Poor mans battle dice

That’s a cool way of making battle dice. I made my own with inspiration from siredblood, just simply putting one hole in each side that was supposed to be a hit. But those look really cool

Great job on the dice. I think I’m now in the market for a dremel tool…

Great idea, but how will it effect the balance ? You are adding weight on one side, and remove weight from the other side, are they still balanced ?

@Narvik:

Great idea, but how will it effect the balance ? You are adding weight on one side, and remove weight from the other side, are they still balanced ?

We had a balance issue with some of Field Marshal Dice.  Ended up having to buy certified Vegas dice to satisfy my group, lol

I did the same exact thing….and used yellow dice for 4’s
10 x 1’s 2’s and 3’s and 6 x4’s

Simply brilliant!! Good solution for those that bought normal dice and want to change to hit dice.

An alternate approach that wouldn’t involve buying a dremel, and would be less labour-intensive, would be this:

• Get some normal dice.

• Put all your dice on a table and, working on the top side of each die, paint the upper face in a colour which represents one of the particular hit / miss / whatever values you want to express.  In principle, the paint will not only colour-code the die face, it will also fill in the pip holes.

• Let dry.

• Repeat five more times, rotating the dice each time to position a new die face at the top side.

@robert:

I actually pondered painting in the pips.
In the end, using the deemed was faster. Even using 3 different tips so as not to remove the body material, it took 1 - 2 hours for 10 dice.

I guess it depends on the meaning of “faster”.  Painting a batch of dice, one face at a time, would probably involve (to be safe) an hour of drying time for each face…but the painting itself would only take a few seconds for each die, so in terms of actual work time the painting would only add up to a few minutes rather than 1 to 2 hours of work with a dremel.

Just curious, what is the point of “hit dice”?

Just makes it easier to determine hits?  I get that, if so.  Deprives you of a statistical perspective though on what you rolled.

Also, what is the technical scoop on A&A dice?  For years I and my gaming companions have contemplated the relative reliability of the OOB dice in regards to shape and weight, knowing the reality that given the drilled holes for the dots they were likely biased towards 6’s as the lightest side.

Also what was the scoop on FMG dice?  I suspect because the “1” is painted that they are even more biased toward 6’s?

Further, why did they “round” the edges of the later A&A OOB dice?  Is that some technical thing to allow it to roll around more?  Are sharp edges undesirable?

Finally, I’ve been told certified vegas dice are really the only truly reliable dice. Fact or fiction?

Thanks

K

@robert:

I’d like to to see anyone paint pips in a few seconds BTW.  :-D

Actually, I wasn’t thinking about painting pips.  I was thinking about solid face colours: for example, red die face = hit, blue die face = miss.  No pips at all.

@Karl7:

Just curious, what is the point of “hit dice”?

I had thought that it would be a little quicker rolling all of the dice at once. It turns out that it is a lot faster because of the time saved determining what to roll. In the first round you gather all of the dice you need, then you roll them and take your casualties. When counting your casualties you simply remove that number of dice from your pile of dice that you gathered before the combat began. It’s easier to count them too. If say you’re using white dice for infantry then you’ll want to remove the white dice before you start removing the red dice. Remove the red before the blue, remove the blue before the green.

In a large battle you are not stuck counting up how much of everything that you have left in the battle because the number of dice left in your hand has already done that for you. That’s where the real time saving is found.

@robert:

I’d like to to see anyone paint pips in a few seconds BTW.  :-D

You likely could do so if you made a guide to help line up the pips. But then you have to consider the amount of work to set up the guide or guides (say, one guide for painting out 6’s, one for painting out 5’s, etc…)

-Midnight_Reaper