Most WTF moment in Boardgames

[weemadando]

The most memorable was from a game of Risk while at Christ College. A lone soldier holding out against 3 cannons (30 guys).

By the time the aggressor called off the offensive the probabilities for that soldier to be rolling 6s and 5s that consistently was into the tens of millions.

[irishmick79]

There are just too many WTF moments involving Risk. On more than one occasion a player has sent the board flying across the room out of frustration and anger.

My personal best WTF moment came while I was playing Russia in a game of Axis and Allies. I was eliminated by Germany on his second turn. He was successful, even though I started off by massing my forces in Karelia SSR, and later in my capitol once my army in Karelia got massacred. He assaulted me with virtually his entire army available on the East Front, and I killed maybe two of his infantry at best. I've never rolled so poorly in my life.

[Isolder74]

There one time playing as Germany that I attacked the English fleet in the first turn and sent most of my airforce. Well everything got shot down on the first turn and I didn't sink nothing.

[Civil War Man]

I was eliminated by Germany on his second turn.

I've had the opposite problem. I played a game as Germany where I did a major blitz on Russia first turn and got completely wiped out. In some regions I did not inflict a single casualty.

I didn't forfeit, though. I simply turned into a turtle. Defend the Fatherland at all costs while trying to take back what little I can simply for the extra money. My survival was entirely dependent on the utter collapse of the Eastern front causing the Allies to focus almost all their attention on Japan, committing only enough forces in Europe to keep me from building up enough to hold mainland Europe when I retake it.

In the words of the American player when Barbarossa disintigrated in 1941, "Well, I guess I'm going to go with a Japan first strategy this game."

[Guardsman Bass]

I've had a couple of epic Risk battles. My personal favorite, of course, was the Defense of Brazil (I put it in capitals because the people I play Risk with, including my brother, know what I'm talking about when I mention it). 13 guys managed to successfully fight off 47 Attackers, although they killed all but two. My brother was in total disbelief after that series of rolling.

This was a long while back (nearly 8 years ago), but I remember playing a Warhammer 40K game against a friend of mine. He was playing Chaos Undivided, while I was playing as the Tau. Anyways, he managed to get a Bloodthirster summoned to the field, but before he managed to reach my guys, I sent out my Kroot group into close combat (they had that weird 6+ terrain save thing). A suicide mission, right? Well, the first time, I actually managed to get a wound on the Bloodthirster. Then he attacked, hit all of his attacks - but then I managed to roll 4 or 5 sixes, saving all of those attacked. Then I counterattacked - and killed the Bloodthirster. It was improbably lucky, and I went on to lose the game, but it was worth it nonetheless.

[andrewgpaul]

Played a couple of month-long Mighty Empires campaigns back in school (Mighty Empires is the Warhammer campaign system).

One player, using Skaven, decided to assault a Dwarf village in the mountains. 1,500 points of Skaven, led by Warlord Queek, faced off against 200 points of Dwarf slayers. The slayers charged a unit of skavenslaves, beat them and forced them to flee. Every other skaven unit followed suit, right off the battlefield. To add insult to injury, in the post-battle sequence, that entire Skaven army was permanently wiped out.

Then there was the time where we spent a whole season chasing a Chaos army containing an Army Standard Bearer across the campaign map, trying to kill him before he became a Chaos Lord over the winter. Or when my Undead army led by Nagash the liche-king was destroyed at sea by a random dragon attack.

[The Dark]

The game: Jovian Chronicles
The lucky bastard: Jovian Pathfinder Alpha (35-ton light exo-armor)
The poor bastard: CEGA Poseidon-class Battleship (15,000-ton ship)

The Pathfinder has a gun with x15 damage. The Battleship has 90 armor, meaning the exo needs to roll a 6 on either of 2D6 to inflict any damage. He gets the shot in, and gets to roll three dice for minor damage. The damage table has a "roll twice" result at 6. Two of the initial three dice roll a 6, meaning those two are discarded and four more dice are rolled.
By the time it's over, sixteen dice of damage have been rolled. Every weapon on the ship is disabled, the engines are shut down, and its fire control system is destroyed, so even if the weapons are repaired, it can't shoot. Which is how a 5,000 point unit took down a 120,000 point unit with one shot (and using the referee's dice!).

[Hotfoot]

The game: Jovian Chronicles
The lucky bastard: Jovian Pathfinder Alpha (35-ton light exo-armor)
The poor bastard: CEGA Poseidon-class Battleship (15,000-ton ship)

The Pathfinder has a gun with x15 damage. The Battleship has 90 armor, meaning the exo needs to roll a 6 on either of 2D6 to inflict any damage. He gets the shot in, and gets to roll three dice for minor damage. The damage table has a "roll twice" result at 6. Two of the initial three dice roll a 6, meaning those two are discarded and four more dice are rolled.
By the time it's over, sixteen dice of damage have been rolled. Every weapon on the ship is disabled, the engines are shut down, and its fire control system is destroyed, so even if the weapons are repaired, it can't shoot. Which is how a 5,000 point unit took down a 120,000 point unit with one shot (and using the referee's dice!).

Haha, I love cascades like that. Turn a light damage hit into a world shattering blast.

[Civil War Man]

Haha, I love cascades like that. Turn a light damage hit into a world shattering blast.

No kidding. I was once playing a Jedi in Star Wars d6, and I killed 6 people in a single round from a prone position. The GM didn't even have me roll damage. I just rolled so many 6's on the to hit rolls.

It was just six guys wailing on a prone human, then a lightsaber turns on, then all six of them explode into a fine red mist. After that, my character had to spend some time doing laundry to wash all the blood from his robes.

[Isolder74]

Haha, I love cascades like that. Turn a light damage hit into a world shattering blast.

No kidding. I was once playing a Jedi in Star Wars d6, and I killed 6 people in a single round from a prone position. The GM didn't even have me roll damage. I just rolled so many 6's on the to hit rolls.

It was just six guys wailing on a prone human, then a lightsaber turns on, then all six of them explode into a fine red mist. After that, my character had to spend some time doing laundry to wash all the blood from his robes.

That happened to me once. I was jedi and the plan was that i'd step into the door and deflect the blasts from the E-webs the baddies had then the others would jump out and shoot the guys manning the guns and when it was rolled to see where the random deflections would go all of them when into the fuel canisters in the docking bay and the explosions killed everyone inside. My Half cape got singed and I lost my eyebrows.

[dragon]

One time playing battletech while piloting a clan heavy mech I shot a inner sphere medium mech with the 2 er ppcs. The mech and the lance surronding it at just dropped completely untouched. The shots landing in the same location casued a critical to the engine. The mech exploded. The using the rules for exploding mechs the surronding mechs 1 medium and 2 light mechs took damage. The light mechs were shredded, one of the light mech fell over taking more damage casusing th eengine to go crit as well finishing off the light mech. The medium mech was sandwiched between the two exploding mechs, needless to say it died as well.

So in one round I was able to kill 4 mechs, man the other player was just a bit peeved. But then it was is own fault for putting the mechs so close together. Granted in the end it didn't really matter as we were so far out numbered it wasn't funny. But I still love remebering the look on the player face.

[Solauren]

Two Words:

Fireball Island

[darthbob88]

Haha, I love cascades like that. Turn a light damage hit into a world shattering blast.

No kidding. I was once playing a Jedi in Star Wars d6, and I killed 6 people in a single round from a prone position. The GM didn't even have me roll damage. I just rolled so many 6's on the to hit rolls.

It was just six guys wailing on a prone human, then a lightsaber turns on, then all six of them explode into a fine red mist. After that, my character had to spend some time doing laundry to wash all the blood from his robes.

That reminds me of a story a friend of mine told. He was playing Exalted or Rifts, I don't know which, and got some extremely lucky rolls on the damage tables, until he reached the end which said, essentially, you have 30 minutes, get all the dice you can, and roll them. Most likely, what the rules makers expected was people playing at home, who would reach across the table and grab maybe two dozen dice. My buddy was playing in a gaming store, with lots of other gamers, most of whom would be more than happy to go home and get their dice to contribute to this epic roll. The end result, IIRC, was a single backstab with enough power behind it to destroy a planet.

Edit: This may not be a WTF moment like the rest of you posted, but during a D&D campaign I was in, one of our party members was a little were-rat shapeshifter we picked up in the dungeon, and who was familiar with the zombie we were currently locked in combat with. I forget just how it happened, but we got inside the head of the zombie, and found out that he was just going to get some more coffee when he ran into us. The coffee amused the hell out of all of us, until we reached the end, where we found a ceremony that involved sacrificing goblins to a dragon god so as to convert their blood into coffee, which we all got addicted to very quickly.

[HippyRipper]

Edit: This may not be a WTF moment like the rest of you posted, but during a D&D campaign I was in, one of our party members was a little were-rat shapeshifter we picked up in the dungeon, and who was familiar with the zombie we were currently locked in combat with. I forget just how it happened, but we got inside the head of the zombie, and found out that he was just going to get some more coffee when he ran into us. The coffee amused the hell out of all of us, until we reached the end, where we found a ceremony that involved sacrificing goblins to a dragon god so as to convert their blood into coffee, which we all got addicted to very quickly.

What?

No, seriously, what?

[The Romulan Republic]

I have a memory of taking several pieces with my King during a game of Chess, and not just pawns. There's something awesome about going on a rampage with an ultra-vulnerable piece that can only move one square, even if you die at the end of it.

[White Haven]

Okay, time for a counter-awesome Battletech story that, sadly, did not happen to me personally. Untouched Atlas, nice, beefy hundred-ton assault mech, wades through a shallow river. Has to make a stupid easy piloting skill roll, something like a 3+ on 2d6, flubs it, and falls. Now, we play with floating crits, so snakeyes means you roll again and get a free crit chance wherever you hit, as opposed to the old silly 'big hole in the center torso where '2' rolls flood in.' So he falls...snakeyes...boxcars...boxcars...and what that ends up meaning is that an untouched assault mech wades into a river, trips over its own feet, falls, and KNOCKS ITS HEAD CLEAN OFF.

Yeah. The table got kinda noisy.

[Qwerty 42]

I dunno if DnD counts, but a good friend of mine was playing as a monk, and would only ever use the attack Flurry of Blows. When confronted with a horde of little imps, he rolled so poorly that we were forced to explain that not only did he not strike a one of them, he fractured his hands.

[Solauren]

D&D: My poor Wizard/Rogue being tossed around between a flock of griffons in the remains of an elven village.

For 20 minutes.

Lesson learned: My wife (the DM) enjoys tormenting me when I play smarmy little rogues.

[CaptainChewbacca]

WTF Moments:

Axis and Allies- As Japan, I invaded and occupied Hawaii on my first turn, and on the 2nd turn I put a factory there. America crapped its pants.

Scrabble- I played ACADEMIC across two triple-word scores. 205 points when all was said and done.

D&D- I had a player kill a reptilian behemoth with the 'Massive Damage' rule. Craziest thing I've ever seen in my life was when that beastie failed its shock check.

[darthbob88]

Edit: This may not be a WTF moment like the rest of you posted, but during a D&D campaign I was in, one of our party members was a little were-rat shapeshifter we picked up in the dungeon, and who was familiar with the zombie we were currently locked in combat with. I forget just how it happened, but we got inside the head of the zombie, and found out that he was just going to get some more coffee when he ran into us. The coffee amused the hell out of all of us, until we reached the end, where we found a ceremony that involved sacrificing goblins to a dragon god so as to convert their blood into coffee, which we all got addicted to very quickly.

What?

No, seriously, what?

You misunderstood me, I assume? I never could communicate well enough. All right, once more, and broken up to be read easily.

During a D&D campaign I was in, a shapeshifting rat-person joined the party when we were traveling through the dungeon he occupied, and while we were attacking a zombie he was on poor terms with. Through some magic, I forget just which, we got some insight into the mind of the zombie; apparently we were attacking Bob the Zombie, who was just going to get some coffee, and didn't want to fight with us. We laughed about the coffee for a minute or so, then killed Bob and let the rat-person into our group.

We then continued into the dungeon, and discovered the source of the coffee Bob was after. A giant cauldron sat in front of a dragon statue and altar, and the high priest of the goblin population in the dungeon was sacrificing goblins on the altar with a special dagger, which caused their blood, which flowed into the cauldron, to transmute into coffee. The high priest was sacrificing goblins to turn their blood into coffee, and we took the dagger from his body, so we could set up our own version of Starbucks. We have an awesome DM.

[HippyRipper]

Edit: This may not be a WTF moment like the rest of you posted, but during a D&D campaign I was in, one of our party members was a little were-rat shapeshifter we picked up in the dungeon, and who was familiar with the zombie we were currently locked in combat with. I forget just how it happened, but we got inside the head of the zombie, and found out that he was just going to get some more coffee when he ran into us. The coffee amused the hell out of all of us, until we reached the end, where we found a ceremony that involved sacrificing goblins to a dragon god so as to convert their blood into coffee, which we all got addicted to very quickly.

What?

No, seriously, what?

You misunderstood me, I assume? I never could communicate well enough. All right, once more, and broken up to be read easily.

During a D&D campaign I was in, a shapeshifting rat-person joined the party when we were traveling through the dungeon he occupied, and while we were attacking a zombie he was on poor terms with. Through some magic, I forget just which, we got some insight into the mind of the zombie; apparently we were attacking Bob the Zombie, who was just going to get some coffee, and didn't want to fight with us. We laughed about the coffee for a minute or so, then killed Bob and let the rat-person into our group.

We then continued into the dungeon, and discovered the source of the coffee Bob was after. A giant cauldron sat in front of a dragon statue and altar, and the high priest of the goblin population in the dungeon was sacrificing goblins on the altar with a special dagger, which caused their blood, which flowed into the cauldron, to transmute into coffee. The high priest was sacrificing goblins to turn their blood into coffee, and we took the dagger from his body, so we could set up our own version of Starbucks. We have an awesome DM.

I just didn't get the whole coffee thing. Never heard Starbucks and D&D in the same paragraph, but hey, even Night Elf Rogues need their double mochachino.

[PainRack]

Risk has some very WTF moments. There was a time when my bro and I just played risk together, and used neutral countries as third parties. Somehow, he got the territory of Asia on his first go, and by swarming his armies, conquered Australia in 1 turn. The closest coherent state I got was in Africa where I had to swarm massively augmented neutral countries as well as the 1 soldier countries he was fortifying.... We did play it out for a few more turns, but IIRC, within 5 turns, he had already conquered 4 continents and it was just a matter of dice rolls before he conquered the world.

[Raptor_Pilot]

My WTF Moment:

Axis and Allies: under our late 1940 home rules.
(Pearl Harbor and Barbarossa hasn't happened so US and Russia are neutral. Also many other changes reflecting time period etc.)

I was playing as Russia, while my buddy Gary was playing as Germany and Japan, against two of our other buddies as Britain and America.
On the very first turn I said to Gary: "Lets team up." He said "OK" Within 10 rounds we were landing on the US east coast.

That game created some new rules to our existing house rules.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Clue realizing the solution I Said: I confess I killed Mr. Body, in The Library with the Revolver!

yes, I had figured out that I was the killer, and confessed rather then wait for everyone else to fail.

[Isolder74]

Clue realizing the solution I Said: I confess I killed Mr. Body, in The Library with the Revolver!

yes, I had figured out that I was the killer, and confessed rather then wait for everyone else to fail.

So you won. The point of the game is to find the killer. It doesn't matter if it happens to be you.