Image Courtesy of vittorioso
This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
If you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type - Euro Game
Play Time: 75-100 minutes
Number of Players: 2-4
Mechanics - Set Collection, Worker Placement, Meeple Management
Difficulty - Moderate (Takes a few plays to get a good grip on the moving parts)
Components - Excellent
Release - 2011
Designer(s) - <PERSON> <PERSON>( A Castle for All Seasons, Guatemala Cafe, La Boca, Saint Malo)
Overview and Theme
Welcome to generic-ville. It could be a village anywhere in the middle ages, Medieval times or the times of <PERSON>. It has a church, council chambers, farmland, a marketplace and a whole raft of skilled craftsman. It’s a place where dudes wear feathers in their hats, writing is done with ink and quill and getting from here to there is done with horse and cart. The ladies wear dresses covering them from neck to toe and life passes from one season to the next.
This is Village, a worker placement Euro with a twist that has helped it stand out from the pack and had many a Euro-phile excited over the past few years.
Adding to the buzz, Village picked up the Deutscher Spiele Preis - Best Family/Adult Game in 2012 as well as the Spiel des Jahres - Kennerspiel des Jahres (Special mention) in the same year. This award would suggest that Village was considered just a little too heavy for the SdJ. Games Magazine then honoured it with their Best New Advanced Strategy Game award in 2013.
So get your ‘townsfolk’ on and take a walk down the quaint cobbled road with me as we take a look at what all the fuss is about.
The Components
Village isn't trying to beat around the bush...it's a Euro and it wants you to know it. The good news here is that the game offers up top notch production values and the artwork helps the theme to shine through the mechanics.
Board – Village offers up a nice square board that depicts, not surprisingly, a village. It is made up of various buildings and notable features. In the distance a series of towns and cities can be seen to entice the intrepid traveller. 470
Like any good Euro there are icons plastered all over the place but they are not overwhelming at all.
Surrounding the board is a score track, which tracks each player's VPs, which the game refers to as Prestige. Rather than using just simple numbers the track uses the image of a scroll page, which is a nice thematic addition.
Overall the artwork is really well done without quite being up to the standard of a . But hats off to <PERSON> all the same. I suspect we will be seeing more of his work in the future.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Farm/Player Boards – Each player is given a mid-sized Farmyard Board to depict the family holdings. Each is a different colour and a farm complete with a barn and a house is featured. Around the border a time-track is present, which makes use of the iconic hourglass motif.
The boards offer a lovely thickness that screams 'I'm a quality production!'
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Villager Meeple - No worker placement game is complete without meeple and Village offers each player no less than 11. Before any game can be played each set of meeple must be stickered on the front and back so that each one features a number.
Each player will have four meeple with a 1, three with a 2, two with a 3 and two with a 4. These numbers represent the generation that each meeple comes from within a given family, which I will elaborate on later.
The game also comes with 4 black meeple, which represent Monks. These are owned by no player but they also require a sticker, although there sticker features no number. The reason for which will become apparent as I outline the game.
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Player Markers - The other wooden component in the game comes in the form of wooden discs. These are used to keep track of a player's score, their time track and also to record where they travel to in the course of the game.
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Goods Tiles – In the game the players can create 5 different types of goods. These take the form of smaller oblong shaped tiles. 84