I was browsing through Road to War's list of podcasts and saw this description of episode 33:
"We talk about the skills needed to play Warmachine at a high level and ways to improve them!"Intrigued, I gave it a listen and found it very enlightening. Recently I've been noticing how loose my game has become, and while I have no aspirations of genuine high-level play (i.e. conventions), I still want to be able to play my best game possible.
The premise is that players need to start at one tier, and once they've mastered (or at least grown familiar with) that level they can move on to the next. I don't know how much thought was put in to the ordering of the hierarchy, but I think it serves as a good evaluation of where my skills are lacking, and they give some excellent advice on ways to improve.
Rather than just regurgitate what they say, I'm going to briefly explain each one and figure out where I rank on that skill. My numbers may be abysmal in some areas, but at least I'll have a good foundation on where to start improving!
- Rules Knowledge
I started the list off feeling really good. When I first started the game, I read the rulebook twice a week for about a month, and from that I've become the rules lawyer my group suffers with today. I still struggle with rules interactions, so I certainly won't be judging a major event any time soon, but I definitely plan on becoming a Press Ganger (a volunteer PP worker) if I ever start playing at a store.
My rating: 9 - hooray for rules lawyers! - Protect Your Caster/Model Knowledge
The group mashed these together because it requires model knowledge to protect your caster. Either way, I've been really slacking on this one. I used to let everything in my army die before my warcaster could take damage, but then I started testing how aggressively I could play, then I stopped playing, and when I came back I continued playing aggressively but forgot about protecting my caster. This was something I knew I had to work on already, so nothing new here. Keeping my casters behind a few layers of protection, rather than just a single line of troops, is my biggest mistake. Ignoring lines of sight is also pretty bad. One piece of advice on the podcast was to keep my caster 1" farther back than I think I should, just to be safe. Great advice, I think!
In terms of model knowledge... ha! The number of times I've messed up a play because I forgot about a model's abilities is equal to the number of turns I've played in the past year... possibly multiplied by two because it happens way too often! Their advice is the only advice that makes sense - read cards and "play a **** ton of games" so that I know what a model does without having to ask several times a turn. There are some common models I understand, but the more intricate models (like those who provide buffs) are especially tricky for me.
My rating: 3 - what a failure - List Building/Metagaming
Another pair that they put together. Metagaming is about building lists to beat what you'll encounter, rather than just building a well-rounded list. Considering my player pool is rather small I think it's important to play more gentlemanly games where I'm not specifically tool my list to beat 1 of the 3 regular players I might play against.
List building has gone a lot better for me as time has worn on. I still get help on fixing them up, but I'd like to think I'm capable of building a list that is at least functional, maybe even downright decent. I'm sometimes tempted to take models that are individually powerful and mash them together, but after seeing the list flail about I can at least recognize what doesn't work. From there my go-to move is to tell my buddy what isn't working and get feedback, but one of these days I want to be able to understand synergy well enough to be the guy who helps others.
My rating: N/A and 5 - and still climbing! - Endurance
They mostly talked about one's physical ability to withstand the long, tiring hours spent playing at a tournament. Hydration, sleep, good diet, etc. Not very applicable, although I could rephrase it to make it work. I have a lot of knee and back issues because I had a hard time learning I wasn't indestructible as a teenager. Standing on concrete and bending over a table takes its toll on me, and as a result I get sloppy as the game wears on because I'm distracted by pain. I've finally learned that I'm allowed to sit down when it's not my turn - a bad habit I picked up when I'd always stand while DMing in order to keep up my energy level.
Our games tend not to starting until 7 or 8 at night, meaning the do-or-die moments happen when I'm ready to start winding down from the day. Starting sooner and playing games quicker would definitely help me play a tight game all the way to the end.
My rating: 5 - I could probably make it a 6 or 7 with Aspirin and caffeine. - Planning
This is a hard one. On one hand, I almost always have a plan or two when my turn starts. On the other hand, I've been told I have a very angry-looking expression when I play because those plans rarely work out like they're supposed to, despite the fact that my plans assume that I'll roll average dice.
One great piece of advice they gave was to avoid committing to a plan while your opponent is still moving models around, but to have several options. That's probably where I need the most work in this area - I commit to a plan while my opponent is still playing, and when things happen to make it harder to pull off I try to work my way around it rather than just readjusting the plan itself.
My rating: 6 - but I plan to do better - Threat Prioritization
It's at this point that I have to stop pretending I'm on the right track. I absolutely fail at understanding what needs to die and how to accomplish that. If it's something straightforward like Khador I can usually stumble in to a good play, but if it's a tricky army like Cryx and Circle, or an army that hides support units behind very well supported models like Trolls and Menoth... I'm done for. I know a support piece needs to die, but killing it requires me to get behind the very scary models protecting it. So then I try killing the big guys first, but that of course requires me to understand what I can afford to lose to accomplish my goal, because my stuff will die trying to kill theirs.
It's a conundrum I can never quite work my way through. There is so much on the field that can kill me, and understanding what needs to die to protect my checkmate pieces is something I still don't fully understand. To top it all off, I'm really not sure how to learn the skill outside of playing a riduculous amount of games. I suppose it comes down to improving other things like model knowledge and planning, making sure my key pieces aren't at risk from theirs.
My rating: 2 - I'm being generous because I can understand threats on the table, but getting rid of them is a different matter. - Mental Discipline
When my plans go way far afield, I get rattled. I hit points in the game where I have no idea how to salvage the game, and my brain goes caveman on me and says "Go smash that." Smash what? It doesn't really matter - whatever I can reach will get charged, even if I have no real hope of damaging it, let alone come close to killing it. Needing to roll 12 on 3 dice to damage a model that's thrashing my army is a laughable plan, but it's one that I defaulted to because I couldn't come up with a clever way to reclaim a game.
I try to avoid going on tilt, and I think I've been better about recovering and making a plan without stress or hopelessness affecting me. Still, if I have a key piece get annihilated early on there's a good chance I'm going to flounder the whole game because a lot of my strategy was probably tied to that model. Mastering the 6 tiers before this will definitely help my mental discipline because it will give me a stronger grasp of the entire game of Warmachine, and not just the turn I'm currently playing.
My rating: 2 - definitely a step up from my brain shutting down on me a month or two ago! - Model Placement
My buddy Fritz knows my rating on this. If I lose a game, it's usually due to one of two things:
1: I deployed my troops poorly or didn't have a good plan for how I moved them up the field, reducing the effectiveness of my entire army because models aren't where they should be.
2: My caster dies because I moved them 1/8" too far in one direction, exposing a sliver of their base to something very bad for them.
Like threat prioritization it all comes down to having a plan for how to interact with your opponent, as well as knowing what your opponent will want to accomplish next turn so I can neutralize some of their plan or completely counteract it. There's usually so much happening on the field that I don't watch all my angles, or plan far enough ahead, and I end the game knowing that I could have had a chance if I'd moved my pieces properly.
My rating: 1 - and that's only because this isn't a scale of 0-10.
So my skill lever is just above 4. Ouch. I've got step 1 down, but I haven't really tried to bring any part of my game up to that same level. I have a great head-knowledge of the game, but theory vs practice are two very different things. Playing more, especially with a focus on improvement, is probably my best option for improving my game. Being aware of my shortcomings and working to improve those from game-to-game will also be a big boost to my numbers.
I'd encourage you guys to give the episode a listen. No matter what game you play, I think their advice is relevant to anyone, and is worth considering for anyone who isn't happy with where they're at right now.
So what areas do you excel in? Where do you need work?
See you tomorrow!
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