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In the time of Vikings, gather and manoeuvre warbands to form the nation of Bjarmia under your banner, or defeat other players to prove your battle prowess. Build the map as you play, with untamed forests, pristine lakes, harsh mountains, and a sprawling network of roads connecting fledgling towns. Earn actions with your map placements depending on the features of each tile you choose to add.
Blood of the Northmen a game by Carl Chudyk (Glory To Rome, Innovation, Impulse) taking players north of Europe into the wild Nordic lands of the 9th century. Each player controls his own Viking clan with a unique ability. Players playing tiles from hand together build a board on which they place their warriors. Each tile in the game is both a board element, an action card, and strength in a fight. During the game, players gain victory points by fighting other clans, as well as by taking strategic settlements. The game is filled with negative interaction and a huge amount of strategy and tactics. The game has an unusual and unique mechanics of using tiles, not yet seen in other games. 120 unique tiles, 48 high detailed figures and 12 Strongholds are just some of the items in the box.
—description from the designer
Blood of the Northmen
- territorial control and warfare with exploration
- the nation of Jamia
- tile-based exploration and battle-driven scoring
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Place and move warband meeples to gain control and score.
- Area control with warbands/meeples — Place and move warband meeples to gain control and score.
- Battles for victory points — Win battles to gain victory points toward the end condition.
- Castle interference — Castles hinder opponents' moves as part of the variant rules.
- End Game Bonuses — Game ends when a player reaches certain VP, occupies four town types, or when draw deck runs out.
- End-game conditions — Game ends when a player reaches certain VP, occupies four town types, or when draw deck runs out.
- Hidden Victory Points — Win battles to gain victory points toward the end condition.
- Resource/tile draw control — Draw tiles to your hand; possibly draw more tiles via certain actions.
- Tile Placement — Explore an area by placing a map tile from your hand or draw deck to the common map area.
- Town-type actions — Four town types grant different actions; variants adjust play.
- Victory point scoring system — Points are earned by battles and token allocation to a VP track/goal.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Blood of the Northmen is about to be launched on Kickstarter so I'll put the link in the description when it is live
- the game plays two to five players
- occupy four different town types to win
- each turn a player would explore an area by placing a map tile from the hands or draw deck to the common map area and execute the action based on what Terrans they place on that turn
References (from this video)
- Clear demonstration of base game and expansion contents
- Effective walkthrough of setup, map-building, and tail actions
- Illustrates how new components interact with core rules
- Some phrasing in the transcript is informal or unclear
- Assumes familiarity with base game variants
- Territorial control, hero abilities, and exploration.
- Fantasy Viking-inspired setting with map-building, area control, and heroes.
- Procedural and tactical map creation with combat resolution between rival stacks.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Majority — Players compete to control map spaces via unit placement and movement.
- Combat resolution by terrain tails — Mountains and other terrains contribute strength during conflicts.
- expansion integration — New tails, terrain types, churches, longships, and catapults alter play.
- Map building / tile drafting — Players build the map by adding tails that connect edges and provide actions.
- Tail drafting and placement — Players select and place action tails to shape the map and trigger actions.
- Victory point track with bonfire end condition — Winning by VP placement; game ends when sixth point or pool empties.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- eight tails to chosen from each with a different ability
- new map tails with new types of terrain
- longship can run along the lake
- catapults provide one extra action that can only be used to initiate a conflict
- the game ends when the sixth victory point
- this expansion adds new passes that allow you to move through the mountains