Skål, my bloodthirsty followers! We will set sail soon and explore faraway waters, expand our influence beyond our borders, forging new ways of trade and most of all pillage and plunder!!! In Pax Vikings you’ll become a Jarl, a powerful leader, during the Age of the Viking. So ready your axes, grow a beard, grab a mug of something strong and lets see what Pax Vikings is all about.
Pax Viking is a strategic and historical boardgame for one to six players. The game highlights those Vikings who traveled Eastwards toward the rich markets of Persia and around the Black Sea. Beyond the gorgeous board, showing the areas to which the Vikings traveled, the components are fantastic, from the satisfying wooden Followers to my personal favorite: the miniature Longships. The engine of this game comes in the form of the Saga Tiles. These aren’t just cards; they’re the narrative and the historical backbone of the entire gaming experience. Each with unique abilities, art and historical context.
The goal of the game is to achieve one of the Victory Conditions, randomly chosen during the setup of the game, and choose them wisely, as it sets the difficulty level and the duration of the game. Your turn is divided in three phases: a quick check on your Influence Phase, an Action Phase and during the last phase of your turn, apparently a year has gone by; Winter Solstice. In short, during the Action Phase is when the mayhem happens:
- Invest to hoard more of those Saga Tiles from the Saga Track or Pile.
- Journey with your Longship to new places (or familiar places).
- Play one of your Saga Tiles.
- Activate something that can be activated.
- Parley on a Post to Establish on that location.
And when you expand your influence into the new world, by placing your Followers on different Posts or Gods, even more special actions can be used. So make sure to check on your influence at the beginning of your turn.
Back to the Saga Tiles, as they have quite an important role in the game. There are 220 Saga Tiles so I won’t go too deep into each of them, but they come in four different types:
- Venture Tiles which can be used as Posts.
- God Tiles like Advocate Tiles can be placed on your Jarlboard.
- Event Tiles trigger an immediate event.
And like said before, each Saga Tile comes with a little bit of historical context, known from people and events from Norse Sagas, but for the game it is more important what you can do with it, as the abilities are very useful during your plays.
In general Pax Viking has clearly put a lot of thought into the game. The historical accuracy shines through, but it never gets in the way of an awesome game. When you think of Vikings, you think of pillaging, but the genius here is that the true power lies in establishing sophisticated networks and smart usage of the Saga Tiles abilities. A minor issue is keeping track of all of those possibilities with the abilities you’ll get from the Saga Tiles during the game. It’s a solvable problem with practice, but expect the feeling of being a little bit lost, on your first few voyages.
Except for that Pax Viking is clearly a labor of love, and hard work. It comes with a ton of extra information, not only on the cards, but also with a rulebook, an appendix book and quick reference rosetta stone boards, to make your journey as easy as possible. Nevertheless you really need some plays to really get the hang of the game. Therefore see Pax Viking as a Medium-Heavy Strategy boardgame. So if you want a Viking game that goes beyond the raid and gives you a magnificent, historically rich, and deeply satisfying strategic puzzle, grab Pax Vikings. Just don’t forget to grow that beard.
