Horrible dice leads to game over

If it’s a game on the forums and it’s not that far into the game we usually do a re-roll.

In the real-life games I’ve played we never re-roll. If you get diced that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

Usually, we allow the ‘loser’ to concede, give the other side a victory, and then do a reroll as if its a ‘new game’.

Happened once when the German player ‘forgot’ to leave Holland-Belgium and Normandy covered, allowing the allies to land 1 infantry each, and then casually asking the German player where he intended to land his planes after the planned Sea Lion.

My group has used what ive coined as “Less Luck” on occasion

It works much like low luck, but different slightly.

1. Calculate your low luck combat value, keep in mind the remainder
2. After you have tallied the ammount of hits you should recieve, subtract 1 from that.
3. To replace the hit that was taken away, you may roll for units thats combat power adds up to 6 (2 tanks, or 2 fighters attacking, or 2 cruisers, or a destroyer and a battleship, 6 Infantry attacking, 3 Infantry defending, etc) You must choose combat values of units you actually have to make up this missing hit. (If you only have infantry, then you can only use thier combat values)
4. You roll those attack dice, as well as your remainder.

In essance, your expected result will be very close to average all the time, but with MUCH more deviation.

*Notes:
a. Subs may exclude themselves from caluclation and roll normaly if they wish to benifit from “suprise attack”
b. AA guns do not fire with “Less Luck”
c. If ever a situation arises where your less luck value can not be broken down with unit values you actualy have in step 3. Then roll as normal luck (OOB) (This occurs in an attack with perhaps 4 Bombers, a fighter and a tactical bomber)

Low Luck makes a F2F game suc A S S! The fun is the rolling of dice and letting random fortune do the rest. I love it when planes miss, it’s funny to see the look on players faces when they roll all 6’s.

Indeed, in my last game, 3 german subs took out a bb and dest…on DEF!  This whole game has been sick in the Atlantic, another sub has survived against a 2 dd attack, twice!  also an italian sub near Brazil accounted for another US dd.  Best part is my opponent constantly lamenting the unfavorable results in the altantic, every time he goes up against a German sub now he just expects it to hit on def.

@HerbNBrew:

What do you guys do when an important battle goes horribly wrong?

In the past several games, bad dice have ruined our game because the player on the receiving end gives up after seeing no way to come back after a horribly, disastrous battle.

It’s a shame to see a good game go to waste because one battle went horribly wrong. In the interest of keeping the game going, we may allow one battle re-roll per game, or replace the units back on the board and skip the attack altogether. Neither of these are great options.

I’m open to suggestions, and I’d rather not use low-luck, etc. Or find new players, lol

If you get DICED in a certain battle then you need to learn to deal with it as the dice represent the fog of war. As overall commander you can place your units in harms way but then the only decisions you can make is who gets killed first or you may decide to retreat. The dice then represent your field commanders and the decisions they might make. If the dice are bad then your field commanders goofed. In our house rules games we have started using commander units and then you can have some hands on input in the battles depending on what powers you give the commanders.

@Fishmoto37:

@HerbNBrew:

What do you guys do when an important battle goes horribly wrong?

In the past several games, bad dice have ruined our game because the player on the receiving end gives up after seeing no way to come back after a horribly, disastrous battle.

It’s a shame to see a good game go to waste because one battle went horribly wrong. In the interest of keeping the game going, we may allow one battle re-roll per game, or replace the units back on the board and skip the attack altogether. Neither of these are great options.

I’m open to suggestions, and I’d rather not use low-luck, etc. Or find new players, lol

If you get DICED in a certain battle then you need to learn to deal with it as the dice represent the fog of war. As overall commander you can place your units in harms way but then the only decisions you can make is who gets killed first or you may decide to retreat. The dice then represent your field commanders and the decisions they might make. If the dice are bad then your field commanders goofed.

Dude, I totally agree with your asessment about bad dice being the “Fog of War”.

@Idi:

@Fishmoto37:

@HerbNBrew:

What do you guys do when an important battle goes horribly wrong?

In the past several games, bad dice have ruined our game because the player on the receiving end gives up after seeing no way to come back after a horribly, disastrous battle.

It’s a shame to see a good game go to waste because one battle went horribly wrong. In the interest of keeping the game going, we may allow one battle re-roll per game, or replace the units back on the board and skip the attack altogether. Neither of these are great options.

I’m open to suggestions, and I’d rather not use low-luck, etc. Or find new players, lol

If you get DICED in a certain battle then you need to learn to deal with it as the dice represent the fog of war. As overall commander you can place your units in harms way but then the only decisions you can make is who gets killed first or you may decide to retreat. The dice then represent your field commanders and the decisions they might make. If the dice are bad then your field commanders goofed.

Dude, I totally agree with your asessment about bad dice being the “Fog of War”.

I agree as well. Seeing as how the game does not include terrain, weather effects, experience, supplies and many other factors that contribute to victory my gaming group considers the luck of the dice to represent this.

P.S. I believe the Persians want a re-roll after the battle of thermopylae  :-P

ALWAYS let the dice decide. That is the “fog of war”. If you cant handle it try Statego or Battleship. :-D

@oztea:

My group has used what ive coined as “Less Luck” on occasion

It works much like low luck, but different slightly.

1. Calculate your low luck combat value, keep in mind the remainder
2. After you have tallied the ammount of hits you should recieve, subtract 1 from that.
3. To replace the hit that was taken away, you may roll for units thats combat power adds up to 6 (2 tanks, or 2 fighters attacking, or 2 cruisers, or a destroyer and a battleship, 6 Infantry attacking, 3 Infantry defending, etc) You must choose combat values of units you actually have to make up this missing hit. (If you only have infantry, then you can only use thier combat values)
4. You roll those attack dice, as well as your remainder.

In essance, your expected result will be very close to average all the time, but with MUCH more deviation.

*Notes:
a. Subs may exclude themselves from caluclation and roll normaly if they wish to benifit from “suprise attack”
b. AA guns do not fire with “Less Luck”
c. If ever a situation arises where your less luck value can not be broken down with unit values you actualy have in step 3. Then roll as normal luck (OOB) (This occurs in an attack with perhaps 4 Bombers, a fighter and a tactical bomber)

I think low-luck would be a perfectly fine option if 1940 Global were a symmetrically-balanced game, however given the differences in starting forces and incomes, the Axis are in a much better position to take advantage of unexpected battle outcomes than the Allies – removing unlucky roles takes away one of the largest Axis advantages.

The Axis may start the game with less forces overall and a lot less income, but the forces they do have are strong, fast and positioned to give them a lot of attacking options. Every time I’ve won as the Axis, my strategy has involved threatening more targets than the Allies can properly defend and going after the weakest link. The randomness of the dice is crucial for this strategy. If my opponent knew that the actual result of each battle wouldn’t deviate far from the expected outcome, he could leave just enough defenders get the “expected” victory. As it is, he has to compensate for the dice by leaving extra “padding” defenders around high-value territories, when one of the battles goes unexpectedly wrong, I can get my mobile attack forces there faster than he can get his plodding defense.

“less luck” is only partaly like “low luck”

For instance, in battles where you have under 12 combat power, you just roll normaly. So small battles are still totaly random. Because you break down your auto hit, and just roll the units you have

Also, “less luck” means you still have to roll at least 2 dice (if you have no remainder, and choose to roll 2 tanks for instance) or at most roll 7 dice (if you have a remainder and choose to roll all 1’s)

“Less Luck” really only comes into play during larger battles, like set peice battles, where weight of averages should work to your favor. This helps the weight of averages, and shortens large battles to rolls of only 3 or 4 dice a round. And after you understand the calculations, it saves time.

I understand the importance of luck in this game, but have seen too many times the stack of 40 infantry get only 6 or 7 hits defedning

sometimes it can mean a reset,I’ve seen that a reset can change the dice from good to bad and visa_versa

I am familiar with low luck, but not understanding this less luck idea.  You add up the attacking pips, then subtract by 6….then what?

Add up your attacking pips, lets say the result is 5, remainder, meaning you had 32 pips
Now subtract 1 hit (aka 6 pips) Leaving you with 4, remainder 2

To replace that hit, choose from units you have, and roll one 6 pips worth of combat power (2 tanks, 3 destroyers, anything that adds up to 6)

And roll those dice, with your remainder in this case, lets say it was a naval battle, and you choose to roll a destroyer and a battleship, as well as the remainder

So you get 4 automaitc hits, and roll for 2,2,4

In practice it brings the law of averages into battles much more, but allows more deviation.

When it comes to dice your gonna get lucky some times and unlucky others,  If your getting bad rolls retreat.  Yet another advantage of being on  offence.

I say you just have to go with the dice.  Even if it is “game over”, there will always be another game.
I had a game a little while back where I, as Germany, was poised to take Moscow.  In my first attack, the Russians managed to put units on Bryansk which blocked the majority of my units to the south.  As a result, I barely matched the Russian defenders.  I had 1 fighter and 1 bomber that could reach Moscow and support the battle.  The Russian AA gun fires and gets a hit for BOTH planes!  I couldn’t believe the luck.  That battle was lost by the way and the Kremlin was saved.
Next round, I retook Bryansk and moved many more units up front, including planes.  I moved in on Moscow and this time had 10 planes (2 bombers, 5 tacs and 3 fighters).  With all of that to shoot at, the Russian AA gun didn’t get A SINGLE HIT.  I overwhelmed the defenders.  Moscow was captured, the Kremlin destroyed and Stalin was executed for War Crimes against the Fatherland.
What I’m getting at is that’s just the luck of the roll.  You have to just go with it.  I have defended with 3 submarines and gotten 3 hits.  I have also defended with fighters and gotten all 5s and 6s.  It’s frustrating but it’s still just a game.  Take the loss, lick your wounds and come back to conquer the next time.