Ragnarök Strikes! Blood Rage Coming To Kickstarter March 2nd!
February 25, 2015 by brennon
Ragnarök strikes next Monday (March 2nd 2015) as Blood Rage from the combined forces of Guillotine Games and Studio McVey is launching on Kickstarter. If you like Vikings, mythology, MASSIVE beasts, awesomely detailed miniatures and a rules set from the mind of Eric M. Lang, then this could well be the board game for you.
Blood Rage puts you in the boots of a Viking clan that is standing on the edge of Ragnarök and you must fight alongside your brothers and sisters in arms to win your place in Valhalla and secure a place at Odin's side for eternity. Skål!
The game looks packed full of awesomeness and from this mock up of the final box you can see just how deep it is. It's no surprise when you get to see some of the miniatures that are inside it but we'll get to them later. For now let's have a chat about the actual gameplay...
What's Blood Rage All About?
Each turn of the game is called an Age and sees you drafting cards to help your faction on the path to victory and immortality by raiding the different lands on the board. Each of the different Gods can give you various strategies towards victory...
- Thor gives more glory for victory in battle
- Heimdall grants you foresight and surprises
- Tyr strengthens you in battle
- Loki rewards you for losing battles, or punishes the winner!
...all of which sounds very cool. It will be cool to see if the different clans have their own predispositions towards specific God or whether you can mix and match as you go and make a unique feeling faction each time you play. What has already been stressed is that you can't just rely on military might and pieces on the board to win battles as you'll have to have carefully chosen the right cards for your current situation.
Drafting mechanics for me are always a big winner as it allows you to tailor the game towards your own playstyle. It also means you're going to see some hopefully inventive ways of playing the game and combinations you'd never have thought of!
The Game Pieces!
Above you can see some of the miniatures that have been sculpted for the game based on the amazing artwork of Adrian Smith. Each clan looks like it has some very unique warrior and he's given the typical Viking theme a much more fantastical twist to make it stand out. I particularly like the chap with the rather epic bear cowl!
It's not just the general Viking troops that you'll be fighting alongside however as you can also bring some pretty epic looking monsters into battle with you like Fire Giants, Trolls, Frost Giants and a huge Sea Serpent too. The scale of them is absolutely stunning and I could see a lot of people having fully painted sets of this when it comes to the final release.
It's all well and good seeing some promotional images but above you can see some of the final plastic designs and as you can see they appear to have got things spot on. The details are crisp and you can see plenty of detail. Those are some fantastic board gaming pieces that rival the likes of the ones that come out of Descent.
As a final little surprise it's not just the small miniatures that are getting some full on plastic love. Even the amazing Frost Giant looks great in the final material and they've even got all the runic swirls and details worked onto his skin. I can't wait to see these 'in the flesh' so to speak.
To War!
The game looks insanely good right now and we'll have more information on the game mechanics and such for you shortly. I hope we'll also see a demo run of the games rules when the Kickstarter launches as well as a PDF to read them for ourselves; always helps to give the community a heads up on what they're getting into....
Game Components
- 46 highly detailed miniatures
- 52 colored plastic bases
- 99 cards
- 4 clan sheets
- 36 cardboard tokens
- 4 plastic glory markers
- 1 game board
- 2 support sheets
- 1 rulebook
The campaign will run for near enough two weeks and have one pledge level of $75 (including Early Bird limited time offers) so you don't have anything complicated to consider when it comes to the game.
Do you think you'll be fighting alongside the Vikings in Blood Rage?
"If you like Vikings, mythology, MASSIVE beasts, awesomely detailed miniatures and a rules set from the mind of Eric M. Lang, then this could well be the board game for you"
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
"The details are crisp and you can see plenty of detail. Those are some fantastic board gaming pieces that rival the likes of the ones that come out of Descent"
Supported by (Turn Off)
Think I might have to jump in on this one…
I know what you mean. Those miniatures, Adrian Smith’s art, Eric Lang behind the rules – all sounds very good to me. Plus, Vikings – everyone loves Vikings.
just an opinion…but..
did Mr. Lang, and the McVey’s studio really need kickstarter to produce a game?
seem to me that this platform is beeing used as a huge pre-order instead of a way of helping with great ideas, but no money…
Yes they do. It costs a lot of money to create the tooling for those miniatures, much more than a small studio could reasonably raise. There’s a reason few companies were producing this type of product before KS.
Those are some beautiful looking mini’s. I will be giving this a lot of thought between now and the KS kick off.
That looks really nice.
damn you! it looks way too good, I m gonna have to join this KS… an other one ^^
Forget the game, these are some of the best fantasy miniatures I’ve ever seen. Not in horrible, bendy, soft plastic mind you. I’d happily pay just to have these miniatures cast in high quality resin.
This weekend I learned that “soft plastic” is actually harder than “hard plastic”. It gets called soft plastic because it’s removed from the mould before it has fully solidified, and hence is still a bit soft.
Interesting. However I am put off by that very bendy looking spear.
Funnily enough that’s the thing that put me off as well. Be it metal or plastic 6mm to 28mm any mini I have with a bendy spear lance or long pointy stick gets it replaced where possible by a brass or metal rod to keep it straight.
Looking at the pics the tooling has already been done. So what are they funding…?
Also. After Sedition Wars I’m going nowhere near a Studio McVey game.
Those are pre-production minis, most likely 3D prints.
I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if these were actually production minis, as there is a line of thought with the CMON style of kickstarting to provide backers with product to look at instead of having them wait for a developing product(which arguably has a more successful track record when it comes to generating backers).
Ideally, this isn’t the case, as I’d prefer to give this line a shot as I really like the minis. But unless they prove otherwise, I’m pretty sure I’ll be sitting this out.
For example. all of the minis showing for the SDE: FK “Always Super” pledge level are 3D prints. The funds raised were in large part spent on doing the tooling to make them into mass production minis as 3D printing is neither cost or time effective.
http://www.gamewire.belloflostsouls.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/AlwaysSuper1.jpg
@magywhaq
CMoN do show pre-production minis. If they were already tooled then there’d be no need for any delay between the end of the campaign and fulfillment. It’s the tooling that takes the bulk of the time. A 3D gives you a perfect mini from a digital file. You can use that to show off the mini before and during the KS. Here’s an example of a mini that was almost finished printing when the 3D printer broke down (you may need to be logged into FB to see it) – https://www.facebook.com/infamyminis/photos/pb.102839256486791.-2207520000.1424890549./638189596285085/?type=3&theater
@redben I’ve actually already backed the Infamy campaign, so I know that they can to high resolution 3D prints as well as what most of us are more commonly aware of with the lower res pieces. The thing is, with Studio McVey’s track record grouping with CMoN’s production resources, I’m leaning towards a no right now. But as I haven’t seen how they’re running the KS campaign, nor any other information other than a preview here, I’m not yet putting in a final judgement on my part. It’s just that given my own situation(too many minis), and what I’ve currently… Read more »
In fact, the more digging I do with this project, and with CMoN’s involvement, the less enthusiastic I feel with the project… It’s not that they can’t produce nice products, but their overall track record, with the quality of casting/material they’ve been putting out with past projects… As primarily a painter/modeller and gaming coming a distant second(or third), this really does not fill me with the warm and fuzzies… I’ll give it a look when it comes around, but the formatting, and what I’m seeing right now does not make me think they’ve turned things around… If anything, perhaps I… Read more »
3d printed figures wouldn’t have bendy plastic spears and soft detail though. Not to mention they would more than likely have striations where the layers were built up.
I am willing to grant that I could be totally wrong though.
I can’t comment on distorted spears, but a good 3D printed mini won’t have obvious striations. I saw the 3D prints of The Others minis at GenCon last year and you’d never have been able to tell the difference.
While I was at Gencon, I got to see the production plastics of the Others minis- next to the painted Resin Masters.
And, their plastics were superb.
I think the McVeys don’t want to have a gap in quality that they show off beforehand (like they did with Sedition Wars). They’ve definitely got a new caster as well.
I bought the production plastic copy of Pride whilst I was there. I agree, it’s an excellent cast. The Wrath of Kings casts look great as well.
I really want to like this, as the minis look amazing, but the plastics they’ve used once again look a little soft around the edges. Considering I’ve already got way too many miniatures to play with, and given their record with sedition wars, I’ll probably skip this…
If they do a resin release, maybe I’ll bite, but unless they’ve made some serious upgrades with the quality of their plastics, I’m gonna have to sit this one out.
From what they were showing at Gencon, the plastics were way better.
Renders look amazing.
Actual miniatures much less so.
mmh, isnt the producer the very same like the one of the Dust-KS which has some rough times….
I hope this KS doesnt experience any issues with that
I love the viking look.
Damn damn and double damn – I did say no more this year but for that kind of entry pledge – I’ll have to honour my viking roots
Too many “ifs” for this one to be on my pledging list…
If CMON is not involved.
If it’s not restic, and it certainly looks as it is.
If shipping to EU is not bananas.
If I don’t have to wait for years…
Pity, cause I really like the designs.
Some words from Remy – “I’m Remy Tremblay, a French miniatures sculptor. I’m 28 and I live with my wonderful wife and two kids. Everything started, as it did for many people, with Heroquest during the 1990’s. Mike McVey’s painting and Les Edward’s cover made an impression on my young brain, and probably set me on a path for the rest of my life. An old friend of mine told me a few month ago than even at those old times I dreamed of sculpting miniatures for a living, I guess I was, and still am – one those kind… Read more »
Myth 2 & BloodRage… there goes March’s pocket-money! (unless I give myself a rise)
will be backing this great team behind it, great figures, hopefully the game will be good too!
Have to back this one too, was hoping (atleast my wallet) for a breather after Conan but nio. The game sounds fun and the minis and art looks amazing.