Knarr: Cømmence, expløre, triumph, by Odin!

💡Vikings

⚙️Points race, card collection, hand management

 

A Danish friend once told me that the most Scandinavian thing to say or write was probably “rødgrød med fløde”. I was very impressed with the sound of it and the amount of crossed O's; with my overflowing imagination, I told myself that this expression must undoubtedly designate something truly epic, very Viking, like an expedition of discoveries lasting at least ten years in the unknown and hostile seas of the Arctic... But no ( slight disappointment)! In fact, rødgrød med fløde is a traditional Danish dessert which consists of putting raspberries in milk. That's all. How many epic O bars were wasted to describe such a simple thing! This little story taught me that apart from spelling, everything doesn't always have to be epic with our friends the Vikings.


Where are you going on the longship of this long introduction, Mat? I'm going to tell you about a game that reminded me of the anecdote about raspberries in milk, a game whose title suggests a long, epic and complicated journey, with bloody pillaging and extraordinary discoveries... but which ultimately offers us something much simpler! It's Knarr , a game by Thomas Dupont, illustrated by Antoine Carrion and published by Bombyx.


Knarr , which comes in a very small, compact box, is a card game that invites us to make our fortune with our happy crew of Vikings, by exploring unknown lands and trading... all in thirty minutes flat!


How it works ?

Map - Knarr

Knarr is a race where the objective is to be the first viking to reach the threshold of 40 victory points. Each player begins the game with a hand of three cards representing valiant and valiant Vikings of different colors.


When our turn comes, we have two choices: add a Viking from our hand to the crew of our knarr (ship) OR send our crew to explore.


Maps - Knarr

When we add a Viking to our crew, we place it in front of us with the other cards of its color that are already on our boat. Then, the placed Viking and all other Vikings of the same color generate the resources shown at the top of their card. This can therefore create a domino effect: the more crew members of the same color you collect, the more rewards you obtain. These resources can be victory points, fame (which generates victory points each turn, from a certain threshold), crew members, recruit tokens (jokers) or bracelet tokens (which 'you can possibly exchange for points).


Once the Viking is placed in our crew, we complete our hand by taking, under the game board, the card corresponding to the color of the card we played.


Maps - Knarr

Tray - Knarr

When we have enough Vikings in our crew, we have the option to send them out to explore. On our turn, rather than placing a new card in front of us, we can discard the required crew members (for example, two reds and two blues, or three Vikings of a different color) to acquire one of the exploration cards located above the game board. We can also spend our rookie tokens, which are jokers , to replace any card required by the desired destination.


These cards provide immediate rewards (points, fame, tokens) and then place themselves on top of our knarr to gradually form our exploration board , which represents all the destinations with which our clan has established contact.


Tray - Knarr

This table, made up of three vertical columns on which resources are illustrated, allows us to trade . Once per turn (this is a free action, which we can perform in addition to our main action), we can discard 1 to 3 bracelet tokens to collect the resources illustrated in our table. A single bracelet only gives access to the resources in the first column; two bracelets give access to columns 1 and 2 and, finally, three bracelets allow us to collect all the resources illustrated on our table.


Tray - Knarr

There are therefore several means/strategies that can be combined to generate victory points and thus reach the target of 40 points first:

-Play crew members of the same color;

-Increase our fame to generate points each round;

-Explore paid destinations;

-Build a paid board and exchange bracelets for points.


So… what do we think?

Knarr reminded me a lot of Splendor , by Marc André. The objective is the same (race for points) and the principle of the game is quite similar (accumulate colored cards/tokens to then acquire cards worth points). However, after a few games, I think I would tend to prefer Knarr to Splendor (oh, sacrilege!) for several reasons: 1) it is cheaper; 2) the box is four times smaller; 3) it offers more strategic possibilities to generate points; 4) there is no Marvel version of Knarr ! (That said, Splendor is still an excellent classic to have in your collection).


Knarr is an excellent game whose treatment of the theme and artistic direction carefully avoid falling into the usual cliché of the bloodthirsty Viking-raider to concentrate on a perhaps less epic, but historically well-documented facet of the way of life of this people Scandinavian. Moreover, I really liked that the rulebook, clear, concise and well illustrated, was preceded by a preface written by a historian specializing in the Vikings. This is not the only example of the attention to detail shown by the author and the illustrator: to help colorblind people (like my son!) to find their way, each card is equipped with a unique symbol corresponding to its color (we find the same color code in Sea Salt and Paper by Bruno Cathala, published by the same publisher). It's so simple and yet still too rare in the gaming landscape; It’s the kind of little thought we’re really grateful for!


The material is beautiful and the cards are of good quality. The only downside: the game offers four player colors: black, white, brown and beige! Well, I know that the Viking world was probably not commonly yellow and fuchsia pink, but after several games, I still have difficulty distinguishing the difference between white, brown and beige, especially on the game boards. players where the artwork is dark; I understand this choice all the more difficult since the game presents us with cards in five very bright colors... However, let us agree to say that this is a very minor defect, but since it must be find some points to criticize…


All in all, Knarr is a game with an elegant design and simple, fluid mechanics, accessible to a wide audience of players of all ages and levels.


WE love…

-The treatment of the theme and the artistic direction;

-Ease of handling;

-The multiple ways to accumulate points;


We like less…

-The very similar colors of the player boards (black, white, brown and beige…)


Knarr

1-4 players

30 minutes per game

10 years and over

 

- Matt


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