Initial thoughts on Village, Agricola All Creatures, and Small World.

Well, I've gotten all the boxes open now from our Christmas games I mentioned last post.  I have to say the overall quality of the pieces in cardboard and wood, plus game boards have been great as expected.  Small world has loads of cardboard pieces, and the other two have their fair share as well.  Agricola has the standard wooden pieces like its larger counterpart, and Village comes with a large assortment of colored wood pieces as well.  I was a little disappointed by the size of the 'cubes' in Village.  They are pretty small, and because of that, will likely be easy to lose.  I would have preferred something about twice the size, similar to those in Agricola.

Z-Man Games' Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small packs a lot of pieces into a small box, and as such, I didn't expect a lot of ability to organize.  They have two ziplock bags of wooden pieces, plus 4 cardboard forms of punch outs.  No problem, and I don't think there will be any major setup issues.  The rules aren't lengthy, and I expect that this will be a fun go-to game for my wife and I when we have a little time to play.  The regular version is always fun, and our only lament is the time it takes to set up.  I'm hoping they caught the same magic in this smaller version.