Vikings Gone Wild

To set up, place the game board in the center. Separate and stack the unit cards (red border, sword symbol), defense cards (blue border, shield symbol), and building cards (building symbol on back) into their designated spaces on the board. Shuffle the Odin's Path cards (lightning bolt symbol) and place the deck face-down in the leftmost space at the top of the board, then deal the top five face-up into the adjacent spaces. For Divine Favors (symbol in upper-left corner), remove any cards marked for games with three or more players, then put three per player into a face-down deck, returning extras to the box. Deal two Divine Favors face-up into the spaces on the right. For End Game Bonuses (big number 6), shuffle them and place four face-up into their spaces, returning the rest to the box. Place beer barrels, gold bar pieces, and double-sided construction and damage tokens nearby as a supply. Each player takes a player sheet and two matching player tokens, placing the larger one on their player sheet flag and the smaller one on the starting position of the scoring board. Each player takes a Town Hall marked as Level 3, placing it in the upper-left corner of their village area, then stacks Level 2 and Level 1 Town Halls on top. Shuffle the Mission cards (scroll symbol) and deal two 1-victory point missions to each player, who places them face-up on their active mission spaces. Shuffle the 2- and 3-victory point missions together, then place the leftover 1-victory point missions on top to form a mission deck. Each player takes a starting deck of six Beer, two Gold, and two Viking Warriors, shuffles them, and places them face-down on their player sheet as their personal deck. The player who most recently drank a beer (or chosen randomly) takes the first player token.

In Vikings Gone Wild, players aim to prove themselves the most worthy to the gods by generating resources, acquiring powerful warriors, engaging in strategic battles, and completing various quests. The game is played over a series of rounds, with the ultimate goal of accumulating the most victory points to be declared the winner.

A round in Vikings Gone Wild is divided into five phases: Production, Drawing, Players, Storage, and Round Ending. During the Production Phase, players check their village area and place one gold bar on each Gold Factory and one beer barrel on each Brewery they own (each can hold only one resource). In the Drawing Phase, every player draws five cards from their personal deck into their hand. If a deck runs out, the discard pile is shuffled to form a new deck. Buildings like Taverns allow drawing extra cards, and Drakkar buildings allow retaining unused cards from the previous round. The Players Phase is performed first by the player with the first player token, then clockwise. During their turn, players can take six different actions as many times as they like, in any order: buying units and defenses from the main board (paying beer and gold costs), buying buildings (paying costs and placing them directly into their village, with a construction token indicating they cannot be attacked or used this round), upgrading their Town Hall (once per round, paying gold to reveal the next level, which increases building limits and provides victory points), completing missions (by fulfilling the text on their active mission cards, earning victory points, and replacing the completed mission with a new one), exchanging resources (using symbols on the main board to convert two gold to one beer or two beer to one gold), and attacking (either Undead cards on Odin's Path or other players' buildings). Attacking Undead requires playing units/heroes with combined attack values equal to or greater than the Undead's defense, earning rewards and victory points. Attacking other players' buildings requires playing units/heroes to match or exceed the building's defense value. If successful, a damage token is placed on the building, and the attacker gains victory points based on the number of buildings damaged. If the defender successfully repels the attack, they gain victory points. A player cannot be attacked more than once per round. The Storage Phase allows players to move unused resource pieces to containers in their village. Finally, the Round Ending Phase involves gathering all played cards into personal discard piles, removing construction and damage tokens from buildings, discarding the leftmost Odin's Path card and shifting the rest, and passing the first player token to the left.

Victory points are earned through several actions. Upgrading your Town Hall to Level 3 immediately grants 5 victory points. Successfully attacking an opponent's building earns victory points based on the number of damage tokens placed during the attack, as indicated on the helper card. Completing missions provides 1, 2, or 3 victory points as shown on the mission card. Additionally, fully filled resource containers (Beer Container or Gold Container) grant 1 victory point during the Storage Phase. Divine Favors (heroes or special items) collected by passing certain score track spaces can also provide victory points or special abilities. At the end of the game, players also check four End Game Bonus cards (Beer Tycoon, Builder, Conqueror, Follower) and gain 6 points for each objective they meet. If multiple players meet an objective, they divide the 6 points evenly, rounding down.

The game ends immediately when any player reaches or exceeds 30 victory points in a 3-4 player game, or 40 points in a 2-player game. The current round is completed, allowing all players to have an equal number of turns. After the round ends, players check the four End Game Bonus cards. For each bonus, the player(s) who meet the condition (e.g., most stored beer, most buildings) gain 6 victory points. If there's a tie for a bonus, the 6 points are divided evenly among tied players, rounding down. After all bonuses are awarded, the player with the highest total victory points is declared the winner. In case of a tie for overall victory points, tied players draw bonus cards one by one from a shuffled deck of unused bonus cards until the tie is broken. If all bonus cards are drawn and the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.