Valknut
Valknut Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Terrain cards: 13 for 2 players, 7 for 3 players, 6 for 4 players, plus 1 Bifrost card.
- Unit tokens for each warband (numbered 1 through 9): Ice Giantess (1), Valkyries (2), Elves (3), Vikings (4), Vanir (5), Dragons (6), Dwarfs (7), Draugar (8), Goblins (9) — quantities as printed on each unit's card.
- Ambush cards (9) and Gjallarhorn cards (9).
Setup (2 players)
- Each player chooses a warband and places its units and ambush cards in their personal supply. The player with the least number of maximum units is the starting player.
- Shuffle the 2 Player Terrain cards, take the top one and place it facedown in the middle of the board. This will be the Parley area of the Battleground.
- Reveal the next 3 Terrain cards to create the Terrain pool.
- Each player places up to 4 of their units (minimum 1) in their Parley area of the Battleground and then the game starts.
Players Turn
At the beginning of their turn, the active player refills the available Terrain cards on the Terrain pool back to 3 and then places one of them adjacent to any previously placed cards on the Battleground, following the rules below:
- Terrain cards must be placed adjacent to cards already in play.
- Terrain cards can be placed heads up or upside down, as long as they are fully aligned. You may never place Terrain cards sideways.
- If there is a Valknut in the newly placed Terrain card, the player spawns a new unit on top of it.
- If the active player doesn't have extra units to spawn, they get one extra movement this turn instead.
- You might discard one of the Terrain cards available back to the game box and instead use your ambush card.
After you place your card on the Battleground, you gain an amount of movement points equal to the number displayed at the center of the card you just placed.
Moving Units
Units move in a straight orthogonal line, through as many unoccupied grasslands. You can not pass through other units (friends or foes), mountains, rivers or forests.
You spend one movement point to move one unit. Repeat this process until you spend all your movement points. You may move the same unit multiple times. Even if your unit is capable of crossing certain Terrains or obstacles, it must finish at an unoccupied grassland.
- Spend one movement point to move a unit by any number of zones in a straight line as long as there are no obstacles.
- Units can not move diagonally.
- Movement points can be spent in one or more units at a turn.
- Even if some units are capable of crossing obstacles, they may never stay on top of one.
At the end of each movement, check if you have killed an enemy unit. After you finished spending all your movement points, the next player clockwise takes their turn. You may decide to end your turn without spending all your movement points.
Killing Units
If you flank an enemy unit by adjacent opposite sides orthogonally, you kill that unit immediately. You can flank enemies using at least one of your units from one side and any other of your units, mountains, rivers or forests from the other side. You can't flank units against the Battleground edge.
Nothing can be flanked with the Battleground's edge — no draugar piece is considered to be flanked against it. But if the viking player passes, both their units die in the draugar turn (see the Draugar warband ability).
Your units can't be killed during your turn, but they will be killed immediately at the beginning of the next player's turn if you let them stay in a position where they are already flanked by enemy units.
Endgame Scoring
At any point of the game, if there are no enemy units present in the Battleground, you win.
If the last card of the Terrain pool is placed, and there are still enemy units on the Battleground, every unit that is NOT in the Parley area scores as many victory points as described on each unit. If there is still a tie, the warband with the most maximum units wins the game.
Asymmetric Gameplay
Each warband has a different amount of units and unique abilities. Also they can only cross through certain Terrain (Passable Terrain), that Terrain can be grassland, mountains, river, and/or zones with enemy units.
Ice Giantess (1 unit)
Passable Terrain: Grassland, Forest, River, Mountain, Enemy units.
- Die Hard: This unit must be flanked twice (at the same time) in order to be killed.
- Enrage: As long as there are 3 (or more) Valknut visible in the Battleground, flip her to the Enraged side. If not, flip her back.
- Stomp: If Enraged, you can kill enemy units by placing the Ice Giantess on top of them!
Valkyries (2 units)
Passable Terrain: Grassland, Forest, River, Mountain, Enemy units.
- Bloodlust: Get +1 movement point every time you kill an enemy unit.
Elves (3 units)
Passable Terrain: Grassland, Forest.
- Archery: You can flank units even if you are up to 2 zones away from them. There should be only unoccupied grassland or forests between your unit and the enemy.
Vikings (4 units)
Passable Terrain: Grassland.
- Berserker's Rage: When killing an enemy unit, you immediately lose all your movement points. Then you may place a new Terrain card from the Terrain pool in the Battleground and gain its movement points. Keep in mind: The Terrain pool refills only at the start of a player's turn.
Vanir (5 units)
Passable Terrain: Grassland, River.
- Shove: You may spend one movement point to push one adjacent enemy unit along with yours one zone forward.
Dragons (6 units)
Passable Terrain: Grassland.
- Summoning Spell: You may spend one movement point to teleport one of your dragons on the Battleground to an unoccupied Valknut zone.
Dwarfs (7 units)
Passable Terrain: Grassland, Mountain.
- Battle Forged: Every time you place a Terrain card get +1 movement point.
Draugar (8 units)
Passable Terrain: Grassland.
- Undead Outbreak: When you kill an enemy unit it becomes a Draugr immediately. This might result in a chain reaction massacre. If you don't have any Draugr left to place, you get +1 movement point.
Goblins (9 units)
Passable Terrain: Grassland.
- Massive Numbers: Every time you place a card with a Valknut in the Battleground, you may place a Goblin on every unoccupied Valknut in the Battleground. If you don't have any Goblins left to place, you get +1 movement point per missing Goblin.
Extra Game Modes
You may try the following variations to spice up your game:
3 Players
Additional Setup: Shuffle the 3 Players Terrain cards, place one of them facing down on the right side of the 2 Players Parley area. Shuffle the remaining 3 Players Terrain cards with the 2 Players Terrain cards to make the Terrain pile.
4 Players
Additional Setup: Place the Bifrost card in the right side of the 1-2 Players Parley area. Then shuffle the 4 Players Terrain cards and take the top one to be the 3-4 Players Parley area. Last, shuffle all remaining Terrain cards (2/3/4 Players) to make the Terrain Pile.
Keep in mind: enemy units will never help you flank other units.
Ragnarok Mode
Play the game using 2 warbands EACH! The younger player chooses their 1st warband, then their opponent chooses 2 warbands, then the younger chooses their 2nd warband. Players may organize their Parley areas as it pleases them, mixing their 2 warbands in any combination, as long as the units fit in the 8 slots each player has.
Setup Parley areas and Terrain Pile/Pool as in a 4 Players game. The player with the warband that has the lowest unit count starts the game.
You may divide your movements between your warbands and flank using units from both. That being said, abilities will be triggered just for the warband you just moved. Eg.: Killing with your Viking will give you extra Terrain cards (and make you lose extra movements), your Dwarf extra movement can only be used to move your Dwarfs, etc.
But, be careful! As soon as there are no units from one warband in the Battleground, you cannot bring their units back using a Valknut.
Gods & Monsters
This expansion may be played with 4 players on Ragnarok Mode. But playing with it or not in these game modes is optional.
Additional Setup: Shuffle the Gjallarhorn cards and reveal 3 to create the Gods & Monsters Pool. When you play Terrain cards that have the Gjallarhorn icon you may choose one card from the Gods & Monsters pool to worship and perform their ability, keeping it in your supply to either score or subtract VPs at the end of the game.
Future players that place a Terrain card with a Gjallarhorn may choose to either take your card from you, performing its ability, or take a new one from the Gods & Monsters pool.
- Odin: Look at the top 3 Terrain cards from the Terrain Pile and reorganize them.
- Idun: +1 VP for EVERY 2 units you have on the Battleground, rounded up.
- Hel: Take any unit from the game and spawn it on a visible Valknut.
- Freya: Move 1 of your units once ignoring any obstacles.
- Loki: Take the top Terrain from the pile to your Supply as an extra Ambush card.
- Fenrir: Steal 1 opponent's Ambush card.
- Thor: Kill one enemy unit on top of a Valknut.
- Surtr: Destroy 1 Terrain card from the Battleground that has no units on top of it.
- Jörmungandr: Steal 1 unit from an opponent's supply.
FAQ
Q. What is a nice match for a first timer? A. Vikings against Draugar is always a fun start as they play really differently but still pretty easy to figure out.
Q. What tribes are easier to be played? A. All warbands are balanced. But the more units you get, the easier it is to figure out their gameplay strategy.
- Challenging: Ice Giantess, Valkyries, Elves
- Medium: Vikings, Vanir, Dragons
- Easy: Dwarfs, Draugar, Goblins
Q. Can I pass through my own units? A. No, you can't!
Q. Do I get my units back when they die, or they are placed in the game box? A. Units that die go back to your Supply. They can be spawned back later using Valknuts.
Q. If all my units are defeated but there is still a Valknut Terrain card, can I spawn a new unit and keep on playing? A. No. If all your units died, you lost the game.
Q. How can the Elves and Valkyries beat the Giantess? A. Killing the giantess for them isn't an easy task and won't happen often. You can still win by points. So the game you are playing is actually trying to build a kingdom where she can't easily move, reach and kill your units.
Q. When using "Berserker's Rage" as a viking, do I refill the Terrain cards pool during my turn? A. No, you don't.
Q. Can 2 Elves kill an enemy unit if they are both orthogonally aligned but just within ranged reach? Do Elves have range against enemies across forests? A. Yes to both!
Q. When spawning using "Massive Numbers", if I don't have any goblins to place, do I still get the extra movement points? A. Yes, you do.
Q. Can the Giantess be placed or moved into a horizontal orientation? Can she have half of her body covering an obstacle? A. Never for both. The Giantess can only be moved/placed standing.
Q. Can units be flanked with the edge of the board? Or is flanking only against mountain, forest, river or by 2 enemy units? A. Nothing can be flanked with the Battleground's edge.
Q. When using Berserker's Rage, if the Terrain pool is depleted, can I take the top card from the Terrain pile? A. No, you can't.
Q. Playing as the Vikings you manage to get 3 back to back kills which would cause you to use up all 3 Terrain cards. Can you use your ambush card to get more movements? A. No. Ambush cards can be used only to replace Terrain cards, and the Terrain pool refills only at the start of a player's turn.
Q. Do you have to spend a move to kill? A. You don't have to spend movements to kill. Killing with Terrain placement is valid and with your opponent forgetting to move his units that are being flanked by yours somehow and start your turn with enemy units flanked is also valid.
Q. If the Giantess is Enraged, is there any way to revert her? A. Yes, you can unflip her by covering (occupying) the visible Valknuts so that there are less than 3 unoccupied on the battleground.
Q. Can I simply place a Terrain card and end my turn, or move less than the number of my Terrain card? A. Yes, movement is optional.
Q. Playing as the Vikings, if you use up all (of) the possible Terrain cards and with the last card from the pool that you placed you have 3 movement points. If you move once and get another kill, do you still get to use your additional 2 movement points or does your turn end since there are no additional Terrain cards to pull? A. You lose your extra movements and your turn ends.
Q. Playing as Draugar, if I can't transform a killed unit into Draugr (because I ran out of units) do I get an extra movement? A. Yes, you get an extra movement.
Q. Can a Valkyrie end their movement on forest, mountain or river? A. No unit can land on special Terrain. Cross means just moves through.
Q. Can I move my units diagonally? A. No, you can't.
Q. In a 4 Players game, who is the 3rd Player? A. The player that has the 3rd least maximum units.
Q. Can the Giantess stomp 2 units at once and also still kill adjacent units by flanking them against obstacles? A. Yes, she can.
Q. Can I move my Dragon to a Valknut in the Terrain pool? A. No, you can't.
Q. My opponent killed one of my units using their Draugr and this resulted on me losing 3 other units as a chain reaction, is that correct? A. Yes, in order to protect your units against outbreaks you need to move them carefully as a coordinated squad.
Q. The warbands that are able to cross some kind of obstacle, can cross more than one of that type of obstacle if these are in a row? A. Yes, except if the path is blocked by some kind of Terrain (or enemy unit) and yours can't cross it, then your movement can't be done since you can't finish a movement on the top of a special Terrain or enemy unit.
Q. Can I shove someone midway through a movement using a Vanir? A. No, you can't. Shoving someone costs 1 movement point.
Q. What does the word Valknut mean? A. There's a lot of mystery behind this ancient Viking symbol, but it translates to "the knot of the fallen warriors."
Quick Play
You win by either fully eliminating all the opponents' units at any time or by having more victory points in the Battleground (NOT in the Parley area) after the last Terrain card is placed.
Player's turn:
- Refill Terrain pool back to 3.
- Select and place a Terrain card in the Battleground, gaining movement points.
- Spend your movement points to move your units.
- Pass.
Movement: Units move in a straight orthogonal line, as long as there are no obstacles, spending a single movement point.
Killing units: If you flank an enemy unit by adjacent opposite sides orthogonally, you kill the enemy unit immediately. You can use your units, mountains, rivers or forests to flank and kill enemy units.
Asymmetric abilities:
- Ice Giantess — Cross: Everything. Die Hard, Enrage, Stomp (when Enraged).
- Valkyries — Cross: Everything. Bloodlust (gets a movement per kill).
- Elves — Cross: Forest. Archery (flanks up to 2 zones away).
- Vikings — Cross: Grassland. Berserker's Rage (gets extra Terrain cards after kill).
- Vanir — Cross: Grassland, River. Shove (may push a unit back by 1 zone).
- Dragons — Cross: Grassland. Summoning Spell (you may move to any visible Valknut).
- Dwarfs — Cross: Grassland, Mountains. Battle Forged (extra movement every turn).
- Draugar — Cross: Grassland. Undead outbreak (killed enemies turn into Draugr).
- Goblins — Cross: Grassland. Massive Numbers (spawns a Goblin per visible Valknut when card with it is placed).