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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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The week's hiatus was due to the holiday of Becky and I in the Scilly Isles. There might be a Geeklist about it at some point.
After Dave the Landlord had showed some passing interest in Polarity, Becky and I kicked off with several swift games, which brought the usual interest from dogs, young kids and barstaff (strictly in descending order of intellectuality). I love this game and its freewheeling and independent nature to it, and of course the physics. Shame it's only 2-player, though.
If you've read ramblings of mine elsewhere, you'll know that Becky and I can do what's called the 'Boydell summonsing trick'. It simply involves rattling an Agricola box, at which point Tony will charge into the room with an anticipatory gleam to his eyes. It has long been my conviction that, one day, we will decide to have a game of Agricola in - say - the Australian outback, or the Afghanistan hills, and as soon as the orange lid is slid off and the farmyard boards distributed, then a helicopter will approach from afar with the booming voice of Boydell shouting: "G and E decks please! And randomise seating!"
Anyway, it was a pretty awesome game of Agricola for three addicts, none of whom had played in a fortnight. I used the Businessman early to combo the Axe and Ladder, meaning I could build wooden rooms for the bargain price of 2W,1R each, but had a complete brainfart shortly before the second harvest, my thought processes going something as follows:
"Now then. I need a third occupation to play this plough with my second family growth, and I won't be able to feed a fourth family member at this upcoming harvest. In fact, I'm pretty short of food. Perhaps I should take the three food on the fishing space, but I would like to get this plough out. I know! I'll play an Occupation that does me no immediate benefit and more or less duplicates the ability of a Minor Improvement in my hand!"
Of course, I'd completely overlooked the fact that I had the PERFECT card for my situation, the Layabout, available at my disposal. My failure to play that, and the subsequent begging card, meant that I agonisingly lost out to Tony, 41-40. It's a bitter loss and one that I won't get over quickly.
Anyway, enough of my woes. We moved onto Innovation, a game which Becky has really fallen in love with of late. I'm pleased, because I enjoy it myself, although it is a mite too chaotic at times. Tony won this one convincingly, and no gripes from me, because he did it without any stupid mistakes on my part. Becky took the destructive role in this one, playing Pirate Code, Gunpowder and lord knows what else - but at least it stopped the game playing out in 15 minutes.
We were all aiming for a reasonably early night, and so we tidied up at 10pm with a game of Braggart. It actually plays better with three than I thought, and there was the usual merriment at the band of fairies and Simon the Lonely Ogre (Best. Card. Ever.). Becky, worryingly, seems to have a natural trait for accusing people of lying, and wrapped up a very close-scoring game 65-60-55
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Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
