Given the recent stand-off
about whether Prussia should re-roll its siege dice, perhaps it's time we had
an open discussion about when dice rolls need to be re-rolled.
(Admittedly, these are not the best circumstances under which to have such a
discussion, i.e. when there is a pending controversy. But, to adapt one
of Aragorn's lines in the Two Towers, "Whether we like it or not, an open
discussion is upon us." [The line I'm referring to in the movie is
when Aragorn tells Theoden that open war is upon him. Ok, so it's a
lame reference. I've seen the movie 3 times in 3 days, so I've got Two
Towers on the brain.])
Here's my opinion: it's
a dangerous precedent for us to insist that whenever there is a problem with a
player's orders that he should re-roll all his dice. Because after all,
we often make little mistakes that we need to go back and fix (or at least I
do). But if we thought that we would have to re-roll dice whenever we
made a mistake, we would put off rolling dice until everyone has had a chance
to look at our orders. Some may think that is a good idea, but I think
we are better off with as few delays in the game as possible. Rolling
dice quickly helps to move the game along, so I am against any policy that
would make people reluctant to roll the dice.
It seems to me that dice
should be re-rolled whenever the events in question have changed
significantly. So for instance, suppose Prussia rolled for two sieges
and then changed his orders such that a field battle would take place
instead. Using his two siege rolls in place of the first two rounds of
combat would clearly be inappropriate. Or if he wanted to use his siege
rolls as forage rolls, that would also be inappropriate. Or if he
changed his mind and decided to lay siege to different cities, I'd say that
using the old rolls would also be inappropriate in that
situation.
However, in the case at hand
Jim made relatively small adjustments to his orders with the obvious purpose
of laying siege to the same two towns he laid siege to in his previous
orders. In fact, aside from supply costs, the only major change in his
second set of orders was the fact that one fewer corps laid siege to
Brest-Litovsk. I would think that decision would favor the
Russians. But if it would satisfy Mike, perhaps Jim would agree to pay
an extra $2 to move the Prussian corps with Brunswick to Brest-Litovsk.
In that case, the result of the modified orders would be exactly the same as
the original set of orders. Since there would be no difference at all in
terms of corps placements between the revised and original orders, I can see
no reason to insist that Jim re-roll his siege rolls under those
circumstances.
Of course, this is just my
opinion. I'm prepared to hear what others have to say. But I think
we need to come up with some general guidelines regarding when it is
appropriate to expect others to re-roll the dice. As I'm sure everyone
understands, re-rolling dice can be a very traumatic experience, so we need to
adopt a policy by consensus that we are all willing to live with.
kdh