Viticulture: Tuscany Essential Edition
Viticulture: Tuscany Essential Edition Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Extended Board
You've grown your vineyard as much as possible. It's time to expand your operations to all four seasons and spread your influence over the land.
Components
1 game board (extended board) 36 influence tokens (in 6 player colors)
New concepts:
- Four full worker-placement seasons
- Adjusted and added bonuses on actions
- Extended wake-up chart
- Grey "any card" icon
- Influence map
- Trade action
- Sell wine action
- Extended victory point track
- End-of-year cleanup and wake-up selection
Introduction
Why would we make the board bigger? Well, it's not so much about size. It's that we wanted to enhance the flow of the game by adding spring and fall worker-placement seasons to the game.
Setup
Set the original board aside and replace it with the extended board. Make sure it's on side 1; side 2 has spaces for orange cards in the upper right—that's for the structure expansion. Each player begins the game with 6 influence tokens of their color among their pool of unbuilt structure tokens and untrained worker meeples.
Gameplay
While the core gameplay is the same on the extended board as it was on the original Viticulture board, there are some new actions and nuances to explain in depth.
Place the green grapes first-player token as shown on the lower right of the wake-up chart (instead of giving it to the first player).
Four Seasons
There are now four seasons for worker placement in Tuscany, each with four actions. All previous rules apply—you can only place each worker once per year, and the player who wakes up the earliest chooses his first worker placement each season before all other players. The only change is that you don't necessarily take a visitor card in the fall—that depends on your position on the wake-up chart (see below).
Action Spaces and Bonuses
Just like in regular Viticulture, the action spaces available depend on the number of players. The opacity of the action spaces has changed, but their order is still the same. The action spaces may be selected in any order if they're available.
Some bonuses have changed positions—they aren't necessarily on the middle action space. Some actions even have 2 different bonuses.
Wake-Up Chart
At the beginning of the game, randomly select one player's rooster token. That rooster's player is the first player to choose his/her wake-up time, and wake-up selection proceeds clockwise around the table. You may not choose to wake up 1st (the number 1 slot), and you do not gain any bonuses from the wake-up chart when you place your rooster.
For the rest of the game, choose your wake-up time for the following year when you pass out of the winter season. If you chose the 7th row of the wake-up chart the previous year, you must now wake up 1st—that is the only way to choose the first row of the wake-up chart.
When you place your rooster on the wake-up track in the spring, you don't get an immediate bonus. You're simply choosing your wake-up order for that year—your rooster will remain on that same row for the rest of the year, often gaining a bonus when you pass to the next season.
The wake-up chart has four columns (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) and seven rows. Its printed contents are:
| Row | Spring | Summer | Fall | Winter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Green grapes first-player token | — | — | — |
| 2 | — | 1 lira | — | — |
| 3 | — | Green vine card | Yellow summer visitor card | — |
| 4 | — | Purple wine order card | Yellow summer visitor card | — |
| 5 | — | Yellow summer visitor card OR blue winter visitor card (you choose) | Blue winter visitor card |
The chart icons were read from the printed chart; the card-colour meanings follow the colours used on the Essential Edition Reference (green = vine card, purple = wine order card, yellow = summer visitor card, blue = winter visitor card, grey = any card, orange = structure card).
Spring
In wake-up order, you may either (a) place 1 worker on a green action space on the game board or a private action space you control (e.g., Yoke) or (b) pass to the summer by sliding your rooster to the summer column of the wake-up chart (the row does not change, and you may only pass to the next season—you can't skip ahead to future seasons). Players may continue to take turns in this order for the spring until everyone has passed to the summer.
When you pass into the summer, take the bonus (if any) as indicated in the summer column on the wake-up track. For example, if your rooster token is on the 2nd row, when you pass to the summer, you gain 1 lira. Any workers you placed in the spring remain where they are—you only retrieve workers at the end of the year.
Summer
When all players have passed to the summer, players take turns in wake-up order (the player with the earliest wake-up time takes the first turn each season) using the yellow summer actions or, as in any season, private action spaces.
Fall
When you pass into the fall, take the bonus represented in the fall column (if any). Unlike Viticulture (in which all players would automatically draw a visitor card in the fall), you only draw a card if you are in rows 3–7 of the wake-up chart.
If you own a cottage, draw a visitor card of your choice when you pass into the fall in addition to any card you might draw from the wake-up chart (draw a card from the cottage even if your rooster is on rows 1 or 2 of the wake-up chart). The grey "any card" icon on the chart means "draw 1 of any card type."
Winter
When you pass into the winter, again, take the bonus (if any). The star means that you place or move 1 influence token on the map, as explained below. "Age grapes" means that you immediately age all grape tokens on your crush pad according to the usual aging rules (also age them at the end of the year).
End of Year Upkeep
When you use your turn to pass out of the winter (which you may do even if you have workers remaining), you immediately do the following in this order:
- Retrieve your workers (including the temporary worker if you controlled it this year). This could open up action spaces in the winter for players who have not yet passed.
- Age grapes and wine: Increase the value of all grape and wine tokens by 1. Wine tokens may not move into cellars you haven't built.
- Discard down to 7 cards in hand.
- Collect residual payments.
- Choose your wake-up position for the upcoming year. You no longer pass the first-player token for wake-up selection (the token no longer serves a purpose other than to remind the player who woke up 7th the previous year to now wake up 1st).
New Actions
Influence Action
You now have the ability to use workers to influence the various regions of Tuscany.
Thus if you place a worker on the "Place or Move influence token" action (or wherever you see an influence token on the board, like on the wake-up chart or the "Sell One Wine Token" action), place 1 of your 6 available influence tokens from your supply onto the map on the lower left of the board and immediately gain the benefit listed below the name of the region (e.g., place a star on Livorno to draw a summer visitor card). Once placed, you cannot return a star to your supply.
After all of your stars have already been placed, you may still use the influence action to move a star to any other region. You don't gain any immediate benefit from moving a star—you only get the benefit when you place a star. You may only place or move your stars, not other players' stars.
The bonus on the Place or Move influence token action is to place or move an extra influence token.
At the end of the game, the player with the most influence tokens in each region (compared to each other player with stars in that region) gains the victory points listed on that region. Thus, if Jamey has 2 influence tokens in Arezzo and Jennifer has 1 there, Jamey gets 2 VP at the end of the game. However, if Jamey and Jennifer each have 2 influence tokens there, neither of them get any points.
Variant: Before the game begins, players may decide to not score any points for stars at the end of the game (stars still give you cards/lira during the game). The publisher recommends using this variant for 2-player games.
Trade Action
The "Trade" action has replaced the "Sell Grapes" action. When you place a worker on the trade action, exchange one of the options represented on that action (3 lira, 1 VP, 2 cards, or a 1-value grape on your crush pad) for any option there. For example, pay 3 lira to gain 1 VP, discard any 2 cards and draw any 2 cards, or even discard a red grape token to gain a 1-value white grape token on your crush pad. You can trade away a grape of any value; however, if you choose to trade for a grape token, it must be a 1-value grape token. Also, the +1 bonus means that you may make an additional trade. Ignore the grape prices on your vineyard mat (unless you play a visitor card that says "sell grapes").
Sell One Wine Token Action
This is a new way to get victory points for wine. Discard a wine token from your cellar and gain the corresponding number of victory points. Only the type of wine matters, not the value. The bonus on this action lets you place or move an influence token (star).
End Game
The game is over at the end of a year in which a player has reached 25 or more victory points (not 20) by the end of winter. After all players pass at the end of that year's winter (each player must pass because other players may be holding out for the action spaces your workers are on), add in victory points from the influence map. The player with the most victory points is the winner. Lira is still the tiebreaker, and the VP track goes to 40 (there is no maximum point limit).
Special Workers
As your vineyard grows, you become more selective about the workers you hire. Some workers have unique skill sets they bring from their previous occupations that might have a positive impact on your vineyard.
Components
11 special worker cards 14 special worker meeples
Introduction
Employees aren't identical in real life, so why should workers in a board game do the exact same thing? These new workers not only add a spark of realism to Tuscany, but they also change the value of many action spaces in relation to other players to add more variability.
Setup
Before Mamas & Papas are selected (when using the Viticulture Essential Edition), randomly shuffle the 11 worker cards and place 2 on the table (in a 2-player game, if you draw the Innkeeper card, discard it and draw another). Set the rest aside—they will not be used this game. The 2 selected worker cards represent the only special workers available to be trained in the current game. Place 1 of the gray workers on each of the cards to show which meeple shape represents each special worker.
Gameplay
When training a worker, you now have the option to pay 1 additional lira to train one of the available special workers instead of a regular worker. No matter the cost or discount offered to you elsewhere to train a new worker (the cost and discount icons printed on the board and cards, etc.), you always have to add 1 extra lira to train a special worker instead of a regular worker. The special workers are available to all players throughout the game—the cards stay on the middle of the table. Each player may train no more than one of each type of special worker.
Each special worker has a unique, optional ability as described below and on the corresponding special worker reference card. If a worker's ability involves something that happens when you place the worker or when another worker is placed on the same action space, that ability triggers before anything else happens (unless a card says otherwise). Special workers act just like regular workers in all other regards.
You are not required to train special workers—if you prefer to train regular workers instead, that's fine. The maximum number of workers you may have is 6—when you have 6 workers, you may no longer train any new workers. Just like regular workers, unless a visitor card says otherwise, you cannot use a newly trained special worker until the year after it is trained.
Just like regular workers, you may place special workers on private action spaces (your vineyard mat, the construction mat extension, and structures you've built), but most special worker abilities trigger when they're placed on the board (this is noted on their cards). You may never place any of your workers on an opponent's private action spaces.
Pay 1 lira surcharge when training a special worker instead of a regular worker.
Designer Notes
When we created the grande worker for Arboriculture and later added it to the core rules of Viticulture, we knew we had stumbled into an interesting area of game design: Workers in a Euro game that have vastly different abilities, giving players not just the choice of where they place their workers, but also which worker to place.
As we started to develop the special workers, we thought that each player might have access to a different special worker. So one player might be the Chef, another the Politico, another the Farmer. But we quickly realized that some players might end up with an advantage over other players, and it would be hard to keep track of so many abilities.
So we decided to make two of the special workers available for each player to train. This creates a multitude of combinations of special workers for players to explore.
Special Worker Abilities
Farmer: When you place the Farmer on the board, you may gain a total of one bonus of your choice among all bonuses on that action even if the Farmer is not on a bonus action space. All bonuses on each action are available regardless of player count.
Mafioso: When you place the Mafioso on a non-bonus action space, after you take the action, you may take the action again. You may not break the rules of the game with the Mafioso—for example, you may not harvest the same field twice in one year.
Chef: You may place the Chef on an action space already occupied by an opponent's worker by "bumping" that worker back to the opponent's pool of available workers. Chefs can't bump Chefs.
Innkeeper: When you place the Innkeeper, you may pay 1 lira to an opponent who has a worker on the same action to take 1 visitor card at random from their hand (you may choose summer or winter visitor card type). Not available in a 2-player game.
Professore: When you place the Professore, you may retrieve 1 of your regular workers from an action space on the board in the current season. That worker is available to be placed again this year.
Soldato: If the Soldato is on an action space on the board, opponents must pay you 1 lira to place a worker on the same action. Opponents may place workers on the same action as your Soldato even if all action spaces are full.
Politico: When you place the Politico on a bonus action space on the board, after you take the action and gain the bonus, you may pay 1 lira to gain the bonus again.
Oracle: When you draw cards with the Oracle, draw 1 extra card of the same type and discard 1 of the cards you drew. You may not draw more than 1 extra card per turn with the Oracle.
Merchant: If you place the Merchant on the board after all opponents have passed to the next season, after you take the action, you may draw 1 of any card.
Traveler: You may place the Traveler on any open action space in a previous season of the current year, regardless of the action spaces available based on player count. Immediately take that action.
Messenger: You may place the Messenger on an action space in a future season. When you take your first turn that season, use the Messenger's action instead of placing a worker. If you are unable to take the action, you may not gain the bonus (if you're on a bonus action space), and your turn is over.
Structures
You've worked with the same structures for many years now, so when a local carpenter starts mentioning some new ideas, you're all ears. It's time to build a better vineyard.
Components
36 structure cards (orange) Extended game board (side 2) 6 construction mat extensions
Introduction
The structure expansion lets players make permanent additions to their vineyards through a variety of structure cards.
Setup
Place the construction mat extension to the left of your vineyard mat. Flip the game board over to side 2 (the side with spaces for orange cards in the upper right), shuffle the structure deck, and place it on the board.
Gameplay
Playing (Building) Structure Cards
To build a structure card from your hand, place a worker on a "Build One Structure" action space. Pay the cost on the upper left corner of the structure card and place it either (a) on an open space on your construction mat or (b) on an empty field you own ("empty" means there are no vines or structures on it). All structures give you 1 VP when built as indicated on the bottom of the card.
Destroying Structure Cards
If you build a structure card and later decide you don't want it, you may destroy that structure card (remove and discard) by placing a worker on the action space on your construction mat. You do not lose any victory points for destroying a structure.
Types of Structure Cards
Action Structures: These have a private action space on them for you to place one worker per year (any season). Most have a cost or an action to take (written below the action space), as well as a benefit (shown in the middle of the action space). You must pay the cost to gain the benefit. Grande workers cannot use their special ability to be placed on an occupied action structure.
Enhancement Structures: These give you an ongoing bonus.
Residual Structures: These give you a residual bonus at the end of each year (in addition to lira residuals or end-of-year actions like aging wine). They are similar to the existing residual bonuses gained by filling wine orders, except they give you other resources instead of money.
Examples (printed on the page): Action Structure (Cask), Enhancement Structure (Aqueduct), Residual Structure (Statue).
Note: The Statue gives you a victory point at the end of each year, not during the year. Thus that residual VP can't trigger the last year of the game by giving a player their 25th victory point.
Drawing Structure Cards
Structure cards are kept in hand just like any other card, and they count towards your hand limit. There are several ways to draw structure cards:
- 4th or 7th row of wake-up chart
- Lucca region of the influence map (this region is known for construction and stone quarries)
- Trade One for One action in summer
- Flip 1 Property bonus
- Sell One Wine Token bonus
- Gain 1 lira or Draw a structure card (formerly "Gain 1 lira")
If you're not playing with the extended board, you can draft structure cards at the beginning of the game. After selecting Mamas & Papas (when using the Viticulture Essential Edition), draw 4 structure cards, select 1, and pass the others to the player on your right. Proceed until each player has selected 4 cards. These cards count towards your hand size.
New Automa Rules
The following rules supplement those from the Automa rules in the Viticulture Essential rule book.
Setup
Place 1 Automa influence token on each of the influence map regions worth 1 VP and 2 Automa influence tokens on those worth 2 VP (you will need to use two colors to have enough).
Remove the following special workers from the game: Chef, Innkeeper, Merchant, and Soldato. If you have the Special Workers Promo Cards, then remove: Apprentice, Martyr, and Storyteller.
End of the Game
Both you and the Automa score victory points from the influence map following the normal rules.
Automa Cards and Worker Placement
The four colors on the Automa cards correspond to the four seasons on the extended board.
If the Automa only has one worker at the beginning of winter, place that worker on the topmost winter action space shown on the Automa card. If it has none left, it doesn't place any.
When placing a worker on an action with bonus actions you can as usual spend one bonus action token. This allows you to take one of those bonus actions, though if the worker was placed on one of them, you can't take that one again.
Aggressive Variant
You can use the aggressive variant, when playing with all three expansions included in this box. The Automa's victory point numbers are in the table below.
| Year | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | -1 | -1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 15 | 24 |
| Normal | -1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 28 |
| Hard | -1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 13 | 22 | 32 |
Essential Edition Reference
The publisher's one-page Tuscany Essential Edition Reference (summary v3), reproduced as a player aid. Icons are written out as words; "lira" is the currency and "VP" is victory points.
Extended Board Expansion
Setup: Use the extended board side 1 (side 2 if using Structures). Place the green grapes token in the "winter" space of the 7th row of the wake-up chart. Players take the 6 influence tokens in their color. Randomly select a first player. Proceeding clockwise, players place their rooster tokens in the spring column on the wake-up chart (except row 1) to determine turn order. This is the turn order for the first year.
Gameplay: The game is played with four seasons (described below). When you pass for the season, move your rooster to the next season in your row, immediately gaining any bonus listed. You may not take actions that would cause your VP to go below -5. There is no maximum VP.
Influence (influence token): When taking an "influence" action, you may place an influence token from your supply or (if none left) move one of yours from one space to another. If you place a token (not move it) onto the influence map, gain the shown bonus (card or lira) when you place it.
Spring Actions
| Space Actions | Bonus Space Actions |
|---|---|
| Draw (green card): Draw one vine card. | Draw (green card). |
| Give Tour to Gain 2 lira: Gain 2 lira. | Gain 1 lira. |
| Build One Structure: Build one structure by paying the amount listed. | Gain 1 lira. |
| Place or Move influence token: Place or move an influence token. | Place or move another influence token. |
Fall Actions
| Space Actions | Bonus Space Actions |
|---|---|
| Draw (purple card): Draw one wine order card. | Draw (purple card). |
| Harvest One Field: Place grape tokens on crush pad from a single field. Each field may be harvested only once per year. | Harvest a different field. Gain 1 lira. |
| Make Up to Two Wine Tokens: Convert grapes into up to two wine tokens. | Make an additional wine token. |
| Build One Structure or Give Tour to Gain 2 lira: Take a "build" or "give tour" action. | Gain 1 lira. |
Summer Actions
| Space Actions | Bonus Space Actions |
|---|---|
| Play (yellow card): Discard and take the action(s) on one summer visitor card in any order (only if able to complete requirements). | Gain 1 lira. Play an additional summer visitor card. |
| Plant (green card): Plant one vine card in any field. Do not exceed the field's max value. | Plant an additional vine card (may be in any field). |
| Trade One for One: Trade any one of the following for any one: any 2 cards, 3 lira, 1 VP, any white or red grape (value 1). | Take another trade action (may be the same or different). |
| Flip One Property: Flip face-down an empty property card and gain the lira listed, or pay the price listed to flip a face-down property back up into a field. | Gain 1 VP. Draw (orange structure card)*. |
Winter Actions
| Space Actions | Bonus Space Actions |
|---|---|
| Play (blue card): Discard and take the action(s) on one winter visitor card in any order (only if able to complete requirements). | Gain 1 lira. Play an additional winter visitor card. |
| Spend 4 to Train (worker): Pay 4 lira to add one worker from reserve pool to this space. | Gain 1 lira. |
| Sell One Wine Token: Discard a wine token to gain VP (based on the wine's type). | Draw (orange structure card)*. Place or move one influence token. |
| Fill (purple card): Fill one wine order. Gain the listed VP. Go up on Residual Payment Tracker by the lira listed (up to the max of 5 lira). | Gain 1 VP. |
Gain 1 lira (or structure card)*: Available all seasons. Place a worker to gain 1 lira (or a structure card)*. There is no limit to number of workers that may be placed there.
End of the Year: When you choose to pass in the winter, immediately perform the following in order:
- Retrieve Workers: Take back all your workers. Other players who have not passed may now use spaces you have vacated.
- Age Grape & Wine: Increase the value of all grapes and wines by moving the tokens up by 1 if able.
- Discard: Discard your hand down to a maximum of 7 cards (you may choose which cards to discard).
- Collect Residual Payments: Gain lira as per the Residual Payment Tracker (and any residual bonuses from your structures)*.
- Choose Wake-Up Position: Pick a wake-up position for next year. If in row 7 last year, you must pick row 1. Otherwise, you may not pick row 1.
End of the Game: When one player reaches 25 VP, finish the current year. Add VP from the influence map and met conditions on activated patrons. The player with the most VP wins. Break ties with lira.
Structures Expansion
Setup: Use the extended board side 2; shuffle and place the structures deck on it. (Alternatively, draft 4 structures cards at the beginning of the game.) Place a construction mat to the left of each vineyard mat.
Gameplay: When you build a structure using any action, you may build one of your structure cards instead. Pay its cost, gain 1 VP, and place it on an empty space on the construction mat or an empty field space.
If the structure has an action space, you may place a worker there in any season to pay any costs listed below it and gain the bonus in the center. If the structure has a residual icon (circular arrows), you receive the bonus at the end of each year. Otherwise, the bonus(es) are automatic and ongoing.
You may place a worker on the Destroy space on the construction mat to discard any of your built structures. (You do not lose the VP.)
Special Workers Expansion
Setup: Randomly deal two special worker cards on the table. Each player may train one of each of these special workers during the game. (Exclude the Innkeper in a two-player game.) [sic: the printed reference reads "Innkeper".]
Gameplay: When you train a worker through any means, you may pay 1 lira more to train a special worker instead. It counts towards your maximum of six workers. You may use the special worker as a regular worker or activate its special ability immediately when placing it, if able.
* Only on side 2 of the board (with Structures).