| Recommended Age: | 8+ |
| Cost: | $60 |
| Players: | 1-4 |
| Play Time: | 30 minutes - 120 minutes |
| Our Recommended Age: | 8+ (Easy Variant if needed) |
| Company Site: | www.mayfairgames.com |
| Newsletter: | mayfairgames.com |
Agricola is a worker placement/resource gathering game by Mayfair Games and my son’s new favorite for Game Nights. You have 14 Rounds to build your farm and get the most points while every other player is trying to do the same. Plan wisely and beware…you can lose points for unused spaces!
Recommended for ages 12 and up, however the Gentleman is 8 and not only understands the rules but loves this game. We play with standard rules for him but to teach him how to play we did not use the cards. We used a tile that is designed to be used when you do not use the cards.
Mayfair included this as a variant for the game for beginners…which is brilliant and a perfect way to introduce anyone to the game…especially kids under 12. I will say that once again you know your child best and always recommend adults play through a game first. Agricola does not have any content issues though so no worries there.
The box is your typical lift top lid but no inserts. They do give you bags for all the pieces but I highly recommend making a custom insert…or you can buy them I think. The Comedian makes them so we of course did that for this game. However, we do appreciate getting all the bags necessary for all the parts.
There are a lot of little pieces. Keep kids (or anyone or animals) away from these parts…they can be swallowed. The cards are all pretty standard size and quality and the boards and some of the small parts are made out of good quality chipboard and the tiny (adorable) resource shaped pieces are made out of wood.
Overall the game has very good quality pieces. Then again it is what we have come to expect from Mayfair. They have always (at least that I have seen) made quality games. Enough about that though…let’s talk about how to play.
First things you should know is you can play this game by yourself. Yep they have a Solo version of the game. I love that! I’m going to explain the rules for 2-4 players though. Four players is the max you can play with. NOW we an learn how to play.
Objective:
Have the most points after 14 Rounds. (In a solo game simply get the best score).
Setup:
First everyone chooses a color and takes the five people (or Meeples if you are like us and call everything like this a Meeple), four stables and 15 fences and then arrange them in a fancy display. Ok, not really but most of us tend to play with them…usually stacking them up…anyway…moving on.
You get a Farmyard board and put a person in each of the wooden rooms on the board. Put the rest of your items nearby…like a bank. Now setup everything else.
First put the Game Board in the middle where everyone can reach it. there is an extention you will add to the left based on how many players there are. Do this next (There is a number next to a guy in a hat on the bottom).
Next make a stack of the clay/stone room tiles and put those next to the board. Put some with the the clay side up and some with the stone side up. Then put the wood room/field tiles next to those, some with the wood side up and some with the field side. You should have four stacks.
There are 4 types of cards. The ones with the Red back are for Major Improvements, Orange backs are for Minor Improvements, Occupations are Yellow on the back and Action Space cards are Green…and have numbers on the backs. There are 14 of these.
Shuffle the Action Space cards and then without looking put them in groups based on the numbers on the back. One’s with One’s, Two’s with Two’s etc. Then stack them from highest number to lowest on top which is the group One’s. Put these near the Game Board.
Major Improvement go on the spaces on a Supply Board. These go in specific spaces so match up the pictures for them. Put this board near the Game Board as well.
Minor Improvements get shuffled and give each player seven of them.
Occupations are different. There is a number with a + on the left side of the cards that tell you how many players those cards are for. If a card as a 1+ then it is for games with 1-4 players but if it has a 3+ then use it for a game with 3-4 players and 4+ is for 4 players.
Put the cards you are not using back in the box and shuffle the rest then give each player 7.
Now put all the animals, resources and crops and food markers in piles nearby. You can leave them in the bag and just get a few out or dump them. This is up to you. We made a custom insert so all of our pumpkins, wheat, sheep etc are in a small compartment. Before that we happily dumped everything into piles.
If there are pieces I haven’t mentioned simply keep them nearby. You might need them but you would only need them for a specific purpose…and I’m not going into THAT much detail. The instructions do a great job there.
Play:
You have 14 Rounds to get the most points. No more. No less. Use your turn wisely. You start with 2 people and on your turn you place 1 on a space on the board and take that action or resource. Then everyone else gets a turn (clockwise order) and you play your next person. Once everyone has placed all their people the Round is over.
Before we go into what that means there are a few rules. You can only choose one space per person you have. One space can only be occupied by ONE person and all the people stay on their space until the Round is over.
Now I cannot tell you how you should play. That would involve a LOT of what-ifs, possibilities and the loss of what little sanity I have left. However, I can explain more on what your goal is and how a turn goes…so I’ll do that.
On the score sheet you will get or lose points for Field Tiles, Pastures, Grain, Vegetables, Sheep, Wild Boar, Cattle, Unused Farmyard Spaces (you lose 1 point for every unused space), Fenced Stables, Clay Rooms, Stone Rooms, People and any Bonus Points. Now the break down.
Each Stone Room is worth 2 points, Clay Rooms are worth 1 point and Wood Rooms are not worth any points.
Each person is worth 3 points. Cards can give you Bonus points.
Fields and Pastures are worth more the more you have but if you don’t have any or just 1 Field you lose 1 point. 2 Fields is worth 1 point while 1 Pasture is worth 1 point. If you have 5+ Fields or 4+ Pastures you would get 4 points.
Vegetables are scored based on type as well. You lose 1 point if you don’t have any. You get 1 point for 1-3 Wheat or 1 Pumpkin and 4 points for 8+ Wheat and 4+ Pumpkins.
Animals work the same way. Minus 1 point if you have none of that type. You get 1 point for having 1-3 Sheep, 1-2 Pigs or 1 Cattle and 4 points for 8+ Sheep, 7+ Pigs or 6+ Cattle.
You lose 1 point for every space not used on your Game Board. This information should help you decide where you want to go on your turn to get the most points.
The cards make the game so much more then resource gathering. During a Round there are 4 Phases. The Work Phase is where everyone places their people but before that is the Preparation Phase.
During this Phase in all Rounds an Action Card gets flipped over and put on a designated space on the Game Board. You would also add any Goods (animals, vegetables, resources etc) to any space that have a symbol for a Good and an arrow pointing to it…I’d look in the instructions to see what I’m talking about.
Once all of this is done then the Work Phase begins. Start with whoever is First Player and yes this can change throughout the game if someone else puts one of their people on the specific spot for getting First Player.
Play contines clockwise and as I mentioned above the Round ends when everyone has placed all their people. Each space will either give you Goods, let you build which costs Goods, Sow Vegetables in a field (which you have to build first) or even get a New person. Choose wisely and try to get all your spaces filled and have one of everything…or more…
After this is the Returning Home Phase. Simply take back all of your people and put them in their rooms. Now the Harvest Phase. At the end of some Rounds, not all….you Harvest your crops. You can read more on this in the instructions.
First you take 1 Crop off of the top of any you have in your Fields. You must do this whenever there is a Harvest. Then you have to Feed your people. Each person requires 2 Food unless you just got a new person in which case for that Round only they need just 1 Food.
Grain and Vegetables are worth 1 Food each. There are cards that can help you gain Food or require less or turn things into Food and Animals can also be used as Food.
After that part your Animals Breed…well they multiply. If you have 2 of the same type of animal you get another one of that type. It doesn’t matter how many you have if you have more than 2 you still only get 1 additional of that type…and you can’t use the new one for Food….
During the Work Phase you can build Rooms, collect Resources, add People, build Pastures and even add Stables for more Animals. Again I will not go that much into detail as it would take a LONG time.
You can only play cards by going on a space in the Work Phase and you can only get Major or Minor Improvements by playing cards and paying the material costs. There may be other requirements so check each card carefully. These can be extremely helpful especially for getting more Food for your Goods.
There is also a space to play Occupations and the cost of these will vary but are usually worth playing one or two.
The strategy is entirely up to you. Do you want to get more animals or more vegetables, or maybe upgrade all your rooms to Stone? You can try different ways to get points, and I suggest you do. The game is never the same twice and always fun.
Winning:
After 14 Rounds the game is over. You do finish that final Harvest so don’t worry. There should be a scoring sheet so start adding up your points. These are listed on the side of the Game Board which is extremely convenient. Whoever has the most points wins! The Gentleman can win this game on his own but when playing his dad he can either win or come close to winning…and he usually beats me…I swear I am not as bad at games and I sound…
In the event of a tie the person with the most building resources in their supply wins. If you still tie then you have to share the title of Victor or decide on your own how to declare one winner…or play again.
Agricola is a great game for Family Game Night or a Game Night with friends. It is that brilliant kind of game that can be played with kids or not and is fun for everyone playing. Easy to understand but a challenge to master makes it perfect for seasoned gamers as well. Basically it is great for just about every gamer of any age…well at least 8 and up.
Show us your Farm skills! @MyGeeklings #Agricola @MayfairGames
1 thought on “Create the best farm to get the most points in Agricola”
Comments are closed.