Personally, I prefer to play games were the initial dice rolls are not too silly, especially if its a face to face game. A few days ago a buddy came over to play, he being a hard working family man gets about 1 night every other month to play so we both want to to be a ‘good’ game, not so much dictated by that one huge stupid mistake or dice roll.
He had beat me a few months ago, I returned the favour the other day so we started game #2 of the night, Spring '42.
His R1 was typical although he goes a bit light into Ukraine with only 2 russian tanks, both fighters, 3 Inf+Art
So:
2 Tanks, 2 Ftr, 1 Art, 3 Inf Versus 3 Inf, Art, Tank, Ftr
86% chance of winning and most likely a tank left over, odds are not too bad but I always suggest 3 tanks and one less in West Russia.
He should have done 3 hits on round 1 but only does 2, not a disaster…until I roll. I take him for 5 out of 6. We both see that his remaining 2 Ftr+Tank versus Inf, Art, Tank, Ftr is not a good choice. Being R1 is was just so easy to just start over and reroll we did and ended up with a great game that lasted nearly 7 hours until about 5 am. We probably should have at least rolled the WRu battle and continued with that one ‘just to see’.
I suppose a ‘complete’ player would always play it out, but, we have few chances to play so we prefer a more typical game to test variations on strategies. I am playing the axis using ‘Fortress Europe’ that is outlined here and he can’t seem to beat it despite me not using the Jap airforce in Europe as well or to the extent I can and should according to the write up.
I guess I am asking what other players’ feelings are on similar stupid initial rolls like that on medium sized battles in the first round or two. OK, the brit destroyer sinks the german BB in SZ15 on G1, suck it up, at least my BB hit and I could still invade Egy!
I’ve generally always played out the game as the dice is part of the game. But under your conditions (limited game opportunities, checking out strategies, and the game itself takes a lot of time) , I don’t blame you for starting over…
It also depends quite a bit on who you are playing with whether or not to start over.
I am asking what other players’ feelings are on similar stupid initial rolls
Play on. Dice is what makes it interesting.
'course let’s say Russia tripled successfully vs Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and West Russia, and Germany hit the UK battleship with sub/fighter/bomber and totally failed, tried to hit the UK cruiser with 2 fighters and totally failed, and say Germany tried Anglo-Egypt with 2 inf/art/tank/fighter and lost all ground leaving the UK fighter alive. Then let’s say UK took Borneo and New Guinea with 2 infantry surviving at each, killed the Kwangtung transport, killed the German Meditteranean fleet with no air losses, and whacked the German Baltic fleet with no losses.
At that point, it IS over.
But failing UKR with 2 tanks 2 fighters (plus sundry)? I sure wouldn’t quit at that point, especially not before seeing how West Russia went, and considering I could retreat that tank. 2 tanks 2 fighters is a bit of a greedy attack, if you want to take the chance, you should be willing to pay the blood price in case of failure.
You could house rule low luck or allow attackers to reroll 1 dice on the first go around.
FTF, extreme rolls are usually rerolled, depending on how friendly the game is. I don’t like winning a game when I had nothing to do with it.
Online, I usually throw up all over my keyboard.
After that, I clean it up and then see how I feel.
