our review
Explorers in an icy competition
Race to the North Pole
Arctic Survival
We are on our way to the North Pole: Well, the discovery of the North Pole, at that time, surely was not as spectacular as the race for the South Pole between the Norwegian Amundsen and the Englishman Scott in the year 1911. Originally, the Americans Peary and Henson were credited to have reached the Pole first in 1909. Today, this is doubtful. The earliest scientifically documented expeditions are the journeys of the American Plaisted in 1968, using a motor sledge, and the Englishman Herbert in 1969 with a dog-drawn sleigh.
So, we will follow their tracks and a set out for the Pole. In this we are assisted by „Playmore Games“, a young publishing company of two Finnish game designers, Jouni Jussila und Tomi Vainikka. The Finnish people have a very specific connection to the Pole, according to their lore Santa Claus lives in Rovaniemi, at the Polar Circle. (Christkind, on the other hand, must be looked for near Steyr in Oberösterreich). But now for the game!
Das Cover of the Box in the Standard Catan sized box shows lots of details, prominently featured are two characters on a sleigh, and their face alone lets us suspect that all is not peaceful on the way to the North Pole. Glacier crevasses and an obviously bad-tempered Polar Bear confirm the dangers that will make our trip a hard one.
What can we expect from the components? First, a square basic board with an additional border and, a central element of the game, a second board that sits on a spindle and can be rotated. This board has 16 square cuts that are equipped with transparent windows, a feature, that works surprisingly well.
The Teams are made up from four pieces each in orange, blue, black and white and all carry special markings, that are currently not important, but will become a feature in future expansions of the rules.
There are eight score boards, two of them neutral, which can also be used in various ways. Four start cases outside the board represent the ships, from which you start the expeditions via the basis camp. Two North Pole discs of different design – they can also rotate – are the target.
26 round tiles, in the colors of green, brown and white, offer advantages like icepick, Husky or Compass on the one hand, but can also bring danger like a hole in the ice, storms or the Polar Bear on the other hand. There are three kinds of storms, which can change the game board.
Finally, there are 100 cards which are the main element and govern events in the game. Those cards show range information, attack options and a weather indicator. A starting player piece in the guise of a large snowflake and a Polar Bear figure supplement the components. For ecologically interested players, everything is made from wood except the transparent windows.
Before we can start, each player receives a team card and equips it with the brown starting item tiles. Four of the eight green tiles are placed in the corners of the board; the remaining green ones are shuffled face-down together with the blue danger tiles and then you randomly choose ten for positioning on the board. The remaining tiles are not used. In this way, you have a variation of the game in each play.
And now we can really begin: Each player draws three cards from the stack and displays them. The draw pile sits face-down next to the edge of the board. The back-sides of the cards are also of importance, but more on that later.
Race to the North Pole is a race game, driven by action cards, which sometimes also allow you to defeat opposing figurines. Defeated men go back to the ship. Safe positions are only the basic camp or an igloo, provided the opponent does not use an icepick against the igloo. Items can only be used once. After each attack, you must take a tile from the stack; the chance to take damage yourself know is 6:4. Among those tiles there is one for the Polar Bear, introducing him to the game as an additional piece. He is, without doubt, an unsteady character, because he can be manipulated and used against opponents. When the stack of ten tiles has been used, further attacks are forbidden and there can be several figures on an ice floe. This speeds up the game towards the end. Action cards that were used are collected and their weather points are added up. At a certain total – in relation to the number of players – a storm comes up, that is, the top game board is rotated by 90 or 180 degrees. The direction is indicated by the backside of the top card on the draw pile. At the end of your turn you replenish your action cards from the draw pile and hand on the starting-player snowflake.
The ice is not easy to cross, because it is infested with rifts that you must evade. Good for you, if you managed to acquire the Snowshoe tile. With this tile, you can move across those rifts. Towards the middle of the board the pack-ice is crumbly and you cannot set up an igloo there which would offer some protection against envious opponents. When you have finally reached the North Pole, you will find that you can only enter from one side – yet another obstacle! The winner is, who assembles his complete team first at the North Pole.
As to components: All is sturdy and promises a long life for the game. The rules are included in four languages, German, English, French and Spanish and not, funnily enough, in Finnish. With examples and pictograms, the rules leave no question unanswered. There is also a short rule which concentrates on ways to move and on action options and is very helpful. The design is always a matter of taste, for me it is a bit too dank. But all in all, the game tells in all its details that the designer did put their hearts into it.
Race to the North Pole is a family game in the tradition of Ludo and Pachisi, but on a much higher level – upgraded by additional items and an outside opponent like the Polar Bear. There is also the clever idea of the rotating 2nd board level, which I want to especially mention and which reminds of “Das Verrückte Labyrinth” by Max Kobbert, a game that sold 13 million copies and was translated into 60 languages. If your parents are “Pachisi” – the modern day “Mensch ärgere dich nicht”, dating back to the 6th century – and the successful “Labyrinth”, you can surely be proud of your ancestry. In Race to the North Pole, two basic elements were very cleverly combined and upgraded with additional elements, a combination that will surely please a lot of families.
Rudolf Ammer
(A remark from the editor: For this game you can download an APP called Dized, which is an interactive tutorial app for your smart device, learning the game while playing - www.dized.com).
Players: 2-4
Age: 7+
Time: 45+
Designer: Jouni Jussila, Tomi Vainikka
Artist: Markus Norrgran, Michelle Ran, Eric Verspoor
Price: ca. 20 Euros
Publisher: Playmore Games 2016
Web: www.playmoregames.com
Genre: Race game
Users: For families
Version: multi
Rules: de en es fr
In-game text: no
Comments:
Very pretty components
Rotating game board
Nice topic
Simple rules
Compares to:
All games with a winning condition of getting all your men to the finish first
Other editions:
First edition, 2015
My rating: 5
Rudolf Ammer:
The game combines two components that make it stand out from the plethora of family games: on the one hand move & defeat pawns and on the other hand a modular board and additional options to influence the game.
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 1
Strategy (blue): 0
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 2
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0