Nusfjord Big Box

Nusfjord is the Uwe Rosenberg game that was on my wishlist for years. It had been out of print for some time, thus the delights of building up a Norwegian fishing village, expanding a fleet and serving fish to a range of elderly gentlemen were denied me. Until now.

Yes, the recent release of Nusfjord Big Box has finally allowed me to get to grips with this fishy worker placement game. Will it find its plaice in my collection? Or does it need throwing back?

It’s Very ‘Uwe’.

If you have played any other Uwe Rosenberg games before, much of Nusfjord will feel very familiar. The worker placement is similar to Agricola/Caverna/A Feast For Odin etc. The cutting down of forests to gain wood and clear space for buildings, along with the building effects themselves, is reminiscent of Glass Road.

That’s not to say Nusfjord is entirely derivative. Yes, it takes elements of previous games, but it adds unique features of its own and, crucially in this reviewer’s opinion, wraps them up in an accessible and gratifying package.

Take the resource management for example. Everything costs a combination of wood, fish and gold. Costs are all clearly marked on the boat tiles and building cards, so players can plan their resource gathering with minimal effort. Savvy players will potentially be able to block out spaces, preventing opponents from getting those 5 wood they really need this round, for example.

As your fishing fleet expands, so too does the amount of fish you catch each round. This is clearly marked on a track; as you build more boats, you cover up more space, leaving a higher haul number exposed. Again, a very easily understood system.

An aspect of innovation, beyond systems I’ve experienced in previous Rosenberg designs, is the issuing of shares. Each player begins with 2 shares in their own company and 3 unissued shares. Sending an unissued share to the market bags you 2 gold. Great. However, another worker placement spot allows you to purchase all issued shares for 1 gold each. This means that other players can obtain shares in your company, syphoning off a fish per share from your catch each round.

Players are incentivised to issue shares to the open market, as each unissued share still in possession is a negative point at the end of the game. This gives Nusfjord an additional layer of player interaction above and beyond the expected contest for worker placement spots and rush to purchase key buildings. You can become, quite literally, invested in other players’ turns.

Big in Content, Small in Size.

If you are anything like me, the phrase ‘big box’ creates mixed feelings. Excitement at having all the content for a game I (hopefully) love. Trepidation at the prospect of finding space on the shelf for an oversized box, full of content that gets used rarely (if at all), due to teaching new players with the ‘base’ ruleset.

Fortunately, the ‘big’ in Nusfjord Big Box refers to the fact it contains all the content – ie all the available building decks. Thus, what you’re getting here, is more ‘Nusfjord Definitive Edition’. Since the additional content is swapping one deck of buildings for another, you will find it all gets used. It adds tremendous variety and replayability to the game (similarly to how the different improvement and occupation decks do so for Agricola), but without ever feeling overwhelming.

There is one brand new expansion included, which introduces some visitor meeples that trigger of the deck’s bespoke buildings. I would not recommend starting with this one, but after only a couple of games, it will be no trouble to include at all, given how it fits in seamlessly with existing mechanisms.

Quality Components? Mostly…

With resource management games, part of the enjoyment can stem from how pleasant (or not) it is to manipulate the physical resource components. Nusfjord Big Box gets this right, on the whole.

The biggest criticism of the previous edition was of the tiny, chintzy card coins included for gold. These were minuscule and cheap, especially compared with the wooden components used elsewhere in the production.

Fortunately, chunky wooden gold coins are now included and these tie in nicely with the wooden fish and wood resource tokens. They are only screen printed on one side though; not a huge problem, but it does look like a pure cost cutting measure that slightly cheapens their appearance.

The cardboard ships and forest tiles are of fine quality and the card stock is sturdy enough that it should all hold up well without resorting to card sleeves.

The art is of a style you might expect from Lookout Games. That is to say, it is very ‘euro game’. The elders look suitably like village elders – a bunch of elderly gentleman attired in a manner appropriate to their craft. There is no art on the building cards, though I feel the choice to sacrifice aesthetics in favour of functionality was the right call.

Fishing and Scaling.

The player scaling in Nusfjord Big Box is excellent. The main board is double sided, with the 3 player side allowing for more than one worker to visit a particular spot, whilst the 2 player side has a strict one worker per space limit. An additional tile is introduced at 4 and 5 players, allowing the worker that goes there to copy any other action.

The manner in which building cards are distributed and refreshed changes with player count too and this all ensures a fun, competitive experience at all player counts. Indeed, the place-a-worker-do-a-thing nature of the turns means that even with 5 players, there is not an inordinate amount of downtime.

The table footprint is also fairly compact, although at higher player counts it will become tricky for some players to quickly parse the market of building cards. Given how key these are to the game, I would suggest learning the game at a lower player count (2-3) and ensure inexperienced players are best seated to observe the building market board.

If you are considering playing Nusfjord Big Box solo, I’m pleased to say that you really should! It is ultimately a beat your own score solo mode, but it is a simply and cleverly designed system that blocks the solo player from worker placement spots during the game.

You use workers of 2 (or 3 in the advanced solo mode) colours and only retrieve alternating colours at the end of each round. This is similar to the solo mode in A Feast for Odin and provides an enjoyable, thoughtful gaming experience.

Throw in the fact that the solo game time is comfortably under 30 minutes and the variety of the 7 decks of building cards to explore… Yes, Nusfjord is my favourite Rosenberg game to play solo. It’s as fun as it is addictive and writing this is making me want to go and get it out again right now.

Thou Shalt Have A Fishy.

Catching fish to serve up to a sternly-visaged group of elderly gentlemen doesn’t scream board gaming fun, I admit. However, Nusfjord Big Box provides everything one could want from a mid weight worker placement game. Creating combos from the buildings allows players to feel clever. The share system provides interactivity. The resources are fun to manipulate. The variety of content is impressive, yet all easily incorporated.

There are dozens and dozens of worker placement games out there. Many of them feature complex rules, or lengthy game times that can be barriers to entry. Nusfjord, on the other hand, is an accessible delight yet with enough under the fishing boat hood to keep this experienced euro gamer coming back for more. It is one of Uwe Rosenberg’s best games period and the best I’ve experienced for solo play. It is not often a game truly plays well at all of its advertised 1-5 player count, but Nusfjord Big Box manages to do just that.

Nusfjord Big Box gets an easy recommendation from me, as it has quickly become a mainstay of my collection. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some village elders waiting. For when the boat comes in.