While players don't assemble dice during play as in Rattlebones or the LEGO games, Dice City functions something like a dice-building game as you're manipulating what the possible die results are as the game progresses, increasing your potential military power, for example, or loading up on possible production in the hope of trading it all away for points.
In the BGG booth at Gen Con 2015, Alderac's Todd Rowland gave a rundown of how to play Dice City: