Valhal Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setup
  • The Viking Settlement
  • The Mainland
  • The Cards
  • Favour of the Gods
  • Goal of the Game
• Course of the Game
  • Summer
    • I. Vikingfahrt
    • Statistics and the Battle Board
    • The Battle
    • Example of a Battle
    • The Next Round
    • The End of the Battle
    • Plunder
    • End of Vikingfahrt
  • II. The Settlement
    • Buildings
    • Construction Process
• How to Win
  • The Final Stage
• Changes in the Mainland
• Additional Rules
  • Victory or Death
  • Attacking Multiple Targets
  • Combined Attack
  • Achievement Markers
  • Damage to Buildings
  • Event Cards
  • Total Catastrophe
  • Recruiting Two Units at Once
• Quick Overview

Game Components

• 5 boards: 4 Viking Settlement boards and 1 Mainland board ("The Mainland")
• 72 unit cards: 28 Scandinavian Warriors, 20 Scandinavian Veterans, 24 Ships
• 16 building cards: 4 Warehouses, 4 Sacrificial Altars, 4 Blacksmiths and 4 Granaries
• 149 game cards: 50 Event cards, 30 God's Charity cards, 30 God's Wrath cards, 15 Small Loot cards, 10 Large Loot cards, 10 Huge Loot cards, and 4 Battle boards
• 24 City cards, 16 Food markers and 1 Epoch marker
• 4 God's Favour track boards
• 4 Raven markers (blue, green, red and purple)
• 7 Achievement markers and 1 First Player marker
• 8 Reminder markers (Spring and Inactive; Summer and Winter)
• 80 Coins and 20 markers (grey, red and yellow cubes)
• 16 Construction markers: 8 Wood and 8 Iron
• 20 beige dice and 4 red dice

Setup

The Viking Settlement

In this Viking adventure you take on the role of a Jarl of the small island of Fjornheim. For now, you all address each other as "Jarl."

Each player takes one Viking Settlement board.

1. Place 3 Coins and 2 Iron markers on the Jarl's House.
2. Place 1 Food marker in the summer position on the Food track.
3. Take 1 Scandinavian Warrior unit and 1 Ship. These are the units and resources each Jarl takes at the start of the game.

Now place the remaining Warriors, Ships, Buildings, Dice and Markers in separate stacks.

The Mainland

Now place the Mainland board in the centre of the table and take the City cards out of the box. The pictures show the four levels of City cards: Village, Fortified Village, City and Fortified City.

If only 2 or 3 players are playing, use fewer City cards. The number of cards to use depends on the number of players, as shown in the table next to the board. Return any surplus cards to the box.

Level	2 Players	3 Players
Village	4	5
Fortified Village	7	8
City	3	5
Fortified City	1	1

With 4 players, use all of the City cards.

1. Place the Village-level cards on the Mainland board, starting at the position shown by the icon. You may set the remaining City cards aside for the first summer.
2. Place the Epoch marker in the summer space of the Epoch board.
3. Separate the Achievement markers by colour.
   • With 2 players, use only the bronze markers (8+ Coins Looted).
   • With 3 players, add the silver markers (All Buildings Built).
   • With more than 3 players, use all of the markers, including 2 Successful Raids in One Vikingfahrt.

The number of City cards on the Mainland board is also marked with these colours. With 2 players, place the City cards in the bronze spaces 1–4, and so on.

The Cards

Separate the game cards according to the picture on their back side, and shuffle them.

Each player takes 1 Battle board.

Favour of the Gods

Place the God's Favour track above the Viking Settlement board.

1. Each player chooses a coloured Raven marker and takes a Glory marker.
2. Place the Raven marker on the first space of the God's Favour track.
3. Place the Glory marker on the first space of the Glory track.

Goal of the Game

The goal of the game is to reach the last space of the God's Favour track before the other players.

The following chapter lets you start the game immediately, even if this is your first time playing Valhal. Simply follow the instructions chapter by chapter while you play. This way you will learn the rules step by step and will already have completed your first round. There is a note at the end of the chapter showing that you can now start your adventure normally.

Course of the Game

Summer

This is the Epoch board. Each year Valhalla has three epochs.

The Epoch marker (the raven) shows the current epoch (the round). The game always begins in summer. Vikingfahrt takes place only in summer.

I. Vikingfahrt

Each player rolls a die. The player who rolls the highest result takes the First Player marker and begins the game.

This player chooses one of the Villages from the Mainland board, places it on the Viking Settlement board, and immediately places the units for the attack, next to the Village.

Clockwise, the players take turns until each has chosen one Village.

Statistics and the Battle Board

Each player marks the following values on their Battle board:

1. Mark the Village's life points with a red marker.
2. Use a grey marker for the attack bonus of your warriors.
3. Add the life points to the top-right and bottom-left corners of the warrior card, and use a red marker for this value on the Battle board. These are the life points of the "Front-Line Unit." If a warrior loses all the life points in the top-right corner because they were injured by an enemy, turn the card 180° to mark that it has been injured. From this point on, the statistics in the top-right corner apply.
4. For now, the gold marker is not important and is only needed for specific City cards.

The Battle board shows the attack die, the attack bonus and the life points:

• Attack die
• Attack bonus
• Life points

The Battle

The Jarl who has the First Player marker starts. He rolls a die. Now add the die value and the attack bonus of the warrior that was marked on the Battle board. This is your battle result.

The Jarl on the left takes the role of the Village and rolls a die. Now add the die value and the attack bonus of the Village, which was marked on the Battle board. This is the Village's battle result.

Now determine which player has the higher battle result. If the attacking player's battle result is higher than the Village's, the attacking player wins the battle round. However, if the Village's result is higher, the attacking player loses. The difference between the two battle results is removed from the life points of the losing side.

Continue in the same way until the battle is complete (one side has lost all of its life points) or the attacking player decides to retreat at the start of a new battle round.

Example of a Battle

1. Player A decides to attack a Fortified Village. He places the Village and the Battle board next to his Viking Settlement. He also places the units he wants to send to the battle next to the Village. A ship can carry up to 2 warrior units.

2. This Fortified Village has two different values. They represent the two fortifications, which must be destroyed one after the other.

3. Now Player A sets the values of the warrior units on the Battle board. The player adds the attack bonuses of all warrior units and places the grey marker on the Battle board.

4. Before the battle starts, Player A chooses one unit as the Front-Line Unit. This unit will be the first to receive any damage. Only after this unit has fallen can another unit receive damage. The player places the red marker for the life points of the Front-Line Unit on the Battle board. The life points of the other warriors are ignored.

5. Player A and Player B, on his left, begin the first battle round.

   • Player A rolls 3 dice and adds the total of his attack bonus. The result is 11.
   • Player B rolls 2 dice and adds his attack bonus as well. The result is 10.
   • The attacking player wins the battle round, since his battle result is 1 point higher than the Village's. So the Fortified Village loses 1 life point. Player B moves the enemy's red marker from 2 to 1 on the Battle board.
   • The battle is not yet complete, because the enemy still has other life points. Roll the dice again.

6. This time Player A loses 2. He moves the red marker of his warrior's life points from 3 to 1. Now that all the life points in the top-right corner of the warrior card have been lost, the unit must be marked as injured. Turn the card 180° and readjust the total attack bonus, since the new values of the top-right corner are now calculated.

"Our player is quite brave. Even though he has already lost some units and his initial attack bonus, he decides to continue the battle. Well, this is a possible tactic to tempt fate, but do not forget that if the life points of one unit fall to 0, it must be returned to the box. If the front-line unit receives more damage than its life points, the next unit takes the rest of the damage. That is why more than one unit can fall in one battle round."

The Next Round

Player A is lucky and wins 1 for the second round. The first fortification falls to 0 life points and is destroyed.

The Fortified Village still has a second fortification with 1 life point. Player B places the marker on 1.

The End of the Battle

We can confirm that Player A did not steal the dice, but somehow won the battle with a bit of luck. Now that the last fortification of the Village has been lost along with all its life points, Player A has conquered the village.

Additional battle rules:

• If the Victory-points value of a fortification is 0 at the start of the first round of battle, the fortification falls automatically after the first battle round. One of your units must survive the damage the fortification takes in that single round.
• You cannot destroy more than one fortification in the same battle round. Unlike warriors, any excess damage does not pass to the next fortification, regardless of how much damage it took.
• Ships must always carry at least one warrior unit. You cannot send empty ships. If there are not enough warriors to fill all of your ships after the battle, the empty ships are lost and must be returned to the stack.
• Some cities have special abilities. These are described on the specific City cards and add extra obstacles that you must overcome.

Plunder

"Well, let us assume that at least one of you has managed to win one of the villages and to overcome the ditches, the burning wooden balls, the logs, the rocks and the burning pigs. If, beyond all expectations, none of you managed it, we would have to tell you about plundering, and you would have to take a quick look at the additional rules. (p. 23)"

Immediately after you win a Village or City, the Jarl draws the number of Loot cards indicated. In this case, one Small Loot card. The player reads the text aloud and takes the depicted loot.

Loot symbols:

• Draw the depicted God card.
• Place one Norwegian Warrior unit back in the stack and take one Scandinavian Veteran.
• Gain one Scandinavian Warrior unit immediately.
• Gain one point of God's Favour! Move your Raven marker one space to the right on the God's Favour track.
• Gain one Ship.
• Take one Wood marker, which can be used for a building or for a ship.
• Take one Iron marker, which can be used to recruit, or to upgrade recruited warriors to veterans.
• Choose one of the depicted Construction markers.

Other loot effects:

• Take 3 Coins.
• Take 3 Food markers and place them clockwise (starting from summer) in the free spaces of the Food track. In this case the summer space is already occupied, so it starts with the winter space.

Construction markers are very useful. You can use them instead of Coins for your constructions. Your work will proceed to the next stage even if no food is provided. You can also place a Construction marker and a Coin on a Building card. In this case, the card will advance by two stages instead of one when a new epoch begins! However, you must provide food in this case, and you cannot place more than one Construction marker on the same project.

Also gain Glory when you win City cards. The Jarl moves the Glory marker that many spaces to the right as the number printed on the City card. Continue clockwise, with each Jarl in turn, until each has attempted a battle with a City card.

End of Vikingfahrt

1. Return all Loot cards you drew back to the stack and shuffle it.
2. Return all City cards to the stack and shuffle it. Then open new City cards in the appropriate spaces of the Mainland board, as determined by their colours and the number of players (p. 5).
3. Injured units return to full life points.

II. The Settlement

"And now, we have returned to Fjornheim. Raids on the cities in the mainland may bring you closer to your goal, which is none other than regaining the God's Favour. However, the decisions you make for your settlement will have long-term effects on your progress. So, use your plunder wisely!"

Let us start by getting familiar with the possible actions of your Viking Settlement.

Buildings

1. These are the buildings you start with. They allow you to build Ships, recruit Scandinavian Warriors and make small sacrifices.
2. The Jarl's House serves as storage. The Armoury is already there, but it is used only after you build the Blacksmith.
3. Here you store your food supply.
4. Your building sites allow you to prepare additional buildings, which give you advantages and new options. Don't forget: the Runestone is also a building site for the Sacrificial Altar.

Construction Process

Each construction process requires a specific number of epochs. Start and build step by step.

Jarl decides to recruit a Scandinavian Warrior unit. He takes a Scandinavian Warrior card, turns it to its back side, and places it on the Training Ground, with the top edge showing the number of the stage it is at. Then he places a Coin on the specified space. This is the only way the construction process can advance.

In addition, he wants to build the Blacksmith and make a sacrifice to the gods. The Blacksmith is built in the same way as the Scandinavian Warriors. Then he places a Coin on the specified space of the Runestone to make a sacrifice.

Other Buildings

Granary. Your Granary allows you to store food. It also protects you from the negative effects of cards that affect your food stocks. In addition, it gives you one free food each winter. Turn a Food marker to its other side and place it on a food space in winter. From this point on, you may skip that space.

Warehouse. The Warehouse is used for storing construction materials. It allows you to build ships and buildings more efficiently. From now on, when you place cards to start building, place the card with the top edge showing the stage number next to the saw. Ships, the Blacksmith and the Sacrificial Altar are now built faster and more cheaply.

Sacrificial Altar. The Sacrificial Altar lets you make three different sacrifices.

1. You can sacrifice Coins to draw a God's Charity card. However, this will now cost you two Coins instead of one.
2. You can sacrifice two Coins so that a player takes a God's Wrath card.
3. You can sacrifice seven Glory to regain God's Favour.

Note: When you start building the Sacrificial Altar, you can no longer make sacrifices at the Runestone. You can make only one sacrifice per epoch, and only after you have completed the Altar.

Blacksmith. The Blacksmith gives you access to advanced weapons and armour. It makes the recruitment of Scandinavian Warriors more efficient. From now on, when you start the construction, place the Scandinavian Warrior card with the top edge showing the stage number next to the anvil. You can also upgrade Scandinavian Warriors to Veterans. To do this, return one Scandinavian Warrior unit to the stack and take a Scandinavian Veteran card, with its back side up, next to your Armoury.

You can place more than one building and recruit warriors only for yourself. All players may do this at the same time, without following a specific order. Remember that you can build two ships and two warriors of each type at the same time.

Food Stock

"It is good that the food is already ready for the first summer; otherwise you would have a serious problem. It is your responsibility to find food for your people!"

There are two ways to collect food. You can gain food after a raid, or as a reward from various cards. Alternatively, you can simply buy it. To do so, just place a Coin on the Food track.

You will need food when you want to build something or recruit warriors. Make sure you have the necessary food for the epoch in which you want to build, otherwise the construction process will not advance. Alternatively, you can let your people go hungry if you do not want them to work in that epoch.

You do not need food for sacrifices!

Remember that winter is long in Fjornheim, and for that reason you must provide two Food markers for it.

Example: It is summer, and Player B has already placed the Food marker that he got at the start of the game on the Food track. After the Vikingfahrt, he got another Food marker.

Now he wants to recruit a Scandinavian Warrior unit. It will be recruited only after three epochs. For this he must provide food for both winter and spring.

• First, he places a Coin on the last empty winter space. In this way there is enough food for winter. If he had left the second winter space empty, the first food he placed would have been lost, and the construction would not have advanced for lack of food.
• He has enough Coins, so he places a Coin on the spring space as well, and wants to complete the Scandinavian Warrior unit.

Note: Food that is not needed cannot be moved to other spaces. As described in the Loot rules (p. 12), food tokens are distributed clockwise on the Food track, and they remain in their places. If you do not build anything in the epoch, your people will use the food from the food stock as normal. However, you can take your Coins back at any time during the epoch and store them for later.

III. Changing Epochs

When all the Jarls have distributed their Coins, the first player starts with the final actions before the epoch ends. You can no longer change anything in your settlement now. Your actions are executed at the end of the epoch, as explained in the following example for Player A.

• The first player takes the Coin from the Scandinavian Warrior card and turns the card over, marking the stage with the smaller number at the top. He does the same with the Blacksmith. The top edge now shows 3.
• He also removes the Coin from the Runestone, draws a God's Charity card, reads it aloud and carries out all of its actions as needed.
• Finally, he removes the Food marker (that is, the Coin) from the current epoch on the Epoch board.

Note: The source names the Epoch board for this last step, while the Quick Overview at the end of the rulebook says the Food marker is removed from its space on the Food track. Both are kept as printed.

If there is no food, do not build!

Once Player A has completed his turn, the Jarl on his left carries out his end-of-epoch actions in the same way. Continue clockwise until all players have performed their end-of-epoch actions. These actions can be carried out by all players at the same time!

At the end of the epoch, the first player does the following:

1. Passes the First Player marker to the player on his left. For the next epoch, that player is the First Player.
2. Moves the Epoch marker to the next epoch. This is the end of summer. Winter follows.
3. Each player takes one Coin.

The Rest of the Year

The following rules apply to all epochs, including the coming summer.

Player B now has the First Player marker. He starts the new epoch by drawing an Event card and reading it aloud. Once all the actions of the Event card have been carried out, the Jarls may place their Coins, continuing the construction process. Do not forget the disadvantages of winter. To construct anything in winter, you must place Coins or Food in both suitable Food spaces.

Then the change of epoch is carried out as explained above.

"Surely you have noticed that construction in Fjornheim advances step by step. This allows you to interrupt the construction process whenever you do not have enough Coins, or if you want to use them for something else. As soon as you have collected enough Coins, you can continue the construction process."

When it is the Jarl's turn to finish the epoch, he removes the Coin and turns the card over to its front side instead of turning it back again. The construction process is now complete, and all the functions of the card can be used. The finished construction is now a building, and its functions can be used immediately.

Here the chapter "Course of the Game" ends. You may now begin your adventure.

How to Win

To enter Valhalla, you must regain God's Favour. You win the game when your Raven marker reaches the last space of the God's Favour track.

There are four different ways to gain points of God's Favour:

1. Large and Huge Loot cards give you one point of God's Favour each.
2. Some Event cards trigger events that can give you the chance to gain a point of God's Favour.
3. God's Charity cards also help you regain God's Favour.
4. If you take an Achievement marker, you also gain one point.

The Final Stage

As soon as a player's Raven marker reaches the 5th space of the God's Favour track and that player has 7 Glory, the final stage begins.

Once a player has fulfilled these conditions, all other players have a little time left to win the game by one of the four methods above: Loot, an Event, a God's Charity card or an Achievement marker. However, they are not allowed to win by sacrificing Glory. If they manage to win at this moment, the player who started the final stage wins the game through the next Vikingfahrt.

Note: The other players may sacrifice Glory to gain points of God's Favour, as long as they do not win the game that way. However, it is possible to advance the Raven marker up to the second-last space by sacrificing Glory, for example by taking a point of Glory from a Loot card before the epoch changes. It is also possible for Player A to score his last point with a Loot card, an Event, a God's Charity card or an Achievement marker, and so win the game that way.

Example: Player A is the first player in winter and draws an Event card that gives two Glory. He reaches seven Glory and begins the final stage. If the other players do not manage to reach the last space of the God's Favour track, which requires six points, by the end of the next Vikingfahrt, Player A wins the game.

Changes in the Mainland

It appears that some of the villages of the Mainland did not cooperate by sharing their harvest with us. The number of villages in the Mainland is dropping dramatically.

This symbol shows that you must remove half of the "unfortified" villages from your City card stack after the next Vikingfahrt, as soon as each Jarl has reached at least the second space of the God's Favour track.

As soon as the first Jarl reaches the fourth space of the God's Favour track, remove the following number of Fortified Villages from your City card stack after the Vikingfahrt:

• 2 and 3 players: 4 Fortified Villages
• 4 players: 5 Fortified Villages

In addition, all remaining "unfortified" villages are removed, regardless of the number of players.

Additional Rules

Victory or Death

Death in battle is honourable and brings a lot of Glory. You gain one Glory each time you lose one warrior unit, up to a maximum of three units in each Vikingfahrt.

Attacking Multiple Targets

It is possible to attack more than one village or city. If a player has enough ships and warriors, they may divide them as they wish. On their turn, the player places the units they want to send to a city of the Mainland next to its City card. When all players have chosen their first targets, a player may send the rest of their units to attack another city. They may continue in this way until they have no warriors or ships left, or until there are no City cards left on the Mainland board.

However, the battles take place one after another. Player A attacks his first target and carries out all the actions connected with it. Then the player on his left continues fighting his first target, and so on. When it is Player A's turn again, he fights his second target, and so on.

Combined Attack

During the game it may be good to attack a city together with another player, because there are no alternatives. This happens when another player wants to join the battle with you.

In this case all the rules of Vikingfahrt apply, as well as the following additional rules:

• The player who must choose a City card invites the other players to the battle. Players who accept the invitation place their units next to the City card. These players have now chosen a target, and they may not choose a new target until all the players have chosen the same number of targets.
• In the battle, the dice and the attack bonuses of the cooperating players are added together. The players must also decide whose unit will be the Front-Line Unit.
• The players must decide how to share the number of Loot cards before they draw them. Glory points are not shared; each player gains the full amount of Glory points.

Achievement Markers

You gain Achievement markers for your progress in the game. When you have one of these markers, you gain one point of God's Favour. You gain these markers when you meet their requirements.

Example: Player A already has two Ships. It is his turn to finish the epoch. He removes the Coin from the Ship under construction, which completes it. He turns the card over to its front side, and now he is the first player to have three Ships in his possession. He takes the "Owner of 3 Ships" marker and places it on his House. Now he moves his Raven marker one space to the right on the God's Favour track.

Keep the Achievement markers you have gained even after you stop meeting their requirements.

You gain the "8+ Coins Looted" marker if you take more than 8 Coins from the Loot cards you draw after winning a single City card.

This is a special Achievement marker. Some God's Charity cards remain in your possession until you use them. If another player at some point has more of these cards than you do, you must give them the marker. That player gains one point of God's Favour, while you lose one. The God's Charity cards Draupnir and Welcome Gifts do not count. Place this marker in the God's Charity card stack at the start of the game, so that you remember it. You gain this marker for the first time when you have 3 God's Charity cards.

Damage to Buildings

Your buildings can be damaged "accidentally" during the game. When this happens, turn the affected Building card over to its back side, and turn it so that the stage required to complete it appears at the top.

Example: The Blacksmith loses two construction stages because of a fire. You turn the card so that level 2 shows at the top.

You can repair the building by following the basic construction rules. The functions of the building are not available until it has been fully repaired.

Event Cards

If a card affects more than one player, its effects are applied clockwise, starting with the first player, unless the card specifies otherwise.

Example: All players must draw a God's Wrath card. The player who drew the Event card takes a God's Wrath card and carries out all the required actions. Then the player on his left continues, and so on.

Total Catastrophe

If you lose all your warriors and ships, your people understand that this marks the end of your settlement. Therefore, they immediately give you one Ship and one Scandinavian Warrior unit as a gift.

Recruiting Two Units at Once

If you want to recruit more than one Scandinavian Warrior unit at the same time, take another Unit card and place it face down next to the first one. Each of these cards is managed separately.

Example: The player recruits two warriors at the same time. As he no longer has enough Coins, the recruiting process for one of his two Unit cards is paused.

Quick Overview

Start of an epoch. The player with the First Player marker draws an Event card (except in the first summer) and carries out its actions.

Summer: Vikingfahrt.

1. Roll a die to determine who will take the first City card.
2. Choose targets in clockwise order, until no other player wants to take another city or the cities have run out.
3. Fight the battles by carrying out the actions of the Loot cards, starting with the player who chose his City card first.
4. Shuffle the City cards and the Loot cards, and place the new City cards on the Mainland board.

Each epoch. All players may start placing buildings, recruiting units and building ships. Place Coins, and provide Food (or place Coins in the appropriate spaces).

End of an epoch. The First Player removes all Coins, and turns the cards so that they show the next stage and/or complete them. The other players do the same, clockwise. The Food marker or Coin is removed from its space on the Food track. The First Player marker passes to the player on the left. The Epoch marker (the raven) moves to the next epoch. Each player takes one Coin.

How to win. The game ends when a player's Raven marker reaches the last space of the God's Favour track.

Final stage. As soon as a player's Raven marker reaches the 5th space of the God's Favour track and that player has 7 Glory, the final stage begins. If no player reaches the last space of the God's Favour track by the end of the next Vikingfahrt, the player who started the final stage wins the game.