Fjords

Fjords was the first two-player game I bought with the express hope that Kristin would enjoy playing it. After all, she is from Norway... It was received fairly well, and has been followed with Lost Cities, Odin's Ravens, and Balloon Cup (the latter two yet to be played). Kristin's been terribly busy of late, but Sunday she decided it was time to relax and spend some time with hubby, and suggested a game of Fjords.

Fjords is pleasant. The tiles look pleasant, you don't have to think too hard, it plays quickly. That said, it's one of those games that sort of plays you - one often doesn't have a lot of options about where to place tiles. I would say that in this game, we only had to make meaningful decisions about what to do with tiles about 1/3 of the time. It's also quite common, maybe 1 in 5, that a tile can't be played on the current board configuration, which can lead to some frustration as players peruse the board looking for options. This goes down a little with familiarity with the game, as you develop the ability to keep track of certain things - water and rock edges, big grass spaces - developing on the board.

Kristin isn't really into tile-laying/spatial recognition. Maybe it's the theme that keeps here interested. The basic play of the three rounds consisted of each of us trying to play our farms in areas that could become bottlenecks to grow from, and then trying to augment little areas for ourselves. I ended up winning all three rounds, and I think it was due to a couple of things.

First, I think Kristin at times recognized possible bottlenecks, and played farms, without looking at how hard it might be to expand from an area. If you put a farm down in a bottleneck, but can't subsequently expand the private area due to odd combinations of rock edges/water/etc. around it, it often becomes something that can be cut off from play very quickly during the farm expansion phase. Related to this is the crucial timing of farm placement - particularly being the person who places the last farm. I placed the last farm every time, and it gives you the option, much of the time, to get in on an area your opponent has spent time developing.

Second, you have to stay conscious of the plan to create areas for yourself. When the field expansion time comes, you have to make the moves that keep your farms open, and work to close off your opponent's. Simply driving into an open area is a near-waste of a move. This part of the game is really quite tense, and what makes the game an interesting strategic exercise. Starting to plan for it when it's time to lay your first field is too late. A related idea is working to not be the one to draw the last tile - playing the first field is a huge advantage.

Well, not much to report. Just a few words on Fjords. I'm hoping we'll begin a weekly habit of playing a game with each other. It's a nice way to spend some focused time together. Maybe next week, we can continue the Nordic theme with Odin's Ravens.

Tonight I'm planning on heading down to Sci-Fi Genre, a part gaming, part comic, part general geek store in the Southern part of Durham. It's Community Boardgame Night, according to their schedule, and I'm curious to check it out. I'll probably take Thurn and Taxis, Samurai, and something for Five players, maybe El Grande or Hacienda.

GG, GL
JW