I noticed this the last time I went down to Deeside Defenders. My case for wargaming junk (tape measures, camera, pencils, markers etc.) has a whole compartment dedicated to dice - the vast majority being d6. There are literally hundreds in there. Hundreds!
No rule set we play requires you needing more than 2 or 3 d6 - yet I habitualy carry hundreds around with me. Every wargame show I go to I tend to buy a few more d6. Why?! I've got more dice than I will ever use or need to use. Many I'm sure have never been rolled in anger (despite my habit of plucking virgin dice from the box in a desperate attempt to find one that comes up with a '6' at least once in a hundred rolls!).
Now if I played a Games Workshop offering (like Warhammer 40k) - which actually requires you to use (or so it appears) around a hundred d6 to inflict 2 wounds on a Chaos Goblin Armoured Spider Rider (or whatever the latest thing GW want to flog to gullible teenagers for £50 a pop is) - then I'd be justified in hauling a sack of dice around. But POW, Spearhead, Victory at Sea - even FOG - only require a few dice at most.
And yet entering the wargaming fray with just a few dice seems the equivalent of taking on a Macedonian pike phalanx with a pointy stick. Maybe that feeling of 'safety in numbers' makes us go mad for dice when all logic would dictate that its a wasted effort.
Anyway - I'll be down at Derby next weekend. And will probably buy another lot!
