Now we're talking.
Yggdrasil by Z-Man games is a relatively light solitaire/co-operative Euro-style game which, like the previous offering, is quick and easy to learn (about 8 pages of rules).
Game set-up is relatively quick (about 5 minutes), and the production values are extremely high - the board is a beautifully rendered, and the components are generally of very high quality:
Yggdrasil set up and ready to play - the four coloured bags contain counters which are drawn at various points in the game.
This has been sat on my shelf for over a year since I splashed out on it, and until now has remained unplayed. So time to crack one out (a game, that is) over its lush board. In the game, players take on the role of one of the Nordic gods (Odin, Thor, Freya, etc.) and aim to forestall Ragnarok by preventing their enemies from entering the hallowed realm of Asgard. Each of the gods provides a unique ability or benefit to game play. On this occasion I chose Thor, whose ability is to give a +1 bonus to combat in the game (this seemed like a significant benefit, as combat is one of the principle means of preventing enemies from breaching Asgard's defences):
At the start of each player's turn, the top card of the enemy deck of is revealed: each of these holds the image of one of Asgard's enemies: the dragon Nidhogg, the Fire Giant Surt, the sea-serpent Jormungand, the monstrous wolf Fenrir, the God Loki, and Hel (Loki's daughter); once revealed, the depicted enemy's counter is advanced along the Asgrad track towards Valhalla and Odin's stead. When activated, each enemy also produces an effect which impinges upon players' opportunities for winning the game. Loki, for example, reveals the top card of the Giant deck, which usually limits the kinds of actions players can take, or makes it harder to beat enemies in combat; Fenrir causes the current player to use up one or more of their actions; Jormungand impedes players from calling forth the souls of dead Viking warriors to take up arms against Asgard's enemies.
The current player then takes three actions from a range of nine available (mirroring the nine worlds of Norse mythology as arrayed upon the tree Yggdrasil), each of which can be helpful in limiting the advancement of Asgard's enemies into Valhalla. However, on a given player's term, no action can be taken more than once. Actions include acquiring various artefacts helpful in defeating enemies, acquiring a warband of Viking warriors (useful for the same), or engaging directly in combat with either any revealed Giants (thus ending their effects if player's win the combat) or one of the enemies of Asgard (which forces said enemy to move back one space, effectively giving the players more breathing space in face of the relentless onslaught of the game).
A unique six sided dice is also included in the game, with each side either blank or depicting an icon of a crossed sword and hammer on a coloured background. The dice has multiple uses in the game. In combat, the number of icons rolled by the player adds to his or her combat total. This total can be increased by returning Viking warriors to the world of the dead prior to rolling. These warriors are acquired by drawing a number of tokens from one of four coloured bags, each containing a different mix of Viking and Fire Giant tokens. Various enemy effects cause Vikings to be removed from bags, or Fire Giants to be added according to the corresponding colour of the icon rolled on the dice.
The game is lost if 5 enemies make it beyond the walls of Asgard (three spaces along the Asgard track), or if 3 enemies make it beyond the door of Valhalla (five spaces along), or one enemy make;s it into Odin's stead (the eighth and final space). Player's win if they can prevent any of the above after all of the cards in the enemy deck have been revealed.
Overall, I found Yggdrasil to be fast and fun. Whilst randomness has a role to play in the game, player choices are relatively open, allowing for a range of specific strategies to be deployed. Despite being a Eurogame, Yggdrasil did feel remarkably thematic with regard to its how its mechanic worked to reinforce the feel of its subject matter: playing Thor, I was eventually defeated (appropriately, for the Marvel fans out there) by Loki, whose rapid advancement along the Asgard track during the end of the game meant that a large number of Giants ended up being revealed, each of whose abilities seriously limited the scope of my actions. Whilst I lost the game, it did feel quite close - given a few more turns, I might have prevailed. Had the Hulk been around, things may have turned out differently:
Score on the Gaming Self-Abuse Scale (tm): 8/10. This is a lovely looking game, which can be played fairly quickly (my solitaire outing took about 90 minutes from set up to finish), and the rules are generally clear and concise. Strategic options mean that the game has good replay value.
No comments:
Post a Comment