I played an 8 game solo series today, and in the final game, I scored 178 points. Here is how I did it...

Game 1 (50) - 62 Points - Kept: Church Warden
Game 2 (55) - 96 Points - Kept: Church Warden, Grocer
Game 3 (59) - 100 Points - Kept: Church Warden, Grocer, Chief
Game 4 (62) - 100 Points - Kept: Church Warden, Grocer, Chief, Wet Nurse
Game 5 (64) - 103 Points - Kept: Church Warden, Grocer, Chief, Wet Nurse, Merchant
Game 6 (65) - 109 Points - Kept: Church Warden, Grocer, Chief, Wet Nurse, Merchant, Forester
Game 7 (66) - 114 Points - Kept: Church Warden, Grocer, Chief, Wet Nurse, Merchant, Forester, Animal Tamer

Now after game 7 I had 114 points and the target was 66. I therefore started game 8 with (48/2) 24 food.

Prior to round 1: Collected my 24 food, and the 4 wood (from Church Warden). Immediately spent 8 food to purchase 2 Reed, 1 Wood, 1 Clay, 1 Stone, 1 Grain, & 2 Vegetable (via Grocer). I now have 16 food remaining.
Minor Improvements in hand: Axe, Quarry, Clay Pit, Straw-Thatched Roof, Forest Pasture, Manure, Broom.

First Round: Sheep
Actions Taken: Plow a Field, Take a Grain
Plowed in the lower right corner of board

Second Round: Improvement
Actions Taken: Plow a Field, Take a Grain
Plowed in the middle right side of board

Third round: Sow/Bake Bread
Actions Taken: Plow a Field, Sow/Bake Bread
Plowed in the Upper right corner of board
Sowed 3 grain, 1 in each field, and 3 wood, on the Forester Occupation

Fourth Round: Fences
Actions Taken: Start Player/Minor Improvement, Improvement
Played Axe, and paid 1 food to play the Straw-Thatched Roof (Merchant)
Played Quarry, and paid 1 food to play Clay Pit (Merchant, again)

Harvest: Harvest 3 grain, and 3 wood. Paid 6 food.

Fifth Round: Renovate/Improvement
Actions Taken: Take 10 Wood, Build Rooms
Built 7 rooms for a total of 14 wood (Axe + Straw-Thatched Roof). Paid 3 food and had 3 offspring (Wet Nurse).

Sixth Round: Stone
Actions Taken:
1. Take 6 Sheep (all in the house - Animal Tamer)
2. Start Player/Minor Improvement (Play Forest Pasture, pay 1 food to play Manure)
3. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
4. Improvement (Play Stone Oven, pay 1 food to play fireplace, bake 2 grain into 8 food)
5. Collect 6 Clay

Field Phase of Harvest (Due to Manure) - Harvest 3 wood & 3 grain

Seventh Round: Family Growth
Actions taken:
1. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
2. Start Player/Minor Improvement -- Played Broom, drew 7 new cards (Ranch, Village Well, Baker's Kitchen, Pelts, Bakehouse, Tavern, Mansion), played Pelts, paid 1 food and played the Tavern.
3. Tavern Action (for 2 Bonus VP's)
4. Collect 7 Reed
5. Collect 7 Food (Fish Pond)

Harvest - Harvest 3 Grain & 3 Wood, Paid 15 food, Had baby sheep

Eighth Round: Wild Boar
Actions taken:
1. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
2. Tavern Action (for 2 Bonus VP's)
3. Take 6 Wood
4. Sow/Bake Bread -- Sow 3 Wood (Forester) and 3 grain. Bake 2 grain into 8 food.
5. Build Rooms (Build 3 rooms for 6 wood) (board is filled)

Field Phase of Harvest (Due to Manure) - Harvest 3 wood & 3 grain

Ninth Round: Vegetable
Actions taken:
1. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
2. Tavern Action (for 2 Bonus VP's)
3. Improvement - Play Well, pay 1 food, Play Ranch (For +5 Bonus VP and +10 Food)
4. Renovate to Clay - Pay 12 Clay - Play Village Well, pay 1 food, play Well
5. Take 1 Vegetable

Harvest - Harvest 3 Grain & 3 Wood, Paid 15 food, Had baby sheep

Tenth Round: Stone (collect 3 food at start of round)
Actions taken:
1. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
2. Tavern Action (for 2 Bonus VP's)
3. Improvement - Play Clay oven, pay 1 food, replace Clay oven with Bakehouse, Bake 2 Grain into 10 food
4. Start Player/Minor Improvement - Replace Stone Oven with Baker's Kitchen, Bake 4 grain into 20 food, pay 1 food, play Mansion
5. Take Wild Boar (3) - Put into Forest Pasture

Field Phase of Harvest (Due to Manure) - Harvest 3 wood & 3 grain

Eleventh Round: Cattle (collect 3 food at start of round)
Actions taken:
1. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
2. Tavern Action (for 2 Bonus VP's)
3. Sow/Bake Bread -- Sow 3 wood, 1 veggie, and 2 grain
4. Take Sheep (5) -- Cook them for 10 food, put 5 food in supply, 5 down as pelts.
5. Take 5 Clay

Harvest - Harvest 2 Grain, 1 Veggie, & 3 Wood, Paid 15 food, Had baby sheep & boar

Twelfth Round: Plow & Sow (collect 3 food at start of round)
Actions taken:
1. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
2. Tavern Action (for 2 Bonus VP's)
3. Take 7 Stone
4. Improvement - Play Basketmaker's Workshop, pay 1 food, play Pottery
5. Take 8 Wood

Field Phase of Harvest (Due to Manure) - Harvest 2 Grain, 1 Veggie, & 3 Wood

Thirteenth Round: Family Growth W/O Room (collect 2 food at start of round)
Actions taken:
1. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
2. Tavern Action (for 2 Bonus VP's)
3. Take 4 Stone
4. Take 3 Cattle (in house)
5. Renovate to Stone - Pay 12 stone, play Joinery, pay 1 food, play Clay Oven

Harvest - Kill 2 sheep in field phase, put down 2 pelts, Harvest 2 Grain & 3 Wood, Paid 15 food, Had baby sheep, cow, & boar

Fourteenth Round: Renovate/Fence (collect 2 food at start of round)
Actions taken:
1. Day Laborer for 2 Food, 3 Clay, 3 Stone
2. Tavern Action (for 2 Bonus VP's)
3. Improvement - Play Cooking Hearth, pay 1 food, play Stone Oven
4. Take 4 boar, Keep 1, slay the rest for the pelts (+6 food, +3 pelts)
5. Take 1 Cattle, slay it for the pelt (+3 food, +1 pelts)

Harvest - Nothing in fields, Kill 1 sheep for the pelt, Pay 15 food, Have a baby boar & baby sheep

Scoring:

2 Points for Fields, -1 point for Pastures, 4 points each for each for Grain, Veggies, Boar, & Sheep, 3 points for cattle.
5 Family members: +15 points, 12 Room Stone House: +24 points

Subtotal: 59 points

Points from Major Improvements: (26 points)
Fireplace, Cooking Hearth, Well, Clay Oven, Stone Oven, Joinery (17 Wood), Pottery (10 Clay), Basketmaker's Workshop (5 Reed): +26 points total

Points from Occupations: (15 points)
Church Warden: +3 points (5 actions in round 14), Chief +12 points (12 room stone house)

Points from Minor Improvements: (78 points)
Mansion: +24 (+2 points for each room in Stone House)
Pelts: +12 (+1 per pelt, 12 total)
Ranch: +5 (for board being full with 5 rounds to go)
Tavern: +2, & took the bonus points 8 times for +16 more
Bakehouse: +5
Village Well: +5
Baker's Kitchen: +4
Quarry: +2
Clay Pit, Forest Pasture, Straw-thatched Roof: 1 each

Grand total: 178 points

I always wondered if wild room-building could serve as a source of ridicilous amounts of points..

And now you know!

He he, far out - in an inspiring sort of way.

Did you pick just the minor improvements or the occupations too?

Ah, I thought I had mentioned this... apparently not.

The cards (both Minor Improvements and Occupations) for games 1-7 were dealt normally, but I hand-selected the Minor Improvements for game 8.

Nice one!

OK, those hands are creepy.

That's an incredible series David... I've never played past the first in a series, tho' I have scored over the required 50 (ligitimately!) a few times.

So, where now for you? Are you going to play the series again with higher targets? I think Hanno posted elsewhere; not only does this make the target harder to hit, but also means you get less food carried over to the next game - a cumultive penalty of sorts.

Also, since you posted this under strategy, are there particular observations you would highlight here? Are your games always plow/grain oriented to begin with? In the multi-player games too?

Bravo, bravo!

That's going to be a tough one to come close to, but you give me something to work toward!

I think I may take a break from the solo game for a bit. If I do start playing it again, It will definitely be with higher targets. Probably 55/61/66/70/73/75/76/77 off the top of my head.


Well, key to scoring this highly was to evaluate just how much you could get from the stone house. With Mansion, Chief, & Pelts all in play, each room of the house was worth 6 points, far more than can be made up with animals and pastures, so i decided to completely neglect that aspect of the game. The Animal Tamer and Forest Pasture really helped there, as i could store 12 animals in the house and unlimited pigs in the pasture.

I do tend toward the plow/grain/bread strategy to eat in all my games, at least if my cards give any sort of mep in that direction, but that is because I think it is easier than the animal strategy... With animals, you can get into trouble and eat away the breeding couple because you have no other option, and then you have to fight to get the animals back, plus that initial outlay of wood for fences or stables is tough when everyone is fighting to get rooms built. It's tougher to eat yourself into a corner when baking bread.

I think the best thing to note is the importance of action efficiency: Don't sow unless you can also bake, don't bake when you can buy another oven and bake for free, don't buy an oven and bake for free when you can renovate, buy an oven, and bake for free.

Dave, I'm in the process of playing a solo series with VP targets of 55/60/64/67/70/72/74/75, slightly less than what you're proposing. The idea was to introduce the possibility of losing one of the games, which just doesn't seem likely with the rules in the box. Of course, I'm not nearly as good at Agricola as you are, but I'll be curious to see how tough the game is with the elevated targets. I'll let you know how it turns out.

By the way, incredible score!

Yes, I do that too. Interesting to see that with as many plays as you have you still think this way.


...though I have proven it's possible far too often...


Absolutely, though these are of course principles, rather than hard rules. So many times in multiplayer games I've worked too hard at maximising the actions in this way, and that has been to the detriment of my scoring opportunities. Sometimes it's important to take the simpler option to keep the tempo in your farm creation. It all depends on whether you can afford to build toward that double action space or not. This is one of the things that makes Agricola so great - the tactics are not written in stone - you need to adjust based on circumstances, i.e. what cards do you have?, what did the other players do...? what do you think they'll do next?

Almost sounds like interaction. Ah, but that's another thread...

Very very impressive!

However, I was going through your moves and I think you may be short some stone in Round 10.

According to my calculations, at the beginning of Round 10, you had generated 13 stone:
1 from Grocer at the beginning
12 from four Day Labourer + Quarry actions in Rounds 6, 7, 8 and 9.

You had also spent 12 stone:
1 in Round 4 for the Axe,
3 in Round 6 for the Stone Oven,
2 in Round 7 for the Tavern and
6 in Round 9 for playing the Well twice.

Therefore at the beginning of Round 10, you:
Start with 1 Stone,
Receive 3 Stone from Day Labourer + Quarry,
Spend 1 Stone for the Clay Oven,
Spend 3 Stone for the Bakehouse.

This leaves you with 0 Stone. The Baker's Kitchen costs 2 Stone and the Mansion costs 3 Stone which I do not think you have.

Did I miss something here? Please feel free to verify my numbers.

Thanks,

Dang!!!!

You may be right... i will have too look at it closer, but not right now... Kinda done with solo play for a bit...