Age of War Dice Game

Product Information

The castles have varying point values that, to a degree, reflect the ease with which they may be conquered. Having not done the math, I suspect the difficulty is not necessarily a linear match between battle line difficulty and points value. Over much play, I imagine certain castles will gain a reputation for being a walk-over whereas others will prove to be army breakers. Each dice face has a symbol for cavalry, archery, daimyo, or 1–3 infantry denoted by swords. Each castle has one or more battle lines of these symbols, all of which must be completed for the castle to be conquered. A single roll of the dice pool must provide all the symbols required for a single battle line for it to be completed. If a battle line cannot be completed the dice pool can be re-rolled having set one die aside. A turn ends when the castle has been conquered or the dice pool has been exhausted. So the game feels extremely repetitive which gets you quite bored but it only feels that way on the more difficult cards to capture. The 1 point cards are easy to moderately easy to capture. But everything else above that is super difficult and you will find yourself rolling and rolling and rolling.

As is in the case of any other Fantasy Flight game that I own, I have found that the components are of the highest quality. In this case, thats not saying a whole lot given that the components boil down to 7 dice and (I believe) 14 cards. The dice themselves are some of the nicest dice I have ever used. Whatever polymer they used almost has a bone texture and appearance. The embossings are clear and the coloration of the markings is uniform and distinct. The dice have rounded corners and roll beautifully.The story behind this game is that each player represents a Fuedel Lord that seeks to overcome other clans and their respective castles. This is accomplished through players rolling 7 dice that have been designed with graphics to represent Infantry, Cavalry, Archers, and a Daimyo (sp?). Through rolling the dice (and susequent rerolls) players amass the military units required to conquer a chosen castle based on the military requirements listed on the card. A sinmple but effective mechanic in this game has players reducing the number of dice they roll based on achieveing the miliatry requirements for each castle. You are either able to conquer a single castle in a single turn or you aren’t, its that simple. Everything can collapse. Houses, bodies, and enemies collapse when their rhythm becomes deranged. In large-scale strategy, when the enemy starts to collapse you must pursue him without letting the chance go. If you fail to take advantage of your enemies' collapse, they may recover. At the end of the game, each player scores the points shown on each faceup castle card in front of him.

The game ends when the last castle card is conquered and the player with the most victory points wins. I was at a board game night at a local pub and I was excited to play it and then as I rolled dice and rolled some more dice and then rolled some more dice again, my excitement level got lower and lower and lower to the point where I was just forcing myself to have fun. Whoever has the most conquered Castles wins in the case of a tiebreaker with the player with the most conquered. Clans winning the second tiebreaker. Age of War Round-Up To conquer a castle in the center of the table, a player is not required to fill the special daimyo battle line. However, to conquer a castle in front of an opponent, a player must fill the special daimyo battle line.If the symbols on one or more rolled dice match all the symbols of a battle line, the player may fill the battle line. To do so, he places those matching dice on the card, covering up that battle line. Dice used to fill a battle line are not rolled by the player for the remainder of his turn. When the central pool of castles is empty a tally of castles is taken and the highest point total wins. There may be rare situations in which a player does not want to fill a battle line. For this reason, a player can always choose to lose one die instead of filling a battle line.

Conquering clans and castles adds another level of strategy to Age of War. Clans with a few castles may be easy to conquer, but you’ll receive more bonus points if you attempt to unite a clan that possesses many castles. The player begins his turn by rolling all seven dice. Then he decides to either start conquering a castle or to reroll his dice. To reroll his dice, he must lose a die by setting it aside for the rest of the turn. This may all sound a little complex but the single sheet of rules with illustrations are very clear. It will take minutes to learn. How it Plays

Conquering a Clan

At the beginning of a game of Age of War, the fourteen castle cards belonging to the six clans are laid out in the center of the play area. Each turn, you must attempt to conquer a castle by laying siege to it with your forces. When the final unconquered castle is taken from the play area, the game ends, and players tally their points by adding the point values of conquered clans and individual conquered castles. The player with the most points succeeds in uniting Japan under his banner and wins the game! I originally was interested in this game mainly because I wanted a simple game that has a samurai or feudal Japan theme to it. This continues until the player either successfully conquers the castle by filling all battle lines or loses his last die. This concludes the player's turn and play moves to the player on his left. I also admit my first impression was one of surprise and disappointment. The box is tiny – just 5 inches square. How can a great strategy game on par with Fantasy Flight’s many offerings fit into such a small parcel?

Even Zombie Dice has more depth. I love Zombie Dice and can play it again and again but this game is a game where I feel that it asks for too much for a dice rolling game. It is just really really tough to roll for certain items such as 10 swords. I think we got it once out of 50 rolls but we rolled it when we didn’t need it. The board is set with 14 castles in the centre of play, each of which is colour coded according to their clan, and with a points value. A player turn consists of rolling an initial set of seven dice and based on that roll selecting a castle to conquer. Later, when castles have been conquered and sit in front of an opponent, they too can be conquered if they have not been scored as part of a clan set, though there is extra challenge in doing so. Battle lines with a number and a \ symbol are infantry battle lines. An infantry battle line is filled with one or more dice showing any \ symbols (\,\\, and \\\). To fill an infantry battle line, the total number of \ symbols must be greater than or equal to the number shown on that battle line. When a player conquers the last castle from the center of the table, the game immediately ends. Each player adds up all the points in front of him, which includes each faceup castle card and the topmost card of any conquered clan piles he has. A player starts his turn by rolling seven dice, the six sides of which show archery, cavalry, daimyo, and 1-3 infantry. He then selects a card and uses the symbols rolled to conquer exactly one of the battle lines on this card (by placing the appropriate dice on that line). If he can do this, he then rolls the remaining dice, ideally conquering another line; if he can't conquer a line, he removes one die from play, then rolls again. His turn ends when either he conquers every line on the card (in which case he claims it) or he no longer has dice available to roll.Age of War is a fast moving, Japanese themed game of castle conquest using a dice pool to assemble your conquering army. Designed by the legendary Reiner Knizia, for 2–6 players, Age of War is a clean, fun game which won’t take much time to finish. Rules