Valhal (2020)

Overview

VALHAL is a thematic boardgame for up to 4 Players. Each Player takes part as a Jarl in charge of his own Viking Settlement on the fictional island of Fjörnheim. Goal of the game is to regain the Favour of the Gods. To do so you will have to raid towns and villages in order to gather resources to construct new buildings in your settlement, as well as recruiting new warriors and building new ships.

Every game starts with the summer raids, the so called "Vikingfahrt". All Players pick a village to attack with their starting unit of Nordic Warriors. Afterwards they fight, following the intuitive battle system of fixed attack and defense stats combined with dice rolling. In case of success, the players get to loot the village for treasures by drawing one of 35 unique loot cards, this is the main income the Players have throughout the year.

Back home in their Viking Settlement, the Players make use of their new gained fortune, recruiting more warriors, bringing sacrifices to the Gods and starting to construct more ships and buildings to extend their settlement. From now on every season will start with the drawing of an event card, there are 60 different ones, and each one of them may bring you joy or pain, or something in between. Every card has it's own story, many of them are inspired by actual mythic stories and events of the time. Another important part of the game are the ways of the northern Gods. Their will is represented by 60 cards. By bringing sacrifices and certain events, the Gods will grant you their Benevolence. Other events or hostile fellow Players may force you to draw Wrath of the Gods cards. As in the event cards, every single „Card of the Gods“ tells a story, many of them following real Norse mythology.

The Game ends when one of the Players has collected 7 „Favour of the Gods“ points and therefore reaches the Golden Gates of VALHAL.