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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
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Erp...late with updating t'blog, but anyone reading really should expect such things.
Anyway....Tony, Ben and Becky (or Boffo & Smudge, as the latter two appear to have been re-christened) enjoyed a typically agricultural evening of gaming. Boffo & Smudge even kicked off with the delightful P&P On The Farm in anticipation of the Agricolatery delights.
So, the Farming Game was duly produced, and Tony proceeded to abuse a bonus card for lots of early stone. I got all excited about some grain bonuses and proceeded to eat most of it raw while abusing an astronomer (amazing what turns people on, isn't it?) rather than actually do something sensible like build an oven. Becky's traditional 'sensible' farm was pipped to the post by Tony's inevitable renovation.
Onwards, boyo. Having promised to indulge Boydell with the latest of his 'train trilogy', I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying Ivor The Engine. It's a variant of TtR that actually works, encouraging early route-building and less obsessive silly card hoarding. The board needs a tweak, and there's room for more thematics (what job will Ivor be doing this week, Jones?), but there's definitely more promise here than Paperclip Railways. Tony's third train game, Mountain Railway, is also fun to play, but I do worry it's just a bit too similar to the glut of worker-placement games we've endured over the last few years. Has the Worker Placement revolution expired?
Thirdly, Finca's rondel was brought out for some fig-and-ass based chaos (quiet at the back, please). The windmill blades were very paired-up, which made diversification difficult, and the opening round was a bit too random given that we'd forgotten to dole out the Finca tiles. Oops. Anyway, it all boiled down to a squeaker: Tony looked to have stocked up just enough to overhaul Ben at the last, but had critically omitted his donkey. Ben made a hasty drop-off of a few olives, and it was enough to cull a win.
We finished off with a pet favourite of all three of us. The glorious silliness of Familienbande hides a surprisingly strategic game. I was dealt the 'Lips' tile and a handful of lips-rich cards, which I chose to hide for the endgame. As I continued to pick up the red cards, I revelled in being able to lay out 40 or 50 points in a swoop at the very last, with neither of the other two suspecting what card I held. But disaster struck! Tony and Becky closed out the family tree to a single strain of specky, ginger toffs, and I was unable to catch up. I finished a miserable seventy points(!!) behind, unable to do anything profitable for my last three turns. Boffo, it would seem, had indeed been whitewashed. And on April Fools' Day too...
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Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
