Highlander the Board Game was launched after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2018. It is a tabletop board game from River Horse Games, with stories by Graham McNeill and game design by Alessio Cavatore and Jack Caesar.

The set

When you buy Highlander the Board Game, you get a punch box where a window displays the five miniatures (Connor McCloud, Ramirez, Kurgan, Fasil, and Kastagir).

In addition to the miniatures, the box contains items such as character sheets, the rulebook, the main playboard, 90 cards, five dice, and a set of tokens. The dice are d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12.

Princes of the Universe expansion

The Princes of the Universe is an expansion for Highlander the Board Game. It provides you with some extra characters, alternative sculpts for the original characters, a few extra weapons, and some era and encounter cards.

Playing the game

Setting up the game for a playing session is easy. You will need to count the cards, since some decks need to be adjusted based on the number of players. Each player selects a character, i.e. Connor McCloud, Ramirez, Kurgan, Fasil, or Kastagir.

The game takes place over a number of turns. Each player roll off to determine who gets the initiative, and then position their miniatures on one of the three game areas. (In case of a tie, both players go straight into the place called The Arena.)

If the group elects to play the full game, you will be eliminated from the game when your character is eliminated. If the group instead agrees to follow the New Challenger rules, the first two players who get their characters eliminated can come back as other characters.

Fight – Hunt – Lay Low

As a player, you can elect to:

• Go to the arena to fight with other characters there
• Hunt, which can force another character to enter the arena with you for a fight
• Lay low, which can lead you to face challenges which in turn can result in the accumulation of weapons and allies

Your three stats

The dice mechanic in this game is not complicated, and you will be allocated a dice type for your three stats. Available dices are d4, d6, d8, d10 and d12. (A dice called d4 has four sides, the d6 dice is the traditional six-sided dice, and so on.)

• Cunning
• Influence
• Power

Cunning is used for initiative and for some tests.

Your influence will impact how many cards you are allowed to draw while hunting or laying low, and for some tests.

Power is important during battles in the arena.

Modifiers

A modifier (a weapon or an ally) can improve your situation. Instead of rolling your normal dice, you will roll the next in line. Example: Your normal dice is a d6, but you get to roll the d8 instead.

How does fighting in the arena work?

Each player in the arena roll off against each other. This means that each player in the arena roll their power dice.

When there are multiple players, the one with the highest roll draws the top fate card. (This will typically impact the player with the lowest roll in the arena.)

The fate deck contains two fate cards per player + one beheading card. The beheading card ends the fight for the player with the lowest roll.

About River Horse

River Horse is a tabletop boardgame creator established in 2010 by Alessio Cavatore. They create tabletop games based on both original and licensed titles, and have released games such as Terminator Genisys: The miniatures game, Jim Hensons Labyrinth: The board game, and Tails of Equestria: The storytelling game.