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I love Taverns of Tiefenthal. There is - rather aptly, given it’s a game about making/acquiring and then selling booze - something deeply addictive about it.
The actual mechanics of the game have been covered off in previous reviews on this site - so this, instead, is a bit of a delve into what kept calling me back to the bar, before finally turning me into a solo drinker, ploughing a lonely furrow onto the forums of BoardGameGeek to find a solo variant.
The interest begins - first play of Taverns of Tiefenthal
In the UK, many men (and women) of a certain age have a deep emotional connection to the concept of a ‘proper boozer’. There’s a romantic nostalgia about old-fashioned pubs with pewter tankards, a crowd of regulars and a barman who knows you by name.
Taverns recreates some of that feel in its cardboard pieces - there’s a warmth in the illustrations, in the quaint Germanic pub design and the quirky characters you attract to your bar.
And more than that, the initial set up - that first time out of the box - it’s just so intriguing. All these little jigsaw pieces of pub, the charmingly detailed little beer mats (complete with watermarks). It’s a game that makes you want to play it.
I played once at a board game café, lost horribly, and instantly wanted to play it again.
Unpicking the interest - the intrigue of Taverns of Tiefenthal
Of course, a game can look fantastic and play terribly, and - as you may have guessed by now - Taverns of Tiefenthal does not disappoint in its gameplay.
There are so many choices and mechanisms at play that the best course of action is never quite clear, and you move through phases of building your deck, drafting dice and upgrading your taverns all to establish yourself as the region’s prime drinking establishment.
And, as soon as you’ve got your head round the basic game, it comes with four extension modules built in. Awfully generous and suddenly giving you even more choices to play with and ways to better your boozer - from fire breathers to schnapps and guest books.
There’s a real balance between judgement (what upgrades do you make, what cards do you buy, which of the various trackers do focus your interest on) and luck (how many times will you draw that miserable low-tipping punter, and how blessed will your dice rolls be) that make it impossible to master and tempting to play again, and again, and again…
And that’s without even getting onto the Open Doors expansion and the new temptations of guest rooms to fill, and a sommelier to please your more refined guest.
Going solo - the only pub in Tiefenthal
The whole concept of Taverns of Tiefenthal lies in the ‘s’ of taverns. It’s your tavern versus the rest in a race to become the town’s best bar. It doesn’t naturally lend itself to solo play.
Indeed, I was disappointed that neither Taverns of Tiefenthal nor its first expansion - Open Doors - include a solo variant (there’s only so many times one can force your friends and family to appease your pub building whims).
Thankfully, the folks at BoardGameGeek shared a link to an ‘official’ solo mode, apparently as designed by game creator Wolfgang Warsch, but seemingly never included in any official rules. Even more fortunately, some kind soul then translated it from the original German into English.
And thankfully, the solo variant plays very quickly - and nicely. There’s no ‘AI’ or competitor to go up against. You are the sole pub in the area and you’re playing for pride - how grand can your boozer be? Do you scrape through with a miserable sub-80 points and take the moniker ‘Little Dive Bar’, or do you gain plentiful royal patronage and come away as the King’s Haunt with a mighty 160+ points. And then, can you beat your score? And beat it again?!
The random element of playing another human is replicated by just removing some of the punters you can tempt each round and some forced re-rolling of (what may otherwise be very tempting) dice, and that aside, you’re essentially just playing the same game you played before.
Now, maybe it’s my obsession speaking, but the lack of competition is overcome here by the speed of play a solo variant allows. And that means those nagging questions of “what if I invested in an extra table, instead of a server” or “should I have upgraded my home brew, or my till” can be quickly addressed with a second, third, fourth round..
Until suddenly the landlord’s calling time, the staff are lifting the chairs up on the table and someone’s flashing the lights. It’s time for the fun to end - time to dismantle your little pubby jigsaw and pack away your pieces. Next time, maybe you’ll give the fortune teller a little more schnapps, or kick out the dog and get some waiting staff sooner. But for now, it’s time at the bar and time to move on…
