Ok. Now we’re moving on the mother of all games. Well, that’s my opinion anyway. This one is a bit more of a challenge: it took me quite a while to parse all of the instructions so that I could play the solitaire game without dying. Oops.
The challenging game is Agricola, and it was published in 2007.
In Agricola, you are a family of peasants. You and your spouse begin in a small wooden hut. The players take turns putting their family tokens out in community spaces to help improve your farmyard, e.g. a player may harvest wood to build fences or plow a field to plant grain. Every few turns, you harvest your fields, butcher some livestock, and feed your family. Sounds simple right?
In this game, the challenge is turn scarcity. Each placement needs to have a big impact for your family to survive and thrive, and you’ll often have to link several moves, over several turns, to achieve your goals. If this sounds like it might leave your head spinning, you’re right.
But the complexity is worth it. Agricola is currently the #2 board game on BoardGameGeek. And as addictive as it is challenging.
This game is greatness. It’s a lot like Settlers of Catan—Euro look and feel, no player elimination, no failsafe strategies, easy to learn but difficult to master. I found the boxed instructions very confusing, so I went online and downloaded some better instructions and watched a video. When you figure it out and you start teaching it to others, they are likely to get discouraged becasue it seems like a lot at first, but just like Catan, one play-through and they’ll already be thinking of strategies for the next game. Highly recommended.