Spiel Essen 2019 – Portal Games

As a Settlers fan, I am fond of the games series Imperial Settles by Portal Games. No surprise I visited their booth to playtest their latest Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North. Invited by Dick the DutchYoda (his Instagram name) I searched for him at the Portal booth to play a round or two.

It is always fun to meet in our natural habitat at Spiel and so was this meeting. I only know Dick by following his Instagram account, but having the game explained in Dutch is already nice for a change in Essen. Along came three other players and we were ready to go.

Empires of the North is a standalone card game in the Imperial Settlers universe. The story goes, players headed North where the Vikings, the Scotsmen and the Inuit live. By picking your faction you take the role as their leader and you have to make your faction the best in the North.

Main differences with its predecessor is first, the islands and the sailing action, which is awesome, because sailing is always good ARGHHH. In the way of gameplay is Empires of the North shorter and seems to contains less luck. Also, player interaction is less, because there is less to none attacking in Empires of the North. Due these chances and some more I think I like this one more than Imperial Settlers, but both games have good aspects.

While I was at the Portal Games booth, I happen to notice their upcoming Kickstarter: The second edition of Stronghold: Undead. They updated and balanced the original expansion of Stronghold and made it into a stand-alone game. Very sharp new look as you can see on the last photo and when you are interested you could check it out.