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Game Review - Dice Throne
6 years ago
Tonight I played three rounds of "Dice Throne", a game of fantasy heroes dueling. Someone in the room called it "Battle Yahtzee". It's a fairly simple game that we were able to play quickly, partly by the simple method of reducing each side's starting health. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame.....one-season-one
The basic idea is, you roll 5 dice and can reroll any of those dice twice to get one of 6 or so combos, which do damage and other effects. Eg., rolling a "small straight" (4 dice form a number sequence) does something, while 3 of symbol A and 1 of symbol B does some other move. You also have a "Battle Points" resource that can be spent to play various cards. That's a bare-bones description, but there's an elaborate theme to it for each character, and they all play somewhat differently.
In my first game I was the Moon Elf, an archer whose powers give her tokens labeled "Evasive" that boost her defense, and inflict "Entangle", "Blind" and "Targeted" on the foe. I also played as the Huntress who has a tiger sidekick, and the Artificer who is obviously Junkrat in his mad science outfit from "Overwatch". They each play differently, with their own tokens for special effects. My opponents were the simple Barbarian, the military Tactician, and the Vampire Lord. The theming and the varying mechanics and complexity reminds me of "Sentinels of the Multiverse", which is a good thing.
There's a balance between trying to do direct damage, and setting up status effects. Also, there's a constant struggle with the Battle Points to activate one-shot powers like "get an extra reroll" or "undo a status effect", versus buying upgraded versions of your basic moves. Since we were playing with 30 HP to start instead of the regulation 50, our games downplayed move upgrades somewhat, but we still used them. The main tactics are about the press-your-luck dice rolling: "I have almost the right symbols to do Move X. Should I reroll these two dice or keep these?"
My only real complaint is that the scope of the game is a straight-up fight. There's no other goal, so don't expect any questing or movement. That's not necessarily bad; it just means it's a focused experience and not what you want if you're up for a long, complex quest. On the plus side, I got in three rounds in one night.
I enjoyed this and would like to play again. I'd want to try a 4 or 6 player game, with teams or a free-for-all. If I bought this I'm not sure which I'd go for: the $23 sets that have two characters each, enough to get into the game without the main set, or the $46 main set with six characters. It's nice that I have the option.
The basic idea is, you roll 5 dice and can reroll any of those dice twice to get one of 6 or so combos, which do damage and other effects. Eg., rolling a "small straight" (4 dice form a number sequence) does something, while 3 of symbol A and 1 of symbol B does some other move. You also have a "Battle Points" resource that can be spent to play various cards. That's a bare-bones description, but there's an elaborate theme to it for each character, and they all play somewhat differently.
In my first game I was the Moon Elf, an archer whose powers give her tokens labeled "Evasive" that boost her defense, and inflict "Entangle", "Blind" and "Targeted" on the foe. I also played as the Huntress who has a tiger sidekick, and the Artificer who is obviously Junkrat in his mad science outfit from "Overwatch". They each play differently, with their own tokens for special effects. My opponents were the simple Barbarian, the military Tactician, and the Vampire Lord. The theming and the varying mechanics and complexity reminds me of "Sentinels of the Multiverse", which is a good thing.
There's a balance between trying to do direct damage, and setting up status effects. Also, there's a constant struggle with the Battle Points to activate one-shot powers like "get an extra reroll" or "undo a status effect", versus buying upgraded versions of your basic moves. Since we were playing with 30 HP to start instead of the regulation 50, our games downplayed move upgrades somewhat, but we still used them. The main tactics are about the press-your-luck dice rolling: "I have almost the right symbols to do Move X. Should I reroll these two dice or keep these?"
My only real complaint is that the scope of the game is a straight-up fight. There's no other goal, so don't expect any questing or movement. That's not necessarily bad; it just means it's a focused experience and not what you want if you're up for a long, complex quest. On the plus side, I got in three rounds in one night.
I enjoyed this and would like to play again. I'd want to try a 4 or 6 player game, with teams or a free-for-all. If I bought this I'm not sure which I'd go for: the $23 sets that have two characters each, enough to get into the game without the main set, or the $46 main set with six characters. It's nice that I have the option.
