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I think my issue is I get a bit too intimidated. As a fairly new player on a grand scale, this makes a bit of sense. But I've finally begun to develop a sense of pacification of it all. An example would be right when Imperial Knights came out, my first game in weeks happened to feature one. I was all flustered about it, not sure how to go about handling, yet after the first match I realized I should have really just left it alone. It wasn't doing much, really only Stomps were scaring me since I was running almost nothing but slogging boyz anyway. The damn thing had no real use, or worthwhile targets, and couldn't chase away enough of my units to matter. But I was throwing stuff I shouldn't have at it, which cost me the game in the end.

Now that I've begun to play more and more factions, I'm starting to get what I need to worry about and what I don't, and what I should be sending into what. I've also learned to let the small things go. Dice are dice. Dice used to bug me. But now, I just laugh if my 100 attacks only amount to a total of 4 wounds that their armor shrugs off. gak happens!

I've also found I used to wrinkle my nose in annoyance at special rules that seemed too good, or were just dirty. But now I've begun to accept it and roll with the punches. My biggest beef for a while was Marine drop pods. DS turn one used to infuriate me. I found it cheap, annoying, and overall just unfun to have 15 or more marines camping out in front of me. Now, I find it more funny than anything. Spreading myself out to give less than optimal landing zones, and wrecking their guys on turn two with the sheer volume of bodies that they can't possibly hope to shrink to worthwhile degrees in just one round of shooting. (Two if you count overwatch but, yeah...usually doesn't matter).

Maelstrom missions often hinge on ruinning or moving flat out.

I think Maelstrom can really be fun, but it can definitely be frustrating. My opponent once couldn't get a single objective, and was down 10-2 or something like that with 2 turns left. He started to orchestrate the biggest comeback ever, and if he had made one more inch on two independent run moves, he would have had all the objectives and won the game. If the maelstrom cards aren't working for you, gradually discard and try and prevent your opponent from getting his... Eventually your luck will change...

A common problem I find among other noobs is forgetting that their troops are allowed to move backwards and away from my charging boyz, as opposed to just sitting there...

One example I can give is getting to focused on your opponent's intercept and deploying something you should have put into reserve. What ya think, Leth?

 Krusha wrote:
A common problem I find among other noobs is forgetting that their troops are allowed to move backwards and away from my charging boyz, as opposed to just sitting there,,,

So true. When yer bout to get charged, losing one shot per guy and then shooting twice befofre the charge seems wiser than "getting the extra shot in now. Pulls them that much more out of position and if yer gonna lose a unit anyways, at least let the mserve to badly position the enemy!

Oh, I just thought of another one to avoid:

Getting frustrated because you can't kill unit X/ kill it easily. Sometimes, ignoring it, picking the low hanging fruit and racking up the victory points will get you victory - you may even be able to deal with it at the end if you have crippled the rest of his army.

 Krusha wrote:
A common problem I find among other noobs is forgetting that their troops are allowed to move backwards and away from my charging boyz, as opposed to just sitting there...

Obviously this was behind them:

People use to tell me this is like a game of chess. I tried playing wh40k like chess and it does not help. Can anyone explain how wh40k is like chess?

 Filch wrote:
People use to tell me this is like a game of chess. I tried playing wh40k like chess and it does not help. Can anyone explain how wh40k is like chess?

In both games, it's considered poor sportsmanship to move pieces around when your opponent isn't looking.

 Lord Blackscale wrote:
One example I can give is getting to focused on your opponent's intercept and deploying something you should have put into reserve. What ya think, Leth?

You were there, you know what happened.......

Forgot to play to the mission, let a tactic control my movement, in Addition I still tried to rush the tau lines going second instead of just sitting back, and playing conservatively. In that mission him having all three secondaries made it nearly impossible for me to win(woohoo bao). So I should have been more careful about first blood and warlord.

O well, it was great practice and a heads up on things to be concerned about with these mission types.

The most common mental mistake I see in my games, whether pro or brand new players, is trying to preserve their units. In chess, it's a perfectly acceptable move to lose one of your pieces in exchange for killing one of theirs of equal rank, yet in 40k people are (often) loathe to use a favored unit if they can afford it, even if it means a loss of efficiency. People will be so scared of Knights that they hide everything far away, making their whole armies shooting much less effective. This is just a mindset, are you willing to make sacrifices or not? When victory is the goal, you should be willing to sacrifice anything in your army. Some of my best games came down to me having nothing left but a few units of Rippers hiding behind a wall, but claiming three objectives...

 Filch wrote:
People use to tell me this is like a game of chess. I tried playing wh40k like chess and it does not help. Can anyone explain how wh40k is like chess?

Chess is a good analogy for 40k in this way: You get better at both games by predicting what will happen on subsequent turns. Boys in a truck - just because there's been lots of ork examples used so far. Based on where my units are, what will they do turn one? Turn two? Turn Three? If you think about it for a moment, you can probably guess what they'll do. Just like you can probably guess what the riptide will shoot at. Or where the melta-marines will drop. Ok, well what about if I deploy this tank over there, and stick the veterans on the other side... See where I'm going here? Your enemy things he's moving his units, but he's reacting to what you do. So you're really moving his units for him.

Remember, there's only 5-7 turns in a game, and most units can't just teleport around the map at will. Once a unit is deployed, the number of options it has are sharply limited.

Ok - but here is my suggestion for the thread. Pay attention to the order you do things! So many people fall into the trap of moving/shooting/assaulting their units from left to right. Or right to left. Or whatever. Units with the least options should go first, and units with the most options should go last. The basilisk can shoot anything on the board, so just wait and see. Melta next to a tank? They really only have one "option" for their shooting phase. So let them go first.

Interesting timing on a article on BOLS... Just saying.

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/11/mental-training-and-wargaming-three.html

For whatever reason people box them selves in with movement, I see this all the time with people not understanding that you do not in fact have to move your troops always at a 90 degree angle.

It's so weird.

A lot of this is quite enlightening, but sometimes it's hard to stay objective and not get frustrated.
During this week's game, by the end of my opponent's first turn (I hadn't played yet) the score was 4-0. By the end of turn 3 it was 12-1. We called it quits, I wasn't frustrated that he got extremely lucky with his objectives and we had terrible luck but sometimes it just takes the fun out for both teams. We just stop games when they get like that. We talked about it afterwards and neither team was sad the game ended, just a little sad we didn't get a closer game, those are the best.

Definitely I agree with the 'expending troops' mindset. This goes double if you have an army that has to spend the first two turns getting repeatedly hoofed in the vulnerables with no way to respond.

At the same time, it's amazing how often you can make a game close - or even not close at all - by remembering the objective. One of my favourite games was against a competently handled nurgle daemon army, with what can best be described as "all the biomancy in the world" that I could not hurt. At all.

But about a turn and a half from the end of the game, he realised that all three daemon princes sat confidently on objectives were in combat with wave after wave of termagant units.....and that the tervigons stood next to them had Objective Secured and the Daemon Princes didn't....

Order of actions is definitely important. Fight the melee with the termagants first, then have the tervigon Smash the tank. The number of times (when not thinking) that I've hit the tank first, had it blow up and take a dozen or more termagants with it is ridiculous.

I often face the mental trap of "Unit's role". People decide or are told what unit X should be doing and they always try to stick to the plan. Even though, it might be benefical to act differently.

For example, a bunch of space marines trying to wreck a nearby skimmer with bolters and double-tap plazma even though, they could have just went closer, shot a bunch of bolt pistols, thrown a krak nade and finished it off in mellee more reliably.

 Filch wrote:
People use to tell me this is like a game of chess. I tried playing wh40k like chess and it does not help. Can anyone explain how wh40k is like chess?

In brief, every piece attacks a certain way, and anticipating that attack and countering it while sacrificing certain units for the end game position is what happens in Chess. And like Chess, positional Dominance usually wins. Movement is an under appreciated weapon. Even just physically BEING in a spot, which necessarily means the enemy cannot move its damaging Bishop without offering checkmate, can be as good as a kill shot in melee.

And like in chess, sometimes the best move you make is the one you don't.

 reiner wrote:
A little "sleight of hand" for lack of a better term is a trap I like to exploit in mission based games. A unit out of sight, or not necessarily being used (not moving or active in shooting/assaulting) will tend to disappear from an opponent's mental picture of the battle field, and sometimes even your own! I've made some stellar moves by jumping out from behind terrain at the right time to claim/deny an objective or to sideswipe an enemy. Of course, I've had a couple of times where I've literally had a unit hidden behind some ruins until I'm cleaning up post-game.

I've lost games due to my opponent doing this. He had parked a single Genestealer out of LoS and jumped out onto an objective on the last turn. I've since learned my lesson and try to keep track of all of his stuff.

As far as psychological warfare goes, or setting a mental trap for your opponent, I've considered trying to build the most fluff-violating army I can and see if it distracts my opponent enough to give me an edge. Something like GK + Daemons, or Dark Eldar and Slaanesh Daemons.

I think eldar and slaanesh daemons would be more violating than dark eldar and slaanesh daemons.

Yep, I have started printing off stat cards for my units with pictures. It is a cool little fluffy thing(that nets you those hobbyist points) as well as help me keep track of which units are still alive/dead. It also allows me to put wound counters on individual character cards that is much easier to keep track of in a unit like T-Wolves rather than have the dice on the model that get moved or lost.

I also offer a set to my opponent with all the special rules that each unit has as well as equipment. I personally don't like to win because my opponent just didn't know. So I give them the opportunity and if they don't use it then its on them.

But this ties into another issue I see all the time. People NOT reading your opponents army lists. This happens a LOT at GT's where I play someone and they really don't ask any questions. I am more than happy to offer additional information(and tangential information) if they ask because as said above I don't want someone to feel like they lost because I was "Hiding" something. I try to ask questions of the list, during set up, making sure I got the models right, etc. I don't want to be suprised by something on turn 4, and many times because of these questions I can catch when an opponent is making a mistake.

Biggest example of this I have experienced is that I was in round three of a GT, and on his army list he had forgotten to include meltaguns in the costs for his units. We agreed to just remove one unit and leave it at that. But the fact that no one before me caught it really says something.

I think this also ties into another issue I think people have with 40k is the issue of "secrecy" and I don't mean like sharing your objective for two turns in advance, I mean for things like what your plans are for that turn. So for example, one of the things I like to do is before any dice/movement are involved I like to pre-measure things. So before I move I will say things like "Alright can we agree that they are X inches from the target unit?" I find that it solves a lot of rules issues/debates about distance when their is nothing currently on the line. I find that some people feel the need to hide things even when their opponent has no ability to react to it.

Same with asking about rules, they wait until it is actually in progress and there are investments in the results to ask about rules, rather than bringing it up either at the start of the game or when it might be obvious that it will come up.

 Leth wrote:
Yep, I have started printing off stat cards for my units with pictures. It is a cool little fluffy thing(that nets you those hobbyist points) as well as help me keep track of which units are still alive/dead. It also allows me to put wound counters on individual character cards that is much easier to keep track of in a unit like T-Wolves rather than have the dice on the model that get moved or lost.

I also offer a set to my opponent with all the special rules that each unit has as well as equipment. I personally don't like to win because my opponent just didn't know. So I give them the opportunity and if they don't use it then its on them.

That's quite an interesting idea. Do you mind posting one or two so we can have a look?
I might be interested in nicking the idea for myself

I use the magic card editor program and the 40k templates from here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/412461.page

There are sample pictures there as well, its fantastic.

That is awesome........ thank you!