Nusfjord Board Game First Impressions

Nusfjord gives you worker placement, ships, buildings and fish on plates.

Can you satisfy the local elders with your fish?

In the time period in which the game Nusfjord is set, things looked quite different. Sailing ships dominate the fjord. The rocks around Nusfjord are covered in trees. As the owner of a major fishing company in Nusfjord on the Lofoten archipelago, your goal is to develop the harbour and the surrounding landscape and to succeed you must enlarge your fleet, clear the forest, erect new buildings, and satisfy the local elders. Others do this as well, of course, so the competition is steep.

Nusfjord Board Game Review

My first impressions of Nusfjord including a brief overview of gameplay followed by my final summary.

Game Summary

This is a quite standard worker placement. You place the disks to collect resources, tiles for your play area and everything else. You have cards that let you do things such as remove tiles from your board in exchange for resources.

Nothing is unique really and it’s all similar to Uwe’s other games. There is a big mix of Agricola and Glass Road with the components and the look. But this game definitely stands on its own.

The initial fish-tribution stage is fairly unique I think. You get your income from your boats then pay your debts around the board and effectively keep the change. Fish is a key resource as you can imagine in a fishing village so this phase makes sense.

I’m not really familiar with the Elders and their part in things or their role in the community. I also have no idea why you give them fish 🙂

Turn Order

The turn order tokens are unique to me, not something I’ve seen before that I can remember. It’s a great way of easily marking the current round, remembering what triggers during which round and having it easily change for the player count.

Image from nasjonaleturistveger.no

This game has a very nice weight. It’s much lighter than A Feast for Odin and more forgiving than Agricola. But it’s not like you’re on autopilot, there is plenty to think about. This is my favourite Euro from Uwe from all those that I’ve played.

As far as Euros in general goes, it’s a decent one, maybe top 20.

Jesta ThaRogue