Agricola

I have been an active player of board games for at least 35 years. I've played games at all levels of complexity, ranging from tournament level Avalon-Hill bookcase games to family and party card and boardgames. For the past five or so years my favorite board game has been "The Settlers of Catan" (and its variants), that is, until I played "Agricola".

OK, first, a bit about the game...

Each player in the game (up to 5 can play) represent a farmer in 1670 AD and his spouse. About now you may be thinking, "yawn," but just wait, there is some real strategy and fun to be had here. Play progresses as players use their farmer and spouse each turn to do different things including the possibility of building a larger house, raising crops, fencing in pastures, collecting food, collecting animals, having children (that can also work each turn), etc. All the way through the game there is a real challenge when it comes to feeding your family, and improving your lot...Read more

I had the opportunity to play Agricola over the past weekend and I must admit, I was impressed. First of all, this is a VERY weighty box. You get a lot of bits for your money. The game has 9 small boards (one for each player and several that create the shared interaction area), about 200 wooden pieces (representing people, resources, animals, etc.), several sheets of high quality cardboard tiles and several hundred cards. When you open it, the box is really full which is decidedly satisfying.

There are two versions of the game. The Family version (which I played) does not use most of the cards, but is still a very complex game. I recommend reading the rules and setting aside ample time on your first play to figure out the flow of the game. Also, definitely take the suggestion of starting with the Family game first. And this may be a good one to play 2-3 rounds of and then start over since the strategies only really become apparent after digging into the game. The...Read more

Just this year I was introduced to a game that chances are you know by now: Settlers of Catan. It was my first experience with European-style board games; up until then I only knew about Monopoly and Clue (granted, I have owned and enjoy Scotland Yard which I consider on a different league than those two, but not as good as Catan). After playing Catan for half a year, I decided to go for something else. I've had read good things about Agricola on Boardgamegeek (it's number one, after all) so I decided to almost blind buy, enticed by the idea of being a farmer (a dream of mine). So I've played this game enough to say that it's the next logical step from Catan to a "deeper" or more complex gaming experience. As a person who just got into complex board games, I can say that this game is deep and complex, but not difficult, which is a plus because people from different ages and non-gamers are more open to play. There's also no dice involved, so it's less a game of chances and more a game...Read more