How Do You Play The Gods War?
The Gods War runs in rounds built around three phases: an Actions Phase for moving, building, summoning, and fighting; a Power Phase for collecting power from your buildings; and a Council Phase for scoring victory points and passing the first-player token. The game ends once someone crosses 35 points, and whoever holds the most points at that moment wins.
This guide walks through that loop start to finish: setup, what you actually do on your turn, how fights resolve, and what triggers the end of the game. If you already know what The Gods War is and want the buying case, that's covered elsewhere on this blog. Here, the only job is teaching you the procedure well enough to run a first game.
How Do You Set Up a Game of The Gods War?
Start with the table. The board comes in two pieces and, according to a detailed rules breakdown from UK outlet Nerdly, unfolds to cover an entire kitchen table on its own, before you add the side boards depicting Heaven and Hell. Clear real estate first. Small apartment tables and this game don't mix well.
Each player takes one of the four base factions: Sky, Storm, Darkness, or Chaos. You get that faction's own player board, a player aid listing your phases and available actions, your starting miniatures, and your building stock (shrines, temples, and ziggurats, plus one unique building type for Darkness). Set your units up according to your faction board's starting layout, since the four factions don't start in the same position. Sky, for example, begins with its God unit already in play, but trapped in Hell, and getting it out later takes a deal with another faction.
Place the score tracker where the table can see it. Whoever holds the first-player token starts the game; after that, the Council Phase hands the token to a new player each round, and it can never land on the Chaos player.
What Happens During the Actions Phase?
Everyone acts. Working through turn order, players spend a round taking one action at a time: moving units from one area into others, summoning new units from your supply onto the board, building a shrine, temple, or ziggurat, or declaring an attack against a rival occupying your target area. Building and summoning simply move pieces from your supply onto the board; movement lets you split your forces across multiple destinations however you see fit.
Factions add their own actions on top of that base list. Sky's decrees, for instance, hand a benefit to another player in exchange for a favor, and each decree counts as a full action. Learning your faction's unique options is most of what separates a first game from a fifth one.
How Does Combat Work in The Gods War?
Combat is simpler than the box size suggests. Every unit you commit to a fight adds one die sized to its combat strength, both sides roll at once, and each die comes back a kill, a rout, or a blank. Buildings you control in that area add automatic kills or routs to your roll, so defending a region you've already built in gives you a real edge.
Killed units go back to their owner's supply, ready to be summoned again later. Routed units get pushed out of the area in a direction the winning player picks, and that can mean shoving an enemy unit straight into Hell. There's no separate combat phase; fights happen whenever a player declares an attack during their Actions Phase turn.
What Happens During the Power Phase?
Short version: you get paid. Each faction collects power based on the buildings it controls, plus whatever bonus rules its faction board specifies. Chaos plays this differently from the others; it only has one building type but earns extra power for planting that building alongside a rival's, a small mechanical nod to how the faction is meant to feel.
That power carries forward into the next round, funding summoning, building, and any faction-specific costs. The Power Phase itself runs quick. Most of the game's texture lives in the Actions and Council phases around it.
What Happens During the Council Phase?
Bookkeeping and scoring happen here. First, the group sets a new first-player token, and it can't go to Chaos. Then each player scores victory points off their current board state, generally driven by buildings held and Heroquests completed, with a few faction-specific scoring routes layered on top.
Two special events can also trigger during this phase. Destroying the Spike, a specific region on the board, opens the Chaos Rift for the rest of the game. Or a player can claim the Great Compromise, taking control of the gods and handing out victory points across the table, in exchange for spending half their own power ahead of the next round. Both change the shape of the game once they happen, and neither is guaranteed to come up in every session.
What Is the Chaos Rift, and How Does It Change the Game?
Once the Spike falls and the Rift opens, every player except Chaos owes it a unit each round. Per Nerdly's breakdown of the mechanic, players then secretly bid power (up to the value of a single die) that adds to the strength already sitting in the Rift, while Chaos bids too, with its number subtracting from the total instead of adding to it. The table rolls one die per player against that combined total; if the roll comes in higher, the Rift stays open and the whole sequence repeats at the next Council Phase.
It's a genuine ticking clock. Once the Rift opens, ignoring it costs you units every single round, which forces even factions that don't care about Chaos to start paying attention to it.
How Do You Win The Gods War?
Victory points decide it, full stop. The game ends the moment a player crosses 35 points during a Council Phase, but hitting that number first isn't the same as winning; because scoring lands at different points depending on turn order, the player with the most points once the game actually ends takes it, even if someone else crossed 35 a round earlier.
Petersen Games markets this as two paths, storming the gates of heaven or letting the world collapse into the Chaos Rift, and that's the mood of it more than a literal fork in the rules. Mechanically, both routes run through the same scoring engine. You can rack up points by holding territory and finishing Heroquests, or by leaning into Chaos and pushing the Rift open. Either way, the win comes down to whoever has the most points on the tracker when the round ends.
Where Can You Get The Gods War?
The Gods War lists for $129.99 on the Petersen Games store, built for 3 to 4 players ages 14 and up, with sessions running around 90 minutes once your table knows the phases. As of this writing, the product page shows it sold out, so don't plan a game night around guaranteed same-week arrival. Check the product page for current availability before you commit.
When it's back in stock, orders process within 48 hours (2 business days, Monday through Friday). US orders ship USPS Ground Advantage in 2 to 5 business days, and Canadian orders ship DHL Ground in 3 to 7 business days, with rates calculated at checkout. There's no standing free-shipping offer, so check the number at checkout rather than assuming one.
For background on the setting itself, Glorantha was created by designer Greg Stafford and has decades of published history behind it, covered in detail on Wikipedia's Glorantha entry. The game's own community discussion, session reports, and strategy threads live on its BoardGameGeek listing, worth a browse once you've run your first game and want to compare notes.
Ready to see current stock and order details? Visit The Gods War product page on the Petersen Games store.
Frequently Asked Questions About Playing The Gods War
How many phases are in a round of The Gods War?
Three: an Actions Phase where players move, build, summon, and fight; a Power Phase where each faction collects power from its buildings; and a Council Phase where players score victory points, pass the first-player token, and resolve special events like the Chaos Rift or the Great Compromise.
How do you win The Gods War?
The game ends once a player reaches 35 victory points during a Council Phase, but crossing that line first doesn't guarantee the win. Whoever holds the most points once the end triggers takes the game, whether those points came from holding territory, completing Heroquests, or faction-specific scoring.
What happens when the Chaos Rift opens?
Once the Spike is destroyed and the Rift opens, every player except Chaos must feed one unit into it each round. Players secretly bid power to strengthen the defense against Chaos's own bid, then dice determine whether the Rift stays open for another round or closes.
Can The Gods War be played with two players?
No. The Gods War is built for 3 to 4 players, according to the Petersen Games product listing, and the faction interactions the game is designed around depend on that range. It isn't tuned as a two-player game.
How long does a full game of The Gods War take?
Around 90 minutes, per the Petersen Games listing, though a first session usually runs longer while everyone learns their faction's specific actions and how the three-phase round works.
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