All aboard!
Fancy steering a Viking longship across dangerous seas without actually having to learn how to sail? Viking Route might be right up your Drakkar!
This cooperative adventure from Ares Games puts 1 to 4 players in control of a crew attempting to stop Loki from unleashing Ragnarök. The twist? Your longship's movement is controlled by a compass and a handful of magnets, making every voyage part strategy, part puzzle, and part desperate attempt to avoid sailing directly into trouble! The game is designed by Martino Chiacchiera, Luca Maragno and Guido Albini, with players working together to complete quests, battle Norse monsters and manage the ship's resources. It's aimed at players aged 12 and up, with games lasting 90 minutes or more.
Magnetic mayhem!
The big attraction here is the magnetic movement system.
Instead of simply moving a ship from one space to another, Viking Route represents your Drakkar with a compass. Magnetic miniatures around the board represent Odin's three ravens and the spirit of the wind, and moving them can change the direction your ship travels. Sounds simple, right? Well, not always! The magnets can produce some wonderfully unpredictable results. A carefully planned journey can suddenly send your ship veering somewhere you really didn't want it to go. That's part of the fun, although players who prefer absolute precision might find themselves shouting at the compass after their twentieth unfortunate collision.
The physical design also deserves some attention. The game features a 3D cardboard Drakkar, Viking characters, and a range of standees and tokens, giving the whole thing a distinctly toy-like feel.
Fight for Ragnarök!
There's more going on than simply pointing a compass in the right direction.
Your Viking crew has different jobs to manage aboard the Drakkar, including steering, adjusting the sails, handling resources, and operating weapons. You'll also need to collect resources, deal with enemies, and use powerful cards to keep your expedition moving. The game offers both standalone scenarios and a campaign. The campaign takes players through a series of Norse locations and encounters, including battles against legendary figures such as the Kraken, Hela, Fenrir, Jormungandr and, eventually, Loki himself.
A fresh voyage!
Viking Route is a great example of a board game using its components to create something that feels genuinely different. The magnetic compass isn't simply a gimmick, as it becomes the centre of the game's navigation and decision-making. It's not going to offer the deepest strategy you've ever encountered, and the unpredictable movement can occasionally feel a little harsh. However, that's also what gives Viking Route its personality!
With its cooperative gameplay, Norse mythology, chunky 3D ship, and wonderfully weird magnetic navigation, Viking Route looks like a game that's happy to embrace the fact that board games can simply be fun toys, and honestly, sometimes that's exactly what you want from game night!
Viking Route is currently arriving at retail in 2026, following pre-release appearances at UK Games Expo and Gen Con.
