When comparing Vinhos: Deluxe Edition vs Sheriff of Nottingham, the Slant community recommends Vinhos: Deluxe Edition for most people. In the question“What are the best board games?” Vinhos: Deluxe Edition is ranked 33rd while Sheriff of Nottingham is ranked 44th. The most important reason people chose Vinhos: Deluxe Edition is:
Since the game plays out over the course of only 6 years with players receiving only 2 actions per year, actions are very limited over-all. This gives additional weight and meaning to every decision in the game as players try to optimize their estates and balance short-term rewards with long-term goals.
Specs
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Pros
Pro The limited number of turns lead to very tense and engaging gameplay
Since the game plays out over the course of only 6 years with players receiving only 2 actions per year, actions are very limited over-all. This gives additional weight and meaning to every decision in the game as players try to optimize their estates and balance short-term rewards with long-term goals.
Pro Incredible component quality
For the deluxe edition of this game Eagle-Griffon games hired famous boardgame artist Ian O'Toole to do all new art for both the box and the player boards, resulting in one of the most beautiful games of 2016. They also went above and beyond with the physical components, opting for thick, high-quality cardboard for most of the pieces and chunky wooden bits for everything else.
Pro Two games in one
In addition to the original 2010 edition of the game, the deluxe edition features a new, streamlined and updated, set of rules that help make the game much more accessible to players who are new to heavy euro-style games.
Pro Great party game
“Sheriff of Nottingham” is a great game for providing some action and laughs at a smaller get-together, which is to be expected from an easy game that revolves around light roleplay, random banter, and lying and bribing your way to victory.
While not necessarily a roleplaying game, sometimes players can’t help but change their voice when taking on the role of the sheriff and threatening the merchants. The same principle works the other way around – merchants tend to come up with witty excuses when trying to bribe the sheriff or pass their stock as legitimate. All of this can lead to some hilarious and memorable moments.
Pro Simple to understand
"Sheriff of Nottingham" makes for a great gateway game because of how easy the rules are. Even children can understand the main gist quite easily. The game revolves around managing your hand, collecting sets, and lying straight to the sheriff's face.
Every turn the players discard and redraw cards from discard piles and the deck and maintain 6 cards in-hand. The players then choose 1-5 cards, place them in a burlap sack, and declare them to the player taking the role of the sheriff by saying how many cards of one type are in the sack, but the only thing that must be truthful is the number of goods - the actual contents can be contraband or different types of goods. For example, a player says that their sack contains 3 chickens, whereas it actually contains 2 chickens and a crossbow.
It is up to the sheriff to decide who is inspected and who is let in. If the sheriff catches a merchant trying to bring in contraband or different goods than he declared, then that merchant must pay the sheriff the penalty price written on the cards. If the sheriff inspects the bag of a truthful merchant, then the sheriff must compensate the penalty to the player and let the goods go to the merchant stand.
The game is won by the player who has accumulated the most wealth after every player has been the sheriff two times (three times if playing with three players).
Pro Quality components
The components are all well-made and should hold up to regular wear and tear and even an accidental drop now and then. The game consists of gold coins, merchant stand boards, and a Sheriff marker made from thick cardboard, cards made of durable cardstock, merchant bags made of dense fabric, and a useful foamcore card insert for holding the cards during the gameplay.
Pro Useful mobile app
Arcane Wonders have made a free mobile companion app for “Sheriff of Nottingham” that helps with keeping the time of inspections if you’re playing with a time limit, keeping score of your finances and who is in the lead, and providing an atmosphere with ambient sounds and voice-acted audio comments.
If you just want to make the game funnier, you can pay 3$ for the “Merchant Fun Pack” to get a clickable soundboard and unlock over 70 more audio comments to spam throughout the game, featuring such highlights as “COUGH Contraband COUGH COUGH” or “Crossbows are illegal, right?”.
Cons
Con High cost might be a problem for some
Although justified by the impressive quality of the components and the game itself, it is still a relatively expensive game and may not fit in everyone's budget.
Con Not well suited for new board gamers
Vinhos is a very heavy euro-style boardgame and as such has many complicated and interacting parts that might be too much for a new boardgamer to handle. Since there is almost no randomness in the game, the winner is usually the player who played best or knows the game best, which means that a single mistake can make it very hard to win.
Con Very group dependent
The game will not fit every group due to the social nature of it. It's a whole different game when played with children, adults, or more introverted people. The personalities of people greatly influence the banter, the roleplay, the bribery, and the negotiation parts, which are core aspects of "Sheriff of Nottingham".
Moreover, if players choose not to engage in the more cutthroat side of the gameplay (bribery, lying, etc.), the game gets boring very fast. "Sheriff of Nottingham" is all about bluffing, and if you take that part of the game out entirely then it just becomes a card game where people race for the most points.
Con Not greatly replayable
The game manages to keep the players excited for the first few plays, but it easily loses its charm after you play it more than ten times or so. It starts to feel samey even when played a few times in a row.
The variations of the game don't really impact the replayability either - they only add a little bit of difficulty, for example, you can add a time limit, make players have 7 cards in-hand, remove some cards from the deck, or play with "royal goods", which are basically cards that are counted as contraband but add to your legal good count at the end of the game.