Last night at game night had us order up seconds of the current hot Game of the Month!, Agricola.  It had been a while since I'd gotten to play (what with my multiple daycare-induced illness and a trip out of town), so I was a bit worried that the learning curve of the regulars would have passed me by.  Well, there was apparently nothing to worry about, as I managed to pull out wins in both games, unseating the "other Chris" from his dominant position as head peasant farmer.  

As I have now played a grand total of 5 games of Agricola (winning 3, by the way), I declare myself to be an expert and will now dole out bits of strategy to you poor fools as a rich man drops crumbs from his plate for the dogs at his feet...

Well, I guess that metaphor may be pushing it a bit, but I will at least try to explain what I was trying to do in both games, and how I more or less did some of it.  I started the first game with the intention of growing my family ASAP, and decided (since I had the Shepherd's Crook in my hand) to feed them with sheep.  Through a little luck and some brilliant turn-order play (IMnotsoHO), I got enough wood to build a 4-space field (and get some free sheep from the Crook), expand my wood house to 4 rooms, and pick up the horde of sheep that had built up (since I was the only one to have space for them) by turn 7 or so.  I quickly expanded the family to four, added more pastures and animals, and eventually upgraded the house to stone (even if it took me three actions on one turn to collect the stone I needed), and maxed out to 5 family members.  With everything working so well, I scored 44 points and won pretty handily, having only played 3 or 4 of my cards.

Now, we played both of these games with the I Deck, and (at my diligent insistence) we added in the Z Deck for the second game.  When James played the stinking Mail Coach Driver on turn one, I realized the folly of my request.  But no, I say!  It was... interesting to experience Agricola with such a game-changing (some might say game-crippling) effect in play!  Oh, who am I kidding - that card sucks royal butt! But anyway, back to my priceless words of wisdom...

So, I then found myself in turn 7 with a butt-load of grain in my fields (from the use of my lovely Planter Box), a pasture with a good handful of sheep, and a newly purchased Stone Oven, ready to cook up some sheep to feed the old family and prepare myself to plow and further expand my grain-growing empire.  Then, unfortunately, Chris pointed out that you can't cook sheep in the Stone Oven.  I asked, "Even if I chop them up really small?", but the response was the same - "Come begging with me!" he said.  Yes, he had come up 2 food short, and after chewing on two handsful of grain and some scraps I found in the pantry, I still had one food missing myself.  Neither of us were very happy.  

Anyway, I proceeded to buy a fireplace large enough to cook mutton on a spit, and continued to press on.  Alton was swimming in grain and food, and used the Mother of Twins to expand up to 4 family members while most of us still had only the little woman and ourselves to rely on.  I eventually managed to max out on fields, grain, and vegetables, take minor losses for boar and cattle, but also capatilize on Pottery from a ridiculously large cache of clay that built up for most of the game.  Alton had focused too much on his grain empire and decadent feasts of sweetbreads, meanwhile ignoring his need for meat and a cluttered farmyard, and I managed to again pull out a win despite my shame at having to seek welfare earlier in the game.

So, what are the gems of brilliance I have to share?  First, family members are good.  Get some extras, but be sure that you can feed them.  Which brings me to number two - have a plan to feed your family!  Usually this requires getting some little advantage from one of your Occupations or Minor Improvements, but then that leads right in to number 3 - Don't play too many cards!!!  Already, I've seen way too many people vomit forth cards from their hand at every possible opportunity.  While this is a pretty fun and varied way to play the game, it appears to dilute the rest of your actions too much and isn't exactly the way to consistently win.  While cheap minor improvements are not much of a problem if you're getting them "free" with other actions, the occupations are almost always at the expense of other, potentially more valuable actions.

This really reminds me of something from my Magic-playing days.  One nugget of wisdom about deck-building was to avoid "win more" cards.  What does that mean?  For instance, often times you'd be tempted to throw in some grand combo that, if you got it out in a game, would totally lock down your opponent and guarantee victory.  The problem?  Well, by the time you could get the combo into place, you pretty much already had to have the game won - so it wouldn't help you win the game, it would just let you "win more" impressively than you would have before.  Of course, the added inefficiency of having the combo would make it less likely that you would win at all!

Anyway, getting out all the possible combos in your hand is simply a "win more" strategy.  And in Agricola, "win more" is actually "win less" or "don't win at all".  Instead, just use your cards to open up two or three options that support your overall strategy, then put most of your attention and effort into being efficient with the other actions you choose.  

I have spoken!  Listen and take heed!!!

Oh, by the way, we also got in a game of TransAmerica last night, and it was a lot better than what I'd heard from other "gamers".  I can't to try it with my wife!