Stonemaier Games Viticulture Essential Edition Board Game

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Stonemaier Games Viticulture Essential Edition Board Game

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Description

For 1-6 players
45-90 minute playing time
The essential edition includes the second edition of viticulture along with several elements from the original Tuscany expansion pack
It contains 154 cards at the 44x67mm size and 78 cards at the 63x88mm size
Includes 36 Mama & Papa cards, 18 Field cards and and 24 Automa cards

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Customer Reviews

Amazing Version of an Amazing GameAbsolutely a must buy if you are new to the world of Viticulture. This is the newest edition that has some of the most popular expansions built into it. You don't need any other expansions to enjoy this world; just this game is enough. However, I also purchased the Tuscany expansion, which has a few more modules to fold into this game. The game works excellent with 1 player (solo) and is even better at 2-player. There is no major competition or blocking or sabotage going on, and there is more than enough for each person to do to focus on their own play style. You can gain points from a variety of ways, and the replayability is fantastic (you'll always be starting with different resources, and be going after different orders with different vines and having different visitors come each round). The game is just unreal, the production and design is top notch, the mechanics are superb (you always have a wild card meeple that can also be played at a position that is already claimed) and the theme is just excellent. I cannot recommend this game enough. It is a breeze to set up, and I have purchased a set of metal coins to use instead of the paper coins. The table presentation is just sleek and I cannot praise this game high enough. 5Solid at 2 players, reccomendedViticulture is an excellent mid-weight euro game that sits firmly in the Worker Placement genre. I picked this up to play 2 player games with my wife and am happy to say that we are both very pleased with the game after 4 plays and will be playing it a lot more incorporating the Tuscany essential edition expansion.The components and presentation of the game is beautiful. The board depicts various building spaces to send your workers to obtain various resources (money, cards, points), with spots for the various card decks at the top and a point track at the bottom. The action spaces themselves are basically divided in half with summer actions (mostly for building up) and winter actions (scoring points and creating wine). Each player has an individual playerboard that represents their vineyard with an assortment of different building and worker meeples that they can use for upgrading their vineyard and executing actions.The game feels very well executed at the 2 player level. Each action only has 1 space available (more with more than 2 players) but each player has one "grande" (a bigger worker meeple) that can go to an action space thats occupied. The game involves the use of a lot of cards that represent either types of wine grapes / summer visitors / winter visitors and order cards. There is a flow to the game, where grapes must be planted, then harvested, then made into wine. At the end of each round, grapes and wine age, and you can plan ahead to fulfill an order when your grapes/wine have properly aged. Money is tight, and each player will not be able to do everything in a game.There is also a lot of variability added from the cards. Most visitor cards will offer up two options where players can capitalize by trading resources for points or money. We've noticed that its possible to take a card-focused strategy by building a cottage and then using cards as much as possible throughout the game. Turn order is also very well done in this game, where players can choose something they really need (an extra vine card, coin, point) and it will determine the order that they get to take their turn in. The last point is that the game does not have a set number of rounds, it is more a race to see who can get the first to 20 points which makes the game very exciting as it feels very neck and neck up to the end to see who can squeeze out the couple last points through efficiency.If you enjoy other worker placement games (Stone Age, Agricola, Lords of Waterdeep), Viticulture will likely be right up your alley. Neither my wife or I are wine connoisseurs, but that does not diminish our enjoyment of this game at all. In fact, we've concluded that this game will ultimately replace Agricola for us as there is not nearly as much stress involved during the course of the game. The game still has a good amount of scarcity for actions where one cannot do everything they want to, it is just not as pronounced. 5Good for Two Players, a New FavoriteThis and the basic Catan are my two favorite games. It is strategy, but less competitive than Catan. Sometimes our board game group gets a little too competitive so this is a good break, because you focus on building up your own vineyard and can't really hinder another player's plans, but it is a race to win. It's also a little better than Catan because you can't use the same one strategy every time and win, the summer and winter visitor cards can really throw your plans for a loop in a close game or give a losing player a comeback if they are lucky.I haven't tried the one player version, but it looks interesting.This is also an excellent game for two players. My husband and I enjoy playing against each other just as much as with a group of 4, and that is not the case for many games. 5Very fun worker placement game with a wine themeThis game has similarities to other worker placement games such as Agricola, but the two things I like more about Viticulture are 1) you don't have to feed your workers on a regular basis, and 2) growing and harvesting grapes to make wine is a much more fun theme in my opinion. The summer and winter visitor cards add a ton of variety to each game too. My only minor gripe is if you are unlucky enough not to draw any red grape vine cards, you pretty much have zero chance of winning. Also, it will take you at least 60-90 minutes to set up and play, so you have to be in the mood (not one of those you can knock out in half an hour like Splendor). But otherwise this is a very good game that my family and I enjoy playing any chance we get. 5An exceptionally good medium-weight euro game with ridiculously good componentsThis is a very solid medium-weight euro-game, with worker placement. The board role selection is tight enough to feel tension, but there are enough options that you can always do productive stuff. Honestly there is a bit too much luck involved to be a perfect game, but it's no more swing-y than other popular games.This game version also has "excessively" good production value. The cards feel smooth and strong. There are individual custom wooden pieces representing each building for each player. There are enough pieces for 6 players in the base game. It has components I would have expected for a game which costs $70 or above.One final note which sets it apart for me is that it has a well-made built-in solo version. The solo version provides an interesting challenge which is surprisingly close to what the multi-player experience is. Naturally multiple players is better and different, but the game provides a satisfying solo experience for practise and when you can't find others to play with. 5A fascinating game! Even if you're not a gamer!!!A few quick thoughts on this enjoyable game. I'm not a board-game fan or enthusiast. But, this game got my attention, and truth be told, if I find a similar worker-placement game (WPG), I might try that too. For now, I love playing this game, and the hard part is getting family together for a play!!!Our first few tries, we played for hours: and we discovered we had misunderstood the rules, and the relationship between a turn and an action. To wit, you select a "first player" to (self-) determine the order of action (a turn, or a "wake-up") in a season. Then, everyone else follows (clockwise) determining their location in the wake-up. Once everyone is placed, then the highest ranked player does their first action: or passes for that season. Only one action!!! Then the next player "wakes-up", and takes one action! And, so on. Then back to the first player. Then, if you haven't passed after everyone has taken an action: you take your next action. An action is a function of having workers. No workers, no action. Hopefully, that will serve someone else reading here...Just getting that right meant some remarkably faster play, attentiveness, and joy. With 4 players, we can set-up, start, and finish in 2 hours. With 3 players who were highly motivated and aggressive game players, we finished in 90 minutes. Everyone commented that learning how to take a turn, getting one action, and paying attention lifted the game experience even higher than it already was.Bonus spaces: It's easy to confuse things here, but we switched over to the rule-book version of (my paraphrase) "once covered, it's done." Even if you had a Grande Worker: no extra bonus. We may revisit that version to see how it influences the outcomes.We bought metal coins (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O12APVC/) instead of using those cardboard discs. You should too. You'll only need the 1's and the 3's: but you'll be gratified that you made this purchase. Those cardboard discs... Yikes...Finally, if you're stuck (especially on the rules), use Twitter, and Jamie Stonemaier himself will RT and offer some succinct clarity on how to interpret the rules and proceed with play. Even if you haven't played a game in ages, this one is worth purchasing and learning to play. 5Viticulture is a fantastic worker placement game that I highly recommend to anyone ...Viticulture is a fantastic worker placement game that I highly recommend to anyone who likes the genre, or is interested in these types of board games.While many worker placement games, in my opinion, have a trouble invoking a strong theme, I don't feel that is the case with viticulture. The idea of running a vineyard comes through quite clearly and gives more meaning to the playing of the game. The only thing I feel it's really missing is a bit more importance of having high value wine (or some kind of bonus for doing so). Of course, you may get a wine order or a visitor that requires it, but otherwise having great wine is not necessarily important.I really like the slight change in worker placement mechanics compared to other games I've played, specifically that the placement is split between two seasons. This adds more decision (and risk) when placing workers, and also helps solidify the theme. While there is an element of randomness involved due to drawing cards, I did not feel it was enough that could not be mitigated. In addition, the game itself is rather straight forward and not particularly hard to learn. This combined with the bit of randomness makes it great for people new to worker placement games (or board games in general), while still being meaty and strategic enough for the more hardcore crowd.I can't comment on the changes between the original/tuscany and the essential version, as this is the only version I've played.As for the actual components, all pieces are well made and sturdy, particularly the buildings/meeples/tokens. The artwork is colorful and nice to look at, although some words will blend in the background a bit.All in all, I highly recommend Viticulture and it has quickly become one of my top games. 5... first and by the 3rd game it became her favorite game. We love it and play it oftenMy wife thought it was a little difficult at first and by the 3rd game it became her favorite game. We love it and play it often.After a game or two it's a simple game with a lot of depth. So many choices for how to win and very different strategies can be successful. There is also a bit of luck, as to what kinds of cards you get so between different cards and strategies every game can be so different.All the components are high quality and fit easily in the box which comes with a nice insert we use to hold the money and stuff during the game. The box cover art may seem a drop full compared to many others out there, but what's inside is great.Highly recommend if you ever do family game night or date night in, and/or even a game night with roommates or friends. 5Great edition of a fantastic thematic strategy gameViticulture is one of my all time favourite games. It's a worker placement game for 2-6 players, themed around growing grapes and producing wine. Your aim is to be the first to earn 20 points, which will trigger the game end, Over the course of several rounds, each corresponding to a year. Points are primarily earned by placing workers to grow grapes, which are then crushed into wine, in order to fulfil contracts that earn points and generate income. Along the way you can do many other things to earn points or help you in this process, such as by hiring summer and winter visitors or by building various structures.This particular edition of Viticulture is different from the second edition in that it also includes the following modules from the Tuscany expansion box, which weren't included in the first or second edition of the game:1. Mamas & Papas expansion2. Property expansion3. New/Advanced Visitors4. Automa Solo variantThe summer and winter visitor cards are a new mix, that include selected new and advanced visitors from Tuscany. There's also a couple of relatively minor rule changes.So why is this such a great game? Here's what I love about Viticulture:a) The theme - You're planting grapes, harvesting them, crushing them to make wine, fulfilling wine orders, building structures on your vineyard, giving vineyard tours - all of these things make good sense on the level of both theme and mechanics.b) The components - There's beautiful artwork on the main game board and individual player mats, and when you add in the unique wooden structures, workers, and glass tokens, it all adds up to a wonderfully produced package.c) The visitor cards - The element of card-draw ensures that each game plays out differently, while still ensuring that you have different options.d) The flexibility - While growing grapes, making wine, and fulfilling contracts is often part of a winning strategy, it's certainly not the only way to earn points, and the different paths you can take to victory are well balanced.e) The mechanics - The game has a lot of very interesting mechanics, such as the wake-up track which determines turn order, and the way worker placement works over two different seasons and with the grande worker.f) The structures - The different structures available for purchase during the Summer not only look pretty, but give you different options for long-term strategy.g) The tension - I really appreciate how the different ways of scoring points means that a player's position in the game isn't always measurable, and a player can come from behind by scoring a large amount of points in the final round.h) The length - A game of Viticulture typically takes around 30 minutes a person to play, which is exactly what I look for in a medium weight game.i) The weight - I'm a big fan of medium weight games that tend to the lighter side, similar to Stone Age in weight, and that's exactly the category that Viticulture falls into.j) The two player game - Like many other people, while I enjoy multi-player games, I'm always on the lookout for a good game that I can also enjoy on occasions when it's just me and my wife at the gaming table, and Viticulture works very well with just two players.k) The friendly gameplay - I don't care for nasty games, so I'm glad this game was designed to be competitive without being cut-throat. The worker placement part of Viticulture ensures there is good interaction without it becoming unpleasant.l) The expansion elements - Not all the Tuscany expansions were popular, so this Essential Edition of Viticulture effectively gives you the best ones; they are certainly among my favourites. Especially the revised visitor cards are excellent.If you're looking for a pleasant worker placement game for 2-6 players in the light-medium weight category, one that features solid mechanics, a strong and convincing theme, wonderful components, and can be played in 60-90 minutes, then Viticulture is a must-buy. It really evokes something of being on a vineyard, growing grapes in a quest to make and sell wine, while at the same time offering a strategic challenge. Viticulture is easily one of my favourite games, and this is a fine edition. - EndersGame @ BGG 5A fun worker placement game with a great themeViticulture is a clever worker placement game that tasks players with managing their own vinyard to make and sell wine. If you're unfamiliar with worker placement games, the main mechanic involves placing your meeples (in this case vineyard workers) at various locations on the game board that give you different abilities, from gaining new grapevines to bottling and selling your wine to receiving guests. However, space at each location is limited, so you must shrewdly prioritize the actions you want to perform lest your opponents take up the spots before you. I'm a big fan of worker placement games, and Viticulture didn't disappoint, in large part due to its well-implemented and wholly unique theme.Pros:+ Unique theme! Viticulture eschews the typical adventuring and farming themes of other worker placement games for something completely unique. Sure, a vinyard is technically a farm, but the goals you're trying to achieve, and the ways you go about achieving them, feel significantly different from...well, pretty much any other game out there!+ Interesting mechanics: Growing grapes, pressing them, and aging your wine are all intriguing mechanics I haven't seen in other games, and are conveyed beautifully through the use of clear and red glass beads that you place on your vinyard board.+ Tons of strategy: There are a lot of character and visitor cards that give you unique abilities you can use, leading to tons of interesting choices and replayability.+ Lots of great options: This is one of those games where you always feel like you have good options and always want to do a ton of different things on your turn. Even when other players take the spots you want, you don't feel boxed out or left without worthwhile choices.+ Great sense of progression and the passing of time: As the game progresses your vinyard upgrades pay off in satisfying ways. The sense of passing time, both in the different seasons and the aging of your grapes and wine over the years, nicely fits with the theme of wine-making.+ The box and game board features great art, and the wooden and glass components are stellar.+ Pairs well with actual wine.Cons:- The game can be looooong! The first two-person game my wife and I played took about three hours (though that included learning time). We both remained engaged throughout, however, so it didn't FEEL too long.- I'm not a huge fan of the character art on some of the cards, which I believe are based on Kickstarter backers. Either way they feel a bit out of place.- Stacking up vine cards on your land plots can be a bit fiddly.- The game is quite "thinky," and players prone to analysis paralysis can really slow down play.- Some may find the theme dry and boring. Shame on you if you do! :PUltimately, Viticulture feels like one of those rare treats: A uniquely themed game packed with clever mechanics and intriguing strategy, and plenty of replayability. Like wine-making itself, Viticulture requires a significant commitment in terms of time and effort, but the results are definitely worth it. 4

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Stonemaier Games Viticulture Essential Edition Board Game

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Stonemaier Games Viticulture Essential Edition Board Game

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Stonemaier Games Viticulture Essential Edition Board Game

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Stonemaier Games Viticulture Essential Edition Board Game

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