"Wargaming Superstitions" Topic

I have two: I always roll dice with my left hand because I am utterly right-handed, and newly painted troops will always perform extremely well or unbelievably badly.

I know many folks who have the second of my two – you?

Disclaimers: this came about as a bit of banter after a recent game. No luck gods were harmed in the making of this topic. Oh, I also tried to search here on TMP to see if it had come up previously, but with no luck. Please pardon me if it has been here before…

I changed to casino dice to solve mine.

If anybody says "anything but a 1", the next roll will be a "1"!!

I will never change my dice during a game. No matter what.

If they roll poorly, they roll poorly…My belief is that eventually they will come good. If I change them, the new ones may also to decide to roll poorly.

Never roll the same dice that have just rolled high
Never say "anything but a 1"
Never say to your opponent "You need a 6"
Never use dice where there is a picture instead of a 1
Always use dice where there is a picture instead of a 6
Never fight a land war in Asia
Don't invade Russia in the winter

"Anything but a 1" is a banned statement in our local group.

Other statements like "Never let Ian guard your flank" isn't a superstition but a piece of advice based on hard experience.

YouTube link

The one I see all the time: The idea that the law of averages will necessarily even things out in the short term. For some reason, not based in statistics, people seem to believe that in six rolls of a d6 they are "due" one 1, one 2, one 3, one 4, one 5, and one 6.

Do not wargame with children. They will have phenomenal luck with the dice.

Do not wargame with dogs.

Do not wargame with dogs.

Who are you calling a dog?

Never tell me the odds!

whenever I am using rules that have the player rolling 1 dice, I always have a blank dice on hand so that I never have to roll just one dice. You get some rather excited reactions from people that don't know that I have this habit/superstition.

Mr McHarg the child luck thing is true but its because children don't know "the right thing" and they often do the smart thing and they roll dice like a demon that's why they don't let them in casinos.

Never play against kids …they roll too well.
Freshly painted pieces fair terrible the first time out .
Apoorly named piece will always fair badly . ie the NSL cruiser Norwood ( named after a buffalo Bills kicker) .

The battered old Airfix Sherman with the missing wheel and bendy gun will always survive longer than the newly-painted expensive metal model.

really don't like to play with minis that are not mine and pianted by me…but..worst of that, i don't like that my opponent play with my minis..at least some specific and selected units to which i endorse a degree of personality that is reflected in some rules adjustment..like in TSATF

Never ever roll dice while sitting down …. Always stand

I never change dice mid-game. Will only change them between games if they are behaving extremely badly, in which case they are banned for life.

To quote Stephen Fry, "It's extremely unlucky to be superstitious for the simple reason that it is always unlucky to be colossally stupid."

Dice need to be rolled used casino rules (must bounce off two surfaces and roll, or out of cups, do that and you'll get something closer to random distribution of numbers. The rest is then up to you.

If it's time to roll a die, pick up the one with a low number showing…assuming low is bad.
Bob

My superstition is that no-one has 'their dice' at the table. All dice are available to all – if you want to use my lucky dice, you can but they are my lucky dice so they'll roll low for you and high for me – or end up in a vat of toluene to encourage the others.

God favors children. So do Moms. Plan accordingly.

A newly developing suspicion: Never paint a unit in your football team's colors. It will not fare well for either in the future.

Oh, also : Deliberately switching dice angers the dice gods; the "good" dice will invariably turn bad, and the "bad" dice will turn good. You cannot flout the will of fortune.

If a newly painted unit does poorly its first time on the board, it is doomed for the rest of its existence. Sell it immediately.

I have had the newly painted unit fare poorly the first time, though recently some new units have done just fine.

Back in the day I had a plain vanilla Bavarian infantry battalion that never failed a morale test.

One of my mates "fires" dice that perform poorly. I just keep rolling the same dice. I figure the 6's are waiting to come out.

A buddy bought me a statue of Durga, goddess of war after his trip to India. After I rub my hand on it my luck is savage. The guys don't want me doing that.

Never place your rosary in the box with the troops your opposition is going to use.

Never post the 27th reply to a topic….

I cannot think of any superstitions I have, but my best friend for many years that I used to game lots of with had one. The dice he uses during a game, no one else can use. Not necessarily use his own dice but once selected for the first roll, they were his and no-one else's! He also would hold them a lot when not rolling, hoping to inflict luck into them…but would call out other people that held their dice when not rolling them!

Never put your troops in or attack a church!

Never fight a land war in Asia

Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

Freshly painted units will be shot to pieces. Plan accordingly.

I spent 25 years in the casino industry. I've seen standing on one leg, wearing different coloured socks, keeping dice in a fridge to keep them 'cold', 7 ashtrays around a craps table at all times. All this from management, never mind the punters. At the end of the year, we always made the same percentage profit on drop.
The dice don't know what happened last roll, or what colour socks you are wearing. No superstitions for me, its like bringing the lunatics home from the asylum.

Caliban – my newly painted troops will always behave abysmally on their first outing. After that, well, they still behave abysmally.

It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with poor generalship from me or unlucky dice. IT is entirely the fault of the troops.

Unless, of course, my opponent has even worse-behaved troops, when my own troops' abysmal performance appears competent in contrast.

Thanks for the conversation, folks. TamsinP has my sympathies – as does anybody who plays against kids. I should have added in that one myself. The last time I played against my eight year old, she got Harold Godwinson with an arrow.

Always use your own dice.

Unpainted figures shoot worse.

Figures other people painted will fail morale checks.

Also, troops commanded by me will not have to write "after the war" letters because they ain't coming back home. That's observable fact though.

Timbo W – you are so right !

Newly painted units will either do well or awful. I painted up the 1st Austrian Hussars, they lost their first battle and every melee since. Maybe selling them will help. Conversely an Austrian line battalion newly painted could not be best. Since then, it has only lost once.

In our group, someone rolls a die, someone else calls out " roll a 1". It usually comes out a 1. We use dice towers as well. Go figure!

The chances of a bad die roll are directly proportional to the requirement for a good one!

Throwing the dice enthusiastically tends to get better results than limp-wristed rolling.

Lawrence will always get good results on D6s, write/use rules that exclude them!