As chiefs of a hoard of Vikings, we have decided that it’s time to colonise new land. And why travel through perilous unknown waters, if what you are looking for can be found right under your nose? Therefore, we decide to go for the many islands that surround the Scandinavian coasts. Of course, all this discovering yields riches, fame and glory, and the chief of the clan that manages to obtain most of these wins the game!

All players get their own player board, a coastal strip in the shape of a right angle, where six rows of island tiles can be placed. Each row depicts a coloured Viking (black, red, green, yellow, blue) or a pirate ship.

Additionally, there’s a main board with a rotatable wheel with numbered positions 0-11. Surrounding the wheel there’s a circle where twelve island tiles and twelve Vikings can be placed. Each round, island tiles are placed on the twelve positions around the wheel. The tiles depict pieces of island (starting pieces, middle pieces or end pieces) or pirate ships (in red, green, yellow or blue). In addition, twelve Vikings are drawn randomly and placed next to the tiles. The Vikings are placed in a fixed order: first, starting at position 0, all the blue Vikings, then the yellow, green, red, black and finally the grey Vikings.

In a player’s turn, he must purchase a combination of an island tile and a Viking. He pays the amount of gold that is indicated on the wheel next to the chosen combination. The combination at position 0 can only be purchased if the Viking on that position is the only Viking of his colour. If there are two blue Vikings, that are placed on positions 0 and 1, the Viking on position 0 may only be taken after the Viking on position 1 has been purchased by a player, because then the blue Viking on position 0 is the only blue Viking on the board. In that event, the wheel is subsequently rotated in clockwise direction until there is again a combination of an island tile and a Viking facing the 0. The prices of all the remaining combinations have thereby dropped!

When a player has purchased a combination, he has to place the island tile in his coastal area. This way, islands can be created, that can be composed of a starting tile, optionally followed by a middle-tile, and finished by an end-tile. A tile can be placed directly adjacent to the coastal strip, or adjacent to another, previously placed island tile. The Viking may be placed on the island tile, but only if the tile was placed in the row that corresponds to the colour of the Viking. Otherwise, the Viking must be placed temporarily on the kayak symbol in the top left corner of the player board. The grey Vikings, the sailors, are always placed on this kayak. Tiles displaying a pirate ship are placed in the top row, next to the ship symbol.

The round ends as soon as all twelve combinations surrounding the wheel have been purchased. After each round there’s a scoring phase; there are minor and major scoring phases that alternate each round. In a minor scoring round, all players receive three gold for each yellow Viking on an island in the yellow row. In a major scoring round, each red Viking scores two points, each green Viking 1 point plus 1 point for each yellow and blue Viking in the same column (so, directly underneath the green Viking), and again each yellow Viking yields three gold. For both the minor and the major scoring, points and gold can only be scored when the Viking is not threatened by a pirate ship.

Another important element in the major scoring rounds are the sailors. These grey Vikings are able to transport a number of Vikings that were placed in the kayak in the previous phase to vacant islands in the row of their own colour before the scoring begins. Each sailor can transport either one Viking of each colour, or all Vikings of one colour. The sailor is discarded after use.

After a lot of Romans as subject for games, the Vikings suddenly seem to have become a very popular theme for boardgames. Wikinger is a very successful member of this extensive Viking game list, with fun and original elements. The game looks good, with simple illustrations that give a nice atmosphere, with robust material and cute wooden Vikings. The climax of the game is without a doubt the wheel, which provides a nifty way to introduce variable prices into the game.

Because each player is sailing in his own coastal waters on his own board, the game can be a bit solitary. The interaction mainly takes place around the wheel: removing the last, highly desired sailor or warrior, purchasing the last ‘end-tile’ right before the eyes of the player that has room only for end-tiles on his board, forcing someone to take a nasty pirate ship, or to pay an awful lot of gold for his tile, that sort of stuff. When a player removes the combination at position 0, he has a cheap bargain, but as a consequence, the wheel rotates and the prices will drop for all the other players as well… This will probably not be done without ample and careful deliberation!