Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small FAQ
82 questions players ask · Updated Nov 13, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Components
Game Setup
The Rules of Raising Animals
- Can an animal stand on a feeding trough in an unfinished pasture?
- Can adjacent unenclosed feeding troughs hold different animal types?
- Can you release or discard animals you already own at any time, to make room?
- Can you eat or cook the animals on your farm for food?
- How does a feeding trough change a pasture's animal capacity?
- When you build a stall inside a pasture, does the pasture split, and what happens to the square underneath?
- Can you build a building on a farm space that already holds animals or a feeding trough?
- Does the edge of the game board count as a fence for enclosing pastures?
- How many babies can a pair of animals produce in one breeding phase?
- Do two animals of the same type need to share a pasture to breed?
- Can you move animals around during the breeding phase, for example to put a newborn in an empty pasture?
- Can you decline a newborn animal during the breeding phase?
- Can you build on a farm space that is already enclosed by finished fences, or inside a fully enclosed pasture?
- Can a feeding trough be placed on a building, and can a building be built on a space that already has a trough?
- Can you place a feeding trough in your starting house, the Cottage?
- Can you put a feeding trough in a stable, and how many animals can it hold?
- Does a feeding trough stay on the space when a stall is upgraded to a stable or to Open Stables?
- Where do animals go when they run away from an unfinished pasture or a full farm?
Gameplay (Rounds and Phases)
- Does the start player marker stay with a player until the opponent takes the Start Player space?
- What happens if nobody takes the Start player and 1 wood space in a round?
- How do you tell which round it is, and are the eight border counters separate from each player's starting borders?
- How many borders are on the Expand space, and do they build up if nobody takes them?
- Do goods on refill spaces pile up when nobody takes them?
- On the reed-and-sheep refill space, what gets refilled, and when do sheep build up again?
The Action Spaces (Game Board)
- Can you take the Start player and 1 wood space when you already hold the start player marker?
- Can you own more than two farm expansions, and must they alternate sides?
- Must you carry out the 'also' part of an action space, such as paying for extra borders?
- Can you take an action space and do zero of its action, such as adding no borders, or block a space with an upgrade you cannot pay for?
- Can you build an Open Stables without giving up a stall?
- Can an Open Stables be upgraded to a regular Stable?
- Is the Building Materials action space usable only once per game?
- Do the Walls, Fences or Feeding Trough action spaces give their free pieces every time you take them?
- Must you build the extra borders from a Walls or Fences action, and can you take the free borders without owning them?
- Can you upgrade several stalls to stables in one action, and how is the 5-resource cost paid?
- Can a stall be built using the Special Building action?
- What is the difference between the Fences action and the Walls action?
- When are fences placed on the farm?
- Can you buy the fences on the Expand space, or only the fences you already own?
- Can you take an action space your opponent already used this round?
- Can one worker placement build several stalls or buildings?
If The Components Run Out
Game End and Scoring
- How do animal bonus points work past the box table's last row, for example for the 13th sheep?
- Do you score one point per animal plus the table bonus at game end?
- Do you still lose 3 points for an animal type you have none of at game end?
- Does a farm space with a feeding trough count as used for scoring if it is in an unfinished pasture?
- Do you still score a farm expansion's 4 points when its three spaces are used, even if the rest of your board is empty?
Winning the Game
Notes On The Special Buildings
- Do fences, walls or unused borders count as building materials for the Storage Building?
- Do you need a stall or stable before you can buy the Half-Timbered House?
- When you upgrade a stall to Open Stables, do you return the stall tile to the supply?
- Can an animal stay on a space with a feeding trough after a Storage Building is built over it?
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – More Buildings Big and SmallExpansion
- Does an animal stored by a Stud or Dog House count as using its space for the full-expansion bonus?
- Can a feeding trough and a Dog House both keep an animal on the same unenclosed space?
- Must the Rearing Station be completely emptied before the breeding phase?
- When you upgrade a Cow or Pig Stall to a Stable, what happens to the stall tile and its bonus?
- Does the More Buildings expansion change the rules beyond adding random tiles?
- Does the Insemination Center let you breed more than one animal of a type per breeding phase?
- Do two adjacent extension special buildings each trigger the 2-point adjacency bonus?
- Does a feeding trough count as a building when scoring the Large Extension?
- Does the Cottage count as an adjacent building for the Large Extension's adjacency points?
- Can the Ranch's bonus border be placed during the breeding phase to hold a newborn animal?
- Can the Country House be built onto the farm expansion it gives you?
- Can the Sawmill's wood discount apply to the Joinery's feeding trough?
- When setting up the More Buildings expansion, do you draw a replacement building when someone buys one?
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – Even More Buildings Big and SmallExpansion
- Can the Cattle Market be used more than once per game?
- When must the Cottage Extension be built: only with the second action of round 1?
- Does the Timber Shop give 3 wood only once, or every time the top row fills?
- Does the Barn's free stable upgrade apply only to the next stall you build?
- For the Organic Farm, does an unfinished pasture count as a pasture?
- After building the Cottage Extension, can new buildings form an L shape or a line, and must each touch another building?
- Does the Servant's Cottage trough payment happen only once, or every time you have 2 wood?
- Can the Organic Farm's extra animal go on an unfenced feeding trough?
- Does the Organic Farm change the breeding phase rules for the rest of the game?
- Can you use the Building Firm's ability more than once?
- What counts as a special building for the Estate's five-building requirement?
- Must a building placed by the Conservatory be orthogonally adjacent, or can it go diagonally?