I has mathhammer hate

People have pink ones, purple ones, big ones, small ones and slightly weird looking ones.  

I am of course, talking about dice. Those square things that are essential for playing a game of 40k. Let's get it straight that I'm talking about the principles of mathhammer here, and not the website.

Now I was playing a game yesterday against a regular opponent and he uses larger, sharper edged dice than I do. They're not casino quality dice by any stretch of the imagination, but he seems to think that they produce better rolls. 

Me? I'm not too sure, but the number of 6's he manages to throw is a bit disconcerting at times.

At this point of the proceedings I'd like to make a confession. I really don't give a monkeys about the shape and size of the dice my opponent is using and I'm not going to try and work out the probabilities every time one of us pick a handful up to throw them. 

Why?

Two reasons - 

1. I'm not a computer.

2. I can't be arsed even attempting it.

Well, there's actually a third reason, and that's because in a game of 40k, it's an impossible thing to do.

No it isn't some of you will be saying.

Yes it is. Because what anyone trying to work out the odds of a particular dice roll is doing is basing their calculations on something like this - 

to give them the odds something along the lines of -

And herein lies the problem.

Both of the charts above are based on something that never happens during a game of 40k. 

Perfectly uniform conditions.

How many of you throw the dice exactly the same every time?

Or how many of you throw the dice in the exact same spot every time?

How many of you never throw a dice that hits a model, or a piece of scenery or that never hits another dice as it is either flying through the air or as it lands?

I know I never have, and I also know that none of my opponents never have, so I'm pretty much guessing that no-one reading this (if anyone is) ever has.

So what use is mathhammer?

Well, it can allow you to estimate the odds of throwing a particular number, or it can allow you to estimate the number of wounds you will cause in a shooting attack. But the important thing about it is, is not to get hung up on it.

Because it will never be anything other than a way to predict estimates, and if you forget that, then there's a good chance that you'll be disappointed that you didn't throw the number of 4's you expected to throw, or didn't cause the number of wounds your little computation said that you would.

Here's Durham Red.