Agricola is a fun new board game from Z-Man Games. In it, you play a family living just after the Dark Ages, trying to build your farm, raise a family, and keep everybody fed.
You start off with a farmer and his wife, and a small wooden hut. Each turn, each of your people can do one action, like gathering wood, building a fence to hold animals, or plowing a field. Throughout the game, you can grow your family, and do more actions, but you’ve got to make sure you can feed everyone come harvest time.
It’s a lot of fun, and it has exceptional replay value in the form of a deck of cards. Each person takes a small handful of vocations (like “meat seller” or “dancer”) and minor improvements (like “canoe” or “water trough”). This deck changes depending on how many players you have and how experienced everyone is with the game. Beginning players get basic cards, while experts can choose to have more complex cards.
I’ve only gotten to play it once so far, but this has definitely moved to the top of my “to buy” list.
