- Publisher(s): Aporta Games
- Author(s): Kristian Amundsen Østby, Eilif Svensson
- Artist(s): Peter Bartels, Yan Moussu
- Players : 1–4
- Playing time : 45–90 Min
- Weight BGG : 3.06
What's this?
Saltfjord is a management and strategy board game that immerses you in a fishing village in Norway at the end of the 19th century.
How do you play?
Procedure:
The game is played over 3 rounds. The starting player goes first, then the other players play clockwise until all players decide to retire.
On your turn, you must do one of the following three actions:
1 TAKE A DICE
Place the chosen die above its corresponding column or to the left of its row. You can then activate as many buildings as you like in the row or column where the die was placed.
The buildings you choose to activate must be vacant and activated in order from top to bottom or left to right. Place the die on the last activated building.
Action buildings allow you to perform various actions:
➡️ Complete an order: Pay the resources indicated on one of the four face-up crate tiles on the game board.
➡️ Acquire a technology: There are four technology tracks on the game board. Each time you progress on a track, you gain an immediate effect or a permanent ability.)
➡️ Build a small building tile: Pay one wood to take the top tile from a stack of small building tiles. Place the building tile on empty spaces anywhere in your player’s grid.
➡️ Go Fishing: Move your fishing boat to the next area of the fjord and take a fishing token or Return Home: Score the number of points adjacent to your fishing boat’s current area.
2 BUILD A LARGE BUILDING TILE
Pay 1 wood and 1 plank to take the top tile from a stack of large building tiles.
3 WITHDRAW
Move your player marker from the tavern area to an empty tavern, then perform the corresponding action. Next, activate each dock on your storage board that has command tiles.
The end of the game
When all players have retired, the round ends. If this is the third round, proceed to the FINAL COUNT.
Is it good?
Saltfjord is a re-themed version of Santa Maria , released a few years ago. It’s a very satisfying dice-rolling, tile-laying, and resource management game that combines planning, adaptation, and optimization.
The dice mechanic adds a touch of randomness, but the game offers enough control to avoid frustration. Fish allow you to change the value of the dice.
The mix of different mechanics, such as resource management, dice placement, technology development, and tile placement, is well integrated and fluid.
Saltfjord is a strategy game with a good balance of strategic depth and accessibility, offering players multiple paths to victory.
You’ll face several dilemmas: which columns to activate and when? Should you wait to build large tiles and activate as many buildings as possible? But this will require resources, which must be collected in a variety of ways. This game requires a strong dose of optimization to maximize your actions each turn.
Real hard choices, resource management, dice placement and technological development are at the heart of the gameplay.
The theme, on the other hand, is completely forgotten, which is a shame, because everything remains very mechanical. As for the board, it is quite busy: the game has a lot of icons, and it will take one or two games to fully understand them, but once that is done, everything is smooth sailing.
Interaction between players is moderate, if not almost non-existent, with each player developing their village at their own pace.
In short, Saltfjord is an excellent game with the perfect balance of strategy, optimization, planning, and accessibility. It’s a great thing that it’s back in stock.
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Saltfjord review
Positives
- Excellent integration of mechanics (resource management, dice placement, technology development, tile placement).
- Multiple paths to victory, offering great replayability.
- A well-thought-out resource management system.
- A good balance between strategy, planning, and accessibility.
- Great replayability thanks to buildings, technologies, and strategies.
Negatives
- Indirect interaction, which may not be suitable for those who prefer direct confrontation.
- The board is full of icons, requiring one or two games to fully understand them.
- Theme is not very present.
