"Life is Battle; Battle is Glory; Glory is ALL"

In Blood Rage, each player controls their own Viking clan’s warriors, leader, and ship. Ragnarök has come, and it’s the end of the world! It’s the Vikings’ last chance to go down in a blaze of glory and secure their place in Valhalla at Odin’s side! For a Viking there are many pathways to glory. You can invade and pillage the land for its rewards, crush your opponents in epic battles, fulfill quests, increase your clan's stats, or even die gloriously either in battle or from Ragnarök, the ultimate inescapable doom.

Most player strategies are guided by the cards drafted at the beginning of each of the three game rounds (or Ages). These “Gods’ Gifts” grant you numerous boons for your clan including: increased Viking strength and devious battle strategies, upgrades to your clan, or even the aid of legendary creatures from Norse mythology. They may also include various quests, from dominating specific provinces, to having lots of your Vikings sent to Valhalla. Most of these cards are aligned with one of the Norse gods, hinting at the kind of strategy they support. For example, Thor gives more glory for victory in battle, Heimdall grants you foresight and surprises, Tyr strengthens you in battle, while the trickster Loki actually rewards you for losing battles, or punishes the winner.

Players must choose their strategies carefully during the draft phase, but also be ready to adapt and react to their opponents’ strategies as the action phase unfolds. Battles are decided not only by the strength of the figures involved, but also by cards played in secret. By observing your opponent’s actions and allegiances to specific gods, you may predict what card they are likely to play, and plan accordingly. Winning battles is not always the best course of action, as the right card can get you even more rewards by being crushed. The only losing strategy in Blood Rage is to shy away from battle and a glorious death!

POPULAR REVIEW FROM ERIC M. LANG

The world is ending! And we, as the last viking clans of this Nordic world, must get… GLORYY before it all ends! Have Yggarsil run red with the blood of your enemies, or even your own, to go to Valhalla, all while you draft cards in 3 ages!

In Bloiod Rage, everyone is controlling a viking clan- like a bunch of guys dressed up as bears. The goal is GLOORRY!!! (Victory Point by game end!). To get all this Glory, the three main ways are to just win fights, max out your Clan Stats, or complete Quests that ask you to have the most influence in an area.




Every round will have players drafting a hand of 6 cards, then all players using those 6 cards to influence the longer phase of doing actions. In doing one action a turn, players can choose between spawning units, moving them, signing up for Quests, or playing Upgrades. Fighting has players doing a ‘Pillage’ action, and then players will play a combat card from their drafted hand that adds onto their power. Winner gets rewards from the territory, everyone else dies and goes to Valhalla.

After everyone has passed their turn, likely because they run out of Rage (mana) to take any actions, the round ends! Players score points for any Quests they attempted and now succeed in, and then draft cards for the next Age. Oh, and then also a region on the board will get destroyed. After the 3rd and final Era, players also take into account their Clan Stats for end game scoring, which are also bonuses to one’s clan that are advanced to let players do more things.

Blood Rage just completely does front and center what the box cover and name tells you: it’s ALL about tons of killing in this brutal Nordic world. It’s a relatively fast game, very influenced by each round’s draft, which ends up introducing a fun phase for counterplay, and just spice with all of the card combos. A good draft won’t auto-win you the game by any means, because you still need to play well in the crazy dynamic board! There’s continual adapting as Clans attempt to Pillage, and all sorts of Warriors, Clan Leaders, and mythical Monsters run across regions to fight-fight-fight.




Even during that first introductory game, Blood Rage just has so many things that can make it easily ‘click’. Every single turn is extremely streamlined, there’s the constant conflict of map control versus timing upgrades versus just stalling to control your rage. Combat is streamlined to keep even the central region fights of Yggarsil clean when 3 or 4 players all decide to get in on the violence. Yet to pace your fighting participation, players must keep managing their hands to make sure they have enough combat cards, lest they start being forced to play other cards during combat.


Review source: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2911662/eric-m-langs-violent-accessible-blockbuster-shelfs