Martin Manning
Australia
Adelaide
South Australia
err... I like boardgames!?!
D'oh! I bought overtext even though I have nothing interesting to say.
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It's my wife's birthday today. A couple of days ago, I asked her what she wanted to do on her birthday, and she suggested she'd like to start the day by playing a game of Agricola. No problem, my wife enjoys games almost as much as I do (she's even got an account here on the 'geek now, username Tickleyboo), and Agricola is by far her favourite.
So I got to thinking. What could I do to make her birthday even more special? If we're playing Agricola anyway, why not kick it up a notch and integrate the birthday a little bit? I decided the first thing I would do is make her some custom occupation and minor improvement cards. The cards are probably a little bit unbalanced, but it IS her birthday, so that's okay.
The Birthday Girl card grants 2 food at the start of every harvest. Also, all players must give the birthday girl presents in every harvest (until they run out). Normally, I just give my wife all her birthday presents at once, but like this, the gift giving lasted a little longer. Also, I had exactly six things to give her, so that worked well when she played the Birthday Girl card on her first turn.
The minor improvement card, Birthday Cake, is basically 2 free victory points providing you have already played the Birthday Girl card. But, just like how the Birthday Girl card nets real presents, I used the Birthday Cake card as the reveal for the real birthday cake... which also relates to Agricola.
The cake is a standard packet mix chocolate cake, with vanilla frosting (plus green food dye), and chocolate frosting around the edges. All of the decorations are made from marzipan. The player tokens are purple, which is the colour my wife likes to play as. Here's the cake half-finished:
I made all the marzimeeples one at a time, using the wooden equivalents as a template. I used a toothpick for the finer details. Here's a side-by-side of the original wooden components (left), and the marzimeeples (right).
Here's the final product, with an identically-arranged game board. 50 points - not bad! (the actual game we played ended in a tie, 48 points each).
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Great effort! Happy belated B-Day to your wife. Sounded like a wonderful day spent celebrating.
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Andy Clautice
United States
Denver
Colorado
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That looks incredible! Your wife is a lucky lady. And even better, you both got to finally eat the sheep and grain yourselves instead of feeding them to your little wooden discs.
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Those cards are clearly broken...
NIce touch... but how did you get the cards into your wife's hands? DId you stack the deck?
I've been thinking of making similar cards for a couple from our gaming group who recently got married...
Brian
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Roslyn Manning
Australia
Adelaide
South Australia
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I'm the lucky wife who got the awesome birthday surprise
I was VERY impressed with the cake, now for the dilemma - I can't have my cake and eat it too 
My husband put the extra cards in my birthday card, and then I was only dealt 6 occupations and minor improvements.
Yes, it made it a bit imbalanced - but it meant that we drew on my birthday instead of me losing
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Matthew Giglia
United States
Rochester
New York
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March 27th is my birthday as well, and my girl friend made me an Agricola themed cookie cake! Agricola was actually my present from her this year, and our game group came over tonight to play it and share some of the cake with us. I learned recently that another person shares our birthday too, Uwe Rosenberg, the disigner of Agricola. So Happy Birthday to Uwe as well!
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Andrew Hill
Australia
Adelaide
South Australia
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Being in Australia, her birthday is actually the 28th of March. Love the cake.
I hope she isn't allowed to use those cards when we play you next.
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Dennis Leung
United States
Scotch Plains
New Jersey
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Curse you! My girlfriend saw this and is now expecting something like this on her birthday. Thanks for raising the bar for the rest of us.
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leungd wrote: Curse you! My girlfriend saw this and is now expecting something like this on her birthday. Thanks for raising the bar for the rest of us. :D
This is the first time I've been thankful that my girlfriend (who got me into gaming) doesn't use BGG.
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Eddy Richards
Scotland
Allanton
Berwickshire
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I was going to show my wife this, but on sober reflection it may be creating a rod for my own back!
Nice going - I've got till November to think of a way of emulating this.
Eddy
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Julian Steindorfer
Austria
Vienna
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i want this cake :cry: !!!
real good idea and great work ,expecially the cake !
mmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhh agricola cake...
did you drink real agricola from essen to this tasty cake?
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Geoff Burkman
United States
Kettering
Ohio
"Punk is not dead" by daughter, Emily
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Dude, you rule. That brightened up my day to no end! I hope you two had a very happy celebration!
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Melissa
Australia
Melbourne
Victoria
Best wishes to you all for 2011. xxx
Mostly offline, but trying.
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That is just outstanding! Full marks for effort
Send me a PM ... I may have something else for the Birthday Girl.
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Andrew Hill
Australia
Adelaide
South Australia
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It is a damn tasty cake too.
I ate a piece with three grain on it.
Good work Martin.
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Eric Flood
United States
Sunnyvale
California
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Hooray to March 28th birthdays!
I got a cakewrecks-themed cake, myself...
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com
The Agricola cake is fantastic!
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Andrew Nichols
United States
Houston
Texas
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I might have to outright copy this idea.
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Tiwaz Tyrsfist
United States
Gladstone
Missouri
Behold in amazement as my wife demonstrates the proper way to clean your cat.
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Speaking as a professional baker/chef, and as a board game geek, I approve of the cake on both levels. Very nice.
Also, if you're in the greater Kansas City area, and are all thumbs, but would LIKE a Board Game themed cake for a birthday or party, I might just be willing to make one for a reasonable price. Or geek gold.
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Will
United States
Fresno
California
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Very nice!
Mmmmm I love marzipan.
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Timothy Hunt
United States
St Louis
Missouri
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Our boardgame group has a similar cake made back in February.
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Martin Manning
Australia
Adelaide
South Australia
err... I like boardgames!?!
D'oh! I bought overtext even though I have nothing interesting to say.
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Here's pics of me, and my (8 months pregnant) wife with the cake...
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err... I like boardgames!?!
