A Feast for Odin

BoardGameGeek link


Details

Sourced from: https://jmo.name/games

Player Aid Author: Jarrod Moore

Description

Puzzle together the life of a Viking village as you hunt, farm, craft, and explore

Expansions in Use

  • The Norwegians

  • Place 3 action boards with side up corresponding to player count
  • Place goods trays andround overview tile (with tracking cube) on table
  • Place victory points tokens on table in stacks by number
  • Place supply boards on table:
    • Special tile boards:
      • Smaller oval board holds 6 tiles with forge tongs icon and sword value < 9
      • Larger oval board holds other 15 tiles:
        • 5 of these tiles that have forge tongs symbol on them go in dark grey section of board
        • Remaining 10 go on light grey area
    • Ship supply board:
      • Place small emigration tiles, whaling boat, knarr andd longship tokens
  • Prepare decks of cards:
    • Weapons cards:
      • Remove one of each card for each player:
        • Bow and arrow
        • Snare
        • Spear
      • Shuffle remaining weapons cards to form deck to draw from during game
    • Occupation Cards:
      • Shuffle light backed occupation cards separately
      • Dark backed occupation cards:
        • Beginners: Shuffle deck A
        • Experienced Players: Shuffle decks B and C together
        • Alternatively, just shuffle decks A, B and C together
  • Prepare mountain strips:
    • Shuffle mountain strips:
      • Longer one from The Norwegians expansion can (optionally) be used for the last round of the game or just shuffled with the other strips as usual
    • Place 2 strips on the table:
      • 4P: Place 3 strips
    • Place resources as depicted on strips
  • Prepare exploration boards:
    • Randomly select one board for each of letters A, B, C and D
    • Place each selected board with side showing letter in bottom right corner facing up
  • Prepare building tiles:
    • Place shed, stone house and long house tiles in stacks on table
    • Shuffle artisan sheds stack separately
  • Each player receives:
    • 1 player board
    • 12 viking meeples in their colour:
      • Place 5 in thing square
      • Place remaining 7 on numbered spaces of banquet track
    • 1 mead (red 1x2 tile)
    • 1 of each of the following cards:
      • Light-backed occupation card
      • Snare weapon card
      • Bow and arrow weapon card
      • Spear weapon card
    • 1 randomly chosen artisan shed tile

The game is played over 7 rounds in which players take turns placing vikings from the thing square on their player board onto action spaces on the action boards. The goal of the game is to collect and place tiles on your player boards, artisan shed tiles and any other building/exploration tiles obtained during the game to collect resources, money and bonuses.

It is important to note that all cards obtained throughout the game are placed face-up in your supply in front of you. All information about the cards, tiles and boards you have are all public information.

Generally speaking, the way you earn points is through doing the following:

  • Covering negative points spaces on your boards
  • Gaining income to earn money
  • Gaining buildings and filling them up with tiles as much as possible
  • Breeding animals
  • Using ships to emigrate
  • Playing occupation cards

Each round has 12 phases, most of which are quite short. The bulk of the game is played in the actions phase (phase 5).

During phases 7 and 10, all income and bonuses are generated at the same time, meaning that you cannot earn income/bonuses using tiles in the same phase that they were received

You are not allowed to discard or give away anything outside of an action

When placing tiles, the following rules must be followed:

  • Each board has a small icon showing which colour tiles can be placed, which resources can be used and whether certain colours can be placed next to each other or not:
    • Special grey tiles are considered blue when it comes to placement rules
  • No tiles can be placed on top of other tiles
  • No tiles can cover a space with a prominent green border
  • Each tile must be placed within the bounds of the placement area
  • Spaces with bonus icon symbols on them are considered covered already
  • Spaces on an income diagonal of a board can only be covered when the following spaces are also coveredd:
    • All spaces to the left of that space
    • All spaces below that space
    • All spaces in the square to the bottom left of the space
    • This may sometimes require you to cover spaces on a different island to the one containing the income diagonal space

Once you place a goods tile on a board or a house, you cannot take it back later in the game.

At any time, a player may do the following:

  • Place goods on your:
    • Home board
    • Exploration board(s)
    • House tile(s)
    • Artisan Shed
  • Buy a ship:
    • Pay the amount in silver to buy a ship:
      • Whaling boat: 3 silver
      • Knarr: 5 silver
      • Longship: 8 silver
  • Place ore on your ships
  • Any blue actions on played occupation cards

  • Take the leftmost viking from your banquet track
  • Place it in your thing square

  • In the following rounds, this phase is skipped:
    • Round 3
    • Round 5
    • Round 7
  • Otherwise, receive the following tiles based on the round:
    • Rounds 1, 2, 4 and 6:
      • 1 peas
      • 1 beans
      • 1 flax
    • Rounds 2, 4 and 6:
      • 1 grain
    • Rounds 4 and 6:
      • 1 cabbage
    • Round 6 only:
      • 1 fruits

  • In the following rounds, this phase is skipped:
    • Round 1
    • Round 2
    • Round 7
  • Depending on the round, turn over one of the exploration boards:
    • Round 3: Board A
    • Round 4: Board B
    • Round 5: Board C
    • Round 6: Board D
  • After a board has been turned over:
    • If that board had any silver on it, return this silver to the supply
    • Place 2 silver on all other unclaimed exploration boards

  • Each player draws a new weapon card and places it face up in their supply

The bulk of the time spent in a round is in this phase.

  • Starting with the start player, do one of the following things:
    • Place viking(s) on exactly one unoccupied action space of the action board:
      • The number of vikings a player must place on the board depends on which column the action space is in:
        • 1st column:
          • Place 1 viking
        • 2nd column:
          • Place 2 vikings
        • 3rd column:
          • Place 3 vikings
          • Draw 1 occupation card from draw deck
        • 4th column:
          • Place 4 vikings
          • Play 1 occupation card from hand
        • 5th column:
          • Place 1 or 2 vikings
          • Play 1 occupation card from hand if 2 vikings used
          • You must pass for the round after using a space in this column
      • The benefit/effect must be received immediately after it is occupied
      • You must at use at least one of the space's effects to occupy the space
    • Pass:
      • You must do this when you have run out of vikings to spend

This phase ends when all players have either passed or spent all of their available vikings

  • The start player for the next round is the player who last placed vikings on an action space in phase 5
  • This player receives the start player moose token

  • Receive the lowest uncovered amount of silver shown on each income diagonal on your boards
  • You are allowed to place tiles on your boards before taking your income in this phase
  • You are not, however, allowed to use the money earned in this phase to cover up spaces to allow you to earn more income in the same phase

  • If a player has at least 2 of a type of animal (excluding any placed on tiles):
    • Pigs: Gain 1 extra pig
    • All other types:
      • If one of them is pregnant:
        • Replace 1 pregnant animal with two non-pregnant animals of same type
      • Otherwise:
        • Turn only 1 animal of that type from non-pregnant side to pregnant side
  • Note: It is not possible to have more than one pregnant animal of a type at the same time

  • Place resources of the banquet track to cover all empty spaces
  • The placement restrictions are:
    • Orange tiles cannot be placed next to each other
    • Red tiles cannot be placed next to each other
    • Silver coins can be placed next to each other
    • Ore cannot be placed on the track at all
    • If you use more than one of the same type of tile, only the first one can be placed horizontally:
      • All others must be placed vertically
    • A tile placed on the track cannot hang over the end of the track
  • For each space you cannot cover, you receive a Thing Penalty token and place it in your supply:
    • You will lose 3 points for each such token at the end of the game
  • After all spaces have been covered, return the resources placed on the track to the supply

  • Note: This phase is skipped in the 7th round
  • Receive one resource for each uncovered bonus icon on your home board if:
    • All surrounding diagonal + adjacent spaces covered by tiles
    • All spaces that make up the bonus icon area are left uncovered
  • You are not allowed to use any tiles earned in this phase to cover up spaces to allow you to earn more bonuses in the same phase

  • Note: This phase is skipped in the 7th round
  • Remove leftmost resource from each mountain strip
  • If any strips are now empty, remove them from the game
  • Place one new mountain strip on the board and place depicted resources on this strip

  • Note: This phase is skipped in the 7th round
  • All players take their vikings from the action boards and place them on the thing square on their home boards

The game ends at the end of the feast phase (phase 9) of the 7th round. You can place any tiles from your supply that you wish (following standard placement rules) before final scoring commences.

The value of your possessions is the sum of values of following:

  • Ships (excluding those used for emigrations)
  • Emigration tokens
  • All exploration boards
  • All building boards that were built
  • All animals that have not been placed on boards
  • Played occupation cards
  • Received victory point tokens
  • Silver in your supply:
    • This includes the income that you received in phase 8 of round 7
    • Silver coins placed on boards do not count
  • If you received the crown special tile, receive 2 extra points

If it is discovered during final scoring that a player has placed tiles in such a way that it violates placement rules, that player receives a Thing Penalty for each pair of incorrectly placed tiles, which are worth -3 points each.

You then subtract the values of the negative values left uncovered on all player boards from this sum to determine your final score.

The player whose possessions are worth the most victory points wins the game. Ties are friendly.

This guide will not step throgh every action on the board, as there are too many, however the spaces follow some general patterns:

  • Green spaces just show you what you receive for landing on them
  • Grey spaces show an exchange that you can perform once for landing on them
  • Golden brown spaces allo the player to take resources from mountain strips and to exchange goods tiles:
    • When taking resources from mountain strips:
      • Always take from left side of strip
      • If you, for example, are taking 2 mountain strip resources, both resources must come from the same strip
      • If multiple strips are shown on the action space, each group must come from a single strip
    • When trading goods:
      • Tiles are traded in the following sequence:
        • Yellow -> Red -> Green -> Blue
      • If a single arrow is depicted on the space, each tile can only be upgraded a single time during the turn
  • Blue spaces require you to have a knarr on your player board
  • Yellow spaces are for emigration:
    • When using a knarr or longship:
      • Flip the ship to its back side and place it on the leftmost space of the banquet table
      • You can only take this action if you have room in your banquet table for the ship
      • After performing this action, the flipped ship is no longer considered a ship
      • If you have ore on your ship when you use it for this action, the ore is lost
    • When using a whaling boat:
      • Place a small emigration tile on the banquet table instead
      • Return the whaling boat to the supply
  • Orange spaces are for exploration:
    • When you take a board, you have to have at least one ship matching a ship shown on the action space
    • You can only take a board showing the action space you are currently using
    • If there is silver on the board you chose, take the silver and place it in your own supply
    • You keep whichever ship you used to do the exploration
  • Red action spaces provide actions that require a die roll:
    • Raiding and Pillaging:
      • You want to roll as high a number as possible
      • You may roll the die shown at the top left of the action space up to 3 times:
        • If you choose to re-roll, the previous roll is then invalidated
      • You can then modify the number rolled and announce it as your battle result:
        • The items on the left of the action space show which items can be discarded to increase battle result by one
      • Then you declare the action either a success or a failure
      • If you fail, you receive the items in the left section of the action space as a consolation
      • If you succeed, you can take an item from the oval special tiles board less than or equal to your battle result number in sword value
    • Hunting, Laying a Snare and Whaling:
      • You want to roll as low a number as possible
      • You may roll the die shown at the top left of the action space up to 3 times:
        • If you choose to re-roll, the previous roll is then invalidated
      • You can then modify the number rolled and announce it as your battle result:
        • Each ore on your longship reduces your battle result by 2
        • The items on the left of the action space show which items can be discarded to decrease battle result by one
      • Then you declare the action either a success or a failure
      • If you fail, you receive the items in the left section of the action space as a consolation
      • If you succeed, you can take the items shown on the action space

There are 4 types of occupation card effects:

  • Blue: These effects can be triggered at any time, and any number of times
  • Yellow: These effects can be triggered one time, immediately when the card is played
  • Red: The effect in the dark red area can be used whenever the condition in the light red area is met
  • Green: The effect in the dark green area is triggered one time as soon as the condition in the light green area is met

Red cards can trigger multiple times in a game, whereas the green card effects will only trigger one time in a game

Effects on occupation cards cannot be used until they have been played as part of an action. When you have the opportunity to play an opportunity card, you are able to instead discard the opportunity card and take a victory point token from the supply with the highest available value.

Thumbnail courtesy of BoardGameGeek and the respective publisher.