So why do we need another fighter game? There have been plenty of them, both miniatures, cards, and of course video games. So what makes Dice Throne from Roxley Games different, or dare say it better? Let’s explore this further and see for ourselves.
First off, let’s talk packaging. Other game designers really need to take notice of how well Dice Throne is presented. Everything is contained in customized trays. You open the box, and whether you get one of the two characters versus sets or the war chest from Season 1 or 2, Each character is stored in their individual container with everything that you need. Set up time is two minutes per side tops!
In addition to the packaging, the components are top quality. The character boards are good and solid, the customized dice, cards, dials all of it is well made. The artwork is bright and stunning, even for the darker characters, it pops and looks good on the table.
All of that is great, but games are played, so how does it? The gameplay is fast, smooth, and with an easy learning curve. The game comes in boxes with two characters, or for the serious player, there are war chests, that have all of the characters from Season 1 or 2. The 2 character boxes are great for gamers who are curious and want to try it out before investing almost $100.00 in a war chest. The average game is about 45 minutes for two players.
To start, select a character and take out the hero board, hero leaflet, tokens, customized card deck, dice, health dial, and combat point (CP) dial. Shuffle your deck and draw 4 cards, set your health dial to 50 and CP dial to 2. Place your tokens on the hero leaflet where indicated. The leaflet explains what abilities the hero can do, and their respective tokens. Each player rolls a die and the highest goes first. The hero board shows all the dice combinations and what their effects are (how much damage your hero inflicts or health regained) It also details the type of damage you do to your opponent.
Tokens either give positive or negative status effects, they are either gained or inflicted. The game is played in turns, and each player’s turn has 8 phases. The first phase is Upkeep where the active player will resolve any Upkeep phase abilities they have. Next is the Income phase, where the player draws one card and gains one CP. In the first Main phase, a player can use any cards they have in their hand by paying the CP cost and performing that card’s action or ability. Player cards, are either action cards or upgrade cards. Upgrade cards increase a hero’s ability from their hero board. Action cards are used in the phase indicated on the card, such as combat or defense for example.
The active player now rolls their dice in the Offensive dice phase. The active player may normally make 3 roll attempts and keeps the results from the third roll. The dice have both numbers and symbols. The hero card shows what the different dice combinations do and how much and what type of damage they inflict. Combinations consist of either symbols or numbers, like a small straight is 4 dice in sequential order and a large straight is 5. Each hero has an ultimate ability, that can never be blocked, or undefendable. Damage can either be defendable or undefendable.
Defendable damage allows the target to roll a number of dice or play action defense cards. A player during the defensive roll phase rolls their dice and attempts to hit a target symbol indicated on their hero board. Each success will reduce the amount of damage they take. Undefendable damage is damage that is not blocked or reduced by a defensive roll, the target will take the damage. After the net damage is calculated with the damage roll, less any defendable damage, the target player then reduces their health dial by that amount of damage inflicted in addition to any from cards or tokens played against them.
Next is a second main phase where the active player can play any additional combat cards they choose, The final phase is the discard phase, where a player who has more than 6 cards, must discard down to a maximum hand size of 6; earning one CP for every card discarded. A player may also voluntarily sell any cards they want for CP by removing them from their deck permanently in exchange for 1 CP per card.
Play then moves to the second player, who proceeds with the 8 phases. The game continues until one player has inflicted 50 points of damage to their opponent, and declared the winner.
Dice throne has optional rules for more players and even teams, but at its heart, it is a 1v1 combat game between two heroes. To say the game is fantastic is an understatement, it is so streamlined yet full of strategic decisions. The use of cards to modify the dice is great and is just as a critical part of the game as rolling the dice. This game was so well thought out in its design, that one can see why it is so popular among gamers. Summoner Wars is a great 1v1 game, but Dice Throne may have just taken its place. The gameplay reminds me of Dice Masters but instead of a team of heroes, players work with one. Unlike Dice Masters, there are lots of combinations for a player to choose from their rolls. It has been described as combat Yahtzee, and that is a fair assessment if you did not add the card play and the tokens as well. As stated, using their deck is just an important part of the strategy as the dice rolls.
So to summarize, great packaging, quality components, streamlined gameplay that plays in about 45 minutes, makes a great gaming experience for a 1v1 game. Dice Throne may just be the king of combat games for your table.
Written by Ed Carter
Hi, I’m Lynn, and I Make.
Props, Cosplay, Scale Models, Home Projects and just about anything else that involves me Making.
Imagine Peace: A Year of Gifting
Imagine Peace: A Year of Gifting author, Aleta Antoinette, will host a Pre-Release reading March 31st from 6-7 p.m. via Zoom
Join in to hear the mission of the book, learn about the 80+ charities across the globe and how you can purchase a copy of the book from Tattered Cover available soon.