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Well this thread got somewhat venomous relatively quickly.

Ultimately, Vassal can be a hardcore scene, so try to make it clear that you're pretty new to this or need to build up skill. While we can debate on the learning merits of going easy on an opponent until we're blue in the face it is still something you can do. You will of course, ultimately need to accept that you'll probably lose quite frequently. Especially as you're playing an army that is so much at the mercy of the dice and has one of the steepest learning curves in the game. However, ultimately a Daemons army can be quite rewarding once you learn the ropes.

As for the screamer star, the way to beat it is to kill the guy with the grimoire. He does not, under any circumstances ever get the benefit of the Grimoire, so sniping him out is an option. I mean, I've seen Grey knights sniping the guy dead with a vindicaire, leaving the entire unit painfully vulnerable to getting wiped out by Grey Knight mid-short range shooting. Essentially costing the Daemons player the game. And they can do this repeatedly, to the point where whenever someone sees a Daemons list from anyone in my circle of players known to run screamer stars, they'll show up with either grey knights or grey knights allies, snipe out the Herald, and then massacre the now vulnerable screamers.

Or they just barrage snipe the holy hell out of the grimoire wielder until he's a bunch of meaty daemon chunks.

I would recommend going to the battle report section of dakkadakka. That tends to be the most constructive tactical discussions and they tend to be more enjoyable reads. Try mimicking some of the tourney winners there until you get a feel for what works. You could also post lists in the list section to get them optimized and ask for tactical advice on said list. Most of all though just play games and don't keep score. Everyone is different and some of the better players I know lost their first 50 games or so. Above any of these I would recommend finding people you enjoy playing with win or loose. That way you learn and have fun.

Most importantly don't let anyone else tell you what you think or poison your enjoyment of the hobby. Some of the comments in this thread are extreme and frankly disappointing.

To the people in this thread honestly why are you so adamant on turning this thread into another place to shout out about how broken such and such is or how the ___ nazi ruins the game. This is all completely aside from the point of how a new player gets to winning games.

 ansacs wrote:
I would recommend going to the battle report section of dakkadakka. That tends to be the most constructive tactical discussions and they tend to be more enjoyable reads. Try mimicking some of the tourney winners there until you get a feel for what works. You could also post lists in the list section to get them optimized and ask for tactical advice on said list. Most of all though just play games and don't keep score. Everyone is different and some of the better players I know lost their first 50 games or so. Above any of these I would recommend finding people you enjoy playing with win or loose. That way you learn and have fun.

Most importantly don't let anyone else tell you what you think or poison your enjoyment of the hobby. Some of the comments in this thread are extreme and frankly disappointing.

To the people in this thread honestly why are you so adamant on turning this thread into another place to shout out about how broken such and such is or how the ___ nazi ruins the game. This is all completely aside from the point of how a new player gets to winning games.

I'll second this - the battle reports section is a bit more work, but you get much better discussions. If you feel up to it, try posting some battle reports of your own - you'll get good feedback on specific ways to improve your play, both with your own army and against other specific armies.

Ooh Peregrine and Ailaros arguing.... haven't seen one of those for a little while. Late night entertainment .

Anyways, I have to agree with Talore on his first post - you need to converse about your games with your fellow friends at your club and whatever. Their advice will be better than ours, after all - you aren't going to be playing us, you are going to be playing them.

Kain wrote:so try to make it clear that you're pretty new to this or need to build up skill.

ansacs wrote:I would recommend going to the battle report section of dakkadakka... You could also post lists in the list section to get them optimized and ask for tactical advice on said list... Above any of these I would recommend finding people you enjoy playing with win or loose. That way you learn and have fun.

Most importantly don't let anyone else tell you what you think or poison your enjoyment of the hobby. Some of the comments in this thread are extreme and frankly disappointing.

Or, I suppose, to sum up this whole thread - talk to people. Talk to your opponents to level your expectations, and talk to other people about ways to help. Basically doing what you're doing now, but moreso.

There's just no substitute for good communication.

So long as, as ansacs notes, you don't let other people's negative emotions drag you down.

While I never played Vassal, couldn't it be possible, you can be good in Vassal and still be no good when actually playing on the table top?

I mean since the platform is different but same rules, it can look different on the table top and might throw off the player.

Plus real dice always roll poorly.

Wow, this thread went pretty sour. Thanks for the advice everyone, I think I'll leave this thread as it is and try to work on my playing skills. Don't want to see more arguing.

SneakyDragon wrote:
Wow, this thread went pretty sour. Thanks for the advice everyone, I think I'll leave this thread as it is and try to work on my playing skills. Don't want to see more arguing.

Don't worry, we are usually courteous . Well, I try to be at least. But like I said, for a question like this, your fellow gamers are going to be able to help a lot more than we can

You know what I'd recommend? Playing a 500 point objective based game in person against a friend. Don't jump in the deep end of Vassal at 1500 points against random anonymous people. Part of the fun of the hobby is sitting down in person and rolling some dice.
Then just play a bunch more, read some strategies online, buy more models, eventually get tired of the game, move on to something else, etc. The usual lifecycle