The die is cast. The step is taken, and I cannot draw back. So said Julius Cæsar when he crossed the Rubicon, a small river separating ancient Italy from Cisalpine Gaul, the province allotted to Cæsar. When he crossed this stream in 49 B.C., Cæsar passed beyond the limits of his own province and became an invader of Italy, precipitating war with Pompey and the Senate.

Dice are at least 5,000 years old, and the earliest known dice (which were tetra-hedral) were found in Sumerian tombs dating from the third millenium B.C. Egyptian tombs contained four-sided long dice as well as the more familiar cubic variety.

Cheating at dice is almost as ancient as the dice themselves, with references to loaded dice being found in ancient Greek literature. It is probably safe to say that cheating was elevated to an art form in the Wild West.

For example, the devices shown are quite sophisticated, being a brass dice shaver on the left, and a pair of ivory-handled hole punches on the right. Any gambler outfitted with these implements could be assured of attaining more favorable odds.

Sad to say, however, there devices are no longer commercially available, so board war-gamers will either have to fabricate their own, or seek divine intervention.

As many of you may know, during the oil crisis in the 70’s, SPI was unable to procure plastic dice for their games and substituted sets of randomizer chits.

Ironically these cost more than the dice. And they met with little enthusiasm as, to a grognard, part of the allure of a board wargame is the tactile stimulation.

SPI replaced them with the plastic originals as soon as possible, and they are now only a footnote to the ephemera of board wargaming.