John Hollier
United States
Baldwin
Louisiana
-
A Bit of information first. I purchased Le Havre and while I rather enjoyed the game, my wife basically hated it. Her interest in worker placement is rather low thanks to Caylus which she also hated. This leads to this post. This game has interested for awhile but considering my wife is my main gaming partner I'm leery of purchasing
Does this game feel very similar to Caylus? Is it worth bothering with if my wife hated Le Havre? I know it can be played solo but I doubt I'd do so. Any feedback is appreciated, thanks.
-
-
Hai.
Played Agricola for the first time last night, and I had a blast. Haven't played Caylus or Le Havre yet, so can't help ya if those games are similar. But I can say that the solo play of Agricola isn't really compelling to me.
Isn't there an old saying that whatever makes your wife happy, make you happy? - Or something like that. Don't know her, but if she' like a girl friend of mine, once she start hating a game she hates all games that look like it. Then it feels to me like it's a really uphill battle just to get her through the game in the first place 
Imo you should play Agricola with your friends, and then find another game with doesn't involve worker placement for you and your wife. In long terms you might be lucky that she gains interest in Agricola if you play it with your friends in front of her
Hope you can use my thoughts
/hug
-
Runtime Error
Switzerland
-
In my opinion the theme and feel of building and maintaining something is much stronger in Agricola than in the other two games.
A game of Agricola with only two gamers is also not as competitive for the spots to put your workers on. Maybe this is a plus for your wife.
However Agricola is quite a long game to play and it is also quite merciless. You might be forced to take begging cards to feed your family or you might have to switch your strategy because someone took a spot on the board you wanted, etc.
In my group there are only two opinions: love or hate. Hate from the ones that do not consider themselves gamers and love from the others.
I hope this helps you a bit as you didn't mention what your wife does not like in particular.
Edit: You will not know if your wife likes Agricola if you don't try. If this is easier for you: take it as a "trial and error game" for yourself. If your wife does not like Agricola, it was an error to buy the game but now you have even more information for your next try :-) .
-
Ron
Austria
Vienna
ASL ... yes, this is my Desert Island Game. If I have to give up all my 3000+ games and only allowed to keep one, this would be it. This bloody game stood the test of time. Around for more than 25 years - simply the best.
Devote follower of the most holy church of the Evil Bob. Possessed and down the road to become chaotic, evil & naughty. All hail the Evil Bob and his stargate.
-
If your wife doesn't like Le Havre and Caylus, I can't see why she should like Agricola ...
Does she like gardening or farm animals? Maybe you can sell it to her via the topic? Agricola is a great game, but it is, nevertheless, an Euro Worker-placement game.
-
Coen Velden
Germany
Geldern
Deutschland
-
I've played a few sessions of Caylus and I know it's not a bad game, but compared to Agricola, it's (in my opinion) too dry/cold, it doesn't have that "family" feeling which Agricola has.
In Agricola, I love to see the farm grow, you're trying to feed the family members, grow your crops, raise the cattle..... to me that is a much more satisfying gaming experience than I ever had with Caylus.
I would say get it, and try to play it without the cards first. (Family version).
If she likes it (Which I think), you can play with cards next time.
-
Tadeu Zubaran
Germany
Berlin
-
No.
Agricola is in the mid point between Le Havre and Caylus.
-
Scott Wheelock
Canada
Woodstock
New Brunswick
"Nope... back to a good year like 1626 when a good Manhattan cost a mere 24-bucks."
-
Not if you don't have another person/group to play it with. Chances are, you'll love it, she'll hate it, and you'll be sad every time you want to play it.
-
David Larkin
England
Brighton
Sussex
-
Also there is more tension in Agricola - you really want that wood so you can extend your home and get another family member out working, but there are 4 sheep waiting for a home which would really help you feed your family
 . If you take the sheep you may not get the chance to get the wood, if you take the wood you may not get the sheep and your family may starve, or you might get lucky and get both as your opponet wants something else at the momment
Guess it depends how much you like tension in your games, personally it is what make Agricola attractive for me but many people hate it.
-
John Hollier
United States
Baldwin
Louisiana
-
Thanks for all the responses, they were what I expected but I was curious to see if maybe Agricola was different enough from Caylus and Le Havre to maybe make it worth purchasing.
Oh well, there's always the IOS version on the way. At least I could play vs an AI opponent. It's what I've done with Caylus.
-
-
My wife also hates Caylus, since its not very intuitive, but Agricola is her best loved game !
It´s the only one she´s always begging me to play.
I like playing Agricola with 4 or 5 players, but as it´s not so easy to play in my town, we play 2 players very often.
-
Stephen McHale
United States
Burke
Virginia
-
Just want to say that I only play games with my wife and she loves this game. It may sound silly but one of the things that really adds to the game for us is that we have the Amimeeples. There is just something about fencing in some farm area and throwing in some sheep that are not cubes but actually look like sheep. And of course when you go to cook one of them to feed your family it just is a little more sad (for the other sheep that is).
-
Daniel AA
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
-
I have been trying to Crack the wife code with her gaming interests, and nothing yet. its seems completely random which games she likes or does not like. She does not like Agricola, and I do not know why, and she cannot explain why she does not like it. I owned it for 2 years until I finally got my gaming group established and dedicated enough to start playing it. Seriously, some women like it and some dont and there is no understanding why or why not. If you have the money to spend, I would do so, but I also would wait, as Agricola will not go out of print, and you might be able to play lots of easier games with her in the meantime.
-
Jason Rupp
United States
Cedar Rapids
Iowa
-
I would try to convince her that worker placement isn't all that bad. Sometimes people have a bad experience with one game and then get it in there head that they won't like any games. I would try Stone Age. It's a newbie friendly worker placement game. If you can get her to like that, it'd be worth trying Agricola on her. I have a pretty large gaming group and haven't run into anyone so far that hates Stone Age.
Or... you could find a local gaming group.
-
Wil Gerken
United States
Arizona
-
StephenM wrote: It may sound silly but one of the things that really adds to the game for us is that we have the Amimeeples.
I fully second this.
Previously the only other worker placement game that I've played with my wife had been Stone Age, which she loves.
When I bought Agricola, I knew that she would really like it as the next step up from Stone Age, but I also knew that the components Agricola came with might make the game fail as she'd have to keep remembering what each colored disc or cube means.
I played a few solo games myself to learn the rules and confirm that I liked it, which I definitely did. I then proceeded and purchased the animeeples, vegiemeeples, and farmer meeples. In short, the works. I played another solo game and wow, it really added to the feel of the game and I knew that it would make it much easier to teach (which it did).
My wife and I then chose it as a game to play on our anniversary, which means I really took a significant risk as a game on your anniversary should be targeted to be a hit with the wife. Thankfully, I choose wisely. We played the family version of the game (a must for non gamers on their first game), all of the components made sense and were fun to play with, the game moved fast, and we had a blast.
That was the long way of saying that I think it's a fantastic spouse game IF you fully trick it out and begin with the family version. I would say that odds are extremely low that I'll ever try La Havre with my wife, and Caylus is definitely out. Stone Age and Agricola however are winners. Theme and the right components knock them both out of the park.
Have fun.
-
Brian Mc Cabe
United States
Arizona
-
Your wife hates worker-placement games; Agricola is a worker-placement game. It's your call.
There's no harm in playing someone else's copy at game night and getting her involved, since there are always exceptions to the rule; but, I wouldn't buy the game with the expectation that this one will be the exception.
Brian
-
Geoff Burkman
United States
Kettering
Ohio
"Punk is not dead" by daughter, Emily
-
You might try her on 2-player Puerto Rico, or maybe Troyes.
-
Wil Gerken
United States
Arizona
-
I'dm going too suggest that you may want to consider Stone Age instead of Agricola. In my experience, Stone Age is always a hit and I can pull it out and teach it to just about anybody (including my 9 and 12 year old kids).
I love Agricola, but I can't say the same thing about it's versatility as Stone Age. Agricola is really reserved for a gaming night when everyone involved is in the mood to play a gamer's game. Stone Age however can be played in a far more casual environments with other couples new-ish to games and drinks. Agricola can get to that level with all experienced players but it definitely doesn't start there.
Personally, I think they are both must owns but after thinking about your original comments, you may want to consider Stone Age as the next try. It's a ton of fun and I think you'll be able to sort out if your wife didn't like worker placement or just doesn't like heavy games. In my opinion, it's probably the latter, and if so Stone Age is still going to be a winner in my opinion. It also comes with great bits, and is great with 2, 3, or 4 players.
-
-
Agricola is my wife's favourite game as of now, the reason being that the theme is really strong, its a game where it really felt like we are building a farm, and we don't have animeeples yet!
My wife have tried Caylus before, she just said "interesting", I tried Stone Age before, found the theme to be weaker than Agricola, and I have read reviews of Le Harve, not really interesting for me yet.
-
-
I really like Agricola and my wife didn't mind it. The game she really does likes is Tribune. This has worker placement, but also hand management and bidding. Not very hard to learn and everything is very clearly laid out on the player boards.
I am personally surprised that Stone age comes up so often in these posts as I really don't care for this one. I personally find it a little boring. There is the whole tension thing with Agricola of feeding your family and getting those all important spots before someone else does, but does work better with more people and can be long then. I must say that with two people it really isn't that long and have fun just trying to beat your opponent. In Le Havre there is less tension as there is usually something you can do that is still pretty good for you. I like both of these games, but have a somewhat similar feel.
Tribune has lots of player interaction that most worker placement games don't have. You can upset the other players by taking over there faction or by taking their spot on the board. If you haven't played it check it out. It really doesn't play like any of the above mentioned games.
-
Greg Rycerz
United States
Wake Forest
North Carolina
-
Quote: StephenM wrote:
It may sound silly but one of the things that really adds to the game for us is that we have the Amimeeples.
I fully second this.
Third.
Get Agricola and pimp it so its "cute". Otherwise, it's quite visually dull and your wife might not like it. My wife and daughter love playing it because of the added cuteness factor.
My daughter uses Hello Kitty Squinkies for her farmers!
-
David Larkin
England
Brighton
Sussex
-
TurquoiseKnight wrote: Quote: StephenM wrote:
It may sound silly but one of the things that really adds to the game for us is that we have the Amimeeples.
I fully second this. Third. Get Agricola and pimp it so its "cute". Otherwise, it's quite visually dull and your wife might not like it. My wife and daughter love playing it because of the added cuteness factor. My daughter uses Hello Kitty Squinkies for her farmers!
get animeeples and find some googly eyes 
-
Bryan Thunkd
United States
Florence
Massachusetts
-
I think you are asking the wrong question since obviously you should get Agricola. You should be asking if you need to get a new wife.
-
|
|
