I can understand where the guys are coming from considering at this is their business this is what they do but coming from someone that's more of a mid-range gamer I'm definitely not an expert and I'm definitely not a novice I absolutely love this game. It plays very well, it's easy to teach, and just about every game that I've played has been very close and extremely well balanced. I would highly recommend this game to anybody that is getting into the genre or is kind of a moderate gamer.
This just goes to show that reviews are just one man's opinion. Also, keep in mind these guys likely play many MANY more games than most, and it's far easier to burn out or 'see it all'
That doesn't change the fact that the game is a bore fest. And by the way, you are not supposed to make a buying decision hearing their opninion, but watching the gameplay/explanation. If you like that, than doesn't matter anything.
Oh, man, you are making a big mistake. Just because you love it (good for you!), you don't have to recommend it. I know nothing about you. You know nothing about the other viewers. So your taste means nothing to us, only to yourself. I have lots of games that I love, which I would not recommend on open forums, and I have games I hate, which I recommend. Because my taste is not the center of the universe. Check out the other opinions about the game, and reconsider your recommendation. "I would highly recommend this game to anybody " Why? It is the most irresponsible thing you can do. Why not recommend something way better in this weight range and style? If I'll buy this and hate it, than you will be responsible for it, no?
No mention of Roll for the Galaxy either in the video or in the comments? For me this felt like an almost exact copy of RftG, with a changed theme, and an added element of area control (and a couple of other minor tweaks). Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but are there not REALLY STRONG similarities? Enough to get a mention I mean?
Tom keeps on about how the name makes him think of Catan, but for me it's more similar to Imperial Settlers. I didn't watch back when that one came out. Anyone remember if he said the same about that game?
No, Imperial Settlers was not named after Catan, but after the German computer game The Settlers, which was very popular all over Europe for some time. (The first game, released in 1993, was published in the USA as Serf City: Life is Feudal.) The chubby look of the people is also very reminiscent of that series.
I think the game is more compulsively enjoyable than comes across here. It's not fantastic, and it is a bit generic, but it has that junk food feel of going down quick and easy, and wanting to play again and try a different strategy immediately afterwards.
I see alot of people saying this is nothing new, and it's been done before. Which game does this better? I can think of one, Nations: The Dice Game, and Dice Settlers seems better than that. I'd be curious to here some others ...
Nations could be a great game had there been a greater variation. Every Nation is the same, every Leader is the same. Hyperborea did a better job in the "pulling dice out of bag" department than Dice Settlers 4 Years ago and everyone just skipped over it. :-(
I've never played Hyperborea, but it strikes me as a longer game, with much more "take that". dudes on a map, also more expensive, when compare to Dice Settlers?
@@Sir_I.I_William yes, its a strategy game in essence, so no "take that" by Sam's definition. And its acually not that long to play as you don't have that much dudes on the map There is a component cap of 12 meeples iirc and its very hard to put them all on the map. basically, you expand and buy cards (buildings) to get ressources (colored cubes) in your bag. You pull the cubes and distribute them on your player board which activates the actions (move, fight, research etc.). No way, Hyperborea has got more rules than Dice Settlers.
This game was way better than they say it is. I think it need a couple plays to really shine and I dont think Sam and Zee gave it more than that. Its not a 10 but really good
Shadracked I agree with you. I wanted to back this game especially cause of the pedigree of the designer. I still may get it later on, but the KS was too expensive for this type of game. I'm still interested in playing it though.
Same here, I think I would have pulled the trigger at $50, I love the idea of a pseudo-4x game that I could play in a lunch break... but not at that price.
I went ahead and preorded Teotihican from one of the online dealers. I'm still on the fence about Mezo and have to decide soon since the PM just opened. Mayan and Aztec themes have become interesting since I saw the exhibit at the LACMA last year.
problem with kikstarters, it's hard to feel how the game will play until you have it. the deluxe components were great and made the game prettier, especially the REALISTIC resources but for 2 colors, the tents were WAY larger then the other ones, a problem the company admitted slipped by them. i'll have to play it a few more times to feel it out, but since I don't own a LOT of games, i'll probably end up keeping it.
Looks like a game that could have been great 10 years ago or so but now with theme being such a strong driver in games there are too many better options out there
With so many good games out there, and a limited budget, why would I spend my money on a game that the best they could say about it is, "it's not that it's bad...?" Off my list.
because you do realize that at the end it's just their opinion. I have had occasions that I ended up liking games that reviewers I follow didn't enjoy. People tend to follow blindly someone's comments. It's more informative to watch a playthrough.
I'm usually trying to find a game to play with kids and still enjoy it myself. This is one of them ... Have the original edition which I don't think I will switch, altho this one looks a bit nicer (especially the cover). It's cool game to have in a collection if u have kids, if u are a true gamer there are better games to spend money on IMO
I backed Rise Of Tribes and Dice Settlers and, as both of these games are similar, I got rid of RoT quickly because of its lack of depth. Dice Settlers is a step above RoT, if not two, without being complex. Very enjoyable game even if it's not a classic. It can also be played solo easily (I play with 3 simulated players). For me, the only disappointments are the Deluxe components: the tents are way too big to be usable in real game situation and the company is offering an eventual replacement solution.
Feels like prototype - well said. Nice idea of a game but the execution is lacking. Also, like most of kickstarters, they should test the game for 2-3 years and then release it. This is premature.
The game seems okay but I don't see myself needed to own it or play. Too many games like this come out a year, I mean essen has hundreds of games releasing at that point. I don't know, I feel like the hobby is getting drowned in these "unmemorable point salads" (feel the same way with miniature heavy games too) I honestly think KS was the rise and fall of board games. Lots of greats but more mediocrity than I can count The comments here scare me, cause I'm seeing a lot of praise, but in the vein of "it's good for what it is" or "it's not groundbreaking." If I remember in Tom's number 1 of "things publishers need to stop doing" is producing merely "okay" games. Have we become so forgiving, and just accept this as status quo? If you like this genuinely, than all power to you, but I think many become to accepting of mediocrity in board games, and then that's all that hits the market.
There’s no such thing as originality in board gaming. Dice have been created way before what we know as board gaming today. It’s just preference lol. I’m sure some of your top tens is someone’s bottom 100. Besides what did you expect. Board gaming was never exclusive. It’s just another money making industry.
I agree completely, and that follows my biggest (and maybe only) criticism of The Dice Tower and the wonderful Tom Vasel. They simply seem to throw way too much praise after games that are are fine and nothing more. Why really buy this game if you can find 3-4 older games that are much better. I have had too many misses from Kickstarter, the recent one Rise of Tribes, so now I primarily look too older games that have stood the test of time. Just played Concordia for the first time yesterday and I loved it!
I couldn't disagree more. This just sounds like a lazy, broad criticism of eurogames from someone who doesn't love the genre. And regarding Dice Settlers, while the theme is generic, the mechanism of using dice rolling symbols to indicate how explore in a Civ game is quite original - this game isn't rehashing the mechanics of any other game I know of.
@@undersci I never said it was unoriginal, just unmemorable. Saying I hate all euros for my comment on this one is abit near-sighted, but I will agree I enjoy my euros with some bit of thematic ties(hybrids). Games like Concordia, Deus, Terraforming Mars, Scythe, Targi, voyages of Marco Polo, etc. I find to be great and would happily play, because they're fun. What I saw here just seemed "ho-hum" but I'd be willing to give it it's fair shake and demo it, just not in a rush to do so.
To be honest, for me this name gets a lot more mixed in with Dice Town, Dice City, Dice Hospital, Dice Forge, Dice Dice Revolution, Diceurassic Park, Dice 2: The Dice-ening, and... okay I may have gotten carried away at the end there. But seriously, how many games have to be named Dice XYZ? It isn't that bad, really, but it is beginning to feel like a really generic name formula, like "Historical Cultural City". Catan never crossed my mind.
We were two and a half rounds into our first game and I knew that I would never want to play this game again. Generic and dull. With so many really good games available, I don’t have room on my shelf for mediocrity. I regret backing it on Kickstarter. 😔 I retained the upgraded pieces and gave the game away to a local library.
My friend just picked this up at an expo for 25 euro. That seems like a good price for what you get. It's okay, it might be a bit too long, if it was under 60 minutes, it would've been better. The art and design are mediocre, the gameplay is quite fast. And there is more interaction than they are saying. I've used the gun a lot of times to get to the number 1 spot on the tiles. And also like Sam said, often in the end game you throw dice that you can't use, and if you didn't throw a hat or a resource, you're kinda stuck. But that's also a part of the "fun", how can I play this to maximise my output. I think we'll play this like 10 times in our group and then go on with better games.
I think this game is fine for people who haven't had or playes this sort of game before. Not everyone has played all the classics or old greats. But I agree that nothing in this game grabbed me when I watched them play it. It didn't seem bad, just sorta... Forgettable, and there wasn't anything I found captivating or unique And intriguing in the rules.
So this one got a score of 8.0 even if Sam and Zee did not like it......so if this will become Tom's scoring they might as well do individual reviews from now on.....
My first thought in seeing the video is the production quality of the game is surprisingly low. And OMG that artwork is sooo horrible! Those faces on the characters are the worst I've seen in a long time. But otherwise it seems like it could be a good game.
This feels like the most generic game I could imagine. Even the name is bland--I'm sure different permutations of this name have even been used before.
See, not wishing to sound rude, but this is just the sort of game that's making me think I'm coming towards the end of my interest in the hobby. "Hey, here's a game! It's hexes and cubes and dice and points and blah blah blah". Just a box of nothing lost in the mire of the thousands of games that are out there.
I agree the rules of this game have nothing that seems new or imaginative, which is pretty disappointing. It's a bunch of mechanics and resources and rules to remember and the experience doesn't seem very different from similar games. It kind of made me think of a board game created by reddit.com/r/SubredditSimulator/
On the contrary I would say such a reaction means you are not coming to the end of your interest. Instead it means you are leaving the childhood of your interest where it’s all “buy, buy, buy, look how many games I bought this week, look at my shelf of 400 games, I haven’t played 80 of them but I’ve another 40 KS coming” and entering the middle age when you realise you don’t need to buy a game just because it’s been released. You realise you have games to play already, games that are better than this one. You are happy with your lot.
Every board game enthusiast has a different meter on which game they will add to their collection. I still want to add Istanbul to mine haha. There's so many to choose from and I only add 6-8 big games a year not counting small filler games to my collection. Not sure what my point is here but I sure do enjoy The Dice Tower Reviews 😉
I know what you mean, as I've grown I have become less wary and smarter with buying games. Been burned to many times by hype online and my own strong feelings on it. I have bought considerably less this year than the last, and I usually just stick to purchasing expansions for the games I do love, over new (potential) disappointments.
This was my biggest disappointments of 2018 so far. An insta-back for being a bag builder but it is just a weird game with many incongruent elements... and bad components/art. But the worst - It is a luck fest... The dice are not specific enough to give you some certainty as you choose and pull them... and the mitigation mechanisms were not enough... I got turns that I could do nothing while my opponent got a perfect roll... And the “raid” is just not cool... Disappointing...
Friendly suggestion. Dicetower is big enough now to up its presentation style. I like your discussions post explanation of the rules, but your presentation during the latter is underwhelming. Components are not well setup and camera work needs.. well work. Cheers
This game doesn't look like anything special visually or mechanically. Just another themeless, point salad-ish game, which are a dime a dozen at this point. Sigh, I don't know every year it seems there's fewer great games in the ocean of mediocrity that releases. Hard pass on this one
Boy I can't disagree with these guys more. This is a Light Strategy game to be sure, but it's not dull and boring at all. The rules (especially the dice manipulation) are bit overbaked and busy, but once you've played a few rounds, this is a nice 'mid-tier' filler game that my group really enjoys. And if your group is stuck deep in a 'cooperatives' rut, this game has just a tiny taste of conflict to help break free of that genre. "I feel like I've done this before." Yeah well according to boardgamegeek.com, there might be TWO other games that are similar to this, so I dont know what Zee is even going on about. He comes off as just being bored with doing reviews instead of being bored with this game. It has quickly become one of my groups favorite "not everyone is here yet and we have 40 minutes to kill" games. We dont call each other and say, "lets have a Dice Settlers night" but we might decide to play a game like Eldritch Horror, and if a few people are running late, we pull this one out while we wait. I really like this game. I got a feeling that these guys looked at the box (whose cover art looks like it successfully met a deadline) and already had most of their review set. "I had to look at the back of the box and oh yeah now I remember playing this game." Maybe this is just me talking, but if you're being paid to review a game, and you have no recollection of having played it, maybe you're not prepared to do a review. Maybe you should play more. And also: these guys sound like they played it once. At least for me and my group, the first time with EVERY Game is a boring chore of referencing rules, confused strategies, and undoing mistakes. Feels like a rookie move to say "we played it once, then when I got here to do the review, I didn't remember playing it so I looked at the back of the box and it started coming back to me." Your potentially problematic recollection shouldn't be a component of your professional game reviews, dad.
I liked Sam's answer, on confrontation vs take that.
I can understand where the guys are coming from considering at this is their business this is what they do but coming from someone that's more of a mid-range gamer I'm definitely not an expert and I'm definitely not a novice I absolutely love this game. It plays very well, it's easy to teach, and just about every game that I've played has been very close and extremely well balanced. I would highly recommend this game to anybody that is getting into the genre or is kind of a moderate gamer.
This just goes to show that reviews are just one man's opinion. Also, keep in mind these guys likely play many MANY more games than most, and it's far easier to burn out or 'see it all'
That doesn't change the fact that the game is a bore fest.
And by the way, you are not supposed to make a buying decision hearing their opninion, but watching the gameplay/explanation. If you like that, than doesn't matter anything.
Oh, man, you are making a big mistake. Just because you love it (good for you!), you don't have to recommend it. I know nothing about you. You know nothing about the other viewers. So your taste means nothing to us, only to yourself. I have lots of games that I love, which I would not recommend on open forums, and I have games I hate, which I recommend. Because my taste is not the center of the universe.
Check out the other opinions about the game, and reconsider your recommendation.
"I would highly recommend this game to anybody "
Why? It is the most irresponsible thing you can do. Why not recommend something way better in this weight range and style? If I'll buy this and hate it, than you will be responsible for it, no?
I've been enjoying this game a lot.
I feel like Gold West is a better version of this thematically but if you're in it for the dice this might be a winner. Gotta have tents though!
So this is it. Dice Settlers is THE game that will be remembered as the beginning of the implosion of the far over extended board game renaissance.
No mention of Roll for the Galaxy either in the video or in the comments? For me this felt like an almost exact copy of RftG, with a changed theme, and an added element of area control (and a couple of other minor tweaks). Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but are there not REALLY STRONG similarities? Enough to get a mention I mean?
Tom keeps on about how the name makes him think of Catan, but for me it's more similar to Imperial Settlers. I didn't watch back when that one came out. Anyone remember if he said the same about that game?
Catan was called for 20 years Settlers. Hence the name Imperial Settlers.
No, Imperial Settlers was not named after Catan, but after the German computer game The Settlers, which was very popular all over Europe for some time. (The first game, released in 1993, was published in the USA as Serf City: Life is Feudal.) The chubby look of the people is also very reminiscent of that series.
I think the game is more compulsively enjoyable than comes across here. It's not fantastic, and it is a bit generic, but it has that junk food feel of going down quick and easy, and wanting to play again and try a different strategy immediately afterwards.
Thank you for this review. You just saved me $65
“Deluxe” version components are jacked up. Company will be replacing them for backers.
wolflarson71 I gave my copy away but I retained the deluxe pieces. (I’ll reuse them for better games.)
I see alot of people saying this is nothing new, and it's been done before. Which game does this better? I can think of one, Nations: The Dice Game, and Dice Settlers seems better than that. I'd be curious to here some others ...
Nations could be a great game had there been a greater variation. Every Nation is the same, every Leader is the same.
Hyperborea did a better job in the "pulling dice out of bag" department than Dice Settlers 4 Years ago and everyone just skipped over it. :-(
I've never played Hyperborea, but it strikes me as a longer game, with much more "take that". dudes on a map, also more expensive, when compare to Dice Settlers?
@@Sir_I.I_William yes, its a strategy game in essence, so no "take that" by Sam's definition. And its acually not that long to play as you don't have that much dudes on the map There is a component cap of 12 meeples iirc and its very hard to put them all on the map.
basically, you expand and buy cards (buildings) to get ressources (colored cubes) in your bag. You pull the cubes and distribute them on your player board which activates the actions (move, fight, research etc.).
No way, Hyperborea has got more rules than Dice Settlers.
I even fell asleep watching the rules explanations, and it wasn't because of Tom (I think)
Is this game pretty good and repayable solo?
This game was way better than they say it is. I think it need a couple plays to really shine and I dont think Sam and Zee gave it more than that. Its not a 10 but really good
This game looked interesting during the KS, but I passed because of the $75 price tag. It didn't seem like there was enough game for $75, or even $50.
Shadracked I agree with you. I wanted to back this game especially cause of the pedigree of the designer. I still may get it later on, but the KS was too expensive for this type of game. I'm still interested in playing it though.
Same here, I think I would have pulled the trigger at $50, I love the idea of a pseudo-4x game that I could play in a lunch break... but not at that price.
I took a look at it so I could get Teotihuacan along with the pledge. There was not enough meat there for me to get it, especially at that price.
I went ahead and preorded Teotihican from one of the online dealers. I'm still on the fence about Mezo and have to decide soon since the PM just opened. Mayan and Aztec themes have become interesting since I saw the exhibit at the LACMA last year.
problem with kikstarters, it's hard to feel how the game will play until you have it. the deluxe components were great and made the game prettier, especially the REALISTIC resources but for 2 colors, the tents were WAY larger then the other ones, a problem the company admitted slipped by them. i'll have to play it a few more times to feel it out, but since I don't own a LOT of games, i'll probably end up keeping it.
the hexagonal tiles IMO are the drabest thing about the game. not much to look at.
Looks like a game that could have been great 10 years ago or so but now with theme being such a strong driver in games there are too many better options out there
I like these comments that agree with them, although haven't played the game even once.
With so many good games out there, and a limited budget, why would I spend my money on a game that the best they could say about it is, "it's not that it's bad...?" Off my list.
Agree completely, even Tom was a bit placid on his liking it.
because you do realize that at the end it's just their opinion. I have had occasions that I ended up liking games that reviewers I follow didn't enjoy. People tend to follow blindly someone's comments. It's more informative to watch a playthrough.
Yeah, I had actually seen other reviews, and watched a play-through. It was teetering to begin with. This review just nudged it off the list.
I'm usually trying to find a game to play with kids and still enjoy it myself. This is one of them ... Have the original edition which I don't think I will switch, altho this one looks a bit nicer (especially the cover). It's cool game to have in a collection if u have kids, if u are a true gamer there are better games to spend money on IMO
Jelena Matejic same here only that I play this with old people.
I backed Rise Of Tribes and Dice Settlers and, as both of these games are similar, I got rid of RoT quickly because of its lack of depth. Dice Settlers is a step above RoT, if not two, without being complex. Very enjoyable game even if it's not a classic. It can also be played solo easily (I play with 3 simulated players). For me, the only disappointments are the Deluxe components: the tents are way too big to be usable in real game situation and the company is offering an eventual replacement solution.
Feels like prototype - well said. Nice idea of a game but the execution is lacking. Also, like most of kickstarters, they should test the game for 2-3 years and then release it. This is premature.
I'd pay $10 for it.
Good is not good enough anymore. Why would anyone recommend this over some other great game?
The game seems okay but I don't see myself needed to own it or play. Too many games like this come out a year, I mean essen has hundreds of games releasing at that point.
I don't know, I feel like the hobby is getting drowned in these "unmemorable point salads" (feel the same way with miniature heavy games too) I honestly think KS was the rise and fall of board games. Lots of greats but more mediocrity than I can count
The comments here scare me, cause I'm seeing a lot of praise, but in the vein of "it's good for what it is" or "it's not groundbreaking." If I remember in Tom's number 1 of "things publishers need to stop doing" is producing merely "okay" games. Have we become so forgiving, and just accept this as status quo? If you like this genuinely, than all power to you, but I think many become to accepting of mediocrity in board games, and then that's all that hits the market.
There’s no such thing as originality in board gaming. Dice have been created way before what we know as board gaming today. It’s just preference lol. I’m sure some of your top tens is someone’s bottom 100. Besides what did you expect. Board gaming was never exclusive. It’s just another money making industry.
The guy from scythe (can't remember his name) just recently acknowledged that only 20% of KS games appear in the top 100 most played games on BGG.
I agree completely, and that follows my biggest (and maybe only) criticism of The Dice Tower and the wonderful Tom Vasel. They simply seem to throw way too much praise after games that are are fine and nothing more. Why really buy this game if you can find 3-4 older games that are much better. I have had too many misses from Kickstarter, the recent one Rise of Tribes, so now I primarily look too older games that have stood the test of time. Just played Concordia for the first time yesterday and I loved it!
I couldn't disagree more. This just sounds like a lazy, broad criticism of eurogames from someone who doesn't love the genre. And regarding Dice Settlers, while the theme is generic, the mechanism of using dice rolling symbols to indicate how explore in a Civ game is quite original - this game isn't rehashing the mechanics of any other game I know of.
@@undersci I never said it was unoriginal, just unmemorable. Saying I hate all euros for my comment on this one is abit near-sighted, but I will agree I enjoy my euros with some bit of thematic ties(hybrids). Games like Concordia, Deus, Terraforming Mars, Scythe, Targi, voyages of Marco Polo, etc. I find to be great and would happily play, because they're fun. What I saw here just seemed "ho-hum" but I'd be willing to give it it's fair shake and demo it, just not in a rush to do so.
To be honest, for me this name gets a lot more mixed in with Dice Town, Dice City, Dice Hospital, Dice Forge, Dice Dice Revolution, Diceurassic Park, Dice 2: The Dice-ening, and... okay I may have gotten carried away at the end there.
But seriously, how many games have to be named Dice XYZ? It isn't that bad, really, but it is beginning to feel like a really generic name formula, like "Historical Cultural City".
Catan never crossed my mind.
Dice throne
I want the last three games you mentioned
We were two and a half rounds into our first game and I knew that I would never want to play this game again. Generic and dull. With so many really good games available, I don’t have room on my shelf for mediocrity.
I regret backing it on Kickstarter. 😔 I retained the upgraded pieces and gave the game away to a local library.
My friend just picked this up at an expo for 25 euro. That seems like a good price for what you get. It's okay, it might be a bit too long, if it was under 60 minutes, it would've been better. The art and design are mediocre, the gameplay is quite fast. And there is more interaction than they are saying. I've used the gun a lot of times to get to the number 1 spot on the tiles. And also like Sam said, often in the end game you throw dice that you can't use, and if you didn't throw a hat or a resource, you're kinda stuck. But that's also a part of the "fun", how can I play this to maximise my output. I think we'll play this like 10 times in our group and then go on with better games.
I think this game is fine for people who haven't had or playes this sort of game before. Not everyone has played all the classics or old greats.
But I agree that nothing in this game grabbed me when I watched them play it. It didn't seem bad, just sorta... Forgettable, and there wasn't anything I found captivating or unique And intriguing in the rules.
So this one got a score of 8.0 even if Sam and Zee did not like it......so if this will become Tom's scoring they might as well do individual reviews from now on.....
They always use the highest rating that was given by any of them, not just Tom.
Not an eye catcher.
My first thought in seeing the video is the production quality of the game is surprisingly low. And OMG that artwork is sooo horrible! Those faces on the characters are the worst I've seen in a long time. But otherwise it seems like it could be a good game.
@@jcatterwaul I guess you told me! The other 3rd graders must be so proud of you for that comeback!
This feels like the most generic game I could imagine. Even the name is bland--I'm sure different permutations of this name have even been used before.
See, not wishing to sound rude, but this is just the sort of game that's making me think I'm coming towards the end of my interest in the hobby. "Hey, here's a game! It's hexes and cubes and dice and points and blah blah blah". Just a box of nothing lost in the mire of the thousands of games that are out there.
I agree the rules of this game have nothing that seems new or imaginative, which is pretty disappointing. It's a bunch of mechanics and resources and rules to remember and the experience doesn't seem very different from similar games. It kind of made me think of a board game created by reddit.com/r/SubredditSimulator/
On the contrary I would say such a reaction means you are not coming to the end of your interest. Instead it means you are leaving the childhood of your interest where it’s all “buy, buy, buy, look how many games I bought this week, look at my shelf of 400 games, I haven’t played 80 of them but I’ve another 40 KS coming” and entering the middle age when you realise you don’t need to buy a game just because it’s been released. You realise you have games to play already, games that are better than this one. You are happy with your lot.
@@cthulwho8197 I'll take that, sounds very Zen!
Every board game enthusiast has a different meter on which game they will add to their collection. I still want to add Istanbul to mine haha. There's so many to choose from and I only add 6-8 big games a year not counting small filler games to my collection. Not sure what my point is here but I sure do enjoy The Dice Tower Reviews 😉
I know what you mean, as I've grown I have become less wary and smarter with buying games. Been burned to many times by hype online and my own strong feelings on it. I have bought considerably less this year than the last, and I usually just stick to purchasing expansions for the games I do love, over new (potential) disappointments.
This was my biggest disappointments of 2018 so far. An insta-back for being a bag builder but it is just a weird game with many incongruent elements... and bad components/art. But the worst - It is a luck fest... The dice are not specific enough to give you some certainty as you choose and pull them... and the mitigation mechanisms were not enough... I got turns that I could do nothing while my opponent got a perfect roll... And the “raid” is just not cool... Disappointing...
What really stood out to me was the art is poor. Not horrible but not good.
Friendly suggestion. Dicetower is big enough now to up its presentation style. I like your discussions post explanation of the rules, but your presentation during the latter is underwhelming. Components are not well setup and camera work needs.. well work. Cheers
KHAAAM - pus
This game doesn't look like anything special visually or mechanically. Just another themeless, point salad-ish game, which are a dime a dozen at this point. Sigh, I don't know every year it seems there's fewer great games in the ocean of mediocrity that releases. Hard pass on this one
Boy I can't disagree with these guys more. This is a Light Strategy game to be sure, but it's not dull and boring at all. The rules (especially the dice manipulation) are bit overbaked and busy, but once you've played a few rounds, this is a nice 'mid-tier' filler game that my group really enjoys. And if your group is stuck deep in a 'cooperatives' rut, this game has just a tiny taste of conflict to help break free of that genre. "I feel like I've done this before." Yeah well according to boardgamegeek.com, there might be TWO other games that are similar to this, so I dont know what Zee is even going on about. He comes off as just being bored with doing reviews instead of being bored with this game. It has quickly become one of my groups favorite "not everyone is here yet and we have 40 minutes to kill" games. We dont call each other and say, "lets have a Dice Settlers night" but we might decide to play a game like Eldritch Horror, and if a few people are running late, we pull this one out while we wait. I really like this game.
I got a feeling that these guys looked at the box (whose cover art looks like it successfully met a deadline) and already had most of their review set. "I had to look at the back of the box and oh yeah now I remember playing this game."
Maybe this is just me talking, but if you're being paid to review a game, and you have no recollection of having played it, maybe you're not prepared to do a review. Maybe you should play more. And also: these guys sound like they played it once. At least for me and my group, the first time with EVERY Game is a boring chore of referencing rules, confused strategies, and undoing mistakes. Feels like a rookie move to say "we played it once, then when I got here to do the review, I didn't remember playing it so I looked at the back of the box and it started coming back to me." Your potentially problematic recollection shouldn't be a component of your professional game reviews, dad.
This game is beyond bland ... why would anyone buy this
Terrible name