review

onwards to valhalla

Die Wikinger Saga

we heard Asgard’s divine call

– and did follow it, on an adventurous journey across the lands and seas of the nine worlds of Yggdrasil to confront the Wald Hexen of Ljosalfheim, the dangers of the Fire World of Muspellsheim or the Frost Giants, and we are not frightened off from Helheim, the realm of the dead - always with gold and fame in mind, until we reach Valhalla, because in the final adventure at the rainbow bridge of Bifröst next to the doors of Asgards the most famous Vikings can achieve entry to the land of the gods.

We start the first of the pre-prepared adventures with seven (identical for all) comrades and place our Viking pawns of the Viking Path. The composition of the adventure is done at first according to templates, then according to recommendations and later yet at your own discretion if you want to experiment or are looking for additional challenges.

Midgard: die vergessene Stadt has to be mastered as your first adventure - you will succeed if you arrive at the adventure card with your pawn. Why would that not work? Our companions, who show numbers, advance our Viking. Path markers move the path itself towards the adventure and if you manage to clear out at the right point, you will reap gold or fame points and can put one of your companions under your Valhalla shield at the end of the adventure.

Sometimes this is not an easy decision, especially when newly recruited companions with special abilities could be chosen, whom you might still need in your adventures. But, on the other hand, under the shield they will be ready for the final adventure!

If you do not clear out on time, you have failed at the cost of victory points and gold. In the next adventure, you are involved again and begin again at the start, this time maybe on the ship if the adventure will take you to the Sea Witches - a nice detail! Don‘t forget - new Vikings offer their sword - for gold, of course - and sometimes enable us to move backwards, an ability of Ker from the stating hand, or they might offer two numbers to select from for movement or simply offer rich victory points.

Vor den Toren Asgards

In this way we fight our way from adventure to adventure and advance on the fame track before we reach the final adventure on the Rainbow Bridge. At that point, we can no longer use companions, they are replaced by the Vikings that we placed underneath our Valhalla shield during previous adventures. Clever, if you could assemble a nicely tuned team there, because now is the time for a broad range of selections as there are a lot more victory points to be had. Or you might be on good terms with Freya, the Nordic goddess of luck, who has her fingers in nearly every pie - as we know from all those legends.

Die Wikinger Saga is a very painstakingly designed adventurous movement game with a lot of ambience in the components, good for friends, but also for families with teenaged children interested in the topic, a game that is brilliant in the scope of variety it offers. The game mechanics have been kept simple and the adventures have a rather platonic flair as there are now skirmishes to be fought and the adventures are reduced to simple games with card-driven movement, But still, there is still tactic, planning and strategy, albeit a bit different from what you might expect.

Thomas Bareder

Players: 2-4

Age: 12+

Time: 60+

Designer: Christian Fiore, Knut Happel

Artist: Michael Menzel, Fiore GmbH

Price: ca. 40 Euro

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele 2020

Web: www.schmidtspiele.de

Genre: adventures, Vikings

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Beautiful components

Pretty design

Basic mechanism is movement + event

Simple mechanisms

Variety from adventures

Minimal deck building

Compares to:

Adventure resolving with cards and movement

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Thomas Bareder:

A game offering lots of ambience, beautiful design and a standard somewhere between a family game and a game to play with friends; due to the rather complex set-up we have ranged here under games with friends.

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0