LOFOTEN
How to kill a theme and get away with it
Designer: Sebastien Dujardin | Publisher: Pearl Games
There’s many places I hope to visit one day; be it the 230ft Darvaza gas crater in Turkmenistan, burning hot since the 1980s, or perhaps just a slightly interesting tree alongside the A32. Close to the top of my list though, is the beautiful Lofoten archipelago in Norway.
Alas, Lofoten isn’t really about these dramatically jagged mountainous coastlines. Nor is it really about the equally dramatic lives of its historic Norse residents. In truth, what designer Sebastien Dujardin has created here is a vaguely viking themed exercise in carefully loading sheep and fish onto boats; he couldn’t have sapped more theme from it if he tried. But, hey, we gamers are used to this kind of thing.
Featuring hand management and a unique take on pick up and deliver mechanics, Lofoten is a two-player only game of clan commerce. Each player commands a fleet of four longships waiting be loaded up with merchandise before transporting it back to their clan. At the end of the game, whoever has amassed the most points according to the majorities at each warehouse will be the winning Jarl.
The ships at players’ disposal are represented on their ‘fleet wheels’; an octagonal player board of sorts that can be moved and rotated throughout a turn as it navigates its way along the five spaces of the central market. This movement is facilitated with the use of order cards, with players always maintaining a hand of three. On a turn, if a player chooses their leftmost card their fleet can move and/or rotate a number of times to the left up to the value of that order. This process is, of course, reversed when choosing the rightmost card. The catch is that players can never change the order of the cards in their hand. Actually getting merchandise first requires playing the middle card from a hand and subsequently slotting it beneath the ship currently facing its owner. Alongside readying the ship for loading, these cards trigger special actions depending on the merchandise depicted. On future turns, goods are automatically loaded onto ships as soon as the market and matching merchandise line up, and unloaded when they once again face the player.
Lofoten presents a very different approach to pick up and deliver mechanics. Typically, a relatable sense of theme can be drawn from the linear movement rules of games such as Wasteland Express Delivery Service, something which is mostly lost here amidst the obscure sliding and rotating. On the other hand, this avoidance of a simple ‘move from A to B’ does make for a far more satisfying and engaging mechanical experience; one which tests players’ planning in a way that feels so much more rewarding when it pays off.
Importantly though, it doesn’t always pay off. Alongside the luck of the draw of order cards and, to a lesser extent, merchandise tiles, there’s the persistent threat of your opponent: They share the same market (and can even discard tiles from it), deliver goods to the same warehouses (where end game majorities play out), and with minimal hidden information, have a pretty good idea of your plans. Essentially, like a good two-player game should be, Lofoten’s gameplay is tightly competitive, with just the right amount of interaction and meanness.
Lofoten may not serve as the most thrilling advertisement for Norwegian tourism, but with its simple yet novel mechanics it’s worth a visit. In fact, thanks to a trio of modular expansions, there’s enough here for multiple trips.
CHAD WILKINSON
WE SAY
A clever take on pick up and deliver mechanics, although its weak theme stands at odds with its awe-inspiring namesake.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗16 Warehouse cards
◗2 Player aid cards
◗ First Player card
◗36 Order cards
◗ Market board
◗2 Fleet wheels
◗8 Longship tiles
◗8 Coins
◗32 Merchandise tiles
◗2 Buckler tokens
◗8 Jarl cards
◗7 Jarl requirement cards
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ODIN’S RAVENS
Both
excel at being loosely viking themed two-player duels.