Agricola (game)

Agricola
Game data
author	Uwe Rosenberg
graphic	Klemens Franz
publishing company	Lookout Games , ; 999 Games , ; Ystari , ; Z-Man Games , ; etc. a.
Publishing year	2007
Art	Board game
Teammates	1 to 5
Duration	30 minutes per player
Age	from 12 years
Awards
	Game of the Year 2008: Special Prize "Complex Game"; German Games Prize 2008: 1st place; Game of Games 2008: hit games for experts; International Gamers Award 2008; Juego del Año (Spain) 2008; Jogo do Ano (Portugal) 2008; Japan Boardgame Prize 2008: 4th place; As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année 2009: Prix du Jury; Nederlandse Spellenprijs 2009;

Fences and stable

wild boar

Beef

sheep

Agricola (Latin for "farmer") is a board game by Uwe Rosenberg for one to five players. It was published by Lookout Games in 2007 . The player has the task of building a farm. A steadily growing family has to be provided for through agriculture and animal husbandry. Large and small purchases such as a cooking area and further training for the workers enable more efficient management.

The first edition of Agricola was distributed exclusively in German. A second edition (then also available in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Czech, Polish and Korean) in which some of the game pieces are replaced by so-called animeeples (wooden animal figures instead of wooden cubes; a suitcase word from animal (animal) and meeple , like the game figures in the English-speaking area, initially at Carcassonne , later also generally referred to), was published in summer 2008.

The jury of the Critics' Award Game of the Year awarded Agricola the special award "Complex Game" 2008. In addition, it was voted first place for the German Games Prize 2008 and received the International Gamers Award 2008 in the multiplayer category . From 2008 to 2010, it temporarily replaced Puerto Rico as the top rated board game at BoardGameGeek .

In 2010 Agricola was the representative in the strategy game category at the qualification for the German board game championship .

Game idea

Similarities to other games

Similar to Caylus or Puerto Rico , the players compete for different options in each round. In addition, there is comparatively little interaction. Agricola is aimed at advanced players, the playing time is about 30 minutes per player. The game can also be played on its own or in a simplified family variant.

In 2013, Rosenberg brought out the successor game Caverna , which is often compared to Agricola and offers players more flexible options for action.

Rosenberg series

According to Rosenberg, Agricola was inspired by Caylus, a game that was released in autumn 2005. As a second source of inspiration, Rosenberg used his own, thematically undefined game design from the same year, which appeared in 2009 under the title Before the gates of Loyang . Rosenberg worked intensively on the game project for two years until Agricola was released in October 2007. The second game in this series was Le Havre , a port game that was inspired by Agricola and Caylus in October 2008 . The other games in this series are Merkator , published in 2010, about Hamburg's economic rise in the Thirty Years War , and Ora et Labora , published in 2011, which deals with medieval monastery economics .

Game material

The game contains nine game boards, 360 cards, over 300 wooden tokens and 105 cardboard tokens.

Game components Agricola
5 court game boards 3 action boards 1 acquisition plan 166 training cards 136 small purchases 10 major purchases 16 round cards 8 begging cards 6 overview maps 2 deck cards 4 sets of game pieces 93 material tokens 45 add-on tokens 54 animal tokens 18 fields 39 hut tiles 36 food tokens 9 multiplier marks 3 claim brands 1 block 1 starting player disc

Allusions

A number of the cards are word games with the names of real people, such as the “Beckenbauer” or “Netzer” cards. The "dock worker" caricatures the well-known game inventor Klaus Teuber ( The Settlers of Catan ). The “Lehnsherr” card shows the mutant Magneto alias Erik Lensherr from the film X-Men .

Extensions

The first regular extension to Agricola appeared in October 2009 as part of the international game days in Essen under the name "Agricola - Die Moorbauern". Among other things, before the game starts, forest and moor tiles are placed on each player's farm board and horses are added as a new species of animal. There are also special action cards that you can use instead of using a person marker. In addition to the nutritional values, there are also calorific values as a further currency , with which the own hut must be heated at every harvest time. The expansion also includes 14 new large purchases and 108 small purchases and allows an expanded family version with small purchases but without training.

In October 2010 the "Gamer's Deck", also known as the G-Deck, was released. This expansion consists of 119 cards, 59 small purchases and 60 trainings. The G-Deck is often referred to as 120 cards, but a card is not suitable as a playing card because it is only included as a decoration. The set of cards was developed by players for players via an internet platform and implemented by Lookout Games.

After the game was released, various small additions to the game were published, given out at game fairs or tournaments: "Z-Deck" (24 cards), "L-Deck", "X-Deck", "Ö-Deck", "CZ- Deck ”,“ Agricola im Wald ”deck (often called T-deck),“ NL deck ”,“ WM deck ”,“ Biogas promo card ”,“ In the changing seasons ”playing field, promo cards for different tournaments Cities (e.g. Darmstadt plays), correction deck 1 and 2 for older versions of Agricola, modeled raw materials made of wood and stickers for game pieces.

The game is also available as a mobile app for Apple iOS .