Today, Lee looks at the “Dice of War” dice.
Introduction
I’m going to have to open this review with an apology for being tardy. When Ben gave me a big bag of Germans to review, he also gave me a metal box and a pile of dice and asked me to review them.
Which of course begged the question; how do you review dice? Dice are Dice. “These dice rolled a completely average set of results on a long enough time line. A+”.
So, blinded by Leopard 2 and Marders, the box sat on the shelf.
Which is a real shame because, now I’m looking at the Dice of War dice, I have to say, based on artistic merit; These are really nice dice!
The Box
Firstly, we get a decent sized tin “ammo box” to hold all the dice in. I’m not sure if the sticker is standard or just because its a “special” with the Breakthrough Assault design on. If its standard, its probably the only criticism I’m going to throw at it because its seems like something that is going to have its edges scuffed up pretty quickly. Other than that the box has a decently tight lid and some internal cushioning to help minimise the “marching on gravel” sound when its bouncing in the game bag.
The Dice
On to the dice itself. The Dice is on the chunkier side with a 15mm x 15mm face. That’s a bit bigger than my normal weapon of choice but pretty standard fro custom engraved dice.
Each dice has had its traditional “six dot” replaced by a sharply defined embossed symbol. There are a variety of designs to cover just about every major division or arm of service you could want (sadly I didn’t get an 11th Armoured division or Brit para dice – but incentive to buy!). The dice supplied are all bi-colour which seems to work well with all the designs present and I note on the website that some designs are tri-colour (such as the 11th armoured divisions “charging bull”) with no impact on price.
What impressed me, even more than the variety of designs, was the fine detail. The two that stuck out were the 2nd Infantry “Indian-head” and 101st Airborne “Screaming Sagles”. The “Indian head” in the centre of the allied star of the 2nd Infantry symbol is captured sharply, despite its small size, as is the “AIRBORNE” lettering on the 101st symbol.
Impressive stuff really! They have also started to add Team Yankee themed dice to the product range with some nice NATO stars and Soviet dice.
“Dice of War” also do custom designs, as is ably demonstrated by our fancy custom “Breakthrough Assault” dice!
The Damage
A tin box with a half load of dice comes in at thirty aussie dollars, plus about $10 shipping to the more civilised parts of the world. That’s about £24 in total. An extra 16 dice comes in at $(Oz)20, so a full box will set you back about £35.
It’s a decent wad of money, but the shipping is fairly reasonable and that’s giving you thirty two dice which is more than the average FoW player will provably ever need! You’re also getting a premium quality dice for your cash too.
Conclusion
All in all, the Dice of War dice are some nice looking dice for the gamer looking to accessorise this season. Dice may not be everyone’s priority but for those looking for such things, then you wouldn’t go far wrong looking at the range.
Once I have them painted up, I think my 11th armoured era 3RTR will be getting some fancy dice to go with the army!
I absolutely love my Leibstandarte AH, Fallschirmjager and 2nd Panzer division dice – they all have crisp detailing and have a really nice weight to them. The variety is frankly spectacular, especially for the German forces, and as a collector having the “correct” dice it lovely!
They are a little bigger in size than the dice formally available from BF – 16mm dice rather than 12mm I think but unless you are really lucky then 16 is more that manageable and enough for playing our beloved Flames of War.
Not so long ago, this wonderful line of products would ‘ave been beyond my financial reach. Fortunately, ; ) that is not the case presently. I’m the proud and vera happy owner of several DoW sets, including the magnificent Indianheads.
Got four sets of dice in tins from DoW (actually 8 sets really, I to the tins filled). Soviet and Germans for a mate, and US and NATO dice for me, all for Team Yankee,
Tin is great, the dice look awesome, and they feel nice in the hand and roll nicely.
Really impressed, and will be buying more for my BAOR army for Team Yankee
Awesome! Can you get them in the UK? Can only see them in Australia.
Hi Simon, there’s no UK distributor that I know of – its just direct sales from Oz.
The shipping cost isn’t too bad.
Whilst I’m here – i should probably note that, a year on nearly, that sticker on the tin has actually stood up very well to wear and tear so my concern on its durability *was* unfounded.