How to Win at Agricola

Look over the occupations in your hand, and identify any must-plays that need to come out early. Generally speaking, you'll want to play one or two occupations in the first stage.

Grab some wood. You can't expand your wooden hut or build fences without it.

Grab reeds whenever there are two on the basket. One reed isn't quite worthwhile, but two for one action is enough to expand your house if you have wood.

Grow your family as soon as possible. More family members means more actions.

Pay attention to the harvest rounds, and be sure you have enough food for each one. Take a food-gathering action if necessary, although obviously a more sustainable solution is better.

Acquire a method to turn resources into food. This can be an oven to bake bread, a fireplace to cook animals, or even a basketmaker's shop to turn reed into food. But you will want some food production engine in place.

Plow fields and put food in them as early as possible. Food planted early will give you free food all game.

Double your actions when possible. This means playing on a building space and building two rooms at once, as well as placing workers on double actions like "Plow and/or Sow."

Try to get at least one of each type of food and animal; otherwise, you will lose points.