Skinner
1921
@ Tim
I like Scotland Yard. It’s fun with two people or can be played with more. It’s good for non-gamers and gamers alike. I’ve owned it over 20 years. It always interests people.
Ticket to Ride is your best bet for non-gamers. I’d be tempted to pick up the Euro map, as it’s a bit more interesting than the US map yet not significantly more difficult, but I’d shy away from the German map (Marklin) as it’s more cutthroat (not typically what you want with new gamers).
Carcassonne just isn’t as good, I wouldn’t pick Dominions as an initial “gateway” game as it can take some getting used to, and Settlers is random enough that one person in a four player game is likely to be screwed by bad luck and essentially be forced to watch and not play (you can have bad luck in the other games too – but you still play).
Skinner
1924
Hopefully as pleasing as the Flashbacks I was promised…
Reldan
1925
Tichu is an awesome portable game, but it requires 4 players. I’d still highly recommend picking it up and bringing it along.
Not to beat horse that LK already killed and stuffed earlier in this thread, but Citadels might fit your bill exactly. It’s one of the few simple games that is quite good for 2-7 players.
Xemu
1926
Been getting back into Agricola – playing it with someone who was too hardcore and had played it an order of magnitude more than the rest of us had left a bad taste in my mouth. It does lack in mechanisms to catch up to a leader or do much to block someone who is breaking away from the pack.
That said, still a brilliantly executed game.
Any opinions on the expansion(s)?
Lorini
1927
I don’t like any of the extra decks that I’ve seen, they just seem bizarre. Farmers on the Moor, I like a lot. I play the second level, which is more than family but less than the ‘full’ game and I’m really happy with it.
Farmers of the Moor is a definite improvement, though it does make the game more complicated so I wouldn’t start off with it right away. I’ve never actually played with the seasonal expansion, but it seems like it might be interesting. The extra decks of cards are amusing and add a bit of variety, but aren’t crucial and many of the cards are a bit wacky and hard to use; it works best when played with the variant where you draft occupations/improvements.
You block someone who is “breaking away” by getting the sweet deals he’s relying upon before he does. Of course, that’s tricky when you’re new to the game and don’t yet recognize which deals are sweet…
The two biggest things here are to aim to get your 3rd person ASAP (ideally so you’re ready for Family Growth to flip up on turn 5), and to not let anyone (else) get away with building a Fireplace uncontested so they can reap the sheep supply for 8-10 food.
Reldan
1929
You can potentially rape the fireplace guy by stealing the sheep out from under him if he’s betting the farm (literally) on a massive sheep-to-food conversion for the first harvest.
The biggest question to ask yourself in the game is whether you’re going to build 1 room by round 5 and fast expand to 3 family members, or go for a simultaneous build of 2 rooms by turn 6/7 to get 4 family members asap. It all depends on your cards and how short of supply wood is in.
Rape and sheep. Sounds like Agricola is more exciting than I thought.
If nobody else has pastures or a way to eat sheep, then when anyone takes a turn to get a way to dispose of sheep the original guy will just take them then. Sometimes you can go last one turn and first the next, and so build your fireplace/fences and then snipe the sheep immediately, but that only really happens if your opponent falls asleep at the plow.
In practice what you can do is force them to take the sheep earlier, or else let you have a middling number of sheep (2 or 3). Basically, I’m just saying that doing so is a good idea, and better than letting a player use the sheep market as their personal pasture, which portends them running away to victory. You get nothing in the short run by forcing their hand, but having pastures/cooking is a good long term strategy so it’s still worth it.
The biggest question to ask yourself in the game is whether you’re going to build 1 room by round 5 and fast expand to 3 family members, or go for a simultaneous build of 2 rooms by turn 6/7 to get 4 family members asap. It all depends on your cards and how short of supply wood is in.
Yeah, if the fighting is fierce for getting 3 rooms and being starting player early it can be best to setup for building two rooms, especially if Family Growth pops up late.
Lilan
1932
We had her play Battlestar Gallactica last summer, with some success (or i think so since she asked me to bring it for Xmas…), some maybe we could play several “short” sessions…
I’m more worried about TI3 mechanics actually since she’s “only” 12…
Lilan
1933
We played Agricola a lot lately (it’s our 30 y.o. birthday present from a friend) and we made several 3 player games… It’s pretty tricky to setup a 3rd room by turn 5, way harder than in a 5 player game…
I’ve played most of my games three player, and I have to disagree. It takes 5 actions at most, and you have 10. Sometimes other things are more worth your while, but if you want to do it you can – there is enough wood and reed available for all 3 players to potentially do so (though that would be difficult).
SlyFrog
1935
I’ll add my opinion.
Farmers of the Moor is a great add-on, and it also helps reduce what is already a pretty minor problem in the base game of repetitive strategies being used over and over. Beyond that, I also think that it adds even more flavor and texture to the overall game.
I have frankly ignored everything else, as I like Agricola for what it is, and I have no interest in buying card sets containing zany alien jokes, or zany caricatures of Czech literature professors (or whatever the hell they seem to throw in those things).
Fortunately, Agricola has been the one rare game where I am not a completionist nor does it even bother me that I don’t have everything - most of the stuff beyond the base game, Farmers of the Moor, and maybe the Seasons set (which I admit I have not played) seem pretty stupid and gimmicky.
Wow. You guys apparently play Agricola at a level way beyond anything I’ve experienced personally.
deccan
1937
What is the Seasons set? You mean the Through the Seasons postcard?
Reldan
1938
The seasons are just a set of 4 modifiers/actions that cycle and provide a slight bit of variety each turn. I’ve played a few games with them and I don’t personally find they add much.
Gave it to my friend and played a family round yesterday. I was rules guy for the first game, and of course I missed explaining a couple of rules, so the result wasn’t exactly fair. It was quite obvious I played completely sub-optimal (overdid the fields), though, and both of us underestimated the major improvements.
