There’s something about dice that I really like. I’ve always enjoyed playing dice based games since I was very young, you know, the days when television was black & white and sliced bread was the best thing….
So having graduated from snakes and ladders onto Ludo and then into the realms of Monopoly, I always enjoyed the element of chance that dice brought to a game. Chess was never my thing, it took to much brain power. I also had a sneaking suspicion that flair and risk taking was secondary to cold logic and that eventually a machine could do better than mere humans. I think that over time, I may have been proved to be right, although I’m not sure whether Deep Blue ever did beat Kasparov or whoever… Anyway, as usual I digress.
So I like an element of chance in a game and dice seem to be the perfect way of introducing it. As I progressed through board games (Risk, Campaign, Mine a Million, Cluedo, Air Charter and many more) I eventually started to use dice whilst playing toy soldiers. It seems a bit more sophisticated than throwing lego blocks at each others armies and along with the sound effects that my Brother Pete & I used to make, not quite so rowdy. It also meant that as I had started to paint my models, the paint didn’t get chipped off my soldiers!
So the jump from board gaming to wargaming wasn’t a big leap and I had a new life long hobby. Of course, rolling dice is a big part of this and you tend to pick up some strange habits when it comes to dice. My regular opponent at Warhammer World, Adrian, will never roll a high scoring dice twice in one turn. He always picks up the low scores & rolls them again on the basis that they will roll better the second time.
I’ve also heard people complaining that their opponent has cursed their dice by rolling them…and then there’s the gamers that will only use a particular colour. Yellow & green seem popular just recently. It may be because theres not too many of these around so your opponent can’t pinch your dice when you’re not looking!
The next time you are at a competition, just watch the rolling styles! There’s the guys that throw their dice around just like I used to throw my lego blocks. They end up knocking your figures all over the place. Then there’s the those who drop the dice vertically down on to the table hoping that the dice wont bounce too much so the 6 will land face up. Some throw with an exaggerated flourish as though it will affect the outcome. Mind you the ones that really irritate are those that cant seem to hit the table and send the dice all over the floor….
One of the most interesting, funny and rather risque books that I have read was the Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. The main character of the tale decided to make all the decisions in his life ( and I mean all!) based on options generated by the roll of a dice. Now it’s quite an interesting idea and may be the next time I can’t make a decision I’ll try it out but in the mean time, I think I’ll keep my dice for the wargaming table.
So all this is really just to let you know that I’ve extended my range of dice in my shop. I now have 21 different types to choose from in different colours & sizes so if you have worn the luck off of your dice or you just fancy a change why not treat yourself to a new set!
So why the pic & mix? Well you can now choose the colour combination that you would like so if you would like 39 yellow dice and 1 blue one, you can have them. Maybe you prefer the purple/orange combination? Or perhaps you would like some of each. Well you can now decide what you would like and just let me know, if you choose the pic & mix option! Oh, and if you cant decide what to choose, just roll a dice….