Dice: the gamers worst nightmare!

Dice and how people role in every fashion is a touchy subject. The line between cheating and and hot dice is very thin. Luck and carma are often viewed as the major source of your dice rolling results. Ming as an example says "you only have so much luck in your life and once you use it up it is gone"..."I used all my luck up pitching pennies when I was young and have been regretting it ever since". This is an interesting theory because we can roll the same dice and I will almost always out roll Ming. Then there is beginners luck where when you are learning something new you get really lucky. Almost every person I have played when it is one of their first few games they roll HOT! Dice are a crazy thing and no matter what there will always be some luck involved. Today I will talk a little about ways people better their rolling and what I do to keep the bad dice at bay.

Here are some things people do that I should be considered blatant cheating. First is loaded dice where the player physically alters or buys altered dice that will give them an advantage. This may be hard to detect and prove but keep a look out for it. If I suspect some one has loaded dice I would either report them if it was blatant and easy to prove or use their dice for my rolling. Some may view this as bad form but if they don't let you then there could be something up their sleeve. Using their dice will level the playing field and hopefully prove to yourself that they are not cheating. Plenty of times in heated games I will use my opponents dice if they are rolling hot. If someone asked to use my dice I willingly would say yes. The next thing to look for is practiced rolling. This can come in many ways and you have to look out for it. If your opponent is rolling funny and getting preferred results then simply ask him to stop and roll with the dice in his hand cupped and shook up. Quite often you will see people place dice in their hand and simply roll them in a way to give them better results rather than shake them. Newer players may not know how to roll properly and need to be instructed that shaking the dice up before dropping is the way you should do it. Another thing you should look for that is a combination of those two forms of cheating is people practice rolling with metal dice. It is very easy to roll well with a dice that dosnt move once it hits the table. Ask your opponent to use different dice or borrow yours. If any of these things become a problem report the player to the TO and have him explain proper dice rolling. If it's not a tourney game and my opponent refuses to stop I'll either have another player come over to help me reinforce my opinion or simply leave the game (unless I'm still beating the piss out of them)!

The next thre things I will discuss are techniques that are not cheating bit could be considered gray areas. The first is pretty standard, if you have bad dice just buy new ones. The second was started by ming's frustration at rolling poorly. If any dice consistsntly rolled poorly "just chuck it". Throw them somewhere...the trash, a fire, at your opponent, you kids or wife, or just on the floor. Now some people say the dice rolling poorly is just luck. But we know from science that no two dice will ever be the same. Every dice will be weighted differently and have it's own preferences. This is especially true in cheap bulk dice ie. Chessex dice. They are good dice don't get me wrong, I use them my self. But each die differs from the next and you can in fact buy bad dice. So those bad dice you just put on the floor in your FLGS will probably be picked up and used by some poor sap! Hahah never pick dice off the floor that are not yours! Tossing these bad dice will improve your overall rolling I can attest to that. Now when this practice is taken to the extreme and your remaining dice begin to dwindle and you buy more and repeat your total dice collection will become stronger. After over a year of ming and I sharing multiple dice cubes he thinned it down to a fairly average or better then average group of dice. So from them I select the best I can get by selecting those that roll well consistently. Trust me if you go through 6 cubes of dice and get rid of the bad dice over time your averages will go up. That's my secret to rolling decently almost every game.

Hopefully this article will give you some good information and isn't too hard to read. Typing on my iPhone I tend to lose scope and it's hard to write well.
Thanks for reading,
RIPPED

Ard Boyz initial thoughts

My favorite part of the 40k season is fast approaching. Ard Boyz!!! This for most is the most active and competitive time every year for 40k. If you don't know about Ard Boyz, it is a national event put on by Gw with three rounds and top 3 from each round advances. Essentially it's a 9 round tournament. You can change your list and army between rounds. You have a month between each round.

40k has developed a meta game over the past two years mostly in part with more and more people jumping on the net list band wagons. You have a few options, jump on the band wagon and net list out a mech army or try to meta game for it and play a counter/ a list of your own. While running leaf blower net lists tends to work well over all. I would recommend against it. There is no originality and you become very predictable running net lists.

Making your own list will let you make your own tricks and plans. It is a lot more fun running a list of your own and playing it well then running a net list. You also run into those who design to beat net lists and can just ruin your day. I am on the fence about blood angels or orks but either way it won't be a net list. I have either my hybrid BA list or Kan Wall orks. In order to play the blood angels I will need to actually paint and build a ton of figures that are sitting in boxes.

Net listing isn't a bad thing just remember to take what your see with a grain of salt.

~RIPPED

Rules and tournaments a tutorial

This is a quick guide on how you should handle rule questions in a tournament setting. There are plenty of times you may question the validity of a rule or how someone views something. Minor stuff that won't change the game don't bother. You don't want to cut into your game time. But if it is a big rules question or a game changer never assume your opponent is correct if you have any doubts. If you don't question rules you may miss out on an opportunity. In a non regulated game like 40k each player has to be their own judge. Everyone gets rules wrong from time to time especially if they don't play as frequently. Take your time and go ahead and look it up. There have been plenty of times I have been wrong or questioned my opponents and they were right. But the same goes the other way. I have saved major losses via questioning rules and getting the proper answer.

There may be some people who really enjoy to flaunt knowledge and try to tell you that a rule is whatever way they say it. Never let your opponent dictate to you what is real if you question it in your head. The only one you can blame is yourself for not looking that rule up. You will regret it if you lost a game for it. Tell your opponent you will look it up and take the time to prove him wrong or if he is right just continue on. If your opponent just wants to continue the game tell him to show you where the rule is that is in question. Some of my most heated games of late end up having rules questions and I never regret taking the time to play the game right. If I find out later that something went wrong that I played and it was my miss interpretation of the rules then I do feel bad and I learn from the mistake and wish my opponent had stopped me so we could have fixed it then. In the end remember it is a hobby and a game and don't take anything said or done personally.

~RIPPED

That was a lot of rust

Ming and I have started our normal ritual of prepping for Ard Boyz. Playing games weekly at the house with post game analysis and thoughts. We randomize what previous Ard Boy scenario we get and out list of the is pretty extensive now. I decoded to play my orks and see how it would go. We drew up a game with 6 objectives and they would activate on turn 2, 4, and 6. We had other things to do and never bothered timing the game.

The game was bloody to say the least. I started Midfield with 60 Orks and everyone else would race on and try to catch up. His whole army moved on and castled up like normal. Wave after wave of orks smashed into his line anywhere from 400-1000 points at a time. I kept chipping away until eventually My kans arrived on turn 4. They made quick work of his tanks and remaining troops. My grots were happily in the back on the objectives until the redeemer flamer met them face to face. They lost 3 guys and failed morale and ran...oh well No objectives for either of us but I had him on kps.

At the end I had 7 kans left, ghaz, and a loota squad. He had a land raider redeemer, kantor, libby, and a trashed landraider that cant move or fire anything that would matter. We both lost almost all of our armies and was a tough fought game. I made several mistakes throughout the game most involved his flamer land raider because it was just a small cutting board flat to the table as a proxy... I took a minor victory but a win is a win.

RIPPED