Summertime, Vikings and Alpacas

Oops this got a bit derelict didn't it? From once a week to nothing for three months. Wow. Well I am back and have changed up the format a bit (similar to my other blog A2Steam) and will be doing smaller write ups on specific games and bunching them together every few weeks.

Also noticed some new followers on the Facebook site, welcome, hope you like what you read. 

RAIDERS OF THE NORTH SEA

The first of a trio of similarly themed games where players partake in the Viking Age. I've given this one a number of plays now and it is very good. At its core Raiders is a worker placement game, each turn you place a worker and perform an action and then you pick up a worker, performing that action. These must be different actions and the workers don't belong to any single player, so you could be picking up workers another player has put down in a previous turn. There are also three tiers of worker - some being better/worse at certain actions, some action being exclusive to a particular tier.

Actions such as getting supplies, gold and hiring crew are all in service of going out and raiding. Once you think you are reads you take a "double" action (uses up both of your actions for the turn) to raid an outpost. This will use up a worker permanently but in return gives you resources and usually access to a higher tier worker. These resources can be turned in for point (raiding also get you points), armor and gold (to hire more crew). Sometime raiding will lead to the death of some of your crew, that also get you points. The game ends when a certain amount of top tier outposts have been raided.

A lot of Raiders is about pushing to get the good stuff first without over reaching and loosing too much. The outposts are first come first serve so you can't dawdle, but the pace will be set by other players so if the other players are taking their time that gives you some breathing room. Raiders scales well (2-4 players) and moves quickly.

I've really enjoyed this one. From simplicity of rules to interesting decisions, without being a brain burn. Raiders also looks good too with the components being top notch and lovely art. 

SHIPWRIGHTS OF THE NORTH SEA



This is the second of the three games in what I am going to call the North Sea Trilogy and Shipwrights is for sure a different game from Raiders. Unlike the worker placement and resource management of Raiders, this one is mostly card based. 

Each round players draft cards, then play them as craftsmen or use them as one off actions, then they get their gold and workers for the next day with the goal to have the most points when someone has built their fourth ship (ending the game). Easier to build ships are worth less points but you could attempt to race out the game vs those who are building bigger ships. There is also a lot of "take that" game play in the action cards - though none of it feels harsh, more like player created obstacles for you to overcome.

Just like Raiders, the components are top quality and it all looks very nice. Turns go by quickly and it the pressure to get what you need and build it first feels good. It is a much lighter game than Raiders but it fills it's own niche in this trilogy.

I have to make a note that we did play the game wrong - which lead to it taking longer than it should have to play because we we hoarding craftsmen cards. I am looking forwards to playing it correctly...oops.


EXPLORERS OF THE NORTH SEA

The final game in this trilogy really reminds me of Akrotiri but expanded out for more players. In Explorers you are sending out your boat and vikings to explore new lands, gather animals, build outposts and raid settlements.

The basic loop of game play involves a player placing a hex (with ocean and islands on it) on the board, connecting it to previous placed hexes. Then they take actions such as moving their ship, loading and unloading animals and vikings, building outposts, raiding settlements, bringing animals back to the mainland for points and having battles with ships. Most of the actions you take earn you points and doing them in certain ways earns cumulatively more. There is a race between the players to get what they need from the islands and each player also has unique conditions that will earn them extra points when the game is over, which happens when the last hex is placed, so everyone can see the timer ticking down.

It seems the most random of the three games as you don't have any control over where other players put their hexes and you often can't place the ones you have exactly where you want them as they have to match sea to sea and land to land. Combined with the random content of the hexes you do the best you can and try no to make it easy for your opponents and no to hard for yourself.

Explorers of the North Sea moves quickly and the race to get what you want adds pressure but the randomness keeps it somewhat casual. I quite enjoyed it and am looking forwards to additional plays.
ALITPLANO

I am a big fan of Orléans and when another game by Reiner Stockhausen was announced I got very excited. It turned out to be immediately very popular and it took a bit to get a copy but I am glad I did.

In Altiplano you are working a mechanic similar to Orléans, acquiring tokens, putting them in a bag to draw at random and use for various actions. The big difference in Altiplano is not just how they get used but the much more temporary relationship you have with them. In  Orléans they form an every recycling source of "action fuel", in Altiplano they come and go much easier and that's the hook. You are moving around a series of plateaus, each with their own actions on them. You first act is to make sure you can get to where you want to spend the token you have placed onto your planning board. Some of the actions just require to you place the spend tokens into your discard basket, which you cycle back once your draw bag is empty. The rest of the time you are permanently spending these tokens either turning them into better tokens or placing them into your warehouse, which is the meat of the scoring.

Each player has a warehouse to store the various goods in. But how and where you can place and stack goods has a particular set of restrictions that keep you hopping. You want to fill whole rows for points but you can't start a second row of a goods type till you have finished partially full ones. You consistently juggle how long to hold onto goods to use for actions or when to store them away forever. And all the good are in limited quantities, so first come first serve puts pressure on those players competing in similar goods.

Initially Altiplano can seem daunting with a lot of actions on your planning board, more actions on the plateaus and even more actions can be purchased as attachments but as you are restricted to work with what you draw it becomes more clear. Place and plan the best you can for the current turn and que up actions for later turns. 

I initially was worried that Orléans and Altiplano would be too similar, but they are much different beasts once you see how they play out. I really like Altiplano, though it is unlikely replace Orléans as one of my more favorite games in recent years, it stands tall on its own and is a great example of how a similar mechanic can be used to create a completely different feel.

JAIPUR

Jaipur is a lovely little award winning two player that was introduced to me a number of years ago and once I was able to get a copy has seen a good amount of play.

In Jaipur each player is attempting to score points via card set collection. There is a market of five colored goods cards in the middle of the table and on you turn you can either take 1 goods card and refresh from the deck, take as many goods cards as want, trading equal amount from your hand or take all the camels in the market, placing them in from of you. Instead of trading goods cards you can spend any number of camels and take that many goods cards, replacing them with camels. Finally instead of working the market you can instead discard a number of same colored goods from your hand to claim one of the same colored score markers. These markers are limited, with the ones worth more points harder to get and fewer in number. You claim the markers with just a few cards but the more you spend the higher the bonus you get. The game ends once a certain amount of score marker piles are empty so the race is on.

Jaipur does it's job very well. The pacing between players of what cards to take, what to trade, camel use and when to cash in for points is great. A combination of pushing your luck and outguessing your opponent. It plays quick and is designed for a best two-out-of-three setup so even if the first game goes bad for you there is time to recover. I well recommend it if you are looking for fast paced two player game with great back and forth. Also now that it seems to be regularly back in print it's not a pain to get.

*****

Well that's it for this month, I will be back at the end of August with five more games. Thanks for reading and I hope you found something you like.