Tumblin Dice Review

Ok, dexterity lovers, it's finally happened - I've tracked down a copy of Tumblin Dice and reviewed it for your reading pleasure.

In Tumblin Dice, each player gets four dice and attempts to roll/flick/shoot them down the board in an effort to score points.  Once everyone has used all four of their dice, then you calculate scores - each die is worth the number of pips showing times the tier of the board that it landed on.  That's the whole game - you can either play until one player gets a certain number of points, or you can switch out players after each round.

So, if you've been around this site for very long, then you know that I'm a sucker for dexterity games.  And, sure enough, I think that Tumblin Dice is a great offering in the genre.  But, what does it do well?  Well, first I like the fact that you can knock out other players dice - or try to improve the positioning of your own.  And, I like the risk that those moves entail.  For example, if one of the players manages to land one of his dice on a 4x spot early in the round, then they have made themselves a target.  However, in order to get your die far enough down the board to hit him - and with enough force to knock him off the board, you will be flicking your die fairly hard.  And, shots with this much force will often go careening off of the board and be worth nothing.  But, conversely, if you don't shoot your die hard enough, then there's a good chance that all you will wind up doing is getting in the way and making it harder for any of the other players to knock the high scoring die off later.

Tiered board with pegs to hide beside

Another element that I like about Tumblin Dice is how the board is laid out.  I enjoy both the fact that the board is tiered and that there are pegs on the lower tiers.  The tiered approach makes it so that your die will actually change faces (if it was a flat board, everyone would just set their die on a six, and it wouldn't matter if you were using dice, disks, small rocks, or semi-melted popsicles).  And, controlling (or desperately attempting to control) how many times the die will flip over on its way down the board is an important element in scoring higher values.  The other element of the board layout that I like are the pegs - the pegs really allow you a bit of a "safety net" when shooting your dice.  If you can hit a peg (softly), then you can stop your die from falling off the board - and you can protect yourself from being easily knocked off by other players.  This adds an extra element of skill to the game - in addition to just rolling your dice down the board, positioning them well can also help you win the game.

The final pro that I will mention for Tumblin Dice is that it is great to play with anybody.  You can play this with kids, adults, gamers, and non-gamers (I've actually played it with all of these different groups).  Plus, it's great for attracting people (assuming you're trying to do this for some reason).  Set up Tumblin Dice and start playing it, and it basically serves as a people magnet - people will come over to see what you are doing.  And they will want to play it.  And it plays quickly enough that you can let them; but then you might not be playing.  But I guess "you" need to learn to share (in this situation you actually refers to me).

One thing that I will mention about Tumblin Dice that I consider to be "neutral" is that there is definitely luck involved.  Most dexterity games have luck to varying degrees, but in Tumblin Dice it is much more obvious.  As you flick dice, they will topple end over end down the board.  Because of how dice are shaped, this means that they will change faces - and thus values.  I believe that if you become ridiculously skilled at the game, then you will be able to control this... somewhat.  But, there will always be an element of luck involved with it.  And, if you only manage to flick your die to a 2x tier, but it lands on a 6, then you will outscore somebody that lands on a 4x tier but with a 2 showing on the die.  Some people will hate this, others will actually prefer it - but either way you should be aware of it when deciding if Tumblin Dice is a game to check out.

My main complaint

I don't really have any real cons with the gameplay of Tumblin Dice - it is exactly what I expected it to be.  However, I do have one con associated with the quality of my copy of the game.  My copy has a small wooden shard glued to one of the legs that causes the board to be lopsided.  I'm not really sure what caused this.  I'm also afraid to fix the issue, because so far I've been able to get the board to sit flat even with this situation - so I think that the board may not be completely balanced.  Since I've always managed to get the board setup and flat, I will probably just let it be.

Overall, I give Tumblin Dice an 8.5/10.  I really enjoy it, but I don't think that it will replace Crokinole or PitchCar as my "go to" dexterity game.

If you enjoy dexterity games, you might also check out Sorry! Sliders, Catacombs, and Caveman Curling.

PitchCar Review

Have you ever read an internet blog about board game reviews? (I hope so, otherwise I'm writing this to myself.) Well, I do, and several of them told me about PitchCar. Now here I am - the proud owner of my own copy.

In PitchCar, you build your own race track, and then each player races to get around the track three times. Your car is a wooden disc that you move by flicking it along the track. If your car flips over, knocks another car off the track, or goes off the track itself, then you are placed back where you started (and if you knocked another car off, it goes back as well). If you start your turn next to a rail or another car, you get a little bit of wiggle room to make room for a good flick.  The first person to cross the finish line the third time is the winner!  That's all of the rules.

The first thing that I love about PitchCar are the rails. None of the other reviews mentioned them. I figured that the game would just consist of carefully navigating along the path, and that it might be a bit slow. Fortunately, there are rails along the pieces that are made well and really let your car fly around turns. The rails help the game be much faster paced and can allow a really talented "pitcher" to send his car halfway around the course in a single (amazing) hit!

The next thing that I like about PitchCar is that the track is customizable. If the track were the same each time, the game would get somewhat boring. I think it is really important to the game that this track is customizable. Along with that, however, I think that many people will enjoy setting up different tracks and (if using the expansions) building crazy ramps and such. In the same reason that people enjoy Legos, I think that people will enjoy the setup aspect of PitchCar.

Really, the biggest pro that you need to know about is that PitchCar is a lot of fun. It has that "it" quality that makes people enjoy playing it together. It can be played anywhere from 2-8 people, and I believe it truly can be enjoyed with any of those numbers. It's fast enough that you could play a quick game when you needed a break from something else, but it's also fun enough that you could set it up and play it off and on throughout an entire night. When looking for a game where fun is more important than strategy, PitchCar is definitely where you should look.

However, there are a couple of nuisances about PitchCar. First, I have noticed that in my set the rails often come loose. You will fairly regularly be fixing your track by pushing the rails back in. And, if you didn't proactively push the rails in, you might occasionally be annoyed because the rail came off when you hit it with your car, and it can completely mess up your shot!

The other thing that I will mention that is a con for PitchCar is that the first player has a distinct advantage - especially depending on the track. The "official" rules state that you should each go around the track once in as few flicks as possible to determine poll position. We normally determine poll position by letting whoever feels like going next take the next turn. If the first player is able to get a good first flick, and some of the other players have bad flicks, there will often be a large cluster of cars together that are really hard for late-turn players to pass - while the first player is flying along by himself (until he starts lapping people).

The last thing I will mention that you need to be aware of - it is crucial that you set up your track on a completely flat surface. When we first got the game, we set it up on our rug. It looked flat but it was not flat. Remember where I said it was awesome that you could customize the track? Here is the con of that - if you do not set it up on a perfectly flat playing area, then the intersection of different pieces will give you a speed-bump feel, and cars will constantly fly off the track, even when going slowly!

Overall, I give PitchCar a 9.0/10. I got my copy in a trade, and I'm glad I did - I love the game! With that said, it seems really expensive for what it is (I think the base game lists around $75!). Fortunately, I already own a copy, so I will play the crud out of it! Now, I just need to find a way to get all of the expansions - yeah, all of them... because I want them... all. Bottlenecks, jumps, crosses, etc!

If you like dexterity games, you might also check out Crokinole, Sorry! Sliders, and Elk Fest.