Stats:
No. of players: 1-5
Amount of time to play: 30-150 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 10 min

Agricola Farmers of the Moor Rules Description:

Farmers of the Moor is an expansion for Agricola. It adds some complexity, some new improvements and variability to the layout of your farm.

This review assumes you know how to play the base game, if you don’t my review of Agricola can be read here.

The start of the game is a bit different. You draw a start card for your farm. You will need to match the layout of your farm to the one on the card you have drawn. You will place your house and add 3 moor and 5 forest tiles to your farm board. You also must start round one with the “1 Major or Minor Improvement” action card.

The expansion also adds special actions. In order to take a special action you must have at least one person still in your house. When you take a special action you may take one of the actions listed on the special action cards (which change based on the number of players). They include: Cut Peat, Slash and Burn, Fell Trees, Horse Coper, Hiring Fair, Black Market and Clandestine work.

Here is what the special actions do:

• Cut Peat will allow you to remove a moor tile from your board in exchange for three fuel tokens.
• Slash and Burn lets you replace one forest tile with a field tile but it still must be next to an existing field.
• Fell trees adds 2 wood to your supply and remove one forest tile from your farm.
• Horse Coper allows you to take a horse (new animal type) from the supply.
• Hiring Fair gives you food from the supply.
• Black Market lets you pay one fuel to play one minor improvement (which you still must pay for).
• Clandestine Work lets you pay 1 food and 1 fuel to play a minor or major improvement.

So I nonchalantly mentioned fuel, it is a new resource. Fuel is used to heat your home. Now each harvest you must feed your family and heat your home. The better material your home is built of the cheaper it is to heat. Having a small house is cheaper too.

If you can’t feed your family you must beg. Well, if you can’t heat your home a family member will get sick. That means the next round they must go to the infirmary for their action, on the bright side, they do gain one food.

The game also adds 14 new Major Improvements. I am not going to explain them. All but two begin the game under the 10 Major Improvements from the base game. In order to buy the newer ones the Major Improvements from the base game must be bought first.

Scoring is the same as the base game, but you will receive 1 point per horse (with no maximum). If you have no horses you lose 1 point. And family members that are sick at the end of the game only score 1 point instead of 3 points.

Farmers of the Moor adds new minor improvements, specifically for this expansion, as well and may be played using three different levels of complexity.

A Quick Review of Agricola Farmers of the Moor:

Agricola Farmers of the Moor is a good expansion for an already great game. I have highlighted the new additions above and think most of them add to the experience of playing the game.

I really enjoy each player having a different layout upon which to start their farm. Getting to turn forests into fields and wood is great and adds to the theme of the game in a practical way. Another nice addition is that the horses look like horses, not tan cubes. So if you have animeeples the horses will fit right in.

I must say, just like the base game Farmers of the Moor has a learning curve and adding having to manage heating your home and getting horses to everything else you have to do can be daunting. Obviously you should be very familiar with the base game before you add this expansion to the mix.

All in all if you have played so much Agricola you feel it could use some new elements. Then Farmers of the Moor is for you. It is definitely not necessary to enjoy the base game but adds a few fun, new options.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 3 out of 6
Player Interaction 3 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 6 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6