17世纪：务农非易事。（游戏原名『Agricola』，为拉丁文中的『农夫』一字）

1670年左右，中欧；自1348年起肆虐的黑死病，终于被敉平。文明世界至此重见曙光。人们开始扩建、翻修房舍。田野正待耕犁、播种与收割。过去这些年来的粮食短缺，亦鼓励人们食用更多肉类（此习惯并延续至今。）

游戏之初，玩家只有一对农家夫妇，住在一栋简单的两房小屋中。在游戏当中，这个家庭将可藉由诸多方式来改善他们的生活，如：建设房屋、改善农田或饲育动物。

游戏共分为14个回合；在每个回合中，每位家庭成员可执行恰好一个行动。他们可以生产建设所需的资源，如木头或砖头；或是生儿育女，增加家庭成员；或是确保食物来源。每个回合中，每个行动都只能被一个人执行；玩家将会因其他玩家抢先进行行动而错失机会。每个回合皆会有新的行动选项出现。

你必须决定生儿育女的适当时机；这不能太早进行，因为即使是新生儿也需要食物来喂养。但另一方面，增加家庭成员是非常重要的，因为他们能让你执行更多的行动。

在游戏结束时，经营出最佳农庄的玩家将获胜。游戏将依据每位玩家的农田、牧场与栅栏、麦子、蔬菜、绵羊、野猪与牛的数量进行计分。房屋的扩建与翻修、家庭成员的数量、以及已使用的职业与发展卡，也会带来额外的分数。

Description from BoardgameNews:

In Agricola, you're a farmer in a wooden shack with your spouse and little else. On a turn, you get to take only two actions, one for you and one for the spouse, from all the possibilities you'll find on a farm: collecting clay, wood, or stone; building fences; and so on. You might think about having kids in order to get more work accomplished, but first you need to expand your house. And what are you going to feed all the little rugrats?

The game supports many levels of complexity, mainly through the use (or non-use) of two of its main types of cards, Minor Improvements and Occupations. In the beginner's version (called the Family Variant in the U.S. release), these cards are not used at all. For advanced play, the U.S. release includes three levels of both types of cards; Basic (E-deck), Interactive (I-deck), and Complex (K-deck), and the rulebook encourages players to experiment with the various decks and mixtures thereof. Aftermarket decks such as the Z-Deck and the L-Deck also exist.

Agricola is a turn-based game. There are 14 game rounds occurring in 6 stages, with a Harvest at the end of each stage (after Rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 14).

Each player starts with two playing tokens (farmer and spouse) and thus can take two turns, or actions, per round. There are multiple options, and while the game progresses, you'll have more and more: first thing in a round, a new action card is flipped over.

Problem: Each action can be taken by only one player each round, so it's important to do some things with high preference.

Each player also starts with a hand of 7 Occupation cards (of more than 160 total) and 7 Minor Improvement cards (of more than 140 total) that he/she may use during the game if they fit in his/her strategy. Speaking of which, there are countless strategies, some depending on your card hand. Sometimes it's a good choice to stay on course, and sometimes it is better to react to your opponents' actions.