First Impressions: Epic Roll

Ahoy fearless readers! I hope you’ve enjoyed your week so far! I have been getting fairly inconsistent at posting on regular days haven’t I? It looks like that it will be like this more than likely for the summer to be quite honest. I will be posting whenever I can, with a minimum of once per week, but for now at least, I can’t guarantee a specific day of the week. Anyway, onto a review!

If You Love
In this section, I will highlight mechanics, and some thematic aspects that may sway your opinion to either read on, or skip into a review of another game you may find interesting.

• Dice Rolling
• Fantasy Theme
• Custom Dice
• Basic Dice Combat

 

How It’s Played

When you start your game, you will pick one of three characters in which you will play as. You will pick either a wizard, a warrior, or an elf. The choice you make will decide your turn order as well, as the board is organized in a specific fashion. To start your turn, you will put your life marker on the players life counter. You will then roll a die which determines which monster you will fight that turn. From there you place the monsters life counter on the specified spot on the monster life counter. You will then roll combat dice to determine whether you hit, hit twice, block, or have no effect on that roll. Each hit will take away one life point from whoever is it. You will then decide if you would like to continue fighting the monster and re roll, you may to keep damaging the monster. If you win, you will then move up on the allotted character line, to complete your quest and win the game. You will also draw a card which gives you a bonus for winning against the monster. If you lose however, you will move down the track and your turn is over. There are other dice that you will use through the game, such as a bonus dice once you have made it through the game half way. As well, the monsters at the end of the game will have a bonus dice which will work against you to make the game harder.

The Pretty Little Bow

As always, I will start with the quality of the components. The box itself is one of the thickest I’ve ever seen in a board game. I have no doubt that this box will never warp, and it is also very unlikely that it will have any rips or tears in the near future. The dice are nice as well, and are engraved which I find to be a nice touch. The cards that are in this game are fairly standard, and they don’t stand out beyond the fact that I feel like they will hold up along with the rest of the game. The board itself is is just as solid as the box, which is very nice to see. I don’t have the feeling of “how many times can I open this board before it tears?” I suppose that leaves us with the art. I really enjoy the look and feel the art in this game gives. The cover has shadowy figures which represent each of the characters in the game, and a blue coloured background, and the Epic Roll logo which looks great. The cards all have symbols which make sense for the design of the game, and don’t necessarily stick out, nor do they look  under produced. I think they are right where they should be quality wise. They don’t use the art on the cards to deter from the game itself. Finally, we get to the board. This is where you can see a drawn depiction of your characters.You can also see your end game enemy, the Lich. The depictions of these characters are very well done. A slight knock to the board is the background for me. It is a scene of a graveyard and the art itself is very well done. What I wish for in it however is that it was a bit more consistent with the box art and have a silhouette style than the detailed style they went with.

What’s To Love? 

Epic Roll is a very basic game, which can be played by all ages. This simplicity and focus on dice rolling is a good way to get used to the mechanic of dice battle. Rather than learning a ton of other rules, the biggest thing in this game to learn is how combat is resolved. It has been a go to game for me to teach my son these abilities, in hope that one day he will play more in depth games with me and have a solid grasp on how the combat works. While he is still a little too young to read the monsters names, he is recognizing where the health counter should go as he can match the word on the dice, to the word on the board. As well as having this advantage, the quality of this game is on a whole new level from what I have seen typically in most board games. I could probably stand on this box, and not have any dents due to the cardboard being so thick. The art style is one that I adore, and even the box insert has been molded perfectly for all of the components. No detail was overlooked while putting this game together.

 

What’s Not To Love? 

So far, I have praised this game for being basic, and a good one to introduce to younger players to dice battle. I stand by what I have said so far in the fact that it is good to introduce the mechanic, but that is about where it ends. This is such a basic and luck driven game, which leaves you with almost no decisions to make, except “should I battle and risk dying, or run?” With dice battling being the only mechanic, I would not likely pull this game out to play with older friends, as everyone I play with has a grasp on dice battling within other games, and I don’t see a situation where all we want to do in our game is roll damage to a monster (or ourselves). This in turn sort of leads me to my next issue, which is the theme. As I would focus playing this game with a younger audience, I feel that even though the art and theme is wonderful to me, I don’t think it is quite appropriate for the younger children playing. This is personally less of an issue for me, as my son has good awareness of what is make-believe, and what is real life. He isn’t affected often by still images, nor movies, but I imagine that others with young children may not want their three or four year old rolling to fight and kill a mummy, or zombie etc.

 

What’d You Think?

With Epic Roll, I am a little torn about what to think about it. As a gamer, I couldn’t care less whether or not I keep this game on my shelf. However, as a father who wants to get my son into playing board games, I wouldn’t think of ridding this from my shelf. If a deep game, with many decisions and a lot going on is what you are looking for, this is not the game for you. It is straightforward and a game that leaves strategy at the door. However, if what you are looking for is a fun quick game with a younger gamer, this is a wonderful game to get them interested in rolling dice. Not that the children really need that, as rolling seems to be the first part of gaming they love. It is great for giving you an opportunity to focus on the battles of dice rolling, and not having other things to think about and worry about. The young ones can just focus on learning their scoring. Which in my mind is perfect at that age level. When all is said and done, Epic Roll is a game that will stick it out on my shelf, as another option to play with my son. We are slightly limited on games that are super friendly for him, but this is one that fits the bill nicely. It will likely last on the shelf until he grows out of needing that singular focus, and he can move onto other games, such as Magic: Arena of the Planeswalkers for example. (Maybe a bad example, but first thing that came to mind!)

Well, that’s about all I have to say about that today! I hope you have enjoyed it, and you may possibly have found an idea for a game that you can teach a younger child, or sibling, or cousin, or whoever about dice battle. I appreciate you making it through this far, and I can’t wait until you get to come by again and read about another game! Don’t forget, I love you all very much!!