Nuclear Daemon Launch Codes

[DWest]

6th Edition seems to be the edition of "roll a bunch of dice to start the game", and Chaos Daemons are one of the worst offenders in that regard, to the point that when I play my Daemons, I try to take CSM as my primary detachment just to minimize how much stuff I can bring that needs rolled. Last time I brought Daemons to a tourney at the FLGS though, the TO made a suggestion that I've been thinking about, and I want to see how it sounds to other players.

The idea is, make up a list of all the things I need to roll for in my army on a strip of paper, or at least all the Rewards and such, and then pre-roll them in front of the judge. The "nuclear launch codes" part comes into play by doing something like either leaving the filled-out strips with the TO and just getting one from him at the start of each game or making up 1 or 2 more strips than there are matches that day and picking one at random. The only sticking point I can see is doing psychic powers; completely pre-rolling powers might leave me in a really bad spot depending on what army I fight, but once I've seen what rolls I have, I could easily game the power system for a big advantage. Any thoughts?

[Aventine]

6th Edition seems to be the edition of "roll a bunch of dice to start the game", and Chaos Daemons are one of the worst offenders in that regard, to the point that when I play my Daemons, I try to take CSM as my primary detachment just to minimize how much stuff I can bring that needs rolled. Last time I brought Daemons to a tourney at the FLGS though, the TO made a suggestion that I've been thinking about, and I want to see how it sounds to other players.

The idea is, make up a list of all the things I need to roll for in my army on a strip of paper, or at least all the Rewards and such, and then pre-roll them in front of the judge. The "nuclear launch codes" part comes into play by doing something like either leaving the filled-out strips with the TO and just getting one from him at the start of each game or making up 1 or 2 more strips than there are matches that day and picking one at random. The only sticking point I can see is doing psychic powers; completely pre-rolling powers might leave me in a really bad spot depending on what army I fight, but once I've seen what rolls I have, I could easily game the power system for a big advantage. Any thoughts?

Your solution sounds more complicated and involves some effort (if minimal) on the art of the TO.
The fastest and best way I have seen Daemon players do it is by making up a sheet with all their characters with rolls, with each table with check boxes. They then laminate that and use it with a marker. That way you are just pointing at a table, rolling, marking, and moving on... no reading involved.

[DWest]

The fastest and best way I have seen Daemon players do it is by making up a sheet with all their characters with rolls, with each table with check boxes. They then laminate that and use it with a marker. That way you are just pointing at a table, rolling, marking, and moving on... no reading involved.

That's approximately what we were trying to figure out, just with a prerolled slug of numbers. I will have to keep this idea in mind for next time I play the Daemons, thanks

[daboarder]

I think the only way to make that fair DWest would be to do it for all psychic powers and other pre-game rolls as well. its also an inherent part of the balance in the daemon codex, you wouldn't want a guy to roll up the optimal combination and just crump all his opponents every game due to it not changing.

[DWest]

I think I might have failed to fully explain what I was trying to do, the plan was multiple sets of numbers, and pick one at random (or shuffle the actual strips and let the opponent pick one) so that it changes every game. Psychic powers might still be a little messy, although realistically, there's usually That One Power in each discipline you want.

[daboarder]

I think I might have failed to fully explain what I was trying to do, the plan was multiple sets of numbers, and pick one at random (or shuffle the actual strips and let the opponent pick one) so that it changes every game. Psychic powers might still be a little messy, although realistically, there's usually That One Power in each discipline you want.

Even with that method your significantly limiting the inherent variability of the army. Furthermore, how would you handle the primaris gifts? would you allow the player to decide based upon opponent which power to swap out? because then they would just "tailor" the list they pulled for the opponent, as opposed to the current system where they must choose after each single roll whether to swap out, meaning they may not have full knowledge of what the rest of the gifts they get will be.

Ultimatey the system would be probably more complicated to actually implement than the current one, as each new player would have to learn an entirely new way of playing the army just for that tournament.

[DWest]

This is why I brought the idea here, I'd rather hash it out as a theoretical before inflicting it upon any actual other players.

I wonder if it would be possible to color-code rewards and whatnot to specific dice, so I can chuck a bunch at once?

[Mr Mystery]

Just accept the table as is.

40k isn't a game designed for competition. It's a narrative game.

If you need to roll that many dice in a game, roll that many dice in a game.

[SotonShades]

I think I might have failed to fully explain what I was trying to do, the plan was multiple sets of numbers, and pick one at random (or shuffle the actual strips and let the opponent pick one) so that it changes every game. Psychic powers might still be a little messy, although realistically, there's usually That One Power in each discipline you want.

So you want to go from rolling the dice and reading those numbers, to just having a list of numbers? I'm not sure I see how much time this saves. If you know your numbers and than pick the order in which you chose to 'roll' for things, you then essentially get to chose what you have. I can see people taking longer over that (trying to find the optimal point for each model to 'roll'/pick from the list) than the actual random rolling.

I think I see what you are trying to get at, but I don't think this is the way to go about it.

[Aegwymourn]

Just accept the table as is.

40k isn't a game designed for competition. It's a narrative game.

If you need to roll that many dice in a game, roll that many dice in a game.

Because even if he wasn't playing competitively nobody has ever been pressed for time while playing due to the store closing or trying to get as many games in on their day off as possible.

I think you are on to something with perhaps having separate colored dice matched up to your sheet for each character? That way it could say something like Exalted reward (green die) -. At least that way you just toss the lot and are done with it.