Agropolis Preview

Designer: Steven Aramini, Danny Devine, & Paul Kluka

Artist: Danny Devine

Publisher: Button Shy

Year Published: 2020

No. of Players: 1-4 

Ages: 8+

Playing Time: 15-20 Minutes

Main Mechanic / Theme: Cooperative, Tile Placement

Find more info on BoardGameGeek.com / Kickstarter 

Overview:

Agropolis brings you the same great gameplay introduced in Sprawlopolis with a new rural-theme and considerable depth with the introduction of 18 new scoring conditions, a new "feed fee" mechanism, AND a combo card pack that allows you to combine your copies of Agropolis and Sprawlopolis to create a completely new gaming experience!

Gameplay and Mechanics:

As the active player in Agropolis, you will select 1 of 3 cards to add to the city, pass your remaining 2 cards to the next active player, and then draw a single replacement card into your own hand. You will work together with your teammates to build patterns and routes that adhere to the 3 unique scoring conditions you randomly selected during setup. Solo play works similarly with you holding 3 cards during each turn (until the deck eventually runs out, limiting your choices in the last 2 rounds of play). Regardless of player count, you aim to score more points than the collective values printed on each of the 3 scoring condition cards selected. 

Agropolis vs. Sprawlopolis - In Agropolis, you are playing cards to establish orchards, wheat fields, livestock pens, and vineyards. Rules for gameplay are identical to Sprawlopolis in almost every way with the exception of a clever (and totally optional) "Feed Fee" mechanism that promises to ramp up the difficulty for more experienced players. When a Feed Fee icon appears below the point value printed in the top-left corner of a scoring condition card, players may choose to total the number of matching animal icons at the bottom of all 3 cards, adding that total to the Target Score you must meet or exceed in order to win the game. 

"Udderly Impossible" adds +1 for each cattle icon. As pictured above, "Fruitful Endeavor" and "Them Apples" both contain 2 cattle icons, contributing a total of 4 additional points to the Target Score.

Agropolis + Sprawlopolis - According to the publisher, Button Shy, Agropolis will be launching on Kickstarter September 29th for just $10 USD! With each pledge for a copy of Agropolis, you will receive a 6-card combo pack that allows you to combine Agropolis and Sprawlopolis. Unlike the original rules for both standalone games, this variant eliminates the use of card-passing. Rather, players shuffle each game deck individually, flipping a single card from each to reveal 2 scoring conditions. Then, a 3rd card is drawn at random from the 6-card combo pack to reveal the 3rd and final scoring condition. A separate card from this pack is used as the starting tile, displaying 2 "blocks" from those terrains included in each game respectively. On a player's turn, they draw 1 card from each game deck and must choose 1 to play and 1 to discard. In this way, both game decks with run out at the same rate. End game occurs after the last 2 cards are drawn and played/discarded. Players score for the largest 2 block groups from each game, lose points for individual roads, and score/lose points according to the 3 scoring condition cards.

Artwork & Graphic Design

The artwork for Agropolis is simple and serviceable, utilizing effective graphic design to help clearly illustrate the manner in which each card will score.

What Worked:

Agropolis proves to be an excellent standalone experience for those who love Sprawlopolis but want to explore new challenges in the form of its 18 unique scoring conditions. Additionally, the 6-card combo pack does a nice job of providing a uniquely thinky gameplay experience.

Final Thoughts: