Essential Edition – Stonemaier Games

Essential Edition

IMG_4665

Download Rulebook and Quick-Reference Guide

Full list of all visitor cards here

Designer Uwe Rosenberg (Agricola, Caverna, Bohnanza, etc) has helped us combine the second edition of Viticulture with a few elements from Tuscany: Mama & Papas, Fields (Properties), various Visitor cards, & Automa (solo variant).

This is basically a more robust version of Viticulture without adding the complexity of some of the “heavier” Tuscany expansions. Red and blue cards give players different starting resources. Field cards let you sell fields you’re not using for an influx of money. A larger set of visitor cards offer a lot more variety, and we’ve selected only the most balanced cards so there’s never a bad draw.

These are the expansions we always play with–they no longer feel like expansions. So they’re now included in the core game of Viticulture.

The Viticulture Essential Edition is available from retailers and on our webstore, along with the Viticulture Essential Upgrade Pack (here).

Changes

Aesthetically, the box art is slightly different and the rulebook is more detailed (it’s on our website in case you want to download and print it). Otherwise everything is the same as the second edition (tons of custom wooden components and glass beads).

The game board is slightly different in that the “Buy/Sell Grapes” action now reads “Sell at Least One Grape or Buy/Sell One Field.” The Essential Edition also includes 36 Mama & Papa cards (these determine your starting resources–you no longer start with anything else by default), 18 Field cards (previously known as “Properties”), and 24 Automa cards (solo variant).

The 76 visitor cards in the Essential Edition can be seen in list format here. These cards replace the original, advanced, and new visitors found in Viticulture and Tuscany. The Promoter card has a slight word change (“and” changed to “or”), as does the Homesteader card ($3 discount instead of $1).

There are two rule changes that accompany the Essential Edition (these are official rule changes for all versions of Viticulture):

  • You may only gain the 1 VP bonus from the tasting room if you have at least 1 wine token in your cellar. You don’t lose the token–it just has to be there so your guests have wine to taste.
  • There is no maximum score (previously, 25 VP was the maximum in the core game).

Card Totals

The Viticulture Essential Edition contains 154 cards at the 44×67 mm size and 78 cards at the 63×88 mm size.

Essential Upgrade Pack

The Essential Upgrade Pack turns the second edition of Viticulture into the Essential Edition. This isn’t necessary if you also own the original big-box version of Tuscany, as it includes these components.

The upgrade pack includes the following. Add these items to your copy of Viticulture (replace all previous visitor cards with the cards in this pack):

  • 36 red and blue cards (formerly “mamas and papas”)
  • 18 Field cards
  • 38 Summer Visitor cards
  • 38 Winter Visitor cards
  • 24 Automa cards

Campaign

Statistics, insights, and lessons learned from the pre-order campaign (September 1-15, 2015) can be found here.

16 Comments on “Essential Edition

Leave a Comment

If you ask a question about a specific card or ability, please type the exact text in your comment to help facilitate a speedy and precise answer.

Your comment may take a few minutes to publish. Antagonistic, rude, or degrading comments will be removed. Thank you.

  1. In the solo game, when you wish to play a bonus token, for example, on one of the Green card Draw circles:
    1. When there are no workers placed on these Green card circles, can you place the glass token directly on the green card bonus circle, drawing a green card and a bonus green card?
    2. If you have already placed one worker on the first circle, can you place the glass token on the Green card bonus circle and draw a green card?
    3. If an Automa card has been placed on the first circle, can you place the glass token on the Green card bonus circle and draw a green card?

    In the 3 player game, when you wish to play a worker on a particular action where all three circles are free, must you place the worker on the left most circle of a particular action or can you place the worker on the bonus circle and generate the appropriate bonus?

    Thank you, LMW

    1. I find it easier to think of it as spending bonus tokens, instead of placing them on a space. The other thing to keep in mind is there are actions (i.e. Draw Vine Card) and action spaces (i.e. the three yellow circles in the Draw Vine Card action, one of which has a bonus of gaining an extra vine card)

      In the solo game, you are playing a two player game. Therefore, only the leftmost action space of any action is available. This means that most of the bonuses (which are on the middle actions space of each action) would be unavailable to you. The bonus token allows you to gain those bonuses that would not normally be available to you.

      Any time you place your worker (or Grande worker) on an action, you may spend one of those bonus tokens to take one of those bonuses (including those that it would not be possible for you to gain in a two player game).

      To your questions: (1) You don’t place the token directly. You must place a worker on the leftmost space, then spend a bonus token if you wish to gain the bonus on the middle of a second card. (2) Since the leftmost space is occupied, you would only be able to place your Grande worker (on the action, not an action space) to take the Draw Vine Card action again. You may then spend a bonus token to gain the bonus action IF you haven’t done that already this round. You cannot gain the SAME bonus twice each round. (3) This is the same situation as 2; you need to place a worker to then spend the bonus token. Since the only available space is occupied by an Automa worker, you would need to use your Grande worker and then you could spend the bonus token and gain the bonus.

      Regarding the 3 player game, remember that only the left two action spaces are available in a 3 or 4 player game (see pg. 7, “Scaling the Game Based on Number of Players). You may choose either available action space; you do not have to start with the leftmost.

      I hope this clarifies everything. Have fun,
      David

  2. I had huge wrangle with my husband about Wine critic card.

    “Draw 2 blue cards OR discard 1 wine of value 7 or more to gain 4 victory points.”

    Is this mean:
    You can choose draw 2 blue cards and get 4 victory points OR discard 1 wine of value 7 or more to gain 4 victory points.”

    or if you select draw 2 blue cards you don’t get any victory points?

    1. You do t get any VP if you draw 2 blue cards. In Viticulture, the OR creates two independent clauses. :)

  3. Does the essentials edition include the new game board which is in the Tuscany expansion? I’ve read that the 4 seasons board is an amazing addition

    1. Thanks! It’s a fun addition after you’ve played the core game a few times. There’s Viticulture Essential Edition (the core, definitive version of Viticulture), which has the standard board, and later you can get the Tuscany Essential Expansion, which has the extended board, structure cards/mats, and special workers. There’s no overlap or redundancy between the core game and the expansions.

  4. Hey Jamey,
    Any chance you might be designing a small 2 player “duel” version of Viticulture? I appreciate your contributions to gaming. Thanks for all the joy you have brought from your games

    1. Thanks for asking, Joel! A core philosophy of Stonemaier Games is that our games must play from at least 1-5 players; we don’t publish 2-player only games. We did find a slight loophole in Wingspan Asia–an expansion that adds a 2-player mode–but that’s because the extra 2 players add to the core Wingspan player count too.

      The good news is that Viticulture was designed to play well at 2 players out of the box–it’s a tight game at that player count! :)

  5. If I already have 2nd edition base game and Tuscany expansion, do I still need upgrade pack to paly woord co-operation expansion?

    1. Thanks Scott! No, if you have the second edition and Tuscany, you don’t need the upgrade pack to play Viticulture World.

  6. Hi Jamey & SMG Team!
    Viticulture has become one of our evening favorites (excellent paired with a glass of wine after dinner). Thank you for yet another amazing creative contribution to our world and to our home in particular. Lots of love and appreciation from our household.

    Question for you all: We own the Essential Edition, and are now looking at some of the expansions. Am I understanding this page correctly that we do not need the Tuscany expansion as it’s sort of ‘woven into’ the EE?

    My apologies if you’ve answered this more directly somewhere else on the site (couldn’t find it, please feel free to just copy/paste a link if this is the case).

    Would Moor Visitors and Visitors from the Rhine Valley be the main expansions we would want to look at, with the EE? Or is there more to explore in Tuscany and we should look at that as well?

    (I can tell the World Co-op Expansion is all new so no worries there.)

    Thanks for your help and clarification!

    1. Tony and April: Thanks for your question. Tuscany Essential does not have any overlap with Viticulture. It features 3 modules (the extended board, structure cards, and special workers). If you know Viticulture well, I highly recommend this expansion. If you just want more/different visitor cards, that’s what Moor Visitors and Visit from the Rhine Valley are for. And, of course, there are the metal lira coins. :)

See All Comments