Return to Løkta

Saturday, and a week after the first visit to A Feast for Odin, I thought it was time to try it again. This time, instead of Dirk for company, I had Stanley, whose skeptism over playing it evaporated when he saw all the bits. Good old Uwe...

Regular readers - there's at least four - will know that my haphazard experimenting on the first play last week resulted in the kind of scores you hesitate to blog about, even in a dusty corner of the net such as this: I'd managed to finish both Dirk and I in negative points. Not so much engine-building as throwing carburettor pieces randomly into a lathe. This time I was determined to finish with a positive score, even if it was only 1 point.

I went through the basics with Stan and we were off. This time I had a better idea about how to go about things, and though some options still remained untaken, our choices had a bit more of sense of methodology about them. Stanley ignored my positive musings on the wonders of sheep, and built a ship instead. Then he proceeding to sail the seas (raiding/pillaging/plundering/whaling) to see what he could raid/pillage/plunder/whale (rolling the dice; adjusting scores for ore/stone/swords/spears).

He did well, only failing to return with a bounty twice in several trips.

He also, in the main, ignored surrounding the bonus spots on his player board - forsaking bonuses - while I fiddled about, trying to activate all the bonuses by surrounding them. I'm blaming my focus on this for my poor showing elsewhere: I was late to the pillaging and my die-rolling didn't have Stan's consistency.

table eater

We diversified in animal husbandry; Stanley acquiring sheep and me cattle. I built a shed, and brought back treasures from my pillaging. Some stuff still remains untested - neither of us explored the islands, or played occupation cards ***Update: Because I'd somehow missed that you can pick up when you play to a three-viking spot, and play them at a four-viking spot*** The latter probably play quite a large part in the game as well, as Uwe has included not one but three decks of them! So on my next play I'll have to explore that.

We played for about an hour and a half before tea, and an hour after. Stanley, to my pronounced chagrin, filled up his player board in the last round: meaning he would get no penalty points! I did much better than last time, but was nowhere near that. A late flurry of hunting and setting snares meant we could feed our hungry vikings on the last - most expensive - round.

Stan's board, with 3 vikings to go...

Mine

And - it was fun! It wasn't the kind of fun I would introduce to non-gamers, of course, and it's not some gamers cup of tea either - for obvious reasons of length/mechanics/abstraction. But Stanley loved it and I really enjoyed it too - eclipsing my slightly irksome experience of a week ago.

Stanley 72
Sam 38

When I get the inevitable rule corrections, I'm sure it'll be even better!