Chris Linneman
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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I am hoping to play FotM tomorrow for the first time since around the time it came out. I am pretty sure I want to play at Level 2 (Minors but no Occupations) but I'm not sure which decks to use between those included in the base game and expansion. With the benefit of a couple years of testing I'm hoping some of you have suggestions as to the best configuration of cards. It will likely be with 4 players. Thanks!
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Geoff Burkman
United States
Kettering
Ohio
"Punk is not dead" by daughter, Emily
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Just shuffle them all together. There's really not a whole lot of difference between the two sets of cards. For all intents and purposes, they are one deck. Here's my encapsulation of the cards from my review of the expansion:
"The E-Deck has a higher proportion of cards yielding victory points (42% vs 33%), and both decks have the same ratio of cards with prerequisites for play (58%), half of which involve Improvements (weighted toward Major Improvements in the F-Deck)."
Shuffle up and have at it! And have fun!
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Chris Linneman
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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What about the base game decks? Shuffle them in too? Or use only FotM cards?
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Chris Linneman
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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Also I note that you (Geoff) play almost exclusively at Level 3. Do you find the game balanced with occupations? Are there any you don't use? Do you prefer to use some decks over others? I don't get this to the table much so I want the best experience possible.
Also, what's your take on Through the Seasons with this expansion?
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Geoff Burkman
United States
Kettering
Ohio
"Punk is not dead" by daughter, Emily
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QBert80 wrote: What about the base game decks? Shuffle them in too? Or use only FotM cards?
If you're playing Level 2, you only use the "FotM" cards.
QBert80 wrote: Also I note that you (Geoff) play almost exclusively at Level 3. Do you find the game balanced with occupations? Are there any you don't use? Do you prefer to use some decks over others? I don't get this to the table much so I want the best experience possible.
Also, what's your take on Through the Seasons with this expansion?
The Ugoi do, as a rule, play Level 3, although I'd be more than happy to tackle more Level 2 games, but Ron and Brian tend to love them their Ocks. I would say, yes, the game remains balanced and quite enjoyable with Ocks. The only one we've banned from "FotM" games so far is the Stonecutter, and we usually restrict the Braggart to counting Majors only. We have no deck prefences.
"Through the Seasons" ramps the game up just as much as it does the base game; I certainly recommend giving it a whirl.
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Chris Linneman
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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Okay, the rules say: Players should agree whether to play with cards from the Basic or the Advanced deck, to mix the two together, or to add cards from the base game of Agricola.
You're probably right to only use the expansion Minors though, assuming they provide enough breadth of utility.
We'll probably stick with Level 2 to reduce the variance of the card draw and to keep it closer to what was playtested. Although I do love me some Ocks.
Through the Seasons looks tempting. It'll depend on how much information overload people are experiencing.
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Geoff Burkman
United States
Kettering
Ohio
"Punk is not dead" by daughter, Emily
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"TtS" does three things: one, it juggles the arrival of resources, which alters the flow of the game; two, it provides four new action spaces, all of which tend to add to scoring; three, it provides a number of seasonal effects (i.e. two free fences in Spring), again, all of which tend to increase scoring. The Ugoi ban the Winter Action until Stage Two, and we tend to always play with compressed "annual seasons," preferring an Autumn start to the game (thus, Stage One goes Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer; Stage Two goes Autumn, Winter, Spring+Summer; the next three Stages go Autumn+Winter, Spring+Summer, and the last Round allows all four Seasons). We also have grown to dislike the bonus point merry-go-round of Summer and have replaced it with Plow or Bake (sometimes, Plow and/or Bake, and sometimes Plow and Bake). I've also tired of the inevitable jockeying for the Winter growth action, and have been trying to come up with something to replace it. I've also been working on possible seasonal effects for "FotM," but haven't really settled on anything yet, let alone playtested anything.
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Chris Linneman
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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I might have to skip TtS then. It sounds like way too much tinkering is needed to make it balanced and interesting.
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