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When I first came across Village, and what initially seemed a rather dry theme, I thought this might be dull, then again I initially thought a game about farming would be dull – how wrong I was on both counts.
At heart Village is a worker placement game, each player takes on the role of a family trying to become the most prominent in the village. Family members can work in various areas, at home in the farm, in the church, as a travelling merchant or craftsman, in the village hall, and there are also options to trade and to bring future generations into play.
There are two forms of resources in the game, the first being wooden cubes of five different colours and the second being produce. Generally speaking, the cubes are gained by activating or placing a worker in an area and spent to obtain produce such as oxen, wagons, ploughs, grain and so on. Management of these two resources, the cubes and produce is essential.
Then there is a matter of time. What makes Village unique as a worker placement game is the concept of time and that as time passes workers die. Almost every action costs time and as time passes the earlier generations of the family pass on. The successful, those who die first in the right place, enter the Village Chronicle and become part of the history of the village, the unsuccessful are consigned to the grave and are forgotten.
There is a delicate balance here, when workers die they no longer give the benefit of being in play, but if they enter the Village Chronicle they are a long term investment in terms of victory points. It is a balance, and one your fellow players will be watching and trying to make the most use of especially since there are a limited number of available spaces in the Village Chronicle.
Winning is determined by victory points. There are numerous ways, both short and long term, to accumulate victory points. This leads to players having the option of various strategies in play and often these will change or develop as play progresses. As such no two games will be alike as players respond to the opportunities presented on the game board.
Contents
Village is unashamedly a high production quality Euro game. The board is sturdy, colourful and thematic. All components are good quality, the counters are thick stock. The rule book is concise, colourful and well written with play examples.
My one possible gripe is the need to add numeric stickers to the wooden worker pieces, but this really is minor. Everything in the game fits the theme beautifully.
Gameplay
Play is fairly fast, intuitive, interactive and immersive. Each player has their own farm upon which new workers will enter play, grain and coin are stored, and the farm has a time track. The main game board is divided into various areas, including a Church, a Council Chamber, a Market, and so on.
Each turn a number of coloured wooden cubes are placed on the board, and then in turn each player selects a cube and takes an action set by where on the board the cube was taken. So, for example, if the cube was taken from the Village Hall, an action can be taken in the Village Hall, and when the cubes at the Village Hall are gone no further actions can be taken there this turn.
Similarly if the cube was taken from the Craft Area, then an action can be taken in the Craft Area where there are a number of different possible actions, but most of these are geared towards produce.
As mentioned earlier, pretty much every action costs time, so with each action the time marker progresses, and when it passes a fixed point on that players farm one of his workers must die. When all the cubes have been removed from the board that particular turn is over, bar the possibility of a few victory points from Mass the church.
The board is then restocked with cubes and the game continues. The game ends when one of two conditions are met; the Graveyard becomes full or the Village Chronicle becomes full. When this happens the remainder of the turn is played through, and then there is a final scoring round.
Expansions
- Inn – Adds two new buildings, the Brewery and the Inn, and expands the game to five players.
- Port – Adds shipbuilding and sailing the seas, and is fully compatible with Village Inn and the five player game.
There are also two small customer expansions, each adding four new customers to the Trade area. The Inn and Port expansions fit very well with the game both in a thematic sense and play sense, and are of the same high production value. They are far from essential, but do add some interesting new challenges.
Design
Not only is Village beautiful to look at, it is amazingly elegant. The time mechanic adds something unique to what is a worker placement game with elements of resource management. Manipulating time in order that your workers die at the right and place is important. Then again so is manipulating turn order, collecting the right cubes, crafting the right produce and making the most of all those different ways of getting victory points.
Whilst Village is easy to pick up and learn, and beautifully balanced, there is a lot of depth and a lot of possible strategies. Everything is on the board and visible, so play tends not to suffer from decision paralysis. The random element comes mostly from the drawing and placing of the coloured cubes on the board, it’s probably about the right amount of random, it does create the dilemma of balancing a desirable cube against a desirable action.
Final Thoughts on Village
Village is an excellent worker placement game with high production values. It has a unique time mechanic which really brings the game to life (and death). It is fairly easy to learn and does not have the decision paralysis problem that some worker placement games can have.
Village is one of those rare multiplayer games that scales well to two players. Play is challenging, immersive and a whole load of fun.
Design
Not only is Village beautiful to look at, it is amazingly elegant. The time mechanic adds something unique to what is a worker placement game with elements of resource management. Manipulating time in order that your workers die at the right and place is important. Then again so is manipulating turn order, collecting the right cubes, crafting the right produce and making the most of all those different ways of getting victory points.
Whilst Village is easy to pick up and learn, and beautifully balanced, there is a lot of depth and a lot of possible strategies.. Everything is on the board and visible, so play tends not to suffer from decision paralysis. The random element comes mostly from the drawing and placing of the coloured cubes on the board, it’s probably about the right amount of random, it does create the dilemma of balancing a desirable cube against a desirable action.
Final Thoughts on Village
Village is an excellent worker placement game with high production values. It has a unique time mechanic which really brings the game to life (and death). It is fairly easy to learn and does not have the decision paralysis problem that some worker placement games can have.
Village is one of those rare multiplayer games that scales well to two players. Play is challenging, immersive and a whole load of fun.
