Bad dice throwers, chop their hands off!!!

[cyan]

@Craig:

I make die towers.

someone has a little too much time on there hands.  :-)

[Guest]

someone has a little too much time on there hands.   :-)

Man, that’s a tough sell in a group of guys who’s common point of interest is moving around plastic tanks on cardboard maps in simulation of events from 60 years ago. ;)

The dice towers Craig builds, BTW, are quite good.

Peace

[General_D.Fox]

Can someone at least tell me hwo they work please? :? :?

[Jennifer]

@General_D.Fox:

Can someone at least tell me hwo they work please? :? :?

Think it’s an entertainment thing, not a rolling thing, Fox.

[frimmel]

@General_D.Fox:

Can someone at least tell me hwo they work please? :? :?

Drop the dice in the top. They hit a slightly angled ledge/lip and bounce down to another angled lip then maybe to a third and bounce out into the collection area. The cross section would look kinda like a stairway. Don’t have one myself but I like the idea. Gotta get a nice springy wood I would think so they get a good bounce off the ledges.

[cyan]

@CrazyStraw:

someone has a little too much time on there hands.  :-)

Man, that’s a tough sell in a group of guys who’s common point of interest is moving around plastic tanks on cardboard maps in simulation of events from 60 years ago. ;)

The dice towers Craig builds, BTW, are quite good.

Peace

the only reason i sarted playing A&A was to tweak it so you could similate WWIII.

[Cobert]

we’ve always rolled them without any restrictions.  If a single rolled die seems to land flat on a one that it was one when it was picked up, theres a general agreement in the group to reroll it.

Also, sometimes, we use pie-tins to roll into.  Theyre very compact and although the metal surface is loud, it prevents die from landing flat and makes them bounce and shift easier.

[squirecam]

@Craig:

@General_D.Fox:

How exactly do those towers work Craig?  Do you just put the dice in the top and they come out the bottom?

As frimmel has stated, there are internal baffles that randomize the dice for you.

No more dice flying across the table nuking the game board or missing the table/box lid and going under the couch.

I really got interested in them because of one guy in our group who always barely rolled the die out of his cupped hand.Â

JUST ROLL THE DAMN DICE!!! :evil:

I build a die tower and then the guy decides that he has to put some “action” on his dropping of the dice into the tower.  Which means the dice hit the edge of the opening and still fly off the table or onto the game board.Â

Just drop the dice in the top of the tower.  It does the work.  It’s that simple.

Craig

Will you bring any for sale to the gathering. And, more importantly, the ones with the larger base for the dice to exit to. I want one of those….

Squirecam

[squirecam]

@Craig:

Larger width or longer tray? :?

Knowing you it’s both! :roll:

Craig

You are correct in that i’d like it larger all around, but the longer tray is more important. I know you had some of those at one time.

Squirecam

[newpaintbrush]

Use felt to cushion the insides of the die tower.

[Imperious Leader]

Don’t you people knock anybody who makes dice towers!

Dice towers are the saviour for the game against those dice floppers who cheat.

Everyone of you must own a dice tower if you want to call yourselves a hard core gamer.

I will accept a dice roller as a substitute. A dice roller is a custom wooden or plastic box thats padded and long so it performs like a vegas crap table only much smaller and narrow.

Chessex makes a hexagonal dice roller thats acceptable.

If you roll in the box your all cheaters.

[Imperious Leader]

The key is the dice ricochet against no fewer than 2-3 ledges before they fall to the drop. That way you can no longer cheat as you do.

[MightyAirforce]

I worked for a couple years as a professional dice dealer at a casino. I’ve also done some research into “dice setting”, and seen it attempted on a daily basis when I was employed as a craps dealer. I would consider myself to be an authority on the subject.

First, it is possible to influence the outcome of a dice throw. Research “dice setting” if you want to know more about it. Second, there is a difference intentionally influencing the roll, and unintentionally influencing the roll. One amounts to cheating, the other amounts to bad form from someone who is probably oblivious to what he is doing. I think this point is crucial; a person with bad form and a not-very-random roll is most likely NOT intentionally cheating. Also, it’s entirely possible that a guy is influencing the roll, but in a counterproductive manner.

If you want to keep your rolls random, the best way to do this is to know how to influence the roll. Knowing how to influence the roll will let you know what not to do. Knowledge is power!

Here is a quick and dirty tutorial on how to influence the roll:

If you drop the die and it barely rolls or tumbles, you could also possibly influence the roll, the ways to influence the roll are many and varied. Imagine if you attempt to roll the die in a manner where it spins on an axis. Imagine taking a die, and drawing an imaginary axis through the 3 and 4 (which are always on opposing sides). Now imagine throwing the die in a way where it spins on this axis, while the axis always remains parallel to the horizon. If you do this perfectly, the only possible outcomes are {1, 2, 5, 6}. In Axis and Allies terms, this means your defending infantry (2s) will hit 50% of the time. Also note, if you pick up the die with the “1” facing up, and spin it in a manner where the axis of rotation severs the 2 and 5, your 2s will hit with only 25% effectiveness! Noteworthy is the fact it’s impossible to improve the odds of a 3 hitting using this method.

This would be a good time to point out that if you simply put the dice in your hands, cup them, and give them a shake, that’s plenty good. If you use a cup or dice tower, that’s plenty fine as well, but for me, I think that’s a bit of overkill. However, if you have a cup and don’t mind using one, or have a fancy dice tower, rock on, more power to you.

Personally, I like scooping up the dice, and throw them at the corner of the box. I recon that’s about as good as you can get without a separate device. No matter your preferred method, as long as you throw the dice, and they land with any degree of force, and you are not trying to rotate them in a specific, pre-examined manner, your roll is probably “sufficiently random”.

[General_D.Fox]

Well, my one friend is a smart smart guy.  He’s very intelligent and had super high marks in high school and still does in university.  I just can’t seem him not, in his head, knowing that he is cheating.  He’s a very clever guy who could probably get away with murder if he wanted to.  I’m just saying, he’s not that dumb in terms of knowing what he’s doing at most times.

[Baghdaddy]

@Imperious:

If you roll in the box your all cheaters.

See, now you are making me paranoid.

I have a rep for having dice go my way in board games but I don’t do anything like what is described here (or at CaspSub).  I typically select dice base on which ones I can reach, maybe attempting to get ones that “feel like the right color” and occasionally insisting that the other guy give me the dice he is hoarding just to “break his luck”.

I’ll cup the dice in both my hands (think making a snowball) and rattle them around a bit, then rub them back and forth to “heat them up” all the while talking trash about how my five infantry are going to all roll 1’s on this attack.  Then I toss them into the box lid with enough force to make sure they scatter to all corners of the box.  Then I look at the five 1’s I rolled and declare myself to be able to control the dice through mental powers alone.  That claim comes in handy when I tell the other player he is gonna roll all 4s with his defending tanks.  He rolls the dice and I laugh insanely at the four 4s and one 6.  He cries as my five infantry kill his five tanks with out a loss.

I don’t see that I’m doing any cheating with the dice.  Maybe it is all in the presentation…

:evil:

[dezrtfish]

I made a Dice tower.  Probably after reading about yours Craig.  It was a couple years ago.  The main reason I did it was to conserve space on the table.  The biggest problem was that a couple of the guys used it and got bad dice, then refused to use it anymore.  No amount of logic can defeat the “it’s bad luck” argument.  I will probably build another eventually so I can have one at either end of the table.

[Imperious Leader]

MightyAirforce:

That was a great first post. Welcome to the forum. Im taking your ideas to Vegas next time i go.

[squirecam]

@Imperious:

MightyAirforce:

That was a great first post. Welcome to the forum. Im taking your ideas to Vegas next time i go.

Trying this at a crap table will cause loss of fingers…

[Imperious Leader]

One thing that should be followed:

All the dice should be rolled together… rolling 2 dice has a much different result than rolling one at a time.

white: ones

Red: twos

Black: threes

Blue or Green : fours

Note: blue can also be air units.

[squirecam]

@Craig:

Larger width or longer tray? :?

Knowing you it’s both! :roll:

Craig

Yoper, this is quite elaborate, but gives you an idea of the base I was thinking of…

http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/games/articles/DiceTower/RalphHendrix640.jpg

Squirecam