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I have tokens for increments of 1 and 3 wounds, above 10 or so I will use a dice but most things are dead by then. What floors me is how many people count down, putting out counters for 11 every time their 12-wound model takes its first point of damage and so on. Adding up to significantly more effort to do the exact same thing.

bright red d10 for models with 10 or less wounds, and a few bright red d20 for bigger models.

Using different colors of non-d6 dice each for primary/secondary/CP/wounds has solve the "accidentally picked up a wound dice" issue for me and it's more clear to my opponent as well.

Solution is GW to start modelling stuff with a clear and obvious place to stick one or more wound dice.

for LotR I printed some markers that hold a few dice, pondering now playing 30k doing something similar, a small base, a small depression and walls so a dice can't get knocked or easily picked up, with space to note what model its for so can be next to it or just nearby

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I have tokens for increments of 1 and 3 wounds, above 10 or so I will use a dice but most things are dead by then. What floors me is how many people count down, putting out counters for 11 every time their 12-wound model takes its first point of damage and so on. Adding up to significantly more effort to do the exact same thing.

putting a D20 on "11" is as much work as putting a token for the damage taken
putting a D20 on "1" is much less work than putting tokens for 3-3-3-1-1

in both case, seeing "11" right on the table is much faster than seeing 1 token, asking you what the max HP of the unit is then doing the (very lightweight) calculations in my mind

I used to always just put dice next to models with the number of wounds taken. But I find that that gets much messier with the far larger numbers of wounds many models now have so I'm considering moving to cards or the like.

Rule 1 please.

I created purpose-built dice holders for tracking wounds. Basically some card + foam core cut out to house either 1, 2, or 3 dice (I need to make a 4 dice version soon). They sit either on or next to the model that has been damaged and count downwards.

I find that there is greater clarity when counting down and it speeds up the game overall.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I have tokens for increments of 1 and 3 wounds, above 10 or so I will use a dice but most things are dead by then. What floors me is how many people count down, putting out counters for 11 every time their 12-wound model takes its first point of damage and so on. Adding up to significantly more effort to do the exact same thing.

I hope this is satirical and I'm just missing the joke.

If not, you do realise that the vast majority of people use dice to track wounds instead of a bunch of individual counters? It's kind of hard to miss, since almost everyone in this thread has said that's what they do. So you have a single counter instead of multiples and it gives everyone the only information they need at a glance - how many wounds does something have left.

One of the glorious things about still playing 3rd is I don't have to keep track of that. Damage results are easy enough with my Official Games Workshop Vehicle Damage Dice!

I always track wounds remaining, usually with D12's or D20's, mainly for the people that don't know how many wounds the unit had originally.

I also track wounds remaining. Usually with 1 or 2 red d6. For Knights and other big stuff I use a MtG spin-down d20.

I use the "Big Gun" dice released with Apocalypse a couple years back to track CP.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I have tokens for increments of 1 and 3 wounds, above 10 or so I will use a dice but most things are dead by then. What floors me is how many people count down, putting out counters for 11 every time their 12-wound model takes its first point of damage and so on. Adding up to significantly more effort to do the exact same thing.

What? Is your argument against counting down based on the false premise that people are dumb enough to do so using what is possibly the worst means of wound-tracking out there? Dial or die, individual markers per wound are all around the worst way you can track this, whether you count up or down.

Well, it seems GW is trying to simplify the gameplay but does not check how it works on actual table.

1. Get some silly putty.
2. Trade a pack of cards or something to a MtG player who has a couple spindown d20s.
3. Stick the dice onto the silly putty on the base of your multiwound model.
4. play your game.

Last time I used paper and filled list of all my vehicles like a bookkeeper
I have four d10/d20 dices but that not nearly enough

I generally count up the number of wounds taken with a d6/d10. For units of 2W models (like marines) I just put a glass bead next to the wounded one.

 Nevelon wrote:
I generally count up the number of wounds taken with a d6/d10. For units of 2W models (like marines) I just put a glass bead next to the wounded one.

I didn't think of that - that's an awesome idea!

We always count down.
Large print dice with numbers rather than pups, or just regular numbers makes it clear they're not the dice we roll.

In the interest of clarity for my opponent I show wounds remaining, using those GW D10 wound dice to avoid confusing with a D6. I will sometimes use a D20 for tanks with more than 10 wounds.

This allow my opponent to know a time a glance how many wounds remain on a wounded model. I also declare “I show wounds remaining” the first time I place a wound dice next to a model.

If an opponent prefers to show wounds accrued (counting up?) on his models I will, of course, live with it and I will not seek to impose my preference on him.

What does not work is using the same D6s for wound counters as are used in the game for rolling. Recipe for disaster!

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
What floors me is how many people count down, putting out counters for 11 every time their 12-wound model takes its first point of damage and so on. Adding up to significantly more effort to do the exact same thing.

Use a die of appropriate number of sides and count down.

Same amount of physical effort as counting up, except you only need to remember / look up how many wounds a model starts with when it first takes damage, and the number on the die directly correlates to the wound bracket you should be using.

I was discussing this with a friend last night, he's very much into the competitive side of the game - he mentioned to me that the vast majority of tournaments he has attended would (informally) regard counting up as a form of cheating as it obfuscates models remaining wounds from their opponent and wastes time on their clock (when the events are timed, etc.). Apparently counting down is something that judges very actively enforce.

I use D12s. No chance of being accidentally scooped up along with my D6s, and less likely to be knocked over than a D20.

I always count down, since I don't expect my opponent (or myself, for that matter) to remember how many wounds a model started with. One less piece of mental load to worry about.

On a related note, I also have a set of D6s that I only use for keeping track of casualties a unit has taken that turn. Makes working out morale tests much easier.

 Cheex wrote:
I always count down, since I don't expect my opponent (or myself, for that matter) to remember how many wounds a model started with. One less piece of mental load to worry about.

I vaguely remember some controversy a couple of years ago where by, during a streamed event, someone was counting the wounds up, but "misremembered" how many wounds their model had. The end result was the model remained on the table far longer than it should have.

Counting down means you only need to check/remember once rather then every time the model takes wounds.

chaos0xomega wrote:
On that note, its worth mentioning wound-tracking etiquette: best practice is to count your wounds down to zero, i.e. if your model is full health at 8 wounds, and then suffers 2 damage, you would mark it at 6, rather than 2. If it suffers additional damage, mark it down to 5, etc. all the way until it reaches 0. The reason for this is that both players know that 0 = death, whereas if you are counting up to the wound threshold its less clear.

Nah, I always count up i.e. the dice is the number of wounds the model has suffered.

I used to count down because it is easier to just buy a die with the number of wounds next to the model, but I changed the habit as my opponent would do it the other way around. Counting down is also more intuitive about how much wounds remain and how it interacts with other rules.

40k wound brackets are based on wounds remaining, Hence counting down.

Tokens. Dice always kept getting taken away for rolls in the heat of the moment and D10/12/20 are not stable enoguh to trust them not to change facings on a wargaming table where everythings gets touched or knocked over all the time.

Vatsetis wrote:
I dont track it, thats my opponent business... My minis are always at full health unless a jury says otherwise.

Good. So when I say your land raider is 4 down to death since you have given tracking to me you have to go what I say

 VladimirHerzog wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I have tokens for increments of 1 and 3 wounds, above 10 or so I will use a dice but most things are dead by then. What floors me is how many people count down, putting out counters for 11 every time their 12-wound model takes its first point of damage and so on. Adding up to significantly more effort to do the exact same thing.

putting a D20 on "11" is as much work as putting a token for the damage taken
putting a D20 on "1" is much less work than putting tokens for 3-3-3-1-1

in both case, seeing "11" right on the table is much faster than seeing 1 token, asking you what the max HP of the unit is then doing the (very lightweight) calculations in my mind

Already said for 10+ I'm using dice like anyone else. The difference is busting out an easily-knocked-over d20 every time a model takes 1 wound adds up to far more effort. If knowing the wounds remaining on a model is so important then all of these people would be putting it next to their full-health models, but they don't. Even with the way damage brackets are in 40k it is easier to count up from a perspective of my opponent not knowing the exact numbers; a person knows a model with 1-5 damage is never going to be bracketed, but a model with 7-15 wounds left is far more ambiguous. I want it to be clear to both me and my opponent how heavily damaged something is and wounds remaining does not give me that information unless I know the total. Additionally dice can easily be knocked about or tipped to an incorrect value whereas colored beads for 1/3 wounds do not have that issue so it is more transparent and largely impossible for me to screw up the wounds count on a model.


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 Skinnereal wrote:

ccs wrote:
...I've been counting wounds up in minis games - 40k & others - for decades now.

AoS counts 'wounds taken', so your system works for that.
As long as both you and your opponent know what's happening, go at it.

Ultimately this, I have no problems with my opponent counting wounds down even if I do not understand it--I don't have to.

I don't understand how anyone can use d20's to keep track of wounds. Those want to roll so badly that just jarring the table will change the number.

That being said, I normally just use 1-2 d6's to keep track of wounds since my army doesn't have many models with more than 12 wounds. I do have the habit of keeping track of damage suffered rather than Wounds remaining.