April 5, 2012
There's a trend in video gaming that's not as often embraced in the hobby gaming world: the production of direct sequels and spin-offs to commercially successful games. Board and card game publishers are much more prone to offer expansions that build upon (and require) the base game. So consider me surprised when Z-Man Games announced their plan to publish Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, a two-player spin-off of the popular European strategy title. For those not already knee-deep in cardboard counters and wooden cubes, allow me to provide some background. Agricola is a prime case in not judging a book game by its cover, as at first glance, it contains all excitement of hard manual labor: plowing fields and breeding livestock. That is enough to send a sizeable chunk of the board gaming community running for the hills, but those that stick around wind up loving what they find. Agricola has become the second highest rated board game of all time in the BoardGameGeek.com database, and is a massive commercial success. This is primarily due to Agricola serving as the epitome of Euro-style gaming: tightly balanced competition where victory is determined by skill rather than luck. Yes, farming can get quite intense. Yet Agricola already offers the option for a 2-player match, so why should gamers be excited about a new 2-player-only experience? Let's dive into the rules for Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small to find out. First, lets establish what the two games have in common. The farming theme is still intact, although you'll only be raising animals, not tending crops. Also, the game's featured mechanism is still worker placement, so gameplay between both titles is quite similar. The object of Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is to build up your collection of animals using mostly the same rules found in Agricola for constructing wall and buildings, and obeying the same restrictions on the placement of animals and breeding.
Where things start to differ is that the buildings you construct are no longer serve as the home for your workers. Instead, these cottages and stables serve to add more animal storage to the farm. For example, a cottage stores 1 animal, a stall 3, and a stable 5 (all on a single space). Buildings also have a bonus point values that will be scored at the end of the game, so they are an important part of a winning strategy. Rather than a slow build-up of available actions, all of the actions in Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small will be available from the game's start. In fact, there are 17 of them, and only 3 workers per player. That means there is definitely going to be less "in your face"-style blocking moves, weakening the only form of player interaction that Euro strategy games really have. Aside from the standard collection of resources, the action spaces also allow players to expand their farm and construct special buildings, which are variants of the standard buildings that offer a slight twist to the rules.
After 8 rounds of play, all animals, used farm expansion spaces, and buildings are scored. The only negative points at risk are for having 3 or less of any animal type. Bonus points are available for having a large sum of any animal type, but the thresholds for these bonuses are kept high, meaning that animal types are largely worth the same amount of points. If you haven't figured it out already, Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is intended to be a much lighter and faster-playing version of its bigger brother. Z-Man is touting the playtime to be as short as 30-40 minutes, with a simple setup that only takes "seconds." Overall, this spin-off is a game that I can see hardened Agricola players passing on because it doesn't beat out the original. However, Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small does provide a much-needed on-ramp for this sort of game. It's difficult to look at the hardcore strategy gaming scene from a newcomer's eyes, but it surely must be intimidating. Not only does Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small soften up the rules significantly (the book is a quick-reading 8 pages), but the 2-player matchup lowers the challenge of finding enough people to play. Z-Man is positioning this title to be the introduction that non-gamers and small children need. Sure, there are plenty of other "gateway" games that serve as great introductions to the Euro-gaming hobby, but there aren't many that focus on worker placement. Stone Age is as close as they come, but I'm certain that Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small will undercut the age range there, opening up this style of gaming to a new younger audience. With a little encouragement (and some poking) we'll have them graduated to full-scale Agricola in no time. Related Posts: -- Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebookfor the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more! |
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