It’s that time of the year when our eyes are bigger than our wallets. It’s crowdfunding season! To stand out from the crowd, board game companies have learned to make splashes and be different. One of those companies is 25th Century Games, a board game publisher out of Atlanta that has a nice of small(er) box games that we have covered frequently here in the Gumbo.
Chad Elkins is the owner of 25th Century Games, and he has hit upon an idea of late that rises above the crowdfunding noise. Chad is launching a project for not one, not two, but four board games right out of the box. We’ve previewed Big Sur already, so let’s look at another offering.
The game we are previewing today has a thematic setting that was easy to excite us. Viticulture has long been one of our top games, mainly because it integrates the theme of making wine so well with its worker placement mechanism, especially if you play with the Visitors From The Rhine expansion.
Clearly, we like wine.
Next up from 25th Century? How about a wine collecting card game? Wine Cellar is a game for one to eight players that distills a bigger auction-and-set-collection game into just twenty minutes. It’s going on Kickstarter this month, along with Big Sur, Grand Central Skyport, and Sand Art.
In Wine Cellar, players are dealt out a hand of eight cards, each representing a particular type of wine from a particular country. My favorite wine producing regions are represented (France, Spain, America, etc.) as well as most of the tastiest types of wines. Each card has a strength, which is used to be able to outbid the other players to get one of the wine bottles available in the table auction each round.
The trick is that after the players secretly make their bids with a wine bottle card from their hand, and then in strength order pick the wine bottles from those on the table, the wine cards used in the bid become the next biddable market. That definitely adds some spice to the usual type of auction. You might be tempted to bid high every chance you can, but remember, do you really want to be stuck in the last few rounds with nothing but low cards?
Of course, that’s the “how”, but it’s the “why” that is more important in this game. We are bidding on these cards because we will put the auctioned off wine bottles ‘in storage’ (meaning in our tableau). That auction brings more twisty little tricks into play. The bottles that represent your collection each have a unique scoring value, but each wine battle varies in points from 1-8, with every number being represented on each card. The trick is that the score number on the card corresponds to where in the bottle storing order the card finishes.
But we can manipulate that order, and that’s the fun of the game. When you draft a card (except for the first round), you have a tough but simple decision. You’ll either put the bottle above another bottle, or below the other bottle.
Sounds simple, right? It’s not.
Let’s say your French wine scores seven points if it is in the fourth position or eight points if it is in the seventh position. Obviously, you will want to manipulate the placement of the wine bottles to ensure that your French bottle maximizes their potential earnings, getting at least seven points. But it is harder than it looks, because upon purchasing the bottle, you must immediately put the wine bottle you collect either above or below a previously played wine bottle.
And of course, it wouldn’t be euro-based card game if it didn’t have one more little twist. Each player gets a card representing secret collecting goals, called “client bonuses”. Players might get bonus points for collecting Spanish bottles, or bonus points for collecting bottles filled with white wine or red wine, for instance. It creates an internal fight, even in the space of the few seconds you’ve got to decide your bid, as to whether you are going to focus on your bottle placement points or focus on those client bonuses. I haven’t played it enough to know which one consistently gives a better outcome, but that’s part of the fun here, the discovery of the best way to score points.
Designer Andrew Stiles has successfully aged this game down to its essential parts: Auction. Collect. Score. The gorgeous painted art from Vincent Dutrait, with nary a top hat in sight, elevates the production immensely. If I had one picayune quibble, it’s the weird shape of the wine cards. They are very narrow and very long, so a little awkward to shuffle, but on the other hand, they fit the theme perfectly and have plenty of room to show all of the important elements of the scoring of each card. Gotta give the production design team some kudos there. (We played with a pre-campaign production copy that may not be final in terms of the look or rulebook, so keep an eye out for more details during the campaign.
I love finding games that accommodate high player counts and play super quickly. Wine Cellar fits that bill. It gave me the vibe of playing For Sale! but with a fresh theme and a way faster auction mechanic. And it is so easy to play. The version that we received (remember these photos are of the game pre-campaign, so there may be some changes to the production in the interim between the project and its final delivery) did not have any “lagniappe” per se, but knowing that there are four solid games that are part of this Kickstarter delivery means to me that the lagniappe comes in all of the choices that you get when backing.
In our last play, a three person play, we were able to chat about the game and our strategy even while playing. Sure, you’ve got a handful of cards to review, and multiple (and in some cases, kind of competing) goals to meet. But there is essentially just two relatively quick decisions to make — how strong of a wine do I need to use to get one of the cards that I want from the auction, and do I put the winning wine bottle above or below one of the previously played cards.
Plus, the game is a cinch to teach. You’ll go over the rules and play the first hand before your best friend works the cork off of that Bodegas El Nido Clio Jumilla you’ve been saving for just this special occasion.
I mean, game nights can’t be just about boudin and Abita root beer, can they?
Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo
Board Game Gumbo 
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