# Warhammer 40k Tactics: Dice Are A Hinderance



## Selorian (Jun 17, 2008)

Gerry McGee shares his thoughts on the power of dice, a fat guy tossing a table, with a splash of Warhammer 40k tactics!

Check out the article here: http://atthamovies.com/warhammer-40k-tactics-dice-are-a-hinderance/


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

Good article, enjoyed reading it.


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## emporershand89 (Jun 11, 2010)

Good article, think it's a rant. Interesting point of view though, perhaps we should flip coins. Would make all those hits really simple; yet boring as hell


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

I feel like the vast majority of people who say "I always have bad luck" or "you should see how terrible he is at rolling" or "almost any time he's forced to make a ___ save he's going to roll a 4+" etc are all deliberately letting themselves fall prey to confirmation bias. They're not falling blindly into that trap; they're waltzing across the floors of folly with open eyes.

And I will confess that I hold a secret contempt close to my heart for those who ascribe luck to be tied to specific dice. I don't let it color my interactions with those people, of course, as then I fear I would be absolutely alone in the FLGS.

I do make a specific point of calling out the odds of some rolls I make and commenting on results occasionally, saying, "well, that was statistical," or "only slightly better than average," or "see, it balances out. I got a lot of hits, but see how crappy that wounds roll was?"

The power of STATISTICS compels you!


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## Deathypoo (Jun 27, 2011)

I always figure out the statistical probability, and normally you can see the ebb and flow of luck... but sometimes that backfires, when you're just like "welp, odds are I should have caused 5 penetrating and 3.5 glancing hits. I caused 1 glance."

The trick is to acknowledge your enemy's crap streaks and your own good ones, as well.


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## venomlust (Feb 9, 2010)

We go back and forth at my local GW store about dice, their imperfections, the superiority of casino dice, and so on.

It's generally agreed that I have cursed dice that roll shit at all times. I firmly believe it's more or less all luck, and that chessex/GW dice are just fine. I.e. random enough for me. Some days the skew is odd in one direction or the other, but over all I'd say the results are consistently "random" as far as my dice set is capable.

I will say that against a specific opponent, I consistently roll shit. I ascribe that to a curse _he's_ putting on me.


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Mossy Toes said:


> I do make a specific point of calling out the odds of some rolls I make and commenting on results occasionally, saying, "well, that was statistical," or "only slightly better than average," or "see, it balances out. I got a lot of hits, but see how crappy that wounds roll was?"
> 
> The power of STATISTICS compels you!


Wow, man...you just described my behaviour too. I bet that behind this statistical courtain we harbour a secret nerdrage area where we imagine ourself fucking in the "snake eyes" a bunch of D6....


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## Straken's_Fist (Aug 15, 2012)

neferhet said:


> Wow, man...you just described my behaviour too. I bet that behind this statistical courtain we harbour a secret nerdrage area where we imagine ourself fucking in the "snake eyes" a bunch of D6....


haha yeah same...

I am always mumbling away to myself "Yep that was average."


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## Mokuren (Mar 29, 2011)

I should record my rolls when gaming, so that people calling me a whiner will shut their faces for a second when they see me fail 6 3+ saves in a row out of 8 wounds every time something of mine is shot. Or never pass a LD 9 check in the entire game.

If only I had an actual camera that could record a whole game, I swear I would.


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

I think the author is pretty right. Though there was a guy at my old flgs who had the nickname of "unlucky so-and-so." He did not take the best armies or play with the best tactics, and he willingly acknowledged that. But over time he was often the guy who would tank an undeliverable series of rolls. The 2nd ed bloodthirster (e.g. who had starts mostly of 10's) who would fail to wound anything after hitting 8 times in close combat.

Or my other friend who despite stellar army building and strong tactics couldn't pass a leadership test. He would pass far more armor saves than was believable, kill with impunity, but as soon as a LD was needed he'd fail.

On the other hand, I often felt like my assault troops rolled better than average to hit/would; in systems fantasy chaos warriors or 40k troops, I could rely on doing slightly better than average. But I never quite rolled even average for my chaos havocs.

@Mossy Toes, I totally agree. Fatalistically, declaring "I have bad luck with the dice" just seems to be self-fulfilling. When playing war games with Eeyore's out look, it's always a 'gloomy game.' 

And conversely, I found that being optimistic always seemed to make my gaming experience better. I can't say conclusively that optimism made my dice rolling any better, but it did make the process seem better.


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## Ravner298 (Jun 3, 2011)

Need 3' to charge centurions on 2d6. 
Roll snake eyes.
"Statistically average"
We all laughed
Lose game as a result of failed charge


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

I find it fun how most players have a tendency to always tell of their incredibly bad rolls, but utterly fail to acknowledge when their dices are demi-god material. 

A great example was the last game I played. My opponent had the following happen to him:

Round 2: Rolls 3 1's out of 5 saves, and looses 3 terminators.
Round 3: Shoots 3 times, get's 3 6'es and then proceeds to get 2 6's to wound on my Bloodthirster in the air. I fail both 3+ saves and fail the grounding check.

Funnily enough he never talked about the incredible luck of the 3rd round, but firmly kept saying that round 2 was what cost him some of the victory (Which was bull, as I tabled him in round 5 with over half my army remaining), and how unlucky it was.

Now I have no problem with people laughing over bad dices and unluck in a game. Heck, there are some insane stories out there and it's half the fun to see just how statistically you can get screwed! But it has to go both ways - If you only complain over bad dices and never acknowledge the lucky ones as well, then you're just a sourpuss, who blames the circumstances instead of your own play style.


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

I always feel I have to apologise when I roll 4 consecutive sixes for the amount of shots my Serpent Shields get... I acknowledge that it's good luck, but it doesn't make me feel good


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