Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 60-90 min
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time: 5-10 minutes

Vikings is an economic game that has a wheel to set the prices of tiles and meeples. If you have the most fame after six rounds you win the game.

Vikings Rules Description:

To win Vikings you must get more fame than the other players. You gain fame during the 2nd, 4th and 6th rounds of the game. You score different points for having specific meeples on the island tiles that you purchase and by defeating invading vikings. There is also end of game scoring that is factor in after the basic scoring in round six.

You start this game with some gold (depending on the number of players), 10 fame and a starting island tile. Tiles are placed next to your Mainland board. They must be orthogonally adjacent to a previously placed tile or in the first position on your Mainland board. The island tiles are made up of starting island tiles, middle island tiles and end tiles. You must place these in the proper order. You cannot start an island with a middle or end tile or end an island with a start or middle tile.

Each round you place 12 tiles consisting of island and ship tiles around the pricing wheel. You also place 12 random meeples next the tiles. The meeples are six different colors and help you score based on their role and placement. The pricing wheel is numbered from 0 to 11. This is the cost of the meeple and island tile next to the number. You can buy any group you like except the meeple and tile on the 0 spot. It can only be bought if it is the last meeple of its color on the pricing wheel. When the group in the 0 spot is purchased the pricing wheel rotates until it reaches the next available group. This makes everything cheaper.

On your turn you purchase a group and place your tile on you Mainland board. If you placed the tile in the row that matches the color of the meeple it was paired with you may place the Viking on any tile in that row. If it doesn’t match that row’s color you must place it on the corner of your Mainland board. Ship tiles are placed across the top of your board. They are colored and if not blocked by a warrior meeple they prevent you from scoring with any vikings in the row that matches the ship’s color or above.
Black meeples are warriors and repel Viking ships. They earn you fame or gold depending on the ship. Red meeples are nobles and you gain two fame for each one on your board. Green meeples are scouts and score you one fame plus one if there is a yellow or blue meeple below them. Yellow meeples only score you fame if they are below green meeples but they get you three gold every round of the game. Blue meeples only help you feed your meeples at the end of the game. They only score based on the green meeples above them. Gray meeples never go on your island tiles. They are ferrymen that can bring groups of meeples to island tiles right before you score. Once used gray meeples are discarded from the game.

At the end of the game you score extra fame for having the most completed islands, the biggest island, the most gray meeples and you gain one fame for every five gold you have. Ships that remain unblocked at the end of the game take gold or fame from you each scoring round until blocked. The blue meeples are used to see if you can feed everyone. Each blue meeple can feed itself and four other meeples. For each meeple you cannot feed you lose one fame. If you have extra food you gain two fame for each extra food. The player with the most fame wins the game.

There are advanced rules that add bidding to decide the order of the colored meeples and extra tiles you can gain too.

Quick Review of Vikings:

Vikings is a fun bidding game that is quick to play and learn. The advanced rules make the game better and add replay value too. I highly recommend playing with them, but you might want to try the game at least once with just the basic rules.

The components for the game are great. The tiles are sturdy the art is decent and the money is nice and thick. The rules are a bit confusing and the game is simpler to play than the rules make it seem. They aren’t bad they just seem more complex than they need to be. Like I said above try the game without the advanced rules and then add them in once you are comfortable.

I really like the pricing wheel mechanic and how it manipulates the cost of the groups. Once you are able to buy it you need to determine if you are just helping the other players by making their groups cheaper.

I also like how the island tiles and meeples relate. Do you get the tile you want or the meeple? Can you get both and what will it cost you?

Another thing to like about this game is the speed of play. It moves at a good clip and there is little downtime. Some economic games can drag on but Vikings doesn’t.

The game does have a few issues though. First the theme is pasted on. There is no pillaging and I can’t say I feel like a viking at any point in the game.

Also as much as I like the pricing wheel and the groups it adds a good bit of randomness to the basic game. Too often you find yourself having to buy a specific tile as it is the only one you can place. Auctioning for the right to place the meeples on the pricing wheel helps alleviate this problem, but it is good to be aware of it going in.

Vikings is a good buy if you are looking for a quick economic board game. You might want to try it before you buy it as my group was pretty torn on it. If you are looking to pillage and storm the castle then you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 3 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6