# Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – The Big Box ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2018 - **BGG Rating**: 7.6 - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 2 (Best with: 2) - **Duration**: 30 min - **Weight**: 2.32 / 5 - **Designers**: Uwe Rosenberg - **Artists**: Klemens Franz - **Publishers**: Lookout Games, asmodee, Awaken Realms, Funforge, Hobby Japan, Korea Boardgames, Lacerta - **Categories**: Animals, Farming - **Mechanics**: Automatic Resource Growth, Enclosure, Increase Value of Unchosen Resources, Tile Placement, Turn Order: Claim Action, Worker Placement ## Verdict If you enjoy tending to animals and expanding your farm without fuss, this two-player Agricola is a treat! The Big Box comes packed and ready to go.Animal focus, straight to the pointExpansions included, lots of contentIdeal for couples and pairsCharming thematic componentsFew actions per roundRequires strategic planningTheme can be repetitiveHIGHLY RECOMMENDED ## Description Get ready to get your hands dirty (or rather, in the pasture!) with Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – The Big Box! If you enjoy the vibe of taking care of animals and expanding your little farm, but find the original Agricola a bit much with all the plowing and vegetable talk, this version is for you. Here, the focus is entirely on animal husbandry: horses, pigs, cows, and sheep will dominate your stables and pastures. The game is a stand-alone, meaning you don't need the original Agricola to play, and it was designed with dynamic duos in mind. You start with a small space and expand your board, building enclosures and barns to accommodate your animal herd. There are 8 rounds for you to show who's the boss of breeding, using 3 actions per round from a pool of 16 options. The goal is simple: fill your farm with animals and score points through breeding and constructions. This 'Big Box' edition comes with the base game and the two previously released expansions, 'More Buildings Big and Small' and 'Even More Buildings Big and Small', offering a ton of strategies and new buildings for you to explore. The components are charming, with animal-shaped meeples and more. It's a game that requires a bit of planning and foresight, but the reward is seeing your flock grow and your farm prosper. Perfect for those who enjoy worker placement games with a light and straightforward theme, focused on expansion and optimization. ## How to Play Game Objective In Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – The Big Box, you are farmers with the goal of raising sheep, pigs, cows, and horses. With the help of three workers, you take turns placing them on action spaces to fence pastures, build chalets and stables, and improve your farm. The winner is the player who, at the end of 8 rounds, has raised the most animals and built the most valuable structures. Setup Place the main board in the center of the playing area. Give each player a farm board and place it in front of them so that the forest is at the top and the road is at the bottom. Each player chooses a color and takes their 3 respective workers, placing them near their farm board. Give each player 9 fences. Place the remaining 8 fences next to the main board, near the "Expand" action space. Form the general supply with 4 farm expansions, 4 "Stall/Stable" pieces, and the 10 feeding troughs, as well as the resources (wood, stone, reed) and the animals (sheep, pigs, cows, horses). Arrange the basic special structures (yellow back) “Half-Timbered House”, “Open Stable”, “Shelter”, and “Storage” next to each other, along the bottom edge of the main board. Determine the first player and give them the start player tile. Advanced Game Setup For greater variety and a deeper game experience, apply the following changes during setup: Draw 4 random special structures (green back) and place them with the four basic special structures (totaling 8 special structures). Experienced players should add 4 additional random special structures (for a total of 12 special structures in play, including the basic structures). Use 5 farm expansions and 5 "Stall/Stable" pieces. Use 26 yellow fences. Game Flow The game takes place over 8 rounds. Each round proceeds through four phases, in this order: Replenishment Workday Return Home Breeding After 8 rounds, players will tally their scores to determine the winner. I. Replenishment At the beginning of each round, you must fill some action spaces on the main board with the number of goods indicated in the print, even if there were goods left over from previous rounds. These spaces have a refill arrow on them. Do not place goods on action spaces without the replenishment arrow. All action spaces for animals show a second good in parentheses, indicating: If the action space is empty, add the first good shown normally and ignore the good in parentheses. If there are already one or more goods in the action space, add the good shown in parentheses instead. Example: In round 1, you place 1 reed in this action space. If no player takes the goods in that space, add 1 sheep in each subsequent round. Once the goods have been collected, go back to adding 1 reed in the next round. Note: Don't forget to add a fence from the general supply to the "Expand" action space, as these fences also serve to "count" the eight rounds of the game (The number of fences remaining in the general supply indicates how many rounds are left in the game). II. Workday This is the main phase of the game. Players take turns (starting with the first player) alternately placing one worker at a time until all workers have been allocated on the main board. When you allocate a worker to an action space, you must immediately perform the action(s) shown. You cannot allocate a worker to an action space without using at least one of the described actions. Important: Action spaces occupied by a worker are blocked for the remainder of the current Workday. The phase ends when all six workers are allocated. When you use an action space that has accumulated goods, remove them: place the resources (wood, stone, reed) in your personal supply - there is no limit to the resources you can keep; in the case of animals, they must be accommodated on your farm or they flee, i.e., they are returned to the general supply. Pastures, buildings, and feeding troughs help you prevent this from happening. III. Return Home When the Workday ends, all workers return home. IV. Breeding At the end of each round, your animals reproduce. If you have at least 2 animals of the same species, you get another animal of that species (Your animals breed even if the parent animals do not live in the same space). You must immediately accommodate the newborn or it flees. Important! You can get a maximum of 1 sheep, 1 pig, 1 cow, and 1 horse per breeding phase, even if you have multiple pairs of animals of the same species. Example: Even if you have 2 sheep in one stall and 2 more in another, you only get 1 additional sheep per breeding phase. Actions and How to Play Refer to the manual for details on this section. End of Game and Scoring The game ends after round 8. After the 8 rounds, players will tally their scores to determine the winner. Scoring criteria: Completely used expansion pieces give extra points. Buildings can also increase your score: a stall is worth one point. Most of your points will come from animals. All animals kept in the Pen do not count for scoring. Tips for Winning Expand your farm to fully utilize the expansion pieces, as they give extra points. Focus on raising many animals, as most of your points will come from them. Use feeding troughs to double the number of animals that can be kept in a structure or pasture, optimizing your farm space. ## FAQ ### Do I need the original Agricola game to play this version? No! Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – The Big Box is a complete stand-alone game, ready to play right out of the box. ### How many players can play? This game is designed exclusively for 2 players. It's perfect for couples or friends who enjoy a two-player challenge. ### How long does a game take? Games are quick, usually lasting around 30 minutes. Ideal for fitting into any schedule! ### Is it a difficult game to learn? The complexity is considered moderate. The basic rules are easy to grasp, but mastering the strategies takes a few plays. It's a light 'expert' game. ### What comes in the 'Big Box'? The Big Box contains the base game Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, plus all the content from the two previously released expansions: 'More Buildings Big and Small' and 'Even More Buildings Big and Small'. ### Is there a lot of text on the cards or components? The game has very little text, making it easy to memorize actions and rules. 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