Players: 3-5 Playing Time: 60-90 minutes
The Components
Freya's Folly comes packed with a bunch of wooden pieces, plus a board and various cards.
Board: A four-panel linen-textured board that shows the mines through which the dwarves will delve. It also has spaces for two of the decks of cards. The board is simple, but attractive. Setting it up with piles of wooden cubes can be a bit of a chore, but it results in a random setup that's different every game.
Wooden Bits: The game contains a large number of painted wooden bits.
The are thirty dwarves, six each in the five player colors (green, blue, yellow, red, and purple). Each dwarf also comes with two stickers, one per side, denoting his number and whether he's carrying gems. The resulting pieces are attractive but also provide critical information.
110 cubes represent the five colors of gems in the game in two different sizes--small and large. There are four normal gems, plus the powerful amber.
Finally a dozen octagonal blocks represent special abilities that dwarves can be given in the mines. These come in five colors, two of which are way too close, but that doesn't turn out to matter much because in this particular situation you can remember which ability your dwarf has.
Cards: A total of 60 cards including 38 jewelry setting cards--which describe which of the four nomal gems you're trying to collect--7 brisingamen cards--which instead depict victory conditions involving the amber gems--and 15 ability cards. The cards art is all simple though I think the pictures of the jewelry settings end up looking quite nice and distinct. There are icons on the ability cards that are generally pretty mystifying. Now having played the game through I can understand what most mean, but they weren't helpful during the game. Fortunately, the abilities are pretty easy to remember, so the lack of useful icons isn't a big deal.
The cards are all half-size, printed on sturdy, linen-textured stock.
Cardboard Bits: The 18 free action tokens are just linen-textured cardboard chits showing a "free action" icon on one side and the numbers "6" and "3" on the other (representing the number of victory points they could be worth).
Player Mats: Each player gets a mat who'se prime purpose is to designate spaces (carts) for the gems each dwarf is carrying. They also include a quick reminder of all the actions you can take. Plus, each mat is color-coordinated and has a unique name for your dwarf foreman. On the downside, these mats are printed on flimsy gloss paper.
Overall the components of Freya's Folly are quite good, and there's a lot of them besides. Other than the misstep with the ability icons, the usability is all good enough, and the components are generally of average beauty. I think the price is a little high at $60, but I have seen the occasional game at this size with the same pricepoint. Overall, I give it a "4" out of "5" for Style: good.
The Gameplay
The object of Freya's Folly is to gather gems from the mines, then use them to make the best pieces of jewelry.
Setup: Each player gets a mat and 4-6 dwarves (depending on number of players). Various cards are laid out with one Brisingamen available for construction, eight jewelry settings available for purchase, and three black market abilities likewise available. The board is also setup with a somewhat random assortment of amber and other gems spread throughout caverns across the board. A small collection of remaining gems are placed near the black market.
The Brisingamen. This is the fabled necklace made for Freya. It will ultimately be constructed of four parts (if it's completed). Each piece requires 0-2 large pieces of amber and 1-4 small pieces of amber to complete. For example the smallest requires 2 small amber while the two largest require one large and three small and two large and one small respectively.
Jewelry Settings. These cards each depict the gems required to fill a jewelry setting. They're various combinations of the ruby, emerald, sapphire, and amethyst gems in either small or large sizes. The value of each varies from 8-25 based on total gem requirement. There's also a slight premium paid for gems all of one color.
Abilities. These are special abilities which dwarves can use. There are 15 cards total, divided among six abilities. Most of the cards affect movement on the board, but one, the "thief", has its own special action.
Order of Play: On his turn a player takes two actions from the following list. He may take two different actions or one action twice (except for "take an ability card", which may only be taken once).
- Move a Dwarf
- Take a Setting Card
- Complete a Setting Card
- Complete a Brisingamen Card
- Trade Jewels
- Take an Ability Card
- Use a Thief Card
- Pass
Move a Dwarf: During much of the game a player will be moving his dwarves into the mines, delving down into gem-filled caverns, then returning to the surface with those gems to make jewelry. A player can have multiple dwarves in the mine, and in fact dwarves move quicker when there's others around, so a player will often want to put many of his dwarves in the mines.
The mine is laid out with lanterns, and on a turn a dwarf can move from one lantern to another, but he may also skip over up to two dwarves in doing so. If more than two consecutive lantern spaces are blocked by dwarves, however, your dwarf can't move in that direction. If a dwarf lands in a cavern with gems he may choose to fill his cart with gems: he can only carry one cartful, even though the number of gems may vary.
The Abilities. There are five special abilities--speed, stealth, bat, strength, and stamina--which may be purchased from the black market, then given to a dwarf when he enters a mine. This is marked by a token placed atop the dwarf. Each of these abilities last only for the length of the dwarf's current stay in the mines (and sometimes less time).
- Bat. Allows a dwarf to (once) send two gems home when he lands in a cavern rather than just picking up the lot.
- Speed. Allows a dwarf to move two lanterns each turn.
- Stamina. Allows a dwarf to pick up a second cartful of gems.
- Stealth. Allows a dwarf to leap up to four other dwarves when he moves.
- Strength. Causes the dwarf to totally block the passages, but only lasts for 2 turns.
Take a Setting Card: The player takes one of the settings from the market. It will be worth positive points if the player successfully completes it and negative points if he does not. The market is then refilled, which can also refill the ability cards and/or cause new Brisingamen cards to come out, since they're all shuffled together.
Complete a Setting Card: The player must have a dwarf out of the mines. He places the appropriate gems and the dwarf on the setting card. They're now all out of play (reducing the player's number of dwarves) and are worth the victory points shown on the card.
Complete a Brisingamen Card: The player completes a portion of the Brisingamen by placing the appropriate cubes of amber on the card. Unlike with the setting cards, no dwarf goes out of play. In reward the player is given 2-5 free action tokens which may either be used to take extra actions or as victory points at the end of the game.
Trade Jewels: The player trades one or two gems with the black market.
Take an Ability Card: The player takes one of the face-up ability cards from the black market.
Use a Thief Card: The player uses a thief card to take one or two gems from a player or from the black market.
Ending the Game: The game ends when one player uses all of his dwarves to complete jewelry or when four pieces of the Brisingamen have been completed. The free action tokens that you get for completing Brisingamen pieces are worth 3 points if the game ended on jewelry, but 6 points if it ended on the Brisingamen. Each player adds up his points, including completed jewelry and free action tokens and subtracts half the value of any incomplete jewelery settings. The player with the highest score wins.
Relationships to Other Games
This is a resource management game with formulaic rules for combining resources. The classic in the genre is, of course, The Settlers of Catan. Freya's Folly uses much more arbitrary rules for what you combine to make finished pieces, and I was a bit worried that'd be confusing--as I've played other formulaic construction games where that was true. However, something about the artwork of the setting cards made it really easy to see what you'd be using and thus to plan for it.
The movement system will remind a lot of people of Cartagena. Leo Colovini's game is a bit more tactical, but the movement here is quite enjoyable and thoughtful nonetheless. Finally the alternative win conditions reminded me of another recent rerelease, Martin Walace's Mordred. As in that game, you have to figure out which way the game is going, and build up victory points for that condition.
And though I've listed a few other games that Freya's Folly reminds me of, its gameplay is generally different from those others in all the biggest ways. It's unique enough to really underline why I love seeing games from places without as many designers--like Australia. The results are sometimes a little less polished, but often quite unique.
The Game Design
Freya's Folly strikes me as a relatively casual game, but there's nonetheless some depth to it. I call the game light because it's relatively simple, but also because it can be chaotic, particularly as more players are added to the game. For more strategic play, I'd guess the sweet spot is either 3 or 4.
The movement system allows for clever tactical play, while there's also some strategy as you figure out what gems you're going to go for to make which settings. As with many good resource-management games, you're constantly fighting against the clock, trying to make more efficient uses of your actions than your opponents do.
Brinkmanship is another element that's found in the game and which adds some fun tension. You have to decide whether to grab settings or to wait and hope that your opponents don't take them, but you also have to beware of picking up settings if someone is too close to ending the game.
I felt like there were some minor flaws in the endgame. The scores are too open, which allows for a really precise assessment of whether you should go out or not, which I think is ultimately to the game's deficit. This problem can be compounded if the Brisingamen cards--which are randomly shuffled into the main draw deck--come out too slowly, which can leave a player with literally no good choice at the end. However, these issues are relatively minor, and are generally the sort of thing that I'm not surprised to see in an "indie" game design, which I suspect this qualifies as.
Overall, Freya's Folly is fun and has quite a few clever systems that work together well. I've given it a "4" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
Freya's Folly is a clever game design by Australian Don Bone. Though centered on resource management it also includes clever tactical movement and interesting brinkmanship decisions. The game feels very much like an indie design, and thus there are some sharp edges, but beyond that it's a fun, though light, game.
