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Just had the most incredible 2-player game. My wife and I, both equally seasoned, broke it out. This was our 7th play (5th with full rules). For those of you reading other posts, yes we got the game Saturday afternoon, and today is Tuesday... lol! There was one minor rules question, would change victory point total but not winner, that I will note later.
My wife's strategy and best use of cards was to quickly build up her hut and pastures (animals make great food), while not neglecting farming of course to make sure balance was preserved. The cards she had reinforced this strategy.
My strategy was to be a vegetarian -- my cards supported this play style, and it is starkly different from my early Sheep diet I had relied on for previous victories.
By the end of round 7, we both had veggies...woohoo!
By round 9, my wife had a 5-room wood hut and a ton of stone; I had my Stone oven and a lot of veggies. I was a clay hog, since I had a clay hut and was trying to expand and build stables, since I had mostly neglected rearing animals.
Two passed minor improvements were used:
1. Keg (free guest worker action -- this basically let me take starting player for 1 Wood, w/o losing an action) -- this was passed once
2. The one that lets you fence a field entirely for 2 food (this was passed twice)
My Vegetarian strategy worked out quite well.
Here are the final farmyard layouts:
Me:
___ ___
Cla F F1V|3CS|2BS|
--- ---
Cla F2G F2V|4Sh |
--- ---
Cla Cla F2G E E
(1Sh in house)
F = Field
G = Grain
V = Vegetable
C = Cattle
S = Stable
B = Boar
Sh = Sheep
Cla = Clay
Sto = Stone
E = Empty
Total people: 5
2 Grain, 1 Reed left over
Cards played: Seasonal Worker, Seed Trader, Stone Oven, Potato Dibber
For those of you tallying the results, that is a whopping 41 points! I was in great shape.
My wife:
___
F F1G F1G F1G|2Sh|
---
Sto Sto Sto Sto|1B |
___ ___ ___
Sto|2Sh| 1C | |
--- ------- ---
F = Field
G = Grain
Ending resources:
3 Wood
2 Stone
3 Grain
1 regular Veggie
5 people total
Cards:
1 Veggie on Pumpkin Oil (still scored)
Corn Scoop
Axe (which was key to getting 5 wood rooms)
Grocer (played at the beginning, came in very handy)
Chief
Chief's Daughter (this is the only rules question which arose -- can the Chief's Daughter be played for free if the same person has the chief? We decided yes, because it's a real disadvantage if you can't -- the Chief's Daughter is taking up space in your hand otherwise)
For those who tallied it up, that is a whopping 50 victory points! (47 if the chief's daughter was played inappropriately)
I think this has got to be close to, if not the, highest scoring 2-player game when you tally up both sides. A whopping 91 points between the two of us -- wowee! I thought 41 points was good for 2-player, but it turns out 50 points, the score which is good for solo with no competition, is achievable!
(It also looks like a Vegetarian strategy is very possible, planting fields and sowing, with ovens, is a great way to go if your opponent is building like crazy; you can stay even.)
Oh, I lied -- actually we had one other rules question, but I am almost 100% sure we played it right. Are the # of fences given to each player meant to be limited? I doubt it -- I recall the rules state there was no intentional limit other than # of people available to each player -- so we played now (and in other games before) that you could build more fences than pieces given to you, unless of course a card limited the number of fences total you could build.
Great game; this one was amazing!
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15 fences per player is a hard limit, as well as 4 stables and 5 family members. These are the only hard limits.
And I don't think Chief's Daughter is playable for free if you yourself play the Chief. The card's English text specifically references "another player." She's still a 3-point card under the right conditions though, so I wouldn't call her a liability to have in your hand.
There's a lot of text in this game, so it's understandable for things like that to slip by.
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David Gardner wrote: 14 fences. Um... no. 15 fences. And yes, that's a hard limit. Fences are not "resources" like wood or stone. And, as pointed out, you did misplay Chief's Daughter - somebody else has to play it - "another player" in the words of the card. But you're welcome to play it yourself as a regular Occupation - a 3vp card with a cost of only 1 food is hardly a waste.
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Pecan pie is where it is at.
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Remember: A player's pieces are in color for a reason: if a piece is in color, it's limited. Otherwise, fences and stables could all be in the same color, and taken from a common pool.
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Ok, so it looks like with those two misunderstandings aside, my wife scored 46 points instead (although she may have still scored more since it would have affected her follow-up decisions) -- 3 fewer for Chief's Daughter, and 1 fewer because of an empty field since fences are also a hard limit. Still, that is quite respectable for the 5th full rules play, and 7th overall (first 2 were family games).
Last edited on 2008-08-20 06:08:12 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
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Chief's Daughter card wrote: If another player plays the “Chief” card, you can play this card immediately at no cost. You cannot play the Chief's Daughter for free when you yourself play the Chief. Rules, Number of Game Components section wrote: The only game components that have been deliberately limited in number are the 5 Family member discs, the 4 stables and the 15 fences for each player. l
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In my most recent 2-player (my 6th 2-player game, 5th full game) I lost with the score of 46 to 48. I did have 2 of the cooler cards - 'plow 3 fields instead of 1', and 'fence a new stable for free'. But, the last turn of the game my opponent played the Mansion. Ouch.
Last edited on 2008-08-22 13:45:51 CST (Total Number of Edits: 2)
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Posted Wed Aug 20,2008 03:50 am
