One of the toughest games for me to leave off this list was Agricola, the granddaddy of all worker placement games. I deeply love Agricola, as does my wife. But Agricola is ruthless, a game that you don’t really win, you just barely don’t lose. Nowadays, when I want to send my little meeples to farm grain, I reach for Village.
Village is one of the most pleasant worker placement games I’ve ever enjoyed, despite the fact that the most intriguing mechanic involves death. Players take turns sending the members of their family around the village, selling goods, manufacturing horses (I guess), and exploring the world. They can also go to church, become involved in city government, and have a baby in the center of town. We don’t judge. This is all well done, but Village becomes really interesting because your family members, having had a long career of assembling cows, will eventually die.
And that’s okay. If they die in the right spot, they’ll be entered into the village chronicle, remembered for all time as the cow assembler who netted her family some sweet victory points. But the number of spaces for each job in the chronicle is limited, leading to some strange choices.
“Oh, crap, Aunt Hildy’s about to die.”
“At church? EVERYONE dies at church!”
“Okay, ummm, crap, well, let’s send her wandering into the wilderness to die! That’s much better.”
Village is a charming, beautifully designed game that hides an oddly morbid fascination with death, which is a oddly delightful sales pitch. It’s become my go-to worker placement when I want to have a nice night of killing Grampa at the horse factory.
- Dietrich Stogner
Village is one of the most pleasant worker placement games I’ve ever enjoyed, despite the fact that the most intriguing mechanic involves death. Players take turns sending the members of their family around the village, selling goods, manufacturing horses (I guess), and exploring the world. They can also go to church, become involved in city government, and have a baby in the center of town. We don’t judge. This is all well done, but Village becomes really interesting because your family members, having had a long career of assembling cows, will eventually die.
And that’s okay. If they die in the right spot, they’ll be entered into the village chronicle, remembered for all time as the cow assembler who netted her family some sweet victory points. But the number of spaces for each job in the chronicle is limited, leading to some strange choices.
“Oh, crap, Aunt Hildy’s about to die.”
“At church? EVERYONE dies at church!”
“Okay, ummm, crap, well, let’s send her wandering into the wilderness to die! That’s much better.”
Village is a charming, beautifully designed game that hides an oddly morbid fascination with death, which is a oddly delightful sales pitch. It’s become my go-to worker placement when I want to have a nice night of killing Grampa at the horse factory.
- Dietrich Stogner
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