this is wild, the dude belongs in a guy ritchie film but nerds out hard on boardgames and makes excellent videos, what a legend. SUBBED

A timely review as I just purchased Viticulture Essentials yesterday, along with some wine bottle upgrades for the bling factor. It's not a perfect game, but it is still one of the greats when it comes to worker placement and deserves a place in anyone's collection, in my humble opinion.

Spot on. I love the game as a kind of relaxing zen sort of game but as a Euro it's very difficult to take seriously (a trait I find very common in Jamie Stegmeier games) due to the random and sometimes very powerful nature of the cards.

I love Viticulture... seems I need to get the Tuscany expansion. Great video as always.

We have only played a couple of games with the base to get a grasp of the game flow but I definitely want to mix in Tuscany and try that out

thanks for the review, looking to pick this up once the kids get a little older.

Excellent review as always. I love Viticulture despite of its shortcomings. But whenever I look for my wallet to buy it, I relaize that there is Agricola with similar theme, more clever mechanics and for about one forth of Viti EE+Tuscany price.

What do people think about the house rule of "any time you draw a card, draw +1 and then discard 1"? I usually hate house rules but I'm wondering if there's a drawback to it since it addresses the main complaint about it.

The random card draw IS terrible in this game, which is why I play with a house rule of having 3 vine, order and building cards visible for the players to choose from (or drawing from the top). This DRASTICALLY improves the game for me.

Another clear and honest take! I asked about a review on this a while ago, was curious on your view on this one as I've owned it for quite some time. Although I sold my set it is not out of hate for the game. It's more about your gaming group with this one I reckon. I think I'd rather play caledonia, caylus, troyes, Keyflower and the list goes on. But I get the vibe of this game. It's ZEN. It's the most relaxing and friendly WP. And pretty cute to boot. I just rather meditate for an afternoon so I can play Vinhos the next, which not cute but a hard mistress, unfortunately. :-(

This has been a standard for us over the past year and a bit, playing over Zoom with another couple with a physical copy on either side. (We actually did THREE couples with THREE copies, once.) The randomness, and feeling like you're stuck until next year... perhaps that's even more thematic. Running a business? Making things work? ARG! And for anyone wondering, it's really good without the expansion, but... now that we have Tuscany, we'll never play without it.

I have viticulture EE & tuscany expansion & agree that tuscany transforms it from a good game to a great game. They need to print a new version that has them combined - it's almost criminal to keep selling both separately.

Good list of Don't Likes and everything. For all the flaws (randomness, over-powered visitor cards, etc) we still really like the game -- BUT with a couple conditions. The newer board, the Tuscany board, is a must have, can not consider playing on the old/original board. And use some discretion and leave out all those expansion cards -- all those unnecessary visitor cards -- it just adds more randomness and encourages people to churn cards for the win instead of engaging the board.

Hilarious review. "Make wine, get drunk !", "5 victory points, Mental !!" "Two bob space you can go to if you are sad as fuck" "Get rid of any gimp in my cellar"

What term do you like for engine-building? It’s my favorite element of many games

You're totally right about being able to win without doing anything. The one time I played this I ran the worst winery ever and I still won in a game of 4 (or 5? can't remember). A bit weird lol

Curious hoe you would rank this alongside Obsession?

How would you compare this to Obsession BTW?

- it would be unkind to describe this as one for the onanists. Happy summer days with a bottle of Hirondelle...or Rougemont Castle...Ze French adore Le Piat D’or...burp.

Good video

Sold mine.

Only watched the pros and cons. It’s one of the first gorgeously produced games (was new at the time), so it gives a good impression to new players. That said, it’s effectively a random card game. And I wasn’t impressed with it. Still have it though.

I've still never had a chance to play this game with the expansion. Seems like a much more open game where the original is just a block-fest

Quite good game but not the best in my opinion. I don't really feel the urge to play it as often as my other games. I like that it's quite thematic for a euro game, but I don't like that the theme itself is quite boring. Though the overall design and production is excellent, it's very enjoyable to look it. Another good thing is that it's quite easy to explain. Out of eurogames I own I think it has the lightest rules.

I think games with as little interaction are a waste of time.

Most overrated game of all time in the hobby imo... Scythe and Gloomhaven being close second.