Vikings. These men of ancient lore took to the seas to loot, plunder and brave the elements and become the biggest and bravest warriors. The key to the victory and domination of these men was their ships. The trusty Longship of the Viking crew-it was what they sailed and plunder on-hoarding all of their treasures and shipmates together to be the best. What if you could pilot one of these ships and be the captain of your own crew?
In Raids, you have that very opportunity to be the best crew of Vikings in the land!
Overview:
Raids is from Iello USA, designed by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J Gilbert. Illustrated by Biboun and Graphic Design by Allison Machepy. It plays 2-4 players ages 10+ with an average play time of 40 mins.
Components:
4 Longship pawns
40 Viking pawns
4 Longship boards
1 Gameboard (World map)
9 Harbor tiles
64 Voyage tiles
Glory Point Coins
Setup and Gameplay
The object of the game is to be the player with the most Glory points over the course of 4 separate Voyages. Each player will steer their crew in their Longship to discover treasure and earn the most victory points!
Each player is given one Longship board and matching color token. Players are given starting Viking pawns based on order of play and the board is set with the extra Vikings along with the coins and the Voyage 1 tiles. There are a total of 4 Voyages that will be the 4 rounds of play.
Each Voyage consists of several consecutive turns until all players are back at the starting Harbor tile. Turn order is important to note here-turns take place by the owner of the Longship furthest behind. So turn order continues to change in the game, and a player may end up taking multiple turns in a row. During the turn you have two phases:
1-Take a Voyage Tile
2-Navigate
In the first phase of Take a Voyage Tile you take the tile that your Longship token is in front of and place it on your Longship if there is room for it. There are 5 spaces on your board and any of the tiles you acquire with Weapon, Sail, Mjollnir, Pennant and Goods on them will go on one of these spaces. You can chose and discard a tile or discard one on your board but anything discarded does not count toward your end score. If you take a Port Tile you can use it to sell one or two goods on your Longship and store them next to your ship. This frees up space on your Longship for more items as you move along in your Voyage.
In the second phase Navigate you must move your Longship marker on the world board. You navigate the board following the directional arrows on the map. You can stop on any tiles as long as you follow the expressed “Rules of Navigation”. The Rules are simple:
1-Discard all tiles on the board that are between you and the next player in front of you.
2-Navigate to the tile you want to visit next.
Any tiles with a Passage Arrow can be navigated past, but they require an action as you pass them. Monsters must be fought and you need to discard one Viking pawn per the attack value of the Monster minus any bonuses you get from weapons. If you end your turn in front of a Voyage tile that is empty, your turn ends. If there is an opposing Longship marker in front of the tile you enter into battle with that player. The attacking ship throws one Viking into battle and you go back and forth increasing the number of Vikings put in to the battle until someone leaves or runs out. The winning ship gets to stay and pick up that tile at the start of their next turn.
The game is played out over the four rounds, and at the end of the last round points are scored based on the Glory Points accumulated. The highest total wins and is declared the top Viking Longship captain!
Impressions:
What could be better:
Variety. This game plays over four rounds, and although they do ramp up in points/difficulty it is the same things repeated over and over.
Things that could be better:
Repetitive Voyages-The rounds aka Voyages are different in that they progress as they advance but the choices seem to be repetitive. This could be fixed in the future with some new tiles to vary the choices available.
Two player-We played this in the 2,3 and 4 player variety and this doesn’t play as well as a two player game. You have to add a “ghost Longship” to the mix to play in between the other player’s turns. It is fine but not ideal.
Things we liked
Design-This game is pretty. It has all the bits and design of a great Viking game brought to the table and the Viking pawns are probably my favorite part. They are a fun little style and add some unique component character that I could totally see using in another game.
Art-The art style is solid in this game. I love the detail and the monsters the most-it is a shame they are so small! I would love to see some art prints of this blown up into bigger sizes.
Overall
This game sits in the same action selection and board movement gameplay as Tokaido in all the right ways. It differentiates itself by the addition of combat and the management of tiles played and good sold. I really enjoy the gameplay and addition of combat making the player interaction more vibrant. Raids really hits for me on combat and action selection/set collection and one I am glad to have in my library. Check this one out today!
