Stronghold Games Nations The Dice Game - Strategy Game, for 1-4 Players, Ages 14+

tl;dr: Yes, it's fun, I like playing it, will play it again; doesn't overstay its welcome---so recommended.About this game: This is the shorter, dice version of the game "Nations" from Finnish game publisher Lautapelit.fi. BGG (Board Game Geek) currently has the dice version weighted at 2.01 versus Nation's 3.54 complexity rating.Starting with symmetric civilizations, roll dice to buy new buildings or leaders, conquer new lands, or build monuments/great wonders over four rounds of gameplay. Will you use your sword dice to conquer lands (that may net you a new resource token and/or a point or two) during the action phase or use them to go to war during the war phase to score points and move higher up in turn order? Will you upgrade to add in more military dice or economic dice? Will you keep enough food to gain points during the famine phase, or use your re-roll token to try and get more swords or coins?Pros:+dice rolling!+a good appetizer or filler game (30-45 minutes)+custom diceCons:-dice rolling! (sometimes lady luck only wants you to have food but no money or swords and you only start with one re-roll token!)-the illustrations are a bit mediocre at best-player mats and tokens feel a bit on lower end of the quality end (would love to see a deluxified version of this game)

My wife and I are into board gaming and I played this first with some friends. Immediately I was hooked. This game keeps many of the full game's elements while making it fast and a bit chaotic (given it is dice-run). I don't like the chaos of dice in longer games and this one really seems to match the level of time and thought with an appropriate amount of randomness.We did have one game where the dice rolled and the cards put out were completely against my wife. As a result, I demolished her. Most our games have been pretty close.Most importantly, I LOVE this for two player. I've been trying to expand my collection of shorter (1 hour or less) games lately that still require thought and strategy. This is high up on my list of games to pull out.The biggest difference, in my opinion, of how it plays compared to the "big" game is that this is a much more forgiving game. Nations can be brutally punishing of poor decisions. This game's famine and war are things that if you meet the requirements, you gain points. If you do not meet the requirements, you simply gain nothing. This makes this game far more "friendlier". And as my kids get older, it'll be the perfect transitioning game to Nations :)

This game takes everything you love about Nations and condenses it into a 30 minute game.

Great easy gateway game-ish, very easy to teach, simple to play and fun too!I love rolling those dice!

Based on a much larger version of the game, Nations Dice has most of the feel and variety of the original Nations, without iron-arsing it for 4 hours.

If you have been around board games over the past several years you will notice trends here and there. Some games came out with smaller, easier to digest, versions of themselves as card games, or roll-and-writes, or in this case: dice games. The goal is to get the same kind of feeling and experience as playing the older sibling in a much smaller and time-friendly spin-off. I have played Nations (the original big game) before, but does Nations: The Dice Game give a similar feel?Nations: The Dice Game (can I please just call it Nations for this review as we know I am not talking about the original? Thanks.) is a civilization building, upgrade tile drafting, dice game for one to four players. Players will be upgrading their civilizations over four game rounds to compete for Books and VPs. The player with the most VP at the end of the game is the winner.Disclaimer: The photos shown here is for a solo game, as I took them during my learning game using the solo rules. Normally the purple d4 is not used in multiplayer games. -TTo setup, each player will choose a starter civilization mat, receive five white dice, a gold chit, and a re-roll chit. Player order will be determined by cards and each player will receive their player order card which doubles as a reference card (great idea). The Progress Board will be set on the table and populated with randomized Age I Progress tiles according to the rule book. The Score Board will also be placed on the table to track Books, Events, and final VPs. The game begins with each player rolling their five dice.Nations (TDG) is played over four ages with multiple rounds per age. At the beginning of each age old tiles will be removed from the Progress Board and new ones for the current age added. Also an Event tile will be drawn and placed on the Score Board to signify goals for Famine and War at the end of the age. On a player’s turn they will take one action from the following: Re-Roll (any or all unused dice by spending a re-roll chit), Buy tile (from the Progress Board to upgrade player mat spaces and dice), or Build Wonder (tile using Stone dice or chits for VP). When a player has taken as many turns/actions they wish for the age, they turn their player order card to the side to indicate they have passed for the remainder of the age.Once all players have passed, they will tally their unused dice and any chits showing Books to be recorded on the Book track. Players will score points for Books based on how many opponents they have outscored for Books. Then players will consult the face-up Event tile that was revealed at the beginning of the round. The top portion displays VP earned when players discard unused dice and chits showing Famine leaf icons matching or exceeding what is on the Event tile. Similarly, for War players will consult the Event tile and use the sword icons on unused dice and chits to score any VPs for War. Play continues in this way across all four ages and once the fourth age has been scored the game ends and winner named victorious!Components. I have mostly good news here. The dice in this dice game are wonderful. They are all easy to read and understand, and feel great when rolling nine or ten of them at once. The chits are fine, the Progress and Event tiles are nice and thick. The player mats, Score Board, and Progress Board are very thin though. I was going to give that a negative remark, but you know, players don’t really handle them during the game so there is no real need for them to be any thicker. The art is similar as in Nations, and while it does not resonate with me, it is fine. I won’t be playing Nations for the art.All in all the game is fine. It didn’t blow me away or completely replace Nations (the big game) for me. It IS a pretty quick game to play, so there is one definite improvement over the big brother game; 10-15 minutes per player is pretty spot on. I usually do not prefer dice games to the originals (BANG! The Dice Game being the obvious improvement), and this one is really just on par with the big game. While it takes up less space on the shelf, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it over its sibling. I feel the same way about each game, so my recommendation is get the version you feel would be played more often. Purple Phoenix Games gives Nations: The Dice Game a Montezuma-should-be-in-Age-IV 6 / 12. Give it a shot if you are into dice games, but grab the original if you want something meatier.