Session Summary – 17 September 2008

We were again able to run 2 tables this week. Gordon, Steve H, Andy & I played Agricola.
This was my fourth game of this and it was the closest that I have been involved in. As is becoming fairly usual, I can't remember much in the way of detail of the play, but we used the E deck (I think that next time I play it might be time to try one of the others).
From what little I remember none of us, with the possible exception of Steve really got the food generation working that well, although we would always just about managed to scrape up enough to feed the families when it came to the harvest. Steve had quite a nice combination of Occupations (including the Reeve, which I was able to share the bonus for at the end of the game) and Improvements and I think we all thought he was on for quite a handy win, but he was short on the livestock side which dragged him down to a similar level as the rest of us and that made for the close finish.

Agricola 135 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Steve H	1	40
Andy	2	38
Dave D	3	37
Gordon	4	36

Over on the other table Mike joined Dave and Ben and played Tinners' Trail, which has moved into the Top 5 played games for the year. Like last week's game this was a clear win and I got the impression that Dave did very well on the first round. Because the points available diminish with each round, this was decisive. As I said in the last report, I have not noticed this effect in my games, but I can see how it would come about. It would seem that if at any time (particularly the first round) the price of copper is very high, then it is important that no one player is allowed to get their pick of the best copper producing mines. Another factor affecting this is that the best mines are generally available at the start of the game, compared with those that become available later, which tend not to be so good.

Tinners' Trail 75 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Dave C	1	120
Ben	2	93
Mike	3	92

They also played Gheos; it looks like Mike had a good win here.

Gheos 45 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Mike	1	124
Dave C	2	96
Ben	3	68