Set-Up

▪ Wind dial: place it so that the +1 section points south.

▪ Saga decks: shuffle the three Era decks separately and randomly remove 3 cards from each deck without
looking at them. Stack the decks with “I” on top and “III” on the bottom.
▪ draw the top three Saga cards and place face up on the board.
▪ Goods: place tokens near the board; put the “skins” token in the “goods in demand” spot.
▪ Rune Cards: shuffle the cards and place them face down near the board.
▪ Towns: randomly put small towns on ports; 3 large towns on Paris, Rome, and Constantinople.
▪ players get: a longship board, fifteen crewmen, the ship pawn of their color and one Rune card; place the
ship in the Wintering Zone on the board.
▪ the starting player receives a bonus 1VP, player #2 receives 2VPs, etc.

Gameplay
▪ on your turn, you may perform Actions, Tasks, and Other Activities in any order, as many times as you
want, with some limitations.
▪ any Goods or crew that are “discarded” during the game are returned to their stockpiles.
▪ if you run out of Crew because you have too many settlements, you sit out the rest of the game.
▪ Ending your turn:
(a) if you lose the last crew from your ship for any reason, you must discard all Goods in your ship
and move it to the Wintering Zone.
(b) if you willfully move your ship to the Wintering Zone, lose all Goods and all but one of the Crew
on board, who stays on the ship.
(c) you may declare your turn is over at any time, usually because you have used up your 7 days of
sailing and have no other actions or tasks to perform.

Final Scoring
▪ players take the VPs they have earned thus far in the game and add:

1.) Bloody Ax bonus: player (or tied players) with the most town figures regardless of size or treasure
value earn 3VP per town figure they have!
2.) Settlements: each settlement is worth its port value to the owner. Values are doubled if two ports
in the region have been settled, and values are tripled if all three ports in the region are settled.
▪ ports in the same region can be settled by different players, and the bonus still applies.
▪ independent ports and large ports are not part of any region and are not doubled or tripled.
3.) Saga Sets: players sort their Saga cards by Homeland. The player with the majority of Saga cards for
each Homeland gets 10VP per Saga card, and the second place player earns 5VP per Saga card.
▪ for first place ties, the players each earn 10VP per card and no player earns for second place.
▪ for second place ties, the players each earn 5VPs per card.

Winner: the player with the most VPs at the end of the game!
 Sagas
▪ during most of the game, three Sagas will be face up on the board.
▪ a player who completes the Saga (per its requirements) collects any VPs immediately if shown on the
card, and then claims the card (which may be worth VPs at the end of the game.)
▪ Trade: a Good must be in each of the ports named on the card.
▪ Raid: the town figure must be removed from each of the ports named on the card.
▪ Settle: a settlement must be in each port named on the card.
▪ it doesn’t matter who started the Saga… whoever finishes it gets the points!
▪ each Saga is associated with a Homeland (Sweden, Norway, Denmark).
▪ when a Saga is completed, a new one is revealed from the top of the draw pile onto the board.
▪ each Saga has an Era symbol in the top right corner. The game starts in the First Era. The Second Era
starts when the first Second Era card is placed in the Saga spaces, and the Third Era starts when
the first Third Era card is placed in the Saga spaces.
End Game Trigger:
▪ Final 3 Rounds: when the last Saga is added to the board, that player get the 3 Final Round tokens.
(1) each player gets 3 more turns, including the player with the tokens. The player with the tokens
puts one on each Saga card space until gone, when the game ends.
(2) IF all Saga cards are completed, the game ends immediately.

Actions
▪ each action performed takes up 1 day of your turn. You have a maximum of 7 days to spend.
(1) Load
▪ done only when your shipping is in the Wintering Zone.
▪ load one crewman (from your supply) or Good token (from stockpile) into your boat.
▪ each crewman or Good loaded = 1 day spent.
▪ you must always have at least 1 crew in your boat.
▪ you don’t have to fully load your ship, and it may hold any combination of crew/goods.
▪ exception: the sixth (era II) and seventh (era III) slots are only available in later eras.
▪ once you are done loading your boat this turn, it must move immediately for free from the
Wintering Zone to a Homeland (Denmark, Norway, Sweden) of your choice.

(2) Draw a Rune card

▪ may only be drawn when your ship is in a Homeland. Each card drawn = 1 day spent.
▪ cards are secret from other players until they are being played.
▪ hand limit of 3 cards; if you have 3, you cannot draw more until some are discarded.
▪ you cannot discard cards while your ship is in a Homeland.
▪ once the Rune deck runs out, reshuffle the discarded cards to make a new pile.

(3) Sail
▪ move your ship from its current water space, port, or Homeland into another one.
▪ each movement space = 1 day spent.
▪ ships may share water spaces, but only 1 ship may be in each port.
▪ Clear Sailing: the map is divided into four regions- north, south, east, and west.
▪ each region has a set # of clear sailing days, modified by the Wind Dial.
▪ every sailing action more than the number of clear sailing days for that zone will result
in an immediate loss. Refer to the table printed on the board.
▪ if crossing between regions, use the clearing sailing days for the entered region.
 Tasks
▪ special activities that may only be attempted by targeting a port your ship is currently in.
▪ unlike actions, Tasks do not use up days.
▪ you may perform multiple tasks in your turn, but may attempt only one task per port per turn.

(1) Trade
▪ deliver a goods token to a port without one, for 1VP.
▪ when in port, remove a goods token from your longboat and place in the port.
▪ immediately take VP equal to the port’s value (+2 if it is the goods “in demand”).
▪ ports may only have 1 goods token; ports in a region can’t have duplicate goods tokens.
▪ it doesn’t matter if the port has a town in it, or if it already has been settled by someone.

(2) Raid
▪ attempt to remove a town from a port to earn that town’s secret VP value.
▪ how: when in port, roll a single die higher than the port’s value.
▪ the port’s value is -1 if someone has previously traded with it.
▪ may make up to 3 attempts per turn, one at a time. You don’t have to do all 3.
▪ success: claim town figure and VPs equal to is treasure value, and keep the town figure for
counting towards the “bloody axe” award.
▪ failure: discard one crew member from your boat to your supply.
▪ if your boat loses its last crew: discard any goods, go to the Wintering Zone, turn ends.
▪ Rune cards that refer to “attacks” apply to both Raiding and Settling attempts.

(3) Settle
▪ attempt to occupy a town-less port to earn VPs at the end of the game.
▪ how: roll up to 3 dice together, one per crewmember in boat.
▪ the port’s value is -1 if someone has previously traded with it.
▪ you may roll less than 3 dice if you want, even if you have 3 crew.
▪ failure: discard one crew member from your boat to your supply for each die that failed.
▪ success: if at least one die exceeds the port’s value, remove a crew from your boat and place it
in the port. It is now “settled” for the rest of the game.
▪ you may not attempt to settle a town that has not first been successfully raided.
▪ once placed, a settlement is permanent (except for Rune cards)
▪ each port may contain at most one settlement.
▪ you may enter a port with another player’s settlement, but may not attack it.
▪ if converting a crew to a settlement results in a crewless ship, you may choose not to make the
conversion. In that case, the port is not settled.
▪ if your boat loses its last crew: discard any goods, go to the Wintering Zone, turn ends.
▪ Rune cards that refer to “attacks” apply to both Raiding and Settling attempts.
▪ playing/discarding a rune card lets you to rotate the wind dial a quarter turn if you want.
 Other Activities
▪ unlike actions, Other Activities do not use up days.
(1) Play a Rune card / Discard a Rune card
▪ you may play / discard a card at any time, except when you are in a Homeland.
▪ some cards specify when or where they can be played, so pay attention to the text.
▪ discard card: place the card face up on the discard pile and ignore its effects.
▪ play card: do what the card says and then place in the discard pile.
▪ you may play multiple cards in a turn.
* when you play or discard a card, you may immediately turn the Wind Dial 90-degrees before
performing the text on the card.

(2) Move to the Wintering Zone

▪ at any time during your turn, you are free to move your boat to the Wintering Zone.
▪ discard all goods aboard, discard all crew except one, and end your turn immediately.
▪ you can do this no matter where your boat is on the board.
▪ you can do this even if you have spent all 7 of your days.