Intrigues of Asgard Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Asgardian Vocabulary
• Game Components
• Goal of the Game
• Preparing to Play
• Game Play
  • Phase 1. Dealing the Cards
  • Phase 2. The Battle for the Favor of the Aesirs
  • Phase 3. Awakening of the Aesirs
    • Determining the Player Who Achieved the Favor of Aesir
    • Resolving a Dispute in Case of Players Having an Equal Number of Aesir Cards
  • Preparing the Next Round
• Scoring Victory Points
  • Achieving the Goal
  • Final Points Count
  • The End of the Game and Determining Winner
• Description of the Aesirs
• Tips

Asgardian Vocabulary

Players will play cards with one of the two parts up, attracting the attention of one of the Aesirs. But the Aesir's attention is not the goal. The real goal is to find favor in the eyes of an Aesir and to become deserving to fulfill his will. This will happen if you have more cards of this Aesir than the rest of the players. The number on the card next to the Aesir's image reveals his priority of awakening. Aesir cards are also victory points. It is considered that you have scored as many victory points as there are Aesir cards in front of you horizontally and face down.

• Attention of Aesir. Each Aesir card in the game shows the attention of this Aesir to the player who has played his/her card.
• Favor. A player achieves favor in the eyes of Aesir if he/she attracts more of the Aesir's attention than the other players.
• The will of Aesir. Action which can be performed by a player.
• Fulfilling the will of Aesir. Obligatory application of the will of an Aesir.
• Dispute. Equality of the Aesir cards among the players claiming the favor of the Aesir. (The printed rulebook shows the stray Cyrillic letter "р" in place of the first letter of this word; it is transcribed here as "Equality".)

Game Components

1. Aesir Cards (62 pcs.) divided into 2 parts: each depicts one of the Aesirs – the gods of Asgard.
2. Doubling Card. Doubles the Aesir's attention. Doubling card can be obtained with the help of Freya.
3. Hint cards (5 pcs.) show the order of awakening of the Aesirs at the end of the round, and also briefly describe the will of each Aesir.
4. Goal cards (7 pcs.) determine the order of rounds and the number of points received at the end of each round.

Goal of the Game

By playing cards, players are fighting for the favor of one or another Aesir. This allows the player to fulfill the will of the Aesir or to earn victory points. The more Aesir cards you have in front of you, the more likely you are to fulfill his will. You can also earn victory points by achieving the goals. The one who scores the most points by the end of the game wins it. The number of points obtained is determined by the number of cards laid out in front of you horizontally and face down.

Preparing to Play

1. Give one hint card to each player.
2. Shuffle the goal cards. Place them face down in three columns, as shown in the picture below. There is one card in the first column (left), two in the second and three in the third. Open the top card of each column, as shown in the picture.
3. Place the doubling card in the middle of the table.
4. Shuffle the pack of Aesir cards and place them face down in the middle of the table.

(Setup diagram: the three goal-card columns with their top cards opened.)

Game Play

The game consists of 3 rounds. Each round is divided into 3 phases:

• Phase 1. Dealing the Cards.
• Phase 2. The battle for the favor of the Aesirs.
• Phase 3. Awakening of the Aesirs.

Phase 1. Dealing the Cards

Each player takes in his hand the number of Aesir cards as defined in the table below:

Players	1st round	2nd round	3rd round
2-3 players	7	6	5
4 players	6	5	4
5 players	5	4	3

Do not show your cards to the other players.

Note: the number of cards dealt in each round is also indicated on the back of the hint-cards.

Phase 2. The Battle for the Favor of the Aesirs

Simultaneously and secretly players choose one card from the hand. The selected card is placed face down on the table so that the selected Aesir is placed in the center of the table. Then players simultaneously open the selected cards. When the card is opened, you cannot change the selected Aesir anymore. From that moment, the Aesir shown at the top of your card represents the Aesir's attention to you. Several cards of the same Aesir should be stacked with a small offset to each other, so that only the upper parts of the underlying cards remain visible.

Note: place the cards of each type from left to right, focusing on the numbers next to the image of Aesir. It will help the players to assess the situation on the table easily.

After opening the selected Aesir card, each player passes the remaining cards in his/her hand to his/her left/right neighbor and accordingly receives a card from his/her right/left neighbor. Players continue to play 1 card and transfer the rest of the cards to their neighbors until all the cards received at the beginning of the round are down on the table before the players. After this, the awakening phase begins.

IMPORTANT: in the 1st and 3rd round the players pass the cards to the neighbors on the left, in the 2nd round the players pass the cards to the neighbors on the right.

Phase 3. Awakening of the Aesirs

In this phase, the Aesirs awaken. The awakening takes place sequentially, in the order indicated on the hint card. Odin awakens first, then Thor, and so on. When one or another Aesir awakens, one of the players can fulfill his will.

Determining the Player Who Achieved the Favor of Aesir

Favor of Aesir is achieved by the player with the highest amount of cards of this Aesir. These cards should be laid down on the table in front of the player face up. See below what to do if the highest number of Aesir cards is equal for several players.

The player who achieved the favor of Aesir checks whether there is a goal card with this Aesir in the goal column of the current round (Left column for the first round, central column for the second round and right column for the third round). If there is no such card in the specified column, then the player must fulfill the will of Aesir, even if it is to his disadvantage. If there is a card, the player can decide: to score victory points (this is called achieving the goal, see "Scoring victory points" on page 9) or to fulfill the will of Aesir. After this, it is determined which is the player who achieved the favor of the next awakened Aesir.

Resolving a Dispute in Case of Players Having an Equal Number of Aesir Cards

If two or more players have the same highest number of cards of an Aesir, whose favor they can currently achieve, there is a contest. The contesting players compare the number of Odin cards they have (as the first in the order of awakening). The winner is the player who has more Odin cards at that point in time. If the number of Odin cards is the same (or the contenders do not have Odin cards), then the number of cards of the next Aesir in the order of awakening (Thor) is compared, and so on until one player is the winner (see examples below). The eliminated players (based on contest of Odin cards) are considered to be the losers of the contest and they do not participate in the further comparison of Aesir cards. In an extremely rare case of equal numbers of all the cards, no player achieves the favor of an Aesir.

Example: Basil and Peter have the same number of Loki cards (two each). To resolve a contest they compare the number of Odin cards (as Odin is the first in the order of awakening). The winner is Peter as he has 2 Odin cards against Basil's 1 Odin card.

(Diagram: Peter's and Basil's Loki stacks, labelled "– Peter" and "– Basil".)

Example: In the contest for the favor of Sif between Basil and Masha the number of Odin cards is compared first of all. And this number is equal (two each). So the contenders should compare the number of Thor cards. But as both contenders don't have either Thor or Freya (the third awakening Aesir) cards, the decider is the number of Loki cards (the fourth awakening Aesir). Basil has 2 Loki cards and Masha has none. So Basil achieves the favor of Sif in this round.

(Diagram: Basil's and Masha's Sif stacks.)

Preparing the Next Round

At the beginning of the second round, players turn face up the closed card from the second column of goal cards, and at the beginning of the third round - two cards from the third column. The opened cards remain in their places.

(Diagram: the goal cards opened in the 2nd round (second column) and in the 3rd round (third column).)

Scoring Victory Points

Points can be scored in three ways:

• by achieving a goal
• during the final points count
• by fulfilling the will of Heimdall (see page 14).

Achieving the Goal

The player who achieves the favor of an Aesir checks whether the given Aesir is among the goal cards. If he is, the player can score victory points instead of fulfilling the will of the Aesir. For this purpose the player discards the cards of this Aesir from the corresponding stack. All discarded cards become scoring points (they are placed horizontally and face down before the player). There is a limit on the number of cards that can be discarded in this way.

The number of cards to be discarded is determined by which row of the goal cards the Aesir card is in (see the picture below).

(Diagram: example of goal cards in the 2nd round. Top row: 3 cards can be discarded. Middle row: 2 cards can be discarded. Bottom row: 1 card can be discarded.)

Example: it's the awakening time for Loki. As Basil has the highest number of Loki cards he achieves the favor of Loki easily. Basil checks if Loki's card is opened among the goal cards. As it is opened (see the previous figure), Basil may choose whether to fulfill the will of Loki or to turn some Loki cards into the victory points. He decides that victory points are better. As Loki card is in the 2nd row, Basil may discard up to 2 cards. He decides to discard 1 card, because he may still need Loki cards in the game. Note: the player may also decide to not to discard any cards if he/she doesn't want to fulfill the will of Aesir (in this case he/she gets no victory points).

(Diagram: Basil's Loki stack and the goal card it is compared against.)

Note: the player may also decide to not discard any cards if he doesn't want to fulfill the will of Aesir (in this case he gets no victory points).

Final Points Count

Final points count takes place after the 3rd (the last) round. In other words right at the end of Aesir's awakening in the third phase of the third round. Another t Aesir awakening takes place in its turn but without fulfilling their will. (The printed text reads "Another t Aesir awakening" here; the stray letter "t" is transcribed as printed.) The race for the favor of the Aesirs goes according to the basic rules, but the player who has achieved the favor of Aesir receives the right to discard 1 card of this Aesir from his/her stack.

Note: The player who has achieved the favor of Aesir may decide not to discard for the winning points so as not to give the other players the means to score points in a contest.

IMPORTANT: It is not possible to turn into points more cards than the player has at that point in time. And the player may not lay the doubling card on the Aesir. Don't forget that Thor cards are considered to be the cards of the Aesir in whose stack they lay. So they may be discarded together or instead of the cards of this stack.

The End of the Game and Determining Winner

The game ends after the final points count. The player with the most points wins. If there are two players with the same number of points, they must compare the number of Aesir cards as described in "Resolving a contest in case of players having an equal number of Aesir cards".

Description of the Aesirs

Odin. A player who fulfills the will of Odin, turns the upper card in one of his/her Aesir card stacks through 180° (either the Odin card or another Aesir card can be turned). Now the card shows another Aesir and should be removed into the corresponding stack.

Thor. A player who fulfills the will of Thor transfers all of his/her Thor cards in any other stack of another Aesir (face down under the existing stack). The Thor card can't be placed in a stack in which there isn't a card of another Aesir. In other words it is impossible to use face down Thor cards to create a new stack of another Aesir. The transferred cards are considered to be cards of the Aesir whose stack they are situated in at that point in time. If this results in only Thor cards in the Aesir stack, then they are transferred back to their place in Thor's stack.

Freya. A player who fulfills the will of Freya, selects any stack of his Aesir cards and places a doubling card in front of it (even if a stack has only one card). The doubling card shows that now this stack has twice as many cards (including "Thor cards" if they are in this stack).

For Example: Peter has two Loki cards and three Thor cards in the same stack. Peter puts doubling cards in front of this stack. Loki's total favor to Peter is ten!

At the end of the round the doubling card always goes back to the center of the table. The number of cards in the stack where the doubling card was becomes equal to the real number of the cards.

Loki. A player who fulfills the will of Loki, turns any card in one of another player's Aesir card stacks by 180°, changing the Aesir on this card. A player can choose any card in a stack of an opponent, but he should not look at the face of the cards closed by the upper cards.

Sif. A player who fulfills the will of Sif, takes the upper card from the stack and plays it according to the basic rules: in other words, he/she puts it in his existing stack of Aesir cards or creates another stack if he doesn't have the Aesir of this kind yet.

Bragi. A player who fulfills the will of Bragi, changes an Aesir card of his/her choice with one of the opponents: gives one of his own opened cards to another player and takes one of the opponent's cards of his/her choice. The opponent can't refuse this exchange. Exchanging cards do not turn; they continue to be the cards of the same Aesir as they were before the exchange. A player can choose any card in a stack of an opponent, but he must not look at the face of the cards closed by the upper cards.

Heimdall. A player who fulfills the will of Heimdall discards one card from his/her Heimdall stack and turns it into a winning point. It is not forbidden to discard a Thor card if there is one in the Heimdall stack. The discarded card should be placed as usual before the player horizontally and face down.

Tips

1. You can't fulfill the will of all the Aesirs so concentrate on those who are the most interesting and useful to you in the current round.
2. If your opponents ignore any of Aesir, then you will probably easily achieve his favor spending only one or two cards. Do it, perhaps fulfilling his will help you in the future.
3. If you did not manage to get the cards of the desired Aesir, try to get his attention through fulfilling the will of the other Aesirs, for example, by transferring into his stack the cards of Thor or doubling his cards with the help of Freya. Sometimes, instead of getting the attention of an Aesir, you can reduce his influence for opponents with Loki's help, not to mention a Bragi exchange that allows you increasing the attention of the desired Aesir and simultaneously reduce it for your opponent.
4. Consciously combine the properties of the Aesirs.
5. And, finally, do not forget that the first Aesirs in the order of awakening (especially the very first one – Odin) help to win when the number of cards is equal. Sometimes this is extremely valuable.

Enjoy your game!