Review – Villages of Valeria

There’s a certain attraction to families of games out there, though it’s funny how there aren’t as many as you would think there are.

When I say “families,” I’m speaking of games that are based in the same universe, though the mechanics and style of each individual game is different.

There are the Garphill trilogies (I won’t use my usual gif there), and I’m sure there are others out there that I’m not thinking of.

These games use the same artist, ostensibly take place in the same type of world (or same section of it if we’re talking about the real world), and are generally related in some way, even if only by background.

One of the most obvious family of games is the Valeria family from Daily Magic Games, of which I have now played only four but there are many more out there to be tried.

There is, of course, Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria, which I have reviewed and really enjoyed, and two others that I haven’t played enough to review yet.

And then comes a perfect filler game that totally meets the needs of a worker with only an hour for lunch.

Villages of Valeria is a relatively quick card game of building up a new village in the Valeria kingdom in order to hopefully have it become the new capital city (which would be a huge shock to the inhabitants used to peaceful village life, I would think!)

It was designed by Rick Holzgrafe and Isaias Vallejo with artwork by Mihajlo Dimitrievski (who is also the only artist for the Garphill games trilogies…coincidence?). It was published by Daily Magic Games in 2017.

That’s the cool thing about the Valeria series of games: many of them are designed by different designers. It’s not all just the same two people.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that either, but the different perspectives in the Valeria series can make them seem really fresh.

What I really like about these games, or at least the four that I’ve played, is how different they are. Two of them are dice-drafting euros while the other two (including Villages) are card games, but with different mechanics that are quite interesting.

Villages gives a bit of a twist to the time-honoured “multi-use cards” mechanic that differentiates it a bit from others that I’ve played.

What do I mean?

Let’s take a look.

At first blush, Villages of Valeria is kind of a typical tableau-building game where you are building cards in front of you and once a certain number of cards are out there, the game ends.

The slight twist is that you don’t spend cards to build stuff.

Instead, you have to produce the resources and have the gold in order to build them.

You can see above how the buildings have a cost on the left side of the card.

But they also have a resource at the bottom of the card.

If you take the “Harvest” action (or follow it, more on that later), you can use one of the cards in your hand to represent a resource that you can then use later to build buildings.

The harvested resources go above your Castle and give you another place to put gold to build things.

Players will have a set amount of gold (starting with three) to spend on these resources when the Build action is taken.

You can also use open resources from your opponents (not their Castle, which provides a wild resource but you can only use your own). That does block them from using it later (until their turn, anyway), but it also gives them a gold because they keep it!

This dynamic is pretty cool because it limits you, forcing you to build up your economy a little bit before producing any of the big buildings, but you’re not having to spend the gold.

The gold on your resources comes back to you at the beginning of your turn, but that doesn’t help you during other players’ turns. Once it’s there, that resource is blocked from being used by anybody.

What’s that you say? Other players’ turns?

Yes, the same as many other classics like Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico, and San Juan, when it’s your turn, you choose an action and then others get to follow it for a lesser effect.

I take the Harvest action, allowing me to draw 3 cards?

Everybody else gets to draw a card (and all of us also activate any buildings of Adventurers with Harvest abilities).

I take the Develop action to add another resource to my Castle, discarding one card to do so?

You all can discard two cards and use another card as a resource for your Castle.

And activate any buildings/Adventures with Develop abilities.

The same applies to the Build action, but since you don’t get your gold back until your turn, if you’ve built on one player’s action, you may not have the gold/resources available to build on somebody else’s action before your turn comes around again.

All of the buildings will give you some victory points (even if sometimes that “some” equals zero, like the Tannery) and may also give you an effect, either an immediate effect or a bonus during different phases.

While the Tannery gives you 0 points, it gives you a much-needed gold as soon as it’s built.

Gold is worth one point at the end of the game, and you need it to build and hire Adventurers anyway, so that’s a huge building even though it doesn’t give you anything at the end of the game.

Another thing you can do on your turn (or if you follow somebody’s action) is hire an Adventurer if you have built the proper types of buildings to meet their requirements.

These Adventurers will give you some good points (usually) but also give you some great benefits as well.

The Adventurers that are available from the tavern will come out randomly just like the buildings, but they give you a little bit of a guide to what types of buildings you want to build.

If you like the idea of getting a gold and 3 points for the Mercenary, try to build a Soldier and Shadow building so you qualify for it.

This costs you a precious gold (2 if you’re following somebody else’s action), so you really have to decide if you want to do it.

But a lot of times it’s worth it.

And when I say “a lot,” I mean most of the time.

Though maybe not 2 gold.

I’ve always enjoyed the “take an action, everybody else can do a lesser version of it” mechanic, and it’s put to good use in Villages of Valeria, mainly because while it’s the same mechanic, it has some different effects.

This mainly shows in the “Tax” action, where the acting player gets a gold while other players just get to draw a card.

Cards can be valuable in the game, as they not only give you more building options but also more resource options.

As soon as somebody has added the last card to their tableau (Adventurer or building, as all count the same, and the total number required depends on player count), then the game ends immediately at the end of that person’s turn.

So even if it’s your turn and you end it, the other players get to follow your action before the game ends.

Essentially, the game is a balance of trying to get the resources you need out on your Castle and build buildings/hire Adventurers at a decent rate in order to score points or just end the game.

Sometimes people build really cheap buildings that have good effects but get no points just because they want to push the game end.

That can be a valid strategy, getting stuff out before others get their engine going.

But it doesn’t always work!

For a game that moves quickly, taking under an hour to play, this is the perfect fit for that. It’s fun, has some interesting card play, and a few cool decisions, mainly things like “do I need this building enough to give Vicki a gold to use her Wood resource? Or can I wait for it?”

That being said, the base game is kind of rote as you get nearer the end game and some of the decisions are pretty obvious.

Once you’ve developed 3-4 resources (depending on whether you’ve built any buildings that help you with resources), you’re never going to Develop again.

The game works great for that quick 30-45 minute time period, but it’s never going to be considered a meaty game without the expansions (review for those coming later).

At its base, it’s a comfortable game, one that never really outstays its welcome but also never really makes you glad that it stopped by for a drink and a chat.

It knows when to leave, but it doesn’t always know whether or not it was a good idea to visit in the first place.

It’s almost imperative to get at least one Adventurer hired because the points (and possibly abilities) are so good, so whatever’s in the market, you are trying to work towards.

That isn’t as interesting as it could be.

The game could use a bit more variety in ways to win, which the expansions do provide to some extent, but this is a review of the base game.

It’s nowhere near like Mama June after hot yoga, but it also will never be as sweet as Daffodil Daydream (50 gold pieces to whoever gets that reference!)

All in all, though, if you have 45 minutes to kill before your next game, or at the end of the night, or definitely at a work lunch, Villages of Valeria will do very nicely for you.

(This review was written after 13 plays)