Viticulture
Seasons pass as you develop your vineyard, harvest grapes, make wine and fill orders.
In Viticulture, the players find themselves in the roles of people in rustic, pre-modern Tuscany who have inherited meager vineyards. They have a few plots of land, an old crushpad, a tiny cellar, and three workers. They each have a dream of being the first to call their winery a true success.
The players are in the position of determining how they want to allocate their workers throughout the year. Every season is different on a vineyard, so the workers have different tasks they can take care of in the summer and winter. There's competition over those tasks, and often the first worker to get to the job has an advantage over subsequent workers.
Fortunately for the players, people love to visit wineries, and it just so happens that many of those visitors are willing to help out around the vineyard when they visit as long as you assign a worker to take care of them. Their visits (in the form of cards) are brief but can be very helpful.
Using those workers and visitors, players can expand their vineyards by building structures, planting vines (vine cards), and filling wine orders (wine order cards). Players work towards the goal of running the most successful winery in Tuscany.
Number of players: 1 - 6
Game duration: 39 mn
Complexity: 3 / 5
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Play Viticulture and 943 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
Welcome to wine country! In Viticulture, players manage a vineyard over the course of several years/rounds, attempting to make more valuable wines and fulfill orders. Players use their workers for various actions, but with the twist that actions are restricted to specific seasons. The player with the most points once any player has 20 or more points wins!
Game Anatomy
Each player has the following components:
- Workers. These are further divided into regular workers and a grande worker, which is larger than the others and has a G on it. These can be placed on various spaces to perform actions, but the grande worker can be placed even if that action space is otherwise full.
- Lira, the game's currency. These are usually spent to build structures, train new workers, and some other visitor cards.
- A hand of cards, which may contain the following types of cards:
- * Vines and grapes, represented by green cards. These represent the types of wines you can make. These contain a wine color (red or white), a starting value, and building prerequisites.
- * Wine orders, represented by purple cards. These show the types of wine you need, and a reward in both points and residual income once completed.
- * Summer visitors, represented by yellow cards. These can be played for a one-time effect.
- * Winter visitors, represented by blue cards. These can also be played for a one-time effect. The primary difference between these is when they can be played.
Each player also has a game board showing the following things:
- Three fields. These show all planted vines. Each of these fields has a maximum value - the total value of all vines can never be larger than this number.
- The crush pad, showing the value of all grapes you have access to.
- The wine cellar, showing the value of all wine available.
- All built structures. These each have different abilities and will be discussed on an individual basis.
The main game board has the following things:
- The turn order, with bonuses. Players choose when to act on this, but the later players choose to act, the bigger bonus they will get.
- Actions available, each divided into summer (yellow, on the left half of the board) and winter (blue, on the right half) actions. Note that the number of these that are available for use depends on the number of players in the game.
- The score track. Players usually score points by completing wine orders, but can also score using certain visitor cards or actions.
- Residual income. At the end of each round, players earn lira based on this amount. This is usually increased by completing wine orders.
Setup
Each player, in addition to the items automated by BGA, does the following:
- Choose a mama and papa combination. This will determine what you start the game with, and usually guarantees you an assortment of cards, money, and three workers, one of which is a grande worker.
- Your papa also gives an additional choice - starting the game with a building or comparable bonus, or starting with more money. Choose whichever option you prefer.
A first player will randomly be selected. You are now ready to begin.
What To Do On Your Turn
A round in Viticulture consists of one year, which is further broken into four seasons and an end-of-round cleanup phase.
Spring
In spring, players plan for the upcoming year by choosing turn order. Starting with the first player (designated by the grapes) and proceeding around the table, players choose one of the seven spaces on the turn order track and place their rooster there. This designates the turn order for the round. Players also get a bonus when placing their rooster on the track; in general, the later in the turn order they choose, the better the bonus. 1st: No bonus 2nd: Gain 1 green card 3rd: Gain 1 purple card 4th: Gain 1 lira 5th: Gain 1 yellow card or 1 blue card 6th: Gain 1 point 7th: Gain an additional worker this round; this can be used as if it were a worker of your color, but is lost at the end of the year
Summer
In summer, players take actions related to building their vineyard. Players take actions by placing a worker on any unoccupied space, then immediately taking that action. Note that the number of spaces for each action scales with the number of players in the game:
- In a 2 player game, only one worker can be placed on each action.
- In a 3 or 4 player game, two workers can be placed on each action, one of which has a bonus action attached to it.
- In a 5 or 6 player game, three workers can be placed on each action, one of which has a bonus action attached to it.
The actions available are:
- Draw a green card: Draw 1 green card and add it to your hand. (Bonus: Draw a second green card.)
- Give a tour: Gain 2 lira. (Bonus: Gain 1 extra lira.)
- Build a structure: Build one of your structures for the indicated cost. You now have the bonus attached to it for the rest of the game.(Bonus: Gain 1 lira - this is gained before building, so it can effectively act as a discount.) See the Structures section for a summary of what these do.
- Play a yellow card: Play one of your visitor cards from your hand. Do what it says, then discard it. (Bonus: Play a second yellow card afterwards.)
- Sell a grape/field: Choose one: Sell one of your grapes to gain lira based on its value, or sell a field to gain lira based on its maximum value, or buy a field for its maximum value in lira. You may only sell a field if it is empty, and cannot interact with a sold field unless you buy it back. (Bonus: Gain 1 point.)
- Plant a green card: Put one of your green cards in a field. You must have the building prerequisites listed on the card (if any exist), and this can't cause the total value of all vines to exceed the maximum value of the field. (Bonus: Plant a second green card afterwards.)
- Gain 1L: Gain 1 lira. This action can be taken by any number of workers and during any season.
If a player no longer wishes to take actions, they may pass, and all of their remaining workers are usable in the winter. Once all players have passed or have no available workers, players proceed to autumn.
Autumn
During autumn, players host visitors. Each player draws either a yellow or blue card (players who have built the Cottage may take two cards).
Winter
During winter, players take actions related to making wine and fulfilling orders. The turn structure here is identical to the summer phase.
The actions are:
- Gain 1 purple card: Draw a purple card. (Bonus: Draw a second purple card.)
- Harvest a field: Gain grapes from a field. Add up all red vines in your selected field and gain a red grape of that value, then do the same for white vines/grapes. You may never have two grapes of the same value at any given moment; if something would cause this, the grape goes down to the next lowest value. This does not consume green cards on the field. (Bonus: Harvest a second field.)
- Train a new worker: Pay 4 lira to gain a new worker. This worker will be available to take actions for the next and all subsequent years. (Bonus: Gain 1 lira - this functionally acts as a discount.)
- Play a blue card: Play one of your visitor cards from your hand. (Bonus: Play a second visitor card after the first.)
- Make wine: Make up to two wine tokens. To make red or white wine, just move the tokens on the grapes to their corresponding wines. To make blush wine, add the values from a red and white grape together. To make a sparkling wine, add the values from two red and one white grapes. Wine values are restricted by your cellar size - if you attempt to make a wine your cellar can't hold, it will be downgraded to the highest value it can accommodate. (Bonus: Make a third wine token.)
- Fill an order: Discard a purple card and wine tokens equal to or higher than the value shown on them, and gain points and residual income on the card. (Bonus: Gain 1 point.)
- Gain 1L: Gain 1 lira. This action can be taken by any number of workers and during any season.
Once all players have used all workers they have available, the round ends.
Year End
At the end of each year, the following things happen:
- All grapes and wine age. Move each to the next highest available space (keeping in mind wine can't age past what the cellar can hold - in this case, the tokens remain where they are)
- Return all workers to their respective players.
- Collect residual income.
- Discard down to 7 cards total. This only includes cards in your hand, not cards in fields.
- Rotate the first player token to the right (that is, in the opposite order players would normally choose turn order).
If any player has 20 or more points, the game ends here. Otherwise, start a new year.
Structures
The structures you can build for various bonuses are:
- Trellis (2L): Allows you to plant more valuable vines
- Irrigation (3L): Allows you to plant more valuable vines
- Windmill (5L): Once per year, whenever you plant a new vine, gain 1 point
- Yoke (2L): Unlocks an additional worker space, allowing you to harvest 1 field or uproot and return a planted green card to your hand
- Tasting Room (6L): Once per year, when you give a tour and you have at least one wine in your cellar, gain 1 point
- Medium Cellar (4L): Your wine cellar can hold wines up to value 6. (Without this, you can only have wine up to value 3.)
- Large Cellar (6L): Your wine cellar can hold wines up to value 9. You must have the Medium Cellar to build this.
- Cottage (4L): Allows you to draw a second visitor card each autumn.
End Of The Game
The game ends at the end of any year in which any player has at least 20 points. The player with the most points wins the game! If there's a tie, the player with the most leftover lira wins. If there's still a tie, the player with the highest combined value of all their wines wins. If there's still a tie, the player with the highest combined value of all grapes wins. If there's still a tie after that, the victory is shared!