Kalevala is a collection of poems compiled in the 19th century by Finnish linguist and collector Elias Lönnrot. The collection contains stories from Finnish legends, folklore and mythology. It is about various heroes, heroic deeds and also about the Sampo: a mythological artifact that can offer eternal riches. An object worthy of going to war over. It is time for The Battle of Sampo.
Goal
The goal of the game is to perform the most heroic deeds. There are 12 Deeds to collect (some can also be stolen from other players) and when all deeds are done, the player who has the most of these Deeds at that time wins.
Gameplay
Shuffle the various cards and place them in piles along the game board. The deed cards and a number of Rune cards are placed face up. Place resources and other tokens within easy reach of the players. Players build the tower and place it on the game board. Each player chooses a hero and grabs the matching game board and makes preparations as indicated on the board. Each hero is unique, has different starting position and receives a number of warbands, cards or resources as indicated on the board. Depending on the number of players, Search tokens are placed face down and among these tokens is the highly sought after and Mythical Sampo.
Gameplay
Players go to war with their Warbands to perform deeds, complete routes, defeat monsters and other players and, of course, find the Sampo.
During a turn, players draw either a hero card or a rune card. The different types of cards have different effects. Hero cards can be used for various bonuses, rune cards during magic skirmishes and warbands can be used by players during battles.
After players draw a card, they start producing resources if they have villagers. They can also trade resources. After this, they choose to either produce villagers in the next round or deploy them as a warband. The latter provides warbands to fight and cards to deploy during a battle.
Players must then move their pawn and roll a die to see if an effect of the route is triggered. After moving, players can perform an action, players can turn up a Search token, perform a skirmish to defeat a player or monster for a heroic deed, fight a battle if they have at least one warband or loot for resources. At the end of a turn, you can still give resources to the people of Finland and/or claim deeds.
Should you find or steal the Sampo, you have good bonus during the game. Not only does possession yield a deed, but the Sampo also produces resources by rolling dice. By the way, the Sampo is represented by a tower that stands very imposingly in the center of the board and also acts as a dice tower.
Conclusion
The Battle for Sampo feels like a classic American board game with a high level of adventure, a good number of dice and cards – and therefore a good dose of luck. This luck can frustrate some players, but should that not be the case, you can feel like a Finnish hero. The different cards, events and happenings make the game voluminous and unpredictable, and therefore adventurous.
