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Monday, January 18, 2010

Boardgame: Agricola

It's been a week since my last blog post.  I meant to blog, I just can't cause was too busy with designing my new layout.  Yeah, I sort of started it a week ago and still can't decide how my new layout should look like.  And I keep changing my column position  *sigh.  Maybe I should hire somebody to do it for me.  *procrastinating.

My mood is like the weather.  It rains almost everyday now.  It's so cold.





I rather stay home these days.  Oh, and I also picked up this habit of using my dad's laptop for Petville (on facebook).  Talking about bored, I dragged my bro to 1Borneo for Maguro Spaghetti at michi last Friday.  Just in case you forgot how was it, check my rave, here.  Crazy non stop rain.  I'd sent my car for fixing that day too.  Took a day off coz my car was at the workshop till 5pm.  *facepalm.



Had to skip boardgame on Friday coz I sort of screwed up my sleeping hours. I though was feeling fine on Saturday. Had a boardgame session at uncle's place. First time play Agricola. This game reminds me of Puerto Rico. Farming game. Best way to describe this game is Farmville/Harvest Moon.



Here's the description taken from BoardGameGeek.

In Agricola, you're a farmer in a wooden shack with your spouse and little else. On a turn, you get to take only two actions, one for you and one for the spouse, from all the possibilities you'll find on a farm: collecting clay, wood, or stone; building fences; and so on. You might think about having kids in order to get more work accomplished, but first you need to expand your house. And what are you going to feed all the little rugrats?
The game supports many levels of complexity, mainly through the use (or nonuse) of two of its main types of cards, Minor Improvements and Occupations. In the beginner version (called the Family Variant in the U.S. release), these cards are not used at all. For advanced play, the U.S. release includes three levels of both types of cards; Basic (E-deck), Interactive (I-deck), and Complex (K-deck), and the rulebook encourages players to experiment with the various decks and mixtures thereof. Aftermarket deck such as the Z-Deck and the L-Deck also exist.
Agricola is a turn-based game. There are 14 game turns plus 6 harvest phases (after turn 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14).
Each player starts with two playing tokens (farmer and wife) and thus can take two actions per turn. There are multiple options, and while the game progresses, you'll have more and more: first thing in a turn, a new action card is flipped over.
Problem: Each action can be taken just once per turn, so it's important to do some things with high preference.
Each player also starts with a hand of 7 job cards (of more than 160 total) and 7 item cards (of more than 140 total) that he/she may use during the game if they fit in his/her strategy. Speaking of which, there are countless strategies, some depending on your card hand. Sometimes it's a good choice to stay on course, and sometimes it is better to react to your opponents' actions.

*takes a deep breath.  I hope I'll be able to describe this properly.

No. of players is 5.  Of course, 5 color to choose from, which are red, smurf (blue), green, purple and wood (and why I'm wood? *sniff the wood, okay fair enuff).  Full slot.

The players.

 
 


This is your empty farm.

 

You start with an empty lot with 2 rooms and a farmer + wife.  You wouldn't be able to produce with only 1 farmer okay.  Notice those 2 round wooden pieces?  Those are your farmer in their room.  Oh yeah, of course your room is wooden.

Woops, forgot to take a shot of the guidance card.  At the back of the card are points guide.  As follows:

 


This is the board.  Where your farmer takes their action.  Each player have 2 turns in 1 round.  Depending who goes first.  There's a total of 14 rounds in this game?  On each round, a card will be revealed and can be played on the board during a player's turn, once it reach Harvest round, you'll have to pay 4 food (2 food for each farmer) and you'll get other benefits like if you have a pair of sheep/wild boar/cattle, you'll get 1 more of any of those animals.  Breed.  You can slaughter em for fewd.

 

These are improvement cards, you could trade resources for em during your turn.

 


OH shite, I forgot to take photo of the begger/s card too.  This card will come in play if you don't have food to feed your farmer.  And there's a shot of it, but too far away.  *points at the 2 card.

 

Lookie, my first sheep (*points at the square).  Sheep kept as pet cause no fences and mate yet.





The rectangle ones are fences.  You need wood to build fences.  You need a stable to breed more animals.  Can't mix animals.

 


Field.  You can plant grains and/or vegetables.

You can upgrade your rooms from wood to clay or stone according to the requirements on your turn.

 


Oh and it sucks to be the last player.  You farm till the end of game and collect points.

End of game.

 


And this is uncle, calculating our points.

 

And our winner is SMURF!

 

He won me by 3 points.

2nd farm.  My farm.

 


3rd farm.  Bev's farm.

 

Tie.  Cube and Soh (Amigo).

 


More photos, here.

Quite fun when you get the hang of it.   Lets play again ;)

So, you see, that boardgame session should end around 7am or so but it didn't went according to plan for me and my bro.  My bro was tired and sleepy from his PIU (Pump It Up) session.  So yeah, we had to go back early.  Went back around past midnite.  Slept at 3am (don't ask) and woke up at 7:30am cause going to eat fish mee for breakfast.

Mum asked if I check my balcony.  Actually no, cause I so totally forgot I have one.  Reason?

Flood!

 


Water level and ignore my toe please.

 

From the rain too.

 


Last but not least, here's Sunday's breakfast ;3

Kon Lou with fish mee soup at Kedai Kopi Janggut at Hilltop *slurps~



Oh yeah, my whole Sunday was tv and blog layout all the way @_@ urgh =_=

10 comments:

  1. the board game looks complicated -_-". I miss hilltop's fishsoup noodle too..They selling chicken/lamb chops at night right?

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  2. and is that ur feet massy?

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  3. @theeggyolks: yeah! oh but janggut is at the other end XD

    @aj: er yeah. XP

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  4. Eh... bukan last year lagi kah you've been talking about your new layout? Mana????? I can't wait to see!!! :D

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  5. BTW, wah.. banjir!!! KL pun hujan lebat last night. So scary!! Especially when you're living in 16th floor!!!

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  6. @Cindy: free for hire ka? XD kekeke kidding kidding. I know rite? I've been procrastinating a lot, but that day when I tried to redesign, my brain becomes so messy and I'm being indecisive *sigh. Kena remind sija ni. Anyways, OMG! the rain is scary, and it's spoiling my jogging routine *sigh.

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  7. *wit innocent face* wat happen to your toe?

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  8. @Amy C: *blames em shoe during HobbyCon hahahaha.

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  9. aunty, bring it on, this time i'll play and kick everyone's ass

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  10. @Uncle: bah bila? mari bah! XD

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