Viticulture (board game)

Viticulture is a worker placement board game published by Stonemaier Games in 2013.[1] The game's design was crowdfunded via a campaign on Kickstarter,[2] as was the expansion set Tuscany.

Viticulture
DesignersJamey Stegmaier, Alan Stone
IllustratorsJacqui Davis, David Montgomery, Beth Sobel
PublishersStonemaier Games
Publication2013 (2013)
Players2-6
Playing time90 minutes
Age range13+
Websitestonemaiergames.com/games/viticulture/

It has been well received and has been highly ranked at BoardGameGeek.

Gameplay

The game includes the main game board and six double-sided player boards; the only difference between them is that one side contains instructions for worker placement.[3] Other components include shaped wooden tokens representing vineyard workers and site improvement, money tokens, grape tokens, wine glass tokens, and 4 decks of cards (grape vines, wine orders, summer visitors, and winter visitors).[3]

Players operate a traditional Tuscan vineyard.[3] Each round of the game represents one year of operation, and each is split into four seasons.[3] There is no pre-defined number of rounds in a game, which continues until at least one player obtains 20 victory points.[2] Each player begins the game with a player board, 3 worker tokens, 3 money tokens, a Pinot vine card, and a randomly-drawn summer visitor card.[3]

Rounds begin with a spring turn, in which each player chooses a time slot to start their year by placing a token on a wake-up track.[2] This is followed by the summer turn, during which players place workers on the summer action spaces, which enable a player to erect buildings, plant vines, sell grapes, give tours, play a summer visitor card, or draw a vine card.[3] In the autumn turn, players draw either a summer visitor card, which helps improve the site, or a winter visitor card, which enables the player to harvest their vineyard.[3] In the winter turn each player places workers in the winter action spaces, which enable the player to harvest a field, process grapes, fill wine orders, hire an additional worker, or draw a winter visitor card.[3] A round is completed when players age their grape and wine tokens, collect their workers, and collect any accrued income.[3]

Processing (crushing) grapes allow a player to move their grape tokens to a wine cellar, which ultimately accrues victory points for the player.[3] A player may also earn victory points by building tasting rooms for wine tours.[3]

Expansion sets

The first expansion set, released in May 2013 with the original version of the game, is called Arboriculture.[4] The expansion set Tuscany was also funded via Kickstarter.[5] The latter introduced a greater breadth of options for players to score victory points.[4] It also created an asymmetric start to the game providing players with different options to establish their wine-making business.[4]

The Essential Edition version of the game includes modular expansion sets.[6] The Automa deck adds a single-player variant of the game with varying levels of difficulty.[7]

An app version of the game was created by Digidiced.[8][9]

Tuscany

The Tuscany expansion set includes numerous modular additions to the base game. The Grande Worker module allows a player to place a worker on any action even if that move is not available at the time, eliminating the possibility that players miss necessary actions.[4] It was later incorporated into the base game.[4] The Mamas and Papas module varies the resources with which players start the game.[4] The Properties module enables a player to sell a parcel of land for cash, which is difficult to acquire in the early phases of the base game.[4]

Other modules in the expansion set include Patronage, Advanced Visitors cards, New Visitors cards, and Structures cards.[4] The latter enables a player to erect up to two special structures that add a victory point to the player’s score and also provide additional game options for the player, such as a new action, a recurring bonus, or a residual at the end of each round.[4]

The Extended Board module replaces the main game board.[4] It is a significant modification of the original board, with actions and bonuses shifted.[4] It modifies the season and player wake-up track, and changes the game-ending condition to 25 victory points, as there are more ways in which players can earn them.[4]

The module Special Workers adds numerous worker types to the game, each with additional functions but also usable as standard workers.[4] These are the chef, farmer, innkeeper, mafioso, merchant, messenger, oracle, politico, professore, soldato, and traveller.[4]

Others

Three expansion sets are mutually exclusive, that is only one of them can be included with the base game during a game.[4] These sets are Arboriculture, Formaggio, and Mafia.[4]

Reception

In a review for Board Game Quest, Tony Mastrangeli states that the game has "beautifully illustrated" boards and wooden tokens that together do "a great job" of linking the game to its Tuscan theme.[3] He also stated that the game has a good balance that ensures all players participate throughout the game.[3] Dave Banks, in a review for Wired, described the game as "wonderfully fun".[2]

In a review for Punchboard Media, Charles Hasegawa states that the game has a few flaws, particularly luck associated with drawing cards and that in the early phases of the game each player is "trying to do very similar things" with minor variation.[4] He also described the Tuscany expansion as "a masterpiece of changes that turn an ok game into a more varied and more complex game".[4]

By 2018, the game was ranked in the top 25 of all board games at BoardGameGeek.[1]

References
  1. Bolding, Johnathan (22 June 2018). "Digital adaptations of Viticulture and Charterstone board games in the works". PC Gamer. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  2. Banks, Dave (3 October 2012). "Viticulture is a game that celebrates the art and fun of growing grapes". Wired. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  3. Mastrangeli, Tony (18 June 2013). "Viticulture review". Board Game Quest. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  4. Hasegawa, Charles (25 June 2018). "Things of No Interest: Viticulture and Tuscany review". Punchboard Media. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  5. Vach, Melissa (18 September 2021). "The 5 Best Strategy Board Games to Play Long Distance". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  6. Zimmerman, Aaron; Anderson, Nate; Mendelsohn, Tom (10 December 2018). "Ars Technica's ultimate board game gift guide, 2018 edition". Ars Technica. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  7. Laurie, Julia (30 July 2021). "10 Best Solo Board Games Reviews 2021". Gamequarium. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  8. Law, Keith (26 December 2020). "Best new board game apps of 2020". Ars Technica. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  9. Mastrangeli, Tony (6 August 2020). "Viticulture digital review". Board Game Quest. Retrieved 9 December 2021.

Further reading
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