Review
A Legend and a game
Ein Fest für Odin
Vikings - robbers, explorers, founders
„Ein Fest für Odin“ is most and foremost a feast for your game mechanics senses and equally first and foremost a worker placement game á la Uwe Rosenberg. And it evokes a few memories of Patchwork, and even of Ubongo and similar games.
The first thing you note is, that the box of the game is unusually big, and yet, it is filled to the brim with game components. When you have played the game, it needs some organizing to be able to fit all the components back into the box again.
Most of the components are made of cardboard, and yet, I believe that the components are very classy and of high quality and also designed rather realistically and with a lot of attention to details. In fact, the publisher has also spent some thought on the method of practical handling of the components. Proof for this consideration are the two commodities boxes, that game with the game, in which you store all the commodities markers easily and very well sorted.
On the Home Boards for the players and on the other boards (Action Board, Exploration Boards and Buildings) you can discover many details, if you take a close look - for instance, the decoration details on the Home Boards are different for each board. If you like such details in your games, this preference is met in this one. And, during the game, you need pay attention to details, too, because the game parts, called “Markers”, must be placed after careful consideration ....
A somewhat unusual facet of this very felicitous worker placement game is, that even when playing with the full complement of four players, usually the last workers - Vikings in this game, of course, due to the topic - can still be placed very efficiently. Via the 61 action cases, there are a lot of strategies on offer, that you could use. Even after some 10 to 15 games I have not yet managed to find the ultimate and final winning strategy. It is also very alluring that you can keep trying out new strategies. It might make sense, in that case, to try options where you are less encumbered by the strategies of your fellow players. But, as I have already mentioned, even when the other players interfere with your plans, you have always - in case your preferred action case has been occupied before you could occupy it - some very useful alternatives. Players take their turns in clockwise direction, which is sensible, but, however, the starting player is not changed regularly or automatically, but is determined by whoever did the last action. As the actions in general are done with different numbers of Vikings, the result can be a rather irregular sequence of play.
In short, the aim of the game is to acquire the biggest possible Markers in the best possible color to fill your boards - at the beginning this is your Home Board, later in the game then additional discoveries or buildings - with them.
All areas show, at the start of the game, lots of cases with penalty points, which would be scored as penalty points, if not covered at the end of the game.
The action cases can be occupied with a number of Vikings between one and four, in general the actions tend to become more powerful with rising numbers of Vikings. There are very few cases where you would have the same effect of the case regardless of the number of Vikings you might have placed on them.
Even if you have to bring dice into play for some actions (Hunting, Raid/Pillaging), the element of chance or luck, considered for all the game, is rather moderate. Why? Because, even if you have a bad roll (you need high or low, depending on the action), you receive an attractive compensation and even take back Vikings, if you fail to achieve the intended result and action.
I believe that you should avoid beginning to mathematically analyze the options and possibilities of the game, even if you believe that you know the game rather well already. The options are way too many for this! And you might lose some of the allure of the game, when even the most hard-core gamer among your group loses patience when it takes to long for him to have his next turn. And, yet, on the other hand, you can use those down-times very nicely to consider how you will place those markers that you have so far acquired. Some facts you need to consider: Do I want to accrue the highest possible income? Do I want to receive bonuses? Or do I need to cover the maximum possible number of penalty points?
Now, let’s take a look at a rough overview of the flow of the game: You receive, at the start of the game, a randomly assigned Occupation card, from a special starting card set. Each player also begins with three out of four types of weapons, which are meant to assist you in hunting or pillaging and you receive an additional, random weapon in every round.
As already mentioned, you place your Vikings on free action cases. On those 61 action cases, you can acquire various parts or Markers, which you can, on the one hand, use for the so-called Feast (similar to Feeding the Family in Agricola) or, on the other hand, for covering the boards. You can acquire markers in many different ways - Hunting, Buying, Trading, Pillaging, etc. You can also acquire resources that you then use to build ships or buildings. You can upgrade tiles and, maybe, you can acquire additional weapon cards.
And then there is the option to emigrate, which is done by upgrading ships as regards to points, which results in the fact that ships are not ships anymore. The Feast (aka Feeding), is contrary to Agricola, rather easily done, as there is a so-called “Harvest” in some of the round, which usually provides almost all of the commodities for the Feast. Another option is to acquire Occupation cards or play Occupation cards. This is something that you can do, without using an additional, separate action, by using three or four Vikings.
That’s it, at least for the most important action options, which, however, work very differently after all. Another essential element of the game is the puzzling of the markers on the boards.
As in some other games you can learn a lot when reading the Almanach, at the latest. The really voluminous Almanach relates to nearly all the terms in the game very intensely and with historical information. Also, in this game, nearly every action makes sense in context of the topic!
This game has a high replay allure and value, as you keep wanting to try different strategies and actions. The Occupation cards, however - there are three different stacks which provide support and assistance in every conceivable way - might entice you a bit into preferring some actions. But, surely, one could win the game without any Occupation cards at all; it might be that the cards are not really balanced, even if they try to balance out the value of the advantage an individual card gives you via the victory points.
Those cards can have instant effects; some of the cards strengthen something with an „whenever ...” effect or become effective if you have achieved a certain result. All cards are explained in the Appendage relatively elaborately and very clearly. All in all, there are 190 (!!!) different cards, which are, in a way, split into six stacks (including the stacks of starting cards. The rules recommend beginning with the A stack, but you can rather quickly add the additional stacks to the game, albeit with effects of cards becoming somewhat more powerful in the B and C stacks. I did not, however, note any “Evil” card, targeting other players. Actions, too, are not “evil” against other players, but of course it can happen, as in all Worker Placement games, that somewhat takes the action you had planned to take before you can take it.
If you want to really get acquainted with the game, I recommend playing a complete game instead on only doing a few turns, as you cannot figure out correctly if you will manage in the end to cover the many penalty points on your Home Board. I did not try the shorter version of six rounds, provided in the rules, because there was no real allure in it for me, as I believe that the standard seven rounds are the optimum. But the solo variant has a definite allure, as you can try out many things with it and are your own obstacle and cannot always do what you would prefer to do.
The rules are very copious, very clear, very extensive and peppered with tips and hints allover. The illustrations of rules and Almanach are very well designed, too.
Something that I have rarely found in other games - a scheme with which you can well check up on the main organization phases of the game and, in this way, cannot forget anything important and can adhere to the sequence of actions in an optimum way! On the components themselves, too, you find various markings that indicate the use of the components, how you can acquire them, what you have to take into consideration! The placement rules stated on boards and buildings, which are also different from each other, are maybe something that needs getting used to. But the illustrations on the Home Board indicate very well what is most important to pay attention to!
An unexpected surprise was the rather meager scoring sheet block, which his helpful, but not essential, there are only few sheets. But, we have arrived in the internet age and so we can download a template to print additional sheets if necessary. Which might have been the intention anyway.
Let me sum up: „
„Ein Fest für Odin“ is a very good and felicitous worker placement game with a high replay value. The duration of the game will soon be settle between 90 and 120 minutes. Despite the many rules the game is easily and quickly understood, but in your first game you will probably be overwhelmed by the enormous number of options that you have. However, you cannot scarcely do something wrong or do it badly. The start of the game is NOT, as in some other games, already a decision on the outcome of the game. You can try a few things and soon get a feeling for what you want to do and what you can do!
Hans Mostböck
Players: 1-4
Age: 12+
Time: 120+
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
Artist: Dennis Lohausen
Price: ca. 70 Euro
Publisher: Feuerland Spiele 2016
Genre: Worker placement
Users: For experts
Special: 1 player
Version: de
Rules: de en es fr it jp nl pl pt ru
In-game text:
Comments:
A plethora of components
Sorting boxes are included
Many action options
Clear despite many details
Components designed to give information
Compares to:
Agricola, worker placement in general
Other editions:
Cranio Creations (it), Devir (es), Filosofia (fr), Hobby World (ru), Lacerta (pl), Mandala Jogos (pt), Ten Days Games (jp) White Goblin (nl), Z-Man (en)
My rating: 6
Hans Mostböck:
A very good and harmonious worker placement game! Components and rules facilitate access and even in the very first game you cannot play yourself into a corner, there is always an alternative!
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 3
Strategy (blue): 3
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 3
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0