Designer: Eric M. Lang

Blood Rage is perhaps one of the most evolutionary games to hit the board gaming scene in the last decade, I use the term evolutionary rather then revolutionary because while it certainly defines a lot of new ground, it does so with existing, well established mechanics.

This game has the look of an Ameri-trash game, populated with amazing miniatures, artistic flare and of course coming out of the American publisher CMNO (Cool Mini or Not).  Despite all that, its central core is without question eurocentric with elements like card drafting, resource management, victory points and Euro stylized area control.

What do we make of E. Langs creation, lets get to it!

Overview

Final Score:  (5 out 5) Perfect Score!

In Blood Rage players are put in the position of a Viking tribe with the intent to control a mythological landscape, hell bent on an honorable death while navigating the cataclysmic resetting of the world lovingly known as Ragnarok.

Each round players will do a round robin card drafting session, cards that will be drafted for their preferred strategy.  During the course of a round players will fight for control of the board as they attempt a series of raids in the name of glory and honor, to both score points and advance their clan on different resource tracks that strengthen their position.  Players will also use cards to quest to score more points as well as upgrade their clan with a wide range of clan and leader upgrades, as well as purchasing of one of a kind mythological units to fight on their side.

After four rounds of play the player with the most glory points wins the game.

In a nutshell, Blood Rage is a game of area control and scoring points, but this surface explanation hardly does it justice as the strategic depth and wide range of strategic options and approaches creates an incredibly versatile and dynamic game.

Components

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Pros:  Perfect combination of quality, art and sculpted miniatures.  You simply can’t ask for much more.

Cons:  None

Cool Mini or Not has gained quite the reputation for their component quality giving even Fantasy Flight Games a run for its money.  Blood Rage exemplifies this to an extreme that is almost over kill.  Intricately sculpted and asymmetrical figures border on miniature game quality and are absolutely amazing, in particular considering they exist in a board game.  Every component is of the best quality from cards and tokens to the board itself.  Everything has a gritty art style that brings the Viking theme to life and as if this was not enough the board is clear, easy to read and streamlined to the maximum making everything identifiable and simple to read helping tremendously in gameplay.

To say it plainly Blood Rage, component wise is as perfect as it can be.  Its hard to imagine what else could have been done to improve the quality here.  As a gamer I can only tip my hat and say thank you, I think I can safely speak on the behalf of all gamer’s that when we spend money on games, this is exactly what we want them to look like.

Theme

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Pros: An amazing blending of game play, abstraction and theme.  The best Viking themed game ever made.

Cons: You might like it less if you don’t like the Viking Theme.

The art style aside, which is in its own right a contributor to bringing the theme to life here, Blood Rage literally bleeds theme, you almost want to be careful not to get too much on you.

The connection here is deep and while the game is somewhat abstracted, somehow the abstraction really fits the overall thematic depth here.  Its a game where units die, go to Valhalla and get re-incarnated then come back and do it again, oddly enough this is thematically accurate despite being of course ultra unrealistic.

More than that though the mechanics stay out of the way of the theme when it counts, but appear when it feels just right.  For example it may seem odd that only so many units can fit on any given space, clearly a mechanical consideration, but they make up for it when ensuring that monsters that are brought into play are true monstrosities.  Not just in the visual representation of the miniatures, but in the game effects upon their arrival.  The impact is huge, the units are feared and getting them to the board is just pure bliss and satisfaction.  I absolutely love the fact that the game has this deep mechanical balance where a wide range of strategies and tactics can pull out a win, while simultaneously keep it gamy by having these huge power plays that just say “fuck you and your strategy, I have a Fire Giant!” It just feels right thematically and the game bursts with color and presence.

There is also this element of asymmetrical units and while mechanically the game is not asymmetrical from the start, the fact that by the second round each player will have devised his own strategy and adapted his clan to his preference, the game becomes asymmetrical.  Suddenly having asymmetrical units on the board, somehow makes sense and becomes relevant thematically.   Its ingenious that the producers of this game recognized that the presence of asymmetry of the units, despite mechanically not being so out of the gate was important to the theme of the game.

Finally there is just the blood thirsty nature of Vikings and their perceived love of war and fearlessness of death is captured in Blood Rage beautifully.  Units fight for glory and the only thing that matters are the results of battle, death is not feared, in fact often its a sought after a strategy of the game ensuring there is always action on the table regardless of the relative strength of a particular clan at any given time.  I absolutely love the fact that, I go into a fight totally outnumbered, knowing I’m about to die and its still a good move for me.  It ensures there is no turtling, no fussing about, its a game of war because Vikings love war and it just works beautifully to bring out the thematics of the games premise.

Blood Rage is pure perfection in capturing the mood and feel of a Viking based game of war, doing it with pizzazz and a flare for the dramatic.  Love it!

 

Gameplay

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Pros: An amazing dynamically built, asymmetrical game with endless possibility and strategic depth.  Its the perfect game.

Cons: Ameri-Trash purist might find issue with its Eurocentric game-play.

When it comes to Blood Rage there just seems to be no weakness, Gameplay is no different.  Blood Rage is an amazingly diverse game that offers countless strategies in a dynamic forum that refuses to allow you to get comfortable.   This is a game that is not over until every last point is counted and no matter how it appears there are any number of ways to make a massive comeback to steal it.  As an amateur designer I’m in awe of a game that does not really create anything particularly new or revolutionary, yet manages to be so deep and intriguing.

To begin with, the card drafting mechanic has been clearly tested to a ridiculous degree.  The balance of upgrades, quests and attack cards are diverse and made good for a wide range of occasions.  There really are no bad cards, every card in this game can be “the perfect card” depending on the timing of its arrival and the strategy of the player.  Its amazing that you can look at a card in one game and effectively ignore it, while looking at in another game and realize that its your game winner.  The drafting in this game is a vital component of your strategy, the decisions are painful and its not uncommon to find yourself AP ridden as a result.  I just love the choices here, they have so much impact on how your round is going to play out.

Resource management is also so clever, rife with tough decisions.  Every point of rage and every improved stat has important impact and often is critical to your success.  A bad decision can cost you dearly, a good one can result in a major triumph.  More than that though its so well balanced here as well, every attribute of your clan is so important and its impossible to be good at everything so you have to choose wisely, yet it can be so dynamic what you are able to end up increasing because of how raiding works.

With raiding, each area will have a token that represents one of the three attributes and these tokens are randomly chosen at the start of the game which creates a lot of dynamics.  In some games you can end up with a lot of rage on the board, in others, you might find there to be a major shortage.  The impact of that on strategies and tactics, what areas become critical in a game and how that affects the actions of players is just fantastic.  No two games are ever alike as a result.

Finally there is just the global mechanics of combat, both in the cards you choose, where you put your units out, what upgrades you have in play and course what monsters you have available.  All of these create a wide range of combat results, with huge upsets and triumphs.  No matter what fight your going into, you can never be certain of the results, there is a ton of risk vs. reward here and in Blood Rage taking risks is a vital component of strategy.  Yet despite this system there is no luck in the combat element of the game, its all about what has put out on the table and what cards players have drafted.  Hence you can devise strategies to ensure the results you want, but of course you can end up being countered by other players strategies, all with virtually no luck elements to blame.  This should cater to Euro sensibilities, but as a Ameri-Trash player I can’t imagine how luck would improve the game in any way, its exactly perfect as it is.

I’m hard pressed to name any negative aspects of gameplay in Blood Rage.  I suppose I could say that this game improves greatly with more players.  While I think a 2 or 3 player game works fine, personally I think it just shines so bright as a 4 or 5 player game (need expansion for 5), that said playing it 2 or 3 player just feels wrong somehow.  This is a game of the more the merrier, though I’m not sure you could negatively score it as a 2 or 3 player game because all of those dynamics are still there.  I just think its so good with a full player count, I wouldn’t dream of playing it any other way.

In short, Blood Rage its just bloody pitch perfect (pun intended).

Replay-ability and Longevity

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Pros: Endlessly replay-able, this is a game for the ages, no two games will ever be alike.

Cons:  You would have to be a hateful son of a bitch to find replay-ability issues in this game.

Blood Rage is so dynamic I can’t think of a single game that could top it in the replay-ability department.  Its got it where it counts, which is pretty much everywhere.  I predict that this game will remain in our gaming group indefinitely, its always a contender for the table and I just don’t see myself ever tiring of it.

I think in part the great contribution to the Longevity of this game is the card drafting.  It creates what is effectively a dynamically, asymmetrical game.  After the first round of drafting, each player has customized their clan and by the end of the game, every clan is not only unique, but created from a combination of countless effects, monsters, upgrades etc.. Every game is just going to be drastically different from the next, which is kind of strange considering your playing on static board.

There is also this intangible quality that great games have where after finishing a game you have this “I should have” feeling, urging you to play it again so you can try the next alternative strategy or tactic.  This game is not just about what strategy you choose but also about the timing of the execution of the strategy.  Your always working towards the win, but there are these big end game plays which sort of dynamically form over the course of the game, coming to a conclusion in the final draft.  The risk vs. reward balance here really drives this as players must make choices as to whether to play it safe or push it.

Its just a very satisfying game that keeps you hungry, win or lose you always feel like you should have won. You can always trace things back to a particular event, action or decision.

I can’t think of anything that would drive down or negatively effect replay-ability, in fact with the introduction of the expansions that allow for a 5 player game and the gods which create yet another crazy dynamic, this game is just infinity replay-able.

Conclusion

My rating system is very tough, its designed to keep me honest and make it near impossible for a game to get a perfect score.  Blood Rage is the first ever and I’m really unsure if it that will ever be repeated.

You might ask then why its not my number 1 game on my top 10 best table top games of all time.  Well there is no accounting for taste and while I absolutely love blood rage and I do believe its a  perfect design , I find some elements of my personal taste don’t fully match up with Blood Rage, though I would never count it against a amazing design like this.

I love civilization builders, miniatures games and story based games. Blood Rage doesn’t really fall into any of those categories, but it doesn’t intend to so I don’t hold it against it.  Personal preference and the ability to rate/review a game objectively are two very different approaches.  Objectively, to me, Blood Rage is the perfect game and while I’m still on the search for a perfect Civilization Builder, Miniature Game or Story Based game, Blood Rage definitely meets the standards within its own genre.

This is a game for anyone that considers themselves a serious gamer, it simply can’t be missed.  My first perfect review on my blog, amazing.