Things You Can Do in Agricola

There are four main things you can do to make your farm better. Let’s take a look at each one:

Action A: Extend or renovate your wooden hut

The first thing you can do is to extend your wooden hut or renovate it into a clay hut or stone hut. This will give your family more space to live in and grow.

Extra Living Space

Hey there! When I first start playing the game, I have this little Wooden hut. It’s got two rooms, you know? But don’t worry, I can make it bigger and better! I just need to use the Build room(s) action to add more rooms. The rule is that the new rooms have to be right next to the ones I already have, but only in straight lines, not diagonal.

Now, here’s the exciting part: there’s no limit to how many rooms I can build! But there’s a catch: the new rooms have to match the material of my hut. So if I have a Wooden hut, I can only add Wooden rooms. If it’s a Clay hut, Clay rooms it is. And for a Stone house, only Stone rooms can be added.

Building can get a little costly, though. To extend a Wooden hut, I need 5 Wood and 2 Reed for the roof. For a Clay hut, it’s 5 Clay and 2 Reed. And if I want to turn my humble Wooden hut into a magnificent Stone house, it’ll cost me 5 Stone and 2 Reed.

Oh, and here’s a cool twist: during the game, if I want to upgrade my Wooden hut, I can. First, I can Renovate it into a Clay hut, and then, if I’m feeling fancy, I can go even further and turn it into a Stone house. The Renovation action becomes available once we hit Stage 2, which is rounds 5 to 7. So, plenty of time to make some improvements!

If you want to transform your Wooden hut into a Clay hut, you’ll need 1 Clay token for each room in your Wooden hut, and 1 Reed for the roof. Just flip over the Wooden hut tiles to reveal the Clay hut rooms.

When you’re ready for the next upgrade, turning your Clay hut into a Stone house, you’ll need 1 Stone token for each room in your Clay hut, and 1 Reed for the roof. Simply replace the Clay hut tiles with Stone house tiles.

When it comes to renovating huts, there’s one important rule: you can only renovate a complete hut. I mean, you can’t just renovate one room at a time, that would be kinda weird.

Now, there’s this thing called the Renovation action. It’s pretty simple, really. You can only do one renovation at a time. So, you can’t go from a Wooden hut to a Stone house in one turn. You gotta take it slow and steady.

Now let’s talk about stables, shall we?

So, here’s the deal. When you choose the Build Room(s) action space on the left-hand board, you have two options. You can build rooms, like normal, or you can build up to 4 stables for 2 Wood each. Stables are pretty cool because they provide shelter for animals. And hey, who doesn’t like animals, right?

What to do after a renovation?

After you renovate your home in Stage 2, you have the opportunity to make additional improvements. With the Renovation card, you can choose to purchase a Major or Minor Improvement. It’s important to note that you cannot skip the Renovation action and only play an Improvement card. Keep in mind that in the final round of the game, a second Renovation card is introduced. This special card allows you to Fence pastures after completing a renovation.

Action B – Family Growth

In Stage 2 (Rounds 5-7), you’ll have the option to expand your family. At this point, you’ll also be able to take a Minor Improvement action. However, keep in mind that you’ll need to have enough space in your home before you can use this action. In other words, you need to have more rooms in your home than Family members.

Later on, in Stage 5 (Round 12 or 13), you can still choose to grow your family even if you don’t have enough room in your home. This is thanks to the Family growth action card.

When you take the Family growth action, your newborn child joins you in the Action space. During the Return home phase, your new family member will be taken home and placed in a room. If there isn’t a room available, they will share a room with another Family member.

When you choose to take the Family growth action in the game, something interesting happens. You get an extra Family member to add to your team in the next round. But here’s the catch – this new Family member isn’t ready to be used right away. They need time to grow up first. So, unfortunately, you can’t use them in the same round they are produced.

Now, there’s a limit to how big your Family can get. You can have a maximum of 5 members in your Family. So, if you already have a full team of 5 Family members, you won’t be able to choose the Family growth action anymore. You’ll have to make do with the members you already have.

A different option – Plowing fields, grain, and vegetables

When I choose the Plow 1 field action, I grab a field tile and put it on an empty spot in my farmyard. If I already have fields, I have to place the new one next to an existing field. I can only use 1 Plow Improvement when I choose this action.

If I go with the Take 1 Grain action, I get one Grain marker and put it in my personal supply. In the third stage, I can also choose the Take 1 Vegetable action.

If I want to use the Sow action, I get to plant empty fields. First, I take one Grain from my personal supply and put it on an empty field. Then, I add 2 Grain from the general supply to that field.

Hey there! Did you know that in addition to planting grains, players in this game can also choose to sow vegetables? It’s true! Instead of grabbing some grain, you can take a vegetable from your own stash and put it on an empty field. And guess what? You also get to add one vegetable from the general supply to the field.

Now, here’s an interesting tidbit: when you plant grains, each field can hold up to 3 counters. But when you decide to sow vegetables, the field can only hold 2 counters. Pretty cool, huh?

During the Harvest, I can gather Grain and Vegetables. It’s pretty neat because I can turn those into Food whenever I want. If I have the right Improvement, I can even turn them into more than 1 Food!

When my field is empty, no worries! I can just use the Sow action to plant new crops. I don’t even have to re-Plow the field. And in Stage 5, I can Plow a field and immediately Sow new crops. It’s like magic!

Oh, and guess what? I can bake bread too!

When I choose the Sow or Bake bread action, I get to decide what I want to do with my Grain. I can plant it in empty fields, turn it into a delicious loaf of bread for Food, or just leave it in my supply. But, of course, I need the right Improvement with the symbol to be able to bake bread. Yum!

When you have a Fireplace, you can convert one Grain into 2 Food. If you have a Cooking Hearth, it will convert the Grain into 3 Food instead. But if you want to maximize your conversion, you should use a Stone Oven. With a Stone Oven, you can convert up to 2 Grain into 4 Food each. And if you really want to make the most out of your Grain, a Clay Oven will let you convert 1 Grain into a whopping 5 Food.

Action D – Raising animals: fence pastures, build stables, raise sheep, wild board, and cattle.

Now, let’s move on to raising animals. Each player is allowed to have one pet in their home, regardless of the size or type of the home. Don’t worry, your pet won’t take away a room from your Family members.

If you want to raise more animals, you’ll need to build fences to create pastures. Each pasture can only hold one type of animal – Sheep, Wild boar, or Cattle. And each square of the pasture can accommodate up to 2 animals. So, for example, if you have a pasture that takes up 1 farmyard square, you can have 2 animals in it. If it takes up 2 squares, you can have 4 animals. And if it takes up 3 squares, you can have 6 animals.

Hey there! Let’s talk about what happens in the game. You can change where your animals are whenever you want, but there are some rules you need to follow. If you want to, you can let go of some or all of your animals. That way, you can make space for new animals on your farm. When the Harvest time comes to an end, that’s when animals have babies. The Harvest is when animals breed and have babies.

The cool thing about the Fences action is that it lets you quickly create pastures by placing fences. It costs 1 Wood for each fence you want to build. Fences are placed between the farmyard spaces and can border more than one pasture. Just remember, all your pastures need to be next to each other, either horizontally or vertically. And here’s the twist – you can only build a fence if it will completely enclose a pasture. That means fences on all sides, with no open edges. The farmyard board, stables, fields, and rooms don’t count as fences. Oh, and one more thing, you can only build up to 15 fences. But be careful, you can’t surround fields and rooms with a fence, that’s a no-no! Once you build a fence, you can’t take it down. So, if you already have pastures, any new pastures you build have to connect to the existing ones. If you want to divide an existing pasture into smaller ones, you can add a fence or two. Easy, right? Ready to move on to building stables? Let’s go!

If you want to expand the capacity of your pasture, you can build a stable. This is a smart move because it instantly doubles the space available in your pasture. Building a stable is easy – just spend 2 Wood in the Build room(s) and/or Build stable(_) Action space.

When it comes to where you can place your stables, the options are pretty open. You can choose any empty space on your farmyard that doesn’t already have a room or a field. Keep in mind, once you’ve placed a stable, it can’t be removed. But here’s the cool part: you don’t actually have to fence in your stable. Each unfenced stable can house exactly 1 animal. And here’s a nice rule to remember – you can only build 1 stable in any farmyard space.

Now, here’s a little trick you need to know. You can fence in your stable at a later time. This creates a brand new pasture and instantly doubles the capacity. So, if you want to maximize the space for your animals, consider building a stable now and fencing it in later to create a bigger pasture. It’s a great way to elevate your farming game!