Agricola (board game): Difference between revisions
Deleted: "Most people don't expect Agricola to retain that position for too long, |
|||
| Line 31: | Line 31: | ||
Each player also has a hand of two sets of seven cards, one for Occupations, such as woodcutter, fisherman, [[Pied Piper|rat catcher]] and one for Small Improvements, such as a well, an improved plough, a [[Bohnanza | bean field]], which grant them small advantages over the other players. |
Each player also has a hand of two sets of seven cards, one for Occupations, such as woodcutter, fisherman, [[Pied Piper|rat catcher]] and one for Small Improvements, such as a well, an improved plough, a [[Bohnanza | bean field]], which grant them small advantages over the other players. |
||
There are |
There are 176 different occupations, and 146 different Improvements, so the game will play differently every time. |
||
As the game progresses, and players increase their house size, and then acquire new family members, more actions become available, including the ability to acquire animals ([[Sheep]], [[Wild Boar]] and [[Cattle]]) for breeding, and to plant vegetables. |
As the game progresses, and players increase their house size, and then acquire new family members, more actions become available, including the ability to acquire animals ([[Sheep]], [[Wild Boar]] and [[Cattle]]) for breeding, and to plant vegetables. |
||
Revision as of 21:31, 28 August 2008
| Designers | Uwe Rosenberg |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Lookout Games Z-Man Games |
| Players | 1 to 5 |
| Setup time | 5–10 minutes |
| Playing time | 30–60 minutes per player |
| Chance | Low |
| Age range | 12 and up |
| Skills | Economic management, Resource management, Strategic thought |
Agricola is a designer board game created by Uwe Rosenberg, and published by Lookout Games and Z-Man Games. It was released at Spiel 2007, where it was voted second-best game shown at the convention, according to the Fairplay in-show voting [1], despite several new games from other top designers and large-scale publishers.
The aim of the game is to have the most well-balanced farm at the end of 14 turns, with ploughed fields, pastures, grain, vegetables and animals all present, with as little fallow land as possible, and with as imposing a house, with as large a family as a player can manage to achieve.
The jury of Spiel des Jahres (game of the year) award the "Best complex game 2008" to Agricola.[2]
Agricola is the first game to dethrone Puerto Rico from the number one spot on BoardGameGeek, despite having fewer votes.
The game was released in English by Z-Man Games in July 2008. [3]
Gameplay
Each player begins with a small two-room farm house and a family of two. This entitles them to two actions, such as gathering building materials, ploughing or sowing fields, extending their house, or building improvements. The initial number of different actions available varies according to how many are playing.
Each player also has a hand of two sets of seven cards, one for Occupations, such as woodcutter, fisherman, rat catcher and one for Small Improvements, such as a well, an improved plough, a bean field, which grant them small advantages over the other players.
There are 176 different occupations, and 146 different Improvements, so the game will play differently every time.
As the game progresses, and players increase their house size, and then acquire new family members, more actions become available, including the ability to acquire animals (Sheep, Wild Boar and Cattle) for breeding, and to plant vegetables.
Every few turns there is a harvest turn, where each family member must be fed. This represents the most challenging aspect of the game, as failure to feed a family member has disastrous consequences on a player's game-end score.
Humour
Many of the illustrations on the cards in Agricola reference popular culture, other board games, or games designers. For example the Dock Worker (Hafenarbeiter) is a caricature of Klaus Teuber, and the card ability directly references his game Settlers of Catan while the Stone Carrier (Steinschlepper) card bears more than a passing resemblance to Obelix (and is the reason for the presence of Wild Boar in the game instead of domestic Pigs). In March 2008, an Easter Egg hunt included references to a Village Beauty (Dorfschönheit) [4]
References
External links
- Lookout Games' Agricola homepage
- Agricola at BoardGameGeek