Game Objective

In Viticulture: Tuscany Essential Edition, you take on the role of a winery owner in the Tuscany region. The objective is to create the most successful winery in the region, expanding your operations through all four seasons and spreading your influence across the map. The victory condition is achieved by accumulating victory points, with the winner being the player who has the highest score at the end of the game.

Preparation (Setup)

To set up the game, follow these steps:

• Game Board: Replace the original game board with the extended game board. Make sure it is on side 1 (side 2 is used specifically for the structures expansion).
• Player Components: Each player receives 6 markers of their color, their reserve of unbuilt structures, and untrained worker pieces.
• Wake-Up Chart: Place the first player token in the bottom right corner of the wake-up chart.
• Special Workers: Shuffle the 11 special worker cards and reveal 2 randomly on the table. Place a gray worker on each card to indicate the piece's shape. (In 2-player games, if the Innkeeper is drawn, discard it and draw another).
• Structures: If using the structures module, place a board extension to the left of your winery board and use side 2 of the game board to accommodate the structures deck.

Game Flow

The game progresses through years, each divided into four worker placement seasons. Turn order is determined by the wake-up chart.

1. Wake-Up Selection

At the beginning of the game, a rooster is drawn; its owner chooses their wake-up time, and selection proceeds around the table. You cannot choose the 1st row initially. In subsequent years, whoever chose the 7th row in the previous year must wake up 1st. When placing your rooster on the wake-up chart, you do not receive immediate bonuses; the position defines turn order and possible bonuses when transitioning between seasons.

2. The Four Seasons

Players place their workers in action spaces or private spaces. Each worker can only be placed once per year.

• Spring: Players place workers or pass to summer. When passing, they receive the bonus indicated on the wake-up track.
• Summer: Turns are taken in wake-up chart order using the yellow summer actions or private spaces.
• Autumn: When passing to autumn, you receive the column bonus. Buying a visitor card now depends on position: only those in rows 3-7 of the wake-up chart buy a card. Those with a cottage additionally buy a visitor card of their choice.
• Winter: When passing to winter, you receive the column bonus. The star icon allows you to place or move a marker on the influence map, and the age grapes action allows you to age markers in the crush pads.

3. End of Year Maintenance

When passing during winter, the following steps occur in this order:

1. Retrieve all workers (including the temporary worker).
2. Aging: Increase the value of all grape and wine markers by 1 (wines cannot move to unbuilt cellars).
3. Discard cards down to the 7-card hand limit.
4. Collect residual payments.
5. Choose the wake-up position for the next year.

Actions and How to Play

Extended Board Actions

• Influence Action (Place or Move): Allows you to place one of your 6 influence markers on the influence map to receive the immediate benefit of the region. Once placed, stars do not return to the reserve but can be moved (moving does not grant the immediate benefit).
• Trade Action: Replaces the "Sell Grapes" action. Allows you to trade one option (lira, cards, or a value 1 grape) for any other of the action's options. Grapes received in trade must be value 1.
• Sell a Wine Action: Discard a wine marker to receive corresponding victory points (only the type of wine matters, not the value).

Special Workers

When training a worker, you can pay 1 additional lira to obtain an available special worker on the table. Each player can only have one of each type. Examples of abilities:

• Farmer: Can receive any bonus from that action, even if the space has no bonus.
• Mafioso: If placed in a space without a bonus, can perform the action twice (respecting game rules).
• Cook: Can "push" an opponent's worker back to their reserve.
• Soldier: Opponents must pay the Soldier's owner to place a worker in the same action.
• Traveler: Can be placed in any action space from previous seasons of the same year.
• Messenger: Can be placed in a future season, using the action on the first turn of that season.

Structures

Built using the Build a Structure action, paying the cost and placing it on the construction board or an empty field. All give 1 VP when built. Types:

• Action Structures: Have a private action space with a cost and benefit.
• Improvement Structures: Provide a constant bonus.
• Residual Structures: Provide a bonus at the end of each year.

End of Game and Scoring

End Game Trigger: The game ends at the end of a year where a player has reached 25 victory points or more at the end of winter. All players must pass in winter before the final count.

Point Count:

• Influence Map: The player with the most influence pieces in each region receives the victory points listed in that region. In case of a tie in the region, no one receives the points.
• VP Track: The extended victory point track goes up to 40.
• Tie-breaker: The tie-breaker criterion is the amount of Lira.

Tips for Winning

• Influence Management: Use the Influence Action and action bonuses like Sell a Wine to dominate map regions, ensuring extra points at the end of the game.
• Worker Synergy: Choose special workers that complement your strategy, such as the Mafioso to double essential actions or the Cook to free up contested spaces.
• Wake-Up Positioning: Plan your position on the wake-up chart to ensure bonuses when passing seasons and buying visitor cards in autumn (rows 3-7).