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How do I win at Agricola?
Our group has played for years and it's always the one friend who wins. Help? What are your tips for the game? Should I aim to get as many kids as I can as fast as I can?
Our group has played for years and it's always the one friend who wins. Help? What are your tips for the game? Should I aim to get as many kids as I can as fast as I can?
I've only played a few times and it's been a long time since the last one, but from what I've gathered the best strat is to be open to all strats until you can focus one. I noticed a lot of times people pick a strat early on and then get screwed by other people taking things they need before they can or getting unlucky. But if you branch out and leave yourself open to anything, and have a little bit of everything, then you can see how the "luck" of the game is going for you, and what others are focusing so you can pick the best option for you. Don't know if that helps, I haven't really tried it myself because like I said I haven't played it much.
I do play similarly in Catan which I play a lot more of. My main strat is to get something on every number as fast as I can. Sure it's nice to have a lot of 6s and 8s, but it's better to get something every turn cause in any given game it always seems like some numbers just never get rolled and you get screwed if all your eggs are only in a couple good numbers, than in everything.
If my opponent gets 3 resources on a 6, and I get 1 on every number, in a standard 6 player game, I get 5 resources per round (4 if a 7 is rolled statistically tht round) and with trading I can usually get just about anything done. I think a similar approach would work well with Agricola.
Hmmm, good tip. I guess it's like in Mahjong: if your opponents are all doing certain suits, it's better to be flexible early on and pick a suit that isn't in as much contention.
Man I hope one of us wins finally
I finally get win streaks in 7 Wonders the same way: Instead of focusing on “pure” strategies, I try to get good numbers on a wide variety of angles.
I love 7 wonders. One of the fastest pace games I've played.
The single most important thing is to grow your family as soon as you can. Agricola is a tight, action-constrained game, and growing your family just from 2 to 3 immediately increases the amount of actions you can take per round by 50%, making accomplishing anything else way, way easier.
Basically I'd think of the game in three phases:
Minor improvements and other players' actions will obviously change the exact route you take to these goals, so as semsevfor said you must remain flexible. You simply can't do everything in Agricola - you'll always have some points you left on the table, and that's okay. But if you can build a food engine and raise the action cap with family members the game really opens up.
I think I was trying to gather animals and build fences to avoid the point penalty, I ended the game with two family members zero expanded rooms. didn't score least but far from well either.
It'll be a very opposite game the next time I play but i have a solid plan for what to aim for at least. Thank you
Oh wow! If you played with only two family members the whole way through then I absolutely understand why the game felt inscrutable (if not downright impossible).
One tip for an early food engine - use the fact that the animals reproduce to your advantage. Having 3 sheep, for instance, guarantees a "renewable" sheep or two for slaughter every single harvest, and with a cooking hearth that's enough food for several family members. A few sheep + a few grain/vegetables + occasional use of the "go fishing" or similar food spaces is more than enough to feed you early on when the harvests are relatively far apart.
Vegetables vs grain is something I've never been able to figure out. Grain is available earlier and can convert to food at such a higher rate, but unless you have an occupation or improvement that allows flexibility you're always going to have to visit a "bake bread" space to make use of it. I had an entire game of Agricola go off the rails when the "bake bread" action got blocked both rounds right before a harvest and my family had to beg. (It's my fault for not taking starting player, of course!). I tend to prefer basing my food engine around sheep or vegetables for that reason - more flexibility. But that is by no means the "correct" strategy.
For a while we had a house rule that completely broke the game: every two animals produce one extra, without cap. After reading the rules again, we found out our error. Less fun, but more balanced :)
And as said before: go for big families asap, even it means going hungry (but only if you have a clear path towards a good food engine). The gamble is often worth it.
Yeah I couldn't figure out how I can possibly have more family without being able to feed them. But of course, that's the game: make food, grow family, make more food to grow more family.