October 21, 2026 · Updated October 23, 2026

River Start Option: Add a River to Your Tile-Laying Game

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The river start is an optional twist in Midgard Roads. If you have played a few games and want a different opening, this is the first thing to try.

What is the river start option?

When the host turns it on, the game does not begin with the usual start tile. Instead, a spring tile goes in the middle of the board and the first tiles drawn are river tiles: 10 river tiles in random order, then a lake. That is 12 river tiles in total before the normal pile starts (the usual start tile is shuffled into the normal pile).

The opening of a river game: a blue river winds across the first tiles with a few adventurers standing next to it — The river grows tile by tile: each new river tile continues the water.

Turn order does not change. Everyone takes turns extending the river, and you may still send adventurers onto the forts, roads, dungeons or fields of river tiles as usual.

How do river tiles connect?

A river tile must go at the open end of the river.
Water must meet water. A water side can never touch anything else.
No U-turns. A bend may not turn the same way as the bend before it — left then left, or right then right, even with a straight piece in between.

If a river tile has no legal place it is discarded like any other tile (this almost never happens). If that tile is the lake, the river just ends open.

What changes for scoring?

Water cannot hold an adventurer and scores nothing.
Water splits fields into two sides (the two banks meet again at the spring and at the lake). So fields are shaped differently than in a normal game.
A bridge is a single road that crosses the water.

Everything else — the point values, the majority rule — stays the same.

When should I use it?

For a fresh opening. The board starts with a shape instead of a blank slate.
To start together. Everyone builds the same river first, so the map takes shape before the first claims.
For variety. If your group has played many games, the river changes how the map grows.

If you are teaching someone for the very first time, you might leave it off for the first match and switch it on in the second.

How do I turn it on?

The host can switch it on or off when creating a room, and in the lobby until the game starts. It is off by default, so a normal game is exactly as described in the beginner's rules guide. Once the game starts, the setting is locked.

Phone screenshot of the lobby with the Start with a river option switched on and ticked — Tap Start with a river in the lobby. It stays locked once the game starts.

Thinking about tactics with a river? Field strategy changes a bit because water splits fields — see the scoring tips.

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