Ragnarök: Review

Ragnarök: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Hand Management, Area Control
Player Age: 12+ 

Player Count: 2 Players

Time to Play: 10 - 20 Minutes 
Game Designer and Artist: Paul Calderwood

Publisher: Invisible Kitty Games

Expandable: Not Expandable

Year Published: 2018

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

There is an epic battle underway between the Norse Gods (AEsir) and the Frost Giants (Jötnar). This battle is won by gaining the highest power over the majority of worlds within two rounds. This is achieved by playing cards on your side of the world to try and have the strongest value on the majority of worlds.

Card Anatomy:

There are three types of cards: runes, divinity, and modifiers.

Runes:

Runes can either be played vertically on a world to be used for its power, or can be played horizontally to activate its effect. Each world can only have one rune played on each side over the course of a round.

Divinity:

The divinity cards consist of only power and are played on any world to add their power. Each world can have up to four divinity cards, where two are placed on either side.

Modifier:

These are played at the start of the round to modify the middle world Nilfhemir. These modifiers will alter how the rune cards will work on this world.

Setup:

This will be the setup for each round of play.
- Shuffle the AEsir and Jötnar divinity cards separately and split them into two piles. This should result in two piles for each player.
- Do the same for the rune cards.
- Each player should now have two piles of 5 divinity cards and 3 rune cards. The first deck will be the first era and the second will be the second era.
- Deal the five worlds in between the players with Nilfheimr as the middle world.
- Place a random modifier behind Nilfheimr.

How to Play:

Each player will draw their entire first era deck. On their turn they will play one card from their hand below a world. This card will either be played vertically for its power or horizontally to activate a rune. Each world can only have one rune and two divinities on either side so plan your cards effectively. Once all of these cards have been played, each player will draw their second era deck this deck will then be played out with one rune card left over. Once the cards have been played out,, each world will have their power tallied up on both sides to be compared against one another. Remember that every horizontal  rune card will not be added to the power. Whoever has the highest power over the most worlds will win the round. These rounds will continue until one player has won two rounds proving that their divinity has conquered.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Runes add more strategic planning.
- Modifiers keep the rounds feeling fresh.

Cons:
- Hard to wrap your head around the strategy.
- Can be stuck with bad cards in the first era that have to be played.
- Can be confusing remembering who is Jötnar and who is AEsir.

'Ragnarök' reminds me of a game called 'Schotten Totten' which, like this game, is very hard to decide how best to play. The cards can corner you into bad plays during the first era and there’s really nothing you can do about that. Unlike Schotten Totten however, the players have close to perfect information about the type of cards that can be played since the decks are identical in power and ability. This is the kind of game that benefits from repeated plays and mastering the mechanisms of the game. If you enjoyed the mechanism in 'Schotten Totten' but are looking for a more compact and quick experience with increased knowledge then Ragnarök is for you.

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