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Surfing on the wave of print-and-play games, the second one I printed was the solitaire (or co-operative) game D-Day Dice, by Emmanuel Aquin. Differently from the previous game I tried, this one doesn’t need any assembly. Just print out the rulebook (4 pages), a battle map (2 are available – Bloody Omaha and Gold Beach) and a score-sheet for that battle map. To play you need… Dice. Six dice (preferably a seventh for landmine-, machine gun fire- and inspiration-rolls) in three different colors.

D-Day Dice is a resource management game. You roll dice to gather soldiers, specialists, courage and items, which you need as you advance on the battle maps in order to take out the bunker to win the game. I played Battle Map#1 – Bloody Omaha, and boy was it bloody. Your soldiers are mowed down by the dozen every turn, and your only objective is to make sure there’s at least one guy left alive to advance. You start every turn by rolling your six dice (two red, two white and two blue), after which you must keep at least two of them. You may the re-roll any or all of the rest two times, claiming resources from the final result.

Ones are skulls, canceling out another die (though not another one), twos provide stars, with which you recruit specialists. Specialists are soldiers with specific abilities – sharpshooters (cost two stars) can ignore one skull, medics (cost four stars) save one soldier per turn etc. Threes provide one extra soldier to your unit, fours provide two. Fives provide courage, which you spend to advance and finally sixes provide tools with which you acquire items – one time power-ups, like the mine detector which ignores mine fields or the whistle which lets you advance without spending courage.

The really clever thing about having the dice in three colors is the fact that if you roll three identical dice, but all in different colors, you get a “Red, White and Blue“-bonus, depending on which number is rolled. If you roll three threes or fours, for example, you get an additional six soldiers. Roll three twos you get to use a seventh “inspiration”-die which you can make any color you want.

After you’ve rolled (and re-rolled) your dice you manage your resources; add your new soldiers to your unit, place stars for recruitment and spend tools to find items. After this you move your unit. It may move sideways or advance (which costs courage) but may never retreat. It may (unless otherwise stated) spend up to three turns in place, but may not return there once it moves out. Moving into certain areas have special requirements, such as the presence of a specific specialist. Crossing over landmines costs you as many soldiers as the result of a six-sided die, unless you negate them with an engineer (costs three stars) or a mine detector (costs seven item points). Last but not least you perform combat actions, which basically means losing as many soldiers as the defense value of your sector, plus the result of a die in case you receive machine gun fire. Repeat until victory or death.

I spent my first three turns in the starting sector, gathering soldiers, specialists and equipment. Knowing my luck with dice I quickly recruited a Noncom (2 stars, allows an extra re-roll of one die) and a walkie-talkie (5 item points, gaining 2 soldiers) and moved onward. I side-stepped on the second row, again to collect resources before the defense values really start to hurt.

But advancing into the third row meant I had to make a choice. The land-mines wasn’t a problem, as I had recruited an engineer, and the other requirements didn’t matter either, as I managed to roll a Red, White and Blue-bonus of Battle Cry (three fives, lets you ignore courage and sector requirements for an advance), but the question was if I wanted to keep to the side, at a sector with a defense value of eight, or step into the middle where the value was four but the machine gun fire would reach me.

I decided to try my luck with the machine guns and advanced into the middle, where I would also collect courage more easily (that sector provides a free courage per turn). I had such luck dodging the enemy fire that I spent the full allotment of three turns here, recruiting further specialists and soldiers. I recruited a sharpshooter because I knew I had to sacrifice a specialist at the next sector and a veteran (3 stars, gives an extra soldier for every red, white and blue bonus). My unit had grown to include 27 soldiers (you start with four) and I had calculated that I had all the courage I needed in order to advance all the way into the bunker.

Then the sh*t hit the fan, as I advanced further on turn nine. My good fortune avoiding the enemy machine gun fire didn’t last and I took a severe beating. I considered side-stepping to gather troops, but thought I was too far ahead for that. I would lose more soldiers than I would be able to collect, so bravely I carried on. Luckily I recruited an officer as I just then noticed that you need to sacrifice one to advance to the final sector. So I did, but was again badly hurt by the machine guns. After their blast I was down to one soldier, standing bravely at the mouth of the bunker. Needless to say – he didn’t make it.

In hindsight I think I know what I did wrong… I pretty much ignored the items. I only acquired the walkie talkie and a flak vest (3 item points, turning skulls into soldiers). During the game it just felt like specialists were more valuable, as they weren’t restricted to one single time. But towards the end a bangalore torpedo (20 item points, reduces defense value to zero for one turn) would have saved my life. I probably wouldn’t have had to recruit six specialists…

D-Day Dice was a really fun game and I did let out a little cheer every time I managed to roll a Red, White and Blue (even though my dice were red, white and green – so sue me…). It can be played as a co-operative game, meaning all players play simultaneously, and can (provided they have an officer) exchange dice between them, but in essence this is a solitaire game. The second battle map seems more interesting, with more choices – so I’ll try that one next time.