Changed my mind about eurogames after playing Agricola with my group

I used to hate worker placement games because I thought they were too slow and boring. Then my friend Mike brought Agricola to our weekly meetup at Game On Cafe in Denver, and we played for 3 hours straight. The way you have to plan 4 moves ahead just to feed your family actually clicked for me halfway through round 6. Has anyone else had a game totally flip their opinion on a whole genre?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancyg141mo ago

Still say most worker placement games are homework with dice.

susan_adams1mo ago

Oh boy, homework with dice. That reminds me of the time my friend insisted we play a game called "The Gallerist" because he said it was about running an art gallery. Sounded peaceful, right? Three hours later I was doing math to figure out how much to bid on a painting while my character's reputation was tanking. I ended up with a bunch of abstract art nobody wanted and my friend said I played it wrong. But at least the pieces were pretty to look at while I was losing.

hannah3201mo ago

Respectfully disagree on the homework thing, but I get where you're coming from. For me Agricola clicked when I realized the pressure makes it exciting rather than stressful. You have to make tough calls every turn, and that feeling of barely scraping by is actually super satisfying. The planning ahead part is what makes it feel like a puzzle where every move matters, not random math problems. Have you tried a lighter worker placement like Lords of Waterdeep to ease into the genre?