My copy of Agricola arrived from MilSims today, hooray! I've played the German version before, but there's nothing like actually owning a game you like, especially one as good as this one. It really helps that Agricola has a pretty good solo game in it as well; so, brushing aside any plans of playing ASL or SPQR tonight, I instead attempted a solo series of games, attempting to beat the game with the "E" deck.

The first game is fully described; the later games will only have the ending position and cards played.



Game 1: Goal - 50 points

I (Maj/Min Imprv): Plow 1 Field, Take 1 Grain.
II (Sheep): Plow 1 Field, Take 1 Grain
III (Fences): Play occupation - Clay Mixer, take Clay (3+2)
IV (Sow/Bake): Major Improvement - Cooking Hearth, Take 3 sheep and convert immediately to 6 food.
Harvest the First: feed my family the six food.



At this stage, I was regaining my feet with Agricola, and I was trying to play my last solo game, where I had a good occupation for grain farming. Not so here, and so I was already misstepping. Still it wasn't all bad.

V (Family): Take 10 wood, Take 5 Reeds
VI (Renovate): Build 1 Room and 1 Stable; Family Growth and play a Raft.
VII (Stone): Go Fishing on the raft (7+1 food), Take Grain, Sow 2 grain & Bake 1->3 food.
Harvest the Second: feed my family nine of the eleven food.



Phew! At least I've actually managed to sow the grain now. The Clay Mixer isn't actually coming in very handy; I should have played another occupation.

VIII (Vegie): Play Occupation: Stable Master; Plow a field; Take a Vegetable.
IX (Boar): Take a vegetable, Plow a field, Sow 2 veges and bake 2 grain -> 6 food.
Harvest the Third: Harvest 2 Vegies and 2 Grain, convert 1 Vegie->3 food, feed family 9 food).



Agricola is a game of fine balances and ongoing dread, spiced up with moments of pure terror when the harvest comes around... and it comes around every more quickly as the game progresses. My crops are now doing pretty well, but I'd like some animals as well.

X (Cattle): Take 10 Wood; Play Occupation: Conservator; Build 1 room + 1 stable
XI (Stone): Take 5 Stone, Perform Renovation (to Stone house) and play Improvement: Bean Field; Sow a Vegie and bake 2 grain->6 food.
Harvest the Fourth: Harvest 3 vegies and 2 Grain, convert Vegie to 1 food; feed 9 food to family.



XII (Family W/O Room): Family Growth and play Minor Improvement: Animal Yard; convert 1 Vegie to 3 food before playing an occupation: Mayor; go Fishing for 5 food + 1 reeds.
XIII (Plow/Sow): Plow a field and Sow 1 Vegie and 2 Grain; Take 3 Stone; Family Growth and minor improvement: Half-Timbered House; Take 9 Sheep, converting 2 to 4 food immediately.
Harvest the Fifth: Harvest 4 Vegies and 2 Grain, convert 1 sheep to 2 food. Feed 13 food to Family.



Things are finally looking up, but there's only one turn to go and I only have sheep... and few fences. However, I'd be gaining a lot of points from my home.

XIV (Renovate/Fences): Take 8 Wood; Play 9 Fences; Plow + Sow a Vegie & a Grain; Take 5 Cattle; Take 6 Wild Boar, converting 5 of them to a lot of food immediately.
Final Harvest: Harvest 4 Vegies and 3 Grain, breed 1 Sheep and 1 Cattle, feed family 15 food.



Scoring: 6 fields = 4 pts; 2 pastures = 2 points; 8 grain = 4 points; 11 vegetables = 4 points; 8 sheep = 4 points; 1 boar = 1 point; 6 cattle = 4 points; -1 for unused spaces; 2 stables = 2 points; 5 family = 15 points; 5 large stone house = 15 points; +1 Raft; +1 Hearth; +1 Beanfield; +1 Animal Yard.
Total: 58 points, 8 points more than I needed. Success!

Game 2 - Goal 55 points
This game, I began with the Mason in play and 4 food.
Occupations played: Mason*, Mushroom Collector, Woodcutter, Clay Deliverer, Lord of the Manor
Minor Improvements: Animal P, Spindle. Baking Tray, Carp Pool.
Scoring: F+5, P+5, G+5, V+5, Sh+5, WB+1, C+5, Un-0, Stab+2, House+10, Family+15, MI+2, MgI+7.
Total 63 points.

Game 3 - Goal 59 points
Occupations played: Mason*, Clay Deliverer*, Grocer, Conservator, Chief
Minor Improvements: Quarry, Baking Tray, Axe
Major Improvements: Stone Oven, Well, Cooking Hearth
Scoring: F+4, P+2, G+4, V+3, Sh+4, WB+4, C+1, Un-0, Stab+4, House+18, Family+15, Imp+11.
Total 70 points.

Game 4 - Goal 62 points
Occupations played: Mason*, Clay Deliverer*, Chief*, Chief's Daughter
Minor Improvements: Lettuce Patch, Riding Plow, Sack Cart, Baker's OVen
Major Improvements: Cooking Hearth
Scoring: F+4, P+3, G+4, V+4, Sh+1, WB+3, C+1, Un-0, Stab+1, House+18, Family+15, Occ+3, Imp+5.
Total 62 points.

Not my best game, and with no food to start with in my next game, I was struggling.

Game 5 - Goal 64 points
Occupations played: Mason*, Clay Deliverer*, Chief*, Chief's Daughter*, Lord of the Manor
Minor Improvements: Sack Cart, Raft, Baker's Tray, Reed pond.
Major Improvements: Cooking Hearth, Clay Oven
Scoring: F+5, P+2, G+5, V+5, Sh+1, WB+5, C+3, Un-0, Stab+1, House+12, Family+12, Occ+3, Imp+4.
Total 58 points.

A dreadful game, where I spent too much of my wood on improvements and not enough building up my house, family and animal pens. At this point, I crashed out of the solo series. I'll try it another night fairly soon.

Very good session report!

Yeah, the Clay Mixer is much better in a multiplayer game, where you have to take resources more often. In the solo game, you're much better off letting resources pile up for a while before you take them, making things like the Clay Mixer less effective since you get to use them fewer times.

Excellent report Merric, makes me want to break out my game for a few solo outings

regards
iain

Wonderful session report.

God damn!

You turned down a chance to play ASL or SPQR to solo a eurogame?! Never heard of window of opportunity?

Given that there are often ample opportunities to play a multiplayer game and a scarce few to play a meatier wargame I think you succumbed to temptation here. Your loss ;)

FULL DISCLOSURE: I, myself, did not fetch my Agricola from the post office for 13 days, and that was when it was still on the boat to the US.

/kgm

I didn't get from Merric's report that he turned down a multiplayer game, rather that he elected to play Agricola rather than ASL solo. I gather from reading his Geek of the Week story that he wouldn't do something like that.

This type of session report is exactly why I chose Merric to be GOTW. Well done my friend, as usual.

In the multi-player game, you can only place one animal in a stable that isn't fenced. Are the rules different in the solo version?

--James

The Stable Master occupation that he played allows him to store three animals in one unfenced stable.

He has the Stable Master.

Cool! Thanks for the clarification.

--James

This f*ckin rocks. A Multiplayer report with photos might be tedious, but I love the format.

I seem to have missed the point where you renovated your wooden rooms to clay? It was my understanding from the rules that you must renovate from wood to clay and then from clay to stone..?

EDIT: Nevermind, I think your Conservator card allowed you to do this! :P

Indeed. I chose to play a solo game of Agricola rather than a solo game of SPQR or ASL.

Cheers,
Merric

Indeed. If you see me breaking the rules, there was probably a card that allowed me to do so.

Cheers,
Merric

Thank you very much, Steve!

Cheers,
Merric

You are insane.

But then again, I spent last night working on a 13,200 piece puzzle.

Fantastic Merric... are you just showing off now that you've been GotW AND own Agricola?

You mean the "I play solo so I do as I please" card ?

Great report.

Great Report!

The pictures from the starting game are all post harvest? Did you put three veggies on your first two veggie fields and not just two? I ask because the Agicola Solo 4 picture (third one shown) has two fields with 2 grains each, then the next picture has four field the two grain fields are down to 1 each, but the veggies still have two each on them!

It was probably just an oversight, or the picture might be taken mid-harvest, but your bean field seemed to get the correct amount of veggies.

Just a thought....

You've actually picked up on an error with my understanding of the rules (We fixed it during my next game with Randy). I was assuming Grain and Vegies worked exactly the same way.

I'll post a corrected "full" solo report with pictures once I get my new digital camera. (The one I used for this report is currently touring Europe with my father...)

Cheers,
Merric

Oh, you were playing Roads and Boats &cetera?

When I played my 8-game series my last three scores were 77, 76 and 78. Because of my brilliant strategies? Hell no!

I managed to get the Master Brewer and Seasonal Worker out in my first two games. My first four actions were ALWAYS the same.

Round 1: Occupation, Plow
Round 2: Day Laborer (+1 grain), Plow
Round 3: Day Laborer (+1 grain), Plow
Round 4: Day Laborer (+1 grain), Sow

By the end of Stage 1 (including the harvest) I had a minimum (depending on how much food I started with) of 3 food, plus 2 grain in storage and 6 grain out in the fields.

A few actions later and I have the Stone Oven which sets me up for the rest of the game.

Yeah, that'd do it.

Cheers!