Eric Lang’s Blood Rage, published by CMON, is an aggressive area control game set in the Norse mythological time of Ragnarok. As one of four Viking factions, players fight to control territory across the map. The player with the most victory points wins the game.
 
Blood Rage is split across three ages, where the players start by drafting a hand of eight cards. Each player keeps one and passes the rest to the next player. These cards give bonuses in combat, upgrade abilities, recruiting monsters or allow players to go on quests, which in-turn give victory point bonuses. After selecting six cards for the upcoming round, the age begins. Play moves around the table with factions taking turns spending 'rage' to being Vikings onto the table locations, pillaging villages or altering stats.
 
Each location, apart from one, has a limit on how many on how many miniatures it can hold which in-turn leads to players trying to influence control with more Vikings present. When a battle occurs, the number of units in the fight is augmented by card play, where bonuses can apply secretly by placing one from the hand face-down. Some cards also include special abilities to alter circumstances.

Having proceeded through a draft at the start of the round, players will have a rough understanding of what cards are present in this age but not who currently holds them. This leads to an intriguing element of bluff…
 
As Vikings are killed they are sent to Valhalla for the turn but they can return at the start of the next age. In between each age, part of the map is randomly selected and considered destroyed by the impending world-ending Ragnarok as such is off-limits for the rest of the game. As play continues, this forces more conflict between players as space becomes tight.
 
Fantastic unique miniatures represent each faction along with custom artwork. The Vikings are also backed up by a host of larger monsters miniatures that look awesome on the map. Each faction is upgradable across the course of the game allowing a great deal of customisation to focus on different strategies enhancing replay-ability.
 
Blood Rage can be enhanced with the Fifth Player Expansion adding a new player faction and miniatures, making for an even more chaotic battle! Gods of Asgard brings two of six Norse deities to the map, which radically alters location rules allowing for more gameplay variance for experienced players.
 
Player count: 2-4
Time: 60-90 minutes
Age rating: 14+