Small Fjords (2025)

• Designers: Franz-Benno Delonge, solo by Arnaud Charpentier
• Publisher: Grail Games
• Players: 1-2
• Age: 10+
• Time: 20 mins

Between the 8th and 11th centuries, the Vikings had the world holding their breath. Always on the lookout for new land, they aren’t above fighting their own countrymen. In this game, two clan leaders fight each other, using the right tactics, for a fruitful plot of land along Norway’s coast. They quickly build up villages at strategic locations and fight with anything they can to ensure the larger portion of the region for their clan. Fjords: the tactical battle for the best land!

The game is played in two phases: the first phase, placing tiles and farms, mixes luck and skill; the second phase, claiming fields, has a Go-like enclosure dynamic that is all skill.

Normally, I don’t play too many 2-player games, but I’ve had a bunch come thru the gaming basement this summer.  Fjords is one of my favorite 2-player games.  Prior to his passing, Franz-Benno Delonge and I were good friends, and this is possibly his best game design IMHO (though Big City is a close second).  I honestly haven’t played Fjords in a few years (not since there was a new 4p version back in 2021), but that is mostly because my opportunity for 2-player gaming has diminished.  I still explain Fjords to people as – something similar to Carcassone, but with hexes and a little more complexity.  That short review still holds true…

Fjords is a tile-laying game that takes place in two phases. First, the players explore the fjords around them by laying hexagonal landscape tiles.  To start the turn, you would draw a tile, and then place it in a legal spot on the board – such that it touches at least two previously placed sides (and all landscape features match).  If it could not be placed; the tile was set aside and a new tile was drawn.  

After placing a tile, you may put one of your longhouses on the tile played (on the land area).  This phase continues until the tile supply is exhausted or when all remaining tiles cannot be placed legally. 

Second, beginning from the encampments placed during phase one, players will walk the landscape, claiming as much of the plains and cliffs as possible.  On a turn, you must place a viking on a non-occupied tile that is adjacent to one of your longhouses or a previously placed viking.  If you no longer have a legal place to play a viking, you no longer participate in this phase.  

The game continues until the board is full or no player has a legal place left to play. The winner of the game will be the player who has claimed the most land – this is a count of hexes with your viking or your longhouse in it – or simply look at the supplies and see which player has fewer pieces left over.  If there is a tie, it is broken in favor of the player who went last in the settlement phase.

This new edition of Fjords differs from the original release in the following ways:

• The game is much smaller!  The box is in the Grail Games pocket sized box, and while I still contend this doesn’t really fit in a pocket – it is very tiny box!  There are the same number of tiles included in the box (40) as the original version
• The game contains a new solo module

The new content has been created by Arnaud Charpentier.  In this version, you place tiles and longhouses for both color pieces, and then score for the number of Vikings placed, the longest chain along water, and penalties for not connecting water hexes.  

For me, the best version is still the 2p game, but it is nice to have the ability to play this by myself.  If you still own the original, there isn’t necessarily a reason to have another copy – though the decrease in size is quite nice.  If you don’t have this classic 2p duel, this is a great opportunity to add it to your collection.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Dale Y
• I like it: Steph
• Neutral
• Not for me…