When it comes to getting excited about games, there aren’t many instances anymore where there’s some radical new mechanic that grabs my attention. What ends up capturing my attention is theme and aesthetic. Gorgeous artwork really isn’t enough all on its own anymore, as it seems every game is simply gorgeous, but what can set a game away from the rest is a unique and whimsical theme.
Trolls and Princesses, designed by Pim Thunborg and published by Game Brewer after successful crowdfunding in 2023, has players leading a colony of trolls in their attempt to curry the Troll King’s favour. To do this, the trolls use their trollkraft (troll magic) to entice humans to work their caverns, swap babies, tear down church bells, and kidnap princesses and house them in luxurious caves.
The mechanical hook is that Trolls and Princesses is a worker movement game. You control 5 trolls and on your turn you’ll move them from one action space to another, then accrue action points that can be spent in that location. Every troll in that space gives one action point, plus any humans working that cavern, or if the troll king is present, are more action points. Out in the city, other players trolls will even offer you more action points.
Played over 10 to 12 rounds (depending on the number of players), each round gives each player two turns. A player turn begins by playing a round card, which may put some humans into a specific village, and dictates where the troll king will reside for that player’s turn, then they get two troll movements. A troll movement is moving a single troll from any single action spot (represented by cauldrons) to any other cauldron, then using up all the action points that exist in that location (again, adding up any trolls, humans, troll kings, or outposts that may be in that area). The home cave has 3 main sections, one for mining resource, one for building cave rooms and outposts, and one dedicated to troll power. Each of the villages in town are functionally identical, but the number of people in each village may be different depending on the cards players play.
Mechanically, Trolls and Princesses isn’t any better or worse than any other worker placement game with a tight economy. The game is to squeeze the most efficiency from your limited number of actions as possible, with very limited moments for players to meaningfully interact with each other. The interaction that does exist is mostly positive, as when you go to the village where someone else has gone before you, you get to use their trolls for an extra action point. Beyond that, everything else is a race. The number of bells are limited, the princesses are limited, and the available outposts and changelings are limited. This isn’t a game where you can build absolutely everything though, so the odds of there being NONE of the resource you’re gunning for is low, it is much more likely that the princess will be in the ‘wrong’ village and be beyond your reach without at least a few turns to set yourself up.
A lot of the actions can roll into each other, or pay for themselves in subtle ways. As you buy things from the main board, you cover storage spots on your player board, which offer rewards. Doing things like paying a diamond and two troll power to steal a baby, but that baby covers a spot that gives you a diamond back, letting you roll right into stealing another baby, make the turns feel efficient and exciting. On the other hand, when you need to spend 6 actions accruing resources to accomplish a single goal, and if that goal doesn’t lead into more actions down the road, the game feels like a grinding mess. It’s particularly frustrating when on the very last turn of the day you manage to finagle all your resources together and get your trolls into the right spot to snag that last princess, only to realize you’re missing a bed to store her in.
The artistic direction of Trolls and Princesses is fantastic. From the cover art, to the gorgeous art on the Kings cards, it’s evocative of Scandinavian fairy tales. The player boards and components have a separate, more simple aesthetic that works really well for the game. The boards can look really busy, but there are tones of fun details to find, if you’re willing to look close enough.
One of the highlights of the game is just overhearing people talk through their turns. “I’m going to move a troll, and spend a diamond to steal a baby, which comes over here, then with another action point I’m stealing a cow, and hiring a human to work this mine, then for my second turn I’m moving this troll to destroy the cow and put an outpost over here”. My wife giggled at us as we revelled in stealing cows and babies.
At higher player counts, I found myself checking out between rounds. Each turn is fairly involved and insular, that I didn’t really need to pay attention. What mattered more is if my plan relied on collecting a specific cave tile or card, that the market didn’t get wiped in between my turn, which is much more likely to happen in a 4 player game. In my opinion, 3 players is about as high as I want to go in Trolls and Princesses.
Adding onto the high player count experience, the box is woefully low on resources, we ran out of all three resource types (obsidian, gold, and diamonds) in a 4 player game, and ran up against that limit in a 3 player game. There are plenty of x5 tokens in the box, but that’s a poor replacement for just actually having enough tokens to fulfill a reasonable demand. A huge miss by the publisher.
Trolls and Princesses revels in its efficiencies, and rewards repeat plays. Understanding how to roll actions into each other, when to build your engine and when to run it dry are all important considerations that players get better at with multiple plays. While the mechanics aren’t really anything innovative or unique, the theme carries a lot of my enjoyment for Trolls and Princesses. I don’t know if it’ll crack into my top 100, but if you’re in the mood for a medium weight worker placement game, Trolls and Princesses is a whimsical romp and more than an enjoyable way to spend an evening with a friend.
