Luthier is a moderate to heavy Euro by Paverson Games set in the age of pioneering composers and the equally pioneering Luthiers that made the instruments equal in quality to the level of their talents. The premise is terrific from the off. Craft or repair instruments or produce performances that fit their musical era or taste, and satisfy the requirements of your sponsors (Patrons) and they will reward you whilst you do it and when you have finished, but delay and their patience will run out and you face the consequences.
Out of the box, and in fact the box itself, looks and feels like you are about to immerse yourself into the world the developers have created. So full marks there too - I see so many pre release forum posts from people saying “if the box is too big I’m not going to buy it” and I’m like “really? You’re going to pass up on one of the releases of the year because of the box size”? This box looks so good I’d happily leave it out on the coffee table I don’t care how big it is.
The rulebook is printed on lovely quality paper, feels like it could be 300gsm even, and this adds to the lustrous quality and feel of the component design. The colour schemes are spot on and the design of the patron artwork and Luthier family cameos are the right side of charicature, not trying to be photo realistic (I’m not sure how that would even be possible given the age and era this game is set in!), but not cartoony either - and there are family and patron bios in the “rehearsal” book - more on that later. During set up your family choices come with starting bonuses to get you going, resources, coins, or even a starting extra worker - these are very useful to get you going right from the start and can influence your early strategy and choices of end game scoring cards.
The boards are large and clear and whilst I would have liked to have slotted spots for patron cubes its not a gripe, it can increase the production cost of the boards but it would be nice to have slots for cubes and resources. There were some issues with the player worker tokens in our copy - inconsistent sizes and printing - so it would be easier to identify which token had been placed etc but the game came with replacement tokens. One of the things I do like about the industry is the general acceptance and attitiude towards replacements - this might be a generalisation but whenever we have had issues “out of the box” the retailer or distributor has, without question, replaced items. We had an issue with Life of the Amazonia for example, where the prow of the boats for the tokens split - I contacted them, sent a picture and they sent replacments - no issue. The same here, recognise there is a problem, sort it, no need to make a fuss. We’re done.
Your worker placement tokens have a strength value that is important in ranking of turn order for that particular task, so if your opponent also decides to place there so you might be left with having to pay for a new patron or pay to perform which could impact on your ability to do certain tasks later in the same round, or force you into a secondary option of taking resources instead of doing what you intended. The mechanisms here aren’t new, its worker placement, resource management, victory points, end game scoring, but there there are some interesting elements that just add that little something extra. Worker placements assign yourself tasks to create, repair, or perform to meet your patrons’ requirements but you can also influence the turn order and gain or gain boosts to your worker strength using apprentice chips, or gain extra VPs from milestones or bring new patrons on board so there are plenty of options per turn. As the game progresses you gain more workers (from 3 to 5) so the likelihood of dual placements between players increases and the priority becomes more important. Do you place you higher strength chip to ge the Patron you want or place it on the balcony to take the 1st player priority and advance on the reputation track? Notwithstanding the fact that even if you bid you might not get to go first!
I really like this element of jeopardy because it might mean you can’t meet a patron requirement in that round forcing you to try to meet it the next round and if your opponent realises this they can pressure you further, so there is an element of trick taking and it adds a bit of spice to proceedings - its not Arcs level of having the rug pulled out from under you but it can be frustrating and amusing depending on which side you are on.
That said, either at two or four players there is time to pivot as there are many choices and what I really love about this game is there are mini achievements all the way through that reward you for your choices - crafting a new instrument gets you 1st seat in the Orchestra AND meets a patron requirement AND gives you VPs AND migth meet an end game requirement or achievement bonus. Unlike say, Recall, that I reviewed recently which often feels like a race to the end Luthier gives you something back for your in game choices. Completing a Patron gives you an ongoing or end game reward.
One of the main aims of the game is to get seats in the orchestra and again, a lot of thought has gone into how this plays and how you might have to pivot or tailor your gameplay - do you go for a new Violin or a classical performance - the 1st seat bonus has end game scoring but I need wood for roughing my next instrument - the Orchestra is layed out so that you can’t always get the result you need but other rewards are worth the effort. In lower player counts this is especially relevant because during set up certain seats in the Orchestra are blocked with instruments, repairs or performance tokens - basically saying its not a free for all. This works to a point and is probably our only minor(very minor) gripe. Could there be a mechanism where Orchestra blocking is gradually introduced across the 6 rounds as opposed to all at once - this would be more in the line of a third player and could potentially scupper your plans for a seat - I can see why its all done at the set up but gradual blocking might be more effective. That said - the game is no worse for this in any way.
The Orchestra can get busy with pieces and the colour schemes are a bit close between blue and grey (or they were in our copy) so we will probably look at boosting those components if they ever come to market.
I mentioned previpously the Rehearsal booklet - the developers saw fit to do a full four player written walkthrough of a round as an introduction and one can see why they did this, lots going on, lots of choices, lots of interative gameplay especially at 4p, so again full marks for doing this - they didn’t have to but they took the time to do it. I must say again the quality of the paper used in the instructions is the best I’ve ever seen and just adds to the quality feel.
The market mechanism works really well, variable pricing across rounds adds that element of uncertainty and again can force you into alternative choices. As mentioned previously, at 4 players I felt like I was somewhat paradoxically able to achive more and pgress further up the achievement tracks than at two players, I think in a four player game turn order and the use of the balcony was more widely used, turn order at two players is slightly less punitive if you are second to go - however, your round can still hinge on an opponent deciding to resolve say, a repair before you have had a chance to go to market…nothing more frustrating (satisfying) then your opponent forced into repairing a woodwind instrument when their patron needed a string repair!
End game scoring is clear and the help cards are just that, helpful - plenty of scoring opportunities and you even get points for instruments you haven’t quite finished but used resources to get them part way through the process - again a nice reward versus choice element. All of our games have been close - within 10 points between 1st and second with an average score in the 70s so its not a point salad but as I said, the rewards are there for your action, in game and and at the end - you can see pretty much everything your opponents are doing, so when that final round comes along - you should know what you have to do - only blind end game scoring cards in the final count are unseen - although, they are not easy by any means and not always big points.
We really like this game - it’s a proper board gaming experience, the theme and look is spot on, the mechanics are tried and tested but fit together so well with the objective of the game - its complicated yes, but its not exhausting. After playing recall I need a lie down, after playing this I’m like, when is our next play. We love the concept, its easily relatable, the objectives are congruent and interim rewards scale really well, the bigger your instrument, the higher the rewards, the more demanding your patron, the better the rewards. It takes planning and execution, the right amount of luck, yes, there are dice, but a touch of bad luck isn’t game over and there are many opportunities to pivot or recover. If I’ve made it sound too easy, it really isn’t, every decision counts, just that sometimes you don’t control the decision and that is one of the reasons this game game sings.
Luthier ranked high in many online reviewers’ games of 2025 (lots of top 10s) and its easy to see why this for me is right up there with anything released over the past few years. It gone straight into our top 5 from recent years and has a place alongside SETI and Ark Nova as our type of game. This is everything a challenging but rewarding board game should be.
