Some Offensive Card Anatomy

This week is a fun one for DIE Ball. We’re going to be shooting a whole bunch of promo video, starting a BGG WIP thread, and running a session live on Twitch. It feels like it’s all starting to come together, but I feel like we’ve still shared so little. With that in mind I want to share a whole bunch about the Offensive sides of the cards, and how they are used in the Planning Phase of the game.

The Offensive team uses just 4 cards. A team card, and 3 player cards. The back sides of each of these is for the Defensive team. Let’s look at the team card first.

There’s the team logo, name, and colors. Then the Offensive Ability, which is unique for each team. The Goblins get a little tricksy and can flip a die, which is super powerful, but requires some big restraint in holding onto your players and saving them. In recent games we’ve been testing this at just once per round, because the swing from rolling a 1 to a 6 is quite wild.

Then there’s the 3 types of Offensive plays (throw, kick, and run) and a little reference on how they play out. A throw can move the DIE Ball 3 spaces, but you don’t get any extra dice to roll. A kick will move it 2 spaces with 1 bonus die. And a run will only move it 1 space but it gets you 2 bonus dice. At the end of the planning phase you will choose a play type and reveal it to your opponent. But up until that reveal, you are trying to throw them off.

Just to the right of those are the number of cubes each play type will provide in the play phase. The Goblins are great at running, which gives 3 cubes right from the start. So why wouldn’t they run every time? Because the defense will bet on your plays and you will want to make them think twice about which play you might choose. More on this below.

And finally there are three lanes. These are used to add bonuses to your play. More on that below too.

And now an Offensive Player card:

Now on the player card you’ll see the Bonus Pips. Each player adds some pips to your chosen play. (Nark is best on throw plays.)

There’s also Bonus Abilities and Bonus Cubes. If a play is chosen with Bonus Abilities or Cubes in it, you’ll get them in the play phase. The abilities give you initiative, die manipulation, and more.

And the Attack Bonus is a number that may help you against defensive attacks. They get a free attack on each player, and the -2 here will reduce the defensive player’s attack roll by 2.

So let’s look at the many ways you can play your first Offensive player.

In the image Above, Nark was played in line with the team card. You can see the Throw ability will gain Strength and +1 cube, making for a total of 3 cubes. Kick doesn’t gain any cubes, but gets the Agility ability. And Run gets +1 cube - a total of 4 cubes, and the Agility ability.

Playing a card like this doesn’t give a ton of information to your opponent, as they will be betting on what they think you’ll be playing, after every card that you play. They may think you’re going to throw OR run, but they can’t be sure yet.

But you don’t need to play the cards in line, you just need to connect the lanes somehow. Here’s a different way to do it.

Now this one paints a very different picture. Throw is limited to just 2, as this card cut off the end of the lane. You can no longer add to that lane. So you won’t get any abilities or bonus cubes if you choose throw, but you will definitely get your opponent’s mind going. Are you trying to throw them off? Meanwhile you’re building up that kick a little.

And if you really want to mess with their head, you could do this.

This isn’t advised on turn 1, but it’s very possible! Here it seems like you’re going all in on run. But who knows what you’re planning on doing. You could be messing with their head in a big way, which is a big part of the planning phase.

You could also play it in a different way, by cutting off the bottom two play types instead.

What’s interesting about the above move is that the defense gets an attack on each Offensive player. They’ll roll a die, apply their bonuses and yours, and if they end up with a 3 they’ll take out the top ability. A 4 will take out the middle. A 5 will take out the bottom. And a 6 will kill the entire player. So that bottom ability is a bit harder to take out due to Nark’s -2 attack bonus. So his bottom Agility ability is quite protected.

By the end of the play phase you’ll have all 3 players out (and hopefully still alive).

With the above you can choose one of these three plays:
A throw with 5 cubes and strength, strength, and power.
A kick with 2 cubes and agility, speed, and power.
A run with 4 cubes and agility.

While a throw seems obvious, a run provides bonus dice, which can be very helpful.

The other things to consider are how many cubes your opponent gets when defending against each play type, and how you thought they bet. That kick is super risky, but there’s a big chance they didn’t bet on it. So now it’s time to choose.

That’s about it for the Offensive side of the planning phase. I’ll share the Defensive side soon enough!