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Here's a brief overview of Vendel to Viking from the publisher:
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Vendel to Viking is a standalone prequel expansion to Pax Viking, inspired by its mechanics but with some significant differences in the game system. In Vendel to Viking you represent a family in the Nordic culture prior to the Viking era. The game takes place between 550 to 800 CE.
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You represent a family in one of the Nordic cultures that evolves into one of the prominent families of the Viking era. Each turn represents a generation and you seek to include the best formidable persons in your family as you evolve from generation to generation. You place family members on the map and use them for accessing effects in various locations, for worker actions or for elevating them into a formidable person. When elevated the family member is linked to a character card taken from a market and moved to an achievement tree. The Character goes to your family board and both the presence in the achievement tree and on the family board affects your family’s opportunities onwards.
The first to hold two Future-level achievements in the achievement tree wins. If no player manages to do so before a set number of turns, the one with the most points wins.
The end state of Vendel to Viking will interface with the starting state of a game of Pax Viking making it possible to play the two games as a campaign.
You represent a family in one of the Nordic cultures that evolves into one of the prominent families of the Viking era. Each turn represents a generation and you seek to include the best formidable persons in your family as you evolve from generation to generation. You place family members on the map and use them for accessing effects in various locations, for worker actions or for elevating them into a formidable person. When elevated the family member is linked to a character card taken from a market and moved to an achievement tree. The Character goes to your family board and both the presence in the achievement tree and on the family board affects your family’s opportunities onwards.
The first to hold two Future-level achievements in the achievement tree wins. If no player manages to do so before a set number of turns, the one with the most points wins.
The end state of Vendel to Viking will interface with the starting state of a game of Pax Viking making it possible to play the two games as a campaign.
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In Pax Viking, 1-6 players take on the roles of 10th century Jarls (powerful leaders in the Norse culture), and compete representing different families seeking to unite many Jarldoms into a unified country, leveraging trade networks in the east, powerful allies in the west, along with some clever tactics.
The large, beautifully illustrated game board (by Madeleine Fjäll) features a map comprised of several sea, river, and harbor regions which are color-coded based on wind groupings: West (purple), North (blue), East (green), and South (orange). Within each region are circles representing posts which are either empty, filled with a venture card, or trade centers and powerful allies which are pre-printed on the board.
Two key areas on the right side of the game board are the saga track for the saga tile/card market, and the victory conditions area which is where victory condition cards are placed during setup. Pax Viking features four different difficulty levels of a variety of different victory conditions. Each game, you randomly select four out of five different victory conditions for your preferred difficulty level. You can also mix and match victory conditions for different difficulty levels as a handicap when playing with a mix of new and experienced players.
Much of the historical record of the Vikings is told through sagas, written down centuries after the events took place. Pax Viking integrates this concept with a massive deck of (220?!) saga tiles, which are unique, circular cards. Similar to other Pax games, the saga cards and corresponding card market drive a lot of your actions and strategies throughout the game.
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In Pax Viking, there are four different types of saga cards: venture, god, advocate, and event. Each saga card has a variety of information, such as the location you need to have one of your longships in to play it, special abilities, and thematic, historical flavor text. In addition, the saga cards each include one of four follower icons indicating which type of follower you place when the card is played. This represents you gaining and establishing followers, which can lead to special influence actions during the game.
Each player starts the game with one randomly selected Jarlboard (player board) out of nine different options, representing different Jarls, each with their own special ability. The Jarlboards are very functional for gameplay since you can keep track of your followers, have a hub for your longships, and a convenient place for your god and advocate saga cards. It also serves as a helpful player aid since the actions and turn phases are summarized at the bottom.
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Pax Viking is played over a series of rounds, where each player takes a turn in clockwise order until at least one player achieves one of the revealed victory conditions. Each player's turn is divided into three phases: influence, action, and winter solstice.
In the influence phase, you check to see if you have more established followers for any of the four follower types (Jarldom, Sweden, Theocracy, or Rus). If you do, you get to take the corresponding influence marker(s), each of which gives you access to a different special action. Conversely, if you no longer have more followers of any type than all of your rivals, you have to return the corresponding influence marker(s).
Then, in the action phase you select four actions you want to perform this turn, one at a time, by placing one of your action markers on the action on your player board. There are five standard actions to choose from, and if you have any influence markers, you also have access to the corresponding special, influence action(s). You are free to take the same action multiple times, but you only ever take four actions on a given turn.
As an action, you can invest to take a saga card into your hand. You can either draw the top card of the deck for free, or buy from the saga card market, paying the corresponding price. If you opt to get a card for free, the cheapest card in the market is discarded, then all of the remaining cards slide down, and you immediately refill the uppermost space with a new saga card from the deck. However, if you buy a card, the market is not refilled immediately, but instead at the end of your turn.
Once you have some saga cards in hand, you'll eventually want to play them, which leads me to the play action. If you have one of your longships in the location matching the saga card you wish you play, with no rival longships present, you can play the saga card.
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If it's a venture card, you place it onto an empty post or replace an existing venture, then establish it by placing one of your followers on it, as specified by the follower icon on the venture card. Advocates and gods are placed on your Jarlboard in the designated spaces, along with an established follower. They each give you access to a special ability.
Event cards can either have immediate effects, or trigger a vote which all players get to weigh in on in clockwise order. In the case of the latter, if 50% or more agree, you resolve it, and then you check victory conditions regardless of the outcome of the vote.
On your turn, you can also take the journey action to move one of your unexhausted longships up to three steps, and then exhaust it. Each longship can only journey once per turn. The large map and movement in Pax Viking sets it apart from most games in the Pax series.
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Heavily guarding my Iron Trade venture post in Svea...
As a Jarl in Pax Viking, journeying is so important. You have to have a longship in the specific locations to play saga cards, which is one of the main ways you can establish followers. Beyond venture posts, you can also move to trade centers and pay money to establish followers there, in addition to gaining special abilities. Plus, there are powerful allies (neutral ships) you can gain control of at certain locations. Thus, movement is very important, and thankfully you have six longships you can use, in addition to any powerful allies, which gives you lots of flexibility.
The activate action allows you to perform the ability on a venture post if you have a follower and an unexhausted longship on the post. After activating the post's ability, you exhaust a longship there. Venture post abilities give you ways to gain extra money, get free cards from the saga track, move ships (your own and rival ships), and more. There are a ton of them and plenty of variety to keep things interesting.
The fifth standard action is parley, and this is how you can boot your rival's longships out of a post and take over, or establish a post that has no rival ships.
There are also four special influence actions, which can be very powerful, should you have the opportunity to access them. This is one of the reasons it's important to play saga cards and establish more followers.
Another benefit to gaining followers is to help you generate income during the winter solstice phase, which comes after you perform your four actions. For each type of follower that you have placed at least one of, you gain one silfr (money). Then you refresh any exhausted longships, refill the saga track, and then discard down to your hand limit of four cards, factoring in any modifications from gods or advocates you have in play.
You continue taking turns in clockwise order until the game ends as a result of one or more players achieving one of the revealed victory conditions when victory is checked, typically when an event card is played. The game also ends when the last saga card is taken, and the saga deck and track are both empty. If there is a tie, or the game ends from depleting the saga deck and no one has achieved a victory condition, there are a couple of tiebreakers, starting with having the most established followers, which further proves the importance of establishing followers.
I certainly did not delve into every bit of detail, but I hope to convey the point that Pax Viking is not only a unique and interesting addition to the Pax series, but it's also very accessible, enjoyable, and relatively easy to get into. It plays in less than two hours, and with only five main, straightforward actions to choose from, plus a ton of variability from the different Jarlboards, saga cards, and victory conditions, there are always fresh strategies to pursue without getting bogged down by complex rules.
Pax Viking comes with great player aids and an appendix with rules for solo play, and several pages of historical background details for the events, gods and Jarls. Plus, as an unexpected bonus, we discovered some awesome new music (Danheim and Heilung) that really set the mood.
I'm a big fan of Pax games, and games that have multiple victory conditions, because it's often not so obvious which victory condition each player is aiming for. Also, it allows you to explore different options and pivot if one direction isn't working out well for you based on the cards you're getting, or how your opponents are playing.
There was one game I played where one player was close to winning, and we all knew it, so we started to collectively try to stop him. In this particular game, I played poorly and didn't think I set myself up to achieve any of the victory conditions anytime soon. I felt like a lost cause, but I was still having fun. Then, as I scanned the board, and re-read the victory conditions, I discovered I was surprisingly close to achieving one. While everyone was focused on that player who was obviously about to crush us, no one noticed that I was one action away from a different victory condition. On my next turn, before anyone noticed, I was able to take actions to seal the deal, then play an event card to trigger a victory check, and won the game. It felt sneaky and awesome. I love games like this, where you have to pay attention to what your opponents are doing, and at the same time, you have to set yourself up for victory, without being too obvious, intentionally or unintentionally.
I'm looking forward to exploring more of Pax Viking, and I'm very curious to see how it fits with Vendel to Viking as a campaign. Pax Viking nails it as a solid entry-level Pax game and I recommend checking it out if you're curious to try one. Or, if you're already a Pax fan like me, you might enjoy it as fresh spin on the series.
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