Hungarian Gamers Taught me Agricola

I played with Scott (originally from England), Miki (from Nikolaus), and Akos (pronounced Akoosh) on the second Saturday afternoon at my apt in Budapest. All three were lovely, fun players, and nice socially, a perfect combination of serious play while keeping the atmosphere moving and fun. If this is what the Hungarian gaming scene represents, I want more of it.

Their game group meets biweekly and attracts 20 or so participants.

Scott brought me a quite unexpected gift: a Hungarian board game called Atilla vagy Aetius? which is not on the Geek, is in Hungarian, and has no English translation. I'm waiting for Scott to send me a translation so that I can give it a try.

We played It's Alive, Agricola, and one round of the Mu (and More) games.

It's Alive

I introduced them to my game. I think it went over pretty well, although they didn't ask for a second game.

We did the occasional buying and dumping of cards, but they were all very into auctions. A great number of the cards were auctioned off for their face value, sometimes higher. I eventually picked up on this and did some auctioning of my own. Money kept going around, but I only managed to get a little of it.

Miki ended the game by completing his board, But Scott had a vast reserve of cash (he couldn't count his last two coins), and he won the game by two points. Akus and I were further behind.

Agricola

This was my first play of the pretender to the BGG throne for most desired game. Luckily they had an English copy; much of the game is language independent, but the cards are intensively language dependent, and they are integral to the game.

Rules

The goal is to earn the most points by the end of the 14th round. Each round players place workers on available actions. One new action, and all previous actions, are available each round. Each action can hold one worker, and so can be used only once per round. Each player has two workers, unless they acquire more during the game.

When you place your worker, you get the benefit of the action: one or more resources, tiles, cards or activities. Resources such as wheat or stone allow you to feed your workers or do activities. Tiles, such as plowed fields, allow you to do other activities. Cards give you benefits when you perform actions or take resources, but cost resources to utilize. Activities net you resources, workers, or tiles, but cost resources or tiles to utilize.

After turns 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14 you lose three points for each worker you can't feed (food gets used up). At the end of the game you lose a point for every resource or tile type that you don't have, or unused space on your board. You gain 1-4 points each for each resource and tile type you possess, and for having played certain cards.

Since the limit is 4 points for each type of resource and tile type, there is no sense ending with more of any resource or tile type than is necessary. A minimum of one of each type is recommended, since the first not only eliminates the -1 point but gains you 1 point; any subsequent one gains you only 1 point, at most.

That's the nutshell, and if you see Caylus in the above, there's a good reason for that. The worker placement, and thus the heart of the game is Caylus.

There is one very important additional mechanic: the cards. While a few cards are available to all players like Puerto Rico buildings, most of the 200 or so cards are not. Each player is dealt 14 cards at the beginning of the game, and those are available only to them. These private cards function a bit like alien powers in Cosmic Encounter. They not only give you special abilities (if you play them) that others don't have access to, they also shape the strategies and tactics you will use during the game. Since there are so many cards, and so few used each game, and so many different combinations that may be available to you, each game you play will be somewhat different. Very nice.

Reactions

I enjoyed the game, as I expected, but the real question is: is it better than Puerto Rico? My short answer is: I don't think so.

I've only played one game, so it's rather too early to tell. My first game took around 3 hours; that is too long for Caylus, a game I liked the first time I played it, but fairly quickly grew to dislike. I'm fairly sure that I won't grow to dislike Agricola quite so fast, and I fairly hope that I will grow to like it even more. It's too soon to tell.

There were a number of things I liked about the game: I liked the personal cards, and I liked the tight choices you had to make. The game appeared to be nicely balanced, with many many possible routes to take. As such, it looked hard to really screw someone by taking what they needed most; that's actually not necessarily a good thing.

There were a number of things I didn't like about the game, but, being that this was my first play, it may be that I'm mistaken about them: Because of the -1 points for every single type of resource and tile, and the general low scores of the game, you simply need to have at least one of nearly everything, and most of your game board covered. That makes a whole lot of decisions in the game moot, since you may spend the last few rounds taking all the things you didn't take at the beginning or middle of the game, which makes for dull play.

The second is that all of those options look pretty similar to me. I spent a number of rounds looking at the available options and saying "2 points if I do this, 2 points if I do that, and 2 points if I do this other thing. Hmmmm..." This might be my inexperience, however.

I'm already thinking of reworking the scoring in the game, but I will prudently hold of until I've played a few more games and read some articles on the Geek.

Our Game

In our game, I came in last, but only by a few points, so I felt ok about that. Final scores were something like 34 to 33 to 31 to 28. I concentrated on stone buildings, cards with points, and gaining new workers as soon as possible (which is just not that easy). I pretty much ignored all farming. Meanwhile, others were farming or fencing a lot of land, which gave them points in those areas. It was close, as you see, so I'm not entirely sure that my strategy wasn't a workable one.

Mu

We had little time left, so I learned one of the games from Mu and More, and we played one hand. I did spectacularly poorly again. The game was a fairly simple trick taking game, fun enough but nothing extraordinary at first glance. Lack of partnerships was a big factor.

Yehuda

Session Report, in which Nadine writes the session report

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Pentago, Princes of Florence, Amun-Re.

I was in Hungary; the session was at Gili's, and Nadine wrote the report.

The Type of Tourist I Am Not

I should listen to my own advice before travelling.

My concept of a vacation differs greatly from that of the tourist who visits Lake Balaton, one of the "top 15" tourist destinations in Europe. This type of tourist is one who wants to relax, get away from things, and do nothing. There sure is a lot of nothing to do at Lake Balaton.

That's not what I want when I take a vacation. I want to meet people, see local towns and crafts, and experience the unadulterated country. The concept of tourism at Lake Balaton is to preserve you from experiencing anything of the country.

At "tourist destinations" they have endless shops selling tourist garbage: buttons, shotglasses, hats, and t-shirts with the crest of the local area. Sunscreen and coke at inflated prices. Who buys this stuff?

Ths stuff is all crap, and everyone knows it. Everyone I'm ever met says that when something becomes touristy, or catered to tourists, it becomes bad. So who is buying this? Who is keeping this industry afloat?

It must be that other type of tourist. The one who wants to experience nothing, do nothing, and say he's been there. This must be the same guy who reads and responds to spam. Is this a generational thing? Is that type of tourist dying out, and my type gaining ascendance? If so, can we finally dry out these businesses and send them looking for other work?

If my experience of Hungary was boring, it's because I spent it at Lake Balaton. Even at Balaton, if you conspire to get lost and follow the little trails off the beaten path, you can find many nice things, places, and sights. But you have to work hard at getting lost. Undoubtedly, if I had vacationed in any other part of Hungary I would have had a better time.

But Budapest is lovely.

Yehuda

Roundup: Three Years of Thirty Seventh Week Posts

How the game of Bridge would look if it had been designed by Wolfgang Kramer

Thoughts on quality 4

Three poems about games, as if written by Emily Dickinson

The U.S. Trademark Code, in verse

I did some research regarding which companies in the former WTC had information about Sept 11 on their websites.

The Return of the Canine, wherein I find my dog who had been lost at the airport

small update

Time is of the essence at an internet cafe.

Hungary is a nice place to live, but you wouldn't really want to visit there. It's all nice, with nice people, good services, pleasant environment, and it all seems to work. Landscape is nice. Little pieces of history dot around. But, yawn. And in the tourist areas, they charge little amounts for so many things, like swimming, parking, Internet, and so on, that it adds up to annoying.

OK, that was my impresssions of Hungary and Budapest when I was bored at the end of the week. The truth is that, if you come expecting simpy a nice relaxing time, some pleasant diversions, and a beautiful capital city, Hungary is pretty nice. It's just not gorgeous, like Scotland or a Scandanvian country, and it's not highly distacting, like New York or Toronto. Except in July and August, when there are some events.

For the same amount of money, I would choose elsewhere to go. In contrast, I intend to return to Scotland asap.

Businesses must learn: Charge me $450 for a room with free Internet, and I don't care. Charge me $400 for a room and an extra $1 for Internet, and it annoys me. Always give me more than I expect, not less, or you won't see me again.

Yehuda

Brief Status

Writing from an Internet setup in a bookstore. The Hungarian keyboard is slightly different, to make way for a slew of additional symbols.

We've mostly traveled around the north side of Lake Balaton the last few days. Handicrafts are much nicer than in Budapest, but this is a touristy area, and somewhat dull, if pretty.

Other than the pool by the resort, I haven't made it into the water, either the lake (pretty dirty right now) or any hot springs (I'll try later).

I played a few games of PR with Rachel, and a game of Progressive Rummy with my mom and Rachel. I'm arranging a game session next Saturday afternoon in Budapest with the local gaming scene.

Yehuda

Hungary 1: Budapest Impressions

In Budapest, the old is reflected in the new, but it's just mirrors.

On Friday we saw the central area of Budapest.

People

Nearly all of the people we interacted with in Budapest were friendly and tried their best to help us when we asked questions.

English

Despite what we were led to believe, you can get around Budapest quite easily speaking only English. English may not be the country’s second language, but if and when signs are in a second language, they are in English. I guess this is due in part to globalization and in part due to cultural dissemination of English-language culture.

Not everyone speaks English, and those who do may not know too much, but at least half or more can understand and communicate in English.

Water

The tap water in Budapest is excellent.

Money

Hungary is in the process of transitioning to the Euro. In a few more years, the Euro will be the standard currency.

In the meantime, Euros are accepted at large places like hotels and car rentals, but are not accepted in most other places. Many popular tourist locations, groceries, shops, and so on don’t accept them; the ones that do will give you a bad exchange rate. I suspect: investment in handling multiple currencies is a bother, as is changing between them; local sentiment against the Euro and/or EU is expressed in this passive-aggressive manner.



In central Budapest, there are dozens of legal change places, all of which offer excellent rates with no commission. If you are Israeli, bring dollars or Euros and change them in Budapest; if you are American, Canadian, or European, bring your cash and exchange it. Don’t accept offers to change money in any non-business location, as it is a scam of some sort. As always, don’t wave large amounts of cash around.

Prices in Budapest are the same as, or slightly cheaper than, Jerusalem.

Terrain

Pest is flat. Buda is hilly and green. The Danube River flows between them, and the two sides are linked by a number of bridges. Many of the most important and ornate buildings abut the river. You can cruise up and down the river for a fee. People walk around trying to get you to take sightseeing tours on the red or yellow open top busses that circle around the city.


A pretty roof on a cathedral in old Buda

From the banks of Pest you can see the first hill of Buda and some nice buildings, but you can’t see the rest of Buda until you are on top of that hill. Then you see Buda rolling out beyond the river. Buda is probably worth exploring, but you won’t find anything in Buda that’s not on that hill listed in your tourist books. The nicest walk we had was leaving the main hill of Buda on the back side and walking down side streets to get back to the river.


The castle with three museums in Buda

Looking the other way from that hill is an expansive look across the Danube to Pest.


The parliament in Pest

Statues and Gargoyles

This seems to be the definition of a European city: gargoyles of men, women, lions, and monsters, and statues of various military leaders, revolutionaries, and politicians.



Transport

They try to push Budapest Cards on you, which will give you free access to much of the transportation and discounts on the museums and such. But they don’t tell you that you can get a day pass on transportation (without the museum discounts) for less money.

There is an extensive network of public transportation in the form of subway, trams, and buses. There are no transfers; every ride is a ticket, which is about a Euro. There’s one exception to this: a ticket and transfer between two subways, bought in advance, is 1.5 times the price of a normal ticket.

You don’t buy tickets on the transport. You have to buy them from a person at a metro station. One would think that key bus and tram stations would have automatic machines from which one could buy tickets, or even that the metro stations would have automatic machines from which one could buy tickets, but one would be wrong.

There is a strange mountain-climbing car called a Fenicular that goes from the banks of the river up to the top of the Buda hill. It’s a 30 second ride, your Budapest Card doesn’t cover it, and it’s ridiculously expensive. You can take a bus up, or walk up, as it’s not that hard or long a climb.

Driving is on the right, like America and Israel. You need to pay special fees to certain authorities before driving on highways, in Budapest, and so on, but our rental car company took care of all of these.

Falconers

On top of Buda near one of the main churches was a pair of men selling the opportunity to take your picture with some live falcons. They train the falcons the old-fashioned way, with lines and hoods, and so on, but for tourist purposes, to give shows and so on. The culture that used to use falcons to hunt for meat is probably gone.

Market

Back in Pest, we went to a great building that houses a market, the kind with stalls, each selling wares, fruits, vegetable, spices, or meats. Best place to get fruits and veggies, hands down.



Outside the market is a pedestrian mall area, selling tourist knick-knacks and endless varieties of goulash and chicken paprika with rice. Probably most of it was average fare. The clothes, jewellery, pottery, and so on of Hungary, as sold in the central areas, are ugly and tacky looking. It’s as if people who saw a picture of Hungarian products decided to create and sell their own. Not that I’m so enamoured with Hungarian style to begin with.


The Dohany Synagogue

Communication

There are several internet cafes, and many restaurants and bars offer free wireless connection (can be spotty). The most distinctive feature about Budapest in my mind is that the public phone booths all have pink phone handles. They take coins and credit cards. We bought a phone calling card, available in many locations, but we couldn’t get it to work properly. We finally got customer service on Monday morning, which told us that the access number printed on the card is incorrect. They gave us another number which worked.



Old Man's Music Pub

Saturday night we went to the Old Man’s Music Pub, conveniently located twenty-five steps from where we were staying. OMMP has no entrance fee, offers free wireless, and free live music every night from 9 to 11 in a wide range of styles. We heard some cross between Cajun and Blues, and it was mighty fine. They also offer free disco dancing from 11 to 3 or 4 am. The crowd from 11 to 12:30 was mostly 30something or higher, but getting younger as the night went on. They have an incredibly lovely menu (not kosher, but fun to look at), and they charge for bathroom and coat/bag watching. Prices were decent.

Bathrooms

Speaking of which, many public bathrooms ask for money. It’s hard to figure out why, as the ones that do look no better stocked or cleaned than the ones that don’t.

Games

A Tesco had Zooloretto, Settlers of Catan, and other interesting games at reasonable prices.

Regular stores had fancy chess sets, and, if they sold many sets, there were always a few three-player Chess sets: