Games I Love: Agricola

When I think of Agricola the thing that immediately comes to mind is the phrase "farming is hard!" It's a common refrain from my gaming group when we play, but it hasn't stopped us from trying to master the art of boardgame farming.

In Agricola players take on the role of farmers in the middle ages, attempting to plant their fields, raise their livestock, feed their families, upgrade their homes, and become successful by taking on any number of occupations. Sound like a lot? It is. Which is why "farming is hard." And the more players added to the game, the harder it gets as people vie for the same resources and upgrades.

That might make Agricola sound unfun, but it's really a huge part of what makes it excellent. The game is deep. So deep, in fact, that in the two years we've been playing it, no one member of my gaming group has ever seen all the occupations or improvements which are dealt out to each player at the start of the game. This means there's almost always something new to look at and half the way to succeed at Agricola is to get a little lucky and find a good way to make your various occupations and improvements synergise so that you're reaping huge benefits.

The game itself is good looking and the wood tokens, whether they're the old versions (circles and blocks) or the new (person or animal shaped), feel right to the spirit of the game.  Similarly, the boards and cards are beautiful but simple, fitting in well with the time period of the game.  There's no dice rolling in Agricola, making the game far more about timing and playing the odds and against the other players than about round to round luck.  Agricola is definitely an excellently made game and I think it should be a welcome addition to any gaming table.

TableTop Day Recap

On Saturday it was International TableTop Day (based on Geek and Sundry's show TableTop, hosted by Wil Wheaton), so I rolled on down to Santa Cruz to hang out with friends at Inklings Books and Things.  They held raffles for awesome loot, provided table space for various games, and helped a bunch of boardgamers hang out with friends and new acquaintances alike.

All the loot to be raffled...

I got lucky and won one of the first raffles, getting loot for Kaijudo, Spot It, Worra, The Resistance, and DnD!  An awesome way to get rolling.  I sat in on games of Zombicide (for three or four games) and Agricola and watched games of Evo and Roborally.  And all the while, Zombicide's Kickstarter was rolling through its second to last day and introducing awesome survivors based on Sean Connery, John Cleese, Tom Selleck, and Jack Nicholson as the 9 or 10 of us who were in on the Kickstarter kept one another updated.  Tons of fun.

In Zombicide, we play tested a scenario set up by my buddy Frost, in which we had to rescue trapped survivors from cars and escape the onrushing zombie horde.  We played the first couple rounds mostly with experienced Zombiciders.  Our first game out, we drew an Abomination on the second turn, which I tried to slow down (I was playing Nick, which gave me a little extra survivability).  Once the Abom was on the board, our downfall was inevitable.  We made it a little bit further in the second play through, getting what we needed to free the trapped survivors, but never quite reaching them.  We decided to take a break for a bit and come back to it later.

That meant it was time for Agricola!  I really enjoy Agricola when not playing with someone I know who seems to be able to optimize his actions without any effort and always wins.  Good guy, but man that's annoying!  Anyways, I got a great hand.  Lots of synergy between my occupations and minor improvements and I managed to steal first player right away and get rolling quickly.  We were introducing Frost to the game and he ended up with the Taster occupation which let him steal first player fairly effectively over and over!  It was a competitive game and I don't think anyone ever felt completely out of it, which made it even more fun than usual.

We had lunch, and spread out to other games.  I was feeling a bit of a headache coming on, so I spied on some games of Evo and watched my group reconvene to play RoboRally.  Both games looked pretty entertaining, though I think Evo is more my speed.  And it's got dinosaurs!  How can anyone say no to dinosaurs?

We finished the night out trying the Zombicide scenario again.  With some slight modifications and some luck, we got the first car open before an Abomination showed up and were able to hold on long enough to get the second car open.  We were mobbed at that point, but managed to kill enough zombies to clear a path and escape!  It was in doubt until the very last turn, which made the win extremely satisfying.  We also had three Zombicide newbies in the game and has been my experience, everyone who plays Zombicide gets hooked and declares they're going to buy the game.  That's a great sign.

All in all, International TableTop Day was great fun and I can't wait until next year when it all goes down again!