Border Village

Border Village
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Hinterlands
Illustrator(s)	Kurt Miller
Card text
+1 Card +2 Actions When you gain this, gain a cheaper card.

Border Village is an Action card from Hinterlands. Its on-play effect is identical to Village, but Border Village's key property is that when you gain it, it comes with a free card costing up to . The effect of buying Border Village for is thus equivalent to buying a Action and getting an additional village.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• Normally Border Village costs , so it comes with a card costing up to .
• If Border Village has a different cost (such as due to Highway) then that affects what you gain with it (though Highway would also affect the other cards).
• Border Village goes to your discard pile first, then the card you gain with it.

Strategy

Border Village is a simple village, equivalent in its on-play effect to Village itself, with a strong on-gain effect that allows you to gain a cheaper card along with it. While it is very expensive for a village, effectively paying for a strong Action card costing in order to get a village thrown in with it is often a very good deal and allows you to build an effective engine more quickly than usual. This is especially true because these desirable cards (most frequently draw, Attacks, or payload) are often terminal and you would therefore need to expand your terminal space in order to play them in any case; examples include Council Room, Torturer, and Livery. Because this option is even more expensive than , it's unlikely to be a viable way of gaining all your terminals, so you may sometimes need a few copies of a cheaper village (if available) in addition to your Border Villages. Additionally, if the Kingdom lacks strong terminals at and and +Buy is not a limiting factor, cheaper villages will sometimes offer better overall value than Border Village.

If you are not reliant on keeping all your copies of Border Village for terminal space, it is an excellent target for trash for benefit effects like that of Salvager or Apprentice, since its price greatly exceeds its value once it's in your deck. This can be especially relevant if strong, cheaper villages are also easy to gain (e.g. with a Workshop variant) or if the Kingdom offers useful non-terminal cards costing , e.g. Laboratory; since these don't require extra terminal space, the Border Village can be treated as fodder that you can obtain almost for free. Border Village can be particularly useful with Remodel variants: not only can it be Remodeled into Province in the endgame, before that you can also turn some appropriately-priced card (sometimes Border Village itself) into a new Border Village, gaining another card with it; this effectively transforms a card like Transmogrify into a net gainer. In the endgame, the fact that each Border Village gain comes with an additional gain often makes a pile-out available sooner than it otherwise would be; this sometimes involves using the extra gain to score  , e.g. with Duchy.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• theory's 2011 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +2 Actions When you gain this, gain a card costing less than this.	Hinterlands	October 2011
		+1 Card +2 Actions When you gain this, gain a cheaper card.	Hinterlands (2016 printing)	December 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Pohraniční vesnice
Dutch	Grensdorp
Finnish	Rajakylä
French	Village frontalier
German	Grenzdorf			+1 Karte +2 Aktionen Wenn du das Grenzdorf nimmst, nimm dir eine Karte, die weniger kostet als das Grenzdorf.	(2011)
	Grenzdorf			+1 Karte +2 Aktionen Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, nimm eine billigere Karte.	(2019)
Italian	Villaggio di Frontiera
Japanese	国境の村 (pron. kokkyō no mura)			+1 カードを引く +2 アクション これを獲得するとき、これより安いカード1枚を獲得すろ。
Polish	Pogranicze				Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook
Russian	Пограничная Деревня (pron. pogranichnaya dyeryevnya)
Spanish	Pueblo Fronterizo

Trivia

Official card art.

Theme

Villages got +2 Actions because they are groups of people, doing things for you. A Border Village is nice for the faraway places theme. Being on the border, you have better access to certain goods.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Hinterlands Cards

Preview

So what can a card do when you gain it? Some things are not so appropriate for that particular window of time, but many things are. One of the basic things is, gain another card. Border Village is an example of that; it comes with something else. Something cheaper, so lowering the cost won't let you just pick up the pile. Village isn't worth , but paying an extra when you buy a to get a Village with it is often attractive. Once in your deck, Border Village is a value, but has a in the corner. It's a great card to trade in for something better, via Remodel or Apprentice or, hey, Trader.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Hinterlands Previews #1

Secret History

From when Hinterlands was first its own set. Originally it cost . I made it better by charging more. There's a trick you can't usually do.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Hinterlands Cards

Relevant outtakes

There was a victory card for , worth 1  , that came with a Duchy. It had started as a 2   card you got two of, but that pile runs out twice as fast, which I preferred it not doing. This card was cute but space was limited, and it stopped seeming as necessary when Border Village switched to costing .

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Hinterlands Cards