The basic premise of Odin’s Ravens is that the ravens, Huginn and Muninn, are racing across varying terrain in order to bring Allfather Odin news of the human world. Naturally, the ravens have become slightly competitive in their quest and often enlist the help of the trickster god, Loki, to expedite their journey or sabotage their partner.The game itself is a fairly straightforward card management racing game with crucial moments of trickery and deception. It takes a brief minute to explain the rules and, after a practice round, approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. After laying out the land cards to create the racing “track”, each player draws a hand of five cards, which can be a combination of terrain and Loki cards, and chooses a raven token. Each round you can play as many cards as you like, in whatever combination you like. There are several creative workarounds if a player finds themselves without a playable card, but occasionally you may have to skip a turn. At the conclusion of your turn, you draw three new cards from either your terrain or Loki stacks.
Gameplay boils down to mostly the card draw, but the Loki cards add an element of strategy that elevates the experience. The goal is to get your raven to the finish line (which is also your opponent’s starting line) first! In our experience, every win has been extremely close -- the losing raven trailing behind by only a few spaces.
Abby’s Take:
The first thing I noticed about Odin’s Ravens was the box it came in -- matte finished with fabulous illustrations and a runic font. I imagine that since the game was reprinted by Osprey, originally a book company, they placed an added emphasis on design -- judging a book by it’s cover, and all that. The card design is also worth noting -- they are of a streamlined shape and just as beautifully illustrated as the box. Also, we both got very excited when we noticed the land cards have interlocking Norse designs that provide a continuity to the game’s “world.” Normally, I would consider a game like this more of a “filler” -- fun, fast-paced, not too complex -- but, Odin’s Ravens, despite being our newest acquisition, already has staying power for us. We immediately played it through three or four times (all of which I won, just saying). However, I loved the character design for Loki and found myself wanting Odin to be featured more prominently -- they are his ravens, after all. I also think they could have done a little bit more with the raven tokens, but perhaps I am just being greedy about the design because I have seen what they are capable of.
TLDR; Unique racing game with beautiful artwork and clean, fast-paced gameplay.
Rating: 4 out of 5 mythical ravens
Brad's Take:
I lost seven straight games of Odin’s Ravens in a row -- seven in a row! My disposition remained cheery and hopeful after my first few defeats, seeing as how the game appeared to rely heavily on the luck of the draw, but by my fourth loss I began to contemplate whether something more complex was at work under the surface of this seemingly simple card management game. Was A secretly a savant at raven themed card games? Was my color blindness impairing my ability to decipher land types correctly? Was Muninn, my mythical raven of choice, actually cursed in the eye of Odin? There had to be a logical explanation as to why A was kicking my little albino raven’s tail up and down Midgard time and time again. Edda sonnet Grίmnismál, as translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1866:
Hugin and Munin
fly each day
over the spacious earth.
I fear for Hugin,
that he come not back,
yet more anxious am I for Munin.
There you have it: Muninn is the underdog by nature and is constantly working against the hand of Fate! (Denial is a powerful thing, folks.) Raven balance issues aside, Odin’s Ravens is a wonderfully fun game of high speed pursuit and board manipulating trickery. Though the game’s core movement-by-card mechanic is quite simple, the Loki cards add just enough depth and sabotage to the race to keep players engaged. A picked up on a number of terrain tactics quite rapidly and deployed them in devastating fashion. The game is also quite suspenseful due to the low number of cards drawn every turn, making the most routine of draw decisions into nail-biters. Often times I would hear the dramatic swell of a string quartet in my head as I struggled between choosing a Flight or Loki card. The terrain artwork is lush and majestic, fitting of a primeval Midgard where the elements still hold court, but I was left disappointed by the fact that Odin doesn’t play a larger role in the game. He is the Raven God after all! I may look into picking up an Odin miniature to preside over future raven races.
TLDR; Fantastic concept, execution, and packaging make Odin’s Ravens into a keeper for speedy, casual gaming.
Rating: 4 out of 5 mythical ravens
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