I’m posting about a game every day in September! Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.

Thanks to the good people at HABA, I received a copy of Tal der Wikinger recently. I’d seen T. Caires preview it in a video a few months ago and it looked like something my gaming group would get a kick out of.

The game’s title translates to Valley of the Vikings, but I like to call it what it is: Viking Bowling. This is a hilarious dexterity game where you’re setting up these Donkey-Kong-looking barrels then bowling a Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark-style boulder, er, ball at them. Knock them over and you get to move the matching color’s Viking closer to the end of the pier.

Once a Viking goes into the water, you gain coins where your Viking is along the pier, either from the general supply or from one or more of your opponents. The wet Viking gets nothing, but goes back to the end of the line to try again. This is a clever catch-up mechanism and ensures that everyone will eventually fall into the water and allow others to score.

I love the HABA games I’ve played; they’re marketed to kids, but we adults enjoy them just as much, if not more, than the younger gaming crowd.