by Paul G
I think my experience was in large part driven by a Sycophant hitting the table right after I got my Clay Oven.It felt incredible arbitrary and impossible to deal with. I have no idea how good Sycophant is, but it effectively cost me 1 action per Harvest, which prevented me from ever Sowing a Wheat field (until Round like... 8).
Okay, so from what I got here: Play Agricola more.
By the way, it's not exactly the PUNISHING nature of Agricola I haven't enjoyed, it's the lack of reward. Mage Knight is my favourite game that's longer than an hour, because when something goes right, you feel awesome. I haven't really seen that in Agricola yet, the best you feel is like you'll have to pull it off again in five minutes.
Dungeon Lords looks like it'll be incredibly punishing, but when you finally capture those damn Adventurers, ESPECIALLY the Paladin, I expect that you get this feeling of "that was awesome!
Am I wrong?