can't get data in array

I am writing a script that is going to calculate the likely results of an attack in the game Risk using
bash.  I have successfullly sorted 6 sided dice values from the $RANDOM variable below:

[:: partial listing::]

      arolls=`echo "$arolls" | sort -n`
        j=0
        while [ $j -lt $defenders ] ; do
          roll=$((RANDOM%6 + 1))
          drolls="${drolls}\n$roll"
          let $((j++))
        done
        drolls=`echo -e "$drolls" | sort -nr `

[:: end partial listing ::]

I have succesfully shown at this point that the variable "$drolls" and "$arolls"
both have a sorted list of the roll results in the format

roll1
roll2
roll3
...

delimited by the carriage return

The only way I can think of doing this right now is to transfer these lists into arrays..
the following code is failing to do so.


[:: partial listing::]

        echo "$drolls" | tr '\n' ' ' | read -a droll
        echo ${droll[0]}
#sed -e 's/\n/ /g' | read -a droll
        arolls=`echo -e "$arolls" | sort -nr `
        echo "$arolls" | tr '\n' ' ' | read -a aroll
        echo ${aroll[0]}
#sed -e 's/\n/ /g' | read -a aroll
        i=0
        echo -n "defense rolls: "
        while [ $i -lt ${#droll[*]} ] ; do
           echo -n "${droll[${i}]}"
           $((i++))
        done
        echo
        i=0
        echo -n "attack rolls: "
        while [ $i -lt ${#aroll[*]} ] ; do
           echo -n "${aroll[${i}]}"
           $((i++))
        done
        echo

[:: end partial listing ::]