2013
Economy
2013
Economy
60 - 120 Minutes
2 - 6 Players
In Viticulture, the players find themselves in the roles of people in rustic, pre-modern Tuscany who have inherited meager vineyards. They have a few plots of land, an old crushpad, a tiny cellar, and three workers. They each have a dream of being the first to call their winery a true success. The players are in the position of determining how they want to allocate their workers throughout the year. Every season is different on a vineyard, so the workers have different tasks they can take care of in the summer and winter. There's competition over those tasks, and often the first worker to get to the job has an advantage over subsequent workers. Fortunately for the players, people love to visit wineries, and it just so happens that many of those visitors are willing to help out around the vineyard when they visit as long as you assign a worker to take care of them. Their visits (in the form of cards) are brief but can be very helpful. Using those workers and visitors, players can expand their vineyards by building structures, planting vines (vine cards), and filling wine orders (wine order cards). Players work towards the goal of running the most successful winery in Tuscany.
I’ve played this game a few times now and if you’re fairly familiar with modern board games then this won’t be too tricky for you to pick up as it has many straightforward elements. However, I have seen it where those that are brand-new to board games? May find this a little much for their first game as this quite a few different moving parts. None of those moving parts are complicated but they are there nonetheless. There’s a really cool element with the idea that you can brew and age your own wine before selling it (i.e. to complete order/mission cards)
Lovely theme with good worker placement mechanics. Takes a while to get going but the outcome of making your own wines can be very satisfying. My main gripe is the luck implimentation with the cards. They can make or break your strategy with little control over which cards you get and when.
Viticulture is a classic strategic game for me. Not too strategic though. I love the mechanics and theme in the game of growing the wine with the grapes and using the grapes as a 'currency' to turn them into wine. Would recommend anyone to have a go.