cheating in a boardgame, have disqualified myself in the results. You probably don't need to have ALL the bonus action buildings, but you should leave some space to be able to build the Cloister buildings adjacent to one another if you do intend to have a few of them.
TIP #3 – Three Ways To Win
Wonder or Settlement, Wonder or Settlement, Wonder of Settlement
From the scoresheet above, you can see that only two things give VPs which are buildings and goods. If you are a new Player, I would suggest that you focus on one or the other. Personally I feel that focusing on Settlement synergy like what you see in the picture above is an easier goal to accomplish than trying to get Wonders as the major factors in a Settlement strategy are within your control such as expansion planning for your Heartland and having your own personal set of Settlements that you don't have to contend with other Players for. A goods strategy is of course just as viable, but you really need to do a lot of min/maxing each turn to ensure that you're getting the most VPs out of every turn you take. A really good Player, like what I suspect Liew is, will make sure that he never ignores the round to build the best Settlement he can and also aims for high VP goods like the Wonder and Reliquaries.
TIP #4 – Set Aside For A Rainy Day
Wonder or Settlement, Wonder or Settlement, Wonder of Settlement
Setting aside the required food & fuel for the Settlement you intend to build is the easiest way to ensure that you never miss an opportunity to build a Settlement in the 5 Settlement rounds. Particularly closer towards the ending rounds of the game where the multitude of options can bog the mind down, it is easier to set it aside and forget about it until the Settlement round is triggered. Of course, make sure you have the appropriate space on the board for the location of your Settlement as well.
So much AP in this game
Ora Et Labora feels like the second lesser known game by designer Uwe Rosenberg after Merkator. This is perhaps because the production value of the game was noticeably poorer compared to previous titles, especially with the paper thin boards, rulebook and reports of missing punch out boards in many copies. Many felt this was the result of Z-Man Games being bought over by Filosofia, which was perhaps more apparent as Z-Man Games was an incredibly customer oriented outfit when it was run solely by its original owner, Zev Shlasinger.
I love this game. It has so much to offer in terms of variability, strategy, player interaction and has the right dose of AP in it. Yes the production values were absolute crap but this was nicely fixed by simply laminating all the Player boards and the Player cheat sheet. There is a lot of logic in the goods interactions, building interactions as well as global interaction as well in that the game forces you to be fully aware of everyone's board state.
I probably like Ora Et Labora just as much as Caverna: The Cave Farmers. The only game I might like more than Ora Et Labora (apart from A Feast For Odin, which I have not played yet) is if Le Havre and Ora Et Labora got married and had a baby.
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
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