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Main Catalogue | Board Games & Card Games | Z-Man Games | Midgard

Midgard

Price: £32.99

Board Game; 3-5 Players by Z-Man Games The world of men, called Midgard, is in its final days, and the battle at the end of the world, called Ragnarok, has begun. Those warriors brave enough to fight to the end will have a hallowed place in the halls of Valhalla when the battle is over, but only one clan will hold the seat of highest honour. Will it be yours? Midgard is a strategic board game of kingdom control for 3 to 5 players ... with a twist. Over three escalating rounds, players semisecretly draft from decks of action cards, taking cards they need for their strategy or denying their opponents the best cards in the rotation. Then, after the action cards are played out, comes Ragnarok, in which some kingdoms will become doomed. And all battling vikings therein are destroyed in glorious rapture, scoring many points for their owners. Thousands of possible combinations and interactions make Midgard endlessly replayable, and always tense right up until the end of the world! ********** Z-Man Games 3-5 players, 45 minutes designed by Eric Lang reviewed by Greg Schloesser Vikings seemed to be a popular theme this year, supplanting last year\'s Sudoku theme and the previous year\'s fascination with pirates. Midgard wasn\'t quite ready for the Spiel in Essen, but the prototype caught the attention of quite a few folks, including me. I was looking forward to its release. The theme is apocalyptic in nature, and borrows from Viking lore. The world is in its final days, and a massive, climactic battle is underway. Viking clans struggle to control various territories, with even greater glory in store for those brave warriors that perish in battle and make their way to fabled Valhalla. I was expecting a tense, tumultuous game of conquest and area control. I was dubious at the proclaimed 45-minute time frame, and was even more surprised to find the rules quite short and simple. Would the game be that deep, strategic affair for which I was hoping? Not really. That is not to say it isn\'t fun; it is - to a degree. However, it is decidedly on the lighter side, and there is a very healthy dose of chaos and fluidity present - in my opinion, too much. Perhaps designer Eric Lang is a student of the Bruno Faidutti school of game design! The map depicts a landmass that appears much like Great Britain, which is divided into ten provinces grouped into three regions. Each province depicts four to six huts, upon which players will place their Vikings in an effort to gain majority control of the province. There are also areas for Asgard and Vanaheim, collectively known as the ``heavens\'\', as well as Valhalla. In addition, there is a Viking boat for each player, upon which the warriors available for the current round will begin, preparing for the upcoming invasion. Finally, a score track rings the board, and large, easy-to-understand charts provide useful game information. Each player receives a collection of Viking warriors and one leader, all of which are actually generic wooden pawns. While they are perfectly functional, and no doubt less expensive than molded miniatures, they lack character and don\'t enhance the game\'s atmosphere. This is one instance wherein I would have preferred plastic miniatures. The leader and five warriors are placed on each player\'s boat, with the remaining warriors being set aside, possibly to be recruited if certain cards are played. Five provinces are randomly marked with ``doom\'\' tokens at the beginning of each of the game\'s three rounds. All Vikings in these provinces will ultimately die valiantly at the end of the round and be dispatched to Valhalla. Normally, this doesn\'t sound like a good thing, but it does bring glory (i.e., victory points) for the warriors so dispatched. The method whereby cards are distributed in Midgard is quite clever. Cards are divided into three decks - copper, silver and gold - with each deck having its own strengths. Each round, players are dealt a mixture of the cards - six in total - and keep one, passing the remainder to the player on their left. Players then select another card from the five cards passed to them, and the remaining cards are once again passed. This procedure continues until all players have six cards. There are some tough choices to be made when deciding which card to keep, and players should formulate their plans for the upcoming round when selecting their cards. Another consideration when selecting cards is that the player with the highest valued ``gold\'\' card will be the start player for the round. Going first is a disadvantage, as players later in the turn order have a chance to undo what went before. So, choosing a valuable gold card can have disadvantages. After cards are selected, players alternate playing cards and performing actions. In turn order, a card is played and the player conducts the action permitted. Copper cards generally allow a player to place or move one or more Vikings onto vacant huts in the provinces or into one of the two ``heavens\'\'. Silver cards are a bit nastier, allowing the player to displace an opponent\'s Viking, sending him to Valhalla. Since each hut can only accommodate one Viking, this can cause a dramatic shift in the control status of a province. Gold cards can be even more dramatic, often causing the destruction or scoring of an entire province, or allowing the player to claim Kingdom tokens. These will be scored at game\'s end. Players play 4, 5 and 6 cards respectively in the three rounds, saving unused cards for the following round. Once all actions are complete in a round, a scoring is conducted. Controlling provinces is what counts, and controlling multiple provinces in a region can score big. For example, controlling a single province in a region scores 3 points, while controlling all four provinces yields 20 points. When determining control, a Viking leader counts as 1.5 Vikings, so their location can be pivotal. Further, for each province in which a player has at least one Viking, a ``kingdom\'\' token for that region is received. Kingdom tokens will earn 5 points when collected in sets, so players should keep this in mind when placing and moving Vikings. The heavens are also scored, with the player controlling Asgard earning five points, and the player controlling Vanaheim selecting two kingdom tokens of his choice. Then, there is more nastiness, as all Vikings in provinces marked with doom tokens are removed and sent to Valhalla. Fortunately, players earn two points for each Viking so dispatched. Finally, each Viking in Valhalla earns its owner an additional one point. Valhalla is then vacated, with Vikings being returned to the players\' boats. True to Viking lore, going to Valhalla is a good thing! Each round is played in the same fashion, with doom tokens being redistributed at the beginning of each round and new cards being selected by the players. Kingdom tokens are only scored at the conclusion of the third round, with five points being earned for a complete set of three tokens - one from each region. Again, players should not overlook this important aspect, as it is not uncommon for a player to accumulate four or five complete sets. This is a lot of points. Controlling Vanaheim or playing the appropriate Gold cards can help secure needed tokens in order to complete sets. The player with the most points after scoring is completed in the third round is victorious, and lives on in Viking lore forever. Since Ragnarok is the battle that ends the world, that lore won\'t last long! Midgard is yet another area control game, with the real twist being the card selection method. While it is fun selecting cards and properly timing their play, in reality there is very little control here. What is done on a player\'s turn can quickly be undone by the subsequent play of his opponents. Generally, each player will only have one or two Vikings in any particular province, and only a handful on the entire board. So, the replacement of one Viking can cause a dramatic shift in control, and there is nothing a player can do to prevent this as there are no ``defensive\'\' cards. As such, there is little incentive to plan long-term, as those plans are likely to be quickly dashed. In its favor, the game plays quickly - 45 minutes or so - and is fun, but only up to the point where the realization sinks in that chaos rules supreme. Perhaps that is fitting in a game themed on the often violent Viking history. Sadly, however, it makes for a game wherein planning and control take a back seat. Some may not mind this, but for me, it is the kiss of doom. The game has succumbed to its own Ragnarok, but it won\'t leave the legacy bestowed by the actual Vikings.

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Main Catalogue | Board Games & Card Games | Z-Man Games | Midgard

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