Game summary
👥 A game for 1 – 4 spelers
⏳ Play time is around 45 – 90 minutes
🏢 Publisher is Aporta Games
Introduction
Welcome to the rugged fjords of Norway! In Saltfjord, you grow your fishing village into a thriving community by fishing, trading, building, and pioneering through smart and thoughtful choices.
Let’s get it on the table
Before you start playing, first lay out all the game components: the game board, all dice, buildings, technology tiles, fish and crate tokens, and the player boards.
Once the game board is placed in the center of the table, place the resources around the board. Shuffle the fish tiles by type and place the required number of tiles on the corresponding fish spaces. Shuffle the 8 ability tiles and place 4 of them on their designated spot; set the remaining 4 aside. These will be used later during player setup. Then shuffle the 11 score tiles and place 4 of them on the game board as well. The remaining tiles are returned to the box.
For each player, take 3 white dice and 1 orange die. Roll all dice and place them on the spaces that correspond to their rolled values. After that, place 1 orange die for each player in each of the 2 rows of the round counter.
Shuffle the building tiles by type and place the stacks on the indicated spaces. Each position must contain the number of tiles as shown. Place these tiles face up. Finally, shuffle the crate tiles and create stacks of 11 tiles each, then place these stacks on the game board. Randomly place the 4 starting crate tiles face up on top of each stack.
Next, each player takes their own player board, a storage board, a boat tile, and their personal components: 3 workers, a fishing boat (which starts in the harbor area on your board), 4 technology markers on the technology tracks, a score marker on the main score track, and a score marker in the tavern area. Place one of your workers on your player board; this worker is immediately available for use. The remaining workers are placed next to your player board or on the central board and only become available once you reach the 2nd and 3rd spaces of the leftmost technology track.
Before the game truly begins, sets are created consisting of a starting resources tile, an ability tile, and a starting building tile. Each player, in turn order, chooses one of these sets. You then gain the starting resources, place the ability tile next to your player board, and place the starting building tile in the center of your own player board.
Once everything is set up and all players have completed their starting setup, you are ready to begin. The game is played over three rounds, during which players take turns choosing dice, going fishing, activating buildings, constructing new buildings, unlocking technologies, fishing, or completing trade contracts.
Let’s Play
Saltfjord is played over three rounds, during which players take turns selecting dice to perform actions. These dice not only determine what you can do, but often also how powerful that action is. Every choice feels meaningful, because once you take a die, it is no longer available to the other players for the rest of the round.
At the start of each round, all dice are openly available on the board. On your turn, you choose one die. Depending on the value and color of the die, you activate actions such as fishing, collecting resources, constructing buildings, developing technologies, or trading. During each round, you may take no more than three white dice, and you may take a number of orange dice equal to the current round. For example, in round two you may only use two orange dice.
White dice are placed in the column matching their value, after which you activate the actions in that column one by one. Orange dice are placed in the row matching their value, after which you activate the actions in that row one by one. Note that you may only activate actions that are still available, and you are not required to perform every action.
Your village grows throughout the game on your personal player board. By cleverly placing new buildings, you create combinations and chain reactions. Many buildings provide benefits when activated, such as extra fish, wood, or money, as well as bonuses like additional building actions, points, or fishing. The position of a building is therefore just as important as the building itself. If you fully build a row or column, you activate all rewards on each boardwalk in that row or column.
Fishing is a key element of the game. You send your boat into the fjord to catch fish, which you can then use as resources, for trading, or to fulfill objectives. By investing in technology, you can upgrade your boat, store more fish, or gain better yields. Technologies provide permanent advantages and gradually steer your strategy in a specific direction.
Trade also plays a major role. By spending your resources, you can complete contracts that reward you with points or additional bonuses.
Throughout the game, you score points in various ways, including buildings, technologies, trade, and end game objectives. Because you cannot do everything at once, Saltfjord is all about timing and priorities. When and where do you build, do you continue fishing or return to harbor, when do you invest in technology, and when do you capitalize on the village you have already built?
There are also several free actions available in the game. These allow you, for example, to sell resources for fish, pay fish to upgrade, or freely downgrade a resource. Placing workers is also a free action: place your worker on an available building and activate it immediately. Each worker may only be used once per round and remains on the building where it was placed.
Once you choose to pass on your turn, you move your player marker from the tavern area to an empty tavern space and then resolve the action shown there. You can choose options such as going fishing, gaining technology, fulfilling an order, constructing a building, or fishing twice. After that, you activate each pier on your storage board from top to bottom and receive the reward of each pier.
You then wait until all other player(s) have passed. After that, the game proceeds to the next round or, if it was the final round, to final scoring.
Advanced game of Saltfjord
When you want to have a more advanced game, then you can use the wagons. Cover the third technology track with the advanced technology tile. Each player now place 1 wagon on the top left space of the grid of their player board and 1 wagon on the second space of the advanced technology tile.
When you activate a column each wagon in that column may move one space to left or right, when you activate a row, move each wagon one space down or up. When you’re done moving, just activate that building. A wagon cannot move to or through a space blocked by a die, wagon or worker.
During final scoring, each of your wagons score points equal to its row number, multiplied by its column number.
The game ends
After round three, final scoring takes place. Additional points are awarded for certain sets, technologies, and objectives. The player who developed their village most cleverly and made the best use of the dice wins the game.
First, gain the resources and points from any tokens on your boat tile. Then sell all of your non-fish resources for fish. You score 1 point for every 3 fish you have.
Next, score 3 points for each set of 4 crate tiles from different piers. After scoring these sets, flip all crate tiles face up and score the points shown on each individual crate tile.
For each technology marker, score the points shown to the right of its row. Technology markers on the top level score points according to the corresponding score tile.
The player with the most points is the winner of this game of Saltfjord.
Final Conclusion & rating
Weight: 3.03/ 5
Replayability: 8
Our rating: 8 out of 10 dices
Saltfjord looks great and doesn’t have overly complicated rules, but the challenge lies in executing your actions. What I really like is that every round, you’re busy trying to decide which action to take using the available dice. Of course, luck plays a part in this, because you’re dependent on whether the value you need is rolled and still available.
The cool thing is that you can perform all actions in a row or column, and there are more and more of them as the game progresses. Every action you can take during the game is so important, whether you go fishing, advance on the technology track, or build. Don’t forget to fulfill contracts, as they also earn you extra points. Another important thing is to deploy your worker or workers if you have gained more. With that worker, you can perform a free action.
I lost the first few games badly, but I still had a lot of fun. The games after that became more and more enjoyable, making Saltfjord a perfect addition to your game collection. Especially since you can also adjust the game’s difficulty, giving it more replayability.
Dank aan Aporta Games voor dit review exemplaar en de mogelijkheid er een stukje over te schrijven.
