It was kind of funny. I had misread the amount of food the famers eat so I was expecting to need just one per person and not two. I was rereading the harvest rules during the final round before the first harvest and then realized I needed more food. I scrambled for some and thanks to having some farms barely had enough.
Do they take up their own space or can animals be in the same space as stables? Do they have to be inclosed in the fence area, adjacent to the fenced area, or just anywhere on your board?
Stables can be in an otherwise empty space, or within an enclosed fence. If they are in an otherwise empty space they hold one animal, and at the end of the game are worth zero points (though the animal is scored normally, of course). Stables inside an enclosure double the animal holding capacity of the enclosure, and are worth one point at the end of the game (and of course the animals are still scored normally).
You can build a stable in an empty space and then later enclose it.
I find the thing that most heavily influences the game is the combination of minor improvements and occupations that you are delt.
Some of the cards seem >> than others.
Having a stone house is nice, but I've won with a 3 room wooden house.
Having a big family is nice, but it's not critical to get it early, I often just take family growth for the 3 points in the last round.
Getting livestock early as a food source can be an effective stratergy... but it is one amongst many.
It isn't completely automated, because you have to retain some degree of manual control in order to make a lot of the cards work. But its far more automated than the real life game board.
Excellent game. I picked up the all the animeeples, food, family and resource meeples shortly after. It's weird but it certainly makes the game much more fun than with the little colored blocks.
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Dr. Chuck Jones wrote the book on these situations.
I added those. It also makes the game more personable. I paid under $10 for my human-meeples, and got many more than I actually needed. I use them for D&D monsters.
I added those. It also makes the game more personable. I paid under $10 for my human-meeples, and got many more than I actually needed. I use them for D&D monsters.
That's funny because I was thinking of using D&D miniatures and monsters as Agricola people. ;-)
I just played this game last weekend at Dragon*Con with a group of strangers. It was the first time playing for each of us, and we all loved it! I liked it so much that not only have I since ordered the game, but also the whole slew of Euro token replacements (resources, meeples, and animeeples).
The folks I played with mostly unanimously preferred the animal shaped tokens to the cube animals, though we did have one player who preferred to use, as he called it, "sheep bullion cubes".
I'm really looking forward to getting my friends to try this game, I feel confidant they will love it too.
__________________ Law's Game Style: Storyteller 83%, Tactician 75%, Specialist 67%, Method Actor 58%, Power Gamer 33%, Casual Gamer 25%, Butt-Kicker 17%
Hey there's an expansion coming out! It's just been announced so there isn't much news on it. It's mentioned in this month's Game Trade Magazine as well.
__________________ "At best and at worst, it is a waste of time." A Mormon bishop on Dungeons and Dragons
Le Havre is a little more low key in certain ways. In Agricola, I tend to find myself playing pretty close to the edge, where skillful play by an opponent could cause me problems. In Le Havre its really tough to block someone from what they need, because of the nature of the turn system means you can just go elsewhere and get something similar, or wait a short time and get what you originally wanted. You feel less time pressure in Le Havre.
But Agricola is more friendly to new players, I think, because the theme works so well. And the cards give a lot of variety that Le Havre doesn't have. Le Havre uses special buildings for variety, but they just don't have as much of an effect as a hand of cards.
They're both good games. Its kind of weird, really- Le Havre feels more like a gamer's game, with its ships and boats and strategies that only make sense if you pour over the cards on the table for a while and learn how buildings that won't exist for another hour of gameplay will affect the table once they're constructed. But its actually a lower pressure game in a lot of ways, because the worst that can happen to you is you having to take out loans, and those aren't that big of a deal to pay off.
Hey there's an expansion coming out! It's just been announced so there isn't much news on it. It's mentioned in this month's Game Trade Magazine as well.
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