How To Roll Your Dice Tutorial

 

Der Alte Fritz (left) and Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe (right)

So you think that you are an old hand at rolling dice in a game? Here is a breakdown of how it is done, curtesy of Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe. The pictures are from our annual Christmas Holiday Teddy Bear Game, which we played yesterday on Boxing Day. Lady Cuddlestone-Smythe walks us through the six steps of dice rolling. You can employ this tutorial to improve your dice rolling and amaze your friends with the results.

Step One - The Shake. 

Lady Emma employs the lesser known Left Over Right Hand shake of the dice. While the Right Over Left is more commonly used on the game table, the Left Over Right produces more top spin.

The Shake

Step Two - The Toss

Here Lady Emma demonstrates the popular Oriental Fan dice toss method. Notice how easily she transitions from The Shake into the Fan by bringing her hands downward and then fanning her hands to the right and left, sort of like opening a fan. This causes her dice to reach maximum throwing speed which increases the spin rate on the dice. A higher spin rate improves the chances of the die pips turning up Box Cars (6s).

The Toss

Step Three - The Reckoning

Lady Emma transitions effortlessly from the Toss and back into her starting position where she can begin her Reckoning move, that is, initiating the counting of the successful dice rolls. In this instance, she is spotting pips of 5 and 6 to score a hit.

The Reckoning

Step Four - Finger Pistols

Once the tally from The Reckoning is made, Lady Emma pulls out finger pistols to signify the casualties that have occurred on the table top. Some players may prefer to use the Double Finger Pistols move and shout "Bam" "Bam" . Lady Emma is shown demonstrating the rapid fire Single Finger Pistol method.

Finger Pistols

Step Five - The Knock Out

The Knock Out step involves the knocking over the opponents casualties on the table top. Note the cheerful countenance of Lady Emma that she employs to make her opponent feel at ease. Lady Emma is demonstrating the Finger Flick Knock Out method which adds more flair to the procedure. It is also acceptable to use the Push Over or the Pick Up Off The Table ("PUOTT") methods during the Knock Out phase of the turn. We caution against the use of the PUOTT method because the opponent may prefer to remove his own figures. On the other hand, the Finger Flick method establishes psychological dominance over the opponent, which leads to demoralization and poorer performance in the war game.

The Knock Out

Step Six - "V" for Victory

Lady Emma demonstrates the Right Handed Vee signal. She notes that the advantage of using this method over other methods of displaying victory is that she can rapidly move from Finger Pistols to Victory Formation all in one motion.

The Victory Formation

Well there you have it. We all tend to take Dice Rolling for granted and assume that any old method will work on the game table. That is not the case in competitive tournaments where the player needs to gain the slightest edge in order to win, legally I would add.

Try working through the Six Step of dice rolling on your own at home or at the office (during your lunch break, of course, and not on company time). With hard practice and dedication to your craft, you too can become as good of a dice roller as Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe. 

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