One of the best board games of all time! The rules will take a few minutes to run through, so it is probably not a good choice for small kids or people who are generally not interested board games, but if you're with a group that enjoys a good board game, you need to add Agricola to your collection! I am a big fan of Catan, Risk, Ticket to Ride, and Monopoly and (in my opinion) Agricola tops all of them.



I have the Mayfair version and a friend of mine has the Z-man version. Compared to the Z-man version, the Mayfair game has wooden shapes for each playing piece (including all animals, plants, and building materials) as opposed to colored discs, the Z-man version comes with 5-player capability only whereas the Mayfair version is for 4 players with an expansion up to 6. There were also some small differences in the assortment of minor improvement and occupation cards, but they are mostly similar and you should not notice much difference in game play as a result.



This game is also available via iPhone app. I think it's a lot more fun to play in person, but the app is easier to take on airplanes and you can use it to learn the rules quickly and thoroughly.