Paladins of the West Kingdom is the second game in the West Kingdom series, following up the successful Architects of the West Kingdom. I bought Paladins at the recommendation from a friend without knowing anything about it and to be honest, I’m so bad at it I’m not sure I fully understand it to this day. There is a lot going on in this game and I don’t even know where to start explaining it.

Viticulture is a worker placement game that takes place over many years where each player competes to develop the most functional and profitable vineyard. There is a central board that has spaces for Summer actions and for Winter actions. In the Summer, the actions available typically focus on growing new crops, constructing buildings, and things of that nature. In the winter, you harvest and perform actions to increase profit. Each player starts with 3 workers but in the winter you can hire more workers who will permanently join your vineyard for the remainder of the game. Players with the most victory points at the end of the game win!

Wingspan has been one of my top games since its original release in 2019. At that time, I wasn’t incredibly familiar with the publisher, Stonemaier Games. I was aware of games like Viticulture and Scythe but I just hadn’t gotten around to playing them. I also had never heard of the designer, Elisabeth Hargrave, but to be fair, even the most hardcore board gamers had never heard of her either, as Wingspan was her first major game going into production.