Axis and allies dice tower

I plan on contributing to this Kickstarter:
Clear Dice Shield

Pic:

Interesting… but I see that thing getting hit by the hands that are tossing into the dish, and the dish spilling/falling on the board!

I like the concept though.

@P-Unit:

I plan on contributing to this Kickstarter:
Clear Dice Shield

Pic:

I’m in doubt about the usability of this design…

1. dicing in a acrylic or plexi glass box is very loud!
2. sooner or later you will see finger prints and scratches on the material
3. for any dicing you have to put the “shield” on the game table very carefully, when the gaming area is very crowded
4. a hundreds of time placing the “shield” on the table and taking it off afterwards is very time consuming in comparison to a blocked or adjusted dice tower or dicing field
5. perhaps to take into the account: acrylic glass has a tendency to “work” when it gets warm

just my view, based on experiences with some acrylic designs…

@dedo:

1. dicing in a acrylic or plexi glass box is very loud!

Agreed – and another problem with the acrylic bottom is that dice tossed into it from high enough might actually bounce right back out, even though the walls are moderately high.  Dice towers have the advantage that they can include felt-covered platforms inside the casing to reduce noise, and they can discharge the dice into a felt-lined reception tray which also absorbs noise and helps to control bouncing.

Not a big fan of acrylics.  As stated, it’s REALLY loud and dice tend to bounce a lot.

Of course, it’s more affordable generally but this one is a lot nicer (/shamelessplug) : http://iwngu.com/wordpress/store/#!/~/product/category=4489041&id=11548146

Interesting idea, but I don’t see how this would be that useful to our groups AA games.  I could certainly use it in Zombies or Last night on earth - I am notorious for knocking stuff over with dice in those games.

At the ends of my table, instead of dice towers, is an entire area for dice rolling.  I found most our group like rolling the dice in the traditional craps style dice rolling as opposed to dice towers and space wasn’t really an issue.  The removable battle-board I created can sit anywhere within the dice rolling region (or sit outside) giving ample space on each side to roll, and having all the units that are fighting visible.

The downside of the acrylic shield is if, like our group, you like to line up the units on a battle-board for mid to large battles, you are still going to need a space to set up these units.

Like the design; what if it had a felt base with the sides still clear?

Has anyone thought making the board from Acrylic??

Or is it too prone to breakage?

That would be really awesome.  Put a soft backlight under it.  The etchings would show up as a different hue of color.

@Gargantua:

Has anyone thought making the board from Acrylic??

Or is it too prone to breakage?

I had considered etching the country and seazone borders into the bottom of the acrylic topper on our topograhical board.  Would have been very cool, but too difficult at the time (skill level required was beyond me at the time).

I don’t think it would have been particularly prone to breakage.  Acrylic sheets are pretty resiliant.  SCRATCHING on the other hand would be a major issue to deal with.