Agricola (Revised Edition) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Appendix

Components

Wooden components

18 white sheep 15 black wild boar 13 brown cattle 30 brown "wood" building resource tokens 24 auburn "clay" building resource tokens 14 white "reed" building resource tokens 16 black "stone" building resource tokens

24 yellow "grain" crop tokens 16 orange "vegetable" crop tokens 1 yellow starting player token

In different player colors: 4x 15 fences 4x 4 stables 4x 5 people

Game boards

4 large farmyard boards (one for each player) 1 large game board 1 supply board for the major improvements 2 game board extensions (with a scoring overview and—in one case—action spaces for the multi-player game)

Tiles

23 wood room/field tiles 16 clay/stone room tiles 2 variant tiles (one for the 2-player game, the other for the 3- and 4-player game) 1 "Side Job" action space tile for the game without hand cards (with an overview of action spaces on the back side)

Markers

36 "1 food" markers 8 "5 food" markers 3 yellow suggestion markers (for the blitz intro) 10 goods tiles for various goods (with begging markers on the back sides)

120 cards

14 action space cards for stages 1 to 6 10 red "major improvement" cards 48 yellow "occupation" cards 48 orange "minor improvement" cards

As well as

1 scoring pad 10 transparent bags to organize the components this 12-page rule book a 12-page appendix

Setup

We will explain the rules for 2-4 players first, followed by the solo game rules on the last page.

Your Personal Display

Choose a player color and take the five people, four stables, and 15 fences in that color.

Take a farmyard board. Place one person in each of your two wood rooms. Your remaining three people as well as your fences and stables constitute your supply. (Put the components of unused colors as well as the remaining farmyard boards back into the game box—you will not need them.)

Room and Field Tiles

Place the stack of clay/stone room tiles next to the game board. Divide the stack of wood room tiles in two, placing one half with the wood rooms facing up and the other with the field tiles facing up.

Game Board with Action Spaces

Place the game board in the middle of the play area. Depending on the number of players, take the appropriate game board extension and attach it to the game board with the proper side facing up.

Randomly determine who gets the starting player token. This player gets 2 food; each other player gets 3 food.

Improvements and Occupations

Major Improvements

Place the red ("major") improvements on the designated spaces of the supply board. Please note that there are two Fireplaces and two Cooking Hearths.

Fireplaces cost 2 and 3 clay, respectively. Cooking Hearths cost 4 and 5 clay, respectively.

Minor Improvements

Shuffle the orange improvements and deal each player a hand of seven cards.

Occupations

A square symbol on the left side of the yellow occupation cards indicates the number of players with which the card is used. [1+] stands for 1-4 players, [3+] stands for 3-4 players, and [4] stands for 4 players. Put the cards that you are not supposed to be using according to your number of players back into the game box. Shuffle the remaining cards and deal each player a hand of seven cards.

You start the game with seven orange and seven yellow cards in your hand.

Action Space Cards

Shuffle the 14 action space cards and sort them by the numbers on their back sides. This should result in 6 stacks, which you must place on top of each other in descending order from bottom to top. Thus, the cards for stage 1 should be on top of those for stage 2 etc.

Place all the animals (sheep, wild boar, cattle), building resources (wood, clay, reed, stone), crops (grain, vegetables), and food markers ready at hand as the general supply.

The goods tiles with begging markers on their backs will only be needed occasionally. Place them somewhere on the side of the table—in case you need them.

"Side Job" and Other Variant Tiles. Please check pages 1 and 8 of the appendix on how to use the "Side Job" and the other two variant tiles. You will not need them in the base game.
Suggestion Tiles. The three yellow suggestion tiles are used in games with inexperienced players and small children (see page 1 of the appendix). Usually, you will not need them at all.

General Overview

A game of Agricola is played over 14 rounds. In each round, you place each of your people on exactly one action space, taking the actions provided by it. The available actions are depicted on the game board.

In clockwise order, you take turns to place exactly one person on an action space, until all players have placed all of their people. You will necessarily get in each other's way, because each action space can only be used by one person in each round. Do not take your people back until all have been placed.

Your goal is to gather food for your family and to develop your farmyard board so that it is worth a lot of points.

The following will give you a first impression of what you can do on your farm and what will provide points. When reading the rules, you can come back to this double page from time to time to get a better overview of what you just read. These two pages do not introduce any rules that are not explained elsewhere.

What Happens on Your Farmyard Board

This is how your farmyard board could look like at the end of the game—the following notes call out its features:

Each room has space for one person. The reason why there are five people in this house is that, towards the end of the game, lack of space does not matter anymore.
Initially composed of wood rooms, this house can now shine with stone rooms—after being renovated twice: luxury like this is worth a lot of points.
You can have exactly 1 pet animal—this will not improve towards the end.
You start the game with only two rooms. In this example, another two rooms have been added during the course of the game.
Most animals must be kept in pastures and stables.
Cultivation is tedious. You must plow fields, acquire crops, and sow them. In the end, you will be rewarded with a plentiful harvest.
You can have grain fields, vegetable fields, but also empty fields that lie fallow until you sow them.
The size of a pasture determines its capacity. (More on animal husbandry later.)
You can develop your farmyard board via house building, cultivation, and animal breeding. Components in the same area of responsibility must be adjacent to one another: rooms to rooms, fields to fields, and pastures to pastures.

Have a First Look at the Scoring Sheet

At the end of the game, the player whose farm is worth the most points wins.

The following shall give you a rough idea of what you get points for. The number in parentheses is the total points in the respective category. (The scoring rules can be found on page 12 and in greater detail on pages 11 to 12 of the appendix.)

Each room in a stone house is worth 2 points. (8)
Each person is worth 3 points. (15)
You lose 1 point for each unused space in your farmyard. (-2)
You lose 1 point for each missing type of animal. (-1 for cattle)
6 wild boar are worth 3 points. (3)
4 fields are worth 3 points. (3)
You get points for the total amount of grain in your supply and farm. The same applies to vegetables. According to the table, 3 grain are worth 1 point, and 1 vegetable is worth 1 point. (2)
Each pasture is worth 1 point (regardless of size). (2)
Each stable in a pasture is worth 1 point. (1)
8 sheep are worth 4 points. (4)

In total, this farmyard board is worth 35 points.

Improvements and Occupations

The cards are what makes each game of Agricola so different. There are 3 types of cards. Minor improvements are orange, major improvements are red. Occupations are yellow.

Here are three more examples, continuing the scoring example above:

You get points according to the printed value on the minor and major improvements. The Loom is worth 1 point, the Joinery is worth 2 points. (3)
Some cards provide additional bonus points that are tied to certain conditions. The Loom provides bonus points for sheep. 8 sheep are worth 2 bonus points. The Joinery allows you to exchange leftover wood in your supply for bonus points: 5 wood are also worth 2 points. (4)
Occupations can also be worth points. The Braggart can provide up to 9 bonus points for the improvements you have in play. Unfortunately, having only the Loom and Joinery is not enough to be worth anything in this case. (0)

A score of 30 points is considered respectable for someone who plays Agricola for the first time. Experienced players strive for scores of 40 and higher.

A final score of 42 in this example is intentional. It is a score that I would consider one of my better ones (if I did not just construct it).

Course of Play

Each of the 14 rounds goes through four phases, which are played one after another. The work phase is when you place your people on action spaces to take actions. Each round starts with some preparations.

1. Preparation Phase

Most action spaces are pre-printed on the game board. Each round, a new action space enters the game: draw a card from the top of the pile of action space cards and place it on the round space whose number is equal to the current round. (An overview on the back of the "Side Job" tile tells you which action space cards you can expect in each stage of the game.)

If there are goods on the round space that were placed there via certain card effects (see pages 10-11), you will now get those goods.

Next, place the depicted amount of goods on each action space showing an ocher-colored arrow, even if there are goods left from previous rounds. These spaces are called "accumulation spaces".

When you build the Well, you have to place 1 food on each of the next five round spaces.

In this example, 3 wood are added to the 3 wood from the previous round.

2. Work Phase

Beginning with the starting player (and in clockwise order), place exactly one person on an action space, until all players have placed all of their people that are in play*. If an action space is occupied, you cannot use it for the rest of the round. (Each action space can only be used by one person per round.) Immediately take the action on that action space. Some action spaces provide multiple actions. You cannot use an action space without taking at least one of the available actions.

*As the game progresses, some players may have more people than others. Skip players who run out of people to place and proceed with those players in clockwise order who still have people left.

Details on the Work Phase

We distinguish between permanent action spaces and accumulation spaces. Permanent action spaces provide the exact same actions every single round. Accumulation spaces accumulate goods, offering varying amounts of goods each round.

When you use an accumulation space, take all the goods from the space and place them in your supply.

Some permanent action spaces provide multiple actions that can be taken in any order ("and/or"). Other ones require you take the actions in order ("and afterward"). With the latter, you must take the first action; only then can you also take the second action.

Here, you can only build an improvement after you renovate. (House Redevelopment: "1 Renovation... and afterward" you may build an improvement.)

On page 6 of the appendix, you can find a detailed explanation of all the permanent action spaces. In this rule book, we focus on the effects of action spaces, explaining them in context.

3. Returning Home Phase

Once all people are placed, return them home to their rooms.

In the work phase, you try to accomplish the goals we talked about in the general overview section. As mentioned before, there are three areas of responsibility that you should not neglect, but which you can address at different points in the game: house building plus family planning, animal breeding, and cultivation. Let us talk about these next.

4. Harvest

Some rounds end with a harvest, in which you harvest your grain and vegetables, feed your family, and breed your animals.

The harvest will be explained in detail on page 9.

This symbol on the game board indicates which rounds end with a harvest.

House Building and Family Planning

At the start of the game, you have a wooden house with room for just two people. If you want to grow your family to increase the number of actions you can take each round, you must extend your house first. This requires building resources—at the start, wood and reed—which you can get on accumulation spaces like "Forest" and "Reed Bank".

Adding Rooms

Use the "Farm Expansion" action space and take the "Build Rooms" action, paying the required building resources: 5 wood and 2 reed. Take a wood room tile and place it adjacent to your existing ones.

The "Farm Expansion" action space.

Details on Building a Room

In a single action, you can build as many rooms as you can afford, one after another.
If there is no legal space for a room on your farmyard board, you cannot add any more rooms.

Now you have more rooms than people—the prerequisite for taking the "Family Growth with Room Only" action. When taking that action, place a person from your supply next to the person with which you take the action. At the end of the round, when your people return home, place the new person in its own room: each person occupies one room. From next round, you will have an additional turn. Family growth becomes available in round 5, 6, or 7 (depending on when the "Basic Wish for Children" action space card comes into play).

These two people symbolize mother and child.

Renovation

In round 5, 6, or 7, the "House Redevelopment" action space comes into play. On that space, you can take the "Renovation" action to turn your wooden house into a valuable clay house, placing a clay room tile on each of the pre-printed wood rooms in your farmyard and exchanging any additional wood rooms for clay rooms. For this, you must pay 1 reed to overhaul the roof, as well as 1 clay per room.

Later, you can renovate your house again by paying 1 reed for the roof and 1 stone per room, turning it into a stone house. (For that, you must turn the room tiles to the other side.)

These stone rooms replace clay rooms.

Detail on Renovation

When you renovate, you must renovate all the rooms in your house. You are not allowed to renovate only part of your house.

Once you live in a clay house, you can only add clay rooms to your house: when you use the "Farm Expansion" action space, you must pay 5 clay and 2 reed for every new room—later 5 stone and 2 reed once you live in a stone house.

The Action Space Cards of the Final Rounds

Towards the end of the game, you gain a lot of momentum in growing your family. In round 12 or 13, the "Urgent Wish for Children" action space comes into play. It provides the "Family Growth Even without Room" action which allows you to grow your family without building a room first.

In the final round of the game, a second renovation space comes into play.

Detail on Family Growth

If you build a new room after taking the "Family Growth Even without Room" action, one of your people immediately moves into that room. You could not take a "Family Growth with Room Only" action right afterward, because you would not have enough room.

The "Farm Redevelopment" action space also improves your animal husbandry capabilities (see next section).

Animal Breeding

Animal breeding can play a major role in feeding your family. You can get animals on accumulation spaces. Take all the animals from the space when you use one.

The "Sheep Market" accumulation space comes into play between rounds 1 and 4, "Pig Market" in round 8 or 9, and "Cattle Market" in round 10 or 11.

Animal Husbandry Options

Unlike crops and building resources, you do not simply place your animals in your supply, but you must accommodate them on your farmyard board. Otherwise your animals will wander off. There are several options to counteract that.

The "Build Fences" action allows you to surround one or more farmyard spaces with fences, creating a pasture. Each player has 15 fences in their supply. Each pasture can only hold a single type of animal and up to 2 animals of that type for each farmyard space it covers.
You can hold exactly 1 animal of any type in your house as your pet.
You can double the capacity of a pasture by building a stable in it. Each player has 4 stables in their supply.
A stable outside of a pasture can hold exactly 1 animal. You can fence the stable later.

To fence pastures, use the "Fencing" action space. Each fence that you build during the "Build Fences" action costs 1 wood. In a single action, you can fence as many pastures as you can afford. You can build your first pasture anywhere on your farmyard board—as long as the spaces are empty and contiguous. Any pasture you build after that must be adjacent to an existing one. Fences may only be built if they will create a fully enclosed pasture, with fences on all sides.

Details on Fencing

Adjacent pastures share fences that are bordering them.
When you take a "Build Fences" action, you may subdivide an existing pasture by adding fences inside the pasture.
The edges of room tiles do not count as fences (even though that would make thematic sense). The same applies to field tiles.
Once built, fences may not be demolished.

You can build stables for 2 wood per stable by taking the "Build Stables" action on the "Farm Expansion" action space. (This is the same action space that allows you to build rooms, see page 7.)

Details on Building Stables

You can build at most one stable in each farmyard space. The space may not be covered by a tile.
Rooms, fields, and pastures must be adjacent to other rooms, fields, and pastures, respectively. This rule does not apply to stables.
You do not build stables all at once, but one after another.
Certain cards can assign a special ability to a stable (see pages 10-11). Each stable may have at most one special ability.

Two stables in this 1x2 pasture doubles its capacity twice. Instead of just 4 animals, the pasture can now hold up to 16 animals of the same type*.

*Like factory farming in real life, this does not make much sense in regard to the scoring.

If you have an improvement with the tankard symbol (see Fireplace and Cooking Hearth on page 10), you can turn the animals that you take from an accumulation space into food directly. In this case, you do not have to accommodate them on your farm first.

Anytime actions: Your animals are the only things on your farm that you can move around at any time (according to the animal husbandry rules). Everything else (rooms, fields, fences, and stables) is immovable. At any time, you can discard animals—as well as any other goods—to the general supply.

Cultivation

Cultivation requires a little bit of preparation. First, you need to take the "Plow a Field" action to acquire a field tile. You can place your first field tile anywhere on your farmyard board—as long as the space is empty. Any field tile you place after that must be adjacent to an existing one. Second, you need a seed crop. The "Grain Seeds" action space is available from the start. It provides the "Get 1 Grain" action during which you get 1 grain in your supply.

United in neighborhood: the "Cultivation" and "Grain Seeds" action spaces.

Later in the game, vegetables become available as a second crop.

If you have crops in your supply and unplanted fields on your farm, you can take the "Sow" action on the appropriate action space, which comes into play between rounds 1 and 4. When you sow, place 1 grain or 1 vegetable from your supply on an empty field and add another 2 grain and 1 vegetable from the general supply on top of that, respectively (see illustration). Those crops remain in their field until the harvest. In a single "Sow" action, you can plant any number of unplanted fields.

After you sow, each new grain field contains 3 grain and each new vegetable field contains 2 vegetables.

Vegetables become available in round 8 or 9 on the "Vegetable Seeds" action space.

Harvest after harvest, you will slowly but surely empty all of your fields: each harvest you must take 1 crop from each field and place it in your supply.

At the start of each harvest, you will take 1 crop from each of your fields and place it in your supply (see below).

Details on Cultivation

When you sow, you can choose from all the crops that are in your supply.
Every seed crop that you get from a "Seeds" action space is already considered a fully-grown crop. You do not have to plant it.
When you sow, you are not required to plant every empty field you have. Fields can lie idle.
Once placed, you cannot remove a field tile from your farm (e.g. to make space for a room tile).
You have no access to the crops on your fields until you harvest them, moving them to your supply (see next section). However, during the scoring at the end of the game, crops in your fields do count (see page 12).

Harvest

There is a harvest at the end of rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14, indicated by the harvest symbol on the game board. Each harvest goes through three phases that are played in order.

Field Phase

You must take exactly 1 crop from each of your fields and place it in your supply. You are not allowed to skip harvesting your fields—not even a single one of them.

Feeding Phase

Each person that is already in play requires 2 food*. Exception: if you grew your family that round, the "newborn" person (who has not taken an action yet) only requires 1 food.

Grain and vegetables in your supply are worth 1 food each.

You can make millet gruel from grain … … and eat your vegetables uncooked.

The "Traveling Players" accumulation space is only available in the 4-player game.

Details on the Feeding Phase

As you can see, additional people increase the number of actions you can take but also require food.
You can get food on the "Fishing", "Day Laborer", and "Traveling Players" action spaces.
Crops can provide a lot more food if you have bread-baking and tankard improvements, which will be addressed in the next section.
Animals can only be turned into food via tankard improvements. They do not provide food per se.

*If you do not have enough food to feed your family, you must go begging for food, taking 1 begging marker for each missing food. As each begging marker will cost you -3 points during scoring and as there is no way to get rid of them, you should really make sure you can feed your people.

Breeding Phase

After you fed your family, your animals breed. If you have at least 2 animals of the same type, you get exactly one animal of that type from the general supply, but only if you can accommodate that new animal. (The parent animals are not required to live in the same space to breed.) You are explicitly forbidden to turn the parent animals or the newborn into food during the breeding phase. Each harvest, you can get at most 1 newborn animal of each type.

Major Improvements

There are 10 major improvements in the game. You have access to all of them. Once you own a major improvement, you can use it for the rest of the game. Major improvements are worth points, indicated by a number in a yellow circle.

The "Major Improvement" action space is the designated space for building major improvements. On the "House Redevelopment" action space, building a major improvement is just a bonus action.

In the top right corner of an improvement card, you can find its building cost. To play the card face up in front of you, you must pay the depicted amounts of building resources.

The main purpose of the major improvements is to turn goods into food: animals and vegetables get cooked, grain gets baked, building resources become craft products which are then exchanged for food.

Fireplaces are the cheapest among the major improvements: one costs 2 clay, the other 3 clay.

Fireplaces and Cooking Hearths

There are two Fireplaces and two Cooking Hearths, among which one costs less clay than the other. They are used to turn animals and vegetables into food at any time. How much food each good is worth is noted on the card. (Cooking Hearths are slightly more efficient than Fireplaces, but also more expensive.)

Details on Fireplaces and Cooking Hearths

When taking a "Major Improvement" action, you can exchange a Fireplace for a Cooking Hearth, without paying any additional building resources.
All cards that allow you to turn animals and vegetables into food have a tankard symbol at the bottom left.

At any time, you can exchange grain—and vegetables—in your supply for 1 food each (see page 9), but you will get more food out of each grain if you take a "Bake Bread" action: each grain you bake turns into 2 food via a Fireplace and into 3 food via a Cooking Hearth.

On the "Grain Utilization" action space, you can decide how to use the grain in your supply. You can sow it in a field (see page 9) or turn it into food using a bread-baking improvement.

Ovens

Improvements that allow you to bake bread have a bread symbol at the bottom right. Aside from the Fireplace and Cooking Hearth, the Clay and Stone Oven also have this symbol. When you build one of these ovens, you immediately get a "Bake Bread" action. (Preferably, you should only build an oven if you already have grain to bake.) The "Grain Utilization" action space also provides that action.

If you have both the Clay Oven and a Cooking Hearth and take a "Bake Bread" action, you can turn 1 grain into 5 food and each additional grain into 3 food.

Craft Buildings

The Joinery processes wood, the Pottery clay, and the Basketmaker's Workshop reed. Once per harvest, these improvements allow you to turn 1 wood, clay, and reed into 2, 2, and 3 food, respectively. During scoring (see page 12), they allow you to exchange leftover building resources in your supply for bonus points.

During scoring, the Joinery provides 1 bonus point for 3-4 wood left in your supply, 2 bonus points for 5-6 wood, and 3 bonus points for 7 or more wood.

Well

The tenth major improvement is the Well. For 5 rounds, it provides its owner with 1 food. When you build it, place 1 food on each of the next 5 round spaces of the game board that are not covered by an action space card yet (if possible). At the start of these rounds, you get the food from the round space.

You can find a more detailed explanation of the major improvements on page 2 of the appendix.

Hand Cards

Major improvements are face up on the supply board. Minor improvements and occupations are kept in hand, until you play them, which is when the text at the bottom of the card comes into effect. As long as a card is in hand, it does not affect the game in any way.

Played cards can change the rules: the text on a card always takes precedence over this rule book.

You will not draw any additional cards during the game, so you must make the best out of the 7 minor improvements and 7 occupations you got at the start.

Detail on Hand Cards

If a card is phrased like "if some condition a/b/c is met, you get A/B/C" (see also „Craft Buildings" on page 10), at most one of these conditions can be met at a time: a is assigned to A, b to B, and c to C. (For details on other frequently used phrases see pages 3 to 6 of the appendix.)

Example: When you play this card, you immediately get 2 grain, 3 clay, 2 reed, or 2 sheep, depending on whether this is a 1-, 2-, 3-, or 4-player game, respectively.

Minor Improvements

When you take a "Major or Minor Improvement" action, you can choose whether you build a major improvement or play a minor one. You can also play a minor improvement when taking the starting player token on the "Meeting Place" action space (see page 12) or when growing your family on the "Basic Wish for Children" action space (see page 7).

As with the major improvements, you can find the building cost in the top right corner. However, some minor improvements may show a prerequisite: only if this prerequisite is met can you play the respective card at all. Prerequisites only demand you have something, not pay something.

Major improvements have a red background color; minor improvements have an orange one.

Most minor and all major improvements are worth points at the end of the game. The yellow symbol on a card tells you how many points it is worth. As with the craft buildings (see page 10), some minor improvements can provide a variable number of bonus points.

The bonus point symbol reminds you of potential bonus points. The Loom provides 1 bonus point for every 3 sheep.

The Loom itself is worth 1 point.

This prerequisite requires you have at least 2 occupations in front of you.

Some minor improvements are traveling cards: when you play one, you carry out its instructions and pass it to the player on your left who must take it into their hand. These cards are indicated by an arrow pointing left.

Basically, the "Market Stand" lets you exchange 1 grain for 1 vegetable.

Occupations

The "Lessons" action spaces allow you to play exactly one occupation card from your hand, placing it face up in front of you. On the "Lessons" action space above "Day Laborer", the first occupation you play in the game is free. Each additional occupation you play after that costs you 1 food.

In games with 3 and 4 players, there is an additional "Lessons" action space. In a 3-player game, each occupation played on that space costs you 2 food; in a 4-player game the first two occupations cost 1 food, each one after that costs 2 food. These costs are called "occupation costs". (There are a few occupations that require an additional cost, which is described in the text on the card.)

The House Steward is sort of a special card. This card challenges the players to build the house with the most rooms. Whoever wins this challenge gets 3 bonus points (multiple players can win it, if tied).

More details on the occupations and minor improvements can be found on pages 2-3 of the appendix.

Starting Player

The starting player does not change automatically from round to round. To become the starting player, you must use the "Meeting Place" action space. (If no player uses it, the starting player token remains with its current holder.)

When using the "Meeting Place" action space, you can also play a minor improvement.

Game End and Winner

The game ends at the end of the 14th round, after the final harvest.

A table on the side of the game board shows what you get points for at the end of the game: basically anything but food.

The first line shows that 0-1 field tiles are worth 1 negative point, 2 field tiles are worth 1 point, 3 field tiles 2 points, etc. In a similar fashion, you get points for pastures, grain, vegetables, and animals.

Details on Scoring

Whether or not goods on cards provide points depends on the particular phrasing. See the exact rules on the last pages of the appendix.
When scoring grain and vegetables, count all the grain in your supply, on your field tiles, and on any cards that identify themselves as fields.
Animals and people on cards that provide "room" for them do count unless stated otherwise.

You can familiarize yourself with the exact values as you are playing the game. It is important you keep in mind that you lose 1 point for each unused space in your farmyard.

Furthermore, you get points for the renovation status of your house, for your people, for the improvements in front of you, as well as for fenced stables.

A detailed description of all the scoring categories can be found on the last pages of the appendix.

The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the player who has more building resources left in their supply breaks the tie. If still tied, the involved players share a rank.

Number of Components

The only components that are intentionally limited in number are your five people, four stables, and 15 fences. If any other component that is available to all players runs out, use the goods tiles or improvise. There are goods tiles for 2 vegetables, 3 grain, 4 animals (one marker for each type), and 5 building resources (one marker for each type).

Animals can be "quadrupled". This double pasture contains 4 wild boar.

This goods tile represents 2 vegetables in that field.

Solo Game

As the solo player, you start the game with 0 food. You play one turn after another, according to the 2-player game rules with the following exceptions: your adult people require 3 food in the feeding phases (newborns still only require 1 food). Only 2 wood instead of 3 are placed on the "Forest" accumulation space each round. After you play a traveling card that you would normally pass to the player on your left, remove it from play. (See also "Campaigns" on page 10 of the appendix.) If you like, you can choose your hand cards and even the order in which the action space cards enter play.

Designer and editor: Uwe Rosenberg Card testing supervisor: Chris Deotte Realization, illustrations, and graphic design: Klemens Franz Typesetting: Andrea Kattnig English translation of the rule book and cards: Grzegorz Kobiela Proofreading: Alex Yeager

Appendix

This appendix consists of ten parts, namely:

1 Blitz Intro to Agricola 2 Efficient Replenishing 3 Major Improvements 4 Occupations and Minor Improvements 5 Terms and Phrases 6 Action Spaces 7 Variants 8 Campaigns 9 Credits 10 The Scoring in Detail

1 Blitz Intro to Agricola

When Agricola first came out, I would basically teach it every day. Inspired by computer games, I came up with an explanation technique reminiscent of a cinema experience. "Imagine this is a computer game in which you must build a farm, but you have no clues other than what you see right before you. This is wood, this here is clay, etc. In turn order, each player places a person and takes actions with that person. Try this game out and I will explain to you on the fly what it is about. There is house building, cultivation, animal breeding, and the need to feed your family. At the end, you get points for pretty much everything, so I will explain you the exact scoring rules later. You will lose points for unused farmyard spaces. Thus, try to build as much on your farmyard board as possible." With this short intro, people can start playing within a couple of minutes. The players are supposed to explore the game while playing it. After about 90 minutes, this "show" should be done, including the setup and explanation time. If you play with children, I recommend you show the child three action spaces to choose from on their turn. Mark these action spaces with the suggestion markers included with this game.

Beginner's Variant without Hand Cards

If you like, leave out the hand cards on your first game, so that people stay focused and listen carefully to the "animator", instead of studying their hand cards.

If you do leave them out, you should make the "Meeting Place" action space an accumulation space that accumulates 1 food per round.

Additionally and especially in a 4-player game, you should add the "Side Job" special tile to the game board, because baking bread becomes so much more important in games without hand cards.

Side Job: ②/③/④ player variant, Build a Stable and/or Bake Bread

You can build exactly 1 stable (see page 8 of the rule book), paying 1 wood for it. Additionally or alternatively, you can "Bake Bread" (see page 10 of the rule book), meaning if you have a baking improvement, you can turn grain into at least 2 food per grain. How much food you get per grain is stated on the improvement card.

2 Efficient Replenishing

Some groups tend to place the new goods that are replenished each round on the text portion of the accumulation space. Only after all accumulation spaces have been replenished do they move the goods to the center of the space, adding them to the goods that are already there.

Using this trick, all players can help replenishing the accumulation spaces without running the risk that some spaces get replenished multiple times while others are overlooked.

Alternatively, at most two or three players should replenish goods. Each replenishing player should be assigned certain accumulation spaces that they are responsible of.
When playing with people who are new to Agricola, you can also place goods on permanent action spaces like "Grain Seeds" or "Resource Market" even though these spaces provide the same amount of goods each round.

You can place the 1 grain provided by the "Grain Seeds" action space on the space. Make sure you do not place another grain if that 1 grain has not been taken.

3 Major Improvements

There is a designated supply board for the major improvements. Each of these 10 improvement cards has its own space on this board. Place the major improvements on their designated spaces. All players have access to them during the course of the game: when you take a "Major Improvement" action, pay the cost printed on the card you wish to build and place it face up in front of you.

Fireplaces and Cooking Hearths: There are two Fireplaces and two Cooking Hearths. A single player may build both Fireplaces and both Cooking Hearths, if they like. The two Fireplaces only differ in cost. The cheaper one costs 2 clay, the other one costs 3 clay. The two Cooking Hearths also differ in cost. The cheaper one costs 4 clay, the other one costs 5 clay. To save clay, instead of building a Cooking Hearth directly, you can exchange a Fireplace that you built before for a Cooking Hearth when taking a "Major or Minor Improvement" action.

If you upgrade your Fireplace, return it to the supply board and take a Cooking Hearth from there. The Fireplace you returned can be built again. Fireplaces and Cooking Hearths are worth 1 point each. Having a Fireplace or Cooking Hearth increases the food value of vegetables and allows you to turn animals into food (how much food you get is printed on the card). Also, when using the appropriate action space, you can bake bread (see page 10 of the rule book). Compared to a Fireplace, a Cooking Hearth provides 1 additional food for everything but sheep.

The Clay and Stone Oven are very efficient in baking bread. They cost 3 clay plus 1 stone and 1 clay plus 3 stone and they are worth 2 and 3 points, respectively. When you build them, they allow you to bake bread immediately, as an additional action. The Clay Oven turns exactly 1 grain into 5 food, whereas the Stone Oven turns at most 2 grain into 4 food each.

The Joinery, Pottery, and Basketmaker's Workshop provide another use for wood, clay, and reed, respectively. Each harvest, you can turn at most 1 respective building resource into 2 food (Joinery, Pottery) or 3 food (Basketmaker's Workshop). These craft buildings cost 2 stone plus 2 wood, 2 clay, and 2 reed, respectively. They are worth 2 points each at the end of the game, plus up to 3 bonus points for building resources of the respective types left in your supply. How many bonus points you can get is stated on the cards.

Because you get those bonus points without spending the building resources, they do also count towards the tie-breaker (see page 12 of the rule book).

The Well provides 1 food each over the course of 5 rounds. If there are fewer than 5 rounds left when you build the Well, only place as much food as there are actual rounds left. Place the food (as shown in the illustration) on each of the next 5 remaining round spaces and take it from there during the preparation phases of these rounds. The Well costs 3 stone and 1 wood and is worth 4 points.

4 Occupations and Minor Improvements

Card Categories

Every card in Agricola belongs to one of eight categories, represented by symbols on the cards.

Farm Planner: These cards facilitate developing your farmyard board.

Actions Booster: These cards improve your flexibility by providing additional actions and options.

Points Provider: Cards in this category are usually worth a lot of points and may also provide bonus points.

Goods Provider: Cards that would fit in several of the following categories are placed in this one.

Food Provider*: These cards provide food (e.g. by turning grain into food).

Crop Provider: These cards provide additional grain and vegetables (e.g. by allowing you to sow more often).

Building Resource Provider: These cards provide wood, clay, reed, and stone.

Livestock Provider: These cards provide sheep, wild boar, and cattle.

Deck letter and card category.

Some cards are not that easily placed in only one category, but we cannot have a category for every special case. The symbols facilitate comparisons of cards across decks and may be used in the future as requirements and in the card texts.

*All major improvements belong in this category. (The craft buildings could also be placed in the Points Provider category.)

For cards like Paper Maker, it is imperative that only one occupation be played at a time.

Playing an Occupation

When playing an occupation, there can be two costs to pay. Usually, these are food, but they can be other types of goods as well.
The occupation cost is what you must pay when playing the occupation card from your hand. It is stated on the "Lessons" action space.
The (rather rare) individual cost is printed on the occupation card itself. If this cost is food, it can never be removed.
Some card effects allow you to play an occupation without using a "Lessons" action space. In this case, the card effect tells you what the occupation cost is.
Some cards allow you to play additional cards without placing a person.

The Scholar requires a stone house to learn a new occupation each round. The occupation cost is stated on the card: it is 1 food. The occupations played by the Scholar do not require placing a person.

Playing a Minor Improvement

The layout of minor improvement cards is more extensive than that of occupations. Each minor improvement usually features a prerequisite under which you can play the card (top left) and the cost for playing it (top right).

The Prerequisite

We distinguish between the terms "prerequisite" and "condition". The prerequisite must be met to play the card; the condition must be met to use its effect.
If an improvement requires "x Occupations" or "x Improvements", having more than that is fine. The required cards must be in front of you (i.e. traveling cards you played do not count). Below you see the Beanfield. You can play it even if you have 3 or more occupations.
In general: think of each prerequisite as starting with "at least", unless it explicitly states "exactly" or "at most".
The term "No" means you may not have the stated thing at the moment you play the card. Whether or not you had it previously does not matter, as long as you do not have it now. "No Field Tiles" means you may not have any Field Tiles on your farmyard board. "No Fields" also includes minor improvements that identify themselves as fields.
"1 Grain Field" requires you have a field that currently contains at least 1 grain. A field that had grain in it at one point but does not now does not count. The same applies to vegetables.

Beanfield — 2 Occupations, cost 1 reed, worth 1 point. "This card is a field that can only grow vegetables."

Points for Playing a Minor Improvement

These are the points you get during the scoring for having played the card. The Beanfield is worth 1 point.

The Cost

You may not play an improvement without first meeting the prerequisite (top left) and paying the cost (top right).

The Card Text

If a card says you get something but does not state from where, you get that thing from the general supply.
If a card refers to a game component, it usually means one of yours (in your hand or supply, on your farmyard board, or otherwise in front of you). If it means the components of all players or only those of other players (like their people in particular), it explicitly says so.

Collective Terms

Wells are improvements whose names end with "Well".
Ovens are improvements whose names end with "Oven".
Fields are field tiles as well as all cards that identify themselves as such. (If a card says it functions like a field but does not explicitly state that it is one, then it is not a field.)
Slashes in card texts like "when you take clay/stone, you also get 1 food/grain" define a correlation between things: if you take clay, you get 1 food, but if you take stone, you get 1 grain. Exception: we write "1 and 2, respectively" instead of "1/2", because the latter looks too much like "one half".
When you play an occupation or minor improvement or build or acquire a major improvement, you must place the card face up in front of you. The only exception to this are the "traveling card": when you play a "traveling" minor improvement, you pass it to the player to your left who must take it into their hand. It is possible that the same traveling card is played multiple times during the same work phase (by different players). Traveling cards are shown by the arrow next to the illustration.

Upgrades

Cooking Hearths are considered upgrades of Fireplaces. You can exchange a Fireplace for a Cooking Hearth when taking the "Major or Minor Improvement" action (see page 2 of the appendix).

5 Terms and Phrases

In this section, we will explain the terms and phrases used on the cards. These explanations are sorted thematically.

Game Board

Action space, round space, action space card: The game board features action spaces and round spaces. Action spaces are all spaces on which you can place a person. Round spaces are the spaces numbered 1-14. As the game progresses, action space cards will be placed on the round spaces. Certain cards can place goods on both types of spaces.

On the next x round spaces: Some cards tell you to place goods "on the next x round spaces". If there are fewer than x rounds left to play, only place the required goods on the remaining spaces. (There are only 14 round spaces.) If you lose the card or the card effect that told you to place goods on round spaces, you also lose your claim to these goods.

Using an action space, taking an action: Using an action space always entails placing a person on that action space. Using the effect of an action space or taking an action does not necessarily entail placing a person (but it can).

Taking goods from an accumulation space: When using an accumulation space, you must take all the goods from that space, moving them to your supply (unless some card tells you otherwise). You cannot simply leave goods behind.

Obtaining a good: "Obtaining a good" is the umbrella term for moving a good to your supply, e.g. taking a good from an accumulation space, taking a good off a card and into your supply, getting a good from the general supply, harvesting a good, etc.

Column of the game board: A "column of the game board" is the collective term for a set of action spaces that are vertically above each other on the game board.

Adjacent action spaces: Only orthogonally adjacent action spaces are actually considered adjacent, i.e. if they share an edge (even across a larger gap). (Diagonal adjacency does not count.)

The Grove is adjacent to both Farm Expansion and Meeting Place.

Course of Play

Start of the round: The first of four phases of a round is the preparation phase. If a card says "before the start of the round", it refers to the moment immediately before the preparation phase begins: consequently, the effect triggers even before you get goods from the current round space, if any.

Preparation phase: Round spaces are spaces of the game board on which you place action space cards (see above).

You may not decline goods that you would get from a round space.
To remind yourself which goods are yours on a round space, you could assign each player a separate corner on that space. Illustrations of picnic blankets and other elements in different colors are supposed to help you with that.
If you would get something from a round space in exchange for something else, you can decline the exchange. If the components offered in exchange are your stables, fences, or people and you decline the exchange, return those components to your supply. If you decline tiles or goods offered in exchange, return them to the general supply. If you decline an exchange, you cannot make it later.
If you get multiple goods during the preparation phase (whether directly or in exchange for something), take these goods in an order of your choice.

The Plow Driver and Scholar allow you to spend food at the start of a round in exchange for a field tile and occupation, respectively. You could use food from a Well for that.

The Small-Scale Farmer provides 1 wood from the general supply each round, as long as you live in a house with exactly 2 rooms at the start of each round.

Work phase:

Some cards allow multiple people of the same or different players on the same action space. It is imperative you read those cards carefully, espcially in regard to which people are actually allowed on the same space.
If the last person is removed from an action space during the work phase (i.e. even before the returning home phase), the action space is considered unoccupied and can be used again by any player.

Harvest:

When you "sow" goods, you will harvest them one by one during the following harvests.
Except for the breeding phase (which is usually part of the harvest), you can turn new animals that you get into food right away (provided you have an appropriate tankard improvement). You do not have to accommodate them on your farm first, unless a card explicitly says that you do.
If a card lets you play certain phases of the harvest outside of the regular course of action, this is not considered a "harvest". Only if a card explicitly says you play a harvest without certain phases, it is actually considered a "harvest".

Players and People

Player, person, people: Since you are playing a family of farmers in this game, we distinguish between the terms "player" and "person". Player: this is you. Person (plural: people): these are the tokens you use to take actions.

Offspring: At the start of the game, your third, fourth, and fifth person is still in your supply. These people are called "offspring". To get offspring, use one of the "Wish for Children" action spaces.

Newborn: A person from your supply that you place next to another person of your color on a "Wish for Children" action space is called "newborn" until the end of that round (including the harvest, if relevant). Afterward it becomes an "adult person".

Some cards refer to the number of people you have: a newborn person counts towards that number the moment it is placed next to the parent person.
Some cards allow you to grow your family during the work phase without using a "Wish for Children" action space. In this case, place the newborn next to the adult person who took the most recent action.

(An)other player: When a card says something about "another player", you cannot be that other player. The effect only triggers when any player but you meets the described condition.

Action, person's action: The terms "person's action" and "turn" cover all the things that a person does on an action space, which may be multiple actions. Many cards provide actions that you can take without placing a person. These actions are not considered a person's actions or turn.

Placing a person: "Placing a person" and "occupying an action space with a person" means taking a person from your house and moving it onto an action space. This does not include taking the actions provided by the action space. "Using an action space", however, always means first placing a person, then taking at least one action provided by the action space or taking a replacement action (allowed by a card you played).

Placing two people immediately after one another: "Placing two people immediately after one another" (see the text on the "Lasso" card) means that when it is your turn to place a person, you place two people instead, one after another. Your next turn is not skipped by that—when it is your turn again, you place one person as usual. Consequently, you take your actions way earlier than the other players.

Lasso: You can place exactly two people immediately after one another if at least one of them uses the "Sheep Market", "Pig Market", or "Cattle Market" accumulation space.

Skipping: Skipping means that on your turn, i.e. when you have at least one person left in your house, you do not place a person, but pass. This does not mean you place fewer people. It only results in you placing your people later.

Starting player: The starting player is the player who currently holds the starting player token. When using the "Meeting Place" action space, immediately take the starting player token, becoming the new starting player right away even though another player started that round.

Animal Husbandry

Pastures and meadows: Pastures are green spaces on your farmyard board surrounded by fences. Meadows are green spaces that are not surrounded by fences.

Fence spaces: Fences are built on "fence spaces", i.e. between adjacent farmyard spaces or at the edge of the farmyard board. Your farmyard board contains farmyard and fence spaces.

Capacity: Each pasture can hold a certain maximum number of animals. This "capacity" can be doubled by stables or otherwise modified by cards. The term "total capacity" emphasizes the modifiability of pastures.

Newborn animals, parent animals: Newborn animals are animal offspring. Parent animals are the two animals that provided the offspring.

Fence spaces, Pasture, Meadow.

Cultivation

Fields and field tiles: Field tiles are the tiles that you place on your farmyard board. "Field" is the umbrella term for field tiles and cards that identify themselves as fields (so-called "field cards").

Plowing a field: "Plowing a field" always means taking a field tile and placing it on your farmyard board. If you already have field tiles on your farmyard board, you must place the new ones adjacent to existing ones.

Grain field, vegetable field: A grain field is a field in which there is at least 1 grain (among other things, potentially). As soon as you harvest the last grain from it, it is no longer considered a "grain field". The same applies to vegetable fields. A field is considered unplanted if there are no harvestable goods in it. A field is considered empty if there is literally nothing in it. (Hence, empty fields are necessarily unplanted fields.)

Unconditional „Sow" action:

Some cards in this deck require an „unconditional 'Sow' action". A „Sow" action is considered unconditional if it …

does not limit the number of fields in which you may sow;
lets you sow as many goods in a field as is usual for that type;
allows every type of good to be sown in a field as is usual for that field.

(It does not matter whether or not the action is triggered by a person.)

Farm and Farmyard Board

Farmyard spaces in rows and columns: There are 15 spaces on your farmyard board: 2 spaces are wood rooms at the start of the game; the other 13 can be used however you like. These spaces are organized in three rows and five columns, including your initial wood rooms.

Used and unused farmyard spaces: A farmyard space is considered used if there is a tile or stable on it or if it is (directly or indirectly) surrounded by fences. It is considered unused if it is empty or if there are just goods on it (see also scoring of unused farmyard spaces on page 11 of this appendix). At the start of the game, there are 2 used and 13 unused spaces in your farmyard.

On your farm, on your farmyard board: Components "on your farm" are either on your farmyard board or next to it (e.g. in your supply, but excluding unborn people, as well as stables and fences you have not built yet). Components on cards are only considered to be on your farm when the card specifies that they belong to you already (e.g. if the card is a field or provides room for animals). In most cases, cards only hold goods that you can get in the future, in which case these goods are not considered to be on your farm, they are not in your supply, and they do not count during the scoring.

Adjacent farmyard spaces, connected fence spaces: Farmyard spaces are considered adjacent if they have a common fence space between them, i.e. if they are orthogonally adjacent to the same fence space. Fences and fence spaces are never considered adjacent to one another, but they can be connected.

Goods

Types of goods: Grain and vegetables are collectively called "crops". Wood, clay, reed, and stone are "building resources". Crops and building resources together constitute "resources". Sheep, wild boar, and cattle are "animals" (sheep and cattle are "dairy animals"). Resources, animals, and food are called "goods".

Costs: When you (have to) pay goods, you must use goods from your supply (or, in case of animals, from your farm). Goods on fields and cards must first be taken from them, before you can pay them. (Taking goods off a field or card is usually not allowed just like that.)

A "building cost" is a set of goods you have to pay for rooms, stables, fences, renovations, and cards—as shown in the top right corner of a card. (Even crops, animals, and food can be part of a building cost.)
An "occupation cost" is an amount of food you have to pay to play an occupation on a "Lessons" action space.

Gifts, trading, discarding: You are generally not allowed to give another player goods or personal components or trade with them. You may, however, discard goods into the general supply at any time. (You may not discard components in your player color.)

Any number of: When a card offers you or lets you pay or discard "any number of something", including fences, stables, cards, and tiles, this number may be 0.

Exchanging goods: Exchanging goods, turning goods into food, and buying goods with food are all basically the same: you trade one thing for another. When buying things with food, we treat food as some sort of currency.

6 Action Spaces

There are two types of action spaces on the game board: spaces that accumulate goods and spaces that have a permanent effect. The following applies to all action spaces showing an ocher-colored arrow, the so-called accumulation spaces: when you use an accumulation space, you must take all the building resources, animals, and food from the space and place them in your supply. Permanent action spaces require that you take at least one of the offered actions (or a replacement action, as defined by a card you played), otherwise you may not use them. In the following section, listing all action spaces, we explain the more important ones in great detail.

First, we focus on the action spaces that are available in all games, regardless of the number of players. Next, we explain the action space cards, organized by the stage they appear in (you can find an overview on the reverse side of the "Side Job" tile). Finally, we address the action spaces that are only available in 3- and 4-player games.

Farm Expansion: Build Rooms and/or Build Stables

How to build rooms is explained in detail on page 7 of the rule book. How to build stables is explained on page 8. Before your first renovation, each new room costs 5 wood and 2 reed, afterward 5 clay and 2 reed. After your second renovation, each new room costs 5 stone and 2 reed. You can build as many rooms and/or stables as you want. You are allowed to only build rooms or only build stables. Each new room must be orthogonally adjacent to an existing one. (There is no such restriction for stables.) You can only build one stable per farmyard space. That space may not be covered by a tile.

Meeting Place: Become the Starting Player and afterward Minor Improvement

Immediately take the starting player token (or keep it). From that moment, you are considered the "starting player" (even though another player started the current round). Additionally, you can play exactly one minor improvement from your hand: most cards are placed face up in front of you when played, some are passed to the player to your left (traveling cards). Read the text on the card aloud.

Grain Seeds: Get 1 Grain (and place it in your supply)

You get 1 grain from the general supply, placing it in your supply. You may not sow this grain right away, even if you have empty fields. (To sow it, you must take a "Sow" action on a later turn.)

Farmland: Plow a Field

Place a field tile on an unused farmyard space of your choice. (Unused farmyard spaces blocked by certain card effects are not eligible. If there are goods on the space that you are allowed to remove, return them to the general supply, before placing the field tile.) If you already have field tiles on your farmyard board, you must place the new one orthogonally adjacent to an existing one. Once placed, you cannot remove a field tile.

Lessons: Play an Occupation (occupation cost: 1 food; the first one is free)

Play exactly one occupation card from your hand, placing it face up in front of you. Read the text on the card aloud. The following applies to all players: The first occupation you play in the game is free if you play it using this "Lessons" action space. Each occupation after that costs 1 food here. You have a certain selection of occupation cards in hand that only you have access to.

Day Laborer: Day Laborer, Get 2 Food

You get 2 food from the general supply.

Forest: Accumulation Space: +3 Wood

Clay Pit: Accumulation Space: +1 Clay

Reed Bank: Accumulation Space: +1 Reed

Fishing: Fishing, Accumulation Space: +1 Food

Major Improvement: Stage 1, Major or Minor Improvement

You can either build 1 major improvement or play 1 minor improvement—your choice. You can choose from ten major improvements that are available to all players. In your hand, you have a certain selection of minor improvement cards that only you have access to.

Fencing: Stage 1, Build Fences

How to build fences is explained on page 8 of the rule book. You can build any number of fences, paying 1 wood for each new fence you build. You are allowed to fence a stable or divide an existing pasture in several smaller ones by building fences on the fence spaces inside the pasture.

Grain Utilization: Stage 1, Sow and/or Bake Bread

How to sow is explained on page 9 of the rule book. "Baking bread" (see page 10 of the rule book) means turning grain in your supply (and not from your fields) into 2 and 3 food using a Fireplace and Cooking Hearth, respectively. Various oven improvements allow you to turn your grain into even more food.

Sheep Market: Stage 1, Accumulation Space: +1 Sheep

When taking sheep from an accumulation space, you must accommodate them on your farm (see animal husbandry rules on page 8 of the rule book) or turn them into food using a tankard improvement. Sheep that you can neither accommodate nor turn into food must be returned to the general supply. (You may not simply leave them on the accumulation space.)

Basic Wish for Children: Stage 2, Family Growth with Room Only and afterward Minor Improvement

You can only use this action space to grow your family if you currently have more rooms than people, regardless of whether these people are still at home or on action spaces. You may not skip the family growth only to play a minor improvement.

House Redevelopment: Stage 2, 1 Renovation and afterward Major or Minor Improvement

You may only build a major improvement or play a minor improvement (see pages 10-11 of the rule book) if you renovate first (see page 7 of the rule book). You are not allowed to renovate your house twice in a single action.

Western Quarry: Stage 2, Accumulation Space: +1 Stone

Vegetable Seeds: Stage 3, Get 1 Vegetable (and place it in your supply)

You get 1 vegetable from the general supply, placing it in your supply. You may not sow this vegetable right away even if you have empty fields.

Pig Market: Stage 3, Accumulation Space: +1 Wild Boar

This space is much like the "Sheep Market" accumulation space, only for wild boar.

Cattle Market: Stage 4, Accumulation Space: +1 Cattle

This space is much like the "Sheep Market" accumulation space, only for cattle.

Eastern Quarry: Stage 4, Accumulation Space: +1 Stone

Urgent Wish for Children: Stage 5, Family Growth Even without Room

Unlike the "Basic Wish for Children" action space, the number of rooms in your house does not matter for this effect. (If you grew your family three times on this action space, you could have 5 people in only 2 rooms.) Note: If you grow your family on this space and build a single room later, you will not be able to use "Basic Wish for Children". The new room gets immediately occupied by the person who did not have a room of its own yet.

Cultivation: Stage 5: Plow a Field and/or Sow

You can plow one field and then immediately sow grain or vegetables in all of your empty fields (see page 9 of the rule book), including the one you just plowed.

Farm Redevelopment: Stage 6, 1 Renovation and afterward Build Fences

You can only build fences (see page 8 of the rule book) if you renovate first (see page 7 of the rule book). You are not allowed to renovate twice in a single action.

Grove: ③ players, Accumulation Space: +2 Wood

Hollow: ③ players, Accumulation Space: +1 Clay

Resource Market: ③ players, Get 1 Reed/Stone and 1 Food

Take your choice of 1 reed or 1 stone as well as 1 food from the general supply and place them in your supply.

Lessons: ③ players, Play an Occupation (occupation cost: 2 food)

Play exactly one occupation card from your hand, placing it face up in front of you. Read the text on the card aloud. The occupation costs 2 food on this action space (which is therefore more expensive than the other "Lessons" action space).

Copse: ④ players, Accumulation Space: +1 Wood

Grove: ④ players, Accumulation Space: +2 Wood

Hollow: ④ players, Accumulation Space: +2 Clay

Resource Market: ④ players, Get 1 Reed, 1 Stone, and 1 Food

Take 1 reed, 1 stone, and 1 food from the general supply and place them in your supply.

Lessons: ④ players, Play an Occupation (occupation cost: 2 food, the first two cost 1 food each)

Play exactly one occupation card from your hand, placing it face up in front of you. The following applies to all players: The first two occupations you play in the game cost 1 food each if you play them on this "Lessons" action space. Each occupation after that costs 2 food here.

Traveling Players: ④ players, Traveling Players, Accumulation Space: +1 Food

Additional Action Spaces

When setting up the game, you can introduce an additional action space tile to the game. The large tile features additional (and decidedly varied) actions for the 2-player game, the small one provides two actions for games with 3 and 4 players.

In the 2-player game, when you place a person on the depicted action space tile, you must choose exactly one of the four action spaces and use it. Afterward all four action spaces on the tile are blocked until the end of that round. Among the four spaces is an accumulation space. When you use it, take all the wood from the space. When you use another action space, leave the wood on the accumulation space.

Copse: ② player variant, Accumulation Space: +1 Wood

Resource Market: ② player variant, Get 1 Stone and 1 Food

Take 1 stone and 1 food from the general supply and place them in your supply.

Animal Market: ② player variant, Recive 1 Animal

You must choose one of three options: either get 1 sheep and 1 food, or get 1 wild boar, or buy 1 cattle for 1 food. Take the animal from the general supply and place it on your farm. With an appropriate improvement or occupation, you can turn the animal into food immediately.

Modest Wish for Children: ② player variant, From Round 5: Family Growth with Room Only

From round 5 (inclusive), you can grow your family on this action space, provided you have enough room.

In the 3- and 4-player game, you can only choose between two action spaces. Still, only one person can use the action space tile each round.

Animal Market: ③ + ④ player variant, Recive 1 Animal — see above

Modest Wish for Children: ③ + ④ player variant, From Round 5: Family Growth with Room Only — see above

7 Variants

A lot of variants popped up after the release of Agricola, especially ones changing the start of a game. We would like to present a small selection of these.

Drafting

After the release of Agricola, drafting* – originally introduced by Stephan Valkyser – soon became one of the most popular variants.

Each player gets 7 occupations, chooses one and passes the remaining 6 to the left. They then choose one of the 6 cards getd, passing the remaining 5 to the left, etc. This process continues until only 1 card is passed to the left. The same procedure is applied to the minor improvements. This is how drafting is done at www.play-agricola.com (see credits on page 10).
The Agricola app deals each player 7+7 cards and they choose 1+1 cards each time, passing the rest to the left.
When Li Kuang Che organizes an Agricola tournament in Taiwan, each player gets 8 occupations at first and then 8 improvements later, drafting those as described above. The last remaining card of each type is removed from play, so that each player ends up with a hand of 7+7 cards as required.

*Drafting is a term that became popular with the "Magic" card game.

Quick Drafting

Jens Bernsdorf sped up the drafting process by letting each player choose 3+3 cards to keep, passing the remaining 4+4 cards to the left, then choosing 2+2 cards from those getd and passing the rest to the left. After this, the draft is complete.

Another quite popular variant is to deal each player 10 cards, from which they have to choose 7.

Some groups allow a player to discard all cards of one type to draw a new set of that type, but with one fewer card in it. This could be repeated several times in a row, if a player is still unsatisfied with their new selection of cards.

None of these variants take as much time as the regular draft.

Living Hand of Cards

Designer Rüdiger Dorn, who is known for award-winning games like "Goa", introduced the following variant: Each player starts the game with only 5 occupations and 5 improvements in hand. Each time a player plays a card from hand, they immediately draw a new card, which may be of either type. At the end of each harvest, in clockwise order, each player may discard one card from hand to draw a new one of either type.

Later Rüdiger reduced the starting hand of cards even further, letting each player start with just 3 occupations and 3 improvements. For that, at the start of the game, each player may discard a card to draw a new one of the same type, up to six times. Each time they play a card during the course of the game, they draw a new one as usual. By now, Rüdiger dropped the exchange of cards during the harvest.

Georg Deifuss uses a variant in which each player starts the game with 6 regular minor improvements and 1 traveling card. Michael Lopez deals each player 3 "1+" occupations, 2 "3+" occupations, and 2 "4+" occupations. Franz-Josef Petri places some cards face up on the table. Each round, exactly one player may skip their turn to take one of the face-up cards into their hand.

Team Play

In this variant by Daniel Winterhalter, the two players sitting opposite from each other constitute a team. When a player uses the "Marketplace" action space, introduced by this variant, they can give their team partner goods and/or get goods from them. Regardless of which way the exchange goes, the active player has to pay 1 good to the general supply to move any number of goods of that type from one player to the other.

When building rooms and stables, a player can build rooms and stables for their partner by paying 6 wood and 3 reed per room (clay and stone rooms accordingly) and 3 wood per stable. When building fences, a player can use their partner's fence pieces to build fences on their partner's farmyard board. If they do, they have to pay an additional 1/2/... wood for 1-3/4-6/... fences they build on their partner's behalf. Building cost reducing cards played by one player also apply to their partner. When a player plows a field, they can plow a field on their partner's farmyard board instead. During the scoring, each player in a team determines their own score in each category and only the lower of the two values in each category counts for the team.

Clerk Lee from Taiwan suggests the players multiply their total scores.

We have printed the Marketplace on the reverse side of one of the variant tiles.

House Rules

As a house rule, many players like to play that you must accommodate animals on your farm before you can turn them into food. Another interesting house rule by Jennifer Ha suggests that you cannot keep a type of animal in more than one pasture. This variant greatly increases the value of stables and the pet. Georg Deifuss likes to play that you can only take as many animals from an animal accumulation space as you can actually use (by accommodating them on your farm or turning them into food). Animals that you cannot use remain on the accumulation space. Another popular house rule allows for incomplete pastures when building fences or ignoring the adjacency rule for pastures. David Larkin lets each player start with 3 food, but in the first round, the second person of each player is played in reverse turn order. Norbert Szongott provided us with the idea of adding an extra action space in the 2-player game, as described on page 10 of this appendix. He addresses the lack of wood in the 2-player game with an additional "Copse" action space.

For a long time, I was toying with the idea of introducing the following restriction to the base game, which makes Agricola even more strategic: everything you build on your farmyard board must be adjacent to an already existing structure. Additionally, rooms must be adjacent to rooms, fields to fields, and pastures to pastures. (E.g. the first pasture you build must be adjacent to your house or a field, if you already have one.) I like to play this way myself, because it is quite challenging on the player. I would only recommend this variant to experienced players, though.

8 Campaigns

A campaign is a series of games played by the same people, with each game affecting the next one. We have devised such a campaign mode for Agricola.

Multiplayer Game

If you are going to play a series of games of Agricola, we recommend the following:

With 4 players, you get 7/5/4/3 campaign points after your first game, 8/5/3/2 after the second, and 9/6/3/1 after the third.

With 3 players, you get 7/5/3, then 8/5/2, and finally 9/5/1 campaign points, respectively.

With 2 players, you get 1/0, then 2/0, and finally 3/0 campaign points, respectively.

The player who has the most campaign points at the end of the campaign wins.

The winner of one game becomes starting player in the next. The player who ends up last in one game starts the next with an additional 1 food as consolation.
Each player can keep an occupation they played in the previous game for the next, leaving it face up in front of them. This applies to both the second and third game. (On your third game, you can keep the occupation you kept for the second.) You do not have to pay an occupation cost for the occupation you keep, but if it shows an individual cost, you must pay that. (With this starting occupation, you can have up to 8 occupations in play.)

You could not afford to keep the Lover between games, as you cannot possibly pay his individual cost of 7 food. Luckily, you will not encounter him before an expansion comes out.

If there is a tie in campaign points at the end of the campaign, the player with the higher combined score between all three games breaks the tie.

Solo Game

The solo campaign is a series of up to 8 games. After the first game, choose one of your played occupations. This is now a permanent occupation and is placed face up in front of you before the start of all subsequent games without costing an action nor an occupation cost. Each subsequent game, you can make another occupation permanent (so that it stays in play), choosing it from those played during the previous game. Reduce your occupation hand by the number of permanent occupations you have, so that you have a total of 7 occupations at the start of each game. Once an occupation is made permanent, it must stay in play for the rest of the campaign. As the number of permanent occupations increases from game to game, your goal score that you must reach goes up in each game: in the first game, your goal is 50 points, then 55, 59, 62, 64, 65, 66, and 67 points. After eight games, the campaign is over.

At the start of each game, you get 1 food for every 2 points by which you exceeded the goal score for the previous game (rounded down).

Any occupations that were not made permanent are shuffled back into the deck—so you can see them again potentially. The same applies to the minor improvements.

Details on Costs

Some occupations show an individual cost that must be paid when the occupation is played (see "Lover"). If you make such an occupation permanent, you must pay the individual cost at the start of each game. Because the amount of food you start with varies from game to game, it may happen that you cannot pay an individual cost at some point. If this happens, you must shuffle the occupation back into the deck, losing it from your pool of permanent occupations.

If you fail to reach the goal score, you can try again, but this time starting with no food.

If you like, you can continue playing even after the eighth game with the final set of permanent occupations you have in front of you. The goal score keeps going up by 1 point after each game. This way you can play indefinitely, always trying to beat your previous score.

9 Credits

"Agricola" was designed by Uwe Rosenberg in 2005 and realized by Hanno Girke. Klemens Franz did all the illustrations. He and his wife also did the typesetting and graphic design of the 16 different language versions that are now out there. The present form of the rule book was penned by Uwe Rosenberg and proofread by Alex Yeager and Grzegorz Kobiela. Many thanks for that.

Also many thanks to our over 100 play-testers of the first edition as well as for all the feedback and suggestions that we getd since the original release that helped us improve the game even more. In the early phases of development, Hagen Dorgathen pointed out that breeding each pair of animals or even breeding on a per-pasture basis gets out of hand pretty quickly. Anja Grieger introduced the rule that an unfenced stable can hold 1 animal, and I like to consider Frank Grieger as the intellectual father of the Day Laborer. A special thank you to Melissa Rogerson for the original translation and to Grzegorz Kobiela for the current one, as well as to William Attia for inspiring me with his game "Caylus", for improving many phrases, and for the original French translation. Also thanks to Jeroen Doumen, Joris Wiersinga, and Klaus Teuber for the inspirations I got from "Antiquity" and "Löwenherz", as well as to Dale Yu and Hanno Girke for revising the original solo and family game rules. We would like to thank Ferdinand de Cassan for continuously organizing the Agricola world championship and the Playdek company for the award-winning Agricola app. There is even an app for the Agricola variant "All Creatures Big and Small" by now, for which we have to thank the digidiced company.

Last but not least, we are hugely indebted to Chris Deotte, the creator of www.play-agricola.com, sort of a "tinkering platform" on which we could test countless cards. Today we have over 1000 extensively tested Agricola cards. Almost every single one of the original cards has been played over 3000 times—based on the statistics we have. The strength of each card is measured by its power value, which helped us revise the weakest and strongest cards. Without Chris, we would have never had as deep of an insight into the game as we have today.

10 The Scoring in Detail

The scoring takes place after the harvest of round 14. The table on the side of the game board as well as the scoring pad tell you exactly what to score. If you have any questions, read the following detailed explanation of the scoring. You score and lose points in the following categories:

Field Tiles on Your Farmyard Board:

Score all of your field tiles, regardless of whether or not they are planted. You lose a point for 0 to 1 field tiles, 1 point for 2 field tiles, 2 points for 3 field tiles, 3 points for 4 field tiles, and 4 points for 5 or more field tiles. (You only score your field tiles, not the total of your fields—some cards identify themselves as fields, but they do not count as field tiles.)

Pastures:

You get points for the total of green areas on your farmyard board that are surrounded by fences (so-called "pastures"), but not for the individual spaces (so-called "pasture spaces"). The size of a pasture does not matter for this scoring category (neither does the fact whether or not there are animals in the pasture). If you do not have any pastures, you lose a point. Four of your pastures are worth 1 point each. If you have more than 4 pastures, you still only get 4 points in this category.

Stables and animals in those pastures are subject to other scoring categories (see "Animals" and "Fenced stables").

3 pastures are worth 3 points.

Grain and Vegetables:

You score points for the total of grain and vegetables you have in your supply and on your fields.

If you have no grain, you lose a point. If you have at least 1/4/6/8 grain, you get 1/2/3/4 points.
If you have no vegetables, you lose a point. Four of your vegetables are worth 1 point each. If you have more than 4 vegetables, you still only get 4 points in this category.
Crops on cards do count if those cards identify themselves as fields or state explicitly that these crops belong to you. Crops on cards do not count if they constitute rewards for which you had to meet some condition that you have not met (or if they were offered in exchange for something and you have not made that exchange).

The Grocer offers you grain and vegetables. These crops do not belong to you as long as they remain on the card.

Animals:

If you have no sheep, wild boar, or cattle, you lose 1 point in the respective category.

If you have at least 1/4/6/8 sheep, at least 1/3/5/7 wild boar, or at least 1/2/4/6 cattle, you get 1/2/3/4 points in the respective category.

Animals on cards do count for this if the card specifies that those animals belong to you (a lot of cards provide room for animals). Animals on cards do not count if they constitute rewards for which you had to meet some condition that you have not met (or if they were offered in exchange for something and you have not made that exchange).

Unused Farmyard Spaces:

You cannot have a positive score in this category. You lose a point for each unused space in your farmyard.

A farmyard space is considered "used" if it is covered by a room or field tile, or if it is (directly or indirectly) surrounded by fences, or if there is a stable on it. If a card defines some farmyard space as used, then that space is considered used as well.
Unfenced farmyard spaces are considered "unused" if they are empty or containing just animals or goods due to some card (which does not explicitly state that the space be considered "used").
Some cards change the function of a room, pasture, field tile, or unfenced stable. This does not affect the status of the farmyard space with that component—it remains used.

Fenced Stables:

You do not lose any points if you have not built any stables. You get 1 point for each stable in a pasture (so-called "fenced stable"). (Having unfenced stables, on the other hand, saves you from losing points for unused farmyard spaces.) Because each player only has 4 stables in their color, you can score at most 4 points in this category (as is the case with most scoring categories).

Even if some special effect causes you to have more than 4 stables, you cannot get more than 4 points in this category.

Some cards can change the function of a fenced stable or redefine it as something else entirely. Regardless of how a card affects a fenced stable in particular, it is still considered a fenced stable for the purposes of the scoring.

Clay rooms are worth 1 point each. For instance, if you have 4 clay rooms, you get 4 points.

Stone rooms are worth 2 points each. For instance, if you have 4 stone rooms, you get 8 points.

Each person you have in play is worth 3 points. Consequently, you can score at most 15 points for people, because you can have at most 5 people in play.

Points for Cards:

Each major and minor improvement card shows how many points it is worth in a yellow circle on the left. You only get points for improvements that are face up in front of you. (Discarded improvements and those left in your hand do not count.) Occupations do not have printed points.

Bonus Points:

Some cards provide additional points described in their text. These points are scored in the "Bonus Points" category.

Cards providing bonus points show a bonus point symbol on the right, next to their printed points value.

Some cards provide bonus points during the game, which you must note on the scoring pad the moment you get them. From your bonus points total, subtract the points lost from certain card texts and begging markers. (This may result in a negative score. Each begging marker is worth -3 points.)

You do lose points for missing goods and unused farmyard spaces even if some card provides bonus points for those (they do not cancel each other out directly).

The major improvements „Joinery", „Pottery", and „Basketmaker's Workshop" allow you to exchange leftover building resources in your supply for bonus points. The Joinery, for instance, allows you to exchange either 3 wood for 1 bonus point, or 5 wood for 2 bonus points, or 7 wood for 3 bonus points. The same applies to the Pottery but with clay. Similarly, the Basketmaker's Workshop lets you exchange either 2 reed for 1 bonus point, or 4 reed for 2 bonus points, or 5 reed for 3 bonus points. (You cannot get more than 3 bonus points per craft building.) You can only exchange building resources that are literally in your supply.

Agricola (Revised Edition) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Appendix

Components

Wooden components

24 yellow "grain" crop tokens 16 orange "vegetable" crop tokens 1 yellow starting player token

In different player colors: 4x 15 fences 4x 4 stables 4x 5 people

Game boards

Tiles

Markers

36 "1 food" markers 8 "5 food" markers 3 yellow suggestion markers (for the blitz intro) 10 goods tiles for various goods (with begging markers on the back sides)

120 cards

14 action space cards for stages 1 to 6 10 red "major improvement" cards 48 yellow "occupation" cards 48 orange "minor improvement" cards

As well as

1 scoring pad 10 transparent bags to organize the components this 12-page rule book a 12-page appendix

Setup

We will explain the rules for 2-4 players first, followed by the solo game rules on the last page.

Your Personal Display

Choose a player color and take the five people, four stables, and 15 fences in that color.

Room and Field Tiles

Game Board with Action Spaces

Place the game board in the middle of the play area. Depending on the number of players, take the appropriate game board extension and attach it to the game board with the proper side facing up.

Randomly determine who gets the starting player token. This player gets 2 food; each other player gets 3 food.

Improvements and Occupations

Major Improvements

Place the red ("major") improvements on the designated spaces of the supply board. Please note that there are two Fireplaces and two Cooking Hearths.

Fireplaces cost 2 and 3 clay, respectively. Cooking Hearths cost 4 and 5 clay, respectively.

Minor Improvements

Shuffle the orange improvements and deal each player a hand of seven cards.

Occupations

You start the game with seven orange and seven yellow cards in your hand.

Action Space Cards

Place all the animals (sheep, wild boar, cattle), building resources (wood, clay, reed, stone), crops (grain, vegetables), and food markers ready at hand as the general supply.

The goods tiles with begging markers on their backs will only be needed occasionally. Place them somewhere on the side of the table—in case you need them.

"Side Job" and Other Variant Tiles. Please check pages 1 and 8 of the appendix on how to use the "Side Job" and the other two variant tiles. You will not need them in the base game.
Suggestion Tiles. The three yellow suggestion tiles are used in games with inexperienced players and small children (see page 1 of the appendix). Usually, you will not need them at all.

General Overview

Your goal is to gather food for your family and to develop your farmyard board so that it is worth a lot of points.

What Happens on Your Farmyard Board

This is how your farmyard board could look like at the end of the game—the following notes call out its features:

Each room has space for one person. The reason why there are five people in this house is that, towards the end of the game, lack of space does not matter anymore.
Initially composed of wood rooms, this house can now shine with stone rooms—after being renovated twice: luxury like this is worth a lot of points.
You can have exactly 1 pet animal—this will not improve towards the end.
You start the game with only two rooms. In this example, another two rooms have been added during the course of the game.
Most animals must be kept in pastures and stables.
Cultivation is tedious. You must plow fields, acquire crops, and sow them. In the end, you will be rewarded with a plentiful harvest.
You can have grain fields, vegetable fields, but also empty fields that lie fallow until you sow them.
The size of a pasture determines its capacity. (More on animal husbandry later.)
You can develop your farmyard board via house building, cultivation, and animal breeding. Components in the same area of responsibility must be adjacent to one another: rooms to rooms, fields to fields, and pastures to pastures.

Have a First Look at the Scoring Sheet

At the end of the game, the player whose farm is worth the most points wins.

Each room in a stone house is worth 2 points. (8)
Each person is worth 3 points. (15)
You lose 1 point for each unused space in your farmyard. (-2)
You lose 1 point for each missing type of animal. (-1 for cattle)
6 wild boar are worth 3 points. (3)
4 fields are worth 3 points. (3)
You get points for the total amount of grain in your supply and farm. The same applies to vegetables. According to the table, 3 grain are worth 1 point, and 1 vegetable is worth 1 point. (2)
Each pasture is worth 1 point (regardless of size). (2)
Each stable in a pasture is worth 1 point. (1)
8 sheep are worth 4 points. (4)

In total, this farmyard board is worth 35 points.

Improvements and Occupations

The cards are what makes each game of Agricola so different. There are 3 types of cards. Minor improvements are orange, major improvements are red. Occupations are yellow.

Here are three more examples, continuing the scoring example above:

You get points according to the printed value on the minor and major improvements. The Loom is worth 1 point, the Joinery is worth 2 points. (3)
Some cards provide additional bonus points that are tied to certain conditions. The Loom provides bonus points for sheep. 8 sheep are worth 2 bonus points. The Joinery allows you to exchange leftover wood in your supply for bonus points: 5 wood are also worth 2 points. (4)
Occupations can also be worth points. The Braggart can provide up to 9 bonus points for the improvements you have in play. Unfortunately, having only the Loom and Joinery is not enough to be worth anything in this case. (0)

A score of 30 points is considered respectable for someone who plays Agricola for the first time. Experienced players strive for scores of 40 and higher.

A final score of 42 in this example is intentional. It is a score that I would consider one of my better ones (if I did not just construct it).

Course of Play

1. Preparation Phase

If there are goods on the round space that were placed there via certain card effects (see pages 10-11), you will now get those goods.

Next, place the depicted amount of goods on each action space showing an ocher-colored arrow, even if there are goods left from previous rounds. These spaces are called "accumulation spaces".

When you build the Well, you have to place 1 food on each of the next five round spaces.

In this example, 3 wood are added to the 3 wood from the previous round.

2. Work Phase

*As the game progresses, some players may have more people than others. Skip players who run out of people to place and proceed with those players in clockwise order who still have people left.

Details on the Work Phase

When you use an accumulation space, take all the goods from the space and place them in your supply.

Here, you can only build an improvement after you renovate. (House Redevelopment: "1 Renovation... and afterward" you may build an improvement.)

On page 6 of the appendix, you can find a detailed explanation of all the permanent action spaces. In this rule book, we focus on the effects of action spaces, explaining them in context.

3. Returning Home Phase

Once all people are placed, return them home to their rooms.

4. Harvest

Some rounds end with a harvest, in which you harvest your grain and vegetables, feed your family, and breed your animals.

The harvest will be explained in detail on page 9.

This symbol on the game board indicates which rounds end with a harvest.

House Building and Family Planning

Adding Rooms

The "Farm Expansion" action space.

Details on Building a Room

In a single action, you can build as many rooms as you can afford, one after another.
If there is no legal space for a room on your farmyard board, you cannot add any more rooms.

These two people symbolize mother and child.

Renovation

Later, you can renovate your house again by paying 1 reed for the roof and 1 stone per room, turning it into a stone house. (For that, you must turn the room tiles to the other side.)

These stone rooms replace clay rooms.

Detail on Renovation

When you renovate, you must renovate all the rooms in your house. You are not allowed to renovate only part of your house.

The Action Space Cards of the Final Rounds

In the final round of the game, a second renovation space comes into play.

Detail on Family Growth

If you build a new room after taking the "Family Growth Even without Room" action, one of your people immediately moves into that room. You could not take a "Family Growth with Room Only" action right afterward, because you would not have enough room.

The "Farm Redevelopment" action space also improves your animal husbandry capabilities (see next section).

Animal Breeding

Animal breeding can play a major role in feeding your family. You can get animals on accumulation spaces. Take all the animals from the space when you use one.

The "Sheep Market" accumulation space comes into play between rounds 1 and 4, "Pig Market" in round 8 or 9, and "Cattle Market" in round 10 or 11.

Animal Husbandry Options

The "Build Fences" action allows you to surround one or more farmyard spaces with fences, creating a pasture. Each player has 15 fences in their supply. Each pasture can only hold a single type of animal and up to 2 animals of that type for each farmyard space it covers.
You can hold exactly 1 animal of any type in your house as your pet.
You can double the capacity of a pasture by building a stable in it. Each player has 4 stables in their supply.
A stable outside of a pasture can hold exactly 1 animal. You can fence the stable later.

Details on Fencing

Adjacent pastures share fences that are bordering them.
When you take a "Build Fences" action, you may subdivide an existing pasture by adding fences inside the pasture.
The edges of room tiles do not count as fences (even though that would make thematic sense). The same applies to field tiles.
Once built, fences may not be demolished.

Details on Building Stables

You can build at most one stable in each farmyard space. The space may not be covered by a tile.
Rooms, fields, and pastures must be adjacent to other rooms, fields, and pastures, respectively. This rule does not apply to stables.
You do not build stables all at once, but one after another.
Certain cards can assign a special ability to a stable (see pages 10-11). Each stable may have at most one special ability.

Two stables in this 1x2 pasture doubles its capacity twice. Instead of just 4 animals, the pasture can now hold up to 16 animals of the same type*.

*Like factory farming in real life, this does not make much sense in regard to the scoring.

Cultivation

United in neighborhood: the "Cultivation" and "Grain Seeds" action spaces.

Later in the game, vegetables become available as a second crop.

After you sow, each new grain field contains 3 grain and each new vegetable field contains 2 vegetables.

Vegetables become available in round 8 or 9 on the "Vegetable Seeds" action space.

Harvest after harvest, you will slowly but surely empty all of your fields: each harvest you must take 1 crop from each field and place it in your supply.

At the start of each harvest, you will take 1 crop from each of your fields and place it in your supply (see below).

Details on Cultivation

When you sow, you can choose from all the crops that are in your supply.
Every seed crop that you get from a "Seeds" action space is already considered a fully-grown crop. You do not have to plant it.
When you sow, you are not required to plant every empty field you have. Fields can lie idle.
Once placed, you cannot remove a field tile from your farm (e.g. to make space for a room tile).
You have no access to the crops on your fields until you harvest them, moving them to your supply (see next section). However, during the scoring at the end of the game, crops in your fields do count (see page 12).

Harvest

There is a harvest at the end of rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14, indicated by the harvest symbol on the game board. Each harvest goes through three phases that are played in order.

Field Phase

You must take exactly 1 crop from each of your fields and place it in your supply. You are not allowed to skip harvesting your fields—not even a single one of them.

Feeding Phase

Each person that is already in play requires 2 food*. Exception: if you grew your family that round, the "newborn" person (who has not taken an action yet) only requires 1 food.

Grain and vegetables in your supply are worth 1 food each.

You can make millet gruel from grain … … and eat your vegetables uncooked.

The "Traveling Players" accumulation space is only available in the 4-player game.

Details on the Feeding Phase

As you can see, additional people increase the number of actions you can take but also require food.
You can get food on the "Fishing", "Day Laborer", and "Traveling Players" action spaces.
Crops can provide a lot more food if you have bread-baking and tankard improvements, which will be addressed in the next section.
Animals can only be turned into food via tankard improvements. They do not provide food per se.

Breeding Phase

Major Improvements

The "Major Improvement" action space is the designated space for building major improvements. On the "House Redevelopment" action space, building a major improvement is just a bonus action.

In the top right corner of an improvement card, you can find its building cost. To play the card face up in front of you, you must pay the depicted amounts of building resources.

Fireplaces are the cheapest among the major improvements: one costs 2 clay, the other 3 clay.

Fireplaces and Cooking Hearths

Details on Fireplaces and Cooking Hearths

When taking a "Major Improvement" action, you can exchange a Fireplace for a Cooking Hearth, without paying any additional building resources.
All cards that allow you to turn animals and vegetables into food have a tankard symbol at the bottom left.

On the "Grain Utilization" action space, you can decide how to use the grain in your supply. You can sow it in a field (see page 9) or turn it into food using a bread-baking improvement.

Ovens

If you have both the Clay Oven and a Cooking Hearth and take a "Bake Bread" action, you can turn 1 grain into 5 food and each additional grain into 3 food.

Craft Buildings

During scoring, the Joinery provides 1 bonus point for 3-4 wood left in your supply, 2 bonus points for 5-6 wood, and 3 bonus points for 7 or more wood.

Well

You can find a more detailed explanation of the major improvements on page 2 of the appendix.

Hand Cards

Played cards can change the rules: the text on a card always takes precedence over this rule book.

You will not draw any additional cards during the game, so you must make the best out of the 7 minor improvements and 7 occupations you got at the start.

Detail on Hand Cards

If a card is phrased like "if some condition a/b/c is met, you get A/B/C" (see also „Craft Buildings" on page 10), at most one of these conditions can be met at a time: a is assigned to A, b to B, and c to C. (For details on other frequently used phrases see pages 3 to 6 of the appendix.)

Example: When you play this card, you immediately get 2 grain, 3 clay, 2 reed, or 2 sheep, depending on whether this is a 1-, 2-, 3-, or 4-player game, respectively.

Minor Improvements

Major improvements have a red background color; minor improvements have an orange one.

The bonus point symbol reminds you of potential bonus points. The Loom provides 1 bonus point for every 3 sheep.

The Loom itself is worth 1 point.

This prerequisite requires you have at least 2 occupations in front of you.

Basically, the "Market Stand" lets you exchange 1 grain for 1 vegetable.

Occupations

More details on the occupations and minor improvements can be found on pages 2-3 of the appendix.

Starting Player

When using the "Meeting Place" action space, you can also play a minor improvement.

Game End and Winner

The game ends at the end of the 14th round, after the final harvest.

A table on the side of the game board shows what you get points for at the end of the game: basically anything but food.

Details on Scoring

Whether or not goods on cards provide points depends on the particular phrasing. See the exact rules on the last pages of the appendix.
When scoring grain and vegetables, count all the grain in your supply, on your field tiles, and on any cards that identify themselves as fields.
Animals and people on cards that provide "room" for them do count unless stated otherwise.

You can familiarize yourself with the exact values as you are playing the game. It is important you keep in mind that you lose 1 point for each unused space in your farmyard.

Furthermore, you get points for the renovation status of your house, for your people, for the improvements in front of you, as well as for fenced stables.

A detailed description of all the scoring categories can be found on the last pages of the appendix.

The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the player who has more building resources left in their supply breaks the tie. If still tied, the involved players share a rank.

Number of Components

Animals can be "quadrupled". This double pasture contains 4 wild boar.

This goods tile represents 2 vegetables in that field.

Solo Game

Appendix

This appendix consists of ten parts, namely:

1 Blitz Intro to Agricola

Beginner's Variant without Hand Cards

If you like, leave out the hand cards on your first game, so that people stay focused and listen carefully to the "animator", instead of studying their hand cards.

If you do leave them out, you should make the "Meeting Place" action space an accumulation space that accumulates 1 food per round.

Additionally and especially in a 4-player game, you should add the "Side Job" special tile to the game board, because baking bread becomes so much more important in games without hand cards.

Side Job: ②/③/④ player variant, Build a Stable and/or Bake Bread

2 Efficient Replenishing

Using this trick, all players can help replenishing the accumulation spaces without running the risk that some spaces get replenished multiple times while others are overlooked.

Alternatively, at most two or three players should replenish goods. Each replenishing player should be assigned certain accumulation spaces that they are responsible of.
When playing with people who are new to Agricola, you can also place goods on permanent action spaces like "Grain Seeds" or "Resource Market" even though these spaces provide the same amount of goods each round.