Trollhalla Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setting Up Trollhalla
  • Board Notes
• The Object of the Game
• On Your Turn
  • A) Place two trolls in your color onto the board
  • B) Play two matching cards to call on the Weather Gods (this action is optional)
  • C) Roll the die to activate one ship
    • To SAIL, follow these six steps
      • Grog & Gold and Billy Goat Tiles
  • End of Turn
• End of Game
• Final Scoring
• Variants
  • Setup Variant: Weather Tiles
  • Rule Variant: Maelstrom

Components

• 1 game board
• 3 Troll ships
• 4 Private Boat boards (1 per player)
• 64 Troll tokens (16 per player)
• 16 Chief Troll tokens
• 63 Plunder Tiles:
  • 12 Yellow tiles (Pig & Peasant)
  • 11 Orange tiles (Monk)
  • 10 Purple tiles (Nobleman)
  • 9 Green tiles (Princess)
  • 8 Brown tiles (Cow)
  • 7 Blue tiles (Billy Goat)
  • 6 White tiles (Grog & Gold)
• 1 Bag of Plunder, for holding the Plunder tiles
• 1 special die showing ships in 3 different colors
• 36 Weather cards
• 12 Weather Tiles (for playing with the Weather Tiles variant)
• 4 Reference Cards

Setting Up Trollhalla

1. The first time you play, carefully punch out all the playing pieces.
2. Place the game board in the center of the table. Place all Plunder tiles inside the Bag of Plunder (tile bag).
3. Sort the weather cards by type and place them next to the board, face up, in three separate stacks. (To mix up Trollhalla's weather patterns, see the Weather Tiles variant on page 11.)
4. Give each player a private boat board and all troll tokens in his color.
5. Put all black octagonal tokens on the southwest corner of the board next to the compass rose. These tokens belong to the Chief Troll—they are not used by players.
6. Place the three ships on the board on any three islands not directly adjacent to one another (no ship goes in the center). Turn each ship so that its prow (the dragon's head) faces west.
7. In a three-player game, place ONE of the Chief's Trolls on the bottom boat beneath the Chief Troll's ship. It blocks this spot and remains in place for the duration of the game. Remove no tiles from the bag.
8. In a two-player game, remove two of each type of tile from the bag before the game begins (14 tiles total—put them back in the box). Place TWO of the Chief's Trolls on the bottom two boats beneath the Chief Troll's ship. They block these spots and remain in place for the duration of the game. Also use one of the Chief Troll's tokens to block the +5 bonus (in two player games, no second place is awarded).
9. Thoroughly mix the remaining Plunder tiles in the bag and then draw from the bag at random, filling each empty space on the board with one tile per space, moving west to east on each island. All tiles go face-up.
10. The Scoring Track is not used until the end of the game. Do not place any tokens on it yet.

The game now begins! The player who can grunt the most like a grog-addled sea-troll grabs the die and starts the game.

Board Notes

The numbers at the top of the board show the bonus points awarded for collecting the first full set in each type.

This is the Chief Troll's ship. When all the boats beneath his ship are filled with trolls, he shares his plunder! The rest of the Chief's tokens go here in the corner supply.

When setting up a two-player game, one of the Chief Troll's tokens should block the +5 bonus for the entire game. When setting up a two player game, two tokens in the Chief Troll's color should block the bottom two boats and stay there the entire game. (In three player games, block only one.)

The Scoring Track is used at the end of the game to add up players' scores.

The Object of the Game

Players take turns placing trolls on the board. Trolls emerge from below each ship's deck ready to plunder and scout the seas of Trollhalla! Trolls placed on ships claim plunder from nearby islands when a ship sails. Trolls placed in the sea will scout for destinations and determine where these ships sail, and also award players cards that perform special actions. The player who uses his trolls to fill his private boat with the most valuable collection of plunder wins the game!

On Your Turn

On your turn, do three things:

• A) Place two trolls in your color onto the board (required).
• B) Play two matching cards to call on the Weather Gods (optional). This action can occur either before, during, or after action A.
• C) Roll the die to activate one ship (required).

A) Place two trolls in your color onto the board

Each troll must either SIT in a SHIP, or SCOUT at SEA. Flip trolls as shown to the right. In the unlikely event that the supply of trolls ever runs out, remove one already in play and place it elsewhere on the board.

To seat a troll in a SHIP, follow these rules:

• You must place your troll in the forward-most available seat in that ship, nearest the dragon's head. (This will either be the western- or the eastern-most empty spot, depending on which direction the ship is facing.) This troll is now prepared to plunder a nearby island!
  • To put a troll in a ship, it must go in the forward-most empty spot. Since all spots are empty, it goes in the very front. Since one troll is already on board this ship, the next one must go in the second space.
• You may never place your troll directly next to another troll in your own color. Trolls of the same color squabble and are not allowed to sit together! This is NOT a legal move if you seat two trolls of the same color next to one another. This IS a legal move if the two trolls of the same color are not seated next to one another in the ship.
• If a ship is already filled with trolls in all spaces, you may not put a troll in it.

To make a troll SCOUT at SEA, follow these rules:

• Place your troll on any sea space to scout for the best places to sail and to lead ships your direction. Flip the token spyglass-side up. Sea spaces are marked with symbols of wind, sun, or storm.
• You may stack your troll on top of any troll already in play on this space. Stack trolls slightly offset from each other to show the color of the troll beneath them. If there is one troll in play on a wind symbol, other trolls may also go in this space. These trolls will also each collect a Wind card. A brown troll may play in the same space by stacking his troll on top of the troll already in play there. He immediately collects a wind card.
• You may never stack your troll directly on top of another troll in your own color. This is NOT a legal move if you place two trolls of the same color directly on top of one another. This IS a legal move if the same color's tokens are not placed directly on top of one another.
• Immediately after placing your troll on the sea, collect one card showing the matching symbol of the space you just marked. Make sure to collect a card even if your troll is not the first one placed in that spot. In the examples above, all legally placed trolls collect a Wind card, even those placed on top of another troll. Cards may be kept secret if you choose.
• You are immediately allowed to play any cards that you collect. (See below.)

B) Play two matching cards to call on the Weather Gods (this action is optional)

You may play cards before, during, or after action A (anytime before you roll the die). You may immediately use any cards that you have just collected. Return the two matching cards that you use to the supply, face-up, and perform the action indicated. If you play more than one set, wait until all are played before discarding them.

• Two Wind cards: The Wind God brings blustery weather! You may either a) turn any ship around so that it faces the opposite direction OR b) flip over any stack of trolls in a sea space. A ship turned around now faces east instead of west. Because the trolls' order has changed in the ship, the items that trolls will plunder from nearby islands will change as well! Flipping a sea stack turns the entire stack of trolls in a sea space over so that the top trolls are now on the bottom, the bottom trolls on the top. Performing the Wind action at sea is useful when you want to place an additional troll on a sea space but your own color is on top of the stack.
• Two Storm cards: The Storm God sends lightning! Scatter all trolls in any single sea space and return them to their owners. (You may NOT remove trolls from ship spaces this way!) After playing two matching Storm cards, the active player removes these Troll tokens from the board and returns them to their owners. This space no longer has any Troll tokens in play on it!
• Two Sun cards: The Sun God brings clear sailing! Perform one extra action this turn. Take one extra Troll token from your supply and immediately place it on the board, following the regular rules for placing a troll.

You may call on each Weather God only once per turn. You may play more than one set of cards per turn, but each set must call on a different Weather God. See Variants on page 11 for an extra action using the Weather Cards.

C) Roll the die to activate one ship

As the die is rolled, players are encouraged to each grunt the color of the ship they want to sail! After rolling the die, set it on your private boat board to show that you are still the active player. The color rolled on the die indicates which ship is now activated.

If the active ship is NOT full (if it has fewer than four trolls in it), then add one Chief Troll token to the next available space on the ship (closest to the front), and end the turn. Unlike players' trolls, it is OK if the Chief's Trolls are placed directly next to one another on a ship.

If the active ship is completely FULL (if it has four trolls in it), then it attempts to SAIL.

To SAIL, follow these six steps

1) Determine which direction to sail.

Examine all sea lanes (dotted paths) adjacent to the active ship. Consider only POSSIBLE sea lanes (paths not blocked by another ship at the next island). Ignore all sea lanes leading to an island occupied by another ship—these paths are IMPOSSIBLE.

If a sea lane is crossed by another pathway, follow the sea lane in a straight line to the nearest island—do not change direction.

The active ship sails along the possible sea lane with the most troll tokens on it.

If more than one possible sea lane ties for the most troll tokens, then the trolls on the ship get confused and cannot decide which way to go—the ship does not move this turn. In this case the active player takes one of the Chief Troll tokens and places it on top of one of these tied sea spaces, spyglass-side up (it is OK if this is on top of another Chief's Troll). After placing the Chief's Troll, the turn then ends.

Example: The active player rolls red on the die, activating the red ship. The red ship is completely full of trolls, so it attempts to sail. There are three sea-lanes adjacent to this ship: lanes A, B, and C. Lane A has one troll in play on it. It leads to an island full of plunder. This is a possible path. Lane B has three trolls on it, but leads to an island occupied by another ship. This lane is blocked, making it an IMPOSSIBLE path. Ignore Lane B completely when determining which pathway to follow. Lane C also has three trolls on it, and it leads to an island full of plunder. This is a possible path. The possible sea lane with the most trolls on it is Lane C, so Lane C is the pathway that the red ship follows in order to pillage the island where it leads.

2) Clear the Sea Lane!

Pick up the stack of trolls in the sea space belonging to the lane just sailed. Do NOT return these trolls to their owners! Instead, move these trolls, one by one (bottom to top) to the boats beneath the Chief Troll's ship on the west side of the board. When the red ship sails, clear the way by moving the trolls from the traversed sea space to the boats beneath the Chief Troll's ship. The bottom troll token goes in the available boat closest to the bottom of the board, and so on. (The Chief Troll token goes back in the supply.)

Chief Trolls do NOT get placed in the boats beneath the Chief's Ship. They are returned to the supply on the board by the compass rose.

If there are more trolls on the cleared sea lane than empty boats remaining beneath the Chief Troll's ship, the extra trolls are all stacked (ordered exactly as they remain in the stack) in the boat nearest the Chief Troll's ship. These trolls will still be included when scoring the Chief's Ship.

3) Move, Disembark and Collect Plunder!

As you move the ship, make sure you do not change its orientation! Always keep the ship facing east-west as it moves, without rotating it!

Move trolls from the ship onto the island's tiles in exactly the same order that they are arranged on the ship, proceeding from front to back. The western-most troll takes the western-most Plunder tile(s), etc. Each troll on the ship then plunders the tile(s) in the corresponding space on the destination island. The western-most troll on the ship takes the western-most tile(s) on the island, and so on. A troll may claim TWO tiles if there are two tiles on the island corresponding to his position on the ship.

After all trolls disembark onto the island, they are returned to their owners together with any Plunder tiles they have pillaged from the island. You may not refuse a tile that your troll collects!

Be sure to ignore impossible sea lanes completely! Each island only has room for one ship! In the example above, note that the trolls in lane B—an impossible path—are ignored when determining which path to follow, even though this lane has the same number of trolls as lane C.

Tiles ransacked by the Chief's Trolls are placed on the northwest side of the board above the Chief Troll's ship, adding to his booty (which he will share later). The Chief Troll's tokens are then returned to the supply at the southwest side of the board by the compass rose.

Fill your private boat! Players immediately stack plundered tiles on their private boat boards in the spaces showing the matching symbol. Each Plunder tile scores points equal to the number of symbols on the adjacent shield. For example, each Princess scores 5 points. Monks score 3 each. Do not use the Scoring Track until the end of the game.

Grog & Gold and Billy Goat Tiles

The Grog & Gold and Billy Goat tiles each have special effects:

• Grog & Gold tiles are wild. A player must immediately assign this tile to ANY position on his troll's private boat board. It cannot ever be moved again after it is placed. It scores and functions exactly as a regular piece would. If a player uses a wild tile as a Billy Goat, he must then perform the Billy Goat action (see below).
• Billy Goat tiles can both hurt you and help you. Place the Billy Goat on the space indicated on your private boat board. Billy Goats go crazy on your boat and immediately kick out one tile from your largest set of tiles. (Choose freely if more than one set ties for the most in it. But never knock out other Billy Goats!) The kicked-out tile is returned to the bag (tiles are never just discarded). Billy Goats are chaotic and score no points individually, but the first player to collect a complete set now has a petting zoo—and collects a huge bonus!
• The Billy Goat threatens bonuses previously scored! If by losing a tile you no longer have the required number for scoring a bonus that you have already marked, you lose this bonus—remove your token. If another player now has enough to score the bonus, she now marks it. If multiple players qualify, award the bonus to the player with the most tiles of that type. If more than one player ties for this bonus, then neither claims it yet. In this case, the first player to collect more tiles of that type than any other player will be the one to mark the bonus. (Note: the +10/+5 bonuses, once marked, cannot ever be lost.)
• If you pillage another tile on the same turn that you claim a Billy Goat, you can freely choose which tile to place in your private boat first.

4) Check for bonuses scored.

If any player is now the first to collect a complete set of one type of tile, he marks the appropriate bonus spot on the top of the board with one of his troll tokens. (The wild Grog & Gold tiles contribute to a set just like regular tiles.)

• In a 4 player game, a full set is three tiles of one type.
• In a 2 or 3 player game, a full set is four tiles of one type.

Claim bonuses as your trolls disembark. If more than one player ties for becoming the first to complete a set, the player who disembarks first is the one to claim it (the troll closer to the front of the ship).

If another player ever exceeds the number of tiles owned by a player already holding a bonus, he removes the other player's token and puts his own in its place on the bonus. Merely matching another's value is not enough.

+10/+5 bonus. The first player to collect one of each of the six types of tile marked on the game board (including the Billy Goat) claims the 10-point bonus. The second player to collect one of each type of tile claims the 5-point bonus. (There is no second-place bonus in two-player games). The +10/+5 bonus cannot be lost, even if the player later loses a tile that contributed to it.

Example: The orange troll is first to collect a full set of Billy Goats, so he marks this bonus on the board—scoring 25 extra points at the end of the game! (In a four-player game, only three of the same type of tile would be needed.)

5) Check to see if the boats beneath the Chief Troll's ship are now full.

If all are filled with troll tokens, the Chief Troll shares his own plunder with the players!

• The player with the most Troll tokens in boats beneath the Chief Troll's ship gets first pick from the Chief's Plunder tiles and takes ONE tile (and only one!). If players tie for the most trolls, the player with a troll in a boat closer to the Chief Troll's ship picks first. If players still tie, the player with the highest troll in the stack nearest the Chief's Ship picks first.
• A player is NOT required to take a tile from the Chief Troll's Ship if she chooses not to.
• After taking one of the Chief's tiles, the player immediately removes ALL of his trolls from beneath the Chief Troll's ship and returns them to his supply (each player will claim at most one tile each). Each player, in order, places the claimed tile on his private boat board and checks for bonuses as usual.
• The remaining player with the most trolls remaining in boats beneath the Chief Troll's Ship picks next, and so on. If more tiles remain after each player with a Troll token in a boat has collected one, return all leftover tiles in the Chief's Ship to the tile bag.

Example: Here all the boats beneath the Chief Troll's ship are full, so the Chief Troll shares the plunder from his own ship! Orange chooses one tile first. Even though he is tied for the most tokens with green and blue, he has a token closest to the Chief's ship and highest in the stack, which acts as tiebreaker. He takes one tile and removes his tokens. Blue then takes one tile, and then green. The leftover tile in the Chief's Ship is returned to the bag.

6) Occupy the new island and refill the island from which you just sailed.

The active ship occupies the new island and stays oriented just as it was, even if it was flipped earlier. It will still need to be filled from the front, even if it now faces east!

Drawing from the tile bag at random, refill the island from which the active ship just sailed, placing tiles face up in order, west to east.

If you are ever unable to refill an empty island because not enough tiles remain in the bag, the game is over—proceed to Final Scoring.

End of Turn

Pass the die clockwise to the next player and continue the game.

End of Game

The game ends when there are not enough tiles remaining in the bag to refill the island from which you just sailed. (If the island is refilled exactly, the game still continues.) In this case, proceed to Final Scoring. Players are allowed to reach into the bag to count remaining tiles at any time.

Final Scoring

• Score the Chief Troll's Ship one additional time, as long as at least one boat beneath it has a troll inside it.
• Players now add scores from their private boats and from marked bonuses on the board. Proceeding clockwise, starting with the active player, each player uses one of his troll tokens to move along the scoring track accordingly.
• The Weather Gods now exact penalties for unused cards: subtract one point for each card remaining in your hand.
• The troll with the highest score grunts with glee and wins the game! If players tie, then the player with more points scored from bonuses is the winner. If players still tie, they groan in frustration and grudgingly share their victory.

Variants

Setup Variant: Weather Tiles

Mix up Trollhalla's weather! During setup, cover all twelve Weather symbols on the board with Weather Tiles, chosen either at random or by player consensus. Whenever you play a troll in that sea space, collect a card matching the symbol on that Weather Tile just as if it were marked on the board.

Rule Variant: Maelstrom

On your turn you may play one of each card (Wind, Sun, and Storm) to summon a maelstrom (whirlpool) to violently transport trolls at sea! Pick up all the trolls in any one sea space and exchange them with all the trolls in any other sea space (keep trolls stacked in their original order). If you play with the Weather Tiles Variant, exchange Weather Tiles along with the trolls. You must exchange trolls on sea spaces—you may not just move them. The Maelstrom action calls on all three Weather Gods; you may not call on any other Weather Gods during that same turn.