Review: Villagers

Introduction & Overview

You are the founder of a new village during the Middle Ages, in the years following a great plague. The loss of so many lives has created severe problems for the survivors. Many of the people upon whom the inhabitants relied for essential things like food, shelter, or clothing have vanished. Craftsmen lack materials, traders have lost their customers, and many have lost their farms and workshops when fleeing the plague. The roads are filled with refugees seeking a fresh start. They come to you, hoping to settle on your land and build a home. Your grain farm is the ideal starting point for a village, providing food for many people in a secure manner. You must choose wisely whom you allow to settle with you, since food and resources are limited. The people on the road possess valuable and unique skills, but they in turn depend on others with very specific skills to be able to work. Raw materials, tools, and services must be provided by other travelers from the road. If you can bring together people capable of working together to turn a profit, while expanding your food supplies and your capacity to build new houses, your village will prosper.

This is the premise of Villagers, designed by Haakon Hoel Gaarder, marking his debut title. The game was published in 2019 by Sinister Fish Games after securing the necessary funding through a crowdfunding campaign. The illustrations were also created by the author himself.

The game is available in Spanish via Arrakis Games and Fractal Juegos (although it is relatively language-independent, with only a few cards featuring text in addition to the rulebook). It accommodates 1 to 5 players, with a recommended minimum age of 10, and plays in approximately 30 to 60 minutes. The MSRP is €19.95. For this review, we used a review copy of the Spanish edition kindly provided by Arrakis Games and Fractal Juegos.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom) measuring 17.5×13×4 cm (standard small box size like Port Royal or Fungi), we find the following items:

• 177 Cards (58×88 mm):
  • 5 Village Square Cards
  • 5 Player Aid Cards
  • 5 Founders
  • 30 Basic Villagers (10 of each type)
  • 6 Starting Villagers
  • 2 Market Cards
  • First Player Card
  • End of Drafting Phase Card
  • 2 Round Summary Cards
  • 94 Villager Cards
  • 24 Event Cards
  • Countess Card
  • Jester Card
• 95 Coins (values 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50) (cardboard)
• Rulebook

How to Play

Villagers is a card drafting and hand management game set in the Middle Ages in the aftermath of a devastating plague, where players compete to establish and cultivate the most prosperous settlement by drafting artisans and specialists from the road. The game spans several rounds comprising two primary phases: a draft phase and a build phase. During the draft phase, players take turns selecting cards from the central market—either from the face-up road or blindly from the face-down road stacks—up to their drafting limit, determined by their village’s food production. Next, during the build phase, each player places cards into their village up to their basic build limit (which can be increased by builders) and develops production chains following each villager’s trade. Certain villagers require unlocking a padlock by paying coins to the player who owns the required trade, to oneself, or to the bank; players may also discard cards from hand to recruit basic villagers from the reserve or play specialists with one-time abilities. Throughout the match, two market phases trigger to evaluate earnings: an interim one when the first two road stacks are exhausted, and a final one when the entire road supply is cleared. During these markets, players earn gold based on the values printed on their active villagers, coins accumulated on top of their cards from prior unlocks, and, in the final scoring, endgame silver multipliers and bonuses. The player with the highest total of gold at the end of the second market phase is declared the winner.

Key Concepts

Let us start with the core of the game: the Villagers. These are depicted on cards showing a profession name in the top banner alongside a suit symbol and, optionally below it, a production chain showing the card’s exact position within that chain. This setup exists because playing a card belonging to a chain requires having the preceding card in the sequence as an active card (with no cards overlapping it). Once a card is overlapped, it ceases to be active and its ongoing effects are disregarded. Under the chain banner, we may see an unlock requirement indicated by a padlock symbol referencing another villager, showing that you must pay for their services to play this card (incurring a cost if you do not control that villager in your village). Conversely, other cards display a key ring with a number, indicating how many types of villagers require their services. Finally, below the villager illustration are the benefit symbols: coins (a gold or silver coin symbol with a value and, in the latter case, a scoring condition), food symbols (a red bowl with a spoon, allowing you to draft more cards), or building symbols (a black house, allowing you to play more cards). In the top-right corner, one or two card silhouettes may appear, indicating how many cards can be stacked underneath it.

The suits of villager cards you will encounter are: Wood, Hay, Ore, Grapes, Wool, Leather, Grain, Solitary, and Special. The Grapes, Wool, and Leather suits require Villagers found within the main deck, so developing these production chains relies on drawing one of these starting cards. Solitary cards can always be played on their own without requiring prerequisites. Special cards feature a variety of unique abilities.

The Wood, Hay, and Ore suits rely on Basic Villagers, which are a separate card type always available in a dedicated supply, though playing them requires discarding other cards from your hand.

The Founders card (a grain villager) serves as the basic grain card (no additional copies can be acquired during the game), as players begin the match with it already in play. These double-sided cards start on their coin-producing side, but if a Founders card is active at the end of a round and the player has no other food symbols in their village, it must be flipped over to its food side.

To maintain order when executing actions, each player receives a Village Square card. All cards collected during a drafting round and all cards intended to be put into play are placed on this card first, ensuring abilities and counts do not overlap prematurely.

Two Market phases will occur during the game, during which players score their village. Two reference cards serve as reminders for when these scoring events are triggered and how each phase is resolved. The second market phase also marks the end of the game.

Coins are the key to victory, as the player who has amassed the most by the end wins. These coins are earned during the market phases when tallying the income of active villagers. Furthermore, coins are spent to meet the unlock costs of playing villagers that require trades you do not control in your village. In two-player games, they are also used to try to keep cards in the draft row.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Form a general supply with the coins.
2. Separate the 6 starting villager cards and place them in a face-up row.
3. Form a general supply with the basic villager cards, separating the three types (Seekers, Lumberjacks, and Miners).
4. Shuffle the villager deck and form six road stacks, each containing a number of cards equal to double the player count.
5. Deal five villager cards to each player.
6. Set the remaining deck aside face-down as the reserve.
7. Each player receives a Village Square card, a Founders card (placed coin-side up), and 8 coins.
8. Choose a starting player and give them the first player card.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Villagers unfolds over an indeterminate number of rounds until the endgame is triggered. Each round consists of two mandatory phases and an optional third phase.

Phase I: Draft Phase

In this phase, each player takes a number of draft turns equal to the number of visible food symbols on their active villagers plus 2 (meaning a minimum of two turns), up to a maximum of 5 turns (meaning having more than 3 food symbols provides no extra benefit).

Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, players take alternating draft turns.

On their turn, the active player must select a villager card and place it onto their Village Square card.

This card may be drafted from one of the face-down road stacks or from the face-up road (if the card has coins on it, the player takes them into their supply).

Whenever a card is drafted from the face-up road, the empty space must be replenished immediately by revealing the top card of the leftmost road stack.

Once a player has taken all their drafting turns, they wait for the remaining players to finish.

After all drafting turns are completed, the road must be updated as follows:

• Discard all face-up cards with a coin on them.
• Replenish the road by revealing cards from the main reserve deck (not from the road stacks).
• Place one coin on each face-up card along the road.

Finally, all players add the cards on their Village Square into their hand.

When the last card from the first two road stacks is revealed, the first market phase is triggered (flip the First Market card as a reminder). When the last road stack is depleted, the second market phase is triggered (flip the Second Market card as a reminder).

Phase II: Build Phase

Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player takes one turn.

On their turn, the active player may build a number of cards equal to the visible building symbols on their active villagers plus 2, up to a maximum of 5 (having more than 3 building symbols provides no extra benefit).

The player places all cards they intend to build onto their Village Square card.

To play a card that is not the start of a production chain, the preceding villager in that chain must already be in the village with at least one free slot available.

In addition to playing villager cards from hand (subject to the build limit), a player may play up to 3 basic villager cards from the reserve by returning one card from their hand to the bottom of any road stack face-down for each basic villager taken. No new stacks can be started, and if no road stacks remain, returned cards go to the discard pile.

For each villager card played this turn showing a padlock symbol, resolve it as follows:

• If the required villager is not in play anywhere, the player pays 2 coins to the general supply.
• If the villager is in play in an opponent’s village, the player places 2 coins from their supply onto that opponent’s card (choosing which opponent if multiple have it).
• If the villager is in the player’s own village (even if opponents also have copies), the player places 2 coins from the general supply onto their own card.

After this, a new round begins, passing the first player card to the player on the left. If a player has their Founders card active (uncovered) on its coin side and possesses no other food symbols, they must flip it to its food side now, as indicated on the card.

Phase III: Market Phase

This phase takes place after the build phase if either market phase was triggered during the preceding draft phase (the first market triggers when the first 2 road stacks run out, and the second when all stacks are empty).

In the first market phase, each player collects coins from the supply equal to:

• The sum of all gold coin symbols visible on their active villager cards.
• The sum of all coins placed on top of their active villager cards.

In the second market phase, in addition to the two criteria above, players also score coins earned from the silver coin symbols visible on their active villager cards.

After the first market phase, play continues normally.

Game End

The game concludes after resolving the second market phase.

The player with the most coins is the winner. In case of a tie, the tied player with the fewest cards in their village wins. If the tie persists, victory is shared.

Variants

• 2-Player Games: the end of the draft phase is handled differently:
  • Starting with the second player, each player may place coins on cards along the road.
  • Afterward, all cards without coins are discarded.
  • Finally, replenish the road with cards from the reserve deck without placing coins on them.
• Solo Mode: this pits the player against an AI opponent (the Countess) using two event decks. During the draft phase, the player drafts 2 cards per food symbol, assigning one to their own village and one to the Countess. The Countess ignores production chain rules, always places cards face-up, and ignores padlocks. She does not reserve cards at the end of drafting. After the build phase, an event phase triggers based on the revealed event cards. The goal is to amass more coins than the Countess.

Personal Opinion

If there is one thing worth highlighting right away about Villagers, it is that it carries a certain romantic charm by recapturing the original spirit of crowdfunding. It is an independent project without a massive corporation behind it using a platform merely as a marketing megaphone or a pre-order storefront. For that alone, Haakon Gaarder’s design deserves attention. Yet it clearly must have something special under the hood to have caught the eye of publishers like KOSMOS in Germany, Gigamic in France, or Arrakis in Spain. Let us see what Villagers brings to the table, but not before thanking the publisher for providing the review copy that makes this tocho-review possible.

In Villagers, you manage a humble settlement with the goal of expanding it to welcome a wide variety of workers who pass by, each offering skills and synergies that boost other trades to build potent production chains and generate wealth. The objective? To build the most prosperous village in the entire region.

Mechanically, the game is straightforward. Rounds are divided into two main phases plus an optional third phase that only triggers twice per game. During the first phase, players alternate drafting villager cards from a shared market comprising a row of face-up cards and several face-down stacks. The number of cards each player may draft depends on the amount of a specific icon visible on their active cards.

During the second phase, players build cards from hand into their play area based on a second icon count, while respecting restrictions such as production chains (you must have a specific villager in play before adding subsequent ones) and service requirements (depending on who owns the required trade, you must pay coins or receive bonuses).

At two specific points in the game, an evaluation phase occurs where players collect income based on a third icon type across their active cards. When the second evaluation phase concludes, the game ends, and the player with the most coins wins.

Sounds simple enough, right? It really is, which makes the hefty 28-page rulebook quite surprising when you first open the box, potentially intimidating players who might expect a needlessly convoluted design loaded with exceptions. Fortunately, that is far from reality; the designer simply chose to be exceptionally thorough with explanations and visual examples to leave no doubt about the game flow.

Villagers relies on card drafting and set collection mechanics that might not seem remarkably groundbreaking at first glance. However, once you sit down to play, you begin noticing subtle design choices that feel genuinely rewarding and keep you engaged.

The first is the engine-building aspect. The game rewards building an engine and getting the snowball rolling as early as possible, though it is commendable that the designer capped the maximum speed of this snowball. I am referring to accumulating food and building icons, which dictate how many cards you can draft and play each round. Consequently, every player’s initial short-term goal is to secure three of each icon quickly, unlocking the maximum drafting and building limits per round. More cards in hand mean greater flexibility, and more cards in play yield higher income.

We must not lose sight of the primary goal: amassing the largest hoard of coins possible. The main route to achieving this is reaching both market phases with as many visible coin symbols as possible (or with plenty of coins stacked on top of your villagers).

This brings us to the production chains. In some ways, this system calls to mind games like Splendor (read the tocho-review here), where you build up an engine of cards to enable subsequent plays. While Marc André’s design uses played cards as permanent discounts toward pricier cards, here most cards strictly require a specific prerequisite already active on the board. Given the extensive variety of cards, this makes the draft phase engaging and dynamic, whether you are fueling your own development or hate-drafting to disrupt an opponent.

If, for instance, a rival is pursuing a specific production chain and a key card appears in the supply, letting that turn come back to them with the card still on the road would be far too generous, even if the card does not fit your own layout. Keeping your opponents from pulling ahead on the scoreboard is part of the game.

I really appreciate how card cycling is handled in the supply. On the one hand, you have the face-up road, letting you assess which production paths to commit to based on visible opportunities, opponent layouts, and your hand. On the other hand, you can draft with calculated uncertainty from the road stacks; while you do not know the exact card you will draw, you do know which suit it belongs to. You can press your luck hoping it is the exact villager you need. Once players exhaust their draft turns, the road is refreshed and replenished with new cards, adding tempting coin incentives for the upcoming round.

The padlock mechanism and service requirements add another layer of depth. Whenever a villager with a high key ring value appears in the draft row, players immediately eye the potential profit. Controlling that card can generate substantial dividends: not only do you collect those coins during the market phase, but you also siphon them directly from opponents who are forced to place coins on your card to play their own villagers. It is especially gratifying once players know the deck well enough to anticipate which villagers opponents will need before they even draft the cards that require them. Naturally, that level of tactical play emerges after several plays.

Having some control over the game tempo to delay market phases (accelerating them is impossible) is another clever design touch. Sometimes you may want to buy an extra round before the first market triggers, prompting you to draft from the later stacks to prevent the initial ones from vanishing too quickly. At most, you might buy a single round and fine-tuning the pacing that precisely is challenging, but having that option adds depth.

Ultimately, Villagers presents itself as a filler with a draft phase that is far deeper than it appears, combined with a race element where players push to accelerate their drafting and building engines before scoring rounds arrive. Selecting each card requires weighing multiple factors. While the premise is familiar, the way it challenges you to optimize every single card feels fresh and leaves a very satisfying impression once the flow is mastered.

Its main drawback stems from a common trait in drafting games: knowing the deck is crucial for assessing whether a given card is worth taking and building. This requirement can make your first game feel somewhat underwhelming. That feeling of playing blindly and stumbling around can be frustrating. However, once you have seen all the production chains in action, the game reveals an engaging depth well-suited to its weight.

Scalability is another minor weak point. While it plays decently at most player counts, it runs smoothest with three or four players. At three, the pace is brisk without requiring the somewhat clunky coin-locking variant used at two players, while at four, extra suits are mixed in, adding welcome variety. At two players, luck plays a bigger role due to reduced table interaction and slower market turnover. At five players, downtime can drag for a game of this scope, and table real estate becomes an issue as everyone tries to arrange their tableau without cluttering the board.

Replayability holds up well thanks to the variety of cards and synergistic combinations. That being said, after several sessions, the core game clearly leaves you wanting more cards, making future expansions welcome (in fact, the original crowdfunding campaign already included a first expansion).

A minor procedural quirk is that you will constantly need to remind players not to add drafted cards directly to their hands, but to keep them on their Village Square until the phase ends to avoid miscounting draft turns.

The weakest aspect of the game is easily its production quality. Although the box provides a generous amount of cards and tokens, the finish on both leaves much to be desired. The cardstock is thin (bordering on translucent under strong lighting), lacks a linen finish, and has poor elasticity. The cardboard coins are thin and prone to tearing when punched out. Additionally, while the rulebook is crystal clear, its length feels excessive for what is fundamentally a lightweight game. It is also worth noting that the Spanish edition mistakenly included two duplicate starting villagers (containing 8 cards with that symbol). The official response states they are extras to be left in the box, though suspiciously, the advanced villager count lists 94 cards when only 92 are included…

Visually, Villagers is not an attractive game. The cards are essentially white backdrops with iconography and illustrations reminiscent of early 1990s video game renders, featuring plain textures and stiff poses. Given the funds raised during the campaign, it is puzzling why seasoned industry artists were not hired to give the table presence more flair. While some may appreciate the minimalist aesthetic, it will likely be a drawback for many prospective buyers.

And let’s wrap this up. Villagers is a fresh and accessible title built on dynamic card drafting and set collection. Developing production chains while navigating indirect interaction through lock requirements creates a tense race to optimize your economic engine before scoring phases trigger. The market turnover mechanism offers compelling tactical decisions, requiring you to monitor opponents closely to either accelerate your own progress or deny them essential pieces. On the flip side, it presents a learning curve where unfamiliarity with card synergies can make initial plays feel somewhat disorganized and unfocused. Nevertheless, once players grasp the card interactions, it reveals itself as a thoroughly enjoyable and accessible design with a pleasant touch of malice. For all these reasons, I give it a…