The Dice Men Cometh

16/09/2023

360! It’s the degrees in a circle, and the number of this cheeky, little episode! To celebrate, we’re going to fill your eardrums with three reviews of three games by three Dice Men!

We kick off with some bones…well, many bones actually, in fact there are…Too Many Bones, and these specific bones are by Chip Theory Games. Garth starts off with a mighty review of this hefty and dicey game! Can you roll your way to victory? Can you train your Gearlocs to be the mightiest warriors? Can you roll them bones the right way at the right time? Probably not the first time…but surely the second time will be easier! Ha! Ha, we say!

We move on to Leon’s review of Archeos Society, a set collecting adventuring game where you could be the best Botanist out there! Or a Physician, a Pilot, a Guide or even a Student! Will you lead your expeditions to victory or will three monkeys cause you pain and suffering?

And like all good trilogies, we save the third one until last! Yes, it’s our own wizened old traveler, a man who was there when the ring was forged and who will be there after the White Tree of Gondor has sprouted it’s last leaf. Mark retells the most famous Middle Earth tale, but this time through the power of cards in The War of the Ring: The Card Game. Can this game come close to the epic, dudes on a map version that everyone knows and mostly everyone loves? Do you need both? Does it really have a card about Sam and Potatoes? Only one man knows, and he’s probably forgotten already!

And to wrap it up, we address the Oliphant in the room…. We’ve been a little quiet lately so we give you the low down on what’s up, and what that means for The Dice Men after 10 years of tabletop podcasting gold!

Thanks as always to our eternal sponsor, LFG Australia, and to our other amazing partners in Behold Games, Good Games Australia, VR Distribution and Let's Play Games! Thanks everyone, and keep on playing more games!!!!!!

Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts :)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2lE8PY3swIQkjp6Y7BoalP

23/07/2023

Episode 359 is live!

It is that time of the year again when the Spiel Des Jahres and Kennerspiel (yes, and the Kinderspiel) are announced to applause, gasps and cheering! And then the inevitable discussions start…are these games actually worthy winners??

This week Mark and Garth delve into Kenner territory and start with a review of this years champ, Challengers! In this somewhat deck-building auto-battler, 1 to 8 players (yes, you can play solo) will pair up over 7 rounds before the top two players flip it out for undisputed supremacy and victory! So, Garth and Mark simply then ask…is this game good AND is it Kenner worthy? How does it compare to fellow nominees Iki and Planet Unknown (Polyomino Lazy Susan anybody?) and what does this years Kenner mean for gaming and getting people into the hobby.

We also then bring it home with Mists over Carcassone, which has been generously provided to us by Good Games Australia! While Carcassone has been around for decades this is the first co-op version (as long as ghost meeples don’t freak you out too much!). So does this game have a place next to other versions of Carcassone on your shelf? How and why should a co-op version exist? What is the term for a ghost meeple anyway? Geeple? Ghople? Mhost? Ghosple? Meest? Gheestple? Suggestions are welcome.

So thanks to our sponsors and thanks to every listener out there!

Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts?
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5BRScJUyqWwi374J2C84zv

02/07/2023

Episode 358 is live!

Because we’re back from an event…. Our brains are tired from four days of gaming, realising that we probably should have got some sleep, Damn! We sure played some fantastic games!

Even after it’s over, let us tell you all about it, right from the beginning, all the way to the end… Can you guess what we’re talking about? Oh? do you really think you know what it was? Nevermind, let us tell you a little story…. This week, there is only one thing on our mind so let’s get to it!

Thanks as always to LFG Australia. Go buy your games from them, but also thanks go to the tireless committee members of the best damn convention located on the border!
Bordercon

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3UfUJlOpsfkNxiA6amMXMu

27/06/2023

Well, looky here - it's an Aussie podcast releasing an awards show video!
Congrats to all the winners in the Board Game BBQ awards!
Make sure to watch this video as it features the who's who of Aussie tabletop content creators as well as some international stars! Clearly the video reaches it peak around the 32 minute mark!

Here's your personal invitation to the 3rd Annual Board Game BBQ Awards, celebrating the best games of 2022.Thanks to our community who nominated their favou...

26/06/2023

Only 4 more days to go on this competition - get your entries in!!!

Check the original post for details!

20/06/2023

It's here - All the Gloomhaven!!!!

The Gloomhaven Grand Festival is open! The city is bustling and the marketplace is ready to go. The stalls are packed with merchants ready to share their wares. Welcome to the celebration of Gloomhaven! https://bit.ly/GloomhavenGrandFestival

20/06/2023

Check out this campaign by a local Aussie designer! Got'im, yes!!

We are live on Kickstarter! We're very excited to bring this game to you. It's going to fit right into your gaming collection with a two-player auction game that you haven't seen before with an art style like nothing else in your catalogue.

Ten Wickets is an exciting new two-player auction game that is lightly themed on 🏏. Each “wicket” in Ten Wickets is an auction, where, whenever you win that auction, the other player scores your winning bid while losing an end game bonus.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/distributedlife/ten-wickets?ref=c2le32

19/06/2023

Episode 357 is live!

We’re sooo sleepy….we’ve just flown back from BorderCon, and geez, are our arms tired….

This week is a show of two halves with the first being a quick-fire review of Top Ten! This game, which shot to prominence after being nominated for last year’s Spiel, features Unicorns and poo…for reasons known only to itself! Is is worthy of the nomination? Or is it worthy of the poo? Only the Dice Men know for sure.

We then cram in a few cheeky interviews from the who’s who of the BorderCon world! Did you want to hear from designers, competition winners and convention organisers? Of course you did and these interviews will offer you more satisfaction than that winning move you did once in that game you thought was lost BUT YOU WON!!! Remember that move? So satisfying….

Thanks to the BorderCon committee for an amazing event as always, and thank you to our lead sponsor LFG Australia! Be sure to order your games from them!

Listen via podcast, or on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4d4iutOkdKUVMY6wtZ5R8Z

13/06/2023

We have returned from brilliant and it was another ripper!

Here are just a few memories, but we had an amazing time - thank you to everyone who talked with us, played with us, or just come and said "Who are you"?

Can't wait until - only 360-odd days

PS for those who noticed out hoodies, t-shirts etc they are available here: https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/The-Dice-Men-Cometh-black-logo-by-DiceMenCometh/21383658.WFLAH

08/06/2023

The flight is over, and now the road trip begins!

06/06/2023

This is the OFFICIAL COMPETITON POST!

The Dice Men Cometh, together with Aconyte Books are giving away 2 copies of this amazing hard cover glossy book, Everybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games ever made, by James Wallis. One copy will go to an Australian winner, and one will be sent anywhere in the world to a second lucky winner.

All you need to do to win is listen to our interview with James Wallis in Episode 355, and answer one question:

How many brightly coloured boxes does James say you will be confronted with when you walk into a board game store?

Email your answer to [email protected] and you will be in the running - it is as easy as that!

The competition will run until the end of June, so get your entry in!

Please feel free to spread the news of this competition far and wide in the boardgame community - the wider the better! Remember you can listen on Spotify, or any podcast provider.

05/06/2023

Let’s just say that this episode is so full of goodness, you probably won’t be able to fit dessert in after listening to it!

We start of with a serving of mousse…not wait, a serving of Hickory Dickory from Plaid Hat Games, which is all about mouses or meese or mice! These mice are jumping on and off the minute hand of a clock all trying to delivery items to the chirping Lord Cuckoo before the stroke of midnight! Will your crack squad of mices band together and win the day? Will the cat thwart your mousy plans? Will this game play as well as it looks?

And for your next course we serve a refreshing glass of blue milk and roasted Porg as we take you to a deckbuilding game from a long time ago in a galaxy far far away! Yes it’s Star Wars: The Deckbuilding game from Fantasy Flight Games, and Garth and Mark have been locked in a duel of the fates trying to bring peace and stability to the galaxy…by smashing each other with heroes and villains; capital ships and bounty hunters, all while trying to destroy the others base (because it’s all about the base, ‘bout the base…).

But wait! We also have a sneaky little, BIG, competition for you – so you better listen in and listen hard as this one is a cracker! We’ve giving you a chance to win the best darned boardgame book released all year! We won’t tell you what you need to do to enter…but just remember this… [email protected].

Thanks to LFG Australia as always, and a massive thank you to Good Games Australia for providing both of our review games on this episode!

Listen via any podcast medium (or Large), or on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5nk8VT6sDQsq5QDXbIoQZ0

03/06/2023

Very interested to see that, after a bit of fuss about the announcement of Gloomhaven 2nd Edition, Cephalofair Games have today announced a Mercenary Upgrade Kit will be available.

More details here:
https://www.backerkit.com/c/cephalofair/gloomhaven/updates/1357

What are your thoughts about this?

Greetings Mercenaries! The Road to Gloomhaven begins as we kicked off our Launch Party Live Stream yesterday. We are glad to have the announcement for Gloomhaven: Second Editi...

02/06/2023

If you're online right now and interested in hearing from Aussie designer and SdJ nominee, Matthew Dunstan, go and check out Materialise on YouTube! Jump into the chat and ask some questions!

This week the Materialise team chat with Matthew Dunstan about how he approaches designing for the mass market. Matthew's game Next Station: London has been ...

02/06/2023

Which boardgamers can empathise with Santa?

Hey folks! Due to a temporary reduction in staffing, we won't be running D&D/Yugioh Wednesday nights until 28th June when we'll resume our normal events. Thanks for your understanding.

01/06/2023

Look what hit our table this week - the stunning new deluxe version of Ra by 25th Century Games and art by Ian O'Toole Design & Illustration. It is every bit as gorgeous as you imagined it would be.

01/06/2023

Happy Pride Month, and also Cephalofair Games have announced Gloomhaven 2nd Edition!

Whichever road you travel, Mercenaries, go with LOVE and PRIDE for you who are.

HAPPY PRIDE month to the Gloomhaven Community from Cephalofair Games!

Art by Jabari Weathers

31/05/2023

Check out this amazing Kickstarter Campaign from Stellar Prints and Launch Tabletop now!

30/05/2023

We just posted our latest Patreon-only podcast, Secret Episode 14, and this one is massive.
For 2 hours 45 minutes we take the 𝐄𝐥𝐥𝐚 Ampongan / 3 Minute Board games challenge of reducing each of our physical collections down to only 20 games each, and then voting on a joint Dice Men Collection that we have named the GOLDEN D20!

We had so much fun doing this - we hope that our Patreons enjoy it.
If you want to experience the madness that is the Dice Men Secret Episodes, as well as get the change to win games, get custom dice, and just support us as we head towards our 10th year of podcasting, then head to patreon.com/dicemencometh and see what it is all about!

Become a patron of The Dice Men Cometh today: Get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.

28/05/2023

Paris hit our table last night - quite a fascinating game, and this deluxe version is absolutely blinged out with the big thick tokens, trays and the 3D Arc De Triomphe.
Who has played this and what were your thoughts?

27/05/2023

Lools like Cephalofair Games is going all out to promote the new Gloomhaven RPG.
We will also have an exciting competition when it launches. Look out for that next month.

⚔️ GLOOMHAVEN RPG! ⚔️ We’ll be playing the Gloomhaven Roleplaying Game LIVE on the MEGA STAGE at Game Con Canada on Sat. June 24 at 3pm MT! 🇨🇦

This will be taking place during the GLOOMHAVEN RPG BackerKit which launches Jun. 20th!

www.GameConCanada.com for tickets and use the PROMO CODE: gccrealmsmith for 25% OFF!

27/05/2023

Sara and Mark gave Spirit Island a crack last night after Leon recommended it. It certainly has a bit going in, and the whole proposition is fascinating. We can see why it is so popular with many couples.

26/05/2023

What a great initiative by the Knights of the Shed, a Hobart-based DnD group. They are helping young people, especially those who are neuro-divergent, build socials skills while having a load of fun!

Here all about it in this brief ABC Hobart interview:

Hobart-based Dungeons and Dragons group, Knights of the Shed, are facing a huge demand in enrolments. To help meet it, they’re looking for therapy assistants – also known as dungeon masters.

23/05/2023

So clearly today is all about the Spiel announcement!
Firstly, well done to all of the nominated games as well as those games on the recommended list!
How many have you played? and most importantly which games are going to win the big prizes?
Of course, Next Station London by Aussie designer and friend of the show, Matthew Dunstan, is in the running....and we wouldn't dare predict that it'll win the title....
So have your say! Did the committee get it right? What games were robbed by not being nominated?
The Dice Men will make their own predictions on who will win once we've had a chance to play them all (hopefully)!

Nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2023 Dorfromantik – Das Brettspiel by Michael Palm and Lukas Zach Pegasus Spiele Illustrations: Paul Riebe Idyllic tile-laying game for 2 to 6 people aged 8 and over Fun Facts by Kaspar Lapp Repos Productions Illustrations: Repos Productions Enlightening self-assessm...

17/05/2023

The great thing about this particular episode is that Everybody Wins! Yes, it’s episode 355 and we take to the skies with a little game with a lot of sand, well sand timers anyway…who would think that a small box, fully co-op, real time, one deck game about flying Kites would hit the table? If you like Kites, or co-ops, or real time, or sand timers this may be a game that hits your table soon too!

Next it’s time to get comfortable as we feature an interview with gaming legend and author, James Wallis, to discuss his book, Everybody Wins, which is all about the winners (and losers) of the Spiel des Jahres over the years!

And of course, we announce the winners of our BorderCon competition! It’s all soooo exciting!!

So thanks to Good Games Australia for our copy of Kites, thanks to James Wallis for making time to chat with us from the other side of the globe, and thanks of course to our leading sponsor LFG Australia!

Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3auHqnm3rUs8059yv5Uvvh

16/05/2023

Another exciting interview coming up tonight, when Mark speaks with author James Wallis about his book on the history of the SdJ, Everybody Wins.

Look out for it in our next regular episode.

The revolution in tabletop gaming revealed and reviewed, in this entertaining and informative look at over 40 years of award-winning games.The annu...

03/05/2023

We've just uploaded Secret Episode 13, which is exclusively for our Patreon supporters, the Official Friends of the Dice Men.

This month we again have almost 2 hours of fun and frivolity, as well as a Patreon-only competition. The amazing prize is our copy of one of Plaid Hat Games latest games, Hickory Dickory.

To be a part of all this, head over to our Patreon page and see what you are missing out on:
https://www.patreon.com/dicemencometh

02/05/2023

The latest offering from Plaid Hat Games hit our table last night, and was a lot of fun.
Look out for our opinion in an upcoming episode, thanks to Good Games Australia.