Dragon Dice

If you can find someone to play it with, this is a great short game. If you can find someone to play it with. When Dragon Dice first came out, people were hot for it. It was semi-collectable, played quickly, and was fairly simple to learn. There were no complications with multiple players, and there was strategy to it. Like most things, though, TSR ran this puppy into the ground by putting out too much product too quickly.

The premise of Dragon Dice is simple: four armies (the sea elves, the lava elves, the dwarves, and the goblins) are fighting for control of the land. A number of points are decided upon and dice are chosen, larger dice (more powerful) cost more points but have special abilities, while the middle and smaller dice do well as masses. The dice are divided by the player into three armies (home, campaign, and horde) however the player chooses. Each player picks a home land type (races get bonuses for some types of terrain, so it's always in your best interest to choose carefully) and a roll-off is done to decide who gets to pick the third land. You place your armies and start rolling.

The objective of the game (with two players) is to control two of the three terrain dice and have the highest value (8) showing. Each face of the terrain die has a symbol for missile, magic, or melee. Only that type of attack can be performed at that site. Your army tries to maneuver to change the face of the die one position (up or down), while the opponent tries to block; at the end of your turn, the roles are switched. During your turn you can (if the site allows it) shoot missiles at the other player's armies, cast spells, engage in melee combat with the enemy, or move troops from one site to another. It seems fairly simple, but that's where the strategy comes in.

Each die is "specialized" at something: combat, movement, magic, missile fire, etc. Many times, the entire group will be themed; for instance: an all-melee dice army. If they get the chance to attack you, you could be in hurting status. But they are limited by what the face of the terrain die says they can do. When you heard the goal was to get the die face to 8, then heard you could move it up or down, you probably wondered,"but why would I move it down?" Say that the first three sides of a terrain die were magic, the next two were missile, and the final three were melee; the die is currently on four, and your opponent has a force at that site mainly composed of archers. You are closer to winning on the other dice, but his archers are dangerous to your armies. Solution: turn the die down one. If you are successful, his archers can't attack because the site is now only keyed for magic. Spells can be used to affect any army on the map, and can lead to dramatic swings in events.

They're called Dragon Dice for a reason. Each side has either a Wyrm or Wyvern which can be summoned by spell to aid their armies. Many times, however, the dragon does as much damage to you as to your opponent. Beware!

All in all, this is a fun game and usually doesn't take too long (half an hour); I haven't played more than a two-player game, though, so I would imagine it would take longer. The problem lies in that TSR pumped out a bunch of expansions in a very short time and drowned the market of what was supposed to be a "collectable" game. As with other games, if both players don't have dice from the same expansions, the game suffers. Spells don't work as well, some smaller dice become meaningless, and the promo dice given away at shows are more powerful than anything you'll be able to buy in the store.
My final recommendation: if you can find a couple of starter packs and maybe a couple of boosters, go for it. If someone offers you a box of boosters, just say no. The basic game is the best.
Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars (basic game) / 2.5 stars (with excessive boosters)


Star Trek: First Contact

A cool concept, I must say. Helm-to-helm battle between starships, with a strategic element of how to maneuver, attack, and allot power. You'd think that maybe it could be a little less geeky than a Trek convention, wouldn't you?

The game layout is probably the coolest part of the game. Each player has a game board designed to look like the command console of his/her starship. Dice are differentiated by patterns on them for power, weapons, etc. and they are distributed to the different areas of the console. If you've seen the movies or watched enough Next Generation, the "screen" will look fairly familiar to you. The idea behind the game is to out- maneuver your opponent, minimize your own damage, and render the other player defenseless (or, the less fun option, get them to surrender).

I have never finished a game. The rules are as clunky as grampa's '52 station wagon, and it slows the process to a crawl. It's nice to be able to control some of the power allotment, but I don't want to have to micromanage every ship system when all I want to do is blow something up. Maybe I'm just a little impatient with this one, but I don't think so. I noticed (after I bought my sets) that sales basically stopped on this turkey, and none of the projected expansions have come out.

My recommendation: buy Star Fleet Battles. If you want a nap, buy this. If you really want to give this game a shot, though, I'll sell you the Enterprise and the Borg for $5.

Final analysis: 1.5 of 5 stars