Yesterday’s games were about expansions to familiar games. First up was a two-player game of Finca with the El Razul expansion. It’s a bunch of elements that make small changes in the game:

• Wildcard tile on windmill gives you any fruit you want. Makes things easier and the game a bit faster, perhaps.
• El Razul figure windmill tile gives you two of any fruit and lets you move the El Razul. The guy makes the area he’s in a wild area, which makes it easier to collect tiles on that area, also making the game fast.
• Drought tiles are free to take, score 2 points and remove two of each fruit from the supply. The tiles have no downside, so they are automatic to take. That’s a bit boring.
• Marionette action token lets you move an opponent’s farmer like it’s your own. That’s the best bit in the expansion, I could use this every time.

All in all a bit blah expansion, so if you don’t have it (it came with Spielbox magazine), I’m not sure it’s worth much effort to get.

Agricola: Farmers of the Moor, however… Excellent stuff. I bought the expansion because it was cheap (15 euros or so) and I had heard it makes the family game better. Indeed! The new stuff – heating requirements, special actions, forests, bogs, horses – add bunch of interesting decisions in the game, but there isn’t much added complexity and the game length isn’t much longer either.

If you play Agricola without cards and want a bit more meat in the game, Farmers of the Moor is highly recommended.