- Publisher (s) : Matagot, Stonemaier Games
- Designer(s) : Jamey Stegmaier, Alan Stone
- Artist(s) : Jacqui Davis, David Montgomery, Beth Sobel
- Players : 1–6
- Playing time : 45–90 Min
- Weight BGG : 2.89
What's this?
Viticulture is a management board game where players take on the role of winegrowers building and developing their vineyards by planting vines, producing wine, and fulfilling orders to earn victory points.
How do you play?
Game Phases:
Spring: Players decide the turn order for the year by placing their roosters on the wake-up ladder. Waking up early allows you to go first, while waking up late grants bonuses.
Summer: Players place their workers on the summer action spaces to perform actions such as planting vines, constructing buildings, or playing seasonal cards.
Fall: Players draw a seasonal card based on their position on the wake-up ladder.
Winter: Players place their workers on the winter action spaces to harvest grapes, produce wine, or fulfill orders.
End of the year: Players age their grape varieties and wines, recover their workers, collect royalties, etc.
Actions:
➡️ Summer: Plant vines, construct buildings, play seasonal cards, and sell grapes.
➡️ Winter: Harvest grapes, produce wine, fulfill orders, and play seasonal cards.
➡️ End conditions: The game ends when one player reaches 20 victory points.
📢 The “Viticulture: Tuscany” expansion adds several things: 📢
1. The game board is expanded to include new regions and actions. This new board replaces the one from the base game and adds three new seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter) with specific actions for each season.
2. Players can now build unique structures that provide special abilities.
3. The expansion introduces special workers who have specific skills.
4. Players can now place influence stars in different regions of Tuscany, which allows them to earn additional victory points and obtain other benefits.
It is good ?
Viticulture is a worker placement game that immerses you in an original and under-exploited universe in the gaming world: viticulture. The game faithfully respects its theme and offers simple and accessible mechanics, while giving the impression of truly managing your vineyard. Planting grape varieties, producing wine and marketing it, each action contributes to an immersive gaming experience. This is an excellent introduction to the genre for newbies.
Since the competition for locations is fierce, it is advisable to scrutinize the actions of your opponents in order to anticipate them and place your workers strategically.
The wide variety of cards and the multiple possible strategies offer appreciable replayability. However, Viticulture is not without its flaws. The chance inherent in the drawing of cards can sometimes significantly influence the course of a game, and the balance of the cards can seem uneven. Despite these few reservations, Viticulture remains an excellent game for worker placement fans. The Tuscany expansion, a must-have, brings additional depth to the game by introducing new mechanics and strategies.
Viticulture is an excellent accessible game that will allow you to discover the joys of viticulture. Its well-exploited theme and simple mechanics make it an ideal game to introduce your friends or family to worker placement.
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Review Viticulture
Positives
- Accessible mechanics
- High replay value
- Limited locations that force us to have the right timing
- Immersive theme
Negatives
- Element of chance linked to cards
- Balancing of cards sometimes questionable
- Tuscany expansion almost mandatory for a complete experience
Breakdown
- Components and illustrations 9.0
- Mechanics 9.0
- Thématique 9.5
- Replayability 8.5
- Handling 9.5
- Interaction 8.5
- Originality 9.0
