Blood Rage Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview and Goal
• Setup (Summary)
• The Six Phases of an Age
  • 1. Gods' Gifts Phase (Drafting)
  • 2. Action Phase
  • Combat (Pillage)
  • 3. Discard Phase
  • 4. Quest Phase
  • 5. Ragnarök Phase
  • 6. Release Valhalla Phase
• End of the Game

Overview and Goal

Blood Rage is played over three rounds called Ages. The world map is divided into provinces (with villages), fjords, and the central Yggdrasil, and a Glory Track runs around the board. Your goal is to earn the most Glory — by winning battles, completing quests, dying gloriously in Ragnarök, and raising your clan stats to legendary levels — by the end of the Third Age.

Each clan has four stats tracked on its sheet: Rage (action currency each Age), Axes (Glory gained for winning a battle), Horns (maximum figures you can have on the board), and STR (base strength of troops). Stats improve via Upgrades, Pillage rewards, and Quests.

Setup (Summary)

Set up the board; depending on player count, destroy some provinces at start (4p: 1, 3p: 2, 2p: 3) with Ragnarök tokens — destroyed provinces are out of the game. Each player chooses a clan (placing its Glory marker at 0 and Rage marker at 6). Build three card decks (1, 2, 3), removing "3+"/"4+" cards for smaller player counts, and place them on the Age Track's Gods' Gifts spots. Place the Saga token on Gods' Gifts – Age 1, and give the First Player token to the northernmost-born player.

The Six Phases of an Age

Each Age has six phases, played in order (tracked by the Saga token): 1) Gods' Gifts, 2) Action, 3) Discard, 4) Quest, 5) Ragnarök, 6) Release Valhalla.

1. Gods' Gifts Phase (Drafting)

Deal 8 cards from the current Age's deck to each player. Each player keeps 1 (placed face down on their clan sheet), then passes the rest left; repeat until each has drafted 6 cards, discarding the final 2 unseen. (In a 2-player game, keep 2 per pass over three passes for 6 cards.) Cards saved from a previous Age must be placed on the clan sheet first. Cards are named after gods (Odin: judgment; Thor: battle Glory; Loki: rewards for defeat; Frigga: resources; Heimdall: foresight; Tyr: strength).

2. Action Phase

Each player begins with Rage equal to their Rage stat. Starting with the First Player and clockwise, take one action per turn, paying its Rage cost (you cannot take an action you can't fully pay for; at 0 Rage you can only react to others' battles). The five actions:

• Invade: pay Rage equal to a reserve figure's STR to place it in an empty village of any outer province (Ships go in a fjord; invading with your Leader is free). You cannot invade beyond your Horns stat.
• March: pay 1 Rage to move any number of your figures from one province to empty villages in one other province (any distance; not from/to two different provinces; Ships can't move). Usually the only way into Yggdrasil (which has no village limit).
• Upgrade: pay Rage equal to an Upgrade card's STR to place it in the matching slot (Warriors, Leader, Ship, two Monster, three Clan), replacing any card there. Troop/Leader/Ship upgrades let you immediately invade a matching figure for free; Monster upgrades add that Monster to your reserve.
• Quest: commit a Quest card face down to your clan sheet (free; no limit; but you can't act at 0 Rage).
• Pillage: attack a province (see Combat).

You may pass, losing all remaining Rage and taking no further actions. The phase ends when all players are at 0 Rage or all remaining provinces have been pillaged.

Combat (Pillage)

Choose a province with at least one of your figures (or a supporting fjord) that hasn't been pillaged this Age (free, but not at 0 Rage). Resolve in three steps:

1. Call to Battle: clockwise from your left, each player may move one figure from an adjacent province into an empty village of the pillaged province (free, even at 0 Rage; Ships can't move). If no enemy figures are present, you automatically pillage (gaining the reward but no Battle Glory).
2. Play Cards: each participant secretly plays one card, then all reveal. Battle cards add their +STR and effects; Upgrade/Quest cards add nothing. Each clan totals its figures' STR plus its Battle card. Some special cards may be played after reveal to add more STR (pillager first, then clockwise).
3. Resolution: highest total STR wins (a tie means all participants lose). Losers destroy all their figures in the battle (to Valhalla) and take their played cards back to hand; the winner discards their played cards. If the pillager wins, they gain the province's Pillage Reward (raise a stat, or gain Glory) and flip its token. The battle winner (whoever it is) gains Battle Glory equal to their Axes stat.

3. Discard Phase

Discard down to a single card to carry to the next Age (in the Third Age, discard all cards).

4. Quest Phase

Reveal all committed Quests. For each fulfilled Quest (most require having the most STR in a province of a region — ties fail), gain its Glory and raise one clan stat one step. Failing costs nothing. Discard all revealed Quests.

5. Ragnarök Phase

Destroy the province indicated by the current Ragnarök token (out of the game forever). All figures there and in its supporting fjord die to Valhalla, each earning Glory (2 in Age 1, 3 in Age 2, 4 in Age 3). Place the Doom token on the next Age's Ragnarök province.

6. Release Valhalla Phase

Return all figures in Valhalla to their owners' reserves (figures on the board stay). Then, at the end of an Age: flip all Pillage tokens back to their reward side, pass the First Player token left, and advance the Saga token to the next Age.

End of the Game

After the Release Valhalla phase of the Third Age, the game ends. Add a final bonus: for each clan stat raised to the 4th or 5th step, gain +10 Glory; for each raised to the last step, gain +20 Glory. The clan with the most Glory wins.

Note the game rewards dying: sending your figures to Valhalla in a doomed battle or in Ragnarök earns Glory and depletes the winner's hand.