Ring of the Nibelung

 

Today's review is of the 2019 release, Ring of the Nibelung. For 2-5 players, it takes 20 minutes.

Overview

You are a great lord in the Norse legends (as portrayed by Richard Wagner's opera), trying to acquire wealth and- above all- the ring, which brings great power- but comes with a terrible curse. 

On your turn, you draw a card from the character deck (if able- your hand limit is two), play a character card to your great hall (if able- your character limit is six), activate a passive ability on your newly-played character (if they have one), then activate one active ability on one of your in-play characters. (Active abilities allow you to gain more treasure or characters, or make opponents lose them, among other things.) Then, if you have the ring- draw a treasure. If you don't have the ring, check to see if you have more influence than the player who does. If so, you get the ring, draw a treasure, and the losing player discards a character from their great hall and a treasure.

If you draw a Ragnarok card from the character deck, you  must discard a character from your great hall and a treasure, and your turn is over immediately. If it's the third Ragnarok card drawn, the game immediately ends and points (on characters and treasure) are tallied. Highest wins!

Some cards; image from here

Review

The penalties for losing the ring (discarding both a character and treasure) were so significant that this ended up feeling like a card game version of 'hot potato,' where the person who had the ring when the third ragnarok card was drawn was likely to win. It was okay, but not great. The abilities- enabling to steal other characters, discard them, gain treasure, etc.- were interesting, but the resulting back-and-forth felt like meaningful decisions were minimized. You knew you'd get characters and gold- and you knew you'd lose them. So you discarded your less valuable characters or your lesser treasures (when you had a choice) and hoped for the best. 

Rating: C+