The award winning Village Board Game (in particular winner of Spiel des Jahres – 2012 Kennerspiel award) follows the cycle of life and death of villagers. It is a worker placement game with plenty of strategic, tactical elements to the gameplay. Each player will represent a family over 4 generations of workers looking to bring fortune, glory and honour to the family name.
Each player takes a turn on the board to undertake 1 action to further benefit their family, however bear in mind this is not always the case as it could lead to punishment. Over time, when benefiting from an action, you will gain influence, be able to purchase equipment and trade with merchants. These actions will gain you points and of course whoever has the most at the end of the game wins.
Beware of time – it never stands still in this game! You will need a strategy for this as there are certain actions that will cause time to move forward ageing your family workers and they will eventually end up dying of old age. When one family member does pass away the oldest generation worker is taken off the board and into the graveyard. However all is not lost, as they will go into the Village Chronicle and depending on their deeds during their lifetime and the legacy they have left will mean more points. Once one player’s family has entirely passed away, the game ends.
The game also ends if there are no cubes left. Cubes are used for when taking actions, as you take one of these each turn from different areas on the board. These areas are a market, a travel zone, a crafting zone, a church & a council house. Each area has several options for when undertaking actions e.g. in the crafting area you can get an ox, a horse, a cart, a plow, a scroll or convert wheat in to gold. Plenty of decisions to be made when playing this game!
You will also need to be tactical and take into account what other players may do and on occasions may need to play defensive to prevent them from gaining points. Plus watch out for the black cubes as they’re curses and could lead to the downfall of your family over time!
The game is for 2 to 4 players (from ages 12 upwards) and can be played within 60 to 90 mins. Do you have what it takes to lead your family to glory and leave a legacy for them? Available to buy here
For the latest board game news and releases follow us on Twitter and or Facebook. Plus you can subscribe to receive our latest blogs via RSS feeds.
Like our blogs? Please Retweet, Like or G+