The end of the Aesir has come, but not as the prophecies
foretold. The dread dragon Niddhoggr has devoured the roots of the World Ash,
Yggdrasil, and the great tree has toppled onto its side, crashing the realms of
mortal and supernatural together. With the gods dead and the fires of ruin
consuming the world, your war clan of Viking warriors know what they must do to
survive the destruction of the Nine Realms and restore order: they must become
the new gods!
The subtitle for this book is….
Heavy Metal Combat
in the Viking Age
Wow! How can a
game possible live up to this level of hype?
I don’t know. Should we dive in
and find out?
Things I Like
About This Game
This game has a great hook that leads to some interesting,
potential in game play. Essentially, the
gods have been shattered and their power has been scattered across the
planet. Your warriors can harness this
essence by doing amazing deeds and then release it with spell like
effects. This is a great premise!
Plus, it can be used to increase the tactical play of the
game. First, it involves resource management
as you “earn” Godspark it is a pool that you can divide up. You can use it anytime to trigger a spell
like effect, and it can be done by any warrior in your warband. This means you have to think what you want to
use and when you want to use it for maximum effect. The effects are movement, combat, and
psychology related depending on the power.
Starting warbands get three powers that you can randomly roll or pick? Random roll all the way! Now, I have some quibbles with tracking the
Godspark pool and how you generate it, but for the most part this is a cool
mechanic and hook for the game.
There is a good list of Powers in the book. In addition, you can spend extra points to
boost the effects of a Power to some amazing levels. Again, decisions need to be made. Hoard the power for a big Ka-pow or dribble it
out to boost a few key actions here and there?
The core of the game is a 2d6 roll, using opposed stat
lines to determine a target numbers. The
bigger the difference in the stat, the harder the target number. I love that the game uses 2d6, with even
stats being a 7. This creates a nice
bell shape dice rolling mechanics. The author
calls this the Morpheus System. Also,
using stat comparison means that Stats matter a lot and the game can cover a
lot of ground with one simple mechanic.
Double plus good!
There is a large bestiary of Norse critters that you can
and will face in various scenarios. If
your warband defeats these critters, they can become available for hire by your
warband. This is a cool way to add some
fantasy elements to the game and make Warbands unique. Starting warbands only have a few human types
to add, so this is a cool way to add a lot of variety. Like I said, the bestiary in this book is
pretty impressive.
Things I Do Not Like
Action points….. grrrr.
I am not a fan. Just more
tracking when you all ready get to track Godspark. I have an irrational hatred of Action
Points. You can move twice, move and
attack, attack then move, move and use a power, attack twice, etc. For some reason, I always feel like this is micromanagement
and tracking that slows down the flow of a game. I prefer you get to do one thing so choose
what is most important and do it all ready!
The game has a variety of special rules to make terrain
more interesting. In theory, this is a
great idea. In practice, it just leads
to more looking at the rulebook, tracking, and figuring out what all the “key
words” means. This game reminds me a bit
of A Fistful of Kung Fu. This is a cool idea that adds to the “Metal”
of the game, but in practice it seems fiddly.
I prefer less key words in my games because I am not smart enough to
follow what it all means in the moment.
Related to that, there seems to be a lot of small bonuses
and abilities that could add up to something big but just feels a bit like
needless complexity. It feels a bit
fiddly as Stats have names that were not Intuitive to me, a lot of keywords,
and keywords with numbers. There are
also a lot of fiddly rules. Things like, throwing a torch as a weapon, burning
down a forest t change the scenery type, stacking abilities, etc. In order for an ability to stack it can’t be
that impressive by itself. Therefore,
cool abilities have to be watered down a bit so they can stack. This helps layer on more choice for the
player, but I am not sure it really adds THAT much to the experience.
Finally, I am not a fan of how you gather Godspark. It is not an objective or scenario related
item. Instead, anytime you make a stat
test and beat it by three you gain a Godspark based on how much you
succeed. Therefore, if you need a 7 but
roll a 2d6 and get a 11, you earn 2 Godspark for the whole band to draw
from. Then, various powers are
constantly using Godspark, so you are moving the needle up and down on this
reserve a lot in game. Better use a
d20. J
Meh and Other
Uncertainties
The game uses Alternate Activation with a HQ start Phase
and an End Phase where some special powers and compulsory moves can occur. Pretty standard for a modern skirmish
game.
Starting Warbands are pretty basic with a Jarl, and a few
human choices. Pretty typical weapon and
armor selection as well. In campaign
mode, there is a pretty good selection of magical artifacts, usable items, and
other bits a pieces to make each warrior a bit more unique. The treasures tables are pretty nice.
The campaign is pretty standard for this type of game,
and follows the famous skirmish game pattern.
The game has a bit more lethality to it than Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse but models can not get as unique as
they can in Outremer: Faith and Blood. Of course, there is also an underdog mechanic
to help get late comers up to speed.
There are six basic scenarios but also a list of secondary
objectives. This helps create a more
re-playable game. Nothing to earth
shattering here…. See what I did there!
It is a joke about the game setting!
I am sooooo funny!
Final Thoughts
Many of the recent skirmish games I have reviewed have
had a big issue. They have lacked tactical play. They were mostly an exercise in pointing your
little guys at the enemy and choosing the best target to attack and not much
else. Chrome around the edges was
designed to hide the fact, but tactical gameplay was lacking and without it the
re-playability of the game was diminished.
I think the addition of the Godspark and how it is harnessed, used, and
what it can do helps overcome some of this.
In addition, using Stat comparison for TN then rolling 2d6 seems like a
very nice core mechanic. I think the biggest
drawbacks are the somewhat boring activation system, lack of engaging
psychology/morale rules, and some fiddly-ness around the modifiers and
powers.
There is a lot of great chrome in this game such as the
powers themselves, magical weapons, adding monsters to your warband, and the
campaign elements that would make this game replayable, however more scenarios
with more fantastical elements thrown in would be awesome. I think the various Frostgrave or Dragon Rampant
scenarios would work really well with this game, so you can easily bulk the scenario
list quickly.
I bought this game on a whim, but I am happy with the purchase. I can see myself playing this game at some
point in the future.
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