I am teaming up with the folks at the Have Fun and Play Podcast (https://havefunandplay.com/) on Instagram @havefunandplay and we are sharing our Top 10 Most Replayable Games in celebration of Groundhog Day. What makes a game replayable? There are a lot of different reasons that you might want to play a game over and over.
Viticulture Essential Edition (with the Tuscany expansion) is a worker placement and resource management game which has players developing their own vineyard and competing to plant vines, harvest and crush grapes, make wine and sell it to customers.
In my mind, the Tuscany (Essential Edition) expansion is essential (pun intended) for this game. It adds an extended board that offers spots for workers in all 4 seasons of the year, special workers and new structures to build.
Viticulture is my favourite game and takes the #1 Replayable spot for these reasons:
I find it is the perfect mix of easy-to-learn and strategic depth creating an excellent medium-weight game.
It hits the perfect balance for game length - not terribly long, yet you still have time to do many of things you want to do.
Because theme is so important to me, you might think I'm a Wine Guy. Not at all. I rarely drink wine and know almost nothing about wine. But theme is very approachable and I appreciate the way the game incorporates theme (or at least my perceptions of wine making) into the game play.
The components are beautiful and everything in the game, from your player board to how you make points, just makes sense.
It is the perfect mix of "multi-player solitaire" with enough interaction between players fighting for certain spots. Yet, even when you are shut out of a location on your turn, there is always something beneficial for you to do and it rarely feels like a wasted turn.
There are a LOT of different ways to get points in this game, giving tours, buying and selling grapes, developing your vineyard, building structures and entertaining visitors. A close friend gave us a valuable lesson when he won having only made one batch of wine the entire game.
The Wake Up Track is the real genius of the game in my opinion. It provides another balancing mechanism for players who are having trouble getting to the prime locations and creates anticipation for each new year (aka round) of the game.
There are a lot of different reasons that a game is replayable and it's not always just your top played games. What are some of yours? Please take a few minutes to leave a comment with your favourite replayable games and tell me what you think of mine.