Marvel X-Men Dice Throne (Review 2)

^{review by Michael}

Dice Throne is a head-to-head combat game where each player plays as a hero with their own set of five custom dice, a player board, and a deck of cards. You win by reducing your opponent's health to zero. On your turn you roll a set of dice to trigger your character’s abilities, then spend combat points to play cards that upgrade your abilities, manipulate dice rolls, or apply status effects. It's got a Yahtzee-style luck element built in, since you're rolling up to three times each turn trying to land a good combo.

The Marvel X-Men boxes are a good way to get into the system since each box comes with four full characters, so you have some flexibility right away. Since in Dice Throne you play as a character, you can add other Dice Throne characters to your roster as they're all compatible together, so you can feel free to play as an original Dice Throne character against an X-Men character. Each character also has its own “hero complexity” on a scale from 1, being the simplest, to 6, being the most advanced. 

Box 1 includes Iceman, Psylocke, Storm, and Wolverine, and runs from beginner to intermediate difficulty. Wolverine has a 2 hero complexity rating, and is the simplest of the four. He plays aggressively, healing off his own attacks as he wears you down. Psylocke steps it up a little with a complexity rating of a 3. She has telekinetic weapons and abilities that mess with your opponent's plans. Storm and Iceman both have a complexity rating of 4, which are the more advanced characters in the box. Storm charges up her lightning attacks over a few turns for bigger payoffs, and Iceman chains attacks together once he's stacked up enough ice tokens, so both reward some patience and planning ahead.

Box 2 includes Rogue, Cyclops, Gambit, and Jean Grey, and averages to be a little more advanced. Rogue is the easiest to pick up here with a complexity of 3, and grinds opponents down steadily. Cyclops plays aggressive too with a complexity of 4, but his leadership tokens make him strong in team formats. Gambit and Jean Grey are the two most complex characters across both boxes with a complexity rating of 6. Gambit focuses on charging up his cards for big turns and Jean Grey shifts back and forth between her normal form and Dark Phoenix, which takes some getting used to, but gives her a lot of depth once you've got the timing down.

I mostly play 1v1 for fun with friends, however, if I want a more competitive environment we host monthly tournaments at Gamescape. Dice Throne also supports 2v2, 3v3, 2v2v2, or free-for-all, so the same box works for a variety of ways to play. If you want a two player head-to-head game, with the ability to be played in a group as well, the X-Men boxes are a solid starting point, and X-Men fans may get to play as one of their favorite of the eight heroes across the two sets.

Dice Throne and the X-Men Box 1 and Box 2 from this review are available now from our webstore.