Puerto Rico or Agricola…which to buy?
My friends and I played a lot of Monopoly and Risk and so we decided to try out Settlers of Catan and we were instantly addicted to it. I’m thinking of buying one of the top Bank Routing Number Riverside Community Bank 2 rated board games on boardgamegeeks.com but I can’t decide which one to get. I hear there is less randomness involved in these games, and that’s alright with me, but I don’t want a game that’s so strategic and stressful that it feels like I’m playing chess. So I have 2 questions…do these games involve interactions with other players and which game would you recommend? Oh and a 3rd thing…WHAT MAKES THESE 2 GAMES SO GREAT?
I think that you shouldn’t get either. I pretty much agree with the person who explained boardgamegeek’s mentality.
I think it will likely be too great a leap of complexity and put your friends off.
Carcassonne is great. I pretty much guarantee it’s success.
Race for the Galaxy is good, but I don’t recommend it. It could easily be baffling for a beginner (which you are I’m afraid)
You could get an expansion for Catan?
‘The Lord of the Rings’ is quite good but takes a few games to get into the swing of it. It’s cooperative and friendly. You can get 2nd hand copies cheap.
Risk 2210 is a good step up from risk.
Tongiaki is one I’d recommend.
errm
‘Hey! That’s my fish’
Dunno about those games, but I know that RACE FOR THE GALAXY is a science-fiction game which borrows a mechanic similar to PUERTO RICO. Also if you like RISK you would love RISK 2210 A.D. which adds special commander pieces, cards, and undersea and Moon territories.
One thing that makes the Euro-style games (Agricola, Puerto Rico, but not RISK 2210) is that they put more quality into their printing. There is also more interactivity (the players can influence the player whose turn it is, so there is less "down time" and passivity waiting for someone else to finish their turn).
Agricola is a great game. Its not to difficult to learn and really easy to get into. It is unfortunately a very pricey game. It is listed for 75 bucks but you can get it online for about 50. I recommend Carcassonne as a great entry into European games. It is a lot more affordable, very simple to learn, and still challenging enough. Plus there are a lot of expansions you can purchase to change the game.
Between those two I’d choose Agricola. Deep strategy, very scalable and flexible game. You almost get three games as it comes with three decks of cards to play with. They are also coming out with expansions so the game will continue to grow.
And honestly either way you can’t go wrong both are great games!
jason@play-board-games.com
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There is less randomness in these games than Settlers because there are no dice!
The idea with both Agricola and Puerto Rico is resource management. You only have X amount of turns, Y amount of money, Z amount of goods, etc to try to get as many points as possible. So do all of your opponents. The goal is to be able to use yours more efficiently than they do, which is much different than Settler’s build to the best spots first, hope you get your numbers rolled on the die, and try to screw people over with bad trades strategies. That is why more people prefer the games you mentioned over Settlers, but Settlers is a great "starter game" for getting into these types of board games.
As far as the difference between the two, Puerto Rico is certainly a lot less complicated. It has fewer pieces and rules, and I think it has more player interaction. It is certainly older and more well-established. Agricola does have a 1-player set of rules, if you decide to play around with the mechanics on your own to get high scores. In Agricola, it really matters that you make good moves (especially early) or you will be frustrated by not being able to do what you want before the game ends. Puerto Rico is a lot more forgiving, as one or two "bad moves" won’t ruin your whole game.
There are other games out there in the genre that are not as strategic and stressful, but the folks at boardgamegeek are extremely serious gamers and wouldn’t rate them nearly as high. Don’t just look at the top ones, but further down the list for something else that seems interesting. Probably the most popular one besides Settlers that isn’t too strategic is Carcassonne (and its many expansions).
Although there are people who enjoy both games, I prefer Puerto Rico. It’s the faster and more flexible of the two (even though Agricola has rules for solitaire). Agricola feels more abstract, has a longer set-up time and more downtime while the other players consider their optimum moves. I also dislike Agricola’s farming theme.
The high score among BGG subscribers reflects the high degree of skill involved in gameplay. However, that could be said for any of the top two hundred rated games. Choose a game you think best fits the level of play you want in a game. Note that there are plenty of players who dislike both games.
Agricola no Puerto rico no Yeah Agricola Buy Agricola
Settlers is an economic engine building/trading game. Agricola/Puerto Rico are both economic engine/role selection games. The best way to move from Settlers to Agricola/Puerto Rico is through San Juan. I would recommend San Juan as an stepping stone, because while it also has an economic engine, it is much simpler than the economic engines in Agricola/PR, and the emphasis of San Juan is how to beat other people through optimal role selection. This ‘role selection’ mechanic is present in both Agricola and Puerto Rico, but I think it would be harder to learn how to play either of these games without already understanding how role selection works. Basically, having learned how to play Catan + Puerto Rico, you’ve learned how to build an economic engine + how to do that through role selection, which allows one to understand Agricola/PR