Desert Island Dice – Episode 2

I am very pleased to see the interest that this has generated since the first episode, and would really like to get more suggestions from other players as to which 3 Dragon Dice they would have on their desert island with them.

This week’s contributors have come up with another good variety, but it would seem that the most popular, certainly from a tactical point of view, is turning out to be the Fireshadow.

It would be very nice to include some of the ladies in the next episode, if at all possible.

My First Interviewee – Mr Travis Dean

Travis likes his 10 sided Monster dice and couples their tactical attraction with a touch of nostalgia for the time when he first discovered them.

My 3 would be Nightmare, Fireshadow, and Sprite Swarm.

Nightmare because I feel it’s the most useful and versatile stand alone or one die only army out there. It caters so well to the Amazon’s racial abilities and is strong in missile, melee, and manoeuvring; only struggling at magic and saves.

Fireshadow and Sprite Swarm both have similar reasons. When I first got into Dragon Dice in around 2000, these were the races I had the most of and were my favourite. Especially these two monsters. They were the most useful and also the coolest looking dice.

The Fireshadow is also one of the most versatile dice in the game, doing everything well, and practically having multiple IDs.

Sprite Swarm is really good at magic and missile, and the group monster ability was a cool gimmick to make those rare rolls more exciting. Though I still agree with removing that rule.

My Second Interviewee – Mr Tony Newton

Tony’s choice is about as varied as you can get in such a limited allowable selection. We have monsters, rares and champions, and he has also included a Dragonkin for good measure. A nice varied set of castaways.

1. Beholder: The beholder has always held a soft spot for me when I was growing up as one of the cooler/ odder beasties from D&D & it’s inclusion in an army is great as the random array if icons makes it a little unpredictable in combat… sometimes for good or bad depending on the throw.

2. Lich: I love the Undead race & the Lich is one of the stronger units with good attack & defence & a huge amount of magic to use against your opponents. Useful to raise those dead units from the DUA.

3. Dragonkin Champion: Big champion dice are great to bring to a fight & the dragonkin are some of the best as they bring big punches while not ACTUALLY being a dragon.

My Third Interviewee – Mr Greg Ison

Greg Ison tried tries hard to slip in a fourth selection, but rules are rules Greg – only three are allowed!! I must admit that I have never tried out my Rakshasa, and this has made me want to give it a whirl very soon.

1..Charkin, what’s not to like about scorching touch on top of counter
2..Rakshasa, Illusion is so good at screwing plans up for those focused on either magic or missile and like the troll is usually targeted early in our games whenever possible
3…So many more but has to be the Fireshadow for all the reasons others have already stated
Honourable 4th to Mammoth Rider especially with Mountain Mastery, extremely hard to out manoeuver herd of mammoths

My Fourth Interviewee – Mr William Johnsen

Someone to join last week’s guest D. Scott O’Brien on the aesthetic quality of Dragon Dice is William Johnsen who even includes a die which is 100% looks and 0% usefulness. This will take a lot of beating. I do think that he is getting to enjoy his particular desert island, however. Perhaps we should think about a rescue before he starts talking to his dice?

I choose:-

1) Big Honkin’ Green Die – it was used as a quality test run for the TSR logo, it is large enough to minimize loss, and the green marble color would hold sentimental value if I were to ever be rescued;

2) The ivory Drake dragon – no other dragon attacks it increasing the probability of me riding away from my captivity, it is a Dragon Die, and because I admire the ink color contrast to the vanilla core;

3) Feyland Vortex terrain – preferably under my control such that I can get off the island, the Feyland terrain simply puts me in a mischievous mood, and terrains are the objective of the game (I must remain as objective as possible if alone on a desert island).

A big ‘Thank You’ to this week’s guests and I hope that I will be able to present another selection of Desert Island Dice in the near future.