Dice Kingdoms of Valeria: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Engine Builder, Roll and Write
Player Age: 8+Player Count: 1 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 30 - 45 Minutes
Game Designer: Levi MoteGame Artist: Mihajlo DimitrievskiPublisher: Daily Magic GamesYear Published: 2022BGG Weight: 2.00
Player Age: 8+
Game Designer: Levi Mote
Introduction:
The vibrant world of Valeria has added another game mechanic to its extensive catalogue, roll and write. In the game you are filling the map in many ways including your gold reserves, monsters battled, and the roads traveled. Each time you traverse one of these tracks you may gain additional rewards that will have a cascading bonus effect to give a rush of rewards.
Game Anatomy:
Dice:
There are six dice in total; two that will activate your citizens and be explained further in the harvest phase, as well as four action dice to be used in the action phase of a turn. The active player will choose one die and achieve the action associated with it.
Green Die:
The green die allows for travel. This die will let the player move on the road equal to the movement or until the player reaches another domain. When first starting your game, you have to start at one of the filled-in spaces. After that you simply have to continue on an already existing path or open another path using the starter filled-in spaces. The domains will either unlock special effects that allow the player to manipulate dice or instantly gain a citizen matching one of the four guilds.
Yellow Die:
This die allows for gaining citizens. The player gains the citizen of the matching number in their citizen section. Each number can have two citizens, and is useful in the harvest section of every turn.
Red Die:
This die allows for battle against the creatures (monster lair). The first player to slay each creature will get the best score, followed by a smaller score available for the second successful player. When taking this action, you first have to meet the value to fill in a pip, and then you have to fill in the leftmost space. This is also the fastest way to gold as you will gain one gold for battling the creature.
Blue Die:
Like magic in other Valeria games the blue die doesn't do anything on its own but when combined with another coloured die, it can make that action stronger by increasing the value of the action by the value on the blue die.
Reward Pips:
Everything you do and each track in 'Dice Kingdoms of Valeria' is filled with different bonus pips. These pips include things like moving along on other tacks, gaining a citizen, gaining a statue card or gaining victory points. See the image below for a full breakdown.
Key tracks:
The game is filled with numerous tracks that can seem daunting at first but make plenty of sense when you're playing.
Gold chart:
The gold chart is the only way you can gain statue cards that let you score end-game bonus effects.
The statue cards have a scoring effect and a number that will identify the effect in the rulebook.
Wall:
These knights surrounding the wall will help you slay the monsters throughout the game by gaining slay reward pips and even score you victory points towards the end of the track.
Setup:
- Each player takes a writing utensil, a castle sheet and a forest sheet.
- Write the name of your castle on the top of the castle sheet.
- Divide the statue cards into two stacks (night and day) shuffle both stacks and place the day stack on top of the night. Now Reveal the top 6 statues.
- Randomly chose the starting player and give them all 6 dice and the starting player token.
How to Play:
The game is easy to learn, and it will have you at the table in no time. There is the roll phase, harvest phase, and action phase.
Roll Phase:
The active player rolls all six dice.
Harvest Phase:
All players will play this phase simultaneously on every turn based on the two harvest dice. The dice will activate three citizens, the number on the first and second dice separately, as well as the total of dice. For example, if a 2 and a 6 were rolled the 2, 6, and 8 citizens will activate.
For each activated citizen, count the number of marked pips they have and then fill in the matching number of pips into the matching guild track. If no numbers matched your citizens this turn then you can select any guild track to fill in one pip.
Action Phase:
Now the active player will choose which action die they want to resolve, as explained in the game anatomy.
Scoring:
Play will continue in turns until one player has completed three out of four of the guild tracks. The round will then be fully played out. Then players will score their statues, victory point reward pips, monsters slayed, and the total of domains visited. Whichever player has the highest score is the winner.
Final Thoughts:
Key Points:
- Daunting at first but once the pips are learnt then the game is easy to understand.
- Fast gameplay.
- Uses one of my favourite mechanisms from Valeria Card Kingdoms.
- Constant rush with the cascading bonuses from pips.
- Excellent implementation of Valeria's magic resource.
- If you didn't like the abundance of rewards gained in the Valeria Card Kingdoms then this won't change your mind.
Dice Kingdoms of Valeria has positively captured the essence of one of the favoured, Valeria Card Kingdoms and condensed the experience into a bite-sized roll and write. The presence of the game makes it feel like a larger roll and write but the engaging gameplay and constant cascading bonuses will have you playing this game in quick concession. The implementation of the magic dice adds an abundance of choices when deciding how to best navigate an action phase. All players are engaged in each turn as everyone reaps some benefits. The amount of benefits is based on how you set up your citizens and the luck of the dice. If you enjoy the Valeria world and especially Valeria Card Kingdoms, while also enjoying the quick gameplay of roll and writes and cascading bonuses then this is one I heavily recommend. It will even be entering my lineup for go-to roll and writes, as well as earning a Go-To Golden Game Seal.
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