Gather your Viking horde!
In Champions of Midgard, you take the role of a Norse hero and have to rally your Vikings to become the ruler of all of Midgard. Gain resources and gather your forces to overcome the trolls and monsters plaguing Midgard. Discover runes and learn of destinies that will help to earn you the most points by the end of the game.
If you like Norse mythology, dice rolling, and worker placement, Champions of Midgard creates a great atmosphere and play style that is unlike other games I have played. Pro-tip, make sure to play epic Nordic fantasy music to elevate your experience!
Mash Up Of: Agricola (or any worker placement game)
ART: 7/10
This game has a realistic fantasy style; however, the color scheme is subdued, giving the world a "cloudy" ambiance that may not draw the eye as much for some players. The runic-style typography and iconography are a nice touch that plays nicely into the storytelling category.
STORYTELLING: 8/10
This game earns a high rating despite the lack of actual stories for each character. Each of the names of the main characters in Norse means something that reflects "power" in some form. The creatures are all from Norse mythology: Draugr, Dreki, Fenrir, Troll, etc. But most of all, the gameplay truly makes me feel like I am in a village on an overcast day, recruiting Vikings to aid in the fight. I have to hunt for food, buy a ship, and fair the ocean tides while feeding my Vikings in order to venture and fight monsters. All the while, I need to protect my village from trolls and Draugr coming down from the mountains. From the art style, board layout, and naming of the characters and creatures, to the actual gameplay of attacking with dice, I genuinely feel encompassed in Nordic folklore.
COMPONENTS: 5/10
The wooden meeples are nice, but I would have liked to see them in a Viking shape. The food and wood are just cubes. The rest of the resources are just cardboard punch-outs. The cards have a nice texture but seem thin. The board is beautiful, and the thicker cardboard for tiles such as the merchant, military, and ships makes it harder for those action spaces to slide out of place. Best of all, there are three unique types of dice, all with engraved iconography. This is something I always look for when it comes to quality, knowing how expensive it can be to create custom die cuts.
COMPLEXITY: 5/10
This is definitely the middle of the road. Place a worker and take the action. Roll some dice and kill the monster. The rules are straightforward, but balancing the variety of tasks is a challenge. If you don't ever fight the troll, you are going to lose a lot of points. This aspect makes decisions simple because you either fight the troll or take the first player action so you can fight the troll the next time. As for the rest of the actions, making sure you fight monsters of all colors and earn points from other means, such as runes and destinies, adds some complexity when optimizing your every play.
TRAVEL-FRIENDLY: 4/10
There are so many components that you will want to keep them in the main box and bring it all with you. This gets a bit of a higher rating here since I could fit almost all of the smaller components into a bead container leaving only the tiles, coins, dice, cards, and board. You can’t play this in a small space, so if you wanted to bring it on a trip you would have to have a location with a large area to lay out this game to play.
UNIQUENESS: 5/10
As mentioned in previous articles, I enjoy dice-rolling games but have yet to play many of them. The mechanics in Champions of Midgard are vastly different from other dice-rolling games that I have played. In this game, you have to accrue dice and then use them as attackers to kill monsters. I like that monsters can destroy dice, but I also like that some dice can protect themselves so that they survive the combat. The rest of the game is much like other worker placement games where any action can be stolen from another player, which impacts your course of action.
Final Comments
This game nicely blends addictive dice rolling with worker placement. It has a healthy level of complexity, and although I tend to play similar strategies in most games, this game creates a new experience every time. If you love Norse mythology as much as my husband and I do, this game is definitely for you!
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Publisher: Grey Fox Games
Game(s) Pictured: Champions of Midgard
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