Game: Midgard

Thread: Re: Replace Tokens?

calbond — 2008-11-26T03:20:16+00:00

Sweet, thanks for the pics. Those vikings look badass!

Thread: Re: Replace Tokens?

earache — 2008-11-25T02:56:10+00:00

calbond wrote:
I'm planning on getting some sweet plastic vikings. VIKINGS!
Emhar Vikings

Emhar Vikings Painted

Thread: Re: Replace Tokens?

calbond — 2008-11-25T02:45:05+00:00

I'm planning on getting some sweet plastic vikings. VIKINGS!

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/imx/imx7214.htm

I think they'd do fine in this game- the non-leader pawns are 1 inch high each, should be almost identical height to the minis.

Thread: Re: Fantasy Fight

oasislife — 2008-10-18T16:16:14+00:00

guttedgeek wrote:
The artwork in the game certainly didn't match that on the box which was odd.

The outer box artwork was done with permission from an artist, can't remember his name that I believe was found through google or a similar search engine. The artwork on the cards and on the board was done by the creators (Eric M Lang) partner and room mate at the time (George Wu) on his computer through a photoshop-esque program. Two different artists, hense why the outer box art and the inner art doesn't match.

I'm just happy the graphics improved from what we had during playtesting:P

Thread: Re: Marching to Valhalla…

Rock Photo Star — 2008-08-25T08:17:15+00:00

davedanger wrote:
I dislike drafting in Age of Empires- but it works.
Here I don't think the drafting is worth the downtime. You already get to control your cards by building a reserve of them. I don't see how it helps you knowing what cards someone may have and may play.

Thinking of getting game and wonder if any players can reply back to this person's claim?

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staremperor — 2008-08-24T21:01:09+00:00

Box back

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:52:56+00:00

Awesome side of box Vikings!

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:46:50+00:00

Back of Bronze, Silver, and Gold cards

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:45:44+00:00

Doom Tokens Front and Back

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:44:47+00:00

back of kingdoms sheet

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:43:30+00:00

Alfheim kingdom token sheet

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:41:51+00:00

Jotunheim kingdom token sheet

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:40:10+00:00

Mannheim kingdom token sheet

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:38:33+00:00

The Pahses of Midgard (back of rulebook)

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dsmeyer — 2008-08-07T15:37:15+00:00

Midgard Rulebook

Thread: Re: Replace Tokens?

earache — 2008-07-23T19:22:21+00:00

The Johnsons wrote:
Thanks.

Yeah, I went ahead and got it. I'll try a few games, and if I like it (which it appears I will), I'll add painted Vikings. I'm normally a miniatures or tabletop game player anyway; I used to play a LOT of the Avalon Hill classics by myself, but rarely do so any more. However, I have two sons (ages 12 and 25) who are into gaming. With opponents on call, so to speak, I'm getting into boardgames again.

Ah, well if you're a mniatures guy, you're probably already aware of the plethora of 1/72 Vikings available in plastic (Zvezda or Strelets would do nicely), or in 28mm metal (Foundry has a very nice range.) I seem to remember Dan Becker (beckerdo on the Geek) painting up a rather nice Viking army.

While I'm a big fan of converting games to minis, I just wonder if this one is just a tad too abstract to warrant it. I'll be curious as to your opinion after a couple of plays.

Either way, enjoy.

Thread: Re: Replace Tokens?

earache — 2008-07-22T18:40:52+00:00

Well, Tanga has it for $13.99 right now. If you hurry, you can get turned off for a lot less.

Thread: Re: Replace Tokens?

GSReis — 2008-07-22T18:04:06+00:00

Why not? You only need to make sure you have one distinguishable miniature of each color, to represent the leader. I wanted to use the vikings from "Fire & Axe", but they are all the same.

Thread: Re: Doom Tokens question

Shameless — 2008-06-12T19:24:37+00:00

Each round, pull five random doom tokens from the supply of ten.

Thematically, doom tokens represent those places where giants and gods and such will be duking it out. No human who goes into those battles will come out alive, but they'll get plenty of glory.

And just because the big guys fought in a particular province in round 1, it doesn't necessarily mean they won't have a rematch there in rounds 2 and 3. Sure, there might not be much left to fight over, but who cares? It's Ragnarok.

Thread: Re: Doom Tokens question

Joe Casadonte — 2008-06-11T19:44:37+00:00

Lord_Kristof wrote:
b) you take the used DT, shuffle them with the unused ones and from the ten, pick five new on round two and round three?

Though it's anti-thematic, that would be the correct answer.

Thread: Doom Tokens question

Lord_Kristof — 2008-06-11T08:46:44+00:00

I'm not entirely sure what to do with the Doom Tokens after the first Ragnarok phase. It is stated that the ones that are left after putting DT on their respective provinces should be "put aside for round 2" and I got the impression, that in round two DT are not being drawn randomly, but you use the ones leftover from round one. And that would mean, that you don't have any DT left for round three...
On the other hand, it is also said that you have to draw five NEW randomly picked DT at the start of a round. So is it:
a) after choosing random tokens for round one you stay with five leftover tokens, you use them in round two and then in round three... what happens?
OR
b) you take the used DT, shuffle them with the unused ones and from the ten, pick five new on round two and round three?

Thanks in advance for clearing this out for me.

Thread: First session

synistar — 2008-02-22T05:44:24+00:00

We met at the Starbucks for our bi-weekly session and I brought Midgard and a few fillers. Mike, Keith, Chris, and later on Wilson showed up. So we managed to grab the bigger table and set up Midgard. The rules explanation took a little while since Wilson showed up late and we had to start over again.

Midgard surprised me. It was a lot more involving than I thought it would be. I had let myself be swayed by some of the reviews here. They complained about the card drafting mechanic, saying that it prevented strategic play. However, I thought that the cards were well balanced. The hand size seemed about right and only one player complained about a lack of options in the last round (and he still figured out a strategy). In general I think that the drafting mechanic worked well although it did induce some AP in our group, which is prone to it anyway, and the game wound up taking over two hours.

The first round went pretty fast. Since we only had 4 actions (card plays), and the board started open, we thought the game would go quickly. I received an even spread of cards -- 1 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze. And everyone was getting used to the turn mechanics and scoring.

In the second round I racked up a large lead by concentrating on scoring in Doomed provinces. I saw how you could earn a lot of points for each viking going to Valhalla in the Ragnarok phase and it paid off. However, this sort of backfired a bit in the third round since all my vikings were back on the boat and the other players already had territory on the board at the start.

In the third and final round I kept my lead (of about 15 points)but it didn't help me in the end. I lost by less than 5 points and I tied for second. The other players closed the gap by collecting sets of region tokens. I think that if I had placed only two tokens differently I could have pulled out a win.

In general everyone enjoyed the game pretty well. Chris commented that it had a high frequency of difficult decisions typical of German style euros. In general I agree that it keeps you on your toes since practically every players turn can radically affect your plans. And sometimes a lack of options in your hand makes you reevaluate your strategy. The rules are fairly simple but produce a good level of depth in play (with you trying to evaluate whether board spaces will still be available on your next turn, whether others will use the gold cards they showed you at the beginning of the round, and trying to estimate what others region token points will be at the end).

All in all I think Midgard is underrated. I will be bringing this back to the table soon. And I am sure that it will be received well whenever it comes out.

Thread: Re: Two player variant...

CUTHALI0N — 2008-02-07T17:28:14+00:00

The game uses a card drafting mechanic. With only one other player to pass cards around, you'd know all his cards except one for each round.
Oooooh... right, right, right, I suppose that would be a problem. Oh well, I guess I ought to play the game first before trying to change it.

Unfortunately, it is rare that I can get more than one other player to show up at the same time... hence my attempt at the 2 player variant in the first place. Thanks for your feedback!

Thread: Re: Two player variant...

GSReis — 2008-02-07T04:06:49+00:00

Of course, it would also be necessary to remove the Jotunheim cards.
Still no good?
I was thinking more in the number of other cards, which would remain unaltered. But on second thought, as you don't play all the cards, there might be, in fact, a bigger density in the other regions. It has been a while since I last played, though.

What do you mean by this?
The game uses a card drafting mechanic. With only one other player to pass cards around, you'd know all his cards except one for each round.

Thread: Re: Two player variant...

CUTHALI0N — 2008-02-07T00:31:29+00:00

GSReis wrote:

No. That would just reduce the board, but would not particularly increase the concentration of player pieces, as cards are region-specific.
Of course, it would also be necessary to remove the Jotunheim cards.
Still no good?

GSReis wrote:

There are other issues to be addressed, such as knowing which cards the opponent has.
What do you mean by this?

Thread: Re: Two player variant...

GSReis — 2008-02-06T17:48:48+00:00

So take away Jotunheim - problem solved, no?
No. That would just reduce the board, but would not particularly increase the concentration of player pieces, as cards are region-specific. There are other issues to be addressed, such as knowing which cards the opponent has.

I believe you would need some way to include a neutral player. Besides, the board is already pretty empty with three players and I don't think the game works very well with that number.

Thread: Two player variant...

CUTHALI0N — 2008-02-06T17:10:51+00:00

...any thoughts on how to do it?

Maybe play without Jotunheim? I haven't played the game yet so I don't know why it wouldn't work with two as is, but I'm guessing the reason is probably that the lands wouldn't be highly contested enough. So take away Jotunheim - problem solved, no?

Thread: Re: moving out of Heavens

steveoliverc — 2007-12-12T13:57:44+00:00

davedanger wrote:
At the end of every turn/round, vikings stay in the heavens, right?

Right.

Thread: Re: Midgard: An Introduction

Crockerdile — 2007-12-08T15:23:20+00:00

Nice. I'm always ready for a game of Midgard. Works equally as well as a "gateway" game, or as a thinking man's filler. My copy is very well travelled.

Thread: Midgard: An Introduction

greatsage — 2007-12-08T04:00:04+00:00

Midgard is game for 3-5 players by Eric M. Lang (World of Warcraft, Call of Cthulhu CCG) the suggested time is 45 minutes. Midgard gives each player the opportunity to be a Viking chieftain, hell-bent on having a good time, fighting and then gloriously dying and being sent to the heavens. Sounds like many people I meet out on a Saturday night!

The layout of the board consists of an initial supply of warriors placed on your Viking ship. An off board supply of warriors is also available to each player. The land of Midgard is separated into three kingdoms: Alfheim, Mannheim and Jotunheim, the former two having three provinces and the latter having four provinces. On top of this there are also the heavens: Asgard, Vanaheim and Valhalla. Through the management of controlling majorities in these areas players earn victory points at the end of each round.

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The driving mechanics of this game are a card draft to start each round where players are dealt a hand of six cards: one gold, two silver and three bronze cards, where gold cards are generally the most prized. One card is chosen then the remaining hand is passed to the left, this continues until each player has a hand of six. The another important mechanic is the area majority aspect. Each province has a number of huts depicted on it, each hut can house one warrior, so some provinces may only be able to house three warriors, whilst others may be able to handle six. In Midgard each player has Viking leader which acts as a tie breaker in ties for majorities in provinces. Having a cap on the number of warriors that can be in each province makes the game very interesting as it is very hard for one player to have a lock on one province, as the balance can be tipped so easily.

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The most unique mechanic is that of the Doom Tokens. At the start of each round five doom tokens are drawn, each depicts a province, at the end of the round warriors on these provinces die and are sent to Valhalla. This sound like a bad thing but players earn victory points for their warriors dying so gloriously and perhaps more importantly every warrior that ends at Valhalla will be placed on your Viking ship ready for the start of the next turn. So a player that can get many warriors to Valhalla, not only earns glory but also can get an advantage in the next turn if he has more warriors at his disposal.

The game is played over three rounds: the first has 4 actions, the second 5 actions and the third 6 actions. Each action is simply the playing of a card from your hand. The ramping up of the actions is a significant factor as the play goes from getting a foothold, to trying to utilise the final actions better than your opponents. At the end of each round a scoring phase occurs where players get points for each province they control and will gain more points if they gain majorities in a number of provinces within one kingdom (i.e. a player who scores for 2 provinces in Alfheim, will earn more points than a player who has a majority in 1 province in Alfheim and one in Mannheim). Players also gain kingdom tokens for each province they have a presence in; a player who has warriors in three provinces of Jotunheim will receive three Jotunheim kingdom tokens. Kingdom tokens are important because for each set they collect (one each of Jotunheim, Alfheim and Mannheim) 5 points are scored at the end of the game.

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Then the heavens of Asgard and Vanaheim are scored; a player with a majority in Asgard earns 5 points and a player with a majority in Vanaheim will receive two kingdom tokens of their choice. As an aside there is no limit to the number of warriors that these heavens can hold. Warriors that are in doomed provinces are then sent to Valhalla, each warrior who dies this way earns 2 points, then Valhalla itself is scored, where each player scores one point for every warrior they have in Valhalla (there are cards that can send warriors to Valhalla and as such these warriors won’t score the 2 points bonus from being in a doomed province). Then warriors in Valhalla are returned to their Viking longboats.

The game has a very unique feel to it as you are not just trying to get majorities, you are also trying to target specific provinces to gain kingdom tokens, whilst also balancing the desire to get warriors into a doomed province to score points and to be able to use them next turn. The game can get very hectic when there are provinces that are hotly contested, but the chaos and even the bluffing element to the game are very good elements. There is also interplay in trying to get your supply of off board warriors into the action through the playing of certain cards.

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The luck in the draw of your cards means that you cannot have a set formula to obtain the maximum points and there is a lot of player interaction so to play well you must be able to think quickly and off the cuff, which I like in a game. Having said that there are avenues for a skilled player to explore, denying other players important cards, or the strategic placement of your Viking leader so that he is a tie breaker or in an inconvenient spot as it is difficult for an opponent to displace a leader. I find the game to be well balanced, there is enough luck for inexperienced players to enjoy and stand a chance in scoring, but there is enough strategy for an experience player to win more games than the average.

The more I play this game the more the theme strikes me. Ultimately when I am playing an area majority game I don’t feel that the setting would matter and that doesn’t bother me. However, when I play Midgard I feel that the theme does work, I could not see it as a ringmaster at a circus trying to control the most tents and events. That would not gel with this boardgame and its mechanics. Also there has been criticism of the board saying that it looks horrible. Well it isn’t the best board I have seen, but it does not have too much going on, it has a very good summary of the points and rounds and does not have bright colours that distract you from working out where you are placing your piece. The board also fits the theme, it is dark like the North Sea. Plus it is the first game I have bought where the board was wrapped in shrink wrap so that has to be worth something.

This game is a great game, it took me a while to get past the Viking on the cover having bloody horns on his helmet! After frequent counseling I have risen above this issue and I can enjoy the game for what it is: a fast paced, condensed game that has a great blend of skill and luck in a package that plays in 30 minutes to an hour. It will definitely be getting more plays with my game group.

Thread: Re: Question about the gold cards

larryjrice — 2007-11-11T03:55:14+00:00

yes, its an extra scoring but doomed vikings are not doomed until the end of the turn.

Thread: Re: Empty Heavens at end of each Round?

Thommy8 — 2007-10-03T00:53:33+00:00

Thanks Dave, that makes sense, I appreciate the quick response

Thread: Re: Empty Heavens at end of each Round?

Samuraicat — 2007-10-03T00:47:59+00:00

Thommy8 wrote:
At the end of Round 1 and Round 2, what do you do with the units in Asgard and Vanaheim after scoring those regions? Do the units stay there, go back to the boats, or off the board? I'm assuming they stay there because no mention of removing them is made, but am thinking that it's possible they are supposed to be removed back to their respective boats. Thanks for any advice!

You are correct. Leave the vikings in Asgard and Vanaheim between rounds.

Thread: Empty Heavens at end of each Round?

Thommy8 — 2007-10-03T00:21:10+00:00

At the end of Round 1 and Round 2, what do you do with the units in Asgard and Vanaheim after scoring those regions? Do the units stay there, go back to the boats, or off the board? I'm assuming they stay there because no mention of removing them is made, but am thinking that it's possible they are supposed to be removed back to their respective boats. Thanks for any advice!

Thread: Re: Question about the gold cards

Michael31 — 2007-09-13T13:17:42+00:00

I have another question about gold cards:

When a player uses an "score realm card" does this realm score at the end of the turn also?

Thread: I added 6th player and...

Crockerdile — 2007-09-04T00:14:07+00:00

it wasn't easy, but it works. You just have to make more cards, and cobble together some parts.
The original 5 player game has a symetry as to the card count and the players. There are 100 cards (50 bronze, 35 silver, and 15 gold). Per player that means 10 bronze, 7 silver, and 3 gold cards, so to keep the symetry, I made the 20 more cards. The bronze and the silver cards were easy. I added,
Bronze: 6 more invade cards (2 per kingdom).
4 more new warrior cards.
Silver: 6 more attack cards (2 per kingdom).
1 more Viking horde card.
(Or alternativly, you could add 1 attack card per kingdom and 4 viking hordes, to make the game even more freewheeling).

The gold cards present another problem, because each is unique and each has a relative point value. I needed to invent 3 new ones, but I came up with 4 possibilities.
1). "Score Any Kingdom"...pick a Kingdom to score (value: 3.5).
2). "Choice of tokens"...collect any 3 tokens (value 6.5).
3). "Destroy Province"...your choice, (value 11.5).
4). "New Warriors Anywhere"...2 new warriors placed at your choice (value 16...new highest value).
You pick which 3 gold cards to use!

edit: I just thought of another possible gold card. "draw 1 bronze card and 1 silver card." (value: 7.5)

The new color is blue. I photoshopped (and MS Painted) a tile of a ship , from the map/gameboard, and colored it blue. You can use some blue pawns (or cubes, or disks), from "leftover" games.

When I first tried this, I was "graphically impaired". and ended up printing a whole new deck of 120 cards, with no graphics. They worked, but looked like crap. But I've improved a bit, since then. A couple of new images showed up here at this listing, and I was able to use them to good results. I've no digital camera to prove that.

4 or 5 months ago , I sent these ideas to Zman, asking him to peruse and forword to Mr. Lang, the designer. Zev answerd, as an acknowledgement of receipt...but that's the last I've heard from them.

This expansion DOES work.

Thread: Re: moving out of Heavens

davedanger — 2007-08-09T16:01:43+00:00

At the end of every turn/round, vikings stay in the heavens, right?

Thread: Re: Marching to Valhalla…

davedanger — 2007-08-09T15:55:03+00:00

I dislike drafting in Age of Empires- but it works.
Here I don't think the drafting is worth the downtime. You already get to control your cards by building a reserve of them. I don't see how it helps you knowing what cards someone may have and may play.

Thread: Re: Why Midgard is my most played game...

herbal_cheeze — 2007-07-18T14:27:23+00:00

I don't know that I would consider it chaos as much as planned intervention.

Thread: First night, first play for our new game group: DAGGER

snoozefest — 2007-06-22T20:27:05+00:00

Our first game night! Jason picked this one first.

A Viking (loosely) themed area-control game with card drafting and some twists.

RULES
SETUP
The board shows 3 kingdoms with 3/3/4 provinces. Each provinces has 3-6 villages. Also, there are 2 Heaven areas (Asgard and Vanaheim), Valhalla, and 5 boats. Players start with a leader and a number (5 in 5er game) of warriors on the boats; the rest of their warriors are in supply. There are 3 decks of cards - bronze, silver, and gold.

EACH ROUND
1. Doom. Place 5 randomly chosen doom counters corresponding to the provinces.
2. Card Draft. Deal each player 3 bronze, 2 silver, and 1 gold card. These will be drafted: pick one to keep, pass the rest to the left ... continue till you receive your last card. These are then added to any cards saved from previous rounds.
3. Determine player order. All players reveal their gold cards; the player with the highest numbered card (1-15) goes first, then play clockwise.
4. Actions. There are 3 Rounds; each player gets 4/5/6 actions in rounds 1/2/3. Actions are taken one at a time in turn order, and consist of playing a single card and carrying out its effect. Card effects:
Bronze
- Warrior. Move warrior from supply to boat, then move a token from boat to specified region(s)
- Invade. Move up to 2 tokens into an empty village of a specified region(s); max of 1 token per village.
Silver
- Attack. Move a single token into an occupied village, displacing the warrior (not leader) there to Valhalla.
- Viking Horde. Place up to 3 tokens into empty villages of a single province.
Gold
- Destroy. Displace all tokens in a province to Valhalla
- Score. Score a kingdom.
- New warriors. Move 2 from _supply_ to board.
- Tokens. Take 3 tokens of specified type (there are 3 types, 1 for each kingdom)
- Draw. Draw 2 cards and take another action.
5. Score
Points
- In each kingdom, get points based on how many provinces you control (= more warriors than any other single player; leaders count as 1.5 warriors). For 1/2/3/4 provinces you get 3/7/12/20 VP.
- Control Asgard: 5VP
Tokens
- Presence in a province: get a token of that kingdom's type
- Control Vanaheim: 2 tokens of any type
6. Ragnarok
- Clear the doomed provinces; all tokens sent to Valhalla and earn player 2 VP each
- Then, all tokens in Valhalla are moved to player boats; earn player 1 VP each
Remove Doom tokens from board, and repeat x 3.
Game End Scoring: 5 VP for each SET of tokens (set = 1 of each of the 3 kingdoms)
Tie breaker = most tokens collected

SESSION
There are only 3 round in the game. Since the only hidden scoring is in the tiles, and since my gold card was one that gives you 3 of them (we hadn't looked at the cards so hadn't initially realized that there were several of these) I decided to go for tile sets. That meant that I ended the first round with a nice stack of tokens, but was in dead last place on the score track. Which was pretty nice in the next round 'cause no one wants to pick on the loser, right? The rest of the pack were reasonably close to each other and far ahead of me. The first round scoring did, however, teach us the importance of DOOM - those tokens score a token for presence in the province, may help towards scoring the kingdom if you have control, score for being DOOMED, AND score again in Valhalla. We also saw the importance of the Heavens - although Mary and I were up there relatively unmolested, control was wrested from us in subsequent game rounds.

After round 2, the scoring was much tighter and we'd learned another lesson: you need to have tokens on the board! Also, the importance of turn order. Greg, trying to ensure a later turn order, passed me some nice gold cards -- the ones that allow you to place warriors FROM SUPPLY. He got to go last, but I had a lot more warriors on the board going into round 3. Jason made some moves near the end, collecting a huge stack of tokens in rounds 2 and 3. He took control of Asgard in the final turn. He also tried to gain control of some provinces but I crushed him and Mary when they both chose to put a lot of tokens in one province -- one I could destroy with my card ! Nothing personal, but it was just fun playing havoc with that powerful card (and it was probably a reasonable play, too).

Final scoring was close, but I had managed to collect 7 full sets which pushed me into first place (by 1 point?). Jason had 7 sets as well, but hadn't quite scored well enough that last turn.

COMMENTS
It was a fun game, and should play reasonably quickly once you know all the cards. The Viking theme is there very loosely, although it is nice that you get rewarded VP for fighting and dieing in the doomed provinces, and for making it to Valhalla. The token set-collection allows for a hidden element (although it is trackable, who's going to bother?) and gives you some more interesting decisions during the game. Still, I'm not sure that I need to own it - need to play it again.

Ratings New to 3/5 (KW, MP and RP)
JasonW 6.5
KenW ???
GregP 6
MaryP 6.5
RP 6
---------------
Average 6.25

Thread: Re: Attack Cards

aceraxon — 2007-06-11T05:45:30+00:00

I always take it quite literally. Thems Vikings are bloodthirsty when they attack, by George, they attack! No mamby pamby stuff!

Thread: Re: Fantasy Fight

Surya — 2007-05-14T08:23:52+00:00

Indeed the board artwork does contrast the box cover and not everyone likes it. I don't. A friend of mine does.

That said, everyone I've played the game with enjoyed it a lot, some even requested to play it again immediately. I like it a lot myself too.

Thread: Re: Fantasy Fight

guttedgeek — 2007-05-14T00:44:46+00:00

The artwork in the game certainly didn't match that on the box which was odd. Scant theme and bland artwork aside, I enjoyed this game and would happily play again but it wouldn't rate as a favorite.

I liked the drafting myself - lots of difficult choices to make which in most cases mean you can improve your position beyond what is typical of such a game.

Thread: Re: Fantasy Fight

wharekumera — 2007-05-13T10:42:51+00:00

meowsqueak wrote:
I can think of fifty games I'd rather play instead.

I can think of x>50 where x=games

That was my token use of algebra for 2007.

Thread: Re: Fantasy Fight

meowsqueak — 2007-05-13T10:32:12+00:00

I think it's Area Majority, not Area Control.

You rate the game highly and provide valid reasons - I have no issue with that, it's your opinion after all.

Based on our single game: I really dislike Midgard the more I think of it. The theme was painfully weak, the art is terrible (non-existent?) the card-drafting uninspired and above all the game just failed to be fun. There's a point where a Euro just becomes too dry, and this game is way beyond that. Sorry but it bored me to tears and I can think of fifty games I'd rather play instead.

I truly hope it works well with your nephew.

Thread: Fantasy Fight

citylife — 2007-05-13T03:59:59+00:00

It is surprising how many fantasy worlds make it into board gaming circles. Fo course each of us could name a dozen, yet the number of historical games far outweigh the fanatsy games. It is for this reason that I always look favourably on fantasy games. Others that have pleased my eye lately include both Hermagor and A Game of Thrones, though the later appeals because of its book series.

El grande meets fairy tale is an adequate description but in general I dislike sayign a game is just like "...". I would rather hear that is the same machanic as in ... Now there are some very good exceptions like tikal and mexica which just reak of each other in my opinion, and one should not be surprised as they are part of the same trilogy. Either way the drafting here is identical to Fairy tale and I think it is a fantastic mechanism to use.

Each player starts with six cards from which one is selected and the rest passed to the person on the left. The result is a balanced approach which evens out a lot of the luck. For fairness the author has also decreed that the player with the best card in their hand also starts the round (a disadvantage) so the card allocation is as fair as it can be. This is a big plus, and I didn't hear anyone complaining that they didn't get a fair run of cards. Fairness and customisation adequately describe how well this works. In addition there are three tiers of cards (gold silver and bronze) which helps you determine their value.

This is an area control game with cards providing the constraints around where you can play and with what abilities. The customisation of the deck allows you to focus on just one region or multiple of the three regions. Controlling areas scores points which increase as you control multiple areas. There are also points gained (indirectly) by controling areas in all three regions, and the mechanics allow for both paths to victory. Our first play resulted in a balanced strategy being most successful.

The nordic theme of vikings in midgard works well in general but a couple of the game play elements break down. When destroyed warriors go to Valhalla and reneter the game next turn, they are gone for that turn. Yet warriors can asend to Asgard and heaven yet be killed subsequently and then go to Valhalla. This was just a little too difficult for me but berhaps the mythological elements work, someone is bound to explain it to me. Still it is by the by and I enjoyed both the artwork and the theme and it gave me a good feeling. The criticism I have is over the diagrams on the cards dipicting what the cards do. There were a couple of times where the diagrams seemed not to match the words and rules clarifications were necessary.

The winning of the game was in balance and timing. There is something of a supply and demand mecahnism operating here and there are gains to be made if you can focus on areas where others are not. It is also important to remember all the ways of scoring because there are many and utilise them all. I don't think this is a game where you run a particular strategy and your sucess depends on how well you do it. I think it a game where you take what the game gives you and work with it.

Overall I would like to give it a nine but I will safely give it an eight and hope my next exepreience is as fun. It may have been heavy first up but it will lighten dramtically in the second play and I think this could be one I will definitely consider as a medium game especially with my teenage nephew in mind. It is just great for teenage boys. Maybe my enjoyment indicates I am really still a teenage boy at heart ... does that ever change?

Thread: Re: Why Midgard is my most played game...

gschloesser — 2007-04-18T21:01:00+00:00

My main problem with Midgard is that it is just too darned chaotic. The board changes SO quickly with the play of a single card. I've played 3 times and tried really hard to like it, but I just couldn't overcome how dramatically chaotic it is.

Thread: Why Midgard is my most played game...

Crockerdile — 2007-04-15T13:37:30+00:00

...and why it accompanies me to almost every function.

1). Five or six of us are getting together to play something meaty (like Struggle of Empires or Wallenstein, et. al.), when we get the phone call that "so & so" is going to be a half hour late. Midgard immediately goes to the table, and we are done or almost done, when the tardy gamer arrives.

2). We were all on time to play the "meaty game", and finished an hour or so earlier than we thought. It's late, but not so late that we don't have another hour or so to enjoy a game. Midgard fills that role too.

3). Brought this to three recent family functions (a Sunday dinner, a St. Paddy's Day dinner, and an Easter dinner). During the after meal lull in the activities, I gathered up a few candidates (non-gamers, all), and introduced them to Midgard by promising that it would only take an hour. Even the ones who grudgingly accepted the invitation, were impressed.

Midgard is what it is. A wonderful appetizer, or a delicious dessert. Never think of it as "the main course".

Thread: Re: So-so aesthetics, but mechanics/playing time hits sweet

Joe Casadonte — 2007-04-15T12:58:44+00:00

A well-done review, though I don't agree with all of it.

topherr wrote:
Low analysis paralysis.

I guess I play with more talented A/P-prone people then you do. Our resident A/P person was just as thoughtful with this one as with everything else.

topherr wrote:
"How fresh and unique are the strategy, mechanics and theme?"

The area control aspect has been done better in China and El Grande.

I don't think the area control here has anything in common with El Grande' it is much closer to Web of Power/China. While there is nothing new about most/all of the individual mechanics, the whole is somewhat fresh. I have not played an area control game with a drafting mechanism, and as you say, the tension between dominance in a single province and spreading out to collect tokens is new for area control, too.

topherr wrote:
The theme is nearly non-existent.

To me, the theme is no more disconnected than with most Euros. I thought it a little inconsistent, however. The doomed areas are supposed to reflect Ragnarök, IIRC, and still having it playable (and indeed, doom-able) in a subsequent round seems a little counter-intuitive. Still, I don't know how it could be done differently in terms of game-play.

topherr wrote:
"How much do the theme, aesthetics and bits add the overall experience?"

My only quibble is with the font on the map -- too stylized for me for words that are unfamiliar.

topherr wrote:
While I don't recommend playing this for the card-drafting element, it does hit a sweet spot for the weight, time-limit, and clean mechanics.

Gamers who like games with depth, less luck, and more player control will likely be disappointed by Midgard.

I agree with this, though I would not dismiss the card drafting.

topherr wrote:
So why do I say that the card-drafting is disappointing?

While I agree with both of your criticisms of the card-drafting, I did not find them nearly as limiting as you did. I played two nights ago and couldn't find an Alfheim card to save my life one round. I also did not see a Viking Horde card the entire game, which limited my ability to move around substantially. I guess I just see more potential in this aspect than you do.

So, none of this is to say you're wrong, just offering up a different opinion on some of the issues.

Thread: So-so aesthetics, but mechanics/playing time hits sweet spot

topherr — 2007-04-15T05:27:13+00:00

Midgard is a lightweight area control game featuring clean mechanics, a good scoring system and short play time. This is dragged down a bit by a somewhat unsatisfying "card drafting" mechanic and mediocre bits/theme. It hits a sweet spot as a quick area control game, however, and this makes it an easy game to get out on the table.

RULES
The game plays with 3-5 players over 3 rounds. Players use their dozen or so Viking pawns and 1 Viking leader (equivalent to 1.5 pawns) to vie for control in 3-4 territories in each of 3 regions and for control of 2 separate heavenly areas (somewhat reminiscent of the El Grande). You may only play in a region if you have a card that lets you play there. Also like El Grande, you have a boat and reserves (like a Court and Provinces).

At the beginning of each round, 5 of the 10 total territories are randomly chosen as "doomed" territories. At the end of that round, each player is given 2 VPs for each pawn of his/her on doomed territories, BUT all those pawns are sent to Valhalla (earning that player an extra point per pawn) so they won't be left on the board for the next round. This is probably the most original aspect of the game because it creates a tension of VPs now vs. more control in later rounds AND b/c the number of pawns is much more limited than in, for example, El Grande. This means that leaving your pawns on the board will almost certainly create a shortage the next round b/c you'll have too few pawns on your ship to play all your actions from there.

Players draft and pass along cards (as in a Magic booster tournament), then use cards in sequential order to take actions - 4 actions in round 1, 5 actions in round 2, and 6 in round 3. The most common cards are: 1) Take one token from reserve and place anywhere; 2) Place 2 from boat onto an open spot in a specific region; and 3) Take 1 from boat or other place on the board and attack an opponent's piece (but not his leader) in a specific region, sending that piece to Valhalla. The opponent gets a minor benefit for losing the piece temporarily (1 point). Other cards let you do various things, including scoring a region immediately (also like El Grande), giving you 3 region chips (see scoring), and "destroying" a territory (sending all the pawns there to Valhalla).

SCORING
This is a strength. In each region, if memory serves, you get 3 VPs for controlling 1 territory, 7 for 2, 12 for 3, and 20 for 4 (unlikely). Note that each region is scored independent of the others, so that scoring 3 total territories in 3 regions will only get you 9 points, not 12. You also get 5 VPs/round for controlling a heavenly territory, and since this territory never gets doomed, your pieces are likely to stay there.

All pawns that end the round in doomed regions gets 2 VPs, plus another VP for going to Valhalla, for total of 3, (where they get recycled back to your ship). Pawns that are attacked and sent straight to Valhalla, or go to Valhalla from a destroyed territory, just get the 1 VP.

Most interestingly, for each territory in which you have a pawn, you get a token for the region that contains that territory. At the end of the game, you get 5 VPs for each set of 3 tokens from 3 different regions (think Tigris). This creates an interesting dynamic because spreading yourself thin gets you more tokens, but concentrating wins VPs at the end of each round.

GAME REVIEW CHECKLIST (in order of importance)

1. DEPTH/COMPLEXITY 7/10
"How many and how compelling are the decisions you make per minute?"

The somewhat heralded card-drafing is a better than Fairy Tale but still disappointing. The card- and piece-playing decisions, however, are tense. The most interesting decisions have to do with 1) placing in doomed regions (3 VPs/piece on current round, but removed at round end) vs. playing in a non-doomed region, which allows your pieces to stay for future rounds; and 2) focusing on one region (which gives more points per round) vs. several regions (which has a Tigris & Euphrates-like scoring mechanic). Low analysis paralysis.

2. MECHANICS 8/10
"How intuitive, elegant and flowing are the moves that bring your tactics to life?"

The mechanics are mostly clean, if unspectacular. The only distracting mechanic is the doomed territory tokens getting 2 VPs plus 1 extra VP for going to Valhalla, alongside other tokens just getting 1 VP. The scoring is a big plus, the chaos is a small minus.

3. INTERACTION 6/10
"To what degree does it facilitate a rich social experience?"

The interaction is indirect, as in China. Play is light and fast, which allows for decent, non-game related social interchange. To be fair, card-drafting is not generally much of a social experience.

4. ORIGINALITY 5/10
"How fresh and unique are the strategy, mechanics and theme?"

The area control aspect has been done better in China and El Grande.

5. AMBIENCE 5/10
"How much do the theme, aesthetics and bits add the overall experience?"

The theme is nearly non-existent. As reported elsewhere, the cards are small. Worse yet, they are cheaply made. Some of the graphics on the cards are a bit confusing as well, but this is of little consequence because the card rules are straight-forward even without the graphics. The other bits are functional. The board is functional, but the mythical land looks a bit like a map of Sri Lanka, and the victory point charts are unnecessarily confusing.

6. AUDIENCE
"Who would love this game?"

There aren't many good territorial control games other than China or Samurai that play in an hour or so. While I don't recommend playing this for the card-drafting element, it does hit a sweet spot for the weight, time-limit, and clean mechanics.

Gamers who like games with depth, less luck, and more player control will likely be disappointed by Midgard.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE CHAOTIC

So why do I say that the card-drafting is disappointing? Do I have some irrational hatred of all things card-drafty? Actually, I love Magic Booster card drafts. The card-drafting in Midgard has 2 related problems:

1) There are only 3 regions (as opposed to 5 colors in Magic, for example), making it relatively easy to get cards for any region. (Try playing blue when the guy to your right is drafting blue in a Magic tournament!)

2) There are too many duplicate cards for a card-drafting mechanic - more than 50% of the cards, I believe, are one of the 3 or 4 basic card types. This isn't a game play problem - it shows good, clean, mechanics. But I just didn't find the agonizingly wonderful decisions I've regularly seen in Magic drafts.

Chaos - The attacking action and the destroying action add a large chaos - but not necessarily luck - element into the game. This bothered me a bit, at least compared with classics like China, El Grande, Tigris, and Samurai. In each of those games, I feel as if there are things I can do to protect myself from chaotic retribution - somewhat less so here. At times the chaos made me feel more like I was playing Parchisi - and not in a good way!

Despite these flaws, and the lack of theme/aesthetics, this is a game that I anticipate will make it out onto the table pretty frequently. You can only play China so many times before wanting something new. Plus the doomed territory mechanic is interesting.

OVERALL 7/10

Thread: Re: El Grande + Magic booster draft = Midgard

atholbrose — 2007-03-30T17:12:42+00:00

houjix wrote:
Scoring in territories is all or nothing. First place gets points and a bonus token color coded to the region the territory is in. The points a player is awarded are based on how many territories a player controls in a region. There are also two other scoring zones that can earn players a fixed rate of points but no bonus token, or two bonus tokens of their choice. At the end of the game a player scores extra points for each set of bonus tokens they control, a set being defined as one token from each of the three regions.
As a clarification, everyone gets points based on how many provinces they control in a kingdom -- if I had 2 in Jotunheim and so did you, we'd both get 7 points. (So for Jotunheim, you could end up with 4 different players each getting 3 points for controlling one province.) Then, every player would get one Jotunheim bonus token for each province in Jotunheim they had at least one Viking in.

An excellent review; thanks!

Thread: Re: El Grande + Magic booster draft = Midgard

Axelfudge — 2007-03-30T14:56:06+00:00

Great review. At the beggining of it I thought this game was going the way of a stinker but it all came together in the end to come out as looking like I decent game. I had been looking at this recently but went with Fire & Axe instead but I may just have to look into getting a second Viking themed game.

Thread: Re: El Grande + Magic booster draft = Midgard

ixnay66 — 2007-03-30T14:44:12+00:00

If you spend all of your time trying to get majorities with experienced players you'll lose the game. The last time I played I hardly got any but I made sure every one of my vikings when to Valhalla by dying gloriously in areas with doom tokens. I won by a large margin by doing nothing but dying.

Thread: Re: El Grande + Magic booster draft = Midgard

Crockerdile — 2007-03-30T13:11:31+00:00

Nice review of a great game. I've played three player once. It works, but it is quite different. There is a lot more luck in the draw, and a lot less chance to influence opponents due to the fact that there are 18 more cards that will NEVER come into play. Next time I play a three player session, I think I'll make it 4 rounds (a 2nd 6 card round)instead of 3 rounds, which would help to even out the luck factor over the long run.

One bonus to a 3 player game, as it stands now, is that you are "bang, zoom" finished in 30 minutes.

(edit). ixnay66 in the post below, is right. Doomed vikings are the way to go, but beware. In my last 5 player game, 4 of us were not paying attention to a "set collector" who was lurking in the middle of the scoring pack. In the final scoring he had 7 complete sets for an extra 35 points, thus stealing the victory. Therein lies the beauty of this so simple game. So many paths you can take. Since I received this game, it has been a constant companion to all of my gaming sessions, and it is always played at least once, either as an opener, or a closer.

Thread: El Grande + Magic booster draft = Midgard

houjix — 2007-03-30T04:12:20+00:00

So Vikings are apparently this year's pirates. Midgard is a Viking themed area majority game produced by Z-Man Games and designed by Eric M. Lang. While I can commend Mr. Lang for his good taste in surnames I can't say he has a great track record for non-TCG games (Senator, anyone?). The game plays in 30-60 minutes and is a light-medium on the gameplay weight scale.

Components

Midgard comes in your typical Ticket to Ride sized square box. In truth the box art seems suspiciously similar to that of your typical Fantasy Flight game. Coincidence? The world may never know…

The components are functional but unspectacular. The board suits gameplay just fine but it looks much more like a playtest board than a final product. Compare Midgard's board to, say, Fire & Axe (another new Viking game) and there's no contest. Same with the wooden pawns. The game also has smallish cards (think original Ticket to Ride) with no real artwork and a decent amount of text. Considering the amount of handling the cards get it's unfortunate they aren't bigger.

I'll forgive a game almost anything if it gives me interesting decisions, so while Midgard's cards and art direction are without a doubt a missed opportunity let me delve into the truly important matter.

Gameplay

Midgard falls somewhere between El Grande and a Magic: The Gathering booster draft. Each of the game's three segments begins with a card drafting phase, then has a number of card play rounds and culminates with a scoring phase.

The board is divided into three regions, each of which has 3 or 4 territories. Each territory has a number of slots for Viking pawns. The general idea is that you place your Viking markers in the territories and score for who has the most in each at the end of the turn. Typical area majority. The game features a system similar to El Grande in that you have a number of Vikings initially available (on your boat) and you must earn more.

Scoring in territories is all or nothing. First place gets points and a bonus token color coded to the region the territory is in. The points a player is awarded are based on how many territories a player controls in a region. There are also two other scoring zones that can earn players a fixed rate of points but no bonus token, or two bonus tokens of their choice. At the end of the game a player scores extra points for each set of bonus tokens they control, a set being defined as one token from each of the three regions.

There's one more scoring mechanism that's quite cool. Each turn half of the territories get a doom counter. At the end of the turn every Viking in a space with a doom counter dies a glorious death and scores extra points, but are moved to the dead box. Then every dead Viking scores a bonus point (both those that died from the doom counter and those killed through card play). Dead Vikings then reset to their player's boat for next round. So there's an interesting tradeoff between killing Vikings for points and keeping them on the board so they score in the upcoming rounds. In my plays thus far it seems like killing them off is much more powerful (and fun).

The other half of the game is almost a direct knock off of a Magic: The Gathering booster draft. Each of the game's three segments begins with a card drafting phase. Players are dealt a "booster" of 6 cards: 3 common orange, 2 uncommon silver and 1 rare yellow. Each player takes their booster and secret selects a card to keep. The remainder of the cards are passed to the left. Rinse and repeat for six selections. All players begin by revealing their yellow cards, the person with the "best" one is the first player.

A turn proper consists of an increasing number of rounds in which each player plays a single card and takes its effect. So basically you begin each turn by drafting your action cards, and then playing those action cards in turn.

There are two orange actions: earn a new Viking and place a Viking anywhere, and place two Vikings in region X. The silver actions are primarily attacking: displace an opponents Viking to the dead pile in region X. The yellow cards include: score region x, add two Vikings from your not yet in play pile to region x, gain 3 scoring tokens of type x, blow up everybody in a space in region x.

Each player has one super-Viking who breaks ties and can't be attacked.

Strategy

To succeed a player needs to avoid being attacked and secure territories as easily as possible. There's a lot of direct hosage, both in the form of attack cards and in the form of players decided who to block and what regions to contest. In that sense the game requires players capable of and willing to read board position. An arbitrary player could make Midgard fall apart.

The catch here is that you have some limited knowledge and control over what the other players can and can't do. You're passing cards during the draft to the guy on your right, so aside from his first pick you've seen everything he could possibly have. This is a really slick way offsetting your typical last player advantage in an area majority game: each player has some amount of knowledge and control of what the people downstream can do. It's still very powerful to go last and sometimes you get arbitrarily hosed because the guy on your right is going first. Still the basic gist is quite clever.

My Take

I'm a long time Magic booster drafter so I felt very at home in Midgard. If Fairy Tale was take one on porting a booster draft into a single purchase box, then this is the second. The trick to a booster draft is that the drafting in and of itself isn't enough to sustain a game. You need something after it to give meaning and weight to your choices in the draft segments. In many respects this is where I feel Fairy Tale fails; what happens after the draft isn't interesting enough to hold up the draft portion. Midgard is another story. Midgard's area majority is fairly plan by itself, but it's exactly the right weight to make the draft work but without bogging the game down.

The genius behind the game is the fact that the people you pass to in your drafts play after you. It gives you all sorts of opportunities to try and affect the direction they will play. It’s a cool aspect but it also is something that’s easy to overlook at first glance (and without it the game has little true depth).

In the end I'm very impressed with Midgard. The is the best port of a Magic booster draft to date. The reasonable playing time (experience players could knock it out in 30) puts it at only slightly heavier than Fairy Tale but infinitely more interesting. Sure, the components are lackluster but the gameplay is solid.

If you're a booster draft addict like myself you're going to get a ton of mileage out of Midgard. If you like Fairy Tale you'll probably like Midgard since it uses the same draft mechanic. If you're a general area majority fan I think you'll appreciate Midgard for doing something no other area majority game has. If you're not in one of these categories I think you may be left with a "meh" opinion.

I’ve played with four and five and both seem to work. I question if the game would play well with three.

Thread: Re: Attack Cards

Shameless — 2007-03-17T17:19:49+00:00

You can attack an empty village if you wish. And if you attack one of the heavens, you don't have to kill a warrior if you don't wish to.

Thread: Re: Midgard -- Session Report

Shameless — 2007-03-17T17:17:02+00:00

Cool! Let me know how it goes.
The hardest part is keeping track of who's short on what kind of token. You could bring that closer to the surface by playing with open kingdom tokens, at the possible cost of some AP near the end.

Thread: Re: Attack Cards

locusshifter — 2007-03-17T16:05:41+00:00

I agree with you, that was the very sentance that made me think this. The card itself leans the other way, but I would think the rules trump the card.

Thread: Re: Attack Cards

GSReis — 2007-03-17T06:18:41+00:00

That is not explicitly said, indeed, and I had the same question when I read the rules. The only indication is where they state: "If you move to a village that is occupied by a warrior..." The sentence implies that you can move to an empty village, and I could not find any restriction on that.

Thread: Attack Cards

locusshifter — 2007-03-17T05:11:48+00:00

Must the village you move into be occupied? Can it be empty and you attack it anyway. The rules seem to point toward this but never explicitly say.