The Components

The Dice Combo comes with two game cloths, 27 dice, and 2 rule sheets.

Game Cloths: Each of the game boards is played on a game cloth. The Warp6 cloth is a heavy cloth, black with white printing, which shows a spiral of lines running down toward a warp. The Knockabout cloth, white with black printing, is presented on a heavy cloth with a vinyl top. It shows a grid of hexes.

A common problem with cloth boards is that they don't always lay flat. These ones actually work pretty well because they were printed on heavy material, though there are some small kinks, particularly in the vinyl which doesn't like being folded up for long periods of time.

The boards are each simple and abstract, but clear and clean.

Dice: These are standard polyhedrons, including 12 d4s, 9 d6s, and 6 d8s, all printed in white, yellow, and black. They're plain plastic dice, not the fancy models increasingly produced by Chessex and others, but they're perfectly good quality.

Rule Sheets: One page each, printed on a page of black and white print. Each document includes attractive graphics which help explicate the gameplay.

Pair-of-dice is not a professional publisher. The components are simple and presumably home collated, and they're packaged in a clamshell. However the quality of everything is fair to good, and the graphic design on the boards is generally good as well. I've thus given the games an average "3" out of "5" for Style.

The Gameplay

As noted there are two different games here, each of which I'll describe in brief:

Warp6: This is a game for 2-3 players. It's played out on a single spiral which leads inward toward a warp, but each space on the spiral also has a "short cut" which drops down to the next ring on the spiral--resulting in a spiral with columns constantly cutting down through it, and everything leading to the center.

Setup. Each player gets 6 or 9 dice (depending on how many players there are), each of which has 4, 6, or 8 faces. These dice are randomly rolled, and then arranged (with their rolled numbers displayed) alternatively in the first 18 spaces on the spiral.

Gameplay. On his turn a player moves one die or changes one die.

If the active player moves a die, he chooses a die to advance and then moves it forward the number of spaces shown on its top face, heading toward the center of the spiral.

If the die lands on a space with another die it "warps", jumping down through the "short cut" to the next ring of the spiral. If there is a die there it warps again and again until it lands on a free space. A warping die is rerolled after it lands.

A die that moves into the warp at the center of the spiral is removed from the board.

If the active player changes a die, he moves the face of one of his dice up or down one digit (to the minimum or maximum value of the die).

Winning. A player wins the game when he gets 4 out of 6 pieces off the board (for 3 players) or 6 out of 9 off the board (for 2 players). Knockabout: This is a game for 2 players. It's played out on a hex of hexagons, 6 hexagons to a side. There's also one additional circles of hexes outside the main board which is the "gutter" (and is of course 7 hexes on a side).

Setup. Each player arranges his 9 dice in a specific array on the board: four d4s set to "1" in the front, 3 d6s set to "2" behind that, and 2 d8s set to "3" behind that.

Gameplay. On his turn a player moves one of his dice the number of spaces shown on its face in a straight line. If it collides with another die the moving die stops and the stationary die picks up the rest of its momentum. This can cause a chain reaction. The last die in a chain reaction is rerolled at the end of thee movement.

Dice knocked into the gutter are stuck there. They can still be moved, but only in the gutter (though they turn the corners of the ring when moved). The usual rules for collisions apply in the gutter. Usually movement will occur here only to block other dice from being knocked into the gutter.

Winning. A Player wins when he's knocked 5 of his opponent's 9 dice into the gutter.

Relationships to Other Games

Knockabout and Warp6 are abstract strategy games. They're pretty unique in their decision to use dice as playing pieces and to make the numbers shown on the dice important. There are a few other games that do this, but it's pretty rare.

The Game Design

Both games have the same core advantage: they're abstracts that are clean, quick, strategic, and enjoyable games. The bit of randomness in the games that comes from the dice also helps to offset some of the usual stern complexity of abstracts.

Warp6 is by far the better game. There's a clever balance between swapping numbers on your dice and moving them, and a core mathematical basis to your decisions. There's also some opportunity to try and quietly make good moves, hoping that no one else will notice. (For example you might push up the value of one of your dice, hoping to hit an opponent's die and thus warp before he moves that die.) The 2-player game is definitely the better abstract, with 3 players getting a little chaotic (but still quite enjoyable). I'd let Warp6 alone eke in a "4" out of "5" for Substance: it's a good game.

Knockabout conversely is a more troublesome game. It's got an uncomfortable balance between piles of options and a lot of randomness. On the one hand there are so many possibilities on the wide open board that Analysis Paralysis is very possible. On the other hand the results of die rolls seem much more important in Knockabout than in Warp6 (because you almost always want high numbers, whereas a variety of numbers can be good in Warp6, and there's also the opportunity to change them in Warp6). That results in a lot more randomness, and is a bad mix for the complex decisions. I'd rate Knockabout a high "2" out of "5" or a low "3" out of "5" Substance. It's still an enjoyable game, but not great.

Putting it all together I've rated the Dice Combo reviewed here as "3" out of "5". If you're fond of abstracts and want some quick plays, the combination of the two is worthwhile for the reduced price. If you just want the higher rated game, that's Warp6, which is $21.95 on its own.

(The links lead to Pair-of-Dice's own web pages where you can order the games.)

Conclusion

Knockabout and Warp6 are two abstract games by Pair-of-Dice, a self-publisher of games. They're clever games that make good use of dice. Warp6 is quite a good game (and also available separately). Knockabout is a bit random, but a good deal as part of the package.