Stats:
No. of players: 1-5
Amount of time to play: about a half hour per person
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 10-15 min

Agricola Rules Description:

Agricola takes place in 1670 after the Plague. Players are farmers trying to upgrade their huts and work the land. The game takes place during 14 rounds in which players choose actions that will help grow their homes, families and farms. You get points for having a certain number of fields plowed, animals, pastures, family members, rooms in your hut and more. Being able to diversify is key to winning the game and concentrating too much on one area of your farm can have detrimental effects. You start the game with just you and your husband or wife and each of you may take just one action per round. Also each action may only be taken once per round. So if a player before you chooses the space to gather reeds you cannot go on the gather reeds space. A new action space is revealed each round so as the game moves on there are more actions for you to take.

At the end of rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14 there is a harvest. At harvest time you can gather crops you’ve sown and your animals may breed, but you must feed your family. Each family member consumes two food and if you cannot feed them you’ll be forced to beg (and receive negative points). At some point you’ll want to expand your family so you can take more than two actions in a round. This usually means building extra rooms onto your hut and requires you to produce even more food come harvest time.

Players begin the game with two sets seven of randomly dealt cards: Minor Improvements and Occupations. These cards will help you determine the strategy you will use to win the game. Most of the Minor Improvements give you certain advantages over other players and help you when you take specific actions in the game. For example, the player with the corn scoop improvement can take one extra grain when taking the “Take Grain” action. Occupations also grant you a specific advantage based on the occupation and can even help you produce food. Take the Master Brewer occupation and you’ll be able to convert one grain into three food come harvest time.

There are also Major Improvements that anyone can build if they have the proper resources. These help you cook food or bake bread. They are also worth victory points.

As if all this wasn’t enough, there are also different decks to try out in the game an Easy, an Interactive and a Complex deck. These change the Minor Improvements and Occupations and make you adjust your strategy to win.

A Quick Review of Agricola:

Acrigola is a fairly complex, excellent game that you can play solo or with up to five players. The game scales amazingly! I think it plays best with 3-5 players, but with the different decks, 169 Minor Improvements and 139 Occupations it is never the same game twice. And although there are some base strategies, there is a need to be able to adjust and be flexible to win the game.

There are only a couple negative things I can say about Acrigola. One is if a player gets dealt a bad hand of cards that don’t work together at all, winning can be tough. It can also be hard to overcome a good player with a really good hand. Secondly although the game is somewhat interactive it can feel as though you are just hoping other players don’t take your action space. My last complaint is pretty small, but there is a learning curve and a new player can expect to lose their first game to others that have played a bit. After a couple games the playing field is leveled but I sometimes feel bad teaching this to new players knowing they will just be getting the hang of things around half way through the game.

Even with these small issues still I love this game and MUST rate it highly as it is so much fun to play. It can be stressful at times, but that is half the fun.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 5 out of 6
Luck 3 out of 6
Player Interaction 2 out of 6
Replay Value 6 out of 6
Complexity 6 out of 6
Fun 6 out of 6
Overall 6 out of 6