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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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Perhaps I should explain that 'Big Ding' started the evening as a reason why Becky got a cheap copy of Pillars of the Earth, and finished the evening as a rampant Chinese porn star.
Perhaps I shouldn't explain that at all.
Anyway, the traditional opening trio of the 3Bs - Bill, Ben and Becky - were putting the finishing touches to a game of TransAmerica, when Tony joined us, no doubt lured in by talk of Agricola. And, indeed, after a brief debate on the merits and demerits of the Expo (Merit: selling 18 copies of Totemo to Japan - Demerit: spending nearly all of the profits on buying a round of drinks at the Strathallan), the orange box was duly produced, seating was randomised, and occupations selected.
It was an odd sort of game. Becky set up her traditional farm layout but acquired no animals, I relently used ploughing and my thresher as a means to baking bread, and Tony forgot he had no cooking improvement and plunged himself out of the game with two begging cards. Bill improved his previous score threefold by scoring 24 points, and I won a low-scoring affair with 36, neatly mirroring the game at the Expo a fortnight ago. In fact, I rather think two games might be my all-time record winning streak at Agricola.
Tony announced he was tired, although not so tired that he couldn't play three more games, and we closed out the evening with a selection of little card games. Gargon was the usual opaque affair, and I happily matched my Agricola score, if not my position when I came dead last. Great game - still no idea how to play it.
Coloretto was agreed to be a much under-rated game, although it strayed dangerously close to being a well-recognised game (I don't know...). Tony decided to play the horns-out dangerous-bluff variation, loudly duping Bill into taking some actions of dubious benefit under the thinly veiled disguise of 'teaching the game'. It was just about enough for him to beat Becky into second place.
Becky thankfully prevented Tony picking up a loud-and-dangerous hat-trick by ousting him at everyone's favourite filler, Braggart. It proved to be one of those odd games full of curiously believable boasts: Becky witnessing the killing of a chicken in front of her whole family (this has actually happened), Bill having his portrait painted with a band of barbarians, and Tony waking up with a bunch of fairies before wetting himself at a ghost. Other than the chicken, Becky had a range of impressive feats to shout about and a scorepile with fully 60 points in. Big Ding would have been delighted at some of the innuendo as well.
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Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
