It happened to us last night!
We collected all the gold markers, and when another one was claimed we didn't find any reference to that in the rules.
As a compromized we allowed the player to take a coal marker + 2 points.

Do we have an official reference to this case?

Thread: Oregon - Session Report

gschloesser — 2008-06-05T19:48:54+00:00

NOTE: My full review of Oregon will be published shortly. What follows is an abbreviated version.

Oregon was released at the Spiel in Essen in 2007, and frankly, it really didn’t grab my attention. Reaction to the game from the few folks with whom I spoke was mixed. I knew the game was being released in the United States by Rio Grande Games, so I decided not to strain my already burgeoning luggage further and passed on purchasing a copy until I returned home.

Much to my surprise, Oregon, designed by newcomers Asi and Henrik Berg, has become one of my favorites from the 2007 Essen crop. It is easy enough for families and non-hardcore gamers to grasp and play competitively, yet offers enough challenge and decisions to keep hobbyists interested and engaged. While one’s choices may seem limited at times, in reality there is ample room for clever moves by properly managing one’s cards and taking advantage of an ever-changing board.

Set in the “rush to the west” era of the mid-1800s, Oregon challenges players to populate the vast land with settlers and communities, hoping to take advantage of the growing towns and abundant reserved of gold and coal waiting to be mined in the surrounding mountains.

The game is played on a board depicting a 15 x 20 grid, separated into twenty-five sections containing six areas whereupon tiles can be placed. Players will play farmers and building onto these spaces, scoring points by placing buildings next to their farmers and vice-versa. The placing of buildings and farmers is dependent upon the playing of the proper two cards, which allow the players to place a tile or farmer onto the corresponding section of the board.

When placing a farmer, a player will immediately score points based on the adjacent building or buildings. Placing a building works similarly, but every player who has farmers adjacent to the building earns points. Thus, care must be exercised to make sure opponents don’t score more points than you!

Each player possesses a “joker” and “extra turn” token. The joker can be used as any landscape card, while the extra turn token allows the player to immediately take another turn before drawing replacement cards. Once used, these tokens are inverted and cannot be used again until they are restored. To restore these tokens, a player must place a farmer next to appropriate building (or vice versa). These buildings only yield one point, but their power granting the restoration of the special tokens is invaluable. One of the keys to the game is to continually have these joker and extra turn tokens at your disposal, and use them to both increase your placement flexibility and take two turns in succession, thereby increasing your scoring opportunities.

When learning the game, my first thought was that the placement opportunities would be quite limited. In truth, however, there is quite a bit of flexibility here. Possessing four cards allows for considerable latitude, and the presence of the joker expands one’s options further. The game also allows for some advance planning, placing farmers or buildings on one turn in order to take advantage of these placements on a subsequent turn. Of course, wily opponents will likely spot these moves and, if possible, take advantage of them.

Oregon is a fine light-to-middle weight game. It offers players with an abundance of significant choices and strategies. While the card draw does play a role, players can usually find enough options to overcome any “luck of the draw” problems. I’m happy to make the journey to the vast wilderness of 19th century Oregon any time!

I led through most of our game, concentrating on scoring immediate points and arranging my farmers into groups of three. I was very worried about my lack of effective mining, however, as all of my competitors – Mark Smith, Mark Sliwoski and Jim Ferguson – were busy toiling away in the mines, each of them accumulating quite a few tokens. Ultimately, this did allow them to close the gap significantly, but I managed to hold on for the victory.

Finals: Greg 82, Mark Smith 74, Jim Ferguson 70, Mark Sliwoski 69

Ratings: Greg 7, Jim 7, Mark Smith 7, Mark Sliwoski 6

Thread: Re: 2 Player?

familygaming — 2008-05-09T04:00:53+00:00

I just finished my first playing of Oregon with 2 players, and my first thought was, "There's too much space"; my second thought was, "I should just remove the fire cards."

Good suggestion Aleksi! Great minds think alike! I look forward to trying it this way.

tritone — 2008-02-24T04:23:29+00:00

Can you tell us why the groups must be your own farmers (aside from the single-color exammple)? As the OP pointed out, the rules just say 3 adjacent farmers. I'm not disagreeing with you, just looking for a definitive ruling... such as poor English translation, designer posting to a different forum, etc.

Thanks!

Thread: Re: How to score when placing a church?

carl67lp — 2008-02-20T23:59:57+00:00

aseoghenrik wrote:
carl67lp wrote:
casterman wrote:
... This potentially makes the church perhaps a little too overpowered.

That was the consensus in our group. If we played correctly, then the potential is to be able to score:

8*8 + 7*7 + 6*6 + 5*5 + 4*4 + 3*3 + 2*2 + 1*1 = 204 points

on a single church. This assumes that a church exists with no other colors, and you place one farmer around the church over a series of 8 turns, with no other players placing.

Am I interpreting that correctly?

No, you can't score more than 64 points for a church. Which is still quite much, but to do this, you would first have to place 8 farmers around an empty spot, then place a church in the middle. Not impossible, but we have never seen this actually happen in a game.

If a church already exist, and you place one farmer around the church over a series of 8 turns, the first farmer would get you 1 point, the second 2 points, the third 3 points and so on. So placing 8 farmers around an existing church would give a total of
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 36 points.

Å+H

Ah yes, you're right; I was scoring per-color, rather than per farmer, in my example.

Now it makes me wonder how many points I erroneously got in the game!