It's the first Stonemaier game (and what a game!) to be released on Board Game Arena (but not the last): Viticulture!
The worldwide-acclaimed game designers Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone have reached a milestone in 2013 by releasing a game that is still a huge success among avid gamers for many reasons.
Viticulture is a wonderful worker-placement game.
It is played over a number of rounds until someone has scored at least 20 points. At the end of that round, the player with the most points wins. Easy?
Each player has his own mat which shows his vineyard. There are areas for planting vines, for storing grapes, for ageing wines, etc. There are also a number of structures on your vineyard which help you be more efficient in your actions.
The 4 Seasons to Vivald...win
The main board has two main areas: a summer area and a winter area. Each section of the board has different action spaces.
There are also 4 different decks of cards used in the game: vine cards, order cards, summer visitor cards, and winter visitor cards.
Each round equals a year, and each of the four seasons is played in order… until someone has at least 20 points at the end of a year.
SPRING: this is essentially turn order determination.
In this first phase, players take turns placing their rooster token on any of the 7 turn order slots. The later you end up in turn order, the better type of bonus you will get that year. For instance, if you choose to go first, you do not get a bonus.
Once all players have chosen a unique spot on the chart, the turn order for the rest of the year follows that chart.
SUMMER: In summer, you get to place some/all of your workers to do specific summer actions:
- Draw a vine card: adds a vine card to your hand.
- Plant vines: this is how you put vine cards from your hand onto the fields on your player mat.
- Build structures: spend gold and build things to make your actions better.
- Give a Tour: get gold from bank.
- Sell Grapes: get a bit of cash by selling grapes.
- Play a Summer Visitor Card: Visitor cards have special actions/abilities on them which generally break the standard rules of the game.
FALL: draw a visitor card. You can choose whether it is a Summer or a Winter Visitor card.
WINTER: place the rest of your workers in this phase (the ones you did not play in Summer). The actions are different here, so you have to decide when in the year you need your workers to work.
- Draw an Order Card: get an order card from the deck.
- Harvest Field: this is how you get grapes from your vineyard.
- Crush Grapes: convert already harvested grapes into wine. The better the quality of grapes you use here, the better the starting quality of the wine you produce will be.
- Fulfill a Wine Order: trade in wines of thee type/quality specified on the card and receive between 2-6 Victory Points.
- Train a Worker: get an extra worker to use in later rounds of the game.
And then the YEAR END:
In between winter and spring, clean up your area. All of the grapes and the wines age, meaning each moves to the next most valuable space on the chart– as long as you have space for them and capacity to hold that type of wine. All players discard down to 7 cards in their hand (no matter what type) and the start player token moves clockwise. Unless, of course, someone has at least 20 points. If so, the player with the most points wins.
The wine production is a multi-step process, so it could take a play or two to really get into the flow of the game.
Stonemaier offers up a rather simple but deep game that will get you hooked for a long time.
Playable from 2 to 6 players, you can enjoy it for an easy 60-minutes session.
So why not take a look at it right now by clicking here?
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=viticulture
It’s a solid game with many good ideas that you should absolutely try: our players know it as there are already more than 2000 games in progress before this official release!
You will surely be able to find a valuable opponent to learn the game.
We would like to thank the Stonemaier Games team for the authorization to bring the game to Board Game Arena. It's an honor.
Also, our deepest thought goes to bartoleo, our game developer, who did a wonderful job to bring the game here. The port is almost perfect, so don't hesitate to post any feedback with your comments (the more detailed, the more helpful they are).
That's it for our Wednesday Release Time!
Next week, something a bit softer. Or not.
Enjoy the game and take care, it's SUMMER!
Consume with moderation. Moderator team not included.
