I broke out one of my recent acquisitions, Dice Conquest – a very light solo/co-op D&D-themed dice game in which 1-to-4 characters run a gauntlet of enemies (always culminating with the dragon Kalterstorm). The game is heavy on dice-based luck – each round another 3 enemies are added from the shuffled deck, and at the end of each round all of current enemies inflict damage – so if you can’t keep the number of enemy cards in check then you’re doomed to a rapid demise from the overwhelming onslaughts. Conversely, if you can defeat all opponents every round, you will suffer very little damage at all, and be in very good standing for the end-game. Ultimately it comes down to the dice, but the hero abilities allow you to manipulate them to your advantage.
Each hero character has two unique special abilities, one of which is persistently in play, and the other of which can be used if the selected die has their unique Critical Hit value (different for each hero); so playing solo with only one character limits your abilities significantly, whereas playing with multiple characters gives you more options.
Many enemies also have special constraints. Some of them will block certain abilities until they are defeated, perhaps forcing you to concentrate on those first even though another monster is going to inflict more damage. You might only be able to play certain die rolls on some enemies (e.g.: only odd numbers; only even numbers; no value greater than 9; must be defeated with exact damage; etc), and many enemies also carry magical items which you will gain if you defeat them. Then there are Traps, which can be mixed into the enemy deck as an optional Advanced variant (I’ve not yet played with these).
I found it a nice way to pass the time. There’s a lot of luck, and some bad dice rolls in the early going can doom you; but the game plays quickly and it’s a reasonably fun little package in a small box. I got wrecked in my first couple of games with a single Hero (the Thief) before winning a game, and then I played and won a couple of times with two heroes (Thief + Rogue).
It’s nothing too think-y, and the manual fails to address a bunch of edge cases, but all in all I think it’s a keeper for me.
