"Most Agonizing Dice Roll?" Topic

Ok, which is more of an "Oh ! Aaaarrrgh!" moment;

1) Having an overwhelming shot at something (more dice, target has low armor, etc) and then completely wiffing the roll

2) Having an even chance of taking out a target and rolling obscenely low – but the opposing roll is beats yours by only 1 point

or,

3) Facing overwhelming odds but there's a chance that you can change the course of the game with one shot – only to fail by 1 point

Which of those would cause you to build a little funeral pyre for your dice on the hibachi?

Wyatt

A friend of mine once rolled (in a WAB game) 21 out of 22 hits with his archers (50% chance) and subsequently rolled zero (0) (also a 50% chance) wounds……

Scenario 1 would add the offending dice to the barby.

Next would be, my opponent have overwhelming odds only to roll obscenely low only to have me roll under him… by 1.

1 would be my choice.

A scenario like that in Fire and Fury is why we started rolling 2 dice and using the average. You can still get a 1 but it is much more difficult.

There were something like 30 stands shooting at the rear of a line in two different units. They both rolled one which ended up disordering the already disordered unit.

So something like 8-9 stands, already disordered have three times their number past both flanks and are fired on by all of them and the result is, essentially, nothing.

Long ago in a medieval tactica game, my friend only needed one 6 out of like twenty dice and didn't get any, concequently he lost the game because the next melee in line broke him. Typical tactica game going down to the very end hanging in the balance!

Definitely 1 for me…. In a recent aerial game I'd gotten my MiG-25 into perfect firing position, and popped the sole AA-6 in my inventory at an F-5E about to bomb my airbase. The missile duly hit and (being a massive missile and a rather small aeroplane….) I needed a less than spectacular 3 on 2d6 for the kill. Snake-eyes duly came up, and my hangar copped for a pair of thousand pound bombs….

I once watched a player roll 5 dice and get five ones (all failures) and then roll five more ones for the severity of the failure.

Most painful die roll? How about this…

I'm playing Aliens against Colonial Marines using FMA Skirmish. The Marines were dishing out the pain at range because pulse rifles do that. Once the Aliens closed in it was game over for the most part.

Towards the end of the game one embarrassing situation occured. I had moved two Aliens within charge range of Burke. The sniveling coward was hiding behind a wall for most of the game armed with a pistol.

I move the Aliens in and Burke manages to get a shot. I roll a one and Alien #1 goes down. Alien #2 makes contact and goes for a swing rolling a 1. During Burke's next activation the player rolls hot and takes the Alien down.

The everyone went silent for a moment or two. Burke did eventually go down but sheesh.

1 is a pretty good choice.

The worst is to have a fantastic shot, roll really good and then have your opponent roll and opposing die roll that is good enough to cancel your great roll. That really hurts.

mjc

In a recent FoW game, my Grants had 24 shots at the side of some Stugs, and failed to register a single hit. That included re-rolls and desperation 37mm shots.
USUALLY, Buckets O'Dice average out the bad rolls…

In one memorable WRG Ancients game, I needed to charge Alexander with my Gallic chariot C-in-C to salvage the game. I rolled three 1s.

Of course, give a kid a chance of a 1 on a D20 to hit a Tiger with a mortar, and he rolls three out of 4 of them.

In a recent Check your Six game I manuvered my Hellcat into perfect position on a japaneese bomer and rolled absolute garbage to hit.

I also hate having my best closecombat figure charge into combat and miss with everything.

I seem to have bad luck with freshly painted figures.

Origins '84: Second Battle of Guadalcanal using GQ – my first into to the rules.

I have the two Japanese heavy cruisers. Opening salvo of the game, USS Washington on my lead cruiser, player rolls straddle, hit, critical, boom. Just like that. Not two turns later another player with Japanese destroyers pulls a blue on blue and torpedos my other cruiser.

I have played several Warmachine games where I could not hit a barn and my opponent never missed.

I have played Pig Wars where I failed every single moral check and my opponent passed every one of his.

How about every roll I make. If the system requires a low roll, then I roll high and if its high then I roll low. My luck with dice just sucks!

We call this "Todd's Luck", after a local guy (a great fellow, BTW) who's *renowned* for his complete inability to make rolls when needed.

Case in point: a Command Decision scenario of Michael Wittmann's attack on the hapless British column, wherein Wittmann bursts through the hedgerow at halitosis range with his group and shoots up the British armor, escaping off leaving carnage in his wake, etc. Todd duly bursts through the hedgerow and…

Completely flubs all but one shot (I think he took out a jeep or something) for two turns, leaving his group at the mercy of every British tank within range.

Herr Wittmann received his posthumous medal a little early.

Now I also remember, from a game of Spacehulk ages ago, that lone genestealer hybrid armed with a humble las pistol taking out three Terminators AND the sergeant (needing at least sixes) in three consequetive turns (one even from overwatch). All shots the Marines got at him missed….

Number 1. I once rolled 10 sixes in a roll in Risk while defending with 1 unit. Some friends were playing Squad Leader and the Germans knocked out a Russian tank. The crew bails out, makes a morale check and goes beserk. They attack 3 SS squads and a 9-2 SS leader and KIA them! And the SS guys were in a stone building.

Once played a 28mm Borodino at the WHC, There were about 5 of us playing French and while we wern't taking the game too seriously we were all good players and we were winning comfortably ,against the Russian team who were a club, who took it VERY seriously…there was quite a bit of needle by the second day, engendered in no small part by some fairly blatant and rather inept cheating by the Russian players. Anyway finally it was time for the big Duff-up which would truly decide the game. The Russian Guard was counter attacking the Old Guard over the Fleches, their last hope. All the players gathered round to watch the melee- there was a lot of comments and the atmosphere was very tense- the melee was even-stevens…..The French rolled their 2D6…… 3!!!! Damm!! the whole room erupted- lots of taunting and shouting from the Wa%$%£s who were playing Russian…Their player (the most obnoxious) rolled with a smug look on his weasly face, while we Frenchies watched downcast….. 2!!!!!…. Massive laughter/relief on our part…silence from the Russians..the rest of the melee was fought out to a French victory… whereupon the Russian team disolved into arguing amongst themselves and blaming each other for what had gone wrong, They were still bitching 2 hours later when we all went home, blaming everyone and anything for their failiure to win the game.
It kept us chuckling all the way home.

Oh, yes, and before I forget, back in high school, we had Axis and Allies (the boardgame); I was the U.S., and my friend playing the Japanese sent his fleet against the two ships on the West Coast (a BB and a transport). He sank the BB on the first turn and gloated as his CV, two fighters and BB closed in for the kill…

My transport then heroically sank the entire IJN, only to perish on the last turn. The look of utter disbelief on my friend's face at his inability to roll anything *but* a 5 or a 6 was comical as a BB, a CV, two fighters and a transport were sent to the bottom. The MoH was duly awarded, of course.

For those familiar with WARMACHINE: I was playing a 1000 point game. I had Haley and Caine (neither one Epic versions) on the board. I had just cast SCRAMBLE on my opponent's only Heavyjack (Steam powered war robot) remaining (a Seether nonetheless). SCRAMBLE is a spell that causes a Warjack to go running off in a random direction at the start of that player's turn, thus essentially taking that gamepiece out of action for that turn. Now, you roll a d6 to determine direction. Three of the possible six directions force that Warjack literally run over (and knock prone) significant numbers of the Cryx player's forces. The other two run the warjack into deep water (thus essentially destroying it), but the last direction is of course straight at my Warcaster (Haley) who cast the spell.

You guessed it, but It get's better…Not only does the Warjack run over Haley, he also runs far enough that he runs over Caine too, knocking them both down and allowing my opponent to just walk up and melee my Leaders to death. [I think this qualifies as a Scenario 3]

Then there was the time my five Shermans in an FoW game had 10 shots on the side and rear of my opponent's Tiger…Couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, all ten shots missed by 1 on the die rolls. [This is Scenario 1]

I don't have a scenario 2 for ya'

Andy Welkley
"Your Phrendlee Hevy Phyzx T-chrr"

#1, but…

I was reading an ASL web page a few years ago, which I cannot find now (help, anyone), wherein someone related a story of a campaign of Red Barricades they played one Summer. The campaign came down to the last game. The game came down to the last turn. The last turn came down to the last die roll.

The player involved needed a 7 or better to succeed at something. Can't remember what, and usually you want to roll low in ASL, but the point is he needed a seven or better. He rolled.

One die up a six. The other was spinning on a point. "That's it, he thought, I have it, no matter what number comes up, I've got seven or better, I win."

The remaining die spun and spun.

Then it cracked in half and fell in two parts.

A careful reading of the rules revealed that in case of cocked or lost dice *both* dice should be re-rolled. So the six didn't count. He re-rolled both dice, and got a six. He lost the check, turn, game, and campaign.

And I consider that to be the most agonizing die roll in the history of mankind.

Andrew

Playing Germans in BKC, I had one german command stand bungle his first command roll, flee to the edge of the board, and never pass a command roll for the rest of the game. I mean, the soviet FAO passed more rolls.

All three scenarios have made me want to torch my dice. My Field of Glory game last Sunday, I blew allmost all my cohesion tests by one. I remember a kid in L.A. with a brand new tube of Kaplows, pounded them to dust, and mailed them back to Kaplow. Kaplow sent him a new tube. As for the die cracking in two, that happend wih the dice in my mom's old (1938) Monopoly set when my nieces were playing with it in 94 or there abouts.

An aside to Pijlie. My first Warhammer battle in 87 or 88, 23 of 24 Welsh longbow hit, 1 penetrates, and my opponet saves vs. armour. I don't hav to add about the time I lost an ancients tourney (WRG6) when both my Irr B knights rolled a 3.

AWI Saratoga game--Hit a MILITIA unit on the flank with a Grenadier Battalion--Using Piquet I managed to roll a 1 on a D12 against the Militias 4 on a D4!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAARRRGGGGGG---Grenadiers rout unrally-able which then causes the Brigade to also rout and the defeat of my forces………

Years ago I was playing Clash of Arms "La… Auerstadt".
Marshal Davout entered the game around 7am. Within 2 turns my opponent charged my French square containing Davout. I promptly rolled the only possible number along with DRM's to allow the square to break. I then rolled for officer effect and Davout was killed. We pretty much stopped the game at that point.

Dale Williams

This isn't one of my own (as I really can't remember an agonizing one … I had them … I just don't remember them) … so I will have to regale you with one that I witnessed

Runequest RPG …

Character Davide had been courting a winged horse (Pegasus' breed) to accept him as a rider … Such a courtship is much like becoming a unicorn rider … except if a winged horse doesn't accept … you die … permanently … not resurrectable

So Davide has been doing this courtship thing for about 6 months of player time … and finally decides to take the plunge … literally

The method of asking a winged horse is to … somehow get yourself to altitude … then take a plunge … possibly to your death

He had heard all the rumors … and even learned of people who reportedly tried to 'save' themselves … ie had spells ready or friends there as a backup … all ended up as street pizza

So Davide asks another PC who had a flying carpet to take him to altitude so he could 'do the deed' …

My character … being a Red Elf … could fly anyway … so I went along to watch the fun … with no intention of attempting to save him … as it was likely to cause him to fail

So Davide (Player – Richard) had accumulated what ever points that added up to a % roll for life or death … as I reacall … it was something like 7% for success

The GM made Richard roll in private … for her (the GM) … and as we watched … Davide just fell through the clouds out of sight

Next thing we knew … Richard was playing a different character … so we assumed that Davide had died

Several months later (game time) … Guess who shows up on a winged horse?

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