cont'd....

Day 3: My next game was Wikinger. I didn't have much expectations for this Nordic themed game, luckily this game far exceeded them! In this game you purchase a land tile and a type of Viking like fisherman, warrior, boatman, miner, the other kind of tile that comes up is an enemy ship which you also have to purchase. The little cool item is that the tiles and vikings are placed around a disc with numbers/prices. The disc or wheel rotates, changing the prices depending on the composition of the Vikings available that turn. Then you must place the tile and the Viking on your individual board. The land tiles must fit and form islands. You get bonus points for most completed islands and longest islands. The tiles are also part of a grid with type of Viking along the y-axis. The enemy ships are placed at the top along of the x-axis. If you can place a warrior Viking on an island between the ship and your other Vikings you defeat it and earn a reward like VP or money. If the enemy ships are not blocked, they defeat your Vikings and they will not score. When you place Vikings they can go on the tile they came with or can go to your boat. Later if you have a boatsman they can be dropped off at an island later for scoring. This is a nice game, and everyone else who was playing it enjoyed it also. You have lots of little decisions to make with tile and Viking purchases as well as placement. I will definitely pick this one up and the best game of GoF for me so far. As a bonus, here is also and advanced game with special tiles included.

Next up was Thurn and Taxis: For Power and Glory. This little expansion has been available on BSW for a while. I don’t think it adds much to the original game, it does provide a new board and kind of a variant. I’ll probably get it for some variety for TuT.

Next I taught On the Underground in a 3 player game. This is a nice track playing exercise. Not much new and pleasant enough to play.

Finally, I kind of tried a new 2 player abstract Ponte de Diavolo. This involves placing tiles to make islands and then connecting them with bridges. Plenty of blocking opportunities. Some people compared it to Twixt.

Part 3 http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1430119#1430119