Village is a historical-themed euro-style board game with a focus on resource management for 2-4 players, released in 2011. It is designed by Inka Brand and Markus Brand. [1] [2] [3]
The game won the 2012 Deutscher Spiele Preis and Kennerspiel des Jahres awards. [4]
In Village, players control the fate of a family and oversee their rise to prominence in their local village. Players begin the game with 4 family members and must manage resources, time, and the actions of other players to score the most ‘prestige points’ to win the game. [2]
The concept of death plays a major part in Village, with time being a spendable commodity. After spending a certain amount of time, players must choose a family member to pass away, beginning with their ‘oldest’ family members. Upon dying, family members are either immortalised in the village chronicle (which awards prestige points) or buried in anonymous graves. [5]
Each round of Village, a limited and varied number of resource cubes are placed on each of the game’s action spaces. Players take turns to pick up a cube and perform the corresponding action. The following actions are available: [5]
The game ends once either all the spaces in the village chronicle are occupied or all the anonymous graves are filled. The players tally up their prestige points from their various activities with the highest score winning the game.
In 2013, the first expansion for the game was released - Village: Inn. The expansion adds two new buildings to the game. The brewery allows players to craft a new type of goods, beer, while the inn allows players to influence villagers by spending beer or coins. 30 unique villager cards are included in the expansion, each with a different ability that benefits the player. The expansion also includes new customer tiles and the components to allow for a 5th player, alongside additional game pieces to accommodate the extra player. [2] [6]
In 2014, the second expansion for the game was released - Village: Port. The expansion replaces the travel action of the base game with a new action, sea travel. Upon activating the action, players can send their family members on ships to explore various islands. The players can then sell domestic goods, acquire foreign commodities, and dig up treasure chests. The expansion includes 15 unique captain cards who players must hire to pilot their ships. 4 new maritime-themed villager cards are included when combining both expansions. The expansion also includes new ‘life goal’ cards. Players are dealt two life goal cards at the beginning of the game and rewarded prestige points if they meet the requirements of the card at any point. [7] [8]
Multiple promos have also been released for the game:
In June 2022, it was announced that Village: Big Box would be released in early 2023. [9] The Big Box edition includes the base game, both major expansions, and all released promos. In addition, the edition includes a new ‘Marriage’ expansion which introduces new tools and actions and allows a player’s family members to get married for extra bonuses. It also introduces a new solo mode with additional materials to support this. [10]
Village: Big Box allows players to easily combine all extra material with the base game. This edition also features a new board design and completely new artwork, the latter of which sparked significant controversy among fans. [10]
Viktor Schulz, an editor at Eggertspiele, a board game publisher which published Village, composed a song for the game. Published on YouTube, he describes it as 'the official song' for Village. [11]
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