Pax Viking Review

Pax Viking is an epic experience of leading your clan of vikings from your homeland all across the map, expanding your territories as you go. The game plays until one of the victory conditions have been met. This is not your typical viking game where you are raiding and pillaging. Instead, you're getting your various laborers on the board. That's not to say there is not combat but it's not mandatory to be successful. On your turn, you'll get 4 actions. This includes purchasing cards from the market, moving your ships, establishing territories and more. You'll also potentially have the option to use one of four special actions if you were the beneficiary of them during the influence phase. This phase happens quickly at the beginning of each round. Whichever player has the most of a specific type of follower out receives the action. Once the action phase is over, the winter solstice happens. This is where you'll collect income, clean up, and check for a winner. If there is no winner, the game will continue until there is one.

The Good: Pax Viking has a lot of really interesting qualities that enhance the replay value. Every game you'll choose the victory conditions so they may never be the same. There is also a ton of cards and you only see 12 per player in each game. Also, there are a ton of different historic characters to play as each having their own special abilities. The overall movement concept is really interesting as well. If you sail on a coast with a white border, this means that there are rivers that you can take your ships through. This is a great way to get from one side of the map to the next. This is a game that you'll really see the evolution of the map over time. What starts out as a mostly undeveloped map will be filled with different locations and unique abilities that come from that.

The Okay: With the huge board, the game plays better at a higher play count. At two, you can be a lot more passive with each other so you need to be more aggressive to make progress with certain win conditions. Combat is simple enough in the game and at times it's easier to claim an empty area but this can just be too easy to do with less players. The overall setup time is a bit cumbersome as well. There are lots of small bits to sort through. I would highly recommend bagging colors together to avoid some of that.

The Not So Good: The rulebook is not great to be honest. The overall setup section is good but once you get into the actual gameplay, I was completely lost. There are a lot of keywords that you'll need to understand before fully being able to absorb yourself in the game. The game comes with player aids and quick setup rules and reference cards but I still found myself lost for the majority of my first couple of games. Also, round cards. I hate round cards. They're impossible to shuffle and they're awkward to work with.

Final Thoughts: Pax Viking is the first Pax type game that I've had the pleasure to play. It won't be my last. I covered it's prequel, Vendel to Viking, last year and it will tie into this one as well depending on how you played. I cannot wait to have a marathon session of both games to grow my Viking clan from it's roots. It's not a perfect game and its one you'll want to have more players to fully experience but it does do a lot of really interesting things. Any game that I can watch a map really evolve is one that I almost always enjoy.

Thanks to Ion Games for supplying me with a review copy.