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When the dice are not in your favor it is easy to start to complain. But does everyone have the right to complain? Have you ever had an opponent tell you that you don't get to complain about your rolls?

This weekend I was playing against eldar. He dropped a squad of warp spiders into my back lines and blew up a hammerhead. On my turn I had two units of 10 fire warriors within rapid fire range plus 8 pathfinders for marker lights. I was able to send 40 bs5 s5 shots at him + shots from a devilfish near by. This left him with an Autarch that ended up dying to overwatch the next turn. At this point my opponent started to complain about how good my rolls were and how bad his were (but the truth is that my 40+ shots should have wiped out the squad). A few turns later I am shooting at dire avengers. I use marker lights to increase my bs to 5 scoring 8 s5 shots against his t3 dire avengers. I then roll 6 1's, a 2 and a 3. Thinking I will make my opponent feel better about his bad rolls I point out how poor that was to which my opponent tells me I have no right to complain. For the rest of the match I just sat back and heard him complain about how lucky I was for blowing up his wave serpent with my broadsides (you know how hard it is to destroy vehicles with s10 ap 1 rerollables) while his single wraithlord couldn't put a dent in my hammerhead with d-pods.

So what do you do when an opponent complains and complains an then tells you you can't do the same? Also how long do you get to complain about a bad roll and is there a point where you get enough good rolls where you can't complain about bad ones?

Sure, you can lament your poor rolling. Just don't start blaming anyone for it.

You can't argue rationally with people who blame your for them rolling bad.

Dice rolling is 100% random. On average, everyone will roll the same as it's the same statistical distribution.

Hey, when your Terminators fail five armor saves after taking ten wounds you surely want to complain. It's not your opponent's fault ofc, so he really should turn it down. Offer him a rematch and wish him better luck if it's a swell guy otherwise?

 Sigvatr wrote:
You can't argue rationally with people who blame your for them rolling bad.

Dice rolling is 100% random. On average, everyone will roll the same as it's the same statistical distribution.

Don't try and tell my opponent that. He was convinced that his dice were bad and he was telling me how he is going to throw them away or give them to people to use against him because the dice are the problem.

I chew out my dice all the time. Sometimes I make an example of one to shock the others into behaving.

He should replace his Autarch with a Farseer, then maybe his "dice rolls" won't be as bad

 lambsandlions wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
You can't argue rationally with people who blame your for them rolling bad.

Dice rolling is 100% random. On average, everyone will roll the same as it's the same statistical distribution.

Don't try and tell my opponent that. He was convinced that his dice were bad and he was telling me how he is going to throw them away or give them to people to use against him because the dice are the problem.

There's nothing wrong with complaining about dice rolls, everyone does that. You shouldn't blame it on your opponent though.

You keep to the unwritten rule of griping: Everyone has the right to complain up to a point. Stop when it looks like the other guy's getting annoyed, and be patient with other people, and it should be fine.

If you're up against someone who can't read body language and keeps on, though, you have the right to sigh in exasperation, ask them to stop, and possibly refuse to play them again if it gets too bad.

I think the issue wasn't that the opponent was complaining... I think it was that he was complaining and then telling Mr. lambsandlions that he COULDN'T "complain" about his bad rolls.

Honestly, this guy just sounds like tfg.

You can blame an outcome on the dice, but not someone else for how they come up.

gak happens, sometimes you can't roll above a 2 for several critical rolls and the game is lost, it happens, sometimes it doesn't matter how good you are, the dice can bend you over a table and have their way with you.

But blaming someone else for that or saying they can't lament when it happens to them is silly.

 Vaktathi wrote:
You can blame an outcome on the dice, but not someone else for how they come up.

I blame my friends all the time for poor dice rolling. They'll roll a bunch of 6's to hit, and I'll use the same dice and get a bunch of 1's to save.

It's totally their fault for using up the dies mojo.

Yes, this is all in fun, and my friends do the same thing.

I wouldn't make much of it.

I've certainly had my fair share of bad dice days. Two days ago I started "retiring" some of my dice for the duration of a game due to the consistently bad rolls that were coming up. Halfway through the game I decided that any of them that rolled a 1 would be put into a special pile, not be rolled again. By the end of the game I only had 10 dice out of 2 blocks that I rolled with... Good thing I had already lost most of my army so I didn't even need all of those that were left. Of course, it didn't make a real difference that game, but it was very theraputic and my opponent and I laughed each time.

It must have worked because the following game they were all hot.....




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Vaktathi wrote:
You can blame an outcome on the dice, but not someone else for how they come up.

Sure you can. You can blame anyone for anything; that's part of the fun in life.

 Sigvatr wrote:
You can't argue rationally with people who blame your for them rolling bad.

Dice rolling is 100% random. On average, everyone will roll the same as it's the same statistical distribution.

Actually, dice rolling is governed by physics.

Physics are not random. At least, not on the scale of rollable dice.

It's more that people can't predict their dice rolls. At least, not every time. My dad used to call his dice rolls sometimes, and he always got it right when he did.

And I was able to make dice roll the way that I wanted to, but I was never able to use it in a game. And admittedly, I was really sick then, so it could have been an illusion.

Had two transports full of BA Assault Marines waltz right up to my Guardsmen and kill all of them before. For some reason, even with my good 10 Lascannons and 8 Autocannons, along with other Special Weapons, I just could not roll anything on armor penetration. Even with the 2d6 Melta rule, I would roll two 1's and fail to even glance. When everything is failing, im thankful enough to have opponents who will join me in laughing our butts off over the incompetence of Guardsmen sometimes

i love reading the stories of stupid things in 40k. Played a Iuy who claimed my breathing and the chaos theory was messing his rolls up. I promptly told him to shut up.

I let him know I using an ellipse before i said it.

"...shut up dude."

Feh, dice are dice. It's just a game, they need to relax!

 lambsandlions wrote:
When the dice are not in your favor it is easy to start to complain. But does everyone have the right to complain?

You always have the right to complain.

Do it too much, and your opponents have the right to not play you anymore or tell you to stop whining and roll the dice.

 lambsandlions wrote:
I just sat back and heard him complain about how lucky I was for blowing up his wave serpent with my broadsides (you know how hard it is to destroy vehicles with s10 ap 1 rerollables)

By S10, I hope you meant S8 - taking into account the Energy Fields of the Wave Serpent

I flat out refuse to believe that dice rolling is 100% random and left to chance. I so consistently roll poorly that I find myself dominating games of Axis and Allies (where low rolls are better) and barely squeaking by in games of Risk and 40k. I chalk this up to having a very good mind for strategy and tactics, but poor luck rolling dice.

I believe that there is some other element to it. be it physics, luck, or something else. I see myself rolling 1 and 2 as much as I roll 3-6 across years of experience. It's not something that just SEEMS to be this way, as I stated previously, games where i need to roll low numbers, I do exceedingly well very consistently.

BrotherVord wrote:
I flat out refuse to believe that dice rolling is 100% random and left to chance. I so consistently roll poorly that I find myself dominating games of Axis and Allies (where low rolls are better) and barely squeaking by in games of Risk and 40k. I chalk this up to having a very good mind for strategy and tactics, but poor luck rolling dice.

I believe that there is some other element to it. be it physics, luck, or something else. I see myself rolling 1 and 2 as much as I roll 3-6 across years of experience. It's not something that just SEEMS to be this way, as I stated previously, games where i need to roll low numbers, I do exceedingly well very consistently.

I believe you are suffering from confirmation-bias with a dose of Sharpshooters Fallacy.

I am pretty sure I have never griped about bad dice rolls. In fact, I like setting the attitude of the game by laughing in disbelief at a terrible dice roll with my opponent, both mine and his. This has always ended up with us laughing and joking at the end of the game over the good and bad dice rolls, even recounting them for friends at the shop.

 Tyr Grimtooth wrote:
I am pretty sure I have never griped about bad dice rolls. In fact, I like setting the attitude of the game by laughing in disbelief at a terrible dice roll with my opponent, both mine and his. This has always ended up with us laughing and joking at the end of the game over the good and bad dice rolls, even recounting them for friends at the shop.

This is pretty much the best attitude. Some of the most memorable moments are brought on by bad die rolls.

A recent one for me was my Hormagaunts charging my friends Chaplain on turn 6. He had 1 wound left, and I just wanted him dead. He overwatch fired his Plasma Pistol, overheated, and failed his Artificer Armour save.

We both agreed he saw what was coming and cremated his own head.

Laughing about that sort of thing is far healthier than stressing out over losing at a tabletop game.

I enjoy offering to trade dice with my opponents when they complain.

Dice are a fickle thing. My Ork shooting is usually fething awesome. My Boyz must have trained or something because 9 times out of 10, they hit near 50% accuracy or better. Problem is..... I cant wound to save me. So I will pepper the hell out of units, but wont kill a thing. Just laugh it off and keep playing. Its not like youre playing to save your family or something crazy

 Grey Templar wrote:
I chew out my dice all the time. Sometimes I make an example of one to shock the others into behaving.

This. Fear will keep the local dice in line...Fear of this battle station!

Dice like me sometimes, and dislike me other times. In one recent game with my Grey Knights, a terminator squad took and passed roughly 40 saves from shooting. I then charged into assault, and promptly rolled four 1s for my saves (against only 4 wounds!). Everything evens out in the end. Maybe it helps that I use precision casino dice, as I feel that my rolls are no longer as bad as they used to be with normal dice.

I find that whether I complain or not about my bad dice rolls depends on my mood.

If I'm not in the right mood, I'll probably gripe a little, like saying, "Aw crap." I wouldn't pack up and quit over some bad dice rolls, though. If I get too many bad dice rolls, odds are pretty good that it'll improve my mood because it gets silly.

If I'm in a good mood, I tend to laugh at my own bad rolls - like when my opponent's Big Mek with SAG was in close proximity to the remainder of my Grey Knights force on that side of the field, including 5 Terminators, a Brother-Captain, and a handful of Strikes. So the Big Mek shot at them, landed a very nice hit, and killed every one of them except the Brother-Captain (if she'd rolled one point higher for strength, it would've insta-gibbed him as he failed his save too) and the Strike Justicar. I know it's AP2, but they were in 4+ cover. I found it to be hysterical.

And when my opponent rolls well, I say something like, "Nice roll!" or, "Ooh, nice, lotsa saves/hits/wounds."

Edit: And although I find it humorous, I never really understood punishing dice for poor performance, especially not as an example to the others. I don't really feel like my dice are capable of seeing, hearing, smelling, or otherwise sensing the pain that other dice don't feel because they don't have nerves or even a brain... they're just little rounded cubes of plastic. The worst I do to a die that performs badly is put it back in the dice bin - technically it's a sandwich container, but whatever - and pull out another one for my next roll.

I've had guardsmen punch daemon princes and terminators to death. I don't expect bad dice rolls, my army just lives by them.

The only time i raged fully... Is when i rolled 18 1's out of 24 rolls at BS 5....