To anyone who actually reads this blog on a somewhat regular to regular basis, it will no doubt seem that I have fallen off the face of the earth. Indeed I have, in a sense. In my month or so of vacationing I have traveled approximately 5,000 miles by air, road and now rail. (I am presently in the middle of My First Amtrak Adventure.) And that is a distance that would put me 1/50th the way to the moon... so perhaps my travels really aren't that impressive. (The most impressive feat yet this far on my vacation comes here at the end: In traveling from Ely, MN to Hotchkiss, CO I will have in two days driven southeast to Tomah, WI, taken a train east to Elkhart, IN, taken a car back west to South Bend, IN, flown west to Grand Junction, CO and finally driven back east to Hotchkiss. Talk about taking the scenic route!)
As a side note, the least impressive feat of my vacation has been to sculpt a diorama of 'pissicles' using solely my own bodily fluids and the forces of nature...
But as I mentioned before, I am on the train home, and alas my carefree days are coming to a close. Soon I will begin to work again, earning desparately needed money. This isn't entirely a sad thing, though after two weeks spent relaxing in a cabin I will miss the choice of daily activities: sleeping, eating, reading, socialising (I have been reading a book by a British scientist, and I am presently toying with the practise of spelling 'ize' 'ise.' Gmail does it for me anyway. The jury is still out on 'colo[u]r'...) or playing games. Playing games was perhaps my favorite holiday endeavour. Though I've made friends in Colorado, none yet seem to be the 'game type,' at least in the tradition I am used to (playing card games, traditional board games and 'European-style' board games). So blessed was I when I spent a good deal of the last month playing games with family and friends. I was treated to Rummy in Kentucky, El Grande in Indiana, Rook and Hearts in Minnesota. And perhaps best of all, I got to play a good eight games of Agricola, a great new board game I got for Christmas.
Tipped off by a friend and a favourable review on boardgamegeek.com ('favourable' as in best-rated board game in any category), I put Agricola on my list (Amazon shopping cart). Much to my delight Santa (USPS) not only obliged on this request, he even brought it a good week before Christmas (perfect timing for gaming with Jonathan, an old college comrade). Latin for 'farmer,' Agricola is a game of farming the old fashioned way and set in the medieval European countryside. Players strive to improve and expand their small farms while constantly struggling to feed their families. In fact, my first couple of times playing the game I failed to do anything besides feed my family! Among comments uttered was, "How am I supposed to raise a bloody herd of sheep if my family keeps eating them all?!" Though playing can be stressful when food supplies are low, it is quite entertaining to raise children, animals and the like. And tactically the game is brilliant! I'm beginning to get a grasp on strategy, but the gameplay is so complex that any particular strategy is never foolproof. In short, Agricola is awesome.
Divertisement aside, I've been discovering that Agricola also has quite a lot to say about life. I never thought I would find wisdom coming from a board game, and yet it is surprising to me how many times in the last week I've found myself saying something like, "Yep, it doesn't pay to stock up on something when you can't really afford it... just like in Agricola." (Now I know that any resemblance to real life found in the game arises - duh - from the game being derived from the subsistence of small-time pastoral farmers. But since I've already devoted 696 words to the thesis 'Agricola teaches us valuable lessons about life' just bear with me.) Without further ado, I will summarise the teachings of this illustrious board game, as presented to me through routine, devotional playing.
1. Children are inherently valuable, but the real reason we have them is the free labour. Compare the following: 3 victory points per family member at the end of the game vs. the victory points one child can amass by plowing, sowing, baking bread and herding sheep during the course of the game. C'mon Mom and Dad, I know why you had me.
2. Begging is preferable to letting your kids starve. Your kids can't actually starve according to the rules of Agricola. Still it's a valueable lesson: the stigma (or negative victory points) attached to begging far outweighs the heavy conscience of letting your kids starve so that you could 'plant that one more field of grain'...
3. Colour does not matter. It doesn't matter if you're red or write... or purple or green or blue... we all have (or should have) equal opportunity.
4. It's wise to worry about feeding yourself before you start improving your home. Renovations can wait! You can't swing a hammer if you're famished! This game is set in the middle ages, so there aren't cars and modern conveniences, but I think the priciple applies to other things: Food before cars, TVs, cool toys, etc.!
5. Vegetables are the best! When counting up points at the end of the game, vegetables give you the best item-to-point conversion rate. Moral: vegetables are better (more nutritious? tastier? all of the above?) than grain, sheep, boars AND cattle!
6-a. Working too many jobs can spread you thin. There have been games where I try to take on 4 or 5 occupations. To accomplish this I usually sacrifice time in the fields. Time is precious. Feed yourself and enjoy life. Don't spend so much time in the office (or butchershop or clay pit or...)
b. Just pick a job and stick with it! All the occupations are cool in their own way, and help you out in the game. What gets you is choosing one, then seeing that one helps you better, then another... and before you know it, you've got 7 jobs under your belt and you haven't used any of your cool skills. One could argue that more satisfaction/points could be derived from just picking one job that really suits you and making the most of it. (In real life I don't do this...)
7. Cows make great pets! They don't take up any more room in your home than a sheep does! ... Wait. Maybe this one doesn't translate to real life...
8. Farming really can be sustainable! It's pretty neat how you can plant a seed, watch it grow, harvest it, eat some of the yield and plant the rest! Thanks mother nature! And if you do it right, you can feed your whole family and still have time left over to do other things!
9. If you want your animals to make babies, don't eat them! I think this one explains itself.
10. Farming can be pretty stressful, but it is also quite rewarding. I get more uptight playing this game than just about any other, including Jenga and Don't Break the Ice. There are a million things I want to get done, and in the back of my mind I know that it's not possible to accomplish them all. But I get over it and enjoy the time spent with family and friends. And even if I don't win, I still (usually) wind up with pretty awesome farms.
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