Blood Rage Core Box

This is a great game for a small group. The components in this game are amazing, high quality and contain a lot of detail. If you like miniature games and/or enjoy painting these are perfect for you (this is not required by any means, but would make the figures that much better). PROS: +The game runs pretty quick, I would say around 45 minutes after the first play through, which is nice as you can play multiple times during one gathering. +As stated above the game has incredible miniatures, and has some good bases to snap on the bottom to easily identify what components are yours and your enemies. +2-4(or 5 with expansion Blood Rage 5th Player Expansion- Multi-lingual Game ) The range is nice and the number of players really changes the game strategy, so playing with 2 feels much different than playing with 4. However the rules stay mostly the same (the card drafting changes very slightly) +Each game is different board to play on, there are different areas that are destroyed depending on the number of players and they change every game. There are different pillage tokens that are placed randomly on the board each game. Finally in the game there are 3 different areas that are destroyed after each age. All of these rules help to make the game-board different every game and keep it fresh and repayable. +The drafting of the cards in this game is outstanding, this is a great mechanic to play the game. This removes the need for rolling dice or drawing a random card, for the most part everyone has a chance and you need to decide what is best for you before you pass the reaming cards to the next person. +Finally one great part of the game is playing cards to aid in a battle (which by game design, you do not always want to win) these are played down and reveled all at the same time and it allows for some heavy strategy and bluffing in the game. CONS: -Even though the miniatures are very nice and are a natural base color (probably for painting) it would have been nice if they would have distinguished each different type of figure with a slightly different color base color, it is sometimes hard to remember who is the warrior, leader, monster ect.... -The game goes quick which is nice, however it seems like by the end of round 3 (the last round) you could really enjoy playing for another round or two as you finally have some good combinations set up with units and upgrades. Overall this is a well designed game with great components and plays quick. I would say it is an easy game to play but a good amount of strategy is needed to win. Below are a few pictures of some of the figures (not painted) right out of the box.

I bought this game because it looked cool and I had heard good things about it, but I have kept playing it because of the dynamic game never feels the same twice. The components are fantastic. Each of the miniatures has a ton of detail and look beautiful. The game itself is fairly easy to learn and teach (at least to my gaming group) and the thing they enjoyed most is that there are so many different ways to earn points. In many other games, you might feel as though you were losing if you weren't winning battles, but in Blood Rage, there are many different strategies that can lead you to victory, some without even winning a single battle. The game itself is spread over three ages with each age consisting of a card drafting phase, a strategy phase, and a Ragnarok phase. In the card drafting phase, each player receives a hand of 8 cards, picks one, and passes it to the next player until everyone has 6 cards. These cards might help in battle, give your units upgrades, give you objectives to earn you points, or even unlock powerful monsters for your clan. Once you finish drafting, players take actions by spending their "rage" until they have no more actions or they run out of rage. During this phase, several battle may occur as players try to pillage regions. The battles are determined by the units' strengths and cards that players can use to power up their troops. The winner receives points, but many of the cards award points for participating or losing troops, meaning the loser may get more points if they are strategic. Finally, the Ragnarok phase destroys one of the regions on the map killing all the troops there, and more importantly awarding points to those troops' controllers. Whoever has the most points at the end of the Third Age is victorious. This game has become a hit because of the various paths to victory and because of the variety of different cards that make each game feel fresh. It has definitely gotten a lot of play and I expect it to get a lot more.

I love games. All kinds of games. Card, board, dice, you name it. I've had my eye on blood rage for months. I watch a lot of youtube video about board games. One of these channels is dice tower where they mention blood rage all the time. Being the cheap-o that I am, I waited over a year for the price to hit a point where I would purchase it. It was one of the best game purchases in recent memory. And thats saying something. From the very first play through, I loved this game. Here is a list of the things I liked and didn't like about it: Liked: * Th game is gorgeous. The miniatures are the best I've seen. The art work is fantastic. It's first rate. * It allows everyone to have their own unique strategies to win. This is probably the best part of the game. Everyone can come up with a different strategy to win the game, which makes for some really intriguing play. I've never seen a game where you can win ... by dying! * For me it's the perfect balance of strategy and fun. You don't spend forever trying to figure out what to do like some heavy strategy games. And every card/action matters, unlike a lot of lighter games. I've never had a round where I thought "I didn't get the cards I wanted, I'm screwed". You just make a strategy that works with what you have available. * Everything can change in a blink of an eye. People jockey for position through the entire game and you really don't know who's going to win till the last action is made. It's just so well-balanced that everyone can surprise each other multiple times in a round. Disliked: * It take a while to setup. This is a quibble I know, but it's true. * Many of the wonderful miniatures were bent, because of the packaging. These things are way too pretty to be contorted by the packaging. * I hate mini cards. I know this is another quibble. Everything in this game so so nice and sleek, except for the card size. A lot of games use mini cards, and they annoy me. So this isn't so much a ding on the game as it is about mini cards in general.. I can't suggest this game enough. I hope get get to play it at least once a month for the foreseeable future.

I'd give this game 4.5 stars if I could, primarily because I find myself comparing it to Forbidden Stars, preferring the latter. The reason I compare them: both are very thematic games that favor four players and hyper-aggressive strategies, so they scratch a similar itch. Also, they came out around the same time. However, don't necessarily listen to me, because most of the people I game with prefer Blood Rage. And I have to admit that Blood Rage has a lot of things going for it. First of all, the rules are very simple, and it doesn't pull that card game trick where the complicated rules are embedded in the core cards. It's not hard to teach this game; it takes about fifteen minutes to explain to a bunch of relatively experienced board gamers, or twice that for more casual players. Also, as anyone will tell you, Blood Rage is gorgeous. The miniatures manage to impress both casual players and people who take minis seriously (I'm closer to the first group). These are pliable plastic game pieces, unpainted, with minimal assembly required for some of the larger figures. They are extremely detailed but too flexible to readily snap off the smaller parts. The designs are very pretty, highly thematic renditions of Viking warriors and their mythological creatures. These are more cinematic than realistic, and there is a slight cartoonishness to some of them - not necessarily in a bad way. Just don't expect historically accurate heraldry. The board, cards and other tokens are perfectly fine; relatively durable and functional, decent looking pieces. Functional and pleasant enough. But it's obvious that all the visual awesomeness was invested in the miniatures. The rules are solid. Players who enjoy thematic elements may be disappointed to find out that there are no differences between any of the factions, at least at the start of the game. This is a minor quibble, and it keeps things simple and easier to balance. Gameplay can be very swingy, especially before you anticipate the strategic importance of certain cards, and how that plays into your tactics in the draft. But there are no dice, or strictly random elements, so more experience players are going to see more stable games. And big swings can be exciting for novices, especially when you take the whole Ragnarok theme into account. Basically, this game is fun, and it's not hard to convince people to play it. When I mention Forbidden Stars, my more casual friends groan, reminding me that it's going to take two weeks, at least, to finish a game. It's worth it, at least for me. But I don't have any problem compromising on Blood Rage. After all, I'm giving it five stars.

This is a very fun board game. At first glance it looks like a miniatures combat/area control game but that's not entirely accurate, though elements of those types of games are present. Blood Rage is more a game of card drafting, clever warrior placement/movement, and misleading your opponents about your intentions. That's not to say that the cool Viking theme doesn't come through, because it absolutely does. I usually think that the Viking theme is a bit overdone, especially in board games, but it works here because Blood Rage is more about wanton death and widespread destruction than it is about bearded dudes in longboats fighting trolls. The rules of this game have just the right amount of complexity to them. It's a very accessible game, and you can get your friends set up and moving models around the board pretty quickly, and then explain the more advanced rules to them as you go. This, combined with the nice models and the eye-catching art, means that this is a game that you could easily break out during a game night and get all your friends instantly drawn into. And then they'll be even more interested once they learn the more complex nuances. The miniatures are really the highlight of the box here and they are quite nice, easily the nicest I've seen in a board game that's not made by Games Workshop. There's a lot of really nice details and variety to them and they are just begging to be painted, if you're into that sort of thing. Although painting them isn't entirely necessary since the box comes with colored bases that can be affixed to the models. I can't really give Blood Rage five stars though, because I do have a few issues with it. I'm a bit of stickler for quality of game components, and outside of the miniatures, everything else feels a bit sub-par. The board, though thick, is made of a cheap-feeling cardboard and didn't sit flat right out of the box, and the player mats and "Valhalla" mat feel way too thin, as do the cards. The rulebook is quite nice, though. It explains the game very well and has a lot of nice illustrations in it. My other issue is with the way that the miniatures come packed in the box. A lot of the miniatures are armed with spears or javelins, and they are made of a plastic that bends very easily. The issue is that they come packed in a plastic insert that they can fall out of very easily. When I opened my box of miniatures they were all just kind of jumbled together at the bottom of the box, and thus their spears were all hopelessly bent. I've been trying to slowly bend them back but they've been very resistant. This might not seem like a huge deal to some people, but it does really effect how cool the models look when a bunch of the dudes have super bent spears. Sure, I could blame the shipping company for roughly handling the box, but I think that it's the fault of the game manufacturer for not realizing that they needed better inserts for the models. The minis fall out of place so easily that it seems like even if I bought this game at my local game store, my models would still end up with bent spears. That said, the game itself is very, very fun and very welcoming for new players, with just the right blend of strategy and coolness factor. I can see myself playing quite a lot of Blood Rage in the future.

I've been putting off this game for a while as I was not sure my gaming group would like a confrontational game. I am glad to say I was wrong. Personally I found this game a joy as it jump to the top of my own personal favorites that I cannot wait to play again. The game is simple in rules, but gives so much depth. If you lose in the game you can see exactly you may have did something wrong. The game begins with card drafting that helps dictate what you will be doing in the coming round. The game has a total of three rounds, and so three rounds of card drafting. This drafting system is great as it makes your clan unique in what they can do. After drafting, the players begin playing actions which lasts as long as they have rage, what is used to pay for actions, or when players pillage all nine areas of the board. Actions are either invading an area of the board, march from one area to another, upgrade your clan, pillage, or play a quest card. Invading is how figures get on the board and marching is simply how figures move to other areas. Upgrades are what can change a players clan, this can be gathering more glory or discounting upgrades. Upgrades can also allow players to take some of the unique monsters that can be available to them. An example of this is the giant sea serpent that gives three strength and acts like another boat. The pillage action is what leads to great conflicts with either one or all players. The upgrade modifications taken by players can grant glory points for either winning or losing the battle. Cards drafted can also be simple attack cards that help add or change the way combat will work. Finally the last action is playing a quest card that will grant points for having the most strength in an area, or having enough dead figures in Valhalla. At the end of every round Ragnarok will annihilate an area of the board to make the game even tighter. Even when warriors die from this explosion of Ragnarok the players are given glory points for having a grand death. As mentioned before there are three rounds before the game ends, and then scoring can commence. Fast game as the longest part is drafting the cards in the game. The game can easily hit an hour and a half, and plays four players out the box with a 5th player expansion available. As a confrontation game I would recommend this, and even if players do not like that the game gives options of taking some alternate routes to victory that does not involve winning. Incredible game that will get many more play throughs before I will even get tired of it.

A must own game for a wide range of board game fans. This is so much fun, you have to try it for yourself. It looks like it is super complex, but it really isnt. It is a very open ended game with many different ways to approach gameplay, and many ways to win. Being that gameplay is won by glory (points), purely conquering land doesn't mean anything. There is alot of strategy involved with picking cards, fulfilling quests, invading countries, etc. Pros: - Amazingly fun - Doent take long to learn - Multiple ways to approach and win - High quality materials - Figurines (especially monsters) are amazingly detailed and spectacular looking - Despite the name, it is family friendly (even though young children would probably not understand the strategy part of it. Pre-teens and older should have no issues with that) - Games are fairly quick. Newbies can take 2-3 hours. For people who know the game, it can take 1-2 hours. Cons: - Getting everything setup can take a little while. Though it isn't going to take an hour, it does typically take 10 minutes or so, for one person to do it. - Although the packaging fits back in the box well, putting the figurines away can take a while. There is no markings as to which goes where, and they only fit into one place. So putting 40+ figurines into the correct locations takes a while - Some of the figures with spears or long weapons can be bent alittle when they arrive. Not a huge negative. But just a little annoying.

Probably my favorite game atm. First I would like to tell you not to buy it from a 3rd party seller as I did. Coolminiornot does not ship to Alaska where I live so I was forced to. When I got the game it was poorly packaged in a box much too large with no filler so the game slid around during shipping damage all the corners. I could have returned it but that would have took weeks and I was eager to play that night. With that out of the way: this game is freaking fun! It is good with any number of players however when you go to 4 or more forget about any card drafting strategy as after a complete rotation the card you were eying but couldn't bring yourself to choose will most likely be gone. 3 seems to be the perfect balance of fun and strategy but more friends isn't a bad thing. I have determined that there are four main strategies to winning: (1)Draft high strength battle cards and monsters and win battles, (2)Draft Loki cards and lose battles, (3)Draft quest cards and focus on completing as many as possible, (4) try to pillage and re-pillage(if you have the re-pillage card) as much as possible. Or you can do a combination of these but I found that it is difficult as you will spread your resources too thin because you only have 6 or 7 cards per age and 6-12 rage to do actions. I think it is best to look at the board at the start of the age and decide 1 or 2 goals to complete because if you try to do too many things you will likely complete none of them. Another tip that I have learned from teaching the game to about a dozen people is to give newcomers a while to read all the cards carefully so they know what they are getting into when they do battles. They may do something stupid like using their +6 strength card when someone will most use a card that counters it. Many times it is best not to use your best card in the first battle. If there is a card that makes you discard then redraw a battle card you will have already lost your best card and might lose the battle. Great game highly recommended.

Es un juego muy elegante, con componentes de mucha calidad y unas miniaturas increíblemente detalladas. La temática Vikinga le va al dedo. Es muy competitivo y exige al jugador pensar en las mejores estrategias para sacar ventaja. Un gran juego para los amantes del hobbie.

A cool game, some of the pieces come a bit bent since there is that much to package into a relatively small box, but that doesn't bother me too much, I am more so interested in the gameplay. The game is really fun and interesting, came up with some rules to play as 2 person teams with each clan which works well. Think this will become a fast favourite for myself at least.

This game is amazing. It's easy to learn and easy to teach. It's fun to play and the miniatures look good. This is one of my favorite games to play with friends now.

Blood Rage is a great strategy game that is quick to set up, very easy to learn, and surprisingly deep and strategic. Each player selects a viking clan (all clans are identical) and then spends 3 ages pillaging the world and each other for glory. The cards you receive at the start of each round, and the subsequent drafting phase, make for a deep, and ultimately stressful, experience that me and my friends cannot get enough of. The plastic miniatures are gorgeous and there is no end to the satisfaction of thumping the Fire Giant down on the board to the groans of your friends who have just had their strategies upended.

Seguramente mi juego favorito, tiene mucho contenido extra (expansiones) pero el juego base juega hasta 4 personas y es muy equilibrado y apasionante de jugar. (Hay muchas video reseñas en internet por si quieres ver cómo juega). Está es la versión inglesa, si no te importa el idioma, puede que lo encuentres a mejor precio, yo la compré más barata que en castellano.