Fire and Axe: A Viking Saga is the ideal distraction on a wet and cold afternoon in mid-winter! Cathy kindly agreed to try one of the boardgames in my meagre collection on Sunday afternoon. It was a more genteel game than normal as we tacitly decided not to get in one anothers way, but it was sterling fun and did not lack in excitement – especially when Cathy finally sacked and settled Constantinople after several arduous attempts!
Fire and Axe is a lovely game to play simply because the board, cards and game pieces are so beautifully designed and crafted. The rules take a little bit to get used to, but after you’ve sacked your first port and won your first saga card it all starts to fall into place.
Players represent Viking factions that vie for glory through raids, trades and settlement. The initial board setup (above) is a target rich environment for the Sea Wolves. No trade has yet taken place and all the towns and ports, with random victory point totals underneath the models, are ripe for the taking 🙂 Viking players take turns (he/she of the hairiest head first) loading their longboats with trade goods, warriors and can chose to draw rune cards before they set out from three Scandinavian home ports. The distance longboats can travel safely (N,E,S,W) is determined by the weather gauge which can be altered to suit individual players by discarding or playing rune cards. Rune cards can aid a Viking player or be used to hinder a rival – we politely chose not to do this, but in a more ruthless game the rune cards can play havoc especially if the more brutal optional set is included in the deck.
Viking players score victory points through raiding, trading, settling and collecting saga cards. Saga cards give the players a purpose as they represent historical goals and some give extra bonus victory points e.g. raid Lindisfarne.
The Raids begin! Each saga deck is randomised as three cards are taken out of each Saga Age. There are three Saga Ages and this determines the number of places available for warriors and trade goods on each Viking longboat – see the coloured circles at the bottom of the games board.
After the initial fun of sacking and looting the Vikings being to settle. This can only be done if the fortified towns and ports in each coloured region, usually sets of three closely grouped and colour coded towns, are first raided. Towns and ports are easier to raid and settle if they have first been traded with which encourages players to adopt a mixed strategy.
The end game chaos created by the Vikings! The nicely grouped colours of Vikings is unlikely to occur in a more competitive game, especially because saga cards are only awarded to the player who completes the final component of the saga e.g. to win the saga card to settle northern France a Viking player must be the last one to settle one of three towns – this leads to other players sneaking in and taking the last town and winning the card – suitably Viking like behaviour!
Bonus victory points are awarded to the Viking player who raided the most towns and ports – the Bloodied Axe bonus! The player with the most saga cards from a particular region, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, also gains a small bonus, but the real points are in settling in numbers as seen in the last two pictures. I hope you enjoyed this brief review. I’m looking forward to playing again and many thanks to Cathy for being so keen and embracing her inner Viking 🙂
