by Jørgen Brunborg-Næss

I am a long-time fan of the core area majority mechanism in the form of what is essentially simultaneous auctions across multiple areas. Mimir's Challenge is centered around this experience and the tension it creates.

The game has evolved over a long period of time from a prototype for a simpler game I created around 2010. I was influenced by a lot of great Eurogames I played after I started being a regular patron of the SPIEL fair in 2005. While it is safe to say Mimir's Challenge owes a lot of its heritage to El Grande, I actually didn't play that game until 2023.

The most pure area majority game I remember playing in the early days is Mykerinos, which shares the same core of simultaneous struggle for majority across multiple regions. An honorable mention should go to Leonardo Da Vinci, with its classic combination of worker placement with area majority.

My original prototype was called "Sticks and Stones" and was borne not only from a fascination with area majority, but also from a wish to create a game that might fit in a matchbox. The latter is achieved by letting players use "sticks" to build the grid board before placing "stones" to compete for majority. Scoring in each area was determined by the colors of the sticks surrounding that area.

"Sticks and Stones" prototype
"Sticks and Stones" has never got anywhere near publication and lay dormant for several years before I started to experiment with adding theme and other mechanisms around 2017. The primary idea I went with was turning the "stones" into tokens representing different characters or actions that are placed in secret, then revealed. Once revealed, the action tokens can somehow manipulate the token distribution on the board, meaning the final majority is not settled until all actions have been resolved.

This concept is still core in Mimir's Challenge today: In phase one, all tokens are placed hidden on the board, and in phase two, you take actions with some special tokens to manipulate placement.

The first iteration of this concept was themed with each player placing chickens, roosters, a wolf, and a dog. The board was a randomized tile grid with fences that limited movement and a random amount of grain distributed for the chickens to feast on. In the action phase, the wolf could eat some chickens, and the dog could either chase away the wolf or herd chickens into neighboring areas. The roosters would dominate the area, ensuring control even with a minority of chickens. I believe this version still has potential to be developed as a family game.

Prototype with chickens and roosters
I also dabbled with other themes, including a pirate theme featuring legendary pirate ships, the imperial navy, and the Kraken, but the most developed predecessor was a fantasy-themed version called "Into the Troll's Lair".

In that design, peasants venture into the caves of the troll to reclaim stolen treasure. The special-action characters placed by players included a knight able to command peasants and assert dominance (much like a rooster), a mischievous gnome who could steal treasure, and of course the troll itself, which would eat peasants for lunch. They also related to each other in a rock-paper-scissors system, so the troll could eat the gnome, the knight could slay the troll, and the gnome could trick the knight — each to remove an opponent's token from the board.

"Into the Troll's Lair" prototype
This was also the version of the game where I introduced the structure of three separate rounds, each with a placement phase, an action phase, and treasure collection. (Earlier versions had only one of each phase.)

Having multiple rounds makes it a lot easier for players to get into the game. You can plan a good placement strategy only after you understand how the action phase will play out, and this has to be experienced to be understood. This change also allows the game to start slow and escalate. Unused tokens stay on the board to impact later turns, and treasure values increase so mistakes made early on can be overshadowed by late game success. In other words, the turn structure reduces the mental load and the cost of bad decisions, making the game more accessible and more fun!

"Into the Troll's Lair" was pitched to a few publishers at SPIEL 19, also known as year 1 B.C. (before Covid). While a few promising processes were started, everything fizzled out in 2020, and I chose to spend time on other projects. Fast forward to SPIEL Essen 23, where I got to know Åse and Kristian from Mistzone Games. They were starting a publisher business and looking for a light/medium game to be their first title. "Troll's Lair" was a good fit and one that could easily be adapted to Mistzone's preferred thematic universe: Norse mythology!

At first we simply converted the troll, knight, and gnome to the wyrm, the valkyrie, and the raven, then ramped up playtesting. With a bigger team involved and a much more structured approach to testing and development, the game has changed a lot while still preserving the core experience of tight area control. Putting the game in front of a lot of new playtesters has provided invaluable feedback and helped us make all the big and small changes necessary to develop the game into a great experience. You can read a bit more about this progress and see pictures from different stages in Kristian's status update posts on the BGG game page.

The most visible change did away with the boring square grid. Working with the thematic idea of the "nine realms" of Norse mythology, we arranged the areas in a circle. We then came up with the leaf shape for each realm, alluding to the tree of life — Yggdrasil. With the beautiful artwork of Nicholas Westgård, this endows the game with a marvelous table presence. All in all, I am incredibly satisfied with how Mistzone has turned my rather bland and boring prototypes into a fantastic product.

Realm tiles
In terms of game mechanisms, this final phase of playtesting brought a few significant adjustments and one major addition.

The adjustments deal mainly with the actions and interactions of the special characters, now called "elite army tokens". We removed their ability to attack each other and remove opposing pieces from the board. Now they only manipulate the placements on the board. The valkyrie pulls units in, the wyrm pushes away, and the raven flies treasure from one realm to another.

The game now avoids a "take that" mechanism, and the actions are streamlined and balanced. The only goal is to make sure your vikings (a.k.a., peasants, a.k.a. chickens, a.k.a. stones) end up in majority in the areas containing the treasures you want.

Army tokens
The major addition is to include different resource icons in the treasures to be collected as sets to craft artefact cards, which are "missions" you acquire during the game. The set-collection requirement ensures that the value of the treasure in each area is not the same for all players. Everybody wants to grab the 4s, but if that 2 contains what you need to score 7 points for Mjølnir, then you might go for that instead.

Artefact cards
The cards also provide a way to balance out turn order benefits. When playing out the actions of the elite units, going late is a clear advantage because this lets you control the final distribution.

But going first carries an obvious benefit when choosing a new artefact card from the display. This naturally encouraged us to include a turn order track in which players choose their spot in turn order when they pass in the action phase. Weighing your options, you may choose to forfeit one or more elite actions in order to secure your preferred spot.

As the calendar turned to 2025, the game had been considered ready for a few months, and we were just waiting for the final pieces of artwork. The most difficult part of game design for me is accepting that the rules are locked and final.

I really enjoy evolving a game and tuning the experience it provides; locking it down represents a loss of potential for further augmentations. In the final stages, it is not so much about making the game "better", but the choices we make affect the type of experience the game offers and what kind of players it will appeal to. For instance, swapping an open market of mission cards with a random draw doesn't affect the game that much, but it does reduce mental load and increase randomness. Some players might prefer this, others may not.

Mimir's Challenge comes with a simplified version that includes this change, as well as a suggestion to remove some of the elite tokens. It also comes with an optional rule for experienced players to use artefact cards to place extra units. Some may interpret this as an unwillingness on my part to accept that the design process is over, but I hope more of you see the value of being able to adjust the game slightly to fit your group.

This spring, after weighing the pros and cons of a crowdfunding campaign, the team decided to go for a clean release at SPIEL Essen 25 in October. Now the wheels are set in motion, and we can only hope it will attract the interest of many of you, and that it will bring you joy when you get the game to your table. I will personally be there to demo Mimir's Challenge, so please stop by to say hi!

Jørgen Brunborg-Næss

Full game of Mimir's Challenge in progress (Final pre-production copy)