(music) In this video we're going to learn the 2-6
player game, Viticulture, by Stonemaier Games. Now sure people enjoy wine, but they
should be enjoying wine from your cellars but you're going to need to carefully
crush and properly harvest the grapes from the rich vines of your many fields and assign your workers to the right task
and invest your earnings wisely if you wish to serve the finest wines in Old World Tuscany. So join me at the table and let's learn how to play. First you lay out the game board.
Now this game board actually has two sides. This side has several visual aides
to guide you during the gameplay but for more experienced players
you may choose to play on this side as there's less text to obscure the artwork. For gameplay purposes they're both identical,
so choose whichever side you want but certainly when you're first learning the game
as we are, this side is more helpful. Players will now select the color and
collect the matching pieces and player board. Now like the gameboard this has sides with more or less text depending on your preference. At the start of the game you only
have access to your crush pads, small cellar, and three fields. The other pictured elements are only
available once you've purchased them, and we'll see how that works a little bit later. From the green vine deck you need to
find a Pinot vine card for each player. We're going to set up for a three player
game here, so I'll pull out three. Now shuffle separately the remaining vine,
summer visitor, wine order, and winter visitor decks. These have their own mathching
spaces that they're placed in as well as room on each side for a discard pile. Nearby put the lira and glass tokens.
You'll notice I have these in glass jars, they're not supplied with the game,
I'm just using them to help keep things tidy. The lira comes in denominations of one, two, and five. We'll assign the starting player marker in a moment, and here you place the gray temporary worker. Each player is then dealt a summer visitor card and collects three lira. These are your workers; you'll start with two
of them, along with your larger grande worker. Players now put their corks on the
start space of the victory point tracker and then their wine bottles go on the
central space of the residual payment tracker. Then you take the rooster from each of the players and then shake them up in hand, letting one come out randomly, and that player is the starting player. All of the roosters are then placed
here at the top of the wake up chart. And that's the set-up. Viticulture is played over a series of rounds that represent years, which are broken into seasons and during those seasons you'll be assigning your workers to accomplish a variety of tasks like growing grapes, harvesting them,
crushing them, turning them into wine, and then selling them for the
victory points that you need to win. So let's begin by looking at what
happens in the first season, spring. Starting with the player holding the first player token, which happens to be blue in this case and then going clockwise around the table players take turns assiging their
rooster to an empty wake up level. The lower the number, the sooner your workers get to their jobs allowing you the earliest choices of the available actions. That said, the later positions
provide you with instant benefits. For example, placing in the 2 slot
allows you to draw a vine card. Slot 3 provides a wine order card. Going here allows you to collect a lira instead whereas slot 5 lets you draw either
a summer or winter visitor card. Slot 6 gives you a victory point or if you go to position 7, you then get to collect the temporary gray worker to use during that year. In this case, let's say the
blue player decided to go here and collect the bonus lira. The orange player decided to take
slot 2 and collect a vine card and the white player was feeling
a little tired and slept in and gained a victory point.
Hey well rested workers are happier. This chart now establishes the
turn order for the rest of the year So in each of the seasons
the orange player will be going first, then the blue player,
and finally the white player. It no longer matters who
has the start player token that simply determined who got to place their roosters first. Now it's time for summer. Again in turn order, which starts with
the lowest numbered player on the wake up chart players will take turns putting one of
their workers on a yellow action space. You then resolve the associated effect. These yellow actions you'll find on this side of the board. Now you can also pass even if
you haven't used all your workers but once you pass you may not
play workers again until the winter. Now you may be wondering "Why would you
pass before using up all of your workers?" Well the reason is because once you place a worker you cannot use that worker again during this round.
and you may have noticed, looking at the board, the yellow summer spaces only take up half of the options. in the winter you'll have new blue actions to choose from. So if you placed all of your workers on the summer spaces, you won't have any left to place during the winter. Each action shows a number of spaces for individual workers. In a 2-player game you can only go
on the first lightly colored space. In a 3-4 player game you can also
place in the middle darker space and in a 5-6 player game you
have access to all the spaces. When you have the choice of more than one
space they can be claimed in any order. You'll notice that the middle space,
which is available in 3-6 games, has a bonus, so often players will pick those first. The bonus or action can be taken in any order, however, to claim the bonus, you must complete the action. Now while only one worker can be placed in a single space over the course of several turns the same player may claim multiple spaces within a given action. In a 3 player game like we've set up here, the ability to give a tour is
now blocked to other players unless they use their Grande Worker. This larger worker can be placed on empty spaces or used to take the action of a location that's already full. You just place it nearby however, when being used
this way at a full location it can never claim the bonus. Finally to place a worker, you must be
able to complete the associated action. For example these space allow us to sell 1 or more grape tokens If you have no grapes to sell then you can't take this action. So let's take a look at the various summer actions. Going here allows you to give a tour and then gain two lira. Going to the bonus space, which you should probably always do
if your able, will give you an additional lira. Placing a worker here lets you draw and add a vine card to your hand
and if you go on the bonus space you get a second one. Going here allows you to plant vines that you have in your hand.
Taking the bonus space allows you to plant a second vine. Some will additionally require you to have certain building in play. At the beginning of the game none of the players have any buildings so you would not be able to plant this pinot. However, the Malvasia has no requirements so we could plant this one And because the bonus is always optional we would still
be able to take this action because we have at least one vine that we can plant.
Going here allows you to play a second summer visitor. To plant, you place a vine in one of your empty fields Or let's say later we had built the trellis and we're able to plant our pinot we can put it in an empty field or with other grapes in a field we have already started the only condition is that the total value of all the circled numbers
shown here can never be more than six. Although you are generally you are trying to make wine with your grapes you may need some quick cash and going here will
let you sell one or more of your grape tokens. Going to the bonus space will also give you an additional victory point. We'll learn more about how you gain grape tokens, but you'll find them on your crush pad. And so when you're selling them, you can sell any number and you gain the value that's listed based on the values of your grapes. So, for example this value two red grape, and this value three white grape could both be sold for one lira each. Whereas this value five white grape could be sold for two lira. Sold grapes are discarded and then you collect the appropriate money. On these spaces you must play one of your summer visitor cards
resolving its effect and then placing it in the discard pile. Now these effects never require you to play an additional worker, but, if you cannot fully resolve the effect of a card, for example this one says to plant up to two vines. Well if I don't have at least one vine to plant I can't play this card. As an aside, if at any time you run out of cards in a deck, shuffle it's discard pile to form a new draw pile. But if there is no discard pile then that deck will remain
unavailable until there are some. This is the cart space and it's not colored in as yellow or blue and that's because players can go here both in the summer and the winter. And any number of players can go in this space
and each time they do they collect one lira. Finally, placing a worker here lets you pay the
cost to construct a building. Going in the bonus space will discount that cost by one lira. So, let's take a moment and learn about the various
structures that you can build. Spread across your estate on the player board you will find buildings
that are illustrated along with their cost and matching symbol for their token For example, I can build the trellis by spending two lira. Now each structure can only be built once. So, you place the matching piece there, to show that it's been constructed. As we saw earlier, the trellis will allow you to plant certain kinds of vines. Likewise, if I wanted to plant this Merlot then I'm going to need some
irrigation which costs three. If you have the windmill, then you can gain
one victory point after planting a vine. Now the important thing is you only get this benefit once per year So even if I planted three vines during a single year I would still only collect, at most, one victory point. To help me remember that I've resolved my windmill effect After using it I'll often tip it over, and then at the start
of a new year I'll stand it back up again. If you've built the cottage, then in the fall you'll be able to
draw either an additional summer or winter visitor card. The yoke provides you with a new space to place a single worker And you can do this either in the spring or the winter. And then you have the option of either uprooting a vine from your field Returning it to your hand or you may choose to harvest one of your fields. We'll discuss harvesting a little bit later. The tasting room gives you a single victory point, per year, if you
use the action to give a tour. So like the windmill, even if you give multiple tours during a single year,
at most you only can collect one victory point. Finally, each player starts with a small cellar But to store the higher valued wines, like blushes and sparkling wines
you're going to need a medium or larger cellar. Now you must already have the medium cellar before you can build the large one. And that's all the structures. Now, once all the players have either passed or run out of workers to place
it's time for fall. In fall, again, in wake-up order, players will choose to take either one of the
summer or winter visitor cards. And remember if you built the cottage, you get to draw an addition
winter or summer card. So you can do this in any combination. You can take two summer,
two winter, or one of each. The winter step is played just like the summer one again, following the wake-up turn order. Players will take turns placing a single worker from those they
didn't use in the summer phase. The cart here which provides one lira may also be used during the winter but otherwise only the blue spaces on the winter side of the board
may be used But don't forget, if you built the yoke and you haven't used the space yet you can also go here during the winter as well. Going here allows you to play a winter visitor
and going here allows you to play a second one. This space allows you to draw a wine order
or you can go here and gain two. Going here and paying four lira lets you train a new worker If you go to the bonus space it discounts that cost by one. You won't be able to use new workers until the new year. So, for now take one of the workers in your supply
and place it next to the worker who did the training. At the end of the year you'll be able to collect both of them and put them in your available worker space for use during the next year. Going here lets you harvest one of your fields
or up to two of them if you take the bonus space. To harvest a field first you need to pick one So, let's say we want to harvest this field I then total the value of all my red grapes Those are the red circled numbers in this case just one. And I'll place a grape token on that matching red value in my crush pad. I then total up the value of all my white grapes. which are the other colored circles in this case two plus one equals three and I place this on the three value of the white crush pad. Now you don't remove any vines in your field
but you may only harvest each field once per year, and the crush pad can only hold one token per space. So, let's say we'd taken the bonus harvest action
and now wanted to harvest this field as well. We have a total value of three for red
so, I'd place another grape token here. But then I have a total of three white grapes
and I can't put a token on the three white space So instead I have to go to the next lowest value.
If you would need to place a token on a space that's full and all of the lesser valued spaces are full as well
then you would lose that grape token. This action allows you to convert grape tokens in your crush pad
into one or two wine tokens or a total of three tokens if you go on the bonus space. There are four types of wine that you can make and you can make any combination of types during an action assuming you have the appropriate grapes. You can make a red wine by moving one red grape token to the
matching valued space in your cellar. White wine is made the same way moving a white grape token to a white wine space. Now you'll notice if you only have the small cellar then at most you can create a three value wine of either type. So, let's say on a future turn I wanted to convert
this value four grape into wine well, I would have to move it to the three space but again, if the space is full then you go down to the next available space. And if all of the red wine spaces had been full in my
cellar then you would lose the token. So, there'd be no real reason to convert a wine token that's in your crush pad if there not a space to put it in your cellar. Blush wines can be stored in either your medium or large cellar
on this third row. So, let's assume we had built a medium cellar. Now you can combine any red and white grape token value. Let's say this five and this one. You now move one of those tokens to that combined value in the blush row and remove the other one back to the supply. Sparkling wines are stored on this final row and as you can see these can only go in a large cellar. Now you combine any two red tokens and one white grape token. So, we could combine this seven, this six, and this five which would make for an eighteen valued sparkling wine. Now there's not an eighteen space so we'll move it
to the highest one which is nine, and then remove the two extra tokens that were used. It's also important to note that once in the cellar wine tokens cannot be combined further. Here's the last available action. Going here allows us to fill one wine order and if we go to the bonus space we also collect one victory point. To fill a wine order, you pick one from your hand and then remove wine tokens of a value at least equal to what's show in this top left-hand corner. So, in this case we'd need one four valued red wine
and a value four blush. So, removing a token from here and here
would allow me to fill this order. Now if you use a wine token greater than what is needed you effectively lose any extra value in that token. After filling an order, you gain the number of victory points shown here. So white would move up one, two, three, four spaces. You then move your wine bottle marker up on the residual payments track as many times as is shown here. You start in the center so the first time you move you go to the ones space. The highest you can ever go is to the five. Completed wine orders are then discarded. As with summer, winter ends once all of the players have placed
all their workers or passed. And then it's time for year end. First, all the players age all of their grape and wine tokens by one. Now, it's possible you may not be able to age one of your tokens. For example, in order to increase the value of this wine token from a six to a seven I need to have a large cellar, and I haven't built that yet so, the wine will stay there on the value six space. Players now take back all of their workers putting them in their available worker spaces and if anyone had collected the gray temporary worker by going in the seven position of the wake-up track
that is now returned. Now, players with wine bottles on the outside of the residual payments track will collect lira equal to the value of their position. So, the white player would receive one, and the blue and orange player would receive two lira each. All players must also discard down to seven cards in hand and they can remove any ones they want to reach the required amount. Then the first player token is passed counter-clockwise. And then, if any of the players have twenty or more victory points
the game ends and the player with the most points is the winner. It is possible, as you can see, to have more than twenty points but never higher than twenty-five. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most lira wins. If there is still a tie, then compare the total value of wine
in the tied players cellars. And if there's still a tie, compare the value of grapes in the
crush pad of the tied players. Of course, if nobody has twenty or more points then a new round starting with spring is played. And that's how you play the game. Now there are a couple
of little rules and tips to go over. Let's take a look at those now for example in the summer it's a good habit that, when you pass
you move your rooster to the right side of the wake up chart. This way, at a glance everyone can see who's still playing and likewise, when you pass in the winter
just slide your rooster back over. You may have noticed it's also possible to get negative victory points and this is the result of certain card effects that either require
you to lose victory points or give you the option to. For example this symbol here means that you can spend victory points
and for each one you spend gain three lira up to a maximum of nine lira. Now you can never have less than negative five victory points.
So if I was already here Then I could only use this card's effect one time to gain three lira and if I had started on the minus five position I would not be able to play this card at all. Aside from the information the cards in your hand, and of course the face down cards in the
deck, everything else is public information for all the players. You can't hide the values of your grapes,
what vines you've planted in your fields and so on. There's also a friendly variant, and this makes the usually optional bonus actions
mostly manditory. Let's go to the table and I'll show you what I mean Let's say for a moment it's a three player game again and these three spaces
are the only ones we can use. Normally, when placing a worker you can go here or here. However in the firendly variant your only allowed to go to the space with the
bonus, if your also going to fulfill the bonus. Normally, remember, completing the bonus is optional, you only have to
complete the action. Maybe I only hav one vine to plant, but I see you have two, I would go here
to potentially block you from being able to plant both of your vines on your turn even though I have no ability to plant two myself. In the friendly variant I would not be able to do this. I would have to go
to this space unless this space is the only one avalaible to me. So if another player had gone here, and I wanted to plant one of my vines
I could go here now even though I can't plant a second one because that's the only space that was avalaible for me. The friendly variant then, is intended so that winemaking in old world Tuscany
is just a little less cut throat. And that's everything you need ot know to play Viticulture. Of couse if you have any questions at all don't hesitate to put them in the
comments below, and I'll gladly answer them as soon as I get a chance And although we won't be doing a full play through of the game
at the time of this recording there will be an expansion releaseing soon And we're going to teach you how to play that as well
So consider subscribing to the channel and comming back to check that out. but until the next episode, thanks for watching!
