Counting Resources Is Not Enough
This post is a reminder that you can't just look at what resources an opponent currently has when determining if they can block your move. Many card effects "hide" a player's ability to take certain actions.
I had a recent game where I made an obvious oversight. Take a look at this situation in the game, where I have the last action in Round 13:
Here was my rough thought process during this moment:
- Gray (me, wooddistributor) and Green (blynch02) have the perfect resources to take an efficient Farm Redevelopment action next turn.
- I will be currently going last next round, since Direful (Red) is starting.
- No one other than me and Green can renovate. Teal (numeria) is in Stone and Direful has no resources.
- No one other than me and Green can fence. Teal does not have enough wood (≥4) and Red has fully fenced. <-- My critical mistake!
- If Green takes Farm Redevelopment, I can just take Fencing and House Redevelopment with 2 actions.
- I'll go for some extra points on Chapel for my last move instead of Meeting Place to secure Farm Redevelopment.
Why point 4 is such a critical mistake is revealed at the start of Round 14 when I see the following event:
At the end of last round, I had only checked Teal's resources they currently had and not if they have any wood coming in from cards. Teal has Tax Collector:
Once you live in a stone house, at the start of each round, you get your choice of 2 wood, 2 clay, 1 reed, or 1 stone.
So of course they selected 2 wood to give them 4 wood total and enough to fence, which will block my ability to fence if Green takes Farm Redevelopment with their first move.
As you would expect, the starting actions of Round 14 are as followed:
| Round Action | Player | Action | My Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red | Urgent Wish for Children | Best available move for them |
| 2 | Green | Farm Redevelopment | Makes sense now that 3 players can fence, and they still want to renovate |
| 3 | Teal | Fencing | 😔 |
| 4 | Gray (me) | Cultivation | At least I have a decent cultivation and can choose to buy Journey or build Stables with my extra wood |
You can check out how the game finished here (jump to move 627). As I said at the start of this post, the lesson here is pay attention not only to what resources your opponents currently have, but also their played cards. The Agricola developers over at BoardGameArena have made great efforts adding many new cards, so now more than ever I have to follow this advice as I get used to new Occupations and Minor Improvements. These mistakes can happen to anyone, but hopefully you can learn from me to make them less often!
If you have any feedback, please reach out to me via email! I can append any comments you email me to the bottom of this post.
Thanks for reading!