A Feast for Odin has been available on Board Game Arena for a while now. I’ve been mildly curious since it’s my favourite game. My interest has been diminished by the lack of The Norwegians expansion, which I’m very much used to, but the talk of playing solo games on BGA did sound fascinating. I’ve tried playing A Feast for Odin solo with the board game, but that’s just too much cube-pushing for my tastes.

Well, I couldn’t play a solo game, as that apparently requires a Premium account which I don’t at the moment have. I may have to reconsider that. I did get into a game against a friend who mentioned wanting to play the game on a forum.

It was a good game. The BGA interface is mostly very slick; I have only some improvements on my mind (it does require a big window, and I’d wish there was a faster way to pile money on the board). All in all, playing the game on BGA is splendid.

Like I said, I’m used to The Norwegians, random harvests and the short game with the kickstart. Starting with no money at all was terrible… Having access to two pillaging actions, two whaling actions, and two emigration actions feels very loose. I’m definitely missing the last-round actions that allow playing occupation cards, and I miss the herbs and pigs.

However, it was still excellent, and I played a decent game. My opponent was a heavy raider and pillager. I was more peaceful. I got Iceland reasonably early, got a solid income (I don’t think I’ve ever had 28 money in hand in the game), and got Greenland for even more money (and in the end, I also got Tierra del Fuego!). I had lots of traps, so I hunted some game a few times, and I also whaled successfully three or four times. All in all a game with unusual strategies for me.

Despite the heavy income, lots of coins, the English crown(!) and the three islands, I only scored 102 points. I guess the games with The Norwegians tend to generally score some more, so 100 points in the base game are better than 100 points with The Norwegians.