Having hosted remote games via Zoom for several years now, I decided to take up a different tack on how to display status dice for my frequent Basic Impetvs games.
Up until now, 16mm status dice (VBU and Impetvs Bonus) have been placed on the raised cleat at the left rear of each stand. These dice are big, a bit unwieldy, and occasionally topple down from the cleat during play. The benefit of these larger dice is that players can easily see these dice from the overhead webcams when participating in remote games.
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| 16mm Status Dice |
In the last game with five players (see Zallaqah 1086), I switched out the 16mm status dice for smaller, 12mm dice. These 12mm dice still occasionally toppled down from the cleat during play but not as often as with the 16mm dice. As an encouraging bonus, not one player commented about the change in dice. Now, they either did not notice the swap or could not see the pips to begin with and refrained from commenting. The Rejects are a very polite group, so the answer certainly could be the latter! |
| 12mm Status Dice |
Hearing no open rebellion, I decided to take this to the next level by fixing the smaller dice onto the cleat. Looking for dice trays or frames, I discovered that Warbases make a dual frame for 12mm dice. The frames were exactly what I was looking to find! I placed an order and the order arrived quickly. This was my first order from Warbases. Service and product were excellent.  |
| Comparison 1: Old vs New |
Since the Zallaqah battle is up for a replay on Friday, I set to work affixing these dice frames to the stands needed for the Zallaqah battle. Cutting out the frames and sticking each to a base did not take too long for the 50 stands needed for the upcoming game. |
| Comparison 2: Old vs New |
To my eye, this improves the look of the stand and adds a bit of tidiness and stability to the status dice. My only problem now is that I have at least three very large collections that require similar treatment. Hopefully, I bought enough frames to re-engineer all of the bases and bring all of the Basic Impetvs collections up to current specifications. I think I did but much work lies ahead.
That look very smart and tidy, Jon, nicely done!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Keith!
DeleteNice solution, looks great. Can't go wrong with Warbases, great firm to deal with.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Ordering was easy and delivery fast.
DeleteA neat solution. In the remote games you host you provide warning when units are fragile. Until then I generally do not worry about the dice numbers.
ReplyDeleteGood to see your approval! I am not as talented as you in coming up with interesting solutions and executing them with artistic flair. If you do not keep an eye on the status dice during the game, perhaps, I had a solution for no problem?
DeleteInteresting that should have recently asked me about dice frames when I rebased my Ancients.
ReplyDeleteLooks a big improvement Jon. Will find out if there’s any issue from a player’s point of view tomorrow!
Chris
Chris, your rebasing project may have triggered me to explore Warbases for a solution. I think the bases look better too. Let's see if this works adequately in practice.
Delete12mm (or 10mm, I can’t remember what I bought) is a good half-way house. I was finding my micro dice too small, not so much to see the pips, but rather just in handling with my sausage fingers, while the very big dice distract from the beauty of the base.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the micro dice are too small to both handle and see. Seeing from a webcam would be almost impossible, I reckon. The big dice may distract but I hoped they allowed players to see what was what at a glance.
DeleteThe 16mm should certainly do the job for remote viewing, I don’t see that they are anymore intrusive than the 12mm.
ReplyDeleteNow you tell me!
DeleteThe next sentence of my post seems to have gone AWOL🤔 It did say the 12mm look neater.
DeleteGood to see the rest of your comment!
DeleteNeat solution. The smaller dice are far less intrusive.
ReplyDeleteI agree!
DeleteNeatly done, Jonathan.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThe dice frames from Warbases are great. I use the micro dice for most of my collections, probably on a little small size. May move up a scale for 28mm figures
ReplyDeleteThe figures shown here are 28mm and the 12mm dice look right-sized to me.
DeleteThat's looking really great :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michal!
DeleteI use a lot of products from Warbases and they have all been great quality. To show casualty status both in my home brew pike and shot rules and for 'Through the Square Window' I went for micro dice 5mm or 6mm I can't recall which now and while fiddly they definitely are not intrusive in use. I don't have the dice holder integrated into the base though I have a small information tile which sits behind a unit which includes the dice holder and unit details. As Chris said I will give you an opinion on your new system after Friday's game.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave! I await your proclamation. There may be no turning back, though.
DeleteThe 12's look better then the 16's. When using dice as markers I prefer the micro dice. Easily ignored, but you can see them when you choose to look.
ReplyDeleteWhen viewed from a webcam, the micro dice are not only easily ignored but invisible as well. I have trouble manipulating micro dice.
DeleteThe new ones look great Jonathan. 12mm looks to be a good size and just as visible in your comparison photo.
ReplyDeleteI use 5mm dice for my 10mm figures but they are very fiddly to change. I have to use a pair of tweezers.
Thanks! 5mm dice would be too small to manipulate for me especially if tweezers are needed. In a remote game, I don’t have an extra hand to have tweezers always in hand.
DeleteCoincidentally I’m wrestling with this same challenge right now: keeping track of unit casualties in a way that looks good on the table and works well functionally.
ReplyDeleteWhat I settled on was a seperate unit commander stand with a long ‘frame’ across the back of the stand that holds wood blocks from the old boardgame ‘Napoleon’ (Avalon Hill 1977). These blocks show unit type (inf, cav, artillery) and strength pips. The added benefit of using them is that the actual strength/ break point of each unit is unknown to the adversary during the battle.
I created a prototype unit commander stand stand today and am very pleased with the result.
Show us a photo, Glenn.
DeleteCan I share a photo here?
DeleteI’ll have the finished stand on my blog later today. Just need to varnish it.
I will see your work on your blog. No need to double post your efforts here.
Deletehttps://glennstropicalgames.blogspot.com/2025/11/unit-commander-strength-stands.html?m=1
DeleteThanks for the link!
DeleteGood work Jon a balance between size and visibility 👍
ReplyDeleteThanks! No complaints in today's remote game.
DeleteTha smaller dice look better, nice job.
ReplyDeleteI think so too.
DeleteSplendid looking solution! I use warbase frames on my casualty bases,I like them and I think yours work really well!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks, Iain! I was impressed by Warbases speed of shipping.
DeleteThey work well, and speaking as one of your 'guinea pigs' during last night's game, I thought they worked fine. Thanks for a great game, too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, David! Yesterday's game was a real nailbiter until the last die roll, wasn't it?
DeleteA neat solution Jonathan, and Warbases make a lot of useful stuff. I really like their casualty dials.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lawrence. I will keep an eye on Warbases but most of my basing master it’s are from Litko here in the states.
DeleteGreat post Jonathan. I'm not a fan of dice as markers on the table, but I do play games in which they are a necessary compromise. The smaller dice look so much better in my opinion, and I've always thought that dice and dot colour combination is critical for maximum visibility. I like black dots on white or yellow dice but not on blue or green; might just be my eyesight though...! Have to say Warbases are excellent, I use them a lot and have never been disappointed on product or delivery time.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Meic! Visibility is import especially in a remote game.
DeleteLots of people are unaware of the dice frames - most of the MDF producers seem to make them.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to dice, you can also get coloured cubes of around 12mm. I have toyed with using these for a sort of traffic light system - green, yellow, red to show declining cohesion status/
Neil
A stoplight approach is a useful technique for tracking unit morale state especially.
Delete