The first large expansion for A Feast for Odin, The Norwegians, includes a viking-sized number of additions to the game, adding new strategies and puzzle-tiles.
Renewed action board: The largest of the new additions, made of three double-sided pieces that can be flipped to show different actions based on the number of players, opening up new action paths and increasing the chances of players getting in each others' way. It contains new opportunities like butchering, elk-hunting, fishing, and thievery, along with changes for some old actions. It's now easier, for example, to play an animal strategy, because you can now get two of the same animals in one action. There is also a new fifth column with (better) actions that require only one viking. For example, you can now forge a grey special tile with a sword value of 8 or less by using an ore and only one viking! Another totally new 1-viking action is to do a "small emigration" using a whaling boat, which covers one space at the banquet table instead of two but is worth 7VP and costs no silver to do so. And as a bonus, you can send two vikings to this column instead of one to play an occupation card in addition to the action. The catch is, once you use an action from the fifth column, you can't place any more vikings for the rest of this round.
New puzzle-tiles: 2x5 rectangle (horse/pregnant horse/leather/vadmal) and 5 spaces in a "U" shape (herbs/pig/antlers/tools). The red versions of these tiles feature two new animals, horses (worth 6VP) and pigs (worth 1VP and breed every round as opposed to every other round) respectively, adding yet more paths for an animal strategy. There are also five new grey special tiles such as a pan, a hauberk and an anvil, most of which can be forged with ore. Also included is a third goods box to hold all the new tiles.
Four new exploration boards: Islands on the frontside (Isle of Man, Isle of Skye, Islay, Outer Hebrides) with Irish coastal viking-settlements on the backside (Waterford, Wexford, Cork, Limerick), where people from Norway came to stay through the winter, to trade at, and to settle nearby. Also included are renewed versions of the four exploration boards from the base game, with updated iconography and some with adjusted VPs.
New buildings: Also totally new is the idea of a random start-building. Everybody gets one of the six double-sided "artisan shed" boards, and whenever a player could build a shed during the game, they may instead build the front or backside of their artisan shed. Just like the stonehouse and longhouse, the artisan sheds offer new spaces to place orange and red tiles to earn bonus goods, silver and VP, and many of them require specific tiles to be placed in specific spaces. So everybody has another different start-opportunity - like the occupation cards.
VP tokens: Another new option is that, whenever a player would play an occupation card into the game, the player may instead discard the card for a VP token, which are worth 4, 3 or 2VP at the end of the game. A nice little competitive element, as there are a limited number of the 4VP and 3VP tokens.
Other stuff: The expansion also includes another mountain strip, more two-silver coins and more beans/mead and oil/runestone tiles.
The expansion includes another almanac about the new game-elements and their viking-history. But again it was written by Gernot Köpke as a "historical-science"-journalist and learned local newspaper editor and the main elements will be published on BGG at Expansions-Almanac / Almanach für Erweiterungen.
—adapted from the description from the designer
Bits, Please! Ep 5: Half off 3d printed inserts
- better-balanced for two players with Norwegians expansion
- puzzle-like, cooperative planning with depth
- longer and more complex than base game
- puzzle-like tile assembly for income and bonuses
- worker-placement/resource-management with polyomino tiles
- economic strategy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- modified board for two-player balance — Norwegians expansion balances the board layout depending on player count.
- tile-placement with adjacency rules — placing tiles to satisfy color/adjacency bonuses; islands expand income.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this is a puzzle game realistically where you're trying to make that work
- not a victory point game realistically you're just trying to get to the threshold before anyone else
- this is a hidden gem that no one ever talks about
- i cannot recommend equinox enough
- every single card can be a different champion
- it's basically scrabble without the words
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- we're going to need a bigger printer
- what do you do when you want to print a 3d insert for your board game but the pieces are too big to fit on your printer bet well that exact thing happened to me
- we're looking for something that fits the base game and its expansions in the original game box with no box lift
- for my money this is the best free piece of software i think you could possibly get your hands on
- now the joke was on me because i should have checked the remixes section on thingiverse first if i had i would have discovered that someone named kind s had already made a split up version of that first tray so all my efforts were for naught
- splitting up big models so that they fit your printer bed is a great skill to have
- so close we needed like an inch more plastic ladies and gentlemen
- figuring out how to put all of these trays back in the box can be it's a little bit of like a like a jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces can fit each other but they'll only fit one way
- if you have a 3d printer and you own this game it makes setup a breeze
References (from this video)
- Transforms Feast for Odin into a broader sandbox experience
- Asymmetric houses and new islands boost depth and replayability
- Cards add more strategic versatility
- Increases overall complexity
- sandbox-style worker-placement with rich thematic elements
- Norse exploration and empire-building
- expansive, modular upgrade to the base game
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card-driven actions — cards integrate with the engine for more paths to victory
- Modular Board — new houses and islands create diverse play experiences
- modular boards and asymmetry — new houses and islands create diverse play experiences
- Worker Placement — expanded board and island options with new houses
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's genius
- start you hit the ground running and the game's immediately interesting and immediately fun
- this is the perfect expansion
- it's the ultimate sandbox work rep placement game
References (from this video)
- expansion introducing Norse-themed goods, animals, and immigration
- Norse expansion for Feast for Odin
- Feast for Odin
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- exploration mechanics requiring matching ships and columns — Exploration requires matching ship type and column position; tiles are taken from the exploration board accordingly.
- immigration changes (small immigration tiles) — Introduction of small immigration tiles and immigration mechanics; affects feast slots.
- new animal types and breeding — Pigs and horses with breeding rules; horses produce more VP; pigs breed quickly.
- new exploration tiles and tokens — Eight exploration tiles replace the four from the base game; updated iconography on tiles.
- new mountains strip and shipping board — New shipping board and mountain strip; replaced old boards.
- occupation cards changes and VP token interaction — Occupations can be discarded to gain silver or to draw three new occupation cards; VP tokens can be used to mitigate randomness.
- Player Board | Main Board — Replaces the base board with a three-part action board and scales per player.
- six new special goods styles — Six styles of new special goods are introduced.
- theft action (new fifth-column action) — The theft action enables plunder with prerequisites involving merchants and ships.
- three-part action board (scaling with player count) — Replaces the base board with a three-part action board and scales per player.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- we are Vikings we pillage right hunt
- the Norwegians is not so much an expansion to a face for Odin as it is face for Odin version 2.0
- eight exploration tiles and these replace the four from the base game
- there is a new copy of each of the tiles from the base game with the slightly new iconography
- if you'd like to learn to play at the base version of a face for Odin we have a how to play video for that