AF Hands

I was so excited to buy this game after all of the good reviews! When my group finally got around to playing it, it ended in crashed hopes.
This is not a good game to play after you have become accustomed to (and addicted to) games that require attention to multiple areas – think Agricola.
The most difficult part is deciding which side of the board to play. Next difficult is selecting your starting point. That’s it. You just lay track from that point. There is no need to adjust strategy because someone else got to your destination before you. There is no interaction with other players.
It would have been nice to use wooden trains for the tokens instead of wooden cubes.

My first time exposure to Agricola was with 4 highly experienced gamers who had played this particular game many times. In my attempt to learn the strategy of the game at the same time as learning the mechanics, several times (without it connecting in my head) I made the mistake of asking if some action was a good one to take. Of course their answer was almost always YES!! until the last round when they actually gave me good advice. Even with that experience I was hooked. I purchased it for my iPad Air and have played it daily since that first game.
If I were able to do it again, I would purchase the app and play the solo game endlessly to get the mechanics down and learn how the advanced AI’s played their hands.
I really like this game because it is an entry level game for: member placement ability, resources management, analysis, and strategy. It has helped to relate to other new games that utilize rounds and stages, too. It doesn’t seem so daunting now.

My first introduction to this game was with 4 players who had played at least twice before. Not a good way to start. Everyone THOUGHT they knew the rules but that turned out to be less than accurate. Evidently, I really, really like an uphill challenge.
With the luck of the skulls, I ended up the starting player, sounds good but not so much. I could never get a direct answer to several situations that came so they voted on how it was to be played. Ok, I’m good with that. But then when the same situations came up for their turns, they reread the instructions and came up with a different answer that would give them a better play.
Granted everyone wants to win but doing so on as level a playing field as possible is best. There are so many moving parts that occur at the same time, you really do need your own copy of the directions. My point is to read the instructions for yourself so you will be able to contribute to the decision making for vague situations and to know what actions influence other actions.
I like this game and will get my own set of instructions (with errata!) so I won’t be so frustrated the next time we play.

Had fun learning, simple concept from devious players. Make sure to read the rules YOURSELF before commencing the game with harden players…lol. Lots of, ” oh, and by the way this card can do…(fill in the blank)”, especially after playing the Capital card. It was fun to see how someone who started out strong was scattered all over the playing field by the end of the game (by me, who never takes kindly to only partial information for a first time playing of a game).
I would love to have this as an app. Anyone know if it is in the works?