Agricola (board game)
Encyclopedia
Agricola is a German-style board game
created by Uwe Rosenberg
, and published by Lookout Games
in Europe and Z-Man Games
in the US. The goal of the game is to build the most well-balanced farm at the end of 14 rounds, consisting of plowed fields for crops and fenced pastures for livestock. The farm should have little fallow land and a large farmhouse built of high quality material. The player should also expand the family tending the farm from its initial two members to a maximum of five.
The game was released at Spiel
2007, where it was voted second-best game shown at the convention, according to the Fairplay
in-show voting.
The game was released in English by Z-Man Games in July 2008.
Agricola won the Spiel des Jahres
special award for "Best complex game 2008"
and the 2008 Deutscher Spiele Preis
.
It was also the game which ended Puerto Ricos run of more than five years as the highest-rated game on the board game website BoardGameGeek
.
for a family of two. This allows them two actions per round, such as gathering building materials, plowing or sowing fields, extending their house, or building improvements to the farm. The number of different actions available varies according to how many are playing, and each action can only be played once per round.
There are two sets of rules: the Family version and the Standard version. The main board of the game is reversible: one side is for the Family Version (as noted by the icon of an adult and a child being devoured by a dragon) and one side is for the Standard Version. In Standard gameplay, each player is dealt two sets of seven cards: one for occupations, such as woodcutter, bread seller, rat catcher, etc.; and one for minor improvements, such as a fishing pole, an improved plow, a bean field and so on, which grant small advantages such as extra food or resources. With the Family rules, all the rules are identical, except no cards are used..
There are 169 different occupations, and 139 different minor improvements, so the game will play differently every time.
As the game progresses and players expand their home, they can add new family members who then allow more actions to be taken each round. An additional action space also becomes available each round, adding the ability to acquire vegetables and animals (sheep, wild boar, and cattle
) for planting, breeding and cooking.
Every few rounds there is a harvest turn, in which crops are reaped, animals bred, and, most importantly, each family member must be fed. This is one of the most challenging aspect of the game, as failure to feed family members is disastrous for a player's score.
Aside from feeding the family, players must seek a balance of building a well-rounded farm. Failure to farm the land or keep animals or pastures will result in penalty to the player's score.
, Farmers of the Moor introduces new major and minor improvements. Horses can now be collected and bred like normal animals, and are worth one point each at the end of the game. Houses now must also be heated by using fuel, which can be harvested from peat bogs now located around the farmyard.
Gamers' Deck: Released at Essen 2010
, the Gamers' Deck is a medium-sized expansion that includes 119 new minor improvement and occupation cards. The deck is playable alone but it can be mixed with EIK.
The Goodies: Released 2010 The Goodies contains many small expansions for Agricola that were previously released, mostly in German language. Lookout Games, the publisher, also introduced deluxe wooden pieces to complement the game. The Goodies Expansion contains:
-themed expansion deck. Currently available only in German and Czech outside of The Goodies.
L-Deck: 14-card promotional deck available electronically; nine were commercially printed and given away individually at Essen 2008.
Ö-Deck: 12 Occupation and 12 Minor Improvement cards distributed with Österreicher (Austrian) printings of the game and The Goodies expansion.
X-Deck: Four cards of five different types (Alien Actions, Merchants from Outer Space, Alien Artifacts, Alien Events, and Alien Occupations), released with Spielbox Magazine: 2008 issue 5.
Z-Deck: 12 Occupation and 12 Minor Improvement cards distributed with early printings by Z-Man Games, and as a promotional item.
Through the Seasons: Small 4-space board printed on a postcard and given away at Essen 2008
.
2008
2008 Nominations
2007
German-style board game
German-style board games, frequently referred to in gaming circles as Euro Games or Euro-style, are a broad class of tabletop games that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times, indirect player interaction and abstract physical components...
created by Uwe Rosenberg
Uwe Rosenberg
Uwe Rosenberg is a German game designer. He has become known mainly for his card game Bohnanza, which is successful both in Germany and internationally...
, and published by Lookout Games
Lookout Games
Lookout Games is a German board and card game publisher. The company published, among other games, the board game Agricola, which was honored with the Complex Game award by the German Game of the Year jury in 2008.-History:...
in Europe and Z-Man Games
Z-Man Games
thumbZ-Man Games is a company incorporated in 1999 in the USA to produce games. The headquarters is in Mahopac, New York, near New York City. It is named after its proprietor, Zev Shlasinger...
in the US. The goal of the game is to build the most well-balanced farm at the end of 14 rounds, consisting of plowed fields for crops and fenced pastures for livestock. The farm should have little fallow land and a large farmhouse built of high quality material. The player should also expand the family tending the farm from its initial two members to a maximum of five.
The game was released at Spiel
Spiel
Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called Essen after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day game trade fair held in October at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen...
2007, where it was voted second-best game shown at the convention, according to the Fairplay
Fairplay
Fairplay, The International Shipping Weekly is a weekly news magazine devoted to the international merchant shipping industry. It was founded by Thomas Hope Robinson in 1883 and has been in continual publication ever since, adding an internet and email daily news service in 1996...
in-show voting.
The game was released in English by Z-Man Games in July 2008.
Agricola won the Spiel des Jahres
Spiel des Jahres
The Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the stated purpose of rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting top-quality games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award is one of the major drivers of the quality...
special award for "Best complex game 2008"
and the 2008 Deutscher Spiele Preis
Deutscher Spiele Preis
The Deutscher Spiele Preis is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine "Die Pöppel-Revue", which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals and game clubs. The results are announced every October at the Spiel game fair in Essen,...
.
It was also the game which ended Puerto Ricos run of more than five years as the highest-rated game on the board game website BoardGameGeek
BoardGameGeek
BoardGameGeek is a website that was founded in January 2000 by Scott Alden and Derk Solko as a resource for the board gaming hobby. The database holds reviews, articles, and session reports for over 45,000 different games, expansions, and designers. BoardGameGeek includes German-style board games,...
.
Gameplay
Each player begins with a small two-room farmhouseFarmhouse
Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a farm. It is a type of building or house which serves a residential purpose in a rural or agricultural setting. Most often, the surrounding environment will be a farm. Many farm houses are shaped like a T...
for a family of two. This allows them two actions per round, such as gathering building materials, plowing or sowing fields, extending their house, or building improvements to the farm. The number of different actions available varies according to how many are playing, and each action can only be played once per round.
There are two sets of rules: the Family version and the Standard version. The main board of the game is reversible: one side is for the Family Version (as noted by the icon of an adult and a child being devoured by a dragon) and one side is for the Standard Version. In Standard gameplay, each player is dealt two sets of seven cards: one for occupations, such as woodcutter, bread seller, rat catcher, etc.; and one for minor improvements, such as a fishing pole, an improved plow, a bean field and so on, which grant small advantages such as extra food or resources. With the Family rules, all the rules are identical, except no cards are used..
As the game progresses and players expand their home, they can add new family members who then allow more actions to be taken each round. An additional action space also becomes available each round, adding the ability to acquire vegetables and animals (sheep, wild boar, and cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
) for planting, breeding and cooking.
Every few rounds there is a harvest turn, in which crops are reaped, animals bred, and, most importantly, each family member must be fed. This is one of the most challenging aspect of the game, as failure to feed family members is disastrous for a player's score.
Aside from feeding the family, players must seek a balance of building a well-rounded farm. Failure to farm the land or keep animals or pastures will result in penalty to the player's score.
Major expansions
Farmers of the Moor: Released at Essen 2009Spiel
Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called Essen after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day game trade fair held in October at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen...
, Farmers of the Moor introduces new major and minor improvements. Horses can now be collected and bred like normal animals, and are worth one point each at the end of the game. Houses now must also be heated by using fuel, which can be harvested from peat bogs now located around the farmyard.
Gamers' Deck: Released at Essen 2010
Spiel
Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called Essen after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day game trade fair held in October at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen...
, the Gamers' Deck is a medium-sized expansion that includes 119 new minor improvement and occupation cards. The deck is playable alone but it can be mixed with EIK.
The Goodies: Released 2010 The Goodies contains many small expansions for Agricola that were previously released, mostly in German language. Lookout Games, the publisher, also introduced deluxe wooden pieces to complement the game. The Goodies Expansion contains:
- Agricola X-Deck, Agricola Ö-Deck, Agricola CZ-Deck, Agricola L-Deck
- 5 double-sided theme boards -- Western, Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Mars.
- Sticker Sheet (70 stickers) -- 35 adults, 33 children, 1 alien, and 1 werewolf.
- Wooden Meeples -- Veggiemeeples, Animeeples, and Resourceeples.
Minor expansions
CZ-Deck: 12 Occupation and 12 Minor Improvement cards as part of a Czech RepublicCzech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
-themed expansion deck. Currently available only in German and Czech outside of The Goodies.
L-Deck: 14-card promotional deck available electronically; nine were commercially printed and given away individually at Essen 2008.
Ö-Deck: 12 Occupation and 12 Minor Improvement cards distributed with Österreicher (Austrian) printings of the game and The Goodies expansion.
X-Deck: Four cards of five different types (Alien Actions, Merchants from Outer Space, Alien Artifacts, Alien Events, and Alien Occupations), released with Spielbox Magazine: 2008 issue 5.
Z-Deck: 12 Occupation and 12 Minor Improvement cards distributed with early printings by Z-Man Games, and as a promotional item.
Through the Seasons: Small 4-space board printed on a postcard and given away at Essen 2008
Spiel
Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called Essen after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day game trade fair held in October at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen...
.
Awards
2009- BoardGamer.ru Game of the Year
- Lucca Games Best of Show (Italy) Side Award Best Game Mechanic
- Nederlandse Spellenprijs Winner
- Ludoteca Ideale 2009, Game of the Year
- Jogo do Ano 2008 Spiel Portugal (Portugal) Winner
- Gra Roku Game of the Year (Poland) Winner
- Gra Roku - Gamers' Choice (Poland) Winner
- Gra Graczy - Gamesfanatic.net (Poland) Winner
- Golden Ace (France) Special Jury
- Les 3 Lys (Canada) Hobbyist Game Winner
2008
- Golden Geek Award Best Gamer's Board Game Winner
- Golden Geek Award Board Game of the Year Winner
- Spiel des JahresSpiel des JahresThe Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the stated purpose of rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting top-quality games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award is one of the major drivers of the quality...
"Complex Game" Winner - J.U.G. (Portugal) Game of the Year Winner
- Deutscher Spiele Preis (Germany) Game of the Year Winner
- International Gamers Award General Strategy/Multi-player Game
- Hra roku (Czech Republic) Winner
- Spiel der Spiele (Austria) Spiele Hit für Experten (Hit Games for Professionals)
- Tric Trac d'or (France) Game of the Year Winner
- Jda "Juego del Año en España" (Spain) Winner
- 81st game to be added to the Austrian Hall of Games
2008 Nominations
- Golden Geek Award Best 2-Player Board Game Nominee
- Golden Geek Award Best Board Game Artwork/Presentation Nominee
- Golden Geek Award Best Family Board Game Nominee
- Golden Geek Award Best Gamer's Board Game Nominee
2007
- Meeples' Choice AwardMeeples' Choice AwardThe Meeples' Choice Award is an award given for board games and card games. It is given by Spielfrieks, an internet discussion group about board and card games.- Past winners :...
Winner