Vinhos: or,...

...the only way I can enjoy wine. Now I haven't played Viticulture so that could change. I have played several games by myself and the wife and I just finished our second game, this is by far the most intricate game we have played to date.

The fact that you only have twelve actions and whatever else you can manage through bonuses and the like make for a fun(in our opinion at least) exercise of min/max value of each move. Money is tight in the game and we are definitely going to try several strategies. Things like being able to block out a player or make them take a loan out to do what they wanted but you also gain money from already having taken that action(any time a another player's pawn is on an action space they must be paid 1000 bagos, as well as 1000 bagos to the bank if the turn order marker is also on the space), this means you have to have a sense of timing for when to perform actions or you could get locked into passing.

The whole game revolves around making wine and using it to gain fame at the wine fairs(three fairs happen in the game). The weather at the start of the year will determine if the wine is a better or worse quality and you have several ways to directly influence the quality. The other actions range from hiring experts for certain aspects of the wine to help during the regular phases or you can use them for one time boosts at the fair, selling the wine for money or victory points and doing a little banking.

This is a game I want to play several more times quickly so things can lock themselves into my brain but the game is fun, dense and tense so I am all for it.

Later days.