Fire & Axe: A Viking Saga
Fire & Axe: A Viking Saga Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
1 Gameboard
The gameboard shows the Saga spaces, the Final Round token nests, the Wintering Zone, the Goods in Demand space, the Wind Dial, the Days track, the Losses chart, the Weather Zone boundary, the Ports and their port values, the Water spaces, the Homelands (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark), the Large ports, and the Rune Deck space.
- Three ports with the same color and edge design form a region.
- Ports with gray rings, and the three large ports, are independent; they do not belong to any region.
5 Longship boards
1 in each player color. Each one has a plain side, and a side with helpful information for new players.
33 Rune cards
Rune cards provide special one-shot powers during the game. Each card describes when it may be used and what its effects are. A Rune card shows a Conflict symbol, a Title, and Action text.
27 Saga Cards
Saga cards display goals that players will try to achieve during the game. Each card belongs to a specific Era (indicated by the sword symbol on the back and in the front top corner), tells you what you must do to complete it, and shows if it is worth any bonus VP for completing.
A Saga card shows the Saga's Homeland, the Saga type, the Saga goal, the Saga goal map, the Era symbol, and the Bonus VP symbol. The backs are marked First Era, Second Era, and Third Era.
Each Saga is related to a specific Homeland; Sagas from Denmark are green, Sagas from Sweden are red, and Sagas from Norway are blue. This is important because you will be trying to complete the most Sagas from each Homeland.
75 Crewmember figurines
15 in each player color. There are three different models of crewmember, but there is no gameplay difference between them.
5 Longship figurines
1 in each player color.
33 Goods tokens
11 each of Tusks, Fish, and Furs.
3 Dice
For determining the outcome of Raiding and Settling attempts.
Victory Point (VP) tokens
Represented as coins, (or a treasure chest) in denominations of 1, 3, 10, and 50. You may make change whenever necessary.
1 Wind Dial cover
This sits on the Wind Dial and reveals the current Weather. The Red hole reveals its Zone's worst weather, the Blue hole reveals its Zone's best weather. Plain holes reveal normal weather for their Zones.
3 Final Round markers
These help keep track of the end of the game.
2 Sliders
1 Preparation and 1 Sailing slider. These sit on the Days track and keep track of your used Actions.
12 Small town figurines
3 Large town figurines
12 Small treasure tokens
3 Large treasure tokens
Special town setup before your first game!
Each town figurine has a shallow depression in its bottom. Before your first game, press 1 Large treasure token firmly into the bottom of each Large town figurine. Do the same thing with the 12 Small treasure tokens and the 12 Small towns. The treasures should remain in the towns hidden from normal view, and the towns should sit flat on the table.
Setup
This page features detailed setup instructions below, but if you're experienced with the game you should be able to just go number by number in the diagram to the right and use the summary text!
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The Gameboard. Place the gameboard in the center of the table. Shuffle the small town figurines so that nobody can remember what their treasure values are, and place one on each of the starred ports. Do the same with the large town figurines and the three starred large ports. Place the Wind Dial cover on the Wind Dial so that the blue hole is in the South quadrant, revealing the number 7. Place the Preparation and Sailing sliders on the Days track, both at the 0 mark.
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Saga Deck. Shuffle the First Era Sagas, and discard three from the game without looking at them. Do the same with the Second and Third Era Sagas. The remaining eighteen Saga cards will form your face down Saga deck for the game. Make sure that the deck is arranged so that the Third Era cards are on the bottom, the Second Era cards are in the middle, and the First Era cards are on the top. Place the three Final Round tokens near the Sagas area of the board, then place your Saga deck face down on top of those three tokens, covering all three. Finally, draw the top three cards from the deck (these will all be First Era cards) and place each one face up in its own Saga space. (It is irrelevant which card goes in which space.)
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Stockpiles. Create stockpiles near the board of VP tokens and Goods. Take one Fish token from the Goods supply and place it in the Goods in Demand spot on the board.
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Rune Deck. Shuffle the Rune deck, and place it face-down on the gameboard where shown.
There are 9 Rune cards with a conflict symbol on them. These powerful cards raise the level of aggressive interaction between players. Feel free to remove these cards from the deck if you'd rather play without them.
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The players. Each player takes a longship board in the color of their choice, plus all fifteen crewman pawns and the longship pawn of that color. Each player should place their longship pawn in the Wintering Zone on the gameboard. Unused player colors are returned to the box. Each player also draws a Rune card from the deck and keeps it secret from the other players.
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Starting Player. Pick a starting player by the method of your choice. (Fiercest Viking roar? Hairiest beard? Most recent visit to Scandinavia? Or just shake up 1 crewmember per player and draw one randomly?) The starting player gets 1 bonus VP from the supply. Going clockwise, the next player gets 2 bonus VP, the next 3 bonus VP, and so on until each player has received a bonus once.
After all of this is done, you are ready to begin!
Gameplay
The game is divided up into turns. The starting player begins, and then play proceeds clockwise around the table. The game begins in the First Era, and will progress through the Second and Third Eras as players complete Sagas. When players have completed enough Sagas to get to the Final Rounds of the Third Era, the game will end and the player with the most Victory Points will win!
On Your Turn
There are three types of activities that you might perform on your turn; Actions, Tasks, and Other Activities. You may perform them in any order, any number of times, and in any combination you choose, though there are specific limitations for each that you must obey. When you can't (or don't want to) continue, your turn is over and play passes to the next player.
Actions
There are three different Actions in the game:
- Load (Bring crew and goods aboard your longship while in the Wintering Zone.)
- Draw a Rune (Obtain a Rune card while in a Homeland.)
- Sail (Move your longship around the waterways and ports of the map.)
Performing any Action uses up 1 Day of your turn. You may spend (at most) 7 Days during your turn.
When you perform an Action, you must slide the matching slider (Preparation or Sailing, depending on the Action taken) up 1 space on the Days track on the gameboard. The combined total of your two sliders may never exceed 7; once your sliders add up to 7, you may not perform any more Actions on this turn (though you may still perform Tasks or Other Activities if you are willing and able).
Load
(Bring crew and goods aboard your longship while in the Wintering Zone.)
You may only Load when your longship is in the Wintering Zone. To Load, simply place one crewmember (from your supply) or one Good of your choice (from the stockpile) into a vacant slot on your longship board. For each crewmember or good thus loaded, you must move the Preparation slider up 1 space on the Days track.
- Goods and crewmembers are limited by what is in the supply. If there are none left of a given type, you may not load that type.
- Your longship does not have to be full to stop Loading.
- While your ship may hold any combination of crewmembers and goods, you may not stop Loading without having at least 1 crewmember in your longship.
When you have taken as many Load Actions as you intend to this turn, you must immediately move your longship from the Wintering Zone to a Homeland of your choice (Denmark, Norway, or Sweden). This movement does not cost any Days and is the only way to get out of the Wintering Zone.
Loading Limits
During the First Era (which starts at the beginning of the game), only the five unmarked slots are available for Loading. During the Second Era, the sixth slot becomes available for Loading. During the Third Era, the seventh slot becomes available for Loading.
Eras change as Sagas are completed; see Complete a Saga for details.
Draw a Rune
(Obtain a Rune card while in a Homeland.)
You may only Draw a Rune while your longship is in a Homeland. (You may get to a Homeland by leaving the Wintering Zone as described above, or by Sailing into it as described below.) To Draw a Rune, take the top Rune from the deck into your hand. Each time you Draw a Rune, you must move the Preparation slider up 1 space on the Days track.
- Keep your Runes secret from other players until played.
- You may never hold more than three Runes at a time. If you already have three Runes in hand, you may not perform this Action.
- Runes may be discarded from your hand (see Other Activities), but not while your longship is in a Homeland. (This rule keeps players from abusing the Draw a Rune Action by drawing and discarding Runes over and over in the search for a powerful one.)
- If the Runes deck ever becomes depleted, shuffle the discard pile to form a new Rune deck.
Sail
(Move your longship around the waterways and ports of the map.)
Sailing is the action of moving your longship around the gameboard. To Sail, move your longship pawn from its current water space, port, or Homeland into an adjacent water space, port or Homeland. Each time you Sail, you must move the Sailing slider up 1 space on the Days track.
- The brown "land" areas of the map are off-limits. Longships may enter water spaces, ports, and Homelands only!
- Longship pawns will not actually fit into the port spaces on the gameboard; it will suffice to have the pawn edging into the port space from any angle where there is room. You may Sail out of a port space into any adjacent water space regardless of the direction from which it was entered.
- Any number of longships may share any water space or any Homeland, but all other ports may hold one longship only; if there is another longship there you may not enter.
Exceeding Clear Weather Days
Not all sailing is smooth in the Viking age; you will have to contend with the weather! Each water space is part of one of the four Weather Zones; North, South, East, or West. Each port and Home Port is part of the Weather Zone of its adjacent water spaces. (Faeroes and Shetland border both North and West but are considered to be in the West Zone.)
- A Weather Zone's water spaces are distinguished by its own shade of blue, and the Zones are separated by dashed yellow lines where they meet.
Each Weather Zone has a limited number of Clear Weather Days during which you can Sail safely in that Zone; the current number for each Zone is visible through the holes of the Weather Dial on the gameboard.
Whenever you perform a Sail action that results in your Sailing slider moving to a higher number than the Clear Weather value of the Zone you've moved into, you must immediately take losses before doing anything else.
Taking Losses
To take losses, cover skull icons on the Losses chart with a good or a crewmember removed from your longship board. Which skulls you must cover depends on the number of days by which you exceeded the Clear Weather Days of the Zone that your longship is now in (regardless of which Zone you just left).
A skull is only covered once per turn. If your Sailing action results in your being instructed to cover a skull you've already covered, you may ignore that loss.
When you cover a skull, you must also cover any uncovered skulls to the left of that one.
Since you always use the Clear Weather Days value of the Zone you've moved into, it is possible (by crossing from one Weather Zone to another with fewer Clear Weather Days) that you might take multiple losses with a single Sail action.
Keep an eye on the Weather Dial on your opponents' turns... sometimes—especially when switching Zones—players will forget to take their losses!
- It is up to you which crewmembers or goods you lose, but remember that your longship must always have at least one crewmember aboard to stay at sea. If your longship loses its last crewmember, you must discard any remaining goods and move your longship immediately to the Wintering Zone, ending your turn. See Ending Your Turn for details.
Don't like the weather in your Zone? Is your opponent's sailing a little too smooth for your tastes? Change it! The Weather Dial can be rotated to improve or worsen a Zone's weather when you play or discard a Rune; see Play or Discard a Rune for details.
Tasks
Tasks are special activities that you may only attempt while you are in a port (Homelands do not count as ports). Your longship must be currently in the specific port where you wish to attempt the task. There are three different Tasks:
- Trade (Deliver a goods token to a port without one, for VP)
- Raid (Attempt to remove a town from a port, for its hidden treasure value)
- Settle (Attempt to occupy a townless port with one of your crew, for endgame VP)
Unlike Actions, Tasks do not use up Days.
You may perform several Tasks in a turn if you wish, but at most you may attempt one Task (whether successful or not) at each individual port per turn.
A regions reminder: Remember, three ports with the same color and edge design form a region. Ports with gray rings, and the three large ports, are independent; they do not belong to any region.
Trade
(Deliver a goods token to a port without one, for VP)
Trading is the delivery of goods from your longship to a port, in exchange for VP. To Trade while you are in a port, remove a good from your longship and place it in the port. Then immediately take VP from the supply equal to the port's value.
- One type of goods will be designated as the "Goods in Demand". (There is a goods token in the center of the Wintering Zone that indicates which type; it starts off as Fish but there are Rune cards which will likely change this during the game.) If the good that you Trade is currently In Demand, you may take 2 bonus VP from the supply.
- A port may never contain more than one goods token (therefore under normal circumstances each port can be traded with at most once per game).
- No port in a region may ever contain the same goods token as another port in that region. Independent ports and the three large ports are not considered part of any region, so have no restriction on Trading.
- For the purposes of Trading, it is irrelevant whether a port has a town or a settlement in it... you may Trade with a port containing a town, or a Settlement belonging to any player; however you should be careful to ensure that the goods token does not get obscured by the town or settlement figurine.
Raid
(Attempt to remove a town from a port, for its hidden treasure value)
Raiding is the attempt to remove a town from a port in the hopes of earning the town's secret treasure value (and to help open up that port and its region for subsequent Settling). To Raid while you are in a port that has a town (whether small or large), roll a single die and compare it to the port's value.
- The port's value is reduced by 1 if there is a goods token present in the port (regardless of who placed it there).
If the roll result exceeds the port's value, the Raid is successful; take the town figurine and reveal its secret treasure value, then take that many VP from the supply. Keep the town figurine near your longship board for possible bonus scoring at the end of the game.
If the result fails to exceed the port's value, you have not succeeded; you must discard one crewmember from your longship and return it to your supply. If you still have at least one crewmember in your longship, you may make a second roll. If that result fails and you still have a crewmember, you may make a third and final roll. If this also fails, your Raid attempt is over.
- If your longship loses its last crewmember, you must discard any remaining goods and move your longship immediately to the Wintering Zone, ending your turn. See Ending Your Turn for details.
- You are not obligated to make all three rolls, even if you have the crewmembers to do so; you may break off your Raid attempt after the first or second roll.
- Rune cards that refer to "attacks" apply to both Raiding and Settling attempts.
It may be a good idea to Trade with a port before Raiding it, to lower the port value. Of course, you can't Trade and Raid a port on one turn due to the 1-Task limit per port, but you could Trade this turn and stay in the port to blockade it (if foes are near), then Raid next turn.
Settle
(Attempt to occupy a townless port with one of your crew, for endgame VP)
Settling is the attempt to occupy a townless port (by converting one of your crewmembers into a Settlement) for the purpose of earning VP at the end of the game (see Final Scoring for details).
- Once placed, Settlements are permanent.
- Each port may contain at most one Settlement. You may Sail into a port containing another player's Settlement, but can not "attack" the other player's Settlement.
- You may not Settle a port that contains a town. Ports with towns must first be Raided successfully (to remove the town). Remember though the 1-Task limit per port; a port can thus not be Raided and Settled on the same turn.
- You may not Settle a port if any of the ports in its region contain a town. Independent ports and the three large ports are not considered part of any region, so have no regional restrictions on being Settled.
- Rune cards that refer to "attacks" apply to both Raiding and Settling attempts.
To attempt to Settle, roll one die per crewmember in your longship, up to a maximum of three dice. You may roll fewer dice if you want, even if you have the crewmembers to permit more. All dice are rolled together (as opposed to Raiding where dice are rolled one at a time). Compare each individual die to the port's value.
- The port's value is reduced by 1 if there is a goods token present in the port (regardless of who placed it there).
First, for each result that fails to exceed the port's value, remove one crewmember from your longship and return it to your supply.
Then, if at least one result exceeded the port's value, the Settlement attempt is successful! To complete the Settlement, remove one crewmember from your longship and place it in the port; that crewmember will be considered a Settlement for the rest of the game.
- If converting this crewmember to a Settlement would result in a crewless ship, you might choose to not make the conversion, in the interest of keeping your ship crewed. In this case the port would not count as successfully Settled.
- If your longship loses its last crewmember, you must discard any remaining goods and move your longship immediately to the Wintering Zone, ending your turn. See Ending Your Turn for details.
As with Raiding, consider Trading with a port before Settling it, to lower the port value. Heeding the 1-Task limit per port, you could Trade this turn, stay in the port to blockade it if needed, then Settle next turn.
Other Activities
There are a few Other Activities which are not Actions or Tasks.
As with Tasks, none of these Other Activities cost any Days to perform.
Play or Discard a Rune
Playing a Rune activates the benefits described on the card. In addition, you get the opportunity to change the Weather. You may play or discard a Rune at any time, except when your longship is in a Homeland.
Changing the Weather
When you play or discard a rune you may immediately (before applying the Rune's effect if you Played it) turn the Wind Dial cover one full quarter-turn in either direction. (You may choose to not turn the Wind Dial.)
- Make sure that the red X is lined up neatly and that the red and blue numbers are visible through the red and blue holes.
Playing or Discarding the Rune
- When you discard a Rune, simply place it face up on the discard pile without applying its effect.
- When you play a Rune, read out the card's effect and carry it out as instructed, then place it face up in the discard pile.
- You may play multiple Runes in a turn; you may play Runes singly or back-to-back. Many Runes specify particular times or locations where they may be played; be sure to heed these limitations.
Move to the Wintering Zone
At any time during your turn you are free to move your longship to the Wintering Zone, discard all goods and crewmembers except for one crewmember, and end your turn immediately (See Ending Your Turn). You will start your next turn in the Wintering Zone with one crewmember already aboard.
- You can do this no matter where your longship is on the map.
- As with all Tasks and Other Activities, you can do this even after you have spent all 7 of your Days.
Complete a Saga
During most of the game, three Sagas will be face up in the Saga spaces. On your turn you may complete and collect these Saga cards for potential endgame VP (and sometimes for immediate VP). To be completed, the following requirements must be met depending on the type of Saga:
- Trade: A good must be present in each of the named ports.
- Raid: The town figurine must be removed from each of the named ports.
- Settle: A Settlement (regardless of whose) must be present in each of the named ports.
If on your turn you complete a Saga by fulfilling its requirements, collect any immediate VP as shown on the card and then take the Saga card and keep it near your longship board. (Collected Saga cards will be worth bonus VP at endgame for the players who complete the most (and second-most) Sagas per Homeland; see Final Scoring for details.)
- Note: It doesn't matter who "contributed" to the overall completion of a Saga; it is only the player who provides the final step necessary for completion that is rewarded.
- Each Saga is related to a Homeland (Sweden, Norway, or Denmark), displayed via the color of the card and the Homeland's name.
When a Saga is completed, a new Saga is flipped from the draw pile and placed on the empty space.
- If this new Saga is currently impossible to complete (because its requirements are already fulfilled), discard it and flip a new one in its place. Sagas that are already partially completed when revealed do enter play normally.
Changing Eras
Note that each Saga has an Era symbol in the top right corner. The game begins in the First Era. The Second Era starts when a Second Era card is placed in the Saga spaces for the first time, and the Third Era starts when a Third Era card is placed in the Saga spaces for the first time. (The changing Eras open up extra slots on your longship board and bring us closer to the end of the game.)
Entering the Final Rounds
When the last face down Saga is added to the board, this will reveal the three Final Round tokens, signifying that the Final Rounds are here. (See Final Rounds for more details.) The player who revealed the Final Round tokens takes all three and places them on his or her longship board.
Ending Your Turn
Your turn can end in one of three ways:
- You lose the last crewmember in your longship for any reason; you must discard all goods in your longship and move your longship to the Wintering Zone. You will begin your next turn in the Wintering Zone with nothing aboard.
- You decide willfully to move your ship to the Wintering Zone; discard all good and all but one crewmember from your longship. You will begin your next turn in the Wintering Zone with one crewmember already aboard.
- You declare your turn over because you can't (or don't want to) do anything else this turn... most often this is because you have used your seven Days and are not in a position to perform a Task or Other Activity. You will begin your next turn from the current position.
At this point you must clean up two things: First, if there are any goods or crewmembers covering skulls on the Losses chart, discard them. Second, reset the Preparation and Sailing sliders on the Days track to 0. Then, play passes to the next player clockwise.
Final Rounds
Once a player has obtained the three Final Round tokens, we are in the final rounds of the game. At this point the game can end in one of two ways:
- If the final Saga is completed (meaning that all three Saga spaces are empty), the game ends immediately.
- At the start of his or her turn, the player with the three Final Round tokens must place one of the tokens in an empty slot next to the Saga spaces. Once the player has placed the third token (meaning that three full rounds have passed since the tokens were obtained), the game will end immediately at the end of the player's turn.
When the game ends, proceed to Final Scoring to find out who is the winner!
Some important notes about Crewmembers
Losses: Vikings never die.
During the game, you will be instructed to "discard" goods tokens and crewmembers due to various factors. In all such cases, goods tokens are returned to their stockpiles and crewmembers are returned to their owner's supply for future use.
Running out of Crewmembers
It is possible to run out of crewmembers by building 15 Settlements in the game. In this case (because you won't be able to man your longship with the 1-crew minimum), you must sit out the rest of the game. (You will of course be involved in Final Scoring when it occurs.) In the crazy event that all players build 15 Settlements, the game ends immediately and Final Scoring begins.
Final Scoring
Now that the game is over, we calculate endgame bonuses to see who has emerged victorious as the most successful Viking! Each player will already have a collection of VP from various activities during the game, and now they will hopefully add to these VP in the three categories below. As each category is calculated, players should take VP tokens from the stockpile to track their bonus earnings, trading up to larger denominations for ease of counting.
The Bloodied Axe Bonus
This bonus is for the player (or tied players) who have collected the most town figurines (regardless of their size or treasure values). These player(s) earn 3VP per town.
Settlements
Each settlement is worth its port value in bonus VP to the owner. However, a port's value is doubled if two ports in the region have been settled, and a port's value is tripled if all three ports in the region have been settled.
- Ports in a region do not need to be settled by the same player in order to be doubled or tripled.
- Independent ports and the large ports are not part of any region and are thus never doubled or tripled. They are scored for their port value alone.
It's a good idea to score all Settled ports in a region at once; also to lay down the Settlement figurine when you've scored a port, to show that scoring has been completed there.
Saga Sets
All players now sort their Sagas by Homeland (Norway/Sweden/Denmark) and compare to see who holds the majority of Sagas for that Homeland. Score the Homelands one at a time. For each Homeland, the player with the most Sagas earns 10VP per Saga held, and the player with the second-most Sagas earns 5VP per Saga held.
- In the event of a tie for most Sagas, the tied players each earn 10VP per Saga held and nobody earns any VP for second-most.
- In the event of a tie for second-most Sagas, the tied players each earn 5VP per Saga held.
Once all three Homelands have been calculated and scored, Final Scoring is over!
The Winner
The winner is the player with the most VP, as shown by the great big pile of earned treasure before them! In the rare event of a tie, the tied players are declared shield-brothers and may now go raid and settle as equals... until next time!
Credits
Designed by "the Ragnar Brothers" Steve & Phil Kendall. Art Direction, Graphics, and Rules Development by Joshua Cappel. Box Cover Art by Lamin Martin. Rune Card Illustrations by Jeffrey Edwards. Figurine Modeling by Adler Romero.
Product Development by Nathan McNair, Molly Wardlaw, Jerry Bennington, and Nate Murray. Special Thanks to Ted Adams, Greg Goldstein, Chris Ryall, and Robbie Robbins.
IDW Publishing LLC, 5080 Santa Fe Street, San Diego, CA, 92109. ©2015 All rights reserved.