Want to change your army as fast as your underwear, and master each one as you go? Checkout these Top 3 hacks to mastering a new army every month!
Now who am I and what are my qualifications to tell you how to bring the hobyy back? You might now me as the painting weirdo that writes articles on here, but the thing I enjoy the most out of the hobby is going to tournaments. One other thing I like a lot, is trying a gazillion different armies and lists. Simply put, I change army at roughly the same rate as I change underwear. One of my new year resolution is painting an army per month. Needless to say, I don’t stick with the same army book for long, let alone the same army list.
Which means over the years, I have found a couple of ways to speed up the learning curve. And I’m going to tell you some of them, because I know I’m not he only maniac stockpiling 5 or 6 armies in his basement.
My process is usually roughly the same everytime : I register for a tournament, and about a month or 2 before the event, I fidget around for a list that I like, build it and play the tournament. And I kinda like to get decent results out of it.
Learning Curve Hack 1 :
Find a list and tweak around. I won’t play 100+ games with this army, if my list has to carry my lack of skills through victory, so be it. I’ve
I’m really pro-netlisting as a gamer ( i.e. Taking a list from the internet and building it point for point ) for multiple reasons.
1- I don’t like list building. It’s not a part of the hobby I enjoy, so if I can go around it, all the better.
2- Some playtest has been done for you! Let’s assume you copy The Long War Khorne Daemonkin list from Horton, you can be sure that the list has been played 15+ games easily and that any choices that weren’t working were fixed.
Now you might like to be more involved with list building than me, and I can’t blame you. However, looking around forums and groups for similar lists can really speed up the process of weeding out unplayable units. Keeping up with our example, take Horton’s list, but swap one of the formation for the Terminator formation, you get a nice compromise for something devastating to play and units you like.
Learning Curve Hack 2 :
I value a lot the first game with an army, sometimes the only one I have prior to a tournament. You have to make it count. Technically, there are 3 things to playtest : Scenarios, Tactics, and Matchups.
Scenarios are quite obvious : Figuring out how to play certain missions with your list. This is relevant with comnplex missions like the Nova missions, where you pick your own objectives.
Tactics involves testing a specific way to play your army, notably, do you want to alpha strike the crap out of your opponent, or reserving every unit but one like a madman. Knowing the general outcome of each of those plans is quite great in not getting tabled on turn one.
Matchups are harder to test simply because it’s much more time consuming and involves another player matching your skill level – and with the army you want to play against.
Yeah, all that’s great, but what about that 1st game?
Play a book mission verus any opponent that knows the rules of his own army. Including none of the above categories of playtest, the 1st game is getting a grip with your army. It’s really hard to figure out anything else besides what goes where, who should roll which powers and getting an overall sense of your army- i.e. Not having the « Oh, those Centurions don’t have power fists in dem big hands » moment at the tournament.
Game one is called getting a grip, buying a clue, dipping your toe in the water or what have you. And hey, if you have time for more than one game, bully! You get to playtest some of the more hardcore stuff.
Learning Curve Hack 3 :
Cheat Sheets, Bookmarks, Cards, and Doodads.
I’m a big supporter in the toploader sleeved cards to mark psychic powers gifts and other things with a dry erase pen.
But really, any play aid you bring is beneficial.
It helps you but also is quite useful for your opponents so they don’t feel cheated with who has what, specially in armies such as the seer Council or Daemons where you have 10+ different psykers.
Bookmarks or the neon sticky-things in the pictures are great for stats and model only special rules that you don’t have memorized.
Cheat sheets are easy to make to include a brief summary of a lot of rules. This is great with armies such as the war convocation with seemingly endless special rules, or rules you have to check or roll for every turn, like the Warpstorm Table
Lastly, tokens or cards for active buffs and bonuses are quite nice. Get one for each Doctrine your gladius has and put them away once they’re used. These will serve not only to keep track of what you’ve used, but also as a reminder to actually use them.
The same thing applies when your thunderdome unit is invisible, endurance, force, sanctuary, hammerhand, prescience, veil of time, and that one dude has warp speed.
All of these gaming accessories serve 2 big purposes in learning the ins and outs of an army. First, it makes everything clear for both you and your opponent. Special rules are only good when you remember to use them. Second, they allow you to focus on what’s going on and winning games rather than having your focus on remebering every single details.
This may not seem like much, but over the course of a tournament with 4 games per day, mental fatigue takes it’s toll on even the best of us.
Those were my top 3 tricks for getting something decent out of every new army I try. Yours may be different and I’d love to hear them, so feel free to post them in the comments below!
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About the Author: Hellfire Hobbies
Max Dubois is a hobby enthusiast from Quebec. Max produces a lot of hobby ressources that you can find on his own blog as well as well as on Spikey Bits.
He is always ready to talk shop with other enthusiasts, whether it’s about, painting, playing or drinking, no matter your skill level in either those activities.
You can also find some of his work on amazon kindle, where he sells hobby e-books for a dollar!
