I have noted that in the last couple of games I have played that there came a moment where the odds seemed daunting, and (once for me, and once for my opponent) thoughts of throwing in the towel started to emerge. At the end of the day, the person with their back to the wall (again once for me, once for my opponent) pulled out a win.
The first time I actually saw the shot and walked him through the kill (he had wanted to give up at the end of my turn). I know Warmachine can be a discouraging game, and when in one turn you lose half your jacks and the other half are knocked down or autonomous, one can have a hard time seeing the outs. Long story short(ish) he ended up adding a notch to Caine's gun belt, and Durgen went off with some new battle damage in his armor.
Last time game I played I found myself in a similar situation. The only reason I even made it into the next turn was a missed scatter roll keeping Thor alive with 1 point of damage (but on fire). Start of the turn Thor put himself out, slammed with the avalacher, knocked everyone down, the lone remaining forgeguard got a charge off, and Durgen finished him off with a boosted pow 14. If I hadn't rolled that out and stuck with it, I would have lost.
The Art of War talks about the idea of dead mans land (or some such title) the idea that if your men have nowhere to retreat, they will fight to the last. In a similar vein when you are down to a hail mary (something that works better in some games than others), play it out. At worst you made a gallant last stand, at best you have one of those "there I was surrounded by..." stories that make those of us of a mathematical persuasion cringe as you beat the odds.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Advanced Deploy - Are you doing it wrong?
Many games have a rule that lets you setup your little dudes on the table at some point after your opponent. On top of that there tends to be some kind of addition to your deployment area dependent upon the game you are playing.
From a Warmachine perspective most people seem to only view this as an extra 6 inches that your men have to move first turn and leave it at that. This seems a bit short sighted to me and often gets your scouting forces killed early (this can also hold true in 40k with infiltrators). I often see bemoaning posts about how I deployed my guys way out there, and they got killed. They will then often go off about how unit X is a bad unit. Often (as I have learned from personal experience) the fault lies on the Gigantic side of things, not the little.
Often we, as the leaders of hordes of plastic and metal armies, seek to maximize an "advantage" to the point it is detrimental to the fictitious lives of our charges. I would like to wax philosophical a bit about what goes through my mind when I look into pushing guys into no mans land.
I am not left handed... (or getting to deploy once you have seen some of your opponents strength)
This is the biggest strength (IMHO) of an advance deployment, you get to place your models after your opponent does. WHAT?!?!?
In my mind and experience, the ability to deny a flank, take an objective early or that will be hard for your foe to get to, and/or show up to the party with all your friends is a much bigger part of the ability than just the extra deployment. Several armies across game systems use this strategy well and often.
In the 40k universe Deathwing and drop pod armies actually are toward the top of this list for me. Not only do these guys deploy after you, but they do so during their first turn. How many of them do so is up to you. In Warmachine, the ability to set up in cover, on a hill, or overlooking an objective or choke point can be the difference between victory or defeat.
You should be aware of the counter to this mentality "I am not left handed either". This is basically where your wily adversary has units he gets to deploy after you... the big thing here is to not over extend yourself and leave some easily exploitable weakness for someone to exploit.
Location, Location, Location
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. This builds on the logic above, once you know where your opponent is and how you are to crush them, look at the terrain. Can you set up where you aren't walking into a death trap? Even better can you deploy somewhere there is a strategic advantage? Are you denying some thing, threatening something, or just there because it is 16" out?
Basically, wasted movement is bad, make sure you have a reason for what you are doing.
A little bit of real estate
Finally we come to the first thing people think of, so it will probably what I talk about the least. Hey look I get an extra X" of deployment... IF your army consists of blood thristy savages who's soul purpose in the universe is to get into hand to hand as quickly as possible (Doom Reavers spring to mind), by all means deploy as close as you can to your opponent and run screaming into their lines. I would like to point out however, that this is using both countering your opponents deployment (GAR ME NO HAVE TO GO AS FAR TO SMASH) and probably location (GAR MUD ICKY AND SLOW ME DOWN... NO KILL FAST).
From a Warmachine perspective most people seem to only view this as an extra 6 inches that your men have to move first turn and leave it at that. This seems a bit short sighted to me and often gets your scouting forces killed early (this can also hold true in 40k with infiltrators). I often see bemoaning posts about how I deployed my guys way out there, and they got killed. They will then often go off about how unit X is a bad unit. Often (as I have learned from personal experience) the fault lies on the Gigantic side of things, not the little.
Often we, as the leaders of hordes of plastic and metal armies, seek to maximize an "advantage" to the point it is detrimental to the fictitious lives of our charges. I would like to wax philosophical a bit about what goes through my mind when I look into pushing guys into no mans land.
I am not left handed... (or getting to deploy once you have seen some of your opponents strength)
This is the biggest strength (IMHO) of an advance deployment, you get to place your models after your opponent does. WHAT?!?!?
In my mind and experience, the ability to deny a flank, take an objective early or that will be hard for your foe to get to, and/or show up to the party with all your friends is a much bigger part of the ability than just the extra deployment. Several armies across game systems use this strategy well and often.
In the 40k universe Deathwing and drop pod armies actually are toward the top of this list for me. Not only do these guys deploy after you, but they do so during their first turn. How many of them do so is up to you. In Warmachine, the ability to set up in cover, on a hill, or overlooking an objective or choke point can be the difference between victory or defeat.
You should be aware of the counter to this mentality "I am not left handed either". This is basically where your wily adversary has units he gets to deploy after you... the big thing here is to not over extend yourself and leave some easily exploitable weakness for someone to exploit.
Location, Location, Location
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. This builds on the logic above, once you know where your opponent is and how you are to crush them, look at the terrain. Can you set up where you aren't walking into a death trap? Even better can you deploy somewhere there is a strategic advantage? Are you denying some thing, threatening something, or just there because it is 16" out?
Basically, wasted movement is bad, make sure you have a reason for what you are doing.
A little bit of real estate
Finally we come to the first thing people think of, so it will probably what I talk about the least. Hey look I get an extra X" of deployment... IF your army consists of blood thristy savages who's soul purpose in the universe is to get into hand to hand as quickly as possible (Doom Reavers spring to mind), by all means deploy as close as you can to your opponent and run screaming into their lines. I would like to point out however, that this is using both countering your opponents deployment (GAR ME NO HAVE TO GO AS FAR TO SMASH) and probably location (GAR MUD ICKY AND SLOW ME DOWN... NO KILL FAST).
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