by Merrin93821
Yup - we randomly gave each of us 7 occupations and minor improvements...↧
Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
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Thread: Agricola:: Rules:: Can't even get a game started. Help?
by MrTwiggums
Just got my copy today and was really excited to try it in solo mode before playing with my friends. Read all the rules and I feel like I missed stuff, but didn't find the answers I was looking for when I went back through.First thing is, how do accumulation spaces work? Looked and looked for an answer but didn't find squat. How do I know what spaces are and aren't accumulation spaces? When do they get more resources? Can how many resources do I take? And do they start with a resource or do they only get on the second round?
I'm also confused on how to even begin the solo mode. I start with zero food and have to have six by the end of my two actions to not lose points. I have no idea how that would even be possible, let alone how I could get anything done without just trying to get food every round.
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Reply: Agricola:: Rules:: Re: Can't even get a game started. Help?
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Reply: Agricola:: Rules:: Re: Can't even get a game started. Help?
by danrodz
I remember my first time and i was very confused. Why dont you try watching some of the videos in the videos section here? I remember that really helped me understand what you do in this game.↧
Reply: Agricola:: Rules:: Re: Can't even get a game started. Help?
At the start of each round add the depicted amount of resources. If you place your worker on an accumulation space take all resources.
Accumulation spaces are all spaces with an arrow and a number (Wood, Sheep, etc.)
The spaces where you get grain or vegetables e.g. are not not accumulation spaces
Accumulation spaces are all spaces with an arrow and a number (Wood, Sheep, etc.)
The spaces where you get grain or vegetables e.g. are not not accumulation spaces
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Reply: Agricola:: Rules:: Re: Can't even get a game started. Help?
by Ponton
MrTwiggums wrote:
I'm also confused on how to even begin the solo mode. I start with zero food and have to have six by the end of my two actions to not lose points. I have no idea how that would even be possible, let alone how I could get anything done without just trying to get food every round.
Use "Day Laborer" at one point in rounds 1-4, and use "Fishing" in round 4. This will give you the 6 food you need in two actions. (Of course, there may be cards to help you get the food even more efficiently.)
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Reply: Agricola:: Rules:: Re: Can't even get a game started. Help?
by Limey Sponge
You don't have to feed the first time until the end of round 4, so you should have 8 actions. Also, in my version, the accumulation spaces have red arrows. The iconography may have changed in the new version.↧
Reply: Agricola:: Rules:: Re: Can't even get a game started. Help?
by srcabeza
Limey Sponge wrote:
You don't have to feed the first time until the end of round 4, so you should have 8 actions. Also, in my version, the accumulation spaces have red arrows. The iconography may have changed in the new version.
Nope, same red arrows.
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Reply: Agricola:: Rules:: Re: Can't even get a game started. Help?
by philcampeau
MrTwiggums wrote:
First thing is, how do accumulation spaces work? Looked and looked for an answer but didn't find squat. How do I know what spaces are and aren't accumulation spaces? When do they get more resources? Can how many resources do I take? And do they start with a resource or do they only get on the second round?
Resources accumulate on any space with a red arrow. At the beginning of each round (including round 1) place the indicated number of resources on each space. The space itself will say something along the lines of “2 wood” or “1 clay). When you take that space, you take everything that has accumulated there.
Some spaces that don’t accumulate include: Plow 1 Field, Take 1 Vegetable, Take 1 Grain, Wish For Children/Family Growth, and Major/Minor Improvement.
Some spaces let you do one of something, like Family Growth, Major/Minor Improvement, Plow 1 Field, and Occupations. On the other hand, spaces like Build Rooms and/or Stables, as well as Sow/Bake Bread let you take the action as many times as you are able.
I'm also confused on how to even begin the solo mode. I start with zero food and have to have six by the end of my two actions to not lose points. I have no idea how that would even be possible, let alone how I could get anything done without just trying to get food every round.
You don’t feed workers at the end of each Round, only at the end of each Stage. The board will indicate where the stages end, but it’s after rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14.
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Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by Mattias
Ok - you didn't draft them you pulled them randomly. Do you remember which?Who was starting player? He got two food and the other got three.
Which spaces did you then select?
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Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by Zark
Mattias wrote:
Ok - you didn't draft them you pulled them randomly. Do you remember which?
Who was starting player? He got two food and the other got three.
Which spaces did you then select?
Who was starting player? He got two food and the other got three.
Which spaces did you then select?
and when did you build rooms/grow your families
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Reply: Agricola:: Rules:: Re: Can't even get a game started. Help?
by toddpark75
philcampeau wrote:
Some spaces let you do one of something, like Family Growth, Major/Minor Improvement, Plow 1 Field, and Occupations. On the other hand, spaces like Build Rooms and/or Stables, as well as Sow/Bake Bread let you take the action as many times as you are able.
Thats a little unclear. All those actions you mention work the same. You get to take the action once. One build rooms action lets you build as many rooms as you want. You dont take the action multiple times. You can bake bread one time with that action, baking as much grain as you want/can.
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Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by Merrin93821
Luckily, I barely shuffled the cards after that play, so I can tell what most of my brothers/my cards are.For occupations, I got seasonal worker, tutor, scholar, stable architect, assistant tiller, cottager and frame builder. For minor improvements, I got sleeping corner, strawberry patch, thick forest,big country, drinking trough, manger, and loam pit.
For occupations, my brother got consultant, sheep walker, adoptive parents and I am not sure the rest. For occupations, he got shepard's crook, stone tongs, herring pot, canoe, and I am not sure of the rest.
He was starting playing - we both got the right amount of food. I think he started with the play 1 occupation action, and I plowed a field. I honestly can't remember what we did then... this game was quite a few days ago... The build rooms action came out in round 5, and the wish for children in round 7.
We will hopefully be able to play another game next weekend... maybe we can annotate our play, and if our scores are still high, you board game geeker's (?) can help us.
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Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by Avron
Merrin93821 wrote:
... The build rooms action came out in round 5, and the wish for children in round 7...
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Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by Zark
Merrin93821 wrote:
We will hopefully be able to play another game next weekend... maybe we can annotate our play, and if our scores are still high, you board game geeker's (?) can help us.
Can you photograph the game, maybe at each harvest?
p.s. don't feel we are getting at you Agricola is an amazing tight game and it seems from your scores that you were incredibly lucky or more likely you were doing something wrong.
We just want to make sure you are getting the full enjoyment of the game and for that it shouldn't normally be as easy as it seemed to be for you :)
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Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by Merrin93821
Oops... I thought you meant the house redevelopment card...↧
Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by Merrin93821
Sounds like a lot less work/annoyance than annotating it...That makes sense.↧
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Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by MisterG
A pic of the game state at the end of each Round, before family members return home, would be ideal, and serve as an excellent aid to you (and us) in reconstructing what each of you did.↧
Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by Mools
chopkins828 wrote:
You realize you start with 2/3 food right? The first harvest is very easy to plan for, and by the next one you should have a food engine, which it sounds like the OP did.
Yes, the first Harvest is very easy to play for. But success and high scores as reported requires long term planning to quickly and effectively build up a good food engine. While also working around your opponents moves. In two player, there is not a lot of blocking, but it does happen. And this also assumes actions spent obtaining food, planting food, obtaining improvements needed to cook food, etc.
We also know that the OP was spending food early on to get occupations and spending actions getting improvements early. So that means spending food AND actions. Granted, the right mix of cards and how the rounds show up can really make a massive difference in how easy or challenging the game can be - as well as the scores, but Its hard to believe someone who admits to playing this their first time, not being particularly great at games and not playing worker placement games before basically mastered Agricola on their first outing. Even the newest rulebook states 30 points is considered good for new players and experienced players strive for scores of 40 or higher.
Impossible? No. Likely to happen without mistakes? Also no.
Normally I really hate threads like this because they pretty much always go nowhere and never get resolved. But here are some stupid questions I thought I'd throw out. I apologize if any/all these have already been covered.
1) Were you taking the proper number of actions from the space? For example, the "Plow a Field" action only lets you plow 1 field. Not a bunch at once. Take a grain/vegetable only lets you get 1.
2) During a round, starting with the starting player, each player takes turns putting their worker on an action space and taking that action. You go back and forth like this, until everyone is out of workers. Once everyone runs out of workers, the round is over and you collect all the workers from the board. No two players can have a worker on an occupied space.
3) Were you paying the resource costs to build improvements. The major improvements have a resource cost you must pay to build them, but so do minor improvements. Some minor improvements also have restrictions on when they can be built or used. For example, some minor improvement cards require you to have a certain number of occupations in play before you can build them.
4) When upgrading a house, you must first upgrade to clay before upgrading to stone. And you must upgrade your entire house at once. Some occupations/improvements will alter this rule, but generally you must upgrade in order. Once you upgrade your house, all future rooms must be of the same type as the house. Also, you can't double upgrade in a single action. If you want to go from wood to clay to stone, you must take this action twice in two different rounds. The first time to go from wood to clay. The second time clay to stone. ALSO, if you build multiple rooms for your house at one time, you must pay the full resource cost for each room. So 5 clay and 2 reed for one room; 10 clay and 4 reed for two rooms, etc.
5) You have to take an action to bake bread and it costs grain to do so. While you can "eat" your animals at any time IF you have a major cooking improvement, grain can only be turned into bread through taking a bake bread action. Grain in your fields can not be turned into bread. Only grain in your general supply. Further, a number of improvements limit how much grain you can convert into bread (ie. 1 grain turns into 5 food but you can only use it once per action).
6) You must also take an action to sow your grain/vegetables in an existing empty pasture. You can't just plant them when you get them.
7) Explain how you did the scoring. What should happen is you count up how much of grain/vegetables/sheep/etc and then you look at the chart and see where you fall. You then score the points in that column. The maximum number of points you can get for anything is 4.
8) Animal breeding. No matter how many sheep (for example) you have over two, you only ever get 1 more during the breeding phase. You must have at least two sheep.
9) Building fences. When taking this action, you get 1 fence piece per wood. Of course, some cards help you break this rule, but generally speaking it takes at least 4 wood to build a pasture. There are also limits to how many animals a pasture can hold.
Not to question your skills, but I've played Agricola countless times since it's original release. Almost always two player with my wife. I can maybe think of only a couple times where we've both filled our whole farm. I'm not sure we've ever got over 50 points (let alone both of us in the same game). Typically high 30s - 40s is our score. And It's extremely rare as well that we both are able to pretty much max out everything. Usually we specialize in different areas.
Again, not saying it's impossible that it happened for you, just that based on my experience and knowledge of the game it seems highly improbable for completely inexperienced first timers to basically "master" the game and all have a perfect game their first time out without making some mistakes that helped them.
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Reply: Agricola:: General:: Re: First Play: Extremely High Scores
by MisterG
Don't know why, but I am reminded of that thread from a number of years back where a guy claimed a score of 90+ in (iirc) a 4-player game, as well as routine scores of 70+ in other sessions. And so it goes.↧
