Vendel to Viking Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Rules Structure
  • Overview
  • Example Game Flow
  • How To Win
• Content
• Setup
• Basic Actions
  • Journey Action
  • Activate Action
  • Invest Action
• Talent Actions
  • Merchant Action
  • Shipwright Action
  • Warrior Action
  • Settler Action
  • Leader Action
  • Seeress Action
• Achievement Effects
  • Advanced Achievements (Bronze)
  • Epic Achievements (Silver)
  • Future Achievements (Gold)
• End Game Scoring and Clarifications
  • End Game Scoring
  • When Scoring Mission Cards
  • Ribe and Gut Clarifications
  • Component Limit Clarifications
  • Venture Abilities Clarifications
  • Family Tree Special Abilities Clarifications
• Transition to a Game of Pax Viking
  • Victory Conditions
  • Additional Components and Setup
  • Jarls Selection
  • Transition Tiles
  • Additional Ventures
  • Modified Starting Silfr
• Anatomies
  • Ancestry Board
  • Ventures
  • Market Board
  • Map Board
  • Family Tree Board
  • Formidable Cards
• Historical Notes
• Vendela Variant
  • Vendela Concepts
  • Setup
  • Vendela Turn
  • Your Turn
  • End Game and Scoring
  • Coop Version (2 Players)
• Vendela Priorities
  • Formidable Priority
  • Family Member Priority A
  • Family Member Priority B
  • Venture Priority
  • Discarding Venture Priority
  • Refresh the Market
• Vendela Achievements
  • Vendela Advanced Achievements
  • Vendela Epic Achievements
• Glossary
• Player Aid
  • Talent Actions
  • Advanced Achievement Effects
  • Epic Achievement Effects

Introduction

Rules Structure

There are a number of terms in the game, written using First Letter Caps. They are explained in a glossary on page 15. There are images of all the components on the fold out page and explanations on the Anatomies page (page 10).

If you want, you can combine reading the rules here with watching a short how-to-play video found on XXX (a QR code leading to it is found on the back of the box).

Source note: the printed link text reads "XXX" (the video address was not filled in the printed rulebook); it is transcribed as printed.

Overview

The game progresses in up to 12 rounds where the players takes turns, in clockwise player order, to do 4 actions each. The actions are tracked by Exhausting (flipping) Family Member tokens and adding Longship tokens to the map. At the end of each round there is a Generation shift where all Longships are returned and Family members became Unexhausted (flipped back). The round marker is moved 1 step and the next player in turn order gets the starting player marker (not in a 2 player game) before you start the next round.

You find a sequence of play on each Family board, along with short explanations of the Basic and Talent actions.

To take an action means that you Exhaust 1 Family Member (by flipping it face down) and sometimes in addition add Longships when you do the actions (see the Action sections in the rules for details on their effects). When 4 of your Exhausted Family Members and/or Longships are on the map and/or Ancestry board, your turn is over.

There are 2 types of actions (explained in more detail later):

Basic actions: These can be taken by any Family Member.

Talent actions: These can only be taken by a Family Member that has a matching Talent icon.

In addition there are Achievement effects; that optionally occurs one time, when you take an achievement standee.

Example Game Flow

The first turn for starting player Jon, briefly explaining his first 4 actions.

Let's say there's a Formidable person on the Market board with the Location "Essex" and the Talent "Warrior". To be able to Invest in this one Jon needs a Warrior in Essex. Jon's starting Location is Svea. Jon choose the actions:

1. Journey action using a Warrior from his Supply, to the empty Location Essex. He places the Warrior token in Essex on its Exhausted side.
2. Since Jon's home is in Svea (in the Gandvik Region) and this is the first turn, he has no Majority anywhere else, the Journey will cost 1 extra action, marked by a Longship next to the Warrior he placed in Essex.
3. In Essex Jon wants the Journey action to spawn a Venture since the Invest action requires a Venture in the Location. He takes the top tile from the German Ocean pile and places it on Essex. To do this as a part of the Journey cost 1 extra action so another Longship is placed next to his Warrior in Essex, making this his third action.
4. Since the Warrior in Essex is Exhausted, he can not take the Invest action this turn. Instead he Journey to Ulaid with a Merchant, preparing for future actions. This Journey does not cost an extra action since he now has Majority in a Location in German ocean (in Essex).

Now Jon's turn is over and he has prepared for taking the Invest action next turn.

How To Win

Scoring occurs after the last round that triggers when a player has taken 2 Future Achievement standees (golden) the round tracker reaches year 793. The player with the most influence points wins. You get Influence points for: Achievement standees, completed Mission cards, Majorities on Ventures and Venture abilities that award points. In case of a tie, the player with the most Majorities among the tied players wins. Still tied? Share the victory!

Content

• 1 Map board
• 6 Family Tree boards (double sided, neutral back)
• 120 Formidable cards
• 90 Venture tiles
• 60 Silfr
• 20 Gull
• 1 Ancestry board
• 36 Mission cards (9 of each difficulty)
• 1 Round marker
• 1 Starting player marker
• 1 Player aid card (double-sided)
• 1 Market board
• 144 Family Member tokens (24 of each color)
• 18 Achievement standees
• 12 Longship tokens (2 of each color)
• 6 Home markers
• 1 Pax Viking map placard
• 3 Pax Viking Jarlboards
• 24 Pax Viking tiles

Setup

The setup steps are lettered as printed on the setup sheet (A to L). They are listed here in letter order.

A. Place the map, Market board and Ancestry board next to each other.

B. Separate the Venture tiles into 3 piles based on the 3 Regions (blue, purple, green). Then shuffle each pile and place them face up on their slot on the Market board without revealing other than the top tile.

C. Shuffle the Formidable cards into a facedown deck on the Market board. Draw 9 and place them from bottom right to top left face up on their 9 spots, this is referred to as "the Market".

D. Place the 18 Achievement standees on their matching spot on the Ancestry board.

E. Shuffle the Mission cards into 4 facedown piles, one for each of the difficulty levels.

F. Each player chooses a Family Tree board. One side is neutral (same for all) that is recommended for your first play. The other side has a special ability and different setup configurations.

• F1. Each player chooses a player color and grabs their components.
• F2. 2 Longships and a Home marker.
• F3. 30 Family Members (3 Leaders, 3 Seeresses, 3 Settlers, 5 Warriors, 5 Merchants, 5 Shipwrights).
• F4. Place 2 of each of the Shipwrights, Warriors and Merchants on the octagon slots in the Family Tree, in any configuration you like but only 1 in each slot.
• F5. Each player also takes a Player aid card.

Source note: the sheet prints "30 Family Members" in F3, but the listed counts total 24 (3+3+3+5+5+5), matching the 24 tokens per color in the Content list. The printed text is kept as is here; the count of 24 is what the component list supports.

G. Put the round marker on the round tracker on the map based on player count:

• 1-3 players - Year 550
• 4 players - Year 572
• 5 players - Year 594
• 6 players - Year 616

H. Decide the starting player in a way of your choice. For example using Grandmother Lill's method, as seen in Pax Viking, take 1 Longship of each player, shake them and toss them on the board. The one that lands the furthest away starts. The starting player takes the first player marker. The player order is clockwise.

I. Player takes their starting Silfr, based on the table below: Player 1-2-3-4-5-6 takes 5-3-4-5-6-7 Silfr.

J. Now all players in player order take turns, drawing 1 Mission card at a time from any available difficulty level they want without looking at it. Then, place it face down on any free Mission Card slot in their Family Tree. Continue until all have 4 Mission cards in their Family Tree.

K. In reversed player order, choose any unoccupied Location on the Map, except Ribe and Gut, to be your Home. Place your Home marker above the name of the Location, then add a Venture to the Location from the corresponding Region pile.

L. In a 5-6 player game. Each player in turn order draws a Formidable card from the deck. Then each player adds: 1 matching Venture on the Location. 1 matching Family Member on the Location.

Basic Actions

Basic actions can be taken by any unexhausted Family Member on the map. Doing any of these actions Exhausts the Family Member taking the action. Exhausted Family Members are flipped to their grey back side with an "X" and can not do any more actions until they get Unexhausted. Two important concepts:

Majority: A Venture is a tile placed on the map. Majority is when you have more Family Members on a Venture than any other player.

Presence: There are 3 Regions, German Ocean, Gandvik and Riverlands. If you have at least 1 Majority in a Region you have Presence in that Region. Your Home always counts as a Presence in its Region.

Journey Action

• Place and Exhaust 1 of your Family Members onto a Location in a Region where you have Presence. You can Journey to any Location, including empty Locations, and the Family Member can be taken from anywhere.
• The following choices make the Journey cost 1 extra action each. Add 1 Longship on the Location for each of the following that applies:
  • You Journey to a Location that is in a Region where you do not have Presence.
  • The Location is empty and you choose to add the top Venture from its corresponding pile.

Example: You Journey to Essex in the Region German Ocean (A). Since you do not have Presence in the German Ocean yet, you add a Longship to indicate that it costs you an additional action to Journey here (B). Essex is also empty, so you want to put a Venture there (C). This means that you need to add another Longship to Essex (D). This Journey costs a total of 3 actions, but you probably have a great plan in mind. You use your fourth and last action to Journey to a Location in the Riverlands where you already have Presence (E).

Example: You Journey to an empty Location (F) in the Region Gandvik where you have Presence (G) and you want to add a Venture to it. You take the top Venture from the pile that matches the Region where the Location is, then add a Longship along with the Venture (H). By doing this you have used 2 of your 4 actions.

Activate Action

• Exhaust 1 of your Family Members on a Venture where you have Majority to Activate the Ability on the Venture.

Invest Action

1. Exhaust 1 of your Family Members on a Venture where you have Majority to buy a Formidable card from the Market.

   • The Formidable card's Talent has to match the Exhausted Family Member Talent icon.
   • The Formidable card's Location has to match the Venture Location.
   • You have to pay the card's cost in Silfr.

2. Refresh the Market by sliding cards sideways or downwards to create an opening in the top row and place a card drawn from the pile there, face up. Note that you must place the new card in one of the top row slots.

   Place the Formidable card on your Family Tree board. The first card has to be placed in one of the bottom spots. Any later card has to be placed in a spot that is linked to a previously placed card. The spots are linked by lines and the branches in the background art. You are not allowed to replace a card already in the Family Tree.

   • Gain any component in that card slot. This could be a new Family Member that goes to your Supply or 5 Silfr (indicated by the gold coin) or a Mission card that you gain to your hand and keep hidden from the other players. Try to accomplish the mission until the game ends to gain more Influence points.

3. Move the Exhausted Family Member from the Map to the Ancestry Board. It has now become an Ancestor.

   • You can always put it on a core spot (inner 6 spots) matching its Talent.
   • These additional requirements apply for placement on the Ancestry board:
     • To put it in an Advanced Achievement (bronze) spot you need to have Ancestors in both linked spots and have the most, or be tied for the most Ancestors in the spot matching the Talent of the advancing Ancestor.
     • To put it in an Epic Achievement (silver) spot you need to have Ancestors in both linked spots and have the most, or be tied for the most Ancestors in the spot matching the Talent of the advancing Ancestor.

Example (Ancestry board, Achievement effect): a Venture ability on the Ancestry board is shown as "Place 1 Family Member on an Unpopulated Venture in the German Ocean" (Bone Crafting) in the rulebook's picture.

Talent Actions

Talent actions needs to be taken by an unexhausted Family Member on the map that has a matching Talent Icon. If the effect involves a Location, it affects the Location where the Family Member is when the action is taken. Doing any of these actions Exhausts the Family Member taking the action. An Exhausted Family Member is flipped to its back side and can not do any more actions until it gets Unexhausted again.

Merchant Action

• Exhaust to gain 1 Silfr per Region where you have Presence. Then choose between:
  • Draw 3 Formidables, choose 1 to replace a Formidable in the top row of the Market, discard the other 2 Formidables.
  • Pay 2 Silfr to discard any 1 Formidable card from the Market and Refresh.

Shipwright Action

• Exhaust to move the Shipwright to any Location, bringing up to 2 of your Family Members along from the Location where the Shipwright was.
  • Add a Longship to the destination if it is in a Region where you do not have Presence. Note that you cannot add a Venture with the Shipwright action, only with the Journey action.

Warrior Action

• Exhaust to Kill 1 other player's Family Member from the Location where your Warrior is, +1 more per Unexhausted Warrior you have on the Location. The Killed Family Member is returned to the target's Supply.

Settler Action

• Exhaust to Place 1 Unexhausted Family Member of your choice to the Location where the Settler is. Note that a Settler may not Place an Exhausted Family Member (i.e. already used this turn).

Leader Action

• Exhaust to take 1 Silfr from a colocated Family Member. Then optionally, discard the Venture on the Location and replace it with the top Venture from the pile matching the Region on the map.

Seeress Action

• Exhaust to replace 1 Family Member of another player with one of your color (matching its Talent and Exhausted/Unexhausted state). Add a Longship to the Location. The replaced Family Member is returned to that player's Supply.

Achievement Effects

The Achievement effects do not Exhaust any Family Members. They take effect once, immediately when an Achievement standee is taken, for the player taking the standee, and only if they want it to take effect.

Advanced Achievements (Bronze)

• Navigator: Relocate any number of your Family Members on the map, from one Location to any other Location.
• Futhark: Gain 2 more actions this turn.
• Portage: For each Settler you have on the Map, you may Place 2 of your Family Members on the same Location as the Settler.
• Allthing: Reorganise the 9 Formidable cards in the Market in any order OR discard up to 3 of the cards and Refresh.
• Runestone: Activate any 1 Venture, even if you do not have any Family Members there.
• Longship: Look at the top Tile on each of the Venture piles in the Market, choose to either leave it there, discard it or Place it on the map in an Empty Location matching its Region.

Epic Achievements (Silver)

• Pagan Legends: Relocate up to 3 of your Family Members on the map, one at a time, from any Location to any other Location.
• Norse Sagas: Discard any Formidable from the Market and Place a Family Member on a legal spot matching its Talent on the Ancestry board. You may not Place it on any future (triangular, golden) spots.
• Trade Expansionism: Activate 2 different Ventures on the map where you have at least 1 Family Member.
• Empire Founding: Do the Advanced Achievement Navigator effect 2 times, one after the other.
• Pagan Missionary: On 1 Venture where you and another player have Family Members. For each of your Family Members you may replace 1 Family Member of another player with a matching Family Member of your color. The replaced Family Member keeps its Exhausted/Unexhausted state.
• Valhalla Battlespirit: Kill all of another player's Family Members from a Location where you have at least 1 Family Member.

Future Achievements (Gold)

• Has no effect, only Influence points given.

End Game Scoring and Clarifications

End Game Scoring

The last round is triggered when a player takes their second Future Achievement (golden), or the round tracker reaches year 793. After the last round, scoring occurs. The player with the most Influence points wins. You get:

• 2 Influence for each Venture where you have Majority.
• 4 Influence for each Advanced Achievement standee.
• 8 Influence for each Epic Achievement standee.
• 10 Influence for each Future Achievement standee.
• Influence according to the Mission for each obtained and completed Mission card.
• Influence from any Venture Abilities.

In case of a tie, the player with the most Majorities on Ventures among the tied players wins. Still tied? Share the victory or position!

When Scoring Mission Cards

• Formidables in your Family Tree that has the Location Ribe or Gut counts as being from both Regions.
• Ventures in Ribe and Gut on the map count as being in the Region matching the Venture's Location.
• You can only score Mission cards that you have in your hand when the game ends.

Ribe and Gut Clarifications

If Ribe or Gut have no Venture on them they are part of 2 Regions as indicated by its name plate on the map board. If you take the Journey action to these Locations it counts as having Presence if you have Majority in at least one of the two Regions. When adding a Venture to these Locations you need to choose one of the two matching Venture piles to take the Venture from. After the choosing, it belongs to only that specific Region. The Ventures on these Locations can be replaced later with Ventures from any of the 2 Regions Venture piles.

Component Limit Clarifications

The components in the game are limited to the ones included in the game. If you want to Place a Family Member but you have none in your Supply, you can move a Family Member already in play on the map or Ancestry board to put it in the new Location. Tips: It could be wise sometimes to move Ancestors back to the map that is not needed anymore on the Ancestry board. If any of the decks run out, reshuffle its discard pile and create a new draw pile.

Venture Abilities Clarifications

• If a Venture ability is stating "Gain X amount of Silfr, pay X to another player in the Region" you gain the full amount if no other player is in the Region. Otherwise you pay from the Silfr gained to the other player.
• If a Venture ability is stating "Take X from your Family Tree", it is referred to 1 of the 12 card slots with components on them. Not from the Supply with Family Members at the bottom of the board.
• Burial Fields: These Ventures are put off the map instead of being put on a Location. Add the next Venture from that Venture pile on to the Location instead. From now on whenever any Family Members are Killed by an ability stating the word Kill (for example Warrior and Valhalla Battlespirit) they may be put on any of these Burial Fields Ventures by the owner of the Killed Family Member. The Family Member may not be interacted with any more during the whole game. However each Family Member put on these Ventures gains you some long term or short term ability in return.

Family Tree Special Abilities Clarifications

• Clann Cholmáin: During the Shipwright action, instead of bringing 2 Family Members you may bring 1 Family Member and move that other Family Member to another Location in the same Region. (Only the Shipwright becomes Exhausted.)
• The Hasdingis: Once during your turn you may reveal a Mission card from your hand to gain 5 Silfr. (The Mission card(s) stays revealed for the rest of the game by the player's Family Tree.)
• The Scyldings: All Formidables in the Market have a maximum cost of 3 Silfr. (The Formidable in the 2 Silfr cost slot still cost 2 Silfr.)

Transition to a Game of Pax Viking

You can play a game of Pax Viking that connects to a game of Vendel to Viking making it into a campaign where the end state of Vendel to Viking affects the starting state of Pax Viking. To do so take notes of the end state of the Vendel game and follow the setup instructions below and the standard Pax Viking setup.

Victory Conditions

Any can be used but Hard or Eklundian level is recommended.

Additional Components and Setup

• Add the Map Placard on the map board so that it fits nicely with the art.
• When seeding the deck, add from the PV tiles included in Vendel to Viking: 1 God, 2 Advocates, 4 Events and 4 Ventures. Regardless of player count.
• 3 new Jarlboards can be selected.
• The winner of the Vendel to Viking game is the starting player in Pax Viking.

Jarls Selection

The Jarls which a player can choose from is determined by the advanced and epic achievements. Each Jarl in Pax Viking (including the 3 additional Jarls that come with Vendel to Viking) is associated with one of the Advanced and Epic Achievements. Instead of randomly assigning Jarls, you choose which Jarl to play in Pax Viking, but you may only choose a Jarl whose achievement you have taken, according to the table below. If the player has not taken any achievements they take a random Jarl after all other players have taken theirs. The player with the highest score chooses their Jarl first, then continue in descending score order, if tied, most silfr at the end chooses first of the tied players.

Achievement	Jarl
Allthing	Thorgunna of the Hebrides
Futhark	Sigtrygg Silkbeard
Longship	Ingvar Röriksson
Navigator	Harald Greycloak
Portage	Styrbjörn the Strong
Runestone	Gunhilde
Empire Founding	Gyrid Olafsdottir
Norse Sagas	Helga of Kiev
Pagan Legends	Aud Haakonsdottir of Lade
Pagan Missionary	Sigrid the Haughty
Trade Expansionism	Edla of Obotrites
Valhalla Battle Spirit

Transition Tiles

Each Future achievement has a corresponding transition tile that can be used in Pax Viking. Each player who has taken 1 or 2 Future achievement gets its transition tile during setup and may if they want add 1 transition tile to any of the 4 circles on their Jarlboard. This replaces whatever is covered by the special ability for the entire game.

Additional Ventures

For each Region, if 1 player alone has more Majorities in that Region than any other player, this player randomly selects a Venture tile (among the ones not used in the Saga pile or track). Match Region and wind like this:

• For the German Ocean, randomly select a West Venture.
• For Gandvik, randomly select a North Venture.
• For the Riverlands, randomly select an East Venture.

Place it in its Wind and place the player's corresponding follower and a Longship on it. This is done in addition to, and before Ventures based on player count are added in the Pax Viking setup.

Modified Starting Silfr

Add an amount of silfr to your starting silfr of Pax Viking based on the amount held at the end of Vendel to Viking.

Vendel to Viking end	0-3	4-6	7-9	10-12	13-15	16-19	20-22	23-25	26-29	30+
Pax Viking start	+0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6	+7	+8	+9

Anatomies

The anatomy page is a labelled diagram of each component. The printed labels are listed below.

Ancestry Board

• Future Achievement spots (triangular, golden).
• Advanced Achievement spots.
• Epic Achievement spots.
• Core spots.
• Name of Achievements.
• Setup aid.
• Points Legend (the star values of the Advanced, Epic and Future Achievement standees; see End Game Scoring).

Ventures

• Venture Icon.
• Region.
• When ability triggers.
• Ability Name.

Market Board

• Gandvik Venture pile.
• German Ocean Venture pile.
• Riverland Venture pile.
• Formidable pile.
• Cost to buy card below.

Map Board

• Round tracker.
• Location name.
• Region name.
• Locations.

Family Tree Board

• Place 1 Gull here during setup.
• Place 1 Mission card here during setup.
• Place 1 Family Member here during setup.
• Connections that restricts Formidables placement.
• Silfr supply.
• Ability.
• Sequence of play.
• Basic actions player aid.
• Talent actions player aid.

Formidable Cards

• Talent.
• Name.
• Location and color of Region.

Historical Notes

Background text from the printed rulebook. Obvious spelling slips in the printed text are corrected here; the wording is otherwise as printed.

Ancestry board: The family was important to the ruling classes during the Vendel period. For a long time, the family had been a central unit around which villages and jarldoms were built. The economy was mainly agricultural with an emphasis on animal husbandry, but progress in different areas had shifted some of the focus to trading. This shift and development continued during the Vendel era through various breakthroughs.

Boats: The Longship is perhaps the most iconic symbol of the Vikings. It was important to many cultures since roads were very primitive at the time and graves bare witness to the importance of boats to the people during the Vendel era. Graves that seem to belong to leaders often have traces of a boat being buried with the person there. The large archipelagos and the large amount of lakes and waterways held the society together in the Nordics. Combined with expansionistic trading and an explorer mindset, the ships evolved during the Vendel era into the longships of the Vikings.

Svea: About 100 CE, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote about the Svear, a Scandinavian people. Other tribes of the area were mentioned in various sources during the centuries to come, but from 700 CE Sverige (Sweden) means land of the Svear was the only one mentioned and likely the state was relatively settled. The first person to count as a king of Sweden though was Eric the Victorious since earlier records are not confirmed. The quest for becoming the first king of Sweden is the theme of the game Pax Viking.

Gandvik: The Gulf of Bothnia, situated between Sweden and Finland, and the Arctic Sea, have both been considered possible candidates for what in medieval sources is referred to as Gandvik. Later research has concluded that the Gulf of Bothnia is the most likely alternative. In Norse mythology the Gandvik sea is a sea of dangers.

German Ocean: Up until relatively recently, occasionally even up until the First World War, the name German Ocean was used as a name for the North Sea. It originates from the Romans who called this sea Oceanus Germanicus. The North Sea existed as a parallel name for hundreds of years, probably stipulated by Dutch map makers as Noordzee.

Riverlands: It is generally considered to be during the Vendel era that the Nordic cultures expanded their trading network into the east, slowly perfecting the technology to reach further and further into the rivers. Eventually, during the Viking era, the trade reached all the way to the Middle East and even the Far East.

Regions on the Map: the map image shows the three Regions. German Ocean covers the western and southern sea areas, Gandvik covers the northern and central sea areas, and Riverlands covers the eastern land area. Gandvik & German Ocean and Gandvik & Riverlands are shown as the two shared Locations (Ribe and Gut), each marked as part of two Regions.

Vendela Variant

In this variant you play against Vendela, a bot player. Vendela does basically the same actions every turn but she interacts in an order of priorities based on the current game state.

Vendela Concepts

Vendela plays in a different way than normal players:

• Vendela does not handle any Silfr, she always has the Silfr she needs to buy Formidables.
• However, Vendela may still gain Silfr during the game from other players, but will never spend it. Vendela gets 1 VP for each Silfr she has gained during the game at the end game scoring.
• Vendela starts with all her Family Members in her Supply.

Setup

Set the game up as normal with these modifications:

• If you want a more challenging game, play without your Family Tree ability, on the neutral side.
• Choose a player color for Vendela and get all her components, and a neutral side of a Family Tree board.
• Vendela is the starting player the first round then the first player changes as in a normal two player game. If playing with two Vendela, let the Vendelas have their turns in between any human player's turns. The starting Silfr of the human players are determined as normal counting Vendelas as normal players.

Example: You set up as two human players with two Vendela players. The starting player is a Vendela bot (usually 5 starting Silfr) and the second player is a human, gaining 3 starting Silfr. The third player is a Vendela bot (usually 4 starting Silfr) and the fourth player is a human gaining 5 starting Silfr.

• Vendela starts choosing her Home. It is the Location of the Formidable in the cheapest slot of the Market. Place a Venture, Vendela's Home marker and one of Vendela's Warriors on its Location. Any second Vendela chooses the leftmost cheapest Formidable's Location. Then you choose your Home(s) in turn order.

Vendela Turn

1. Any Warrior and/or Seeress of Vendelas that is on the map activates.
2. Use the Formidable Priority to Invest in 1 Formidable from the Market and place it in Vendela's Family Tree, placing it on any slot from the bottom up.
3. Place a Vendela Family Member matching the Talent of the Formidable on the preferred spot on the Ancestry board.
4. Place a Vendela Family Member matching the Talent of the Formidable taken on the Formidable's Location. If there is no Venture on its Location then add a corresponding Venture.
5. Refresh the Market.
6. Perform any Vendela Achievement gained.

Under step 1. If a human player does not have Majority on a Location where Vendela has Warriors and/or Seeresses, each of Vendela's Warriors Kills 1 human Family Member on that Venture and each Seeress replaces 1 human Family Member on that Venture with a matching one. If she has no matching Family Members in her Supply she chooses by Family Member Priority B.

Your Turn

• As normal.

End Game and Scoring

Game ends as normal and scores as normal, except:

• Nobody gains any Influence points from Majorities.
• Vendela gains 1 point for each Silfr she has gained during the game.

Coop Version (2 Players)

• Play in a team of 2 to win against 2 bots.
• You may discuss your missions and make strategies. Therefore, you should not play with the Hasdingis ability.
• The human team and the bot team sum up their points at the end. The team with the highest score wins!

Vendela Priorities

Formidable Priority

When Vendela is supposed to take a Formidable from the Market she considers doing one of the bullets below. If bullet number 1 is not possible she does bullet number 2 and so on.

1. Advance. If Vendela has a linking pair of Ancestors on the Ancestry board, she wants to advance, taking a matching Formidable Talent required to advance. If she can advance on more than one spot she chooses the outermost advancement first. Note that to advance the linking pair needs to be of 2 different Talents. Tied? See bullet 3 below.
2. Pair. If Vendela is unable to advance she wants to make a linking pair, taking a matching Formidable Talent required to make a linking pair of 2 different Talents on the Ancestry board. Tied? See bullet 3 below.
3. Cheapest Formidable. Take the cheapest Formidable matching the ones required in bullets 1 or 2, take the leftmost if tied. If none of the Formidable Talents available in the Market is matching the ones required in bullets 1 or 2, Vendela simply takes the cheapest Formidable.

Family Member Priority A

When Vendela is choosing Family Member(s) to be Placed on the map and Ancestry board primarily from investing in Formidables:

1. Vendela takes 2 Family Members from her Supply (or less if not enough) that matches the Talent of the Formidable invested in.
2. If Vendela is low on the matching Family Member Talent in her Supply she will prioritize to Place on the Ancestry board before placing on the map. This could mean moving a matching Family Member from the map to the Ancestry board. If multiple to choose from use Venture Priority to decide which Venture to move from.
3. If there is still a Family Member to be Placed on the map or Ancestry board, move a matching Ancestor that can no longer be part of creating a new linking pair or an advancement for Vendela. If all Ancestors are or could be part of a later pair or advancement they do not move, instead move a matching Family Member already on the map to the new Location. If none, choose by Family Member Priority B below.

Family Member Priority B

When Vendela is choosing Family Member(s) to be Placed on the map primarily from gaining Achievements:

1. Vendela chooses Family Member(s) of the Talent that are the furthest away from being a part of a linking pair or advancement for her on the Ancestry board.
2. As a tiebreaker, she chooses to Place Family Member(s) of the Talent that she has the most of in her Supply, as a tiebreaker, the fewest of on the Ancestry board.

Venture Priority

When Vendela is choosing a Venture for Placing Family Members (include requirement from Achievements):

1. Ventures with bonus Influence points at the end scoring.
2. Vendela chooses the Venture with the fewest of any human player's Family Members on it.
3. As a tiebreaker she chooses the Westernmost. If you can't tell, she chooses the northernmost of the ones tied.

Discarding Venture Priority

When Vendela is choosing a Venture for discarding.

1. Ventures with bonus Influence points at the end scoring without Vendela Family Members on it.
2. Most human player's Family Members on it.
3. As a tiebreaker she chooses the Westernmost. If you can't tell, she chooses the northernmost of the ones tied.

Refresh the Market

Vendela always tries to put a new Formidable card in the top left Market slot. Move the cards in the Market so the top left slot ends up empty. When moving the cards, move from left to right before down and start with the bottom row before the middle row and then the upper row. When Refreshing the whole Market fill the Market spots from

Source note: the printed sentence above ends at the page break ("...fill the Market spots from"). The rest of the sentence is not printed on the following pages, so it is transcribed as printed.

Vendela Achievements

Vendela Advanced Achievements

• Navigator: Place 2 Vendela Family Members on a Venture where a Human player has a Settler on the map. If tied or none, see Venture Priority and Family Member Priority B.
• Futhark: Place 2 Vendela Family Members on a Venture where a Human player has a Shipwright on the map. If tied or none, see Venture Priority and Family Member Priority B.
• Portage: Place 2 Vendela Family Members on a Venture where a Human player has a Leader on the map. If tied or none, see Venture Priority and Family Member Priority B.
• Allthing: Vendela removes 1 Venture on the map with the most of a single Human player's Family Members on it, see Discarding Venture Priority.
• Runestone: Discard all Formidable cards in the Market and Refresh. Also discard the top Venture card in each pile.
• Longship: Discard 1 Venture in each Region and add a new one from their corresponding pile, then Place 1 Vendela Family Member on each new Venture. Choose by Discarding Venture Priority and Family Member Priority B.

Vendela Epic Achievements

• Pagan Legends: Place 2 Family Members on 2 different Locations where a human has at least 1 Family Member. If tied or none, see Venture Priority and Family Member Priority B.
• Norse Sagas: Place 1 Vendela Family Member on a Venture where each human player has a Shipwright on the map. Then return each human player's Shipwright to their Supply. If tied, see Venture Priority and Family Member Priority B.
• Trade Expansionism: Replace 1 Family Member of a Human player with one of Vendela's on a Venture where Vendela has at least 1 Family Member. If tied or none, see Venture Priority and Family Member Priority B.
• Empire Founding: Place 1 Venture on an Empty Location in each Region, then Place 1 Vendela Family Member on each new Venture. Choose the easternmost Location in each Region, southernmost if tied. See Family Member Priority B.
• Pagan Missionary: Replace all human Family Members with matching ones in Vendela's color on a Venture where Vendela has at least 1 Seeress on the map. Return each human player's Family Member to their Supply. If tied, see Venture Priority and Family Member Priority B.
• Valhalla Battlespirit: Kill all Family Members of human player(s) from a Venture where Vendela has at least 1 Family Member. Choose the Venture with the most human Family Members on it. If tied, westernmost if you can't tell, northernmost.

Glossary

• Action: The Family Member can be either Unexhausted (white/black icon side up) or Exhausted (grey icon side down). On each turn you first Unexhaust all your Exhausted Family Members. When you do actions you mark these actions by Exhausting an Unexhausted Family Member for each action. You may do your actions in any order and take the same action several times if you have Family Members to Exhaust.
• Alone: A Venture that only you have Family Member(s) on.
• Ancestor: A token with a Talent icon on it that is on the Ancestry board. These are used to advance on the Ancestry board and take the Achievement standees.
• Empty Location: A preprinted circle on the map without any Venture or Family Member on it.
• Family Member: A token with a Talent icon on it that is on the Map board. These tokens can be Exhausted to perform their corresponding Talent action (or any of the Basic Actions).
• Formidable: A card with a name and portrait that has Location and a Talent icon on it. These are purchased from the Market board to your Family Tree board.
• Home: A player's starting Location, marked by a Home marker during setup. The Home marker always counts as a Presence for that player in its Region. It also counts as +1 Family Member when determining the Majority on that specific Venture.
• Killed: A Family Member removed by an opponent player by an action, ability or effects that says Kill. A Killed Family Member is returned to that player's Supply, unless a Burial Field is in play.
• Longship: A Longship-shaped wooden component. The Longships are added to the Map as an indicator for some actions you have done during your turn. You can track your actions by counting Longships and Exhausted (flipped) Family Members during your turn.

Player Aid

The double-sided player aid card. Its wording is transcribed as printed. Where it differs from the main rules, the difference is noted under the entry.

Talent Actions

• Merchant: Exhaust to Gain 1 Silfr per Region where you have Presence. Then choose between:
  • Pay 2 Silfr to discard any 1 Formidable from the Market and Refresh.
  • Draw 3 Formidables, choose 1 to replace a Formidable in the top row of the Market, discard the other 2 Formidables.
• Shipwright: Exhaust to move the Shipwright to any Location, bringing up to 2 of your Family Members along from the Location where the Shipwright was.
  • Add a Longship to the destination if it is in a Region where you do not have Presence.
• Warrior: Exhaust to Kill 1 other player's Family Member from the Location where your Warrior is +1 more per Unexhausted Warrior you have on the Location.
• Settler: Exhaust to Place 1 Unexhausted Family Member of your choice to the Location where the Settler is.
• Leader: Exhaust to take 1 Silfr from a colocated Family Member. Then optionally, discard the Venture on the Location and replace it with the top Venture from the pile matching the Region on the map.
• Seeress: Exhaust to replace 1 Family Member of another player with one of your color (matching its Talent and Exhausted/Unexhausted state). Add a Longship to the Location.

Advanced Achievement Effects

• Navigator: Relocate any number of your Family Members on the map from one Location to any other Location.
• Futhark: Gain 2 more actions this turn.
• Portage: For each Settler you have on the Map, you may Place 1 of your Family Members in their Location. (The main rules above say 2 Family Members; the player aid prints 1. Both are kept as printed.)
• Allthing: Reorganise the 9 Formidables in the Market in any order OR discard up to 3 of them then Refresh.
• Runestone: Activate any 1 Venture, even if you do not have Family Members there.
• Longship: Look at the top Tile on each of the Venture piles in the Market, choose to either leave it there, discard it or place it on the map in an Empty Location matching its Region.

Epic Achievement Effects

• Pagan Legends: You may relocate up to 3 Family Members of yours on the map one at a time, from any Location to any Location.
• Norse Sagas: Discard any Formidable from the Market and Place a Family Member on a legal spot matching its Talent on the Ancestry board. You may not Place it on any future (triangular, golden) spots.
• Trade Expansionism: Activate 2 different Ventures on the map where you have at least 1 Family Member.
• Empire Founding: Do the Advanced Achievement Navigator effect 2 times, one after the other.
• Pagan Missionary: On 1 Venture where you and another player have Family Members. For each of your Family Members you may replace 1 Family Member of another player with a matching Family Member of your color. The replaced Family Member keeps its Exhausted/Unexhausted state.
• Valhalla Battlespirit: Kill all of another player's Family Members on a Location where you have at least 1 Family Member.