Non-Tumbling Dice

At various times through out a game of AWA it is necessary to indicate that a unit has changed status.  This could be something as simple as marking a unit that has run in the previous turn.  Units can run on one turn and then the next turn must take a non-run action before they can run again.  Alternatively the unit could be suffering from confusion or be suffering the effect of morale.  A unit which uses all of its ammunition without resupply becomes "demoralized".  This is the Spanish Civil War and this can happen quite easily, with supply lines being anorexically thin and the Republican government tending to maximize supply to the urban troops protecting cities.

I'm not a massive fan of counter markers on the table top.  They tend to clutter the surface and you are forever looking for the right counter or just generally losing things in the to and fro of life (where the hell did I put that Fiat biplane?).

Away from this project I was trying to counter this problem on my own skirmish war game rule set, DUST.  In that game it is vital that you are aware of the current status of each individual figure.

My solution  was six sided status dice.  I picked up a good load of 10mm dice from the good people at Pendraken at the Leeds wargame show.  I printed out status symbols with an appropriately colored background then it was just a matter of cutting them out and applying to the dice.  In hindsight I would have used label paper instead of having to stick them to the die using PVA glue but hey ho.

Quickly abandoning scissors as a method of extracting the markers because...well, because it was a bloody stupid idea on something so small, I purchased a circular die cutter.  Not the easiest thing to get your hands on in reality.  I need a 9mm circle cutter as the standard hole punch is 6mm and too small.  Seems that in the die cutting world people want butterfly, cat, dog, heart shape, hovercraft shape die cutters more than they want circles.  However one was located and I spent a happy night watching old episodes of M*A*S*H while sticking small paper dots to dice.  The life of a wargamer is one glamorous moment after another.

I now have a six sided counter which could be placed next to the relevant unit to indicates its status.  Simple.

¡No pasarán!