A Feast for Odin: The Norwegians Review - with Tom Vasel

Tom Vasel takes a look at a expansion that adds more to A Feast for Odin!
00:00 - Introduction
01:19 - Overview
07:01 - Final Thoughts
BGG: boardgamegeek.com/boardgameex...
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[@charlesshea4420]

This is a 10/10 expansion for me. The nerfs to op/easy stats like emigration and buff to animal breeding and weaker islands make the desicions MUCH more satisfying.

[@galileo3166]

Hey Tom! You forgot to say that the new boards are reversible depending on how many players there are. The 2 and 3 player boards have less actions than the 4 players one, making the games with 2 and 3 players much tighter, which is a huge change from the base game!

[@flatresponse]

Agreed, this increase in competitive play for 2-3 player games is where this expansion shines.

[@gernotkopke6948]

I do agree. Beneath some smaller mistakes/missunderstandings (for example Shetland is no new island) there are two really big ones: 1. You can flip the boards for 1-2, 3 and for 4 players to have a different game board (with more/less options to take). In the video you show the board for 4 players together with the two ones for 1-2 players. 2. The needed stuff can be placed into the base game box. boardgamegeek.com/article/31347780#31347780 These mistakes look to me a bit like the expansion was not played before making the review, even the base game is known very well and many strategical elments are analyzed well. Especially the mountain stripe mistake (to long -> use it for 4 player game in 7 seven rounds as the last one) was seen directly It is an emotive fast review, that should be called maybe better a ~preview? Hope Tom will get much more exited after some games with the expansion and a deeper view to the deepness of all the changes, especially the worth and changes of the game by having the new - and simply more islands in total. the authors view

[@willbeplayin]

It IS a necessary expansion and I'll prob never play without it. It fixes a lot of strategies in my opinion, mostly whaling/raiding and migration whilst it buffs animals and maybe islands and sheds too.

[@willbeplayin]

The mountain strip is only used in 4p games AFAIK, although you could just use a dice to select a strip and add it randomly in your games that way.

[@jurvanoerle2845]

The beginning of Tom's introduction is really funny at 1.25x speed xD

[@tomobrien1068]

It's definitely necessary if you play mostly 2 player and solo. Less action spaces make for a much tighter game.

[@cabalpaxiarch7239]

I disagree. The important actions aren't that many and the fact that they cost an extra worker for the second player is huge. Tom pretty much nailed it. This expansion is fun but not necessary. Plus it makes the game so much easier. I mean... that pig token is so convenient. They might as well have given us a full square token with a hole in the middle to comfortably get any bonus we like. So ridiculous.

[@alexeybychenkov3659]

I think the best thing this expansion brings to the FFO is that it finally overthrow migration strategy which throughout my whole game experience was the one and only best strategy in the game (I've played around 30 games of FFO by far). Yes, there are dozens of strategies you want to try, but every single game a person goes full migrate that person always wins and you just can't do anything about it except compete with migrating too. No exceptions, at least in my group. This expansion brings a lot of challengable strategies against migration and this is the best aspect of this one. So if you're an advanced FFO player then this is a mus thave, because you can finally compete with migration.

[@gernotkopke6948]

Emigration is just one way to play and normally an added element to other strategies. Did you really try out other strategies? Looks to me like a group specific prejudice of a beloved opening, that is easy to play, but really not the only and best way to play. Try different ways! The most common way is to get an island and fill it for all its bonuses as fast as possible. Others think of whaling would be best, others of fast pillaging-strategy... As being the author I playtested more than 200 games and can say (as being a chess player since I was six) from my point of view, that there are so much possibilities of good balanced openings, even more with the expansion...

[@alexeybychenkov3659]

@@gernotkopke6948 almost every game I try new strategy, and every time any strategy i use can't compete full migrate strats. There are reasons for that: early migrate is incredibly cheap and you also can abuse ships before migrating. Overall you have to pay less food, you have cheap VPs from the start (in long game mode you can sell ships from the very start) and abuse ship actions to receive nice tiles. I tried cattle strays, isle strat, building strats (main point giving strategies),about 3-4 times each I tried esome other interesting stuff and every game migrate strat won any others. Also true any time I use this strat. I can't give you any statistics, but from my own experience the only way you may compete migrate strat is a migrate strat. You may have your own, but that's what i see every ame of FFO.

[@Joshua_Tymchyn]

Wow, I was literally looking for this review last night and was surprised Tom hadn't done one yet. Guess I was getting slightly ahead of the planned schedule.

[@bartl7436]

Great Review! :) I love the expansions! I played a Feast for Odin last night without the expansion and I *really* missed that last power spot on each row. I also think additional islands are critical for 3 or 4 player games. and I love the artisan sheds.

[@michaelmelen9062]

That's a good point. Tom doesn't think the expansion is necessary, but let him play without it a couple of times and he'll think differently. I recently bought both, plus two mini-packs (islands) and am starting to learn just the base game. I'm thinking I should have just started with all of it.

[@TheFilipFonky]

The board is definitely much more balanced. Spaces that were too weak to go for in the base board are now either gone or improved. This expansion is a must!

[@leeannw6606]

I did get everything into one box. Combined all the pieces from the three trays into just two trays.

[@dreamshade]

My big problem with AFfO is the scripted openings. I feel like you never get a card down on the first turn, so there's no real difference between different games in the first round. So the first person goes wood -> knarr -> Iceland, the second person goes wood -> longship -> raiding, the third person goes wood -> whaling boat -> whaling. The new board lets you put a card on the table on round 1 for only two workers. That is HUGE! That changes the game openings on its own! I might be buying the expansion just for that! But the way that the board moves things around, it also just sounds like Rosenberg thought about some of the weaker actions and tried to make them more interesting. I really wasn't excited about the expansion, because I thought it was just more stuff for the game. But I am actively excited now. It sounds like it fixes some of my issues with the game.

[@dreamshade]

Update to say that I've now played this expansion, and I love it so far. Getting rid of the duplicate-action spaces in the 4-player game makes for more competition for important spots. The new islands and sheds make me think there are plenty of good starting plays, especially with one small island (Isle of Man?) giving you an easy bonus space for fish. The expansion slows the game down a little, since there are so many options available, but it's definitely revitalized my group's interest in the game.

[@Stankiem83]

I fit everything in base box, it doesn't close by about 1cm, but no big deal

[@willbeplayin]

And yeah you did miss that the main board is double sided for different player counts. So while the top was for 4p, the middle and bottom part shown here were on the wrong side, there should be more places in there for the bigger player counts.

[@thedicetower]

I didn't miss it, I just showed the wrong middle sections. I played correctly.

[@dylankistler4269]

Tom misses some crucial rules (the boards flip with players count so the game now scales) and doesn’t address the fact that this opens up the animal strategy in a huge way. There aren’t just more - they are now viable strategically. Moreover, doubling the island count is actually crucial to solving the frustration of all islands running out relatively quickly... I agree that it feels as though Tom played this 0-1 times. As one of my favorite reviews, I found this very disappointing.

[@jennprescott2757]

Fuyioooo top 10. Great review, uncle.

[@cwb95k]

With this being three years ago and having potentially played and interacted with A Feast for Odin more over the past three years, what would you say now? I've play the base game enough to see that not all strategies are created equal with experienced players and heard that Norwegians fixes some of that? What do you think?

[@TheRmm1976]

Tom says it doesn't fit in the base box, and other comments say it does. So which is it? I was thinking of purchasing both the base game and expansion and this is important in my decision making, as I'm already going to have a tough time storing the base box on my gaming bookshelf.

[@azizmandar]

I got it to fit BUT I removed the redundant pieces like the original board and islands. The new tokens required me to move a few of the original tokens into one slot instead of using 2 for all of them.

[@dreamshade]

I've placed the expansion in the base box. But the box lid sits an inch above the bottom of the box now.

[@azizmandar]

If you put all components for both with and without the expansion they don't really fit. If you remove the replaced components (like the board and islands) and condense the tokens to make room in the original trays for the new items it will fit and still close (if you are careful)

[@AylinIsAwesome]

It's strictly less than 9, not 9 or less! :)

[@stevegeorge7773]

They should have had the box big enough to put all the bits in one box. That would have been smart.

[@travissmith1303]

After I took out the bits the expansion replaced it all fit back within the box.

[@jonathangeorge7528]

This review is lacking... I'm not sure I believe you even played with it yet from the lack of emphasis on how tricky the new islands are, lack of information on the double sided boards for adjusted player count, and the fact that everything can fit all in the base box(use the new trays empty spaces to put coins and victory point tokens to free up space + if you intended to never use the old board or islands, remove them and store them in the expansion box)

[@cgrice1971]

Jonathan George 100% agree. The expansion also makes animals a viable strategy. And the 5th column actions are so good for 1 or 2 Vikings that running out of workers first to get a good action can be worth giving up the chance to be first player.

[@thedicetower]

Well. I did play it. And I have an insert, so they literally don't fit in the same box.

[@BoardInTheHouseBGAplayer]

The Pigs give you meat? But then wouldn't they die? 4:00

[@jonathandodd7682]

I'm keeping the original boards I no longer need in the expansion box, and I can fit everything from the expansion and everything from the original game in the original box with just a tiny bit of lid lift. I also have some promo items and the mini-expansion, so I'd say it's definitely doable if you're ok with the lid not sitting completely flush!

[@KEGuajardoPro]

Mines flush. Did you take out the base board since the board replaces it?

[@jonathandodd7682]

Kyle Guajardo I did yeah. I’ll keep working at it!

[@KEGuajardoPro]

Oh. I threw the boats into the 3rd organizer. It saved a lot of space. Until the next expansion.

[@jonathandodd7682]

Kyle Guajardo did that too haha

[@KEGuajardoPro]

@@jonathandodd7682 are you part of WPaG?

[@willbeplayin]

Expansion of the year 2019.

[@charlesshea4420]

Agreed. Love everything, didnt realize I needed this expansion but it blew me away. Just finished a solo game and I wanted to play another right after, so many viable paths now!

[@azizmandar]

I see his points. It's kind of a side grade more than an expansion. I like it in general and with 4 player's it was just as easy to teach. About half the "expansion" is replacement prices so if you do a bit of rearranging in the containers and remove duplicates it all fits fairly well. It's a solid improvement but I see it more as a purchased errata than an expansion. Especially since the fully new components could fit in a much smaller box.

[@cabalpaxiarch7239]

I'm so glad I watched this video. I love Feast for Odin and am proud to have it and always happy to play it. But people have been screaming at me to get this expansion and say it's not worth playing the game without it. But all I see is more stuff and honestly, it seems like it makes the game much less tight and more flexible and easy, which I get that people like but I want to suffer. I'm an Agricola person, not a Caverna person. So I'm glad it was made clear that this expansion is nice but not at all necessary.

[@Arjay82]

The people saying this is a requirement are insane.

[@justinrrizzo]

My biggest complaint in this game - aside from lucky dice throwing giving you an edge, in a game about efficiency.... - was the cards. Cards that are not synergistic with you plans, cards that aren't great, etc.When you draw occu cards that don't help you, that's a wasted turn, and frustration. I plan to create house rules that mitigate this (drawing, market, ?), since this expansion does not seem to address this issue.

[@galileo3166]

You can now play the cards for points instead of the card action.

[@justinrrizzo]

@@galileo3166 Yeah, that's just not enough for me. It doesn't really solve the problem of "getting synergistic cards". In the base game you could just play the "worthless" cards and get the end game VP anyway. It was very costly to farm cards that benefit you in the original game.

[@republikadugave420]

Patchvernicola...

[@HALOX30]

Saying this is the expansion 0f 2019 when the year us not even done. Lmao

[@HALOX30]

@@ThomasWardGeologist lol...you know what i mean. Everdell expansion for me. This game look generic...pigs and other generic foods. Maybe the mechanics are cool but theme wise...generic.

[@tigerpjm]

Why is Tom wearning a clown outfit?

[@DONBA32]

You think The Dice Tower is really good for reviews until you watch a game you know, then you see how little he knows and makes so many mistakes. I wonder now how many other games i have "learnt" from this channel that probably is as sloppy as this video. Should be redone this video

[@cjazerjay]

THANK YOU! I couldn't agree more. This, like most of the content done by Tom Vasel, feels mailed in. It's a shame so much credence is given to what this clown has to say. A Feast for Odin and it's Expansions (yes, plural- more are on their way, plus there are some great fan made ones) are beautifully crafted and balanced, giving the players many options and paths to victory- and not only victory, but enjoyment while playing and not necessarily winning. To just dismiss the new islands as "meh" is criminal. If you want a real review and opinion on this expansion, just check it out on the board game geek forums. This is the first dice tower review I've watched in a while.... now I remember why I stopped looking at them.

[@lajeit]

@@cjazerjay wow that's a bit much. It's totally ok to disagree with people, and if this is what they do for a living its impossible to play things the amount of times your would want them to.

[@cjazerjay]

@@lajeit If this is what he does for a living then he needs to get it right. There are no scraps in my scrapbook. Someone with as much influence as this guy can't cut corners or leave out critical information. Granted, I'm sure most people aren't basing their purchasing decisions solely on this guy, but with a high profile title like Odin- get it together. Check out his Wingspan review, same meh attitude and review. He says something along the lines of "it's a card game with birds". Guy's a clown...

[@lajeit]

@@cjazerjay u don't pay him. Board game publishers do, so he makes content that is pleasing to them. Obviously if his patreon would have been more supportive we wouldn't be in this situation would we?

[@Arjay82]

@@cjazerjay Good God. This is what happens when someone dares not gush over the flavor of the month. People in this "hobby" are beyond embarassing.

[@ertai222]

I never liked feast of Odin. I found it overly complicated. Making a game complicated doesn't make it good. Found far to often you're playing geometry wars with your board.

[@gernotkopke6948]

All components are added because of good reasons. Feuerland and Uwe always make games as easy as possible, but also as complex as needed to have more than a trivial game (anyhow trivial games can be great, of course). Easier/shorter "single outtakes" of the 'puzzle'-LP are by the way: Patchwork and later Cottage garden, Indian summer and...

[@Eden-fw7du]

This is a comment This is still a comment.

[@danielrowland663]

Thanks Perd

[@BlueGiantMedia]

This is a reply :)

[@benlauson555]

Defiantly not necessary