Dice Manor Review

Dice Manor puts you in the shoes of a property developer with the task of building and marketing the most unique home. Each player has a set of dice and a starting room tile. Then, each player will roll their dice and sort them by number. The first player chooses a set of matching dice and put them on a corresponding room tile. Then the other players do the same. They can bid on a tile that has dice on it and if they have more after the bidding phase is completed then they'll get the tile. This phase goes on until nobody has any dice to left. There is also the option to advertise which can net you points and get you closer to unlocking more dice. The final choice is to give a tour by placing matching dice on your manor and scoring points based on how many were placed. After the bidding phase, then you'll collect your rewards and place them in the manor or get your points. This goes on for 4 rounds and on the 5th, players will only place dice in their manor. Final scoring is determined on the variety and majority of tiles in players manors and whoever has the most points will win.

The Good: I've said it in the past but I don't usually enjoy bidding games but this was a nice surprise. There is always something you can do with your dice, even if it's a meaningless blueprint bid to get an inspiration token which can allow you to re-roll a die or change a value. You never feel like you've wasted a bid. The two player variant was released recently and it was a fantastic addition to the game. Each bidding phase, an extra die is rolled from an unused player color and added to a blueprint bid. They can win auctions and potentially take away some final scoring points from other players. It's quick and unobtrusive which is a huge plus.

The Okay: This was a strange game to plan for. Ultimately, you're only really able to go where your dice will let you go. If you want a level 6 tile, you better hope you roll enough 6's to get it. Of course, then you've got to factor in having enough numbers to complete effective manor tours but you still need to roll matches to do that. There's a surprising level of depth but it's not always easy to find.

The Not So Good: With any sort of auction, you'll need a little luck but I'm not sold on it being all luck. If you have bad rolls you can miss out on a piece you really need and other players may take something simply because they rolled the numbers. Sure you can play innovation tokens but if you're too far from a simple change then you'll be relying on re-rolling. Thematically, this was also a strange one to get into. I didn't care at all what the tiles looked like each time I played. I just played the hand I was dealt and hoped for the best.

Final Thoughts: Dice Manor was a surprise to me. It had initially caught my attention a few months back because I thought the theme was interesting. I didn't pour too much research into the game at the time and kind of forgot about it. When I had the chance to review it for the page of course I jumped at the opportunity. While there's a lot of random luck here, there's also a really enjoyable game. It's not perfect but it's easy to teach and with a short playtime, it doesn't overstay it's welcome.

Thanks to Arcane Wonders for providing a review copy.