Fjords Review (Rio Grande Games)
Who doesn’t like saying that word? Fjords. It just rolls off the tongue. But, as fun as the word is to say the name alone doesn’t make or break the game. Fjords was designed by Franz-Benno Delonge. Typically the designer of the game doesn’t mean that much to me but I was surprised to find out once I started writing this entry that FBD also designed two of my favorite European Games as well which are Big City and Hellas. I don’t follow game designers or really care who designed what game, but perhaps there is something to a designer having traits, qualities or styles that form a following, but I start to digress.
Fjords is a two player game which takes place around the 9th or 10th century when Vikings started to explore the shores of Norway and settling farmlands. Once again though, like many European designs the theme doesn’t have a close tie to the actual mechanics. Does it feel like your fighting over farmland with other tribes…Not really but it works.
The game takes place in two phases. The first phase players take turns placing hex landscape pieces which often contain shorelines and mountains to create the Nordic landscape. Also during this phase players have four “huts” at this disposal which they can place on a tile they just placed to establish a farmhouse. There are specific rules for hut placement and tile placement but pretty typical stuff and nothing special to note.
Once all the tiles are placed players are unable to place any more huts if they have any remaining and the next phase of the game then begins. At this point players alternate taking wooden disks and placing them on tiles which are empty. These can only be placed next to huts or other disks of your color and must be placed on green fields (note that two hexes divided by either water or mountains do not count as adjacent when placing farm disks) . Once all the disks are placed in the proper positions and no more disks are able to be placed, the game is scored. Players score a point for each farm token they have on the board.
Now at this point the game recommends repeating these two steps a total of three times and after the third round the final score is determined. Personally I feel this is not needed. One round lasts around 15 mins and three rounds I feel is a bit much for what the game offers and feels like it was tacked on at the end to allow a longer playtime to be posted on the box.
Fjords combines elements from many other popular games and manages to tie them all into one compact and tight little title. The tile laying segment has commonalities between another Rio Grande Games title Carcassonne where tactical placement of both tiles and huts could really mess your opponent up but you are just as likely to get screwed over as you and your opponent draw random tiles forming the lands. The farm placement has feelings of Go or Through the Desert where you’re looking to block areas of open farmland from your opponent allowing you to control the most of farmable areas at the end of the game. Though neither aspect on its own is anything to write home about, the combination of the two create an interesting two player filler game when you just want to squeak that one last game in before the night is over, or if players want something light to start the night off with.
Now this is an interesting game for me to rate. On one hand the game is fun, but not great. It has a lot of mechanics which feel very familiar so originality is lacking. But I cannot help but recommend this game. The box can be ditched (which is a small box by the way) and the parts tossed into a cloth bag making it an excellent travel game because all that is needed is a flat surface to play on. It is quick playing and serves as a good introduction game to basic mechanics found in Euro-style games. What Fjords lacks in depth it more than makes up for in fun and accessibility.
Rating: 3.25 out of 5
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
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