Aug 21, 2026 · 1 hr 26 min · 12 segments
When a board game is popular, you can be sure there will be follow-ups of some kind, usually in the form of sequels, reimplementations, spinoffs or expansions. Focusing specifically on the first two…
Okay, so for my appetizer, a nice little quick one here.
I'm going to talk about an old favorite of mine that I haven't talked about recently.
And so I picked this up recently, or maybe not recently, it was I think in the last like three months or something from Victory Pines.
And I actually own the redo, re-implementation, not even re-implementation system.
like the reprinting that's the word i'm looking for um with phil walker harding modules and stuff so i owned that but um it's a bigger box and i saw small fjords and i realized it was trying to try and like to sort of re-embody the original which is the game that i played in the first place and like the old one that you can't find anymore I thought you know what like maybe that's all I need like I liked the way that the new one played with three and four but I didn't find myself recommending it those player counts I was still really just playing it as a two player game I wasn't playing the expansions really So I got small fjords.
Don't regret it at all.
And what I've been noticing is that because I've been playing it now so close together, naturally I'm focusing more on the strategy in fjords than I ever really have.
And so is my partner because we're starting to get competitive with each other.
And I've won all but one of the games so far, but like, I can see her getting better at it.
And like, it's really interesting to see how the like, I'm realizing that like the first phase in fjords, like dominates, like, it's really 90% of the game, like, the more I at least the more I play it like that, like the last, the second phase of the game goes by so quick now, because we almost can kind of like read the board that we've created.
And depending where people have placed their huts and stuff, you can kind of see like, oh, I don't think I got this one.
Or, oh, this is going to be close, but it's probably going to come down to this area.
And so there's a bit like, I'm not saying this is a downside, but there's a bit of like a formulaic nature to certain parts of the second phase now.
And then it gets intense on the parts of the board that we've created.
that are going to be hotly contested.
Um, but man, like seeing the differences between like all those sessions to list together of the way the, the Fjord, uh, looks like the, the board that you're building in that first phase.
Um, but also the ways that it's like still similar and the same and like learning where are the best places to place huts.
And like, this is coming after I had played the solo mode of this version.
Cause this has, this one has a solo mode a bunch of times and that kind of like gives you a new perspective on it and stuff.
So yeah, this was just a quick one to kind of say that like, uh, I wouldn't say fallen back in love with Fjords.
And I really don't think my impression of it, if I were to do top 50 right now, has moved the needle too much on it.
It's more just that I haven't cooled on it at all, I guess is what I'm saying.
Okay, so for my appetizer, a nice little quick one here.
I'm going to talk about an old favorite of mine that I haven't talked about recently.
And so I picked this up recently, or maybe not recently, it was I think in the last like three months or something from Victory Pines.
And I actually own the redo, re-implementation, not even re-implementation system.
like the reprinting that's the word i'm looking for um with phil walker harding modules and stuff so i owned that but um it's a bigger box and i saw small fjords and i realized it was trying to try and like to sort of re-embody the original which is the game that i played in the first place and like the old one that you can't find anymore I thought you know what like maybe that's all I need like I liked the way that the new one played with three and four but I didn't find myself recommending it those player counts I was still really just playing it as a two player game I wasn't playing the expansions really So I got small fjords.
Don't regret it at all.
And what I've been noticing is that because I've been playing it now so close together, naturally I'm focusing more on the strategy in fjords than I ever really have.
And so is my partner because we're starting to get competitive with each other.
And I've won all but one of the games so far, but like, I can see her getting better at it.
And like, it's really interesting to see how the like, I'm realizing that like the first phase in fjords, like dominates, like, it's really 90% of the game, like, the more I at least the more I play it like that, like the last, the second phase of the game goes by so quick now, because we almost can kind of like read the board that we've created.
And depending where people have placed their huts and stuff, you can kind of see like, oh, I don't think I got this one.
Or, oh, this is going to be close, but it's probably going to come down to this area.
And so there's a bit like, I'm not saying this is a downside, but there's a bit of like a formulaic nature to certain parts of the second phase now.
And then it gets intense on the parts of the board that we've created.
that are going to be hotly contested.
Um, but man, like seeing the differences between like all those sessions to list together of the way the, the Fjord, uh, looks like the, the board that you're building in that first phase.
Um, but also the ways that it's like still similar and the same and like learning where are the best places to place huts.
And like, this is coming after I had played the solo mode of this version.
Cause this has, this one has a solo mode a bunch of times and that kind of like gives you a new perspective on it and stuff.
So yeah, this was just a quick one to kind of say that like, uh, I wouldn't say fallen back in love with Fjords.
And I really don't think my impression of it, if I were to do top 50 right now, has moved the needle too much on it.
It's more just that I haven't cooled on it at all, I guess is what I'm saying.
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