Strategy Tips for AgricolaVERSION 2011-05-11 2

In General:

● Agricola is a game about efficiency of action. Therefore:

○ More total actions (via Family Growth) is often the single best thing you can have.

○ Make the best use of every action:

■ If an action space has “AND” or “AFTER”, try to do both actions together.

■ “Buy in bulk” -

● Build two rooms at once instead of building one room twice;

● Fence a large area once instead of several small areas several times;

● Build as many stables as possible when also building rooms;

● Sow at least two fields at a time.

● ... etc ...

● The game is about scoring points, not about building a pretty farm. Every action you take should address this question: “What is the easiest way to get points?”

● There are 3 major “strategies” (in order of potential points):

○ Expansion: Build Rooms, Renovation, and Family Growth

■ When maxed out with 5 stone rooms: 25 pts (2 p/ room, 3 p/ person)

■ Special note: “Rooms” is the only thing you can build that has no point limit.

■ Special note: Besides points, family members give you more actions!

○ Ranching: Pastures, Sheep, Boar, Cattle, Fenced Stables

■ When maxed out with animals and stables: 20 pts (assuming 4 fenced stables, 4 pastures)

○ Farming: Fields, Grain, Vegetables

■ When maxed out: 12 pts

A winning strategy will blend some of each of these, but obviously the expansion route is going to be the most rewarding if achieved.

Ideal Order of Operations

1. Establish a “food engine”

2. Renovate to clay (clay is usually less in demand than wood)

3. Build a clay room.

4. Family growth.

5. Score points!

On Family Growth

If you can expand from 2 family members to 3:

● This basically gives you 50% more actions than everyone else. If this happens early and no one else goes for Family Growth, you are practically guaranteed to win. 50% more actions means 50% more resources acquired, 50% more farm development, 50% more food, etc.

● Even if the only thing the third person does is pick up food off the board, that frees up the other two to get actual point-scoring work done.

● Snowball effect: more actions will let you expand your family even more, even faster!

On Actions

● Don't compete for similar resources. If everyone is trying to do the same thing, do something else or find a different way to accomplish the same thing.

● Look to block other players. If other players have vulnerabilities in their food supply or general strategy, blocking them at the right time could strongly set them back or stick them with begging cards.

● It works better if you don't require actions to be taken in any particular order. That way if one action is blocked, you can take the other. Know which actions you need ahead of time!

On Cards

● Look for cards that overlap for “synergistic effect”. (This increases your efficiency)

● Cards that help you establish food security early in the game will give you a lead.

● Use cards that are worth points or bonus points.

● If cards provide bonus points, strive to maximize the bonus. If you can't do this, don't bother; there are likely better ways to get points.

On Food

● Get a “food engine” working ASAP. The sooner you have food security, the sooner you can stop wasting time on getting food (which scores no points!)

● Don't acquire more food than you need. You get no extra points for having a lot of food.

● Generally speaking, getting food from converting vegetables or animals is more efficient than trying to bake bread. Getting a bread baking routine off the ground is expensive (Plow > Take Grain > Sow > Bake Bread; and that's only after you have an oven of some kind)

● Vegetables are especially nice if you can get the Cooking Hearth and find some way of getting vegetables out early.

● Getting the Hearth or Fireplace is a more flexible food strategy than Ovens. Ovens can only bake bread.

● Skip the Fireplace and go directly to the Cooking Hearth. The difference is only ~2 clay. This also prevents others from getting the Hearth.