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Hey everyone,
After reading a post bashing "mathhammer" in favor of "experience" and being inspired by the Bud Light "it's only weird if it doesn't work" commercials, I'm curious to know what everyone does to ensure their victory...and what will guarantee a certain defeat.

Mine is dice picking, when I pick up dice from the pile to roll to hit I pick ones that have a 6 facing up.
I also make sure that my models are all facing the enemy, otherwise they'll get shot in the back and more of them will die.
I make sure when I assemble my models they all have helmets, it's the grim darkness of the far future and headshots happen. There's also poison gas.



Disclaimer: This is meant to be a humorous post, and not intended to be taken seriously. It's just for fun, and in the Tactics forum because well, it sort of becomes strategy for people, in a weird way (and maybe it'll lighten the forum up a bit).

I use units with favorable mathematical odds to accomplish the job at hand.

Call me old fashioned.

The better they look the harder they fight. In all reality i have a strange belief that the more I care about my models the better their luck will be, so I try to make, paint, carry and store them with as much love and care as humanly possible. I feel it works, oh and i have 5 orange "lucky" dice that I only roll when the situation is dire... because i don't want to use up their luck of course.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The better they look the harder they fight. In all reality i have a strange belief that the more I care about my models the better their luck will be, so I try to make, paint, carry and store them with as much love and care as humanly possible. I feel it works, oh and i have 5 orange "lucky" dice that I only roll when the situation is dire... because i don't want to use up their luck of course.

Screaming "blood for the blood god!!!" before rolling the dice for khorne units hitting in melee.

Then "SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE" when wounding

multiple things go into what I believe help me I paint my models and make them look nice, give them a loving home in foam cases and send in wave after wave after wave of them.....oh most will die but victory will be glorious and certain they cant say no to 150 Guardsmen 2 vendettas 3 LRBTs and 3 Basilisks......and the most important piece of them all....Yarrick!!!! the same yarrick that cost me 30$ to get painted he better do his F**King job and not die, he better!

Yeah, my superstition is over having the nicest painted models on the board. If someone shoots up one of my squads, I will pick the worst looking models to remove first, regardless of the rules. I will swap models in and out during a game to make the units all pretty.

 techsoldaten wrote:
Yeah, my superstition is over having the nicest painted models on the board. If someone shoots up one of my squads, I will pick the worst looking models to remove first, regardless of the rules. I will swap models in and out during a game to make the units all pretty.

I do this from time to time. Latest army is still majority primer though and plays like it ...

I paint blood on all my Ork weapons and armour. I know a bunch of them end of biting it anyway, but I like to think they'd been in many battles before and therefore are ready to fight.
That and rolling a hundred dice per turn helps.

I build a well rounded list that I test the crap out of.

I also like to play as 'the gentleman duelist', trying to always remain classy... I don't know if it helps my game, but it certainly helps me feel better.

 TheCaptain wrote:
I use units with favorable mathematical odds to accomplish the job at hand.

Call me old fashioned.

This.

Superstitions are for people who don't understand statistics.

 Commissar41.0 wrote:
multiple things go into what I believe help me I paint my models and make them look nice, give them a loving home in foam cases and send in wave after wave after wave of them.....oh most will die but victory will be glorious and certain they cant say no to 150 Guardsmen 2 vendettas 3 LRBTs and 3 Basilisks......and the most important piece of them all....Yarrick!!!! the same yarrick that cost me 30$ to get painted he better do his F**King job and not die, he better!

This. Having a nicely painted army with a few personal conversions is a real moral boost for myself. Watching my guys go out into the field looking like a legit force as they die in the name of the Imperium or the gods of chaos gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. That and yelling, "FOR CHAOS!" as I roll scatter on my deep striking daemons, even when things go terribly wrong as the chaos gods forsake me.

I've never been superstitious, and i've never been of the opinion that the dice gods favour the better painted or converted army.
That said, i do think a certain amount of style is important. I like to wear a shirt and tie and an awesome suit to games, i like to flick my wrist when i roll my dice.
In terms of ensuring my win, having a rough idea of how much firepower you need to achieve something, and then doubling it is always a sure fire way to ensure that even if the dice are against you, the job gets done

I think a lot of people misunderstand what math hammer calculations really mean and so become skeptical when it doesn't ensure success in any one game.

That said I have taken to building a 'bad' dice dog house when things go really poorly. Though more as an attempt to inject humor in a bad situation than a sincere belief it will help.

I find CONFIDENCE to be the main factor, and confidence in your abilities as well as your army... If you think your losing, or your opponent has done more in the game, you get flustered and rush things, you tend to roll 1's when you need 6's to hit and 6's when your men flee...

I find the key is not Exp. or Mathhammer, but a good calm persona, a calm player will be more fun to play against, and convince your opponent that your not phased even if he intends to demoralise you by attempting kick your ass...

I also find making your moves in their turn means your less likely to be sprung by surprises and also makes you talk less to your opponent about things you have done or intend to do...

Superstitious? Not really, if I'm playing a friendly game at home then I make sure that I have 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son' on my playlist, but apart from that, nowt.

Aside from that though I do try and make sure that any army list I write up has been thought out and tested, at the very least in my head using simple math's. Oh, and spamming....

major_payne wrote:
I find CONFIDENCE to be the main factor, and confidence in your abilities as well as your army... If you think your losing, or your opponent has done more in the game, you get flustered and rush things, you tend to roll 1's when you need 6's to hit and 6's when your men flee...

I find the key is not Exp. or Mathhammer, but a good calm persona, a calm player will be more fun to play against, and convince your opponent that your not phased even if he intends to demoralise you by attempting kick your ass...

I also find making your moves in their turn means your less likely to be sprung by surprises and also makes you talk less to your opponent about things you have done or intend to do...

Confidence has nothing to do with sending a unit against something it has a low chance to hurt. Or taking a save you are very likely to succeed on.

That's what probability is for.

Probability is the only factual factor you can rely on to a degree. Everything else is imagination.

But confidence has to do with other things. I've had opponents get so worked up over one unit smashing face or a situation that is currently not in their favor that they simply forget to shoot an entire unit, move a unit, or even roll for a forgotten unit in reserves. This can change the game drastically. I can't explain it any other way either. Some people are cool under pressure, some are not.

 WhiteWolf01 wrote:
But confidence has to do with other things. I've had opponents get so worked up over one unit smashing face or a situation that is currently not in their favor that they simply forget to shoot an entire unit, move a unit, or even roll for a forgotten unit in reserves. This can change the game drastically.

But the OP asks about defying odds.

This isn't defying odds. This (confidence) is making sure you are not worsening your odds.

Interesting, I find that by understanding the probability behind things it's easier to swallow the wild swings of luck with a smile on your face.

I've found that the more I play my armies "in character" which is to say approach the battle the way I would see my warlord approaching it, the more I find the crucial dice rolls going my way.

For example: I will almost always start Duke Sliscus now in a squad of warriors on a Bastion or building if possible and have Sliscus jump from the squad into the Raider Transport below after taking the impact test. Since I started performing such unnecessary but flashy maneuvers (moving raiders and ravengers on difficult terrain for no reason other than for a slightly better look at the target) with my DE I haven't lost a battle or failed any crucial assaults (rolling a 1 and a 2 and then re-rolling the 2 to get a 1 and then the first 1 only to get a 2 [when your opponent is only 5 F*&#$ING inches away!] making a mockery of fleet and assault in 6th hasn't happened to me again since I started).

Conversely I held my Nids back for a turn instead of running at the opponent when I should have and the dice seemed to reflect my hesitation in me not making a single save the next shooting phase and almost getting completely wiped out in the ensuing game, but when I charge them forward with reckless abandon they make more 5+ cover and feel no pains than when I try to hold them back with a 2+ cover from invisibility and force my opponent a little closer with their weapons before unleashing.

I haven't gone so far as to set up a shrine to the Dice Gods in my house yet, but I will dramatically offer up a short prayer to them when I want something and openly mock those who doubt their existence; just like a true religion.

If I have "bad" dice I will put them in a separate container; at the end of each month I take that container of "bad" dice and put them in the freezer.

While the “bad” dice are freezing I line up all of my other “good” dice in square formations and bring a brick and place it in the center of all the other “good” dice formations.

Hours later after the "bad" dice have been frozen and the "good" dice are lined up in square formations all around this brick.

I take each and every frozen "bad" dice and smash it in front of the “good” dice to show them what not to do, and the penalties for failure.

My kroot seem to be near-invincible to whatever wounds them on a 2+, even if there is no cover saves.

A S5 flamer on 10 kroot? 6 survive somehow.

My dice are imbued with the power of Tzeentch.

Last game I played against a CSM player, his Daemon Prince got into combat with some flamers and my Blue Scribes, the combat took a few turns with the Blue Scribes trying to turn the Prince into a spawn several times.

The Prince finally kills off the Blue Scribes having taken no damage in return only to roll on the boon table and find himself turned into a spawn.



My dice rolls arent always great but Tzeentch does work in mysterious ways.

I find waving my hands over my dice and having blue coloured dice will often influence the dice roll in my favour.

Try to keep in character of your army.

Give your opponent the benefit of the doubt, and don't argue the little stiff. This helps both from a sportsman and kharmic POV.

Bad paint and proxies die first.

Play to have fun, and enjoy yourself. This is a game after all. Not to sound cliche, but when everyone is having fun, we all "win" even when getting tabled.

Charm and confidence. Does wonders.

 TheCaptain wrote:
I use units with favorable mathematical odds to accomplish the job at hand.

Call me old fashioned.

This, always this. But if a die happens to roll against the statistics, it's time to roll another die I tell you!

g0atsticks wrote:
If I have "bad" dice I will put them in a separate container; at the end of each month I take that container of "bad" dice and put them in the freezer.

While the “bad” dice are freezing I line up all of my other “good” dice in square formations and bring a brick and place it in the center of all the other “good” dice formations.

Hours later after the "bad" dice have been frozen and the "good" dice are lined up in square formations all around this brick.

I take each and every frozen "bad" dice and smash it in front of the “good” dice to show them what not to do, and the penalties for failure.

This is awesome.

 BoomWolf wrote:
My kroot seem to be near-invincible to whatever wounds them on a 2+, even if there is no cover saves.

A S5 flamer on 10 kroot? 6 survive somehow.

I've seen something like this too, my terminators die like flies to bolter fire...but shoot plasma cannons at them and I'll pass so many 5+ invuls it's not even funny. I think they get overconfident.

 greyknight12 wrote:

 BoomWolf wrote:
My kroot seem to be near-invincible to whatever wounds them on a 2+, even if there is no cover saves.

A S5 flamer on 10 kroot? 6 survive somehow.

I've seen something like this too, my terminators die like flies to bolter fire...but shoot plasma cannons at them and I'll pass so many 5+ invuls it's not even funny. I think they get overconfident.

Obviously you should model a little bottle of Coppertone on their base for them to use when the flamers come out.

I knew a Slaneesh player who rolled nothing but 5's and 6's, his dice were clear purple and for ages people thought his dice were rigged, then I noticed that when he rolls the dice he does so with vigor and enthusiasm... He has recently lost this ability as he hasn't played for ages and his confidence is low...

Confidence may not be all of it, but a fear of collapse does help, in one game I had recently, I was losing to a State Champ with a well dug in Tau force against my nids, all looked grim as I was facing so many railguns and plasma rifles, then as soon as I mention I have the Doom, and my confidence arises he lands right in the middle of his fire warriors and Battlesuits, my opponent gaks himself, and in the shooting phase he rolls 18 for Ld for his HQ killing his Shav're Battlesuit with 5 Bodyguard, then 13 for his Troops killing 5 Firewarriors (Making the unit flee), then procedes to wipe out 15 shield drones from 3 Railgun/suit squads from equally bad Ld rolls... The normally brilliant Tau general freaks out and rushes into his next turn, firing 11 Railgun shots at the Doom, kills him on the last shot, then loses the game as the rest of my horde overwhelms him in the next turn... He could have easily turned the game around but as he lost confidence in his army, he rolled like he had lost the game before it had happened...

It doesn't matter how well you bash the dice, or calculate your units, it all depends on how you are on the field, things like terrain, hangovers, and surrounding distractions alter the game for even the most battle hardened vets...