The multi-award winning Agricola by prolific designer Uwe Rosenberg has been around for a long time – first published in 2007, then overhauled in 2016, with many expansions popping up along the way. In 2022, a fifteenth anniversary box, Agricola 15 was released which bundled up a lot of the expansions with the base game and a few other bits and bobs. Lookout Games, the original publisher, and Awaken Realms (https://awakenrealms.com/) seem to reckon it’s time for a retread, with the Agricola Special Edition, due to appear in 2026.
I’m not going to say any more about the game itself other than it’s a worker placement, resource management game with a seventeenth century farming theme. You can find a review elsewhere in this blog (https://zatu.com/agricola-review/) or get a taste of it on BoardGameArena.
Instead, I’m going to focus on the new version.
There’s certainly a lot in the box, as the project includes pretty much all of the existing expansions and a new one, Irrigations, which adds water management concepts. Playability has been improved, though it’s not entirely clear what’s changed from earlier versions.
Awaken Realms is overhauling the artwork (and with all those expansions, that’s a lot!) – I can’t really say if it’s better or worse than what we’ve had before, but there has been some ‘heated discussion’ about their use of AI art. The company has addressed this in the project FAQ, saying they’re using such tools ‘NOT to decrease cost and DEFINITELY NOT to replace artists but to bring better quality to our customers and enhance creativity by allowing faster prototyping and iteration.’ I’m steering clear of the argument, but a search on Reddit or BoardGameGeek will show you what people are thinking.
They’re making tokens and meeples available in three flavours: default wooden ones (close to what previous versions have, but painted), ‘standard’ cardboard ones, and deluxe ‘3d’ versions. Needless to say, the rather natty 3d sets are rather expensive add-ons, but I feel the cardboard meeples are rather disappointing; a definite step backwards. I wonder if they exist mainly to encourage people to spend that bit extra to get wooden pieces! Having said that, if someone already has the Agricola base game, the standard version could be a relatively inexpensive way to grab a heap of expansions while reusing pieces from the existing game. The project’s Gamefound campaign has actually completed, but it’s been reopened for late pledges (though it’s not clear for how long).
Final Words
While it’s possible to find the 2015 Agricola base game (but not on Zatu!), expansions seem very difficult to get hold of or are expensive imports, so it’s nice to see a well-respected classic get a new lease of life, AI art notwithstanding.
I’ve only recently discovered the game, and it’s one I’d like to add to my collection. The question I’m debating is whether to get the ‘old’ base game or spring for the new all-in version at close to three times the price. (Or a bit less than that for the standard version, but as I said, that’s just icky.) How much do I really want the expansions, and will I make my mind up before it’s too late?
Note: this was based on preview material – the final game may differ in some details.
About the author
When not playing boardgames or blogging about them, L.N. Hunter keeps himself occupied writing fiction: a comic fantasy novel, The Feather and the Lamp, sits alongside close to short stories in various magazines and anthologies, and on websites and podcasts (see https://linktr.ee/L.N.Hunter for a full list). L.N. occasionally masquerades as a software developer or can be found unwinding in a disorganised home in Carlisle, UK, along with two cats and a soulmate.
