The 17th Century: Not an Easy Time for Farming An agricultural development game for 1 to 4 players of ages 12 and up Playing time: ~30 minutes per player Game Idea Central Europe, around 1670 A.D. The Plague which has raged for centuries has finally been overcome. The civilized world is revitalized. People are upgrading and extending their simple wooden houses. Fields must be plowed, sowed, and harvested. People are living off millet gruel, bread, and vegetables.
Components Wooden components 24 yellow “grain” crop tokens 16 orange “vegetable” crop tokens 1 yellow starting player token 18 white sheep 15 black wild boar 13 brown cattle 30 brown “wood” building resource tokens 24 auburn “clay” building resource tokens 14 white “reed” building resource tokens 16 black “stone” building resource tokens In different player colors: 4x 15 fences 4x 4 stables 4x 5 people Game boards 4 large farmyard boards (one for each player) 1 large game board 1 supply board for the m
Room and Field Tiles Place the stack of clay/stone room tiles next to the game board. Divide the stack of wood room tiles in two, placing one half with the wood rooms facing up and the other with the field tiles facing up. Game Board with Action Spaces Place the game board in the middle of the play area. Depending on the number of players, take the appropriate game board extension and attach it to the game board with the proper side facing up This is the game board for the 3-player game.
General Overview A game of Agricola is played over 14 rounds. In each round, you place each of your people on exactly one action space, taking the actions provided by it. The available actions are depicted on the game board. In clockwise order, you take turns to place exactly one person on an action space, until all players have placed all of their people. You will necessarily get in each other’s way, because each action space can only be used by one person in each round.
Have a First Look at the Scoring Sheet At the end of the game, the player whose farm is worth the most points wins. The following shall give you a rough idea of what you get points for. The number in parentheses is the total points in the respective category. (The scoring rules can be found on page 12 and in greater detail on pages 11 to 12 of the appendix.) 4 fields are worth 3 points. (3) Each room in a stone house is worth 2 points.
Course of Play Each of the 14 rounds goes through four phases, which are played one after another. The work phase is when you place your people on action spaces to take actions. Each round starts with some preparations. 1. Preparation Phase Vegetable Seeds Well Most action spaces are pre-printed on the game board. Each round, a new action space enters the game: draw a card from the top of the pile of action space cards and place it on the round space whose number is equal to the current round.
House Building and Family Planning Adding Rooms At the start of the game, you have a wooden house with room for just two people. If you want to grow your family to increase the number of actions you can take each round, you must extend your house first. This requires building resources—at the start, wood and reed—which you can get on accumulation spaces like “Forest” and “Reed Bank”.
Sheep Market Animal Breeding Animal breeding can play a major role in feeding your family. You can get animals on accumulation spaces. Take all the animals from the space when you use one. Animal Husbandry Options Stage 1 Pig Market Stage 3 Cattle Market Stage 4 The “Sheep Market” accumulation space comes into play between rounds 1 and 4, “Pig Market” in round 8 or 9, and “Cattle Market” in round 10 or 11.
Later in the game, vegetables become available as a second crop. If you have crops in your supply and unplanted fields on your farm, you can take the “Sow” action on the appropriate action space, which comes into play between rounds 1 and 4. When you sow, place 1 grain or 1 vegetable from your supply on an empty field and add another 2 grain and 1 vegetable from the general supply on top of that, respectively (see illustration). Those crops remain in their field until the harvest.
Major Improvements Major Improvement House Redevelopment 1 Major or Minor Improvement 1 Renovation and afterward Stage 1 Stage 2 There are 10 major improvements in the game. You have access to all of them. Once you own a major improvement, you can use it for the rest of the game. Major improvements are worth points, indicated by a number Fireplace in a yellow circle. The “Major Improvement” action space is the designated space for building major improvements.
Hand Cards Major improvements are face up on the supply board. Minor improvements and occupations are kept in hand, until you play them, which is when the text at the bottom of the card comes into effect. As long as a card is in hand, it does not affect the game in any way. Played cards can change the rules: the text on a card always takes precedence over this rule book.
Starting Player When using the “Meeting Place” action space, you can also play a minor improvement. The starting player does not change automatically from round to round. To become the starting player, you must use the “Meeting Place” action space. (If no player uses it, the starting player token remains with its current holder.) Game End and Winner The game ends at the end of the 14th round, after the final harvest.
