Arisia.

[nchanter]

Overall Experience ++

I do not feel peopled out. This is a good thing. This might be 'cause I did less partying-socializing than in previous years.

I ran registration with the help of many others, but a special shout-out needs to go to shayde for writing the best software ever, and cindy_lu for being a patient and understanding second. I didn't ever turn

Comments

[laurion]

If you like Agricola, you should try Le Havre. Same designer, tighter design. If you ask nicely, I'll grab my copy for you to try out some time. *grin*

[marphod]

I was going to say that, too.

Le Havre avoids one of the major flaws I find in Agricola, which is once you're behind in actions (failing to reproduce early), your position just gets worse and worse. It also avoids the issue where one player's minor improvements and occupations has marvelous synergies where another's can be awful.

On the other hand, it is much less forgiving of mistakes, and is nigh unplayable with 5 players.

[laurion]

I too take issue with games where snowballing occurs, meaning winners keep winning and losers keep losing. Not to the point where I think games need arbitrariness to upset tables (I'm looking at you Looney!), but there are elegant ways of giving people equal opportunities. Admittedly, Agricola isn't as bad as some games (Zavendor!), but I'm much happier with Le Havre, where you have to earn every small advantage, and they don't pay out as unfairly over time as they do in Agricola.

I don't find it unplayable with 5, just long running. 3 or 4 is a nice number though, and two is outright cutthroat.

[marphod]

Agricola has some good ways around the snowball effect of not expanding your family quickly (and I've even seen a few cases where expanding too early killed a player's chances, as said player did not have a food engine and got screwed at a few harvests), but there's a necessity to get a third action a round and delaying it hurts, a lot.

Looney Lab games are so hit and miss, anyways. I avoid Flux, and the other ones I take in stride.

With 1.4 actions per feeding cycle, 5 player Le Havre feels too constrained. Either you're going into debt, hoping you can dig your way out, later, or you're barely scrapping by. 3 and 4 work so much better.

[aelscha]

This sounds ... rather a lot like my arisia summary. Overall ++, somewhat worn out, woulda liked to see more of a few people (but mostly I saw the people I go to Arisia to see). Woot.

[minkrose]

Aside from a couple good panels and a couple good hours of socializing, reg was probably the best part of con for me. The rest of it was pretty screwy and having free time just brought up issues I haven't had time to deal with. I wish it had been a happier con for me.

:hugs: I was glad to see you.