Looot First Impressions
Looot has you place Vikings to gain resources.
Will you be crowned Jarl of the Vikings?
Gather resources and capture buildings to develop your fjord. Fill your longships and complete your construction sites in order to rack up your victory points. Store up the most riches, and you’ll be crowned Jarl of the Vikings!
Looot Game Overview
Quick Rules Summary
Players take turns placing a Viking on the main board, either next to a longship or next to another Viking.
Once placed, they gain a tile of the resource they placed it on and place that tile on their player board.
Also, if they place adjacent to buildings they take one of the building tiles off the stack and place that on their board too.
After taking their turn, they can take one of the Longship tokens from the board, put it on their own board and replace it with one from the bag.
Players also have 3 tokens with once-per-game abilities. One to take an extra turn, one to place where another Viking is already and one to take double the collected resource tiles.
How do you win?
When all Vikings have been placed the game ends.
There are a few Axe tiles worth an increasing number of points. On a player’s turn, they can take one up to the number of Axe resource tiles they have on their player board.
Players have 3 construction sites on their board. If they are surrounded by the shown resource tiles and buildings they are worth the printed number of points.
Longships that are placed during the game are also flipped if surrounded by the printed resource tiles. These award a number of points (mostly 1 or 2) for each of the resource tiles on your board shown on that Longship. Resources also have a base point value.
For example, trees have a base value of 1 point. If I have 3 flipped longships that give trees 1 point each, each of my tree tiles will be worth 4 points. Do this for all resources and buildings.
Unflipped Longships are worth -5 points each and the most points wins.
Main Mechanisms
Route building, even if it is collective, and tile placement. Because tiles need to be placed in specific places on the board to maximise their effectiveness, I’d include pattern building here too. You’re not building a pattern as such but it’s the same sort of thing.
Theme
Vikings and such, it didn’t come through during gameplay.
Setup
Hand out the pieces and set up the main board. The main board is double-sided and in 3 pieces so you’ll have some variability.
Components & Artwork
The Viking meeples are cool and the iconography is very clean and clear.
The art is minimal and kinda cute.
Ease of Teaching
This is a very easy game to teach, Everything is open information so you can talk people through anything at any time.
Similar Games
Earlier that day I played Cascadero which is similar in gameplay but a bit heavier.
Looot Review
Positives
Very simple yet strategic gameplay.
A nice clean and cute look.
Getting the tiles you need and making them fit is satisfying.
Trying to balance gaining the resources you need with the multipliers you get is a fun game, especially with just 13 Vikings to place.
Negatives
Some of the buildings, especially towers that need to connect two towers together to gain one from each stack, are frustrating to get.
Summary
A fun and light game that you’ll want to play to beat your previous score.
Jesta ThaRogue
