Brawlhalla : the Board Game

Brawlhalla is a challenging 1 on 1 board game that utilize strategy, resource management and audacity to defeat your enemies in a glorious manner. This game takes its origins in a forgotten time of history where vikings would clash recklessly against each other for glory, bounty and the thrill of battle... until they ran out of brave viking lives to spare and so they settle for a more peaceful approach to resolve conflict or have fun. The god heard their plea and sent them the holy game ''Brawhalla'' and thus the battle of board pieces replaced weapons and wits replaced savagery : a new tradition was born. The game grew so popular that soon enough, vikings warlord would be elected based on their ability to master the game, legends even say that the greatest viking leader of all time would make his enemies kneel before him with his strategic mind. The original set was lost in the mist of time but multiple ones were built over time to relive the original glory of this holy game. A set of Brawlhalla consists of 1 board, 40 basic viking warriors (20 on each side), 6 viking warlords (3 on each side), 6 boats (3 on each sides), 4 dragons, 6 barracks (3 on each side), 2 harbor (1 on each side), 2 dragon nursery, 14 ruins coins, 3 sanctuary guardian, a deck of basic cards (number may vary), 5 artifact cards and a minimum of 7 dices. We created this game in the optic of creating an hybrid game between hearthstone and a tabletop strategy game like Risk with a viking theme as it fit our original idea of the setting in which we wanted our game to take place. We made sure to include a lot of different mechanics with pros and cons to them so that different play style could be utilize to achieve victory in 3 distinct way. Use this game to outwit, dominate or outmaneuver your friend and to show them who is the superior viking leader. Settle a conflict, resolve polarizing discussion or just use it as an entertainment with your friend but... be careful the gods are watching an eternal glory in the Valhalla awaits the winner. A game should take 20-30 minutes but we recommend only playing 2-3 games in the span of a day to not develop an addiction. This project still being a work in progress, it can also be used as a creative outlet : create your own cards and rules and design your own set pieces to make the game more of you're liking, the sky is the limit. Mastering the basic elements of the game will be the key to victory but any add-on can emphasize your play style : don't be scared to make this game your own ! We put all of our knowledge about game design, 3D design and graphical design to make this game come to reality and so we hope you will enjoy this game as much as we did creating it. We will await your feedback with impatience,

- The developing team (Michael Helmy and Quentin Sapin)

Step 1: Promotion Video

Promotion video for ''Brawhalla the Board Game''.

Step 2: Rules

Start of the game :

Every player starts with 5 basic cards, 1 barrack, 1 harbor, 5 basic viking warrior and 1 warlord. The board should be placed in between the two players, the north side facing one of the player and the south side facing the other one. All units may spawned on building, whichever one the players wants. The harbor and barrack must be placed at the beginning of the game wherever the player wants on their island although the harbor must be placed on a shore type tile in order to build boats.

Player turn :

Every turn, the player has 3 action points (not counting card effect). Action points can be used for different actions such as : moving a unit, separating/fusing units, attacking, starting the construction of a building or play a card. Action points can be used twice on the same unit, inferring that a unit may move twice or attack twice a turn.

Terrain :

Earth : Only terrestrial and air unit may move freely on it.

Water :Only aquatic and air unit may move freely on it.

Shore: Only aquatic and terrestrial unit may move freely on it.

Mountains: Only air unit may move freely on it.

Building :If placed, act as impassable terrain for enemies.

Movement :

*Movement can't be made diagonally for any terrestrial unit*

Terrestrial units : Terrestrial unit may only move on lands and can't cross terrain such as mountain or water without help of other unit or card.

Aquatic unit : Aquatic unit may move on water but not land or terrain.

Flying unit : Flying unit do not care about the board's terrain and may freely move around the board without restraint.

Pieces :

*Every unit on a tile counts towards the same unit for a battle. Ex : 1 warrior on a tile is 1 unit and 3 warriors on a tile also count as 1 unit but has a power value of 3. However, when mentioning a number of unit for recruiting, every single unit on the tile counts.''

- Viking warriors : Basic terrestrial unit that may be paired onto 1 tile up to 4 as 5 viking warrior can be converted into a viking warlord only if they all stand on the same tile (converting counts as an action and thus consumes action points). Every single one of these unit has a value 1 and may move 1 tile at a time. A player may only have up to 20 of this type of unit.

- Viking warlord : Advanced terrestrial unit with a value 5 and may move 1 tile per turn. A player may only have 5 of this type of unit.

- Boats : Basic aquatic unit, boats can transport up to 4 units (Ex : 4 viking warrior or 1 warlord and 3 viking warrior) and count as a +1, they , on their own, do not have any value but add a +1 on any units aboard them. A player may only have 3 of this type of unit.

- Dragons : Advanced air unit, dragon have a value of 3 and may move 2 tiles at a time. There may only have 4 dragons on the board at a time and there's no limit to the number of dragon a player may have as long as it doesn't exceed 4. Dragons gain +1 on a mountain type tile.

Buildings :

* Attacking units that are building something stopsthem and destroying an unguarded building turns the tile to an earth status. A building with no unit on it has a power value of 0 and is thus automatically destroyed if attacked.*

- Barracks (+1) :

You can only have up to 3 barracks. If the first one is destroyed, it will take 1 unit and 1 turn to build it, the second one takes 2 unit and 2 turns and the third one takes 3 units and 3 turn to build.

- Dragon nursery (+1):

Dragon nursery can be built by sacrificing 3 unit on the span of 3 turn.

- Harbor (+1):

You may only have 1 harbor at the time and a boat necessitates 3 units and 2 turns.

- Capital (+2):

Crucial point of defense and capital of your viking empire.

Recruiting units :

* Attacking units that are recruiting will halt the recruitment.*

- Recruiting viking warriors :

Recruiting viking warriors happens automatically every turn and the number you gained is directly linked to the number of barracks you own. For example, having 2 barracks grants you 2 unit at the beginning of your turn.

- Recruiting Warlords :

Warlords can't be recruited : they may only be created by fusing normal viking warrior (see Warlord under the unit section)

- Recruiting boats :

Recruiting boats requires you to sacrifice 3 basic viking warriors and takes 2 turns to happen.

- Recruiting dragons :

Recruiting dragons takes 4 units and 3 turns.

Combat :

* Attacks may be done diagonally*

Attacking a unit result in the two of them clashing against each other and works around the value they currently have, however a unit value may not exceed 7 but any casualties suffered in battle still lowers your unit value to that number (Ex : Having 1 warlord (5) and 4 basic pieces (4) and losing 4 out of 7 dices puts your troop number as 3.). This does not take in account flat bonuses added by cards. Battling works as follow : Each player role the number of dices represented by their unit value, this action may be done one after the other if the number of dice doesn't permit it, each dice is taken separately and is matched against the other player's dice. For an example, if a combat occurs between a 2 value unit against a 3 value unit and the 2 value unit rolls a 3 and a 6 and the 3 value unit rolls a 5, a 4 and another 4, the highest number rolled of each player face each other etc... Accordingly, the 6 beats the 5 and the 4 beats the 3, resulting in each player losing 1 unit. In the case of a draw, 4 against 4, the defender wins. Additionally, unit with no value such boats will automatically lose any battle if there's no unit standing on them. The same goes for capitals.

Cards :

- Basic cards :

Each player may draw 1 card per turn and may play as much as you want as long as you have enough action point to spend. A player may only have up to 5 cards in his hand and up to 5 cards face up in front of him, inferring that a player can only have up to 10 cards in his possession. Overdrawing cards over this limit obliges a player to discard one of his card either the one he just picked, from his hand or from his face up cards.

- Ruins cards :

Ruins cards are basic cards that interact with the player's ruins resource. They may only take in account the amount of ruin coins or consume some in order to activate some additional effect.

- Artifact cards :

Artifact cards may only be obtained through capturing a sanctuary for the first time and do not count towards your total number of cards. Accordingly, a player may have 10 cards in his possession and X amount of artifact cards.

- Face down cards :

Face down cards activates whenever their effect mentions it, even during your opponent's turn. There's no limit to the number of face down card a player may have but he can't have 2 of the same face down card in effect at the same time.

Objectives :

*Contrarily to buildings, objective do not change the status of the tile they're on*

- Ruins :

Ruins are represented by ruins coins on the map and grant said ruins coins when any unit walks over it. Additionally, gaining a ruins coin by capturing a ruin also grants a basic card that may be drawn. There's up to 14 ruins on the map and there's no limit to the number of ruins a player may take control of. Ruins coins are only gained the first time a ruin is captured.

- Boat wreckage : Boat wreckage may be salvaged by 2 unit for 2 turns in order to obtain a boat.

- Sanctuaries :

There's 3 sanctuary on the map, one of the west island, one of the east island and one on the central island. Each of them is guarded by a vile beast that has a value set value of attacks : 3,4,5. However, in order to beat them, you have to beat of these 3 numbers at once in one attack. As an example, rolling a 4,5,6 defeats the guardian but rolling a 3,5,6 does not defeat the guardian as the 4 beats the 3. Losing units works the same way as normal combat. Defeating a guardian grants an artifact card. The middle sanctuary holds a flag which can be taken by a unit.

- Capitals :

A capital grants a bonus of +2 and will make you lose the game is you lose yours or win the game if you capture your adversary's.

Way to win :

- War Domination (Aggressive play style) :

Capture your opponent's capital.

- Holy Domination (Methodical and calculated play style):

Control the 3 sanctuaries for 3 turn.

- Capture the flag (Sneaky and foul play style) :

Bring back the flag to your capital. If an unit holding the flag is defeated, the flag re spawns on the central sanctuary on the following turn.

Step 3: Cards List :

Artifact cards (Note : Artifact cards are immune to all ''discard'' effect.) :

*Note : All cards artifact are based upon legendary weapon of the Norse mythology.*

1) Gríðarvölr : Phase a unit through impassible terrain : building or mountain.

2) Gungnir : Discard your opponent hand.

3) Forseti's axe : Instantly build all of your buildings (3 barracks and 1 harbor), if you already have all of them recruit 1 warlord or 1 dragon. They spawn on your capital.

4) Mjolnir : Smites a tile, destroy all unit on it.

5) Tyrfing : Permanently increase your action points by 1.

6) Skofnung : Permanently permits you to increase the value of 1 dice every turn by 1.

7) Angurvadal : Permanently permits you to make 1 unit move 1 more tile per turn.

Basic cards (Number of card may vary by preference) :

Normal cards :

Njord's breeze: Double your air type unit movement for 1 turn. (X2)

Njord's blessing : Double your boat movement speed this turn. (X2)

Njord's wrath : Pushes the enemy boat 2 cases, if it collides with a shore type tile, immobilize all unit on the tile for 2 turn. (X4 : North, South, East and West version for a total of 4 cards.)

Njord's punishment : Destroy an empty boat on the map. (X2)

Loki's deception : Swap a card from your hand with one from your adversary's. (X4)

Loki's treason : Discard one of your opponent's card, chosen randomly by the caster of this card. (X2)

Freya's grace : Re-summon any dead unit. Can only be played as the very last action in your turn. (X2)

Bragi's blessing : Draw 2 cards. (X3)

Bragi's deal : Discard 1 card, draw 1 card. (X2)

Bragi's bargain : Discard 2 cars, draw 2 cards. (X2)

Thor's blessing : Add +1 to a dice, can be played during combat. (X4)

Honir's blessing : Double your land type unit movement for 1 turn. (X2)

Wandering warrior : Recruit an additional viking warrior. (X5)

Wandering mercenaries : Recruit 2 additional viking warrior. (X3)

Lucky finding : Draw an artifact card. (X1)

Ice prison : Freezes a unit in place for 1 turn if it's an air unit, 2 turn if it's an earth unit and 3 turns if it's a water air unit. (X2)

Odin's eye : Reveal a face down card. (X4)

Raid : Steal a ruin coin from your opponent. (X2)

Pillage : Capture a ruin coin on the map.(X2)

Grave robber : Gain all sacrificed ruin coin. (X2)

Blood lord : Sacrifice X number of unit to add X value to a dice. (X4)

Ruin cards :

Odin's vision : Reveal your opponent's hand. Sacrifice 2 ruin coin (X2)

Tomb pillager : Draw an artifact card, discard 4 cards and sacrifice 4 ruin coin. (X1)

Wandering warlord : Recruit a warlord, sacrifice 2 ruin coin. (X2)

Conscription : Recruit X number of viking warrior. (Number is determined by the number of ruin coin in your possession divided by 2, number is rounded up downward.) (X3)

Guerilla tactics : Reduce an enemy power value by X. (Number is determined by the number of ruin coin in your possession divided by 2, number is rounded up downward.) (X2)

Dragon killer : Instantly win a battle against a dragon if you have more than 5 ruin coin in your possession. (X2)

Assassin of Kings : Gain a +2 bonus of power value if facing a warlord. (X2)

Mimir's well : Destroy one of your opponent's face down card, sacrifice a ruin coin for each. Can only be played preemptively. (X4)

Face down card:

Counter spell : Counter the next card your opponent plays, does not work against artifact card but works against face down cards. (X3)

Retreat ! : The next time one of your unit is attacked, disengage combat and move your unit 2 tiles away if the terrain permits it. (X2)

Swan song : Upon losing a battle, lessen the power value of the opponent's unit by 1. (X2)

Ghost ship : The next time one of your opponent's ship has a power value of 0, destroy it. Does not work immediately after it is built. (X2)

Substitution : The next time one of your unit is attacked, swap it with another one on the field. (Note : This is an obligation but it does not work with unit that holds the flag.) (X2)

Landslide : The next time an enemy unit walks on a shore type tile, reduce it's power value by 2. (X2)

Norn's wrath : Reduces an enemy dice value by 1.(May be activated whenever the player wishes.) (X3)

Step 4: List of Tool and Material

Board :

- Pencil

- Permanent marker (Sharpie)

- 20X30 inch white poster (Note : Although any other type/size of material can be used to your convenience.)

- 30 cm ruler

- Meter (Basically a 100cm ruler)

- Color pencil (Optional, but it helps to distinguish the different tiles)

3D pieces :

- 3D printer (Pirusa i2, Priusa i3, Flashforge etc...)

Software :

- Simplify 3D

- Fusion 360

- Sculptris/Maya (Optional : If you want to design your own pieces !)

(Software can be downloaded at : https://www.autodesk.ca/fr/products. Tip : A free 3 years license is available for students !)

Step 5: Step by Step Instruction for the Board

1- Take a white card board poster of 20X30 inch. (See figure 2) (Note : Dimension may vary to the user’s fantasy)

2- Cut of a ½ inch strip from its length. (See figure 3)

3- Draw a ½ border all around the card board.(See figure 4)

4- Separate the board into 4cm x 4cm squares. (12per 18 tiles) (see figure 5)

5- Indicate the 4 sides with the geographic coordinates (north, south, east, west) by taking 2 squares in the middle of a side and separating it with arches and writing the letter of the coordinate. (See figure 6,7 and 8)

6 -To the north draw a continent that has 27 land squares and 12 water and land squares (coast of the continent) (this includes the two squares used for the geographic coordinates) with a max of 3 land squares and 1 water and land square towards the south. (See figure 9)

7- To the south draw a continent that has 27 land squares and 12 water and land squares (coast of the continent) (this includes the two squares used for the geographic coordinates) with a max of 3 land squares and 1 water and land square towards the north. (See figure 10)

8- To the west draw a continent that has 20 land squares and 7 water and land squares (coast of the continent) (this includes the two squares used for the geographic coordinates) with a max of 4 land squares towards the east. (See figure 11)

9- To the east draw a continent that has 24 land squares and 4 water and land squares (coast of the continent) (this includes the two squares used for the geographic coordinates) with a max of 4 land squares towards the west. (See figure 12)

10 - In the center of the board draw a central continent that has 13 land squares and 6 water and land squares leaving at least 1 square of water between all other continents. (See figure 13)

11- Islands are added in the rivers between the continents (See figure 14,15 and 16) :

- Between the north and west continent 2 islands are put each have a max size of 1 square (can be separated into many small ones in one square for artistic effect).

- Between the south and west continent 2 islands are put each have a max size of 1 square (can be separated into many small ones in one square for artistic effect).

- Between the south and east continent 1 islands is put has a max size of 1 square. (can be separated into many small ones in one square for artistic effect or as a joke)

12 - Draw the capitals / sanctuaries using a star placed on the 5 continents (See figure 17) :

- Put a star under the north symbol on the eastern side. (Capital)

- Put a star under the south symbol on the eastern side. (Capital)

- Put star under the west symbol. (sanctuary)

- Put star over the east symbol by 2 squares. (sanctuary)

- On the central continent in the most central square. (sanctuary)

13 - Draw the mountains on each continent (See figure 18) :

- On the north and south continents put a mountain range that circles the capital and goes westward for 3 squares.

- On the center island put a mountain range on the north ridge and the south ridge each of 5 squares long. Also on the south-east end put a mountain range than encircles the eastern most point with the opening of the mountains being towards the west.

- On the eastern and western continents surround a path to the sanctuaries and other power ups using the mountains, starting from the point nearest to the center of the board.

14 - Place evenly 14 ruins (use π as symbol) on the map as shown on the picture. (See figure 19)

15- Place at the eastern most point of the north and south continent the boat wreckage and use ⚓ as a symbol. (see figure 20)

(Note : Download word Document for complete and detailed step by step instructions for how to do the board with affiliated pictures.)

Step 6: Step by Step Instruction for Set Pieces

1- Download all the pieces (Note : All of the pieces were designed by our developer apart from the dragon as our designer's mastery of the 3D software was deemed insufficient to obtain a piece meeting our minimal standard of quality.) :

Buildings : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2841838

Ruin coin : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2843482

Viking Warrior : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2841842

Warlord : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2841843

Dragon : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1624412

Boat : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2841850

Sanctuary guardian : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2843497

Flag : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2848686

2 - Upload the pieces into a 3D software (Recommended : Simplify 3D) to export them into .stl files. Be sure to adjust the weight, height and depth of your pieces so that they fits on the board's tile. (Warlord should be bigger than Viking warrior but smaller than dragon etc...) There is no set measurement as the board's measurement may change according to any user's fantasy.

3 - Print your pieces using a 3D printer :

- The prints may have to be redone as it may fail numerous time.

- Vary the settings to optimize the quality of your print (%infill, adding support, adding raft, heat, material, layer height etc...)

Tip and trick : PLA and ABS are good/simple materials to start off with. Don't be scare to tweak settings to optimize your print, every printer is different and may necessitate different adjustments.

4 - Peel off the support/raft if needed. Be careful and use any tool that are deemed necessary. (Tip and trick : Use tweezers for a better precision.) (See figure 2 and 3)

5 - Assemble pieces if necessary :

Boat :

A) Put the boat on the side and pass the axle with the combined wheel into the hole. (See figure 4)

B) Hot glue the separated wheel onto the axle. (See figure 5)

C) Wait 15 minutes for the hot glue to solidify. (See figure 6)

6 - Use the pieces according to their designed usage.

(Note : Download the word document version for steps with assigned pictures.)

Step 7: Conclusion

Problems :

- We faced many problems during this project, mainly regarding the dimensions ,both physical and game oriented. In fact, we didn't know how complicated we wanted our game to be, how many mechanics we wanted to incorporate so that it would be both fun and challenging, simple but strategic. We finally settled down for an in between where we could both manage cards and resource management while still having a dimension of having to place unit strategically on the board. Additionally, we wanted our game to be short and sweet, not long and exhaustive and so we decided for our board to be 12 per 18 tiles with different geographic attributes to up the challenge a little while still maintaining an average size for the board.

- Of course, we also encountered several problem regarding technology such as having to change the main 3D software we were using ,Sculptris, by Fusion 360 as Fusion 360 revealed to be more adapted to our need because it permitted us to make more sophisticate/polished pieces. It also avoided the recurrent problem of having to transfer ''Sculptris'' file into ''Maya'' to fuse them together which, in the end, greatly helped us to be more effective at creating 3D designs. The 3D printer, as usual, caused a lot of problem as the print would fail numerous time and had to be redone. We couldn't find a perfect setting but ended up realizing that a higher % infill was preferable than a lower one even if it meant having to wait longer for our pieces to print. Adding a raft and deleting support also revealed to raise the chances of a successful print and, with the final setting, we reached an average 85% successful print.

Improvements :

- Although Fusion 360 was a good software to design simple looking and basic chess-like pieces for a board game, we still want to make the switch to Maya in order to make even more sophisticated and complicated design. Maya is ,by far, the most sophisticated 3D software available right now and we wish to master it's different functionality to truly make all of the 3D design that we have in mind. As an example, moving vertices or axles in Fusion 360 once an object is created frequently ends up creating unwanted results of crooked corners or just plainly not working which s not a problem with Maya as it utilizes vertices and axles more efficiently than Fusion 360. Accordingly, we wish to enhance our designing skills through the mastery of this more advance software.

- We also have much to learn about game design as our game reveals to have really strong assets but also a lot of weakness. Our board design lacks a bit of balance as one player may have a lot of advantages over another player and ,since we implemented really powerful cards, luck is still a big part of our game. Our game also lacks on a visual level and could be helped by more graphical design to make it come to life in a more vivid way. A lot more of our resources should be put into making our project look better as , in most cases, graphical aesthetic are the selling points of a lot of tabletop games.