Lofoten Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
  • Components for the Basic Game
  • Components for the 3 Expansion Modules
  • Merchandise Tiles
• Goal of the Game
• Playing the Game
  • Order Card and Merchandise Tile Anatomies
• Action Phase: play an Order card from your hand
• Play a side card: perform movements with your fleet
• Play the middle card: place an order in the docked longship
• The 2 Automatic Actions: load or unload a longship
• Draw phase: draw an Order card and choose its place in your hand
• Maintenance phase: refill the market
• End of the Game
• Final Scoring
• Complete Game
  • Module 1: New Warehouse Cards
  • Module 2: Alliance with Other Jarls
  • Module 3: Upgrading the Longships
• Credits

Setup

This is the setup for the basic game, which is all you will need for your first few games.

Components for the Basic Game

• 8 level-1 Warehouse cards
• 2 Player Aid cards
• 1 First Player card
• 36 Order cards
• 1 Market board
• 2 Fleet wheels
• 8 Longship tiles
• 8 Coins
• 32 Merchandise tiles
• 2 Buckler tokens (for the final scoring)

Components for the 3 Expansion Modules

• 8 level-2 Warehouse cards
• 8 Jarl cards
• 7 Jarl requirement cards (double sided cards)

At the end of the rulebook, you will find 3 expansion modules to enhance the basic game. Discover Lofoten however you think is best; the archipelago is so very beautiful! But we strongly recommend the basic game for beginners.

Merchandise Tiles

There are 4 types of merchandise: mead, dried fish, sheep, coffer. Each is depicted on 8 Merchandise tiles (2 of value 1, 4 of value 2, and 2 of value 3).

1. Market board. Merchandise tiles are placed along the five spaces of the Market board.

2. Longship tiles. Each player takes a set of a-b-c-d longship tiles and places them randomly in the slots of their Fleet wheel, light side up. For your first games, disregard the icons in the upper-right corner of these tiles.

3. Fleet wheel. Place each wheel so a longship faces the middle space of the Market board.

4. Warehouse cards. Randomly place 4 level-1 cards.

For simplicity's sake, we consider that both players share the 4 warehouses, each storing their Merchandise tiles on their own end of the warehouse.

5. Order cards. Form a face-down deck.

6. Order cards. Each player draws 2 Order cards and places them in the left and right longships of his fleet wheel.

Note: if the 2 cards represent the same merchandise, draw 2 new ones until you get 2 different.

7. Merchandise tiles. Shuffle them, and place them in two face down decks, so you can see the type of merchandise, but not its quantity. Draw 5 tiles, flip them over and place them on the market board.

8. Order cards. Each player draws 3 cards and places them from left to right in their hand, keeping the order of the draw.

The positions of the cards in your hand is a core concept! Do not change their position! The left card must stay on the left; middle card, middle; right card, right! Pay close attention to this!

9. The first player starts with the First Player card and 2 coins; the second starts with 3 coins. The 3 remaining pieces form a reserve near the game board. The 2 Buckler tokens will be used for the final scoring.

Goal of the Game

In Lofoten, you must load merchandise from the market into your longships, and bring them back to your clan. For each type of merchandise, a particular scoring will grant you an advantage over the opposing Jarl. No matter what the situation is, your goal is to earn more PP (Power Points) than the opposing Jarl in the final scoring to become the most powerful Jarl in the archipelago!

Playing the Game

Your turn is divided into 3 phases; do all 3 phases, and then it is your opponent's turn. Following is how we will explain the game, adhering to the color code you see here:

• Action Phase: play an Order card from your hand
  • Play a side card (rotate/move icon): perform movements with your fleet
  • Play the middle card (docked-longship icon): place an order in the docked longship
  • The 2 Automatic Actions (star icon): load or unload a longship
• Draw phase: draw an Order card and choose its place in your hand
• Maintenance phase: refill the market

Order Card and Merchandise Tile Anatomies

Order card: the card value sits in the top corners; the number in the middle top is its power if played from the middle. The illustration and the color define the type of merchandise.

Merchandise tile: the number in the top corner is the merchandise quantity. The illustration and the color define the type of merchandise. The buckler, identical to one of those depicted in the middle of the Fleet wheels, indicates for which of the two clans the merchandise was intended.

Action Phase: play an Order card from your hand

To perform an action, you must play one of the 3 Order cards from your hand, without changing the order of the 2 other cards in your hand.

The position of the card in your hand defines the type of action: the left card, the middle card, and the right card.

No rule in this game allows you to change the order of the cards in your hand!

Play a side card: perform movements with your fleet

You can move your fleet of longships on one condition: Before and after each of your moves, your fleet must always be perfectly aligned with one of the 5 market areas. These areas are separated by pairs of wooden posts, and each area contains a space where a Merchandise tile can be placed.

Example: Noélie's fleet is aligned with the second area of the market, which contains a Merchandise tile with 3 sheep on it.

Here is how the number and types of possible moves are defined:

• The card's value determines the number of moves. Thus, you can make 1, 2, or 3 moves by playing a card with a value of 1, 2, or 3. You are not required to make all of your moves.
• There are 2 types of moves:
  • Moving horizontally to the area right (if you play your right card) or left (if you play your left card).
  • Rotating your fleet a quarter turn clockwise (if you play your right card) or counterclockwise (if you play your left card).
• You can spend the card's value on either or both types of movement, as long as you respect the direction based on the card's position in your hand, and do not perform more moves than its value.

For this action, only the card's value matters. You can ignore the type of merchandise and the action associated therewith.

Example: Madeline's hand is depicted to the right. She chooses to play her right card to perform up to 3 moves. Even though she respects the rules, Madeline is just learning the game, and is about to discover that her strategy is not so refined yet…

For her first move, she moves the fleet to the right (since she played her right card).

For her second move, she rotates the fleet a quarter turn clockwise (since it's her right card).

She could have stopped there, but she opts to use her third move to perform another rotation.

When you play your right card, I suggest you place it near the right end of the Market board, where there are icons to remind you of your moves.

Play the middle card: place an order in the docked longship

Performing this action requires several steps:

1. Place the card from the middle of your hand in the longship of your wheel facing you. If this longship already has a card, you cannot perform this action. The card you just played becomes an order that must be fulfilled at the market.
2. Gain an immediate effect determined by the type of merchandise depicted on the card. There is a reminder of the effect between the two values on the card.

• Steal a coin (coin icon): Steal a coin from the reserve. If you can't because it's empty, steal the coin from your opponent.
• Rotate fleet (rotate icon): Rotate your fleet a quarter turn in the direction of your choice.
• Discard a tile (post icon): Discard a tile from the Market board. This tile will be replaced during the Maintenance phase.
• Move fleet (arrow icon): Move your fleet horizontally 1 area in the direction of your choice.

You can use this effect once for each Merchandise tile of the same type you have stored in the warehouse. If you have none stored in a warehouse, you can still do it one time.

For example, if you have 3 coffer tiles in the warehouse, you could steal up to 3 coins. Even if you had 0 coffer tiles in the warehouse, you could perform the action 1 time.

1. You are not required to resolve all of the effects you are allowed.
2. The numbers in the upper corners of the card do not matter when you play your middle card.

At any moment during your turn, you can spend coins as follows:

a. 1 coin to buy 1 additional fleet movement after having played a side card (always in the same direction). b. 2 coins to discard the 3 Order cards in your hand and draw 3 new ones. As usual, the cards must stay in the same order you drew them. c. 3 coins to take an additional turn.

The 2 Automatic Actions: load or unload a longship

These actions are mandatory and trigger immediately:

• At the beginning of your action phase, depending on your opponent's actions.
• After playing your card, during the resolution of your actions.

You must immediately load a longship when all 3 of the following are true:

• Your longship is directly facing a Merchandise tile of the market. Attention: this can happen between 2 movements of your fleet.
• Your longship is occupied by an Order card the same color as the tile.
• Your longship has not already been loaded with another Merchandise tile.

As soon as these conditions are met, you must load the longship by placing the Merchandise tile on the Order card, in the square slot.

The bucklers on the tiles have no effect at this stage of the game. You can (and must) load merchandise intended for the other Jarl.

You must immediately unload a Merchandise tile as soon as a loaded longship becomes the bottom longship, facing you. If this occurs, you must store the Merchandise tile in a warehouse, and discard the Order card.

When you go to store the tile, there are 2 possibilities:

• No warehouse stores this type of merchandise yet (neither for you nor your opponent): Choose any empty warehouse, place the Merchandise tile face up on your end of the warehouse.
• A warehouse already stores this type of merchandise (for you or your opponent). You must place the Merchandise tile face up on your end of the warehouse.

In this situation, Noélie must unload her value-2 fish, then store them in the first warehouse, because her opponent has already stored fish in this warehouse.

Draw phase: draw an Order card and choose its place in your hand

Draw 1 card from the deck of Order cards, and place it at either the left end or the right end of your hand, without changing the order of the other 2 cards.

Important: You cannot place the drawn card in the middle of your hand.

Maintenance phase: refill the market

For each empty space of the market, you must choose the topmost Merchandise tile from one of the 2 tile decks, and place it on an empty space of your choice. Before making this choice, you are allowed to flip the tile over to know the quantity of the merchandise it provides. Repeat this operation until all of the spaces on the Market board are occupied.

Note: If there are ever 4 tiles with the same type of merchandise on the Market board, the active player discards the 2 middle tiles of the 4, and then replaces them one by one according to the procedure above.

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered when there are not enough Merchandise tiles to refill the Market board. Continue until both players have had the same number of turns in the game, even if the market is no longer completely full. The First Player card reminds you who went first; this player's opponent will have the last turn. Then, each player can unload the Merchandise tile from only one of their longships (no matter which position it's in; it does not have to be the one closest to you), and add the tile to the appropriate warehouse. Proceed to Final Scoring.

Final Scoring

Flip the market board over to use the score track there and take the 2 buckler tokens. Score each of the 4 warehouses. For each warehouse, each player totals the numbers on the tiles on their end of the warehouse. The player who has more earns the PP indicated on the Warehouse card. If it's a tie, neither player earns the PP.

After scoring all 4 warehouses, the player with more PP wins the game.

You can stop reading here and play your first game!

Complete Game

Returning from their long expeditions, the Vikings brought not only new wealth, but new techniques for fishing, hunting, and cooperage. You can try to change the value of your merchandise to prevail over the other clans.

These 3 modules can be played separately, but are also combinable, if you wish.

Module 1: New Warehouse Cards

Setup

You can replace as many of the level-1 Warehouse cards you wish with the same number of level-2 Warehouse cards. The more you replace, the greater the difficulty.

End of the Game

Each level-2 Warehouse card explains its own custom scoring.

Nothing changes for scoring the level-1 Warehouse cards.

Module 2: Alliance with Other Jarls

Setup

Place 2 Jarl cards near the play area.

Place a Jarl Requirements card above each of these cards, with a random side showing.

Playing the Game

You can ally with another clan of the archipelago by satisfying the requirements of their Jarl. At the end of your turn, you may collect the Jarl card if you have fulfilled the condition on its Jarl Requirements card. You are not required to take the card; if you still fulfill the condition at the end of a future turn, you can claim it then.

Requirements cards:

• Store 1 Merchandise tile of each type.
• Store 3 Merchandise tiles of the depicted type.
• Have at least 2 bucklers of each type on your Merchandise tiles.
• Give 3 coins to your opponent.
• Store 10 merchandise.
• Store 6 merchandise of the depicted type.
• Have 5 identical bucklers of either type.
• Have 5 coins.

Attention: You cannot claim both Jarls. If you have already claimed one, the second one can only be claimed by your opponent, assuming he manages to fulfill that Jarl's requirements.

Each Jarl card grants either immediate abilities, permanent abilities, or additional PP at the end of the game.

Module 3: Upgrading the Longships

Setup

At the end of your turn, you may upgrade one longship of your fleet by flipping it over (to the darker side). To pay for this upgrade, you must flip over one of your tiles stored in the warehouses. A Merchandise tile that has been flipped face down only counts as one merchandise during the final scoring, and its buckler no longer counts in the final scoring of certain Warehouse cards.

Then flip a longship of your choice to its upgraded side (the darker side).

Each longship has its own ability:

• A. Gain 3 PP at the end of the game.
• B. This longship can load a total of 4 merchandise at once (it can load several tiles, up to a total value of 4).
• C. If this longship has an Order card, you can load any type of Merchandise, regardless of the type specified on its Order card.
• D. When you place an Order card in this longship, you get to use its immediate effect up to 4 times.

End of the Game

Gain 1/3/6/10 PP if you have upgraded 1/2/3/4 longships.

Credits

Author: Sébastien Dujardin

Illustrations and Graphic Design: Weberson Santiago & Luis Francisco

Development and redaction of the rules: Pearl Games

English translation of the rules: Nathan Morse

Acknowledgements: The designer would like to thank his very dear spouse, who in addition to her usual support also allowed our family to explore Lofoten; Madeline, for playing the first game of this; and Noélie, for really wanting to go there to play it. Let's not forget our wonderful proofreaders, as well as Martin and the members of the large Asmodée family, who participated in the development of this project.