Jonathan and I met up for a quiet Sunday afternoon of gaming at the super duper The Luxe Cinema.

Our first game was an opportunity for me to try Jonathan’s latest addition to his collection, the recently delivered Kickstarter copy of Dice Hospital.

I have to be honest the prototype that was shown at the UKGE 2017 didn’t grab me. Then as you read on last weeks write up for the December monthly meet up I got to look at the components (more on that later in the post.)

I’ll make this brief (phew after yesterday’s post I bet you need a break), I really liked this game.

I know I like quite a broad range of game types. But I do really enjoy worker placement games. Dice Hospital is a nice worker placement game.

First up hats off for including a player aid. Sometimes, more often than you’d like, games don’t include them, or more rare they do but are practically useless. These are fine and do the job.

I like the method for selecting first player each round. The lowest numbered ambulance chosen by a player is first player. Simple. But is it? There is a decision to make. Choosing the lowest numbered ambulance means your dice (they represent patients that need healing) are also low numbers. Which means it takes longer to heal them. Where the opposite is true for the higher numbered ambulances. Plus when you become the first player you get a blood bag token that is a point at the end of the game (if you haven’t used it). Or they can be used to heal a patient one step or change the colour of a die temporarily. So very useful to have. On top of all this, that low numbered ambulance may not have the coloured dice that you need.

Although the first player rolls the dice, and starts allocating them to ambulances based on the simple rule of placing lowest value dice first (starting at ambulance number one). And here is the bit I like “Where there are multiple dice of the same value but different colours to place, the player to the right of the First Player decides in which ambulance they are placed and in what order.” (Taken from rulebook) This involves the other players, and means that the other player gets to throw a spanner in the works potentially by putting inconvenient coloured dice together.

Each round you get to choose a specialist card or department tile from the face up display. I like this you get to chose between upgrading the actions you can choose each turn with the department tile, or recruit an extra worker in the form of a specialist that will also have an ability. So you have that tough choice to you get that department tile that has an action you really want? Or do you get that specialist and their really powerful ability that combos with one of your department tiles, and allows you to do more on a turn?

And that last bit touches on another nice mechanic of the game, combos between the specialists and the department tiles.

Let’s revisit the whole production component thing. Oh before I do, a little troll of my friend Gavin from Jonathan. Gavin did you like Jonathan’s exclusive art from the artist of the game that he has?

In my previous post where I commented on the card thickness, and the nice linen finish. I checked the Kickstarter stretch goals (relevant ones below).

They had goals to improve the quality of the cards in the game. I don’t think they upgraded the card stock enough. They are too thin for my liking. And that has been the opinion of the two people that handed hard cash over for the game also. Jonathan has sleeved his cards.

Which brings me to my next point of the custom insert in the main box. It’s not up to the job. It doesn’t cater for the cards being sleeved, nor does it provide enough space (only just) to store all the department tiles properly. Jonathan is using both boxes to store the game, but Gavin was unable to store everything in the box when using the ambulance miniatures. With a bit of thought the insert could accommodate sleeved cards, and not just the department tiles of the base game but the Kickstarter exclusive ones also. The space is there. In the deluxe add-ons there is also a dice tray that can’t be stored if built. This is just bad planning.

Jonathan has replaced his player score tokens with wooden cubes. They look and work better than the near useless cardboard ones included. Which maybe thematic but very impractical.

Why Alley Cat Games didn’t allow the round tracker to be attached to the score board I don’t know. It makes more sense. And another upgrade Jonathan has also now done himself. Otherwise this can easily be knocked.

There are also stickers included, that I don’t even know why they are there.

Jonathan’s ambulances seemed to have come out better than Gavin’s. But they are still just eye candy, and table theatrics. I heard rumours an expansion might make more use of them mechanically. It’s a shame that wasn’t included in the game already.

On the production side it’s the minor details that got forgotten, or not executed to the same standard as the rest of the components. But despite these little niggles, Dice Hospital is a fun worker placement game.

Oh Jonathan won the game by 4 points.

Our second game for this little gaming session was Reykholt. We played with a promo that gave each player a random one off bonus. They were a nice addition that speeded up the start of the game. It’s a shame these weren’t included in the base game as an additional thing to add to each game. I think they are that good, that maybe once the base game has been learnt players should include these all the time.

Completing the double for the afternoon, Jonathan stomped to victory with this game also.

Afterwards we briefly talked politics, and the current chaos in the country.

I had a great afternoon despite losing. The Luxe were great hosts.