Tips & Strategy

How to teach Vinhos Deluxe, first-game advice, money and barrels, the Fair and the Magnates, player counts, the solo game and where videos differ from the rulebook — advice, not rules.

Advice only: where anything here differs from the rules pages, the rulebook wins.

How to teach

• Quality before value. Gaming Rules! and Before You Play both stop early to separate Wine Quality (fixed at Production) from Wine Value (Cellar, Renown, Algarve, worked out when the wine leaves). Everything else hangs on it — Ludex’s Teach the Game does the same.
• Year first, then the Quadrel. Gaming Rules! walks through one year — Vintage tile, two actions, Maintenance, Production, Fair years — then the nine spaces and their movement costs, then the Fair and scoring.
• Start from the setup. The Gamesplainer teaches the initial Vineyard and its region bonus first: it shows the whole wine engine (Vineyard → wine tile → Renown cube) before any action is explained.
• Teach 2016, not 2010. The Special Vintage drops the Bank and the Fair’s feature track; Gaming Rules! has a separate video on what changed from the 2010 game, useful for players who know it.

First game

• Use the suggested regions (remove Setúbal with 3 players, Setúbal and Algarve with 2) and let each player read their region bonus aloud.
• Learn the engine, not the score. Open Estates, make wine every year, age the good ones in Cellars and see where each wine is best spent. Re-read the rules after the first game: a few small rules always slip.
• Keep some Bagos. Movement costs, other players’ markers and the tax marker drain money; a player with no Bagos can be locked out of most spaces (BGG thread).
• Watch the barrels. You start with 2. Press Releases that please the Magnates are the only way to get more — and your Sales barrels come back only one a year.

Money, wine and barrels

• Sales early, exports later. Before You Play and Heavy Cardboard use Sales for the cash flow of the first years; exports score at once and build column majorities but lock the barrel away for good.
• Cheap wine has a job. Low-value wines buy Magnate tiles after a Fair — one wine each — so a weak Estate still pays (Heavy Cardboard). Magnate Action tiles are the only way past 12 actions.
• Cellars make the big numbers. A Cellar’s +3 and +5 slots turn an ordinary wine into a top export or Fair wine; the Fair and Bruno reward high Values.
• Region choice matters. Before You Play points to Douro (Porto, +3 at Production), Trás-os-Montes (+2 Fair Points) and Minho (cheap, but no Cellar); Heavy Cardboard likes Lisboa’s free Winery and Setúbal’s two Experts for a fast start.
• Renown is shared. Cubes in a region you share can be spent by your rivals first — sell or export from crowded regions before they do.

The Fair and the Magnates

• An early Press Release buys the best booth and frees Magnate barrels sooner (Before You Play, Heavy Cardboard); waiting gives the wine time to age and lets you see the next Vintage tile.
• Fair Points accumulate. A lead taken at the first Fair carries into the next two; the last Fair pays most (15 VP).
• Count your barrels before the Fair. Multiplier tiles need a free barrel; with none, you can only take Action tiles.
• Grab a strong Multiplier when it shows. slickerdrips takes a purple tile such as the full-Estates one as soon as it appears; otherwise green Action tiles give the tempo early.

Player counts

• 2 players — 7 regions, the small Export frame and Fair VP for 1st and 3rd only. With fewer people on the Quadrel movement is cheaper; export columns are easy to dominate, and two exports in one action can take a column.
• 3 players — 8 regions; the Magnate display holds 9 tiles.
• 4 players — all 9 regions and every tile. The Quadrel is crowded: paying other players becomes a real cost, and turn order from Pass / Press Release matters more.

Solo

• Lacerda’s head start is 19 VP from his two opening exports, and his Sales and Exports take your Renown cubes. Spend cubes in your best regions before his Export or Sales card turns up (Heavy Cardboard, slickerdrips).
• Bribes add up. He leaves a Bago on every space he leaves; route around them.
• Score accolades, not just VP: full Estates, Fair trophies and freeing all your Magnate barrels count. One forum player reports up to 12 accolades over 9 plays (BGG thread).
• slickerdrips plays Press Release sparingly: you present at the Fair anyway, so spend the action only when the booth or the barrels are worth it.

Host game

Teach one wine all the way from Quality to Value, then ask whether the player needs cash from Sales, points from Export or a Fair entry. Rehearse Purple’s Quality-seven Douro export with two Renown cubes for a value-nine space. During the opening years, check that players spend only the Renown needed for the chosen space and remember which barrels can return from Sales during Maintenance.

Videos vs the rulebook

• The Gamesplainer says you may buy as many Vineyards as you like in one action — in the Special Vintage 2016 it is 1 or 2, from different regions (Vineyards).
• Before You Play first tries to spend Renown cubes a sale does not need, then corrects it: cubes only when the chosen slot needs them (Region Renown cubes).
• Heavy Cardboard’s solo stream briefly flips Wine Experts back every year; they flip only before years 4 and 6 (Start of the year).
• A playthrough on BGG was reported to forbid two Wine Experts with the same ability; no such rule exists — the limit is on identical Magnate tiles (BGG thread).

Sources

• Gaming Rules! - Vinhos How to Play — Gaming Rules!
• Gaming Rules! - Vinhos - 2016 Changes — Gaming Rules!
• Vinhos Board Game - Playthrough & Review — Before You Play
• Vinhos Deluxe Edition - Solo Teaching, Play-through, & Discussion by Heavy Cardboard — Heavy Cardboard
• Vinhos 2016 Gamesplained - Part 1 — The Gamesplainer
• Vinhos Deluxe Edition - Solo Playthrough — slickerdrips
• BGG threads: money and blocked actions, solo results, duplicate Experts