Shipwrights of the North Sea (Second Edition)

2017 · Medieval

Shipwrights of the North Sea (Second Edition)

Set in the early Viking Age around 900 AD, the game places players in the role of shipwrights competing to build the greatest fleet on the North Sea. Players gather oak, wool, and iron, recruit craftsmen and townsfolk, and spend gold to construct ships and buildings. Each round represents a day divided into planning, working, and resting phases. Players receive three cards, play or discard them, and take an action on the central village board before gaining gold and workers for the next day. The game ends after a round in which one or more players builds a fourth ship, and victory goes to the player with the most points. The second edition includes the base game and the Townsfolk Expansion.

Players
2–5 best 3
Playing time
60 min
Age
10+
Complexity
2.5 / 5
3.1 on LudoyaNauticalCommodity SpeculationOpen DraftingWorker Placement

On Ludoya's tables

Full stats in Ludoya
22
Plays logged
10
Players
1h 19m
Average play
4
In collections
1
On wishlists

3.1/10

from 3 Ludoya reviews

  • Taha Afyouni2.5

    I played this as part of the Runesaga campaign, and it's my least favorite of the North Sea games. Several things hindered my enjoyment of this game: 1. Scaling: In a 2-player game, you're choosing from 3 cards half the time and from 2 cards the other half of the time. Since you're usually trying to find specific cards, I constantly felt stuck. I haven't played with a higher player count, but I feel like I would have more choices in a 4/5-player game since I am choosing from 4+ cards most of the time. 2. Take that cards: While I'm not totally opposed to "take that" elements in games, I don't find myself wanting to play a 60-minute game with lots of luck and take that cards. 3. Ease of play: Small additions here and there could have made the game easier to play. For example, the player aid with the ships could have included their costs instead of just their rewards. They also included worker and resource limits on the player boards, but they could have easily included the limit on tools (1) and craftsmen (4). While there are some things I enjoyed, such as the artwork and the included expansion board (I could not imagine playing without it!), I would not recommend buying this game unless you want to complete your North Sea trilogy/play the Runesaga.

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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.