August 2010 Notable Toys — Dice

Players compete as Givers or Takers to save Paradice, a metaphor for the world, by uniting the humans to gain the power to give life back to the forests, before one human Takes too much and Paradice is lost for ever. The game includes 38 2” x 2” tiles, one die and rules. It is made in the USA from vegetable inks on recycled paper and is designed for one to two players. Awards: Dr. Toy Best Green Toy Award 2010

Arkham Horror was originally published by Chaosium, Inc. in 1987. This updated edition features new artwork and graphical design (including a new gameboard, counters, cards, and playing pieces) as well as revised and expanded rules from the game's original creator, Richard Launius. Players select from 16 unique playable investigator characters, each with unique abilities, and square off against the diabolical servants of eight Ancient Ones. Arkham Horror is a cooperative game for one to eight players and can be played in two to three hours.

June 6th, 1944 marked a red-letter date in the Second World War. Better known as D-Day, the 6th marked the beginning of Operation Overlord, the Allied battle plan coordinating a major offensive against German forces at Normandy, France. Here, on the beaches of Normandy, the Allies would either gain the foothold they needed to bring down the German war machine, or suffer a devastating defeat. "The Normandy Campaign Expansion expands the Tide of Iron base game by allowing players to recreate Allied beach landings against fortified German defenses. Players can also push past the beaches into the bocage, where soldiers fight in the dense hedgerows of the countryside," Rick Nauertz, sales associate for Fantasy Flight Games, told TDmonthly.

Across the Mediterranean lie the deserts and mountains of North Africa where soldiers of the British and German armies fight the greatest war in human history. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads a brilliant offensive against Commonwealth forces, far exceeding his orders and earning himself the nickname "The Desert Fox." This first expansion for Tide of Iron features the introduction of the British army and the North African campaigns, including new terrain tiles, new rules, new units and new scenarios.

This TIDE OF IRON base game focuses on the American and German armies in Northern Europe in the years 1944 and 1945. Each game is played as a single scenario, either chosen from the included scenario guide or created by the players themselves, over a map constructed from modular, double-sided game boards and terrain overlays. The game play is designed to be fast-paced, smooth and surprisingly deep, as players must take and hold vital objectives on the game board and decide how best to use each and every unit under their command. It includes 12 hard mounted modular game boards, More than 100 U.S. and German plastic infantry units and squad bases, dozens of AFV such as the Panzer IV, Tiger and Sherman tanks, dozens of German and U.S vehicles such as M3A1 Half-Tracks, GMC CCKW 353 Transport Trucks and Opel Blitz Trucks, more than 100 Operation and Strategy Cards, and hundreds of tokens, dice and other components. Rick Nauertz, sales associate for Fantasy Flight Games told TDmonthly, "Tide of Iron is the definitive board game of WWII squad-level combat. With streamlined, scenario-driven gameplay and an attention to historic detail, Tide of Iron is sure to delight every fan of tactical, historical wargaming." 

In this game, everyone plays the role of detective and suspect. At the beginning of the game, each player blindly draws a card from the deck, and the character on the card becomes their secret identity. The dealer deals the cards and roll the dice to set up the crime scene. Players can “solve the case” by matching their six fingerprint cards to the six fingerprint dice, and can "tamper with the evidence” by drawing a new card, or re-rolling one of the dice.

This set of nine dice is printed with a full deck of 52 playing cards and two jokers. The set is specially designed to allow hands to be rolled for poker and most other card games. Instructions for both family and betting games are included.

This game for two or more players comes with a cup and 13 dice. Each player is a zombie, rolling a die for one of three outcomes: the brain icon that represents points, the footsteps icon that stands for a victim on the run and an opportunity to re-roll, or the shotgun blast icon that is detrimental to a player's undead health. Players score one point for each piece of gray matter and a strike for each shotgun blast. The first zombie to hit 13 points wins.

These larger-sized dice are designed to reinforce understanding of number concepts, counting, operations and probability.  The dice are red, yellow, green, light blue, orange and light purple, and come with a handy storage bucket.