The Long View: D-Day Dice
The Long View
In this episode of The Long View, Joel Eddy and I examine the game D-Day Dice. Join us as we take a closer look at this unique and thematic game to see if it lives up to our expectations from the most massively successful kickstarter campaign recorded for a board game thus far. Along the way we try to decide what the role of development is in games, what games should be candidates for Long View episodes, and just how many plays are needed before you can speak authoritatively about a game. D-Day Dice, these issues and more are all explored in this episode.
Thanks to www.2d6.org for their continued support and hosting of The Long View, thanks to our sponsor www.gamesurplus.com and, as always, thank YOU for listening!
~ Geof Gambill
Quick note from Joel: Sorry for a couple of moments of me opening and closing a door in the middle of the episode. I was home alone during the recording and had to tend to my dogs.
Geof Gambill
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“If I don’t like a game, why do a show about the game?” I think this show answers that question. This is really the first criticism of the game I’ve heard or read – and I think it’s important to “balance” the terrific amount of buzz that D-Day Dice generated. I’ve only played it a couple of times and am still a bit over my head, but I thought your opinions were excellent, well thought out and important. Great job, gentlemen.
Thanks Andy! I was really hoping that people would understand why I still think there is something to be learned from posting an episode about a game that may not live up to expectations. I’m glad that you enjoyed the show!
I am going to play this game at some point. I am mechanics over theme BUT I just dont like war. I mean, nobody LIKES war lol, but its hard for me to get into things with war themes, especially “modern” (WW1 and beyond) wars.
Matt,
If you want to try a war game, I recommend picking a war you have some empathy with. For me, it’s the Civil War and anything after World War 2, mostly due due to family ties and interests. Personally, I also prefer the “political game” to the strict “war game”.
Guys – Excellent review of the mechanics and pro and cons of game play! I especially agree with your point regarding the way that allied casualties are handled.
As a Kickstarter Officer level I have played all 20 maps that come with the base game, expansions and K-maps solitaire. As you described in the podcast, playing against the game by yourself can be an incredibly frustrating experience and there is nothing worse than having the dice come up short due to an unlucky roll, and losing in a sector with a large DEF number.
After attempting the same map mutliple times, the game became repetitive and frustrating and I also yearned to ‘shoot back’ and not just mildly sit by while my soldiers were gobbled up by an inflated DEF. Thus, I created a ‘Fight Back’ varient for solitaire play that allows the DEF value to be varied during Combat (phase 5) on turn 2 and 3:
D-Day Dice Solitaire ‘Fight Back’ variant
Phase 1: Roll the Dice until ‘Final Tally’ is completed.
Phase 2: Upkeep: Count ‘Red, White & Blue’ bonuses, earn Awards, adjust Resource Cards, and change the face of Unit markers.
Phase 3: Recruit Specialists, find Items, trade Resources (if Lieutenant is in play), purchase Awards.
Phase 4: Move & fulfill new Sector requirements (if applicable).
Phase 5: Combat: If it is the first time the Unit is entering a sector (turn 1 – private chevron), subtract the Def printed on the shield from the number of Soldiers on the Unit Resource Card as per original rules.
On turn 2 (corporal chevron) and turn 3 (sergeant chevron) – roll 1D6. Subtract the result from the current Def (if a red 6 is rolled, a machine gun is also destroyed, if present). Place the appropriate number chit on the Def shield, indicating the number to subtract from the original Def amount. Subtract the remaining Def from the number of Soldiers on the Unit Resource Card. Def is negatively cumulative until reaching 0. The Unit may stay in a sector for 3 turns regardless of the remaining Def amount (exception – sectors with Black shields may only be occupied for one turn).
What do you think? I have tried this with maps from the base game, and it seems to work and does give the solitaire player a better chance of not ‘die’-ing on the beach.
I plan on posting this in the Variant section on the Geek, So thanks again for the great review. I look forward to future podcasts.
Interesting! Definitely seems like something that would go nicely in a solitaire game.
Have you tried the German expansion?
Yes, I also played that solitaire. The mechanism is a little bit different (the German player takes casualties for the DEF – seems like your ‘shooting at yourself’) but as long as you can get rid of the Allied sniper, it’s a pretty easy win. I have only used the variant when playing the allied side.
Thanks for the solitaire variant idea! I’ll have to try it. Thanks for listening!
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