Agricola: Belgium Deck

Total crap. This new trend of cheaping out and not hiring the original artist (Klemens Franz) to illustrate the cards is pathetic and really detracts from the gameplay. Just pay the guy more and get it done! I think Lookout seriously underestimates the appeal/draw of the artwork of Agricola- I have yet to find a single person who isn't turned off by this new direction in artwork. Oh and it's also worth noting that the actual cards are WAY too textbusy, weak, some are imbalanced and it's clear they're running out of ideas. For the record, I rate Agricola a 10 and it's my favourite game so this pains me to rate anything Agricola so poorly. What a missed opportunity these regional decks are (interesting the Austrian and Czech decks were done properly, hmmm very few cards so they were illustrated, coincidence? I doubt it).

This expansion is quite a disapointment to me.

Artwork consist essentially in photos or reproduction of old paintings. So beside the fact that they have nothing to do with the base game style, most are plain downright ugly.

Most of the text found on the cards is unnecessarily confusing. Rendering the initial card selection/assessment phase a painful drag.

Finally, there are very very few occupations or improvements that are worth playing. Some of them will even severely penalize the player if awkward conditions are not met.

Bottom line; this extension is a waste of time and money. I would rather play with the family rules instead.

On the other hand, they do make nice under-glass.

Sleeved: Swan Panasia Games 60x92mm, Thick [120]

There are very fun aspects in this deck, but it in general doesn't have too much apparent combos, complicated deck and lots of effects aren't very convincing.