These new mini-reviews for expansions for already reviewed games will not be rated. Instead, I will provide a short description of what the expansions add to their respective games and offer brief thoughts on whether these are worth it. I also will not be adding it to any collection and will leave it to the reader's discretion.
First up is Through the Seasons, a mini-expansion for Agricola. I don't actually have this expansion as it was given away as a promo before I even knew Agricola existed. However, I did print it out and tried a couple games with it as I was looking new ways to spice up Agricola. Through the Seasons comes with a new mini-board depicting each of the four seasons. Each season comes with a new action that can be taken and also tweaks some of the existing actions. At the start of the game, a random season is selected for the first round and the seasons are subsequently rotated through each of the following rounds.
The actions and tweaks are thematic for each season. For example, in Spring, there is a bonus animal breeding and sow action and in Summer, you can take your family on Holidays and earn an extra point for each family member that has been placed this round. This can change up the strategy and flow of the traditional Agricola game quite a bit depending on when each action or tweaks show up. Similar to how I loved how Farmers of the Moor added variety to the physical layout of the farms, this expansion adds a bit more variety to the opening moves of the game, which can at times be similar from game to game depending on the occupation and minor improvement cards drawn.
However, also similar to Farmers of the Moor is that I would not play with this expansion all the time, nor do I feel that it is as vital as Farmers of the Moor is. Farmers of the Moor adds a significant amount of interesting content - special actions, more major improvements, horses, moore and forest tiles - whereas Through the Seasons just adds a rotating action space and some minor modifications to the existing actions. Another side note is it's availability - officially it was a promo and it is no longer available so I have been using a print-and-play copy, which functions just fine but obviously my custom component doesn't have the same feel as the rest of the game, which detracts a little bit from the experience. Still, since it is print-and-play I see no reason why fans of Agricola shouldn't go try this out, especially if they are looking to mix-up the base game.
First up is Through the Seasons, a mini-expansion for Agricola. I don't actually have this expansion as it was given away as a promo before I even knew Agricola existed. However, I did print it out and tried a couple games with it as I was looking new ways to spice up Agricola. Through the Seasons comes with a new mini-board depicting each of the four seasons. Each season comes with a new action that can be taken and also tweaks some of the existing actions. At the start of the game, a random season is selected for the first round and the seasons are subsequently rotated through each of the following rounds.
The actions and tweaks are thematic for each season. For example, in Spring, there is a bonus animal breeding and sow action and in Summer, you can take your family on Holidays and earn an extra point for each family member that has been placed this round. This can change up the strategy and flow of the traditional Agricola game quite a bit depending on when each action or tweaks show up. Similar to how I loved how Farmers of the Moor added variety to the physical layout of the farms, this expansion adds a bit more variety to the opening moves of the game, which can at times be similar from game to game depending on the occupation and minor improvement cards drawn.
However, also similar to Farmers of the Moor is that I would not play with this expansion all the time, nor do I feel that it is as vital as Farmers of the Moor is. Farmers of the Moor adds a significant amount of interesting content - special actions, more major improvements, horses, moore and forest tiles - whereas Through the Seasons just adds a rotating action space and some minor modifications to the existing actions. Another side note is it's availability - officially it was a promo and it is no longer available so I have been using a print-and-play copy, which functions just fine but obviously my custom component doesn't have the same feel as the rest of the game, which detracts a little bit from the experience. Still, since it is print-and-play I see no reason why fans of Agricola shouldn't go try this out, especially if they are looking to mix-up the base game.
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