Welcome to our first “From the Archives” bonisode!
David, Ryan and Alex get heated talking dice in a competitive setting. In this short, relatively free-wheeling discussion we cover dice cheating, favorite dice, lucky dice, and dice standards for competition. We debate how much dice actually matter to outcomes, what’s at stake, and David breaks the podcast’s swear count record several times over.
Have strong feelings on for casino-standard dice? Wanna tell us, Charlton Heston-style, we can pry your Q Workshop faction dice from your cold, dead hands? Email us at dominatefortwo.podcast@gmail.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter.
I highly recommend watching this video from Lou Zocch from the game science website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXZbdZNuRIw&feature=youtu.be. It discusses this exact topic in detail. The guy presenting explains that injection mold dice are put through multiple rounds of abrasive tumbling. This rubs imperfections off the die (like the mold line where it was attached to a sprue) but it also wears down corners and faces unevenly. This causes dice to roll unevenly. The Game Science site uses a method of dice crafting that eliminates the tumble process. It in turn makes uglier looking dice, but dice that roll correctly. The only dice that are crafted with more precision than his are indeed casino dice. However, casino dice have many issues when in use with war gaming. If you watch the video, Lou Zocch explains that dice should not have rounded corners. They should have hard pointed corners that prevent lengthy rolls. Casino dice are the same way, however, casino dice are larger and heavier and are designed to be rolled on a padded surface (bounced off the far padded wall). This protects the hard corners from wear. Even with this protective surface the dice still require changing out often as the hard corners over time get worn and can affect the rolls of the dice. Also, most cheap casino dice are sold used. This means they were already worn down and have lost some of their precision if bought used. Lastly, because they are larger and heavier dice, they can be damaged easier when rolled on hard surfaces like a wargaming table. Also, can you imagine rolling 50+ attacks using huge casino dice? Ugh.
So in the end casino dice would be better than the junk dice out in circulation. However, the downsides make them impractical to use. Game science I found is a pretty good alternative if you want fair dice. They aren’t as asthetically pleasing but they are crafted with precision and are built out of strong material so they should be able to handle the rigors of a war gaming table.