First, some thanks to Brian Bankler and Tom Vasel for giving me the pushes it took to get this done. More special thanks to my dad, Roger Fair, for the excellent pictures (as i am a photographer of little skill).

Agricola is game that lends itself to customization of the bits. The highly functional cubes and disks scream out for a more individualized treatment. Many on BGG have used Fimo or Sculpey to great effect. I have no skill in that arena, and have taken a different path...

I have so many bits for the game now, that the game no longer fits in the box. Indeed, some time ago, the box lid split on 3 corners, and the bottom on 2 corners. I went to Target and bought a file-folder box (like you might use to store important papers) to store the game and I (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN) cut up my game box, gluing it's pieces to the file-folder box. Walter Hunt nicknamed the resultant storage solution, "The Agricola Reliquary". It's the first thing you see when we start to play...



Pretty as that is, it only is a place to store one of the best games I have ever played. The box itself in nice kraft-paper covered cardboard with a fabric-covered lid. It was less than $10 at Target.

Lets see what we have when we open the box...



Here you can see the lid opened up with some of the player bits, deck boxes, and a plastic tray with some of the bits peeking out...



In this shot you see the contents of the Reliquary... Going clockwise from the center we have the bits tray, the player packs, The excellent player aids by Ted Alspach, the English rules with translation by Melissa and formatting done by Arzman, Score sheets I made based on a file posted here by Dale Yu, the player boards, and the deck boxes for all the cards.

Card Storage



There are 2 Deck boxes for each of the decks, with Minor Improvements (white sleeves) in one, and Occupations (yellow sleeves) in the other. The Green boxes hold the E deck, the Orange hold the I deck, and the black boxes hold the K deck. The boxes need to be labeled but I have not done that yet...



A seventh deck box holds the Round Cards (blue sleeves), the Major improvements (red sleeves), the begging cards (black sleeves), and the 3 sets of Action cards (green sleeves: 3 player, 4 player, and 5 player). It also has the Occupations and Minor Improvements for the Z-Deck. No, I can't tell you how I got it early.

Player Pieces

For each player, I used the "Stickers for Farmer Tokens" that was uploaded by Ralph Bergner. I printed those on full-sheet laser labels, and used a 3/4" craft punch to make circular stickers that fit nicely on the Farmer Tokens. You will see these later, as i forgot to get a shot of them by themselves.

Fences

This part is still a work in progress. For each of the players I made 30 small stickers of white picket fences on an appropriate background color. I laminated them so the toner won't rub off. I have only stuck on a few, so here is a shot to see the before and after.



I hope to get those stickers cutout and applied over the coming week. I will upload a PDF for others who wish to do the same. Look for it in the files section soon.

Resources:

Wood... At a train hobby store I purchased a small bag of HO scale cut lumber (it was 16' 4x4's to scale, and there were about 36 of them in the bag, IIRC... I think it was basswood and the bag was about $4). This gave me long strips of wood about the same size as a Settler's road, just 3x as long. I used a utility knife to cut each stick in thirds, and standard PVA glue to make small stacks of lumber. I offset the top piece for both a stronger bond and so that the pieces did not nest too well. I want the number to be fairly easy to tell from across the table.



Clay... At a craft store (Michael's) I purchased small glass mosaic stones that have a slight bevel (stacking them upside down makes them easier to pick up). I had to buy 2 bags to get enough pieces, and they ran about $3 per bag. I may have to change to something else if the new cards have a different color for clay. Or not.



Reeds... Oh Reeds, you breaker of hearts, you. I have given a name to my pain, and it is Reeds. I have tried many things so far, but not come up with an acceptable solution yet. I have some ideas from a friend that I will be trying this week. We'll see if they pan out. 'Nuff said.



Stone... While at the craft store, a detour into the flower-arranging aisle led me to a bag of medium river rocks, $5. Some amongst you might know where you can find actual rocks cheaper than that.



Grain... For a long time, Grain fared about as well as Reeds did. This week, I finally found what I was looking for. The sheafs of wheat work great, the corn ears a bit less so. Still, I have 10 corn ears and 30 sheafs, so plenty for the game. These came from a couple Lakeshore Learning games that aren't in the database. $30 for both the Corn and the Wheat, but you'll get 30 corn ears, not 10.




Vegetables... (AKA: The Evolution of the Carrot) I used the Amphorae from Attika as carrots for a long time, and during a recent trip to Michaels I finally found something so that I could return the amphorae to the Greek isles. The little wooden painted cutouts on the left below were $.15 each and I bought 15 of them. When I went to buy the grain at Lakeshore, however, I found another not-in-database game with 30 carrots for $15. I took half the carrots and removed the bulk of the vegetable with a utility knife, saving just the tops so that they look like they are growing out of the field. Awesome.



Animals:

Sheep... I had a friend who was traveling in Indiana and picked these up at a Yoder's in Indiana. I have since learned that these are made by Ertl. They were real cheap, just $2 for 30 sheep. These are a combination of Columbia (all white) and Suffolk (black feet) sheep. Baaaa. Ertl makes these as well, $4 for 10



Wild Boar... Ertl makes some Hampshire pigs (the black pigs with the white shoulders) in 1/64" scale that would work great. Those are $10 for 25 pigs, but right now, I have 20 pigs from Pig Pile, and they look great, so happy to die and become bacon, and they were just $2 since I bought a ding/dent copy.



Cows... There are a lot of cow choices out there... Avoid Holsteins (black and white spotted) or Angus (all black). You want Herefords (brown back, white belly) or Guersney (brown and white mottled) cows. Ertl seels these cheap as well, but before I knew that I bought these HO scale cows for $1 each at a Train Hobby store. I do like that thy came on a clear plastic strip and I was able to use scissors to cut it down and they stand up real nice with those bases.



Food:

Here is an image of the standard food markers, and everything i use to replace it. Clockwise from the left we have the standard 1 food generic marker, apples that are used as 1 food on the Day Laborer and Traveling Players spaces, the generic 5-Food marker, three wooden markers that I outline in a few sentences, a wooden cutout fish marker I use for the catch fish space. The apples and fish were found near the carrots at Michaels and cost the same. I bought 20 of each. The wooden disks were 7 for a dollar at Michaels and i made the labels the same way i did for the Farmer Tokens. Each disk shows the 1 food symbol on one side, and then I have 20 that have the bread symbol on the other, and 20 with the meat symbol. It's complication for no real point but, then again, isn't all of this?



Start Player Marker:

Here we have a yellow cylinder, and Farmer Bob, the 2 Start player markers. Farmer Bob comes from some friends who have kids who more recently outgrew their Fisher Price stuff than mine did. He was free. You might have to pay for one.



Other Stuff:

Horse & House Goat... In the game there is a Horse Card, and House Goat card. Whoever plays one of those, gets one of these. They came from a player back in my old D&D days. I don't know where he got them. Good Luck finding something to use. Ertl has goats, but you have to buy a bunch of them. Maybe I'll do that, and then auction single goats for GG...



The Case... The case comes from the Hobby Storage section of the Container Store. It has a sliding lid and holds everything very well. It was about $12.



Here is a typical end-game board from a player using the basic bits, followed by an image using the upgrades. Note the Farmer Tokens in the second image.





See how nice the second board is! Awesome!

I take a good deal of flack for the extent of all this, probably with good reason. I hope you found this a fun and helpful guide to making your farm come alive.

Oh. My. God.

So so so awesome, Dave. Having seen it in real life (though not with some of the latest stuff, especially those PERFECT carrots), I can say that it's incredibly impressive.

For all those out there desperate for animeeples, Dave says, "We don't need no stinkin' animeeples." Nice work. Makes me wish my english Agricola would hurry up so I can get Fisher price people too.

I'm still amazed at your final game. Absolutely amazing. Whatever will I do when my copy finally comes in and I move away? It just won't seem like the same game... (I'm so spoiled...)

I had heard about the fantasticness of the upgrades that you had done from Brian, but to see them -- goodness gracious -- that blows my mind.

Some things I forgot to mention...

The player packs are cheap ($.10?) plastic poker chip tubes with all of a player's bits in them, plus 2 wood hut rooms.

In the lid of the Reliquary is a kraft-paper pocket I made to hold player aids and score sheets.

Someone suggested to me that you could steal the goat from Ziegen Kriegen for use as a House Goat. Now if only we could get an Alpaca or Llama card so I can put an animeeple or two from Hoppla Lama to good use...

Finally, There is one spot in the bits case where I still have a few disks/cubes... These are there for the player that plays the Grocer, Resource Seller, or Veterinarian occupation cards. See those cards for why you need that stuff.

Wow, that's all I can say, Wow!

Do you mind me asking what was the total cost to "pimp out" your Agricola?

I think it is up to about $150 or so, not including the cost of the game.

Sleeves, Card Boxes, Reliquiray, Bits case, Poker chip tubes, labels, toner, lamination sheets, sheep, cows, pigs, grain, carrots, apples, fish, wooden disks, wooden sticks, mosaic tiles, stones, and the stuff i tried for the reeds... Sculpey, actual dried marsh reeds, 2-party epoxy...

Yeah, $150 so far.

I am sure that i am not done yet.

Dave, I didn't need to read this article to know that you are a sick, sick man, but this just confirmed it. Incredible job, buddy. My favorite are the carrot halfs, although you really should provide the player who harvests them with a complete carrot to put in his supply. I hope you never finish with this project, because what will you do with your time then? Play games?? It seems like such an empty pastime compared with Your Life's Work!

That's outstanding.

But you're not done yet. If you're going to get a goat and a horse, you also need to get some heads of lettuce, so that you don't have to plant carrots on the Lettuce Field card.

There are probably others.

I'm envious of the animals you found. All I've found is metal figurines that are OK priced but still… I'd like those you have more.

The carrots were amazing, too.

For wood, clay, stone, and reed I have my own devious plan… he he he he he!

In your picture you have stickered counters for the people. Though you didn't mention it in the people section. Where did you find the art for the people discs?

And some beans

I can't say I would ever be inclined to go anywhere near this far to improve the look of a game*, but nevertheless I am still impressed!

For the reeds, I do have a suggestion though: get a stiff brush of some sort, cut out clumps of the bristles to an appropriate length, glue one set of ends and attach to something suitable - perhaps a blob of clay to represent earth. If they don't look quite the right colour, a quick brush with some paint will sort it out. It shouldn't take long to do plenty.

Eddy



* though I do spend quite a bit of time + money on painting miniatures and terrain for Hordes of the Things so what do I know? Though I do pick up rocks from the garden rather than pay for them!

For what it's worth, I may be the person responsible for dubbing this item "the Reliquary". At the Gathering this year David came back into the ballroom - I think he might have been looking for his copy - and I said to him that the Agricola Reliquary had been removed from its secure location and was being paraded through the streets of the city, so that those who suffered from severe afflictions might touch the Holy Relic and be miraculously cured.

He told me I should go back to taking my proper medication. Wiseass.

It's beautiful, an amazing piece of work. Haven't played with that set, but I got a look at it.

Walter


Edit on reread: thanks Dave for crediting me for my (presumably medication-inspired) title for the Reliquary. So I guess I am responsible. :-)

Ah.. the reeds.

I have FIMOed my set and those reeds are a bugger. They have to small, they have to look like reeds yet they have to be "handleable" in-game... ugh. A tough one.

I guess one of the solutions could be 1/3rd of a round toothpick with a brown pencil-eraser on top. Still...

David,
I used to praise your beautiful game, but those carrots are just too much!

Now my mind is filled with envy and other nasty feelings...
Good thing that I live so far away from you, so theft is out of the question!

A sublime effort and a wonderful glimpse into a brain that works very similar to mine - now where did I leave my medication?

Didn't you see all those games Paul Jeffries had enhanced when we played in Columbus? Most people thought that David's Agricola was made by Paul. So while David's game is more elaborate, it is still only one game. I assume david will continue his obsession with other titles afterwards. David has 39 other games with a '10'-rating, so I will be looking forward to see his versions of Age of Steam and Ave Caesar!

This was in his description:

"For each player, I used the "Stickers for Farmer Tokens" that was uploaded by Ralph Bergner. I printed those on full-sheet laser labels, and used a 3/4" craft punch to make circular stickers that fit nicely on the Farmer Tokens. You will see these later, as i forgot to get a shot of them by themselves."

David, my wife played a copy of your Agricola earlier this year and was spoiled then. Now, with your latest changes ... I don't know. She said I had to pimp my copy when I get it to look like yours and I haven't even showed her your updates yet! You've been very creative and now I really have some work to do. Your efforts are amazing.

An incredible work of art.

Reeds???

You might try going to a fly fishing store and get some feathers (they have different types, turkey, rooster, peacock etc.).
Clip off a small piece of the feather and glue it to a toothpick or some other small wooden stick. I got the idea from looking at the reed picture here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phragmites_australis.
If you have done any fly tieing you might even tie them instead of gluing them it would be more durable.


Terry Sr.