First try at T&B (and first four player game)

[likie]

I'm not an experienced player, but have played quite a few 2-player games (with my wife) plus the odd three player game when we can get someone else - with Basic, River I, and I&C.  We are normally pretty even (within a few points except the last two player game she thrashed me by 80 points!! and I was actually trying)

On holiday (last weekend) we met some friends (another couple) who had also just started playing - they had Basic, River + T&B - so decided to have a 4-player game with their set (so we didn't have I&C).  After clarifying a few rules (farmers and small cities) we then cleared up a major rules issue they had - they were playing T&B using the builder wrongly - whereby if the extra tile drawn could be further added to the city or road then you just keep drawing tiles (potentially you could get 6 or 7 draws in a row if lucky before someone had another go!)  Even though I hadn't played T&B I knew this was wrong, as I'd read enough posts on BGG to have a pretty good idea how the builder worked and I had read their rule sheet earlier in the day.

Interesting game - it was clear from the start that the other guy was the major threat - he was aggresive with the builder and also managed to finish off other people cities quite adeptly and gather trade goods at a very rapid rate.  I managed to place a couple of reasonable farmers early (and later added the pig to one of them) and then got stuck on trying to complete a large city (about 30 points but hardly any trade goods - did it eventually but it took a bit of work even with the builder).  The two girls actually had reasonable starts but didn't get any effective farmers down, kept getting their cities swiped of goods, and my wife got her builder stuck on a road.

Endgame was interesting - The other guy had heaps of the trade goods (with parity in barrels with his wife - both had three) so I knew I was in trouble.  I managed to close off one of my wife's cities late to grab two barrels (to add to my one) and also get parity - but I knew I would still be 20 points behind on trade goods. I had a thought at connecting two of my farms (him and I had one farmer each in one of the larger farms and a connection would have given me the lot - maybe about 4 farms that he wouldn't have got) but didn't manage it.

We counted up the trade goods last and I think I lost by five or six points (ie he was 14 or 15 behind me before we counted cloth and grain).  So reasonably happy on first play at T&B - interesting how people play - in my view the other couple actually could both have done better than they did - they were quite focussed on completions and the builder and often didn't play their meeple on the "extra tile" or the completion tile (eg a farmer) when it might perhaps have been a good play.  Mind you I didn't win so maybe their strategy was OK.

On a lighter note, I potentially could have won the game as about two plays from the end the eventual winner played a tile and didn't place a meeple (when he obviously should have) because "I haven't got any left" - or so he said when I quizzed him about his play.  He actually had two left but had forgotten about them - he had split his stocks up each side of him somehow at one point when my two-year old son had threatened the table.  When I pointed out that he had some left he was pretty quick to fire one onto the tile. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so honest, but it was my two year old who had contributed to the confusion - what do others think?

[Gantry]

Good writeup, and it also brings up a good point about game distractions, in this case your two-year old.  If it was a game with a rank beginner or a game with my wife, I would play differently than with opponents that generally I would consider "on their own".  Thank your lucky stars for the distraction! (mwhahaha) 

When we play expansions that are new for us, I'm always afraid we might be interpreting the rules incorrectly.  To prevent this, make sure you grab a copy of the annotated rules in the Downloads section and keep them close at hand, especially when playing an expansion for the first time!

[Natasha]

If it was a game with a rank beginner or a game with my wife, I would play differently than with opponents that generally I would consider "on their own". 

Are you comparing me with a beginner? I am not a beginner!

[Gantry]

Oops!!   :

What I meant to say was that we typically play a "friendly" game   

[canada steve]

  Oh dear Gantry is digging himself out of a deep hole there

Just out of interest if you are playing a game using just the river and river 2 what sort of points score would you expect to see on the board at the end ? I played yesterday and won with a score of 137 !

[Gantry]

We could make a scoreboard for high scores... but it would have to be on the honour system 

[likie]

With points, we haven't got River 2, but have played a number of games with basic and River 1 - from memory with 2 players scores of 120 or so normally won (but we are fairly new too).  

Obviously the more players the lower the individual scores - I also get the impression that scores can be quite variable - some games are tight and the tile-drawing doesn't lead itself to heavy scroing, while in others the scores seems to rack up quite quickly.

I have started keeping scores - more to see who wins most out of my wife and I, than the actual scores we get.  We play Basic, River 1, and Inns and Cathedrals and scores of about 160 or so normally seem good enough to win - though in a recent game I had about 150 or so and my wife somehow got 240.

[mjharper]

We could make a scoreboard for high scores... but it would have to be on the honour system 

Problem with making a scoreboard is there are too many permutations. You'd need a different scoreboard for every combination of variations, and each of those for 2,3,4,5, & 6 player games. Otherwise, people who usually play 2-player mega-Carc (like myself and my girlfriend will always top the list…) I mean, I posted a session report on BGG about two years ago - so without any expansion released since then - with a final score of 397-388. How could you usefully compare that with say, Basic game + 2 river expansions, with 5 players?

Maybe if we worked out a formula which took account of score, players, & number of tiles. But that sounds way too complicated…

And anyway, nowadays when we play we use the tower dispenser to shorten the game. All the tiles are possible, only half are used. Factor that into an equation 

[Tobias]

One thing is certain, the scoring tiles (50 - 100) were a snazzy addition!

[Gantry]

Yeah no kidding Tobias!  It was a pain to keep track before those came out.

Matt I know what you mean, I had thought of all the combinations of scoring with different expansions, which would have been in itself extensive, but add in the possible numbers of players and it becomes unwieldy.

But it doesn't have to be that complex, if you don't track the number of players (a 2 player game is treated like a 6 player game) and you only have categories for number of expansions rather than specific ones, that would make . . . yeah unwieldy still hehe.  Ima think about it  :P