Subject: Viking Fury -
Questions & Variants from Nigel Buckle
Dear Gary,
My group has played a number of sessions of Viking
Fury, and we have a few stupid questions, and also a
couple of suggestions for variants.
Can you discard a Viking crewman at anytime, or only
when wintering (e.g. you have a full longship, but want
to play Trade with the natives, can you remove a
crewman to make room for the new goods)? Same question
but for goods (e.g. you have a full longship, but want
to play Willing Oarsmen, can you discard a goods to
make room for the new crewman)? We thought probably
not to either, it came up twice, due to rune card
draws when in a home port with a full longship.
*** Correct, i.e.
not.***
The remaining questions relate to specific RUNE cards:
Winter Storms:
Who chooses the type of losses - the victim or the
player of the rune card? Can one crew and one goods be
taken for the loss at sea, or does it have to be
either two crew or two goods only? [We think victim,
and no, it's either two crew or two goods not a
mix].
*** Correct in both
cases ***
Can this rune card be played on a longship in
the Wintering Box? [we think no].
*** Correct, i.e. no.
***
Can this rune card
be played on a longship in a home port? [we think yes]
*** Correct i.e. yes
***
Intimidation:
Can this be played on longship in a home port? [We
think no, as Vikings can co-exist in home ports]
*** Correct i.e. no***
Poor Seamanship:
Can this be played on a longship in a home port? [We
think yes]
***Correct i.e. yes ***
Can this be played on a longship in the
Wintering Box [We think no]
*** Correct i.e. no ***
Not Welcome Here:
Can this be played on a longship in a home port? [We
think no, as the port has no value] Can this be played
on a longship in the Wintering Box [We think no, it's
not a port and has no value]
***Correct in both cases
i.e. no (could have no effect and therefore
essentially a discard)***
Back to the Longships:
If goods are removed are they returned to the goods
pile, put in the longship of the Viking playing the
rune, or removed from the game? What about a
settlement, returned to the owner or removed from the
game? [We think, returned to the goods pile/owner]
***Correct in both cases***
Variants:
We always tinker with a game even if it's not broken
and I have some suggested variants, would
appreciate your comments on them:
***We've always tried
to design games without putting in variants, having
played games with 'additional rules', 'advanced rules' etc. and
found it
generally frustrating. As you can imagine, designing a game is a
lot to do
with which variant to use. That's not to say we've got it
absolutely right
or anything (e.g. the amount of re-designing we helped put into
later
versions of History of the World). Anyhow, regarding your
suggestions I'll
just indicate why we didn't make that particular choice (if
indeed we even
thought of it).***
Variant 1: Hidden Treasure (we actually played this
first time, as we misread the rules!). Keep the value
of treasure gained hidden until the end of the game,
during Blood Axe Bonus each Viking reveals the
treasure he has collected and gains the points.
[This makes it harder to work out who is in the lead,
and also makes it harder to predict the value of the
last few treasures on the map]
*** We wanted to
maintain a fairly balanced combination of points scored
during the game and at the end.
'Carcassonne' was something of a recent influence.
Variant 2: More variation in demand. Have an
additional Demand -1 marker, at the start of the game
Tusks starts with the Demand -1 marker, which works
just like the Demand +2 but reduces the value of the
associated goods by 1. When the Demand +2 marker is
moved, the Demand -1 marker is also moved. Has to be
on a different goods to the demand +2. Problem is it
makes trading less viable.
*** We wanted to
encourage trade in all things and keep points fairly
high.
I suspect the -1 could be a cause of frustration and we like to
keep that
in check (our game testers are pretty short on patience). ***
Variant 3: Shorter Game
Remove 4 sagas for each era from the game. Each player
only has 12 cubes, remove 1 of each goods from the
game. Blood Axe Bonus - reduced to 2 for each
treasure. Completed Saga bonus, reduced to 6 points
for the top place for each country (Norway, Sweden,
Denmark) and 3 points for 2nd place.
Or even remove 5 sagas for each era (but I think this
is too much)
*** For some time we
ran with 5 sagas (remove 4) per Era, but felt the
game
was more powered up, and still not too long with 6. Reducing
other points
elements would probably make sense, but it's quite a lot to keep
in mind
***
Comment: only having one Winter Storms means if you
draw it, then tactically it's worth holding it rather
than playing it - you can then embark on long
profitable voyages knowing you're safe. We like the
idea of having a second copy of Winter Storms to stop
that, but then more Rune cards are needed to reduce
the frequency of play. Here are some suggestions:
*** We had 2 Winter
Storms for quite some time, but found that nobody ever
risked staying at sea (which seemed a pity). Holding it rather
than
playing it has the downside of reducing your Rune play to 2 cards
(could be
worth-while, I'm not sure).***
*** Anyhow, extra Runes
are always interesting. We spent a long time
dreaming up and discarding ideas (a 56 card pack was the
limitation as it
was vastly more viable, financially). Onto yours...***
Extra Rune Cards:
If these are used then another copy of Winter Storms
is needed and probably another "move demand" Rune card
is too.
Eye of Odin
Take a RUNE card from the discard pile (this costs
zero days)
*** Good, but is it too
good. It would give you two Wind Dial changes, in
addition to being whatever card you want it to be.***
Call upon Thor
Draw two RUNE cards, discard one and keep the other.
Thus the Wind Dial can be moved twice (this costs zero
days) [If Winter Storms is discarded, shuffle the
discard pile into the draw deck]
*** OK. Feels a bit
fussy***
Trade Empire
Viking immediately scores a bonus 1 for each of
his settlements that contains a goods token (this
costs zero days)
*** Very good ***
The Blood Axe
Each Viking immediately scores a bonus 1 for each
treasure counter gained (this costs zero days)
*** OK, but feels a bit
artificial (has the Treasure been invested or
something??). Also takes away something from the Blood Axe bonus
as a one
off, do or die. ***
Sacrifice
Play to cancel any other RUNE card, but you must also
discard a goods or crew from your longship. Both RUNE
cards are discarded and the Wind Dial may not be moved
(this Rune can only be played outside of your turn,
and even if your longship is in a home port)
*** Very Good. OK, it
breaks a rule of when Runes can be played - but then
that's what Runes are all about (and why they're so difficult to
get
water-tight) ***