Dice Throne (Roxley Games) takes the push-your-luck of Yahtzee and points it at an opponent. Each player is a hero with a unique board, unique dice symbols and a deck of cards. On your turn you roll five dice up to three times, trying to hit one of your hero’s ability combinations, then resolve it as an attack. It plays as a fast one-on-one duel, in teams, or in a free-for-all, and every hero feels genuinely different.
The dice and how you roll
You roll five dice, with up to three rolls per attack — exactly like Yahtzee, you keep the dice you like and re-roll the rest between throws. Each hero’s board maps dice results to abilities: certain three-of-a-kinds, straights, or symbol sets trigger specific attacks, defences or effects. A hero’s dice faces are themed to them (a Barbarian’s differ from a Pyromancer’s), so the same physical roll means different things across the table.
- Roll one: throw all five dice.
- Rolls two and three: set aside dice toward an ability and re-roll the rest, chasing the combination you want.
- Resolve: after your final roll, match the dice to an ability on your board and carry out its effect — usually an attack of a set damage value.
Turn structure, defence and scoring
There are no points — you are reducing your opponent’s health to zero. Each hero starts with a pool of health (commonly around 50, depending on the set) and earns Combat Points (CP) each turn to spend on cards. A turn runs through fixed phases:
| Phase | What happens |
|---|---|
| Upkeep & Income | Resolve start-of-turn effects; gain Combat Points |
| Main phase | Play cards — upgrades, actions, status effects |
| Offensive roll | Up to three rolls to build an attack from your abilities |
| Attack & defence | Deal damage; the defender may roll defence against some attacks |
| Second main & discard | Play more cards, then discard down to the hand limit |
Crucially, defence is active: many incoming attacks let the defender roll their own defensive dice to reduce or negate the hit — though some “undefendable” attacks bypass this entirely. Combat Points buy upgrade cards that strengthen your abilities and action cards that manipulate dice or inflict status effects like poison or concussion. First to knock the opponent to zero health wins.
Strategy & the odds
Dice Throne rewards knowing your hero and reading the dice like Yahtzee — with the added layer of when to attack and when to hold back:
- Learn your hero’s key combos and their odds. Some abilities need a specific three-of-a-kind (roughly attainable across three rolls), others a full straight (harder). Aim your re-rolls at the strongest ability you can realistically complete, not the flashiest one you probably can’t.
- Balance offence and defence. Pouring every card and CP into damage leaves you fragile. Keep defensive upgrades and cards in reserve, especially against heroes with big undefendable hits.
- Spend Combat Points with a plan. Upgrading your bread-and-butter attack usually beats saving for an expensive ultimate you may never assemble. Status effects (poison, stun) can out-value raw damage over several turns.
- Time your ultimate. Big finisher abilities are low-probability; commit re-rolls to them only when the payoff justifies the risk of whiffing your whole turn.
- Play the matchup. Aggressive heroes want to race; controlling heroes want to grind with status effects and defence. Adjust how greedily you chase combos to the health totals on the table.
Common mistakes
- Chasing the perfect combo every turn. Whiffing a straight for three rolls wastes a whole turn — often a reliable smaller attack does more over a game.
- Neglecting defence. Players who spend everything on offence get raced down; hold cards and CP for the hits you know are coming.
- Hoarding Combat Points. CP sitting unspent does nothing; convert it into upgrades and effects that compound.
- Ignoring status effects. Poison and control effects quietly decide games; both applying and removing them matter more than one big number.
- Not learning the matchup. Each hero has answers to others; playing every opponent the same way leaves value on the table.
Want to sharpen your Yahtzee-style dice reading first? Throw five physics dice in your browser and practise chasing three-of-a-kinds and straights across three rolls.
Need dice right now? Dice Drop rolls real physics dice in your browser — free, no app.
🎲 Roll dice freeKeep reading: the game it’s built on, Yahtzee — and the odds behind every re-roll.