I've always been fond of dice, which is why even though I have thousands of them spread throughout the many games I own I still find it useful to have a drawer with many hundreds more stored up. I like having different sizes and shapes - and convince myself that the dice are useful for teaching, RPGs, and replacements for other board games. Monster Dice (Three Sages Games, 2006 - Steve Ong) is a game that provides players a chance to use all of these dice in a pseudo-war game, using the dice themselves as both miniatures and as their own battle randomizers.
As a small product that simply allows a player to utilize existing dice they already own, I suppose that Monster Dice is an interesting and fun idea. Sadly for me, however, the execution just didn't really live up to my initial impressions. The armies certainly don't seem tremendously balanced, there's a huge dollop of luck involved, and the rules, while being mercifully short, were probably too vague. The company itself does admit that Monster Dice is really simply a silly game - and I can accept it for that - but it may be just a bit too silly for me. I had visions of glory moving around armies of dice, and that just didn't come to fruition here.
Each player chooses an army card that tells a little about their forces on it, as well as which dice they use, and any special abilities that they might have. For example, the Pink-Eye army uses one D20, one D8, and two D6. (The number following the "D" is the number of faces on that die.) Two or more of the unused army cards are flipped and placed on the table to form a map - made up of many hexes. Most of the hexes on this map are clear, but some represent different types of terrain (woods, etc.) Players place their units on the row of hexes closest to them; dice are rolled - with the higher rolling player going first.
On a player's turn, they simply move their units then attack, if they can. On the army card, the movement of each unit is shown, between two and four hexes. Units can move across the board, but some terrain hexes subtract from the total number of hexes that can be moved. At the same time, a few units can ignore certain terrain restrictions. If a unit is adjacent to another unit, they may attack. Both units roll their dice; and if the attacker's die roll is higher, they have struck the defender. The attacker rolls again, inflicting that much damage on the defender. If a die receives damage equal to or exceeding their hit points (which are equal to the amount of faces on the die), it is killed and removed from the board.
Units can assist others when they attack, and others have special abilities - such as healing or ranged attacks. When any player has all of their units eliminated, they lose the game, giving the victory to the other!
Some comments on the game…
1.) Components: The main component of the game is dice, which are usually plentiful in the collection of any gamer. The actual components of Monster Dice are the cards with the armies on them. Each card is laminated and of good quality, showing the armies statistics in a nice, formatted way. The maps on the back are less impressive, showing an interlocking grid of hexes. Unfortunately, the hexes can only connect the cards on two sides, limiting the amount of ways terrain can be made. The graphics are also rather lackluster, showing a few black and white symbols, with a negative modifier listed. Still, considering the price of the game, the components are decent enough - I just wish some more time had been spent with the maps. One more problem came from tracking hit points on the dice. The rules suggest paper or counters, both which are tremendously fiddly. We attempted to use the dice themselves, keeping their current hit points on their top facing - but even that was a bit confusing. Fortunately, there aren't too many different units, so it's not too hard to keep track.
2.) Rules: I was very disappointed with the rules, which are only listed on one side of one of the cards. While one can pretty much deduce the game from them, there are a tremendous amount of unanswered questions left by them? How many players can play? How do dice assist in an attack? Which terrain symbol stands for what? These and other questions can be decided by the players in the game, but they shouldn't have to be - the rules should have covered it. The game isn't difficult to learn or teach, but vague rules such as are included can often be worse than detailed, overdone rules like in some miniature games.
3.) Armies: I really don't think that the armies are balanced, or that any real effort was taken to playtest this point. Now, I understand that the game is supposed to be a lighthearted affair; but when one army, notably the Four Fangs Goblin Tribe, simply rolls over the opponent time and time again, it's simply too powerful. Some effort was put into a background story for each army, but it's still hard to avoid the fact that the units are simply dice.
4.) Dice and Fun Factor: Where there are dice, there is luck. That is most certainly true in Monster Dice, where an eight-sided die can get extremely lucky and impale a twenty-sided die. For a light hearted romp, this type of luck is acceptable, but it made strategy and tactics basically worthless. Move dice, roll them. Move dice, roll them. I don't mind this silliness, but I didn't enjoy it much either. The special abilities of the dice come into play occasionally, but only a few of them really matter (such as those of the Four Fangs Goblin Tribe).
I feel bad saying much negative towards Monster Dice, because it really does accomplish its goal - allowing a player to use their extra dice for a silly, time-consuming battle. My problem is that I've played so many better games that can take place in the same amount of time, and this one is so based on luck that I just have a hard time enjoying it. It may be a fun, light-hearted romp for some, and I would not detract from their fun. They just won't enjoy the game with me.
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.tomvasel.com
