hey, here's one i've played many times, both from owning it and because it's on BGA and is a quick one to knock out with my wife
i had some stuff partially typed but my phone lost it. here are my main pros/cons of VC -
pros
- the production is wonderful
- the theme makes a ton of sense in many regards and is linked closely with mechanics
- it's accessible because you only have to read the cards you actually draw instead of evaluating a marketplace
- the grande worker also makes the worker placement less punishing
- the extra bonuses when you play with more than 2 players are great
- the wakeup track is really neat
- seasons are a good idea
cons
- in the 2p game it sucks not having the 2
- turn order is doubly important due to having two seasons
- not having a card marketplace makes the game very luck-based
- other than the bonus powers, the worker placement is fairly uninspired
- the game is not very "tightly" designed - the way the money economy works in particular is kind of shoddy (super-important early; later in the game you have almost nothing to spend it on)
overall i feel it has a lot of great ideas and makes them super-accessible. i
kind of
resent its popularity because i think the execution and tightness of the design are sacrificed in some ways for that overhead ease (e.g. no mitigation of the swingy cards).
tuscany (just the board) adds complexity which is nice and gives some more options on actions you can do when you've otherwise run out of useful stuff to do, which is also nice. i like thematically that there are four seasons. but it amplifies one of the bigger annoyances of VC, which is the importance of being first - now you're first in
all four
seasons.
it's also just more complex than "base" viticulture and isn't available online, so i've just played base a lot more than tuscany
yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness