Wine Cellar

Hello. So, today I want to tell you about the game Wine Seller from 25th Century Games. This is one of their newest games. It was in a Kickstarter where they had four different games and it's now fulfilling. It also is making a Gen Con debut and is available for purchase in retail. I know from their website and I'm guessing wider as well.

Check your friendly local game store. Check your normal places. But this is a really fun bidding game for one to eight players. Lots of times in a bidding game, you don't get a solo option. So, I love that this has a solo option. You play against a player named Eno who you are trying to beat. And no, you do not need to know anything about wine to be able to play this game, which is good because I don't know a lot about wine.

But it is a fun auctiony puzzly game. So, I really adore it. So, based on player count, you are going to have a certain number of the different wine bottle cards. So three is probably the player count that I end up playing at most frequently. So in that case, you will have 27 wine bottles numbered 1 to 27.

And the reason that you have them numbered um in specific ways is one because you're bidding, but two, everybody is going to be given two client cards and you're going to keep one. So, you're going to look at them and decide which you want to go for. And you're going to score some bonus points at the end of the game for certain types.

There's different symbols on the cards that you can see and the bottles will match. And then also based on player count, you will score bonus points for the country of origin, which is also marked on the bottle. So, for example, you can see on this one here, it has that green kind of star symbol and it has this flag.

So, that would then match up potentially with your client. So, you need to use the cards numbered the way that that it tells you so that there's a good distribution and you don't end up picking a client that then for whatever reason isn't actually available in, you know, or evenly distributed amongst the bottles.

So, you have all these bottle cards. You are going to deal out each eight to each player because there are eight rounds and that is the end of the game once you have played all eight of your cards. And no, I wouldn't actually deal this way. I would deal out for real around the table. And then you will be left with four bottles.

And those are going to go in the center. And those are the first four bottles that are going to be bid on. And what you are actually doing is you are trying to build your best seller because that's where wine is stored. So, as you can see on a card, there are all these numbers down the side because you're going to store the bottles of wine like this.

You're going to be making eight bottles up and down. Apparently, storing bottles on their side is the best way to do it. Again, I don't know anything about wine. So, what this is telling you is that if this bottle were to be number one, you would score three points if it's number one out of your eight.

However, you can see if it's in some different positions, it's going to score you even more points. So, you're trying to get these bottles in the place where they will score you the most points. So, you look at what's on offer, you look at the cards in your hand, and you decide which card in your hand you want to use to bid.

Now, because this is a three-player game, we know our bottles are numbered 1 to 27. So, that helps you kind of know what numbers are out there, so you know how high or low your numbers might be. Starting out, I may not have a huge preference in what I get. So, maybe I'm just going to go with this one.

Everybody is going to bid their card. We all reveal and then in number order, I was three. I was last. Whoops. We should only have three bottles out here, not four. My bad. Because there's only three of us playing. We would take our bottles. So, this player maybe takes this one. This player's going to take this one.

And I get this one. So, I then will turn it on its side. Obviously, for round one, it just is right here. The three bottles that were used to bid are now what's up for auction next round. So, you also potentially have the ability to know what you're bidding and be like, hm, I'm going to throw this out there and I know I have a super high card, so I think I might be able to get that bottle of mine back on the next round.

So, you can play a little bit that way, too. So then play keeps going like that through the eight rounds. But how do we place our bottle? So this was the first bottle I got. So then the next bottle I get, I can decide if I want it to go on top or if I want it to go below. So let's say I put it there.

We do another round. I win another bottle because you're going to win a bottle every time. Here's where things start to get dicey. Do I want to put it on top or on bottom? I can never slip it in between two bottles that are already there. So, this is where when I keep adding things on top, bottles are now getting pushed down.

Or if I add it on the bottom, bottles are getting pushed up. So, these values could be constantly shifting as to where things are going. So, I need to be a little bit flexible when I place these, knowing that they could move around a little bit, that they're not necessarily set in stone. And then, like I said, once you have your eight bottles, that is the end of the game.

You will score up all of the points based on your bottles position 1 through eight. And it shows you right on there. You will then score any bonus points based on your client. Highest points wins. You can play this tournament style. So, if you want to play like best of three games, something like that, or like I said, there is a solo option.

So, you need to know nothing about wine in order to play this. It is a bidding game and it is an optimization game. two things that I love. I think the artwork is really fun and beautiful. I like the cards. I like the concept of the game. I like that there's a lot of simultaneous play. So, even at higher player counts, you're not going to be having a lot of lagging or a lot of downtime because everyone's deciding their card to bid.

You put it out. You take your cards in turn order onto the next turn. So, this is a great game to pull out that you can play quickly. You can easily say, "Let's play one more." I think it is really, really fun. I like that the cards you bid with are then the cards that are up for auction next round.

So, I am definitely enjoying Wine Seller. I think this is a great game and I love that it plays up to eight people for when you have those larger groups. So, I would love to know, have you played this? What are some of your favorite bidding games? Give me a like and a follow and I'll keep bringing you more board game content.

Thanks. Bye.