"DO you have gaming superstitions?" Topic

I am not generally superstitious – but I do have a couple.

In board games I always make my moves from left to right.

In miniature games – especially "buckets of dice" types – I don't reroll misses until my pile runs out.
(I have about 35) – so I roll hits, then use the dice that hit to roll wounds. The next unit pulls new dice from the pile (as much as possible anyway).

We like with friend to recycle dice that are not "performing"
:)

Never get involved in a land war in Asia …

No.

I try not to reroll dice that scored a 6 previously because I think that they are more likely to roll a 1.

I know that this is not true and is just a hangover from childhood. And it doesn't make any difference to my usually dismal dice luck.

But still the thought persists.

In Flames of War (V3, of course), if I have 8 shots and roll 6 6's, my opponent will either make his save, or I will fail Firepower.
I'm better off without 6s.

Never say don't roll a 1 to me.

Do not anger the Dice Gods. How to avoid this is up to you.

If a die fails me. It is surrounded by it fellows to watch me crush it in a power vise.

I have some completely bonkers superstitions (I blame my northern upbringing), although compared to my wife's family I am quite sane.

When it comes to gaming, though, no.

I used to trade out "cold" dice. Even yet, when I'm picking up dice for a roll, I'll pick ones which are lying with a 5 or 6 up first.

Never swap your dice.

I had a particular tape measure I used; never seemed to help me out though but if I didn't take it to games night I would get flustered.

I like dice that represent my army, blue for French, red for British and so on. My biggest superstition in gaming is never attack a church. Every game I have played in where someone hides in a church, and I assaulted the church, I lost.

YouTube link

Newly painted units always rout.

That ancient Airfix sherman with a missing wheel and wonky gun will always survive longer than the nicely built ones.

If you have a 55% chance and the enemy has 50% then you are doomed, think this was from Retinue medieval skirmish games.

No.

I swap dice when they are consistently rolling bad. Never helps, but oh well.

Not about dice, but some of my old Napoleonic units
will always prevail in melee (d'ye hear there, 9th
Cuirassier ?)

I attribute this to the first game in which they
saw melee action and lost, the two surviving figures
routing past L'Empereur, who calmly drew his horse
pistols and shot them as they rode past.

Superstitious ? Naw…

I'm with Robert P. Always use the dice with 6's face up on them!

Blowing on dice infuses them with just a tiny, tiny bit of extra fighting spirit.

Also, I'm in the camp that avoids picking up dice that are showing 5 or 6 up. They are overeager, and most likely promising more than they can deliver.

Oh, and dice have to be rolled. None of this limp-wristed drops on the table. Put yer backs into it!

Nope.

I'd forgotten, Ed. Too long since the 30's had a good run. Yeah, on the charts Fred's Polish Cuirassiers had the same morale as Mark's 10th British Hussars, but we all knew it didn't really work that way. After a while, Mark tried to sell off a well-sculpted carefully-painted unit. But he couldn't. We all knew about the rotten, routing Tenth.

A friend told me once that he always assumed my 1813-15 Hanoverians would fight a little better for me than the charts suggested.

Blowing on dice infuses them with just a tiny, tiny bit of extra fighting

spit.

There. Fixed that for you.

I love the sound of "The Rotten Routing 10th"

+1 Timbo W, newly painted units always fail

Had one work superstition but gaming…nah

My trifecta of wargaming superstitions, as previously listed by whitejamest and pzivh43:

"Never say don't roll a 1 to me."

"Blowing on dice infuses them with just a tiny, tiny bit of extra fighting spirit."

"dice have to be rolled. None of this limp-wristed drops on the table.

My wife does the "dice drop" when playing other games – drives me absolutely batty

Not really, other than the one about not dying as long as you still have miniatures to paint.

Let a kid under 10 roll the dice for you.

Avalon Hill dice are cruel and capricious.

When I get a lot of hits, I pick them up and roll the to wound dice across the board. History has shown me dice rolling a lot of hits will give you only a few to wound result. By changing my dice rolling stye I hope to get a balanced result.

No it doesn't work!

Not really a superstition. My abysmal die scores have been noted by my club mates, who think either me or the dice or both are cursed. Possible, I was interested in the occult as a teenager.

Never play a dice game against children. The dice like them better.

If a dice is "cold," I'll switch dice. I know this makes absolutely no sense, and I tell myself it's not being superstitious, but it is.

There may be something to the idea about "freshly painted units behaving poorly," but it has nothing to do with the units or the paint. It has to do with the player being proud of his handiwork and wanting to see what his new recruits do on the field of battle— so he sends the poor, green things into situations no unit could survive, and is amazed when they fail to triumph despite the awesome shading work he did on their belts. Meanwhile, the battered Old Reliables are held back "for the opportune moment" because, though not a pretty sight, he "knows" they will "come through for him when the battle's on the line." Which really means they tend to charge into the flanks of engaged enemy units late in the battle when the casualties are already high and the enemy's die modifiers are at their lowest… and once again, the Old Reliables triumph!

And thus, the superstitions flourish.

And yes, I'm guilty of the above.

My gaming group always insisted that bigger dice rolled better than smaller dice.