When comparing Hanabi @ Board Game Arena vs Agricola, the Slant community recommends Agricola for most people. In the question“What are the best free online versions of board games?” Agricola is ranked 4th while Hanabi @ Board Game Arena is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Agricola is:
The basic premise in Agricola is simple: players take one of their two starting people and, in turn order, use it to select an action. Once an action is selected, it can not be chosen by other players. After everyone has placed their first worker players place their second, again in turn order, followed by 3rd, 4th, and 5th, if applicable. However, the difficulty in Agricola comes from the relatively limited number of action slots available and the sheer number of things players are trying to accomplish over the 14 rounds of the game.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Replayable
The game encourages replayability because it’s one of those games that you get better at the more you play. Players will always be trying to beat their high-scores. To make the game harder or easier you can easily remove or add clue tokens or lightning tokens (extra lives).
The game also has an included “expansion” – the rainbow-colored cards. These add two more possible variations to the gameplay. You can play them as the sixth color and just add 5 more points to the maximum, or you can make the game a bit more difficult by having players give clues about the rainbow card as if it was one of the five default colors.
Pro No quarterbacking issues
The game successfully evades the popular issue of many cooperative games where a player ends up taking over the game and telling others what to do. In Hanabi this is pretty much impossible because there is no way to see your own cards, so everyone is forced to work together.
Pro Easy to learn
Hanabi is a truly simple and very accessible game to people of all ages. Players stack cards of one color to finish five firework displays consisting of five cards each. Players are dealt five cards that they hold outwards to other players. On your turn you can perform one of three actions – give a clue, discard a card, or play a card.
By flipping one of the eight clue tokens you can point out something about another player’s hand, for example, “these cards are yellow”, “these are twos”, etc.
Discarding a card restores a clue token, but you must be careful with what you discard because there is a limited number of cards of each type, you might discard a card that doesn’t let you complete the firework.
If you play a card that doesn’t fit any of the current piles, then that is an illegal play, the card is discarded and one of the lightning tokens is turned over. As soon as all three lightning tokens are turned, the game is over. The game can also end when the draw pile is empty or if you successfully stack all the fireworks.
Pro A wonderful exercise in teamwork as you have to rely entirely on clues from other players
Why did the other player give that specific clue? Should you play, discard, or give a clue in return? If you give them a clue, how will they interpret it? It is these meaningful and occasionally tense decisions that make Hanabi an absolutely excellent game for couples who like to work together to solve problems.
Pro Easy to explain, but very difficult to master
The basic premise in Agricola is simple: players take one of their two starting people and, in turn order, use it to select an action. Once an action is selected, it can not be chosen by other players. After everyone has placed their first worker players place their second, again in turn order, followed by 3rd, 4th, and 5th, if applicable. However, the difficulty in Agricola comes from the relatively limited number of action slots available and the sheer number of things players are trying to accomplish over the 14 rounds of the game.
Pro Has expansions that can add more depth and variety to the game
Players can purchase the expansion, Farmers on the Moor, to add more gameplay options and strategic depth or they can purchase additional card packs to add variety to the minor improvement and occupation decks. This helps keep the game from getting stale and encourages multiple plays to try and experience everything this game has to offer.
Pro High player interaction for this type of game
The very limited number of actions available to take each round, combined with most resources only being available at 1 or 2 spots means that players are regularly interfering with eachother's plans and constantly being forced to reevaluate their strategy after an opponent blocks them. This leads to high amounts of player interaction and keep you very engaged in the game instead of focusing solely on your player board.
Cons
Con Requires commitment
Hanabi could be considered an exercise in memory, teamwork, and communication, so this isn’t the game to play if you’re in a distraction full environment or if you want to casually socialize with your buddies.
Furthermore, it’s important to limit your table talk because someone might accidentally say too much in a clue or pass off some important information in a remark here or there. Showing frustration or excitement about a play that someone’s about to do is also bad because it might impact the player’s action.
Con Can be a very punishing game for new players
Even players who love Agricola regularly joke that its name should be Misery Farm. This is because everything that you fail to do will cost you points, yet it is very difficult to do some of everything. This means that new players have a very low chance of beating someone experienced since they won't fully now what to expect as the game goes on and how to plan for it.