Tiny Epic Vikings Review

Seriously, how do they get this much in the box?

Tiny Epic Vikings, the newest in the Tiny Epic series has players controlling their Viking clan while attempting to control the islands and lands to vie for superiority. The game plays over 3 eras and at the beginning of each area, players will draft their hand of cards. Once you have your hand, you can choose to play a card for it's action or play it upside down for battles. Playing for actions allows you to move your clan, build new ships or buildings, and gather resources. When you have the majority control of an island, you'll pick up the rune token and move the god marker up one spot. If you gain control from another player, you'll steal that token from them. Battles will resolve when your turn comes back around. At the start, whoever initiated it will select a favor card to fight for and other players will have the option to join in by playing one of their cards face down as well during their turns. Then they'll flip and whoever has the highest strength value will win. If you win, you get the favor card and the resources on it. If you lose, your warrior goes to Valhalla. The rune on the matching god mat will move up and the player will have the option to use the gods special ability. If you're the only one in battle, then the top card of the deck will be flipped over and you'll fight them instead. This repeats until no more cards are left then clean up and repeat 2 more times. Final scores are tallied based on where the markers are on the gods mat and what players have that correspond to it. The highest score wins.

The Good: There's a lot of clever ideas in this box. The fact that each card is unique and multi-use means that every choice you make is important. The game felt very balanced each time I played. Since scores are tied to the gods it can incentivize you to go after one in particular but specializing can also shoot you in the foot. There is a lot of variety and ways you can play.

The Okay: Drafting hands of cards has never been a favorite concept of mine. It works well enough here but it can also give an advantage to other players who may have a stronger strategy. I enjoy the chaos of randomized hands, personally. The general layout with the rulebook is a bit funny in places. I didn't understand battles very well and when they triggered until my second game just because of where they fell in the rules.

The Not So Good: You've probably noticed that there is an actual physical board in this game. I love the artwork and the overall look of it but it can become very cluttered with ships and buildings at times. Plus, it doesn't really lay flat, at all. If anyone has suggestions here I'd love to hear them.

Final Thoughts: Did you know I liked Viking games? This is no different. As always with the Tiny Epic series, the gameplay is so solid. I love that this feels completely different from any of the others and still fits in the same compact box. This is a welcome addition to the collection. There's also the Ragnarok expansion which adds more gods as well as giants and valkyries to add more to the game.

Thanks to Gamelyn Games for providing a review copy.