Agricola: Farmers of the Moor Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Game Setup
  • Degrees of Complexity
  • Distribution of the Moor and Forest tiles
  • Special Action cards
  • New Major Improvements
  • Multi-use Markers
  • Bed markers, "Not yet in use" markers and others
• Play of the Game
  • The Moor and Forest tiles
  • The Major Improvements
  • The Minor Improvements
  • Person and Special actions
  • The Special actions
  • What is Fuel needed for?
  • Heating Rooms
  • Bed instead of Beg (for Fuel)
  • Scoring
• Solo Rules
  • Start of the Rounds
  • The Round
  • Goal of the Game
• The Conditions on the Improvement Cards
  • Improvements
  • Tiles
  • Animal husbandry
  • Round number
  • Building your home
• Variants
  • Variant 1: Special rules for Fuel
  • Variant 2: The third complexity level
• Tips for faster play

Game Components

• 2 game board extensions for Major Improvements
• 1 "Infirmary" Action space
• 25 wooden Horse pieces
• 27 Fuel tokens
• 42 Forest/Moor tiles
• 6 Field tiles
• 10 Special Action cards
• 14 Major Improvement cards
• 9 Start cards
• 118 Minor Improvements for this expansion (in 2 decks)
• 2 Deck cards
• 6 Multi-use markers with "not yet in use" markers on the reverse
• 4 Multi-use markers with "bed" markers on the reverse
• 1 Tombstone marker
• 1 green arrow token with a Minus point on the reverse
• 1 Scoring pad

Game Setup

Degrees of Complexity

Players should agree how they would like to play the game.

• At level 1 the game is like the Family version of the basic game, without any cards in players' hands.
• At level 2, the game is played with the game boards and Action cards of the Family version. In addition, each player receives a hand of 7 Minor Improvements. Players should agree whether to play with cards from the Basic or the Advanced deck, to mix the two together, or to add cards from the base game of Agricola.
• At level 3, the game is played with the complete base game of Agricola. In these rules, this is described as a variant (see page 7).

Distribution of the Moor and Forest tiles

Each player draws a Start card and places 3 Moor and 5 Forest tiles on his board, as shown on the card.

Each player receives a different distribution of Moor and Forest tiles, but each distribution is equivalent. A player with tiles close to his home has a wider open area for pastures and fields.

Special Action cards

The top left of the Special Action cards shows the number of players with which each card is played. Place the appropriate Special Action cards face-up in a common area.

Only 2/2/3/4 Special action cards are used in games with 2/3/4/5 players. Return Special action cards that are not required to the box. They are not used in the game.

New Major Improvements

Add the 14 additional Major Improvements to the 10 from the base game. The top left-hand corner of the cards shows where they are placed during Setup. 10 of the new Major Improvements are placed under the 10 Major Improvements from the base game.

There are 2 identical Horse Slaughterhouse and 2 identical Cookhouse cards. These are placed under the Fireplaces and Cooking Hearths.

Place the Peat-charcoal Kiln and the Forester's Lodge on the game board extension for Major Improvements, with the Museum of the Moors and Riding Stables cards underneath them.

An advantage of placing 12 of the 14 new Major Improvements underneath others at the start of the game is that the use of the cards does not need to be explained in detail at the start of the game. The only two new Major Improvements that need to be explained are the Peat-charcoal Kiln and the Forester's Lodge.

Peat-charcoal Kiln (M001) – Place face-up at start of game. Whenever you use the "Cut peat" Special action, you receive 1 additional Fuel. If you have at least one horse at the time, you receive another 1 Fuel. In the final Harvest, you can exchange 3 (5) Fuel for 1 (2) Bonus point(s). (Note the Bonus points on the scoring sheet.)

Forester's Lodge (M002) – Place face-up at start of game. Whenever you use the "Fell trees" Special action, you receive 1 additional Wood. If you have at least one Horse at the time, you receive another 1 Wood. At the end of the game, you receive 1 Bonus point for each Forest in your farmyard.

Multi-use Markers

Place the Multi-use markers to one side, ready for use. During the game, they are placed on particular Minor Improvement cards as soon as they are played. They indicate how often the Action that is indicated on the Improvement card can (still) be used.

Bed markers, "Not yet in use" markers and others

On the reverse of the Multi-use markers are Bed markers and "Not yet in Use" markers. Bed markers are used to indicate that a Family member has become ill (see page 5). "Not yet in use" markers are for a variant of the game (see variant 1 page 7). In addition, there is a marker that is used for the Family Burial Plot Minor Improvement and one for the Forest Path.

Play of the Game

Unless otherwise specified here, all the rules of "Agricola" apply. Choose a Starting player. As in the base game, he receives 2 Food at the start of the game, and all other players receive 3.

The "1 Major or Minor Improvement" Round card MUST now appear in Round 1.

No Fuel is distributed at the start of the game. In Rounds 2 to 4, the order of the Round cards is still left to chance.

The Moor and Forest tiles

Players must use Special actions to remove Moor and Forest tiles.

Moor and Forest tiles can never be fenced or covered by other tiles. No Stables can be built on them, and no animals can be pastured on them.

Some Minor Improvements allow Moor and Forest tiles to be covered by other Moor and Forest tiles. Even when this is the case, only the visible tiles – that is, the tiles on top – are counted. This applies both to the texts of other cards and to the scoring at the end of the game.

These rules may be modified – like many other rules – by the text of a Minor Improvement. Example: The Thicket card allows Forests to be placed on Forests and the Bog Forest allows Forests to be placed on Moors. These double-stacked spaces are scored as simple Forests at the end of the game (eg for the Forester's Lodge).

Thicket (M065) – Choose up to 2 Forest tiles, and place 1 additional Forest tile on top of each of them. You can remove 1 tile with the "Fell Trees" Special action – you cannot use the "Slash and Burn" action on spaces with 2 Forest tiles.

The Major Improvements

The Cooking Hearth can be bought by returning a Fireplace. For this expansion, the returned Fireplace must be returned to the specific game board space that it was taken from.

The Cookhouse may be bought by returning a Fireplace or Cooking Hearth. As with a Fireplace, the Cooking Hearth must be returned to the specific game board space that it was taken from.

The 2-value Fireplace must be placed on the space for the 2-value Fireplace, and the 3-value Fireplace on the space for the 3-value Fireplace, regardless of whether there is still a Horse Slaughterhouse on the space. The Horse Slaughterhouse may be recovered by this action.

The Cooking Hearth is returned as soon as the Cookhouse has been taken. Otherwise it's possible that a player could never get to a Cookhouse.

The Minor Improvements

"Farmers of the Moor" includes a multitude of new Minor Improvements. These cards are laid out as in the base game:

• Pre-requisites are shown at the top left. The Appendix (see page 6 and 7) describes the different types of pre-requisite.
• Costs (including whether a card should be returned or discarded) are shown at the top right.
• In some cases, an asterisk * indicates that there is additional information in the main text area of the card.

Improvement cards which have been played must stay in front of the player until the end of the game. A player cannot remove an Improvement card once it has taken effect.

Some Minor Improvements affect Sowing of crops. Watch out for these situations:

• As in the base game, new Field tiles must always border on the previous Field tiles (Exception: "Wild Fields").
• Players must harvest during the Field phases (this is not optional).
• A card that also allows a "Sow" action does not also allow a "Bake bread" action.

Unlike in the base game, in the Farmers of the Moor decks, the text area for Minor Improvements is shaded grey.

Card example: Stock-breeding Prize (M129) – At the end of the game, you receive 1 Bonus point for each other player in the game, as long as you have at least 1 animal of each of the 4 types. (In a 5-player game, you receive 4 Bonus points.) These points are doubled or tripled if you have 2 or 3 of each type of animal. (*Farmyard spaces on Improvement cards are also counted.)

Person and Special actions

There is a distinction between a Person action and a Special action. To take a Person action, place one Person marker on the game board. Instead of taking a Person action, a player can take a Special action card and carry out at most one of the Special actions that are described on it.

This player's Person markers remain in her home, to be used for additional Actions later in the Round.

The player always decides whether to take a Person action or a Special action. Person markers are only used for Person actions, not for Special actions.

The Work phase is the phase of each round in which players place their Family members.

When a player takes a Special action card from the common playing area, she places it face up in front of her. Players can pay 2 Food into the Supply to take a Special action card that is face up in front of another player. In this case, they take the Special action card and place it face-down in front of them. As with all Special action cards, a player who does this may carry out at most one of the Special actions described on the card. A Special action card that is face-down cannot be taken by another Player for the rest of the Round.

At the end of each Round, all Special action cards are turned face-up and returned to the common playing area.

Note! You can only take a Special Action if you have at least one Person Action remaining.

There is no limit on the number of Special action cards that a player may have in front of himself.

The Special actions

There are seven Special Actions. They are distributed on the Special action cards according to the number of players.

Cut Peat Select one Moor tile from your Farmyard and return it to the Supply. As well as clearing a space in your Farmyard, you receive 3 Fuel from the Supply. The Cut peat Special action cannot be used by a player who has no more Moor tiles.

Slash and Burn Choose one Forest tile from your Farmyard and replace it with a Field tile. The Field tile must be placed on the space that the Forest tile was taken from. The rule that all Fields must be contiguous applies here. A Slash and Burn action is not always possible. The Slash and Burn Special action cannot be used by a player who has no more Forest tiles.

In this example, the player cannot take a Slash and Burn action as she does not have a Forest that is adjacent to one of her Fields.

Fell Trees Return a Forest tile from your Farmyard to the Supply. As well as clearing a space in your Farmyard, you receive 2 Wood from the Supply. The Fell Trees Special action cannot be used by a player who has no more Forest tiles.

Horse Coper Take 1 Horse from the Supply. (In a 2- or 5-player game, you must pay 1 Food for the Horse.) Like other animals, Horses must be kept in your Farmyard. The rules for keeping Horses are the same as for other types of animals. They can only be used to feed the family with the Horse Slaughterhouse or Cookhouse Major Improvements, or with specific Minor Improvements.

Players are allowed to take a new Horse and immediately convert it to Food, without having to first accommodate the Horse on their farm.

Hiring Fair Receive 1 Food from the Supply. In a 3-player game, players who take this action receive 2 Food from the Supply.

Black Market The Black Market is only used in Complexity levels 2 (see Page 3) and 3 (see Page 7). Pay 1 Fuel to the Supply to be allowed to play 1 Minor Improvement. You must pay for the Minor Improvement as usual, and must meet any requirements for playing it.

Clandestine Work Pay 1 Fuel and 1 Food to the Supply to be allowed to play or acquire 1 (Minor or) Major Improvement. You must pay for the Improvement as usual, and must meet any requirements for playing it.

What is Fuel needed for?

Fuel is used to heat players' Homes.

Heating Rooms

During the Feeding phase of each Harvest, players now must not only feed their Family members (as in the base game), but must also heat their Rooms. For each room in their Wooden Hut, players must pay 1 Fuel.

Example: Fraser has a 3-roomed Wooden Hut and 2 Family members. He must pay 3 Fuel to heat his Home (not 2, for his 2 Family members).

A player who lives in a Clay Hut pays, in total, 1 fewer Fuel. A player who lives in a Stone House pays, in total, 2 fewer Fuel.

Example: John has 4 Family members crowded into a 2-room Stone House. He pays 2-2=0 Fuel to heat his Home.

1 Wood can always be exchanged for 1 Fuel. This is similar to the rule from the base game, where 1 Grain or 1 Vegetable can always be exchanged for 1 Food. "At any time" also means that Wood can be converted to Fuel immediately before scoring, for example so that the Fuel can be counted for the Peat-charcoal Kiln.

Bed instead of Beg (for Fuel)

For each required Fuel that a player is unable to pay to heat her home, she receives 1 Bed marker. She places the marker(s) on top of her Family Members. A player can never have more Bed markers than she has Family Members.

A Person with a Bed marker becomes ill during the next Round. The only Action that it can take is to drag itself to the Infirmary. The player discards the Bed marker that is on that Person and receives 1 Food.

Any number of Person markers can be placed on the "Infirmary" Action space.

A Family Member may visit the Infirmary even if it does not have a Bed marker.

Players may choose to heat fewer Rooms than they could otherwise heat (with their Fuel and Wood).

The player accepts that Family Members will become ill. For example, it might be worthwhile for a player to take a Bed marker if they have a Minor Improvement that encourages them to visit the Infirmary.

For each required Fuel that a player is unable to play during the final Harvest, 1 of his Family Members is unable to get out of bed during the Scoring. Those People are worth 1 Point instead of 3.

Scoring

Use the new Scoring pad to score the game. The scoring is the same as in the base game, but players also score 1 point for each Horse (there is no maximum score for Horses). A player with no Horses receives -1 point. Family members with Bed markers score 1 point instead of 3.

The Bog Pony and Draughthorse cards, as well as the Horse card from the base game, do not count as Horses for scoring.

Farmyard spaces with Moor or Forest tiles are counted as "used".

Solo Rules

The Solo rules from the base game apply, with one exception: If you are playing the Family version (described here as complexity levels 1 and 2), no Food is placed on the Starting player space. Apart from this, all the rules for the "Farmers of the Moor" expansion apply with only one exception: All 10 Special Action cards are used. When setting up to play, shuffle them and put them in a face-down deck.

The Solo player starts, according to the rules of the base game, with 0 Food. Only 2 Wood are placed on the "3 Wood" Action space at the start of each Round. And adult Family members must be fed 3 Food in each Harvest (Newborns eat 1 Food).

Start of the Rounds

Turn over a new Special Action card at the start of each Round, unless the card from the previous Round is still available. If the card from the previous Round is still available, choose to either leave it face-up or place it under the pile of face-down Special Action cards and turn over a new one (the icons on the back of the card show which Special Actions it allows). Once the face-down pile of Special Action cards is empty at the start of the Round, the most recently used Special Action card is used again and is placed face-up at the start of each Round from that point on.

Because the player can choose to move unused Special Action cards to the bottom of the pile, she can influence which Special Action card will be the last. The last Special Action card can be used in up to 5 Rounds at the end of the game (Rounds 10 to 14), so it is rather important.

The Round

In each Round, the Solo player can use exactly one of the Special actions shown on the face-up card. The card is then discarded (it is not used again during the game).

Once each Round, the player can prevent a card from being discarded by paying 2 Food. The Special Action card is treated as though it had not been used and remains face-up.

Goal of the Game

• In the Family Game without hand cards (Complexity level 1), the goal is to reach 65 Points.
• In the Family Game with Hand cards (Complexity level 2), the goal is to reach 70 Points.
• In the full game with Occupation cards (Complexity level 3, see Variant 2), the goal is to reach 72 Points.

The Conditions on the Improvement Cards

The Conditions shown at the top left of a Minor Improvement card must be fulfilled at the moment when the card is played. As soon as a card has been played, the conditions need no longer be met. They have no further effect on the played card.

In this section, we clarify the Conditions. They are sorted by theme: First the Conditions that relate to played Improvements, then those that are related to tiles and to animal raising. There are also conditions that relate to the Round number and conditions that relate to a player's Home.

Card example: Pheromones (M032) – max 2 Improvements. You immediately receive 1 Food. In addition, each player who has at least one stable or pasture receives 2 Food.

Card example: Church (M132) – For upgrading the Village Church to the Church, you receive 2 Food. At the end of each Round, you can tithe up to 1 Fuel to earn 1 Bonus point. (*The Village Church is under the Well.)

The color of the border around the picture and the marks on either side of it shows that the Church is also a Major Improvement.

Card example: Peat Pellets (M101) – You immediately receive 1 Fuel for each remaining Moor tile in your Farmyard. After you play this card, pass it to the player on your left, who adds it to his/her hand.

Traveling cards are cards that are passed to the Player's left-hand neighbor after they are played. They are marked with brown arrows.

Improvements

• "Have X Major improvements" means "Have at least X Major Improvements, played, on the table before you."
• "Have X Minor improvements" means "Have at least X Minor Improvements, played, on the table before you." Major Improvements are explicitly not counted in this tally.
• Upgrades to Major Improvements are counted as both Minor and Major Improvements (see color on the cards).
• "Have X Improvements" means "Have at least X Improvements on the table" – it is irrelevant whether they are Minor or Major improvements.
• Traveling cards do not count towards "have on the table" requirements. A player who has already played a Traveling card still meets the "have no Improvement yet" condition.
• The condition "Have at most 1 Improvement" means "Have at most 1 Improvement on the table" and does not count Traveling cards that may have been played.

Tiles

• Tiles that are covered by another tile are never counted towards meeting a condition.
• "Still have Forest tiles" means "still have at least one Forest tile".
• "Have X Forest tiles" means "Have at least X Forest tiles".
• "Have max. X Forest tiles" means that the player may not have more than X visible Forest tiles on his Farmyard (covered Forest tiles are not counted).
• "Have exactly X Forest tiles" means that the player may not have more or less than X visible Forest tiles on his Farmyard.
• These conditions also apply to Fields and Moor tiles.

Card example: Forest Kindergarten (M031) – max 3 Forest tiles. Whenever you take any "Family Growth" action, you receive 1 Food for each of your Farmyard spaces that contains a Forest tile. (This includes Improvements that allow Family Growth.)

Animal husbandry

• "Have 1 Horse" does not mean "Have exactly 1 Horse" but "have at least 1 Horse". This also applies to other types of animal. The conditions "Have exactly 1 animal" and "Have 1 animal" include an animal that the player has pastured on another player's Night Pasture card.
• The conditions "Have 1 Animal" and "Have 1 Horse" do not include the Horse Improvement cards like Bog Pony and Draughthorse.
• "Have 1 Pasture with a Stable" means "Have at least 1 Pasture with at least 1 Stable" – and that the Stable must be inside the Pasture.

Card example: Night Pasture (M084) – You can keep 3 animals of your choice on this card, and other players can keep 1. All the animals on this card count as yours when animals breed. You are always the last to play during the Breeding phase.

Round number

• "not after Round X" means that the card cannot be played after Round X. It may be played during Round X.
• "not before Round X" means that the card cannot be played before Round X. It may be played during Round X.
• The sentence, "This card cannot be played in a Round that is followed by a Harvest" is too long to fit in the corner. Instead, it is in the text area of the card.

Card example: Butcher's Block (M088) – This card cannot be played in a Round that is followed by a Harvest. All other players must and you may immediately convert one animal of their (your) choice to Food. Sheep provide 1 Food, Wild Boar and Horses 2 Food, Cattle 3 Food. (Players may not convert more than 1 Animal and do not need to have a Cooking Improvement.)

Building your home

• "Have 3 Rooms" means that the player must have at least 3 Wooden, Clay or Stone House rooms. (The Peat Hut is not counted as a Room.)
• "Have renovated to a Clay Hut" means that the Player's Family Members must live in either a Clay Hut or a Stone House.
• "Have renovated to a Stone House" means that the Player's Family Members must live in a Stone House.
• "Still live in a Wooden Hut" means that the Player may not have renovated yet.

Card example: Peat Hut (M080) – This card serves as a room for one of your people. It must be heated with 1 Fuel during the Feeding phase of each Harvest. You can use the "Renovate" action to discard this card and add 1 room to your Wooden Hut.

Variants

Variant 1: Special rules for Fuel

The Fireplace, Cooking Hearth, Horse Slaughterhouse and Cookhouse are Cooking Improvements (see the Cooking symbol at the lower left of the cards). A player who acquires a Cooking Improvement places a "not yet in use" marker on the card. He can not use the Cooking Improvement until he has removed the marker by paying 1 Fuel to the Supply. He can do this at any time.

• A player who upgrades an operational Cooking Improvement receives a new Cooking Improvement that is already operational.
• A player who upgrades a Cooking Improvement that is not yet in use receives a new Cooking Improvement that is not yet in use.

We recommend that the "Lover" occupation should not be played before Round 3.

Variant 2: The third complexity level

At complexity level 3, Agricola: Farmers of the Moor is played like the Full version of the base game. At the start of the game, each player receives 7 Occupations from the base game, 3 Minor Improvements from the base game and 4 additional Minor Improvements from the Farmers of the Moor expansion.

Tips for faster play

In the "Farmers of the Moor" expansion, it is important that players not pick up their Person markers before they have decided to place them on an Action space.