Agricola review and Essen

[kmusser]

While I was sorry to miss fluxinflutter's birthday shenanigans (Happy birthday!) gaming on Saturday meant I finally got to play Agricola which has been the hot game for the last couple of years (and currently rated the 2nd best game on BGG, just behind Puerto Rico) - and no, it's still not available in the U.S, but it should be later this year.

Agricola is part of a recent flurry of board games that involves placing workers to collect various resources in order to build stuff that's worth victory points (e.g. Caylus, Cuba, Stone Age, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.) - the primary differences are A) there are many more types of resources and different ways to get VPs which results in having a zillion options each turn and B) each player gets a hand of a few characters and improvements that only they can play/build. The individualized hands are randomly drawn from a large pool of cards so there is a lot of variety possible in what you get.

Because your hand will change every game, what your best strategy is will always be different giving this game a much higher replay value than most of its ilk. Downsides are its length, easily twice as long as most similar games, and the array of choices can be bewildering, especially to a new player, making the game somewhat prone to analysis paralysis. That said I really enjoyed it and would happily play again - I'm not sure if I'll actually pick up a copy as the people most likely to be willing to play it with me already have it on order :-)

In other gaming news, I'm going to Essen!

For those that don't know - Essen, Germany plays host to the worlds largest game fair every fall (Oct 23-26 this year). It's easily an order of magnitude larger than any gaming event in the U.S. It's also generally where new games are showcased and first available to buy. It's been on the list of things to do at least once in my lifetime for awhile now. I'll be going with a group of folks from the Games Club of Maryland which is making it more affordable than it would otherwise be, so yay. I will be willing to take shopping orders within reason :-)

Comments

[arashinomoui.livejournal.com]

How much screw your neighbor does Agricola have for say 3 people - for comparison:
Colosseum for 3 people: Low
Puerto Rico for 3 People: Moderate
Settlers of Cataan: Cities and Knights for 3 People: High

Gee me be over competitive with my wife, and look for games to minimize that? Never.

[kmusser]

I'd say moderate, equivalent to Puerto Rico is about right - there isn't much direct screwage, but there is plenty of grabbing the building you know your opponent needs kind of thing - also it'll vary by what personalized buildings come up, some of those encourage screwage a lot more than others (you could probably customize it by taking out the worst offenders).

[arashinomoui.livejournal.com]

Seems about right then. We're happiest between Colosseum to PR levels. ;)

[fluxinflutter.livejournal.com]

Thank you hon, I sent kisses back for you and hope they have been delivered. Missed seeing you but am very glad to hear the wonderful news of your travel to Essen! Hope you have an incredible time ~Hugs~

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review. Agricola is on my want-to-try list, tho I am not a fan of the Caylus/Puerto Rico variety.

[kmusser]

Yes, kisses were delivered :-) Thank you *smooch*

[kmusser]

Yeah, I'd definitely try before buying in that case - I thought it felt kind of like an advanced Caylus - though if what you don't like about them is that the paths to victory seem limited then this does cure that.