AGRICOLA
Matt Jarvis
The 17th century: not an easy time for farming.” So proclaims the tagline for Agricola, and it’s a philosophy to which Uwe Rosenberg’s 2007 masterwork holds true. Players are dropped into the worn-out boots of European farmers scraping a living in the remnants of the bubonic plague, trying to expand their homestead as they plant and harvest vegetables, raise animals for food or sale, and widen their family with children. (How many other game manuals have a section literally entitled “Family Planning”?)