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Odin’s Ravens
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Awards
Rating
-
Artwork
-
Complexity
-
Replayability
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Player Interaction
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Component Quality
You Might Like
- Quick to set-up.
- Easy to play and teach.
- Good replay-ability.
Might Not Like
- The lack of distinct theme.
- Losing when you are so close to winning!
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Description
Odin’s Ravens is a two-player homage to norse mythology, with both players taking on the role of one of Odin’s infamous ravens. You will race against each other, along seperate tracks in a bid to reach the end of the world first.
The track is made up of domino-style cards, each side depicting a landscape that matches with cards in a players deck. The players must play cards from their hand, matching the landscapes in front of them to progress.
Of course, you’re not alone in your adventures, and the mischievous Loki is on hand to provide you with a little boost, while hindering the other players' progress as well!
Race to the end to win Odin’s favour and become his most favoured raven!
Player count - 2 players
Time - 30 minutes
Age - 10+
![Odin's Ravens Board Game Review](https://cdn.zatu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/18132411/Odins-Ravens-Board-Game-Review.jpg)
Arguably Thorsten Gimmler’s most well known game, ‘No Thanks!’ is one of my favourite filler games (a game that takes no more than 30 minutes), offering both simplicity, tactics, luck and risk all at an incredibly reasonable price and so my expectations were high when playing Odin’s Ravens for the first time.
Luckily, I was delighted to find that Odin’s Ravens is a wonderful game that goes against the trend of two-player games feeling reliant on confrontation, without losing the fun of player interaction.
Set-Up
Set-up for Odin’s Ravens is rather simple:
- Shuffle the land cards and place 16 of them in a line between the players. When laying them down, all you need to check is that no two spaces in a row are the same – if they are, you just need to rotate it 180 degrees or put the card to the bottom of the pile and select a new one. The remaining deck of cards is just placed faced down nearby.
- Ravens are then placed at one end of the land cards- each ready to take a different route.
- Each player is then given 25 flight cards and eight Loki cards of their colour and these are shuffled separately and placed face down in front of each play.
- Finally, players draw a total of five cards (from either pile or a some from each), for example four flight cards and one Loki card and then you are ready to begin.
Odin’s Ravens – Gameplay
The aim of the game is the move your raven into the final space on your opponent’s side; otherwise known as the end of the world! Gameplay in Odin’s Raven is very simple. On your turn, you can play flight cards and/or Loki cards. You can play as many cards as you would like and once cards have been played, they are placed in your discard pile.
Finally, you need to draw three cards to end your turn and, like at the start, these can be taken from either or both piles. If a player ends up with more than seven cards, cards are simply discarded onto your discard pile until you are left with seven. The real tactics come when deciding which card(s) to play;
![Odin's Ravens Review - Box Contents](https://cdn.zatu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/18132410/Odins-Ravens-Review-Box-Contents.jpg)
Flight Cards
Flight cards simply must match the land in front of you to move along and, to avoid ever having hands that do nothing, two of the same card can also help you move along to any new land. If there are two or more of the same land in a row, usually as a result of the Loki cards, you can use the matching flight card to move over all of these spaces.
Loki Cards
Whilst just using flight cards would be fine, the real fun comes when using the Loki cards. Loki, being the God of mischief, is all about mixing the game up. His cards allow you to do a variety of actions such as rotating cards, removing cards, swapping cards and adding extra cards to your hand and it is these cards that can be used to make incredible comebacks and slow your opponent down!
Ending the Game
The game ends when your raven reaches the final space on your opponents side. If that is the player that went first, your opponent gets one more turn to see if they can reach the finish point. If they make it, the player with the most cards left in their hand wins. If that is the same, you must race again!!
Final Thoughts on Odin’s Ravens
Although this may sound like a very simple, uneventful game, that could not be further from the truth. Odin’s Ravens is a brilliant two-player game with all the drama of a chariot race! Thorsten Gimmler has once again created a game that is incredibly simple to learn and yet has a good amount of strategy to keep it interesting.
The way that it is set-up means that games will always be slightly different and this means that the tactics that you used in the last game, may not work so well if you play a second time and I’m yet to play this and not want at least a second game!
I have never known a game with so many comebacks and nail biting finishes. You can be sat there looking at your hand thinking ‘I’ve won this!’ as your opponent plays a few cards and whizzes to the finish. Components are of good quality – the box, ravens and cards are all great and the price of the game is definitely a plus as it can usually be purchased for around £16.
My only minor criticism is that the theme is simply okay. There is nothing wrong with the theme, it is just that, despite the name, it does not feel like Norse mythology. Overall though, I would highly recommend anybody who enjoys two-player games to add this to their collection.
![How to Play Odin's Ravens Feature](https://cdn.zatu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/18033839/How-to-Play-Odins-Ravens-Feature.png)
Odin’s Ravens is a racing game for two players. In the game each player takes on the role of one of Odin’s ravens. The ravens have made a race out of their daily patrol of the world. Each raven wants to be the first to fly once round the World and return to Odin. They can also call on Loki, the God of trickery, in order to try and hamper their opponent.
Read on below to find out how this race around the World works.
![How to Play Odin's Ravens Body 4](https://cdn.zatu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/18033844/How-to-Play-Odins-Ravens-Body-4.png)
Ready, Set…
Shuffle the land cards and place 16 cards in a line between the players. There are two sides to each card and these will form the routes the ravens will fly before turning round at the top and returning on the other route.
When setting up the track, no two land types can be next to each other on a route. If this would happen, rotate the newest card by 180 degrees. If there would still be a match, discard the new card to the bottom of the deck and draw a replacement card.
Place the deck of land cards in reach of both players. The players take the raven, flight cards and Loki cards in their colour. Place the raven at the start of one of the routes. Shuffle your land cards and Loki cards separately, leaving them in two separate draw piles.
The players then draw their starting hand of five cards. The starting hand can be made up of any combination of Loki cards and land cards. The start player is the player who lost the last race.
…Go!
On their turn players will play cards from their hand either to advance their raven (flight cards) or to influence the race (Loki cards). There is no limit to the number of cards which a player can play on their turn.
![How to Play Odin's Ravens Body 2](https://cdn.zatu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/18033841/How-to-Play-Odins-Ravens-Body-2.png)
Round the World in 15 Minutes
In order to advance their raven, a player must play a land card matching the type of terrain on the next space. Players can play two cards of the same land type as a substitute for another card. A player may continue to play flight cards, advancing their raven, for as long as they have the correct cards in their hand. If several spaces of the same land type are next to each other, a player can use a flight card of the matching land type to move to the end of the row of spaces (i.e. a player could use one mountain card to move over several mountain spaces in a row, placing their raven on the last mountain space). Used flight cards go into the discard pile.
![How to Play Odin's Ravens Body 3](https://cdn.zatu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/18033843/How-to-Play-Odins-Ravens-Body-3.png)
Playing Tricks
Loki cards influence the game by adding in different abilities. Players can, amongst other things, swap or rotate land cards or even add an extra land card to one of the flight paths using a Loki card.
There are four different types of Loki card, each with two effects on them. Each player starts the game with two Loki cards of each type. When playing a Loki card a player can only use one of the effects on the cards. The Loki card is discarded from the game once it has been used.
Cards which move or rotate land cards cannot be used on cards with a raven on. If a player adds a card to the flight path using a Loki card, the additional card is placed alongside one of the routes at ninety degrees. Both spaces on the additional card become part of that flight path. Players can add additional cards to the loop if they want.
If a card is in a loop, or has been moved by the slide action it cannot be slid, swapped or removed but it can be rotated. Sometimes a card may be slid to overlap a card placed in a loop. The card which is being placed or moved will be the card on top and the land type on the bottom card is ignored. Any partially covered card cannot be moved by the actions of a Loki card.
![How to Play Odin's Ravens Body 1](https://cdn.zatu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/18033840/How-to-Play-Odins-Ravens-Body-1.png)
Pit Stop
A turn ends when a player has played all of the cards they wish to. They then draw three cards into their hand. These can be any combination of flight cards and Loki cards and players can look at each card they draw as they draw it. After drawing cards a player has more than seven cards in their hand, they must discard down to seven. When your draw pile is empty, shuffle your discard pile and place it as a new draw pile.
And the Winner is…
The winner of Odin’s Ravens is whoever manages to fly their raven to the end of the world and back first. If that player went first the other player can then take a turn to see if their raven can finish too. Then if both players finish on the same turn, the player who has more cards in their hand wins. If both players have the same number of cards left there is a tie and the ravens need to race again.
Odin’s Raven Tips
- Loki cards – these change the game when they are played. Make sure you use all eight of your cards before the end of the race as this could be the difference between winning and losing, especially as your opponent is likely to use all of their cards.
- When to use Loki cards – sometimes it may seem like a great idea to move a card out of the way on your flight to the end of the world, but don’t forget you are going to have to fly on your opponents route on the way back. It can be worth holding on to some of your Loki cards until you are on your way back so you make sure to really benefit your raven.
- Balancing cards in your starting hand. It can be tempting to take all flight cards or all Loki cards, however, you need a good blend of both to be able to effectively advance your raven at all stages of the game. I would recommend taking either three flight and two Loki cards or four flight and two Loki cards.
- Remember the same type of land in a row can be flown over using one card. This is a rule which can commonly be overlooked when starting to play the game.
Zatu Score
Rating
- Artwork
- Complexity
- Replayability
- Player Interaction
- Component Quality
You might like
- Quick to set-up.
- Easy to play and teach.
- Good replay-ability.
Might not like
- The lack of distinct theme.
- Losing when you are so close to winning!