In the Viticulture World expansion for Viticulture (a top-30 ranked game on BoardGameGeek), cooperate with members of your extended winemaking family (or play solo) in 7 asymmetric continents as you try to achieve global recognition. Balance the growth of your individual vineyard with the combined effort of your fellow players to gain influence within the region.
Using a new game board, tiles, tokens, and event cards combined with the original vineyard mats and game cards, you have 6 years to achieve the two conditions necessary for victory in the selected region: (1) Each player must reach 25 victory points and (2) the shared influence token must reach the end of the influence track. If you enjoy the style of cooperation and the scenario asymmetry in Spirit Island and Orleans: Invasion, we think you’ll enjoy Viticulture World.
“Viticulture is a race against each other and Viticulture World is a race with each other.” –Anthony, BGG
- 1 box (30x26x5cm; download art for desktop background)
- 1 double-sided game board (480 x 560 mm; the back side includes slots for structure cards from the Tuscany expansion)
- 2 rulebooks (multiplayer and solo)
- 7 completely asymmetric, unique continent decks (110 total cards, all 63x88mm)
- 28 innovation tiles
- 20 new red and blue cards* (63x88mm)
- 24 yellow and blue hats
- 1 influence token
- 1 event token
- 20+ Automa solo components (including 19 cards at the 63x88mm size)
- 20 card reprints (these mechanically identical cards replace their original counterparts so it’s easy to discard cards that aren’t compatible for cooperative play)
The Viticulture core game is required to play the Viticulture World expansion. Other expansions are compatible with this expansion. Some copies of Viticulture World are packaged inside the Wine Crate organizer box (or you can buy the expansion separately), which will be available for preorder at the same time as Viticulture World.
Orders of Viticulture World or the Wine Crate directly from Stonemaier Games webstores include a free first-game promo pack (also available for download or purchase on its own).
Media
- strategy tips
- Watch It Played (how to play)
- Jamey Stegmaier (how to teach)
- The Mill (preview, and unboxing, repacking, and solo playthrough)
- The Board Game Family (also Instagram and TikTok): “Viticulture World puts an excellent cooperative spin on Viticulture without changing anything that makes the original game great.”
- There Will Be Games: “One of the things I love about Viticulture World is that it doesn’t fall into Cooperative game trap of “Trying to overcome the Deck of Many Bad Things.”
Big thanks to Tim Chuon for all of the beautiful photos of Viticulture World!
Release Details: Viticulture World became available for preorder from Stonemaier Games on June 1, 2022, followed within a few weeks by preorder fulfillment. The worldwide retail release was July 22, 2022.
Product Details: The SKU is STM110. It will be published in a number of languages from the following partners: Arclight (Japanese), Phalanx (Polish), Feuerland (German), Matagot (French), Ghenos (Italian), Korea Boardgames (Korean), and Deltavision (Hungarian).
*See FAQ for details about the new red and blue cards (formerly “mamas and papas”).
Copyright 2013 Stonemaier LLC. Viticulture is a trademark of Stonemaier LLC. All rights reserved. This content is not authorized for posting on Steam.
This expansion is hard! Is there any easy variant?
You have a few options if you’re struggling to reach 25 VP and 10 influence. One option is built into the first-continent promo pack: It includes a card that can be added to added to any continent to extend the game from 6 to 7 years. Another option is for each player to choose–particularly if it’s the first time they’re playing with that continent–to set their goal to 20 VP instead of 25 VP.
How many cards of each type are there?
Not including the First Game Promo Pack or the South America replacement cards:
-8 large protective cards (please recycle)
-8 Greengully cards
-16 Asia cards
-17 North America cards (4 of which are double-sided and have a cellar background)
-22 Europe cards
-19 Oceania cards
-17 South America cards
-12 Africa cards
-18 Automa cards (including 2 reference cards)
-10 new red cards
-10 new blue cards
There are also small cards in this expansion:
-1 small protective card (please recycle)
-9 black-bordered replacement Winter Visitor cards
-5 black-bordered replacement Summer Visitor cards
-6 black-bordered replacement Structure cards
Will all expansion content fit in the Viticulture box?
It will not, which is why we’ve created the Wine Crate organizer box. It’s designed to hold all Viticulture content in custom inserts. For backers of the 2014 Kickstarter campaign who have the original Collector’s Edition crate box, the Wine Crate is somewhat similar and redundant, with the one major difference being that the Wine Crate is designed to also fit the new Viticulture World expansion.
Can any of the expansion components be used in the original competitive game?
Viticulture World was designed from the ground up as a cooperative expansion, so the only new component that can just be used in any game of Viticulture are the new red and blue cards (formerly “mamas and papas”; see details about them below). We are open to fan variants for using the new board, seasonal workers, continent decks, and more in competitive games of Viticulture, though.
- Competitive variant (worker placement): All of the Viticulture World rules for worker placement apply, with the extra twist that if you train (remove the hats) all 4 workers in a competitive game, you then also gain your 5th regular worker for free. If you’re playing with the extended board in Tuscany, yellow-hat workers are used in spring and summer; blue-hat workers are used in fall and winter. You can’t use this variant with the special workers module.
How does Viticulture World prevent the classic “quarterbacking” issue of some cooperative games?
Each player has complete control over their own vineyard, cards, and workers; on top of that, for all players to win, each player must reach 25 VP by the end of the game. That’s a big challenge for each player to manage on their own while still working together with other players to optimize the continent cards and collectively reach 10 influence.
Viticulture offers the following opportunities for cooperation and collaboration (each final decision within control of each player):
1) Wake up track position.
2) Who does the innovation and what innovations to do.
3) How to tackle the requirements/opportunities of each event card.
4) Positional timing each year to trade via the Grande worker.
5) Timing the visitor cards that affect your fellow players.
How long/complex is Viticulture World as compared to Viticulture or Tuscany?
It’s around the same complexity of Tuscany, so we’d still recommend that new-to-Viticulture folks just play base Viticulture first. Because of some of the discussions that will arise from the cooperative play, Viticulture World plays a little longer than a normal game of Viticulture, with the constraint that you’re only playing 6 years (rounds).
How does the solo mode work?
The Automa system found in many of our games seeks to replicate a human opponent (or partner, in the case of this cooperative expansion) without asking a player to run all of the elements of a second player.
Why should I preorder from Stonemaier Games instead of waiting a few months for the retail release?
We offer delivery much earlier than the retail release date (shipped from a fulfillment center in the US, Canada, the UK, or Australia) and a guarantee that you’ll actually get an individually numbered first-run game in a timely manner, as we only sell products we actually have in stock. We will offer a special preorder price for the product and any add-ons we offer (add-ons are typically available directly from our webstore). We also support anyone who wants to order the game from their retailer of choice on the retail release day.
Can I buy all Viticulture stuff all at once?
Absolutely! All Viticulture products* are available on our webstore, so you can buy anything and everything you’re interested in. Here’s a bundle for your convenience. You’ll receive an additional 20% discount if you’re a Stonemaier Champion. *There are a few modules that we stopped making a long time ago because very few people were using them; you’re welcome to print and explore them as you wish, but we can’t sell modules we don’t recommend.
Will the expansion work with older versions of Viticulture (pre-2015)?
Yes, it’s compatible with the first and second editions; however, we recommend the upgrade pack to owners of those editions. The upgrade pack isn’t necessary if you also own the original big-box version of Tuscany, as it includes these components.
What type of wine should I pair with Viticulture World?
We suggest getting a bottle of wine from each continent and drinking that bottle while playing a game in that continent.
Can you talk more about the new red and blue cards?
The theme of Viticulture is that you have been gifted a vineyard by two people (presumably an inheritance from your family), and each player has different starting resources as a result. In the past we called these “mama and papa cards” because all red cards were women and all blue cards were men.
But there’s no thematic or mechanical reason for this vineyard gift to only come from woman/man pairings. So when we designed the new starting resource cards for Viticulture World, we put all papas on the red cards and all mamas on the blue cards. So if you shuffle these new cards into the original Viticulture red and blue cards–they are fully compatible–the resulting pairings will be a combination of woman-man, man-woman, man-man, and woman-woman to offer a more inclusive representation of society.
The expansion functions just fine by using the original red mamas and blue papas by themselves; as noted in the Viticulture World rulebook, it also functions just fine by using the new red papas and blue mamas by themselves.
Meanwhile, we are also updating the next printing of Viticulture to include some revised red papas and blue mamas (no mechanical changes, just switching faces and names to create more inclusive visibility). If you already own Viticulture, you can download and print these 8 revised cards for free.
June 23: Player Count Scalability (Mihir Shah)
Note from Jamey: I can’t hide spoilers as easily here as on BGG, so feel free to check out Mihir’s original post there instead.
As a co-designer I would like to shed some light from my perspective on the few concerns about player scalability that the players may feel after their initial few games. Viticulture World plays very differently than the base game and hence it may take a few many plays to see how the design handles player count scalability.
However for those eager to know, below you will find the player count balancing factors and in spoiler shield some player count strategy tips.
2 & 4 player games: Games at these player count play very similar. Competition for action spaces is less and hence worker placement coordination will be easier but meeting your influence goals will be difficult. Games at these player counts are best when you are playing with a group that is light on coordination and cooperation.
Since there is less competition for action spaces, more focus should lie on innovating the rectangular innovation tiles. Now since very few oval innovation tiles are needed, there isn’t really any need to train too many of your workers. This should increase the money reserve to be able to meet your Influence goals.
3 & 6 player games: Games at these player count play very similar. Compared to the 2 & 4 player games mentioned above the strategy here shall be opposite. Here competition for action spaces is fierce and hence worker placement coordination will be difficult but meeting your influence goals would be easier since more players can contribute towards it. Games at these player counts are best when you are playing with a group that is very good at coordination and cooperation.
*Mentioned above in the spoiler shield is just a general approach to Viticulture World based on player count and many other factors may have you deviate from it slightly, namely – the different continents and their gameplay twist, the continent event cards, the innovation tiles, the visitor cards & strategic trading opportunities.
May 29: Tales from Production and Preorder Date
The preorder launch week is finally upon us: Viticulture World and the Wine Crate will be available on our webstore (and at our fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe) on June 1 around 10:00 am Central.
As I look forward to you receiving your copy of this cooperative expansion, I also looked back in today’s video at the various production-related decisions we made for Viticulture World. Check it out here:
April 23: What’s Next
Before I jump in for the final design diary, I just want to thank everyone who has read along, liked, and commented on these posts. I love composing them, but not in a vacuum—it’s you who make this journey special. I’m grateful for your enthusiasm and curiosity, and I look forward to continuing that journey in the coming days and months.
I’m also truly grateful to designers Mihir and Francesco, the Automa Factory, artist Andrew Bosley, photographer Tim Chuon, graphic designer Christine Santana, Panda project manager Shannon Lentz, and all of the playtesters, proofreaders, and team members who helped to bring Viticulture World to life.
The Viticulture World rulebook includes a difficulty level chart for all continents, but Mihir shared with me another way of considering each continent:
- Africa – If you like hand management
- Europe – If you like completing objectives
- North America – If you like tech tracks
- South America – If you like player powers
- Oceania – If you want a co-op within a co-op
- Asia – If you like upgrades
- Greengully – If you like Charterstone
- First-game continent promo pack – for your first game
Here are a few key dates (including today), and remember to sign up for the preorder launch notification here.
- April 23: Advance copy reviewers may start sharing playthroughs and how-to-play videos on this date. You’ll see a Watch It Played video here today, as well as playthroughs from Quackalope, Tantrum House, and others: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/viticulture/viticulture-world/
- April 25: Advance copy reviewers may start sharing their opinions on this date.
- May: Early copy reviewers will share their opinions; I’ll post them in this group when they do.
- June 1-4 (barring unforeseen circumstances): Preorders are available at a discount on the Stonemaier Games webstores. This is also when you’ll know the cost of the expansion. Viticulture World, the Wine Crate, and all Viticulture products will be discounted on our webstore during this time.
- June 3-15: Preorders ship to customers from fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
- Late July: Worldwide English retail release date (localization partners will announce their own dates).
Thanks again for following along, and I can’t wait to hear your stories and impressions in June and beyond!
April 22: Burattino Solo Mode (post by David Studley)
One of the tenets of Automa design is that the player never has to make a decision for the Automa. On its own, an Automa attempts to make decisions that are good for itself and bad for you. Looking at a cooperative design, the second half of that equation [bad for you] really needs to be changed to ‘good for you’ or at least ‘not bad for you’ and that isn’t as straight forward as it might sound.
To have our design principles work for this project, we needed to forgo one of them. When playing solo in Viticulture World, you make decisions for Burattino. In fact, to approximate the cooperative play that happens with your fellow players, you choose when and how Burattino helps you each turn, while weighing the tradeoffs of those decision. Because he works differently, we decided early in the process against calling him an Automa. Burattino is Italian for sock puppet.
Morten set the tone for the design with a post to the team titled, Simplicity Is King. To be honest, he always says that, but for this project it was incredibly important. There’s no point in creating a solo system if it is going to take more effort (and be less fun) than simply playing the game two-handed, as co-op games lend themselves to. Although this design is not a true Automa, our goal was the same, to provide a fun, solo experience that evokes the feeling of the game’s important interactions between players, with as little effort for you, as possible.
In Viticulture World, the primary mechanism by which Burattino assists you is through spending Lira. He gains a small allowance each turn and may save it or spend it in a few specific ways, at your request. This approach allows him to participate in almost every aspect of the game, while keeping things very simple. For example, you can ask Burattino to use some of his Lira to increase influence or purchase an innovation tile. Lira is also how Burattino can fulfill his portion of an event’s condition, in lieu of whatever the event requirement actually is.
Of course, we couldn’t just have Burattino make the game easier for you by chipping in free Lira. To counter the benefit of having him playing along with you, there needed to be a trade-off. For that we tapped the core mechanism that made Viticulture, well Viticulture… worker placement. Here Burattino does make some decisions. Similar to the Automa rules for Viticulture, Burattino fills some of the action spaces each season with his workers, leaving you to work around them or pay to send them home (another possible use for Burattino’s Lira).
Having made sure that worker placement was still an important facet of the game with Burattino, we turned to one highlight of the cooperative play, trading. We felt it was important to have Burattino as a trading partner, so we tweaked the multiplayer rules for trading and provided him with some worthwhile stuff to trade. For instance, we gave him a hand of cards to trade along with his supply of Lira and instead of trading wine or grapes, you get to improve yours.
Once we had those elements reasonably balanced, we turned to the Event Decks and were pleasantly surprised at how well many of them worked with Burattino. Still, a few decks needed a little more attention as we wanted to make sure that each would retain the fun changes they made to the game. For example, some of the bonuses on the Fame Track from North America didn’t work and Shared Knowledge cards from Oceania were awkward with Burattino, so we added replacements for each.
A bigger challenge was Africa where you simulate contributing resources with cards. This mechanism just never felt right with Burattino participating using the Lira system alone. We tried a bunch of different ideas before ultimately breaking our own rules and having him contribute cards from his hand. Remember: Sometimes you need to break your own rules.
We had a lot of fun with this expansion and cannot wait to hear what you think about Burattino when you get to try it out. For now, here is the rulebook.
On behalf of Morten, Lieve, and the rest of Team Automa, thanks to Mihir, Francesco, and Jamey for including us on this project. Have fun!
David can be found on Twitter @StudleyGamer and he actively participates on BoardGameGeek @DJStudley.
April 21: South America, Cultural Consulting, and Fixing a Big Mistake
Today’s continent is South America (17 cards, medium level). The core mechanism of the South America continent is that players can leverage people from history who made a big impact on viticulture in that region. The history of winemaking there is as fascinating as it is problematic; therein lies the core story I’ll share today.
Co-designers Mihir and Francesco researched historical figures who were instrumental in introducing and implementing winemaking in South America. In this continent deck, each event card presents a short-term goal for a player to accomplish; if they do, they gain a specific character with a special ability.
In addition to our diverse oversight, proofreading, and playtesting team, we pay a cultural consulting service to review all our products for any unintended harm our games might cause to people of different cultures and backgrounds around the world. When the consultant noticed two conquistadors among the historical figures selected by Mihir and Francesco, she flagged the following concern for each of them, saying, “His conquest and his treatment of indigenous people has since cast him as more of a villain of history.” Her recommendation in its entirety was, “Be careful to not paint Cortes/Pizarro in too positive of light, as someone who brought wine grapes to the Western Hemisphere. If he did play an instrumental role, try to not emphasize his role too highly.” There was no recommendation to remove the conquistador characters, though in hindsight I should not have needed someone–even an expert–for me to identify this solution. It is solely my fault for not identifying and implementing the correct solution.
As a result, we included the following text to the first card in the South America continent: “The impact on winemaking by the characters described in this module came at a grave cost to indigenous peoples, and we do not honor the means or methods by which Europeans secured these lands.” Basically, we knew there was a problem, and we implemented what we thought was the right solution to ensure that Viticulture World could accomplish our overall goal of bringing joy to tabletops worldwide (and not causing harm). As it turns out, though, it definitely was the wrong solution.
Flash forward 6 months. Production is complete, and two of my favorite board game reviewers, Amy and Maggie of ThinkerThemer, have their advance review copy of Viticulture World. Maggie is originally from Venezuela, after playing a few of the early continents she was excited to play the South American continent.
In the video below you can see what happened next. In short, Maggie was surprised to see two of the worst conquistadors in history included in Viticulture World, and she was beyond bewildered that the expansion would ask players to partner with such terrible people to gain a winemaking benefit. These conquistadors are among the greatest bullies of the world, and yet they are consistently whitewashed among the annals of history. And now to find them in a beloved game? Maggie was devastated, not just because of her heritage, but because of all the people who will play Viticulture World and see these two terrible people memorialized in it.
Amy and Maggie brought this to my attention, and you can learn more about their response directly from them in the video below. I was heartbroken to learn that Viticulture World caused harm instead of joy to them (and to anyone). Even with the disclaimer included in the South America deck, I knew that we had made a big mistake. Yes, these conquistadors had a large impact on winemaking in South America. But they don’t deserve to be memorialized in any way in our game, especially not in the context of characters who give players special abilities.
Maggie and Amy kindly agreed to talk to me face to face from across the world via Skype. They shared their experiences with me, and I listened. It was a difficult call. I could see the hurt I’d caused, and while I couldn’t take away the mistake, Maggie and Amy’s willingness to share gave me the opportunity to fix the mistake so we could avoid causing the same harm to others.
So we created a pack of replacement cards for the South America continent in Viticulture World. It includes a total of 6 cards: 2 cards to replace those that reference Cortez, 2 cards to replace those that reference Pizarro, 1 card to replace the first card in the deck (which references the conquistadors, which will no longer be applicable with the conquistadors removed), and 1 card explaining the mistake. The two replacement personalities are Isidora Goyenechea and Don Silvestre Ochagavia Errazuriz. Everyone at Stonemaier Games, the Viticulture World team, and several helpful Stonemaier ambassadors in Latin America were involved in this solution, and Panda was very accommodating in printing the cards on short notice.
These replacement cards packs will be included in every Viticulture World package preordered from Stonemaier Games, and we’re also sending them to distributors and retailers worldwide to be included with every copy sold. You can follow me in tearing up the conquistador cards and putting them in the trash where the greatest bullies of history belong. The packs will be on our webstore for free for anyone who buys the expansion after the pack is in stock, and in the unlikely event we someday reprint Viticulture World, we will include the replacement cards instead of the originals.
I want to be unequivocally clear that I, Jamey, am solely responsible for not identifying and implementing the correct solution before we entered production for Viticulture World. I’ve tried to share the full story here because I think it’s important for people to know that this can happen even when a publisher is actively trying to avoid this type of issue by listening to a diverse array of designers, playtesters, proofreaders, team members, and consultants. But the blame starts and stops with me. In the future, in addition to continuing to improve the diversity of our oversight team, we will not publish any other products featuring people from real-world history, and I will not hesitate to cut any problematic element (instead of using a disclaimer as a safeguard).
My heartfelt gratitude to Amy and Maggie for being open to this difficult conversation. I would highly encourage you to watch the following video from them, as you can see the harm caused by our big mistake. Please be respectful and considerate of Maggie and Amy if you choose to comment.
April 20: Africa and the First-Game Promo Pack
Today’s continent is Africa (12 cards, hard level). Here’s Mihir’s introduction:
“Francesco had this idea of using the various Viticulture cards as resources and again we were fortunate that the history and the story allowed us to use that idea. For players who love hand management, they will love this. This continent due to the nature of its mechanism, stands to be a bit more challenging to excel at compared to the other continents.”
Basically, all cards retain their normal functions AND they can be discarded during your turn to help the group reach the goal noted on the event card. If the goal is met, each player who contributed gains 1 VP. This is yet another twist on cooperative elements in Viticulture World.
Related to this continent and the rest of the game, Mihir had many nice things to share about Francesco, and I wanted to include this snippet:
“Despite Francesco being the senior designer; he never imposed his seniority in any shape or form, nor did he have any ego. For him it was, let’s do what is best for the product…. We share a great brotherly rapport with each other and I forever will be indebted to Viticulture World for connecting me with him as we are now co-designing and developing another co-op game based on an Indian theme.”
During the design process, the designers of this expansion became very, very good at Viticulture World, to the point that even the continent they graded as “easy” was somewhat difficult even for experienced Viticulture players (including myself). So I suggested that we create another continent to introduce players to cooperative play—hence the idea for the Greengully continent was born. We designed it, tested it, and were happy with it. You’ll find Greengully in the box, as I revealed a few days ago.
However, perhaps even I was too close to it, because when I played my advance copy with Megan over in February, we lost while using the Greengully realm. Not that I expect to win every game of Viticulture World, but this is the introductory continent, and it wasn’t as smooth of an onboarding experience as I wanted for that first game for any player (we want a close win). My coworker Joe (who is well-versed in Viticulture and is an expert-level Pandemic player) had the same experience. After some discussion, we decided that it was worth creating a slightly easier first-game promo pack (still Greengully themed) on short notice to provide for free with all preorders on our webstore.
I’ve uploaded the 9 cards included in the promo pack as a single page for anyone to use. They don’t replace the Greengully continent in the expansion—that continent is still a valid continent to play, particularly when you’re introducing the expansion to others after you know how to play. I’d just recommend that anyone playing Viticulture World for the first time uses the first-game promo pack.
Also, the final card in this pack can be added to any game of Viticulture World to add an extra year to the game. Joe suggested this idea, and I really liked it: If you’re having fun with a session even though you haven’t met the victory conditions after 6 years, you’re always welcome to add a bonus year just for fun.
If you have any questions about the Africa continent or the first-game promo pack, please let me know!
April 19: North America, Insert Design, and Eco-Friendly Paper Bands
Today’s continent is North America (18 cards, medium level). I think this was one of the more difficult continents to design, and it’s also one of the most complex. Here’s Mihir with some backstory:
“Midway through the design process, I formed a core group of 6-7 gamers who would playtest regularly each new iteration at higher player counts. Hence, Viticulture World not only had playtests by Francesco and me, but also numerous playtests by the blind playtesters and my core playtesting group for this game. Fortunately, having so many different types of playtesting channels helped fix all the issues that were bothering me in the design.”
Mihir continues: “Throughout the design process I was having a hard time with a few things, like getting the money economy right, providing enough incentives for players to train workers more than twice, making all the innovation tiles juicy and yet balanced, getting North America fame track to be fun. It was only after I changed it to a multiple path tech track of sorts, playtesters started loving it and enjoyed the juicy choices that they faced. We also made the fame track cards double sided for even more replayability.”
I think it’ll make more sense to show you the fame track first. It’s formed via 3 cards, and I think it’s really neat that each card is double sided, offering near-infinite combinations (i.e., 8)!
Similar to Oceania, each player’s 6th worker is used as their fame marker on this shared track. The various event cards in this continent give players opportunities to gain fame, which advances them as they wish on this track, gaining benefits along the way.
I LOVE tracks like this—it reminds me of one of my favorite games, Clank. Plus, I’m happy to find any excuse to incorporate the St. Louis Arch into our products.
With all these continents (still two more to reveal), I wanted a viable insert solution for Viticulture World and the Wine Crate that didn’t necessarily require more box than was needed. Panda worked extensively to create an insert where each deck of cards tilts at an angle, overlapping halfway with the next slot. And yes, these slots fit sleeved cards.
On the right side of the insert are compartments for both types of innovation tiles and the hats. The red and blue cards aren’t pictured here, as you’ll most likely just shuffle them in with the original red and blue cards. There aren’t new visitor cards in Viticulture World—I’ll talk about them later.
One last element you may notice here are the paper bands. All cards in your copy of Viticulture World will come pre-wrapped with these bands, and you’ll remove and recycle all of them (sorting some cards around based on their backs).
The reason for this is that we’re trying to use less and less disposable plastic, and we’re starting with removing shrinkwrap from cards. To ensure the cards arrive in pristine condition, we’ve included recyclable buffer cards at the bottom of each deck—they’re clearly labeled so you can’t miss them.
If you have any questions about the North America continent, the packaging, or the insert/lid, please let me know!
April 18: Europe, Quarterbacking, and Grande Trading
Today’s continent is Europe (23 cards, medium level). Here’s co-designer Mihir to introduce the continent, in which each player has 2 objectives they may complete to gain VP or lira (and a influence if they complete both).
“This was the first continent we worked upon. Initially we had players complete only 1 objective and it was a good experience but later on after developing the other continents, we started to feel that Europe wasn’t as fun as the other continents and hence we changed the reward system and had players complete 2 objectives each. The inspiration for this was the Saxony faction of Scythe, in which the puzzling part is trying to complete 2 objectives.”
Europe’s event cards offer a mix of cards that either make an action a little better or a little harder to use, so the bonuses from completing objectives are a big help.
One note you might notice on the rules card for Europe reads as follows: “We recommend keeping the objective cards secret if your group experiences excessive downtime or quarterbacking.”
Quarterbacking (aka alpha players) is a frequently discussed topic for cooperative games. This is when one player at the table simply tells everyone else what to do, which can detract from everyone’s enjoyment.
One solution for quarterbacking is to introduce limited information to the game. I discuss a number of these types of cooperative games in this video, and it’s what we mention for the Europe continent. But in general, we don’t recommend that players play Viticulture World close-handed. There’s no thematic or mechanical reason to withhold information from other players.
Rather, in Viticulture World, we address quarterbacking by giving each player complete control over their own vineyard, cards, and workers. On top of that, for all players to win, each player must reach 25 VP by the end of the game. That’s a big challenge for each player to manage on their own while still working together with other players to optimize the continent cards and collectively reach 10 influence. This is more of the Spirit Island approach—there’s simply too much happening in each individual vineyard for a single player to try to steer everything. And even if a player ends up being more vocal than other players, the decision is only theirs on their own turn.
There are also some related elements for increased cooperation and collaboration. In Viticulture World, the wake-up track selection process is simultaneous, giving players an opportunity at the beginning of the each year to strategize about what each player and the group needs. But you only have control over where you place your rooster.
Also, whenever you place your grande worker on an action, you have the option to trade with exactly one other player if they have a worker on that action. On the board we’ve printed the things you’re allowed to give (or take, with permission)—you’ll pick exactly one category: lira, vine cards, wine orders, a grape, or a wine token. It’s okay for the trade to only go one way.
For example, say you really need a 5-value blush wine token to complete a wine order and get up to the 25-VP threshold we all must reach to win. I already have 25 VP, but I need a little more lira so I can buy an influence (the other ingredient to cooperative victory). So one of us places our grande on an action where the other player has a worker. I give you the blush wine token, and you give me some lira. Yay cooperation!
If you have any questions about the Europe continent, quarterbacking, or grande workers, please let me know!
April 17: Oceania and Red/Blue cards
Today’s continent is Asia (16 cards, easy level). Each event card in Asia gives players a short-term goal, often something they might do anyway, like, “Give a tour”. To help you remember these types of event cards, we’ve included a chunky wood event token in the game—you can place that on the corresponding action on the board.
If players achieve the goal, they instantly gain the benefit of an upgrade card, which upgrade various elements of the board (specifically, those that are not already upgradable via innovation tiles).
For example, if you accomplish the first goal (2 players give a tour using the action on the board), you gain the following card, placing it over the year-end checklist for the rest of the game. It increases your year-end hand limit from 5 to 7 cards (that’s right—the standard hand limit in Viticulture World is 5 cards) and also doubles your residuals earned.
This brings us to the topic that I pushed back against the most during the design process: worker placement. I really like the worker system in Viticulture, and I was really hesitant to ask players to learn a new system. I’m happy with the final result, though. Here’s Mihir explaining what made him want to explore something a little different:
“Everything in Viticulture World was done theme up and since the theme here has players as part of an extended family who have just entered into the wine making business for the first time. It made sense if they didn’t have full time workers. That marked the birth of the hats on the workers, denoting which season the workers can be placed on. This places some restraints on what players can do and will need to discuss and cooperate on deciding their action choices in each season. Now since we start with almost all but 1 worker, I needed some artificial restraint and that came in the form of reducing the number of worker placement spaces on all actions.”
Unlike in the competitive version of the game, in Viticulture World you start the game with all workers to which you have ongoing access: 1 grande worker and 4 regular workers. The expansion includes 12 blue hats and 12 yellow hats (2 of each per player)—these rubber hats snap onto your workers, turning them into “seasonal” workers.
Seasonal workers can only be placed during the season matching the color of their hat—yellow for summer and blue for winter—and they cannot gain action space bonuses.
If you train a worker, they become a trained worker, which you indicate by removing their hat. Trained workers can be placed in either season, and they gain bonuses on action spaces (via oval innovation tiles).
While this deviates from the original Viticulture rules, I’ve come to appreciate the different decision space it offers. Gaining at least 1 extra worker in Viticulture is barely a choice—you pretty much need to do it. But in Viticulture World, you already have all of your workers. Instead, the choice is to enhance one or more of them by removing their hats, and if you do, do you choose a summer or winter worker to train?
After the expansion entered production, Mihir played around with a way to use the seasonal worker system in competitive games. All of the above rules apply, with the extra twist that if you train (remove the hats) all 4 workers in a competitive game, you then also gain your 5th regular worker for free. If you’re playing with the extended board in Tuscany, yellow-hat workers are used in spring and summer; blue-hat workers are used in fall and winter. You can’t use this variant with the special workers module.
If you have any questions about the Asia continent or seasonal/trained workers, please let me know!
April 15: Asymmetry, Greengully, and the New Board
Viticulture World features 7 asymmetric continents. Every time you play with this expansion, you’ll choose a continent, and for that game, all players are creating their vineyards in that continent (instead of in Tuscany).
Mihir and Francesco had the immense challenge of making continent simple to get to the table (and self-contained within a set of cards) yet completely different than each other continent.
Not only that, but their use of cards makes each continent variable and replayable: The first time you play a continent, you’ll reveal its event cards in order, but after that you can shuffle a continent’s event cards so they’re revealed in a random order.
The event cards use what I consider is “good game design” in that while they reveal a little puzzle for players to solve (usually a short-term goal or benefit to optimize), you have the entire year after an event is resolved to actually react to it. Orleans: Invasion uses a similar system.
If you’re counting, 7 continents should hypothetically include Antarctica, but there isn’t much winemaking history on the ice cap. Instead, I suggested that we add Greengully, the world featured in our game Charterstone, as an introductory continent.
Greengully (8 cards, introductory level) guides players through some of the new mechanisms found in Viticulture World (though it is in no way a replacement for the rulebook). Its twist is that each Greengully event card offers an action for players to use in summer or winter at a better cost than the equivalent action on the board.
I’ll let you discover the rest of Greengully as you play (in fact, I recommend for ALL continents that you play each sight unseen), but this is a good time to bring up the biggest new component in Viticulture World, the new board:
At its core, the new board includes many actions you’ll find familiar: Gain a vine card, give a tour, make up to two wine tokens, etc. There are also a few actions more closely connected to the Tuscany extended board, like a “pay one X to gain one Y” action and a way to sell wine to gain lira.
The two biggest twists are influence and innovate actions. Influence is the shared win condition, and while each continent offers different ways to gain influence, the default method is printed on the board: “Pay $8 to gain 1 influence.” In this way, money is considerably more important for victory than in the core game.
Innovate is a bit more elaborate, though I think it’s one of the coolest elements that Mihir and Francesco added to Viticulture World that fully embraces the rewarding, engine building core of Viticulture. When you innovate, you choose one of a few tiles to place on the board, permanently upgrading either an action or an action space.
Rectangular Innovation Tiles: These upgrade actions for the rest of the game. For example, in this photo, the “Pay one to gain one” has been upgraded to “Pay one to gain TWO”.
Oval Innovation Tiles: These upgrade action spaces for the rest of the game in a few different ways. One, they allow any number of workers to be placed on an action instead of 1 for a 1-3 player game and 2 for a 4-6 player game. Two, they add a bonus to be gained by any trained worker placed on the action (trained workers are those without hats—I’ll talk about that more soon). For a few action spaces, there’s a cost or benefit printed on the board that triggers at the moment you place an oval tile on it.
To offer variability and not overwhelm players, there are 2 of each tile type randomly revealed at the beginning of each year; they’re wiped and replaced at the end of the year.
Also, the board is double-sided; the back side has a slot for structure cards (a Tuscany module).
I love this system of an ever-evolving board and how it impacts cooperative collaboration. While the board isn’t designed for competitive play largely due to this mechanism, I look forward to hearing about fan-tested variants after the expansion is released.
If you have any questions about Greengully or the new board, please let me know!
April 14: The Wine Crate and the Origin Story of a Rewarding Cooperative Game
Around this time last year I started publicly brainstorming an organizer box for Wingspan. Yes, that’s not a typo—Wingspan, not Viticulture. During that process, Mihir and Francesco were working on Viticulture World, and I was updating the insert we’ve used in Viticulture for the last 9 years. It occurred to me that the release of the expansion might be a great time to also release an organizer box for all Viticulture expansions.
Thus the Wine Crate was born. It is an organizer box for Viticulture, designed from the inside out to hold all Viticulture components (core game and expansions, even out-of-print modules) in an assortment of 7 custom plastic inserts and accompanying lids. It fits sleeved cards.
Originally the Wine Crate going to be completely separate from Viticulture World, but freight shipping costs have continued to climb to absurd heights (they’re now around 6x higher than they were pre-pandemic). We weren’t comfortable charging nearly the price of Viticulture for a Viticulture organizer box, so we decided—for the first printing, at least—to include Viticulture World inside the Wine Crate.
The individually numbered Wine Crate with Viticulture World inside will be available in early June as part of the Viticulture World preorder. If you don’t want the Wine Crate, you can just get the expansion by itself. And if you want the Wine Crate without the expansion…well, we don’t offer that option yet, but maybe in 2023 or 2024 if freight shipping improves.
As for Viticulture World itself, it sprung from a few different sources. All around the same time, our friends at Matagot mentioned an idea for a version of Viticulture that ventured into France, and several designers shared with me modules that they had created. I saw it as an exciting opportunity to create an cooperative expansion in the vein of Spirit Island or Orleans: Invasion, with some sort of asymmetry involving various winemaking regions of the world.
I reached out to Mihir and Francesco, two of the designers who had designed fan modules, and asked if they might be interested in working together to design the expansion, with me serving as the developer. Here’s what Mihir recalls about that email and about working with Francesco:
“I was shocked and thrilled at the opportunity. I gladly accepted the gig. Honestly, till date, whenever I think about it, I am still shocked that Jamey decided to trust a random guy with designing the expansion for Viticulture which in all rights is his baby, since that was his first design ever. Respect him for that very much.”
“It was super great teaming up with Francesco, right from the start he made me at ease by his friendly and approachable nature. He was quick to make the first draft of the co-op expansion, which we worked on for a month and fine tuned it before presenting it to Jamey. Being the new guy in the design process, all I had to do was tag along and provide strategic suggestions and fine tuning where necessary. Jamey ended up liking it and soon it went for the first wave of blind playtests.”
Mihir and Francesco presented me with an early concept involving a dice market puzzle with a struggle against the AI in classic cooperative style; there are other details about it that elude me now. I had fun with it, but it was only after a wave of low blind playtester ratings that we realized the expansion was missing two key elements that makes Viticulture work: It wasn’t rewarding, and each player’s attention was more focused on the dice puzzle than the development of their vineyard.
I’m glad we realized this early in the design process. Mihir figured out a new framework that fully embraced both of those core elements of Viticulture, and he and Francesco ran with it from there. Part of the answer involved predicating a group victory on each player reaching 25 victory points. That really helps the game feel like Viticulture—you still have your own vineyard, workers, cards, and structures that you have full control over and a specific goal (25 VP) to achieve.
The lack of a “rewarding” feeling to the expansion was a bit more difficult, but I was really impressed by how Mihir and Francesco solved it. Instead of competing against an AI or struggling against an antagonistic force, we gave players a shared goal: Reach 10 influence by the end of the game. That may sound simple, but it’s quite a difficult goal, so every other aspect of the game was built around giving players different paths to more efficiently reach that goal (from the board to the various continent cards, both of which I’ll discuss tomorrow).
Please let me know if you have any questions about what we’ve revealed so far!
April 13: Facebook Live, the FAQ, and the Box
This first design diary post is more video than article, as I (Jamey) answer a number of questions about the expansion in today’s Facebook Live video (initiated by this special mid-month newsletter). I’ve added some questions/answers to the FAQ, and everything else is in this video:
221 Comments on “Viticulture World Cooperative Expansion”
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Hi. How about the cards that has written “opponents” ? How to treat them?
Here’s the second sentence on page 4: “During cooperative play, the word “opponent” on visitor or structure cards refers to your fellow players.”
Question concerning the bonus for “Action A”. When placing an oval innovation tile on the summer “draw” (action A), do all players gain a value 1 red and white grape on their pad or do they get the option to place a value 2 grape on either the red or white pad?
All players may place a 2-value (or 1-value) grape token (red or white) on their crushpad when you do that.
👍
I just received Viticulture World and I noticed that both the Mama and Papa cards have a red background. Those in Tuscany the Mama cards are red and the Papa cards are blue. Is this a printing error?
Good eye! That is a feature, not an error. You can see an explanation in the setup section of the Viticulture World rulebook.
Need a solution for the metal coins, perhaps similar to the metal coins box offered at meeple source for Scythe. Ideally a plastic box that will fit the space provided at the Wine Crate
There’s a slot for metal coins in the Wine Crate.
When the stack of innovation tiles are empty , that means no innovation tiles are added to the board? They are limited ? Thank you
Yes, they’re limited, but they shouldn’t run out, as there are only 4 available each year.
P.S. This was meant to be posted as a response in the message chain just below.
Hi
In the FAQ, it says that there are 16 South America cards. When I count the cards in my copy of Viticulture World, I have 17 (different) cards (1 continent introduction card, 1 setup & rules card, 8 event cards, and 7 character cards). This is after replacing the cards in the replacement pack (I’m sure that I did this successfully, and if I understand correctly, replacing these cards doesn’t change the total number of South America cards). Does this mean that there is a mistake in the FAQ? Our should I maybe remove one of these cards?
Thanks,
Mathijs
There’s an extra card in the replacement pack that explains the nature of the replacement pack.
I recounted, and 17 is the correct number. I’ll update the FAQ.
Thanks!
I’ve really enjoyed this game! To the point that I made an Android app to help plan moves out for the game (as well as the base game and Tuscany).
It’s free and doesn’t contain ads. I hope it helps other people enjoy this game even more! It’s called Planner for Viticulture and can be found here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twothree.plannerforviticulture
Thanks Ryan! I’ll share our third-party accessory agreement with you to review and sign.
Love the yellow and blue hats. In fact I love them so much I don’t want to remove them. Any chance you guys will release a green hat for trained workers. It may sound funny to ask but my friends and I agree it will add a special achievement feeling.
That’s a neat idea! We can only make things if we make a minimum of 1000 units, and this is the first request we’ve received for this, so it isn’t something we’ll make, but you’re welcome to try to make your own green hats for trained workers to see how it feels. :) Remember that the grande and the gray worker are both trained workers!
Question: Are the original two cards that were withdrawn due to the controversy still present in the retail boxes that soon will reach retailers around the World? The largest board game retailer in Sweden is to have the retail version in stock very soon, and for me it is essential that I get the original content – the two conquistadores, to be specific.
The retail release date is June 22, so hopefully that retailer will not violate that date. As noted in the design diary, all first-run copies of Viticulture World were printed earlier this year, so they absolutely all have those cards in the box. However, we supplied distributors and retailers around the world with the replacement cards, so they should come with any retail order. If a distributor or retailer messes up, we’ll have them on our webstore.
Thank you very much!
Question: Train a Worker (action L) – Page 7 on Cooperative expansion rulebook.
” Pay 4 Lira to remove a hat from one of your regular workers (even the worker that activates this action…” “This trained worker now also has the ability to gain the bonus of any oval tile it is placed on.”
If I choose to remove a hat from the worker that activated the action, does that mean all players can now gain the bonus from that space immediately? (Choose any one card) Otherwise, removed from other workers previously placed do not gain any bonus?
You can only gain a bonus when it’s your turn and for the worker you placed this turn.
Umm, to clarify my question, what I am trying to ask is: When I place a blue hat worker on Action L and pay 4 Lira to remove the hat, is that worker now able to receive the bonus immediately? Usually Bonus is the last steps, so I figure after removing the hat from a worker on Action L, gets the bonus on same turn?
In addition, logically after all four workers hat has been removed, then I cannot use Action L anymore. Right? Unless I waste 4 Lira just to get a bonus for everyone?
“When I place a blue hat worker on Action L and pay 4 Lira to remove the hat, is that worker now able to receive the bonus immediately? Usually Bonus is the last steps, so I figure after removing the hat from a worker on Action L, gets the bonus on same turn?”
Yes, you would gain the bonus immediately. In general, you can gain the bonus before or after taking an action.
“In addition, logically after all four workers hat has been removed, then I cannot use Action L anymore. Right?”
Yes, that’s correct.
“Unless I waste 4 Lira just to get a bonus for everyone”
Unless I’ve misinterpreted something, you don’t get a ‘recurring bonus for everyone’ when one player uses a space. The two options are:
1. If placing a trained worker on an oval innovation space, only the player placing the worker gets the bonus.
2. If placing an oval innovation tile on an action space with a bonus, you only get the bonus when placing the innovation tile. I.e. for the train a worker space, everyone gets 2 cards only when an oval innovation tile is placed at that location, not when a trained worker is placed at that location.
From your question I’m assuming you may be treating the +2 cards for everyone as a normal bonus when the location has no innovation tile (similar to bonus spaces in regular Viticulture).
Hopefully this is not confusing (and correct).
QUESTION: Mama Maeve card – is the cellar token a medium or a large? Hard to tell because there is no other pictures to compare like on the playing board. When it come to like this one, always take the smallest one? In case I assume the token would be a Medium Cellar?
Medium. You can’t have a large cellar if you don’t have a medium cellar.
Question about Tile-F.
If I pay 2 Liras and I already have a 4-value grape, a new token goes onto 3. Is that correct?
Yes, that’s correct.
Thank you, Jamey.
I just received my Wine Crate.
Is it normal that I got the “stand alone” first continent pack of cards but they are also part of the Viticulture World cards inside the tray (save event 7)?
Also: how am I supposed to mix in the new Mamas and Papas (Red and Blue) cards with the ones from Viticulture / Tuscany Essential Edition since the colours for the cards are switched? In my copy of Viticulture, Mamas are red and Papas are blue. In Viticulture World it’s the exact opposite 🤔
Uuuh! Wait a minute! I see what you did here! That’s quite clever actually. I think this is the first game I (in my collection, that is) doing something like this.
You totally caught me off-guard.
Well designed, indeed 👍
Thanks Marco! Did you find the answers to both questions on the page above, or do you still have any questions I can help with?
Actually I didn’t read the FAQ about the new red and blue cards, I just realised why the color were switched ^_^
I’m still clueless on the inclusion of both Greengully cards in the expansion and the First Continent pack in the Wine Crate.
Are the cards different apart from adding an optional seventh year in the First Continent pack?
There are some subtle differences that make the game easier when using the first game pack (a few of the actions don’t have costs).
Thank you Jamey.
I was wondering whether it was an errata. So basically those are two “tutorial” continents, the First Continent pack being an more player friendly tutorial ^_^
Exactly! They’re two separate continents, not an errata. :)
Hi Jamey,
Congratulations on the game, I can’t wait to play it. I’m just wondering about the black bordered replacement cards. If we don’t have the Moor and Rhine expansions yet, can we still include the black bordered cards from those sets into the main game (not world) to get a few bonus cards, or better to keep them aside until we get those expansions?
You can definitely include the Moor cards. Rhine Valley is a set of visitor cards that you use instead of the original visitors–the backs of those cards are different, so they can’t be shuffled in.
“So if you shuffle these new cards into the original Viticulture red and blue cards–they are fully compatible, and there are no mechanically redundant cards“
Im confused by this statement as some of the new red/blue cards are identical to existing mama/papa cards in their effects. Should I remove the existing card with the same effect or just put all new and old red/blue cards together?
Greg: I’m not aware of a mechanically identical pair of cards–can you name them specifically? Even if that is the case, the new red and blue cards are still designed to be shuffled in with the other red and blue cards–there’s no need to remove anything.
For the blue cards it looks like:
Steven=Paloma
Maeve=Joel
Jerry=Sheetal
Stephan=Huachong
Paul=Malia
Trevor=Valeria
Alan=Sylvie
Kozi=Shehnaz
All of the new red cards have a directly matching existing red card aside from the two workers in the “viticulture world only” box
You’re right! That’s my mistake. They’re still designed to be shuffled together.
Thanks for the replies! Lookin forward to the game and throwing my fresh new disc golf discs.
Hi Jamey, I just got my wine crate and it looks great. I noticed that the cards for Viticulture World are slightly bigger than the standard sizes (both the smaller and the regular sized cards). Would know what is the proper sleeve size for them?
The cards are 63x88mm (these sizes and card quantities are noted on the above page). They’re the same size as the Automa, field, and red/blue cards in the core game.
I noticed that when I place a copy of Viticulture World in my cart using the US/International store, the promo and replacement card packs are also placed in my cart; this doesn’t happen in the EU store, it’s just the expansion that pops up in the cart. Is this expected behaviour?
Rick: It works the same in each webstore (at least, that’s what’s happened over the last few days). Perhaps it adds the products at different times during the order process, but by the time you complete your order, the promo and replacement packs should automatically be there. If you complete an order on the Europe store and you confirmation doesn’t show those packs, just email your order number to joe@stonemaiergames.com so he can add them.
Been looking so forward to this expansion. I’m a care-bear gamer, so cooperative is great and until now, I’ve only played Viticulture on Steam. I just went through putting all Viticulture games and expansions and Wine Crate in my cart, but going into shipping, the International Store doesn’t service India. I’m surprised, so I just wanted to verify if that’s true. I guess as such a big country and with one of the designers of Viticulture World being Indian, I just assumed we can make purchases on Stonemaier. Let me know if I’m mistaken and/or any alternative options. Thanks!
I’m confused on the rule for Innovate (oval). It says “Any worker meeples already present on that action move onto the newly placed action. These workers don’t gain the bonus or take the action again.”. Immediately beneath that is a bullet poiny stating “If there is a bonus on the action space you cover, gain it.”
These statements seem to contradict each other. What am I missing?
Thanks!
And I think I figured it out. Benefit or cost on the tile, not the bonus from the space. Asked too soon. Very excited to get this to the table!
You got it right. Thanks Adam!
Any chance the components from Vit World could fit into the Slipcase box from the Tuscany Kickstarter?
I still have (and love) my slipcase, but no, Viticulture World’s board needed to be bigger, so neither it nor the insert fit. I would recommend that you keep Viticulture World on the shelf next to it instead–it doesn’t require much space.
Can you please include the dimensions of the box for Viticulture World? I only see the dimensions of the game board. Thanks!
Absolutely! I’ll add it now.
I cannot wait to play! Preordered the Wine Crate as a birthday gift to myself! This after I bought expansions and metal coins for my birthday a couple years ago. One of my favorite games!
A question for Jamey or his staff: can you tell me which shipping carrier service would be used for your ‘standard’ shipping option? If it helps, I’m located in northern New Jersey.
Standard is USPS, and you have the option of choosing FedEx instead.
Hey Jamey, just to be sure, there’s no way to order a Language edition (French) of the wine crate or viticulture world as a pre-order on your website right?
That’s correct–that’s Matagot’s realm. :)
What time in the UK will this be available please?
Any minute now!
Played Viticulture last night in our games group and realised how much I missed it.
Is it possible to use the wine label that we created?
Sure, you can save and print the image! :)
Hi! May be it’s been answered before, but I could not find it: why the change of artist from Beth Sobel to Andrew Bosley? I admire both their work and it’s fine either way of course, I was just curious.
We pick artists for different projects based on who is the right fit for each particular project based on various factors (including schedule–theirs and ours), and Andrew was our top pick for this project.
Thanks!
Hello. Any idea how much this will be in GBP for champions?
Including taxes, the Champion price during the preorder will be around 29 GBP.
What about the one with the crate?
The Wine Crate (which includes Viticulture World inside the box) will have a price during the preorder of around 45 GBP (the listed price in the UK includes tax).
Hi
I wonder how it works now with taxes for us in Eurooe now when we order from local store that is located in UK because UK is not in EU anymore.
https://stonemaiergames.com/shop/eu-brexit/
Ty
Hi.This game is not appearing on the stonemaier European store.Does that mean I will not be able to pre order?? I live in the UK and have lalso ooked at all the major online game stores
Thanks..
It won’t appear on our webstores until the preorder launches on June 1, after which we’ll start shipping it right away. You’ll see it then (around 10:00 am Central time). It won’t be available from retailers until late July.
Thanks Jamey.. I am new to viticulture but I’m anxious for more!..Also recently bought Scythe..Both great games!! Many thanks..
Very excited for this!
What are the chances of being able to pick up cardboard player boards for us OG Viticulture owners? 😬
The cardboard player boards…help me understand this request, Mark. :) The vineyard mats? They’ve always been cardboard. If you need replacement parts, here’s the form: https://stonemaiergames.com/about/replacement-parts/
Ah, sorry you are correct, I misremembered. What I was thinking of is that the player mats are about half the thickness of the add on boards for the orange building cards, aboricultire, etc.
I got to play this at Geekway to the West and it was awesome! Such a refreshing change to the game that does co-op worker placement the right way. I can’t wait for the pre-order so I can play this with my game group.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts after playing it at Geekway, Scott!
Is there a rule book downloadable?
Yes, there’s a link in the components list if you scroll up on this page. :)
Hi,
I am a little confused about how male-male, and female-female pairs to some people automatically mean same sex couples? There are countless examples where two men, or two women open a business together who are not romantically involved. To me they provide opportunities for diversity so if you want to imagine them as a same sex couple you can, and if you don’t they could be business partners, or siblings. (For example Ernest and Julio Gallo, or Robin and Andréa McBride, both pairs of siblings who own their own wine company).
Mark: I agree, there are many types of partnerships, and only some of them are romantic. I think that’s an excellent perspective.
Hi Jamey, congratulations on making the game more inclusive, though it seems it has really brought out the worst in some people! Oh well, baby steps…
Hi Jamey!
I was just curious as to the dimensions of the Viticulture World board?
Thanks!
It’s 480 x 560 mm.
As I said earlier, after my comment, “non-homophobic” Russians flooded in to explain to me that Russian laws forbid making blue moms and red dads 😂 What is the article in the Constitution? 🧐
And if my name triggers you… in the Russian passport I am — Эмилия (Emilia), did that calm you down?
I will not support such stupid changes, supposedly for the sake of laws, like color changes for sexist reasons 💋
‼️ UPD. As it turned out in the end, according to Jamey S., Lavka does not change the colors of the characters, for which I am grateful to them, and the rules apparently do not indicate the moment that same-sex couples can be created (that’s what they really could expect sanctions from the government), but I think people themselves will be able to guess before this and will be able to easily create same-sex couples.
Hi Emily,
this is Roman from Lavka Games.
I am glad that this question is settled and you can play the game in a way you want (the components are unchanged) and we can follow the local federal law (is it bad or good, it is doesn’t matter, the law is the law).
Max, board games take many months to produce. We started and completed production on the localized Viticulture Worlds before Russia attacked Ukraine–this is not a new development in the last 2 months.
Our words were not just words. We stopped creating new products with our two former partners in Russia when the war began.
Thanks for your question. We started and completed production on the localized Viticulture Worlds before Russia attacked Ukraine–this is not a new development in the last 2 months.
Got it! Thanks again for your position & support, it is highly appreciated!
Hi, Jamey!
I’m a big fan of Stonemaier Games! One of my best is Sythe(Коса in Ukrainian localization). I and all my boardgames friends here in Ukraine salute your support of Ukraine after the unprovoked invasion of russia to Ukraine and, via social media resources we have tried to set you as an example to other publishers. But… what I see now… Lavka Games(from russia) announced this new expansion.
Jamey, could you please explain?
“cut off all economic ties with our Russian localization partners”
(https://stonemaiergames.com/stonemaier-games-stands-with-ukraine/)
Thank you for your games and good with this one!
Board games take many months to produce. We started and completed production on the localized Viticulture Worlds before Russia attacked Ukraine–this is not a new development in the last 2 months.
Thanks for a prompt answer! Understood! Once again, Thank you for your games, and good luck with this one and with the other new projects!
Hi all, I am a big fan of Viticulture and as such very much looking forward to the expansion. However I would much prefer the box of the world expansion to have the same height as the Tuscany expansion and the basic game. Just for shelf convenience :-)
Christiane: I understand. While that would have been nice, we prioritized mechanisms over measurements, and the board needed extra height to fit all elements. Hence when the box is wider (though it’s actually not very thick, and it’s the same height as the original Viticulture box).
I wanted to follow up on this. As it turns out, Lavka did not actually change anything about the red and blue cards–specifically, red papas and blue mamas–in Viticulture World. We think they may have removed a single sentence from the rules, but it doesn’t change anything mechanically.
Shame on them!
Emily: I need to update my comment, because in translating the video, we learned that what you suggested above isn’t true. Lavka did not change the red papas or the blue mamas, nor is it Lavka in the video who makes the joke (it is the hosts who make some offensive comments, and the representative from Lavka disagrees).
I hope it is 100% obvious through what we did in Viticulture World that we are seeking to include more more people–we expected all of our publishing partners to print Viticulture World the same way we did and not make changes.
Yes, what Emily says is not true. The Lavka Games didn’t change anything about the red and blue cards. This is a great company that has earned tremendous trust in Russia and around the world from their partners.
There were no offensive comments from the hosts there. There only was a question on as how will Lavka make this go. The response was quite in the line “the game will be in accordance with legislation”. There was no more intent even to discuss the changes.
Please do not invent unnecessary issues.
Congratulations Jamey for the base game (our family loves it) and this expansion, seems amazing!
We respect all the statements below and we chosse to not play with mama-mama or papa-papa. So if we play only blue papa-/red mama or red papa/blue mama, is there any prejudice for the gameplay? Thanks!
As noted in the FAQ, “The expansion functions just fine by using the original red mamas and blue papas by themselves; as noted in the Viticulture World rulebook, it also functions just fine by using the new red papas and blue mamas by themselves.”
Thank you so much for the inclusion of red Papas and blue Mamas so the game can be more inclusive. It’s a small change (that some otherwise thick skinned people draw the line at) but it honestly means so much to me. Sadly I don’t think I can buy and enjoy the game until the more problematic elements are exposed and expunged, like Brian’s comment below points out, hopefully by the time a second printing is made these issues will be addressed? It does seem like another pass is warranted.
Dilarus: Thanks for your note. I think Brian’s point isn’t that we should continue to remove elements from Viticulture World; rather, it’s that every person in history is problematic in some way, and we can’t remove everyone. We have, however, removed the conquistadors, and we have no plans for a second printing (nor will we make any games featuring real people from history).
Wait to clarify this experience has turned you off from making any games in the future with real people in history? :(
I also mentioned that in the source article, Ben: https://stonemaiergames.com/south-america-cultural-consulting-and-fixing-a-big-mistake/
I apologize I missed that on my first read through. I respect your decision, but I’m sad this excludes possibilities for more educational games and fun facts and themes. I love games like parks and wingspan that have fun facts, and is part of the reason I’m looking forward to this game. I could envision a game about different real world conservation heroes as something that could be positive for example.
I’m perplexed by your hesitance on a second printing. My understanding was stonemaier’s policy was to try to keep all their games in print unless for some reason there was no demand for them. It’s one of the reasons I support you and it differentiates you as a publisher in this industry that you don’t prey on fear of missing out. Is this purely because of the controversy created by using history in the game?
It doesn’t terribly effect me. I plan on ordering this right away. Although torn on whether I should get the big box since I already invested in an insert. One of the good things about you not doing Kickstarter or generally letting games go out of print is this makes it so it’s easy for me to wait and let my family and friends gift your games to me (they complain I buy all the games I want myself).
I understand this is a big issue you’re dealing with. Thank you for your replies. I appreciate you and your work.
Ben: As for future printings, our policy remains the same: If we sell through the first print run and there’s significant demand for another, we’ll make it. But we made a large first print run–it will last us a long time.
Is there a link in here to look at Mihir Shah’s tested variant on how to use the seasonal workers in a competitive game? I assume it would be the same place where other fan variants might show up?
Yes, it’s in the FAQ on this page. :)
Thank you for all of the previews. I am very excited to get this to the table. I love Viticulture, but my wife is not as high on it. I believe this version will enhance her enjoyment of the game.
While I salute you for providing the replacement cards for the conquistadors, this isn’t the only problem with the game that needs addressing. You have a card in the game titled “The Pioneers” which is a loaded colonialist term implying the North American land was unsettled when in fact it was held by Native Americans who were displaced. Additionally, Major John Adlum was a slaveowner who left 8 slaves at the time of his death. His vineyards required a great deal of labor and most of it was supplied by enslaved people at that time. As a historian, I respect you wish to utilize this time period to make a creative and entertaining board gaming but it’s all but impossible to make an ahistorical or sanitized version of these events as wine-making was intricately involved in the Atlantic slave trade and Native American removal/genocide.
For context, the Pioneers card in the North America pack reads, “John Adlum begins growing the Catawba grape on his farm, and in 1822 he owns 10 acres (40,000 m^2) of land that are under grape cultivation.”
Respectfully, I’m not sure how that provides clarification. His land was under cultivation with the labor of enslaved people. I realize this game is supposed to be a light romp like the base game, but this time period is highly problematic and forces the horrors of the trade to be elided to fit the lighthearted execution.
I’ve seen a couple comments show up in my inbox with complaints about the Greengully deck’s inclusion, and how it’s unrealistic. I personally find these complaints to be a bit ridiculous, as the deck in question is the introductory deck and is only intended for learning the expansion. Sure, there are seven decks and seven continents in the real world, but Antarctica isn’t exactly known for its winemaking. Putting in a fantasy setting, particularly a crossover with another Stonemaier game, really shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. I’m surprised how bent out of shape these people have gotten. If you don’t like the deck, don’t use it!
It is nice to see the honesty to admit and correct a mistake and make every effort to put forth the best product. Kudos to Maggie and Amy for their difficult but heartfelt commentary. Perhaps folks can have a moment of pleasure tearing up the old cards and replacing them with what seems like worthy choices.
Wow, good move Jamey. All this prompted me to look into the historical events surrounding these two guys and wow, they were some bad dudes. Then again, 16th century Spain was full of bad dudes.
Jamey, I want to applaud your swift and decisive action in response to the issue with the South American cards and content. It was obviously not included with any malicious intent and I will be happy to replace those cards when my copy arrives.
So I understand that you have cards with Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro in this expansion. Why would you even consider putting people who have absolutely nothing to do with winemaking, and who wiped out entire civilizations, in a winemaking game?
If you so much wanted to put historical figures, why not do a little research (or ask someone from the region) and include actual winemakers, people who dedicated their lives to making wine?
I assume this is out of ignorance, but I keep getting baffled how ignorant people in the United States are about world history …
I think the premise of your question is correct: These terrible people don’t belong in any game, and we should have realized that, not just put a disclaimer.
This isn’t a justification or excuse, but just a correction to your comment: Cortes and Pizarro DID have a large impact on winemaking in South America. Cortes brought Vitis vinifera from Spain to South America, and Pizarro organized the initial viticulture movement in Peru.
Again, though, despite these contributions, these terrible bullies of history do not belong in Viticulture World. We realized this almost too late, but now every copy of Viticulture World will include replacement cards.
As for “how ignorant people in the United States are about world history,” that’s an incredibly broad stereotype. I highly discourage the practice of stereotyping in any form.
I know that Cortes didn’t go south of Honduras, why is he on the south american continent shouldn’t he be on the north american?
The history depicted in the continent of South America in Viticulture World starts roughly around the 1500’s, at that period the designers’ research showed that Honduras and many other countries now known as part of North America were still considered to be part of South America.
We don’t want male+male or female+female pairings, but this won’t happen if we only use the mama+papa cards from Viticulture World, right? We really want the increased enthic diversity and new starting bonuses Viticulture World has to offer. 😊
There are only red papas and only blue mamas in Viticulture World, and you can use only those cards for starting resources until you’re ready for the expanded inclusivity offered by shuffling together all red cards and all blue cards from both Viticulture and Viticulture World.
Just a quick one regarding the page, I think the preview video is from The Mill instead of Watched It Played, this page seems to show the preview video is made by Watched It Played?
You’re right, I’ll fix it! Thanks!
Anyway to implement rules for 2v2 or 3v3 games?
Viticulture World is a cooperative game, not a team game, but you’re welcome to explore any variants you’d like to test and share in the Viticulture Facebook group. :)
I would love to order the new Wine Crate with the World expansion but in French. Will I have to wait for it to hit retail?
I’m not sure what Matagot’s release plan is for it, but feel free to ask them about it!
Is the new expansion an all-together coop game or is it coop as in 2v2, 3v3?
It’s a cooperative game (each player operating on their own to achieve a shared victory), not a team game.
Is the box for the expansion – not the Wine Crate- the same size and the Viticulture and Tuscany Essential Edition boxes?
No, it’s a different size. Same height, but longer. There’s a photo comparison on the Wine Crate page.
Apologies if I’m being dim here. I have the 2014 Complete Collectors Edition. If I just buy the expansion will the contents fit into the collectors box ? Or do I have to buy the new Wine Crate to fit everything into one box ? Thank you and very much looking forward to it whatever option I have to go for.
John: If you have the 2014 Collector’s Edition, everything except Viticulture World will fit into the boxes you already have, so you would only need to buy Viticulture World by itself.
Thank you Jamey. Just to be sure I fully understand. The contents of Viticulture World will fit into my Collectors Box, I’ll just need to ditch the Viticulture World box ?
Viticulture World will NOT fit into the 2014 Collector’s Edition box. The board and the insert are too big.
Sorry Jamey but I’m more confused now. Earlier you said I’d only need to buy Viticulture World by itself. But as the board and insert don’t fit into the Collectors Box I’d need to keep it separate. Does all the contents of the Collectors Box (Viticulture and Tuscany) plus the Viticulture World contents all fit into the new Wine Crate ? Sorry to be a pain but I just want to be sure that I buy the right option.
I think I’m equally confused about why you’re confused, but I’m happy to help. :) All of the things you said are true: You only need to buy Viticulture World by itself (and keep it separate) because it does not fit into the 2014 Collector’s Edition box.
Alternatively, if you want the Wine Crate, you can buy it. All Viticulture components (Viticulture, Tuscany, metal coins, Moor Visitors, Visit from the Rhine Valley, and Viticulture World) fit inside the Wine Crate–that’s the entire point of the Wine Crate. :)
Please note that you’re commenting on the Viticulture World page. It may simply things if you just head over to the Wine Crate page and see/read about it there. https://stonemaiergames.com/games/viticulture/wine-crate/
Thank you Jamey. I want everything to be kept in one box so the Wine Crate it is for me. Thank you for your patience.
I was only mildly interested in the expansion since I haven’t played Tuscany and regular Viticulture is just OK. But the more I listened to your FB video, the more interested I became. So I would definitely get Viticulture World some day since Co-Op might make it more palatable for me and the idea of the “world” is interesting. Actually I was never really interested in Viticulture but I liked it in the pnp Rolling Realms. I might like RR Viticulture more though.
I appreciate the diversity, inclusion and that the big box comes with the expansion which helps minimizes shipping and pollution. Stonemaier Games does a great job of listening to people and doing something about it.
Three reasons a medium euro gamer like me who does not play co-op games should get this. 1. Viticulture is an excellent game and the chance to play it differently deserves a look. 2. Stonemaier games does things right. 3. Mihar is an excellent and smart gamer (code for he destroys me) so the chance to see his design is exciting.
Wow, can’t wait! Adding another aspect to the replay of this game. Thanks so much, I’ll drive out and pick mine up today! 😜
This is so incredibly exciting!
Being a massive fan of Viticulture, and an even bigger fan of cooperative games, this is simply the perfect combo.
I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy so I can make a video for it on our YouTube Channel.
If I don’t want male/male (or female/female) pairings on my Mamas and Papas cards, can I just stick with my current Mamas and Papas cards and not mix the new ones? Or, am I forced to use the new cards for gameplay reasons in the expansion?
We can’t force you to do anything, Jonathan.
With all due respect Jamey, you didn’t actually answer the question I asked, so let me ask it a different way; are the new Mamas and Papas cards tied in with the new expansion for gameplay reasons or would the expansion work just fine by using the original Mamas and Papas cards?
The expansion functions just fine by using the original red mamas and blue papas by themselves; as noted in the Viticulture World rulebook, it also functions just fine by using the new red papas and blue mamas by themselves.
Thank you Jamey. It sounds as if these cards are identical to the originals (although I’m assuming that there is no equivalent to Papa Rafael or Papa Gary included in the new deck).
They are not identical, though they follow the same rules and function. The new red and blue cards are new not just in the color switch but also in terms of the starting resources they provide. This is noted in the FAQ.
As a big fan of Stonemaier games, and especially Viticulture, I am really looking forward to this one and wish you success! But there is a glaring problem with the marketing for this expansion.
By heavily highlighting the “asymmetric” decks throughout the ad, and directly comparing the asymmetry to Spirit Island, I fear that you are building an expectation that every player will be given their own asymmetric starting deck of cards to focus their individual strategy, which is not the case.
The asymmetry in Spirit Island is in the player decks and spirit boards, which drives player agency, and gives each player a different strategy to work towards.
The event decks in this expansion are all different sure, because you only play with one at a time; there would be no point in including 7 event decks if they were all the same. However, there appears to be NO asymmetry between players added by this expansion. Every player will be dealing with the same event each round.
I fear that people are going to buy the game without reading the rules first and be hugely disappointed, because they were told they were getting “an asymmetric co-op game like Spirit Island”.
Food for thought.
Tom: Thanks for your thoughts, and we’re certainly not looking to mislead anyone into thinking that Viticulture World = Spirit Island. That said, there is plenty of asymmetry between players in Viticulture, just as in any game of Viticulture (players have different starting resources and end up with completely different vineyards and visitor cards).
If you don’t want to mislead people into thinking that, then why make that exact comparison in the ad?
Here’s what I say, “The cooperation, objectives, and asymmetry in this expansion are similar to that of Spirit Island and Orleans: Invasion.”
I do not think that statement is inaccurate in any way, but I have revised it to “If you enjoy the style of cooperation and the scenario asymmetry in Spirit Island and Orleans: Invasion, we think you’ll enjoy Viticulture World.”
I’ve played Viticulture World several times now, and I have to agree with Tom’s statement. I chose to purchase the game in large part because I’m a big fan of Spirit Island.
I suppose I should have read the rules ahead of my decision, but the description focusing on asymmetry and connecting to Spirit Island gave me a very different impression of what the game would be compared to what it actually is. I’d describe it as being primarily the same as the base game, it’s just that everyone needs to meet the win conditions instead of the first person. Then the continent event decks add on one new element to the game. But based on the Spirit Island comparison, I would have expected each continent to be on the board at once and more drastically change the functionality.
It’s still a fine addition to our board game collection (although we have yet to win once despite only playing with Greengully and Asia – easy level is pretty hard!). But I do feel that the written description here is misleading.
Looking very forward to the expansion! Love the integration of cooperative gameplay into this fantastic Viticulture world. I just also want to add that I really appreciate Stonemaier’s dedication to diversity, inclusion, and representation, especially going forward. The World Cooperative box cover looks great, as do the extra mama and papa update. Hopefully you’re not getting too much “social justice warrior” malarky lol. Keep up the great work, cheers!
Thanks Drew!
I am unreasonably excited for this and for the wine crate. Is the crate going to be wooden or a fancier cardboard? Also will it hold the Arboriculture expansion within it?
It’s fancier cardboard. :) And yes, it’ll hold everything we’ve ever made for Viticulture. Full details coming tomorrow!
Will the crate box + expansion combo be available at retail or just from your web store? Also will the crates be numbered as well? Thanks!
We’ve created and priced the Wine Crate as a webstore product, but it’s possible that future print runs (without Viticulture World inside the Wine Crate) might be made available to retailers. And yes, the Wine Crate is individually numbered. :)
Will you be donating to charity for each notification signup?
We typically do that for new games, not expansions.
I have both the original Viticulture and Tuscany, see that this is compatible, but know that there are several significant changes in the essential editions. Was there an upgrade at some point that could convert editions? What’s the best way to get up to date?
Here’s a recap that should help to bring you up to date: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/viticulture/essential-edition/
If you have any questions, just ask in the comments of that page and I’ll answer (and update the page accordingly).
When can we preorder the Wine Crate organizer box ?
In early June, at the same time as Viticulture World.
It’s really cool you got Tim to do the photos, I assume after seeing his Libertalia Winds of Galecrest pictures?
We’ve commissioned Tim for nearly 10 different products at this point, starting well before Libertalia. We love his photography!
FYI, the ‘NOTIFY ME UPON LAUNCH’ button is not working correctly.
Can you let me know what you’re seeing? It seems to be working for me.
It’s back up and running now. It was broken eepurl link.
This is what I see
Visit Mailchimp »
EepURL
We created EepURL as a trackable shortening service for Mailchimp’s built-in Twitter integration. At the time, we opened it up to the public, because we felt there weren’t enough monkey-based URL shorteners out there.
This service is no longer available for public use. We made this change in order to protect the reputation of the domain and high deliverability rates for Mailchimp customers who use EepURLs in their campaigns.
Existing URLs are still being redirected, and EepURL still works in the app.
We’re trying to prevent the URL from getting blocklisted.
If you’re looking to build your own url shortener, take a moment to look at Shaun Inman’s Lessn. Building your own url shortener is a good way to avoid having your links connected to a denylisted domain name.
We used the URL provided by Mailchimp. I can change it to the destination URL to avoid any further issues.
No Spanish version of this expansion? Have relations between Stonemaier and Maldito Games broken apart? =(
We still have a great relationship with Maldito! But not every partner joins us for every product.
Will you be selling an “all in” option with this expansion, the big box, and original game?
All Viticulture products are available on our webstore (and will soon be joined by Viticulture World), so you can buy anything and everything you’re interested in. All Viticulture products will be on sale during the preorder period, and you’ll receive an additional 20% discount if you’re a Stonemaier Champion.
Regarding Tile F, can you spend 2 Lira for a grape of value 2 or 3? 3 Lira for a value under 7? This might be useful if you want to fill a wine order with 7/6 Red, and you already have a 7 Red.
Can you provide the text on that tile to help facilitate our answer? Thanks!
I was reading the rule book, page 7, but somehow I missed the paranthecized text, where it is perfectly clear. Sorry.
A French version is planned?
Yes. As we note on the above page: “It will be published in a number of languages from the following partners: Arclight (Japanese), Phalanx (Polish), Feuerland (German), Matagot (French), Ghenos (Italian), Korea Boardgames (Korean), and Deltavision (Hungarian).”
Rulebook already read! Now searching the “Buy now” button…
Joking, I know that I have to wait for early June.
Will all expansions including essential base fit in crate with new expansion? And is the “crate” a new larger box? Hopefully its not a sleeve
The Wine Crate is a new larger box. It’s designed to fit everything, including older Viticutlure products).
Is the Wine Crate larger that the crate from the Complete Collectors Edition?
It’s similar in size but not the exact same dimensions.
Will there be a All-in kind of bundle? I don’t have viticulture but would love to be able to purchase everything (expansions, coins, any thing related to the game haha) Will there be an option like that?
All Viticulture products are available on our webstore (and will soon be joined by Viticulture World), so you can buy anything and everything you’re interested in. All Viticulture products will be on sale during the preorder period, and you’ll receive an additional 20% discount if you’re a Stonemaier Champion.
Excellent/Not Excellent for my Wallet haha. Thanks Jamey!
Are there any pictures of the organizer box and it’s insert?
Jamey will talk more about the Wine Crate tomorrow. :)
It sounds silly to say you’re excited about reading about a box, but… I am!
Will the Wine Crate Organizer box have space for all the components from the original Viticulture and Tuscany (Kickstarter edition) or will it be more tailored to the Essential Editions of both?
Indeed! It’s designed to fit everything.
OMG the hats!
So looking forward to this.
Ya I can’t believe how excited I am about the hats. What a cool idea!
When it says “some copies are packaged inside the Wine Crate organizer box”, does that mean we will have a choice as to whether or not we want the crate upon worldwide release, or is the crate version only available to those who pre-order?
The Wine Crate will be available after the pre-order. The first print run of the Wine Crate includes Viticulture World inside the box.
Great News! Non vedo l’ora che arrivi spero localizzato in Italiano!
Will you be selling the box as a standalone item? I for one would like the box but I’m not sure if the localization partner for French with bring it to market. At least if you sell only the box I can buy my items in my preferred language and then you fill up the nice box!
Wow! Andrew Bosley is easily in my top 5 board game artists, super excited for this! Not to take away from the original Viticulture art as I love it too and I know it wouldn’t happen, but now I’d like to see the Viticulture base game in his art style. Can’t wait til this summer to try this out!
I purchased a copy of Viticulture along with the Tuscany Expansion during the Tuscany Kickstarter. It came with the “Wine crate” sleeve which held both the base game and the expansion. How will this new wire crate organizer and Viticulture World work with the edition I have? Am I going to just have to pitch the numbered sleeve which came with my kickstarter pledge?
Lonnie: I have that Collector’s Edition copy as well, and for the few people like you who have it, there’s no need to get the Wine Crate.
Will this be compatible with original Viticulture or just the essential edition?
Yes, it’s compatible. However, if you’re still playing with the original 2013 version, there are some highly recommended updates.
Jamey, can you elaborate or point me to some more information? What updates are recommended for someone who has only played the original Viticulture+Tuscany, not the Essential Editions?
With that combination, you essentially have what you need for the current version of Viticulture. See details here: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/viticulture/essential-edition/
Where can we get Wine Crate?