Blood Rage is a board game designed by Eric M. Lang, an African-Canadian board game designer based in Montreal. His games often involve intricate miniature figures, and Blood Rage is no exception, as a complex fantasy-orientated strategy game based on norse mythology.

Each player controls a Viking clan’s warriors, leader and ship, trying to go down in a blaze of glory to secure their place in Valhalla at the end of the world. Players aim to invade and pillage the land, crush opponents in battle, fulfil quests, increase clan stats or die gloriously either in battle or from Ragnarök. Taking in three rounds (Ages), players take cards that grant “Gods’ Gifts” which affect play for that round through increasing strength, adding devious battle strategies, upgrading your clan, or bringing aid of legendary creatures from Norse mythology. Players must chose their strategies carefully during the draft phase, but be ready to adapt to their opponents' strategies as the action phase takes place.

Lang had by this point in his career worked on and designed many complex strategy games, but this is the one recognised as his masterpiece for design decisions that resolved a lot of gameplay issues in similar DOAM (Dudes On A Map) games. These games feature a map-like game board, and miniature figures, often area control or area majority games (the gameplay mechanic of Risk, for example) but generally the important part is the miniatures you play with. Blood Rage upended this, with equal care given to figure design and gameplay. Challenges he resolved include the common issue of all other players ganging up on the leader (in this case, by introducing the concept that a player might want to die to win) and avoiding the notion of “turtling” – sitting back and growing resources to win while everyone else takes risks in combat.

It’s a game that encompasses extensive and thorough immersion in Viking history and mythology in an intense narrative setting of the end of the world. In addition to its celebrated strategy design and detailed miniatures, for the game’s artwork, Lang commissioned Adrian Smith, a veteran of mythological fantasy art from the Games Workshop adding another layer to the game’s atmosphere.