Without strong leadership, his prosperous port has fallen into a state of catastrophe. Fearsome creatures have sensed this weakness in Midgard and are coming in droves, driving chaos and destruction before them.

Trolls attack the town. Draugr terrorize nearby villages. Monsters strike at travelers and merchants alike. The people are suffering and they need a champion.

In Champions of Midgard, you are a Viking Leader who seeks to gain Glory for your clan and fill the boots of the old Jarl. Defeat the Trolls to keep the townsfolk on your side. Slay Draugr to earn gold to fund your journeys.

Kill Monsters in their lairs to gain Glory and the Favor of the Gods. By defeating these epic creatures, you will prove yourself worthy to become the new Jarl and be heralded as a Champion of Midgard!

Object of the Game

The goal of the game is to have the most Glory at the end of 8 rounds.

Glory is gained primarily through fighting enemies and lost by accruing defend the town. See end game scoring for more details.

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 5 Viking Leader Boards
• 20 Market Stall Tiles
• 20 Worker Meeples
• 1 Round Marker
• 1 Start Player Marker
• 1 Small Public Longship
• 1 Large Public Longship
• 4 Private Longships
• 8 Player Color Markers
• 8 Merchant Ship Cards
• 10 Rune Cards
• 18 Journey Cards
• 36 Monster Cards
• 12 Destiny Cards
• 16 Troll Cards
• 21 Draugr Cards
• 20 Wood Cubes
• 30 Food Cube
• 60 Coins
• 34 Viking Warrior Dice
• 3 Damage Tokens
• 54 Favor Tokens
• 20 Blame Tokens

Setup

1 Place the game board in the middle of the table.

2 Place the Round Marker in the space marked Round 1.

3 Shuffle the Market Stall tiles and add them (face-up) to the empty spaces based on the number of players participating. Market Stall tiles function just like other board locations but provide different options for each game.

• In a 2-player game, add 1 Military Tile and 1 Economic Tile.
• In a 3-player game, add 1 Military Tile and 2 Economic Tiles.
• In a 4-player game, add 2 Military Tiles and 2 Economic Tiles.

Return the remaining Market Stall Tiles to the box.

4 Place the Small and Large Public Longships on their corresponding spaces on the board and the Private Longships off to the side of the board near the Shipwright's Hut. (Private Longships marked 3+ and 4+ should be returned to the box in games with fewer players than indicated).

5 Shuffle the Rune Cards, Destiny Cards, Merchant Ship Cards, Troll Cards, Draugr Cards, Journey Cards, and Monster Cards and place them on their corresponding spaces on the board.

6 Place the Food, Wood, Viking Warriors (Swordsman Dice, Spearmen Dice, & Axemen Dice), Coins, Favor tokens, and Blame tokens near the game board where all players can access them.

7 The player who has most recently earned glory in battle receives the First Player Marker. (Alternately, select a starting player at random).

8 Beginning with the player to the right of the start player and proceeding counter-clockwise each player chooses a Viking Leader Board.

Viking Leader Boards indicate what Special Ability your Leader has, as well as your maximum capacity for Viking Warriors.

9 Each player takes worker meeples in their preferred color along with starting resources of 1 Food, 1 Wood, 1 Coin, 1 Favor token, and 1 Swordsman Die.

10 Place 1 disc in your player color on the scoreboard and the other on your player board to indicate your color. Then place 1 worker meeple in the general supply (to be earned by the use of the Worker Huts location) and keep the other 3 in your personal supply (4 in a two player game). Any additional worker meeples should be returned to the box.

11 Finally, each player receives 1 random Destiny Card - then you are ready to begin.

Game Play

The game is played over 8 rounds, during which you send workers from your clan into town to gather weapons and supplies necessary to fend off the hordes of enemies just beyond the walls.

Workers may set the stage for your Viking Warriors to fight the Trolls who regularly attack the town, fight the Draugr who plague the neighboring villages, or hunt the Monsters who reside on distant shores poised to strike at the town and the ships which ensure the survival of the Nordic harbor.

Most locations on the board can only be occupied by 1 worker per round; if you want something, you had better send your worker there first!

At the end of the 8th round, the player who has earned the most Glory wins the game.

Playing a Round

The steps you follow to play a complete round of Champions of Midgard are laid out in iconography in the top right of the game board. This should serve as a handy reminder during your game and as a refresher for subsequent plays. These steps are described below.

Round Setup

At the start of each round, board and card locations should be stocked as follows. Board locations which need attention in this phase are blue for easy identification.

1. Place the top card of the Troll Deck face-up in the Troll Space on the board.

2. Place the top 2 cards of the Draugr Deck face-up in the Draugr Spaces on the board.

3. Place 1 Journey Card face-down in each empty Journey Space on the board.

4. Place 1 Rune Card face-up in each empty space next to the Runesmith Location.

5. Place 1 Monster Card face-up in each empty Monster Space on the board.

Note: the rightmost Journey Space and Monster Space are only used in a 4-player game.

6. Reveal the top Merchant Ship Card, placing it on top of any previously revealed Merchant Ship cards.

7. Add 1 Viking Warrior (of the appropriate color) to each of the Swordsmith, Hafter, and Blacksmith locations and add 1 Food to the Smokehouse location.

Blue locations receive an additional item each round regardless of whether or not they are empty. These goods can build up and make these loations more attractive in future rounds.

Worker Placement

During the worker placement phase, players take turns placing their workers on board locations and executing their effects. Most locations only have space for a single worker.

Beginning with the player holding the First Player Marker and proceeding clockwise, players take turns assigning 1 worker at a time to an available space on the board and carrying out the associated action.

This process is repeated until no player has workers remaining. Then, all players proceed to assigning Viking Warriors.

Board locations are color-coded in order to enable faster understanding of how to resolve each space:

Brown locations are resolved immediately. As soon as a player places a worker meeple on a brown location, they follow the instructions for that location.

Blue locations are also resolved immediately. These locations are colored differently because they will recieve special attention during each round setup phase of the game.

Red locations are combat locations. These locations have no instant effect. When a player places a worker on a combat location, they are reserving this space to do combat with the associated monster in the next phase - Assign Viking Warriors and Resolve Combat.

Note: Public Longships are unique locations in that they are both brown and red. They have 1 effect which is resolved instantly and another effect which is resolved in the Assign Viking Warriors and Resolve Combat phase.

This is described in detail in the location descriptions below.

Board locations have a wide variety of effects which are described in detail below. If it is your first time playing Champions of Midgard make sure you read these effects completely in order to better understand the iconography on the board.

Note that many locations allow you to recruit Viking Warrior Dice or collect resources. Food, Wood, Coins, Favor, and Blame are unlimited. Viking Warrior Dice are limited by their supply and each player may only hold 8 at a time as indicated by the longhouse printed on your Viking Leaderboard.

If taking dice would ever cause you to exceed 8 Viking Warriors, take as many as you are legally able and return the rest to the supply. (Warriors will not come fight for you if you do not have room for them in your longhouse!)

Worker Placement - Locations

Check here for a detailed list of all worker placement locations.

Worker Placement - Market Stalls

Check here for a list of all worker placement market stalls.

Assigning Viking Warriors

Any player who placed a worker on a Combat Location (Troll Card Location, Draugr Card Location, or Longships) now assigns their Viking Warrior Dice. Dice are assigned simultaneously.

Viking Warriors sent to fight the Troll should be placed on the Troll Card.

Viking Warriors sent to fight Draugr should be placed on the corresponding Draugr Card.

Longships carry Viking Warriors to distant shores to combat Monsters. Players must assign both Food and Viking Warrior dice to the Longships in this phase. Both Food and Viking Warrior dice count toward a ship's capacity and players are not permitted to assign more objects to a ship than the capacity can support.

Any Viking Warriors not assigned elsewhere are assumed to be hunting if you placed a worker on the Hunting Grounds.

Some enemies have combat restrictions:

If an enemy has a "no swords/axes/spears"symbol on it, players are not permitted to assign that type of Viking Warrior to fight that enemy. Viking Warriors of any type may travel on a longship to face an enemy but Warriors of the prohibited type are destroyed by the enemy before the first round of combat.

They do not participate and are discarded to the general supply without ever being rolled.

It is permitted that a player assigns no dice to a combat location.

After all players have finished Assigning Viking Warriors proceed to Combat Resolution.

Occasionally a player may find it advantageous to wait to assign their Viking Warrior dice until after their opponents have done so. In such a case, any player may request that this phase is resolved in turn order begininng with the start player and proceeding clockwise.

Combat Resolution

The Combat Resolution phase is resolved in the following order:

1 First, any players who placed a worker on the Hunting Grounds roll all of their dice not assigned elsewhere and collect Food equal to the number of hits rolled. A maximum of 6 Food may be collected from hunting - even if a player rolls more than 6 hits.

2 Next, if a player has assigned Viking Warriors to fight the Troll, they participate in combat against the Troll until either the Troll or the player has been defeated.

Blame: If no player kills the Troll, each player takes a Blame token from the supply during round clean-up. Blame causes loss of Glory at game end. If any player kills the Troll, the player who killed the Troll discards one of their Blame tokens (if they have any) and selects another player to take 1 Blame token from the supply. (The townsfolk have fickle attitudes about those who protect them and those who fail to).

3 Then, beginning with the left Draugr and proceeding to the right Draugr, players who have sent Viking Warriors to fight Draugr now resolve combat against them. If no player has assigned Viking Warriors to the Draugr Card(s), proceed to the next step.

4 Finally, beginning with the leftmost distant shore location and proceeding to the rightmost distant shore location, players resolve their journeys and then combat the Monsters by following the steps below. If no player assigned a longship to a particular location, simply skip that location and move on to the next one.

1. Reveal the Journey Card and resolve its effect (described in detail in the appendix at the end of the rules). Any loses indicated by the card must come from the Warriors and Food on the Longship. If a Longship has been assigned to a distant shore location, the Journey Card is revealed and discarded even if the player ended up assigning no Warriors to the Longship.

2. Feed your Viking Warriors. You must have enough Food in the longship to feed all your Viking Warriors. The 2 locations closest to the left edge of the board are closer to the port and therefore require less Food for the shorter journey (1 Food feeds 2 Viking Warriors).
   
   The 2 locations closest to the right of the board are further from the port and require more Food (1 Food feeds 1 Viking Warrior). This is depicted on the board for your reference. If there is not enough Food to feed all Viking Warriors, unfed Warriors starve and are returned to the general supply. All Food sent on a journey is returned to the supply, even if there is more than the Vikings require. Note: In earlier editions, these locations were reversed.

3. Combat the Monster!

Details Of Combat

Combat against Trolls, Draugr, Krakens, and Monsters (referred to collectively as enemies) is resolved in the same way. Enemies have an Attack Value and a Defense Value. In order to defeat an enemy, a player must deal damage equal to or greater than the enemy's Defense Value (referred to as lethal damage).

Combat takes place in a series of rounds which consist of the player rolling their Viking Warrior dice in an attempt to deal damage to the enemy and then taking damage from the enemy by discarding their Viking Warriors.

A player's damage and an enemy's damage are dealt simultaneously so even if a player deals lethal damage to an enemy, they still take damage from that enemy. Combat ends at the end of a round in which at least one of the following is true:

• The enemy has taken lethal damage.
• All committed Viking Warrior dice have been defeated.

Follow these steps in order to resolve a round of combat:

Attack with all of your Viking Warriors by rolling the dice you have committed to fight the enemy.

(Optional) Discard 1 Favor token to reroll some or all of the dice just rolled. This step may be repeated if you have, and wish to spend, multiple Favor tokens.

For each Weapon Result rolled, place a Damage token on the enemy's card. (Some dice faces show 2 weapons and count as 2 hits).

Discard Viking Warrior dice equal to the Attack Value of the enemy. Reduce these losses by 1 for each Shield Result rolled.

5 Check to see if the enemy has been dealt lethal damage:

1. If the enemy has received lethal damage: take the enemy card and collect the reward indicated. Return surviving Viking Warriors to your personal supply. In this example, the player would score 6 Glory on the score track and gain 4 Coins from the supply. Defeated Enemy Cards should be kept in a single face-down pile. The number, type, and color of the enemies defeated throughout the game need not be shared with your opponents.

2. If the enemy has not received lethal damage and you still have Viking Warriors left: begin a new round of combat.

3. If the enemy has not received lethal damage and you have no Viking Warriors left: your Viking Warriors have been defeated and you collect no reward. Remove any Damage tokens placed on the Monster.

All enemies provide Glory when defeated. Additionally you collect Wood from defeating Trolls, Coins from defeating Draugr, and Favor from defeating Monsters.

Clean-Up

1. Take back your workers from all locations, returning Public Longships to their spaces on the board and Private Longships to your play area.

2. If the Troll was not defeated, discard the Troll Card and give each player 1 Blame token.

3. Discard any undefeated Draugr Cards.

4. Discard any revealed Journey Cards.

5. Discarded Troll and Draugr cards go to the monster discard pile in the bottom right corner of the board.

6. Add 1 Coin to each undefeated Monster card. This is an additional reward for the player who eventually defeats this Monster. Monsters may gain several Coins before they are defeated.

7. If this was Round 8, proceed to final scoring. Otherwise advance the Round Marker and return to Round Setup to play another round.

Quick References

Remember that the game steps are indicated on the top right of the board for quick reference and that a reference card is provided to reiterate the meaning of the various icons used in the game.

End of the Game

After the 8th Round, the game is over and players begin final scoring. We recommend players calculate their final scores one at a time, beginning with the player furthest behind on the Glory Track.

First, sort your defeated Monsters and Draugr by color and lay them in front of you. Then score the following:

• 

  Destiny Cards - If you alone have satisfied the condition of a Destiny Card in your possession, you have completely fulfilled your destiny and score the larger Glory bonus. If you are tied for the condition you have only partially realized your potential and score the smaller Glory bonus.

  You may only score Glory for your own Destiny Cards. Fulfilling or tying for another player's Destiny Card provides you with no Glory, it merely prevents them from gaining it. You must have at least 1 of the required items to satisfy a Destiny Card.

• 

  Sets of Enemies (1 of each color) - The townspeople are impressed with your ability to brave varying combat conditions! Score 5 Glory for each complete set.

  Trolls do not have a color and do not count for end game scoring.

  
  
• 

  Runes (used or unused) - Runes are symbols of power and provide varying amounts of Glory indicated on each card.

  
  
• 

  Private Longships - Longships are status symbols and provide Glory based on the type of longship you built.

  
  
• 

  Favor of the Gods - Each unspent Favor token is worth 2 Glory at the end of the game.

  
  
• 

  Coins - Score 1 Glory for every 3 Coins you have remaining.

  
  

Blame - Lose Glory based on your reputation with the townsfolk. Glory loss is calculated according to this chart:

The player with the most Glory is declared a Champion of Midgard. They earn the title of Jarl and are the winner of the game!

In the case of a tie, the tied player who defeated the most enemies (total cards collected, including Trolls) wins the game. If there is still a tie, the tied players rejoice in their shared victory.

Variants

The following variants are provided to allow you to customize your Champions of Midgard experience. Using these variants is strictly optional and is not recommended for your first few games. We advise you to play with the basic rules before trying one or both of the proposed alterations. Enjoy the game!

Variant #1 - Hall Of Records

The townsfolk keep a record of each leader's successes in battle.

Play with all defeated enemy cards revealed in front of the player who defeated them. This variant allows for more strategic decisions to be made regarding Destiny Cards.

Variant #2 - Mistrustful Villagers

The townsfolk are skeptical of any who seek to replace the old Jarl.

Each player begins the game with a Blame token. This variant tends to lead to more dynamic end game scoring as there are generally more Blame tokens in play.

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