Viticulture Automa Rules

Playing Viticulture with friends can sometimes be difficult, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the game on your own. These rules will show you how to play Viticulture solitaire against a computer opponent known as the “Automa”.

Objective

Your goal is to have more victory points (VPs) than the Automa by the end of the game, which lasts for 7 years.

Game Setup

Start by setting up your own vineyard just like you usually would.

1. First, choose a color for the Automa player. This will determine where its victory point marker goes on the track.
2. Next, place a glass token on each row of the wake-up chart.
3. Now, shuffle the Automa deck and put it next to the wake-up chart.
4. If there are any visitor cards that only benefit you when another player takes an action, you can either remove them from the deck or keep them and redraw if you draw one.

The Game in Action

Alright, let’s talk about how this game actually works. Each season, we’ll be using the 2-player action spaces on the left side of the board.

Getting Started

When it’s time to place your rooster token, look for a space with a glass token. Put your rooster there and take the glass token off the board. Now, put the glass token next to your player mat – this becomes your bonus action token.

Oh, quick tip! The “Organizer” summer visitor card can’t move your rooster to the seventh row, just so you know.

The Automa Cards

Before each season where we need to place workers, we draw an Automa card from the deck. This card tells us how many Automa workers to put on the board for the current season – either none, one, two, or three.

By the way, the Automa cards have these cool colors that match the seasons on the extended board from the Tuscany expansion. It’s pretty neat!

When it comes to Viticulture, the colors yellow and green represent summer, while red and blue represent winter. If you’re playing with the Tuscany expansion, there are some actions marked with a “T” on the Automa card that are specific to that expansion. Don’t worry about those actions if you’re not using the Tuscany expansion.

The Automa workers in the game don’t actually take any actions or get any bonuses. They’re there just to block action spaces and simulate an opponent.

Extra Action Tokens

When you choose your wake-up time at the start of the year, take the glass token out of the slot and put it aside on your vineyard mat. You can collect these extra action tokens from year to year.

When you play the game, you have the option of spending one of your tokens each turn. This allows you to place one of your workers on the board. If you choose to do this, you must discard a Bonus Action Token. In addition to taking the action of placing your worker, you also gain the bonus action associated with that action. You can take the action and the bonus in any order.

End of the Year

At the end of the year, in addition to the usual end-of-year tasks, you must retrieve all of your Automa workers from the board.

End of the Game

The game ends after the 7th year. You win if your VP marker is ahead of the Automa VP marker. If both markers are on the same space, the game is a draw. If the Automa VP marker is ahead, you lose.

Here’s how it works: When it’s summer and I draw this card, I’ll place Automa workers on the “Draw @g.jpg”, “Build one structure”, and “Plant @g.jpg” actions, in that order. Remember, the order only matters if I’m playing on the hard or very hard difficulties. But if it’s winter when I draw this card, I’ll simply place one Automa worker on the “Make up to two wine tokens” action.

Let’s Play a Campaign!

Hey there! Did you know that you can add more excitement to the game by playing it in campaign mode? It’s a fun way to mix things up and make it even more challenging! The campaign mode is made up of eight different challenges, and you have to beat the Automa in each one to complete the campaign.

Now, here’s the exciting part: every time you lose a challenge, you get to give it another shot! And the best part? You’ll start the challenge again with a number of bonus action tokens in your hand. The number of tokens you get will be equal to the number of times you’ve lost in a row. So, don’t worry if you stumble a bit along the way – you’ll always have a chance to bounce back!

And here’s something really cool: your score is determined by the number of games you played to complete the whole campaign. The lower your score, the better you did! Sounds fun, right?

Now, let’s talk about the campaign challenges. They’re just like regular games, but with a little twist. Each challenge has a small tweak to the rules, which adds a whole new level of excitement and strategy to the game.

Here’s the order in which you should play the challenges:

I-O, buddy! Here’s the deal: instead of getting a Mama card, you get to pick any 3 plants and plant ’em during setup. No need to worry about the structure requirements for these 3 plants. After you’ve made your choice, shuffle the deck again.

Now, here’s the scoop: you can’t have more than 2 workers (excluding the grande worker or any bonus action tokens). Use the middle action spaces instead of the leftmost ones, unless you’re puttin’ your grande on a spot that’s already taken. And, just a heads up, you can’t use those bonus action tokens. Capiche?

1. You have to make sure you have six workers by the end of year 3 or else you lose the game.
2. Begin at . When you perform the harvest action, you can harvest up to three fields.
3. You are not allowed to use bonus action tokens. Play for eight years, and in each year, you can choose any row from the wake-up chart.
4. You do not earn victory points during the game. Instead, at the end of the game, you receive for each wine in your large cellar and for each wine in your medium cellar. If you play the aggressive variant, you should skip this part of the campaign.
5. Start at game7__.jpg and .

I’ve got some important information for you about playing the game Viticulture. When you’re playing solo, there’s one thing you can’t do – you can’t fill wine orders using visitors. But don’t worry, you can still use wine to earn victory points in other ways. And here’s a tip – you can redraw Mama cards that give you wine. Remember, it’s a good idea to keep this in mind while playing the game. Have fun!

Changing the Challenge

Levels of Difficulty

If you want to make the game more or less challenging, you can adjust the difficulty level. There are five options:

Very Easy: To make it easier, you can add an extra year to the game. This means you’ll have more time to complete your goals. Additionally, in this extra year, you have the advantage of being able to choose any wake-up chart row and receive a bonus action token. So, you have more flexibility and resources to achieve your objectives.

Easy: Just start at .

Normal: Alright, so here’s what you need to do. As I explained before, follow the guidelines I laid out for you.

Hard: Now, this is where things get a little trickier. Keep dealing out Automa cards and sending workers until the Automa has placed at least 2 workers in the current season. Make sure you place workers on all the spots listed on the extra cards, but be careful not to place them on actions that already have a worker. If you see the Automa place its sixth worker, that’s it, no more workers after that. And if you happen to run out of Automa cards, don’t worry, just shuffle the deck and keep going.

Quite challenging: Like the hard level, but the AI opponent begins with fewer resources, making it slightly easier to overtake their progress.

Spice It Up!

If you’re up for an intensified gaming experience, here’s a tip: you can crank up the tension by allowing the Automa to score victory points each year. Be careful, though – if you’re not ahead of the Automa by the end of the year, you’ll lose on the spot!

This thrilling “aggressive variant” is available at three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard. To get started, simply place the Automa VP marker on the designated spot of the VP track at the beginning of each year. Make sure you outperform this number by the end of the year to stay in the game!

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Automa VP Marker	-1	0	1	4	8	13	20