Stop calling every euro game 'multiplayer solitaire' - it's lazy criticism

I was at a game night in Portland last weekend and this guy called Agricola 'just farming solitaire' because he lost by 15 points. Look, I get that some games have low interaction (like Finca or something), but Agricola has the minor improvement drafting, the occupation timing, and the race for the reed spaces. Claiming zero player interaction just means you weren't paying attention to what others were hoarding. Has anyone else noticed people throwing that term around for any game where you don't directly attack each other?

3 comments

3 Comments

jessicaflores3d ago

Oh come on, half the time people are just moving cubes around their own boards and glancing up to see who grabbed the last plow. If the main interaction is "you took the thing I wanted" then that's basically just multiplayer solitaire with a shared shopping list. Agricola might as well be called "Stare at Your Farm: The Game" for how often you actually mess with someone else's stuff.

hart.cora3d ago

The race for reed spaces thing actually changed my mind too lol.

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knight.mason3d ago

Man that's the exact moment it clicked for me too. Once you realize how tight the reed competition actually is, the whole game changes. It's not just about building your own little farm anymore, you have to watch everyone like a hawk and know when to pivot. If you miss that early reed grab you're basically stuck trying to build a stone house with mud bricks. It turns the first few rounds into this weird tension where everyone's silently calculating who's gonna bite on the family growth first. Makes you realize the whole "solitaire" thing is total BS, the real game is all about reading the table and knowing when to force someone into a bad spot.