Kaleva of the Finnish Forests
Kaleva of the Finnish Forests Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game board
The game board consists of 5 rows and 6 columns. The silver and bronze rows represent the players' magic shields in which their protective magic is stored.
Players start the game with 6 game pieces each. In the beginning, both players place their game pieces on their magic shields.
Cards
The game includes a 54-card deck that is divided by colour into two 27-card player decks; one for each player. The card characters are named and illustrated according to Finnish mythology. Each card has a value between 0 and 9.
Card setup in the beginning of the game
Both players shuffle their deck. Draw six cards from your deck and place these cards face up on your card slots on the game board. This way you can see your opponent's starting cards and plan your starting setup and tactics accordingly. Collect your cards and place them face down on the card slots in whatever order you wish. This is your starting setup.
Moving a game piece
The player with silver pieces starts the game. On your turn, move one of your game pieces one space. You can move game pieces in all eight directions, also diagonally. There are two exceptions to this:
A. When moving into or attacking a magic shield, the game piece must move straight forward.
B. It is not possible for game pieces to move between two opponent pieces diagonally.
You cannot move your game pieces into spaces occupied by your own pieces.
Attack
An attack means moving a game piece into a space occupied by an opponent piece. The card in the corresponding column determines the strength of the attack.
When you attack the other player's game piece, both players turn over one card: the defender flips the card in the column that their game piece is on, and the attacker in the column from which the attacking game piece started the attack.
The revealed cards determine the outcome of the attack: the winner is the player who has played the higher card. In case of a tie, the player who attacked wins; the losing game piece is captured and moved off the game board. The winner stays in the space that was attacked.
Place used cards in a discard pile.
Moving into or attacking opponent's magic shield
When you move a game piece into the opponent's magic shield, the game piece becomes static; it cannot be moved or attacked during the rest of the game. The player who lost one of their game pieces can now swap any two of their cards with each other.
Resurrecting a game piece
You can use your turn to resurrect one of the lost game pieces and place it on either corner space of your magic shield, but only when you have an empty corner space. Resurrecting counts as one turn, and you cannot perform any other actions during that turn.
Drawing a new card
If you have an empty slot in your card row after your turn, draw a new card from the draw deck and place it in the empty slot face down. You can look at the card before placing it on the table, and you can freely check your own cards in the row during the game. If all cards from the draw deck are used, shuffle the discard pile and make a new deck.
Winning the game
The winner of the game is the player who first takes over 3 of the opponent's magic shield spaces with their own game pieces!
Contents
Game board, 6 Silver game pieces, 6 Bronze game pieces, 54 Character Cards (bronze & silver).
Card characters
The card characters and their values, as printed on the cards:
- Ukko (9): God of sky, weather, harvest and thunder, the most important god who made farming possible. He lived up in the high skies.
- Kokko (8): A fiery, iron-made giant eagle, whose feathers could be used to light a fire. A protector of all things good, he could easily carry a person in his talons.
- Ahti (7): Ruler of the sea and lakes who filled fishers' nets with quarry. He was the lord of everything that lived in water. His beautiful daughters often appeared to sailors, luring them into the abyss.
- Väinö (6): Mythical sage from the beginning of time, a wise bard. According to legend he took part in the creation the world. He was a supreme master of incantations and enchantments.
- Kauko (5): A man from the deep forest, a passionate soul who dreamt of catching the swan of the Tuonela Underworld river. The slayer of the sacred bird, however, was doomed.
- Louhi (4): Ruler of the evil northern lands, the source of coldness and sickness. She could control the weather and weave powerful spells. She gave birth to evil creatures.
- Aino (3): A fair maiden from a small family who met a tragic fate. She drowned herself and escaped to the realm of Ahti after hearing that she had been betrothed to old Väinö.
- Kullervo (2): Resilient, angry and tragic warrior in a war of brothers. He fought against his uncle and the uncle's powerful family wiped out Kullervo's family, yet could not slay him.
- Terna (1): An evil spirit who was said to bring illness and bad luck. Death walked in Terna's footsteps, reaping his deadly harvest.
Special abilities
Terna's special ability: trickery. If you attack Terna with a higher card, neither game piece is captured. Instead, the attacking and defending player's game pieces switch places. If both players play a Terna card, the player who made the attack wins, and the defensive player's game piece is captured.
Tuuri's special ability: scouting. If you move a game piece in or from a column where a Tuuri card is situated, that card can be revealed and played instantly, even if you're not attacking. With a Tuuri card you can turn one of the opponent's cards face up. The card that was scouted stays face up until it is used by the opponent.
Note that if you lose an attack using a Tuuri card, you cannot use its special ability. When using Tuuri in an attack against a Terna card, Terna cannot use its special ability of trickery, and the attacking player's game piece is captured.