La Vina

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The grape pickers are fighting to inherit a magnificent but nearly abandoned vineyard. Whoever is able to harvest the best grape yield from the vines will become the owner of this precious land.
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Category Tag SKU Z-THKO-BGLAVINEN Availability Out of stock
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Awards

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You Might Like

  • Cool components – eye-catching and fun victory point chits
  • Highly interactive
  • Tokens help you accomplish mega-turns
  • Simple, in essence, but with some hidden depths

Might Not Like

  • You’ll either love the art… or not!
  • The rush to buy that 4-value basket
  • Fanning out cards is a little fiddly
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Description

The grape pickers are fighting to inherit a magnificent but nearly abandoned vineyard. Whoever is able to harvest the best grape yield from the vines will become the owner of this precious land.

Ask your gaming friends, “Want to play a game about wine?” and there’s a strong chance they’ll leap to conclusions. Some will think you’re about to suggest Viticulture by Stonemaier Games. (The others might think you mean Spin The Bottle!) It’s fair to say they might not think you’re talking about La Vina. It’s slipped under the radar, a little bit.

Now, it’s impractical and unfair to compare Viticulture and La Vina from a mechanisms point of view. The differences are vast. But theme plays a strong role in our desire to pick one game over another. Both of these titles feature vineyards, grapes and wine-making. Can La Vina stand out from Viticulture’s imposing shadow, then?

Grapes Growing In Viticulture’s Shadow

La Vina is a set collection card game from Devir Games for 2-5 players. You stroll along a vineyard, plucking grape cards as you go. The aim is to collect certain types of grapes, so you can fulfil public wine orders, which are worth points. Hand management plays a key role, but so too does push-your-luck, to an extent. La Vina has captivating, interactive features. Can you read your opponents’ intentions?

Each player has two Baskets, with capacities for a certain quota of Grape Cards. You’ll also select a random array of public Winery orders. These have requirements on them in the form of quantities of grape types, or a blend of grape types. These are face-up for all to see, so you know what things to aim for. Each one can get completed a certain number of times, so it’s very much first-come, first-served. Players also have a set number of barrel tokens, which they place on these orders when completed. Once a player places their final barrel, that triggers the game end.

A narrow playing board takes precedence, acting as an ‘aisle’ through a vineyard. It’s separated into a series of spaces (scaled for player counts). For set-up, you shuffle 72 Grape Cards, and deal out two cards, above and below each space. (A total of four per space, then.) There are five varieties of grapes (the fifth being ’empty’ vines – boo!). Some are rarer than others.

All Grape Cards have a number on them (1-5). This represents the quantity of grapes, and higher is always better. Some cards have a Tool symbol in their bottom-right corner – I’ll talk more about these, later. You’re supposed to fan out the two cards above/below each space. The point of this is so that the top card reveals the bottom card’s grape type, but hides its Tool (if it has one). This is a little fiddly to achieve while maintaining secrecy but doable.

Grape Scott! What Will You Reveal For Your Opponents?

On your turn, you move your grape picker to any vacant box along the aisle. (There are two boxes per space.) You can then take the top card either above or below that space. You then place it into one of your baskets, providing you have room. You don’t replenish cards straight away. This means that players later on could get the card underneath the one you plucked. And they’ll be licking their lips if it’s a high-value or sought-after card!

The way turn order works in La Vina is akin to Tokaido, or Glen More II. The player at the back of the line takes their turn next. You always have to move forward on your turn, and you must move into a different space. You cannot share a box with another player. This provides a fun predicament: do you race ahead to grab the card you need? Or do you try to hang back and focus on quantity (rather than quality) of cards?

Once your grape picker is in among the aisle, you have a different choice on your following turn. You may take a Grape Card from your current space before you move, or you can take a card once you’ve landed in a new space. You cannot opt for both. This has a huge impact on player interaction. Sometimes players might try to hang back, waiting for other players to pluck grapes first. Then they’re left with a card that appeals to them, underneath. Or, they might take grapes before they arrive in a space. They’re hoping that someone else will have removed the undesirable top card in that location, by the time its their turn again.

The Benefits Of Passing Out (Without A Hangover!)

Once you progress out of the aisle, you cannot go back into it this round. Instead, now you get the chance to fulfil up to two wine orders. You have two baskets, after all! When you opt to complete an order, you hand in all the cards from one basket to achieve the order. You can’t combine grapes across two different baskets to complete one order.

Winery Cards come in two different types. Monovarietal wine orders only want a single type of grape. For example, one Winery Card requires ‘7+ Pinot Noir’. This means you have to pay in Pinot Noir Grape Cards only, and their value must be seven or more to qualify. If that’s the case, you get to place one of your barrel chits onto the order, and earn the stated points.

The other type of Winery Cards are Coupages. These are happy to take two (or more) different types of grapes. Even a Coupage, though, will want one type of dominant Grape Card. You have to pay at least half of the total coming from that dominant grape type. If the Coupage Winery wants, say, ‘7+ Garnacha’, you pay in Garnacha cards totalling a value of at least four or more. Then you make up the difference with at least one other grape type. Once you’ve paid, place one of your barrel chits onto the Winery and earn the stated points.

There’s a third type of Winery, which is the Winemaking Cooperative. This Winery isn’t fussy. It takes any type of grape, and any quantity. The payout for this is the sum of the Grape Cards you paid in, multiplied by 0.5. This is handy if you have a basket full of high-value grapes, but they don’t match any other kind of order right now.

Especially so because La Vina is, to some extent, a race. The game ends once someone places down their final barrel. Everyone completes that round. Sometimes, visiting the Winemaking Cooperative is a way to rush the end-game. It’s very possible to win the game by completing lots of little wine orders, rather than one or two big ones.

Billhook & The Boots (I Loved Their Second Album)

Other features within the game raise La Vina beyond being a simple set collection game. There are three types of Tools, and each offer ways to grant flexibility on your turn. The Billhook lets you claim any card from the space (so, the bottom one, if you like). The Shears let you take two cards from that space. The Boots let you take a card from a space that is behind you along the aisle. (Great if you raced ahead, but then later players revealed an appealing card.)

You earn Tools if you select a card with a Tool icon on it. You then claim a corresponding Tool token from the supply and can spend it on a later turn. Some cards might turn your head if they include a free Tool. There’s only a limited number of Tool tokens, though. If the other players are hoarding that Tool type when you come to claim one (from an empty supply), then tough luck.

This can happen, and it can be frustrating. However, players can only hold two Tools at any one time. Talking of which – players can combine two Tools to get a mega-turn. Shears + Boots, for example? Take any two cards from a space behind you. It feels like Tools are better off spent than hoarded. La Vina is a race, remember. You need to be looking at completing at least one order per turn to keep pace. Spending Tools on a regular basis helps you achieve this if the drawer of the cards is against you.

Stop Whining! But You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Basket

Hand management plays an important factor in La Vina. Your two starter baskets have capacities of two cards and three cards. You’ll soon realise when playing, that two cards (and even three) isn’t enough space. Not if you want to complete the bigger orders. The largest is a Coupage, 15+ Cabernet Sauvignon. The minimum to complete that is three ‘5’ value cards in one basket. Will the cards fall your way? Will your opponents let you snap the ‘5’ cards up?

There is an option to upgrading a basket at the end of your turn, once you’ve passed out of the aisle. There’s a set number of 3- and 4-card baskets available. Each basket has a points cost attributed to it. To buy one, you have to pay the difference in points value between the basket you’re getting rid of, and the one you want.

A 2-card basket is 5VP, and the hallowed 4-card basket is 12VP. You’ll find that some players try to rush the first round, and complete any order that earns them at least 7VP. That way they can immediately buy that 4-card basket. There’s not enough of these large baskets to go around, though. Deciding whether to invest points into a larger basket feels worthwhile if you’re aiming for larger orders.

The Great Grape Race

Having two baskets feels a bit like holding two face-up hands. But you do have a bit of flexibility with regards to managing your baskets. At any time, you can move all wine cards from one basket to another – providing there is room to do so. This is a handy way to make up for an earlier mistake in judgement.

You can also remove all cards from your basket to the discard pile if they’re of no use to you. Painful from a pride point of view, but at least by dumping them, you free up your basket to pluck better cards later. The alternative is visiting the Winemaking Cooperative and scoring half the VP value.

One little boost to passing out of the round first is you get a Wildcard Grape Counter. This counts as any grape type of your choice. It might be the extra one you need to fulfil that order. It’s enough of a carrot to make players think twice about passing early to earn it. You can stockpile these over the game, so they can accumulate over a few rounds to help you with tougher orders.

Passing first also means you’ll be first in the next round. That’s important because it means you’ll get first dibs on the array of cards that get replenished. New cards sit on top of current cards, and the debate begins once again. Which cards do you want? Which cards do you not want to reveal? And which cards do you hope your opponents will reveal for you?

‘Old-Country’ Charm Artwork

The slender vineyard aisle is cardstock that slots together like a jigsaw. It’s a little confusing that the rules call the circles in the spaces ‘boxes’. La Vina is a card game primarily though, and the artwork on the cards has essences of ‘old country’ about it. The four types of Grape Cards look like they could be art from a wine guide you’d find in an old book from the ’70s. I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way. I rather enjoy it.

Each wine card has a colour coordinated banner, plus a symbol for colourblind players. These colours match the dominant grape type banners on the Winery Cards. They all have varying images of vast industrial wine cellars. Not cold, modern facilities. These are generations-old family-run businesses, the kind you could picture in Tuscany or Bordeaux. The orders have clear barrel silhouettes on them, VPs easy to read.

Each player gets a playing card with a character on it in their player colour. These are caricatures (three are men, two are women). One of the men looks a little nefarious – pencil moustache, white suit, odd pose, eyebrows raised. He looks a little out of place in among the other seemingly innocent character art. It’s as if he’s some kind of AI bot you need to beat! (He’s not. The smallest player count is 2P.) Each card has two little slots on it for you to place your Tools, which is pleasing. The yellow skyline is striking alongside the box’s heavy use of ‘sangria’, ‘boysenberry’ purple.

The victory prestige point chits deserve a huge round of applause. They come in denominations of 1/5/10/50 and they’re all equal parts adorable and exquisite. The 1s are blue and yellow seals of approval. The 5s are pink and sky-blue labels. The 10s are bottles themselves, and the 50s are mini diplomas. These could have been mere circular coins or bland VP markers… but they’re not. Two thumbs up.

Final Thoughts On… La Vina

La Vina is a hidden gem from José Ramón Palacios. To my tastes, the art is wonderful in a cosy kind of way. The best thing about the game though is trying to manipulate the way – and rate – at which cards get revealed. You want to try and control turn order in such a manner that you’ll get the cards you want. And, in time to complete the orders you want. It’s all too easy to create a bland, seen-before set collection game. La Vina adds a drop or two of player-to-player psychology into the mix. It becomes a fascinating experience.

Some players got a little bitter about not gaining access to the 4-card basket. However, games like La Vina thrive on the fact that everything is a race. The race to gain the appealing cards. The race to exit the vineyard first to claim the bonus wildcard grape. Then the race to complete orders before they’re full. The race to upgrade your baskets before they’re all gone. There are stakes everywhere.

The fortunate thing is that you can win by completing smaller orders on a regular basis. Yes, some of those bigger orders can net you as much as 24 points! But if it takes you two turns to accomplish it, that’s the same amount of points as scoring two 12-point orders. Due to the range of Winery Cards, it’s fair to say you’ll get a different range every game. They’re not wild in how they differ, but due to the fact some cards are rarer than others, it does provide variety. Once you’ve got your practice game out of the way, you’re looking at 35-45 minutes game time. Which is about enough time to warrant a top-up. Now, where did I put that corkscrew…?

The Story

In this 2 to 5 player game about making wine, you play a relative of a recently deceased viticulturist who has left his entire estate to the one relative (player) who can collect the right combination of grapes to make the best wine. Seems like a very mean ‘last will’ to me but let’s carry on with this great game in a tiny box. Let’s jump into La Vina!

The Setup

Depending on the number of players you set up the modular board, shuffle the grape cards and make a face-down pile. Then hand each player 2 basic starting baskets (one with 2 capacity and the other with 3 capacity), each player also receives a grape picker card and meeple of the same colour.

Place all of the prestige tokens (points) in the middle of the table, hand each player the required number of barrels and place the required number of tools in the middle of the table. Then place two grape cards face up at the top and bottom of each square on the board with the bottom card only showing the grape variety and number. Also, place the required number of upgraded baskets in the middle of the table.

The modular board is made up of squares with 2 spaces in each. Only 1 meeple can occupy a space at any time (therefore 2 meeples to a square) and any time you move your meeple you may not stay in the same square. Turn order is always played from the back to the front so at the start of the game place the meeples in reverse order (1st player at the back, last player at the front).

The first player receives 1 prestige, with the second receiving 2 and so on.

The last part of the setup is to shuffle and place the required amount of winery cards in the centre of the table and place one wild grape token at the exit area of the board.

In a 2-player game, you control 2 meeples each the first player receives 1 prestige and the second player receives 3.

Let’s Play

Starting with the 1st player (the furthest back) you move your meeple to any square on the board and occupy 1 space and then take the topmost grape card from either side of your location and place it in 1 of your baskets.

Then each player in order (from the back onwards) also moves their meeple to another square and takes a grape. All future turns will be taken from the back onwards and you must move forward to another square. However, you can take a grape card from either your starting square or the square you finish on.

This provides a good feeling of strategy to the game as you can block spaces to stop your opponent from getting the perfect grape card that they need.

You can skip as many squares as you like but it might mean you are waiting a while for your next go. You also have the option to jump right to the exit area of the board to score for that round. The benefit of being first to do this is that you will receive the wild grape token and be first next round, however, the other players can take as long as they want to reach the exit so you may be waiting a while.

When you collect a grape card, you have to choose which basket you wish to place it in or you may discard the card. When you place a card in a basket you have to consider which varieties of grape the wineries require. At any time during your go, you can dump a whole basket into the discard pile or move all grape cards from one basket to the other as long as there is room in the receiving basket.

The grape cards contain the following information, type of grape, value of the grape (top right of the card) and if the grape comes with any tools.

Tools

Some cards contain a tool icon (billhook, shears or boots) and when you take one of these cards you may also place the relevant tool (if it is available) on your grape picker card in one of 2 spaces available.

On your turn, you may use either or both of the tools and then discard them back to the centre of the table. The billhook allows you to take the bottom card when picking up a grape card. The shears allow you to take two cards and the boots allow you to take a grape card from the square behind your meeple. You can combine these benefits by using both tools at the same time.

Making A Delivery

When you reach the exit of the board you can make 1 or 2 deliveries to the wineries. To do so you take all of the contents of 1 of your baskets and compare that to a winery card. If it meets the minimum requirements, you place one of your barrels in the space on the winery card and take the required amount of prestige tokens.

This is where clever management of your grape cards and baskets is important because if a winery card only requires 1 type of grape, but your basket contains more than 1 you cannot deliver it to that winery.

Some winery cards do require a mix and in that case, you may be able to make the delivery as long as your basket contains the correct ratios (at least 50% of the delivery is the main grape with at least 1 other type of grape making up the rest). There is also a winemaking cooperative card that will take any number and type of grape and will pay out half the value. This is a great way of offloading a basket that would otherwise be useless.

Upgrading Your Basket

When you leave the player board you may also upgrade either or both of your baskets by paying the cost difference from your prestige tokens. For example, the starting 2 capacity basket has a value of 5 and if I wanted to upgrade it to the 4-capacity basket which has a value of 12 I would have to pay 7 prestige tokens from my supply.

End Of The Round

Once all of the players have reached the exit of the board a new round begins. This game does not have a set number of rounds instead you keep on playing until one player has placed their last barrel in a winery and then all players finish the current round.

To start a new round, replenish all of the taken grape cards so there are 2 at each square on the top and bottom and place a new wild grape token at the end of the board. Finally, you place 1 prestige token on each of the winery locations that are not yet completed (except the cooperative winery). These prestige tokens are then available to the player that places the last possible barrel at this location.

End Of The Game

Once the end of the game has been triggered you finish that current round and then add up all of your prestige tokens. The player with the highest total wins and they take possession of the vineyard. In the event of a draw, the winner is the player who was first to exit the board in the current round.

Final Thoughts

La Vina is a great game that plays well at all player counts and does not outstay its welcome on the table. When playing this it is not uncommon to finish the game and everyone agrees to play a second game straight away. Probably doesn’t hurt to have a glass of real wine on the go whilst playing as well, you know just to get in the spirit of things.

Zatu Score

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You might like

  • Cool components eye-catching and fun victory point chits
  • Highly interactive
  • Tokens help you accomplish mega-turns
  • Simple, in essence, but with some hidden depths

Might not like

  • Youll either love the art or not!
  • The rush to buy that 4-value basket
  • Fanning out cards is a little fiddly