Champions of Midgard

To set up Champions of Midgard, place the main game board in the center. Position the round marker on space 1 of the round track. Shuffle the market stall tiles and place them face-up on their designated spaces, adjusting the number of military and economic stalls based on the player count (2 players: 1 military, 1 economic; 3 players: 1 military, 2 economic; 4 players: 2 military, 2 economic). Place the two public longship tiles on their designated spaces and keep the private longship tiles nearby. Shuffle and place the Rune, Journey, Merchant Ship, Troll, Draugr, and Monster decks face-down on their respective areas. Separate resource tokens (food, wood, coins, favor, blame) and warrior dice (white swords, red spears, black axes) into their respective piles. The player who most recently won a combat takes the first player token. Each player chooses a Viking leader board, takes their meeples, one food, one wood, one coin, one favor token, and one sword warrior die. Place one meeple on the Worker Huts space, leaving the remaining meeples (3 for 3-4 players, 4 for 2 players) in your supply. Each player places a matching colored disc on their leader board and on the '0' space of the glory track. Finally, each player draws one secret destiny card.

The objective in Champions of Midgard is to become the Jarl (leader) by accumulating the most glory points over eight rounds. Players achieve glory by defeating various enemies (trolls, draugr, and sea monsters), completing personal destiny missions, collecting sets of different colored monsters, purchasing powerful longships, and having leftover resources and favor at the end of the game. Strategic worker placement, resource management, and successful combat rolls are key to outscoring opponents and claiming victory.

Each round begins with a setup phase where new enemy cards (troll, draugr, monsters), journey cards, and a merchant ship card are revealed, and resources are added to specific action spaces. Players then take turns placing one of their worker meeples on an available action space. Brown and blue action spaces provide immediate effects (e.g., gaining resources, buying runes, hiring warriors, building ships). Red action spaces (hunting grounds, fighting trolls/draugr/monsters) reserve a spot for combat or hunting, which are resolved at the end of the round. Most action spaces can only hold one worker meeple, blocking them for other players until the next round. Players continue placing workers until all meeples have been assigned.

At the end of the eighth round, final scoring occurs. Players gain points for: 1) Completed destiny cards: Points are awarded based on fulfilling the card's conditions (e.g., having the most monster cards). If tied for first, players earn fewer points. 2) Sets of enemies: For every set of three different colored enemies (red, yellow, blue), players gain 5 glory points. Trolls do not count towards sets. 3) Purchased ships: Each longship a player owns provides glory points as indicated on its tile. 4) Unused favor tokens: Each favor token not spent grants 2 glory points. 5) Unused coins: For every three coins remaining, players gain 1 glory point. Finally, players lose points for blame tokens: 1 token = -1 point, 2 = -3 points, 3 = -6 points, 4 = -10 points, 5 = -15 points, 6+ = -21 points.

The game concludes after the completion of the eighth round. Once all worker placement actions are resolved, all combat and hunting phases are completed, and the end-game scoring is calculated, the player with the highest total glory points is declared the winner and the new Jarl of Midgard. If there's a tie in glory points, the player with the most remaining warrior dice wins. If still tied, the player with the most coins wins.