OUR REVIEW
Port from Portugal
t
Vintage
In 2001 several games on the topic of wine, wine making and vineyards were published. Vintage is one of those games. When playing Vintage you produce wine in the Douro Valley. This valley is situated in Portugal and since more than 2000 years wine is produced there. In 2001 the Douro Valley was made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The wine makers of this region are famous for their excellent port wine. During the game you acquire vineyards, plant and harvest.
The components of the game include four player boards, one double-sided game board (for a simple version and the standard version of the game), 36 cards with a white border and 36 brown cards for the simple version, three ships, nine green markers for harvest bonuses, 64 harvest quality marker, 80 hexagonal wooden pieces symbolizing port wine barrels, and 12 brown wooden markers symbolizing brandy barrels. Additional components are 24 action markers, six each in the four player colors, four overseers in the player colors, four scoring markers for each player, 12 estate tiles made of three tiles in each of the player colors, 60 vineyard cubes in five colors to represent the different grape varieties, three black cubes marking “old vineyards” and, finally, one die and one token for “first player”.
The board shows the Douro valley on both sides; the front side features the board for the standard version of the game, the back side features the board for the simple version.
In this review I will only take a closer look at the standard version of the game for four players, as the simple version is only using other cards and fewer components and fewer rules than the standard version, and in a game for two or three players only the start-of-the-game setup is somewhat different from the standard four player version.
The game is played over seven rounds, for marking them you shuffle the nine green harvest bonus markers and place seven of them on the Rounds Track of the board. Three each of the nine harvest bonus markers show values Zero, One and Two. This value is used during harvest actions in the game to determine the quality of the wine.
Each player takes one player board, three estate tiles, one ship and six action markers and an overseer in his color.
The board on both sides is divided into the regions „BAIXO CORGO“, „CIMACORGO“ and „DOURO SUPERIOR“. In all four regions you can find four spots to place a vineyard/estate.
While in the regions „CIMACORGO“ and „DOURO SUPERIOR“ the spots for estates show different values for the basic quality of the wine that will be produced there, all four spots in „BAIXO CORGO“ show a basic wine quality of two. In „DOURO SUPERIOR“ there are two spots with a basic quality of four and one spot each with a basic quality of two and three.
The best wine can be made in „CIMACORGO“; in this region there are two spots available with a basic quality of five and one each with quality values of three and four.
On the left border of the board you find a space for „Vila Nova de Gaia“, where all players will put their ship at the start of the game.
The white-bordered cards are shuffled and stacked on the board on the spot marked for the draw pile, then the top four cards of the stack are placed face-open on the four spots reserved for them. The brown cards are only used in the simple version of the game and are set aside in the box.
Now each player puts one of his estate markers into the region of „BAIXO CORGO“; as each region offers only one harbor and all vineyards are directly connected to the the harbor it does not matter which vineyard you choose in this region.
Above each vineyard you find a track for the grape varieties that can be planted in this vineyard. Only when three out of five different varieties are planted you can harvest in this vineyard.
After a player has deposited his estate tile on one of the spaces provided in the region of „BAIXO CORGO“, he takes one green, one yellow and one purple vineyard cube and places them above his estate tile on the track marking the varieties planted.
Only in „CIMACORGO“ it is possible to make old wine - black „old vineyard“ cubes - which enhances the quality of the port wine produced there.
Each player places one brandy barrel on one of the spots for available brandy on his player board.
Furthermore, you turn over the green harvest bonus marker of Round One.
Each player places his scoring marker on value three of the victory point track.
You determine the starting player and you play in clockwise direction. The first player and the player to his left place one of their action markers on the face-down harvest bonus marker of the second round.
Finally, before we can begin all players must set aside two of their action markers, they are not available for actions at this moment.
Thus the first player and his left neighbor have 3 actions in the first round and the two other players have four actions each at their disposal. The set-aside actions markers come into play when you acquire additional vineyards.
In his turn a player has one action; this action can cost one or more action markers or the overseer. The overseer is worth any number of action markers depending on how you use him and can be used for any action of your choice with the exception of ship movement. When a player has executed his actions, the turn passes to his left neighbor. This is continued until either all players have passed or have used all available action markers and their overseer.
In your turn you can choose from the following actions:
· Buy a vineyard
· Plant a green/red grape variety
· Plant a yellow/white grape variety
· Plant a purple grape variety
· Plant „old vineyard“ grape variety
· Turn first player
· Harvest
· Move ship
· Age wine and sell
· Draw a card or play a card
· Pass
Buy a vineyard
On top of the area reserved for a vineyard you find a track for the grape varieties that were planted. In one spot of the track you find the number of victory points that are the price for the vineyard. At the end of the game you score the exact same number of victory points for the vineyard.
If you want to use this action you must buy this action first.
You can only buy one vineyard per round; the first player to buy a vineyard pays one action marker for the action, the second player pays two action markers, and so on. Instead of paying with action markers a player can pay the costs with the overseer.
When you have placed the action markers or the overseer on the corresponding spot on the board you move your marker on the victory point track backwards the number of spots equal to the cost in victory points of the vineyard.
All vineyards in the region of „CIMACORGO“ cost four victory points, all vineyards in the region „DOURO SUPERIOR“ Have a price of three victory points; as all players start the game with three victory points and as you can only earn victory points from the action of „ageing and selling wine“ all players will quickly buy a vineyard in the region of „DOURO SUPERIOR“ to be able to produce more wine quite soon in the course of the game. Beneath the vineyard you just acquired the board states the basic quality of the port wine produced in this vineyard.
Plant green/red grape variety:
For this action four action spots are available. The first player, who chooses this action in a round, pays for it with one action marker. The second player already pays two action markers for this action, and the fourth one therefore needs to spend four action markers. Here, too, a player can use the overseer to pay the cost instead of using several action markers. After payment you take a green or red vineyard cube and place it into the grape variety track on top of one of your own vineyards. You can only plant a grape variety once in each of your vineyards.
When it is a player’s turn again in the same round, he can do this action again provided he can pay the necessary costs for it.
When this action results in five grape varieties being planted in a vineyard the basic quality of the port wine produced in this vineyard rises by 1.
Plant yellow/white grape variety:
This planting action is identical with the action plant green/red grapes; the only difference is the color of the grape varieties, you plant yellow or white grape varieties.
Plant purple grape variety:
In this are of the board you can only plant purple vineyard cubes. The prices are graded from one to four as well in this area, otherwise the action is identical to plant “green/red grape varieties”.
Plant „Old Vineyard“ grape variety:
The grape variety „Old vineyard“ - represented by the black cubes „Old Vineyard“ - can only be planted in a vineyard of the region “CIMACORGO”. There are only trhee black “Old Vineyard” cubes, therefore this grape variety can only be planted in three vineyards in the region. Furthermore the board has only one available action sport for this. The price for this action is one action marker.
Planting the grape variety „Old Vineyard“ enhances the quality of the wine harvested in this vineyard by one. Should a total of five grape varieties be planted in a vineyard and one of them is “old Vineyard” the basic quality of the wine produced there rises by two, one level for five varieties and one for “Old Vineyard”.
Position of first player:
This action has a price of one action marker, the player choosing it immediately receives the marker for „first player“ and becomes the first player in the next round; this is a very valuable action for this game and the current starting player is allowed to choose this action again.
Harvest:
Once per round each player can choose and implement the action „Harvest“.
In order to harvest port wine in a vineyard you must discard one barrel of brandy; that is, if you want to harvest port wine in three vineyards you need three barrels of brandy.
It is possible, though, to produce brandy in a vineyard instead of port wine, but you can never produce or store more than three barrels of brandy. In the course of one “harvest” action you can harvest in more than one vineyards, and it is also possible to harvest/produce brandy in one vineyard and port wine in one or more of the remaining vineyards. A barrel of brandy that was produced during such a harvest/production action cannot be used in the same action to harvest/produce port wine in another vineyard.
Brandy that you have produced is instantly stored on your player board. Port wine that you produced remains in the vineyard and must be transported to your player board by using the ship.
The three regions produce different amounts of barrels, of port wine as well as of brandy. In the region BAIXO CORGO“ a harvest action results in two barrels of port wine for the vineyard or in two barrels of brandy for the player board. The region „CIMACORGO“ always yields three barrels each and „DOURO SUPERIOR“ always four barrels each.
When a player harvests brandy in „DOURO SUPERIOR“ he receives only 3 barrels of brandy. But should a player have discarded one barrel of brandy for this vineyard he can harvest one barrel of port wine in addition to three barrels of brandy.
After a player has placed the barrels of port wine resulting from a harvest/production action onto the vineyard the quality of the wine is determined; the quality is calculated from the basic quality plus the value of the harvest bonus marker of the current round.
The player takes a brown harvest quality marker with this number and places it on those barrels of port wine.
When port wine is standing on a vineyard a player cannot choose this action, the wine must be transported off the vineyard before.
Move ship:
This is the only action where you cannot use the overseer instead of action markers. As already mentioned each region features one harbor. When you move the ship up river from „Vila Nova de Gaia“ past the regions, the passing of each harbor costs one action marker. When you move the ship down river you are allowed to pass all harbors for free and pay only one action marker for arriving in „Vila Nova de Gaia“.
In each harbor the ship takes onboard the complete harvest; the player puts it onto his player board into one of the ship spaces there; you can never split or separate the barrels of one harvest action and the harvest quality marker must always remain on those barrels.
A ship that is situated in a harbor where you just did implement a harvest takes the harvest on board immediately and need not be moved beforehand.
When the ship has arrived in „Vila Nova de Gaia“ its owner decides for each of the harvest loads on board in which area of the cellar on his player board the will store a particular harvest. A cellar can store up to four different harvests. When all four of those areas are full, surplus harvests remain on ship spaces.
The cellar is divided into two areas, RUBY and TAWNY. Those areas are important for the following action of „ageing and selling“, as the quality of the port wine and the number of barrels in those two different areas can result in different amounts of victory points. Well, you store the port wine and place the harvest quality marker for each harvest into the corresponding spot over the barrels.
Ageing and Selling
In order to be able to choose this action you must have port wine stored in your cellar and first of all pay the necessary number of one to four action markers or use the overseer for payment.
Then you roll the die with values One, Two and Three and add the result to the value of each harvest quality marker; this gives you the real quality value for each harvest of the corresponding port wine.
Now you must place all port wine stored in your cellar according to its storage area and quality into the corresponding RUBY or TAWNY ageing area on your playing board, you never can relocate a harvest, that was stored in the RUBY cellar area into a TAWNY ageing area or vice versa.
In theory you could do “Ageing and Selling” action several times in a round, but only when you place new port wine into the cellar first, as you must always age and sell all wine that is stored in the cellar when you use the action.
In the RUBY ageing area you can gain victory points with a lower number of barrels, but you need port wine of higher value for the same number of victory points.
Both ageing areas are divided into four rows; port wine that reaches the top row of one of the two ageing areas earns you four victory points, the second row from the top yields trhee victory points and the third row two victory points; but you only can get those victory points for a row when you have filled all spots for barrels in a row with port wine.
In the lowest row of the RUBY ageing area four barrels of port wine earn you one victory point, in the TAWNY ageing area you need five barrels for one victory point.
Let me give you an example for ageing: You have four barrels of port wine with a quality of seven in an area of the TAWNY cellar and in another area of the TAWNY cellar you have three barrels of quality seven and then you roll a three: Now you have four barrels of quality 10 and three barrels with quality nine.
In the top row of the TAWNY area there are 2 spots where you can only place port wine with a minimum quality of 11. As you do not have wine of that quality you must place the barrels of quality ten in the row below, in which qualities between 8 and 10 are necessary. In this row you can only place three barrels which yield three victory points. The fourth barrel of quality 10 must - due to the lack of available space - be placed in the next-lowest row, which only demands qualities between five and seven, but as you have no free space for your quality wine you must place him as lower quality. Then you place all three barrels of quality 9 into the same row. In this row there are four spots for barrels. As you have placed the necessary 3 barrels in the second row and the four necessary barrels in the third row from the top you receive the victory points for each row: For the three barrels in the second row three points and for the four barrels in the third row two victory points.
Those victory points are marked immediately on the victory point track by moving the marker forward. The barrels in row two and three of the TAWNY area are discarded.
In the RUBY cellar area you have only three barrels with a quality of four, these must be placed into the lowest row of the RUBY ageing area; as only four barrels in this row would yield one victory point, the barrels remain in the ageing are.
Draw a card or play a card:
For this action 8 spots are provided. Each of these spots is marked with “1”, so this action always costs you one action marker. You place one action marker on one of the action spots and either draw a card or play a card. You can only hold a maximum of two cards at any point in the game; should you choose this action when you already have two cards in hand and you draw a card you must discard one card before drawing the new one.
Cards allow you additional action or facilitate implementation of certain actions or help you to get the optimum result out of your actions. It would certainly exceed the scope of this review to explain all those cards.
Pass:
You abstain from further actions in this round.
Resume:
The topic and idea of the game has been very nicely illustrated and the symbols on the board are very helpful for accessing the game.
All in all the game seems to offer a huge selection of possible actions, but in reality the available choices can turn out to be very limited, because some actions can only be done wants and sometimes the costs for actions due to the choices of other players become exorbitant and unaffordable.
It actually happened in many of our games that during the last two rounds of a game players had to pass their turns or only had uninteresting or useless actions at their disposal.
Examples: You can only harvest once in a round. When you take this wine just harvested with the ship to „Vila Nova de Gaia“ and implement the action „Ageing and selling“ there and earn victory points for it, all other action are useless for the player as he can only earn victory points for sold wine and does not have more wine to turn into victory points.
In the same way the actions of planting grape variety become useless when you have five different varieties in all vineyards, and also in the region „CIMACORGO“, even if one of them is „Old VIneyard“, because you do not get additional victory points for a 6th variety.
The game could have developed into a very, very good game from the ideas and the basic concept, but due to the lack of decisions available towards the end of the game you are left with the impression that the development has not been really finalized. Of course it happened in our games that players who did play the game several times could take this fact into account in their overall strategy for the game and so could partly avoid it, but this usually only was possible after at least three plays of the game. And that still allowed other players to undermine that with their actions.
Despite interesting mechanisms and a very interesting background story, I unfortunately cannot recommend getting yourself a copy of this game.
Another point for criticism is provided by the rules of the game, which make access of the game difficult. The box offers rules in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. The Rules in English, German and Italian in some points contradict each other; especially in the acition of harvest and the card „Oenologist bonus“, which gives you an advantage for the action “Ageing and selling” we are not sure about the correct context of the rules.
Resume: A basically wonderful game idea has been introduced to the market in a not fully developed version.
Players: 2-4
Age: 10+
Time: 120+
Designer: Gil d’Orey
Art: Gil D’Orey & Né Santelmo
Price: ca. 35 Euro
Publisher: Mesaboardgames 2011
Web: http://www.mesaboardgames.pt
Genre: Economic simulation
Users: With friends
Special: 1 and also many players
Version: multi
Rules: de en es fr it pt
In-game text: no
Comments:
Attractive game idea and topic
Rules not optimally formulated
End game not completely developed
Very good illustrations and graphics
Compares to:
Vinhos
Other editions:
Currently none
My rating: 4
Maria Schranz:
A wonderful game idea with a very good basic concepts, which as regards to the end game has not been completely developed.
Chance (pink): 2
Tactic (turquoise): 2
Strategy (blue): 3
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 3
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0