Viticulture: Bordeaux Expansion Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview
• Additional Setup
• Gameplay (New Elements as Compared to Viticulture and Tuscany)
• Expert Benefits
  • Spring Actions and Expert Benefits
  • Summer Actions and Expert Benefits
  • Fall Actions and Expert Benefits
  • Winter Actions and Expert Benefits
• Extended Board
• End-of-Year Upkeep
• Design Goals
• Automa (Bordeaux Solo Mode)
  • Components
  • Goal
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
    • Wake-Up Chart
    • Automa Cards and Worker Placement
    • Automa Actions
    • Empty Automa Deck
    • Year End
    • Bonus Action Tokens (BAT)
  • Difficulty Levels
  • Pacing Variant

Components

• 1 game board
• 24 cubes (4 in each player color)
• 6 reference cards

The solo mode components are listed in the Automa rulebook (see the Automa section at the end of this document).

Overview

Bordeaux uses the same core rules, goals, and winemaking process as Viticulture. On your turn, you will either place an available worker on any action space available for your player count* or pass to the next season. The goal is to have the most victory points (VP) at the end of the game, with 25 VP triggering the end of the game.

The Bordeaux board is completely compatible with all other Viticulture expansions (with the exception of Viticulture World, which has its own board). There is no specific way to draw structure cards (from Tuscany), but there are multiple ways to draw 1 of any card.

Bordeaux has a similar format to the Tuscany expansion, with key differences noted below. If you are not familiar with Tuscany, skip ahead to the Extended Board section.

* 2 players only use the leftmost action space, 3–4 players only use the middle and leftmost action spaces, and 5–6 players use all action spaces.

Additional Setup

1. Board: Place the first-player token at the lower right of the wake-up chart. After shuffling the decks, reveal 2 vine cards and 2 wine order cards (these cards are not eligible to be drawn during setup). Note: If you play with structure cards, keep them in a single face-down deck like the visitor cards.

2. Players: Each player only starts with only a 6-value field. The other two field cards start with the "sold" side face up. Each player also starts with 4 cubes in their player color and 1 reference card. In addition to the starting benefits from red and blue cards (previously known as mamas and papas), each player also starts with the following (gain all setup benefits in any order):

   • (3 coin icon): £3
   • (2 grape icon): A 2-value grape (choose red or white)
   • (1 wine icon): A 1-value wine token (choose red or white)
   • Residual level 1

   If playing with structure cards (from Tuscany): After gaining the above benefits, shuffle the structure cards and place the deck near the board. Each player draws 4 structure cards, chooses 1 to keep, then passes the remaining cards clockwise. Repeat until all players have chosen 4 structure cards. Each player also gains a construction mat.

3. Initial player order: Randomly select a player to choose a row of the wake-up chart (spring column) with their rooster token, then continue clockwise for initial wake-up order selection. No one can select the first row of the wake-up chart (as no one has the first-player token). There are no benefits to gain when placing your rooster token in the spring column.

Gameplay (New Elements as Compared to Viticulture and Tuscany)

1. Face-up cards on the board: There are always 2 vine cards and 2 wine order cards available. They are eligible to be drawn at any time that you can draw those card types. The top card of the deck is still also available. If you draw a face-up card, replace it immediately. The vine and wine order discard piles hang halfway off the top edge of the board.

2. Residual track: Whenever you cross from 2 to 3, from 4 to 5, or from 6 to 7, immediately gain 1 VP. These VP are each one-time instant benefits, not benefits gained at the end of every year. In the rare cases where you lose a residual (e.g., taking you from 3 to 2), you do not lose the VP, and you can then gain the VP again.

3. Wake-up chart: The icon in the top row of the wake-up chart (the all-players icon) means "all players" (including you). There are also icons for aging 1 (or all) grapes and 1 (or all) wine tokens, an icon to refresh the face-up cards (discard all the face-up cards and replace them with cards drawn from the deck), icons to draw 1 of any card (including structure cards if you're playing with them), and an icon for retrieving 1 of your regular workers from the fall season (if you don't have a regular worker placed on the board in the fall, nothing happens), and an option in the last row to choose between drawing any card or gaining 1 VP.

   The wake-up chart is shown below as printed. Rows 1–7 and four seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). Icon key from the printed chart: 1 = vine card, 2 = wine order card, 3 = summer visitor card, 4 = winter visitor card, 5 = any card.

   Row	Spring	Summer	Fall	Winter
   1	No benefit (see Initial player order)

End of game: The game ends at the end of the year when a player has reached 25 or more VP before they pass out of the winter season. All players complete the end-of-year steps (including gaining residuals). Convert wine and grapes to lira (each wine token for its value and each grape token for its sale price), then every £10 becomes 1 VP. There is no maximum VP limit.

If playing with structure cards (from Tuscany): Structure cards can be gained during the game via the gray "any card" benefit. If you draw a structure with a star, discard it and draw another.

Expert Benefits

If your cube is on an expert and you take the corresponding action, you may gain the expert benefit. You may use them at any time while taking the corresponding action (as is the universal rule in Viticulture, you must actually take the action if you place a worker on it). Experts do not apply when gaining similar versions of action benefits via visitor cards.

The following sections explain the expert benefits for each action. These benefits apply every time you take the action. Unless explicitly stated, gain the benefit at most once on your turn (e.g., if the expert benefit says, "Pay (grape) to gain a grape of value 2," you may do this exactly once on your turn).

Spring Actions and Expert Benefits

• Draw one vine (vine card): Pay £X to gain a grape of value X.
• Give tour to gain (2): Gain £1 per worker here; this applies to your worker(s) and any other workers on this action.
• Pay (2) to hire an expert: Gain any 1 exposed bonus on the chosen action (i.e., the action where you are placing an expert token). Any exposed bonus on the chosen action is eligible (not just for your player count). This even applies on the turn when you first hire this expert.
  • Note that gaining a bonus is not the same as taking an action, so the expert benefit on the chosen action has no effect as the result of this expert benefit.
• Make one trade: Before this action, you may remove 1 trade token. Do this once on your turn before making any trades (e.g., you can't use the bonus action space to make a trade, remove a token, then make that same trade).

Summer Actions and Expert Benefits

• Play one summer visitor (summer visitor card): If you only play 1 summer visitor (as opposed to playing 2 total via the bonus), you may change instances of "or" on the card to "and" (whether or not "OR" is upper- or lower-case on the card).
  • If a card specifies that you choose a specific number of options (e.g., "choose 1"), you are still limited to that number.
  • If a card presents two options and allows you to "do both" if you pay a cost, the cost is negated by this expert.
• Buy or harvest one field: Gain 1 residual.
• Pay to build one structure: You may build 1 or 2 structures (pay for both). If you own 4–6 structures, gain 1 VP; if you own 7 (or more) structures, gain 2 VP instead.
• Plant one vine (vine card): Ignore 1 prerequisite (e.g., ignore the Trellis requirement on vines you plant this turn). If you own 4–6 planted vines, gain 1 VP; if you own 7 (or more) planted vines, gain 2 VP instead.

Fall Actions and Expert Benefits

• Draw one wine order (wine order card): Discard X cards from your hand to gain a wine token of value X.
• Harvest up to two fields (field icon): Gain a different exposed bonus here per harvested field. There are 3 different bonuses on this action. You'll gain 1 of them if you place a worker on an action space (e.g., draw a winter visitor), so if you harvest 1 field, you will then gain a different bonus (e.g., 1 VP); if you harvest 2 fields, you will gain the remaining bonus as well (e.g., age 1 grape). You can gain the extra bonuses after each field is harvested (e.g., you may harvest 1 field, gain the "age 1 grape bonus," then harvest a second field).
• Make up to two wine tokens (grape icon): You may combine grapes of the same type to make wine tokens; gain 1 VP if you do. That is, you can combine a 2-value red grape and a 5-value red grape to make a 7-value red wine token. If you do this at least once, gain 1 VP (this does not apply to making sparkling wine, which requires 2 red grapes and 1 white grape).
• Pay (1) to take any action: You must refresh all face-up cards to gain 1 VP. Discard the face-up vines and wine orders from the board, then reveal replacements from their decks.

Winter Actions and Expert Benefits

• Play one winter visitor (winter visitor card): If you only play 1 winter visitor (as opposed to playing 2 total via the bonus), you may change instances of "or" on the card to "and" (whether or not "OR" is upper- or lower-case on the card).
  • If a card specifies that you choose a specific number of options (e.g., "choose 1"), you are still limited to that number.
  • If a card presents two options and allows you to "do both" if you pay a cost, the cost is negated by this expert.
• Pay (4) to train a worker: You may place the worker in spring or summer now. The action space you choose must be available for the player count; take the action and gain the bonus (if any).
• Sell one wine token (wine token): If the wine token you sell was in your medium cellar, gain £2. If it was in your large cellar, gain 2 VP.
• Fill one wine order (wine order card): You have an extra action space that you can use to take this action. Its bonus is to increase your residual level. Reminder: In Viticulture you can only choose an action if you perform that action.

Extended Board

You only need to read this section if you're unfamiliar with the extended board concepts first introduced in the Tuscany expansion.

On your turn, you will either (a) place a worker on an action in the current season or a private action space, or (b) pass into the next season. When you pass from season to season, you gain a benefit as shown on the wake-up chart, based on the position you chose for the current year.

After you pass, you cannot take another action until all other players have also passed. At that point, the player highest on the wake-up chart takes the first turn in the new season, followed by each player below them in order.

Illustration caption: Player 1 and player 4 have already passed into fall and taken their benefits. Player 2 and player 3 are still taking turns in summer. When player 2 passes into fall, they age all their grapes once. When player 3 passes, they gain a winter visitor card.

When you pass out of the winter season, immediately perform the 5 steps from right to left as indicated under the wake-up chart: Retrieve workers, then Age grapes and wine, then Discard to 7 cards, then Collect residual payments, then Choose wake-up position.

The gain (£1) space is always available to multiple workers, and is not limited to the winter season.

Note: The back of the board features the original Viticulture board (which you can recycle) with the option to follow the rules for face-up cards on the board (see Gameplay, item 1). It includes supply areas for glass tokens and coins.

End-of-Year Upkeep

When you use your turn to pass out of winter (which you may do even if you have workers remaining), immediately do the following in this order:

1. Retrieve your workers (including the temporary worker if you controlled it this year). This can open up action spaces in the winter for players who have not yet passed.
2. Age grapes and wine. Increase the value of all grape and wine tokens by 1. Wine tokens may not move into cellars you haven't built.
3. Discard down to 7 cards in hand.
4. Collect residual payments.
5. Choose your wake-up position for the upcoming year. You no longer pass the first-player token (grape cluster) for wake-up selection (the token no longer serves a purpose other than to remind the player who woke up 7th the previous year to now wake up 1st).

Design Goals

• Gaining a faster start and shorter games (especially at 5–6 players)
• Creating better bonus options at 2 players
• Giving players more agency (specifically for card draw)
• Providing greater incentive to use the winemaking process
• Increasing the impact of coins on engine-building and victory
• Decreasing the viability of repetitive, non-winemaking strategies
• Adding a compelling alternate path to gain more workers
• Adding opportunities for positive player interaction
• Providing players with an end-game reward for excess coins, grapes, wine, etc.
• Making more actions relevant later in the game

Automa (Bordeaux Solo Mode)

This rulebook replaces the Viticulture Automa solo rules when playing with the Bordeaux board expansion. These Automa rules are also compatible with the Special Workers and Structures modules from the Tuscany expansion.

Source: the official English Bordeaux Automa rulebook (ViBordeaux_AutomaRulebook_r3.pdf), appended to this document as its own section. Its credits block, designer and playtester lines, and newsletter notice are omitted.

Components

24 Bordeaux Automa cards.

Goal

You are playing a 2-player game against an artificial opponent called the Automa. Your goal is to have more victory points (VP) than the Automa at the end of the game, which consists of 6 years.

Setup

Use the 24 Bordeaux Automa cards instead of those provided with Viticulture. Shuffle the cards to form a face-down deck.

Set up your own vineyard as usual.

For the Automa, instead do the following:

• Choose a player color and give the Automa 6 workers (including its grande worker) and 4 cubes.
• Place the Automa's VP marker on the 30 VP space of the victory point track.
• Place 1 glass token on rows 2–7 of the wake-up chart.
• Remove all visitor cards that only give you a benefit if another player takes an action. Alternatively, you may leave them in the decks and redraw when you draw one of them.
• If you are playing with Structures and/or Special Workers from the Tuscany expansion:
  • Place the Automa's VP marker on the 34 VP space of the victory point track.
  • Special Workers: Remove the following special workers from the game: Chef, Innkeeper, Mafioso, Merchant, and Soldato. If you have the Special Workers Promo Cards, also remove: Apprentice, Martyr, and Storyteller.
  • Structures: Draw 4 structure cards. Keep 2 and discard 2.

Gameplay

Wake-Up Chart

Place your rooster token as usual except that you may only place it on a space where there is a glass token. Contrary to the multi-player rules, after selecting row 7, you do not select row 1 the following year.

Remove the glass token and place it beside your player mat. This becomes a bonus action token (BAT). You may accumulate these from year to year.

Note: The "Organizer" summer visitor card action cannot move your rooster to row 7.

Automa Cards and Worker Placement

The colors on the Automa cards correspond to the 4 seasons on the Bordeaux board.

At the beginning of each season where you are to place workers, first draw 1 Automa card from the deck. Then place either 0, 1, or 2 Automa workers on action spaces on the board in the current season, as indicated on the top half of the Automa card.

The Automa grande worker is treated as a regular worker. The Automa workers do not actually perform actions or gain bonuses except as described in the Automa Actions section below.

If the Automa only has 1 worker at the beginning of winter, place that worker on the topmost winter action space shown on the Automa card (if any). If the Automa has no workers left, it doesn't place any.

Example: If you draw this card during spring, place Automa workers on give tour to gain (2) and make one trade. If you draw this card during summer, no Automa workers are placed.

Automa Actions

After placing the Automa worker(s) for the season, add the following associated step for these actions, if applicable:

• Draw (vine card): Refresh the vine cards.

• Draw (wine order card): Refresh the wine order cards.

• Make one trade: Place 3 trades. Draw 1 Automa card and, using the placement grid at the bottom of the card, place up to 3 glass tokens onto the trade area of the board, as follows:

  • Ignoring the colors in the placement grid, the 4 by 6 grid corresponds to the 4 rows and 6 columns of the trade area on the board.
  • For each white disc (glass token icon) on the card's grid, place a glass token in the corresponding space of the trade area, if possible. If the space is already blocked, nothing happens.

  Example: If you drew this card, the Automa would place glass tokens on each of the 3 spaces of the trade area, as shown.

• Hire an expert (2): Place 2 experts. Draw 1 Automa card and, using the placement grid at the bottom of the card, place up to 2 cubes onto expert spaces on the board, as follows:

  • The colors in the placement grid represent the seasons and the 4 by 4 colored grid corresponds to the 4 actions from top to bottom of the board, for each of the 4 seasons.
  • For each (purple cube icon) on the card, place 1 of the Automa's cubes in the expert space for the corresponding action, if possible. If the space is already blocked or if the Automa has no more cubes, nothing happens.

  Example: If you drew this card, the Automa would place cubes on the (2) build one structure and (4) train actions, if possible.

Empty Automa Deck

If you ever need to draw an Automa card and the deck is empty, reshuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.

Year End

In addition to the usual end-of-year upkeep, retrieve all Automa workers from the board and return them to the Automa's supply.

Bonus Action Tokens (BAT)

When placing your worker, you may spend 1 BAT to take 1 of the bonuses of that action except for the bonus (if any) of the space you placed the worker on. If you gain 2 bonuses this way, you may gain them in any order.

Further, you cannot spend a BAT to gain the rightmost (5–6 player) bonus.

Note: For (1) take any action you cannot spend a BAT to gain a bonus of the selected action.

Example: You place your worker (1) on the action space to take the action and gain a winter visitor as a bonus. You may also spend 1 BAT to gain the age 1 grape bonus. You cannot choose the winter visitor bonus a second time.

Example: The Automa has placed a worker (2) on the action space. As usual, you may place your grande worker (3) on the action space. Then, you may spend 1 BAT to gain the winter visitor or age 1 grape bonus.

Difficulty Levels

You can play against the Automa on 5 different difficulty levels:

• Very easy: Add a 7th year. In this 7th year you may choose any wake-up chart row and you gain 1 BAT from the supply.
• Easy: You start at 3 VP.
• Normal: As described in the rules above.
• Hard: Immediately following setup, draw 1 Automa card and, using the placement grid at the bottom of the card, place 3 glass tokens onto the trade area of the board and 2 cubes on the expert spaces for the corresponding actions. Each season, the Automa must place at least 1 of its available workers. Until it has or has none available, draw another Automa card and place the Automa workers normally.
• Very hard: Same as the hard difficulty level, but the Automa starts at 36 VP (39 VP if you are playing with Structures and/or Special Workers).

Pacing Variant

If you want to add tenseness to the game, you can have the Automa score VP each year and if you're not ahead of it at the end of a year, the Automa will gain extra VP towards its final score.

This variant may be played at easy, normal, and hard difficulty levels.

Setup: Place the Automa's VP marker on the 27 VP space of the victory point track. If you are playing with Structures or Special Workers, place it on the 31 VP space.

For each of the 6 years, place 1 or 2 glass tokens on the indicated VP space, as shown in the following table:

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Year 6
Viticulture only: VP space	0	2	6	11	19	27
Viticulture only: glass tokens	1	1	2	2	2	2
With Structures and/or Special Workers: VP space	0	3	8	14	23	31
With Structures and/or Special Workers: glass tokens	1

End of year: At the end of each year, compare your VP marker to the glass tokens for that year. If your VP marker is further, return the glass tokens to the supply. Otherwise, place them at the end of the VP track.

End of game: The game ends at the end of the 6th year. The Automa gains 1 VP for each glass token at the end of the VP track. Determine the winner as usual.

End of Game

The game ends at the end of the 6th year. You win if your VP marker is ahead of the Automa's VP marker. If the Automa is ahead, you lose. If they're on the same space, you share the victory.