What's going on with GW and their dice?

[Dark Shepherd]

I like them but the Sisters dice look like a nightmare to make out when youre rolling 20.

 

Almost all the faction/chapter specific dice have been not nice to look at or hard to make out or both (please post any pics of ones that were neither). But either all sold out or were withdrawn to maintain fomo. Then there was the Salamandera dice mystery

 

On the flip side almost all the Kill Team dice were amazing, as were the AI ones, and some of the other gaming systems.

 

So what's going on?

[Iron Father Ferrum]

They're trying to be artsy and make each fiction's dice as unique and recognizable (for the faction) as possible. They're looking at everything except practicality.

[Dark Shepherd]

They're trying to be artsy and make each fiction's dice as unique and recognizable (for the faction) as possible. They're looking at everything except practicality.

Youre definitely right eg Death Guard ones. I think theyre trying way too hard though. Or are going for a very limited edition vibe/display dice. I prefer the rounded corners too tbh

[Gederas]

They're trying to be artsy and make each fiction's dice as unique and recognizable (for the faction) as possible. They're looking at everything except practicality.

Youre definitely right eg Death Guard ones. I think theyre trying way too hard though. Or are going for a very limited edition vibe/display dice. I prefer the rounded corners too tbh

Nail on head. They're curios more than anything

[Lord Blackwood]

I am quite fond of the custodes dice  



The Size is good , they aren't difficult to read , and I think they look pretty nice 

[Dark Shepherd]

 

 

They're trying to be artsy and make each fiction's dice as unique and recognizable (for the faction) as possible. They're looking at everything except practicality.

Youre definitely right eg Death Guard ones. I think theyre trying way too hard though. Or are going for a very limited edition vibe/display dice. I prefer the rounded corners too tbh

Nail on head. They're curios more than anything

Thanks. I get it with nice but pricey AI dice...but if they did practicable new dice to go with a codex surely folk'd buy 2 or 3 sets of 20 eg for your bloodletter bombs, guard doing first rank fire etc

 

@Lord Blackwood

Theyre nice, dont remember them but that was a while ago :)

Edited January 9, 2020 by Dark Shepherd

[Knight Artorias]

The Dark Angels ones from about 2 years ago were great, wish I had bought more than one set. You're right though OP, most of them look like it will be impossible to tell at a glance what the result is. 

[Dark Shepherd]

The cool touch about them was 3/5 green 1/5 cream 1/5 black/

 

Are they legible enough en masse?

[Gederas]

The cool touch about them was 3/5 green 1/5 cream 1/5 black/

 

Are they legible enough en masse?

Very. The pips, while not being simple dots, are very bright and visible.

[Knight Artorias]

The cool touch about them was 3/5 green 1/5 cream 1/5 black/

 

Are they legible enough en masse?

 

Yes, they look just pips on regular dice, very easy to read. 

 

[Dark Shepherd]

Cool. Theyre one of the best sets. White Scars were good too

[Azaiel]

My pet peeve with GW dice is that they have (atleast) two symbols one for the 1 and one for the 6. I would buy some if only the 6 had a special symbol.

[Tyr13]

Youve got to stop considering them as dice and start seeing them as collectibles. Cause thats what they are. You *can* use them as dice, but does anyone seriously think squishy dice are supposed to be anything other than a fun gimmick?

[Lord Marshal]

Youve got to stop considering them as dice and start seeing them as collectibles. Cause thats what they are. You *can* use them as dice, but does anyone seriously think squishy dice are supposed to be anything other than a fun gimmick?

If this was any company but GW, I might buy into the "they're not meant to ACTUALLY be rolled!" argument, though it's a weird one to me. Why would I get a pack containing 20 dice if they're just a collectable? A set of like... five D10s or whatever I could see as an argument for CP/Objective/Turn/Wound tokens, but not with as many D6's as you get in a pack. I think it's just GW's usual thing of going for style over substance rather than some kind of intention of them being truly, impractical collector's items.

 

Nevermind it's terribly inconsistent. Most of the dice are perfectly rollable, they're just terrible to read. Others are crap for rolling, some actually look quite good and are practical. I see the above argument a lot, but I don't buy it.

 

It would be far from the first time GW designs something that's so poorly thought out that people think surely it shouldn't be taken at face value.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Lord Marshal

[Firedrake Cordova]

I must admit I've not been a fan of GW's themed dice - they tended to be [a] expensive, and hard to read (with the exception of the Aeronautica Imperialis dice). 

 

Instead of going with the GW dice, I ended up buying a few "themed"* sets of Chessex signature dice, which are both pretty and easy to read (and come in blocks of 36)

 

* Scarab Jade for my Orcs and Salamanders, Scarab Royal Blue for my Tzeentch, Scarab Blue Blood for my Undead, Borealis Sky Blue for my BFG Imperial Navy ...

Edited January 9, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova

[The Unseen]

I love my BA sets, but the chapter symbol for the 6, the skull for a 1, and the blood drop pips for 2-5 are fairly easy to read. They are, however, rather shiny, so if you've got a lot of direct bright light they can glare at angles, but that's it.

[Dark Shepherd]

Had a look at the BA ones, theyre not the worst, bone coloured ones look a bit off IMO. Are they the only ones with different sized dots?

 

Thousand sons are the nicest set I reckon

Edited January 9, 2020 by Dark Shepherd

[Overwhelming Odds]

I'll just say that I love the aesthetic of my 100 count cube of Adeptus Mechanicus dice.  But I un-love using them as DICE.  The military didn't give me PTSD, but those dice DID!

 

That is not a joke nor a lie.  The "feelings" were real!

 

You will NEVER fail morale with those dice...you will just lose yours.

 

V/r,

Dan

Edited January 9, 2020 by Overwhelming Odds

[Biscuittzz]

I wonder whether the other space marines chapter dice will ever be released?

[Fajita Fan]

I can't read GW dice or justify their prices (except for Bloodbowl) but I buy Chessex dice blocks in the colors of my armies. 

#nerd

[Jukkiz]

I would love reprints of certain dices, like deathwatch.

Also fun party game, try to get nurgle/deathguard dice to roll more then once.

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

I honestly love dice with plain old numerals on them that are clean to read, I like them even better than pips, with pips I have takes a couple of seconds o register where as I can see the numerals and realize what number it is straight away. TBH I do love the look of the special army dice, and have bought the odd set over the years for the sake of collection, but for gaming forest about it.

[Dark Shepherd]

I wonder whether the other space marines chapter dice will ever be released?

Im obsessed with finding out what happened there, I assume production was outsourced so could have been anything up to and including pirates

 

@Odds were the admech ones the ones with little cogs for pips? Admech killteam dice were some lovely Lannister looking things

[Dark Shepherd]

I would love reprints of certain dices, like deathwatch.

 

Also fun party game, try to get nurgle/deathguard dice to roll more then once.

The deathwatch look like theyd be one of the worst to read, even with them having numbers not pips on them, poor Captain Smashy Pants

 

Had heard tales of the death guard dice but didnt know it was that bad

[Marshal Rohr]

Going by Wednesday’s Tzzentch/Kharadron livestream they envision these dice being used for Destiny/Faith/Etc because they stand out for normal dice