Cinque Terre
The Cinque Terre are five coastal villages in the Liguria region of Italy known for their beauty, culture, food, and proximity to one another. Produce carts are commonly found in each village marketplace.
In Cinque Terre, a game of strategy, players compete to sell the most valuable produce in the five villages. Players act as farmers and operate a cart 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 Lira points 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.
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Cinque Terre is a simple pick up and deliver game in which you take on the role of a fruit and veg trader in Italy.
So how do you play?
The Cinque Terre board shows a map of 3 farms and 5 coastal villages in Italy, with a circular route passing through all 8 destinations. Each of the farms has either 2 or 3 fields containing a paricular colour of wooden cube, representing one of the eight types of fruit and veg in the game. Each of the villages has a set of four, three or two dice next to it (which you set up at the beginning of the game). Each die matches a colour of the wooden cubes.
On your turn you perform 3 actions. A single action can be any of the following:
Take a card: Each card represents one of the 8 types of fruit and veg. There are four face-up cards available which gets replaced when it is taken, or you can take a lucky-dip and grab one from the top of the face-down deck of cards.
Pick up some produce: If you are at a farm you can pick up produce (i.e. cubes) from the fields adjoining the farm. You either have to trade in a matching card from your hand for the type of produce you pick up or two matching cards of a different type of produce. You can carry up to 4 cubes at any time, and as long as you don’t exceed this limit you can pick up as many cubes as you like from a single farm in a single action.
Move location: You can move up to 4 locations in a clockwise direction around the board.
Sell produce: If you are at a village you can sell some or all of the produce you are carrying for Lire (Italian currency before the euro).
So where do these dice come into it?
Selling produce in different places can get you different amounts of Lire. As a minimum, you can sell any produce at any village for one Lire. However, if there is a die next to a village you can sell produce of the matching colour there for the value shown on the die. So if the village you are at has a yellow die next to it showing the value 3, you can sell yellow cubes (lemons) there for 3 lire each instead of 1.
So I just need to sell stuff where it’s most expensive then!
Not so fast, there are other ways to earn lire! If you are the first player to sell 8 items of produce to a particular village you become the “most popular vendor” there, and bag yourself some bonus cash!
So I just need to sell stuff where it’s most expensive and always try to sell stuff in the same place?
Again, not so fast! There is another way to earn yourself some lire – by fulfilling orders. Next to the board there will be a few face-up order cards, showing the five villages with a particular type of produce next to two or three of them and a value. If at the end of your turn you have sold at least one of that type of produce at each of the villages, you can claim that order and claim the lire. You don’t have to sell all this produce this turn, it can have been at any point throughout the game (your player board keeps track of what you’re sold where). Then you have an extra decision to make – take a look at the next order from the top of the face-down deck. You can decide to keep this order as a secret order – if you do this only you can complete it and it remains secret until the end of the game, but you’ll lose points if you don’t. If you keep it you fill the empty order space on the table with the next order card from the deck. If you don’t keep it you place that order down in the empty space and choose if you want to take the next card off the deck as a secret order – but be warned, you have to choose to take it without looking at it and you can’t throw it away if you don’t want it. You will also start the game with a “starting order” which is a secret order and requires something to be delivered to each village.
Wow! That’s lots of ways to make some money, so when does it all end?
The game ends either when the supply of 2 of the 8 types of produce runs out or when one player has at least five fulfilled orders and MPV cards combined (this doesn’t include secret orders). At the end of the game lire is earned or payed out for compeleted and uncompleted secret orders and the player with the most lire wins.
So what’s so good about this game?
The great thing about this game is that it has very simple rules and is easy to teach, but there is a lot of strategy involved. How best to use your three actions, are you going to stop at several villages to get the best prices using up lots of actions or are you going to make one stop and sell everything in the same place? Should you sell where the prices are low to get a most popular vendor card? Is it worth fulfilling an order if the selling prices are low? Is it worth picking up and hoarding cards of high-value produce, letting everyone else fulfill the orders? Lots of decisions, and far more fun than moving little cubes around has a right to be. Also, the fact that the die rolls and colours are random means that the selling prices are different every game, one time everyone might be trying to sell everything at a single village or two, other times it might be more evenly distributed. This and all the different order cards gives this game a great replay value. If you love the accessibility, simplicity and fun of Ticket to Ride then I think you’ll love this too.
What’s the worst thing about this game?
The playing tokens are little trucks, which is great… but why oh why did they make them just slightly too small to put 4 cubes on the back? Every time I sit down with this game with somebody new they always try to put the cubes on the back of the truck, and I have to explain that they’ll fall off!
And that’s the worst thing?
Pretty much! So if you and your family/group play a lot of Ticket to Ride try giving this one a go, you won’t be disappointed!
Life in Cinque Terre is a beautiful sight to behold. A rugged coastal land on the Italian Riviera with five villages close to each other to do business in. Each Player is a farmers vying to harvest and sell produce in each village and become the most popular by fulfilling the most Produce Orders.
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Game Designer: Chris Handy
Players: 2-5
Ages: 13 to adult
Playing Time: 60 minutes
Contents: 1 Rulebook, 1 Game Board, 16 Dice, 5 Player Cart Tokens, 5 Scoring Markers, 128 Produce Pieces, 1 Dice Bag, 5 Most Popular Vendor cards, 5 Fulfillment Cards, 80 Produce Cards, 80 Produce Orders, 16 Starting Orders.
Suggested Retail Price: $54.95
Parental Advisory: Safe for kids
In Cinque Terre, each players plays a farmer that operate carts and harvest and deliver produce to sell in the 5 local villages. Players will also compete for Produce Order cards, which will give the player Lire for each successfully filled order in specific villages. The player with the most Lire, most popularity and most fulfilled Produce Orders at the end of the game wins.
The object of the game is to earn the highest total amount of Lire. This is scored by a scoring track around the edge of the board. Lire can be aquired by:
• Selling produce at a village for its value in that village
• Fulfilling Produce Orders, this can either be from the players hard or next to the board.
• Selling the most produce at a village to become the Most Popular Vendor.
During a players turn that player may take up 3 of the following 4 actions in any order they choose.
• Move up to 4 spaces in a clockwise direction.
• Draw 1 Produce card.
• Harvest Produce – They player may harvest up to 4 Produce pieces at any 1 of the 3 Harvest spaces. A player may not have more than 4 Produce pieces at any one time.
• Sell Produce at a Village Market – A player my sell up to 4 Produce pieces at any one of the 5 villages they are currently occupying.
Players may perform the same action more than once per turn.
Move up to 4 spaces – There are 8 spaces a player’s cart may land on. There are 3 Harvest locations and 5 villages. A player may move up to 4 spaces in a clockwise direction only. Players may occupy the same space.
Draw 1 Produce card – A player may draw 1 Produce card. Of course as stated earlier a player can take an action more than once. There are 8 types of Produce cards and 10 of each of those. The cards are colored coded to match the Produce pieces and 8 colored dice.
• Black – Olive
• Grey – Funghi (Mushroom)
• White – Agli (Garlic)
• Purple – Uva (Grapes)
• Green – Zucchine (Zucchini)
• Yellow – Limoni (Lemon)
• Orange – Arance ( Oranges)
• Red – Pomodori (Tomatoes)
If a player choses to draw a Produce card, they can draw from either of the 4 face up cards on the board or from the Produce draw pile.
If a card is taken from the game board, it is immediately refilled from the draw pile.
There is no hand limit and if the draw pile runs out, the players reshuffle the discard pile in to a new draw pile.
Harvest Produce – The players must harvest Produce in order to sell it. There are 3 Harvest spaces on the board from which the players may harvest. The players may only harvest the Produce attached to that particular harvest space. The first and third space has 3 types of Produce attached to it while the second space has only 2 attached to it.
To harvest Produce, the players must discard the appropriate card type for each produce they harvest i.e., 1 Olive card for 1 Olive produce piece. A player may never have more than 4 unfulfilled Produce pieces at one time on their cart, however a player may harvest up to 4 Produce pieces for one action.
Yield – A player may discard 2 resource of the same type to harvest any 1 other type of Produce piece they are currently sitting on.
Sell Produce at a Village Market – This is how the players make a profit and move their counter along the victory point track around the edge of the board mainly. A player may sell any type of Produce at any village but some types of produce will be more valuable in certain villages based on what the appropriate colored die says for that village. If a player sells an “Uva” at a village that has a purple die with the 5 showing, that Produce is worth 5 Lire each. Players may only sell the village they are currently occupying as well.
Each village will have dice to the right of it with a particular number showing, which was rolled before the start of the game and place in the appropriate space next to each village. If there is no die associated with a particular Produce color than that Produce is worth 1 Lire only.
To show that a Produce piece is sold, a player must move the piece to the corresponding cube space in the appropriate village row on their fulfillment card. Then the players adjust the scoring track to reflect the sale as well. A player may sell as much or as little at this market as they wish.
Produce Orders/Starting Orders – These are pretty much the same thing. Every player starts with a starting order to fulfill and will also fulfill more Produce Orders from the side of the game board. Each Order has Produce symbols next to each village. The player must sell on Produce for each symbol type shown to the corresponding village on the card. Once a player has sold a certain type of Produce in a village, they are now eligible to claim future orders requiring the same type of Produce in the same village. The player may sell several of the same type of Produce to the same village as it may be more profitable but not necessary.
Claiming Fulfilled Produce Orders – A player may only claim a Produce Order card from the side of the board at the end of their turn and only if their Fulfillment Card meets the requirements shown on the Produce Order. A player may only claim 1 Produce Order per turn. When a player draws a new Fulfillment Order, they look at it secretly and make keep it or refill the empty space on the side of the board. If they choose to refill the space, they must take the next card drawn.
Claiming Most Popular Vender Cards – Players ending their turn with all 8 spaces filled on their fulfillment card may take the MPV Card at the end of their turn. That card is worth a certain amount of Lire and the player then adjusts the scoring track accordingly to the Lire amount on the card. Any forgotten MPV Card to be claimed MAY be claimed by another player. Only one MPV Card may be claimed per turn.
Starting Orders are hidden throughout the game and are scored at the game end. Unfulfilled Starting Orders will result in a victory point loss at the end of the game.
The game end is triggered in one of these two ways:
– After the turn in which a player claims a fifth Produce Order card or MPV Card (any combination), each player then gets one final turn including the trigger player. Orders in the player’s hand at game end do not count against them.
– After the turn in which 2 different Produce types have been depleted, all players get one final turn including the trigger player.
Players then total up their final scores to determine the winner.
The components in Cinque Terre are high quality in every respect. My only complaint is the scoring track around the board couple be a bit better. That is a very minor complaint though.
Cinque Terre is a very good euro-style game that gives you plenty of strategy in a short, manageable game that plays a time frame to make almost anyone happy. This fits so well into so many different situations that it solves what most people complain about. While it isn’t innovative so to speak, it is deep enough, short enough, and the quality is solid.
This game is easy to learn and play almost immediately so it makes it a great choice as a gateway game for first time gamers not used to a euro-style game. Designer Chris Handy did a great job here and I know it wasn’t easy for him. This game took awhile to get out and I am sure that it went through lots of revisions before doing so.
I will give this game about a 7.5 out of 10 stars as even the theme comes across well here which can be unusual for a euro-style game. For those players that love cube pushers but don’t always have time for games like Caylus, this could very well scratch your itch.
I am not going to explain how to play the game. ClubFantasci and mish666uk have already done that. I was first introduced to this game about 6 months ago at a meetup game night. I had never seen or heard of the game. I fell in love with the game. It was very easy to learn. We played with 4 players and the the play moved quickly. Because the dice are rolled and placed at the beginning of each game it has great replay-ability.
You simply move around the board in one direction picking up goods in farms and delivering goods to a village. There is some strategy based on the cards you hold and the cards showing that make up the list of items to be delivered. There are 8 different goods and 5 villages.
Yes the cubes do not fit on the carts but the person who brought the game told us to keep the cubes collected on our player boards. So it was never an issue for me. The dice are wooden the other parts of the game are of good quality. I read the rules after I played the game so they were clear and easy to follow.
After playing it that first time I was able to find it on line at Miniature Market and ordered it. I have played it several times since I purchased it and have enjoyed it each time.
If you are looking for a easy to learn game with some depth this is the game for you. If you get a chance to play it do so it will make you a fan.
When I see this in the message for the week Adventure Explore I said this is the game about wizards and trolls making land. The one that isn’t Small World. I was excited because this game was interesting. I look and see this is a game about buying cabbages. WHAT? Who changed it???
Where are the wizard? Then I looked and realized that the game is Terre Mystique! I was fooled by these people! I am glad I was just reading for the adventure and not buying this in a store! I would have thought it was for magic but instead it would be vegetables.