Bromsgrove Board Gamers continues to grow as we welcomed another new player, Chris Smith, who was among a group of 10 this week. Carry on at this rate and we may need to find a larger venue soon…anyway, that’s a concern for another day. Chris P, Aaron and Peter M set up Mage Knight on the pool table, Simon collared victims Emma and Sam for his traditional Power Grid smack-up while new boy Chris S answered my prayers by bringing along Viticulture, a worker placement game that I have wanted to play for a long time.
According to Board Game Geek, “the players find themselves in the roles of people in rustic, pre-modern Tuscany who have inherited meagre vineyards. They have a few plots of land, an old crushpad, a tiny cellar, and three workers. They each have a dream of being the first to call their winery a true success. The players are in the position of determining how they want to allocate their workers throughout the year. Every season is different on a vineyard, so the workers have different tasks they can take care of in the summer and winter. There's competition over those tasks, and often the first worker to get to the job has an advantage over subsequent workers. Fortunately for the players, people love to visit wineries, and it just so happens that many of those visitors are willing to help out around the vineyard when they visit as long as you assign a worker to take care of them. Their visits are brief but can be very helpful. Using those workers and visitors, players can expand their vineyards by building structures and planting vines and filling wine orders, players work towards the goal of running the most successful winery in Tuscany.”
Emma would tell you that I'm a terrible judge when it comes to picking out games I haven't played before to add to my collection but chalk this one up as a victory for me. Though I haven't managed to buy it yet (but not for lack of trying) I found this early on and have wanted to play it ever since...and it's great! Here's Rodney Smith from Watch it Played to talk you through how the game works.
According to Board Game Geek, “the players find themselves in the roles of people in rustic, pre-modern Tuscany who have inherited meagre vineyards. They have a few plots of land, an old crushpad, a tiny cellar, and three workers. They each have a dream of being the first to call their winery a true success. The players are in the position of determining how they want to allocate their workers throughout the year. Every season is different on a vineyard, so the workers have different tasks they can take care of in the summer and winter. There's competition over those tasks, and often the first worker to get to the job has an advantage over subsequent workers. Fortunately for the players, people love to visit wineries, and it just so happens that many of those visitors are willing to help out around the vineyard when they visit as long as you assign a worker to take care of them. Their visits are brief but can be very helpful. Using those workers and visitors, players can expand their vineyards by building structures and planting vines and filling wine orders, players work towards the goal of running the most successful winery in Tuscany.”
Emma would tell you that I'm a terrible judge when it comes to picking out games I haven't played before to add to my collection but chalk this one up as a victory for me. Though I haven't managed to buy it yet (but not for lack of trying) I found this early on and have wanted to play it ever since...and it's great! Here's Rodney Smith from Watch it Played to talk you through how the game works.
With Rodney sadly unavailable to teach us on Wednesday, Chris instead talked us through the basics of the game. With the basic rules, there are 2 seasons every year of the game: summer and winter. Each player starts off with an empty vineyard, a few labourers and a couple of coins to rub together. From this, we must plant vines, build trellises, conduct visitor tours and age our tasty wines in the cellars. Players must attempt to fulfill orders by growing grapes, crushing them and creating the wines needed to satisfy their customers. Completing orders earns victory points and the game ends when the first player gets to 20. I generally find that by the time I've got to the end of a first play through of a game, I'm starting to formulate a strategy for how I will win the game next time; with Viticulture, this will not be the case. I have no idea how to play this game successfully! But I tell you what, we had a lot of fun. Chris S was struck by the Bromsgrove Board Gamers' teacher's curse and somehow finished in last place with a meagre 10 points. I struggled to 13 while Jon, with 20, was just pipped to the post by Neil's 21 VPs.
Meanwhile, Simon had completed a very speedy victory on the British map of Power Grid allowing time for Emma to claim a 2-0-0 victory in Family Business. Chris P, Aaron and Peter M continued with their epic game of Mage Knight while the 7 of us played Say Anything.
For our second play of this game (the first being the session before Christmas), I invoked a new house rule forbidding the use of the word 'hoverboard' on pain of -5 points. It soon became clear that we would have to publish an updated banned list: from this play, the next word to be outlawed is 'llama'. You honestly would not believe the tasteless jokes that revolved around llama grooming and (for some reason) naked pictures of me. Suffice it to say that anyone with just a modicum of class should stay away from Bromsgrove Board Gamers. Improving on a slow start where, in response to the question 'What's a difficult thing to attempt in the dark?', Simon offered a rather bland answer of 'reading', our resident Power Grid fanatic found his feet offering the kind of truly depraved responses apparently necessary to compete in a game of Say Anything at BBG. You have been warned.
Game results
Mage Knight
Aaron 53
Peter M 42
Chris P 28
Viticulture
Neil 21
Jon 20
Peter H 13
Chris S 10
Power Grid
Simon 17
Sam 14
Emma 12
Family Business
Emma 2
Sam 0
Simon 0
Say Anything
Simon 14
Neil 10
Peter H 10
Jon 9
Sam 9
Emma 7
Chris S 2
My gamer of the week goes to Simon for victories in Power Grid and Say Anything.
Meanwhile, Simon had completed a very speedy victory on the British map of Power Grid allowing time for Emma to claim a 2-0-0 victory in Family Business. Chris P, Aaron and Peter M continued with their epic game of Mage Knight while the 7 of us played Say Anything.
For our second play of this game (the first being the session before Christmas), I invoked a new house rule forbidding the use of the word 'hoverboard' on pain of -5 points. It soon became clear that we would have to publish an updated banned list: from this play, the next word to be outlawed is 'llama'. You honestly would not believe the tasteless jokes that revolved around llama grooming and (for some reason) naked pictures of me. Suffice it to say that anyone with just a modicum of class should stay away from Bromsgrove Board Gamers. Improving on a slow start where, in response to the question 'What's a difficult thing to attempt in the dark?', Simon offered a rather bland answer of 'reading', our resident Power Grid fanatic found his feet offering the kind of truly depraved responses apparently necessary to compete in a game of Say Anything at BBG. You have been warned.
Game results
Mage Knight
Aaron 53
Peter M 42
Chris P 28
Viticulture
Neil 21
Jon 20
Peter H 13
Chris S 10
Power Grid
Simon 17
Sam 14
Emma 12
Family Business
Emma 2
Sam 0
Simon 0
Say Anything
Simon 14
Neil 10
Peter H 10
Jon 9
Sam 9
Emma 7
Chris S 2
My gamer of the week goes to Simon for victories in Power Grid and Say Anything.