Nusfjord is a tranquil fishing village in the
Lofoten archipelago in northern Norway. Fifty years ago, business was blooming
when the codfish would come for spawning. Today,
Nusfjord is more of a museum than a village, with less
than a hundred people living there. Imagine how beautiful this place must be
given that you must pay a fee to even look at the houses. Cruise ships used to
pass by this long and now mostly abandoned island world.
In the time period in which the game Nusfjord is
set, things looked quite different. Sailing ships dominate the fjord. The rocks
around Nusfjord are covered in trees. As the owner of
a major fishing company in Nusfjord on the Lofoten
archipelago, your goal is to develop the harbour and the surrounding landscape
and to succeed you must enlarge your fleet, clear the forest, erect new
buildings, and satisfy the local elders. Others do this as well, of course, so
the competition is steep.
As with Agricola,
Nusfjord has a worker placement mechanism, with each
player starting with three workers that they place on a central board to trigger
certain actions. Whether a player wants to clear a forest on their own board,
buy a new cutter, or construct a building, they must place a worker on the
appropriate space — which is possible only if room is available for this
worker. Money is scarce, and one of the quicker and easier ways to get it is to
place shares of your own company on the market. This risky action could be
worthwhile because if you succeed in buying these shares yourself, you have
usually won money and not suffered any disadvantages; however, if an opponent
acquires these shares, then you must allow them to benefit from your hard-earned
catches at sea. The village elders might want their own share of your catch as
well, especially if you've visited them to take certain actions in the village,
so if you don't take care, your catch could end up entirely in the hands of
others and your camp will be empty.
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