Having played a solo game and one and a half games with my kids, I have a few initial impressions. Keep the limited number of plays in mind as you read. (This is a borrowed English edition set, direct from Essen).
1. It's more complex. You have more choices each turn, and have to satisfy your heating requirements as well as the normal food and growth/points challenges. I would strongly recommend playing the Level 1 (no minor improvements or occupations) game at least once, just to get used to the new mechanics and new major improvements. (The minor improvements add a lot and are recommended in later games though).
2. The solo game is MUCH harder than usual, because of the random nature of the extra (special) actions available each round, and higher points total required. A good challenge.
3. It's longer. This is mainly because of the extra special actions each round, but also because of the extra choices. Kids, and people with AP will make this even longer. The box rating is an extra 15 minutes per person, i.e. 50% longer than usual.
4. You tend to get more points - probably about 10 more (each) than in a regular game. This is partly from the extra (points rich) major improvements available, but mainly because of having more (special) actions available each round. Even though some of them are required to clear space on your farm and get heating fuel, some of the (special) actions will be used to get additional points from horses and extra build improvements actions.
5. It plays differently in some subtle ways, mostly better. The additional rules and improvements may change your priorities at odd times, e.g. taking stone and clay may be more desirable than four wood. 629
Building four wooden rooms may make your heating costs unaffordable... If one player takes a special action, it will tend to force others to take special actions, rather than being left out. This (and the extra action available) can make being last in round not quite as bad as before, as your regular action is now ahead of that of other players (although you likely still end up losing an action). The "Major or Minor improvement" space is much more heavily used than in regular games - people may take "start player" in order to be able to grab MIMI on their next turn... And finally, your farm layout is going to be much more variable than in a regular game, because of the initial constraints of the forest and bog tiles. Your farm will also often have some leftover trees using up a space or two - more interesting in general than the standard "optimum" layout that players strive for in normal games.
6. Clay is more important than before, and is in extremely short supply in a two-player game, especially if minor improvements are used - I recommend adding the "Add one clay" action space from the three player game (and you'll still be short). Wood is still in short supply, unfortunately, even with all those trees on your farmyard.
7. The horses are nice, but have an oddly plastic sound when dropped. Very weird. The other components are excellent, although the minor improvement cards appear to be bending/warping a bit already.
8. The designers put a lot of fun into the minor improvement cards and other components. Keep an eye out for little red riding hood, a wolf, and other creatures in the forest, and many excellent cards.
9. The rules, while not complex, suffer the same lack of clarity and organization as in the original set. I would prefer that an implied rule about hidden major improvements not being available to build (until the top improvement is first built) be stated clearly. Similarly, an example graphic showing five horses should state that they are worth a total of five points (no maximum limit for horses). There is also at least one minor layout issue where a graphic partially obscures some text.
10. The theme is strong and subtly different from the base game. Everything fits in very well except for two minor issues:
- the horse slaughterhouse and improvements that allow eating horses - these are authentic and euro in nature, but seem just a trifle queasy to anglo culture players, and especially kids.
- the "Clandestine Work" special action really should have been called "Moonlighting" or "Overtime" instead.
11. Overall, the expansion adds fun, challenge, interest and replayability, and is excellent for hard-core gamers and serious Agricola fans. Due to the added challenge and playing time, casual or occasional Agricola players may want to pass. 629