David Fair
United States
Rockville
Maryland
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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
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I always wondered if wild room-building could serve as a source of ridicilous amounts of points..
And now you know!
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Jens Hoppe
Denmark
Frederiksberg
What are you, like 80?
It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.
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He he, far out - in an inspiring sort of way.
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Sean McCarthy
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Did you pick just the minor improvements or the occupations too?
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David Fair
United States
Rockville
Maryland
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SevenSpirits wrote: 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.
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Grischo Schluesi
Germany
Oberhausen (neighbour to OMGESSEN!)
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Nice one!
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OK, those hands are creepy.
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Paul Newsham
England
Hampshire
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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?
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Glen
United States
Carmichael
California
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Bravo, bravo!
That's going to be a tough one to come close to, but you give me something to work toward!
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David Fair
United States
Rockville
Maryland
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Newsh wrote: That's an incredible series David... I've never played past the first in a series, tho' I have scored over the required 50 (legitimately!) 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 cumulative penalty of sorts.
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.
Quote: 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?
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.
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Huzonfirst
United States
Manassas
Virginia
For the second time in five years, the G-Men are Super Bowl champs! Woo hoo!!!!!
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BeyondMonopoly wrote: 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.
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!
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Paul Newsham
England
Hampshire
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BeyondMonopoly wrote: 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...
Yes, I do that too. Interesting to see that with as many plays as you have you still think this way.
BeyondMonopoly wrote: It's tougher to eat yourself into a corner when baking bread.
...though I have proven it's possible far too often... 
BeyondMonopoly wrote: 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.
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...
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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,
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Ghost
United States
Providence Village
Texas
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Dang!!!!
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David Fair
United States
Rockville
Maryland
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You may be right... i will have too look at it closer, but not right now... Kinda done with solo play for a bit...
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