How does one begin to write a strategy guide for one of the hottest and most popular games on the Geek? You start by asking a rhetorical question and then you answer that question anyway. This is going to be a fairly long strategy guide with a full card review of the E deck. I’m not putting in a review of the I , K, or Z deck because it would make an already long guide even longer, and honestly, I really feel like I need to play more with the other decks to get a good grasp of how they perform. I may try to tackle a review of the I, K, Z deck in the future. So, how can I call this “Complex Strategies for Agricola” if I’m not going to go into the complex deck? Well, I have written other “Complex Strategies…” articles for Settlers of Catan, Kingsburg, and Scepter of Zavandor and I wanted this one to fit with the theme of those other ones, so I kept the title the same. I also don’t want to get into the solo game. I don’t really find it interesting or compelling, and there seem to be a wealth of other guides and discussions going on about the solo game. When appropriate or necessary, I will go over differences in the way the two, three, four, and five player games work out.

The point of this guide is to help out players who understand how to play Agricola, but struggle to be consistently competitive. I think if you employ the strategies here, you won’t necessarily win every game, but you shouldn’t get pounded into the dirt either. Some people just don’t get what they should be doing, or when they should be doing it. Some folks look at their own 21 point farm and can’t figure out how they could have done things any better. This guide is for those people. If you regularly beat up your gaming group, then this article probably won’t make you significantly better, but you may find one or two things that will be useful.

With that all out of the way, let’s get into the meat of the strategy. I want to break this guide down into three basics sections. The first section, Managing Your Farm – The Big Picture will talk about game playing strategies for the early, middle, and late parts of the game. The second section, Feeding Your Family, will get into the ongoing debate between a grain-based or animal-based strategy. In the third section, Taking Action, I will go into all of the available action spaces on the board, rank them, then talk about when to take them, what order, etc. The fourth section, Outsmarting Your Opponent, goes into some specific techniques that you can use to outwit or frustrate your opponent. Finally, in the Card Review section, I will discuss every Major Improvement as well as all Minor Improvements and Occupations from the E deck and try to give some basic strategies for each as well as discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each card.

MANAGING YOUR FARM – THE BIG PICTURE

Agricola is not a game where there are multiple ways to win the game. There is really only one strategy, and that is to diversify your farm. The path one takes to achieve that diversity is where the fun really lies. Everyone needs to have the same things, but they can’t do the same thing at the same time. Sure you can have a lot of animals, but you can’t completely ignore plowing fields and keeping grain/vegetables. Likewise, you probably don’t want your family to tough it out in a wooden shack for the entire game. This means that you have to worry about collecting everything all the time. And don’t, of course, forget to feed your family. The penalty for not having enough food is a big one. There are some areas where you can score some big points, so let’s take a look at them.

Home and Family

I am a big believer in a large family and a nice house. Thematically, it makes sense. Would you want to be known as the guy who certainly did have a lot of boars and sheep, or the guy who had a wonderful home and a lovely family. When you look at the scoring breakdown, you can see that the greatest potential for scoring points is with growing a family. You can score up to 15 points at the end of the game with five family members. This number is a little bit deceptive. You start with two family members, so that means your potential is really 9 additional points. What about a nice big house? Well, if you have a five room house made of clay, that’s five points. A five room house made of stone? That’s 10 points. And even though your family is limited to five players, your house isn’t limited to five rooms. You may be able to squeeze out even one more than five, but I don’t see it happen that often, so for the sake of this guide, I’ll talk about a five room house.

Growing a bigger family and building a better home are the only areas of the game worth more than 4 maximum points. So, if you spent your game trying to be number one in cattle, you’ll get 4 points for your six cows. Compare that to 9 extra points for family members and 10 extra points for five stone rooms. The great thing about having extra rooms is that they lead to having extra family members. And having extra family leads to the ability to build even more rooms, and so on and so on. Having additional family members provides a not so tangential benefit that home building/improving does not – extra actions. The extra actions aren’t quite as overpowered as some have made them out to be, but they are definitely useful. That nudges the importance of a large family ahead of the importance of a large and wonderful home. So, if the choice is having your family at max or having sheep at the max, then the answer is easy. Family first. I kind of like that it works out this way, too. If you really were a subsistence farmer back in the day, then chances are pretty good that your family, then your home would be the two most important things to you. You would rather have your children show up to your funeral than all those sheep anyway, right? Heck even in modern times, odds are pretty good that family and home are right at the top of your priority list, too.

The thing is, good players already know that having more family members and a bigger home scores a lot of points. That’s probably what they are going to try to do, too. I am just mentioning this because you need to make the “Family Growth” and “Renovation” spots ones that absolutely everyone is going to have to account for. If you are in a five player game and you say “Well, everyone else keeps growing their family, so I guess I will take sheep” then you’re going to be in trouble. If everyone has the same priority to grow a family and home, then it prevents one or two people from running away with it.

Having 6 cows, 8 sheep and a five room wooden house is worth a total of 8 points. Having no cows, no sheep and a five room stone house is worth a total of 8 points. Keep this in mind. Families and houses are worth really, really big points. You don’t necessarily have to max them out, but if you get the chance to add to the size of your home, renovate it, or grow your family, you should strongly consider it. If you’re new to the game, here are some guidelines to follow. By the end of stage 3, you should have extended your home by at least one room. By the end of stage four, you should have at least three family members, and you should have renovated to a clay house. By the end of the game, you should try to have at least four family members and a stone house. Experienced players will likely be able to accomplish this goal much quicker and that’s fine. The important thing isn’t necessarily to be the first one to grow your family. But it is important not to allow everyone else to get too far ahead in the family department. You can beat your opponent even if you have one fewer family member, but it would be much more difficult to do with two fewer family members.

Scoring Points

Now that we’ve covered the importance of home and family, let’s look at the rest of the farm. I think that many players get hung up on how to score the maximum amount of points in a particular area. I’ve seen folks concentrating on how to push two points for sheep up to four points. I’ve seen them struggle to feed their family as they refuse to eat their fourth vegetable, instead taking an action to grab the fishing spot so that the veggie will remain. Early on, the best thing to do is figure out how to score just ONE point in each category. Doing this isn’t going to net you a ton of points at first, but it will keep you out of the negative. Remember that with the exception of plowed fields, the first of anything you take gets you basically 2 points. You go from having -1 to having +1 which is a two point swing. Players intellectually understand this right from the beginning, but many think, “Don’t worry, there’s plenty of time”. Really, there’s not. You don’t necessarily have to worry about scoring points early, but you should concentrate on removing negative points throughout the game.

There are seven basic areas where you can score negative points: Fields, Pastures, Sheep, Boars, Cows, Grains, and Vegetables. You can score negative points for unused board spaces, but for the purposes of this section of strategy, let’s ignore that for now. So, to prevent yourself from losing a point in each of the seven listed areas, you need to take at minimum, 8 actions (you need two fields – even if you have an occupation that allows you to plow twice, it takes an action for the occupation, hence 8). Now, if you’ve left yourself exposed in the final turn on say, three areas, you’re in a lot of trouble, even if you have five actions. On the last turn, you’d need to spend three of your five actions taking the spots that prevent negative points. There’s a good shot that you’re not going to get all of those spots, either.

Other players are also looking to fill in the holes. As a general rule, you should try to fix one negative area per stage. That means by the end of stage 1, you should have 2 plowed fields, or a grain, or a pasture. This isn’t always possible, but not having negative points at the end of the game is a process. You can do it evenly throughout the stages, or you can rush to get to them at the end. If you’re having trouble keeping in your head what you need to do, write down the seven areas and make sure you can cross off at least one or two by the end of every harvest. If you’re not crossing them off, you may be getting yourself really far behind. This is the kind of activity that leads to a 20 point farm and a look of bewilderment. Once you’ve crossed one of the negatives off your list, don’t uncross it. In other words, if you take a single cow, don’t eat that cow before you have another one. Otherwise, you’ve put yourself another step back.

If you’ve evenly taken care of all of your negatives throughout the game, you’ll notice something wonderful in the last turn or two – you won’t get the “I’m screwed” feeling. What you’ll see are lots of opportunities to score big points. Instead of praying that you’ll be able to take start player so that you can get the last vegetable in stage six to cover your negative, you’ll be able to take whatever spot on the board offers the most points. Can you build enough fences for three more pastures? Perhaps you can renovate to a stone home. Maybe another cow will give you another victory point. Having the prerequisites out of the way for the last turn or two can be a really big deal.

As for filling up those empty spaces? Try not to panic on this too early. You can slowly build up rooms and plowed fields to use the spaces, and you’ll either build up fences early or late to take up the slack. I find it isn’t realistic to attempt to fill in every space in every game. Towards the end, I am looking for about four home spaces, about four pasture spaces, and about four plowed fields. That would leave three open spaces, which isn’t horrible. Obviously there is some give and take here. Sometimes there will be more fields. Sometimes more pastures. Sometimes more rooms. But I find that just keeping in mind that I only really need about four spaces of everything generally keeps me pretty far out of the hole on unused spaces. Filling in empty spaces isn’t always something that happens early. It really happens based on when you decide to build fences. There is no hard and fast rule about how many empty spaces you should try to fill up each turn. I can say this – if you’re relying on the last turn to be able to build fences, you’d better be one of the first two players. Even players that already have fences will often look to add a couple of more pastures with that extra wood in the last round or two.

Keeping in mind that you’re looking to reduce the negatives evenly throughout the game, here are some other general goals. In the first two stages, you should be attempting to get your food engine up and running. In stages three and four, you’re looking to expand your home and begin to grow your family. In the final two stages, you’re looking to use every action to score between two and four points. If your opponents are experienced, you may see them doing things slightly out of order. You may see them doing a little bit of everything all at once. The reason is that they have enough experience to know where they will and won’t be scrambling at the end of the game. If you’re having trouble getting past 25 points, go in with a general idea of what needs to be done in each of the stages, and try to follow through with that plan.

So, to sum up:

1. Growing your family is a priority. You need to have around the same number of family members (or more) than everyone else. Don’t fall too far behind in this department for certain.

2. Improving your house is a great way to score points. You can score far more points by improving your house than you can with traditional gathering/growing. You won’t always be able to build a five or six room stone house, but building at least a four room stone house or a five room clay house should be right at the top of your list.

3. Try to remove one or two negative points every single round (not counting empty spaces on the board yet). Don’t backtrack by eating up your only cow, vegetable, etc.

4. Don’t stress about filling up spaces right off the bat. You’ll eventually get there. You want to fence in four spaces for pasture, plow four fields, and build four rooms. This is very easy to do in an average game if you have this as a stated goal from the beginning. Remember, the cards change everything. You may want 7 pastures and only 2 fields. You may want a five or six room house. Just keep in mind that having 3 open spaces isn’t the end of the world, but having 7 open spaces probably is.

FEEDING YOUR FAMILY

There is a lot of debate about whether or not the best way to feed one’s family is through either bread baking or animal slaughtering. There are, of course, other ways to feed one’s family, but it is generally difficult to get by without either of the aforementioned methods. Early on you can succeed without them, but by the time you have three, four, or five family members, feeding them is difficult to do without one of the traditional methods.

Many claim that animal slaughtering is easier than baking bread because it takes so many more actions to get the bread baked in the first place. Others say that baking bread provides so much more food that it can erase food worries in the late game altogether. I believe that the game is very well balanced between the two.

Rancher

There are definitely some advantages to being a meat eater. Slaughtering animals doesn’t take an action. If you have a fireplace or cooking hearth, you can simply declare the animal to be slaughtered and it is converted into food. The drawback of course is that you can’t eat raw meat. In order to cook it, you must have a fireplace or cooking hearth (or one of a few cards) to convert animals into anything edible.

The real crux of the animal gathering strategy is to allow them to breed. It’s quite inefficient to pick up a boar, slaughter it for three food, then have to pick up another one the following turn, kill it again, and so on. Once the animals start breeding, this allows you to basically get some of your food for free so long as you have room to hold the animals. If you have three boars at the beginning of the harvest, simply slaughter one for two or three food, and then during the breeding, you have a brand new one to replace it with. If you want to play the animal strategy effectively, though, you really need to have the discipline to allow the animals to breed. If you have two animals or fewer of a given kind, don’t kill them if at all possible. Do anything else to get food, even if it means taking day laborer. If the animals aren’t breeding, you’re simply treading water with respect to both food and points.

There are really only two major problems with going for the animal strategy. The first problem is that it is the strategy that most players will recognize early on as an easy way to make food. In a four player game, for example, if you have four people that all want to cook animals, there’s going to be a shortage of something. For one thing, only two people are going to get a cooking hearth. The other two will be stuck with fireplaces and that means the upper level animals don’t convert into food nearly as well. In a four player game, there are only three spots on the board where one can pick up animals. With four carnivores, this means that they are all three likely to be taken every round. This means fewer animals for all, less food, harder to feed one’s family.

The good news is that if you plan to eat primarily sheep, you really only need a fireplace. A fireplace converts a sheep into two food, the same as a cooking hearth does, and for much less clay. Obviously a cooking hearth opens up more options and is worth more points, but if you know that you’re primarily going to be eating sheep, then just stick with the cheaper fireplace.

The second problem with the animal strategy is fencing. To effectively breed animals, you need the capacity to hold 3 of one type. If you’re going to have animals, you need a place to put them. Early in the game, there is only one “build fences” action. If everyone gets it ahead of you, again, you’re in a lot of trouble. You can’t breed animals with no place to put them. Most of the time, this means building at least a 2 area pasture with a minimum of 6 wood. There is, however, an alternative to fences in the early going. If you’re building a room, you also have the option to build stables. With two unfenced stables you’ll be able to hold a total of three animals. One in each of the stables and one as a pet in the house. That allows you to kill one animal at the harvest and still have room for the remaining two animals to breed. This will buy you some time until the fences option is open.

Fencing and stable building have another subtle problem. They both require wood. Early in the game, if you are using wood to build fences, you aren’t using it to expand your home. If you’re not expanding your home first, you’re not growing your family first. And, if you’re not growing your family first, you are letting someone else get one or two actions ahead of you. These extra actions that you’re giving up are just about the difference in how many actions it takes to bake bread versus cooking animals. This is what some might call “balanced” and whether or not it was intended, it’s pretty brilliant.

Bread Baker

Is it possible to win at Agricola without killing any animals? Absolutely! It’s also one of the best ways to make a lot of food for your family. If you decide to bake bread, you’ll start off slower than other players, but won’t have to worry nearly as much about feeding your family in the last couple of harvests. People say that it takes too many actions to bake bread, so why don’t we compare what needs to be done to bake bread vs. slaughter animals.

Plow field.
Take grain.
Sow.
Take resources to buy oven.
Buy oven.
Bake bread.

Take wood.
Build fences.
Take animals.
Take resources to buy cooking hearth.
Buy cooking hearth.

This is of course simplified. A bread baker may want more than one field. A bread baker will likely have to sow and bake bread more than once. A rancher will likely have to take wood more than once. He will also need to take animals more than once. A rancher also might be able to get enough resources to buy a cooking hearth with a single action whereas a baker will almost certainly need at least two actions. But the early basics are the same. A bread baker will need an additional action or two. There is a way around this, however, and it is through action conservation. It will take longer to get your bread baking engine up and running through action conservation, but once you do, it will be unstoppable.

The basic setup is to get three grains, one oven, and one plowed field. I generally don’t sow my field in the very first stage. I first take a grain as soon as possible. Next, I will attempt to gather resources for an oven and purchase it. When I purchase the oven, I bake the grain I have taken. I know this leaves me with zero grain, but having that much food early is a big advantage. Which oven? Well, the Stone Oven is certainly better in the last few turns, but the Clay oven is much better early on, since in the early going, I’m only ever going to be able to cook one grain at a time anyway. Now, why would getting the oven be a bigger priority than getting something planted? Truthfully, it’s psychological. There are only two ovens in the game. If you take one very early, it generally discourages others from attempting a bake bread strategy – at least not one with an oven. If you get an early oven, there will be only one left, and saving up for it without a guarantee that you will receive can be a scary proposition. If you’ve taken the time to gather all the materials, but you get shut out of the ovens, you’re in a lot of trouble. That said, you absolutely cannot buy an oven before you have a grain. There’s no sense in it. Getting a free bake bread action when purchasing the oven is too important. The only exception to this rule is if you have the Baker occupation which allows you to bake bread during the harvest without taking an action.

The next priority is getting two more grains and one plowed field. I make sure I have two grains before I sow, so that when I finally plant one of the grains, I can bake bread with the other one. If you’re keeping score, this is two extra bake bread actions without actually having to take an extra action.

After the first harvest where I actually receive a grain from my field, I’ll take another grain, plow a second field (if needed), then sow one of the grains and bake the other. At this point, I am getting two grains per harvest. Food starts getting pretty easy for the bread baker at this point. Being an effective baker requires patience. Depending on the number of players in the game, you may not get all of the above steps done until just before the third harvest. Trust me. It will pay off. If you buy an oven without being able to use the bake action, you’re wasting an action. If you sow without being able to bake bread, you’re wasting an action. Rookie bread bakers are so concerned with getting that first grain in the ground, that they skip two bake bread actions to make sure that the first seed is planted. Later, they have trouble making food. This causes the rookie bread baker to declare “Bread baking is too action intensive. Ranching is the way to go.”

Now occasionally, your oppoents will leave open both a “take grain” and a “plow field” in the first round or two. This usually means that your opponents are spending their time gathering resources. If you are having trouble actually getting resources to build an oven, then go ahead and get a grain into the ground. Ideally, you’ll want the oven before you plant because it will allow you to both sow and bake bread at the time. But, if you’re sitting on a grain and you have a plowed field and can’t don’t have the option to take resources for your oven, go ahead and plant something.

Vegetable eater

The vegetable section assumes that you have a Cooking Hearth. If you are going to cook vegetables, you really need to be converting them to at least three food. I never make a plan to eat vegetables. The reason is simple. They generally come out later in the game (barring a card that gives them earlier) and they are worth one victory point each. A Boar can provide three food, but it’s worth somewhat less than one victory point. Cattle provides up to four food and is worth less than a victory point (depending on how many you have). But a vegetable is worth a victory point all by itself. Unless you’ve already got four vegetables, or you risk having to take a begging card, you should probably not cook the veggies. And under almost no circumstances should you cook the only veggie you have in your possession. That’s taking away two victory points and essentially is wasting an another action because you’ll want to acquire a vegetable before the end of the game to avoid negatives anyway.

The exceptions to the “don’t cook veggies” rule (assuming you aren’t cooking your last one) are as follows: If you have only two of a type of animal and cooking one would prevent it from breeding, eat the vegetable instead. There isn’t much point in having animals if you aren’t going to let them breed. The other exception would be if your only other alternative for food would be to spend two actions taking it off the board (Day Laborer + Fishing). One victory point isn’t worth two actions. Late in the game, one victory point may not even be worth one action. In the last turn, if you need 2 food and you haven’t upgraded to a stone house, you should just eat the vegetable and spend the action on renovating.

If you get the cards that allow you to take vegetables early, you may want to actually cook them up. Being a vegetable farmer is a lot closer to being a rancher than being a bread baker. You’ll want the same type of coking implement that the rancher does – a Cooking Hearth. And although you’ll be plowing fields, you’ll be dropping vegetables into them instead of grain. For this reason, vegetables eaters work better with ranching than with bread baking. Ranchers may grow vegetables to eat, but bread bakers will usually grow vegetables for the points only.

TAKING ACTION

Here is the big secret to Agricola. It isn’t a game about planning a strategy. It isn’t a game in chaos management as many have stated. It isn’t about effectively working the cards you’re given. Agricola is a game of conserving actions. You will only get X number of actions per game, and the person who takes the most actions will win. That means that having the biggest family, or growing ones family first is the dominant strategy right? Not exactly. Extra family members to give you additional actions, but you have to keep it in perspective. Sure, it’s nice to have a third family member before everyone else does. But, that third family member gets to go last. In a 5 player game, that means the third family member gets the 11th best spot on the board. Early on, the 11th best spot isn’t that good. Later in the game when more actions become available, the 11th best spot might be very desirable. But by the time the 11th best spot becomes a good one, chances are good that other’s will have grown their own families. I know that there will be folks who want to argue how awesome having the third family member early is, but really take a look at what he’s actually picking up the first time or two you get to use him. If you’re routinely picking up 6 wood with the eleventh best spot, then you need to find better competition. Likely, you’re picking up 2 food. Or perhaps 2 clay. It’s nice to have, but not game breaking. The real advantage that having the first extra family member is that it puts pressure on the rest of the players to start growing their family as well. That may cause them to be careless, or even to do something desperate like take a single reed when they only need one more to be able to build a room. This might leave open better spots for your third family member.

I have heard some people ask the question, “Well, why does the player who grows his family first always win the game?” I have an answer for you, but you may not like it. If that’s happening in your games, then the player who grows his family first is probably a better player than the rest. He was able to grow his family first because he was able to conserve enough extra actions to build the extra room and feed the new family member. The fact that he was able to grow his family first is indicative of the game he has already been playing, not in and of itself a determining factor. It would be like saying, “When birds fly south, their wing flapping causes the cold air from the north to follow them and this is what causes winter.” Of course birds fly south because winter is coming. Winter is not coming because birds fly south. Likewise, a player grows his family first because he is playing well. He isn’t playing well because he grew his family first. In competitive games where players are more equal in skill, the person who grows his family first is not necessarily the winner. In fact, he may be at a disadvantage because he may have to waste extra actions taking food for a larger family that can’t be supported by a meager food engine. If you run right out to expand your family, you aren’t planting crops, you aren’t building fences, and you aren’t taking animals. That means you aren’t as effectively feeding your family. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. What all of this means is that the game is pretty well balanced.

But growing your family is only one way to gain actions. Whenever you use a family member on a space that gives you two options such as “Sow and/or Bake Bread” you actually conserve an action by being able to both Sow and Bake Bread. If you’re taking the spot and only doing one or the other, you’re throwing your actions down the drain. Likewise, you can also conserve actions by taking cumulative spots after they have built up some level of resources. If you use an action to take two reeds from the “1 Reed” spot, you’ve actually conserved an action over the player that took a single reed twice. If you manage to take three reeds with a single player, you’ve conserved two actions.

So, what you really need to look at is the effectiveness level of a given spot on the board. If you choose the “Take 1 Grain” spot on the board, you’re taking that spot when it is at its maximum level of effectiveness. The “Plow 1 Field” space and the “1 Occupation” space are also always at their maximum level of effectiveness any time you take them. But what if you take the “1 Clay” spot when there is only a single clay? Is having one clay really as good as having one plowed field? And what is the maximum level of effectiveness on the clay spot? Is it two? Three? Six? The longer you can let a cumulative spot grow without taking it, the better it will be for you. The real trick comes in guessing at what level will it be built up enough to where I can take it and someone else won’t snatch it up before me?

In taking your actions, you really need to be willing to break from your set plan in order to take an opportunity that may present itself. You may not be looking to convert to a clay house, but if there are 6 clay on a space, you really need to take them. Why would you do that? Well, eventually, you’re going to need the clay. The same goes for seeing 4 reed on a spot or 4 stone. You may not be planning to use those resources right away, but if you’re presented with the opportunity to take them, you really need to do it. If you’re eventually going to need the resources for something, then taking them when they are piled up is always preferable to working whatever immediate goal you may have. You may say, “Wow, I’ve been trying to get this occupation out for two turns, but there are 4 reeds on the board. What should I do?” Take the reeds. A guy who executes his plan perfectly will always lose to a guy who took advantage of every juicy opportunity that presented itself. Having the patience to execute your plan later in the game while taking advantage of the accumulated spaces that present themselves early is key to going from a 25 point farm to a 45 point farm.

So, on the first turn, I see a lot of rookies immediately go for the resources. The best three spots on the board in the first turn are (in no particular order) “1 Occupation”, “Plow 1 Field”, and “Take 1 Grain”. These should be gone with the first three actions in any game played. I know it’s popular to take three wood, but if you do that, you’re getting that spot at its minimum level of effectiveness. You may end up taking the “3 Wood” spot in the first round, but I certainly wouldn’t do it with any of the first three picks. A player who takes the “3 Wood” space in the first round then takes the “3 Wood” space again in the second round has used two actions to take 6 wood. If you can take 6 with a single action, that’s much better.

With that, I will rate every spot on the board for its level of effectiveness and accumulation.

Boards

Build Rooms and/or Stables – What’s really going to drive your ability to use this spot at higher than its base level of effectiveness is whether or not you have something that makes building rooms cheaper. Getting plenty of wood to build two rooms early isn’t nearly as tough as getting four reeds. I think building just a single room using this space is an effective use of it, but building two rooms can be devastating to your opponents. Being able to grow your family twice in a row is a really big deal because the pressure to grow their family becomes inescapable when you’ve gone up by two family members. You just have to make sure you can feed your family before you grow them. In a typical game, you’re going to build two or three rooms. If you can conserve an action by building two at a time, it’s a big deal. Keep in mind, you can also just build stables. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but again, if opponents keep camping out on the Fences spot, you may want to build three or four unfenced stables right off the bat to hold some animals.

Starting Player and/or Minor Improvement – This is a really great spot, but I see it misused constantly. Typically, people will play on this spot because, “I don’t really like going last, and I have a pretty good minor improvement I want to get out.” This is fine, I suppose but less than optimal. Going first is important, but it’s even MORE important when there is something that you really want to do first. Let’s pretend for a moment that you are the last player in a four player game. Somehow, everyone has played their two family members, and the “3 Wood” space has built up to a total of 6 wood and they have left it for you! You take it, right? Absolutely not. What you do is take “Start Player”, you get your minor improvement out, then with your first placement on the following turn, you take 9 total wood. This is much, much nicer. You not only get the benefit of going first (at least until someone takes it away) but you’ve played a minor improvement, and you’ve gotten 50% more wood out of the “3 Wood” space that you otherwise would have gotten. If you want to go first, make sure that there is something worth going first for. Some nice times to take this also include right before the first “Family Growth” spaces becomes available. You may also want to grab it with your first action right before stage 5. In stage 5, you know that either “Family Growth even without room” or “Plow and Sow” is coming up. Both of these spots are quite powerful.

I would also encourage you to hold on to your minor improvements until your opponents have all played one or two. If everyone else has already played one or two, then you can pretty much dominate having the “start player” spot for the rest of the game. Players without improvements to play are much less likely to take Start Player. And if they do, you can take it right back the following round while still holding good improvements. I never want to be one of the first few players to put out a minor improvement because putting one out late allows one to be the starting player for longer. If you’re the first one to put out a minor improvement, odds are good that you’ll be the start player for only a single turn. The exception here is if you have one of the really powerful minor improvements that need to be played early.

Take 1 Grain – This spot is at its maximum level of effectiveness right off the bat. It’s a great way to start the game. If you plan to bake bread, this is the best first spot to take.

Plow 1 Field – I think this is slightly less desirable that taking a grain, but if a grain were gone, I would plow a field. This is good for both ranchers and bakers. Eventually everyone is going to need a couple of plowed fields, so you may as well get it out of the way when there aren’t nearly as many other attractive options on the board.

1 Occupation (1st free, then 1 food) – If you plan to be a rancher, then this is probably the best spot on the board for you at the beginning.

Day Laborer – This spot stinks, and if you are putting a family member here, one of two things has happened. You have played an occupation/minor improvement that makes taking this spot a lot more attractive, or you have messed up and your family risks not being fed. The “Day Laborer” is always at its maximum level of effectiveness with just two food, but with so many other ways to make or take food, this is definitely a last resort.

3 Wood (Cumulative) – The more players you have in the game, the more popular this spot will become. This spot will accumulate to 6 wood during a game often. It will rarely, if ever, accumulate to 9 wood. If there are 6 wood on the space, I generally take it, even if I have to delay my other plans a bit. You can’t really do anything with just 3 wood, but with 6, you are well on your way to building a nice pasture, building a room, and perhaps having some extras for minor improvements. If for some reason it does accumulate to 9, you need to take this spot immediately. The only exception would be if you’ve already renovated and you no longer need to build fences.

1 Clay (Cumulative) – The only reason I would take a single clay is if that is all I needed to build the stone oven. You really need to get at least 2 clay to make this work. With 2, you can buy a Fireplace which can be traded in later for a Cooking Hearth. At 3 or 4 clay, this spot is a good deal and really. At 5 clay, you pretty much have to take this spot. That’s enough to renovate a 5 room house. It’s enough to buy the expensive cooking hearth. It’s also enough to build a clay room if you’ve already renovated.

1 Reed (Cumulative) – This spot is a good one to take with 2 reed on it. That allows you to build an extra room. With 3 reed it is a must take. Reed is one of the rarest resources in the game. You use it to extend your home (and therefore your family) and to renovate it. Growing your family and improving your home are the two ways to score the most points in the game.

Fishing 1 Food (Cumulative) – This is a funny spot. It’s not good with only 1 food, and not much better with only 2. It really starts to get tempting around 4 food. Depending on how effective folks have been at getting their food engines going, this one can get up to really high levels. There’s no hard and fast rule for grabbing this spot, but at 5 food, I am probably going to grab it, even if I can already feed my family. I may take it at even less if I need food to build my occupations or improvements.

3 player spaces

Take 1 Building Resource of your choice – This is simply an awful space. If you’re placing here, you’re probably too desperate for your own good. The exception would be to take an early stone to build a Clay Oven or a powerful Minor Improvement.

1 Occupation (costs 2 food) – It better be a really good occupation. Two food is a lot to sacrifice. Late in the game, you may be swimming in food, but want to get out an extra occupation that helps you score points. Early on though, this one might put you too far back to be useful.

1 Clay (Cumulative) – Just as good as the other “1 Clay” spot.

2 Wood (Cumulative) – This one is unique. After three turns, it’s exactly the same as the “3 Wood” spot. The question is, should you take it with four wood on it? If I had some minor improvements to play, or if I really wanted a single fenced in pasture on my farm, then I probably would. Having 4 wood on the space isn’t so powerful that you need to deny other players the spot, but not so weak that you need to avoid it until it has more.

4 player spaces

1 Occupation (first two are 1 food, then 2 food) – This is a great place to play your second occupation. The second occupation you play will cost you exactly the same as it would on the main spot. After that, it gets pricey.

Take 1 Reed, 1 Stone, and 1 Food – This is the best spot in the game assuming everything at its minimum level of effectiveness. Not only do you get stone earlier than is normally possible, you get reed, too. If that’s not enough for you, there’s a food on it as well. When I go first in a four player game, I take this spot until I have 4 reeds or until someone takes it away from me.

2 Wood (Cumulative) – same as the two wood spot in the 3 player game.

1 Wood (Cumulative) – Starts getting good at around 4 wood. At 5 wood, its enough to build a room, so think about it.

2 Clay (Cumulative) – If you want to build a fireplace, this is a good spot to start. Really good with 4 clay, and a must have with 6.

Traveling Players 1 food (Cumulative) – Same as the Fishing spot.

5 player spaces

Build 1 Room or Traveling Players 1 food (Cumulative) – The fun thing you can do with this spot is to use it to build a room, let the food accumulate one more time, take “Start Player” with your other action, then grab the food on the next turn, too.

Take 1 Sheep and 1 Food Or Take 1 Wild Boar Or Pay 1 food for 1 Cattle – Borderline overpowered early. Taking a sheep and a food is really good. If you can afford the food, getting early cattle can be extremely powerful once they start breeding.

1 Occupation or Family Growth (from round 5). – A necessary space for opening up the ability to get out occupations and family members in a crowded game.

4 Wood (Cumulative) – pretty good at 4, but a must have at 8.

3 Clay (Cumulative) – Extremely good right off the bat.

1 Reed (Cumulative) and 1 Stone and 1 Wood – Not as good as the four player “1 Reed, 1 Stone, and 1 Food” spot. However, the cumulative nature of the reeds makes this one better after a single turn. Once two reeds are on this spot, it’s pretty much a “must have”.

Stage 1

Fences – You ever notice how hard it is to build fences in this game? Regardless of how many players there are in the game, this is the only spot you can take to get this done until right at the end of the game. Most people are going to take this twice per game. Once to get some pastures built, and a second time to add a couple of pastures for scoring purposes late in the game. I think it’s not a very good use of actions if you’re only building one pasture of one or two spaces. If you can build one bigger, or perhaps build two or more pastures, you’re using this spot well.

1 Major or Minor Improvement – One of the only ways to get major improvements in the game.

Sow and/or Bake Bread – If you read the baking section, you know that I like to sow AND bake bread. I don’t take this spot unless I can do both.

1 Sheep (Cumulative) - Unless it’s the end of the game, I never take a lone sheep. The exception would be a five player game. The “Take 1 food and 1 sheep” spot is very nice, and you may want to grab a second one so that they start breeding. Early sheep is the best reason to buy an early fireplace – even if you are planning on being a bread baker. I’ve seen many times where the only guy who has a fence is waiting for the sheep to grow to 4 sheep before he grabs it. There’s nothing quite as fun as taking those sheep right out from under him, putting one in your home as a pet, then converting the other 3 to food. You also really have to watch this spot if it is the first one to come up in Stage 1. Sheep can start building up quickly and can be a decided early advantage for the person who takes them.

Stage 2

After Family Growth also 1 Minor Improvement – It’s really nice if you can do both family growth and a minor improvement, but being able to take Family Growth is good enough by itself. If you’ve managed to build an extra room in stage 1, you may want to try to grab start player before stage 2 or right at the start of it to allow you to grow. Also keep in mind, if no one else has room to grow, you don’t have to take this spot with your first action.

After Renovation also 1 Major or Minor Improvement – Once your home has four rooms, you can start looking at doing this. A five room home is certainly better, but the longer everyone waits to do this, the more likely it is that someone will get shut out. That’s not a big deal unless it’s you. This is also the only other spot where you can get a Major Improvement out. Major Improvements are worth a lot of victory points. If you can upgrade to a 4 room house to clay and buy the well, then you’ve scored 8 points with one action. Not bad.

1 Stone (Cumulative) – Stone is tough to gauge. Sometimes, it builds up like crazy, and sometimes people are taking it as soon as there are 2 on the board. You definitely shouldn’t take stone when there is only 1. When it builds to two or three, you may consider it. At 4 stone, you really should take it. You’ll eventually need it for renovation anyway, so you may as well pick it up at 4. At 5, you’re not going to have a shot at the stone unless you’re going first. If this is the first card to come out in Stage 2, the stone can really pile up before many players decide its important to have. Keep this in mind, and jump in when it gets to 4.

Stage 3

Take 1 Vegetable – Don’t forget to take one of these, even if you’re not going to plant it. I’ve seen many games where three people need the vegetable on the last turn. Don’t get shut out.

1 Wild Boar (Cumulative) – Boars are really good for food. Worth it with only 1, and a must have at 2.

Stage 4

1 Cattle (Cumulative) – It’s almost a must have at 1. If anyone has allowed it to get up to 2, then they should all be smacked. If the cattle comes out at the end of stage 4, there are only 4 opportunities to pick up cattle. Take one as soon as you can house it. If you don’t need one and you have a means to cook it, it may be worth it to take a second one just to cook it up and deny the cattle to another player.

1 Stone (Cumulative) – Same as the other “1 Stone” space.

Stage 5

Family Growth even without room in your home – This card is one of the reasons you may want to take “Start Player” in the second half of stage 4. You have to be able to feed your family, but an extra person is worth three victory points. If the option is to grow my family or to take my one and only vegetable, I would grow my family. Taking that vegetable is only a 2 point swing (from -1 to 1) but taking a family member is worth 3 points.

Plow 1 Field and Sow – Also very powerful. Grow a little extra food and cover up and empty spot at the same time.

Stage 6

After Renovation also Fences – The only other way to build fences in the game. If you aren’t going first on the last turn, look at all of the people that will play in front of you. If even one of them hasn’t renovated to stone, then this spot probably won’t be available to you at the end. If you CAN use this spot, that’s nice. But I wouldn’t go planning my entire strategy around this spot being available at the end of the game. Renovating is something people tend to put off because there are no immediate benefits, so this spot is fiercely contested at the end.

OUTSMARTING YOUR OPPONENT

I read that the Interactive Deck was included so that players would have a chance to interact with one another more closely than with the Easy deck. I can tell you that in the games I have played with the E deck, there is plenty of interaction.

I don’t advocate taking a spot that someone else was going to take just to screw them. If you adopt the philosophy of trying to mess with people in this game, you’re going to lose. As a general rule, you should play your own game. By blocking, you may slightly hamper one or two people, but you may significantly hamper yourself. However, if you can help yourself out and screw up someone else at the same time, well, that’s just golden. The stuff that follows can’t be used on everyone, nor does it work every time. Some people are simply not going to be outsmarted. Others often are oblivious to the subtle meta-game signals that I am trying to send. But, when these techniques work, it can give one a slight edge over his opponents, and that’s what this game is all about. It’s not about doing one thing better than everyone else – it’s about doing a lot of these just barely better than everyone else.

One of the things I like to do is watch when people start going through their occupations and/or minor improvements. If someone is picking up and fanning through the cards, it’s likely that they are planning on moving into one of those spots. At this point, it’s time to evaluate. Do I need to play an occupation this round? Is it important for me not to lose the starting player spot? For this next round? The decision as to whether or not to deny someone the occupation spot is fairly straightforward. Either you have one you need to play or you don’t. The decision as to whether or not to deny them the start player space is more difficult.

If it looks like an opponent is rifling through their minor improvements, unless they can grow their family, it’s likely that they will be taking the start player spot. At this point you need to evaluate. Is it the person on your immediate right? If so, you may not care. Going second is often just as good as going first. Is it the person on your immediate left? You may want to worry. Going last isn’t any fun. Remember, though, your decision to deny them the space will only put off the inevitable for a single round at most. It’s likely that if you take it away, they will simply go after it on the following turn. So you have to weigh whether or not going first next turn is more important that taking it back the following turn. If the stage 5 card is about to come up, chances are good that I will deny the other player the start space. I would rather have first crack at “Family Growth even without room in your home”. If we’re in an earlier stage, I may let them have it and plan to take it back at a more strategic time.

Remember, too, that you can trick your opponents into guessing your actions. If I see a guy with three occupations out, right before his placement, I might pick up my occupations and start going through them furiously as if I am trying to decide which one to place. If he’s the kind of person that likes to jam his opponent, he may deny me the occupation space by placing one of his own that’s less useful. Likewise I may attempt scare the start player into thinking that I plan to take his start position away. I REALLY like to do this when the start player is on my right in a four or five player game. This guy on my right knows that if I take the start player, he will be going last next turn, and maybe for one or two more turns after that. But, if I can convince him to preemptively take the start player from me, I still get to go second, which is pretty good. And all that without having to spend an action myself.

So, when is taking family growth not a good idea? When you can’t feed them. In a five player game, someone grows their family just before the harvest, but they don’t quite have enough food to feed everyone. That’s ok, there are 4 food tokens on Fishing and 5 food tokens on the Traveling Players spot. Family Growth guy needs only three. At this point, I like to put the pressure on by taking Traveling Players. I may casually mention, “Not going to be easy to feed those people if someone else takes fishing.” That’s usually enough to push someone else to take the fishing. Now the Family Growth guy can only take Day Laborer. He’s one food short. Maybe he has to sacrifice is only boar or his only sheep. Maybe he has to cook his only vegetable. Either way, I’ve just erased the advantage that having that extra person gave him. And, I’ve got time to catch up while he replenishes the boar/vegetable or whatever he had to consume to feed his family.

Another solid technique for a baker is purchasing an early fireplace. This does two things. First of all, it denies the quick fireplace to all of the ranchers. Secondly, it keeps ranchers honest in terms of how long they allow the sheep to build up. You’ll rarely see boars or cattle building up, but sheep is another matter. If you have a fireplace, though, you can grab the sheep as soon as there are three on it. This converts into six food and is well worth it. It prevents letting sheep built up to four or five, particularly when the sheep comes out as the first card of stage one. Even if you’re not the baker, you should keep an eye on letting the sheep spot get too nice. Should you deny someone two sheep? Maybe. But you should probably just play your own game. Two sheep represents four food, and isn’t overpowering. Should you deny someone a cattle? Well, again, maybe. If you can’t score more points somewhere else, then do it. But, by the time cattle comes out, there should be ample opportunities for scoring two or three points with every placement. Denying someone a cattle puts you two or three points ahead of them. Playing the “Clogs” card on the last turn gives you two extra points against everyone.

Just keep in mind: Denying someone a spot isn’t a sound strategy by itself (except maybe in two player). Your goal shouldn’t be to get ahead of one player, it should be to get ahead of all of them. Even if you benefit yourself when denying someone else, this isn’t always the best idea. If I steal the “Build a room” spot from the player on my left, but leave him to take 6 wood, perhaps I’ve done him a favor. Perhaps now, he will be able to build 2 rooms with one placement instead of one. In your haste to deny someone a spot, make sure you aren’t helping them even more.

I put one of these sections in just about every article. It’s the meta-game around the game. And invariably, someone comes out with a statement like, “Well, your advice on how to mess people up may work, but you’re a jerk if you do that, and I would never play with a jerk.” Let me pre-respond to this by saying two things. Number one, I’m really not a jerk. My wife and daughter told me that I’m not, so it must be true. I’m actually a really nice guy and fun to play with. You’d never even know that I was meta-gaming you at the table. Number two, you probably are playing with someone that does stuff like this already, but they do it so well that you haven’t noticed. If you don’t know which gamer is meta-gaming you, then look at the guy who wins all the time. It’s him. Besides, when everyone is playing this way, it’s even more fun. Did my opponent shuffle through his occupations because he wants to play one? Or is trying to make me THINK he wants to play one? Of course he knows that I am not a great fool, so clearly I cannot choose the glass in front of him….

CARD REVIEW

The cards in Agricola are what really set this game apart from many others. There are so many that developing a single strategy for winning just isn’t possible. A player will always be searching for his Occupations and Minor Improvements to give him an edge. For players that are having trouble being competitive, I would encourage them to look at their card play first. Something to try would be writing down the name of each Occupation and each Major/Minor Improvement that you play during the game. Whenever you use the ability granted by the improvement, put a check mark next to the name you’ve written down. You may find that you’ve not made the best use of your cards. You may have a card that gives you a bonus when you take the fishing space. But how often did you take the fishing space? Was the benefit you received worth the action and the resources that you spent to get the card in play? One should scrutinize Occupations even more harshly that Minor Improvements. After all, when you put out an Occupation, that’s all you can do with that action. When you play a Minor Improvement, it’s generally because you took another action as well, such as Start Player, Renovation, or Family Growth. Strong card play can be a major advantage in the game, but weak card play can be devastating. Putting out cards that you can’t use wastes resources, but more importantly, it wastes actions.

While the number and variety of cards are really the spice of the game, I think most players put way too many of these. New players will ask, “How many of these should I put out?” The answer is that experienced players typically put out between one and three occupations and somewhere between two and 4 improvements. Some players put out far more than this, but in a very competitive game that can be difficult to do.

I would encourage new players to limit themselves to playing just two Occupations and two Minor Improvements. There may be opportunities to get additional Minor Improvements out, but don’t make getting out more than two the focus of your game. If you’re regularly getting killed in the game, it may be because you’re playing to many cards. Making a rule for yourself to limit the number you will play may be just the self control you need to start scoring more points. After you’ve mastered winning with just a couple of Occupations and Minor Improvements, you can experiment with adding in more.

Make no mistake. Putting out more Occupations and Minor Improvements doesn’t make the game easier to win. Playing lots of Occupations and Minor Improvements makes the game turn into the ultimate exercise in efficiency. Every time you put out an occupation, that’s one less action you have for gathering resources, building up your home, growing your family, gathering animals, baking bread, and anything else you may need to do. In order to be able to sacrifice the amount of food and actions it takes to get out four Occupations and Four Minor Improvements, you really need to be making them up in other ways which will take time to learn. I have won Agricola by playing as many as 12 cards, and I’ve won when playing just 3. For a beginner, I would definitely recommend fewer cards be played. For the advanced player, it’s all about planning out how many actions one will need before the finish. Even with 14 excellent cards to play, the smart move might be, in some cases, to play only a couple.

The organization of this card review (or lack thereof) grew sort of organically. Because it’s not in a format that most will expect, I wanted to discuss how I came up with the format I was using. When I was thinking up how to get through this card review, I came up with several ways to do it. My first thought was to list them all numerically, then give a short synopsis of each card. But, I don’t think of the cards numerically, so that won’t really work. So I thought, I’ll go through them alphabetically – first the occupations, then the improvements. But, I don’t really think of the cards alphabetically either. I think of them in terms of what they do and how they work mechanically.

So, finally I decided to put the cards into categories based on what type of benefit they provide. I would categorize the occupations separately from the improvements, but a funny thing happened. I realized that the categories for occupations and improvements are essentially the same. I started with as few as four categories and worked it up to as many as ten categories. Finally, I settled on eight. Obviously, there are some that will fit into more than one category, but for brevity’s sake, I’m just putting them in one. In addition, I am putting all of the Major Improvements into their own category.

So what you’re going to see are the eight categories I’ve chosen. Under each category, I will list the occupations first and the minor improvements second. I will list the name of the card and the number in three digit format (for example, card #36 will be 036). This way, if you want to search for a specific card, you can simply do a “Ctrl-F” and put in the card name or card number. With that said, I am going to write top to bottom, so if I cover a card concept early in the article, I probably won’t repeat it for later cards.

When discussing occupations, it is assumed that it costs one food to play the occupation. I am making this assumption because I don’t want to get into whether or not an occupation is worth it when you don’t have to pay a food versus when you do. It would take too long. I’m also not going to type up an exact description of each card. It would take a really long time, so I will assume that you either know what the card does, or that you can grab your copy of the card and find it. I also won’t go into too much detail on specific card combos. There’s no guarantee in a game that you can put the combos together, and besides, a lot of the fun of the game is figuring out how to get these cards to work together.

Finally, each card will be rated with one to three stars (asterisks ***). This rating is just my own personal opinion on the power and usefulness of this card. One star (*) means I would pretty much never use this card. Two stars (**) means that this card can be useful in the right situation. Three stars (***) means that when I have this card I pretty much always try to get this card into play. I'm certain that even the one star cards have been absolutely critical to at least a few victories out there, so keep in mind, just because I rated it with only one star doesn't mean it isn't EVER useful. Likewise, just because something has three stars doesn't mean that it should always be played. Many three star cards compete with one another and are less effective when played together. Even if you disagree with the star rating I give a card, I try to give enough of a summary to make my case for it, and for veterans of Agricola, hopefully you'll find my reasoning not terribly lacking.

For quick reference, the categories I came up with are:

Cards that Give Resources Over Time
Cards that Grant/Conserve Actions
Cards that Assist With Building/Renovating
Cards that Give Bonus Resources When Taking Actions
Cards that Make Baking Easier
Cards that Make Ranching Easier
Cards that Convert Resources to Food During the Harvest
Cards that Score Points at the End of the Game

Without further adieu, here they are.

Major Improvements

You probably won’t many games without owning at least one of these. If you’ve been taking a beating and you’ve never bought a Major Improvement, now you know why.

Fireplace (001, 002) – This is card is the stepping stone for ranchers to get to the Cooking Hearth. If you’re going to spend two actions taking four or five clay, you may as well spent two actions gathering a Fireplace, then turn it in for a Cooking Hearth. The Fireplace is also great for cooking sheep. If sheep is going to be your primary method for food, you really don’t need to go past the Fireplace. This is also a great secondary improvement for a baker to make certain that you’re keeping the ranchers honest about taking animals before they build up to ridiculous levels.

Cooking Hearth (003, 004) – This is the logical upgrade for ranchers. If you’re going to keep and eat animals, you’ll want to get the most food out of them that you can, and that require a Cooking Hearth. Bakers should take note. If you have any cards that give you an extra food when you bake, then the Cooking Hearth becomes as good as a Stone Oven – and what’s better, there are no limitations on how many grain you can cook. A bread baker would do well to consider these cards if they have the ability to make extra bread.

Clay Oven (005) – I am biased towards this oven. You get five food for one grain, but you can bake a maximum of one grain. I often find that this is enough, particularly in the early game. Add this to the fact that it is cheaper to get that the stone, and this is my favorite oven. If this Oven is open at the end of the game, even a rancher may want to pick it up. If a rancher ahs more than one grain and some extra clay, sacrificing the resources and the grain for 2 victory points and 5 food is a pretty good deal.

Stone Oven (006) – If you’re in a four player game and you’re the first player, you may be able to take the “1 Stone, 1 Reed, and 1 Food” space enough times to make buying an early stone oven a real possibility. Frequently, when I buy an oven early, I go unopposed as a bread baker. If this happens to you, keep in mind that you can buy a second oven later. Why a second oven? Simple. If I own the Clay Oven already and I purchase a Stone Oven, I immediately get a bake bread action. This allows me to convert 3 grain into 13 food – this is just a ton of food for almost nothing. Add that to the fact that the Stone Oven also got me an additional 3 victory points and it is a win/win all the way around.

Joinery (007) and Pottery (008) – I’m not a big fan of either of these cards. They are expensive, and the ability to convert a wood or a clay into two food isn’t all that great. The two victory points aren’t bad, but the bonus points can be tough to get. Typically, I look at these as opportunity buys. If I am holding a bunch of extra clay at the end of the game for some reason, I may look to pick up Pottery to score the 2 victory points plus bonuses. I would never pick up Joinery or Pottery early with a plan to save up enough resources to get the bonus points. I think it slows down growth too much early to be useful.

Basketmaker’s Workshop (009) – I do like this one. Reed isn’t easy to get, but neither is three food. I never plan to buy this one, but I will definitely pick it up if someone has neglected the reed spots and I manage to get a bunch. That said, I rarely ever see anyone make good use of the bonus points at the end. If you’re holding 2, 4, or 5 reed at the end of the game, you probably should have been building more rooms with it. In a four player game, You can get this fairly easily if you take advantage of the “1 Stone, 1 Reed, and 1 Food” space just twice.

Well (010) – This is the consolation prize for the player who wasn’t able to renovate his clay house into a stone house on the last turn. Nope, you won’t get those 5 points, but getting 4 points from the well isn’t so bad. I have seen some people purchase this one earlier and make good use of the food, but most often I’ve seen it purchased in the last couple of turns.

Cards that Give Resources Over Time

As a general rule, I don’t really like these cards. The benefits are real, but when you realize that the benefits are spread out over time, they are really lacking.

Occupations

Clay Deliveryman (187) (*) – You get 9 clay out of this card. A total steal, right? Not really. The main problem with this card is that you get the clay late in the game. What are you going to do with the clay you get on turn 14? The answer is, probably nothing. Unless you’ve purchased the Pottery improvement (which I’m not a fan of) you’re not going to be putting that clay to good use. Clay is very useful early in the game, but not so much in the last few turns, especially if your getting it one at a time. Clay Deliveryman does something else bad. It devalues clay. If there is more clay in the game, then clay is easier to get – but not for the guy who played Clay Deliveryman. The guy who played Clay Deliveryman is waiting turn after turn for his clay to roll in. Meanwhile, everyone else is having a proportionately easier time getting clay.

Maid (190) (**) – You could potentially get a lot of food out of this card. I would caution against upgrading to a clay hut when you have only three rooms, though. It can become difficult to extend your home again if you upgrade too early. If you have something that makes extending your home cheaper, the Maid can be very nice.

Reed Collector (205) (**) – As I said with the Clay Deliveryman, the Reed Collector makes Reed easier to get – for everyone else. If you take the reed collector, it should be with the idea of using some improvement that converts reed to food. Still, giving up a food and an action for 4 reeds isn’t bad.

**edit** I wanted to add in how much discussion and disagreement there has been about the Reed Collector. It seems that the general consensus is that this is one of the best cards in the game. For my money, I'd much rather have the Thatcher, so you pay less reed for pretty much everything, but you're still encouraged to take the existing reed off the board. That's why I have the Thatcher as a 3 star and the Reed Collector as a 2 star. This guide really reflects my opinions and playstyles, but there has been enough response about the Reed Collector, that I felt it important for readers to know what others think. I still stand by my assessment that he it is a 2 star card for the reasons I listed, but take that for what it's worth.

Master Shepherd (204) (**) – Not bad, but you need to have built your fences first. If you can hold three sheep, this one is nice. With certain improvements that give bonuses for how many sheep you have, this one is simply wonderful.

Cattle Whisperer (201) (*) – Guarantees that you’ll get a couple of cows, and in the five player game, this can be tough. Unfortunately, you have to play it in round 5 or before to get the full benefit – and you can’t make use of the benefit for a long time. It just takes too long to get that first cow. Additionally, it makes cows easier to get – for everyone else.

Minor Improvements

Private Forest (045) (*) – This costs too much food. Trading two food for 7 wood is a bad deal if you get the wood over the entire game and not up front. Oh, and if you play it in the second or third round, you only get 6 wood.

Reed Pond (048) (**) – You get three reeds for free. Only problem is that you need three occupations to make it work. I would never put out occupations with the intention of getting this into play. If it works out that you can play it, though, why not. The extra victory point is what gives this the second star.

Sack Cart (046) (*) – This looks like it would be easier to do than it is. It requires 2 occupations and costs two wood. I find those requirements to be difficult to get to before round 5, when the grain starts to kick it. Is it really worth it if you only get three grain over time? If you dno’t get it out before round 5, you don’t get your first grain until round 8. I generally like to have my grain engine running before that if I can. And again, it makes grain easier for everyone else since you won’t be taking it.

Carp Pond (031) (***) – Why three stars on the lowly Carp Pond? Simple. It’s very easy to get out. One occupation and two minor improvements is cake. This will give you a couple of food and a victory point. Chances are, you were going to take a spot that would allow you to build a minor improvement anyway, so why not build the Carp Pond? Doesn’t cost you a thing.

Fruit Tree (043) (**) – Three occupations is a bunch for requirements. But, if have three you’re using anyway, this is a great card. Lots of food and a victory point.

Dovecote (057) (**) – Another food over time card. Not bad, but two stone can be steep in games with many players. If you can upgrade your house to stone and still get this out, then do it.

Animal Pen (024) (*) – How awesome would it be to get this card out? The only problem is the 4 occupation requirement. I just never see anyone able to make good use of this. I give it one star because I never seem to be able to get it in play.

Cards That Grant or Conserve Actions

I really like this next group of cards, and it’s because I believe Agricola to be a game of managing your actions. Some are clearly better than others, but most all of them are useful.

Occupations

Grocer (184) (***) – Piling up eight resources sure looks cool, but it costs 8 food to get them. Still, this card is rarely wasted when in play. When you’re motivated to find the food to buy the extra reed or vegetable, it can be done. This helps you conserve actions because you can make 8 food in a turn or two, but it would take much longer to gather the number of resources that the grocer offers.

Hobby Farmer (180) (**) – It’s like taking two vegetables for one action. Not too shabby.

Plow Driver (194) (**) – Paying food to plow fields can be very useful at the end of the game, especially when you’re doing it to cover spaces that would otherwise be open and costing you -1 points each. Requires a stone house which makes it useless at the beginning of the game.

Plow Maker (195) (***) – Again, plowing additional fields is always good, but this time you’re not limited to when you can do it. As long as you can plow, you can use this occupation.

Merchant (179) (*) – There are lots of opportunities to play improvements in the game. This opens another avenue, but isn’t used as often as you might first think. You’re giving up an action to put out the occupation, so you really need to use the ability at least twice. I would rather take start player back while putting out an improvement instead of paying food to get lots of minor improvements out all at once.

Field Warden (163) (*) – This allows you to