Fjords Review

An updated take on the classic two player game.

Fjords is a game that has players attempting to expand their territories by placing tiles on the map and placing one of their long houses. The game plays in two phases. In the first phase, the map is built and the foundations are laid. Then in the next phase it becomes a chess match. Players take turns placing one of their meeples on the map branching out from their longhouses while attempting to block the other players. Once everyone has theirs placed, the game ends and whoever has the most meeples out is the winner.

The updated version includes some new features. For starters, it can play up to four players to create an even bigger map and have even deeper strategy. It also includes an epic mode for two players where each player will take two colors and play the game using all of the map tiles. The next, biggest change is the rune stones. These will allow players new ways to score more points. There are also secret runes but I did not have access to these at the time of the review.

The Good: This is an absolutely gorgeous game. There is something so satisfying about building out a map and creating something new and different every single time. The overall gameplay is also really smooth. Place a tile, decide to do a longhouse or not, rinse and repeat. It's a game that can be taught to anyone in a relatively short amount of time and it's extremely approachable to new players. I feel like any time I mention a viking game people get nervous for some reason but that's not the case with Fjords.

The Okay: I'm not sure that I was really a huge fan of the rune stones. They can help to balance the game in certain scenarios but I preferred to play without them.

The Not So Good: This is going to get nit picky again but when I received the game I had a couple of broken meeples. It's surprising because the overall quality of the game is superb but the little pitchforks are fragile. I'm still attempting to get these replaced because it bothers me to no end.

Overall Score: 9/10

I absolutely love Fjords. I remember when I first saw the Kickstarter for it I was instantly in love with the game. When I received it, it blew my expectations away. This is the type of game that you can pull out to play a quick match or make a thing of it and play several. It doesn't get stale. This is not one that's going to be leaving my collection any time soon!