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Worker Placement with Dice Combat2015
Champions of Midgard box art

Box art via BoardGameGeek

Worker Placement with Dice Combat

Champions of Midgard

Worker placement that hands you a fistful of warrior dice and dares you to sail.

3.7 out of 53.7/5

Designed by Ole Steiness · 2015

Players2-4
Play time60-90 min
WeightMedium
Ages10+
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The verdict

A genuinely fun middleweight that bolts press-your-luck combat onto tidy worker placement, as long as you can make peace with the dice and the repetition.

Best for: Worker placement fans who want some chaos and a satisfying monster brawl

The full review

What it is

Here's the pitch. You're a Viking jarl placing workers to grab wood, food, and coins, then recruiting warriors who show up as actual dice in three flavors: swordsmen, spearmen, axemen. The twist is what you do with them. You march them at trolls in the village, hunt draugr for cash, or load a longboat, feed everyone, and sail off to fight distant monsters for the big glory. Real players keep saying the same thing: the combat is the spark a lot of worker placement games are missing.

The catch

Now the honest part. Those warrior dice giveth and taketh away. Get a bad roll at the wrong monster and you can fall behind in a way that's hard to claw back. Reviewers nail the odd feeling: with all the favor tokens floating around, you rarely feel rewarded for good luck, just relieved you weren't punished for bad luck. And because the merchant cards and journey cards repeat every single game, the variety thins out after a handful of plays. Setup is fiddly too, and the card stock is thin.

Who it's for

So who's this for? Not your gateway crowd. It's a great second-step game for people who already like placing workers and want a jolt of chaos and a satisfying fight at the end of it. It plays well at two and gets meaner and more cutthroat at four, where blocking spots actually stings. If you want a pure, luck-free brain-burner, keep walking. If you want Vikings, dice, and tension, this one earns its table time.

What other players say

This write-up is grounded in real reviews and player discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:

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