Agricola

After playing this game a few times, I must announce that it's my new favourite !!!
I've always been a fan of games that present you with a lot of choices and strategies, and that let you "build up an economy". Take caylus for instance, who has some similarities with Agricola: you have the agonizing choice of where to place your "workers" every round, and in tight competition with the other players. "...if I take these resources now... will that other action that I need to do still be available when it's my turn to choose again?..."
Both of these games preset that agonizing and cruel dillemma. What is more important to choose now? (as you can't do it all... you have a limited number of "workers", and the other players will probably grab some/most of the actions you would really like to do.)
I think Agricola is even more cruel in this aspect, as you start out with only two "workers" from start, whereas in Caylus you have 6 throughout the game. So, in Agricola, one of your top priorities will be to get that 3rd worker on the farm as early as possible, as it allows you to do an extra action every single round for the rest of the game. This is in my eyes crucial !!!
The ever present nuiance of managing to have enough food to feed your family in Agricola, is an element you don't have in Caylus.
Choosing the right strategy in Agricola can be hard, and after a couple of games played, I realized that the 14 cards you get on hand from the start should play a significant role in your decision of strategy.

So, here are some random thoughts on what to do and not:

- From the start, have a really good look at your cards, and decide on a strategy: Will you do the Plow,get grain, sow and harvest routine, or will you go for wood,fence,livestock,cooking Fire/hearth strategy ? These are the two main focuses to get your food-production going. There might also be a more relaxed/mixed strategy available, depending on your cards. If you have a fair number of cards (occupations / Minor Improvements) that generate food in some way on a steady basis, yu should seriously consider this as the main focus for food, and let the fields/pastures come as they will, without a clear strategy on this.

- The family growth comes in phase 2 (in a 5-player game it IS awailable on turn 5 no matter what.) Be prepared for it !!! have your house expanded prior, and try to grab starting player on turn 4, so you get to grab the Family growth first on turn 5. (This ofcourse gives you 1 more worker in each of the following 9 rounds !!! invaluable !!!

- Your first house expansion should be wood. (I've seen players who renovate to clay first, but this is seldom wise. even if you have some good clay-cards, you will probably have one less action for a few rounds, and that is very costly.)

- Get a fireplace/hearth as soon as possible (when the major improvement action becomes available). This is especially important if you've choosen the livestock strategy, but get one no matter what, as it gives you greater flexibility in the harvest-phase. In a 5-player game, this becomes even more important.

- Try to have a bit of resouces "in hand" throughout the game, so that whenever you do the Starting player/renovate/family growth actions, you get to play an improvement also. I've see players miss out on this all the time, because they don't have the resouces needed to play the card.

- Always evaluate what actions can't (or very probably wouldn't) be taken by your opponents, as you can leave that action for your last worker. (It's not very bright to rush to take an action that no-one else can take this round.)

- As I talked about earlier, do a strict evaluation of your cards, and base your strategy on them. It is not "a must" to play a lot of cards. The occupations are a time-sink, and you should really consider what cards are worth the action in the long run. The minor Improvements are more likely to get played, as you can get them played in conjunction with other important actions, like I mentioned above. A lot of players don't pay enough attention to the prerequisites of many of the minor improvements, and miss out on getting to play the improvement they was planning on. I've won games with as few as 2 occupations and 1 each of major/minor improvent played, so don't over-focus on the cards.

-I would rather get 3 mediocre cards that all work well together than 7 great ones that pull you in different directions.

-If you have a travelling improvement (one that passes to the left), consider holding it for an extra turn or two before playing it. Try to "time" your play of the card, so the player to your left can't benefit too greatly from it right away.)

(as a note: I feel that maybe the card-mix the players get, often shifts the game in favour of a player who's been lucky with his cards. sometimes to such a degree that it imbalances the game. I will probably do a full readthrough of the available cards one day, and evaluate if some are to be removed from "our" deck when we play. this, in an effort to lessen the impact of luck with the dealt cards.)

Ok, enough for now. I'll probably update this later, when I've played the game a few more times. :-)