Greenland

Plays: 4Px1.

The Game

Just one week after Allen, Ivan and I played Neanderthal, we did the sister game Greenland, this time with Sinbad joining us so we had the full complement. Greenland was published first, so Neanderthal is a refined version with a different setting. I prefer Neanderthal to Greenland. However Neanderthal supports at most three players, compared to Greenland which supports four.

Greenland tells the story of Greenland from the 11th to the 15th century. During this period four tribes lived on Greenland. They competed, but more importantly they had to survive the harsh conditions of Greenland. It was not all that green, it was mostly snow white. Eventually three of the four tribes died out. Only the Thule survived, and they are the modern day Inuits or Eskimos.

Greenland is a worker placement game, but it is nothing like the typical Euro-style worker placement game we play. It is a heavy gamer's game with many rules, perhaps more being for flavour and storytelling than for gameplay and game mechanism. Throughout the rulebook and on the cards, you see much flavour text in italics. You feel like you are reading a condensed encyclopedia. Every game mechanism and every card refers to something in real history (and geography and biology). You play one of the tribes in Greenland. Every round you send your tribesmen out, usually to hunt, sometimes to marry into other tribes, sometimes to colonise North America. Every tribe starts off being polytheistic. During the game you may switch to Christianity. The most important difference between being polytheistic and being monotheistic is how you score points at game end. A polytheistic tribe may score points from trophy cards, while a monotheistic tribe may score points from iron and ivory resources. Both types score points for their population. The game is played over 10 rounds. Highest scorer at game end wins.

Every tribe starts with some daughters and domesticated animals. These confer advantages. Some of these cards are double sided, and you need to decide which side to use before the game starts. Other players may send tribesmen to marry your daughters. If they do, their tribes will gain the powers of your daughters.

This is the starting side of a player board, i.e. the polytheistic side. The column along the left are the positions for six types of elders, and the rest of the board indicates what each elder type gets to do in which phase of a game round. The antler icon at the top right is a reminder that a polytheistic tribe gets to score points for trophy cards.

This is the other (monotheistic) side of the player board. The icons at the top right remind you that you score points for ivory (white) and iron (black) resources. The elder abilities vary somewhat from the polytheistic side. One important difference is you get to join an inter-tribe council now. The four boxes in the four player colours are spaces for council members. You can send your elders to be council members at other players' boards. They can do the same. Your presence in other players' boards gives you points at game end.

The common play area at the centre of the table is made of cards. At the far left you have two draw decks. The second column is two colonies in North America. The rest are biomes on Greenland. The two rows have meaning. Two of the tribes live in north Greenland, and the other two south Greenland. They tend to operate nearer to home, because to work further away, they need either elders who are mariners, or sleds.

This is the procedure you follow during a game round. You always start with an event card, and usually bad things happen. The subsequent three phases are all related to placing workers and resolving their actions. Sometimes they succeed and you gain something. Sometimes they fail and you get nothing, or you lose some workers. The last two phases are mostly domestic affairs, like domesticating animals and certain elder actions.

Markland is a colony in North America. I (green) started the game with some tribesmen already settled there. Maintaining a colony here is not easy. Every tribesman who rolls a 3 or 6 dies. Every roll of 1 or 2 gives me a new tribesman here, and an energy resource (orange). The energy in Markland refers to lumber, which can be used as fuel.

If a colony becomes overcrowded, it is flipped to the harsher side, representing the natives in North America being unhappy with the newcomers. It becomes even harder to survive.

You start the game with 6 elders, which is different from Neanderthal. Also you may train more than one elder of the same type. Some elder powers are one use per round, e.g. the mariner can send 4 tribesmen to one colony or distant biome. If you need to send more than 4 to one place, or if you need to send people to two or more places, you'll need more mariners.

Most of the biome cards are hunting grounds of animals. Some let you craft tools. Many cards are dual-use. Notice many have upside-down text at the bottom. Such text are the second use. You get to use such powers after you claim the card into your hand.

This reference card is a necessity for new players. So many icons!

Notice that two biome cards have been moved to the left side of the draw decks. This means global cooling has occurred. These two are now in a colder climate. It is harder to get things done. Normally a success roll is 1 or 2. In cold climate, a success roll is 1.

In this game you can force a marriage by sending tribesmen on a Sabine raid. It is possible to negotiate and agree on a marriage, and if this happens, there is no risk for the groom's tribe. In this photo, three tribesmen have been sent to try to set up a marriage with Birgitta. They will need to roll a 1 and a 3 to successfully have one of them marry Birgitta. You need your bros to help you get a wife. In fact, at least one of your bros need to die for it, because rolling a 3 means someone dies.

This little board is to help keep track of your advantages in specific activities. Let's take the first row as an example. When performing this activity type, if the yellow player rolls a 5 or a 3, he gets to reroll once. The left column is empty at the moment. If you have a marker in the left column, the number rolled is immediately converted to a 1, which usually means success.

The Play

Greenland is a game of survival. Brutal events keep coming. It is also a development game. You try to improve your abilities to help you survive better, and score points more effectively. Whether to convert to monotheism is an important decision. You probably want to decide relatively early, so that you can focus your efforts on the appropriate way of scoring points. Winning trophy cards is hard, and so is accumulating ivory and iron. It is nigh impossible to do both well.

Living conditions are harsh, and often you try to avoid competing with others. If another player has sent tribesmen to a biome you are interested in, you may decide to go for your second choice so that you don't need to compete. Competing may mean failing, and thus wasting your efforts. Going for your second choice is a safer decision. If two players compete fiercely, they may end up destroying each other, to the benefit of the other players.

The results of your actions often depend on die rolls, so there is a significant luck element. The events are also a source of randomness and uncertainty. These simulate that age and that environment. Your decisions and strategies do still matter. You will see your hard work bear fruit, just not always. The best strategist does not always win. Playing Greenland is more about experiencing that period in history than being a luckless battle of pure skill.

This daughter was now married to a tribesman of the blue tribe, the Sea Sami.

Both Markland and Vinland, the colonies in North America, were settled now. On the cold side (left of the draw decks), the yellow player had sent hunters despite knowing it would be harder to hunt. This was because of the lure of the 3 victory points of that card.

More and more cards were moved to the cold side, and life became harder and harder.

I won and invented these tools. The one on the left was worth 3VP, which was a big deal. Unfortunately an event near game end forced me to lose it. That was painful.

Vinland had been flipped to the pink (harsher) side. However it was now on the left side of the draw deck, i.e. on the cold side. At game end, each tribesman here would be worth 2VP (as opposed to 1VP for a regular tribesman). So it was still worth the gamble sending people here.

The orca card, if it could be domesticated, would be worth 9VP. That's huge.

The Thoughts

Greenland is a gamer's game, and even for gamers, it requires some effort to learn and play. It gives a rather different experience compared to many games. I guess that's true for most if not all of Phil Eklund's games. You are being taught history using a functioning game, as opposed to playing a game with some historical theme pasted on after the game design is done.

I prefer Neanderthal because there is more flexibility and more ways to score points. In Greenland, your big decision is polytheism or monotheism, and you must do well either in winning trophies or in stockpiling ivory and iron. In Neanderthal, although you only get to choose between two marriage systems, there are many elements in your society which are worth points. In case you fare poorly in one, there are still others you can work on. The two games share many similarities. If you are going to get just one, go for Neanderthal. If you really enjoy it, then get Greenland too.