Scott O'Dell
United States
Nebraska
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Is there any halfway decent sites to play?
I am looking to play live games with people who actually respond.
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Chris
United States
Austin
Texas
Glory to Rome!
"Let each man pass his days in that wherein his skill is greatest" Propertius Sextus
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You are looking for http://play-agricola.com
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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
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A lot of people (me included) are of the view that the interface at http://boiteajeux.net/ is actually a lot better. Cards are in French, but they all have Alt-text English translations on hover, and the webmaster is extremely attentive in terms of bugfixes and is continuously trying to add new features.
Downsides? It doesn't have ALL the EIK cards (about 75% of them), and no G-deck yet.
You're not guaranteed a 'live' game, but it is easy to monitor several games at once. Well...I say 'easy'; I still occasionally forget about a harvest after nearly 300 games.
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Scott O'Dell
United States
Nebraska
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ousgg wrote: A lot of people (me included) are of the view that the interface at http://boiteajeux.net/ is actually a lot better. Cards are in French, but they all have Alt-text English translations on hover, and the webmaster is extremely attentive in terms of bugfixes and is continuously trying to add new features. Downsides? It doesn't have ALL the EIK cards (about 75% of them), and no G-deck yet. You're not guaranteed an 'live' game, but it is easy to monitor several games at once. Well...I say 'easy'; I still occasionally forget about a harvest after nearly 300 games.
I like the interface but everytime I try to play I cant find a game with people who want to play live or it is REALLLLLY slow.
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Scott O'Dell
United States
Nebraska
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darthnice wrote:
When you play on this site do you have to do your resource reduction by yourself? Do you have to manually harvest and give away food manually?
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DC Clark
United States
Houghton
Michigan
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PimpMario wrote: darthnice wrote: When you play on this site do you have to do your resource reduction by yourself? Do you have to manually harvest and give away food manually?
Yes... which is why I don't recommend it. There are no rules enforced, it just provides a structure in which to move the pieces around following the rules. If you're looking for the computer to assist you by restocking, disallowing illegal moves, etc., then play-agricola isn't it.
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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
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I get around the 'live game' problem by having about 80-90 games ongoing at once!
You can usually get a 2-player live game on boitajeux if you set it up and put 'playing now please' (or similar) in the comments. If you don't get a live opponent, just start another game until you do.
Arranging 3 or more players is hard work but possible. But it's a major pain-in-the-ass sitting and constantly refreshing in the hope that your opponent hasn't wandered off somewhere.
Anyway, my username's 'Boffo', and if you invite me and play quickly, I usually do too.
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Bryann Turner
United States
Portland
Oregon
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dcclark wrote: PimpMario wrote: darthnice wrote: When you play on this site do you have to do your resource reduction by yourself? Do you have to manually harvest and give away food manually? Yes... which is why I don't recommend it. There are no rules enforced, it just provides a structure in which to move the pieces around following the rules. If you're looking for the computer to assist you by restocking, disallowing illegal moves, etc., then play-agricola isn't it.
Wow... heaven forbid you have to know the rules of a game you play. I have to move pieces around? I have to manually pay for an Occupation?! I would never want to do that!! Why, that's like actually playing a game!
/sarcasm
play-agricola.com has the best players on the planet. 3 of the 4 finalists (and the winner, I believe) of the Agricola World Championship were regular players on the site. In fact, the site created the deck (unknowingly) that was used for the World Championship.
The site's webmaster is extremely attentive, has been adding features consistently for years, and all the decks currently published are available to play.
Please, don't let a little upkeep keep you from enjoying a great experience. You can play a LIVE 4 player game in as little as an hour if you play fast. Most games probably average 90 minutes.
In the end I guess to each his own. I do play on both sites, but I greatly prefer play-agricola because I hate waiting for weeks and weeks to finish a game. Especially when the game has been decided, but we have to drag it out for days as players stall.
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Eric Ho
United States
Long Island City
New York
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Another vote for play-agricola.com, but the interface does take a few plays to adjust, and no means is it hard. Once you're used to it, it's a breeze. I've never ran into any issues with anyone actively cheating, so I don't find that an issue. The players on there are good enough that they police each other to a certain degree.
I will say the skill level on that site is at a very high level if you're looking for good competition. The preference is largely 4 player games, but that site can handle 1-5 player games. I would strongly disagree that nothing is automated. The board restocks automatically and you can Autopay for improvements, which works very well if you don't try and trick the system.
Also, you never have to wait long for a live game to start up.
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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
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I will certainly concede that the player quality on play-agricola is of a higher and more consistent standard.
However, in my eyes, Bryann has sunk himself with his own sarcastic argument.
I play games for the social aspect. Sure, sitting at a table and shuffling all the wooden bits is a pain in the ass, but I get more than adequate compensation in the form of good company and a few beers while I play.
I don't play a lot online because that social aspect is almost completely missing, but Bryann is telling me that not only do I have to miss out on the social aspects of gaming, I also have to still shuffle all the wooden bits as well! I logged onto play-agricola early on and realised it would drive me up the wall, but the ease of play on boiteajeux was a revelation.
I still don't play a lot of games online, but my Agricola addiction is pretty well fed by boiteajeux.
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DC Clark
United States
Houghton
Michigan
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btizo wrote: Wow... heaven forbid you have to know the rules of a game you play. I have to move pieces around? I have to manually pay for an Occupation?! I would never want to do that!! Why, that's like actually playing a game!
/sarcasm
Yikes, dude. As I said:
dcclark wrote: ... If you're looking for the computer to assist you by restocking, disallowing illegal moves, etc., then play-agricola isn't it.
Because the OP asked:
PimpMario wrote: When you play on this site do you have to do your resource reduction by yourself? Do you have to manually harvest and give away food manually?
No need to bite.
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James Klemm
United States
Walnut Creek
California
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I knew the BaJ folks couldn't let Btizo's comment slide without some return snark. He was KIDDING, folks.
Another vote for Play Agricola. 
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Mike T
United States
Maryland
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I vote for both sites. They are both great, and there is high level Agricola being played on both.
If your number one priority is playing a live game, BaJ is not a real option.
If your number one priority is letting the computer do all the "work" for you, BaJ is the best option.
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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
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Yeah, I have to agree with Mike. I don't want to start the Agricola wars, because the more people that play this game the better.
My preference is very much for BaJ, that's all.
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Justin Dee
United Kingdom
Lancaster
Lancashire
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I agree with smcmike; use both; play-agricola if you want to play tonight, boitajeux if you want to play this week.
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Bryann Turner
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Like I said, I do play on both sites, but I'm impatient so I prefer live games.
There is a large social aspect on Play Agricola, as each game has it's own chat box. I've developed many friendships on the site through playing and the forums.
I do like the automation on BaJ, but it's frustrating when you miss-click and do something you don't intend to. For example, the Lasso only works if you take animals first, which isn't correct and caused me some serious frustration when I wanted to FG+Lasso and then Lasso boars, but I couldn't. The Beta they have running right now with turn validation helps that (and I believe he fixed the lasso bug), and I hope they eventually get all the card programmed, because a lot of the games are playing the "same" because the card variance is smaller than normal.
And yes, I was kidding!
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Jonathan C
United States
Iowa
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ousgg wrote: I get around the 'live game' problem by having about 80-90 games ongoing at once!
Bravo.
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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
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looleypalooley wrote: ousgg wrote: I get around the 'live game' problem by having about 80-90 games ongoing at once! Bravo.
It's a damn stupid thing to do. You wouldn't believe the mess I've gotten myself into in some games. I'm better at remembering harvests than I was, but I still make a godawful mess of the Farm Steward on a regular basis. The lack of an undo button is a bit of a pain, but they're working on that.
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Scott O'Dell
United States
Nebraska
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One of my biggest fears with Play-agricola is that I am a new player. In fact, I just started playing a few days ago. I am worried I will not take the right (legal) resources management steps. This is a problem for two reasons (1) I don't want to offend anyone because I am "cheating" (2) I want to learn how to play and if I don't understand something and do it wrong I will never learn.
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Bryann Turner
United States
Portland
Oregon
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PimpMario wrote: One of my biggest fears with Play-agricola is that I am a new player. In fact, I just started playing a few days ago. I am worried I will not take the right (legal) resources management steps. This is a problem for two reasons (1) I don't want to offend anyone because I am "cheating" (2) I want to learn how to play and if I don't understand something and do it wrong I will never learn.
People will not call you a cheater at all for making mistakes. It happens to everyone, myself included, even after 1000 games.
People are very nice on play-agricola and many will help you learn the ropes.
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Above all you can play as many Solo-Games on play-agricola.com as you like to become familiar with the handling - which isn't that complicated at all (mainly mouse-clicking on the appropriate text-field)!!!
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Back to the OPs questios - I have played both; and struggled. BAJ doesn't support live - and for me one of the main aspects of 'gric that I like is the tactical evaluation of the relative value of the options available fairly quickly. With play-agricola I had some bad experiences early on - pushy gamers with a low tolerance of my learning the interface which put me off.
I also found the step-up in game quality high. Of all my friends only two really challenge me, and they are in different groups. So, really I never have to keep a close eye on more than one other player. It's different on-line...
Still best played around a table with friends.
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Bernt Ivar Nødland
Norway
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Another vote for play-agricola.com here. I play regularly there, and have played at boiteajeux 12-14 times.
In addition to what everyone else has said about the differences, my main problem with boiteajeux (well, in addition to games taking forever) is that you lose one of the main strategic elements of the game: Remembering which cards was in the draft, because if you play several games at once, over a period of many weeks you will forget what you passed on.
Rememering the cards help you value food and different resources correctly, as well as paying attention to bonuses (Constable, Village Elder) and sneaky fg cards (CHE, farm steward).
Of course, one could write down everything one passes in each draft, but this feels a bit like cheating(?). And if one does that, you have to do a lot of manual work, so you might as well just play at play-agricola.com.
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