Going Neon with Dice Kingdoms of Valeria: A Roll-and-Write
Build up the lands around the castle, battle monsters, and prepare for a royal inspection with Dice Kingdoms of Valeria.
There are a lot of games in the Valeria universe at this point, and I finally took Dice Kingdoms of Valeria off my shelf to see what I might find! Familiar artwork transported me back to this world, and I recognized some of the mechanics. Still, roll-and-write mechanics were entirely new and I had to see how I might fare during final solo scoring!
Game Overview
Game Name: Dice Kingdoms of Valeria
Publication Year: 2022
Designer: Levi Mote
Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski
Publisher: Daily Magic Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Over the course of 20 rounds, citizens help advance their guild tracks while roads may be built and monsters fought. Numbered dice provide the values for the harvest phase, while the colorful dice offer different options for a single action. Expect to fill in lots of pip rewards and spaces!
First Play
July 1, 2023
Complexity
2
Latest Play
July 2, 2023
Expansions
1
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
4
Play Time
1 Hour
High Score
87
Game Area
18" x 14"
Low Score
72
Citizens and Guilds
If you’ve played Valeria: Card Kingdoms, there should be some familiar elements here! Aside from the iconography, citizens correspond with different dice values.
For example, rolling 1 and 4 triggers anything on a 1, 4, or 5. Simple! Here, a few starting citizens are filled in to help with initial rolls. They aid in filling in these guild tracks.
Many spaces are called reward pips, which then fill in other areas, such as coins or additional road spaces.
There are some neat cascading effects that can happen, yet it all begins with the citizens during the harvest phase.
Filling in Roads
Each round, the colorful dice offer different values for the available actions. These revolve around building, fighting, or recruiting. Not too complex, yet seemingly strategic.
The starting roads at the top offer 4 paths to start working on. Again, reward pips are found along the way, but connecting to a domain provides a special benefit.
Not shown are the monsters, yet it comes down to filling in a space based on the red die value and gaining a coin.
As is customary, the blue die represents magic, and may be added to any action die to make it even more powerful.
Lots of Coloring
Before I began, I could tell there was a lot going on visually. Filling this in with pencil wasn’t an option, and even dark pen marks looked like they might blend in.
I’ll share a photo in the next session report, but I used my Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Pens for this. Half of them are labeled neon, and the colors definitely popped!
The pink stood on on almost every track and made it much easier for me to see. Plus, these pens are triangular!
But I will note that this was my first attempt, and I marked off a good amount of both player sheets for a victory.
Citizen Harvests
The pair of numbered dice are rolled at the start of each round, along with the colored dice. Citizens correspond with the numbers, so this was a pretty easy process.
I caught on that recruiting citizens early on was the way to fill in spaces quicker. In the solo mode, there is a second harvest phase at the end of each round. More rolls!
Part of me was intrigued by the interactions, but the long play time and ability to do everything were concerning.
Reaching the highest scoring tier on my first attempt also made me wonder where else I would go from here.
Intersecting Weight, Play Time, and Difficulty
Sometimes, I mention that a game falls short of my expectations… But what does that actually mean? I’m not one to get too excited over a new game, meaning I don’t expect a popular game to be amazing for me unless I’ve done a lot of research. Still, I tend to keep my overall expectations low so that I give a new game a fair chance most of the time.
However, there are general expectations that apply to the classification of a game. When I see a lightweight game with a fairly long play time and little challenge to make me coming back to it, I get a little concerned. I personally expect lighter games to play in under 30 minutes, aside from some outliers that can still work well.
Perhaps more important is the idea of being difficult enough to offer a challenge. Excluding single-use puzzles and some campaign games, I expect to lose… Which may sound odd. Ha! But a solo game will likely go over well for me if I have to work out the puzzle of how to earn a victory. Winning easily on my first couple of tries is not a good experience.
I know some simply suggest increasing the scoring tiers, which is a possible solution. For me, though, this is something that is usually accompanied by other issues. In this case, would it be more fun to simply try for 10 more victory points? Not really, because I would still be spending an hour to play without a lot of variety in the strategy, unfortunately.
Statue Scoring
Coins are collected throughout play, and every so often, they open up the ability to choose a statue card. 6 different options are always available to find the best ones.
Interestingly, not all of them are for victory points. A few instant abilities are mixed in. I chose to recruit 3 citizens immediately, which helped with a lot of harvests!
However, since I maxed out a lot of tracks, it didn’t feel like I needed to make decisions… It was all balanced.
Don’t get me wrong: It was neat to check a space in one section and see it cascade. Yet it felt a little too easy.
Difficult Outlines
I love colorful player sheets that bring in artwork, but I found myself struggling a little bit. Domains had dashed lines I filled in… Definitely hard to see, though.
Bridges are another element of this area that really only matter for a single statue card. But I still needed to evaluate the possible victory points. Can you spy one?
It’s over on the left side: A coin surrounded by blue spaces and some obscured bridge artwork. Not easy to find!
This is why I used an obnoxious color to try to find everything at a glance. This is not Where’s Waldo. Ha ha!
Random Solo Events
The solo mode also incorporates a deck of event cards, which all have a little flavor text and effect. As far as I could tell, these are all negative in some way.
I didn’t mind them, yet keep in mind that a maximum of 6 will be used during a play… How? If doubles are rolled on the numbered dice, a solo event interrupts gameplay.
Voiding spaces means crossing them out permanently, which can actually be helpful in limited situations.
Some of the humor was great and I laughed out loud, yet these felt quite random without changing strategies.
Thematic Seasons
Rounds are tracked in the solo mode with a selection of 20 trees in the middle of the guild track region. It’s actually quite clever and central without being distracting.
Crossing out these trees felt a little off to me, so I went ahead and made my own way… I colored them in with red to sort of simulate the changing seasons. Perfect!
The only thing I avoided was crossing out the ships for solo events, and just kept track of how many cards I drew.
As you might get a hint of here, I kept right on playing again and just switched over to a different neon color pen!
Battling Monsters
I still felt like I was able to pursue the same strategies without feeling that limited, so my next play went after the most valuable monster battle first. Very nice!
Note, too, that I tested out coloring in the victory point stars a little differently. This was kind of helpful, yet I went back to using a single color afterwards. Just easier.
Sadly, after I had already started working on this strategy, I rolled doubles and drew a pretty dismal event card.
That took away at least 4 victory points as I abandoned the monsters. I thought this effect was a little too punishing.
A Near Victory
The loss of some victory points from the monsters wasn’t all that terrible, but bad luck with the dice was awful!
Colorful dice may be manipulated with different domain abilities, and I had no issues with using them. There was always something to do with a few good choices.
In contrast, the numbered dice will always be whatever they are. When this triggered very few citizens time and time again, even extra recruitment didn’t help a lot.
Worse yet, when I maxed out a guild track, those harvest bonuses were gone… I might simply mark 1 single space.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 and 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 81, 72 (1 Win & 1 Loss)
Terrible showing for the guilds! Still, though, I would label this a pretty bad outing for myself and I managed to end up in the second highest scoring tier. The difficulty level feels a little bit off, which has been true for a couple of other titles in this series. I expect to try out the expansion with different player sheets, yet I have my reservations about what the experience will continue to offer. It was still fun to play the first time with its many filled spaces!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
3
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
6
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
4
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- Shortly after the halfway point, early work starts to pay off with much bigger turns and more reward pips.
- The actual iconography is very clear across the player sheets in terms of understanding what the spaces mean.
- Random statue cards provide a glimpse into some of the best ways to earn victory points before the game ends.
- Being able to decide which action to take based on the dice values is interesting and rarely leaves all bad options.
- A single path forward with building the roads doesn’t exist, as they branch off and connect in multiple ways.
- Even with a pair of player sheets to use, the required play area is very small and only needs a little extra for dice.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Play time is quite long for the fairly lightweight experience where the majority of spaces may be filled in each time.
- Busy artwork makes it difficult to see some of the player sheet elements, making scoring a little harder.
- Rewards interrupt actions, which means it can be very easy to lose track of what needs to be finished from before.
- More recruitment can help with poor dice rolls, yet the harvest phase is very dependent on dice luck early on.
Victory Conditions
Score 80+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Complete all 4 guild tracks in at least 1 game.
Score at least 80 points.
Score at least 85 points.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Dice Kingdoms of Valeria? What are some elements you enjoy about solo roll-and-write games? I had a nice time, yet I don’t know if this is going to remain in my collection. Although it might not be for me, the ability to see all of the cascading pip rewards happen at once can be very satisfying! I hope those who like it continue to do well!
I find the game works well for our family at 3-5 players (not listed on the box, but the designer said it can go up to 5). There’s usually something to bubble in each round and the cascading makes for somewhat interesting decisions. We’ve played the “summer” map as a family much more often – and the first time I’ve had to order more of a R&W set of sheets because it’s been played that often for us.
That’s awesome to hear! Interesting that supporting 5 players isn’t mentioned on the box, as I can see that being an important consideration. Always nice to hear a positive story! Even though this one isn’t for me, I can appreciate the fun in the cascading effects. Hope everyone continues to enjoy playing!