Four and a half hours later we have the answer to these questions. On paper it doesn’t score every well.
1. Very little interaction between players. Much like Rico, the only interaction comes from getting in on a specific job first.
2. No bidding whatsoever.
3. Although ours wasn’t, I expect future games will be pretty close. The points you have aren’t explicit, and there seems to be a good relation between a diverse, aesthetically pleasing, full farm and points scored. Leading you to play not so much for the points, and more for the farm.
4. A unique aspect. There’s fuck a fuck load of occupation cards that add variety to the game, resulting in some great occupations such as ‘wet nurse’.
5. No amusing animals, and sadly all living creatures were represented by squares or discs. Where were the meoples!
6. It was almost too difficult to learn, we had to tag-team the rules in order to maintain concentration to wade through the game.
7. It can be played pretty easily with different numbers.
8. Hidden aspects were few, but present. Much like Rico, some of the cards you can purchase give you bonuses as the end.
9. Symmetry, or, at least aesthetics were ever present, from the details on the ploughed fields, to the sheep grazing in the field. Probably the most aesthetically pleasing game so far, let down only by the overly simplistic counters representing the farm animals.
10. Finally despite four hours of slogging through the rules, and occasionally wanting to kill myself, it was fun.
Probably a game that shares the most with Puerto Rico than anything else, it has PRs board structure and sadly a similar lack of interaction between players. Its greatest strength is that victory points are so intertwined with the development of your farm that it seems that the ‘best’ farm really does win. And the developed farms really do look the better than any other board game I’ve played, with a variety of animals nestling in pens next to furrowed farms. I’m sure the next few games wont feel quite so much like wading through hummus.
1. Very little interaction between players. Much like Rico, the only interaction comes from getting in on a specific job first.
2. No bidding whatsoever.
3. Although ours wasn’t, I expect future games will be pretty close. The points you have aren’t explicit, and there seems to be a good relation between a diverse, aesthetically pleasing, full farm and points scored. Leading you to play not so much for the points, and more for the farm.
4. A unique aspect. There’s fuck a fuck load of occupation cards that add variety to the game, resulting in some great occupations such as ‘wet nurse’.
5. No amusing animals, and sadly all living creatures were represented by squares or discs. Where were the meoples!
6. It was almost too difficult to learn, we had to tag-team the rules in order to maintain concentration to wade through the game.
7. It can be played pretty easily with different numbers.
8. Hidden aspects were few, but present. Much like Rico, some of the cards you can purchase give you bonuses as the end.
9. Symmetry, or, at least aesthetics were ever present, from the details on the ploughed fields, to the sheep grazing in the field. Probably the most aesthetically pleasing game so far, let down only by the overly simplistic counters representing the farm animals.
10. Finally despite four hours of slogging through the rules, and occasionally wanting to kill myself, it was fun.
Probably a game that shares the most with Puerto Rico than anything else, it has PRs board structure and sadly a similar lack of interaction between players. Its greatest strength is that victory points are so intertwined with the development of your farm that it seems that the ‘best’ farm really does win. And the developed farms really do look the better than any other board game I’ve played, with a variety of animals nestling in pens next to furrowed farms. I’m sure the next few games wont feel quite so much like wading through hummus.
2 comments:
Great blog fellas! Any suggestions for a less seasoned newbie?
Is there an Agricola "travel size" version?
Where do i buy ConstructionHut Blog official merchandise?
There is a load of resources for learning the game on Boardgamegeek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/31260) which is where I got my fimo meeples from that you spotted on my blog. One of the people there made a set and put them up for trade. I was lucky!
There is a video introduction to Agricola that is a good place to start.
Once you are familiar with the game a 2 player game takes less than an hour.
Regards
Christo
Post a Comment