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44.50€
Raiders of the North Sea
60m - 120m
2 - 4 Players
Ages 12+
Meeple on Board Rating
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Raiders of the North Sea is set in the central years of the Viking Age. As Viking warriors, players seek to impress the Chieftain by raiding unsuspecting settlements. Players will need to assemble a crew, collect provisions and journey north to plunder gold, iron and livestock. There is glory to be found in battle, even at the hands of the Valkyrie. So gather your warriors, it’s raiding season!
Aim of the Game
The aim of Raiders of the North Sea is to impress the Chieftain by having the most Victory Points (VP) at the game’s end. Victory Points are gained primarily by raiding Settlements, taking Plunder and making Offerings to the Chieftain. How players use their Plunder is also vital to their success. The game ends when either only 1 Fortress raid remains, all Valkyrie are removed, or all Offerings have been made.
Gameplay Overview
Proceeding clockwise from the starting player, each player takes his turn in full. On his turn, a player may choose to Work or Raid. Players continue to take turns until 1 of the 3 end-game conditions has been met. Regardless of choices, each turn follows the same pattern:
1. Place Worker and resolve its action
2. Pick up a different Worker and resolve its action
Working
Having a good Crew and enough provisions are vital to successful raiding. So before making any raids, players will need to do some work to prepare their Crew and collect supplies. This is all done in the Village, at the bottom of the board. There are 8 different buildings, with various actions. Players must first place their one and only Worker in an available building (where there is no Worker present), before picking up a different Worker from a different building (where there is a Worker present).
Raiding
Once players have hired enough Crew and collected Provisions, they may choose to raid on their turn. To raid a Settlement (Harbour, Outpost, Monastery or Fortress), players need to meet 3 requirements. They must have:
1. A large enough Crew.
2. Enough Provisions (and Gold for Monasteries/Fortresses).
3. The required Worker colour.
Raiding offers various ways of scoring (Military Strength, Plunder, Valkyrie, etc.). This is also how Grey and White Workers enter the game.
End of the Game
There are 3 ways the game can end:
1. There is only 1 set of Plunder left in the Fortresses (1 of the 6 Fortress raids remains).
2. The Offering Draw Pile has been emptied.
3. There are no Valkyrie left on the board.
| Ages | 12+ |
|---|---|
| Designer | Shem Phillips |
| Theme | Nautical, Adventure, Exploration, Medieval |
| Publisher | Angry Lion Games, Banana Games, Ediciones Primigenio, Games Factory Publishing, Kaissa Chess & Games, Meeple BR Jogos, PixieGames, REXhry, Schwerkraft-Verlag, White Goblin Games, Garphill Games, Ghenos Games, Renegade Game Studios |
| Players | 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
| Play Time | 60m – 120m |
| Mechanics | Hand Management, Set Collection, Worker Placement |
Akado
After playing again, I started to grasp some of the strategies and was also able to see the strategies of the other players based on the choices they were making. I like this as a fairly flexible, mid-weight worker placement game, and would gladly play again. Have played with 2 and 4 players, each was fun in different ways. 2 player was a tight race that required strategy, while 4 player had more chaos and required different tactics/strategies to be competitive (as more raids are done by people other than you). I wouldn't need to own it, as my family isn't yet too interested in worker placement. Cons: There's basically no theme, you're gathering cubes and trading them for things. There's a few turns right away where you don't really feel like anything you do is meaningful (pure prep work). It is absolutely horrible at 5 players (with expansion), as the board state changes so much between your turns that there isn't much point in planning ahead (increasing downtime and randomness).
Ajax
Good worker placement, order-fulfillment game. Great iconography and production quality. Felt very linear, though. Not all that many options. Seems like the only real variation comes in the card play.
adamturner
First play through as a 3 player & we instantly all said let's play that agin. Great mechanics and card building in order to then raid across the sea.