WAAAARRRGH!!! The warriors of Fil the Unready storm up the shore. With their swords and spears, their shield wall and Dane axes they drive the locals before them up to the very walls of fabled Rome until nothing stands between the Vikings and the fabled wealth of the Romans – except the need to roll at least one six on three dice.

It's hard not to get into character when playing Fire and Axe. The game is so full of flavor that you can taste ash and beard hairs for days afterwards. And if that wasn't enough its balanced and easy rules ensure that every game is nail bitingly tight.

The overview
Fire and Axe is a simple point and roll game. It could be played with abstract pieces and still be interesting enough to pick up occasionally. But coupled with its Viking theme, Fire and Axe makes for a two hour hack-, slash- and angst marathon for three to five players.

The box
Sturdy construction, gorgeous graphics and filled with small ships, slightly larger men and hordes and hordes of treasure tokens; you know that Fire and Axe is going to be fun before even reading the rules.

The production quality is outstanding: it may say Asmodée on the box but it could be mistaken for an FFG release. Everything is high quality, every piece either plastic or plastic coated and all the markers are on thick, plastic coated stock. The board is a work of art that would surpass the wildest fantasies and bring tears to the eyes of game producers in the 1970's.

Fire and Axe comes with miniatures in five colors representing ships and men, and gray miniatures representing cities. There are no spares, but the miniatures all work to balance the game – use up too many men settling low scoring but close settlements and you won't be able to wage war efficiently when it's time to burn Rome and Constantinople.

The only drawback is the lack of compartments to sort the components into but this can be easily solved by a couple of Ziploc bags.

The game
Fire and Axe seems so easy. You load up your one and only ship with a combination of men and goods and sail off to trade with, plunder and settle the Known World, from Itil deep in the Russian mainland to L'Anse aux Meadows in fabled Vinland (read Canada).

Loading your ship is a big decision. The right combination of men and goods will ensure victory, but you can always recoup your losses by instantly retreating to your home port. Each turn a player has but seven actions and each thing one does – load, move or draw cards – uses an action. The tension mounts with every decision; should one load that extra crewman and risk that an opponent gets to one's goal first or set sail immediately and risk going into battle with insufficient forces?

There can be significant down time in Fire and Axe but unless you're playing against extreme Analysis Paralysis this won't be a problem. Fire and Axe has enough race elements that you want to keep an eye on what your enemies are doing and be prepared to change plans on a sailing day's or a dice roll's notice.

In addition to the straight forward race elements of get there first, sell them your shoddy goods and hope that no one is close enough to take advantage of your cultural inroads before you have time to raid the gullible fools; Fire and Axe also has an ingenious scoring mechanism that favors some collaboration. While you get enough points for trading and raiding to make that a viable strategy the true points will come from settlements – and settlements are worth more the more of them there are. So, especially in the end game, you'll want to look out for open, high scoring settlements. Settling them will score you points but also increase the point of whomever holds other settlements from the same group. Taking care to help yourself while at the same time hindering whomever you think is in the lead is a must.

The conclusion
WAAAARGH!!! Fire and Axe is the best new game I've played in recent years. It's tight, tense and light enough for anyone with some gaming experience to get into. It has flaws, down time being one of them, but they're not serious and when in the middle of the game you likely won't notice them.

Fire and Axe is not a Eurogame and gamers rabidly opposed to the randomness of dice probably won't like it. But if you can accept the randomness of Carcassonne or Tigris and Euphrates you probably will accept the random elements in Fire and Axe too. New gamers, or gamers who don't like longer games are likely to be put off by Fire and Axe, but for all other types of gamer, whether you're a Go master or think that Risk is God's gift to gamedom, try Fire and Axe. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Odin says "Get Fire and Axe NOW!!!"

From the fury of the Northmen, O Lord deliver us.