CINQUE TERRE – the five villages
By Rio Grande Games
About the game
The Cinque Terre is a rugged, coastal section on the Italian Riviera and is composed of five villages. The villages are known for their beauty, culture, food, and proximity to one another. Produce carts are commonly found in each village marketplace. In this game of strategy, players compete to sell the most valuable produce in the five villages. Players act as farmers and operate carts in which they will harvest produce and deliver them to the five villages to sell. Additionally, players will compete for Produce Order cards, which reward Lire for selling desirable produce in specific villages. Players track sold produce in each village using their Fulfillment Cards. The winner is the player who gains the most Lire by selling valuable produce, gaining popularity in the villages and fulfilling Produce Orders.
Components: 1 game board, 16 dice (2 in 8 colors), 5 produce carts, 16 starting orders, 80 produce orders, 5 most popular vendor cards, 80 produce cards, 5 scoring markers, and 128 produce pieces (16 in 8 colors)
My Thoughts
The game is economic based which means that the players will learn to compete to sell the most valuable product in the villages. The Cinque Terre is a rugged, coastal section on the Italian Riviera and is composed of five villages. In each of these villages, you will fin a marketplace where you can place a cart to sell your produce.
The players acts as farmers and operate the carts where they sell their produce after harvesting it. Also, you will compete in order to get Produce Order cards which reward the most desirable product in specific villages. The winner of the game is the player who gains the most Lire by selling valuable produce, gaining popularity in the villages and fulfilling the orders.
The game can be setup quite rapidly and you can immediately jump into the play time. Basically, you will have to perform three actions each time it is your turn. With four actions possible, you will have to be wise in your decisions if you want to win. The 4 actions possible are:
- Move up to 4 spaces
- Draw 1 produce card – There are eight product cards – olives, funghi, agli, uva, zucchine, limoni, arance, and pomodori. Associated to each produce cards a special die of the same color can be used.
- Harvest produce
- Sell produce at a village market – you can sell any type of produce at any of the villages. Be aware that some produce are more profitable in certain villages.
It is possible to perform the same action more than one per turn. There are a lot of steps for this game in order for you to be able to win it. You seriously have to plan and think before playing your turn and discover what produce will sell better in which village. Through the game you will learn to place orders, meet the demands by fulfilling the expectations, and work hard in order to stand up above your opponents.
What I appreciate from the games I have reviewed so far with Rio Grande Games is the quality of them. I mean the board, the pieces included in it as well as all the parts important to the game are well done whether it is thick cardboard or wooden pieces. It’s worth it to pay more for a game that you know will last for a long time I find. There are definitively a lot of detailed thought in this game and the quality of the product offered to the player is above and beyond what you would expect.
The game is perfect for ages 13 and up, can accommodate 2 to 5 players and will last about 60 minutes.
If you are in the market of trying something different when it comes to gaming, I would strongly suggest that you check out Cinque Terre and other games from Rio Grande Games.
Cinque Terre is available at your favourite specialized games store, or on amazon.ca and amazon.com.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Rio Grande Games for sending me the above mentioned products for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.
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