Session - Agricola & Through The Ages

1st & 2nd of October (Saturday & Sunday)

Game(s) Played:
Agricola


Through The Ages



Player(s):
Milo
Nitsuj
Mo

Session – Agricola
My sibs decided to buy me a boardgame for my birthday and I decided on Agricola! Agricola was probably one of the first few games I wanted to purchase but always held off because, well, what can be so great about farming? That and the fact that somehow it was just never in stock (I should have put two and two together at this point but hey, I was a newbie boardgamer then).

The whole bunch of us tried to drop by the local FLGS (yes BGC now has a physical store!) on Saturday morning but due to miscommunication the store would only be open in the afternoon. Da Panda and Mo had plans so Milo followed me again in the afternoon (I’m so never say die) and helped me break in Agricola by punching the bits and going “oooh” and “aaah” over the little animeeples and veggiemeeples. When it was all sorted out, we gave Agricola its first run by playing the family version (no minor improvements and no occupation cards).

Milo seemed to enjoy herself and mostly copied the things that I built. Unfortunately in Agricola it is better for you to be doing something that no one else is doing due to limited resources and actions. Nevertheless it was a good first game just to get the feel for it. I’ve never played the game before myself but knew it was one of those games that rewards Players for doing a little bit of everything. Our end scores were close but I ended up winning the first game, although we both lost some points for not full utilizing all the fields in our farmyard.

This is Milo’s farm, I didn’t notice that she had split her fields into two which is actually against the rules but what the heck

And this is my farm with all the animals I needed plus the extra cow living in my house. The animals really solved my food woes

Here’s the layout of the whole play area, it does occupy a fair bit of space now that I look at it

My favourite storage solution, which still requires me to cannibalize my Brink of War & Rebel vs Alliance boxes in other to be able to store everything. This game can come with a LOT of meeples

Results Of Game 1
Winna – Nitsuj (26 Points)
2nd – Milo (22 Points)

I played my next game with Mo the next day, looks like only Da Panda has been left out so far. This time I used the back of the board to teach Mo how to play the game (ingenious design idea) and we decided to play occupations and minor improvements form the E deck for starters. Mo took to Agricola easily by carefully maxing all the scoring elements, netting a full 43 points in his first game. This was mostly my fault for not challenging the start player position with him after he took it away from me as well as his minor improvement that doubles up pasture space. I played slightly better than I did the day before but ultimately didn’t block Mo enough to stop him bulldozing over me.

This was Mo’s farm with crap load of animals and a heck lot of grain to take the win

My farm was much sadder and I had to build a T-shaped pasture for my piggies because I didn’t want to lose points on unused space

I cannibalized this MAS blanket so that it’s easier to pick up the cards, I may end up using this as I don’t know where I can find a green poker mat big enough for my big games

Results Of Game 2
Winna – Mo (43 Points)
2nd – Nitsuj (29 Points)

Session - Through The Ages
As a side note, I picked up Through The Ages using my birthday discount on opening day at OTK BGC, and got Mo (because this is more his cup of tea) to come over and give Through The Ages its first test run.

Needless to say he picked Moses as his great leader, and Through The Ages is now a big hit with him (hopefully not just because his name is one of the great leaders of the game) that we’re already planning our next session. As advised we played the simple game first to get a feel of the mechanics of the game, but I had to concede towards the end as I had to drive my father-in-law to the airport and a dinner appointment right after that. Well to sum it up Mo ended up having a tonne of resources (corruption would’ve killed him were it in effect) and my science was so low it was becoming really difficult to upgrade anything. This really whet our appetite for the game and we’re definitely going to try the full game next.

Results Of Game
Winna – Mo
2nd – Nitsuj (conceded)

Do look forward to the full review which will be coming up soon once I get a few more plays under my belt, especially for Agricola with its MTG library like decks of Occupations and Minor Improvements.