Agricola rules: how to play and how to score

Agricola quick rules

The goal

Each player develops their farm over 14 rounds: extending the house, growing the family, plowing fields and raising animals. Six harvests force you to feed your family. At the end, almost everything on your farm scores points, and every gap costs points: a balanced farm wins.

A round

Each round, a new action space card joins the game board and the accumulation spaces are refilled, even if they are not empty. Then, starting with the starting player, everyone places a single person on a free action space and takes the action right away, until all people are placed. Finally, everyone returns home.

Action spaces

A space holds only one person per round. On an accumulation space, you take everything that has piled up; a permanent action space always gives the same thing. You must take at least one action from a space, in order when it says “and afterward.” The Meeting Place makes you starting player.

House and family

Your house starts with two wood rooms; another room costs 5 wood and 2 reed. Basic Wish for Children adds a person, as long as you have a free room; the newborn plays from the next round. Renovation turns your whole house into clay, then stone, for 1 reed plus 1 clay or 1 stone per room.

Animals

Animals must be accommodated on your farm, or they wander off. A pasture, fully surrounded by fences at 1 wood each, holds 2 animals of a single type per space, and each stable built in it doubles its capacity. A stable on its own holds one animal, and your house holds one pet.

Fields

Plow a field next to your other fields, then sow: one grain from your supply becomes 3 grain on the field, one vegetable becomes 2. At each harvest, you take just one crop from each of your sown fields.

The harvest

At the end of rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14, everyone harvests their fields, feeds their family, then gets one newborn animal of each type they have at least two of, if they can accommodate it. Each person requires 2 food, a newborn 1. Each missing food gives you a begging marker, worth −3 points.

The cards

Major improvements are available to everyone: Fireplaces and Cooking Hearths turn animals and vegetables into food, and let you bake bread. Each player also holds 7 minor improvements and 7 occupations; an occupation is played on a Lessons action space. The text on a card takes precedence over the rules.

Game end and scoring

The game ends after the harvest of round 14. Each farm category scores from −1 to 4 points, each unused space costs a point, and rooms, people, fenced stables and cards are added. The most points wins.

Beginner pitfalls

Plan your food before each harvest: begging is very costly. An animal without room is lost. Basic Wish for Children is useless without an empty room. And do not skip any category, since each empty one costs a point.

Solo

You use the two-player rules, with no food at the start. The Forest only gets 2 wood each round, and each adult person requires 3 food. A card you would pass to a neighbor is removed from play. The appendix offers an eight-game campaign.

How to score Agricola

Field tiles

0 or 1: −1; 2: 1; 3: 2; 4: 3; 5 or more: 4. Planted or not.

Pastures

None: −1; then 1 point per pasture, 4 at most, whatever their size.

Grain

Supply and fields: 0: −1; 1 to 3: 1; 4 or 5: 2; 6 or 7: 3; 8 or more: 4.

Vegetables

Supply and fields: 0: −1; then 1 point per vegetable, 4 at most.

Sheep

0: −1; 1 to 3: 1; 4 or 5: 2; 6 or 7: 3; 8 or more: 4.

Wild boar

0: −1; 1 or 2: 1; 3 or 4: 2; 5 or 6: 3; 7 or more: 4.

Cattle

0: −1; 1: 1; 2 or 3: 2; 4 or 5: 3; 6 or more: 4.

Unused farmyard spaces

−1 per space not covered by a tile, not in a pasture and without a stable.

Fenced stables

1 point per stable in a pasture, 4 at most.

Clay or stone rooms

1 point per clay room, 2 per stone room; a wooden house scores nothing.

People

3 points per person, newborns included.

Points for improvements

The printed points of the major and minor improvements in front of you.

Bonus points

From cards, including the Joinery, Pottery and Basketmaker’s Workshop, minus points lost to some cards.

Begging markers

−3 points each.

Building resources (tie-breaker)

No points: on a tie, the most wood, clay, reed and stone in your supply wins.

Worked example

Emma ends with 4 fields (3 points), 3 pastures (3), 5 grain (2), 2 vegetables (2), 6 sheep (3), 3 wild boar (2) and 2 cattle (2), for 17 points. She loses 2 points for 2 unused spaces, and gains 2 points for 2 fenced stables, 4 for her house of 4 clay rooms and 12 for her 4 people. Her improvements are worth 6 points and her cards give 2 bonus points: 17 − 2 + 2 + 4 + 12 + 6 + 2 = 41 points.

Common mistakes

• Scoring a single field as a point: you need two, and one costs a point.
• Forgetting the grain and vegetables still on your fields: they count with your supply.
• Counting the spaces of a pasture: you count pastures, 4 at most.
• Scoring an unfenced stable: it scores nothing, but its space is no longer unused.
• Scoring leftover food: it is worth nothing.

How to set up Agricola

Setup takes about ten minutes. Follow the three parts; solo steps say so. The starting player is chosen at random: they get 2 food, everyone else 3.