Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Time-Wasters
Dicewars - Today's Time Waster
by Jordan Running Jul 14th 2006 at 10:00AM
I can't decide whether I love Dicewars or hate it, but either way I can't stop playing it. It's a simple-but-diabolical turn-based Flash strategy game. The game board looks reminiscent of some tabletop strategy games. You and your enemies are represented by colored dice occupying a territory. If you have more than one die occupying a territory, you may attack an adjacent territory. The winner of a roll of all the dice in your territory against the dice on your opponent's territory determines who wins the territory. If you attack and lose, all but one of your attacking dice are eliminated. If you win, all but one of the attacking dice will move to the newly-conquered territory. In this way, you can push your way across the map. Up to seven computer-controlled opponents play by the same rules against you, and they are cunning. The trick, of course, is to expand your forces without leaving territories vulnerable to attack. You may make as many attacks in a turn as you wish, and at the end of the turn a number of dice equal to opponents' dice you eliminated are added to your territories, so sometimes sitting back and fortifying is preferable to exhausting all available attacks. Dicewars is a much deeper game than it appears at first glance, and the element of chance makes it occasionally frustrating, but also extremely satisfying when you win.[Thanks, Carl!]
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Diddle said 12:17PM on 7-14-2006
I think the computer players seem to have an advantage in their dice rolls - I just played three 2-player games and they only ever lost 1 diceroll against mine. :(
Reply
Jordan Running said 1:13PM on 7-14-2006
I haven't noticed anything untoward, Diddle. Remember that you're rolling all of the dice on your territory against all of the dice on the opponent's territory, so if you have two dice and he has four, you're not very likely to win, and even rolling three dice against two can be risky.
Reply
Diddle said 3:18PM on 7-14-2006
Jordan, yeah, I know - I lost a lot of 4 dice vs. 2. Eventually I figured out 'tis better to stack up to 8 and then pounce on smaller territories. ;)
Reply
The Tick said 4:46PM on 7-14-2006
Dangit, Mr. Running! Quit finding good games! You're wasting my time!
Reply