Viticulture World: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Worker Placement, Engine Building, Contracts, Hand Management, Cooperative, Modular
Player Age: 13+Player Count: 1 - 6 PlayersTime to Play: 60 - 120 Minutes
Game Designer: Mihir Shah, Francesco Testini
Player Age: 13+
Game Designer: Mihir Shah, Francesco Testini
Introduction:
You have shown you can run a successful vineyard in the original Viticulture and now this expansion opens up a cooperative mode that gives players six years (rounds) to score 25 points each and collectively reach 10 on the Influence Tack. If six rounds sounds like a challenging time frame that's because it is. In this version you at least start with all your workers (four normal workers and a grande).
Continent Decks:
There are seven unique continent decks which are a big part of the variability. Each deck uses six event cards (matching the rounds in the game). These events will change up the game by adding new worker spots, changes to worker spots or goals to be met.
The continent decks may also have secondary decks that will give a track for players to move along, board augmentations or other modifications. One of these continents, Greengully, works as an introduction that eases players into the game.
Seasonal Workers:
In this mode, each player will start with four workers and a grande. The issue is that these workers are seasonal to begin with. This means that at the start of the game, two normal workers will gain a blue hat and two will gain a yellow hat. These hats indicate which season the workers are allowed to be played in. There is an opportunity in Winter to train a worker at a cost. This removes the hat from any one worker and allows them to be played during any season, like the original game.
Innovations:
In the base game players are upgrading their boards by erecting buildings. Similar to this, in the cooperative version players can upgrade the shared worker board by using innovations. There are two types of innovations; the rectangle innovation that upgrades the effect of the worker spot.
Then the oval innovation that upgrades where the workers sit in a location. When an oval innovation is upgraded the trained workers (hat-less) gain the bonus icon when they are sent to this location.
Additionally, any number of workers may go there where normally only one worker can go there at 2-3 players and two workers can go there with more players (excluding grande workers).
Trade:
Trading only occurs when the grande worker is placed with another player's worker. This trade can be any amount of lira, vine cards and wine cards, or one grape or wine of any value. The trade does not have to go both ways, the player can simply take something or give something as long as both players agree.
Season Differences:
With the change of goal, each season now has some changes when compared to the original Viticulture game.
Spring:
Spring is broken up into three parts;
- Reveal the next event from the continent deck.
- Discard last year's unused innovations and reveal two of each innovation type in the available spots.
- On the outer ring each player will choose their bonus on the wake-up chart, this will also determine player order starting at the green card bonus.
Summer:
The locations are similar to the base game, however, there are two new locations;
Pay One to Gain One (Action G):
The player can pay either one victory point, a grape token, three lira or two cards to gain one of those same benefits.
Innovation (Action H):
Players can pay four lira to innovate and permanently modify the board, as described above, by selecting one of the four available tiles for this year. If an oval space is innovated there may be an additional cost to pay as signified by the red circled lira, or there may be a bonus that all players receive.
Fall:
Fall isn't simply gaining a visitor card anymore, instead you move your rooster into the inner ring position of the wake-up chart and either gain your choice of two lira, any one card or age one grape.
Winter:
There are three new winter locations;
Train a Worker (Action L):
Pay four lira and turn one of your seasonal workers into a trained worker. They have earned the opportunity to work at your vineyard during any season.
Sell a Wine Token (Action O):
Remove a wine token from your board and gain lira equal to the value of that token.
Influence (Action P):
Influence is needed to make the vineyard renowned and win everyone the game. Players can spend 8 lira to gain one of these coveted influences.
End of Year Steps:
As soon as a player has passed their winter season they will start end-of-year steps:
- Return workers therefore freeing up potential locations for other players.
- Discard down to five cards (rather than the base game’s seven).
- Gain any residual lira.
- Age wine and grapes.
Once all players have finished their winter, the year tracking token will move down one. If this is the end of year six, all players must have 25 victory points (at least) and 10 influence on the track to win, otherwise everyone loses as a team. (The sticker on the influence token isn't included in the game)
Final Thoughts:
- The hats do not fit onto the meeples nicely as they are too large. (EDIT: Contacted customer support and they sent replacement parts)
- Mama and Papa cards from this expansion can be added to the base game and allow for same-sex pairings.
- The innovations are amazing.
- The continent decks have unique mechanisms that keeps the game feel fresh.
- Backwards compatible with Tuscany expansion.
- Pre-determined amount of rounds.
Viticulture was already a challenging game filled with rich decisions. Viticulture World elevates the game further by adding a time limit, variable setup (continent decks) and unity between the players. Players will have to trade, strategise and ultimately assist each other in reaching the influence and the victory point goals. There are two new features I thoroughly enjoy in this expansion; the seasonal workers and the innovations. The seasonal workers allow players to start with more meeples than ever before but are instantly limited in how they can be placed. In the first few years this may not be an issue but as you try to score more points by fulfilling wine orders, it becomes harder to achieve if your workers remain untrained. The innovations are by far my favourite addition as they work on two levels. Firstly, the rectangle innovations are not just a small upgrade to the locations. Instead, they make each upgraded location your new favourite place on the board and they largely improve what that space can offer players. Action B, for example, upgrades from playing one summer visitor to playing up to two summer visitors and (if you do) gain three lira. This suddenly makes the summer visitors so much more appealing as lira is needed for a large portion of the game. The worker locations are more limited in this version as a 2-3 player game only has space for one worker. This makes the oval innovations a necessity as they are required to succeed later, while also giving benefits and an open invitation to multiple workers. I really enjoyed the base game of viticulture and was eager to see what the expansion offered but I did not expect this. Viticulture World has elevated the base game to such heights that it receives a Go-To Golden Seal and I cannot wait to get this back to the table to try out some more of the continents.
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