Managing a fishing village was never so exciting before
⛵Saltfjord is a reimagination of the game Santa Maria by the same designers, Kristian Amundsen Østby and Eilif Svensson. While we do own Santa Maria, unfortunately it is still on our pile of opportunity so I won’t be able to compare the two games. However what I do know is that Saltfjord isn’t just a retheme, it builds on top and adds some new stuff to the game.
The heart of the game is the same though, and that is the superb action selection.
👉During the game you are drafting dice 🎲 that will activate rows or columns (depending on their color) of your 6x6 player board, activating buildings present. Buildings could generate resources or do 1 of the 4 main actions of the game.
🧐As you play, you will construct more buildings, thus making your rows and columns more profitable. It’s not always simple though, as you are drafting dice from a central pool, and dice you desperately need could be taken by others. 😱 You are limited in how many white and orange dice you can take in a round, so sometimes you can calculate what will surely remain there for you. Luckily there is dice mitigation too, as you can pay fish to alter their value, and you also have workers that can activate buildings on their own. ☝️But dice and workers also block buildings until the end of the round!
Safe to say, this central mechanic of the game is a really compelling puzzle. 🥰
Luckily the rest of the game is solid as well: like having 4 technology tracks ⚙️ where you can unlock some powerful ongoing bonuses, helping different strategies. You can complete orders 📦, gathering not just points but getting useful income. There are also asymmetric abilities that you draft at the beginning of the game which really influences the way you play. And of course getting to hand-tailor your village board with buildings is a very fun way to steer your game strategy.
I’d like to give a special mention to the resource management, as it is very engaging - which is definitely good, as you are constantly needing all kinds of resources for everything. But more on that later!
