How to Play Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – The Big Box

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

1. Place the main board in the center of the playing area.
2. 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.
3. Give each player 9 fences. Place the remaining 8 fences next to the main board, near the "Expand" action space.
4. 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).
5. 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.
6. 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:

1. Replenishment
2. Workday
3. Return Home
4. 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.