Being in India though very disadvantageous specially if you are a board game lover has some unique advantages- yes I say unique because you are pushed to do certain things which you would not normally do if things were available easily- for starters research!! Yes Game research!! (Though I'm not saying that people in the western world and other parts where boardgames are available don't research), it is just that I do tons of reading up before deciding to buy a game. Of course you have to when the average price per game is around Rs.1500, you can ill afford to go wrong!!
Anyways, now coming back to the game- This is one game I had read abut and heard it from another boardgame collector in India - Mr. Sanjay Subramaniam- name rings a bell?? Well yes he is the very famous Carnatic singer and I got to know him through Boardgames (only occasional mail contact- he still can't recognize me if I stand in front of him :-)..). After going through some reviews I finally decided to buy this game as it 'sounded' fun. I tend to buy a lot of two player games as I don;t have a huge gang to play games with. I usually end up playing it my wife, cousin, a friend who might visit and you'll see that there are plenty of two player games.
Yes, Odins Ravens is another 2 player game from Kosmos and Rio Grande (I decided to go for this trusting their combi ;-)..and of course the game mechanic).
One of the reasons I'm writing the review now is this is just a little more complicated compared to the other 3 (Others don;t get me wrong, this is purely from an Indian context where we don't have many boardgames in the market- and the complexity levels are completely subjective- I felt it hence writing it).
Don't think this is going to be a brain burner, definitely not; it is still very simple, just that it offers more variety which you need to get a hang off! I will talk about it a little later, but first a couple of lines about the author!
Odin's Ravens by Thorsten Gimmler
Thorsten Gimmler is a game designer and electrical engineer who has been employed as a product manager for Schmidt games since 2005. His game Thief of Baghdad was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres award in 2007. (Straight from Boardgamegeek ;-)As I mentioned before this is a racing game where each player takes a raven marker and tries to reach the end of landscapes as fast as possible. Players play multiple races until one reaches a score of 12. Players score points on the number of spaces he/she finishes ahead of his/her opponent. Also players score 3 points if they have the maximum number of cards on the magic way cards (will explain each term below).
Fairly easy to learn and play, however requires a little bit of learning curve to get familiar with Odin cards and how everything works together.
What do you get in the box?
Unlike the previous games, this game doesn't have a game board. It is just cards:
- You get one set of flight cards/landscape cards representing different landscapes for each player (in 2 different colors)
- Set of land cards that is laid out for ravens to move on and race
- 8 Odin cards for each player (these are special ability cards that affect the game greatly!)
- Magic Way cards which needs to be drawn for each race to determine the 3 points (will talk about the significance of this later)
- 2 wooden raven markers
- 1 Odin marker
How Does it Play?
Well this is where this game was very different to the previous Kosmos games. For the first few games (2-3 games i.e.) I almost felt this game was very simple and had nothing to interest me until I went back to the forums to find out what was so good about this game. After a little reading up and playing this a few more times, I can tell you the design of this game is very very elegant- meaning it plays very subtly and really interconnected. The game mechanic is simple:
- On your turn you can play upto 3 cards from your hand and upto 3 more cards from your auxiliary stack
- You can play these cards to advance your ravens over the landscapes or play it on the magic way cards
- You can at the end of your turn increase the length of the race by one card!
- Players draw 5 cards from their shuffled pack and on their turn they can play a card to advance their raven or place it on the magic way card to win the 3 points or start placing it in a face down stack in front of them as their auxiliary stack. This mechanic is very different as you know which cards you are placing on your auxiliary stack and you can play 3 extra cards after you have played the 3 from your hand!! Huge advantage!
- You can play your card on the magic way card to score 3 points- if you think that you are going to loose a particular race or simply maximize the points this is an excellent way- just place it on the magic way cards
- From your draw pile, you get 8 Odin Cards- Special cards that come with different effects to change the game complexion itself- some allows you to change the landscape cards, some allows you to pull your opponents ravens back or move yours ahead by one step, some allows you to keep an Odin marker to block your opponent, some allows you to cut short the length of the race by one card etc. Overall it brings in the surprise element that can completely put your opponent off guard!
- Also by careful usage of cards you can stack up similar landscape cards one after the other to move over multiple cards using just one of your landscape card!
What makes this game so fascinating is the interconnectedness of playing cards to advance your ravens, playing it on the magicway cards and playing from the auxiliary stack. It offers very good depth and scope to explore strategies!
How Long does it Play?
I tend to agree with the time put on the box i.e. 30-40 min, though in some cases I've see it go up to about 50 min in case of very close competition. Though this is definitely not a brain burner, it does require some quick thinking from the players to seize opportunities and play real smart!
Who would you recommend it to?I would say this is a good game for anyone who are tired of playing Monopoly or some other brain dead games(no offense to these games though) or have had enough with filler games (though some might say this too is a filler game). I would also like to mention that people wanting to try serious Euro Strategy games can start off with this and some of the other games to follow- though the strategy element is fairly basic, it does give players a very good flavor and experience.
Any Downsides?
As mentioned before this games requires little bit of learning and understanding how your actions are interconnected and how to balance everything at the same time. There are multiple strategies to victory, but you'll learn them as you go along. I would say this learning might be a little frustrating up until you pick up the cues, but this is very simple once you play it 3-5 times.
Final Thoughts!
I feel after playing a game of Odin's Ravens makes me refreshed and I talk about it with the other player- 'Hey you know, I should have done this rather than that move or you screwed it up here or that's a nice strategy' etc. etc. Its that sort of a game, leaves you feeling really nice, but just learn it once and you'll keep coming back to it. Though boardgamegeek does not rank it very high, I see this hiting my table very often with players who have played this before!
I consider Odin's Ravens to be a decent entry game. While some people pick up on the strategy faster than others, the core mechanics are light and easy to explain. Its also very portable if you are willing to dispense with the box, and the key points you need to remember from the rules can be written on an index card. I think the travel theme makes it a natural for vacation games.
ReplyDeleteWhat you said is right on the money!! My wife and me played it during our vacation and we loved it. Of course it is a light game, just that people in India are not exposed to these games and hence exercising some caution. But truly enjoyable game!
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