Game Review: Dice Masters

Age: 14+
Game Time: 30 to 60 min
Players: 2

Front of Age of Ultron Dice Masters starter set box

Dice Masters is a competitive game that is part card-collecting, part hand management, part deck building, and all fun!

The gist of the game is to take your opponent from 20 health to 0 by attacking with a variety of villians, heroes, and sidekicks. To bring a die into your bag, you must purchase it using energy. This same energy is used to bring the hero dice into the battlefield. Once drawn, these dice have powerful abilities that work within different teams and rolls. Add in the possibility for special action cards to be used and you have a game where strategy and risk management is paramount to bringing you to victory.

Mats like this D&D one are used in play to track turns. It looks confusing, but gets easier the more you play.

I was introduced to this game by a friend who was looking for people to play with and found that the community was dwindling. I was so surprised because this is an affordable game using a gamer’s best friend – dice. It even has so many flavours that I can’t imagine why more people aren’t getting into it! Below here are some of the flavours you can find:

• DC Comics
  • Batman
  • Green Arrow and the Flash
  • Justice League
  • Superman and Wonder Woman
  • War of Light
  • World’s Finest
• Dungeons and Dragons (D&D)
  • Tomb of Annihilation
  • Faerûn Under Siege
  • Battle for Faerûn
• Marvel DC
  • The Mighty Thor
  • X-Men First Class
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Defenders
  • Iron Man and War Machine
  • Deadpool
  • Doctor Strange
  • Civil War
  • Amazing Spider-Man
  • Age of Ultron
  • Avengers vs. X-Men
  • Uncanny X-Men
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • Heroes in a Half Shell
  • TMNT
• Yu-Gi-Oh!

I honestly wish I could collect the sets. They appeal to all my fandoms. Didn’t find one you like? Just wait a little bit. They are releasing new ones all the time. From what I can see on the WizKids website there is a Warhammer 40K one coming soon. Find one you like? You can probably find these in your gaming venue for a fantastic price.

What’s that? Not cool enough? Did I mention that it has organized play? The last Canadian National Championships were held in Gatineau, Quebec right outside Ottawa! The World Championships? This year at PAX Unplugged in Nov 2018. The prize? Apart from the bragging rights you also get a factory set of The Mighty Thor.

For more information on the WizKids network, check out: http://win.wizkids.com/wp/ or check in with your local gaming venue.

 

Game Reviews: Dragon Slayer

Recommended Age: 6+
# of players: 2 to 5
Playing Time: 15 min

For the discerning adventurer who wants to slay dragons easily from the comfort of their home, there is Dragon Slayer. This game allows you to push your luck in attempting to defeat more dragons that your opponents. Push it too far and you’re dragon chow.

This game is easy to pick up and play. Great for conventions while you wait for others to show up, or for a quick game that needs little set up or take down.

See your friendly, local gaming venue for more information!

Dragon slaying dice

 

Game Review: Fortune and Glory

Players: 1-8
Age: 12+
Playing time: 60-180 minutes

Grab your news cap, and put on your best old timey news golden voice because Fortune and Glory will launch you into the pulp adventure of your dreams as you battle to find relics, fight Nazis, and unearth tombs to gather the most fortune and glory.

Fortune and Glory cover from BoardGameGeek.com

I originally saw this played on Tabletop a long while ago and I knew I had to play it. My love of character voicing meant that I could bring this game to the next level. Pair into this my love of antiquities, mythology, and Indiana Jones, and you get a fanboy of epic proportions.

The game has two modes to play: cooperative and competitive. Our review will focus on a two-player competitive game using quick start rules.

My partner and I randomly picked our characters and it was the Russian scientist against a New York journalist. From the get go, it had a story of epic proportions. Communist versus Democracy, Science versus Art, Man versus Woman, there were plenty of themes that made this an epic confrontation.

Fortune and Glory near the end of our game.

As we got started, there was a lot of rules looking up, but it felt light and fun the more we played. Even my partner who doesn’t enjoy strategy loved the narrative that this game provided. Most adventures have a bit of chance to them, so the dice rolling felt exciting to see if we would end of a cliffhanger or continue throughout our adventure.

With lots of cards, tokens, dice, and miniatures, this game is huge. The box itself had considerable heft and is bursting out the seams with fun. I am definitely putting this on my must have list.

Game Review: Tsuro of the Seas

Players: 2-8

Time: 40 min

Ages: 8+

Full disclosure: I love dragons. They are powerful, animalistic, masters of their element. They come in so many flavours and lores! It’s one of the reasons I was excited to be a Dungeon Master. I could be a dragon! Tsuro gives you a chance to be a dragon AND a sailor trying to brave the blustery seas avoiding said dragons.

While this game revolves around strategy, there is also a luck component that you need to incorporate that was not present in its predecessor: Tsuro. The dragons (daikaiju) activate whenever a roll of 6, 7, 8 on two six-sided dice and perform. These are very common rolls, so there’s plenty of dragon dodging. After the dragons activate, you play a wake tile to move your wake riding sailor (I call mine Link) along to the edge.

Easy to learn, and easy to love. I highly recommend this game. I could easily have played this all day!