There has been a lot of talk lately about “hot dice” or
“trick dice” in table top gaming. This
has been a very big topic for tournament gaming as well, as it seems it is
becoming very common for people to bring trick dice to the gaming table.
There are
numerous articles on the web regarding trick dice and where you can buy
them. I have personally seen some of
these trick dice at my local hobby store.
They are very easy to get. With
these dice being so accessible, I think this is becoming more and more popular
at the gaming table due to WAAC gamers.
I think this is the epitome of the WAAC mentality. Doing whatever you have to do to win a game. This has become a very hot topic due to
gamers bringing these trick dice to local and grand tournaments.
Something
that I thought of for trick dice is how often people use them during the
game. I have heard of people rolling
handfuls of these dice during the game.
But what if it is more subtle than that?
What if the person using the trick dice only uses them in certain
situations? For example, what if a
person only rolls one die for a melta gun along with a handful of bolter dice,
or if a person uses the trick dice to roll for their reserves and doesn’t use
them anymore for the rest of the game?
That wouldn’t raise very many red flags to people, but it is something
that tournament gamers should be looking out for.
The owner
of a certain “blue blog” on the internet has just written a very long article
about what he feels is wrong with 6th Edition 40k. Trick dice was one of the main topics for his
article. He even stated that he doesn’t
like to participate in grand tournaments due to people frequently bringing
trick dice and the tournament organizers not doing anything when gamers are
caught with them. This has to be
extremely frustrating while participating in a tournament, especially if you
have already played this person, and lost an earlier game to them.
I like to
read up on numerous blogs and forums to stay in touch with the tournaments
going on around the country. While I was
reading through those web sites I came upon a post for a grand tournament that
was held on March 1-3, The Bay Area Open.
On the forum, someone posted up a video of the final match between an
all Daemon army list (Screamers/Flamers) facing off against a Space
Wolf/Imperial Guard list. This was a
very interesting game to watch. But the
main thing that caught my attention was the results of the dice rolling of the
Daemon player. Now the video of the game
didn’t show any of the actual dice rolling, but some of the results were posted
up by other members of the forum. In one
instance, the Daemon player caused 17 wounds out of 21 shots. That is 81% accuracy in shooting. And they also made 10/11 saves on a squad of Pink
Horrors with a 4++ model. Now I don’t
pretend to be a math genius by any stretch of the word, but 10/11 (91%) saves
for a model that has a 4++ base/invulnerable save is pretty ridiculous. The average should have been 66%. Even the
other player in the finals was commenting in the video that he couldn’t believe
how good the rolling was for the daemon player.
The thing
that raised a red flag to me is other participants in the BAO posted up that
they had played the Daemon opponent either in doubles or single play. They posted up that they also had noticed
that the Daemon player’s rolling was excessively good during the whole
tournament. Which brings up the
question, did the Daemon player cheat by using trick dice? Again, with not being at the tournament, and
only getting the information from the video and other forum posts, it is
difficult to make a clear cut decision.
I am not
making any accusations as to if this person was cheating or not, I am simply
stating that I was very surprised to see how successful the rolling was for
armor/invulnerable saves. Someone also
posted up how successful the Daemon player was when rolling for deep striking
squads due to the squads rarely if ever deviating. This is all speculation on my part, but it
brings up a great question…What steps should be taken to make sure people are
not using trick dice during tournaments?
Some have
recommended that dice be handed out by the TO’s of the tournament. This would allow people to know for sure that
people are not using any trick dice.
Also, some feel that a block of dice should be provided as part of the
door prizes for each participant, for example a block of Chessex Dice. I could see this as being beneficial to the
participants of the tourney as well as provide a little something extra for the
participant to take away from the tournament itself. Everyone would know that every participant is
on an even playing field as far as dice rolling goes.
What steps
do you think tournament organizers should take to make sure trick dice are not
used and what punishment should be handed out to the cheating player if they
are caught?
I would
like to hear what others have experienced in tournament play as well as how
things were handled by you or the Tournament Organizer. Please post your comments below.
Happy Gaming!
Tin Man
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