Blood Rage

Set up the game board in the center, which includes the glory track and the world map divided into Yggdrasil (center) and three regions (Mannheim, Jotunheim, Alfheim). Place the green plunder token on Yggdrasil and eight black plunder tokens face-up on the outer regions. Shuffle the eight Ragnarök tokens, reveal the top one, and destroy the indicated region by placing the token face-down and removing its plunder token. Repeat this for a second region in a 3-player game and a third region in a 2-player game. Place the remaining Ragnarök tokens face-up on the age track. Place the red doom token on the region indicated for the current age's Ragnarök. Separate age cards into three decks by age number, remove cards with a player count higher than your game, shuffle each deck, and place them on the age track. Each player chooses a clan board and corresponding miniatures (leader, eight warriors, one ship), attaching colored bases to all but the ship. Place clan tokens on the '6' space of the rage track and the leftmost spaces of the rage generation, axes, and horns tracks. Place your glory marker on '0' of the glory track. Set aside neutral monsters and warriors, and place the saga marker on the first age card stack. The player born furthest north takes the first player token.

Blood Rage is played over three ages, each divided into six phases. Your objective is to lead your Viking clan to the most glory points by the end of the third age, before Ragnarök consumes the world. You achieve this by strategically battling, plundering regions, completing quests, and upgrading your clan's abilities and units. The player with the highest total glory points at the end of the game is the winner.

Each age consists of six phases: 1. God's Gifts: Players draft cards from the current age's deck. Each player receives 8 cards, chooses one, and passes the rest to their left (or two cards in a 2-player game). This continues until each player has 6 cards, and the remaining 2 are discarded. 2. Actions: Players take turns performing one action at a time, clockwise, starting with the first player. Actions include: Invasion (place a figure from your reserve into a region, costing rage equal to the figure's strength, except for leaders who invade for free), March (move any number of figures from one region to an adjacent or non-adjacent region, costing 1 rage), Upgrade (play an upgrade card from your hand to your clan board, costing rage equal to the card's strength, allowing a free invasion with the upgraded unit if applicable), Quest (take a quest card from your hand and place it face-down on your clan board, costing no rage), Plunder (initiate a battle in a region with at least one of your figures or an adjacent ship, costing no rage), and Pass (lose all remaining rage and end your turn for the current age). 3. Discard: Players discard all but one card from their hand. 4. Quests: Players reveal and score their completed quest cards, gaining glory points and potentially increasing clan attributes. 5. Ragnarök: The region indicated on the current age's Ragnarök token is destroyed. All figures and adjacent ships in that region are destroyed, moving to Valhalla, and players gain glory points for each destroyed unit. 6. Valhalla: All figures and monsters in Valhalla return to their owners' reserves. Plunder tokens are flipped back to their open side. The first player token passes clockwise, and the saga marker moves to the next age's God's Gifts phase.

Glory points are accumulated throughout the game. You earn glory by winning battles (based on your axe track value), completing quests (as indicated on quest cards), and having high clan attributes (rage generation, axes, and horns) at the end of the game. When a region is destroyed by Ragnarök, you gain glory for each of your units destroyed there. The player who has accumulated the most glory points by the end of the third age wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied players share the victory.

The game concludes after the Valhalla phase of the third and final age. At this point, all players calculate their final glory scores. This includes any glory earned during the game, plus bonus glory for their clan attributes (rage generation, axes, and horns) if they have reached certain thresholds on their clan board. The player with the highest total glory points is declared the winner. If there is a tie, all tied players share the victory.