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In 1811, free trade is declared for the harbor city of Valparaíso in Chile. A short time later, Chile proclaims its independence. As an influential citizen of Valparaíso, you want to push the development of your city, so you send merchants into the hinterland to get hold of important export goods and send your ships overseas to gain new achievements there.
To do well in Valparaíso, you must plan well ahead, keep an eye on your opponents, and react to their actions at short notice. Almost any action influences the other players by changing costs or trading possibilities. Each building of a house must be given a lot of thought, every trade must be well-timed. Whoever wants to change the order of their initial planning during the course of the game must pay a penalty, but if your plans aren't good enough, time will slip away — in the short run as well as in the long run. You all plan simultaneously, and the end of the game may come sooner than you've hoped!
For advanced players who like planning while pressed for time, the game includes a variant using a sand timer.
—description from the designer
- interesting programming mechanic and planning depth
- solid engine-building feel with multiple paths
- perceived sameness of turns; engine can feel repetitive
- some players felt the early game requires more setup and understanding
- economic/logistics planning with merchants
- programming/ordering of actions to build a trading/networking empire
- heavy programming-Euro with multi-step planning
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dual-action programming — start rounds by programming a sequence of actions facedown, then reveal and resolve
- map/city-building with chained actions — actions and cards enforce a chain of load-sail-trade sequences; efficient engines yield points
- merchants and trading — send merchants to locations to gain resources and trade for better cards
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is definitely a light style game
- I think it's actually easier to teach than the original Azul
- the randomness of the card draw is gonna be a turn-off for some people
- I am looking forward to exploring this one more
- this was the biggest disappointment of the convention for me
References (from this video)
- gorgeous artwork by Michael Menzel
- light to mid-weight euro
- very streamlined
- very approachable
- available June 26th worldwide
- Merchants and traders establishing places, getting resources, and training them out on the seas.
- City of Valparaiso
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Engine Building — Players build an engine with these cards, where playing one card might enable playing another.
- programmed actions — Cards played in front of the players are programmed actions. Players take actions based on the order they play these cards.
- Resource Management — Players get resources, train them out on the seas.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's like the number one selling game in the industry
- it's so familiar yet so different
- this guy is called bricks and this one I can call it probably not allowed to say it like in marketing really but it's like Tetris below and right
- Uwe Rosenberg one of the great designers in the world
- you don't want to draw well in this game you want to draw shuttling
- light to Midway euro with absolutely gorgeous artwork by Michael Menzel
- everyone I'll turn over this card and I'll take the action in your chore you're first gonna take an action so you're gonna build an engine with these cards
- we merge this past here in August of lashes so coming up on the one-year anniversary merged with Indy boards and cards