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Game Info
Year
2014
Collection
Your Tier
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Expansions & Family
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Description
From the humble beginnings of civilization through the historical ages of progress, mankind has lived, fought and built together in nations. Great nations protect and provide for their own, while fighting and competing against both other nations and nature itself. Nations must provide food as the population increases, build a productive economy, and amaze the world with their great achievements to build up their heritage as the greatest nations in the history of mankind!
Nations: The Dice Game is a game for 1-4 players that takes 10-15 minutes per player and shares many concepts with the civilization-building game Nations while still offering its own challenges. The game is played over four ages (four rounds). During each round, players take turns until all have passed. The available actions are:
Buy a tile
Build a wonder
Reroll some or all your dice
Buildings and military provide dice. Colonies and wonders provide resources and victory points. Advisors provide rerolls. New tiles provide benefits immediately, so you can roll new dice at once.
At the end of each round, War and Famine drawn at the start of the round is checked for each player, giving you victory points if you match or beat the values. Books are accumulated and scored. Player order is checked, with high military strength going first in the next round. At the end of the game, whoever has the most victory points wins.
Nations Family
(2 games)
Part of the Nations family — see Nations for the combined view.
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 7
This page: 7
Sentiment:
pos 5 ·
mix 2 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–7 of 7
Video EzUg26LDuGA
Getting Games Impression List at 5:30 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 92361 · mention_pk 248152
Click to watch at 5:30 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- captures Nations vibe in a compact dice format
- fast, streamlined civilization engine
Cons
- limited diversity of tiles
- potentially repetitive after multiple plays
Thematic elements
- dice-driven civilization lineage
Comparison games
- Equinox
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice Drafting — draft dice and spend them to buy tiles that grant new dice with stronger abilities
- dice drafting to upgrade dice pool — draft dice and spend them to buy tiles that grant new dice with stronger abilities
- monument and resource progression — dice types (ore, gold) enable different advancement paths
- tile-purchasing and engine-building — tiles grant dice and advance your civilization engine
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I sat down I played a four-player game of it and it was great it was everything that I was hoping for it to be
- it's gorgeous the only flaw with the game is that monster track there are these Monster cards where you when you play them this track goes up and the higher up on the track you go the better rewards there are for the person who cashes out but there are so few Monster cards in the deck
- we died fast
- this game is very difficult
- it's like Equinox
- it's a tile L game they're they're cards but they're square tiles with a number in each side
- I got destroyed I got completely slaughtered
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video CdMenFxp__k
Getting Games Discussion at 12:03 sentiment: positive
video_pk 92290 · mention_pk 247911
Click to watch at 12:03 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- light and quick
- enjoying it so far
- unique dice engine-building concept
Cons
- initial tiles look similar; may affect replayability
Thematic elements
- dice engine-building
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- bonuses via chits — Chits grant bonuses as the game progresses
- dice engine-building — Players develop a pool of dice and use them to perform actions
- dice pool growth — Start with five dice, end with many dice and bonuses
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I will be doing an exclusive once a month question-and-answer vlog
- the second thing is that one of the reviews I do each month is going to be voted on by the patrons
- I think that's a really great way that we can interact back and forth and we can just create a better channel together
- the Voyages of Marco Polo ... incredible amount of replayability
- the board is totally randomized every game
- it's a pusher luck deck-building game that plays one to four people
- I was super excited about penny press ... I was the person who was super far behind who got left out of a newspaper cycle
- the issues that I have with this game... area majority miss is too big of a deal
- the split personality disorder description for Welcome to the Dungeon
- great art aesthetic
- I think it's a great game
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video pOVaGvy5cME
Getting Games Discussion at 16:51 sentiment: positive
video_pk 92285 · mention_pk 247892
Click to watch at 16:51 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
- Roll for the Galaxy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- by far in a way the most important life-altering thing that's happened to me in the last month is that I proposed to my then girlfriend now fiance Jessica
- I'm getting married
- I am pretty excited that I just finished recording my first question and answer Vlog
- the last one was in Alien Frontiers
- Welcome to the dungeon is a great idea
- it's gorgeous but it's not the most engaging thing ever
- I prefer this over Race for the Galaxy
- it's a cool pyramid building engine building out the Wazoo game with an auction mechanic that seems a bit thrown on
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video Qxll9B5smo0
Getting Games Discussion at 51:44 sentiment: positive
video_pk 91102 · mention_pk 244190
Click to watch at 51:44 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I have a really big problem with the status quo.
- I'm desperately looking for more colonialism themed games at least from the Western colonial eyes.
- Don't ruin the magic if you prefer not to but do you preset the first few turns of a playthrough so that you could better show the rules or is it all standard setup and you show the rules as they come?
- I pre stack cards like in terraforming Mars I made sure that there were cards in people's hands so that a greenery tile would go down a Sydney tile would go down an ocean would go down that every single little button could be pressed in that first generation.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video T1p4Cty7jOs
Board Gaming Ramblings Review at 10:48 sentiment: positive
video_pk 88191 · mention_pk 231981
Click to watch at 10:48 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
- Terraforming Mars
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a backwards episode
- it's a double call
- it's a tiny game but it's a great gateway to a system
- we are going to keep it forever
- Nations the Dice Game is a perfect example of a game dice game done right
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video zXb-3LS1WFs
Rahdo Runs Through Top List at 1:29:34 sentiment: positive
video_pk 81162 · mention_pk 200155
Click to watch at 1:29:34 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
Highly Positive
Pros
- Recommended to play with its expansion for unique asymmetric player nations.
- One of the speaker's favorite dice chuckers.
- One of the speaker's favorite civilization building games.
- Distills the greatness of the original Nations into a tight, fast package.
- Love it to pieces.
Cons
- Expansion is highly recommended for the full experience.
Thematic elements
- Civilization building
- Civilization
Comparison games
- Nations
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Civ-building — Abstracts the core elements of the larger Nations game.
- Dice Rolling — A core mechanic for driving actions and progression.
- Tableau Building — Players build up their civilization's capabilities.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I just love that resource progression.
- It the resource progression feels to me like that you start with a wheel then you get cards then you get uh spaceships right?
- The game is just way too heavy. It is insane.
- It's like a rock paper scissors. I'm building my ship this way to count to your ship. Then you should build your ship another way.
- Yeah. Because they are so heavy, right? They do take such an investment you want to like uh go through, but people were saying that that Colution was was awesome.
- I think the moral of this stream is we can call anything a Civ game if you try hard enough.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video sj0RF5ir7hw
Getting Games Review at 0:02 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 63641 · mention_pk 157131
Click to watch at 0:02 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- Dice engine grows from a small start into a larger pool of color-coded dice
- Simple turn structure with low downtime
- Wonders and territories provide distinct, evolving options
Cons
- Lack of tile variety reduces replayability
- Setup/teardown feels lengthy relative to short play time
- Food and books are perceived as less interesting paths for scoring
- Tiles in later ages are similar/duplicative, reducing engagement
- Replayability suffers without expansions
Thematic elements
- civilization-building through dice-based engine; upgrading buildings and constructing wonders
- tutorial/review with example setup and turn-by-turn discussion
Comparison games
- Roll for the Galaxy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- age progression and tile replenishment — As ages advance, tiles and bonuses evolve; players refresh chits and dice between turns, with later ages offering different bonuses.
- book scoring phase — After all players pass, players generate books based on dice with a book face or a book icon, contributing to end scoring.
- dice faces and color-driven actions — Dice come in multiple colors with different strengths (white, gold, blue, red) and faces influence outcomes like gold, books, or combat.
- End Game Bonuses — End-of-round scoring includes famine and war bonuses; tiles grant victory points based on these conditions.
- Endgame scoring — At game end, players tally victory points from all tiles and bonuses; the highest total wins.
- exhaust and reroll — Exhausting a roll chit allows rerolling a number of dice on the board, affecting future results.
- Three actions per turn — On a turn, a player can purchase a tile, build a wonder, or exhaust a roll chit to reroll dice.
- Tile Placement — Players spend resources (swords, gold) to purchase tiles from an offer; tiles grant bonuses and must be placed on the board.
- tile purchasing — Players spend resources (swords, gold) to purchase tiles from an offer; tiles grant bonuses and must be placed on the board.
- war and famine scoring — End-of-round scoring includes famine and war bonuses; tiles grant victory points based on these conditions.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- the central idea for the whole game. And that is building a dice engine.
- I really like the simple turn order structure where you simply take one action from only three options and then it's the next person's turn and we just keep going around the table until everybody passes
- I really enjoy that process of starting with a small basic dice set and kind of customizing your own variety of dice
- There are lots of duplicates with these blue buildings.
- I really wish that the food and books, specifically the food, had been given more reason to even be in the game.
- There is an astonishing lack of variety in the tiles that come in the game.
- Ultimately, I feel like this game needed more variety like the territories and the wonders that are in here.
- Roll for the Galaxy pretty much every time I want to sit down and play a good dicebased engine building game.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–7 of 7