Blood Rage
For such an hyperbolic macho title, Blood Rage is surprisingly thinky and slow. I really like it, but it’s pretty susceptible to overthinking.
The premise is great: four Viking clans vie for glory as Midgard approaches Ragnarok. The map is slowly collapsing, with areas going out of play and sending everyone there to Valhalla, and more glory.
You’re balancing opportunities to improve your clan, field units, tussle, and set up to earn points for quests (which mostly involve area control at the end of each of three Ages). Timing out your plays, staying under budget, penciling out combos: very Viking, so rage, wow.
The pieces are beautiful and really cry out to be painted. There is, alas, one clan of hotties. I’ve seen some paint jobs that hide the bared midriffs and underboobs with paint, but it’s still there. The rulebook art has the same thing going on.
That hiccup aside, it’s a solid, smart game. No idea how to win it, and I ended up so far in last place that I got lapped on the score track.
Today was also the last time we got to see a dear friend and great gaming buddy. We’re pretty sad to see him move away.
How does it play out in comparison to equally macho design predecessor Chaos in the Old World?
Vivian Paul much different! CitOW has baked in asymmetry, right? Like, you can’t even take it personally that Khorne is murdering you like crazy because that’s just good old Khorne. So the interesting juice in Chaos I think comes from that asymmetry creating interesting interactions.
The goals in Blood Rage are the same for everyone, so the interesting action comes from building up strong synergies from your various upgrades. Does that make sense?
Loki stuff in Blood Rage is like Khorne in Chaos though. Dont feed the beasties and you’ll be fine 😎
I had the good fortune of playing its predecessor, Midgard, a few years ago. I loved it. Blood Rage is supposed to be an enhancement/overhaul of that game, so I’m very much looking forward to playing it someday. Only problem is that I’d likely have to buy it if I want to play it. And I’m not a big fan of supporting sexist tropes. While I’m generally blind to the look of components while I play games (it’s a thing that is placed somewhere to help me ‘member I have things – so I don’t really differentiate minis from cubes), I still see them when I’m not playing…
Honestly it’s not that bad. There are things like Tanto Cuore and Kingdom Death out there. Blood Rage is viking death battle at the end of the world. Those girls can be brutally effective. It’s a very rewarding game.