Review
Nations
With every extra rule and expansion in play, Nations became a brisk, unforgiving civilisation race. Viking raids set the table scrambling from round one, and the game still came down to a single point with no dead air.
- Published
- 2013
- Designer
- Rustan Håkansson, Nina Håkansson, Einar Rosén, Robert Rosén
- Publisher
- Lautapelit.fi, asmodee, Asterion Press
- Players
- 1–5
- Playing time
- 200 min
We put Nations on the table with all the extra expansions and rules, plus civilisations we had not tried before: Vikings, Koreans and Greeks. It wasted no time making its intentions clear. The Vikings opened with a military lead and started raiding from the first round. Fine. Now everyone has to move.
That pressure is not background colour. Viking raiding and military strength pushed the rest of us into turmoil just to stay in contention, so nobody got to quietly optimise their own little corner. Every move had to answer somebody across the table, which is exactly the right sort of bad news.
Every move had to answer somebody across the table, which is exactly the right sort of bad news.
TheCuttlefish
The pace stayed hard all game. One player fell away when their plan failed to land; the other two raced to a one-point photo finish. It took under two hours, had no downtime at all, and kept everyone involved even away from their own turn. There was nowhere to hide.
For our group, Nations is currently a clear step above through: quick, harsh, and full of decisions that matter.
Updated session
The later play confirmed the same impression rather than changing it: a full-bodied game of constant pressure, with a race that keeps the entire table engaged to the end.
For our group, Nations is currently a clear step above through: quick, harsh, and full of decisions that matter.
TheCuttlefish
Source: BoardGameGeek
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