Agricola, Patchwork and A Feast for Odin creator returns with a game about fishing for cod in a forgotten Norwegian paradise

Uwe Rosenberg is back with a new board game that sounds like it will build on the celebrated designer’s mastery of combining deep, thinky worker placement mechanics with the charming yet demanding nature of rural life.

Nusfjord is described as showcasing a similar style of gameplay to Rosenberg’s magnum opus Agricola, with players placing down workers on a central action board to gather resources, invest in improved tools and construct buildings.

This time around, the pastoral subject is fishing, with the game set in the titular Norwegian fishing village that was thriving half a century ago thanks to the local codfish. As publisher Lookout's announcement sadly notes: “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.”

Players will be making the most of the settlement’s heyday by building up their own local fishing companies, adding boats to their fleet and expanding their business as the game progresses over the widely varied 20- to 100-minute play time.

One particularly interesting aspect is the role of shares, which players can put up for sale to fund their rising company – while risking the investment of an opponent, who could swoop in to benefit from their hard work.

What’s more, the local elders could decide they also want a slice of the fish pie depending on the impact of players on the village, meaning poor decisions could mean the loss of your entire catch.

As with all of Rosenberg’s games, Nusfjord sounds like a charming delight with plenty of scope for strategy, and it’s backed up by some breathtaking beautiful artwork from Patrick Soeder.

We’ll be in, hook, line and sinker, when it releases at Essen this October.