Friday, August 31, 2012

Dice

I love dice in most games, except RISK. I hate the dice in RISK, they always seem to be against me and working for everyone else. I am currently at game 10 of our RISK Legacy  game and its been a painful and traumatic experience. At times the ride has been fun, causing nuclear destruction in Egypt was a masterpiece but every time I think the odds are stacked in my favor the dice are against me.

Still, only 5 more games than it can be put to rest.

Other dice games have been played a lot recently. I have introduced Quarriors to my youngest and he loves it. It's his current favorite game and I can see why he enjoys playing it. He is getting the creatures and monsters part and enjoys rolling the dice and looking to see what he can afford to buy. He is pestering me for the Quarmageddon expansion and I am tempted.
I was initially unsure how he would get on, I was looking at the shelves for some kind of miniatures game, I have Heroquest but the setup and tear down just takes too long. Other than that most of my other games seemed too complicated for him or would take too long.
Quarriors just hits the sweet spot, it takes 20 minutes to play and has a good helping of wizards and monsters. The Green slime/frog is his current favorite. Not because of its powers just because it looks good.

On another front (The Western one) I have been playing quite a bit of D-Day dice. Currently all solo plays, but hopefully I can try it with more soon. The aim of the game is to get your troops over the beach and storm the bunker. It reminds me of Roll through the Ages, but after each round you loose troops to German fire. You also need to have specific items or specialists to be able to progress up the beach.
It's all about rolling the dice for resources and trying to plan what resources you are going to need to cross the beach and storm the bunker. It comes with 8 different beaches, so far I have only managed to win the Exercise Tiger map. Omaha beach has been close and the rest just look horrific.

Its a quick game, taking about 15 minutes to play and has little setup. So when you fail its easy to just reset the board and give it another go. It's my current go to solo game for that reason.

The game front is looking rosy at the moment, there are quite a few games being released that I am desperate to get my hands on. Netrunner being top of the list, with Smash up, Alcatraz, Smash up and the Star Wars Xwing game close behind. Luckily my birthday and Christmas are on there way.