In one of the most innovative games I have seen, Gamewright combines the skills of dice battling and construction, creating a whole new level in Knock Your Blocks Off. There are games such as Battle Dice or simply Craps where people roll dice hoping to get either a higher number or something specific, and there are plenty of blocks out there, building and racing to achieve a pattern. Knock Your Blocks Off creates something new with it synthesis of defensive building and dice-throwing skill.
The game is for two to four players, aged eight and up. It is very quick play, lasting only ten to fifteen minutes, and great fodder for a group that likes a competitive bracket. The learning curve requires a fair bit of memorization, but at its bones, the game is simple: build a structure with the Building Dice, set a Crown die on top, and attempt to knock it off with the Demolition Die. Game goes round after round as players race to build and then work skillfully to destroy, gaining Victory Tokens along the way.
First comes the Building phase. Players take their six multi-colored Building Dice and assemble them so that white only touches white and color only fits next to color. The first one to cap off the structure with the Crown die achieves a Victory Token. Five shapes may be formed, each with their own powers. The Gate (two columns together) gives a bonus of an extra token for a successful attack, the Fort (three squat columns together) gives an invulnerability to Boulder rolls, and the Steps (three columns of increasing height) allow for a second attack roll. The two fastest-to-assemble structures, the Wall (all blocks lined up flat) and the Tower (all blocks stacked up straight), do not give a Victory Token for being the first completed, but the Wall gives the possibility to choose an attack from two rolls while the Tower grants an extra Victory Token for defense. Handy laminated Structure Guides keep all this straight for the players.
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