Review: Luthier

Introduction & Overview

We travel to 18th-century Europe, the golden age of classical music. Players step into the shoes of master craftsmen specialized in the construction of musical instruments. Your patrons will be influential nobles, virtuoso performers, and renowned composers such as Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart. To win, you must achieve the highest possible reputation by crafting and repairing instruments in your workshop while satisfying the demands of prestigious patrons. Will you have the skill required to become the most celebrated luthier in all of Europe?

This is how we are introduced to Luthier, a design by Dave Beck (Distilled) and Abe Burson (his debut game). First published in 2025 by Paverson Games in an English edition following a successful crowdfunding campaign. The artwork is handled by Vincent Dutrait (Heat, Quest for El Dorado) and Guillaume Tavernier (Le Grand Voyage, One Card Wonder).

It is published in Spanish by Devir (there is some language dependence on the Family tiles, Specialized Worker cards, and the rulebook). It plays 1 to 4 players, with a suggested minimum age of 14, and a playing time of approximately 90 to 150 minutes. The MSRP is €75. For this review, a copy of the Spanish edition by Devir was used, generously provided by the publisher as a review copy.

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 39.5 × 32.2 × 12 cm (a large rectangular box similar to Sweet Lands), we find the following components:

• Main Board (cardboard)
• Resolution Board (cardboard)
• Progress Dome (cardboard)
• 4 Score Modification Tokens (1 per player) (cardboard)
• Market Board (cardboard)
• 2 Overlay Tiles for 1–2 players (cardboard)
• 4 Player Boards (cardboard)
• 15 Public Award Tiles (cardboard)
• 8 Luthier Family Portrait Tiles (cardboard)
• 133 Small Cards (41 × 63 mm):
  • 24 Performance Cards
  • 24 Repair Cards
  • 21 Specialized Worker Cards
  • 18 Personal Goal Cards
  • 18 AI Action Cards
  • 8 AI Guild Cards
  • 16 Market Cards
  • 4 Multiplier Cards
• 87 Medium Cards (56 × 87 mm):
  • 9 Royal Patron Cards
  • 18 Patron A Cards
  • 12 Patron B Cards
  • 39 Instrument Cards
  • 9 Orchestra Setup Cards
• 9 Large Cards (89 × 140 mm):
  • 8 Player Aid Cards
  • Solo Mode Aid Card
• 20 Worker Discs (5 per player) (wood)
• 12 Specialized Worker Discs (3 per player) (wood)
• 12 Apprentice Discs (3 per player) (wood)
• 12 Award Markers (3 per player) (wood)
• 32 Instrument Tokens (8 per player) (wood)
• 16 Family Crest Tokens (4 per player) (wood)
• 32 Performance Tokens (8 per player) (cardboard)
• 32 Repair Tokens (8 per player) (cardboard)
• 4 Prestige Point Markers (1 per player) (wood)
• 4 Market Cart Tokens (1 per player) (wood)
• 12 Player Cubes (3 per player) (wood)
• 84 Material Cubes (wood):
  • 30 White
  • 30 Natural Wood
  • 24 Bronze
• 5 Performance Dice (1 purple, 2 black, 2 white) (wood)
• 24 Inspiration Tokens (cardboard)
• 65 Coins (cardboard):
  • 30 of value 1
  • 20 of value 5
  • 15 of value 10
• Round Marker (wood)
• Rulebook
• “The Rehearsal” Booklet

How to Play

Luthier is set during the golden age of classical music in Western Europe, where each player leads a family of craftsmen competing for prestige by meeting the demands of nobles, virtuosos, and composers. Across six rounds, players must manage the patience of their patrons to secure ongoing benefits while splitting their strategy between planning and resolution phases. During planning, hidden-value workers are placed on board locations or personal workshops, striving to lock in priority through their values. Throughout the resolution phase, actions are executed to acquire blueprints at the Guild, attract new patrons at the Salon, carry out repairs, or stage musical performances (the latter resolved via dice rolls). Central progress takes place inside the workshop, where materials are spent to craft instruments, allowing players to claim valuable “First Chairs” in the Orchestra and trigger immediate bonuses. Craftsmen can also visit the Market to trade or advance their skills along the Craftsmanship, Performance, and Reputation tracks, unlocking specialized workers with unique abilities. Once the sixth round concludes, players tally their accumulated prestige from instruments, completed patrons, personal goals, and orchestra standings; the player with the most points wins, with ties broken by the wealthiest player.

Key Concepts

Let us start with the heart of the game: the Main Board. This displays your family workshop’s map of operations, featuring five key locations (the Salon, Guild, Performance area, Repair area, and Balcony) where you will send your workers to thrive. In the center sits the orchestra, where a chair is dedicated to each instrument type alongside a printed bonus. Along the top runs the turn-order track alongside the salon track. Both the performance and repair areas also feature their own specialization tracks. Directly beneath this board lies the Market Board, the economic hub where material prices fluctuate round after round, requiring shrewd financial management. Crowning the timeline, the Progress Dome tracks the flow of the six rounds, serving as a constant reminder that time to achieve greatness is short. Running along the bottom edge is the score track, numbered from 0 to 49.

Next is the Resolution Board. This board is an indispensable tool for keeping order in the workshop. During the resolution phase, workers sent to the same location are transferred here to establish action priority. Arrival order does not matter; skill level does: discs are arranged from left to right according to their total value, dictating who picks the finest patrons or most coveted instruments first.

Each player manages a set of Worker Discs numbered 1 through 5, with each number representing their skill level. You begin with only three, but your family will grow over time (initially holding values 1, 3, and 5, receiving the 2-value disc at the start of round three and the 4-value disc at the start of round five). Any number of discs can be placed at a single location, even by the same player. Every placed disc grants one action resolution at that corresponding spot. In addition, each participant will have three specialized worker discs available.

Alongside regular workers, Apprentice Discs can be paired with your craftsmen to temporarily raise their value, helping you seize priority on the resolution board or unlock special bonuses of value 4 or higher. Each player has 3 discs in the market area and must possess them at the start of the planning phase to use them. If a player earns an apprentice but none remain available in the market area, it cannot be acquired.

Players can specialize up to three of their workers using a set of Specialized Worker Cards. These are earned by advancing along the skill tracks, providing a worker endowed with unique abilities. At the end of the round in which one of these cards is acquired, the player must permanently assign one of their worker discs to the card to establish that worker’s base value whenever it is deployed.

One of the game’s core elements is the Material Cubes. These serve as the raw supplies needed to craft and upgrade instruments. Three resource types are distinguished by color: white for animal-derived materials, natural wood for timber, and dark bronze for metal.

Currency is represented by Coins. They are required to purchase materials, hire apprentices, or invest in your family’s training. Money is likewise required to draft cards from various action spaces that carry an added surcharge.

The final accumulable resource is Inspiration Tokens, representing that extra burst of artisan effort. They serve to boost performance values, secure market discounts, or reduce resource costs when repairing instruments.

Turning to another vital component, we have the Instrument Cards. These depict the blueprints of the instruments you will build (violins, cellos, etc.), detailing the materials required and the prestige earned upon completion. Crafting requires a two-step process outlined across two rows of material costs. Every instrument belongs to one of three categories—woodwind, string, or percussion—as indicated on its card back.

Each instrument corresponds to a specific chair in the main board’s orchestra. Whenever a player completes an instrument, they place an Instrument Token on the corresponding chair. These tokens take priority over performance and repair tokens, which we will address shortly. If a chair already holds an instrument marker and another player completes the same instrument, their marker goes into the row below and will not control the position. Certain special instruments are not represented in the main orchestra grid and instead occupy dedicated unique instrument spaces along the top row.

Next are the Performance Cards, which let you showcase the quality of your work through dice rolls to earn coins, prestige, and place performance tokens into the orchestra. They feature three tiers, each showing a required range of performance points alongside an associated reward. Performances are divided into three types represented by symbols (heart, fleur-de-lis, or column), which also appear on the card backs.

Performance Dice are rolled whenever a player performs a musical piece. Players roll two dice—initially white dice with faces showing 0, 1, 2, and 3—which can later be upgraded to higher-yielding black dice by advancing along the performance skill track. The total musical notes rolled are added to the worker’s value to calculate the overall performance tier achieved.

Meanwhile, Repair Cards demand specific materials to fix existing instruments in exchange for immediate prestige and the placement of repair tokens in the orchestra (matching the row of the corresponding instrument type). Much like instruments, each card is linked to a family: woodwind, string, or percussion, also displayed on the card reverse.

These Repair and Performance Tokens are placed directly onto the orchestra chairs. Performance tokens may be placed in an orchestra section matching the performance type, whereas repair tokens can be placed on any instrument matching the category indicated on the repair card. Claiming an empty chair with one of these markers grants the printed bonus and awards control of the First Chair. However, opponents can snatch it away by amassing a greater total of repair and/or performance tokens, or if someone builds the actual instrument (which knocks the performance or repair token down to the lower row). At game end, players will score bonus points based on the number of First Chairs they control.

Patrons represent another foundational pillar of the game. Divided into three main decks (A, B, and Royal), they represent the nobility and musical titans like Bach or Mozart. Each card specifies which instrument or service the patron demands and what gifts they bestow as long as their patience holds out. Once all requirements are fulfilled, the card flips over to unlock a permanent ongoing power that enhances your actions for the rest of the game.

During play, players can execute an action independent of their workers: the Market action. This is tracked using each player’s Market Cart Token, which flips or slides to the other side of the market board to show that the player has resolved their market action for the current round. This action allows buying and selling resources, advancing on skill tracks, or hiring apprentices.

Resource buying and selling rates are governed by Market Cards. For every resource type, these cards dictate the current round’s buying and selling prices. Each material fluctuates within a defined range: white cubes cost between 1 and 3 coins, natural wood cubes range from 2 to 4 coins, and brown metal cubes go from 4 to 6 coins.

At the start of the game, each player receives a pair of Family Portrait Tiles. Each illustrates a historic family, providing starting resources and a one-time special ability to help launch your enterprise.

A selection of Public Award Tiles is also put on display. These common milestones laid out on the main board reward the quickest players to meet specific criteria, granting prestige points and unique benefits. Every tile displays a requirement across three achievable tiers, each tied to a specific prestige payout.

Players receive three Award Markers to claim these shared milestones as they are achieved. Claiming one also unlocks a specific individual perk on the player board.

Each player manages their business on a Player Board. Here you manage up to three active patrons and monitor their patience levels. The board is physically divided into two critical working areas: the Roughing Bench on the left, where raw materials are first shaped into instruments, and the Finishing Bench on the right, where final polish is applied before sending pieces to the orchestra. Storage areas for materials and slots for award markers (which unlock permanent perks) round out the board layout.

Patron Cubes track patron patience along their respective tracks. At the start of each round, they slide forward to reveal what gift is offered; however, should the cube reach the end of the track, the patron departs, penalizing the player with negative prestige for every unfulfilled requirement.

Secret end-game goals are provided by Personal Goal Cards, which score points based on your final achievements. Finally, the Market Cards dictate shifting resource values each round, encouraging you to buy low and sell high.

Ultimately, the goal of the game is to amass the highest prestige score possible, tracked using Family Crest Tokens. Across the game, players earn points by staging performances, building and repairing instruments, reaching public milestones, and completing patron demands.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Place the main board in the center of the table.
2. Shuffle the public award tiles and place them face up at the top of the board (4 tiles for 4 players; 3 tiles for 2–3 players).
3. Shuffle the instrument, performance, and repair decks separately and place them face down in their dedicated board spaces.
4. Prepare the patron cards: shuffle decks A and B separately, then place deck A on top of deck B.
5. Reveal cards from each deck to fill all display spaces for patrons, instruments, performances, and repairs.
6. Place the round marker on space 1 of the round track.
7. Set up the market: set aside the round 1 market card, shuffle the remaining deck, and place the round 1 card face up on top of the shuffled deck.
8. Form four decks containing specialized workers and royal patrons, adjusting each deck so it contains cards equal to the player count plus one.
9. Create a general supply with coins, materials, inspiration tokens, and the five performance dice.
10. Each player selects a color and receives:
    • 1 Workshop board.
    • 3 Award markers (placed over their icons on the workshop).
    • 3 Cubes (placed on the starting space of the patron patience tracks).
    • 3 Worker discs (values 1, 3, and 5) and 3 apprentice discs (placed near the market board).
    • 4 Family crests (one for turn order and the others on the starting spaces of the Reputation, Performance Skill, and Craftsmanship Skill tracks).
    • 8 Instrument markers, 8 performance markers, and 8 repair markers (set aside).
11. Deal 2 instrument cards, 2 patron cards, 4 personal goals, and 2 family tiles to each player.
12. Simultaneously, each player chooses:
    • One family tile (collecting the indicated starting resources).
    • Two personal goal cards (discarding the other two).
    • One instrument card (returning the other to the deck).
    • One patron card (placing it in their workshop and claiming its immediate placement bonus).
13. Determine initial turn order using the printed numbers on the chosen family tiles; the lowest number becomes first player, and turn order markers are arranged accordingly on the track.
14. Hand the resolution board to the first player and flip the family tiles face down.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Luthier unfolds over 6 rounds, with each round divided into three phases.

Phase I: Round Start

Players resolve the following steps simultaneously on their personal boards:

• Gifts and Patience. Advance the patience cube of each active patron one space to the right and claim the gift shown on the newly reached space. If the cube reaches the final space, the patron departs, causing the player to lose 3 prestige points for each unfulfilled requirement.
• Prepare Instruments. You may place up to two instrument cards from your hand onto your roughing bench (if cards already occupy this area, you may return any desired cards to your hand to make room).
• New Workers. At the start of rounds 3 and 5, all players add a new worker disc to their supply (values 2 and 4, respectively).

Phase II: Planning

In this phase, starting with the first player and following turn order, players take turns placing one worker disc face down onto an action space on the main board or their workshop board. Keep the following rules in mind:

• If discs already occupy an action space, newly placed discs are stacked on top to form a pile.
• When placing a worker, up to 3 apprentices can be stacked on top of it, increasing its skill value during resolution by 1 per apprentice.

This phase ends once all players have placed all their available worker discs.

Phase III: Resolution

Action locations are activated one by one to execute their effects. Starting with the first player and proceeding in turn order, players choose one of three options on their turn:

• Activate a Main Board Location where they have at least one worker disc. Reveal all worker discs on that space and arrange them by value from highest to lowest on the resolution board (ties are broken in favor of whoever placed their worker earlier, meaning the disc lower in the original stack). Following this order, players execute the location’s action. Once an action is taken, the player retrieves their worker and returns any assigned apprentices to the market; the only exception is the Balcony, where worker discs remain behind to determine the upcoming turn order (apprentices are still returned).
• Activate a Personal Workshop Location. The player resolves their workshop action directly and retrieves their worker disc.
• Activate the Market. The player moves their market cart marker to the opposite side of the track and performs as many market transactions as desired and affordable.

If resolving an action completes a patron requirement by tucking a required card beneath it, reset that patron’s patience marker back to start.
Completing a patron’s final requirement awards its prestige points, advances your balcony marker (triggering its benefit), and tucks the patron card face down into a slot on your player board. All cards previously tucked under that patron are discarded, and the track marker is reset. Play then passes to the next person. Once a player can no longer take any of the three options above, they must pass for the remainder of the phase.

The phase concludes once all players have resolved all their actions.

Available actions include:

• Salon. Choose an available patron card (paying any column surcharge), place it into an open workshop slot, set its patience marker to the beginning, and collect the slot’s bonus. Alternatively, take an apprentice disc from the market (if available) and two inspiration tokens. If the worker’s total value is 4 or higher, you may reset an active patron’s patience and claim any one gift offered by that patron.
• Guild. Take an instrument card into your hand (paying any column surcharge). Alternatively, gain one metal cube from the supply. If the worker’s value is 4 or higher, place a blueprint directly onto your roughing bench.
• Performance. Choose an available performance card (paying any surcharge) and roll the performance dice granted by your current skill tier. Adding the rolled notes to your worker’s value (which can be further boosted using inspiration tokens at a rate of 1 token per point), collect the corresponding tier reward (yielding coins, prestige, and, on stronger performances, placing a performance token into the orchestra to claim the printed bonus if the chair was empty, or 2 coins if already occupied). Finally, if the card satisfies an active patron requirement, tuck it underneath; otherwise, discard it. Alternatively, gain three animal resource cubes. If the worker’s value is 4 or higher, advance your performance skill track one space (applying its new perk to future performances, even within the same round).
• Repair. Choose an available repair card (paying any surcharge) and spend the listed materials (spending 2 inspiration tokens discounts the cost by one cube). Next, score the prestige shown and place a repair marker into the orchestra, gaining the primary chair bonus if empty or 2 coins if occupied. If the card matches an active patron requirement, tuck it beneath; otherwise, discard it. Alternatively, gain two wood cubes. If the worker’s value is 4 or higher, advance your repair skill track one space.
• Balcony. Choose one: claim an eligible Public Award (scoring its prestige and freeing an award marker), gain 6 coins, or recruit 2 apprentices from the market. If the worker’s value is 4 or higher, advance your balcony track one space. Discs placed here remain in resolution order, as they establish the turn order for the following round.
• The Market. Flip your cart marker to the other side and resolve any combination of market transactions: buy/sell goods at current rates, hire apprentices, or advance skill tracks. Inspiration tokens may be spent as currency at a rate of 1 coin per token.
• Roughing. Pay the materials shown in the card’s roughing row and slide the instrument card to your finishing bench on the right. A worker value of 3 or higher grants 2 inspiration tokens. Reaching value 5 or higher provides a resource discount on the action. If your repair skill track is sufficiently upgraded, you may rough out both instruments in a single action. If the right side lacks space, you may return existing unfinished instruments to your hand without recovering spent materials.
• Finishing. Pay the materials shown in the card’s finishing row. Score the listed prestige points and place an instrument marker onto the orchestra space matching its type (claiming the printed bonus if no instrument was present and bumping existing performance/repair tokens downward). If the card matches an active patron requirement, tuck it; otherwise, discard it. A worker value of 4 or higher grants a material discount, while a value of 6 or higher doubles the orchestra bonus. An advanced repair skill track allows finishing both bench instruments simultaneously.

Phase IV: Round End

Once all actions are executed, resolve maintenance:

• Update turn order based on workers remaining on the Balcony (discs are then returned to players).
• If a specialist was unlocked, permanently assign a worker disc to lock in their unique abilities.
• At the end of round 3, purge all remaining Level A patron cards from the deck.
• Discard cards from the cheapest display spaces, slide remaining cards rightward, and replenish the market displays.
• Discard the current market card and reveal the next one to establish new pricing.
• Advance the round marker to trigger the next round start.

A new round then begins.

Game End

The game ends at the conclusion of the sixth round. Final scores are calculated across several categories:

• First Chairs. Score prestige for every First Chair controlled in the Orchestra based on the scoring table: 1/2/4/6/9/13/18/24 points for holding 2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9+ chairs.
• Finishing Bench Instruments. Every instrument left sitting on your finishing bench scores half its printed prestige value (rounded up).
• Personal Goals. Score the highest tier achieved on each secret goal card held in your hand.
• Patron Bonuses. Tally end-game scoring bonuses granted by completed Type B patrons.
• Specialist Workers. Each specialist card acquired during play is worth 1 prestige point.
• Leftover Resources. Score 1 prestige point for every 10 total remaining items among unspent coins, materials, inspiration tokens, and apprentices.

The player with the most prestige points claims victory. Ties are broken in favor of the player with the most leftover coins after end-game conversion. If still tied, victory is shared.

Variants

2-Player Games. Only 3 public award tiles are placed at the top of the board instead of 4. Card display spaces are restricted to 2-player limits, leaving slots marked for 3–4 or 4 players empty. Overlay tiles are placed over the Performance and Repair board spaces to block extraneous card slots. An Orchestra setup card is drawn, placing neutral markers on the indicated First Chairs. For every neutral instrument placed, remove that instrument card from the deck. Spare award markers are placed on the 3 public award tiles to block specific tiers, restricting competition. If you prefer an experience closer to a 3-player count, you can skip the 2-player adjustments and instead incorporate the solo Automa player as a third participant using standard 3-player setup rules.

Solo Mode. A dedicated AI system operates as an autonomous third player. Setup follows standard three-player rules, substituting one human player with the AI deck. This variant relies on specialized components: 18 AI action cards, 8 AI guild cards, and a solo reference aid. The AI competes head-to-head for prestige, instruments, and patrons, closely simulating the pressure of a rival workshop family.

Personal Opinion

A few years back, Dave Beck ventured into publishing with his debut design. Naturally, he turned to crowdfunding to bring the project to life: an ambitious production driven by a premise as daring as it was intriguing.

That game was Distilled (read its tocho-review here) and, unfortunately, it proved disappointing. While mechanically novel in theme, it ultimately felt like a fairly flat eurogame with relatively uninspired decision-making. Luckily for the publisher, the game found critical acclaim (not mine) and a warm reception among the public—as of writing this tocho-review, it remains active and well ranked on BGG—proving once again that taste is subjective and no one holds an absolute monopoly on the truth.

Capitalizing on Distilled’s success, the designer-publisher tackled his next major project, which brings us to today’s game. This time he teamed up with co-designer Abe Burson, who, despite a few self-published designs under his belt, makes his official commercial debut here. Let us see how Luthier fares on the table, not before thanking Devir for providing the review copy that made this lengthy write-up possible.

In Luthier, we step into the shoes of musical artisans responsible for building, tuning, and repairing instruments across the board (including brass, woodwinds, and percussion, even if historical luthiers focused primarily on bowed and plucked strings). Our goal? Naturally, to build the highest prestige by crafting and refining instruments, alongside satisfying the whims of prominent patrons (mostly celebrated historical composers) and facilitating acclaimed musical performances.

Mechanically, the design revolves around a planned worker placement structure resolved in two distinct phases. During the first phase, players alternate placing workers—represented by discs bearing hidden values from 1 to 5—which can stack atop one another on the same action space. In the second phase, these spaces are resolved by revealing the discs and using their printed values to determine priority.

Consequently, worker placement blends with blind-bidding dynamics, forcing players to carefully gauge worker placement while noting that most locations offer threshold bonuses if a worker reaches a high enough value.

These placement rounds form some of the most compelling gameplay moments. In a way, they evoke Vlaada Chvátil’s masterpiece Dungeon Petz (tocho-review here), though in that game player values are grouped and assigned secretly to dictate turn initiative rather than board resolution.

With the pet-raising classic, you know the order in which groups place workers but not which spaces they will target; here, you know where everyone wants to go, but not who will act first. This brings us to another intriguing twist in Luthier: the way resolution order is determined.

Unlike traditional planned worker-placement games with fixed round scripts, resolution order is determined entirely by the players themselves. When resolving actions, players alternate selecting an action space where they placed at least one worker, flipping the stack to reveal who acts and in what order.

This setup creates a push-your-luck tension reminiscent of follow mechanisms: triggering a spot where an opponent also has a worker might catch them unprepared to execute the action effectively.

For instance, if several players placed discs on the repair space and the active player triggers it, everyone present must have the necessary materials on hand right then to fulfill a card.

Naturally, nobody wants to pass up an opportunity to force an opponent into a wasted action. That reality is what makes the planning phase so crucial. You cannot merely sequence your ideal chain of events; you have to deduce where your opponents want to go and track whether they have the resources ready, avoiding traps yourself while setting them for others.

Driving this web of decisions are the Patrons. Each patron demands specific deliverables, always requiring at least one crafted instrument alongside specific performances or repairs (which can also be satisfied by delivering spare instruments).

If an active patron demands a particular repair or performance and that card surfaces in the display, its owner will naturally scramble for it. Success requires placing a worker, securing the required resources, and hoping an earlier player does not snatch the card first.

Instruments follow a similar dynamic, though they offer more leeway. Once a blueprint card enters your hand, its completion pacing rests entirely in your own hands, free from outside disruption.

Even so, you cannot afford to dally: patron patience is short. Fail to satisfy their demands within two rounds and they will walk away, slapping you with prestige penalties for every unfulfilled requirement.

While managing patrons, players wage battles on two other fronts. The first involves public goals, sparking a race to hit milestones first. This presents a strategic crossroads: do you cash in early on an easier, lower-tier objective to lock in an ongoing perk for the rest of the game—reminiscent of conservation projects in Ark Nova (read its tocho-review)?

Alternatively, you can play the long game, holding out for top-tier milestones to harvest huge prestige payouts at the expense of playing fewer rounds with passive perks.

The other ongoing contest centers on controlling First Chairs in the orchestra. Chairs can hold three types of markers: performance, repair, and instrument tokens. Each comes with placement constraints.

Performance tokens must match musical genre, repair markers fit any instrument within that broad category, and instrument tokens must claim their specific dedicated seat. Crucially, instrument tokens take absolute priority over the other two.

So long as no instrument marker is present, players fight over chairs via area majority, needing to outnumber the incumbent leader. Yet the moment a player builds the actual instrument, their token locks down the First Chair permanently, bumping any rival performance or repair markers down to the lower tier.

I must also highlight the skill tracks, which boost performance and crafting capabilities while unlocking assignable specialist abilities for your workers. Climbing these tracks requires resolving their associated spaces using high-value workers.

This dynamic brings apprentices into the spotlight. These thin discs stack onto your workers, increasing their value by one point per apprentice. With only three available in each player’s pool, they act as an operational resource that demands careful rationing.

The game spans six rounds structured into three pairs, as players receive an additional worker with a new value at the start of rounds 3 and 5. During the opening rounds, you resolve four actions per round (three workers plus the market), whereas in the final two rounds, each player conducts six actions (five workers plus the market).

One final mechanical wrinkle worth mentioning is the market action itself. Every player can resolve it once per round without spending a worker during planning. This standalone step lets players balance their supplies, occasionally inviting speculative trading as goods fluctuate in value round to round. It also provides an expensive shortcut for bumping skill tracks.

With that context laid out, let us talk about how Luthier feels across repeat plays. First and foremost, I find it an entertaining design. The clock ticking down on patron patience injects a welcome sense of urgency. It never quite reaches the punishing dread of Agricola (tocho-review here) or In the Year of the Dragon (tocho-review here), but you will certainly feel the pinch whenever essential pieces fail to line up.

Inevitably, luck plays a noticeable role here. Between churning card displays and dice rolls, Lady Luck’s presence cannot be ignored. Most spaces do offer fail-safes to dig for cards (at painful prices) or reroll dice, but an otherwise flawless plan can still unravel simply because the required instrument never surfaces in the market.

Some might counter that you should play in reverse: draft instruments first and find matching patrons later. An instrument is a reliable investment: even if no patron ever claims it, it still scores points and claims an orchestra seat—potentially doubling its bonus if completed with a high worker value. If a matching patron happens along later, all the better.

As hinted earlier, the hidden-value worker placement is the star of the show. It forces a compelling double-layered timing puzzle that creates tough decisions. In the opening rounds, choosing where to deploy your high-value 5-disc is critical, as it reliably triggers secondary thresholds. Dropping it into repair is especially tempting, since that skill track massively boosts instrument fabrication.

Maxing out that track lets you trigger double actions on both workbench instruments while permanently boosting that worker’s value by two, unlocking powerful bonuses without relying on your 5-disc or burning precious apprentices.

Another welcome touch is that every main-board location features a fallback secondary action. Often, you will drop a worker somewhere simply for this alternative, which can prove lucrative depending on market shifts.

Grabbing three white cubes via the performance space, for example, translates to nine coins if white goods are peaking in value—a payout rarely matched elsewhere. These fallbacks also incentivize triggering spaces early to throw opponents off-balance.

What works less well? Two issues stand out. The first is game flow. Even without an explicit follow mechanic, the game inherits its biggest drawback: messy, disjointed turn structures. You must rigorously pass the active player marker to keep track of who triggered what, as tracking game state solely by action counts is surprisingly tricky.

At four players, this can leave individual participants idling for long stretches. If a player allocates two actions to their workbench and the remaining three to uncontested spots late in the game, opponents may spend consecutive turns resolving crowded group actions where that player has no presence. Waiting ten minutes between decisions can easily derail your engagement.

Compounding this is an overall playtime that feels bloated for what it delivers, rarely clocking in under forty minutes per player. Consider Agricola by comparison: in Luthier, each player resolves thirty actions per game (4 across rounds 1–2, 10 across rounds 3–4, and 12 across rounds 5–6), matching the baseline action count in Agricola while taking ten minutes longer per person. This highlights how much micro-management creeps in without necessarily enhancing decision depth.

Because of this, the design shines brightest at two players. While the head-to-head dynamic tempers the tension of catching an opponent off-guard, you gain a vastly smoother pace without sacrificing tension, thanks to clever setup constraints. At higher counts, other titles offer a better return on time.

Regarding replay value, the design offers plenty of variety, from thick decks to asymmetric family starting points. Combined with higher-than-average player interaction, games accommodate differing strategic angles, making it easy to bring back to the table.

For context, Luthier fits into the medium-heavy euro bracket. Familiar heavyweights like Le Havre (tocho-review here) or Caylus (tocho-review here) naturally come to mind, alongside Agricola and Dungeon Petz. While packed with clever ideas and easy to recommend, it stops short of reaching those heights. Still, fans of the genre will find plenty to enjoy.

On the production side, component quality is solid. Cards feature great weight, linen texture, and satisfying snap (sleeving feels unnecessary, given how rarely cards are shuffled or held in hand). Wooden tokens sport custom shapes, though screen-printed icons would have aided readability. Cardboard punchboards offer good thickness despite slightly loose die-cutting. The rulebook is clean and well-illustrated. That said, the box footprint is unnecessarily huge; folding the board differently could have trimmed its shelf profile considerably.

Visually, Vincent Dutrait delivers his trademark flair, offering a richly detailed board and stunning character portraits of classical legends. Graphic design remains functional, backed by clear iconography. Top-notch work as always.

And let’s wrap this up. Luthier whisks players to 18th-century Europe to craft and repair classical instruments for legendary composers. Its standout feature is a hidden-value worker-placement engine resolved across two phases, demanding sharp timing to anticipate rival maneuvers. Balancing patron patience against orchestra chair majorities generates steady interactive pressure. Card churn and dice rolls can occasionally frustrate, even if costly mitigation options exist. Nevertheless, administrative micro-management and chaotic turn ordering stretch game length without always adding proportional depth. Pacing hiccups aside, it remains an engaging euro that blends theme with demanding euro mechanisms. Taking all this into account, I award it a…