Thracians vs Gauls

[Keraunos]

The last battle I fought was back in August before setting off on my travels.  The action involved a Thracian army with lots of peltasts facing a Gallic invasion, the Gauls having an advantage in numbers of men in their war bands.  The battle was set up to test out revisions to the effect of missile fire in my ARES rules.  The Gauls did have a fair array of missile armed troops but the expectation was that the war bands would be a massive target of opportunity for the Thracian peltasts.  For an account of how things panned out on the vasty fields of Thrace, see here.

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.   

You cannot view this attachment.

[Chilliarch]

I read the 6 '1's in a row and winced. A good battle report - thanks!

[dwkay57]

Yes - a stressful battle! I've yet to test my Thracians against my British Celts, but your battle might provide the motivation to do so.

Are you planning to do anything to moderate the rolling of lots of 1s?

[Keraunos]

The probability of rolling 6 ones in a row is already astonishingly low.  I suppose one could change from a d6 to a d8 or d10, to reduce the probability even more but is it necessary?  How often is this likely to happen?

[Ian61]

The probability of rolling 6 ones in a row is already astonishingly low.  I suppose one could change from a d6 to a d8 or d10, to reduce the probability even more but is it necessary?  How often is this likely to happen?

Not for me, I find a million to one chances happening all the time! - string of 1's - no problem, all I need to say is the magic words - 'Anything other than a one'.

[Imperial Dave]

average dice are your friend in these circumstances....

[Keraunos]

But average dice mean that you don't get exceptionally good or bad results when these do crop up from time to time in real life.  I thought that by having to roll twice, once for passing or failing a test, then again for the effect, there was a reasonable safeguard against a succession of exceptional failures (or successes).  I had reckoned without some people's proclivity to attract bad dice rolls like wasps to rotten pears!

[Imperial Dave]

like I do....

[Jon Freitag]

average dice are your friend in these circumstances....

Avg Dice (DAv) would certainly prevent rolling a string of 1s or any at all!

Dave, I would enjoy seeing your paper on the pros and cons of using DAv vs D6.

[Imperial Dave]

I may pen something in the near future Jon....although I am nowhere near as nerdy as Nick on the subject of dice 

[Jon Freitag]

I may pen something in the near future Jon....although I am nowhere near as nerdy as Nick on the subject of dice 

Let your readers be the judge of that!

[Keraunos]

Nerdy or not nerdy?  Surely a question that might be resolved with a roll of the dice, but should those dice be average or standard, that is the question?

[Imperial Dave]

I have to get 348 done and dusted this week but may return to dice musings in the coming weeks

[dwkay57]

I use D6 average dice for regulars and D6 ordinary for irregulars and barbarians, but they are usually rolled in a combination with other dice so the extreme values sometimes get mitigated by the other rolls.

One simple "moderating" technique may be to roll three D6 and then choose either the highest, middle, or lowest depending upon a characteristic of the general. Still doesn't help much if you roll three 1s but.....