Viticulture - Essential Edition

In Viticulture - Essential Edition, players become winemakers in the charming region of Tuscany, where they inherit modest vineyards and dream of building a successful winery. With limited land and a small winery, each player starts with three workers who need to be strategically allocated throughout the different seasons. The dynamics of the game are marked by competition for tasks during the summer and winter, where the order of arrival can provide significant advantages. During their turns, players can receive special visitors in the form of cards, which offer valuable assistance in managing their vineyards. To excel, participants must plant vines, build structures and fulfill wine orders, each decision influencing the growth of their wineries. The Essential Edition offers not only the original Viticulture experience, but also incorporates Tuscany expansions, including elements such as Mama & Papa, Fields, Automa and advanced visitors, each of which brings a new strategic layer to the game. With a complexity level of 2.89 out of 5, the game promises hours of fun and friendly competition as players fight to become the most prosperous winery in Tuscany.

Table of Contents
- How to Play
- Tips for playing
- Game mechanics
- Game components
- Additional Information

Distribute the game components: each player starts with three fields, two vineyards, a worker with a big hat for the Winter Council, six normal workers and 1 coin.

Choose the starting player. He receives the pawn in the shape of a wine bottle and goes to position one on the starting player's board.

The game has seasons: spring (choose the order of play), summer (carry out actions related to the vineyard), fall (buy cards) and winter (harvest and sell actions). Use workers wisely.

In the summer, prioritize planting vines, building structures, selling grapes and completing wine orders.

In winter, concentrate on picking grapes, making wine and completing orders. Use visitors to get bonuses.

Earn points by completing wine orders. The game ends when someone reaches 20 points. Whoever has the most points is the winner.

Remember to manage your resources well and plan every action to maximize your scoring potential.

Adapt your strategy to events on the board and other players' moves. Stay flexible.

Main objective

Viticulture - Essential Edition is a board game where players take on the role of wine growers managing wineries in Tuscany, with the main objective of accumulating the highest number of victory points. This is achieved by planting vines, harvesting grapes, producing and selling wine, and completing wine orders. Players must optimize their seasonal actions, manage workers and resources, and plan strategically to overcome opponents and maximize the efficiency of their wineries.

Tips for playing Viticulture - Essential Edition

Here are some tips for doing better in the game Viticulture - Essential Edition:

• Prioritize the construction of diversified vineyards to ensure flexibility in the production of different types of wine.
• Use seasonal workers wisely; plan your actions according to the phase of the year to optimize your harvests and production.
• Consider building structures like the Cellar early on in the game to increase the value of your wines and, consequently, your score.
• Complete wine orders to earn more points and develop your long-term strategy, but don't ignore the importance of the points obtained through other actions on the board.
• Pay special attention to calling cards; they can offer crucial benefits at strategic moments in the game.
• Balance the expansion of your business between planting grapes, making wine and sending parcels so that you don't get overwhelmed in one area.
• Monitor the actions of other players and adjust your strategy to take advantage of opportunities or avoid being blocked in crucial actions.
• Don't underestimate the power of getting first place in the turn order, especially in critical rounds.
• Invest early in extra workers to increase your actions per turn and ensure more flexibility in your moves.
• Keep a cash reserve to avoid not being able to carry out important actions when necessary.

Video about the game

Mechanics of Viticulture - Essential Edition

• Hand Management: Players receive Vineyard, Wine and Wine Order cards. They must decide which cards to plant, which wines to produce and which orders to complete. Efficient management of the cards is crucial to optimizing production and maximizing victory points.
• Worker allocation: Players have a limited number of workers that can be allocated to different actions on the board. Actions range from planting vines and harvesting grapes to building structures and selling wine. Choosing when and where to allocate workers directly impacts the efficiency of the vineyard.
• Contracts: This element involves fulfilling wine orders specified on order cards. Each completed order grants victory points and additional rewards, and is a main way to accumulate points in the game. Contract strategies require good production planning and timing.
• Allocation of Different Types of Workers: In addition to the regular workers, the game includes special workers with unique abilities who can perform actions more efficiently or earn bonuses. Knowing when to use these workers is essential to maximize the benefits.
• Victory Points as a Resource: Victory points not only determine the winner, but are also used as currency to carry out certain actions, such as taking advantage of turn orders. Careful management of this resource can provide significant strategic advantages.
• Solo: The game can be played solo, where the player competes against an automated opponent. This mode maintains the same main rules, but includes specific challenges that require different strategies to overcome the automaton and achieve victory.
• Turn order: Auction: The players determine the order of the turns through an auction system at the beginning of each year. Each player chooses a position from the turn list, balancing the advantage of acting first against additional benefits available to later positions. This mechanism requires a constant assessment of priorities for the current turn.

Game components Viticulture - Essential Edition

See all the items in the game below Viticulture - Essential Edition:

• 232 letters
• 42 grapevine cards (green deck)
• 36 wine order cards (purple deck)
• 38 summer visitor cards (yellow deck)
• 38 winter visitor cards (blue deck)
• 18 field cards
• 24 cards Automa
• 36 letters from Mom & Dad
• 1 game board
• 6 wine trays
• 30 normal workers
• 1 temporary gray worker
• 6 specialized workers
• 50 transparent grape and wine markers
• 6 morning pieces (rooster)
• 6 pieces of victory points (corks)
• 6 pieces of residual payment (bottles)
• 48 construction pieces
• 72 cardboard liras
• 1 first player piece (grapes)

Additional Information

• Ludopedia link: https://ludopedia.com.br/jogo/viticulture-essential-edition
• Link Tabletopia:
• Amazon Brazil link: Comprar Viticulture - Edição Essencial
• Amazon USA link: Comprar Viticulture - Edição Essencial