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As I was playing a game of Blood Bowl recently it occurred to me that the reroll mechanic could be used as an effective handicap in 40K.

For each reroll to which a player is entitled, once per game, a player could force the reroll of one die. This power could be used even on a die that had already been rerolled due to some other reson (twin-linking,master crafting, etc.), however, a player could not use a second handicap reroll on the same incident if the first handicap reroll did not deliver the desired result. This reroll could be used either to assist the player's army (reroll that missed hit/penetration roll or make a critical armor save) or to hinder the opponent (make him reroll that critical armor save or penetrating hit roll).

Here's how I envision this working. In league play every player would start with a handicap of 0, meaning no rerolls allowed. For every game a player lost, he would get an additional reroll. For every game won, he would lose a reroll. After a few games, the rerolls would result in more balanced games for everyone. Unskilled players or those with less powerful armies would be able to compete with the best.

What do you think?

 

Edit: I would presume that if both players had a handicap, only the net difference in number of rerolls would be available for the higher handicap player. For example, If I had a handicap of 5 and you had a handicap of 3, I would get 2 rerolls for the game and you would get none.

In a word, no...

This gives no incentive for the 'less skilled' players to actually learn to play better.

The players with the lowest handicap would still have bragging rights. The players with a higher handicap would still learn by playing games. As they got better, their handicap would decrease. Why is it such a crime to balance out games? Aren't close games better than blow-outs? Why is it preferable that new players or fluff players be steamrolled game after game?

Also, this would also handicap for inherently unbalanced matchups. Unless, of course you are asserting that all armies are balanced (I wouldn't try to defend that argument).

 

I would consider it an insult to be given a handicap. Kind of like the old 'I can beat you with one arm tied behind my back' routine.

so what if two really good players faced off, one of them lost, and subsequently got a re-roll for his next game...

and another game is between two noobs, one of which wins and doesn't get a re-roll.

so the noob winner with no re-roll faces the good loser with a re-roll.

i'm not a fan...and not necessarily because of your suggestion for a handicap, or that there are loopholes and situations where it won't necessarily benefit who it's supposed to.

it's admirable that you want lower ability players to have a better chance of competing, but as it was stated in an earlier post, i like the idea of playing more games to get better (being forced to learn to get better).

if anything, what you should do is create a rating system for players in your area. use the chess-based ELO, and when a noob is playing a highly ranked player, that experienced player has to use fewer points than the noob.

The problem is that a handicap is supposed to be a fixed value. Aside from the other problems, what if you use your handicap roll to try reroll an oppenet's really good shooting, and it comes up all 6s? It's not supposed to be able to work against you.

The ranking system + points handicap seems like a better idea than re-rolls.

Plus it would force the good players to use something other than their dakka-certified 1850-point superminmaxed optimized list.