Disclaimer: I purchased the Deluxe version of the game myself, and the opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.
Overview:
(from BGG)
Luthier transports players to the height of classical music in Western Europe, when the art of the instrument was upheld equally by skilled craftspeople, noble patrons, virtuoso performers, and famous composers such as Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.
Using a new, unique combination of hidden bidding and worker placement, players manage resources to craft various musical instruments in their workshop, while also courting actual historic patrons through an ever-changing personal tableau of actions and bonuses. Each player chooses how to balance improving skills across multiple tracks, unlocking specialized worker abilities and other bonuses. The choice to concentrate on varying gameplay strategies and goals, such as musical performances, instrument building and repairs, apprentice training and workshop expansion, and overall reputation as an instrument maker, provide multiple paths to victory.
Luthier finds true harmony through an authentic and original marriage of theme and mechanisms, resulting in a rich gameplay experience that equally speaks to both the strategic gamer and the classical music lover.
Rules & Setup:
Set up time varies depending on player count as this determines how many of certain things / areas are populated on the main play board, and solo mode adds in further things where you’re adding block tiles to the main board to negate some of the action areas in 2 places, removing cards from decks based on the placement of neutral pieces etc.
Player set up isn’t too bad due to the excellent player trays, and resources are also in very trays, and all come with lids to ensure everything is secure between games.
This is a heavy game, and at first glance the 2 rulebooks (yes 2) look daunting, but one is dedicated to both the solo play and the ‘Rehearsal’ which if you want to try it runs through a dummy round of the game including actions for all 4 players. Personally, I think if you watch one or two of the excellent play through videos on YouTube or similar the game will make complete sense, especially if you have a copy of the actual rulebook in front of you.
You can however simply read the rules, as once again with Paverson they have gone to excellent lengths to ensure that there are plenty of pictures and examples of what the rules are explaining, and once you actually see this play out on a turn it all clicks into place extremely quickly and turns start to flow nicely. Don’t be put off by how complicated you may think it looks, it’s really not.
Theme & Gameplay:
The theme is that you are a Luthier, a skilled craftsperson who builds and repairs stringed instruments, although in this game there are more than just stringed instruments to build or repair, you also hire patrons, who will give you help along your path to greatness, but also ask that you not only furnish them with new and / or repaired instruments, but some also demand that you put on a performance for them before they become impatient and withdraw their patronage, causing you to lose points.
You start the game with 3 numbered discs i.e. 1, 3 & 5 and the number indicates the power / strength level of the action, and you gain more as the rounds progress, and you can also hire apprentices who give you a bonus point when added to one of your numbered discs as long as they are placed together on an action space, either on the main board or one of the two action spaces on your own player board.
You cannot for example place your numbers 1 and 3 discs together to make strength 4, BUT if you have them available you can add any or all of the 3 potential apprentices to any numbered disc to increase its’ strength level. Once used, they go back to the market board where they sit until you do an action or gain a benefit that says one of them comes to help you out. Apprentices can be carried over from round to round if you don’t use them, but are always a one and done on use-age before being available to rehire again.
All the spaces give one or actions, and when resolved they are resolved in both placement and numerical order so if two or more players have the same strength value they then get resolved in the order they were first assigned to the action space, meaning the higher the number and earlier you place the disc(s) gives you a better chance of getting a card you need, or an action / reward.
You can even put two numbered discs down on the same action space, meaning you will get to take 2 actions from there, at the appropriate time based on the disc value.
Resources are both gathered as an action, and can be bought and sold by going to the market, which is a free once per round action and doesn’t require discs to be placed in order to take it, and it can be taken at any point in the round but it counts as the action for that turn, i.e. you can’t go to market AND resolve one of the action spaces where you have a disc.
When actions are chosen as your action for that turn, all other players discs on that action are solved during this phase, meaning you could force a player to do something before they actually want to, or are able to, messing up their plans for that particular action space, but there is always the option to gather resources or money depending on the symbols shown beside the action space
There are 6 rounds, and after rounds 2 & 4 you get new discs so your available number of actions increase, and this is disc 2 after round 2, and disc 4 after round 4.
After round 6 is complete you tally up all your points, including from any end game achievement cards and other scoring zones, and the Luthier with the most points is the winner.
Artwork and Components:
As with previous Paverson Games products, the quality of the components is excellent, with special note to the metal coins which are beautiful. The card stock is good and the boards are of nice thick card and the player boards in my copy were recessed so cubes and tokens didn’t move around when they shouldn’t.
The storage tray looks like it may have room for more cards or may be to allow for sleeves, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t an expansion or two somewhere down the line, or maybe a 5th player?
The Good:
Excellent components, well designed and laid out rulebook, a guide to put everything away in the massive box, and nice instrument shaped trays to store components.
The Other:
My deluxe version didn’t have all the upgraded items you can get for Luthier, and whilst most are reasonably priced, including a pipe organ dice tower that actually plays as dice roll through it, I do feel that £95 for a neoprene play mat for the main board area is a bit too steep for my liking.
Final Thoughts:
I am writing this review after my first couple of solo playthroughs, and already for me Luthier is a winner and a fabulous addition to my ever growing game collection, and as much as I like Distilled (another excellent game from Paverson) for me this has taken over it as my favourite Paverson Games boardgame, and I’m sure will only go higher in my overall collection once I get it to the table as a 4 player experience.
In conclusion if you like heavy games, with a nice theme built in then you would do well to give Luthier a try, as I’m sure you won’t be disappointed…. And I offer that recommendation with absolutely ‘no strings attached J’.
