Agricola Family Edition, designed by the renowned Uwe Rosenberg, is a streamlined version of the classic farming strategy game that has amazed board game enthusiasts for years. This edition aims to bring the rich, engaging world of medieval farming to a broader audience, including families and younger players while retaining the core elements that made the original game so beloved. After numerous play sessions with various groups, we can confidently say that Agricola succeeds in its mission, offering a delightful blend of accessibility and strategic depth. Its family-friendly nature makes it an ideal choice for game nights, providing fun and educational experiences for players of all ages.
Agricola Components and Setup
Agricola Family Edition has various high-quality components that bring the medieval farming theme to life. Compared to the original that came out 2007 this version has far better components and almost the same gameplay. It is still a worker placement type of game with some of the more complex elements taken out to fit a younger audience. Below, we detail each component and its role in the game.
Game Board
The central game board is the heart of Agricola. It features various action spaces where players place their workers to collect resources or perform actions. The board is divided into sections representing different types of actions, such as gathering resources, building structures, and expanding the family. Additionally, there are designated spaces for rounds, which guide the game’s progression by introducing new actions each round.
Game Board Extensions
The game includes two game board extensions that add additional action spaces on both sides of the main board. These extensions are used according to the player count, providing more options and increasing the strategic depth as players develop their farms.
Wood/Clay Rooms
12 wood/clay room tiles represent the living quarters for family members on each player’s farm board. Players start with wooden house tiles but can upgrade to clay houses through specific actions. Upgrading houses increases their value and allows players to expand their families by adding more rooms from that type.
Large Pastures
The game includes 16 large pasture tiles used to create enclosed areas on the farm board where animals can be kept. Players build pastures by placing fence pieces around designated areas on their farm board. Each pasture tile indicates how many animals it can hold, with stables doubling this capacity.
Round Counter & Rooster
The round counter tracks the progression of the game through its 14 rounds. It moves forward at the end of each round, revealing new action spaces and guiding players through the game’s phases. This systematic advancement ensures that the game evolves gradually, introducing new opportunities and challenges as players develop their farms.
The rooster token indicates which player goes first each round. The player who takes the Start Player action receives the rooster token and will go first in the next round. This adds a layer of tactical consideration to the turn order, as securing the first move can be crucial for executing strategic plans and gaining access to key action spaces before other players.
Improvements
11 improvement tiles provide various benefits and scoring opportunities. These improvements include items like fireplaces and cooking hearths that convert resources into food and other enhancements that help players manage their farms more efficiently.
Food Markers
In addition to grain tokens used for sowing fields, Agricola includes food markers essential for feeding family members during harvest phases:
- 1 Food Markers (44): These markers represent single units of food that players collect through various actions such as fishing or baking bread.
- 5 Food Markers (7): These markers represent five units of food each, helping streamline gameplay by reducing the number of individual tokens needed when managing large quantities of food.
Food markers are crucial for maintaining a reliable food supply throughout gameplay. Each family member requires two food per harvest phase; failing to provide enough results in begging markers that incur negative points at game’s end (-3 points per marker).
Begging & Substitute Markers
Begging markers are penalties incurred when players cannot provide enough food during harvest phases. Each begging marker results in negative points at the end of the game (-3 points per marker), emphasizing the importance of maintaining a reliable food source throughout gameplay. This mechanic adds a layer of tension and strategic planning, as players must balance their resources to avoid these costly penalties.
The game includes 9 substitute markers. These markers can be used as stand-ins for other components, ensuring smooth gameplay even if some pieces are missing or misplaced. This flexibility helps maintain the game’s integrity and flow, allowing players to continue their farming endeavors without interruption.
People (Farmer Tokens)
Each player has a set of five farmer tokens in their chosen color, totaling 20 tokens across all players. These tokens represent family members placed in action spaces to perform various tasks throughout the game. Players start with two farmers and can expand their families by adding more tokens through specific actions.
Stables
The game includes 10 stable tokens representing small buildings that can be placed within pastures to increase their capacity for holding animals. Each stable doubles the number of animals a pasture can hold, making them valuable additions to any farm focused on animal husbandry.
Animal Figures
The game includes animal figures representing sheep (18), boar (15), and cattle (13). These figures are collected from specific action spaces and placed on pastures or in stables on the player’s farm board. Animals are crucial for breeding and providing food during harvest phases.
Grain and Resource Tokens
The game includes a variety of tokens essential for farm development:
- Grain Tokens (25): Used for sowing fields and harvesting crops. Grain is essential for maintaining a steady food supply and scoring points at the end of the game.
- Resource Tokens:
- Wood (30): Essential for constructing basic buildings like rooms and stables.
- Clay (25): Used for more advanced constructions.
- Reed (15): Often required with other resources for building rooms and renovating.
Setting Up Agricola
Setting up Agricola Family Edition takes about 5-10 minutes:
- Place: Place the main game board in the center of your table.
- Add Extensions: Attach the game board extensions to add additional action spaces according to the player count.
- Distribute resource tokens (wood/clay/reed/stone) into separate piles near your table.
- Farm House: Give each player a personal farm house and two farmer tokens.
- Starting Resources: Distribute starting resources as indicated in the rulebook which actually just food.
- Animal Figures: Place sheep/boar/cows into a common supply area accessible by all players.
- First Player: Choose the first player randomly or via an agreed method among participants.
Agricola Family Edition Gameplay Overview
Agricola is a strategic worker placement game set in the medieval period where players take on the role of farmers working to develop their farmsteads over 14 rounds. Each round has three phases: Preparation, Work, and Returning Home. Additionally, there are harvest phases after certain rounds where players must feed their families and have the opportunity for their animals to breed.
Preparation Phase
At the beginning of each round, new goods are placed on the game board as indicated by the colored arrows. These include resources like wood, clay, reed, and stone, as well as animals such as sheep, boar, and cattle. The number of goods placed is equal to the number shown to the left of the goods icon. This phase ensures a constant influx of resources that players can collect during their turns.
Work Phase
During the work phase, players place their farmer tokens on action spaces on the game board. Starting with the player who holds the rooster token (the start player), players place one farmer at a time on an available action space and immediately carry out the action. This continues in clockwise order until all players have placed all their farmers.
The action spaces allow players to perform a variety of tasks essential for developing their farms:
- Resource Collection: Spaces marked with an arrow allow players to take all accumulated goods from that space and add them to their supply.
- Building Rooms and Stables: Players can expand their homes by building additional rooms using wood or clay and building stables to house more animals.
- Plowing Fields and Sowing Crops: Players can plow fields on their farm boards and sow grain to ensure a steady food supply. Also at the end all grain that remains on fields it is turned into victory points.
- Acquiring and Breeding Animals: Specific spaces allow players to acquire sheep, boar, or cattle, which can be placed in pastures or stables. If there are at least two of the same type., animals can breed during harvest phases
- Family Growth: Players can grow their families by adding new farmer tokens through specific action spaces to take more actions per round. However, they must have enough room to accommodate new family members.
- Improvements: Players can build improvements that provide additional benefits and scoring opportunities.
Once a player’s token occupies an action space, it becomes unavailable until the next round, adding a layer of strategic planning and competition for desirable actions.
Returning Home Phase
At the end of each round, all farmers return home from their assigned action spaces. Players remove their farmer tokens from the game board and place them back in their houses on their farm boards. The round counter then moves forward one space, unlocking new action spaces.
Harvest Phase
Harvest phases occur after rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14. During these phases:
- Field Phase: Players harvest grain from their fields. One grain or vegetable is taken from each field tile and added to the player’s supply.
- Feeding Phase: Players must feed their family members. Each family member requires two food tokens. If players cannot provide enough food, they must take begging markers, which result in negative points at the end of the game (-3 points per marker).
- Breeding Phase: If players have at least two animals of the same type (sheep, boar, or cattle), they breed and produce one additional animal of that type. This animal has to be housed according to the normal rules.
End Game Scoring
After 14 rounds, including the final harvest phase, the game ends with a scoring phase where players tally up points based on various achievements:
- Family Members: Each family member is worth 3 points.
- Pastures: Each pasture tile is worth 1 point.
- Grain: Each grain on the fields is worth 1 point.
- Animals: Each sheep, boar, and cattle is worth 1 point.
- House Improvements: Points for upgraded rooms and stables within pastures are awarded.
Accessibility and Depth
One of the most impressive aspects of Agricola: Family Edition is how it manages to be both accessible to newcomers and engaging for experienced gamers. Our playtests with families found that children as young as 8 could grasp the basic concepts and enjoy the game, while their parents appreciated the strategic depth. The game can be played from 2 to 4 players but it shines best at four player count.
The game’s gradual introduction of new action spaces helps ease new players into the experience. In the early rounds, the limited options make decisions more straightforward, allowing players to focus on basic resource management and farm development. Players naturally expand their strategic thinking as the game progresses and more options become available.
For more experienced gamers, the limited actions and tight resource economy create a satisfying puzzle. Every decision feels impactful, and the need to adapt to opponents’ actions and the changing game state keeps the experience fresh across multiple plays.
Replayability and Variability
While Agricola lacks its bigger sibling’s occupation and minor improvement cards, it still offers significant replayability. The dynamic resource placement on the board and the interplay of different player strategies ensure that all games are unique. In our numerous play sessions, we’ve seen various farm configurations and strategic approaches emerge. Some games were dominated by animal breeding, while others saw players engaging in fierce competition for limited crop spaces. This variability, combined with the game’s relatively short playtime (60-90 minutes), makes it easy to repeatedly get Agricola to the table.
Agricola Family Edition Component Quality and Artwork
The component quality of Agricola Family Edition is generally high. The thick cardboard tiles and wooden pieces feel durable and pleasant to handle. The animal meeples, in particular, are charming and add to the game’s thematic immersion.
While simplified compared to the original Agricola, the artwork is clear and functional. The iconography is intuitive, making it easy for players to understand the function of different action spaces and tiles at a glance. The farm boards have a pleasant, pastoral aesthetic that evolves satisfyingly as players develop their farms.
Potential Drawbacks
While Agricola is an excellent game overall, it has drawbacks. Some players, particularly those familiar with the original Agricola, may find the lack of occupations and minor improvements reduces the game’s variability over many plays. Additionally, the feeding requirement can feel punishing to new players who still need to develop efficient food-generating strategies.
The game can also suffer from analysis paralysis, mainly when more action spaces are available in the later rounds. This can lead to increased downtime between turns, especially with players prone to over-analyzing their options.
Agricola Family Edition Conclusion
Agricola Family Edition successfully distills the essence of the original game into a more accessible package without sacrificing strategic depth. It offers a satisfying blend of resource management, worker placement, and long-term planning that can appeal to many players.
The game’s thematic integration is strong, with each action and decision feeling logically connected to developing a medieval farm. This, combined with the tactile pleasure of placing farmers, building structures, and watching your farm grow, creates an immersive and engaging experience.
Agricola is an excellent choice for families and gaming groups looking for a low to medium-weight strategy game that can be played in about an hour. It provides enough depth to satisfy experienced gamers while remaining accessible to newcomers and younger players. That’s why we recommend it as a gateway game to the original one or as a quick family game.
The tension between short-term needs (feeding your family) and long-term goals (developing a diverse, point-scoring farm) creates meaningful decisions throughout the game. The various paths to victory ensure that players can explore different strategies across multiple plays, enhancing the game’s longevity.
In our experience, Agricola Family Edition has proven to be a hit with a wide range of gaming groups. Its straightforward rules, deep strategy, and thematic appeal make it a game we’re always happy to bring to the table. Whether you’re a fan of the original Agricola looking for a more streamlined experience or a newcomer to worker placement games, Agricola Family Edition offers a rich, rewarding gaming experience that we heartily recommend.
