Diceland - Why the Strategic Dice Race Brings Bingo-Like Fun | Review

Diceland is a simple but clever dice game and plays a bit like a combination of Yahtzee and Bingo with strategy.

In this game, each player has their own playing field, their Diceland. Starting from a starting field in the middle, you now play free coloured areas and special treasure fields.

On the one hand, the luck of the dice is decisive, but on the other hand, tactics and strategy are also important. Because with every roll of the colour dice, the other players also benefit. The paths you take in your own cube country also ultimately determine victory or defeat.

Note on transparency: The Nuremberg Spielkartenverlag has kindly provided us with a review copy of the game. However, this review is unpaid and reflects our independent opinion.

Diceland – Overview

• Game type: Dice game, family game
• Age: 8 years and up
• Players: 2-4 players
• Duration: approx. 20-30 minutes
• Publisher: Nürnberger Spielkarten Verlag
• Game author: Andreas Spies and Reinhard Raupe
• Publication year: 2018
• Game objective: Race to conquer colour areas and treasure fields in your own cube land through luck and wits

NSV - 4058 - WÜRFELLAND - International - Würfelspiel

Würfelland - keine Wartezeiten; Inhalt; Alter: ab 8 Jahren, Spieler: 2-4, Dauer: ca. 20 Min

16,99 EUR

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How to Play Diceland – Game Rules

In this game, everyone gets their own game board: a board on which you conquer coloured areas during the course of the game by ticking the honeycomb-shaped squares with (wipeable) pens, which are also included in the game material.

Diceland can also be played well on the go

The winner is the first player to mark all fields of any colour and additionally 9 (of a total of 12) of his treasure fields. These are marked with stars.
To keep an eye on your progress, there is a scoring bar at the bottom of each board where you mark which treasure fields you already have and on one field whether you have all the areas of one colour.

There are a total of 4 boards that can be used on both the front and the back and all 8 cube areas are different.
What is the same is that there is always a white field in the middle with a black X marking the starting field. Starting from this, you always have to mark fields that border on fields that have already been marked.

You always start at the white square in the middle

To do this, the player whose turn it is rolls all 6 colour dice. Now he decides on a colour he has rolled and puts the die(s) of this colour aside. He may now roll the dice again with the others. If some of the dice again show the colour he has chosen, he may also put them aside and theoretically roll the dice again.

Only when none of the other dice show his colour does he have to stop. Then he may mark as many squares of that colour on his dice tableau, provided they are adjacent to squares already marked. Also, a territory of one colour that has been started must always be completed before another territory of the same colour may be started.

However, it sometimes makes sense to stop rolling the dice earlier, because you can also “roll the dice” and then not conquer a field at all. If, for example, a player has started a red area in which 3 fields are still missing, he may only have a maximum of 3 dice that show red. After the fourth red cube, he has rolled the dice and goes empty-handed.

Another special feature of this game is that the other players also benefit in each turn: When the active player has finished his turn, all the other players may choose a colour from the remaining dice showing other colours and mark the corresponding number of squares of this colour on their own dice, if this is possible while observing all the other rules.

By the way, marking treasure fields is not only worthwhile with a view to the scoreboard. If you discover a treasure, you may roll the dice once, but only once with 5 (!) dice and choose any colour. These treasure rolls only benefit the active player.

On the scoring bar you enter when you have captured a treasure field

Rating and Conclusion

Rating

The game is quick and easy to learn and suitable for both children and adults. Diceland is certainly also a good game to introduce children to strategic games, as it requires tactical thinking but is not too complex. In addition, there is still a large luck factor.

What is also nice about the game idea is that every time a player throws, the other players can also tick something. This constant involvement is especially attractive for children, who sometimes get impatient when someone takes longer to make a move.

We each started playing with a random area, but noticed during the game that these are probably differently difficult, which is also due to the differently placed black blockade squares. If you know this, however, you can choose at the beginning which board you want to play and which side of it.

Our boards at the end of the game

The 8 different Diceland maps provide a certain amount of variety over several games, but the basic course of the game does not change that much. Players who are looking for a strategic challenge or a game that offers different, surprising game situations every time will miss something in the long run with Diceland.

As an entertaining game for in between, however, Diceland is definitely a discovery and as such well comparable with games like Kniffel, Mau Mau or Schiffe versenken, which are simple, fun and quick to play.

Since Diceland is very compact and easy to transport and, apart from the dice, has no real small parts that could fall around, it is also a great travel game that can be played in a train compartment (or, like us, in the park). The dice can be rolled in the padded cover without rolling away and the dice cards are made of sturdy cardboard and do not need a base to be marked.

Conclusion

With luck and a little tactics, you can place the crosses just like in bingo. Diceland is a dice game that is easy to understand, great as a dice game for on the go and an alternative to games like Schiffe versenken or Maumau. 

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