The Taverns Of Tiefenthal

Another group of thirsty patrons enter through the tavern doors. If you keep the beers a-flowin’, then profits be growin’! (Who let that rhyme-spewing bard in here?) The Taverns of Tiefenthal was the much-anticipated, alliteration-loving title from Wolfgang Warsch. One could argue his most popular hit was Quacks of Quedlinburg – also by Schmidt Spiele. Taverns, though, is a corker of a game, too. It’s for 2-4 players, and once everyone knows what they’re doing, it plays in about 60 minutes.

The Taverns of Tiefenthal is part-deck builder, part-dice drafting, and part-dice placement. These tried-and-tested mechanisms all weave together over eight formulaic rounds. The game sees you brewing beer, serving guests, making money, and upgrading your tavern. The winner of the game is the player with the most valuable deck at the end. But how do the rounds work? How do you improve your deck? And what’s the deal with the dice? Pour yourself a beer, and take a seat at our table. It’s time to learn how to play The Taverns of Tiefenthal…

Tavern Got A Clue What These Extra Bits Are For?

I appreciate that setting up the game might look intimidating. There’s a lot of bits, and Taverns of Tiefenthal comes with a bunch of add-on modules, each providing even more components! I’ll talk more about those modules in a separate blog, but for now, let’s focus on learning the base game.

Place the Monastery Board in the middle of the table, summer-side up. (The snow-side is for the advanced modules.) Place the players’ Monastery Marker discs on the zero on this track. The 3D moon is the Turn Marker, which can sit next to this board for now.

There are many cards here. Some feature Bards (with white cube icons on them); again, they’re for another module. Back into the box they must go! Separate the remaining cards by type. There are five different Tavern Cards: Barbacks, Dishwashers, Servers, Tables, and Brewers. Sit them in separate face-up stacks, in this ascending cost order.

Put the Noble cards (purple lady) in their own face-up stack. The remaining are a range of Guest Cards. Separate the eight 3-beer guests (check the top-left corner to find these) in their own pile. Shuffle the rest of the Guests and draw the first four, face-up. Keep the other Guest deck face-down.

Serving Up A Treat

Give each player an empty tavern board. Each player then creates their tavern like a jigsaw, clipping 10 tiles together. Note these tiles are all double-sided; these need to sit on the default side up, with the coin cost in the top-left. The Bartender should sit so the U-shaped bar is empty, not on the side with victory points on it. Place your yellow cube on the zero within your Safe, and your brown cube on the zero in your Beer Storage.

Each player has their own starting deck of seven Regular Guest Cards in their player colour. Give each player a Server, Table, and Brewer Card, too. Now they have a deck of 10 cards. Also give each player a ‘beer coaster’ and four white dice. Each player has three dice in their own colour; keep these separate, but within arm’s reach. Give the 3D Beer Mug to the starting player. Now you’re ready to start playing The Taverns of Tiefenthal!

The Taverns of Tiefenthal consists of eight rounds. Within each round, there are seven simple phases. Serving your guests is the most complex, but also the most interesting! Let’s digest each phase one at a time.

A New Evening In The Tavern

Move the Moon along one number on the Turn Track. Each number shows the bonus for the round, which each player receives straight away. In Round 1, players get a Counter Guest that sits at a barstool. This is a one-time-use token that players can activate whenever they want. I’ll explain Counter Guests in due course, when you have greater context behind their actions.

Other bonuses (in later rounds) include gaining a free card into your deck. Others provide an extra free, personal die for the round. In cases where there are options (picking between bonus A or bonus B) players pick in turn order.

Single Guests: Reveal Yourself!

Next, guests (plus equipment and staff) arrive at your tavern. Remember your starting deck of ten cards? Shuffle them, then reveal your top card. Each player does this in a simultaneous fashion. Depending on the card you reveal, you place it in a specific sector of your tavern. If it’s a Guest, place it on one of the free trios of tables. If it’s a Table Card itself, place it to the right of the tables. If it’s the Server, place it to the left of the dog on your tavern. If it’s a Brewer, place it to the right of the Brewer on your board.

Each type of card has artwork that matches their corresponding section of the tavern. If in doubt: beer-related cards sit on the right. Dice-related cards sit to the left. Guests sit at tables. Placed your card? Reveal the next one, and place that, too. Continue to do this until you’ve filled all your tables with Guests.

Remember that Counter Guest chit? It’s double-sided; you pick which side you want to use when you receive it. One side is a hooded lady. Discard this Counter Guest after you’ve filled your tables and discard all your drawn cards thus far. (Including non-guests.) Then redraw cards from your remaining deck in the same fashion. Deck depleted? Shuffle your discard pile and continue drawing. This Counter Guest is handy if you’re unhappy with the luck of your initial draw!

Can I Take Your Order?

Did any players draw Servers during that Guests Arriving phase? For each Server that you drew, you take one die of your colour and roll it. (For Round 1, you’ll at most have one Server.) Keep the outcome to one side; you’ll get to use that die result later. Then everyone rolls their own four white dice and places them on their own Coaster.

The First Player drafts one of the white dice from their Coaster. They keep it to one side. Then the next player clockwise drafts a die from their own Coaster, and so on. Once everyone has one die, you all pass your Coaster with the remaining dice on it clockwise. Thus, you’ll receive a new Coaster of dice too, from your neighbour. The First Player then drafts one die from their new Coaster, and so on. This continues until all players have four white drafted dice.

Dice And A Slice

Time for more simultaneous action, now in the form of dice placement! Each player allocates their dice into their own taverns (including bonus dice of their own colour). You’ll have drafted dice with the intention of placing them into optimal places within your tavern. You can place dice onto locations where there’s a square dice silhouette.

Guests have a specific die face with regards to placement. Your Regular Guests desire either a 1 or a 2. A green arrow points at the reward, should you place a die here. Guests pay out coins. The arrow has a ‘1x’ on it, meaning you can only place one die here. You can place any one die onto the Cashbox to earn one coin. Likewise, you can place one die of any number into the Barrel, to earn one beer. (In the first round, placing a 3 or a 4 there is common.) With bad luck, you might not be able to place all your dice.

You can place either 1s or 6s onto the Brewer. The green arrow here has an ellipsis (…), meaning you can place multiple dice here. Each die placed here earns you a beer. It’s worth noting that if you drew your Brewer Card earlier on, it has a ‘+1 beer’ on it. This means every die you place here earns you not one, but two beers. A third Brewer means each die here is worth three beers, and so on. Last of all, the Monk requires a 5. Again, the ellipsis means you can place as many 5s here as you like. (More about him later.)

Serving Guests: Time To Earn Top Thaler

Everyone finished with the dice placement? Now you move onto the real guts of the game: serving the guests. This is where you earn the big bucks! The First Player performs their dice actions first. They can activate their dice in any order, and there are good reasons why they might want to do this. When you complete an action, it’s good practice to remove the die/dice from your tavern. That way you won’t forget and activate dice twice (naughty, naughty)!

Removing dice from Guests earns you the stated number of coins (Thalers). Likewise, you can earn one Thaler from the Cashbox. There are no physical coins in The Taverns of Tiefenthal. You can store up to two coins in your Safe at the end of the round, rolling over into the next round. In such a case, move your yellow cube to signify this.

Chances are you’ll spend this virtual ‘money’ straight away, because you lose anything you cannot store. Spending Thalers gets you Tavern Cards. Remember the five types you separated during set-up? They each have a cost, ranging from 2-6 Thalers. Four of them are worth end-game points too (in the top-right). That’s the aim of the game, remember!

Purchasing Tavern Cards: Goodies For Next Round

You can buy one Tavern Card of each type during this phase. We know three of the Tavern Cards already but what are the other two? The cheapest is the Barback. It costs 2 Thalers, but it’s worth zero VPs. If you buy it, the card sits face-down on the top of your draw deck. (Meaning you’re guaranteed to draw it in the next round: hooray!) The Barback, when drawn, earns you one beer without any dice needing to sit on it.

The final card is the Dishwasher, costing 3 Thalers, and worth 1VP. Again, once purchased, this joins your deck for the next round. When drawn, it sits next to the Dishwasher Area. For each Dishwasher drawn, you can add +1 to any die result. If you draw, say, two Dishwashers, you could either add +2 to any one drafted die. Or, you could add +1 to two different dice – your choice. This mitigates ‘unlucky’ dice among the draft.

Flipping Heck! Permanent Upgrades

The alternative/additional option to buying cards is to upgrade your tavern itself. Each area in your tavern has an upgrade Thaler cost in the top-left corner (except the Bartender). Next to the cost is the permanent reward once upgraded:

• Tables* – provides a fourth table.
• Beer Storage – provides space to store five excess beers, instead of two.
• Brewer* – provides two beers per dice placed here, instead of one.
• Barrel – provides two beers per dice placed here, instead of one.
• Safe – provides space to store five excess Thalers, instead of two.
• Dishwasher Area* – provides a permanent, ever-present 1x use of +1 to die rolls each round.
• Server* – provides a permanent gain with an extra die to roll each round.
• Cashbox – provides three Thalers per die placed here, instead of one.
• Monk – provides two-movement along the Monastery Track, instead of one.

As soon as you upgrade a tavern tile, flip the tile over. You then gain a free Noble Card, which sits face-down on top of your deck. You’re improving your business and it’s appealing to Tiefenthal’s fancy folk! Nobles are Guests that sit at tables. They desire a die with two pips and they pay out two Thalers. Not the best return, but they’re worth a whopping 10VP each! You can upgrade as many tiles within your tavern per turn as you can afford.

Some sections (listed above with an *) offer discounts on the upgrade price. The discount sits next to the stated cost, itself. You claim the discount by removing a card sitting at said tavern area. (For example: upgrading the Server usually costs 12 Thalers. But if you remove a Server Card sitting in your tavern right now, you get a -4 Thaler discount. So throwing the Server card away – not into your discard pile – means you pay 8 Thalers to upgrade it. You flip the tile – giving you a permanent Server anyway – and claim a Noble Card.) You must have executed dice actions using these cards before you discard them.

On the plus side: haven’t triggered the die/dice on a just-upgraded section? Now they’re going to pay out according to the improved benefit!

Beerz Meanz Heinz (Wait, That’s Not Right)

Money is important, then. What does beer provide though? Spend beer to buy one Guest card from the public flop of Guests. Each Guest has a cost in beer, alongside an end-game VP value. They have different die requirements and pay out a better rate of Thalers. Some also come with a free one-time bonus, such as an extra Tavern Card. (In such a case, both the free card and the Guest both sit face-down in your deck.) Buying Guests? Replenish the flop so there are always four Guests face-up.

The Monastery Track has a table showing you can buy Nobles themselves, with large amounts of beer. You can spend beer on Nobles as well as buying one Guest per round. It’s worthwhile since you can only store a certain amount of beer per round. (Plus, Nobles are worth 10VPs each!) If storing beer, move your brown cube to the allocated number within your Beer Storage tile.

Talking of the Monastery Track… Remember the Monk sat at the bar? For every die you place here, move your Monastery Marker one space clockwise. Every other space marks a threshold with a reward. Most of these give you free Tavern Cards, face-down into your deck. One spot allows you to remove a Guest from your tavern that round. (This is a form of thinning your deck of your Regular Guests.) Also, remember the double-sided Counter Guest? The other side is an extra free movement along the Monastery Track. You can trigger this Counter Guest during this phase.

Rinse (That Glass) And Repeat…

Once the first player finishes activating their dice, the next player clockwise triggers theirs, and so on. Once all players have done this, everyone picks up the cards sat around their tavern from that round. They add them into their individual discard pile.

The First Player beer mug moves one space clockwise. Then you move the Moon marker along the Round Track, and players each get their reward for the round, in turn order. Then everyone starts drawing cards from their decks, again. Of course, the first few cards you’ll draw are the ones you bought in the previous round. If you draw a Noble, it sits at a table, like a Guest. Sociable Nobles, however, share tables with fellow Nobles. They don’t fill up your table quota quite as quick. (See, I can be alliterative too, Wolfgang.) But as always, once your tables fill up, you stop drawing cards…

The Taverns of Tiefenthal continues like this for eight rounds. At the end of the eighth round, players add up the value of their deck. (The lion’s share of your tally is likely to come from Nobles in your deck.) The player with the most valuable deck wins! Tie-break? The player with the most Thalers and beer left in their storage is the winner.

Now you’re ready to try out some of the advanced modules!

What Next?

That brings us to the end of this how-to-play guide. If you haven’t already picked up a copy of The Taverns of Tiefenthal, make sure to grab one today! For anyone who is still undecided, why not check out our full review of the game?

When it comes to Taverns Of Tiefenthal’s legendary luminaries, there’s only one name in all the guidebooks: yours. You’re an expert at running the local tavern. The Guests love you! Nobles far and wide flock to huddle around your tables. You’ve got more beer than Oktoberfest flowing out of your cellar. A mountain of Thalers sit hoarded in your safe. It’s like Scrooge McDuck diving into that pool of shiny coins.

The only thing you’re missing is a challenge. Something new; the next step up. Well, lucky for you then that The Taverns of Tiefenthal has not one but four extra modules. And these aren’t part of a separate expansion, costing almost as much as the base game. No! You get all these in the base box. It’s a super-impressive inclusion from Schmidt Spiele.

Don’t Drink On An Empty Stomach: Read This First!

A standard game of Taverns of Tiefenthal is an enjoyable affair, combining dice drafting, dice placement, and deck building. I’m going to assume you know how to play The Taverns of Tiefenthal when discussing these four modules. (If you don’t, no problem! Click and check out my How To Play Guide for the base game, first. Then you’ll have the core context with regards to the rules and components that I’ll mention.)

These four modules each boost you further up the rungs of an increasing, strategical ladder. It’s recommended that you introduce them one at a time, in the order I’ll list below. Each provides an extra dimension to the base game, offering further fascinating directions for you to explore. So finish the dregs of your pint. Settle the tab. It’s time to leave the comfort of the local and venture on a pub crawl around Tiefenthal!

Zum Goldenen Löwen – Schnapps Entertainment

This first module takes the base game and adds in a couple of neat extras. Individual tavern and deck set-up is the same as before. The key difference here is that you flip the Monastery Board to its ‘winter’ side. See the three recesses at the top of this board? In this module, you flip the chits that sit in there, so they show glasses of Schnapps. Place these, left to right, so they feature 2/1/2 Schnapps tumblers.

As you might have guessed, this module features the Schnapps Tokens. There’s 20 of them, so keep them in a pile next to the board. You’ll also need the three types of Entertainer Tiles. The reason for this is the major change here, which are the round-to-round rewards along the Turn Track. Some rewards will appear familiar, such as Counter Guests (in Turns 1, 4, and 7). You can also earn Tavern Cards or an extra die in Turns 6 and 8. But in Turns 2, 3, and 5, you get a new type of bonus: an Entertainer arrives into your tavern!

Entertainers join your Tavern Board. Like a Counter Guest, they’re double-sided and when players claim one, they have to pick which side they wish to use. You keep Entertainers for the entirety of the game. You can use their abilities multiple times, providing, that is, you can afford them! Entertainers keep the mood a vibrant one, but they demand payment in Schnapps. (You earn the stated quota of Schnapps Tokens when the Moon passes over them into the next round.)

Meet The Taverns Of Tiefenthal Talent

In Round 2, you get a Tambourine Player. On one side, you can pay a single Schnapps Token and in return gain two extra Thalers to spend. Or, you could pick the reverse side, where you pay two Schnapps, and earn three beer to spend. Note that the Tambourine Player has an ellipsis on her arrow. This means you can activate her bonus as many times as you can afford or wish to do so. You could, for example, pay in four Schnapps and earn eight (4×2) Thalers in one turn.

In Round 3, you get a Fire Breather enter your tavern. He also has two abilities for you to pick. One costs a whopping five Schnapps, but you can upgrade any section of your Tavern for free. You also get a Noble. (You do this during the phase where you activate your dice.) The other side’s benefit costs two Schnapps, and it lets you thin a current Guest out of your deck. They have to be sat at a table, and not have a die attributed to them. Either side of the Fire Breather shows the ellipsis, meaning you can perform it as many times as you can afford.

In Round 5, everybody gets a Juggler. On one side, you can pay one Schnapps to turn a die over to any face (after drafting, before you place it). This has an ellipsis on it. On the other side, you can pay one Schnapps to pick one of your cards from the round and place it face-down on your draw deck. (You’re guaranteed to see it again next round, then.) This side has a 1x symbol on it, meaning you can only perform this once per round.

At the end of the round, players may not hold more than four Schnapps Tokens. You can’t hoard; you’re better of spending Schnapps in this regard, or you lose them. At the end of the game, you score an extra 1VP per leftover Schnapps Token. Which Entertainer you should spend your Schnapps on, then? And how often…?

Die Blaue Forelle – Bards And Reputation

For this next module, set up the base game, plus the Entertainers and Schnapps as mentioned above. This time, though, revert the Schnapps chits to their blank side along the top of the Monastery Track. Find the 16 Bard Cards and place them alongside the five other Tavern Cards. Place the Bards in a face-up deck next to the Barbacks.

There’s also 10 new Guest Cards. (All have a small white cube symbol on them.) Shuffle these into the main deck of Guest Cards. White cube, you say? This is ‘Reputation’. Give each player their own white Reputation cube marker. Also, it’s time to flip that final part of your Taverns of Tiefenthal Board: the Barkeeper! As you do so, you’ll see 11 squares running around the U-shaped bar. Slot the small cut-out chit into the base of the bar so it is blank. Have everybody place their Reputation marker on their own Barkeeper.

The main addition here revolves around that Reputation Track – in a literal sense! There are a few ways to earn Reputation, and each time you do, you’ll move that marker clockwise around your track. It’s numbered 1-8, and listed on the three other spaces are symbols. When your marker lands on or passes beyond these thresholds, you earn the symbol’s reward. (One Schnapps Token; a Schnapps Token or thinning a Guest from your tables; one free Noble Card.) After landing on the Noble symbol, you continue to loop around clockwise, back to the ‘1’ space and so on.

Revolve Round The Reputation Route

There’s a trio of ways to move that cube. One is by purchasing Bard Cards. You buy these, in the same manner, you’d buy other Tavern Cards. They cost one Thaler, and provide 0VP from a deck-scoring point of view. But you don’t buy them for the points. When you draw a Bard from your deck, it sits next to a Barback. Each revealed Bard lets you move your Reputation marker one space around your track.

The second way is by obtaining some of those new Guests. Some of them come with an immediate one-time reward. This could be a free Bard Card, or free Schnapps, or a free Reputation movement. The third method is the largest way in which you earn precious Rep’. This involves a whole new phase in the game. This occurs after placing your dice but before activating them.

Each player checks to see their quota of Thalers that they’re due to earn this round. (Via Guests and/or the Cashbox – not Thalers stored in your Safe.) Then you check the number of beers you’re earning this round. (Via the Brewer, Barback Cards, and the Barrel – not beers stored from previous rounds.) You earn Reputation movement equal to the lower of these two totals.

At the end of the game, you also score Reputation. You score points equal to space where your cube ends on this track. If it ends on a Schnapps/Remove Guest symbol, you score the number on the previous space. If you end on the Noble icon, you score zero. (Hey, don’t feel sad! You did just nab an extra 10VP Noble Card, after all…)

Zum Grünen Klee – Pick Your Own Business Model

Again, you add the following module on top of the previous two. However, this module presents the opportunity for some wonderful asymmetrical starting decks. Give each player their seven Regular Guests in their player colour. Do not give them a Server, Table, and Brewer, though. Instead, bring out the seven blue Start Cards and shuffle them. Draw three and sit them face-up for every player to see.

These show unique starting options. The players choose to begin the game with the options on one of the cards, instead of the default ten-card set-up. Players can pick the same set-up as another if they wish; they’re not first-come, first-served. The seven Starter Cards are:

• Take 1x Server, 1x Table, 1x Brewer (the default starting option).
• Take 1x Bard, 1x Barback, 1x Dishwasher, 1x Brewer.
• Take no starting cards. However, move your Monastery Marker on three spaces (meaning you get a Barback). Then remove two Regular Guests from your deck.
• Take no cards, but do take one Schnapps Token. Then upgrade any one section of your Tavern – but do not claim a free Noble.
• Take 1x Bard and 1x Table. Upgrade your Beer Storage and start the game with your beer marker on 5x beers. Do not claim a Noble.
• Take 1x Server. Also, Upgrade your Server tile, but do not take a free Noble.
• Take 1x Dishwasher. Remove 1x Regular Guest from your deck. Upgrade your Cashbox for free, but do not claim a Noble.

Taverns Of Tiefenthal – Zum Roten Stier – Sign Here, Please

This final module has the set-up with the aforementioned three modules. This time, have each player flip over the tiny cutout at the bottom-middle of their Barkeeper Tile, showing a Signature icon. Also, give each player a Guestbook Tile. Have them keep this next to their Tavern Board. The game comes with forty small Signature Tokens. Keep them within close reach of all players.

In this module, you’ll aim to fill your Guestbook with signatures from Guests. It’s a 4×4 grid of 16 spaces. Some of these have icons on them. You’ll recognise them all, by now. Whenever you cover one of these icons with a Signature, you claim said reward. Four of these icons are Tavern Cards. Two of them are movements along your Reputation Track. One is free Schnapps, and the bottom four are free Noble Cards. If you fill in an entire horizontal row, you earn a free Noble card, too.

There are two ways to earn Signatures. One is whenever you buy a Guest Card. Take a Signature and add it into the corresponding column in your Guestbook. (The four columns have matching beer costs: 3-4 beers/5 beers/6 beers/7-8 beers.) It’s as if the Guest themselves has signed your book. You place the Signature in the correct row, in the top-most vacant space. The second way is by passing over the Signature icon within the Reputation Track. (On the cutout chit that sits between 4 and 5.) When you pass over this, take a Signature and place it in any column of your choice. It still has to sit in the top-most vacant space within this column, though.

The rest of the game plays as per normal according to the earlier modules. Adding all in at once might prove overwhelming to casual or even experienced gamers. Adding them in at a gradual pace feels like a more organic solution. You’ll know your (and your gaming group’s) own comfort zone. That way you can create the perfect game of Taverns of Tiefenthal that matches your table’s happy place!