Q. What is this?
A. As per the title, this is a review of all of the improvements in the base game of Agricola. Consider it a follow-up to my review of the occupations, which can be found here.
Q. I don't know what all the minor improvements do!
A. Go here. It has an alphabetical list of the improvements with costs and prerequisites.
Q. I have a question you haven't answered here!
A. Check to make sure if it's not already answered in my Occupation thread.
Q. What's your rating system this time?
A. It's pretty much the same as in my occupation thread. However, I personally don't believe that any of the minor improvements should be removed from the deck, as they're much better balanced than occupations (with two possible exceptions).
: I almost never play this.: I seldom play this.: I sometimes play this.: I usually play this.: I almost always play this.Major Improvements are rated on a different scale, since it makes less sense to talk about whether I, specifically, will want to play them. In this case, one star is the worst, five stars is the best, and I wouldn't recommend reading too much more into it!
Q. Your ratings are much higher for improvements than for occupations. Isn't this inconsistent?
A. In general, minor improvements are a better use of your actions than occupations. The main draw of an occupation is the occupation itself - it needs to be good on its own terms to be playable. Minor improvements either give you starting player (a huge benefit) or come piggy-backed onto Family Growth/Renovation. Even if the benefit a minor improvement gives is tiny, it is usually worth playing if it is cheap. If the theme of the occupation thread was, "why bother?" the theme of this one would be, "why not?"
Q. Why'd you review the Major Improvements? Doesn't everyone already know how good they are?
A. I pretty much only did it because "Card. By. Card. A FULL review of the minor improvements of Agricola" wouldn't fit on one line in the forums. Sadly, I'm only half joking.
Q. Would you like to thank anyone?
A. Yes! In addition to the people I've already thanked, I'd like to re-thank the countless people that gave positive feedback for my occupation thread! This probably wouldn't have been made without you guys, so pat yourself on the back. I'd also like to thank Pijil, whose compendium made both reviews a lot less tedious to make.
II. Version History
11/1/09: First version posted (v1.00)
11/1/09: Minor formatting and edits (v1.01)
11/2/09: Added Mansion (v1.02)
11/2/09: Changed Lasso, Potato Dibber, Fruit Tree, Corn Scoop, Threshing Board, Flail, Planter Box, Sack Cart.
11/3/09: Added Animal Yard, Manger, Manure, Milking Shed, Milking Stool, Millstone, Sleeping Corner.(v1.03)
11/3/09: Revised major improvement scale, changed Basketmaker's Workshop, Fireplace, Well. Also changed Landing Net, Corn Scoop, Mansion.
11/9/09: Wooden Hut Extension, Bookshelf, Harrow, Joinery, Madonna Statue, Pottery, Moldboard Plow, Ox Team, Reed Exchange, Punner, Yoke, Rake, Slaughterhouse, Stable, Stone Oven. (v1.04)
12/8/09: Tavern, Woodcart (v1.05)
III. Card Review
Acreage
As is detailed in this thread, getting two grain fields plowed before the first harvest is usually more effort than it's worth. This card makes it easier to get an early grain engine going, as it saves you at least a full action. And it's free! Well worth getting out unless you have zero desire for early grain.
Rating:
. Alms
This card can be a bit awkward to play with, as a lot of the time you're going to have an early game occupation that you'll want to play instead. However, if you don't have anything that you need to play immediately, this is usually a great play. There's no need to wait forever - if you fire it out Round 4, 3 food and starting player is already a good deal. Best of all, unlike other pass cards, this will usually never see play after you use it, because the player to your left will most likely have already played an occ. As you pass the card, be sure to sigh dramatically. "I guess I have to give you guys this awesome card now..."
I'm sure your opponents will appreciate the humor.
Rating:
. Animal Feed
This can be worth 1 or 2 VPs, and it's free, so don't forget about it. However, getting even 1 VP out of it might be tricky, because you'll have to have adequate room, 4 planted fields, and exactly the right numbers of animals for this to work. Usually this ends up staying in my hand, just because of the sheer awkwardness involved in getting it to give you anything.
Rating:
. Animal Pen
I've seen this card hang a lot of newer players who try to get this thing out as early as possible, no matter what their hand is. Don't be that guy. If you have to play 2 occupations you didn't really want to get out, it's probably not worth it because it neglects family growth. On the other hand, if you're lucky enough to have 3 - 4 early game occupations that you wanted to get out anyway, this play can be a backbreaker.
The card gets much stronger if you are doing some sort of drafting, as it combos almost unfairly well with the Patron, Academic and Perpetual Student. With drafting you're also more likely to have four early game occupations that you actually want to play.
Rating:
. Animal Yard
Along with being a half cost pasture, the SP attached lets you snipe a breeding pair of animals from your opponents. With a trivial prerequisite and a cheap cost, I play this every time I get it. It's easily one of the best improvements in the deck.
Rating:
. Axe
The Axe's power varies wildly depending on the number of players. In 2-p, it can be very awkward, since usually you have to wait for the stone spot to appear in stage 2 before you can play it. In 3-p, it's somewhat easier to play (you can just rawdog the crappy wildcard resource spot), but the benefit it gives is reduced by the crushingly small amount of reed available. In 4-p the card becomes very powerful because of the RSF spot, and in 5-p it becomes an unquestionable 5 star card due to the 1S1W + R spot.
In any case, the Axe is fantastic once you get it out; you will usually be able to get to 4+ rooms with it. If you build 3 wooden rooms, you are saving 8W. That's obscene.
Rating:
. Bakehouse
I often try to get this out if I have a clay oven. 3 VP for 3 stone is already a reasonable deal (it's more efficient than renovation and only slightly less efficient than the Well), and you get the most unholy powerful bake action known to man. Just keep in mind that you're going to need other incentives to go baking; this is a nice bonus, but not enough on its own.
Rating:
. Baker's Kitchen
This is almost an identical card to the Bakehouse, except it's easier to get out and gives one less VP. Overall a slightly better card.
Rating:
. Baker's Oven
Obviously the best of the three Baker's improvements. You know what's better than 2VP for 2 stone? 1VP for no stone! Unlike the other two cards, this is a genuine incentive to go baking, as you will always be able to play this easily, ensuring you crucial bake actions at godly efficiency.
Rating:
. Baking Tray
In 2-p and 3-p this card is amazing, and sometimes enough incentive for me to go baking all by itself. Saving you the early stone you need to get the Clay Oven is crucial, and being able to buy the oven with SP is fantastic as well. Since no one is likely to compete with you for the oven in 2-p and 3-p, you can plan around it.
In 4-p and 5-p the value drops a bit, since getting the early stone is less crucial. Moreover, you are more likely to have competition for the clay oven, which makes the baking tray a riskier play (since it tips your hand). However, in any case it is a solid improvement that's usually worth the 1W if you plan on baking.
Rating:
. Basket
AlexFrog loves this card, saying that it is extremely strong in a 2-p. In 2-p, he argues, reed is so important that often it is almost correct to take 1R. From there, the game can get very hateful, with your opponent often trying to starve you out in response to your reed denial.
This is where the Basket can really shine. 3f + 1W is an incredible deal in 2-p, since food becomes crushingly tight in competitive heads up play. Moreover, often you are not "giving up" the two wood, because you can often just take SP and then take wood again for your first action!
In other modes, the card is pretty horrible. The increased number of players means it is less likely that you are going to have the stacked wood get back to you. Moreover, food is much less important in the other modes than in 2-p.
Rating:
. Basketmaker's Workshop
My group affectionately calls this the "Reedery." In general, the Joinery, Pottery and Reedery are all somewhat clunky - the early stone makes them prohibitively expensive to buy as early sources of food, and games of Agricola usually are balanced to prevent you from easily massing resources for the bonus points (with the exception of clay in 5-p).
However, their mere presence affects the game tremendously, because it means that there is always an incentive to deny your opponents from a resource they need but you don't. While often this implicit threat is never followed up on, the threat is always there.
Although the Pottery can be very strong in larger games, I've found the Basketmaker's Workshop to be the best overall. The extra food per harvest is important when it comes to justifying the action used to buy it. In 2-p, it is sometimes possible to deny your opponent reed for the entire early game, shutting down their family growth. The Reedery is an excellent way to actually use that reed. In 4-p, the card is helped tremendously by the RSF spot. Just take RSF twice and you are good to go.
Rating:
. Beanfield
The prerequisite should pretty much always be met by the time you want to plant vegetables. One VP minor improvements for no cost are usually worth it every game, and the fact that the Beanfield has a genuinely useful ability makes it a must play once you've got 2 occs out.
Rating:
. Beehive
The prerequisite is no picnic, but sometimes my occupations are good enough that I eventually get this guy out. When that happens, I get about 4 food - that's pretty good for a 1 VP card that cost me nothing.
This usually isn't worth rushing, as the 2 improvement requirement should slow you down quite a bit. Also, the effect isn't large enough to generally be worth it.
Rating:
. Boar Breeding
I rarely find myself comboing this card with other boar cards to get early boar, simply because there aren't too many early boar cards that are worth playing.
This card has the most use if you are baking and don't plan on ever taking boar. 2 VP and starting player for 1 food is a decent deal. If you are a rancher, you're usually just spending 1 food to get 3 food - not that great a deal.
Rating:
. Bookshelf
1W for 1VP is an ok deal by itself, so this doesn't need to give a huge benefit to be worth it. You won't always be in a situation where you have played three occupations and plan on playing another, but if you are this is usually worth it. It can get very silly when comboed with cards like the Educator or Perpetual Student.
Rating:
. Bread Paddle
Bake bread actions are always valuable, and it's sometimes hard to maximize the efficiency of the Sow/Bake Bread action. Sometimes, you just want to bake bread.
Unfortunately, triggering off of occupations is undeniably awkward; by the time you actually need that baking action, you should be in at least the third stage. By then, most of your actually good occupations should already be on the table. Still, while it's a clunky solution, it's still a solution.
Rating:
. Brewery
You are going to need tons of grain for this to be a good play, and even then the stone will prevent you from getting it out anywhere close to the early game. However, if you've got something like the Grain Cart or Fieldsman, you should probably go ahead and play it sometime in the mid to late game. It should be worth a few food and 2-3 victory points depending on just how insane your grain engine is.
Rating:
. Broom
Of all the minor improvements in the game, the Broom and the Reed Hut are probably the closest to being actually broken. While drawing cards clearly isn't as strong in Agricola as it is in a game like Magic: the Gathering, the "draw 7" vibe still harkens back to several ridiculously overpowered cards in MtG's history.
Interestingly enough, this is one of the few cards that gets substantially weaker if you employ some sort of drafting. For obvious reasons, it's usually a good idea to play the Broom after you've played all of the desirable improvements in your starting hand. If you've been drafting, that should take longer than if you started with 7 random cards.
Still, even with drafting, God help the poor souls who have to play against someone that's drawn this and the Braggart.
Rating:
. Brushwood Roof
The lack of a VP hurts, and sometimes wood is just as hard to get as reed. Also, you won't always have time to play occupations before you want to build rooms the first time, which is when this card's effect is strongest. Still, being able to avoid the reed race and focus on denying wood can catch your opponents off-balance.
Rating:
. Builder's Trowel
I find myself skipping this a lot of the time. I don't like paying 1W for something I could have done for free, and the fact that you can't play a major improvement along the way further reduces the card's efficiency. Sometimes you'll look at your hand after you FG and have nothing better to play, but you're not losing much value by just keeping it in your hand.
The value of the card goes up, however, if you plan on playing an occupation that requires you to renovate to clay quickly. It's also slightly better in larger games, where getting blocked from renovation becomes more of an issue.
Rating:
. Building Material
Even though this looks extremely weak, it's actually a fine card. Sometimes you really need SP and have nothing else to play. The flexibility of whether you get a clay or a wood is also nice. Also, the fact that it looks so bad means that the person you pass it to is less likely to take SP with it any time in the near future.
Like all the "pass to the left" cards, however, this can be a bit pointless in 2-p. Sometimes your opponent will simply retake SP with it and get pretty much an identical benefit, leaving you about where you started.
Rating:
. Butter Churn
2W is a little too much for what this does. It's pretty rare to be lucky enough to have a bunch of cattle AND sheep, so most of the time this will play like an overcosted spindle.
Rating:
. Canoe
You won't always have 2 Occupations to play in the early game, which will often delay playing this to the point that it's not worth it anymore. Still, 1F and 1R is a nice benefit, even if you're unlikely to take fishing more than twice.
Rating:
. Carp Pond
The prerequisites should be trivially easy to meet by the midgame, and free 1VP minors that give some small benefit are always worth playing. You should probably get used to me saying that, because this isn't the last time you're going to hear it.
Rating:
. Cattle Market
This is almost never worth playing. Obviously the temptation here is to try to get early cattle with this, but if you have a sheep to give to this, it's probably more efficient to just breed the sheep you spent an action taking (you didn't just take ONE sheep, did you?). Yes, I'm aware of the animal spot in 5-p. Even then, taking 1 sheep, then trading it for a cow, and then taking a cow just seems like a waste of time. Why don't you just take 1 cow twice?
The only use this card tends to have is as a bad, highly conditional horse. If you have some awkward number of sheep near the end of the game and haven't managed to get cattle, go ahead and play it.
Rating:
. Ceramics
This is a pet favorite. One clay for 2 food isn't even that bad a deal by itself (see: the Potter), and then later you can retake SP with a free 2VP improvement to go with it. Not only is this a must-play if you have an oven, it should actually be a small incentive to go baking.
Rating:
. Chicken Coop
With no prerequisite and a flexible cost, it's usually pretty easy to get this out for the full 8 food. That's an amazing deal when you factor in the 1 VP. The only time this isn't an absolute must-play is in 3-p, where sometimes you won't be able to spare the reed. For every other mode, this is one of the best improvements in the game.
Rating:
. Clapper
This can give you a lot of grain near the end of the game if you're one of the lucky ones to get FG w/o room. It can also delay having to resow your grain fields when you FG in stage 2, which can be surprisingly helpful.
Rating:
. Clay Deposit
1F is often well worth 5 clay, so you need to be careful about when, if ever, you play this card. You don't want to be giving your opponents options! Moreover, the benefit this gives you is just about as dubious - even if you want clay, if you spend an action to play it and an action to use it, you've spent 2 actions for 5 clay - that's pretty mediocre. The choice to take 2 VP is fine, but usually you'll have a way to do that anyway, whether it's by plowing fields or taking singleton animals to stay in your home.
Overall, the high occupation requirement, zero VPs and questionable benefit makes it one of the worst cards you can draw. The only real use I see for it is as a desperation move in 2-p, after your opponent has denied you clay.
Rating:
. Clay Hut Extension
This card is pretty much garbage in 2-p and 3-p. There just isn't enough clay to ever get this going, and once you're there, the benefit is not large.
Everything changes when you get to 4-p or 5-p. There, clay is plentiful enough that you should be able to get enough to renovate and play this with a little effort. In 4-p, especially, this is incredibly crushing. The single Build Room(s) and Family Growth spots cause the game to be centered almost exclusively on successfully playing on them. The Clay Hut Extension essentially secures BOTH, since you bypass the Build Rooms spot and then get to FG with your first action in the next round. The effect feels unfair, and is usually worth the extra work required to renovate early.
Rating:
. Clay Oven
This is the key component of a "baking" strategy; the Stone Oven is unlikely to be purchased early, if at all.
Unfortunately, the baking strategy is often too clunky to work; you sorely need help from cards to make baking as viable as ranching. Getting two grain fields sown takes an enormous amount of actions, but is often a necessity to get your engine going. In 2-p and 3-p, finding early stone for the oven is often a problem. In 4-p and 5-p, your dependence on the single "sow/bake" spot can be a huge weakness, as that space often becomes overcrowded with a large number of players.
That said, ignoring the option altogether is a clear mistake; if you have the cards for it, baking can be an amazingly powerful food engine. No one can deny the pure, brutal efficiency of 5F for 1G.
Rating:
. Clay Path
Three clay for 3VP is a decent deal. This is at its best in games with many players, where clay is plentiful.
Rating:
. Clay Pit
Even if you don't need clay, the free cost and 1VP will often be enough if you have three occupations out. If you actually do need clay, this can be an amazing boon. 3C2F is pretty efficient for just one action. In 2-p the effect is extremely strong, and I often find myself playing mediocre occupations just to get this out. In the other player modes, it can be a nice (albeit conditional) play if you are already bringing a lot of occupations out.
Rating:
. Clay Roof
I'm not sure how this card was ever perceived as fair in development. Free 1VP occupations with inconsequential prerequisites are pretty much always worth playing, but in this case the extra ability is quite powerful.
The only caveat is that you should be careful that you're not giving your opponents easy access to reed. For instance, if you're in a 3-p game and have a choice between 3C and 2R, you should consider taking the 2R to deny your opponents.
As long as you're playing smartly, however, this card is borderline overpowered and a must play whenever you draw it.
Rating:
. Clay Supports
If you only build one clay room, this is a very marginal play that won't affect the game much; as a result, you should only be building this when you plan on making at least 2 clay rooms. The question, then, is whether it is worth renovating to clay early to play this. In 2-p and 3-p, the answer is probably no without further help from your hand. However, in 4-p and 5-p, clay is common enough that if your opponents are hogging wood, this might be a good alternative.
Rating:
. Clogs
Paying 1W for 1VP is already decent, and paying 1W for 2VP is even better. You were planning on renovating, weren't you?
Rating:
. Cooking Corner
2VP + SP for free is already a fantastic deal; the extra food from veggies is just a small bonus. This is a must play every time you get a Cooking Hearth, and a moderate incentive to go ranching. Just be careful not to return your Cooking Hearth too early; if someone ends up buying the Hearth a second time, it means you've probably helped them in the long run.
Rating:
. Cooking Hearth
Not only is the Cooking Hearth the most versatile major for feeding in the game, it also offers reasonable efficiency no matter what you end up doing. As a result, this is Agricola's default cooking implement; if you get something else, you should have a good reason for it.
Rating:
. Cooking Hearth (minor improvement)
The Cooking Hearth minor improvement is almost always a great card to have in your hand. In small games where clay is tight and the most common way to a hearth is to upgrade your fireplace, this adds SP to a play you were probably going to make anyway. In larger games, it prevents you from getting shut out from one of the two Cooking Hearths.
Rating:
. Copse
The 2W cost makes this card horrendous. You need to wait for three
harvests before you see a profit in wood, which simply isn't worth the early 4W investment (you should be using that for your house!). If you're looking for VP, a stable is exactly the same cost, doesn't require an action, and will probably provide a much more substantial benefit.
Most of the time I would rather play nothing when I take SP than play the Copse.
Rating:
. Corn Scoop
This is an amazing addition to any baking strategy. If you're trying to get two grain fields sown it will save you an action, and it can also be used to forgo the need for two grain fields entirely - just take grain again when you run out.
The main reason this isn't a five star card is that it's pretty lame when you choose not to buy an oven. Maybe you have animal yard and sheep farmer in your hand. What then? If all of your cards point to animals and you have the corn scoop, are you really just going to ignore the rest of your hand and play it?
Rating:
. Corn Sheaf
This is a card that's very easy to overuse. If you're not planning on using the early grain, don't play this early! The card is popular enough that it will quickly get passed around after that, and your opponents will get at least as much benefit as you did. Like all of the "pass" cards, the fact that you have to pass this to your lefthand opponent hurts, as he or she is the person that you least want to take SP.
That said, this is still an excellent card provided that you make sure you are breaking its inherent symmetry. Either use it early so that you can get a grain engine going, or wait till one of the final rounds to ensure that your opponents don't have much time to use it, then eliminate a negative. The card's value also increases if your opponents have already taken grain; the second grain isn't nearly as valuable as the first.
Rating:
. Corn Storehouse
If you actually have grain sown early enough to care about a card like this, then you're probably going to need to sow anyway just so that you can bake. As a result, this has dubious utility unless you have a way to get free bake actions, and those are fairly rare. Most of the time the huge cost of the card isn't worth it - just compare this to Chicken Coop.
Rating:
. Crooked Plow
The Crooked Plow is my vote for best plow in the game (and consequently one of the best improvements, period). The occupation requirement is trivial, and the three wood this takes is well worth the cost. Even if you don't plan on planting anything in the fields, this is a 4 point play with SP tacked on for good measure. You can't beat that.
Rating:
. Dovecote
Two VPs for two stone is pretty much par, and the food you get can be a nice boost. Nonetheless, when you play this card, you need to make sure that you're not blowing your chance at a stone renovation. Consider this card a luxury - if you have plenty of rocks then you might as well, but you're not losing too much value just leaving this in your hand.
Rating:
. Drinking Trough
It's important to note that a stable is superior to a Drinking Trough until you have at least 2 pastures. This is a significant weakness, since early pastures are usually a bad deal. The reason for this is that if you compare a single pasture to 2 stables, you can hold the same amount of animals, but the stables can be built as a "free" action when you build rooms. The pasture, on the other hand, requires a full action on its own.
That said, the Drinking Trough is still very efficient at increasing your animal capacity once you have a couple of small pastures up. While the improvement is often a mistake to play early, it can be a nice play in the mid to late game if you haven't built stables yet.
Rating:
. Duck Pond
The only reason this isn't a 5-star card is that I occasionally only want to play 1 occupation, and this is a small enough effect that it's not worth playing another subpar occupation just to get this out.
If you have 2 occupations out, you should pretty much always play this.
Rating:
. Feed Pellets
I hate ragging on completely free improvements, but this is definitely a niche ability. Veggies are worth 1 VP each, and animals after your first one are always less than 1 VP. This means that a lot of the time this is just not a good deal. There's also the awkwardness involved with having plentiful veggies AND fences with animals in them (but not too many animals!) - an uncommon situation to find yourself in, barring unusual circumstances.
The best use of this improvement is when an occupation like the Undergardener has given you a ton of veggies. Since you're probably going to easily max veggies, it can be nice to convert your excess crops into some extra victory points. The card can also be a clunky way to get a breeding pair of cattle - just take cattle at 1 and then trade in your veggie.
Usually, this will have a marginal benefit, at best. Still, it's hard to argue with the price-tag.
Rating:
. Field
This is such a nice deal that it's often a bad deal. If you play this card remotely early, you can pretty much count on your left hand opponent using it to take SP later. Like Corn Sheaf, you need some way to break the inherent symmetry of the card for this to be worth playing. If you plan on actually using the field to grow crops, then it's usually a good deal to play the card early. Otherwise, try to wait until the later rounds to play it, as this will hopefully minimize the number of players that will be able to use it after you.
Rating:
. Fireplace
There are two things that drive the early game: the battle for 5W and 2R, and the fight for the early fireplace. Winning the fireplace race is a boon, as it can singlehandedly ensure a windfall of early game mutton. Your opponents will be forced to watch the sheep pile up, knowing that the moment they make a move towards acquiring them, you will snatch them up. And so, oftentimes, no one will do anything toward acquiring them, instead fighting amongst each other for other early game sources of food. And the sheep will continue to build up, doomed to eventually be cooked in your kitchen.
There are two things to be careful of. The first is that occasionally someone to your left will take SP, inadvertently giving one of your right-hand opponents a 2-action window to build fences/cookery and then snatch them up. The second is if an opponent has one of the few improvement cards that can break your choke-hold (Animal Yard and Simple Fireplace are both good examples).
As such, the early fireplace is an interesting exercise in risk assessment. The longer you wait, the bigger the reward, but the greater chance that the game's inherently chaotic nature will let your sheep escape to someone else's farm.
In most games, the 3-clay fireplace is usually not worth the buy. The main power of the fireplace is not for its late-game staying power (barring strange games where you manage to only feed on sheep, you will usually want to upgrade to a Cooking Hearth), but for its strategic early game value. The exception to this is 2-p games, where clay is tight enough to make a 4-clay grab pretty much a pipe dream. Moreover, animals are tight enough that if you don't eventually buy some animal cookery in a heads up match, your opponent will become flooded with readily available food.
If you find yourself with a fireplace, it's often worth making the upgrade to a Cooking Hearth. However, there are certainly times when secondary food sources like the Well will be able to let you subsist entirely on sheep.
The three clay fireplace is a three star card, while the two clay fireplace is easily a five star card. The rating below reflects an average of the two.
Rating:
. Fish Trap
Is 1W worth the 2-5 food you'll eventually get from it? Probably, but since you have to play this early, you won't always be able to spare the wood and half-action for such a small effect. The card becomes stronger in 4-p, where it combos very nicely with the RSF spot.
Rating:
. Fishing Rod
Clearly worse than the Fish Trap, as you'd much rather be getting food as a bonus from reed (something that you usually want anyway) than on fishing, which is both unreliable and gives no benefit other than food. Still, this will probably give a comparable amount of food over time.
Rating:
. Flagon
A cute, well-designed card. Usually worth spitting out if the Well purchase is a sure thing, or better yet, already purchased.
Rating:
. Flail
When you're following the baking route, there can be times later on where all you want to do is bake bread. In those situations, this card can increase your efficiency, as plowing is pretty much always a good action, whereas sowing requires empty fields.
Unfortunately, this card suffers from the same problem that the Builder's Trowel has - since you had to spend a half action and a wood playing it, it doesn't really save you an action. Moreover, often extra bake bread actions are unnecessary even when you're baking.
However, the value of the the card definitely goes up as you increase the number of players in the game. In 4-p and 5-p, it's not uncommon to get blocked from the sow/bake spot, and this can be a great way around this problem.
Rating:
. Forest Pasture
This will always be a conditional card, but can be a boon in the small subset of games that it's useful. If you have been cut off from wood, this can be a wonderful way to start breeding boar. The main barrier to entry is getting 3 occs out before the boar stacks at 2, and then actually getting those boar to start breeding them.
Rating:
. Fruit Tree
Getting three occs out before round 8 is tough, so you won't be getting the full food bonus a lot of the time. Still, even if you only get 3-4 food out of this, it's always worth playing. There's enough of a potential reward here that it can even be worth rushing out in the midgame.
While most 3 occ improvements are conditional on you having good occupations, this gets the extra star simply because its effect is usually tempting enough to get it out even if one of my occupations is a subpar action. A potential 7 food for no cost is very strong.
Rating:
. Goose Pond
Almost strictly worse than the Fruit Tree, but still worth playing if you can meet the prerequisites. Unlike the Fruit Tree, this is clearly never worth rushing.
Rating:
. Grain Cart
Although the prerequisites and cost require some work, this card is a powerhouse. It completely circumvents the usual downside of baking, which is that you have to get 2 grain fields sown early. With this card, 1 or 2 "Take Grain" actions should be enough to keep you baking for quite some time. You probably won't have to sow at all until the 3rd harvest, and even that can be circumvented if you have an alternative way to get bake actions.
Rating:
. Granary
This is prohibitively expensive for its effect. Due to its low VP efficiency, grain is something best acquired early or not at all. Unless you're playing some funky baking strategy that's light on grain fields, you will probably always have something better to do in the early game with your 3 wood/clay.
Rating:
. Greenhouse
With practically no prerequisite and a very cheap cost, this is a great card. Played early, this can get you a vegetable to sow before the second harvest. Played in round 7, it's still almost a straight up 4VP play for 2W (1 from the improvement, 2 for your first veggie, one for your second), as one food should usually be pretty easy to get by rounds 11 and 14.
Rating:
. Guest
This suffers from the same problem as Adoptive Parents. Since the guest is played after you have already placed your other family members, chances are you and your opponents will have already taken the good spots off of the board. As a result, the value that his action gives you sometimes won't be appreciably better than the two food it cost to play him.
Still, his unusual cost sets him apart - sometimes he'll be the only improvement you can afford when you take SP or FG, and in that case he's often a pretty good deal.
Rating:
. Gypsy's Crock
With judicious use of your cookery, you can expect to get maybe 3-5 food over the course of the rest of the game. Throw in the VP, and this is a reasonable deal if you can spare the clay.
Rating:
. Half-Timbered House
In order to actually use this card, you'll need to plan accordingly so that you end up with the right amount of every resource by the end of the game, all while ensuring your stone renovation. Doing this is usually too tricky to be worth the effort, and being forced to make an extra resource grab or two just to play this can severely cut down on the card's VP efficiency.
Playing this off of your round 14 stone renovation is always a rush, but if you had enough actions in the end game to gather the necessary resources and play the card, you probably were going to win anyway.
Rating:
. Hand Mill
Usually you don't even want to convert grain to food at fireplace level efficiency, even as a free action. You're probably better off using the stone for your clay oven.
Rating:
. Harrow
Is 2W and an action worth a field, assuming you were taking SP anyway? In most cases the answer is probably yes, but not if you have anything better to play.
An interesting question is whether the second clause on the card is an "ability" or not. In 2-p it is clearly not; your opponent should only be making the trade if she thinks it benefits her more than it benefits you. However, in 4-p and 5-p, cooperation and trading become much more viable from a game-theory standpoint. Chances are that there will be times where paying you the food for the extra plow will be mutually beneficial to both parties.
In 2-p and 3-p games, this is usually a dubious play, at best. The benefit it gives you is pretty small, and it has a chance of giving your opponents a "free" plow if food ends up being plentiful in the game. In 4-p and 5-p, food is usually plentiful enough that you can expect everyone to use it eventually. This will give you a ton of food, but most of it will come in the late game. However, you probably won't end up on fields.
Rating:
. Helpful Neighbors
Building Materials gives you something for nothing, while this forces you to pay a different resource. The reduced flexibility makes this a generally worse card, as it requires you to have an extra resource lying around that you have no other use for.
Rating:
. Herb Garden
Playing an occupation and getting a vegetable planted are both things you probably wanted to do anyway. Free VPs are generally worth playing in their own right, and getting 4-5 food only sweetens the deal.
Rating:
. Holiday House
This card is abysmally terrible and is easily the worst improvement in the game. Even if it was free, I probably wouldn't play it most of the time.
Rating:
. Horse
This card would have been playable if it had only given 1 point. As is, it's amazing. I'd talk some more about how good free VP cards are, but I've repeated myself so much that I'm getting a bit hoarse.
Rating:
. House Goat
Best improvement in the game? This is my pick. 6 food and 1 VP for free, with no prerequisite, is obscene. You should literally play him every time he's in your hand. Just make sure that you don't forget about his drawback, as it definitely comes up. My group uses a decapitated animeeple boar to help the player remember; we call it the "Black Goat of the Woods."
Rating:
. Joinery
This is the worst of the three resource-to-food majors, because wood is so seldom available in such excess that you'd want to buy this. Early game, you should be using the wood for stables, rooms and random minor improvements. Late game, fences are usually a much better way to convert wood into VP.
Rating:
. Ladder
Obviously this is great if you happen to have the Half-Timbered House or the Chicken Coop, as both improvements become very strong when their reed cost is negated. Unfortunately, most of the other improvements listed are pretty horrible, and probably aren't worth the effort even with the reduced reed cost. Thank Rosenberg that this doesn't reduce the Reed Hut's cost.
As a whole, the main benefit is going to be the free renovations and discounted rooms. At the end of the day, this can save you 4-5 reed, which is a pretty sweet deal for 2W. Still, the steep wood cost hurts when you consider that this needs to be played early to be worth it.
Rating:
. Landing Net
This card has a ton of value in every player mode, but its use changes drastically. In 2-p and 3-p, the primary use will be to try to starve your opponents out of reed by taking it at 1 every round. While there are some counters to this strategy (Clay Roof, Reed Exchange, etc), a lot of the time your opponents are going to be unable to grow their family. This can turn into a soul-crushing advantage in the mid-game.
In 4-p and 5-p, the use will morph into using the early reed taken from RSF or RSW to get a powerful mini-food engine going on those same spots.
Rating:
. Lasso
This card is almost unplayable in 2-p and 3-p. In 2-p animals are very easy to get, so they are seldom a premium spot. In 3-p, reed is so scarce that often you can't spare even one without spending a full additional action to acquire it. However, in 4-p and 5-p, when animals are much scarcer per player, the animal spot is often a great spot. Moreover, reed is easier to get. In these games, the Lasso is amazingly strong and arguably one of the best improvements you could hope to draw.
Rating:
. Lettuce Patch
Compared to the Beanfield, the minor upgrade doesn't quite make up for the increased Occupation requirement. It's still a must play if you've been playing an occupation heavy game, but probably isn't worth the effort if you only have 1 or 2 good occupations in your hand (which is often the case).
Rating:
. Liquid Manure
Liquid Manure has marginal use if you take SP in round 11 and Plow and/or Sow comes up round 12. If you have a grain and a veggie, it can be an extra two points, which is pretty good. However, this is a pretty narrow scenario. Most of the time, you'll either have lots of animals or lots of fields to sow, but not both.
Rating:
. Loom
The Loom can give a nice amount of bonus food if you're herding sheep, with 2-3 bonus points at the end. Like the Milking Stool, this is well worth the wood if you plan on getting lots of the relevant animal. Still, this isn't quite as strong as the Milking Stool simply because it costs 2W and not 1. Since fencing for early sheep already requires a lot of early wood, the cost can be surprisingly tight when combined with the 5W you need for early family growth.
Rating:
. Lumber
While this is always a somewhat conditional play, 1S for 3W is pretty efficient. In 2-p, stone is fairly plentiful and wood (like always) is not, making it a good late game play (your opponent won't usually be able to use it himself). In 4-p, this is a great way to use the excess stone you got from the RSF spot - stone is an inherently late game resource, so being able to efficiently trade it for an early-game one can be helpful.
Rating:
. Madonna Statue
The best cards in the deck are ones that give VP for no cost. Ironically, this means that the Madonna Statue is pretty bad, despite being a card that gives VP for no cost! Most of the time, you simply won't have two improvements that aren't worth VP sitting around. Instead, you'll usually have to chuck a 1VP improvement along with a no VP improvement, and with no additional benefit this usually isn't a good deal.
Rating:
. Manger
This card has awkwardness written all over it. In general, I dislike cards that force me to play differently to get their benefit. I want cards that reward me for playing the way I would have normally, which is to get a 3-4 room stone house, 3-5 fields plowed and a 6 space set of 3-4 pastures. In this case, however, the 4VP bonus is often too much to pass up.
1 point is not worth 2W, so you're never playing this with the intention of 6 spaces worth of pastures. Furthermore, there's no non-idiotic setup that lets you fence 7 pastures. Try it; it just doesn't work. So if you play the Manger, it's with the intention of going all-in and fencing 8 or 9 spaces.
This strategy requires a ton of wood that you're usually not guaranteed to have by the end of the game, so it can be risky. Whether you're fencing 8 or 9 spaces, you need a minimum 14 wood - 12 to fence either a 3x3 or 4x2 square, and 2 to play the manger.
This card becomes difficult to use if you are trying to breed animals early, since you can't build a mid-sized pasture without running out of fences. So you will usually be playing this card when you are either baking or have some other alternate source of food.
However, all of this effort and commitment to this card leads to 3 or 4 points for 2W. This is undeniably efficient. The fact that you aren't spending much more effort on your farm (you will probably only have 2 or 3 fields) frees up actions to buy VP improvements.
Rating:
. Mansion
Haha, yeah right. Keep dreaming.
Let's say, hypothetically, that you actually manage to get this out with a four room stone house. If you look at the cost, 3W, 3C, 2R, and 3S are all hefty enough amounts to represent a full action to collect, so you will have spent at least 4 moves to score those 8 points. For all the effort involved, that's hardly impressive. You probably could have used those moves elsewhere to score points just as efficiently, with less risk of your massive plan falling through.
The only time when this is really worth playing is when you have a card that enables you to cheaply build rooms. If you are able to get to 5 or even 6 rooms, playing the Mansion goes from being a wildly inefficient powerplay to an absolute blowout. This won't happen very often, but you'll sure remember it when it does.
Rating:
. Manure
It's seldom a good idea to pursue both heavy crops and heavy ranching until near the end of the game. Usually, you only have time to pick one or the other in order to feed yourself. This makes the Manure of dubious value; either you'll be herding animals and won't have any crops, or you'll be concentrating on crops and won't have the infrastructure built to hold two animals!
While this eventually changes near the end of the game, by then most of the rounds are going to be ending in harvests anyway. Furthermore, having the crops come off usually won't even matter, since they're going to be scored either way.
Rating:
.Market Stall
As a note, this shouldn't be thought of as a way to get an early veggie. Even early, a single veggie isn't worth 2 actions, which is usually what playing this card early requires. Rather, the best use is as a way for someone who has a plentiful grain engine to save themselves a half action getting the veggie they need in the mid to late game. Of course, either way the card doesn't get played often.
Rating:
. Milking Shed
The cost is a bit too much for the effect. Even in large games there are still only so many animals to go around, and the first few sheep usually end up getting devoured by the early fireplace anyway. It's also somewhat dependent on your opponents, who can choose to slaughter a sheep or two to screw you. Granted, this will probably only happen in the most hardcore of gaming circles! Still, at best the effect will be somewhat random, making it hard.to plan with.
Most of the time, it's probably a better idea to just buy the Well or the Pottery.
Rating:
Milking Stool
The Milking Hand is a perfectly playable occupation, and this is almost strictly better! If you can pick up a pair of cattle before the end of stage 5, it'll be worth 3 food and 2 VP. That's an amazing deal for 1W, and things just get silly if you have an occupation that enables early cattle.
Rating:
Millstone
I love this card with the clay oven. 7 food for 1G is absurdly efficient, and you should have no problem feeding your family with even a modest grain engine. By the end of the game, this will probably have given you 6 or 8 food. That's pretty sick for 1S.
Rating:
Mini Pasture
This is a fantastic way to get an early breeding pair of sheep. The four wood that this saves you is easily worth the the two food; in most games, 4W is a premium spot while Day Laborer is seldom even taken! Add in the "free" fencing action that comes with it, and this is a very strong card, whether you're powering it out early to jack someone else's sheep or sneaking it out late for the 2 points. As usual, the main concern is your left-hand opponent playing it himself, but in this case being the first to fence a pasture is usually worth it.
Rating:
. Moldboard Plow
In my version, the card is apparently miss-printed, allowing the player to plow an extra field once, not twice. Depending on what your version is, this is either a must play improvement that surpasses the Crooked Plow, or an underwhelming but sometimes serviceable play.
As printed in my version, a lot of people underrate this plow, which might have something to do with the fact that it has "mold" in its name (ewww!). Still, think of it this way: if you value plowing a field at one action and 2W at a little less than one action (3W for 1 action is usually the default), this is a good trade if you have nothing better to do with your SP/FG. The lack of any prerequisites and somewhat useful effect sometimes make it worth the effect.
If you get two extra fields, the card becomes fantastic, and better than the crooked plow. You're probably going to be plowing twice during the game anyway, so at a bare minimum you are paying 2W for 4 VPs.
Rating:
. Outhouse
I hate this card. Just compare this to the Horse, which is free and has a much easier prerequisite. Usually by the time you're willing to trade wood and clay for straight-up VPs, your opponent's will have played out two occupations anyway. This probably would have been fairly costed at 1C.
Rating:
. Ox Team
Just once I'd like to get this card with the Animal Breeder. POW! 3 fields for one action. Take that, Crooked Plow!
However, when you're not in magical Christmas land where you've acquired cattle earlier than you should, the card becomes awkward. If your plan is to acquire cattle fairly, there are two problems. First, you're going to have to fight the other players for them (2 cattle is a premium spot in just about any Agricola game). Second, half the time cattle are going to come out in round 11, which will translate to only getting 2 fields, not 3. Finally, after you acquire the cattle, there will be a very narrow window with which you can play this; wait too long, and the potential benefit evaporates.
As a result, in spite of its undeniable power, most of the time there will be too many hoops to jump through to bank on this card.
Rating:
. Paved Road
Where the heck are you going to get 5 stone? Even in 2-p, where stone is pretty easy to get, there's almost no way you're going to renovate and be able to play this. Compare this to the Well, which costs less stone, gives an actual benefit, and is worth the same amount of VPs.
Rating:
. Pelts
Trading food for VPs on a 1 to 1 basis can be reasonably powerful late game, but the 3 occupation requirement makes this clunky. Usually it's best to let the solo players break this card.
Rating:
. Plane
First off, almost no one buys a Joinery, making a card that enhances it automatically dubious in value. Second, even if you have the Joinery somehow, the card costs 1W! Since each wood is worth 2 food, you won't actually be profiting from the card until you use the Joinery 3 times. If you actually plan on using the Joinery 3 times, the question becomes: where are you getting all this extra wood, and why are you not using it for room extension/fencing?
Rating:
. Planter Box
I like this card a lot. It's not only free, but has a powerful effect, potentially giving upwards of 4 grain and 2 veggies if used aggressively. A lot of people cross their eyes at the phrase "orthogonally adjacent" and immediately assume that the card is more trouble than it's worth, but honestly it's not too hard to get 2 or 3 fields plowed next to your house. The main issue is timing the card properly. The two occ requirement limits the card's use to the midgame, where getting a bunch of grain sown is less desirable.
However, even if you can't exactly rush it out early, the extra veggies alone often make the card too good to pass up. If you plant a grain and a veggie with it out, the card has probably scored you two points. That's an excellent deal for a free card. If you're planning on sowing a lot, this is usually worth it.
Rating:
. Potato Dibber
If you sow a single vegetable once, this card is worth 1VP - that's already a decent deal for 1W. If you plan on sowing vegetables more than once, it becomes worth 2 or more points and a great deal. Since nearly every good endgame strategy involves sowing vegetables at least once, this is usually worth playing. Don't get me started on how silly this card becomes if you have an occupation that provides early vegetables.
The card is interesting to compare to the Planter's Box. On one hand the Planter's Box is clearly a stronger and cheaper card. However, Potato Dibber can be played in the early game, and being able to play Dibber to set up an early 2R grab can be crucial. The fact that the two improvements are roughly equal in my book speaks volumes for how much timing affects the value of minor improvements.
Rating:
. Pottery
This might be the best of the three in large games, where clay is easy to obtain in bulk. In smaller games, clay is usually tight enough that this card seldom comes up without something game-warping like the Clay Mixer.
Rating:
. Private Forest
A deceptively weak card. While it looks amazing on paper, there are two problems with it. The first is that the 2 food cost is substantial when the card pretty much has to be played in stage 1 to be any good. Second, while 7 wood sounds like a lot, the fact that the wood is taken from the supply rather than off the board makes it considerably less valuable, since it doesn't deny your opponents. Finally, wood reduces in value of the course of the game, so that by the final round it's not worth nearly as much as it was in stage 1.
Often, the food cost implies that you will have to spend an extra action gathering food in stage 1.If you compare playing Private Forest and then taking Day Laborer to just taking 3 Wood twice, the latter is clearly superior. I'd rather have 6 wood now and deny my opponents in the process than receive 7 wood in the distant future.
As a result, if I want to take SP in Round 1 and I have this card, I'll go ahead play it (the fact that it doesn't require any non-food resources to play is nice early). However, if someone else takes SP and I miss my 1 round window, I'm not too fussed about leaving it in my hand.
Rating:
. Punner
If you can catch someone with this after they've played a plow but before they've used it, this is definitely worth the action. Of course, plows are pretty rare, so most of the time this will just sit in your hand.
Rating:
. Quarry
Better than the Animal Pen, because you have much more time to get the necessary 4 occs out. Even if you wait to play this until round 12, the 6 or 9 stone you'll be able to get will easily be enough for whatever you were planning to do.
Rating:
. Raft
This can be a nice out if reed is tight. The VP makes it just about worth the price if you plan on fishing twice.
Rating:
. Rake
Two VPs for 1W is always a good deal, but if you're not baking, chances are it will be a bit of a stretch to get to five fields. Ranchers tend to put off plowing till the later stages of the game, and usually won't have enough time to get the bonus.
This also works awkwardly with plows, since more than 5 fields is usually a waste of space due to Agricola's scoring cap on fields, veggies and grain.
Rating:
. Reed Exchange
Similar to the Raft, this can be a nice way out if all of the reed gets taken by your opponents. This is obviously best in 2-p and 3-p games, where reed is a key resource. In 4-p and 5-p, reed is plentiful enough to give this more limited utility. Still, in some cases it can save you a full action that you would have otherwise had to spend on reed.
Rating:
. Reed Hut
Played early, this pretty much wins the game on the spot. The card is a surprise punch in the gut. After you have 2 reed, your opponents may often let you easily get your 3rd and 4th reed, reasoning that it isn't worth much to you.
If you can get 4 reed early, it's very difficult to lose. The Reed Hut plays like an even more powerful Lover: unlike the Lover, you can continue to expand your family after you've played the card. Also, while the Lover can be denied food after it has been played, once a person plays the reed hut, you have pretty much already lost.
In 3-p, the card is reasonably balanced by the fact that reed is extremely scarce; most of the time, your opponents simply aren't going to let you get 4 reed if they're even reasonably competent. In other player modes, however, the card is borderline broken. I've considered removing it from the deck multiple times.
Rating:
. Reed Pond
In 3-p, this card can engineer blowouts. While the other players are scrambling for the reed, you can just play out occupations and then this, avoiding the fight altogether. In other modes, playing this late will sometimes save you a full action, as you won't have to make a reed grab for renovation. While three occupations is a lot, this has a strong enough effect to usually be worth prioritizing.
Rating:
. Riding Plow
While its power is undeniable, this is my least favorite plow. For one, the 4W, 3 Occ price tag is extremely steep. Second, since every field after the 5th is generally unnecessary, maximizing the plow's value requires that you don't plow a single field before you play the card out. Even then, you still get an almost useless 6th field.
Many times I've seen players excitedly play this card out, only to be disappointed in their final score. A lot of the time, the exorbitant cost on the card (coupled with the hidden cost of not being able to plow for almost the entire game) make it more trouble than it's worth.
Rating:
. Sack Cart
By the time you have 2 occupations out, it's usually past round 5 anyway, but even then 2W for an eventual 3G is a decent deal. This card can have a lot of value for supporting a baking strategy that doesn't sow early grain. Having to sow one or two fields of grain is a traditional weakness of baking, since it delays FG. The Sack Cart can help offset this.
Rating:
. Sawhorse
Fencing is one of the best ways to get points in Agricola. This saves wood doing something you were probably going to do anyway. Since it pays for itself the moment you build a stable, this is nearly always worth playing before you build rooms.
Rating:
. Sawmill
Obviously worth playing if you've purchased the Joinery, but no one ever actually purchases the Joinery. Furthermore, this isn't enough incentive to buy an intrinsically weak card.
Rating:
. Schnaps Distillery
The 1 vegetable cost sinks this card. The card is worthless unless you happen to have an occupation that gives early vegetables. Even then, this is a crummy card for food purposes, as it's more efficient to just use a Cooking Hearth to eat the vegetable you would have used to play this. This makes it a highly conditional points play near the end of the game.
Rating:
. Shepherd's Crook
2 sheep for 1 wood is an amazing deal, pure and simple. Unfortunately, the huge requirement of wood (9!) prevents this from being useful in the early game. If you're planning on using sheep for early food, you probably have better options. However, for someone who's found a way to eat early without sheep, you can't beat this efficiency as part of a mid to late game fence play.
Rating:
. Shepherd's Pipe
There's a bit of a chicken and egg problem here. Before you can get room for sheep, you have to have sheep! The optimal use for the card is to build a stable, get exactly two sheep, and use this to make room for your lamb in the next harvest. However, putting this narrow plan into action is difficult, as you won't always have time to play a minor improvement in the tiny window between getting the two sheep and going to harvest.
Rating:
. Simple Fireplace
This is another card that can ruin the early fireplace. If you take SP with it for the final round of actions, you will be able to eat the sheep (albeit inefficiently) and hose the fireplace buyer that was letting them accumulate. After that, the free upgrade to a Cooking Hearth should be able to get you a decent long-term feeding strategy.
Particularly in advanced games, when your opponents understand the importance of the first fireplace, this can be an excellent offensive tactical card. It can also be a reasonably cheap way to get a Cooking Hearth.
Rating:
. Slaughterhouse
In 2-p and 3-p this is practically a dead draw. The stone in the cost means that you won't be able to play it early. Additionally, the presence of only one or two other players give this dubious utility. There's a good chance that if someone is eating animals, that someone is you!
In 4-p and 5-p, this card obviously increases in value, both for the increased number of players and for the earlier access to stone. If you rush this out, it can ensure a hefty, albeit unreliable, windfall of food.
Rating:
. Sleeping Corner
The two grain field requirement usually means that this won't be relevant until FG w/o Room comes out. At that stage, depending on the number of players, its effect can range from huge to OK. In 2-p, you're usually better off denying your opponent from the square than passively preventing yourself from being denied.
Is the effect worth getting two grain fields sown if you're ranching? Probably not, since just getting those two fields sown will probably cost more actions than the FG w/o Room will give you, and grain is a pretty terrible way to score points in the end game. However, if you're already sowing grain, this can be aces in a crowded game.
Rating:
.Spices
Well, it's free, and you can't argue with that. Still, most of the time you don't end up eating vegetables, as they're too valuable in terms of points and come at an awkward stage in the game. Clearly if you plan on eating vegetables, this is a must-play. If you're not sure one way or the other, the fact that it's free means that either way it won't be too big of a mistake.
Rating:
. Spindle
If you plan on herding sheep, this is worth bringing out every time. Once you get to 3 sheep you will essentially be getting 3 food every harvest, since you can get 1 food in the field phase, then slaughter a sheep to make room for the lamb. All told, the Spindle should be a no mess 3-5 food, depending on how early you get your sheep.
Rating:
. Spinney
In 2-p this is sometimes worth rushing out. The lack of any other wood spot means that you can essentially starve your opponent out of wood completely in the mid to late game. It's almost never worth spending an action to get two wood and give your opponent one, so often you will be able to take the wood spot for the rest of the game. In all other modes, this has less of an effect, but is still an annoying card that will easily pay its cost back with interest, either by giving you the wood directly or dissuading an opponent from taking wood. You should think of this as a slight incentive to get to three occupations.
Rating:
. Spit Roast
This version of the Spindle is more flexible, albeit less powerful. Since you can hold a temporary sacrificial lamb in your house, it's not hard to get this to most of the harvests after you play it, making it good for at least 3-4 food. However, the downside is that if you sacrifice your final sheep to get the food bonus, you're going to have to grab sheep again in order to cancel out the negative.
Nonetheless, this comes out most of the time I plan on getting a Fireplace or Cooking Hearth.
Rating:
. Stable
One stable at half off is a pretty minor effect, since you will always have the option to buy full priced stables later, when you build rooms. As always, the immediate utility of this pass-card is diminished by the fact that your left-hand opponent will probably be playing it himself.
Still, you take what you can get, and often you won't have anything better to play.
Rating:
. Stone Cart
You generally can't get two occs and 2 spare wood too early, so often this will stay in your hand. However, in the games where you can play it early, it will deliver a hefty amount of stone - sometimes two actions worth.
Stone is probably the best resource to have delivered over time. Since it's primarily a late-game resource, you don't mind waiting for it.
Rating:
. Stone Exchange
Like the Reed Exchange, this is a nice out if you get cut out from stone to renovate. Since you generally tend to play this late, your opponents are unlikely to use it themselves. Still, two wood for two stone is hardly a back-breaking deal.
Rating:
. Stone House Extension
The value of the card is lessened by the simple existence of the Family Growth without Room spot. The more likely you are to get the spot, the less likely it is that this late-game card is going to help you grow your family. Viewed strictly as a 3 point play, the card is fairly underwhelming; both the Well and the Stone Oven are better with comparable cost. The fact that this is a minor isn't too relevant, since renovating to stone implies at least one chance to get a major.
Rating:
. Stone Oven
This is very much a niche play, as it gives fewer points than the Well and costs about the same. However, it should never be forgotten, as it can often be a fantastic way to feed your family in the final rounds. The extra bake action and 3VPs can make it a potent late game play.
Rating:
. Stone Tongs
This is fantastic and compares very favorably to cards like Stone Cart and Stone Exchange. Not only does it encourage you to deny your opponents stone, but it also gives the stone up front, so that you can use it immediately.
Rating:
. Straw-thatched Roof
The ability looks like a million dollars, but the prerequisite makes the card almost unplayable. Even in a heavy baking strategy, you seldom get more than two grain fields until near the end, when plow and sow comes out. By then, you're almost always done with building rooms and might have even renovated. At that stage, it'll only be worth 1 or 2 reed - hardly a power play.
This has some utility as a really bad reed pond in stage 5, but generally you'll never be able to meet the requirements fast enough to get much use out of the ability.
Rating:
. Strawberry Patch
The prerequisite is a pain, but free 2 VP minors with benefits can't be ignored. Also, you usually need 2 vegetable fields to max veggies anyway. This is almost the perfect card to take SP with in round 11, right before one of the powerful stage 5 actions comes out.
Rating:
. Swan Lake
With a four occupation requirement, you'd expect something amazing like the Animal Pen or the Quarry. This doesn't fit the bill by any stretch of imagination. If you already have 4 occupations out then you might as well play this, but it's very rare to naturally have a game where it's correct to play 4 of your occupations.
Rating:
. Swing Plow
The wood discount makes this more playable than the Riding Plow, but it suffers the same general problem: in order to maximize its utility, you have to play a bunch of occupations before you can plow any fields.
Rating:
. Tavern
The card's main uses are to
A) Randomly burn off some extra stone that you have lying around.
B) Prevent yourself from getting blocked from two point plays later in the game.
In 2-p and 3-p, this card is rubbish, since incentive B) rarely comes into play (usually there are plenty of ways to get two points). In 4-p and 5-p, it can have limited use simply because "two point" spots like PF and even 1 sheep can become hard to get near the end of the game.
Still, usually you will want to spend the stone and wood on something better.
Rating:
. Threshing Board
Pretty comparable to the Flail, really, but a little worse since you're less likely to want to spend 2W in the early game, even with a VP attached.
Rating:
. Turnip Field
Unlike the Lettuce Patch, which has a neat but fairly weak ability, the Turnip Field's free sow can be very powerful and often represents a full action saved. I sometimes play a mediocre occupation just to get this out.
Rating:
. Turnwrest Plow
Compared to the Crooked Plow, the ability to use this with your plow and/or sow doesn't quite make up for the increased occupation requirement. Nonetheless, this is still an excellent card that I almost always try to get out.
Rating:
. Village Well
This is a good incentive to get the Well early, as the Village Well makes it play almost like a 5 point Animal Pen. The Well is already a strong improvement to get, and this often pushes it over the top.
Also, who can deny the appeal of buying the Well, returning it, and then buying it again?
Rating:
. Water Mill
No opponent is ever going to use the Water Mill's terrible ability, and if you want to convert the grain to food yourself, a Clay Oven is just about 10 times more efficient (I did the calculations myself).
Overall, this is an ability-free card that costs more than the Half-Timbered House, but gives about half the points. What are the haps, Rosenberg?
Rating:
. Weekly Market
Except in the late game, even bakers can't afford to let go of three grain. They probably want to bake it!
Late game, unless you've gone absolutely nuts, the three grain should represent a full point. This makes the card not much better than just taking a vegetable the fair way.
Rating:
. Well
At 4 VP, the Well represents one of the most efficient ways to turn actions into points. In terms of resources to points, it's even more efficient than renovation! What's more, as a bonus you get some food to supplement your engine.
Nowadays my group rarely plays a game without someone buying the Well.
Rating:
. Wildlife Reserve
I love this card. It's a strict upgrade to an unfenced stable and has the same cost. It also supports exactly what you want to eventually do: get one of every animal.
Rating:
. Windmill
Early game, being able to convert 1G to 2F is too inefficient to be worth the substantial cost. Late game, there are more efficient ways to convert resources to points. You pretty much always have something better to do with the three wood.
Rating:
. Wood Cart
This card is barely break even after you take wood twice. With a three occ requirement, you often won't have time to take wood much more than that. Still, if you can get it out fairly early, it can be a decent long-term investment. The fact that it prevents you from being blocked from wood (even a lowly 1W can become 3W) is a nice bonus.
Rating:
.Wood-fired Oven
A little better than the Windmill, but is bad for the same reasons. It's not efficient enough to be a food engine on its own, and its not enough points to justify the resource cost. Still, this has some use as a way to get another bake action in the mid to late game. It can also be returned for one of the three super ovens.
Rating:
.Wooden Crane
This can generate as much as 4 stone over the course of the game, which is well worth the cost when you factor in the extra VP. While it's not quite as efficient as Stone Tongs, this is still a good buy, especially in smaller games where the "1 stone" action spaces are the only real ways to get stone.
Rating:
.Wooden Hut Extension
If you don't want stables, this can be a strict upgrade to an action you had to do anyway. The 1R discount is fine and sometimes relevant, but the way this really shines is the SP, which can help snatch FG away from someone who thought they had it locked up. In 4-p, when the FG spots are at a premium, this is so overpowered that it's a game-wrecker and should arguably removed from the deck.
Rating:
.Wooden Path
Played with all the decks mixed together, this is pretty much an autoplay. 1 wood for 2 VP is a great deal, and since the stone path is nearly unplayable, you'd need to get very unlucky to have your bonus negated.
Rating:
.Wooden Strongbox
It's pretty rare to have more than 4 rooms in your home, so you usually won't get the bonus. Unless you have something like the Axe to easily pump out a bunch of rooms, this should stay in your hand.
Rating:
.Writing Desk
Since this has a two Occ requirement, chances are you will never use the ability. Your fourth occ is probably not going to be worth 2 food, barring crazy Patron-esque combos.
Very rarely, I play this just because I don't have anything better, and 1W for 1VP is an ok deal.
Rating:
.Yoke
Very similar to the Punner. This is a bit better, because you won't have to worry about timing it as much as you do with the Punner.
Rating:
.
Last edited on 2009-12-08 13:10:29 CST (Total Number of Edits: 21)
Posted Mon Nov 2, 2009 5:34 am
