Raiders of the North Sea

DK, Tiger-King and myself were hosted for a game at Steedo’ s. A veritable display of beige snacks was arrayed before us as were many candles for mood lighting. As DK and Tiger-King are known for their lack of time management skills - Steedo and I set up the board for Raiders - remarkably easy as it is all marked on the board. 

However DK then arrived, but Tiger-King didn’t, so we had a go at a little filler game 8 minute Empire that DK had brought over. 

This was a nice little area control game which you picked cards from the top row (until they were all gone) by paying different amounts for them. Scoring was done by collecting sets of cards, controlling areas and continents. We cracked on at a fair pace - but not the eight minutes the box said … the final scores were Steedo 18, Morts 17 and DK 14. No time for a second game as the Tiger-King had arrived and was reading the rules to Raiders (always dangerous) and demanding pizza. 

The first game of Raiders was a little bit slow as we had a few rule questions (and because Steedo had to pop out to collect his offspring), but was remarkably straightforward to play once you started … either place a meeple in the village building and resolve the action, then pick up a meeple from a different building and resolve that action OR raid across the sea paying the cost and having the crew requirements needed. 

The first game was won by my good self, with Steedo 2nd, DK 3rd and the Tiger-King in 4th. I got the win by mainly by focusing on resource collection and then getting victory points via offerings to the Chief. The others had done more raiding, gaining victory points there and from the Valkyrie track. Apparently this was a test game, so we set up again. 

The second game was a different game - we were playing the actions cards much more and I think the raiding started more quickly - Tiger-King had a very weak crew, but was able to raid for plunder but not gain victory points. This was interesting as it then prevented others from going to those settlements. DK had collected the most offering cards in this game. The results were DK for the win, Tiger-King and myself in joint second, and Steedo bring up the rear. 

The way the cards come out has a big impact on how you play the game - this was certainly true for me as I couldn’t play the same tactics in the second game compared to the first. Planning is difficult as the where people have left meeples will effect where you can place yours and where you can pick up, so the order you do something or the if you can it it at all. 

I really liked the game, it reminded me of settlers in some ways, as I think that a very causal gamer could pick up the rules and play quite happily with a reasonable chance of winning. 

Thanks to my bro for getting this game - sooty it took over a year to get to play it … might have to look at the expansions. 

Thanks also to Steedo for hosting, the Hobgoblin Gold as a birthday gift and the slightly over cooked pizza. A good evening of games, finished of with  DK’s tales of his public school “friends” (I think you should get some counselling …). 

Morts