Althing is live (Race to become King of the Vikings)
Update: Althing has launched on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 16 days. You may pledge for just the game or also order the playmat.
Our preview post below was published on March 4.
Althing is a 1-3 players racing and deck-building game, the goal of which is to be the first to reach the Althing and be crowned King of the Vikings. It will launch on Kickstarter on March 9.
At the start of the game, you set up a track of Location cards that must be passed through to reach the last one of them, the Althing. Each player begins with a deck of 6 starting cards and draws the first four.
On each turn, you play as many of these four cards in your hand as you deem necessary to perform a variety of actions. Each card has three characteristics: trick symbols, resource symbols, and cost. You can play your cards as resource to either buy new cards from the market by matching their cost (as is the standard in deck-building, these will be added in your discard pile, to be shuffled and form your deck again every time it runs out), or to meet the resource requirements to move to the next location of the track. Alternatively, you can use one of the trick symbols of a card to mess with your opponents’ plans. At the end of your turn, you can discard as many of your cards as you want, and draw cards to refill your hand back at four.
In the solo mode, you play against Thorfinn, a young, blond, charismatic fellow that also happens to be favored by the gods. You might not be, but you can still rely on your cunning to win the race. Thorfinn plays with a deck of six cards of its own. Before you play your turn, one of Thorfinn’s cards is revealed, specifying which action he takes according to the location he’s currently on. One of the cards, for instance, has him automatically move on to the next location, while another card will prevent you from using a given type of resource during your turn. Although Thorfinn will snatch cards from the market, he never uses any of them, but they are there for you to steal using the appropriate trick.
Whoever reaches the Althing first, wins the game.