Now we all love a bit of Norse mythology. The
Marvel films are testament to that. A good looking chap with a big mallet
walloping things around the head seems to make for the good times. And I’m sure
he’s handy in a workshop too. Smacking nails into wood with one mighty swing –
even less if he uses his hammer.
A big part of the old Norse history is the Vikings – another
favourite of games and stories in general. Huge hairy folk raiding and pillaging
their way around Scandinavia and eventually making their way over to Blighty to
start the Celts on their merry way and give people like me their lineage.
Focussing on the raiding and pillaging is the subject the upcoming game Drakkar from Spaceballoon games. Each player acts as the leader of their village and
attempts to muster the resources needed to scamper off on a mission to grab as
much loot as they can get their oversized hands on.
Drakkar is a card game for up to 5 players and is very much
geared up to the quick fire, family or small party-game crowd. Drakkar is
played over 3 rounds and is simply a matter of getting more loot than your
opponents. Most points at the end of the game wins. Each round, you have a
mission to prepare for and it’s then a race to see who can equip themselves before
everyone else.
Drakkar’s main cards consist of either ship parts, beer, a
bunch of hearty Vikings or a series of action cards that allow the player to
screw their opponents – so this is a good game for our colleague Jon as he’s a
fan of the backstab. You can raid opponents’ villages, beat up their boats or
simply steal their stuff. All in keeping with the theme and very useful in
gameplay to impede their progress if they’re getting too far ahead.
One thing I quite likes about Drakkar is the double-sided
nature of the cards – it really makes things very frantic as you need to check
both sides (and of course, your opponents can see the back side!) before you
play them. On top of that, playing cards is done under time pressure. Once one
player has played their card for the turn, everyone else has 5 seconds to play
theirs, or they lose a bit of their boat.
Going on the quest is simple enough – if you’ve got enough
kit to complete it, you get the just rewards, if not, then you can team up with
opponents and split the spoils if you can club together the necessary gear. One
thing I will say is that it’s not entirely clear in the rules if you club
together from cards played or cards in your hand – it makes sense to use cards
played, but Spaceballoon can certainly clarify that in the campaign.
You get a bonus for collecting 3 different types of loot and
the most points wins. It’s a fast, frantic family game that’s complete in about
15 minutes so a great filler game. I played this with some heavy euro fans and
even they had fun so I think it’s fair to say that the game has a lot of merit.
Playing it with Spaceballoon at UKGE this year I had fun too – it’s especially
entertaining to screw your friends over and watch their well-laid plans
collapse when you raid their boat.
So Drakkar gets a well-deserved thumbs up from me – it’s
light, fast and fun. The artwork is great and the theme fits the mechanics
rather well. So jump into your longboat and set sail for your enemies. Just
make sure they don’t set sail for you….
Drakkar is on Kickstarter now.
This Kickstarter preview is based on a prototype version of the game provided by the publisher; the
final product may look, play or smell different to that used in this
preview.
0 comments:
Post a Comment