Rochester Gamers Community

It seems like every so often, a board game arrives on the scene with a lot of fanfare. This year’s game to fit that description is Agricola. The name comes from the Latin for ‘farmer.’ Naturally, that is your role in this game. You play a farmer who is trying to develop the most successful farm, as judged by the player with the most victory points at the end.

So, how is success measured? At the end, each player scores points for:
• How many fields they’ve plowed

Are you one of those players who is growing tired from the worn out theme of trading in the Mediterranean? How about role selection? Do you hate having lots of options, but only one being the best? Do you love lots of bits and cards like the present offerings that are usually seen in "Ameritrash" games but dislike the long setup and play time? Well, if you answered "yes" to the previous questions, Agricola (Latin for "farmer") is a game you should try.

I have been semi-interested in this game for a while, but have now finally got the chance to give it a play thanks to Krydoza.

Gameplay - The gameplay is good. It kind of gave me the feeling of a more complex Heroscape mixed with a game of Warhammer where only heroes were used. I also liked the Dungeons and Dragons mechanics that take me back to my RPG roots.

I had heard a lot of positives and some negatives about this game before I finally decided to invest in it. I was at Target and it was on sale for 35, and I had just got some birthday money. You know how it goes when you have those pretty little figures staring at you from the front of that beautiful box, I finally went for it.

The pretty pieces and Toys R Us sale pulled me in to the Nexus Ops world, but the great gameplay got me to stay.

Gameplay - I was pleasantly surprised to find that Nexus Ops has great gameplay to match the beautiful colorful bits.

The object of the game is to obtain 12 victory points through waging battles with your opponents on a moon that contains a much sought after energy source called Rubium.

Alhambra (designer Dirk Henn, various publishers including uberplay) is a game about palace-building, although the thrust of the game has more in common with stock-holding games like Acquire. This is hardly a surprise, since Alhambra is a reincarnation of Stimmt So!, a stock-holding game. It has won various awards, including the 2003 Spiel des Jahres, and is appropriate for 3-6 players, although it can be played with 2 players plus a "dummy" (named Dirk).

My first encounter with this game was a demo at Gen Con. My friend Marcus and I dug it immediately, and I purchased it on the spot. Marcus waited until towards the end of the con, because he has trouble parting with money.

Game Play - This game has great game play that really holds true to the feeling of Kung Fu movies with cards like your Kung Fu is Weak and Dramatic Pose.

I had heard a lot of good things about this game and had thought about purchasing it many times, but had just never got around to it. Matt brought it over to one of my Monday Night Game Nights and we got a chance to play it two-player since no one else had shown up yet. After that, I knew that I wanted to purchase a copy for myself.