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In Agricola, 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 resources; building meadows; 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?
Agricola is a turn-based game. There are 14 game rounds occurring in 6 stages, with a Harvest at the end of each stage (after Rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14).
Each player starts with two meeples that can each take an action per round. There are multiple options, and while the game progresses, you'll have more: each round a (fixed) additional option becomes available. Each action can be taken by only one player each round, so it's important to do some things with high preference.
In comparison with the family game of the predecessor, much has changed: the new action each round is fixed, and the game has been simplified by removing stone and vegetables. Similar to 'Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small', there are now buildings (replacing the major improvements) that score points for leftover resources at the end of the game.
Also, there are no building restrictions (nor player boards). And finally, there are no negative points or point limits anymore, each player simply scores for all he has achieved.
Part of the Agricola family — see Agricola for the combined view.
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- brings Agricola to families with approachable rules
- still offers meaningful strategic decisions
- not as deep as the full Agricola experience
- some may still find it heavy for very young players
- family-friendly adaptation
- family-focused farming with pared-down rules
- accessible, streamlined
- Agricola
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- cooperative family playment — keeps core worker placement feel while being approachable
- Cooperative Game — keeps core worker placement feel while being approachable
- simplified rules — removal of some complex cards to reduce cognitive load
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a smaller version ... it's just colors ... you just draw from a random deck in this game and as an experienced board gamer I like to have those options face up especially since there's no text to read on those cards it's just colors
- there are no points and I think this is really clever they got rid of all the points you're scoring in a Tickets to Ride
- it's a race to complete as many tickets as possible. Tickets that say things like 'okay you need to get from Denver over to Atlanta'
- it's King Domino with dragon eggs that you get to hatch
- the ghost player is trying to communicate which of these five cards is the correct card for us to pick and if we get it right we we proceed further in the game
- the twist is ... instead of using visuals it uses sound. This is a tambourine that comes in the game of Mysterium Kids, and the ghost has to communicate using this tambourine
- not only that but because this is such a fun component you wouldn't want to play a full game of mysterium kids with only one player as the ghost. Instead this passes around the table; players take turns being the ghost
- I think that's a really clever way to onboard someone onto a game not even just a kid but anyone onto a game to layer these pieces one step at a time
- storytime chess had helped her teach my nephew how to play chess it's a story book where you open the story book and you play a very simple version of Chess using only one type of piece as the game explains how that piece works and then it adds another piece
- it adds another piece and so it kind of lay layers on the rules for chess until you know fully how to play
- we published my little side ... a fan of the game he wanted to play it with his daughter and so he created a My Little Pony themed version of the game
- My Little Pony wasn't interested in licensing their brand for the game and so we made it my little side
- it's a much simplified version of scthe (sic) where you still have actions inside you're running around you're picking up resources off the map