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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
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Here is the 2011 most time spent list, ordered by number of hours. All games with more than 10 hours spent on them included:
74 Magic the Gathering
62 Race for the Galaxy
47 UNO
29 The Game of Life
28 Agricola / Through the Ages
26 7 Wonders
23 Ascension / Outpost
21 Vegas Showdown / Great Game of Britain
20 Shipyard
16 Power Grid / Ubongo
15 Cutthroat Caverns
14 LEGO Create It / RoboRally / The Bucket King
13 Glory to Rome
12 Monopoly Junior / Castles of Burgundy / Dominion
11 Quarriors / Harry Potter TCG / Eminent Domain
10 Motorway
A mixture of new hot games, old favourites, and games played with my 4 year old son!
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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
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Now I present the, rather long, numbers-heavy analysis of all the Agricola games I have data for – mostly ones I’m in, but there were some included where I wasn’t present. In all of this I only include multiplayer games, so none of the 2 player games I’ve played are counted.
Total score
41.9 Sami (41.4)
40.7 Sharon (38.5)
39.4 Ray
39.3 Nigel
37.4 Matt (39.5)
35.7 Colin (35.4)
34.8 Martin
31.5 Marion
29.3 James
24.1 Richard
Now, there may be other factors at work here, such as number of players in the game, and which deck is used, so throughout the analysis this year I’m going to also include data on player count, and which deck was used. However I only started recording this data just over a year ago (less in the case of player count), so I don’t have a huge amount of data to work with. For decks we’ve played so much with the G deck in the last year, that I can only do “G deck” or “other deck”, I can’t analyze the individual decks, and things like the draft variant, because I just don’t have enough data.
By Player Count:
36.8 4 player
35.3 5 player
32.5 3 player
3 player games seem to be lower scoring, for some reason, with 4 player scoring highest.
G deck: 34.4
Other: 38.8
Colin’s claim that the G deck leads to lower overall scores does seem to be correct, from this data set.
Win Statistic
68% Sami
64% Ray
61% Sharon
56% Nigel
49% Martin
42% Colin
37% Matt
36% Marion
31% James
15% Richard
This is slightly odd, as Matt does quite well on the total score, but his win statistic is relatively low compared to Colin and Martin. Obviously when we’re playing four player with Matt, the scores are generally very high. Martin is the other way around. I’m going to use the win statistic to rate players again like I did for 7 Wonders – top (those above 60%), average (40-60%) and bottom (below 40%), to see what patterns appear, and to give weaker players goals to focus on to improve their game.
Games Played
66 Sharon
56 Sami
53 Colin
20 Matt / Marion
12 Martin / James
9 Richard
5 Ray
3 Nigel
As you might expect, the vast majority of games recorded have Sami and Colin in along with me.
Player Count:
28 5 player (6 games?)
19 4 player (5 games?)
13 3 player (5 games?)
We used to play primarily 4 player games, but playing on Friday night and with Nigel and Martin has increased our quantity of 5 player games this year. 3 player games have always been a fairly low number. It looks like there have only been about 16 games where I have recorded the player count – hopefully this number will go up a bit this year!
G deck: 51
Other: 25
As you can see, two-thirds of our games have been with the new G deck since I started recording deck choice, with other decks taking second place. Recently this has changed, as we tend to use a dice roll to decide deck, but it’s not had long enough to affect the overall data yet.
Top: 42.3
Average: 22.7
Bottom: 15.3
No real surprise that playing more makes you better. The players in the bottom group are mainly ones who play the majority of their Agricola games with me, so this is a fairly accurate estimation of their total plays, whereas those in the middle group have played elsewhere a considerable amount extra to the games listed, although to varying degrees.
Average Player Count
5.0 Nigel / Richard
4.3 Colin (4.3) / Sami (4.3)
4.2 Martin / Marion
4.1 Sharon (3.9)
4.0 James / Matt
3.3 Ray
This shows very dramatically which players play which number of games – Nigel and Richard only play 5 player games, whereas Ray is almost always in 3 player games. The rest of us seem to play mostly 4 player, with a slightly tendency to 5 player. (James isn’t always in 4 player games, he’s just played an even number of 3 and 5 player games – Matt however does always play with just 4).
G deck: 4.2
Other: 4.4
Deck choice doesn’t seem to depend on player count, which is as it should be.
Top: 3.9
Average: 4.5
Bottom: 4.3
Highest Score
54 Sami (52)
53 Colin (53) / Sharon (47)
50 James
49 Matt (44)
45 Martin / Nigel / Marion / Ray
34 Richard
53/54 does seem to be a natural maximum with the normal/G decks and none of the expansions. Most of the players who’ve played a lot have reached this level, or nearly, at some point. The players who play slightly less often have all reached the mid to high 40s.
By Player Count:
52 4 player
47 5 player
46 3 player
Again 4 player games seem to be the highest scoring – the highest score since I’ve been recording this data has been in a 4 player game, while 3 and 5 player games only have maximums in the high 40s.
G deck: 48
Other: 52
Again, the G deck seems to have a lower score.
Top: 50.7
Average: 47.7
Bottom: 44.5
Not really a surprise that the players who win more are more likely to achieve higher top scores.
Lowest Score
31 Nigel
29 Sami (29) / Ray
24 Sharon (26) / Matt (28)
23 Marion
19 Colin (23) / Martin
16 Richard
12 James
We all have the odd disaster, but some of us worse than others. Nigel, Sami and Ray seem to be the most consistent, whereas it appears when it goes wrong for James, it goes horribly horribly wrong.
By Player Count:
22 3 player
18 4 player
12 5 player
The worst disasters seem to happen in 5 player games! 3 player seems easiest to keep a reasonable score in.
G deck: 12
Other: 18
Here the G deck again scores worst.
Top: 27.3
Average: 23.0
Bottom: 18.8
Again, not a surprise that players who lose more tend to have worse lowest scores too.
Fields (average 2.2)
3.2 Sami (3.1)
3.0 Ray
2.8 Sharon (3.2)
2.3 Marion
2.0 Nigel
1.9 Matt (2.0)
1.8 Martin / James
1.7 Colin (2.2)
1.1 Richard
Quite a large range here in number of fields ploughed. On average people get 3 fields ploughed, but some players make the effort to get a few more.
By Player Count:
2.7 3 player
2.5 4 player
2.4 5 player
The number of fields ploughed decreases with increasing player number, as one might expect, as there are only a set number of “plow” actions that are available in a game, and this doesn’t increase with player number (except via cards)
G deck: 2.4
Other: 2.9
There must be slightly less cards helping with plowing in the G deck.
Top: 3.0
Average: 1.8
Bottom: 1.8
The high scoring players do get an extra point from plowing an extra field. Something to focus on if you want to improve maybe, getting that fourth field plowed?
Pastures (2.2)
2.9 Richard
2.7 Nigel
2.6 Sami (2.9) / Marion / Ray
2.3 Matt (2.2)
2.0 Martin
1.6 James
1.5 Sharon (1.7)
0.8 Colin (1.1)
Again quite a large range of scores here, although quite a clump about 2.6.
By Player Count:
2.8 3 player
1.5 5 player
1.4 4 player
In 3 player it seems players tend to get larger pastures – I’m presuming this is from quantity of wood available in the game per player.
G deck: 1.8
Other: 1.4
Slightly higher from the G deck, but a fairly negligible difference.
Top: 2.2
Average: 1.8
Bottom: 2.4
It seems that pastures are not something that good players go for more than weaker players.
Grain (average 1.9)
2.4 Matt (2.4) / Ray
2.3 Sami (2.2)
2.2 James
1.9 Colin (2.0)
1.8 Sharon (1.6) / Marion
1.7 Nigel
1.5 Martin
0.9 Richard
Much tighter range of points here, with most players getting about 2 points from grain.
By player count:
2.0 4 player
1.8 5 player
1.5 3 player
Not sure why there would be more grain per player in a multiplayer game, as there’s the same amount of grain in every game!
G deck/Other: 2.1
No difference in deck here.
Top: 2.2
Average: 1.7
Bottom: 1.8
Very slight difference here.
Vegetables (2.3)
3.3 Sami (3.3)
3.0 Matt (3.1) / Ray
2.8 Sharon (2.8)
2.7 Nigel
2.2 Colin (2.9)
1.8 James
1.6 Marion
1.4 Martin
1.1 Richard
And again we have a huge range of points. Sami must pretty much always max out on veg to have such a hig average, while it looks like a number of players at the bottom end just go for a token veg, and maybe plant it for get a second one.
By player count:
2.8 3 player
2.7 4 player
2.5 5 player
As you would expect, less competition for the veg square leads to more points for veg in games with fewer players.
G deck: 2.8
Other: 2.6
Very slight difference here.
Top: 3.0
Average: 2.1
Bottom: 1.9
It seems the top players see veg as an easy way to get an extra point here.
Sheep (1.2)
3.0 Nigel
1.8 Matt (1.8)
1.4 Ray
1.3 Martin
1.1 Sami (0.4)
1.0 James
0.9 Sharon (0.6)
0.8 Richard
0.5 Colin (0.4) / Marion
It seems Nigel is the only player who likes to keep sheep – maybe his vegetarian tendencies carry through to games and he doesn’t like to eat them? The rest of us get a token sheep to remove the negative, but can’t always be bothered eve to do that.
By player count:
0.6 3 player / 4 player
0.5 5 player
No real difference in sheep quantities with different player counts – we must just eat more of them!
G deck/Other: 0.6
No difference here
Top: 1.1
Average: 1.6
Bottom: 1.0
Nigel brings up the average in the middle category here, but if you discount him, there is no difference in points from sheep across player abilities.
Wild Boar (1.0)
1.8 Ray
1.6 Martin
1.4 Sami (1.6)
1.2 Matt (1.0)
1.0 Sharon (1.1)
0.9 James
0.7 Colin (0.8) / Nigel
0.4 Marion
0 Richard
Boar are even less liked than sheep on average. Even Nigel doesn’t like them!
By player count:
1.2 3 player
1.1 4 player / 5 player
No difference here, despite it being easier to acquire them in 5 player games.
G deck: 0.8
Other: 1.2
Bizarrely a slight increase for non G-deck games, but no by much.
Top: 1.4
Average:1.0
Bottom: 0.6
A slight increase in points from boar for players with higher scores.
Cattle (0.7)
1.4 Matt (1.7)
1.2 Sami (1.2)
1.0 Martin / Nigel
0.9 Colin (0.9) / Sharon (1.2)
0.8 Marion
0.6 Ray
-0.2 James / Richard
Players really don’t get many points from cattle – in James and Richard’s case, they tend to lose points over them!
By player count:
1.2 3 player
1.1 4 player
0.9 5 player
Slightly easier to get them in 3 player than 5player. I can understand it being easier with 3 than 4, but the fact you can buy them from the first turn in 5 player does mean it’s slightly surprising there aren’t more of them then!
G deck: 0.7
Other: 1.0
Again a slight increase for non-G deck games.
Top: 0.9
Average: 1.0
Bottom: 0.5
It’s one way weaker players seem to lose points – not removing their negative from cattle. No-one seems to bother with them much though.
Unused spaces (-2.7)
-1.5 Sami (-0.5)
-1.8 Matt (-1.4)
-2.0 Martin / Nigel
-2.2 Ray
-2.7 Sharon (-1.6)
-3.0 Richard
-3.3 Marion
-3.7 James
-4.4 Colin (-4.1)
Quite a range here. Most players seem to lose 2 or 3 points from unused spaces on average, but some players are more careful not too (Sami in particular), and some don’t seem to care too much (James and Colin)
By player count:
-2.4 3 player
-2.5 5 player
-3.5 4 player
I’m not sure why it’s harder to fill in unused spaces in 4 player games!
G deck: -3.0
Other: -2.7
Slight difference.
Top: -2.1
Average: -2.8
Bottom: -3.0
Another place where better players get an extra point.
Fenced stables (0.7)
1.3 Nigel
1.2 James
1.0 Sami (0.6) / Richard
0.9 Marion
0.6 Colin (0.7)
0.5 Matt (0.7)
0.4 Sharon (0.5) / Martin
0 Ray
I thought Sami would head this list, but he’s beaten by both Nigel and James! I’m surprised I’m not bottom, but it seems that Ray likes fenced stables even less than I do!
By player count:
0.7 5 player
0.3 3 player
0.2 4 player
Fenced stables are more common in 5 player than other player counts – presumably the extra wood available.
G deck: 0.7
Other: 0.4
Slightly more common to have fenced stables in G deck games
Top: 0.5
Average: 0.8
Bottom: 0.9
It seems that weaker players are slightly more likely to use their wood for fenced stables.
Points from house (5.9)
7.7 Sharon (7.0)
6.6 Sami (7.1) / Richard
6.4 Colin (6.1)
6.2 Marion
6.0 Matt (6.7)
5.3 Ray
5.1 James
4.6 Martin
4.3 Nigel
Unsurprisingly I’m top of this list. Surprisingly Sami is second! Quite a range in points from top to bottom here again. Seems a three size stone house is a fairly average score for a house though.
By player count:
6.9 4 player
6.2 5 player
5.5 3 player
The shortage of both clay and stone in a 3 player game seems to make it harder to get points from houses. 4 player is easiest, presumably because it’s easier to renovate with 4 than with 5, so there are more stone houses scoring.
G deck: 5.8
Other: 7.0
Quite a dramatic increase in house points with non-G deck games.
Top: 6.5
Average: 5.1
Bottom: 6.0
Bizarrely the drop in points comes from the average players here.
Percentage clay (46%)
100% Nigel
75% James
50% Martin
45% Marion
44% Richard
40% Matt (20%) / Ray
26% Colin (20%) / Sharon (10%)
18% Sami (0%)
Wow, Nigel is always clay! There aren’t many players who prefer clay to (presumably) stone – James is the only other one. Sami is least fond of clay.
By player count:
46% 3 player
29% 5 player
11% 4 player
More likely to have a clay house in a 3 player game, because of no stone in the early game. Least likely to have a clay house in the 4 player game, as there’s the highest amount of stone per player available with that player count.
G deck: 39%
Other: 12%
Very dramatic difference in number of people with clay houses with the G deck – less ways of getting stone to renovate with, or more cards using up stone in other ways?
Top: 28%
Average: 59%
Bottom: 51%
The higher scoring players are more likely to be ones who have managed to renovate to stone.
Percentage stone (46%)
75% Sami (90%)
74% Sharon (90%)
64% Colin (70%)
60% Matt (80%)
45% Marion
42% Martin
40% Ray
33% Richard
25% James
0% Nigel
This graph is pretty much the reverse of the previous, as you might expect, but there are some differences from wood houses. Slightly surprised that there is overall an equal percentage of clay and stone houses at end-game.
By player count:
79% 4 player
64% 5 player
38% 3 player
For the same reasons as above, this is just clay houses reversed.
G deck: 53%
Other: 84%
And again, non-G deck games have a higher percentage of stone houses.
Top: 63%
Average: 35%
Bottom: 41%
Pretty much the reverse of above again.
Average house size (4.0)
4.7 Richard
4.4 Sharon (3.9) / Ray
4.3 Nigel
4.2 James
4.0 Marion
3.7 Colin (3.4) / Matt (3.7)
3.6 Sami (3.7)
3.3 Martin
Not really a surprise that the average house size is 4, as 4 family members is generally what people aim for. Most players have an average close to 4 – Martin is surprisingly quite a way below this, and Richard a long way above.
By player count:
3.8 3 player / 4 player
3.7 5 player
G deck/other: 3.8
Not affected by either of these.
Top: 4.1
Average: 3.8
Bottom: 4.2
And it doesn’t seem that average house size affects your final score either.
Family members (13.3)
15.0 Nigel
14.4 Ray
14.2 Sharon (12.9)
13.8 Marion
13.3 Martin
13.2 Matt (13.8)
12.7 Colin (12.9)
12.5 Sami (12.0)
12.0 James / Richard
Unsurprisingly the overall average is just over 4 family members. Nigel is most keen to make sure he gets his fifth family member, while even Ray beats me – I’ve been less bothered about it last year as you can see, and it’s dropped my overall average.
By player count:
12.6 4 player / 5 player
12.5 3 player
No difference here
G deck: 13.2
Other: 12.7
Slightly more likely to have the extra family member with the G deck – I think there are more cards that allow extra family growth.
Top/Average: 13.7
Bottom: 12.8
Something to be careful of – better players are more likely to get their fifth family member.
Points from cards (7.4)
12.3 Colin (10.1)
9.4 Sharon (7.5)
8.6 Sami (8.2)
8.2 Martin / Ray
6.2 James
6.0 Nigel
5.6 Matt (5.5)
4.7 Marion
2.4 Richard
No surprise that Colin is top, as he plays to his cards more than most. Again, a very wide range – 10 points from top to bottom – showing that cards are somewhere you can really make a difference to your score.
By player count:
9.4 4 player
7.8 5 player
4.8 3 player
I’m guessing the extra stone in 4 player is the reason for the highest score, as more major improvements are built, and presumably 3 player is low for the same reason.
G deck: 6.8
Other: 9.3
Colin’s claim that G deck cards have less points on them may well be true!
Top: 8.7
Average: 8.8
Bottom: 4.7
So here is where the lower scoring players are losing a chunk of their points – not building out cards and improvements that get them points.
Points from top half (ie fields, animals, grain, veg) (11.5)
15.1 Sami (14.7)
14.8 Ray
14.7 Nigel
13.9 Matt (14.2)
11.7 Sharon (12.2)
10.7 Martin
9.9 Marion
9.0 James
8.7 Colin (10.3)
6.6 Richard
There is a range of 9 points from top to bottom here in total. I’m low given my overall score, and Colin is even worse. Most other players are ordered by their overall score.
By player count:
12.7 3 player
11.4 4 player
10.7 5 player
Highest scores in 4 player, but highest points from the top in 3 player, presumably due to reduced competition for these sort of items.
G deck: 11.1
Other: 11.9
Slight bias towards non-G deck.
Top: 13.9
Average: 11.4
Bottom: 9.9
Each tier scores about 2 more points on average than the one below – so you just need a couple of points up top on average.
Points from bottom half (house & family members)
21.8 Sharon (19.9)
19.4 Marion
19.3 Nigel
19.2 Matt (20.5)
18.6 Sami (18.4) / Ray
18.5 Colin (18.4)
17.5 Martin
17.1 James / Richard
I’m top of this one, as this is the part of the game I concentrate on most. Sami drops way down, as does Ray. The range from top to bottom, apart from me, is only 2 points, so there’s not a great difference here.
By player count:
19.3 4 player
18.7 5 player
17.1 3 player
Here the player counts with more stone are favoured again.
G deck: 18.8
Other: 20.0
G-deck is a point lower here.
Top: 19.7
Average: 18.4
Bottom: 18.2
I bring up the average for the gop group, but there’s not actually a great difference here.
Negatives at top (1.2)
2.9 Richard
2.1 James
1.9 Colin (1.6)
1.4 Marion
0.8 Sharon (0.8) / Martin
0.6 Sami (0.7) / Matt (0.4)
0.3 Nigel
0.2 Ray
Ray and Nigel are very careful not to have any negatives at the top, but most of us average about 1, or more in the case of some players.
By player count:
1.3 4 player
1.1 5 player
1.0 3 player
G deck: 1.2
Other: 1.1
Fairly static on all these factors.
Top: 0.5
Average: 1.0
Bottom: 1.8
I actually thought there’s be a greater difference here, but lower scoring players are actually only getting one more negative on average, which isn’t actually bad!
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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
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Number of games for each player
I have quite a number of games recorded in my database now, including a few I wasn’t present in.
64 Sharon
46 Sami
38 Colin
25 Marion
24 Richard
20 Martin
18 James
9 Matt
7 Nigel / Paul M / Ray
Now some stats on how each player did at the game:
Total Score (average 49.6)
55.4 Nigel
53.8 Sharon
52.7 Sami
51.9 Matt
51.3 Martin
49.1 James / Colin
48.5 Marion
46.2 Richard
46.0 Paul M
42.0 Ray
A range of 13 points from top to bottom average scores, which is quite a range. I’m going to split these players into three groups – top (everyone above 51.6 score – average score of 53.4), bottom (everyone below 47.6 score – average score 44.7) and average (those between 47.6 and 51.6 score – average 49.5), to see if we can any info about what might be good and bad to go for.
Win Percentages (obviously these are skewed by number of players in the game, so players who regularly play in larger groups would expect to win less, while those who mostly play it 3 player would expect to win more often – the average number in the game is in brackets for each player)
42.9% Nigel (4.4)
37.5% Sharon (4.5)
33.3% Matt (4.6)
32.6% Sami (4.4)
30.0% Martin (4.2)
24.0% Marion (4.7)
16.7% James (5.3)
12.5% Richard (4.8)
7.9% Colin (4.4)
0% Paul M (5.6) / Ray (5.9)
That’s a pretty impressive win statistic for Nigel, especially as the majority of his games were with 5 players, and none with just 3. Paul and Ray have yet to win a game I’m in, but do tend to play in larger groups than the rest of us. James and Colin have a surprisingly low win rate, given their average scores.
Using my win statistic
78% Nigel
70% Sharon
58% James
57% Sami
45% Martin
43% Colin / Ray / Marion
35% Matt
25% Richard
To save you looking it up in a previous email, here is the data using my win statistic. James comes out very strongly here – he generally places well, even if he doesn’t win very often.
Military
Who are the military players?
10.4 Nigel
9.7 Matt
8.6 Ray / James
8.3 Paul M
6.5 Martin
6.3 Marion
6.0 Sami
4.4 Sharon
2.6 Colin
1.5 Richard
Well it seems Nigel and Matt are the ones who go very heavily into military, while Richard and Colin seem to totally ignore military. Now using my categories, and averaging over those players:
Top: 7.6
Average: 6.0
Bottom: 6.1
So it seems that better players do get a couple of their extra points from military, but not dramatically so.
Cash
6.4 Nigel
5.6 Marion
4.6 Paul M
4.5 Colin
4.1 Ray / Sharon / Sami
4.0 Martin
3.6 Richard / Matt
2.7 James
There seem to be a lot of us clumped around an average of 4 points for cash, obviously a fairly typical amount to end on. Nigel and Marion hoard cash most – not surprising in Marion’s case, given her tendency to build huge amounts of resource production buildings. James on the other hand, likes to spend all his cash!
Top: 4.3
Average: 4.2
Bottom: 4.1
So it seems that the amount of cash you end up with is a very minor factor in doing well or badly, on average.
Wonder
11.0 Nigel
10.0 Martin
9.6 Marion
8.5 Sharon
7.9 Matt
7.3 Colin
6.9 Sami
6.8 Richard
6.7 Paul M
6.6 James
3.6 Ray
Now, obviously, there is quite a dramatic difference in points available on wonders. The A sides all are worth 10 points, the B sides generally less, so Nigel’s 11 average is pretty hard to achieve! The players at the top must pretty much always build their whole wonder to get the points listed, whereas it looks like Ray in particular ignores his wonder!
Top: 8.6
Average: 8.3
Bottom: 5.7
It appears wonders are a place where players can lose points, and that concentrating on getting the points from your wonder is a way to improve your score.
Blue
17.4 Sharon
15.6 Paul M
15.2 Sami
14.9 Richard
14.1 Colin
11.5 Marion
10.8 Martin
9.6 Matt
9.2 James
8.7 Nigel
7.7 Ray
Again a dramatic jump from top to bottom. I am the most keen on blue buildings (not really a surprise there), but there seem to be quite a few players like me who also like their blue buildings, whereas Ray, Nigel and James in particular don’t like them much.
Top: 12.7
Average: 11.4
Bottom: 12.7
No difference here between players who do well and those who do badly.
Yellow
4.9 Matt
4.0 Nigel
3.6 Colin
3.3 Martin
3.2 Sami
3.0 Marion
2.8 Sharon / James
1.8 Richard
1.4 Paul M
1.0 Ray
There are never many points to be got from yellow buildings, but if you focus on them, it seems that you can get a reasonable amount – Matt and Nigel in particular do well with them.
Top: 3.7
Average: 3.2
Bottom: 1.4
It appears the betters players do get some of their points from yellow buildings, so these are maybe buildings to keep an eye out for if you’re wanting to improve your score.
Guilds
11.4 Matt
9.6 Martin
7.0 Richard
6.6 Sharon / Nigel
6.3 Marion
5.8 James / Sami
5.6 Ray
3.7 Colin
2.0 Paul M
Well, Matt is the GuildMaster, and Martin isn’t far behind. Most of the rest of us seem to get about 6 points from Guilds, except for Paul and Colin, who don’t seem to like guilds!
Top: 7.6
Average: 6.3
Bottom: 4.8
Another area to look at to improve your score – better players get 2 or 3 extra points here.
Science
15.2 Colin
13.5 James
11.6 Sami
11.4 Ray
10.7 Richard
9.9 Sharon
8.3 Nigel
7.7 Paul M / Martin
6.0 Marion
4.9 Matt
The two names at the top of this list aren’t really a surprise, as they are both players who regularly focus heavily on science, and Marion is equally well-known for avoiding science. I’m surprised I’m as much in the middle as I am!
Top: 8.7
Average: 10.6
Bottom: 10.0
Surprisingly, players who do better actually get less points from science than other players. I think it’s because science is quite a risky strategy – big pay-outs when it works, but far too often you spend a lot of actions for very little reward.
WONDERS
Now some data on which wonders are good at what:
Total score:
53.4 Colossus
52.4 Mausoleum
52.0 Statue
51.6 Temple
50.4 Lighthouse
50.0 Pyramids
46.8 Hanging Gardens
Military
10.8 Colossus
7.5 Pyramids
5.7 Statue
5.4 Mausoleum
3.4 Lighthouse
3.0 Temple / Hanging Gardens
So, getting the Colossus or Pyramids you can get military points more easily – and if you’re sitting next to them, maybe you should remember that!
Cash
5.0 Pyramids
4.7 Colossus / Temple
4.2 Lighthouse
3.7 Statue
3.4 Mausoleum
2.5 Hanging Gardens
Certain wonders seem to naturally gain more cash than others. Pyramids does best, no doubt because of all the resources you need to build it, which others then buy off you.
Wonder
12.5 Pyramids
8.0 Temple
6.8 Colossus
6.5 Lighthouse
6.1 Hanging Gardens
5.2 Statue
4.7 Mausoleum
No surprise that Pyramids is top. It’s almost sorted by the amount of points on the B side of each wonder, but not quite – I think some wonders are easier to build the later stages of, so move up the list slightly.
Blue
16.0 Temple
15.6 Colossus
14.1 Lighthouse
13.5 Mausoluem
12.7 Pyramids
12.1 Hanging Gardens / Statue
This is a more dramatic range than I’d expect, given that the blue points you get is fairly independent of wonder. Presumably this comes down to what resource mix you obtain after the wonder, and how much you focus on other things (e.g. science / military)
Yellow
4.4 Colossus
3.4 Pyramids
3.3 Temple
2.4 Mausoleum / Statue
2.0 Lighthouse
1.7 Hanging Gardens
Again quite a range – I’m not quite sure what it is about certain wonders that makes yellow cards more appealing with them.
Guilds
7.5 Colossus / Lighthouse
6.8 Mausoleum
5.7 Statue
5.5 Hanging Gardens
4.4 Temple
3.7 Pyramids
Guilds have quite demanding costs, usually involving lots of science, so the wonders that get most points from them tend to be the wonders that allow you to be fliexible.
Science
16.8 Mausoleum
16.6 Hanging Gardens
14.4 Statue
12.9 Lighthouse
11.9 Temple
7.8 Colossus
3.4 Pyramids
Not really a surprise that you’re more likely to go science if you start with a science wonder, or one that has a bonus for going science as part of its wonder ability. Whereas if you go pyramids, it’s hard to get involved in science too!
Which Wonder/Side combination is best?
56.5 Temple B
55.2 Colossus B
54.4 Mausoleum B
52.1 Pyramids B
51.6 Temple A
51.4 Mausoleum A
50.7 Lighthouse A / Statue A
49.7 Lighthouse B
49.1 Hanging Gardens A
47.6 Colossus A
47.4 Pyramids A
47.0 Hanging Gardens B
45.4 Statue B
This is slightly different from last year, as Temple B shoots to the top, and Statue B drops. In fact, although the top four wonders are B sides, so are the bottom two, showing that B sides on average aren’t much different, but are trickier in some cases.
A sides vs B sides
Most things are fairly similar between A and B sides. The most dramatic difference overall is in science (11.5 average for B sides, compared to 8.1 for A sides).
Specific wonders have dramatic differences:
Colossus Military A vs B – 7.1 vs 12.5
Hanging Gardens Blue A vs B – 8.1 vs 13.9
Lighthouse Science A vs B – 9.6 vs 18.0
Mausoleum Science A vs B – 11.0 vs 19.4
Pyramids Wonder A vs B – 11.9 vs 16.6
Temple Blue A vs B – 16.6 vs 4.0
Temple Science A vs B – 10.4 vs 18.5
Statue is the only one without a dramatic difference in any stat between sides. Mostly the reason for these differences are fairly obvious – printed bonuses, or things that aid you in getting out certain buildings. I presume it’s the difference in cost that changes the Temple from Blue to Science as you switch from A to B side – I can’t see quite why that’s happening though (Temple is the money one).
-
Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
-
Number of games played 0, 1, 2-4, 5-9, 10-24, 25-49, 50-99, 100+ times
100+ times: 13
50-99 times: 36
25-49 times: 52
10-24 times: 136
5-9 times: 128
2-4 times: 259
1 time: 390
There seem to be a lot of games in the 10-24 times bracket – I think this is maybe where newness often starts to wear off, particularly for fillers, and they don’t necessarily manage to jump to the next bracket. The rest of the curve shows a gradual decrease as I expected.
Never played our copy:
We’re generally pretty good about playing most games we acquire, but there are always a few that take a little longer to get played. The games we really need to try (or play our copy - in some cases we have played someone else’s) are:
Enchanted Forest
Hellas (2 player)
Derby Day
4000AD
Settlers of Catan dice game
Koala
Q-Bitz
Burger Joint (2 player)
Civilization
Lords of Scotland
Don’t Say It (party game)
Korsar
Carrom
Botswana
Tigris and Euphrates expansion
If you fancy a new game some time, do ask to try one of these! They’re mostly kids games I want to try with adults first so I know the rules, to slightly odd games we’ve picked up somewhere.
Average number of times I’ve played each game at each rating number:
10: 155
9: 52
8: 26
7: 9
6: 6
5: 3
4: 2
3 or less: 1
As expected it’s I play games I really like a lot more than ones I don’t – but it’s interesting to see how much. It’s quite a dramatic increase for games I rate 9 or 10.
-
Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
-
Obviously in a lot of these lists older games have an advantage, as they have more years to build up a play history, so this email looks at how many times we play each game on average per year. The number in brackets is how many years we’ve been playing that game for (including plays so far in 2012 too).
276 Magic the Gathering (4) - 4 years recorded plays anyway
108 Race for the Galaxy (6)
48 Dominion (4)
39 Harry Potter TCG (2)
34 7 Wonders (2)
24 Ascension (2)
23 Take it Easy (9)
21 The Great Game of Britain (2)
19 Alles im Eimer (9) / Agricola (6)
18 UNO (6) / Monopoly Deal (2)
15 Factory Fun (2) / Tichu (10) / Boggle (6)
14 Pandemic (4)
13 Jungle Speed (2) / Filthy Rich (9)
12 Puerto Rico (9) / Vegas Showdown (7) / Quarriors (2)
11 Mausen (6) / Escalation (5) / Boku (9) / Vikings (5)
10 Time’s Up (5) / Burn Rate (10) / Ubongo (5) / Power Grid (8)
Tichu and Burn Rate are the oldest games on this list, both played for 10 years in total! A few new games appear too, but still many of the familiar faces. It does show the staying power of some of the games though – Power Grid for instance, 8 years of plays, and still an average of 10 plays a year!
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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
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I was also interested in which games we play most with each player count. There are always certain games that work well with a particular number, and get played a lot more with that count than any other number. Top 15 games listed with each player count.
2 PLAYER GAMES
469 Race for the Galaxy
96 Boku
68 Dominion
56 Lost Cities
50 Harry Potter TCG
39 Schotten-Totten
34 Ascension
28 Agricola
26 Meander / Vikings
18 Factory Fun
16 Monopoly
15 Starship Catan
14 Balloon Cup / Yahtzee
I hadn’t realised our Puerto Rico year where we played about 40 times in a year, mostly 2 player, was before the database started, although I guess I should have realised given the age of the game. Boku is the only one of these that isn’t mostly played with Sami – I would guess that over half of those plays are with Colin.
3 PLAYER GAMES
104 Race for the Galaxy
63 Dominion
62 Boggle
34 Factory Fun
32 Filthy Rich
28 Take it Easy
26 Vikings
25 Mausen
22 Burn Rate
21 Take Two
16 Saint Petersburg / Vegas Showdown / Pandemic
15 Tongiaki / Monopoly Deal
Race for the Galaxy and Dominion still top the list with 3 player games, as they’re good fillers at that player count too. Filthy Rich and Vikings also score high on this list, as both are games that are very much at their best with 3.
4 PLAYER GAMES
129 Tichu
78 Race for the Galaxy
68 Alles im Eimer
56 Dominion
55 Take it Easy
52 Rage / Burn Rate
50 Agricola
47 Time’s Up
46 Loopin’ Louie
41 Vegas Showdown
40 Factory Fun
39 Robo Rally / Power Grid
37 Outpost
Most of the games here are ones we play with Matt regularly – we do tend to play a fairly similar selection of games whenever he’s over. Take it Easy however is my sister!
5 PLAYER GAMES
30 Vegas Showdown
27 Alles im Eimer
24 Power Grid
22 Agricola
21 Princes of Florence
20 Ave Caesar
16 Take it Easy
15 Escalation / 7 Wonders / Showmanager
14 Incan Gold
13 Jungle Speed
12 Amun-Re / Around the World in 80 days / For Sale
A fairly good selection of games that work well with 5 players or more. I’m surprised Vegas Showdown is top, but it works well with all player counts, so I guess not a total surprise. Power Grid is a good choice as a heavy game that is probably at its best with 5. I did think Ave Caesar might be higher.
6+ PLAYER GAMES
20 Ave Caesar
15 Take it Easy
14 7 Wonders
13 Apples to Apples
10 Alles im Eimer
9 GiftTrap / Incan Gold
8 Things / Midnight Party
7 Showmanager
6 Eiertanz / Say Anything / Time’s Up
5 6 Nimmt
Now we degenerate into party games and fillers, as there are very few heavier games that work well with higher player counts – Showmanager being the only real “proper game” on this list.
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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
-
Last year a friend asked which games we spent the most time playing, rather than just the most plays, which naturally favours fillers. I do the same again this year, for all games with 50 hours or more of play, sorted by number of hours played. Number in brackets is the position on this list last year.
Agricola and Puerto Rico switch places, and Power Grid moves above Tichu (which surprised me!). I was also surprised to see Alles im Eimer so high up the list, but the 45 mins listed playtime would probably explain it. Similarly a couple of others hit this list because the BGG playtime dramatically overestimates the actual time to play relative to other games.
672 Race for the Galaxy [1]
368 Magic the Gathering [2] (*this is in 3 years, not since 2002 like the rest of the data)
228 Agricola [4]
220 Puerto Rico [3]
185 Outpost [5]
156 The Settlers of Catan (NEW) (not new really, but including expansion maps differently this year)
152 Power Grid [7]
147 Tichu [6]
138 Robo Rally [8]
125 Alles im Eimer [10]
115 Filthy Rich [9]
108 Vegas Showdown [14=]
103 Amun-Re [11]
96 Dominion [16]
94 Vinci [14=]
93 Cities and Knights of Catan [12]
92 Evo [13]
88 Princes of Florence [17]
84 Great Game of Britain (NEW) (and those were all this year! – not sure the 120 min playtime on BGG is accurate!)
78 Empire Builder [18] (would be higher if it included other crayon rails maps]
76 Showmanager [21] / Time’s Up [19]
75 Burn Rate [20]
70 Take it Easy [22]
69 Factory Fun [26] / Rage [23=]
66 Tigris and Euphrates [23=]
64 Ra [25]
58 Formula De [27=] / Age of Steam [27=] / Pandemic [35=]
57 Carcassonne [30] / Princes of the Renaissance [29] (it’s not really a 3 hour game though!)
56 Medici [31]
55 El Grande [33]
54 UNO (NEW – all this year!) / McMulti [35=] / Monopoly [32]
53 Vikings (NEW) / Alhambra [34]
52 Shipyard (NEW)
50 Pillars of the Earth (NEW)
By Published Year
Now sorted by published year (in brackets if it’s changed since last year). The list is very similar to last year, with most changes being children’s games, due to my plays with Dominic.
2011 Die Burgen von Burgund / Eminent Domain (12)
2010 7 Wonders (34)
2009 Shipyard (52)
2008 Dominion (96)
2007 Race for the Galaxy (672)
2006 Factory Fun (69)
2005 Vegas Showdown (108)
2004 Power Grid (152)
2003 Amun-Re (103)
2002 Puerto Rico (220)
2001 Evo (92)
2000 Princes of Florence (88)
1999 Vinci (94)
1998 Filthy Rich (115)
1997 Tigris & Euphrates (66)
1996 Showmanager (76)
1995 Settlers of Catan (156) (Was Medici(55))
1994 RoboRally (138)
1993 Magic the Gathering (368)
1992 Modern Art (42)
1991 Outpost (185)
1990 Igel Argern (12) (was Airlines (12))
1989 Ave Caesar (35)
1988 Raj (15)
1987 Shark (21)
1986 Escape from Atlantis (8) (was Therapy (6))
1985 Pictionary (36)
1984 Wizard (13) (was British Rails (12))
1983 Take it Easy (70)
1982 Mhing / Farming (18)
1981 Trivial Pursuit (31)
1980 Empire Builder (78)
1975-79 Black Box (10) (was Cosmic Encounter (9))
1970-74 Great Game of Britain (84) (was McMulti (50))
1960s Acquire (46)
1950s Careers (14)
1940s Scrabble (12)
1930s Monopoly (54)
Pre-1930s Snakes and Ladders (23)
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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
-
This list is more for my own record, as a list of games we really ought to try again, as we own them, but we’ve only played them once – or if we really don’t want to, we should put them on the trade pile and attempt to move them out of our collection. Some of these games are new games we just haven’t had time to try twice, but the majority we’ve owned for more than a year, yet just haven’t got round to trying a second time, for whatever reason.
Logistico
Batavia
Taboo Quick Draw
Treasures and Trapdoors
Charades
Battlestar Galactica
Carrom
Korsar
Finale
Bungee
Gumball Rally
Kai Piranja
Tempus
You Robot
Railroad Dice: Germany
Age of Discovery
Power Struggle
First Train to Nuremberg
Pictionary card game
Skribble: the mystery drawing game
Heroscape
Quick Wit
Quelf
Gloria Picktoria
Q-Bitz
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Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
-
Generally if I like a game I’ll buy it, but there are a few that for one reason or another I don’t. This list highlights some of those games. I don’t count games we used to own but have traded on in either of these lists.
Most Played Games I don’t Own
10 Und Tschuss
10 Foppen
8 Formel Fun
6 The Resistance
6 Letters from Whitechapel
5 Code 777
5 Das Grosse und das kleine a
5 Clans
5 Hamsterrolle
5 Can’t Stop
5 Strasbourg
There are quite a few on this list I’d buy if I could, or if I saw them cheap. Some, like Clans and to a lesser degree Foppen, I just happened to play a lot, so have no desire to own, or play again.
Highest Rated Games I don’t Own
10 Dominion rosperity
8 Und Tschuss
8 RoboRally: Radioactive
8 Ticket to Ride: Switzerland
8 Code Omega
8 Kaleidos
8 Cityscape
8 Turfmaster Course Collection 2
8 Saint Petersburg: New Society and Banquet expansion
8 D&D Castle Ravenloft
8 Thunderstone (and expansions)
8 Strasbourg
8 The Resistance
8 Crappy Birthday
8 Trajan
8 Letters from Whitechapel
Most of these are similar to games we already own, or hard to acquire, which is why we don’t own them. However, for those of you who do own them, these are great games to bring along to play with me!
-
Sharon Khan
United Kingdom
Shefford
Bedfordshire
Games, games and more games!
-
It’s interesting seeing which game is the most played by when they were published. And although you might expect that older games have more plays, as we’ve had them longer, the number of good quick fillers printed recently means that’s not actually the case (plus I’ve only been recording games played since 2002 – otherwise some of the games I had as a child would be much higher on play count!). I’ve listed the top two most played games for each year. Last year I just listed the top game, and the top game is unchanged for all the years except 1999, where Boku beat Lost Cities, and 1992, where Modern Art went ahead of Loopin Louie. The games with + beside them are ones where I know there are plays from before I started recording them – a considerable number in some cases.
2011 Quarriors (23); Eminent Domain (17)
2010 7 Wonders (68); Ascension (48)
2009 Peloponnes (32); Shipyard (26)
2008 Dominion (192); Pandemic (58)
2007 Race for the Galaxy (670); Agricola (114)
2006 Factory Fun (92); Incan Gold (38)
2005 Vegas Showdown (87); Ticket to Ride Europe (18)
2004 Power Grid (76); Mausen (65)
2003 Amun-Re (69); Coloretto (55)
2002 The Bucket King (167); Puerto Rico (147)
2001 Harry Potter Trading Card Game (78); Hick Hack (53)
2000 Carcassonne (77); Princes of Florence (59)
1999 Boku (100); Lost Cities (95)
1998 Filthy Rich (115); Cities and Knights of Catan (62)
1997 Bohnanza (60); Metro (58)
1996 Showmanager (76); Chronology (37)
1995 Settlers of Catan (104+); Medici (55)
1994 RoboRally (69+); 6 Nimmt (43)
1993 Magic the Gathering (1105); Ausgebremst (14)
1992 Modern Art (57); Loopin’ Louie (56)
1991 Tichu (147); Outpost (74)
1990 Igel Argern (19); Monopoly Junior (16)
1989 Ave Caesar (71); Midnight Party (62)
1988 Raj (37); Pictionary Junior (9)
1987 Perudo (26); Shark (14)
1986 Giant Dice (15+); Escape from Atlantis (8+)
1985 Pictionary (24+); Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs (8+)
1984 Thomas the Tank Engine Game (24+); Wizard (18)
1983 Take It Easy (211); Rage (92+)
1982 Mhing (18+); Farming (12+)
1981 Trivial Pursuit (20)......
1980 Empire Builder (26); Samarkand (10)
1975-1979 Black Box (18); Mr Bump’s Apple Picking Game (16+)
1970-1974 UNO (109+); Boggle (88)
1960s The Game of Life (35+); Acquire (31)
1950s Yahtzee (16+); Careers (14+)
1940s Scrabble (8+),....
1930s Monopoly (18+), Tell Me Quiz (6+)
Pre-1930 Snakes and Ladders (46+); Cribbage (19+)
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