Thank you Stonemaier Games
for providing me with a product to review, free of charge.
These are my own honest opinions.

I love board games and I’m always excited when I discover a new and exciting game such as Viticulture, from Stonemaier Games. Viticulture means the cultivation of grapevines so in this unique game, you goal is to create the greatest winery in Old-world Tuscany!

In terms of specs, this game is designed for 2-6 players, ages 13 and up. Games last between 45 and 90 minutes.

Just like any winemaker, you start small: you begin with limited resources, a small piece of land, and only a few workers. Over the course of the game, you have to cleverly plan your expansion.

The way it works is that the game follows the course of seasons so each season you are only able to assign your workers and valuable visitors to specific tasks. For example, in the Summer, you can plant vines, sell grapes, build structures, give a tour of your vineyard whereas in the winter, you can harvest your fields, make wine, train your workers, etc. There are also limitations as to how many players can perform a specific task during a given season which means not everyone can harvest the fields a the same time and such. Not to forget that the first worker to complete a given task usually has an additional advantage. I love the dynamics that this brings in a game because first you have to plan ahead what will be beneficial for you for each season, but you also have to think about how you might possibly hinder another player’s progress! Of course, the key is to know when to dedicate your efforts on your own vineyard and when to devote some of your precious workers’ actions to block your opponent’s expansion.

This game is really well designed although it’s a little overwhelming at first because there are so many components. There is big game board, individual vineyard mats, meeples (your workers), wine tokens, roosters, wine bottle tokens, cork tokens, 8 different types of building tokens, money, cards, etc. Don’t let yourself be intimidated though, you’ll quickly understand how it all works and you’ll actually enjoy the depth and details of this game. I was especially impressed by how many buildings there are to build and how the tokens are designed. They are made of painted wood and clearly symbolize the building/structure they represent which I think it so much better than generic cubes or whatnots.

Viticulture is a really great game. I particularly like the fact that the theme is quite unique. I’m all for stopping a zombie invasion or using my wizarding skills to defeat monsters but I found that Viticulture is a nice change of scenery. It’s also really accessible for people who aren’t as familiar with complex board games. It looks like there are a lot of rules and the game will take a long time but as long as the rules are clearly explained, I can assure you everyone will have a great time (even if they know nothing about winemaking and wine in general).

There is also an expansion to this game called ‘Tuscany: Expand the world of Viticulture’ which adds asymmetric starting resources, new and advanced visitor cards, an extended game board for actions in all four seasons, special types of worker meeples, and more.

Find Out More: Head over to Stonemaier Games to find out more about Viticulture and see for yourself the other table games they offer. 

Connect: Stonemaier is connected! Don’t forget to like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter for all the latest news and promotions including Kickstarter promotions. 

Rachel