Review agricola board game

They usually are made of wood and look like these ones in the picture, but there is an incredible diverse number of possible shapes, including animals or other objects. They are typically used as workers in worker placement games, but can be shaped as objects or resources as well. In this review we will focus on the base game, but we almost always play with the Farmers of the Moor expansion that adds a few fun elements like horses and family members falling ill from cold homes.

Each player starts with two workers, a two room wood house, and a hand of cards — minor improvements and occupations. A preset number of worker placement spaces are available at the start of the game with additional spaces being revealed in each of the 14 game rounds. Play is structured as follows:.

Agricola has a pretty simple ruleset for its weight class. What makes this game stand out compared to similar worker placement games is the constant stress built into the game mechanics. Even at 2 players, your play will often be ruined by your opponent taking your spot. You will feel the tension of needing to balance building your engine with planning to feed your family.

And you will feel throughout the entire game like you are running out of time. The gameplay and the available action spaces remain the same each game, but there is some variability on when certain action spaces become available. The heart of the game and the variability come from the card decks. This game would be nothing without the cards. Occupation and minor improvement cards may give players bonus resources or allow players to create combos and build engines to help their farms become as efficient as possible.

Having cards that allow you to get additional resources or do things before your opponent is gloriously satisfying. This is my favorite game of all time. I absolutely love the precise planning each round takes, the race to set up the most efficient food engine, and the punishing aspect of having to feed your family, all while trying to expand your house, and family, making it even more difficult to obtain resources to feed them.

I would never turn down a game of Agricola and if playing with experienced players I will always want to play with the Farmers of the Moor expansion. My perfect heavy game is one where I can think in my tiny bubble and accumulate a million points, which is not this game. I might also be biased in that I am really terrible at effectively combining the occupations and improvement cards, which are really the only thing that make the game worth re-playing since the board barely changes.

Becoming the first player is a matter of choosing the first player marker space as one of your actions. You have very few options available to you, and taking back the first player marker over and over is incredibly inefficient, but letting the other player choose their spot first at the beginning of every round also is a HUGE advantage. The game itself is relatively simple as far as the mechanics go. The real difficulty comes later in actually learning how to play well.

The overall game structure is outlined clearly on the first couple of pages which makes it great for referencing as needed throughout the game or as a quick reminder when playing again later.

Additional detailed information on the action spaces takes up another 4 pages or so. The rulebook provides tips and reminders throughout and is easy to understand.

There are also about a million expansions decks that add new cards. Playtime is pretty much in line with 30 minutes per player. It is a farming strategy. Each player is in charge of their farm. On your turn, you can do one action. There are many possibilities to choose from, like collecting wood, clay, building fences for your farm, expanding the house, plowing fields, planting crops, raising animals, and so on.

You get to take two turns during one round: one for the farmer and one for his wife. Later on in the game you will want to enlargen your family, but watch out: you will need more food when you have more mouths to feed.

There are fourteen rounds in total, and after every stage you gather the harvest. Stages finish after rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and Agricola supports different levels of difficulty. It is varied by using or not using special cards Minor Improvements and Occupations. If you are a beginner, you may choose not to use those cards at all.

When you get more advanced, you can start adding the decks. You can use those in your game in different combinations to add more levels of depth and variety to the game. There is a solo variant of Agricola. In 1 player game, you play a campaign that consists of eight games.

It is a good way of practicing rules if you are new to the game but is definitely less fun than playing with a company. You can find the Unofficial Agricola Compendium here. It contains the card text, the clarifications given in the appendix of the rulebook, and a number of additional rulings. In the beginning, your farm is empty, you have two rooms in your house, and two people in the family: the farmer and his spouse.

There is an action board, and you place your family members on the spaces for the actions you want to perform. One action can only be performed once every round. When you start, one of the most important actions is taking resources. You can expand and upgrade your house. Renovation is vital for earning points and family growth. If you have enough space, you can start growing your family. Every family member allows you to take one action during a round. But it is very important to always have enough food to feed your family.

If you do not, you will have to take Begging cards, and they will cost you points at the end of the game. If you feel like raising some animals, you can do that as well by building stables and creating pastures. Then Minor Improvements and Occupations enter the game. There are special action spaces that allow you to play these. They let you break some rules or bend them a little.

When the game is over, you score your points. Everything you have on your farm will give you points: crops, animals, family members, fields, pastures, rooms in your house.

Then there are some things that will cost you points like unused spots in your farm and not having some type of cattle. You can find the full rules in PDF here. These two games are both farming worker placement strategies. You plant crops, collect resources, and breed cattle in Caverna as well as in Agricola. Caverna is generally easier and has more options for every action.

Though, the rules of Caverna may seem harder at first to understand. Stone Age , like Agricola, is a worker placement game where you gather resources and build things. It is very well themed and can appeal to inexperienced players by being less punishing than Agricola. If you are playing really badly, you will probably understand it only by the end of the game.

Terra Mystica is an economic civilization strategy. You control a fantasy race that is trying to expand its civilization. It is a seriously heavy game that provides you with a really deep gaming experience. You are building a great city in the Ancient World. This is a card drafting, city building strategy. This is a set of event cards that are given to people who visit different game conventions in Germany.

Each card sets a rule for the game that affects every player. This is a promo card expansion. It is given away at Spiele Essen. Every year, a new set of promo cards is included in the L-Deck. This expansion was released via an issue of the Spielbox magazine. With this expansion, you get 60 new Minor Improvements and 60 new Occupations while discovering Belgium! This expansion with 13 Minor Improvements and 11 Occupations is dedicated to the German city of Bielefeld.