Village is a historical-themed euro-style board game with a focus on resource management for 2–4 players, released in 2011. It was designed by Inka Brand and Markus Brand and published by Eggertspiele. The game won the 2012 Deutscher Spiele Preis and the 2012 Kennerspiel des Jahres awards.
Gameplay
In Village, each player controls the fate of a family and oversees their rise to prominence in a local medieval village. Players begin with four family members and must manage resources, time, and the actions of other players to score the most prestige points and win the game.
A distinctive mechanic is the concept of death and time as a spendable commodity. After spending a certain amount of time, players must choose a family member to pass away, beginning with their oldest members. Upon dying, family members are either immortalised in the village chronicle (which awards prestige points) or buried in anonymous graves.
Each round, a limited and varied number of resource cubes are placed on each of the game's action spaces. Players take turns picking up a cube and performing the corresponding action. Available actions include: adding family members, crafting goods, harvesting grain, selling at the market, sending family members to the church or council chamber, travelling to nearby villages, and using the well (a miscellaneous action allowing players to pay three identical resource cubes to perform any other action).
The game ends once either all spaces in the village chronicle are occupied or all anonymous graves are filled. Players tally their prestige points, and the highest score wins.
Expansions
- Village: Inn (2013) — Adds a brewery and an inn, allowing players to craft beer and influence villagers. Includes 30 unique villager cards and components for a fifth player.
- Village: Port (2014) — Replaces the travel action with sea travel, allowing players to send family members on ships to explore islands, sell goods, acquire foreign commodities, and dig up treasure chests. Includes captain cards and life goal cards.
- Multiple promos — Released between 2012 and 2019, adding customer tiles, treasure chests, and special ability cards.
Village: Big Box (2023)
Announced in June 2022 and released in early 2023, the Big Box edition includes the base game, both major expansions (Inn and Port), all previously released promos, and a new "Marriage" expansion introducing new tools, actions, and a solo mode. It features a new board design and completely new artwork, the latter of which sparked controversy among fans.
Music
Viktor Schulz, an editor at Eggertspiele, composed and published an official song for the game titled "My Village" on YouTube.
