Dragonflight

Tomorrow is Dragonflight, and I will be there through the weekend. Its my first ever gaming con, but since I was in ECG as well as Seattle Cosmic, that was like a gaming con every weekend. The difference, of course, is that this also includes RPGs as well as strategy/tabletop gaming. Another deviation is that I will be at the dealer table some of the time I am present.

Much of the reason I started this blog was because I want to write about obscure stuff, or at least games that arent getting a lot of pub outside of certain circles. This is true for the RPGs, I plan on writing about board games, mainstream and otherwise (Agricola today, in fact).

My gaming collection is big, borderline epic. The stuff my company is bringing to sell is pretty extensive across genres. Its loaded with board games of all types, as well as a nice slice of RPG goodness. If you are coming to Dragonflight, find me at my table.

On to Agricola.

This game shot up to #1 on BGG and dethroned long-time perch-sitter (hyphenated double-whammy...it just gets better and better) Puerto Rico, all with the flat and relatively uninspiring theme of farming. This had better not be that damn Farming Game that was around in the 80's.

Its not.

I have owned this game for a few months and finally got around to playing it. The rules were a lot harder to read and understand than the game turned out to be to actually play. This is the first thing it has in common with Caylus. Learning it from a knowledgeable party is probably a snap.

Placing family members to work is also very similar to Caylus. The big difference is you start with so few of them, and must weigh spending actions to grow the family versus producing value. Its also a strange flux where early turns (rounds before harvest) have fewer workers placed, but later turns, where you have larger families, go to harvest more quickly. This makes building your production infrastructure critical to success.

The game scores once, at the end, and rewards breadth to a greater degree than depth.

Positives: Replayability. This game comes with a lot of cards which can be combined into a very large group of possibilities. My opinion is this is its top selling point. No need for expansions, there are enough cards for years of play.

Art. The game looks pretty good. Its not at my absolute top end for components (A Touch of Evil), but its clear, well done and high-quality.

Strategy. There are literally thousands of possible strategies to use in this game.

Negatives: Cost. Its $70. Yes, it has enough stuff to be considered a game plus an expansion, and I appreciate that, but the fact that you are required to buy the full package is a bit much.

Elitist chic. This game is as overrated as Cindy Crawford was in the 90's. Its top shelf, but not the best game on the planet.

Theme. This game, like most Euros, is theme-independent* (holy crap Im overboard on the hyphens). Games without strong themes often mean its more about 'winning' and 'the game' than it is about pure enjoyment of the time with your friends. Understand this when you pull it out to play.

Final Verdict: Own this game. I got it for about $28, and probably never would have gotten it for anything close to retail, and thats a shame. Its a great addition to any collection and should remain consistently fun for years.

*What do I mean by theme independent? This game could very well have been called whatever the Greek equivalent of bartender is, and been about working a nightclub as the clientele grows and producing drinks at an increasing rate, and no one would have noticed. It would still be about where it is today. The game survives on the strength of its mechanics solely.