Fraser McHarg: It has been a busy busy year and it is only March

We spent a fortnight down at the beach during January (note I am in the Southern Hemisphere) where lots of game playing was done and Agricola hit the table many times.

Fast forward to last Saturday and it was played for the first time since the beach.  Not due to a lack of interest, just due to a lack of time.

We now have both girls at school and there are also extra-curricular activities Tuesday and Wednesday evenings as well as Saturday mornings.  Then if one or two other things happen to pop up like visitors, birthday parties etc. and hey presto the week is almost gone.  Melissa has also been finishing off the Agricola translation work which chews into spare time as well and finally getting my old house ready for sale has been also eating into the spare time budget.

Gamers@Dockers runs every Thursday and last week was the first session that I have attended this year.  Again, not due to lack of interest, just too many other things getting in the way.

As I see it Gamers@Dockers is very conveniently located at the building where I work and there is no charge for the rooms, but unfortunately we have no game storage and thus no game library.  This means that if the early attendees fail to bring many or any games we can occasionally be a little light on for choice.  This was the case last week.  When I arrived there were five of us and the only game present was Cold War: CIA vs KGB, a two player game.  I went back to my desk to bring back San Juan, which lives at work as an emergency two player lunchtime game for when we don’t have enough for Tichu, Gang of Four Three or Who’s the Ass. 

We played San Juan as we waited for more gamers and games to arrive and for a while things were looking grim for me.  The peanut gallery that had arrived during the game pointed out that I only had four buildings down compared to other players seven or eight buildings.  Fortunately I managed to put down a complete set of monuments and the Triumphal Arch to scrape the win.

As I was clawing back ground in San Juan the game of Power Grid that I would have liked to have played started without me, so we moved on to Zooloretto.  I then voted for Quo Vadis as it was one of the games on offer, Julian could teach it and more importantly we have an unplayed copy sitting at home.  As I found out this is quite a short game and interesting enough that all five of us wanted to play it again straight away.  I think I will dig out our copy for a play during one of our Friday night sessions.

After Quo Vadis the next cab off the ranks was Race for the Galaxy, also played twice in a row.  When I left, the others were settling in for their third game and the other tables had finished their other games and now were also playing Race for the Galaxy.

EuroGamesFest runs on the first Saturday of the month from 10 am until late, but due a late start, wanting to check out a couple of houses open for inspection and Melissa’s French homework session with her French class buddy, we only could spend a few hours there.  This meant a three player game of Agricola sans cards with a newbie and then Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper with Warren the visitor from Perth, before we had to go home.

Hopefully the Agricola work is all finished and by mid April the house should have sold and we should thus have more spare time so long as the girls don’t pick up any further activities.

© 2008 Fraser McHarg

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Comments:

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Fraser, you’re foolin’ yourself if you think Agricola is done!  Just as soon as the translations are done, there will be work to be done on the inevitable expansions.  And don’t forget the super-secret “Agricola: the dice game” which we’re working on as well! dale Posted by Dale Yu on Mar 4, 2008 at 07:49 AM | #

You’re evil, Dale.  But I guess that’s no news flash! Posted by Larry Levy on Mar 4, 2008 at 11:05 AM | #

Expansions?  Yawn.  Been there done that :-) Posted by Fraser McHarg on Mar 4, 2008 at 02:52 PM | #

Nah. Had Melissa not told you about hand-painting all those animeeples? Posted by Hanno Girke on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:09 PM | #

Stumm! I told you, I can’t tell him about that till next week. Posted by Melissa Rogerson on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:12 PM | #

ahem, by the way, Melissa, you remember the “no pink pieces in a Lookout Game” rule? Melissa? Melissa??? What are you doing there? Arrrrrrgh! Where’s the “cancel shipment” button when you need it? Posted by Hanno Girke on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:14 PM | #

I like to paint my sheep. And now everyone else has pink sheep too. Maybe the shearers were a little hasty. Posted by Melissa Rogerson on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:16 PM | #

As long as you don’t paint the maypole in pink… Posted by Hanno Girke on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:21 PM | #

"As long as you don’t paint the maypole in pink…” Though most everyone else will miss the humor in this until they see the next edition… you almost made me spit my juice out thru my nose because I was laughing so hard! Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:33 PM | #

Juice? At that time of the day? Not enough lunch money for a beer? Posted by Hanno Girke on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:38 PM | #

He’s having juice with his salad. I hear he is trying some Austrian salad dressing. Posted by Melissa Rogerson on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:39 PM | #

As long as he’s not trying some Austrian girl dress - wait. Forget what I just said. Send pics! Posted by Hanno Girke on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:42 PM | #

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