Vineta Board Game First Impressions

In Vineta you sink a city, save a bit and hope it’s the right one!

Save some houses. (The right houses, the rest can drown)

In Vineta, 2 to 6 players take on the roles of angry Norse Gods, seeking to sink the city of Vineta beneath a succession of pounding waves.

However, each player is secretly assigned one of nine city districts to protect. Likewise, each player secretly protects one color of houses.

By use of cards, players send waves against districts, joining together to sink them and moving houses in and out of threatened districts. At the end of each round, the district that has the most waves played against it — along with any houses in that district — are removed.

After eight rounds of play, only one district (and any houses it contains) will remain. Players score for houses claimed during the game, and bonuses are given to whoever was secretly protecting the remaining district and its remaining houses — if any.

The promo blurb describes the game very well.

here are 9 tiles that come together to make a city that is 3 layers of 3 tiles each. Each player has one of these secretly assigned to them.

You also get a secret colour of houses to look after

Placing Houses

You then take turns placing houses into one of the 9 areas until they are all out. The board looks like this.

Each player has an identical deck of cards. You pick one from your hand and all place then face down. The cards target one of the outer regions of the Island.

Card Resolution

Cards are flipped face up and resolved in player order. They mostly send waves of varying strengths at that Island segment. Some move houses out of danger, into danger and other abilities.

After the round ends the Island segment with the highest value of waves is destroyed and all the houses on it are washed away. The houses are split among the players that played cards to destroy that piece of Island.

The Island will start to come apart segment by segment…

Eventually, only one segment will remain which will signal the end of the game.

Players score points for houses claimed but more points for Houses of their colour left on the final Island piece and points if their Island segment is the one left standing.

Vineta Summary

It’s a cool game and one I’m always happy to play. I’m not sure I’ve worked it out yet. I haven’t tried Avalon-style banter to try and help my Island segment and Houses to survive. Next time I might let my mouth run a bit 🙂

I’m not sure I feel I have control over what is and isn’t going to happen. You can move houses away from your district to make it less valuable, or attack it with low cards so it looks like you want it to sink but it won’t…

Lot’s to try, more plays are needed! 🙂

Oh, the Instruction Book, while generally pretty good, has the wrong text for some action cards so you will need a cheat sheet.

Jesta ThaRogue