Yesterday (Sunday), less than an hour after posting my "How'd I miss this??" confession/shame and saying how in the very near future I'd be purchasing my Rise of Fenris expansion for my favourite game in my collection, I came across (another) bargain I couldn't pass up.
A week or two ago, I purchased the kickstarter version + a couple expansions with Dungeon Roll for $10 from Facebook Marketplace here locally. Great find. But yesterday came an even better one; D-Day Dice (1st ed) + an expansion for $20. 😁
Honestly, I knew only a small bit about this game despite it being on my "like to have" section of my BGG wishlist. The combination of luck and strategy is fun to me and a nice variety to have on my shelf.
When I unboxed the game last night after dinner I was very pleased with what I saw;
-lots of custom dice (*insert JW's excitement here*)
-lots of cards
-Recommendations for making solo missions easier or harder
....and my personal favourite (and to my surprise), eight playable mission maps!!! Wow! (4-double sided heavy duty maps)
The footprint is pretty small overall.
-Lots going on with each map
-Plenty of options for your strategy
-Yet reasonably small overall and durable
-And you aren't always using all cards etc.. Depending on your mission (which keeps the space needed down)
The game is going to have lots of replayability, variety and learning curves I think because you really have to balance your strategy. You need units to fight (and not die... a good plan I quickly learned), but you also need courage to advance (and/or gain awards), item points to purchase tools/items to help your troops along the way, and stars to purchase specialists who help you out in their own way... Easier said than done! That's a lot to consider and only 6-dice to help with that each turn. 😎 And they can definitely work against you at times.
Each turn/round has five phases with the fifth phase always being combat. I.e. - units get shot. Your goal is to complete your mission without losing all your units/soldiers. Seems reasonable eh? That's where the game tricks you! LOL Oh! I should also add that you can only stay in a sector for so long before you're forced to move laterally into a new sector OR advance (if you have the courage). Again, seems reasonably right? But depending on your map, you may have other factors like mines or machine guns to deal with that kill off more units! Yikes!
Once I got a handle of the rules, I played the "Exercise Tiger" basic training mission (that's me on the right during my basic training by the way). 🤣This allows you to just get used to some of the mechanics, turn phases etc... With this training mission, you only need to be concerned with units and courage. Well that makes things much easier. I almost made it to the bunker my first run through (which is the target). During my second attempt at the basic training mission, once I got a handle on the rules etc, I made it no problem and had plenty of units to spare. On to the "Advanced Training Mission" with "Exercise Tiger" map. This is a whole different ball game. As I said, now you have many things to consider. Ultimately though, without the unit numbers you're in trouble.
I see this being a primarily solo game for me, in particular due to the theme most likely. But I like the fact that the game is relatively the same solo or multiplayer. Multiplayer would help by adding in another mind for strategy and help along the way. My 12-year old seems to enjoy dice-chuckers though so who knows, maybe she'll attempt some missions with her Dad. The neat thing is, multiplayer play is co-op. So that will bring a fun new element if someone does play with me.
The expansion I got with it adds more great variability to the game. This allows multiplayer competitive play, as one player will play as the Germans (rather than the Allies that we typically are for the missions). It also would then allow up to 5-players to play the game. The other fun thing is that, the expansion has a solo mode as well!!! Yay!!
I'm very pleased with this find. 😀
I own the second edition and I love it. Enjoy!