"I rolled three 1s for morale..." Topic

Way back in the previous century, in my WRG Ancients Days, I was playing my Gauls against Alexander. I needed to salvage the situation (never a good sign), so I declared a charge with ny sub-general and his bodyguard of 3 Light chariots. Back in the day, a charge declaration required a Reaction Test. Roll 3 D6, add the usual factors. On an average roll, I could get an Impetuous Charge, giving me a +2 in melee. I rolled instead three 1s, giving me a Rout. Off a charge declaration.

Saturday we were playing Brandywine 15mm with Age of Reason. I had the leftmost brigade. I had the Yankees pinned and was working a battalion in position to come in on their flank. The Yank had saved a 6pdr until I got in range, and by the skin of his teeth (extra die for First Fire) got a hit. AoR requires a morale check on every artillery hit. Piece of cake on an otherwise unhurt unit. Right? Well, no. Being on the flank, I had only flank support for the right. Being angled, I had no rear support. So, I rolled only three D6, and rolled three 1s. Rout.
Suddenly, it was MY flank that was open.

Share your disasters.

I thought that sort of thing only happened to me. I remember a game that had Normans against Vikings. First turn of the game the Normans charged my Vikings and my whole army ran off the table. Probably the shortest game I ever played.

Dice. What can you say.

Last Saturday we were playing Car Wars at DunDraCon. In Car Wars if you turn hard, drive over debris, etc, you have to make a Control Roll or you start skidding, rolling, etc. This is a 1d6 roll to beat a number that depends on the difficulty of the maneuver, how much you have maneuvered recently, and your speed. It starts out at 2. You just need to roll a 2 or better on 1d6.

Well, sure enough, the first time someone tried to make a turn at a whopping 50mph we looked it up, she needed a 2 or better, she rolled a one, everyone laughed, she skidded, the game went on. But then someone else needed to roll a 2 or better, and they also rolled a 1. The pattern continued. People were sliding and rolling and it was just awesome. The phrase "you only need a two or better" became a running joke. It was pretty great.

In the category of genuine emergencies, I did a demo of Ogre one time where the defense was never able to touch the Ogre because they kept rolling low. The Ogre rolled the length of the board, smashed the CP, destroyed everything, and left the board unharmed. The players decided it was a pretty dull game and were entirely unimpressed. I was very disappointed in those dice.

Dice. "Love/Hate Relationship" doesn't begin to describe it. We keep buying them, we love them, they ruin everything, and games without them just aren't the same. What are we going to do?

In a recent ACW game, I was trying to run some boats past a fort in Memphis. Needed a 5+
Admittedly, low odds. But still 33% chance of success.
I failed 8 strait times.

I played a game of risk with friends. I had 80 armies defending Iceland from invasion. A friend attacked with 10 armies and won, he lost 3 armies and I lost all 80. Talk about bad dice.

A few weeks ago I rolled 6 ones in a row. During the whole evening it was rarely above a 3. Needless to say…..

Played Fire & Fury, First Bull Run a few weeks ago. My friend was playing CSA and had probably the worst luck with dice I've ever seen. Let's just say President Lincoln proclaimed General Irvin McDowell "Savior of the Union" at his Manassas Address!

Worse I've done is probably getting Davout killed at Auerstadt within 15 minutes of him entering the game.

Playing axis and allies as England. Germany attacked me on the first turn and I rolled 8 dice and rolled 6 sixes and 2 fives- all misses. I was out on the first run. A Darkest Hour.

A few years ago at the club on of the games pitted voyagers attempting to run a set of rapids and on down the river in loaded canoes through hostile bands of Indians.

The rapids were at the beginning of the run. As I recall it was a 1 or 2 on a D6 to capsize – we had half a dozen canoes and all but one capsized leaving the voyagers on foot to carry their furs downriver through the hostile bands of Indians.

There were also a couple of fords that allowed the Indians on the far side of the river to cross and attack the voyagers.

Needless to say the Indians won.

General Question "What are the odds of rolling six ones in a row?"

DOM "If I'm playing MechWarrior, apparently 100%."

This is, of course, the young lady who won an Andromeda class dropship in a MW tourney at 8 or 9. Don't feel too sorry for her.

Personal best: Playing Metagaming's "The Trojan War" made some low odds attacks, rolled 14d6, all came up ones. On the CRT that meant "Attacker eliminated." Half of army destroyed, game over.

Playing W$Fantasy 3rd ed tournament, needed to pass one morale check with a 10 or less on 2d6. Blew it. That meant nearby units had to check. All needed a 10 or less, all failed, 8 in a row.

It's why I avoid certain rules. I don't mind a bad run of luck killing me when we can set up and have another round, but there are games it takes all afternoon to play which can still be lost by three dice. ("Awww. You didn't make your command roll. Your army doesn't move this turn. Again.")

Say what you will for the "buckets of dice" approach, if you roll TWELVE dice and they all turn up "1" you have the fail of a lifetime, and you've probably only lost one melee. But there are games when a single bad roll on a single D10 is pretty much the game.

I had a 40k Imperial Guard platoon miss all 17 consecutive 4+ to hit d6 rolls once. I about lost my mind.

Classic tale in our gaming group now for 24 years.

"Roll a d6 and needed anything but a 1. As per our story line a one was rolled. Later in the game another "need anything but a one" critical result……NABA1 in short form. Another one. To prove that the dice could roll another number…. the GM rolled the same dice…. for a one. Undaunted, same GM picked up the dice… and you can guess the result. He left the room, then shortly later came back with the d6 die and rolled the die. It was a six, clearly showing for all the see. Later on, when picking up the game it was noticed that the die was glued to the dice tray, the same six result showing.
To the present day….treated as a dice shrine…. a temple to the dice gods.

I was playing in one of the WW2 Megagames in Cornwall, UK back in 2010 or so.

My Russian battalion took a single stand loss, so test for morale and roll a 1 on D10 – Result Battalion breaks and I need to test morale for Regiment.

Roll another 1 on a D10, Regiment shaken so need to test for Division Morale.

Roll another 1 on D10 – Division Morale breaks!!! Basically the whole Division goes wobbly over a single dead platoon. Such is dice luck.

Time to go for a beer…

I've seen Grenadiers roll 5 ones in AOR, leading to the breakthrough that cracked their line open.