How to Play Blood Rage: Drafting, Actions, Pillage & Ragnarök

ByBoardGame Archive

Blood Rage is played over three Ages. In each Age you draft cards, spend Rage on one action at a time, resolve quests, watch one province fall to Ragnarök, and then return figures from Valhalla. The winner is the clan with the most Glory after the Third Age.

Researched rules guide. Checked September 15, 2026 against the CMON English rulebook and FAQ 1.1. This page covers the original base game; expansion content is separate unless stated. No hands-on testing is claimed. Editorial standards.

On this page: Set up the board and player-count cards · Follow the six phases of each Age · Draft six cards · Spend Rage on one action per turn · Resolve pillage battles · Score quests · Resolve Ragnarök and Valhalla · Score the end of the game

Set up the clan, board and Age decks

Each player chooses a clan sheet, takes that clan’s figures and Glory marker, and starts with the same basic clan statistics: 6 Rage, 3 Axes and 4 Horns. Rage is the action currency; Axes determine Battle Glory for victories; Horns limit how many figures you may have on the board.

Place the Valhalla and Age Track sheets beside the board. Distribute the Pillage tokens as directed, place the Ragnarök tokens on the Age Track, and destroy the required number of provinces before play according to player count: one at four players, two at three players and three at two players.

Prepare the three Age decks separately. Cards marked for a higher minimum player count are removed when necessary, so a two- or three-player game does not use exactly the same card mix as a four-player game.

Each Age has six phases

  • Gods’ Gifts: draft the current Age cards.
  • Action: take turns spending Rage on actions.
  • Discard: reduce the hand as instructed before the quest phase.
  • Quest: reveal committed quests and score the ones completed.
  • Ragnarök: destroy the doomed province and award its death Glory.
  • Release Valhalla: return your destroyed figures to your reserve.

Finish one phase before starting the next. After the Release Valhalla phase, the next Age begins with a new Gods’ Gifts deck. The game ends after the Release Valhalla phase of Age 3.

Draft six cards at the start of each Age

Deal eight cards from the current Age deck to each player. In a standard draft, choose one card to keep, pass the rest to the player on your left, and repeat until you have kept six new cards. The last two are discarded. At two players, each player selects two cards per pass instead.

The rulebook gives a first-game teaching option for Age 1: simply play with the eight cards you were dealt instead of drafting, then begin drafting once everyone has seen the systems in action.

Cards can be Battle cards, Quests or Upgrades. Keep the drafted hand secret. A draft is not merely about collecting the highest printed number: card effects can reward winning, losing, upgrading, quests or particular clan plans.

Take one action per turn and pay its Rage cost

At the start of the Action phase, set your available Rage to your current Rage stat. Beginning with the first player, take turns clockwise. On your turn choose one action, pay any required Rage and complete it.

  • Invade: pay according to the figure’s Strength and place it from your reserve into an available location. Leaders invade for free.
  • March: pay 1 Rage to move your figures from one province into another legal province.
  • Upgrade: play an Upgrade card, pay its stated Rage cost and apply its ongoing effect. Troop or Monster upgrades can allow an immediate free invasion with the corresponding figure.
  • Quest: commit a Quest card face down at no Rage cost.
  • Pillage: attempt to pillage an eligible province at no Rage cost.

A player at zero Rage cannot initiate actions, even a zero-cost one, although that player can still react to another player’s action—for example by joining a battle. Passing also ends your active participation for that Action phase because you lose your remaining Rage.

The Action phase ends when all players are at zero Rage or when all surviving provinces have been successfully pillaged.

Pillage can trigger a battle

Choose an unpillaged province where you have a figure in the province or its supporting fjord. Other players may move eligible figures from adjacent provinces into empty villages as the battle forms.

Each participating clan chooses a card and reveals simultaneously. Add the Strength of participating figures to any valid Battle-card bonus and resolve card effects. Highest total Strength wins. If the top result is tied, every participating player loses the battle.

The winner discards the cards they played. Losing players return their played cards to hand, and all their participating figures are destroyed and placed in Valhalla. If the pillaging player wins, the province is successfully pillaged and that player takes the printed reward. If another clan wins, nobody receives the Pillage reward and the province remains available for a later attempt.

The battle winner gains Battle Glory equal to their current Axes stat whether or not that winner initiated the pillage.

Committed quests are checked after the Action phase

Quest cards are committed face down during the Action phase. After the discard phase, reveal them and check whether their stated condition is satisfied. Completed quests grant their listed Glory and usually improve one of your clan stats; failed quests do not score.

Because quests are committed before they are resolved, later actions by opponents can interfere with your position. Keep enough Rage and board access to support the condition you are trying to finish.

Ragnarök destroys the doomed province

During the Ragnarök phase, move the current Ragnarök token onto its named province and permanently destroy that province. Figures in the province and its supporting fjord are destroyed and placed in Valhalla.

Each of your figures destroyed by Ragnarök earns you the Glory value shown for that Age. Death is therefore not always purely negative in Blood Rage.

After Ragnarök, move the Doom token to the province scheduled for destruction in the next Age. During Release Valhalla, return your figures from Valhalla to your reserve. Figures remaining on the board stay where they are; the board is not cleared between Ages.

Most Glory wins after the Third Age

After the final Release Valhalla phase, add the end-game bonuses for legendary clan stats. A stat at the fourth or fifth step awards 10 Glory; a stat on its final step awards 20 Glory. These are not cumulative 10-plus-20 bonuses for the same stat.

The clan with the most total Glory wins. Glory can come from battle victories, pillaging, quests, card effects, Ragnarök deaths and end-game stat bonuses, so controlling the most provinces is not a separate victory condition.

Common Blood Rage rules mistakes

  • Clearing the board after an Age: do not. Figures that survive remain in place.
  • Giving a pillage reward to any battle winner: only the pillaging player gets the Pillage reward, and only if that player wins.
  • Giving Battle Glory for an uncontested pillage: the FAQ distinguishes the reward from Battle Glory; no battle means no Battle Glory.
  • Treating a tied battle as a shared win: a tie means all participants lose.
  • Adding 10 and 20 for a maxed stat: a fully improved stat gives 20 Glory, not 30.

Sources and scope

Checked September 15, 2026. Expansion cards, fifth-player rules and promotional content can add exceptions not covered by this base-game guide.

Browse all BoardGame Archive rules and how-to guides.

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