Actually, I don't even really want the dodge itself to change.

I still like the idea of dice decks. This doesn't rule out the dodge, but the possibility to roll 6 dodges in a row.

I've seen the BloodBowl reference above. One thing I like about BloodBowl are the Team Rerolls. If something goes extremely wrong, you can use one of these. In the first editions of BloodBowl, you could use a Team Reroll on ANY dice roll. I would love a mechanism like this in Imperial Assault.

How do dice decks work? Does each figure / deployment card have its own deck?

A dice deck is a deck of 6 cards (if you're using a D6), each card has a picture or equivalent of what is on each side of the die. There is 1 dice deck for each die, not for each figure or player (at least that's not how I've seen it done). The idea is that you are guaranteed to get each side of the die once before the system resets, creating a perfect distribution. When you draw the last card in the deck, you re-shuffle it and start again. This is really useful for testing as you can create a sense of the "larger picture" without having to roll a die a hundred or a thousand times to get a good average. And you don't have to play test a mission as many times because the randomness of the die is mitigated and the other factors of mission balance can be focused on.

There are several reasons that dice decks aren't used in production,. The biggest, in my opinion, is that it's too easy to count cards. You can mitigate this some by having 2 decks (12 cards for each D6), or by shuffling the deck sooner (eg. where there are 2 cards left, or when half the cards have been used). But I prefer the randomness of the dice in a game like this over a perfect distribution system.

According to an interview, the designers use 12 card decks.

Actually, I don't even really want the dodge itself to change.

I still like the idea of dice decks. This doesn't rule out the dodge, but the possibility to roll 6 dodges in a row.

I've seen the BloodBowl reference above. One thing I like about BloodBowl are the Team Rerolls. If something goes extremely wrong, you can use one of these. In the first editions of BloodBowl, you could use a Team Reroll on ANY dice roll. I would love a mechanism like this in Imperial Assault.

How do dice decks work? Does each figure / deployment card have its own deck?

A dice deck is a deck of 6 cards (if you're using a D6), each card has a picture or equivalent of what is on each side of the die. There is 1 dice deck for each die, not for each figure or player (at least that's not how I've seen it done). The idea is that you are guaranteed to get each side of the die once before the system resets, creating a perfect distribution. When you draw the last card in the deck, you re-shuffle it and start again. This is really useful for testing as you can create a sense of the "larger picture" without having to roll a die a hundred or a thousand times to get a good average. And you don't have to play test a mission as many times because the randomness of the die is mitigated and the other factors of mission balance can be focused on.

There are several reasons that dice decks aren't used in production,. The biggest, in my opinion, is that it's too easy to count cards. You can mitigate this some by having 2 decks (12 cards for each D6), or by shuffling the deck sooner (eg. where there are 2 cards left, or when half the cards have been used). But I prefer the randomness of the dice in a game like this over a perfect distribution system.

I must admit i don't see the benefit (beyond even distribution) Any tester will start making decisions based on card he know he's seen.

If I've seen both dodge cards early I'll choose to attack a white dice character over a black dice if the points/strategic benefits of either are about the same...

Counting cards isn't too hard, you basically only have to remember about four or five that have already gone to give you a decent idea of what might be left... or just the biggest swingers (3 block, dodge, blank and single evade)

Randomness in the dice is part of the game, and the dodge is a statistic possibility players have to get over...

There are mitigating factors, as mentioned, just like there are mitigating factors for the 3 block black dice (pierce to varying degrees)

But it doesn't ruin the game, only a persons attitude towards losing/winning will do that

There are very few missions where defeating Imperial Officers is the mission objective. Even those that require that do not decide the campaign.

Which is not what I said. So, strawman. However, sticking 2 officers in front of a door, or beside an objective like a terminal or prisoner that requires removing them comes up very frequently. And guess which expansion has a mission that requires you to... open blockable doors, not have imperials besides prisoners AND kill a white defense figure, all in one mission... Hurray, Bespin!

And as aermet points out, due to this lower health, you don't necessarily need to focus all of your heavy firepower on the white die characters. Maybe it's not a bad idea to use that AT-ST to attack Biv, and hit Loku with your two stormtrooper squads. If you can't deal some damage on both of them at that point, you're just seeing some apocalyptic bad luck. All this calls for is a little strategy- you don't even need to rely on HKs or ISB.

A dice deck is a deck of 6 cards (if you're using a D6), each card has a picture or equivalent of what is on each side of the die. There is 1 dice deck for each die, not for each figure or player (at least that's not how I've seen it done). The idea is that you are guaranteed to get each side of the die once before the system resets, creating a perfect distribution. When you draw the last card in the deck, you re-shuffle it and start again. This is really useful for testing as you can create a sense of the "larger picture" without having to roll a die a hundred or a thousand times to get a good average. And you don't have to play test a mission as many times because the randomness of the die is mitigated and the other factors of mission balance can be focused on.

There are several reasons that dice decks aren't used in production,. The biggest, in my opinion, is that it's too easy to count cards. You can mitigate this some by having 2 decks (12 cards for each D6), or by shuffling the deck sooner (eg. where there are 2 cards left, or when half the cards have been used). But I prefer the randomness of the dice in a game like this over a perfect distribution system.

That's kind of what I assumed. I don't know how that would work our in the field, as so many abilities are predicated on a dice roll and not a deck. Cower becomes useless once the dodge comes up and you know it won't be seen again until the next shuffle.

Only time I really hate the X is when there's a rerollable white dice (like Diala or officers) or something like R2-D2 coz he gets a 1/3 dodge.

I'd be happy with a few more X removing mechanics. Like Lock On but for something other than heavy weapons. I'm happy with how Deadly has come into the game.

As for dice decks. I think that's a terrible idea. It removes the randomness when you can predict your next roll. It completely changes how the game is/would be played.

If it was designed like that, perhaps, but not with the game in it's current form.

It's a dice game, it will always be random. No matter what game you play there's always a chance you can get screwed by rolling three blanks in a row or three 1s or whatever.

If you don't want a game with randomness, go play chess.

Dice decks are also completely silly for games that have multiple types of dice (like this one) or ones that roll lots of dice like Warhammer.

I don't think luck/randomness has as much of an impact on this game like it does in others. There's enough strategy and positioning to offset luck, and there's enough dice being rolled that a few zero results don't matter that much. I find X-wing much worse in this regard. If you're flying some 2 red dice ships you might to well against some lists, you're pretty much screwed against a bunch of 3 green dice ships no matter how well you play.

When I was judging IA at worlds, the designers told me that Jabba's Realm will not be kind to white dice. Or something to that effect.

When I was judging IA at worlds, the designers told me that Jabba's Realm will not be kind to white dice. Or something to that effect.

Great. So in addition to badly priced characters, now we'll have the game alienate a bunch more because playing many white dice characters will not be viable.

When I was judging IA at worlds, the designers told me that Jabba's Realm will not be kind to white dice. Or something to that effect.

Great. So in addition to badly priced characters, now we'll have the game alienate a bunch more because playing many white dice characters will not be viable.

LOLOL

When I was judging IA at worlds, the designers told me that Jabba's Realm will not be kind to white dice. Or something to that effect.

Great. So in addition to badly priced characters, now we'll have the game alienate a bunch more because playing many white dice characters will not be viable.

LOLOL

Dice decks are also completely silly for games that have multiple types of dice (like this one) or ones that roll lots of dice like Warhammer.

I played a lot of Warhammer Fantasy from 5th-8th edition and how dice in that game works isn't comparable to IA at all. The Dodge result on the white die makes the throws swingy, 50 attacks from a unit of Witch Elves with re-rolls to hit and wound often ended up exactly where they were supposed to be. Granted, you could make a case for cannons with d6 wounds shooting at dragons with 6+ ward saves being incredibly swingy, but then again, people actually complained about this a lot.

Dice decks are also completely silly for games that have multiple types of dice (like this one) or ones that roll lots of dice like Warhammer.

I played a lot of Warhammer Fantasy from 5th-8th edition and how dice in that game works isn't comparable to IA at all. The Dodge result on the white die makes the throws swingy, 50 attacks from a unit of Witch Elves with re-rolls to hit and wound often ended up exactly where they were supposed to be. Granted, you could make a case for cannons with d6 wounds shooting at dragons with 6+ ward saves being incredibly swingy, but then again, people actually complained about this a lot.

That's true for unit attacks, but there's still lots of stuff that came down to single dice rolls or 2D6. Leadership tests for example and magic. I've played games where 500pts of chaos warriors and a lord failed a break test on Ld 10 on the first turn and ran off the table. I've seen a Great Unclean One miscast and die on turn 1.

Stuff like that happens no matter what. It's part of a dice game.

You either have randomness or you don't .... mitigating it with rerolls or whatever just changes the statistics a bit, it doesn't change the randomness. It's all about perception.

You can still roll two dodges in a row if forced to reroll.

If there's even the tiniest possibility that something will go horribly wrong.... it will at some point. That's just part of the game.

In any case, that's my point. If you roll lots of dice (like 50 witch elves) you simply don't need dice decks because your sample size is big enough.

When I was judging IA at worlds, the designers told me that Jabba's Realm will not be kind to white dice. Or something to that effect.

Can you elaborate on that Rogue? Is that more in the campaign? Because I don't recall seeing anything in the new skirmish stuff that is more detrimental to white dice than black dice (at least from the stuff that's already been spoiled). I guess the Wequay rerolls but that's similar to HKs already.

And really, most of the Dodge complaints are related to competitive play.

Campaign is all about the thematic, cinematic, roleplaying experience. Who cares if a Jedi dodges an attack a few times? That's part of the fun of playing with and against Jedi.

At least Weequay Pirates, Vinto's skills for removing defense results and his unmitigated damage, Onar's Mutual Destruction.

Dice decks are also completely silly for games that have multiple types of dice (like this one) or ones that roll lots of dice like Warhammer.

I played a lot of Warhammer Fantasy from 5th-8th edition and how dice in that game works isn't comparable to IA at all. The Dodge result on the white die makes the throws swingy, 50 attacks from a unit of Witch Elves with re-rolls to hit and wound often ended up exactly where they were supposed to be. Granted, you could make a case for cannons with d6 wounds shooting at dragons with 6+ ward saves being incredibly swingy, but then again, people actually complained about this a lot.

That's true for unit attacks, but there's still lots of stuff that came down to single dice rolls or 2D6. Leadership tests for example and magic. I've played games where 500pts of chaos warriors and a lord failed a break test on Ld 10 on the first turn and ran off the table. I've seen a Great Unclean One miscast and die on turn 1.

Stuff like that happens no matter what. It's part of a dice game.

You either have randomness or you don't .... mitigating it with rerolls or whatever just changes the statistics a bit, it doesn't change the randomness. It's all about perception.

You can still roll two dodges in a row if forced to reroll.

If there's even the tiniest possibility that something will go horribly wrong.... it will at some point. That's just part of the game.

In any case, that's my point. If you roll lots of dice (like 50 witch elves) you simply don't need dice decks because your sample size is big enough.

You don't have that sample size in IA. Sure, it is irritating when your ld10 unit fails their test, but with a BSB you have a 1/144 chance of that happening. The Dodge result happens fairly often.

That's true for unit attacks, but there's still lots of stuff that came down to single dice rolls or 2D6. Leadership tests for example and magic. I've played games where 500pts of chaos warriors and a lord failed a break test on Ld 10 on the first turn and ran off the table. I've seen a Great Unclean One miscast and die on turn 1.

Stuff like that happens no matter what. It's part of a dice game.

You either have randomness or you don't .... mitigating it with rerolls or whatever just changes the statistics a bit, it doesn't change the randomness. It's all about perception.

You can still roll two dodges in a row if forced to reroll.

If there's even the tiniest possibility that something will go horribly wrong.... it will at some point. That's just part of the game.

In any case, that's my point. If you roll lots of dice (like 50 witch elves) you simply don't need dice decks because your sample size is big enough.

Warhammer Fantasy/40k are just there to sell miniatures, they're not serious games. The example you give is one of the main reasons why they're so popular with kids but adults tend to migrate the hell away from them. Games decided by a couple leadership rolls before you even get to play the game are just ridiculous.

If you really want to homebrew it out, Jonathan Ying (IA Designer) suggested just using the X result to remove one attack die of the defender's choice.

I'm not looking to fudge this in my own games, but that is actually a very interesting twist.

It would have much larger impact on ranged attacks than it would on melee, as it wouldn't just remove damage and surge symbols, but also take out the rolle Accuracy. I would hazard that if you, as the defender, get to remove a die of your choice, you would be able to make a majority number of ranged attacks fail.

Consequently the white die would suddenly be a stronger defence against certain attacks over others and it would benefit those figures that tend to stay at a distance the most. A melee character with a white die would have a weaker defence, as it needs to charge the enemy, than a ranged or support character who's natural habitat is further from the enemy.

You might like the flavour of this and your might accept how it mutates the strength of the white die and that is fine - but it is also an example of how it is difficult to house rule something without shifting a balance elswhere.

It would have much larger impact on ranged attacks than it would on melee, as it wouldn't just remove damage and surge symbols, but also take out the rolle Accuracy. I would hazard that if you, as the defender, get to remove a die of your choice, you would be able to make a majority number of ranged attacks fail.

Consequently the white die would suddenly be a stronger defence against certain attacks over others and it would benefit those figures that tend to stay at a distance the most. A melee character with a white die would have a weaker defence, as it needs to charge the enemy, than a ranged or support character who's natural habitat is further from the enemy.

You might like the flavour of this and your might accept how it mutates the strength of the white die and that is fine - but it is also an example of how it is difficult to house rule something without shifting a balance elswhere.

That is pretty interesting. I like the flavor a lot, actually. Ranged attacks might entirely fail (because of the character's successful "dodge") while at least melee attacks would be weaker- just grazed the tip.

But I agree about homeruling- in these types of games, I trust the developers over my own ability to balance a game.

I could actually deal with that as an alternate result compromise. It isn't a bad mechanic. It beats stacking up more and more characters that make the white dice irrelevant.

I've seen the BloodBowl reference above. One thing I like about BloodBowl are the Team Rerolls. If something goes extremely wrong, you can use one of these. In the first editions of BloodBowl, you could use a Team Reroll on ANY dice roll. I would love a mechanism like this in Imperial Assault.

That was fast.

I've seen the BloodBowl reference above. One thing I like about BloodBowl are the Team Rerolls. If something goes extremely wrong, you can use one of these. In the first editions of BloodBowl, you could use a Team Reroll on ANY dice roll. I would love a mechanism like this in Imperial Assault.

That was fast.

Doesn't this increase the chance of a dodge?

That card is strictly worse than Hard to Hit if you're rerolling a defense die.

What this is amazing for is Grenadier/Trample type things.

Much more useful for Imperials I'm afraid. They have 2-3 Leaders stock in most lists. Mercs not so much, but I guess we get all the fancy Hunter cards, Rebels get Luke and the sniper troopers

That card is strictly worse than Hard to Hit if you're rerolling a defense die.

What this is amazing for is Grenadier/Trample type things.

Well that just went from "meh" to amazing. Being able to reroll grenades or probe explodes is a big deal. I didn't think of that originally....was just thinking attack/defend but obviously the lack of those words is intentional. Well spotted.