In Agricola the board game by Z-Man Games, you're a farmer in a wooden shack with your spouse and little else. On a turn, you get to take only two actions, one for you and one for the spouse, from all the possibilities you'll find on a farm: collecting clay, wood, or stone; building fences; and so on. You might think about having kids in order to get more work accomplished, but first you need to expand your house. And what are you going to feed all the little rugrats? The rules include a beginner's version and an advanced version.
Agricola Board Game Overview
Agricola is a turn-based agricultural family board game. There are 14 game turns plus 6 harvest phases (after turn 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14). Each player starts with two playing tokens (farmer and wife) and thus can take two actions per turn.
Agricola Board Game Objective
There are multiple options, and while the game progresses, you'll have more and more: first thing in a turn, a new action card is flipped over. Problem: Each action can be taken just once per turn, so it's important to do some things with high preference. Each player also starts with a hand of 7 job cards (of more than 160 total) and 7 item cards (of more than 140 total) that he/she may use during the game if they fit in his/her strategy. Speaking of: there are countless strategies, some depending on your card hand. Sometimes it's a good choice to stay on course and sometimes it is better to react to your opponents actions.
Agricola Board Game Contents
Game boards:
- 5 farmyards for the players (with farmyard spaces as well as 1 example on the reverse side)
- 3 game boards for the game actions (including one with an alternative reverse side for the Family game, as well as two examples)
- 1 board for Major Improvements (with a summary of scoring on the reverse side)
360 Cards:
- 169 yellow “Occupation” cards (66 cards for 1-5 players; 41 cards for 3-5 players; 62 cards for 4-5 players)
- 139 orange “Minor Improvement” cards (including 7 upgrades from Major or Minor Improvements)
- 10 red “Major Improvement” cards
- 14 blue Round cards with possible actions for rounds 1 to 14
- 16 green Action cards with possible actions that depend on the number of players
- 5 grey Begging cards
- 5 Summary cards
- 2 Deck cards (1 Deck I, 1 Deck K)
Wooden playing pieces:
- 5 Family member discs, 4 Stables and 15 Fences in each of the five player colors (blue, green, red, natural wood and purple)
- 33 round, dark brown Wood counters
- 27 round, light brown Clay counters
- 15 round, white Reed counters
- 18 round, grey Stone counters
- 27 round, yellow Grain counters
- 18 round, orange Vegetable counters
- 21 Sheep tokens (white cubes)
- 18 Wild boar tokens (black cubes)
- 15 Cattle tokens (brown cubes)
- 1 Starting player token
And also:
- 33 brown/grey Field/Stone house tiles
- 24 brown/red Wood/Clay hut tiles
- 36 yellow Food markers labeled “1”
- 9 Multiplication markers (can apply to animals, goods or Food)
- 3 Claim markers (with “Guest” on the reverse)
- 1 Scoring pad
Agricola Background
Central Europe, around 1670 AD. The Plague which has raged since 1348 has finally been overcome. The civilized world is revitalized. People are upgrading and renovating their huts. Fields must be plowed, tilled and harvested. The famine of the previous years has encouraged people to eat more meat (a habit that we continue to this day).
