This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.

In addition this is the 3rd in a series of reviews that will focus on the Kosmos series of 2-Player games. A full list of titles I plan to review or have reviewed from the series can be found at the bottom of this review (Pick & Pack was also included but is not a Kosmos game).

Summary

Game Type - Card Game
Play Time: 20-40 minutes
Number of Players: 2
Mechanics - Racing, Hand Management
Difficulty - Moderate (Can be learnt in 30 minutes & a play or 2)
Components - Excellent


Image Courtesy of Debate

Overview

In Odin's Ravens, each player assumes the identity of one of Odin's ravens; Hugin or Munin. Every morning Odin sends these two ravens out to watch over his lands and it is at these times that the two ravens would race one another. So effectively each player is racing one another with the winner presumably earning bragging rights and Odin's affections...maybe? (I'm just making stuff up now).

Unlike many of the games in the Kosmos Series, the game play actually lends itself to the theme as each player must speed their raven across the landscape cards as quickly as possible. The game takes several races to determine the winner and the key mechanic of managing your cards (in hand and once played) are key.

The Components

Once again the components are very good in Odin's Ravens but they are perhaps not quite as eye catching as other games in the series due to the lack of a board or real character based artwork.

Raven Tokens - Each player is represented by a functional, but nice, wooden token in the shape of a raven. One raven is coloured grey and the other brown.


Image Courtesy of Debate

Odin Marker - A small, raised wooden disc featuring a thunderbolt symbol of one side is called the Odin's Marker. Its purpose will be outlined in the Game Play section below.

Cards (General) - The game comes with a total of 106 cards. Kosmos seem to like producing cards of unusual dimensions for their games and if nothing else the decision certainly does help their games stand out in one's memory.

All cards used in the game feature the same dimensions, which are 8cms longer than a standard playing card (but shorter than those used in Lost Cities) and they are about 2/3rds the width of a standard playing card. This all means that the cards are narrow and longish, but they are still easy to hold.

Flight Cards - Each player uses their own deck of 33 cards, although both decks are identical in their make-up. Flight Cards account for 25 cards in each deck and each card depicts a single terrain type such as; a river, river, forest, canyon, hills, and snow covered mountains.

These cards feature the terrain artwork centered on the card and smaller icons of the same image are located at the top and bottom of the card. This is a design feature to ensure that a card type can still be identified when the cards are fanned during play.


Image Courtesy of Honey

Odin Cards - The remaining 8 cards in each player's deck are Odin Cards, which feature a picture of Odin holding a stone tablet that contains text. Each tablet displays the two options that are possible by playing the card (more on that later). There are a total of 4 different Odin cards of which there are 2 of each.


Image Courtesy of Terraliptar

The rear of the cards used in the player decks depict a birds eye view of Odin's lands, featuring each of the terrain's used in the game. A raven flies through the sky as if surveying all that is below.

The card backs are differentiated by being either grey or brown, which matches the colour of the player raven tokens. All neat artistic design decisions.


Image Courtesy of petersjs

Landscape Cards - Then there are the 40 Landscape Cards, which are used during the game to create the Flight Path that both birds must negotiate. Rather efficiently each card features 2 different landscapes which are drawn in a mirror image fashion. This allows a single Landscape Card to represent a new section of the Flight Path for both players. A crisp dividing line separates the mirror images and clearly identifies that each landscape is independent of the other.

Some land cards feature 2 different terrain types, whilst others feature the same landscape for both players. Not surprisingly the images used for each land type are identical to those used for the Flight Cards in the player decks. By now some of the mechanics are becoming clear.

The rear of the Landscape Cards are identical to the card backs of the cards in the player decks. The key difference is that the image here is rendered in full colour.

Magic Way Cards - These cards are used for one of the 2 key scoring mechanics featured in each race and they depict 2 images per card, this time side by side (horizontally). Most of the cards feature 2 different terrain types, however two feature 1 image of Odin and 1 terrain type.

Rules & Insert Tray - The rules are well structured with full colour examples and bullet points where necessary. This still doesn't make them obvious after a single read (or more accurately - easy to understand) but this is mainly due to the fact that Odin's Ravens rule set is more intricate than a Lost Cities.

The Insert Tray is another efficient design with room for each deck of cards to be stored separately and room to boot for the wooden tokens under the cards.


Image Courtesy of GSReis

In short if you whinge about the quality of Kosmos components then your standards are probably a little too high.

The Set-up

Generate Flight Path - A total of 9 cards are drawn from the Landscape Deck and placed in sequential order to form the Flight Path for both players. If a newly placed card results in either player having 2 consecutive terrain types that are the same, the card must be rotated 180 degrees (remember they are mirror images). If rotating still won't solve the problem, the card is put on the bottom of the Landscape Deck and another is drawn in its place. It is quite possible that several cards will be replaced in this way.

The Landscape Deck is then set to one side for use during the game.


Image Courtesy of Geosmores

NB - The above image does not depict the set-up, it is an in-play shot, but it does show the Flight Paths quite well.

Magic Way and Token Placement - A card is randomly drawn from the Magic Way Deck and placed face-up on top of the deck for both players to see. The Odin Marker is placed near this deck and each player places their raven in front of the first terrain in their Flight Path ready for racing.

Starting Hands - Each player then draws 5 cards to form their starting hand. The game is ready to begin.

All this takes 2-3 minutes to organise. In theory the youngest player gets to go first. I say theory because I despise age-based start player rules.

The Game Play

Odin's Ravens is a race game and each player is aiming to be the first to acquire 12 or more points to win. Multiple races will be needed to acquire these points and the number of points earned is determined by the winning margin in each race and a player's ability to influence the Magic Way.

Let's take a fly-by of the basic game flow -

Overview of Options - On each turn a player can choose to play a card from one of two locations, their hand or their Auxiliary Stack. In all a total of 3 cards can be played from a player's hand and a further 3 cards from a player's Auxiliary Stack. Cards played in this way can be used to move your Raven, influence the Magic Way, utilise an Odin power or add to your Auxiliary Stack.

The only exception to what I just stated is that a card played from the Auxiliary Stack cannot be added to that stack as this would be pointless. I just couldn't think of an easier way to list the options without creating this contradiction.

The Auxiliary Stack - This is perhaps the single most important mechanic in the game, and lends much of Odin's Ravens its uniqueness. Essentially it is a means by which the players can store cards taken from their hand for use in later turns. Because a player is able to play a total of 6 cards per turn (3 from hand and 3 from this stack) it allows the players to plan and unleash super moves that can have your Raven gliding across the landscape at high speed, which is obviously desirable in a racing game.

Okay now let's look at a player's options in more detail -

Playing Cards to the Auxiliary Stack - Playing Cards from your hand to this stack is as simple as placing a card face down to this section of the play area (your side of the Flight Path). The Trick though is that cards added to the Auxiliary Stack are played face down and they stack on top of each other. A player is allowed to look at the cards in their stack at any time, provided the order of the cards is maintained. The face-down requirement is to help shield them from your opponent.

There is no limit to the number of cards that can be present in a person's Auxiliary Stack, but when cards are played from there they must be played in order, starting with the topmost card. Hence a fair degree of careful planning is required.

Playing a Card to Move your Raven - By playing a Flight Card a player is allowed to move their Raven along the Flight Path. The card played can come from a player's hand or their Auxiliary Stack and a maximum of 6 (3 from each area) can be played in a single turn.

The rules regarding movement are as follows -

Make a Match - To move your Raven to the next card in the Flight Path, the terrain on the card played must match the terrain on the Landscape Card in your Flight Path. After one match is made another can be attempted and your raven moves after the playing of each card.

The cards played can come from any combination of Hand Cards and Auxiliary Stack Cards provided the 3-card limit for each location is adhered to and the rules for playing cards from the Auxiliary Stack are observed.

I recommend stating out loud how many cards you have played and from which location, to ensure that neither player gets confused.

Example - 'That's 2 cards from hand, 1 from Auxiliary Stack, a 3rd from hand and a 2nd from Auxiliary Stack'.

Wind Current - If a player is confronted with multiple terrains of the same type and they are in consecutive order, then 1 matching Flight Card is enough to move their Raven all the way to the last of these consecutive terrains. Manipulating the Flight Path to create these occurrences is a key element to Odin's Ravens.

By the way, the term Wind Current is not actually in the rules, I just made it up to explain this feature and it seemed to match the theme well enough.

Play a Joker - Should a player not have a matching Flight Card to move their Raven, they can play 2 matching Flight Cards to form a Joker that allows a move following the movement rules, including the Wind Current rule.

Removing the Odin Marker - It is possible that a player's Flight Path contains the Odin Marker (See Odin Card summary below), which means that a Raven cannot move past it until the Odin marker is removed.

It can be removed in 1 of 2 ways. The simplest option is to play an Odin Card of your own that allows you to place the Odin Marker in your opponent's Flight Path. In this case it is taken from your path and placed in a spot of your choice in their path.

It can also be removed by playing a Flight Card that matches the terrain of the card the Odin Marker is on. So to move your Raven to a card containing an Odin Marker, 2 cards of the terrain type must be played.

Alternately a Joker can be played to remove it. If a player wants to move his Raven onto the card and remove the Odin Marker at the same time, a Joker and a matching terrain card would need to be played.

Finally 2 Joker Sets could be played to remove an Odin Marker and move onto that space.

This all sounds a little confusing and it initially is but after a few plays it all makes perfect sense.

All cards played are discarded to a player's own discard pile. This pile may need to be reshuffled during a race if a player's Draw Deck becomes exhausted.

Play a Card to Influence the Magic Way - As mentioned earlier each Magic Way Card depicts 2 images. These are the 2 types of cards that Odin favours for the race. What that means thematically I have no idea!

As an alternative to advancing in the race, each player can play cards that match the images on the face-up Magic Way Card during each race. If at the end of the race either player has more cards here than their opponent they will earn 3 points automatically, regardless of the result of the race.

To ensure that each player's cards are kept separate, cards should be played beside the Magic Way Deck, on the side of the player playing the card. There is no limit to the number of cards that can be played to the Magic Way.

Play an Odin Card from your Hand or Auxiliary Stack - Each Odin card offers 2 options of which 1 can be selected. These cards allow the players to alter the general rules of the game, further their own cause or hinder their opponents.

The 4 different types of Odin Cards are not named so I will designate them with a number for simplicity -

Card 1 / Option 1 - Turn any unoccupied Landscape Card (a card without a Raven or Odin marker on it) in the Flight Path 180 degrees. This option is great for avoiding difficult terrains or creating sequences of like terrain for easy progress.

Card 1 / Option 2 - Remove an unoccupied Landscape Card from the Flight Path.

This option is great for removing difficult terrains or for disrupting landscape sequences made by your opponent.

Card 2 / Option 1 - Rearrange your Auxiliary Stack Cards.

This is really useful if you made a mistake or your opponent messed around with the Flight Path.

Card 2 / Option 2 - Place 2 additional Landscape Cards at the end of the Flight Path. As each card is drawn the player of the Odin card gets to choose the orientation of the card before it is added to the Flight Path, which can result in terrain sequences being created.

This is a defensive move if you feel you are in danger of losing the race. Alternately it can be a sneaky way to earn greater points (see scoring) if you think you can comfortably win the race.

Card 3 / Option 1 - Move your opponent's Raven back 1 space in the Flight Path.

Card 3 / Option 2 - Move your Raven forward 1 space in the Flight Path.

This option does not allow multiple moves for sequentially matching terrain.

Card 4 / Option 1 - Place the Odin Marker on an unoccupied Landscape Card.

This effectively slows down your opponent as they are forced to play additional cards to remove the Odin Marker before their Raven can progress. Very nasty.

Card 4 / Option 2 - Swap any 2 unoccupied Landscape Cards.

This is also great for hampering your opponent or making your progress easier.

Discarding Cards - A player is also able to discard cards if it will help make room in their hand for a redraw or allows access to cards further down in the Auxiliary Stack. Discarding is however, a last resort as this action is treated like playing a card and takes up your limit of 6 played cards per turn.

Ending a Turn – Once a player no longer wishes to play cards or has used all 6 plays at their disposal, their turn is over.

Before drawing cards from their Draw Deck to return their hand size to 5, they can choose to add a Landscape Card to the Flight Path. If this option is taken it allows the active player to choose the orientation that best suits them.

Ending a Race and Scoring - As soon as one player manages to get their Raven onto the final card in the Flight Path, they have won the race. They will score a number of points equal to the distance (number of cards) that they are ahead of the other Raven. In the image below the winning Raven earns 2 points.


Image Courtesy of KSensei

The Magic Way is then assessed to see if either player holds an advantage here (has more cards), which earns 3 points.

If either player has a total of 12 or more points, the game is over with the highest score winning. If both players are tied on 12 or more points, the player that won the last race is declared the winner.

If neither player has won then a new race is started. The Landscape Deck is reshuffled and a new Flight Path is created. The next card in the Magic Way Deck is turned over to show the new cards that are needed to be played and each player reshuffles their own deck of cards (Auxiliary Stacks and all) and starts with a new hand of 5 cards.

So What's to Like? - The Strategy

Well Odin's Ravens is oozing with strategic considerations and decision making. In brief they include -

Hand Management - Unlike most card games, Odin's Ravens requires hand management skills on two fronts (hand and Auxiliary Stack). This really is key to the game and usually it is the player that best uses their Auxiliary that comes out the victor.

A subtle but added benefit of this mechanic is that clever card play helps minimise the 'luck of the draw' as even less desirable cards can be put to work.

Multi-Scoring Considerations - Points can be earned via the race and the Magic Way and your progress in both areas must be carefully monitored. All too often a player can focus too heavily on the race and win it by 1 or 2 lengths (points) only to find they lost the Magic Way and gave up the greater 3 points!!!

Odin's Cards - These suckers might only represent just over 25% of your deck but they are essential in helping gain the upper hand. Manipulating the 'lay of the land' in the Flight Path is essential to winning the game and in many respects it feels like unlocking a puzzle as you seek to open the lock (or twist that of your opponents) to reach the end of a race first.

Resource Management - Managing your resources in terms of the Flight Cards at your disposal is paramount, especially when the Magic Way features a terrain type that is common in your Flight Path (whether by chance or your opponent's design). This sounds a little like hand management and it is to a point, but it goes beyond that as it requires knowing what resources have been spent and are still to come. Fail to do this and you may waste resources on the lesser of your priorities and come unstuck at the key moment.

Options - Gamers who like to have more than 1 or 2 choices each turn will love the options that Odin's Ravens offers them. Like any good game you can't make all the moves you would like, but having choice makes you feel like you're in control of the game and not the other way around.

There are no doubt further subtleties but I've covered the key ones I think.

What's Not to Like

No game is perfect however and what I see as positives can easily be another person's negatives.

Too Deep - Odin's Ravens is far more involved than numerous other games in the series and for that it likely suffers at the hands of those that enjoy games like Lost Cities. It feels like more of a heavier experience with the multiple goals and play areas and this may well have caught a few gamers out if they bought Odin's Ravens expecting more Lost Cities style complexity. I'm sure this accounts for its score of just under 7 (at time of writing).

Tricky to Learn - Following on from point one, Odin's Ravens can be a slightly confusing experience on those first few plays. The game takes work to learn and comprehend and this barrier is not something a part time gamer tends to enjoy.

The Final Word

I can still remember my first play of Odin's Ravens and how excited I was by what it allowed me to do when compared to my (then) many months of playing Lost Cities.

It does offer a much richer gaming experience and I for one appreciate that, although I recognise that it won't be for everyone.

Years later and with experience of more than 10 games in the Series, Odin's Ravens still ranks in my top 5.

Compared to other Games in the Kosmos 2-Player Series


Image Courtesy of Gialmere

Odin's Ravens is undoubtedly a deeper gaming experience than that offered by Lost Cities and Heave Ho! It is more true to its theme than Balloon Cup and Caesar & Cleopatra. It is more rule-heavy than almost all other games in the series save for Babel, Hellas and Starfarers of Catan.

The game play here is tense and each player is directly affecting the other as they manipulate the Flight Paths.

Numerous other titles in the series do have that 'filler game' play length and Odin's Ravens is a little unique here as the play can go beyond the 35-40 minute mark in a tight set of races.

With almost 2,000 ratings and over 3,500 logged plays (at time of writing) Odin's Ravens is not an unpopular game, but it is perhaps a little under-valued given what is on offer.

Links

Following is a list of games in the Kosmos 2-Player Series (plus Pick & Pack) that I have or intend to review in the coming months. Hopefully these are of value to you if you are researching for a good 2-Player game but are unsure of which one to get. I hope to add other games from the series to this list in time (as I currently do not have access to them).

Babel

Balloon Cup

Caesar & Cleopatra

Dracula

Finale

Heave Ho!

Hellas

Hera & Zeus

Jambo

Kahuna

Lost Cities

Pick & Pack