#1 Agricola

First things first. And that's Agricola that's usually pronounced wrong (the accent is on the second syllable as usually in Latin - agRiccola or something...). The game has taken the first place from three-year leader Puerto Rico and leads by 0.07 points...

Agricola is a game where You have to manage Your farm. Idyllic, nice place but the neighbours aren't so sweet - they don't rape Your daughter if that's the first thing that crossed Your mind but they keep grabbing stuff before Your nose. When You decide that the trees have grown long enough Your neighbour has already cut them down. When You decide to go fishing You notice that the pool has already emptied by Your neighbour and probably with a dynamite. And if You decide that it's time to have a baby You see Your neighbour.... Well, we'll get there...

After opening the box You don't see any way to get all that stuff back there. It's really much. The box should weight 2.3 kilos - haven't measured mine. The good thing is that the pieces are wooden (except the cards and the board of-course). Looks good.

There are also a whole bunch of cards - 360 to be precise. Why do You need so many of those, You ask? Well, it seems that Uwe has secured that every single game wouldn't be the same. Most of the cards are divided into two decks: Occupations and Minor Improvements. Every card is unique (ok, I've seen some cards with the same text but the pictures are always different - and who reads the text anyway, uh?).

The board is actually composed from one big action-field-board and farms. Every player has a little piece of land that is divided into 15 spaces that You can use for different purposes. At first You got house of two rooms and nice young couple who have to use their hands and heads to get some food on the table.

The point of the game is to place Your family members on the action spaces on the main board. You can mine clay, quarry stones, get some sheep from... erm... woods (ok, I admit it, I got no decent explanation for that), plow fields, sow, bake bread, build rooms and fences (to keep those sheep) and of-course have sex... If one player has already placed his/her family member on the action space the others can't use it in this round.

Every now and then there are harvests when every father have to feed his wife and children. Also the crops are ready to harvest and also animals breed (if there's at least two of them, but I guess we all know that). If You can't feed Your family You have to go begging - and that means penalty points. There are also some alternatives. Playing a special card You can go to the granny's place and eat her refrigerator empty.

If You have some animals You got also the right to kill them. But to keep them You got to build some fences, else they run back to the woods. You can keep one of them in the house but I can't imagine a cow chewing my games.... wait... aaah, now I see it - oh terror...

One space surrounded by the fence can keep up to 2 animals. That can be doubled when building a barn in that space. And if You have larger enclosure You double all the spaces with just one barn...

And of-course You can cook the animals You killed to feed the youngsters. You can also bake bread but it's much more messing with. But You can always eat raw grain and carrots...

The number of players in the game is 1-5, but with certain rules it's much better with 6. Then one of the players plays gypsies who don't have their own land so they have to build on the others farms... It's fun and looked like this: