As the Viking Chief of your clan, it is up to you to bring riches and rewards to your people. You’ll need a bit of luck on your ventures, but with proper planning (and perhaps a bit of help from the gods) you can overcome your rivals and arise victorious!
What Is It?
A dice rolling and set collection game for 2-4 where players work to collect destination cards for points; some cards will also give players special abilities.
They gather these cards by placing clan tokens on 1 of 3 map tiles per turn, based on their roll. They can aim for highest value, most tokens in a row, or most tokens in a stack, or try to go for more than one board over multiple turns. Being the leader of a board gives them first choice of card, while being 3rd or 4th may mean getting nothing. At game’s end, players score points for the cards they collected, completed objectives, having the most cards of a country, and connected frescos of 2+ pieces. The Jarl with the most points at the end of the game wins!
Who Is It For?
- Ages 13+
- Fans of dice rolling and set collection
- Fans of a good Viking theme + immersive art
- Those who don’t mind feuding with other players (i.e. trying to be leader on a board gets very competitive at times!)
Components + Quality
The boards are nice quality; double-sided for in-game and then scoring at the end, which is neat. Cards are average quality; symbology is pretty clear, but I do wish there was more than 1 reference sheet included. Cardboard tokens are also average quality. The player colors are distinct from one another, but I wish black wasn’t chosen, as those blend in on the maps a bit too much for my liking. The art is beautiful, and very thematically fitting. The rules are clear and detailed. The box is small, but holds everything well, and the insert is fun and thematic. The one negative as far as components was the dice, these were super disappointing. The blue doesn’t match the aesthetic of the game, and the pips aren’t engraved; on the lower numbers, you can see where the pips could have been printed for higher numbers. It was weird, and they just felt really cheap. I will be replacing them to improve the experience a bit.
PROS
- Easy to learn/teach/play
- Simple set-up
- Smooth gameplay
- Majority ties are friendly
- Dice can be manipulated with runes
- Even without runes, you have choice of rolling vs returning home (to gain runes), how many dice to place, & where to place
- Special ability cards add variety
- “Dummy Player” in 2-player game is non-intrusive/doesn’t hurt the game
CONS
- Can go a bit long for what it is
- Dice are really cheap and disappointing, especially since they’re a main component
- Can sometimes come down to a lot of luck of the draw/roll
Final Thoughts
For a small box, this game feels pretty big! I thought the mechanics were simple, but that players still had plenty of options each turn for how to use their dice. It can get really competitive if players are going for the same frescos or majority bonuses, but that’s part of the fun as well.
I’m usually really anti-dummy player in 2-player games, but this one is simple, doesn’t get in the way, and gives you all the info you need for a round at the very beginning so that you can adjust your strategy around that. I don’t mind it at all, and in fact even recommend the game highly with only 2 players (as well as 3 and 4).
I’m not attached to this theme at all, personally, but that definitely didn’t stop me from having an awesome time with this one. Check it out if you have the chance and like dice and sets!
My Final Ratings:
Overall Game – 7/10
Aesthetics – 7/10
Difficulty – 3/10
Replay Value – 7/10
*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*
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