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I'm playing an online game of Agricola right now and we've just reached Round 14.

I have a 3-room Wooden Hut with 4 Family Members in it, and a Reed Hut containing my fifth token. I have also played the Church Warden.

Obviously I'd quite like to convert my Reed Hut person into a Family Member for 3 extra points this turn, but what is the interaction with the Church Warden? I see at least three possibilities:

(1) I can use the Reed Hut person to carry out a Family Growth action at any time, at which point he converts to a newborn. Would get +3 VP from the Church Warden.

(2) I can only use the Reed Hut person to carry out a Family Growth as my fifth action of the turn (in the unlikely event that Family Growth Without Room is still available then!), at which point he converts to newborn. Would get +3 VP from the Church Warden.

(3) I can use a Family Member to carry out Family Growth at any time but this will immediately wipe out my Reed Hut person. I won't get VP from the Church Warden and all I will have achieved is saving myself 1 Food.

Is anyone confident enough to offer a definitive ruling for this corner case?

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  • (This is assuming that Reed Hut guy even counts for the purposes of Church Warden! I think he does because a Guest does, but maybe I shouldn't assume anything...)
    – thesunneversets
    Mar 11, 2014 at 19:13
  • What happened in the game? Did the implementation you were playing include scoring, or was it just a board which you can move pieces around on?
    – tttppp
    Mar 11, 2014 at 22:18
  • Yes, it includes scoring. Everyone's got a move to go and the FG Without Room space hasn't been taken (but it may well be before my final two moves). VERY INTERESTINGLY the iOS implementation decided to let me use Reed Hut guy in the order he joined my family - i.e. as my third move. So I'm not sure it's fully legit, but it seems like I would be able to take 5 moves including Family Growth the way things are going...
    – thesunneversets
    Mar 12, 2014 at 17:50

1 Answer 1

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The Unofficial Agricola Compendium doesn't mention this combination explicitly, but I think the answer is option 3 from your list.

Option 1 contradicts clarification B from the Reed Hut section, and both options 1 and 2 are contradicted by clarification E:

Reed Hut (K138)
...
B. The occupant of the Reed Hut is placed after your family members [ref]...
...
E. You can move this person into your home with a family growth action later. That family growth action must be taken by another family member. [ref]

Both reference links are from the compendium, but seem to be broken.

For completeness, here's the ruling about newborns and the Church Warden in round 14.

Church Warden (I227)
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B. A player who only gets a 5th family member in round 14 does not receive the bonus points, unless the new family member takes an action that round because of the Adoptive Parents.

The one thing I couldn't find was whether you'd get Church Warden points by taking an action with the Reed Hut person. I would say that you can, based on the card's wording, as I think that although the Reed Hut person is not a 'family member', they are a 'person':

At the end of the game, any player who performed actions with at least 5 people in round 14 receives 3 bonus points.

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  • Without getting in touch with the coders of the iOS game I can't be sure how their version works, but your answer seems the only reasonable interpretation of the Compendium and a perfectly sensible approach!
    – thesunneversets
    Apr 1, 2014 at 9:42

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