Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8828621/dicemancy

Designer: Eduardo Aguilar Leal
Publisher: Best With 1 Games
Artist: Cole Munro-Chitty

Dicemancy is a solo card-based game where wizards utilize spell combinations in hopes of protecting the city while also defeating enough monsters to win. Over the course of nine or ten scenarios, players experience a multitude of different wizard characters, each with their own powers and abilities. Along with unique characters, there are also varied setups, goals, rules, and numerous monsters/enemies that get randomly distributed each game. If the player can defeat enough foes, they win, but if they run out of time or any of the foes cross the wall line, they lose.

At the start of each round, the player rolls a certain number of dice based on their characters and spells and then plays spell cards from their hand to form a (max) 3×3 grid of spell cards. At any time, players can utilize their dice to activate the spells and attack the monsters. Each enemy requires specific combinations and configurations of colors and numbers of attack cubes, making each one a unique challenge.

As with basically any game, especially those that are solo or can be played solo, I enjoyed the scenario format and progression. They started pretty simple but some of the later ones were definitely more difficult. I also appreciate the variability they bring when paired with the number of characters, spell/monster cards, etc.

I also find the mechanics in this one pretty unique. Using your defeated monster cards as spell cards that form a grid that can be activated with dice is really cool and fresh. Even though there is luck in the dice roll, there are many avenues for mitigating it with characters and crystals, and there are so many different types of spells that all perform/behave differently, so it’s pretty rare to run into a situation where you can’t use a dice unless you just run out of space in your spell grid. Because you roll the dice first, there is also a fun little puzzle with the cards and monsters and grid; you try to optimize your turns as much as possible with what you know you have available use and which monsters you need to defeat.

My biggest complaint is that the luck of the draw with the enemy cards can be very frustrating. There are certain monsters (those that have played know exactly what I’m talking about) that are significantly more challenging than others, and if you get unlucky and have many of those that you must defeat to win, it can be tough. Along these lines, some of the difficulty scaling in general can be weird. Also, as much as I appreciate the asymmetric characters, I wish there were a few more!

I actually enjoyed this one more than initially expected. It’s a clever design and creates a fun puzzle to solve. I don’t necessarily love it, but I had fun with it and look forward to coming back to it and playing through the scenarios again in the future. A little less luck, more refined difficulty scaling, and a little more variability would make it even better!