I love being introduced to a new game when someone knows my style of gaming and the games I like. They already have a strong idea that I am going to appreciate what they are bringing to the table and that very much turned out to be the case here.
That being said, they didn’t do the best job of explaining the rules so it perhaps took a little longer than it should have to understand what was going on. Thankfully the perseverance was worth it.
An old enemy.
This is the first game perhaps where the back story wasn’t pitched well at all to me and the point of what I was trying to achieve didn’t really make sense. After playing the game and reading up on this, things made so much more sense, this really highlighting the importance of reading the creators theme and back story.
In Dice Miner, you play a Dwarf hero in a post war era against age old foes of dragons. The dragons however have returned and disrupted the prosperous times the Dwarves have enjoyed, forcing them back underground and into battle once again. The Dwarves need to mine the mountain and draft the dice to build a score, and defeat old foes.
Mining the mountain.
The mountain set up of dice is really quite cool, and allows for so many combinations of scoring. Check the picture out.
The game is for 1-4 people (optional solo play) and will take around 30 minutes. Players each take their unique dwarven hero that brings some unique attributes also to the game, different from what your opponents will have.
There are 5 different types of D6 that bring different attributes to the games for players to build their score. These dice are for tunnelling, hazards, tools, treasure & magic. Players fill the mountain with 20 dice (60 dice available.)
The game is spread over 3 rounds, hence the 60 dice. Players have to create the best combinations each round from the images printed on the dice and take it in turns in order to do so. Scoring is calculated at the end of each round and totalled at the end of round 3.
Play is then broken down into 4 phases, mining, magic, scoring and replenish.
During the mining phase players take it in turns to mine then mountain. After this magic can be used to change the results of excavated dice. Players then score the dice they have in the third
part of the round before replenishing phase and resetting the mountain. I’ve really skimmed over the rules there but they are quite straight forward.
Greedy Dwarves digging too deep.
The theming of Dice Miner really is spot on in how it has been created. I love the look of the mountain filled with dice. Given the mountains are the homelands of the dwarven race it sets that backdrop so well. Then when it is filled with dice, all players’ eyes light up with the potential jewels filled within it and how they may start to build a score.
That is then what it is all about, drafting those dice to score those combinations and points and the gaming mechanics really are clever in how you can gamble here and there to improve your situation and get the big scores.
There are perils laid within the mountain though, particularly with the hazards in the form of boulders and dragons. If you mismanage this element then you are losing points, potentially lots of points and that is truly wounding.
I love the beer items as well. The opportunity to take the dice and roll it to an opponent and shout “cheers”, they must accept the result given to them and that is not always appreciated. It is also fun and a highly engaging part of the game for all players.
Final Thought.
Dice Miner is a highly fun and social game with a great theme running through it. It’s set up isn’t really like many games I’ve seen before and I hugely appreciated that. It is a game I would happily play again.
