Friday Night Gaming - Blood Rage

On Friday evening, the first day of Autumn here in the Southern Hemisphere, Chris, John and I joined Julian for another game of the Viking mythology themed board game by CMON.

Here is a reminder, stolen lock, stock and two smoking barrels from Boardgame Geek:

"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!

My Clan - it is the female Vikings again, of course! Liquid sustenance was Italian and provided by Chris!

The table laid out to start, with bare limbs of John (bottom left, Chris (top left) and Julian (top right) - I had come straight from work and had grown up long trousers on!

Early moves in the first age. The black "Crow of Death" (I don't know its proper name) sits in one of the provinces which will be destroyed at the end of the "Age" - players with figures in that province when it's wiped out, gain extra points for dying gloriously!

Chris sent his leader against my leader, a warrior AND a ship - a bit of a one-sided contest that I won - but what was his strategy??

Julian faffed around pillaging a couple of remote provinces where no one was placed to oppose him, then he went into Yggdrasil, the central province that has no villages to plunder but gives you an extra point on all three measures the game points are measured by -  RAGE, AXES and HORNS - everyone else piled in to stop him - I think he and I drew, so there was no winner! 

Valhalla was filling up by this stage! Don't worry, at the end of the current age, you get points for them, and they all come back to life for the next age :)

I think this must have been early in the second age, in the top right you can see the "victory point" markers - yellow in the lead (me) followed very closely by brown (John) blue (Chris) and red (Julian)

This is DEFINITELY the second age, as the Raven is in a new province!

John has fully occupied one province and I have done the same in the adjacent one.

Julian brought on a "monster" - this one is a dark Elf, who is just a standard warrior worth one point in a normal province but is worth three in Yggdrasil - I sent my leader with support in to oppose him. I think I lost this time!

We moved on to the Third Age.... by this point, Chris was well out in the lead. with Julian right at the back - but he was piling up Rage etc on his game card that would translate into HEAPS of victory points at the end of the game.

Julian brought on a BIG "monster" who was worth lots of points in combat - 3 or 4 maybe. He also had most of his clan in Yggdrasil as support.

And we all went in AGAIN! I only had my leader in, but it was part of a strategy to have at least 4 dead in Valhalla at the end of the Third Age! (I had a mission card for that you see)

The Third Age ended, and we counted up the points - so many for achieving various mission cards we held, extra points for the Valhalla dead (Chris doubled his with a mission card and streaked out ahead in victory points) extra points for having the most warriors in a given province (I had managed to get two so closed the gap on Chris) and John was still in the running too - then, Julian counted up HIS points - he had maxed out his Rage, Axes and Horns during the game, and was able to claim SIXTY points, and as he counted them off he passed John, then he passed Chris, then he passed me - and he was in the lead by about ten points - Julian had won the game at the last gasp.....

BUT THEN -

 Chris pointed out that I had four figures in the province occupied by the Raven, for which I get 4 points each when the province is destroyed at the end of the Age - (which was the reason I put them there, obviously!)

We added 16 points to my total - and I overhauled Julian by two points - yeehah!

And what could improve on a fun night's gaming with three good mates and a couple of relaxing beverages, accompanied by pizza for dinner? Arriving home to find a small parcel of goodness had arrived from bonnie Scotland - I will update you on the contents in the next exciting episode of Blogger - Bydand!

Thanks for your visit - I hope you enjoyed the AAR and photos.