Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion BGG ↗

My BGG Comment

• 2026: Yashima's Game Diary
  We have played Viticulture competitively a few times. It's a pretty standard worker placement theme with a few nicely thematic additions especially with the wine aging mechanism. My partner enjoys the wine theme a lot and so it has a pretty secure spot on my shelves. Over time the visitor decks have become somewhat bloated due to the smaller expansions. Besides player competition for spots, the varying cards are the single source of entropy in this game. Sadly, the entropy from cards is so high that I am considering houseruling that when you draw cards you get to draw several and choose among them. Now a few years ago this cooperative expansion was published and we had not played it until now. In the cooperative game, there is a new game board with slightly modified worker spots to support this mode. But the general game stays the same. The biggest changes are: an event deck (different scenarios can be played through those event decks) and the possibility to upgrade worker spots to include bonuses or upgrade the actions themselves. We only played the introductory scenario which is designed in a way that helps players get to know the changes in this mode. I really like the options to upgrade the spots, it gave us a clear strategy to follow for achieving victory (we both had to reach 25 VP in 6 rounds and spend some money to reach 10 points in an additional track that we both share). What I did not like was the removal of entropy. The events are not introducing additional hurdles in the introductory scenario. And once I had figured out a path to achieve the 25 VP (which I did by round 5), there was nothing more for me to do. We did not play round 6 because there were only 2 actions left to take for my partner, neither of which involved any uncertainty and so we declared victory. The game turns into an optimization puzzle which worker placement can do which is why cooperative worker placement is hard to pull off in my opinion--the mechanism needs the added entropy from player competition to shine. The "cooperation" is mostly that we could have shared resources / cards when meeting at worker spots... we did that twice in the game. So it is mostly "get the 25 VP and have some money left over to push the other track". I have not looked at the solo mode or the other scenarios. We will surely play this again. My partner very much enjoyed the fact that he didn't loose after I sprinted away on the VP track. * Player Count: 2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 1 + 3 (without the expansion) * Rules Retention: I had to relearn the game after not playing for years that was to be expected. It is also teachable enough. The rules complexity is medium. My partner remembered the aging mechanism and the cellars so it seems retention is fine for the key concepts. * Keeper: Not sure. (see above) * Recommended: Anyone who really likes to optimize and strategize their moves in a solo puzzle that rewards thorough planning and pattern recognition. * Competition: Wine Cellar (theme), Mistborn Coop Mode, Pandemic (cooperative), Formosa Tea (drink-themed worker placement)