A classic euro that shows its age

So we have finally tried 🌾 Agricola for the first time. Even though it is a game from 2007, it still might be one of the most often mentioned euros, and many people really love it. Based on our first impressions, Agricola does indeed feel like an almost 20 years old game. 😶 I guess it didn’t help either that we played some ancient version which only has cubes and cylinders instead of shaped resources.

Agricola is the definition of an Uwe Rosenberg euro - an agricultural theme and a constant pressure of having to feed your people. 😄 The core of the game is standard worker placement, where you immediately do the chosen action, and also block the spot for the rest of the round. There are some cool ideas though. ☝️

One is how each round a new action comes into play, so as the game goes on you have more and more choices of things to do - which is also needed as your family (and thus number of workers) grows. This is a big help to make the game less overwhelming as you begin though it might make the early game a bit samey. 🤔

Another interesting mechanic is how resources accumulate on certain actions. So if nobody takes the 3 wood from the forest, next round there will be 6 tokens up for grabs. I like this, even though it hurts bad when you are too late. 😅

In the game you will try to expand your house to have place for new members, and also upgrade the rooms for bonus points. Additionally you are preparing land for growing crops or for holding animals. It’s hard to keep up with the increasing need for more food while also trying to improve your farm. 

The final quintessential mechanic are cards: 🃏 improvements and occupations you can play with the help of some actions. These add some much needed spice to change up the game, as there are all kinds of effects. I did find it strange that you can’t get new cards after setup though.

Ultimately the game felt overly tight for us, and while it was overall an enjoyable one-off experience, this is not something we’d want to play more. I think in today’s board gaming scene there are simply too many better games - at least for us.

But we might be back for 🧟 Agricola: Dead Harvest. 😄