Viticulture: Tuscany Essential Edition

If you’re a fan of Jamey Stegmaier’s Viticulture, then Tuscany hits the spot. It’s like a crisp glass of wine, fresh off an Italian vineyard. Tuscany: Essential Edition is an expansion for the superb Viticulture. Believe us, it really is essential!

Viticulture is a worker placement game, set in Italy, where players compete to grow grapes. They then work to turn those grapes into wine, which they then sell for victory points. So what do you get in Tuscany: Essential Edition? Quite a lot, as it turns out. And because it’s produced by Stonemaier Games, the component quality is fantastic.

Tuscany provides a new, bigger main board. The core actions remain – you’re still planting grapes and selling wine. But there’s new options too, with action spaces now within spring, summer, autumn and winter. The Wake-Up Chart has extra layers to it, as well. This means more goodies each year, depending on where player opt to go in turn order. Plus, there’s a map of Tuscany with a area control mini-game aspect, for more end-game points. Will your influence of fine wines spill over across the region?

Also, a deck of 36 Structure Cards offer a fresh new angle to your farm. Players get an extension to their player mat, where they can pay to build Structures. Some provide personal worker placement spots for you alone to visit. Others provide game-long benefits, discounts and freebies.

Finally, each player gains two Special Workers. These are adorable wooden meeples with painted-on overalls or pigtails! A combination of two Special Worker cards give these colleagues extra abilities, each time you place them. They cost a more to train than regular extra workers, but they’re more than worth those extra lira!

Whether you play these three modules one at a time, mix and match, or play with all three at once, one thing’s for sure. Tuscany: Essential Edition provide countless hours of modular fun. Now, where did you put that corkscrew?

Player Count: 1-6 players
Time: 60-120 minutes
Age: 14+