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I was just wondering how much effort people put into being "good" at a war-game?



For me personally, not much. I don't practice per say and don't keep my forces up with the trends. If I do go to a big tournament(see excuse to paint stuff), I check out the net lists/combos/tricks just to see what I may be up against and generally read the rulebook and my codex/armybook/whatever before I go, but that's about it.

The reason I was thinking about this is that I was thinking that if money and time were no object and if someone had no other interests, what would keep them from dominating whatever war-game they wanted?

i keep the crap/fun ratio in mind

ill keep going as long as the fun outweighs the crap

when they even out i stop

for example if youre playing a game of inches and your opponent is quibbling over a millimeter...thats crap outweighing the fun right there. I cut the crap by giving him that millimeter.

The only effort i have is making a balanced list using at least 3/4 the units i like.

I don't make a WAAC list, nor do i make a junk one.

When rules arguments start, i lose intrest in the game, and with a GW game.. there is alot of those.

As Roderick Cassell explains to Jon Snow:

"There will always be someone bigger and stronger than you."

Everyone wants to be "good" at the game they play, but if that's the only motivation then you might as well be at home playing against your PC.

I will almost always build a balanced list for a game, but once in a while, depending on the opponent, I'll make a harder list (for a tournament or competitive player) or a softer list if that's what we're in the mood for. Even so, I don't buy my models to build a tournament list, and while I do try and win every game I play, it's not why I play. Being a good person to play with is better than being a good player.

once you understand the rules i think it os easy to be a medium-good player if you understand basic strategy of a game. but ye to be good takes knowing every army out there and how to handle them well. this can be accomplished by reading alot of lists and battlereports online, or by playign the game alot (my prefered method) usually a combo approach will yeield the best results though

I read the codexes and rulebook every once in a while so I at least know what my armies do. I also actually sit down with a paper and pencil and wirte out my lists. Other than that, nothing. I don't practice or anything. I just care about playing my army correctly by knowing their rules so I don't cheat myself or others.

I read the rules, and get army books and codexes for armies I like weather I'll buy the models or not. I'll ready em and then promply forget 99% of the rules I just read. Only reason I really play at all is to have an excuse to do something with the models I can't stop painting. I could care less if I win or lose, which is probably why I lose pretty much every game I play

I just put all my effort into not being bad at the games I play. If I turn out good at them that is just icing on the cake.

I put in enough effort to learn 40k to the point where I don't feel like I make silly mistakes like charging a unit into something that will mulch it for free.

If you want to play a truly competitive game, tabletop wargaming isn't really the place to be anyways. While I am told that older editions were much worse than the current state, coming from a major competitive gaming background including MtG and SC:BW, walking in and looking at the state of the rulesets does not give me an impression of being designed for competition. Massive quantities of open rule questions that still haven't been officially addressed, slow turnaround time, zero effort to rebalance the game across releases.

The goal of the game is to win, of course, but that's not the point, if you catch my meaning. I'm more concerned with being a good "general" than a good "player." I want to develop my ability to produce overall strategies, to adapt and react effectively to my opponent (and to occasionally make suicidal blunders for the comedic, narrative, and/or cinematic effect). I want to learn the rules so I can have a faster, more fluid game, not so I can argue the semantics until my opponent caves and I lose one less model. I enjoy reading tactica and unit evaluations, but I stop at the level of research - those can guide my selections where I lack experience, but they don't govern my lists.

This is why I've never gotten into competitive gaming, in pretty much any form - the tighter the competition, the more it feels like people are training to play the rules, not the game. Even if it's all grounded in numbers, I prefer a more equal distribution between the art and science of play.

TLDR: A bit.

I try to build my armies up to the current competitive trends.

As for practice, sadly I don't get to play as often as I'd like since we have a 4 and 1 year old to deal with and my main opponent is my wife. I do spend some time researching tactics for my armies though.

As much time as I spend painting an Army I would like it to do well. However the best part of this game comes from the other people, not even the players walking by the table and stopping to admire the look of an army.

"Wow that looks cool," or "Can I see that," or "I saw those guys and had to see one up close," and various other remarks about the actual minis themselves. Obviously other gamer's appreciate a painted force as well, and we can often tell the difference between a spray painted model a dipped model and on that the player/artist took special care to make. Sure we all understand why someone will be running their grays from time to time but a casual observer will pass right over them.

If I just wanted to win I'd net deck and buy all the needed meta game models and then commission someone else to paint it for me (now I know that some people do this for time or because they are too timid to try the painting craft or various other reasons) and then just roll up to a tourney claim credit for the paint job all myself and then become a rules lawyer and then alienate all the players until they all hated me and then started beating my army because all I do is net deck the meta and then I quite the game in frustration becuase thye all got better and I'm just a jerk....sorry rant, have dealt with plenty of big fish little pond in my time of gaming.

Back to O/T

I put in the effort to be an effective player. If go .500 in every tourney I play in I'd be happy. Now if my list was constantly getting hammered I would make adjustments, losing sucks, lets face it, and no one wants to lose all the time. So if my list plays well enough for me to win 1/2 of my games I'm a happy man. Because the real joy comes from having fun with the multiple aspects of this hobby. And playing is only 1 part of that.

I do quite a bit of homework regarding lists/warcasters/warlocks/spells/feats/combos that I may run into in both casual play and tournaments. I put quite a bit of time into building my own lists, and I invest a fair amount financially into the various armies/factions that I play.

I win the vast majority of my games, but it's not through rules lawyering or HA GOTCHA! ubercheese. Powerful model combinations, yes, certainly but also an understanding of what they do, what they don't do, and the same for my opponents'.

And ultimately this is why I like wargaming. Those who do their homework are rewarded. That there is more visual and thematic diversity than chess, but a greater sense of ownership and personal involvement/investment than computer games is also a nice bonus.

Enough so that I don't suck, and that I know all the rules. From there, its just a matter of playing games and finding a comfortable play-style. When I'm no longer having fun, I'm trying too hard.

I've always been into RTS games from a very early age (C&C, Dune, Red Alert) so I love the strategic part of war gaming and I like to try and pull off tactics on the table that I've thought of. Mostly don't work but I like to give my opponent a good match.

If we both just rolled over and just rushed at each other I would find that boring. I like a good challenge but I find that fun?

Hi all.
Stage 1.Find a rule set I realy like , and learn it.

Stage 2. Find the army-race-faction I realy like.

Stage3.Collect my army -race -faction and assemble -convert -paint them to the best of my abilities.

Stage 4.Play and learn how to use my favorite army-race-faction to the best of my abilities!Then play some more !

My club plays a variety of rulesets, so I'm not terribly worried about learning (or learning-how-to-break) a game or faction. This is especially true when a given army may be using an entirely different ruleset in a few weeks/months.

My focus is on learning the rules as fast as possible and knowing them well enough that the game can proceed at a pace that will ensure that we are having fun playing rather than spending time "ruling".

That is not to say that I don't try to improve as a player and stragegist of games that we play more often, but for me the focus is getting my toys on the table with like-minded friends.

I play to try and be competitive in the hopes to win.

I don't play a lot of pick up games anymore but when I was trying to learn my 'chops' I played at least 2 or 3 games a week.

Sinking more money and more time into warhammer is not like magic the gathering or other 'collectible' type games because even if you have the most expensive figure it doesn't ensure a real advantage.

In the 'old days' having a pro painted army really mattered and those that were willing to sink 500 to 1000 or more could get enough tournament points to equal playing a whole additional game. I am glad that most of the larger tournaments have closed that gap.

Lately I haven't had time to study my dex and I haven't had time to give proper thought to my army lists, strategy, etc. I have to admit, it bites. It is nice being able to play, but when I don't have the time to put in on the pre-game, I don't play my best and that annoys me. My opponents don't seem to mind, though, since they win more!