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Agricola Oslo open was a great success. It had 24 participants, 13 from Norway and 11 from outside of Norway (Sweden, Greece, Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain and USA was represented).

The tournament format was that everyone played 6 4-player games against random opponents (a few had to play one opponent twice, since the organisers (aka me and two others) didn't manage to find a perfect setup; luckily a participant solved this for us for next time). Players got 10-6-3-1 tournament points for 1-2-3-4 place. Then everyone played one final game, being divided into groups 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 and so on. One brings the score with oneself into the final, but the final counted as 1.25 times a regular game.

The tournament was won by Lumin Sperling. Congratulations from the organizers! It was a very close race to the very end, between him and myself ( I ended 2nd). More reports from some of the games will be posted online subsequently.

Friday night we were at the pubrestaurant Asylet in Oslo city centre. Friendly company, good games, plus beer and traditional Norwegian food made sure the atmosphere was very nice. Saturday and Sunday the tournament was at the ordinary gaming place of the board game club Ares. As far as the organizers can tell everyone had a geat time; after the games on Saturday, which finished about 18-19, most of the participants stayed on and played more Agricola throughout the evening.

This was so much fun that we are planning to do this again next year. Everyone is welcome to come! Probably it will be in September 2020 in Oslo city centre. It will be announced at agricola.no, as well as on this (and similar) forums.

Here is a picture of all the participants:


Here is a picture of the organisers/finalists (there were 3 organizers and 4 finalists, hence the enlightened reader can deduce that two of the ogranizers were in the final).


Some pictures from the tournament:


Results from the tournament can be foundhere.

Nice / thanks for the report and congrats to all players.
It really make me think of planning a trip to norway for septembre 2020...

Report from my games in Agricola Oslo Open


Some comments on each of my games. This is mostly from some rough notes and memory, so not very detailed.

First game

First pick: Constable and stone curator best cards in hand. Dislike both as first pick, but take Constable. Get some animal cards like forest pasture and Livestock keeper. Constable should be easy, plan to play it round 14 if my competitors do not get it.

The game went very well: Got first family growth round 5 and managed to get 3 sheep round 6 by pressuring Stavros to choose room or sheep. From there on this goes very well. Also Mikkel got 3 begging cards by playing a bit to risky round 9. Constable played round 14, I win cofmortably with 54 pts, 11 points ahead of number 2.

Second game

First pick lady in waiting. Second hand is very good: I choose stonecutter, often I might pick house steward, however it is not good with lady. Really happy to see engineer third hand. I get village school, backyard well and village well and am very happy with my hand. Think I will use engineer/stonecutter/village school to get points and food, not as afraid of house steward as I might be with Lady.

Everything goes according to plan, my hand is just very good. Win comfortably with 52 points, 13 ahead of number 2.

Third game

After two games only myself and David K. has won both games. We are playing each other this round, thus there is a bit of extra tension. The draft is pretty weak, however I get Hut builder, Chief and donkey which has potential for some points, however I do not have much early game stuff.

David plays reeve early. My sunday school suddenly looks all right. Johannes spends a bit too much energy getting first growth, while Rune is stuck last. Me and David takes the resources and get 2nd and 3rd growth. Pretty clear halfway that the game is between me and David. I manage to fence and use donkey to get 4 fields. Also sunday school and chief gives me 4 pts for stone rooms plus reeve bonus, ensuring that I win reasonably confortable, with 46, 7 points ahead of number two.

Fourth game

This game I got a really good draft, feel like I got more good card than I should have. Ended with Mason, boatswain, wood collector, beehive, goos pond, treshing machine plow and more. Feel I almost have to win this, and indeed it is a very comfortable win for me, 16 points ahead of number 2; i have 50 points.

Fifth game

My draft is Farm steward, Grain speculator, bee keeper, downsising, manger, petting zoo. Envision small house and big fence with some animals: All right hand.

I sit after the stage 2 sp in round 7 fg game, which is very nice. Also two players where rather late at building so I managed to take 6w act one round 7 and then someone took sp for me, so I didn’t even have to sp myself for fg round 8. After that, it was quite an easy game for me, won by 6 points, with 49 points for me.

Sixth game

Last game before the final. Me and Lumin are the top two, and are now playing. Very tense game. Lumin has a all round good hand/start with reeve/house goat and some rsf in stage 1 and looking pretty nice. I have writing maniac/golden rose which I was unsure whether I should play, however reeve makes me go for it. Thus I spend some energy plowing a field and sowing a grain pretty early.

I also have country doctor and downsizing, so I can get a fourth family member without a new room. For the second game in a row I end with 2 rooms (downsizing) and 5 familiy members (if I remember correctly). Very close and tense game; I win with 53, Lumin has 52.

Final

I win the tournament, unless Lumin wins the game and I end third or fourth. Maybe we will talk more detailed about the final some other place, however some key points:

I have a lousy draft, with village druid, pasteurization expert, cat lover (first three picks, I think). DO not get mini-pasture or any similar way of getting early fences, so I am not very pleased. Go for first fg, hoping that in a low scoring game it will be enough. Two key moments from my perspective: Bjørn Andre do not build, allowing Lumin to sp+straw thatched hut and build and grow twice ahead of him. It is a mistake from him, up to that point I was pretty confident that I would win the tournament. Second key moment: In round 14 I think whether I should renofence to setback Lumin or take fg to secure second place ahead of David. For some reason I take reno/fence, even if I concluded the best move was fg; think I was tired after a long weekend. This cost me the second place, I end with 43, 1 point behind David and 6 behind Lumin. Thus Lumin wins the tournament.

I am really annoyed with myself for screwing up in the last round of the last game, I honestly do not know why I did that. However I am generally happy with my tournament; I played really well all six first rounds. Congratulations to Lumin who played extremely well all tournament! He is a very good player; exceptionally good at remembering the drafts and understanding what other people are doing and who is leading and also at playing very precisely. Also fun close fight all tournament!

The tournament was great fun, hoping more people would like to come next year to play with us!