Designer: Shem Phillips

You’re a viking lord with big ambitions to earn glory (i.e. victory points) by raiding far-off fortresses, complete quests for your chief and, er, get most of your crew killed with your incompetence that the Halls of Valhalla dedicate a wing to you.

Raiders of the North Sea is a relatively straightforward worker placement game. On a player’s turn, he places one meeple to activate it, and removes another to activate that one. Doing this lets him gather resources, hire viking crew, draw and activate cards, and eventually prepare for a viking raid, where he’ll get more resources.

Interesting Mechanic: Upgraded Meeples. The bunch of scallywags you start off with (represented by black workers) aren’t good for much. They tend to give less resources and can only raid coastal towns. However, when you raid a town, you’ll leave that crew there and replace it with the crew there (represented by a grey or white meeple). Placing this meeple will let you take on more ambitious raiding targets, and may also adjust the resources you get in town. However, that meeple won’t be yours for long, Once you place it, another player can pick it up and place it themselves over the next couple of turns. This does a great job of rewarding fast movers while keeping lagging players within arms reach.

For a worker placement game, Raiders of the North Sea is quick yet engaging, as well as a solid theme and great viking art. People who like Lords of Waterdeep should take a look


(Photo Credit: Tabletop Finder)