ODIN’S RAVENS (2016)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2	20 mins	Thorsten Gimmler	Osprey Games

This game is a 2-player race where you will play cards to make your progress along a line of landscape cards.

You have a handful of cards that have the landscape images to match the cards on the route, and you match these pictures to progress your raven.

Of course if that were it, then it would be simple and boring.

So they threw in Loki cards to really mix things up.

Loki cards each have a choice of two actions that a player can make. These actions allow you to either take more cards, or manipulate the race course in several different ways.

But you only have eight Loki cards, and when they’re gone, they are gone. So picking the right moment to use them could end up being key to victory.

However, one issue I have with the Loki cards is that some of them hinder as much as help. Because you travel up one side of the track, and back down the other, while your opponent is coming the other way, you might make a change to the track that will at some point later on, cause as much of an issue for yourself. Which sometimes puts me off using them. They hinder as much as help.

And the randomness of the cards can sometimes cause your race to stumble as you might not have in your hand what you need to move.

This is covered a little by the fact that you can place two matching cards to cover a landscape image you don’t have to move, meaning it’s less of a problem than it could have been.

Overall, ODIN’S RAVENS is a small, beautiful game that is easy to learn and quick to play.