Session - KFCgamers S03E02 (Concordia [PB])

7th May 2016 (Saturday)

This post is nearly a month late from the actual date of the boardgame session. Mainly because life has gotten in the way (looking guiltily at Stardew Valley) but I also needed some time to cool down from the way that stiff-necked, arrogant, lying sack of potatoes server at KFC treated us at our last play session. Needless to say, we will be taking our business elsewhere and have already identified a new location for our little group. Okay, that's the last of it I promise. We do need to think of a new name for ourselves though.

Game(s) Played:

Session – Concordia

Concordia came out in a pretty quality year of boardgames that included the likes of Russian Railroads, Caverna, Nations & Glass Road just to name a few. That it was #1 on the Fairplay ranking throughout Essen 2013 until the last day is testament to its quality as a boardgame. And it only took me 3 years to get to the table.

This being my first play, the following tips can hardly be considered game breaking strategies but are more lessons learned from my first play. Since I did really badly, feel free to indulge in my crappiness.

Player(s):

TIP #1 – Your First Move Seems Rather Important

TIP #1 – Your First Move Seems Rather Important

Because scoring works in such a way that you as the Player determine the weight of each scoring category for yourself, it feels like your first move is crucial as the first step towards determining which categories you want to excel in. I felt that spending too much time ensuring I had all the categories covered resulted in me taking too many "first turns" and I ended up missing out on purchasing the necessary cards (this determines the weight of your scoring categories) that were snapped up by my opponents.

As an example above, I felt I made a mistake by building a house in Italia and Germania because I felt I was not efficient when wanting to produce goods as I would have to take two actions to produce in two separate provinces instead of just one if both cities were in the same province. I ended up spending half the game spending inordinate amounts of money to build on top of other Players' houses to ensure I had the most efficient production before realizing that I should've focused on scoring for having a house in each province and also scoring for having more colonists on the board which are somewhat related scoring categories. Which leads us to TIP #2.

TIP #2 – Time Playing Your Tribune Card

TIP #2 – Time Playing Your Tribune Card

To me, playing the Tribune card felt like I was losing a turn of doing nothing except perhaps collecting some money. What I actually forgot was that the Tribune card doubles up as a way to get more Colonists on to the board. I either forgot that you could add Colonists entirely or forgot to ensure that I had the necessary resources to add the Colonist to the board using the Tribune aka shooting yourself in both feet.

The effect of the above mindset was actually twofold. On the one hand, I ended up using up cards that did not give me efficient turns just to finish my hand before playing the Tribune card when I could have played the Tribune card earlier and capitalized on an opportunity that presented itself. On the other hand, I kept waiting for the Colonist card to appear but it always got purchased and so many more wasted turns were spent.

TIP #3 – The End Is Swift So Prepare For It

TIP #3 – The End Is Swift So Prepare For It

The end when it comes, is faster than a hot ball of lead falling through butter. This is further accelerated by the incentive of 7 points if you are the Player to purchase the last card, after which everybody else gets a turn then the game ends.

I needed three more turns to more or less wrap up my game when Edward suddenly decides to leave one card left in the pool. Not one to pass up 7 points, all my other plans had to fall through as there was no way I could get more than 7 points in one turn.

Time Taken: 150 minutes

Results Of Game(s)
Edward = 100 Points (Winnah)
Gabriel = 80 Points
Valentina = 79 Points
Gideon = 71 Points
Justin = 66 Points

Edward adopted a epidemic inducing virus approach to his game which is to spread far and spread fast. Between just scoring for each non-brick city house, each province with a house and each type of goods produced, Edward picked up 95 points which would have been enough to give him the game without even considering the other categories.

Before I sign off, here's an update on the training of Padawan Minigeek and Padawan Babygeek in the art of boardgaming.

The force is strong with Minigeek, Babygeek still has much to learn

Until next time, keep calm and play better.