Blood Rage rules: how to play and how to score
Reviewed on 16 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check
Blood Rage plays 2 to 4 players over three Ages: everyone leads a Viking clan seeking Glory before the end of the world. Here are the essential rules, setup and final scoring, based on the official rulebook.
- Players
- 2 to 4
- Play time
- About 90 minutes
- Winner
- The clan with the most Glory
Blood Rage quick rules
- The goal
- Ragnarök is coming. Your Viking clan gains Glory by winning battles, pillaging provinces, fulfilling Quests for the gods, and even dying in battle. After three Ages, the most glorious clan wins.
- An Age in six phases
- Each Age goes through Gods’ Gifts, Action, Discard, Quest, Ragnarök, which destroys a province, then Release Valhalla, where the dead come back.
- Gods’ Gifts
- Everyone is dealt eight cards, keeps one and passes the rest to the left, until they have kept six; the last two are discarded. With two players, you keep two each pass. Cards come in three kinds: Battle, Quest and Upgrade.
- Rage and actions
- You start the Action phase with as much Rage as your Rage stat, and every action is paid in Rage. One action per turn; with no Rage, no more actions, and passing loses your remaining Rage. The phase ends when everyone is at zero or everything has been pillaged.
- Invade and March
- Invade places a figure in an empty village of an outer province for its Strength in Rage; the Leader is free and the Ship goes to a fjord. Your Horns limit your figures on the board. March, for one Rage, moves figures from one province to a single other one, even far away: it’s the only way to Yggdrasil.
- Upgrade and Quest
- Upgrade places an Upgrade card on your clan sheet for its Strength in Rage: stronger troops, Monsters, clan abilities. A Quest is placed face down, for free, and is resolved during the Age.
- Pillage and battle
- Pillaging is free, in a province where you are present. Neighbors may each move one figure in, then everyone reveals a card: figures’ Strength plus the Battle card’s bonus. The highest Strength wins; a tie makes everyone lose.
- Battle results
- Losers send their figures to Valhalla but take their cards back. The winner discards their cards and gains Glory equal to their Axes; if they are the pillager, they also take the province’s reward.
- The end of an Age
- Keep only one card, reveal Quests, often won by having the most Strength in a region, then Ragnarök destroys a province: each figure that dies there gives 2, 3 or 4 Glory depending on the Age. Finally, the dead return from Valhalla.
- Beginner traps
- Losing a battle isn’t a disaster: dying pays at Ragnarök and empties the winner’s hand. Quests are worth a lot but you must hold them. And watch your Horns: with no room on the board, no more invading.
How to score Blood Rage
- Glory on the track
- The Glory earned over the three Ages: battles, pillaging, Quests, deaths in Ragnarök.
- Rage, Axes and Horns stats
- At the end, each stat raised to the 4th or 5th space gives 10 more Glory, to the 6th space 20.
Worked example
Jake ends the Third Age with 112 Glory on the track. His Rage is on the 4th space (+10), his Axes on the 6th (+20) and his Horns on the 2nd (0): 112 + 10 + 20 = 142 Glory.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the legendary stat bonuses: up to 60 Glory.
- Scoring the 4th-space bonus for a stat still on the 3rd space: it must have gone up three steps.
- Looking for a tie-breaker: the rulebook doesn’t have one.
How to set up Blood Rage
Follow the three parts in order; only the provinces destroyed at the start and the cards removed depend on the number of players.
Each clan
- Each player chooses a clan and takes its Clan Sheet, Leader, 8 Warriors and Ship, with bases and sail in their color.These figures form your reserve. Keep the extra bases for Monsters.
- Each player places their Glory Marker on the 0 space of the Glory Track.
- Each player places a Clan Token on the first spot of each stat: Rage 6, Axes 3, Horns 4.The last token goes on the 6 spot of the Rage Track.
The board
- Place the Game Board, with the Valhalla sheet and the Age Track sheet next to it.
- Place the green-bordered Pillage token on Yggdrasil, then the other 8 at random, face up, on the other 8 provinces.Each token shows the reward for pillaging its province.
- Shuffle the 8 Ragnarök tokens and place one, text side up, on each of the three Ragnarök spots of the Age Track.Place the Doom token on the province shown for the First Age.
- Draw more Ragnarök tokens and place them, destroyed side up, on the provinces they show: 1 with 4 players, 2 with 3, 3 with 2.Return the remaining tokens to the box. A destroyed province is out of the game.
- Put the Monsters next to the board, and the Saga token on the first spot of the First Age.
The cards
- Separate the cards into three decks by the number on their back: 1, 2 and 3.
- With 3 players, remove the cards marked 4 plus; with 2, the cards marked 3 plus and 4 plus.With 4 players, all cards are used.
- Shuffle each deck separately and place them face down on their spots of the Age Track.
- Give the First Player token to the player born furthest to the north.It passes to the left at the end of each Age.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards do you keep in Blood Rage?
Six cards per Age after the draft, plus any card saved from the previous Age; at the end of the Action phase, you keep only one.
Who goes first in Blood Rage?
The player born furthest to the north; the First Player token passes to the left at the end of each Age.
How much Glory does a figure killed by Ragnarök give in Blood Rage?
2 Glory in the First Age, 3 in the Second and 4 in the Third, Monsters included.
Ludingo’s Blood Rage sheet was last reviewed on 16 October 2026, based on: rulebook (PDF), archive.org, BoardGameGeek.