Art De La Guerre

[stuuk]

Just wondering if anyone's using the average dice optional rule?

The last couple of games we've had some pretty wild swings in rolls and thought it might be good to give it a try.
When I mentioned it yesterday though, at least one thougt it would simply make the game last longer and make flanking even more important (it's already really quite important..)

Is anyone using it?
How is it effecting your games?

thanks

[Soranon]

We try this optional rule in France and the feeling wasn't the same, for all people.

In 2013, at Fronton, we played all the tournament with average dice. Some people liked it, some not.

With average dice :

- Armor and elite capacity are much more powerful. Most armies witch succeeded in this event were build with a core of very strong units (elite HC with bow, elite HI armor two handed weapon, elite elephant or elite heavy lancer with armor....)

- Blob armies (armies with more than 25 units) are much more difficult toplay. They didn't really succeed at Fronton 2013...

- It's like Chess : If you put the good unit against one unit, you will win. No suprise...

- Shooting is far more powerfull than in official rule : You still shoot with 6 side dice and just putting one loss on shooting phase on a opponent unit before charging, give your unit a +1 factor against opposing unit. With average dice, this +1 usually give victory to your unit.

- All bonus in melee are greater than in normal rule. So putting a general in fight, having an overlap or charging the flank give better results.

Finaly it's a matter of feeling.

Playing average dice can be pleasant for people who are a little disapointed with bad luck but for my part, I never feel that dice are the real reason of defeat or victory. If you remind carefully your games, you will always found better reasons for your success or your losses...

Here the stats of Fronton 2013 :

http://www.artdelaguerre.fr/detail_tournoi.php?id=113

As you can see, winning armies were elite armies. Hose archer were at their peak, specialy horse archer armies with elephants.

[Hazelbark]

I suspect that would be the case just from the statistics.

I too have seen wild swing of luck. But generally I have found there being rarely a single extreme die roll that changes the game. The odds of five or more 6-1 splits occurring at the most critical moments are very tiny.

[Soranon]

Yes you'll right.

I had a lot of discuss about luck and bad luck with my Friend Paul (Rosbif on this forum, an english friend who live in Toulouse in the south of France) and we agreed about the fact that you can nearly always finf other reason to defeat than simply "I was doom and I had bad dices"

The stat of this tournament show that playing heavy and elite army give you a great edge. But it advantage more HC with bow than HI.

One very interesting thing is the result of the german army witch finished 8th place. This army is a very good army, played by a very good player. He succeded in another classical tournament, finishing on the podium because impetuous HI elite are a very powerful troop. But with average dice the power of the devastating charge (I don't know the english translation of this capacity) is far less potent. Against Legionary or Phalanx, they have less chance to win.

For my usual Ghaznevid army or Paul Sassanid army, the change for average dice didn't weaken our army at all.

[belinconnux]

[Soranon]

[stuuk]

Thanks for the comments, some interesting ones.

I think we will try the next few games with average dice and see how it goes.
Personally I don't mind the luck factor too much, though sometimes you do feel like the dice matter more than the strategy which is not a good thing..
Still, this happens in many games so I'm not convinced it's avoidable.. most wargames feature dice...

[Hazelbark]

I think certainty is also a bad thing in miniature games. Because it just reinforces the power of the best players. There is a lot of value in the psychological and unknown factor in these games.

In a recent game of another rules. I had outclassed my opponent and felt very confident. He saw the world going badly. So he choose the very best time to take a high risk move that would either reverse his fortunes or bring the game to an abrupt end in my favor. The high risk move paid off for him with a big string of bad dice for me. It was fun.

[Hazelbark]

So to add to this. Last night my dacians fought Trumvirs Romans.

In one turn I had 4 terrific attacks. Lots of pluses, flank attacks, furious charges. The first two were both 1-6 against me dice rolls. the third was 2-5 and the last equally bad.

And then I would end up getting ground to pieces.

But had fun.

[sebastosfig]

More than average dice, I think the "3 rerolls" option is much much better. I tried it during a game. Doesn't slow down, and just repairs some very unlucky dice
_________________
C'est un Germain Breton, il faut pas le secouer trop fort, meme s'il le demande.

http://backtotheminis.blogspot.com

[Soranon]

[ciofo]

With average dice +1 is an advantage, but less than you may think.. but a +2 is totally devastating!!

We tried it once,: never again!

I prefer the 3 rerolls!
_________________
Fabio Ciofini - Arezzo
"Non si smette di giocare quando si invecchia, si invecchia quando si smette di giocare!"

[belinconnux]