Great Western Trail, Tokaido, Agricola Rev. Ed., 02/20/2018-02/25/2018

by Scott Ferrier

Tuesday - Salem, MA

Age of Industry + Portugal (fan expansion to Age of Industry) (Jeremy, Craig & Scott)(3P) - We had played all the maps except this fan made map by Jack Francisco a local here and it was surprisingly well made for 3 players. It was super tight and expensive building things as there wasn't much to supply goods and they start with 1 less of what we needed via special map rules so prices skyrocketed. I got a good start but then chose to set up a big payday via cotton mills but while I set that up Craig sneaked by me and took the good stuff south of me and it haunted me for the rest of the game when I didn't have legal spots to build had had to emergency build a few times :P In the end it was pretty close, I think Craig won with 95ish and Jeremy was 2nd with lower 90s and came in last with like 84. If you love this game I recommend printing it out and taping it together for some fun.
9/10

Great Western Trail (Scott, Craig & Jeremy)(3P) - I finally got to play this last big Pfister game that I've owned for a while but never got a chance to play. It was interesting but I could see where everyone was at scoring wise with their deck development and it stayed that way for another hour with no catching up really possible. Craig trimmed his deck down and had all the big point cows and speed and literally ran away with it, his train was doing circles around me, jumping ahead then behind then ahead again :p. I liked it but felt it outstayed it's welcome with a lot of rinse and repeat actions around the loop. I will have to try it again to be sure. It's no Mombasa (my favorite title that he did). Craig-125/Jeremy-91/Scott-81 6-7?/10

Wednesday - Salem, MA

Tokaido Collector's Edition (Andrea, Jeremy, Dustin, Craig & Scott)(5P) - Was supposed to be 7 players so we started setting Clans of Calidonia but got a last second cancellation and for like the 9th game day in a row we had 5 players, probably the roughest player count for this Essen crop but I love this happy travel game and it does 5 well although I feel 4 is it's best play count. I really enjoy this game and there is a lot of underrated tactics, do I get this thing that is big points but jump so far ahead I gave up the same amount of points but now those points go to my opponents, did I just give them points?! We just played without the expansion cards but did use the extra characters and just tossed and replaced them if they used the specific crossroad cards. We had not played in a while and everyone was fuzzy on the rules and Jeremy had a hard time with the furthest away from the road moves next but managed to surprise Andrea and steal away the Mountain painting bonus. I was working on buying stuff at stores and had a pretty good shot for so many points if I got to the last shop but Jeremy hopped on it forgoing at least 6 points to buy stuff at the shop. I was getting the worse possible visitor cards that netted me 1 point, anything else would have been 3-7 points :D I still had fun but wasn't in the running at the end but it was a pretty close bunch. Dustin-73(won tie)/Craig-73/Scott-65/Jeremy-63/Andrea-62.
8/10

The Princes of Florence (5P) - (Scott, Dustin, Jeremy, Andrea and Craig)
This was a tough start. Dustin got the optimal 2nd player advantage (with 5 players they get 2 profession). Craig was able to get super cheap buys early on for recruit cards. I did horribly for those cards and was outbid the last 3 turns I tried for it with the last one going for 1,500 which turned out to be a good thing as I lucked into the perfect 8pp bonus card. Craig ended up with 3 Jesters and crazy bonus cards and zoomed ahead for the win with Jeremy 6 points back. Andrea was in my face the whole game bidding me up on everything that I really needed. I had to get a forest as it was the one thing all my projects had in common so I made it happen. I did really well considering I only put on 4 projects and tied with Dustin for 3rd at the end but he won the tie with more money as everyone ran the bids sky high in the last round and he didn't buy anything :P Andrea was getting frustrated and a little too focused on completing her last project and overbid the last 2 turns to make that happen and it ended up costing her some points when Dustin put the only thing she need up for auction on the last turn. I have to learn to get a recruiting card early and just be patient as there is plenty of time to put on a show and get an early bonus card that I can build towards. Craig-57/Jeremy-51/Dustin-43/Scott-43/Andrea-31 7.5/10

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Saturday - Beverly, MA

Agricola (revised edition) (Sky, Keith & Scott)(3P) - It's been a while since I made it to a North Shore Gamers Meetup at the Beverly Library but I enjoy this venue as there tends to be newer players so they are more pliable to games you suggest and it has been a couple of years since I was able to get this excellent title to the table and I even got the newest Revised Edition where they chopped the 5th player and half the cards and it comes without any wood cubes as they had special wood meeples for everything including the families. It had mostly new artwork on all the cards as well the text had been tweeked so that it was almost like playing a new game of this. They sped up the setup with, instead of using cards for the extra action spots based on player count, a board with all the actions on it that it attached to the main board with an interlocking cut and had final scoring on it. Keith, to my surprise, had never played this classic so I righted a travesty and taught him how to play "pain farm!" :devil:

I did my best to stress "grow your family, at the worst they will find enough food to feed themselves and this is a worker placement game so more worker is better plus they are 3 points each at the end" speech. Sky stayed with a small family for a long time but was an experienced player but I thought he was nuts building an early giant fence area and never improving his fireplace. Keith got too obsessed with his change clay to rock card and kept passing by the basic fireplace that would have made is life so much easier so his growth was cut back because he was building really fancy improvements and he totally killed me when he built the Well right before I did :cry: inadvertently he kept bouncing on the spots I needed but when playing "pain farm" this indeed expected -twisted smile- I got a good jump on family growth which they inexplicably renamed to something like "Wish for Family" I was a little too confident and didn't just drive for a 5 size building and get the 5th member early. Oh the points I would have got but you can't do everything. I got my veggie farm rolling with easy food rolling in from an improvement that gives me a food by selecting one of the 4 actions above the fishing hole. I started the tally and to my surprise Keith hit 30 for his first play, usually most new players are in the 20s for their first game. So it was just me and Sky, I finished my tally and it was 37 points which isn't killer but can win and with Sky growing his family so late I was sure I got him but then I tallied his points and he pipped me by 1 at 38! Such a great game, I'll have to use the Revised Edition angle to get people to play again as they made the cards more balanced. FYI these are all the standard components in the Revised Edition I didn't pimp a thing... except a replenish zone to speed up round starts :D
9/10

Fabrik der Träume(Sky, Keith, Scott, Stephanie & Paul) (5P) - I didn't have much time and the selection of games where all surprisingly heavy so I pulled this out even though I have played it a lot lately I still enjoy it and to everyone else at the table it was totally new. I explained it well for once and learned to not mention pool parties till it was the last thing. I got their attention with "this is the hardest thing that confuses everyone" part of it and even did example and I only had 1 player mess it up so I felt good as it's usually 70% confusion. They grasped it all well but with their group think I felt they where waaaay overvaluing things and running the bidding through the roof so I kept reminding them that each contract is worth a point each at the end so you want to get more points out of a picture then you put in but the heart wants what it wants:whistle:. I had completed 4 movies and if everything fell right in the last pool party I might get the last piece I need for my 5th movie I just needed any type of director. There where 2 Agents and I got second pick at the party so I completed my last King Kong with Boris Karloff. I didn't get a lot of bonus awards but did manage to pull off best yellow with Gary Cooper playing Frankenstein. I also got best directors as I had 10 star worth of directors which put me over with the 5 movies for 82 points but 2 others where in the 70s and might have won if my last movie didn't come in. Stephanie produced the best film in the 2nd round so she got a ton of points off of that but rest of her films where not near that caliber, I feel she would have won had she not bid so high but live and learn :D To my surprise everyone loved it and they where asking if it was still in print, It's still being made but the art is bad but it's a solid game that can overcome that art. So fun, glad I took the time to 3d print some pass markers clappers :D
8/10

Saturday - Salem, MA

Dungeon Lords (4P) - (Bob, Adam, Craig & Scott)
Craig had never played this and it is by far Bob's favorite game of all time. If he wasn't so clearly excited about playing it I might have tried to wiggle out of it but his enthusiasm won me over so I didn't complain. Bob was so nice he remembered I didn't like the game but I explained I don't hate it I just like his other designs more. It all came back to me slowly and we got into it. I got lucky in that they all dove into evil which is the thing to do so you get the Paladin as it's the best bang for the buck if you can handle him so most advance players try for evil and newer players like Craig and I tried to be good. I got a room that let me turn 3 workers for happiness so I stayed good which helped a lot. By the time this game ended it wasn't so much that I did amazing but that real bad things had happened to all the others. I did really luck out and for my first time ever didn't have a single room conquered thanks to an amazing 1st half and an anti-magic room at the start area for the final fight as I kept the fight there for 3 rounds and just when I ran out of firepower the final guy fell over dead from fatigue. To my great surprise I won. I didn't win a lot of titles so I thought I was doomed even with no negative points. I think it was the final turn where I really messed up Bob's planning by going for a happiness spot and making him take an invader he wasn't ready for :devil: Scott-23/Bob-22/Craig-18/Adam-12.
7/10

Terraforming Mars +Terraforming Mars: Hellas & Elysium + Terraforming Mars: Venus Next + Terraforming Mars: Self Replicating Robots Promo Card (Scott, Adam, Bob & Craig)(4P) - Venus, Elysium, forgot to use the optional rule to have start player move goals so game ran longer then usual. Suggestions where bounced around and this was the only one that didn't get grunts of displeasure. I have been working on pimping it out more so wanted to try the new solid metal cubes from Top Shelf Gamer. I bought 2 packs and it handled 4 players just fine. I finally painted my cities with black around the base which actually made them look pretty sharp and added some roads so now players will be able to tell they are cities from the other tiles but I didn't do the paint job till Sunday so we had to suffer through one last time. Thinking about also adding a 3d City counter to keep a running count of total cities on the point board area as lots of cards reference the total cities in game count.

I started with the Mining Guild so I got steel production and more steel production if I built anything on a steel/titanium spot. I also started with 2 Jovian tag cards and 1 was a multiplier. Ron had finally beat it into me not to plop those down till the end and I managed to pull 2 more multipliers, happy day! Bob was the plant destroyer with sole credit for killing everything for the 1st half of the game. I managed to run my money production up fast to 10 and claimed the milestone, right after Bob had got one for playing 5 event cards, that left just one more left and both Craig and Bob qualified for one with 15 blue/green cards in play but they where out of money and turn order was shifting to my favor and I had just rammed the heat up so I could finally get plant production and steal the last milestone for 1 production in everything :devil: Bob had most of the awards locked except Craig managed to sneak in the desert award which I was happy to see as I had a easy 2nd place in that. Adam didn't have a lot of points on the planet but man did he have points in cards, I think it was in the 30's but my 3 Jovian tag multipliers and 5 tags managed to just pull me across the line for the win. So close with only 8 points between the first and last player. Still loving this game... except Search For Life...(more below) Scott-80/Craig-77/Adam-75/Bob-72. 9/10

"To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."-Herman Melville

Automobile (Adam, Bob, Craig & Scott) (4P) - Bob really wanted to play this and I was so in. I enjoy this game so much it was one of the first games I built a help sheet for that did the math for you with a simple spread sheet (Price Table Aid) as the game wears on your math skills as they start to grind down :) It was new to Adam but everyone else had played it a bunch. The fun of this game for me is mixed with the aggressiveness of the players. This game is so much better with aggressive players that push the demand bubble so everyone has to sweat it out if they will make the sale or not. If players are timid in production then you can count on being able to sell your car it becomes a little boring and just straight math. This one came down to blinking which was the cut rate grey markers to increase sales but lowers your profit. I think I was the only player not to take it and did lose out on 3-4 car sales but everyone else got hit just as bad by lost profits and even with the cut rates they didn't all sell. I got a good position and built a parts factory (-$20 per car) on the cheap cars for max profit which in the end made the difference along with players ignoring the close a factory tile one round which saved me a few dollars as I had 8 loss cubes at one point. Pretty close finish at the end but extra profits by having the only parts/cheap car factory gave me the win with $5,200 everyone else was in the mid $4k range.
8.5/10