Feast for Odin | Rahdo's Final Thoughts

A video outlining gameplay for the boardgame A Feast for Odin.

Part I: Gameplay Runthrough

Part II: Extended Gameplay

Part III: Final Thoughts

[benjamincarter]

For me, this was the best game of last year. The weapons issue is a non-issue, because you should be hedging your bets by going for multiple avenues to earn points. If you get lots of harpoons, buy the cheap boat and go whaling. if you draw swords early, invest in a blue boat, then draw no more you can still get black cubes and get forge items and finally immigrate. There is no such thing as a perfect weapon. I hope you play this more and move past your hangup on the weapons cards, as they are simply one direction you can be pointed in, just like the occupation cards, and sometimes it makes more sense to ignore them.

Also, I have won multiple games in which I only used weapons once. I still haven't won a game where I heavily focused on breeding animals. Regardless, every game has been loads of fun to play.

[aarondovauo]

Really enjoying these final thoughts, the enthusiasm for and appreciation of these designers and their games is very engaging. I also appreciate that you express why, for you personally, these details delight or exasperate. I feel like I am informed enough to make a reasonable assessment and potential purchase. Keep up the good work!

[sirrichiofawesome]

Thank you for adding the goofs to close captions. Being able to see them on mobile devices is a big plus.

[JamieMaltmanTube]

Like a few people here are mentioning, the random draws are all little nudges. None are very significant in the overall scheme of things. You can have your overall plan, but if a certain weapon keeps piling up, it becomes a significant nudge (and changes the odds of success) to entice you to do a certain action. I like to think of them in those terms too - they're the world lining up to make a particular thing more fruitful at that time. Occupations might draw your eye to a particular action or range of actions you'd been neglecting, and bring on some really cool ideas.

I just love the journey. All these random elements combine to make a tremendously compelling solo experience, and they really blend into the background with more plays at 2P or more. My wife and I played it 7 times in the first weekend we got it, and it's been the game I enjoyed the most (40+ plays now) from last year.

[briarrose]

I'm sad it didn't make it into your top 10! For me, this isn't just in my top 10, I think it's the #1 game of all time. I just think it's so replayable and challenging and incorporates different elements of other great games. Definitely Uwe's best for me.

[jareduxr]

I like your variant suggestions. True the designer didn't include and playtest them but we have a great community of gamers at our disposal for testing.

I feel like they did a great job of explaining the theme if you read the Almanac that is included. So much great info in there.

As for the feast I believe they use something along the lines of "less fulfilling " . So it's more of a morale thing then a lack of calories.

[Straddllw]

Glad you liked it. I found that having never used any weapons throughout the whole game doesn't make a difference, you can go for a different strategy and still win. Same with occupations.

[christiancandelaria]

Can't agree with you on the weapons. The reason is because there is an action to draw 4 weapon cards plus upgrade tiles. There are a few ocupation cards that can give u weapons as well. I've played this game so many times and have played with people that focus on having lots of weapons. They typically take the draw weapons action. Fun review though, hope you keep uploading more runthroughs and reviews. I've gotten a few games thanks to your reviews.

[RuNacken]

Finally got this to the table with 3 people, with the long version. I can definitely see what you mean. It was not an issue for us this time though. Thanks again Rahdo, great play-through - it helped me a lot!

[littleratblue]

My guess would be that the mitigating factor is that there are multiple random systems. You might get unlucky with one of the subsystems of the game, but getting unlucky with all three is going to be pretty unlikely. So you'll get unlucky with the weapon pull and the other player will get unlucky with combat and you'll both do reasonable with professions, for example. Which would mean that, at the end of it, you'll both end up having even scores (if you played equally well), and so the game would be properly balanced. But, it also means that each player is going to feel shafted by at least one part of the game each time, since it is likely that you'll get boned by at least one of them.

Adding mitigating factors to the game probably wouldn't break it, scoring wise, but it is possible that it would make the players perform too well, so that you start running out of space or tokens, or it could simply make the game too sandboxy by being too easy. A mitigation that would probably work (for 2 player play), without risking either of those outcomes, would be to pull three cards from the occupation/weapons deck and allow your opponent to veto one, and then you get a choice from the other two. That should enforce that you're getting "average" results, not overpowered ones that make it too easy or risk breaking the game's economy.

Thematically, we could say that the random weapon draw is symbolizing the impact of available resources. Depending on what bits and pieces of materials happen to be lying around, you can only build a certain type of weapon that year (more wood less twine, spear; less wood more twine, net; etc.) In the revised version, you and your opponent are building weapons from a shared pool of materials, so you've got a bit more selection, but it's a compromise what you're going to get.

Ditto with the occupations. There are only so many trainers available, so the two of you have to compromise on how to divide their time, which limits what occupations can be trained.

(This is, should anyone feel like house ruling despite the theory that playtesting will solve everything.)

[JamieMaltmanTube]

I'm just glad you enjoyed it. Try the long game too - you might find the feeding easier, but what you can do on that final turn is very very satisfying.

[Heraclatian]

This game is phenomenal. Im 50 50 ameritrash and euro. This is a literal feast of a euro game. Sooo many components, so many options, very difficult. Leaves me craving it when im dome.

[galileo]

This is my favourite game of all time, lovely videos as always.

[malarki]

I love this game but completely agree on the weapons and occupation comments.... I am thinking of house ruling it so that there is 4 face up to to choose from etc in both scenarios.. With that said regardless this is an amazing game.. And in my opinion it's one of the best constructed rulebooks I have ever read. It's the first big game I buy and when I read the rulebook I understood it immediately where many other games i have to go watch videos to understand what the heck this or that means so I'm really impressed with the attention to detail they put in this game.

[retvolki]

9:00 that's why there's one thing called "house rules". Add what you think is missing and enjoy a more pleasant experience.
3 random weapons = 1 silver sounds like a fair trade! Or even take 2 or 3 and choose what suits you the best.

[Valcurdra]

Great review. You correctly identified the problem of randomness in this game with the occupations, everyone I played with had the same problem. I really like your house rules I would probably use them if I play again.

You did unusually focus on the negative a lot, really its a minor problem, despite the bad randomness in this game It is SUPER FUN and interesting. I enjoyed it more than any other new euro I played in years.

For me this replaced caverna entirely, although I agree that the different tougher flavor of Agricola is still a better but more challenging game.

[bradleyshelton]

Isn't there an action to draw more weapons? I don't see this as an issue.

[luiscarlosqg]

This is a great review. I played a feast for Odin for the first time today and agreed almost completely with your comments. The game is EXCELLENT, but the luck of the draw is really annoying some times. Regarding your proposed variants, the open occupations option seems very clever, I want to try it. There could also be some kind of drafting, like in Agricola, but then players would have to start the game with more cards in hand (which makes sense in a game with so many cards... I guess Uwe didn't want it to be so agricola like). The "draw 3 keep one weapon" is quite thematic, imagine you are a young Viking and your father/leader offers you 3 weapons and you have to choose one. The "sell 3 weapons for 1 coin" is antithematic, you are supposed to use your weapons (or at least to keep them) not to sell them cheap.

I kind of understand what you say about play testing, but some game are actually improved when played with variants, and it seems to be the case with this game.

[windyhillbomber]

Luck of the draw is an often scorned mechanic...perhaps unfairly scorned. For me, in a game like this with so many different game arcs, it makes perfect sense to occasionally have the "gods ruin your day".

[tomobrien]

Most of the occupation cards give you points so if it's not useful at least you get something out of it. I personally like the random draw. It's a challenge trying to incorporate less desirable occupations into your overall strategy.