Review Summary: Adore the Hammer, can live with the King's Castle.

Blurb from the publisher: 'Legendary Dice Throwers: The most epic way to roll your dice!

The Hammer is inspired from Norse mythology and dwarven lore, in a brutal and powerful outcome. Simple to use but also satisfying, it gives you the feeling that you actually dealt damage!

The King's Castle is inspired by the beautiful medieval architecture of Europe, providing a beautiful, yet usable dice tray.

The box contains the Hammer and the King's Castle as a dice-throwing area. Glue is recommended for assembly. Everything is made out of birch wood with a laser cutter.'

What you get: Your EUR 25 or equivalent will buy you the Legendary Dice Throwers: Hammer With King's Castle, a dice thrower and dice throwing area depicting, respectively, a dwarven/Norse looking Hammer and a fairy tale castle as the dice-throwing area. The Hammer has a length of almost 18 cm, a width of almost 10 cm, and a height of 16 cm when ready to strike. It fits between 10 and 12 polyhedral dice of a standard size, depending on their type. It is comprised of twelve wooden pieces. The King's Castle on the other hand has a rolling area of 12,5 x 22 cm and a height of 15 cm at its tallest point. It is comprised of five wooden pieces.

The Hammer looks dwarven and northern European from far away. It is adorned by gorgeous geometrical shapes and sculpts, as well as enface depictions of bearded warriors wearing helmets. Some designs are more prominent than others which are more subdued, amongst the latter however I count a clear reimagination of mjolnir, Thor's hammer, with a stylized winged helmet superimposed.

The King's Castle is a castle with four spires. It has few details, leaning towards abstraction. It would have been even more fuzzy, were it not for the battlements, door and window slits at its front panel.

Gameplay: For those that have never heard of the dice thrower concept before, the idea is that that no human touches the dice when they are thrown. Instead, they are placed into the Hammer and are thrown into the throwing area (the King's Castle), guaranteeing a result that cannot be tricked. The castle has gaps at is lower entrance, so that the Hammer, or other dice throwers from the series, can be firmly attached to it for the duration of the game and avoid throwing your dice all over the place.

The strong points: With the present review we have covered all three dice-throwing items and dice throwing areas. Like with the previous products in the Legendary Dice Throwers line, both the Hammer and the King's Castle can be combined with all other products, or purchased as such. That's nine different dice throwers one can create there with only three purchases.

The principle behind this overengineered device is rather simple: put your dice in the Hammer, and throw them in an enclosed space. The Hammer will crush loudly to the ground, throwing the dice fronwards. Is that in any way necessary? No, and you know it. Is it cool? You bet! Does it sound like the earth is rumbling? Yes it does!

I love what Drawlab Entertainment did with the Hammer. In contrast to the ballista and the catapult, no rubber bands are needed. Not only the dice roll brilliantly, but the impact resonates, with wood hitting wood in full force. Its aesthetics are gorgeous, with engravings and designs visible from every side. Setting aside that no siege engine like that existed in human history, it hold its ground as gorgeous scenery or as an active piece in your pseudo-medieval fantasy miniatures wargaming table. The smaller the mini the more proportionate everything will look, with something around 15 mm being probably the best. This doesn't mean however that 28 mm wouldn't cut it.

The Castle can also be used as scenery if you have nothing better lying around. That having been said, the King's Castle can be used as a dice throwing area irrespective of the Hammer or any other dice thrower being employed.

Assembly is not what I would call a piece of cake even though the placement of the different parts is mostly obvious. However, and in contrast to other accessories that do not provide help, the product had a couple of pages explaining what to do and how. Follow them carefully.

Once built both elements are sturdy. I experimented by throwing them on the table from a resting position; not much happened. I did not dare throwing it from the table to the ground however. I wouldn't do that with a machine with mechanical parts. Do not believe that just because the Hammer hits the ground with force that that side will wear down. It is cleverly constructed so that only the side's rim touches the ground. The designs on the side will be untouched for years to come.

The weak points: I did not face particular difficulty during assembly, yet it is clear that this piece follows the old-fashioned 'shove it hard until it's in and stays in place' school of engineering. That's a pity, seeing how better solutions are being found nowadays. Pay close attention in order not to break any pieces. Thankfully, and in contrast to my handling of the Catapult With Athena's Temple where I both broke and slightly bent pieces, here things worked out smoothly.

I did not use glue for this assembly whatsoever, even though it is recommended. To be honest, I have more doubts about the Castle keeping its structural integrity than about the Hammer. The latter device looks tough, even though it has moving parts.

There were many splinters around and quite a bit of wood dust when I was putting the piece together. Maybe you would like to do this in an open area, in order not to need to clean up afterwards.

Need I say something as obvious as 'you don't need this product to roll dice'? This is a luxury item, bought for fun and bragging rights. No complaining about a siege engine that never existed either.

As with all gimmicks, the time will come that the pleasure one takes from feeding a hammer and letting the dice loose will be lessened. Hand-rolling is faster and more efficient any way one sees it, especially if you are using tons of dice. Again: luxury item.

Conclusion: The Hammer is the more assertive dice thrower of them all, even though the King's Castle is probably the least desirable compared to the other two throwing areas in the line. Thankfully, if you want to buy the Hammer with another throwing area, the possibility exists.

For more info on the Legendary Dice Throwers and Drawlab Entertainment visit its website at http://www.drawlab.com.

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