With our first tournament in the South east of England, and the US masters generating more excitement than the Euro football thingy, I’ve been having a think about the higher level of gaming. What makes an exceptional player? Again and again you see the same names near the top of the lists. I’ve barely met any of the Americans and yet I look down the list and seem to know who they are and what armies they use. I know many of the English players and even though I attend many tournaments there are plenty of the top gamers I don’t know either. I’m good at the game, but I’m not exceptional. I’m a good mid table kinda guy. So why aren’t I exceptional?
For a start, I’m not hungry for the win. I love it when I do, and am frustrated when I don’t but no matter what I always remind myself that it’s just a game and not worth getting upset over. Having worked in a Games Workshop store and having lost to mere children hundreds of times, it pretty much gives you the tools to accept defeat graciously. Plus training competitively with steel weapons gives you no room to get angry or people get hurt. You accept your hits. If you don’t like losing then analyse your mistakes and train harder. So I play for fun, and if it stops being fun then it’s no longer a game.
Secondly, I could play chess, but I love Kings of War. Both are strategy games but it is the spectacle of the armies that draws my love. I adore the miniatures and crafting and painting a force and that creates another obstacle to me winning games. I want to paint certain models because I love them, not spending huge amounts of money and time creating specific units just to win a game (that particular trend pretty much killed 40k for me). For example I currently have about 40 Empire of Dust archers built and waiting to be painted. By all accounts they are terrible in the game but I love the look of massed skeletal archers and bugger me, wether they are fantastic or utter codswallop, I shall paint and use them! I love the army reviews and listen and read intently which units are good or not but that still does little to sway me-I paint models I want to play with and enjoy the process of learning how they play in the game.
And that leads me to my next problem. I get sidetracked easily. I’m constantly switching armies because I want to paint fun new things. I have several armies and while I can stay focussed and paint new armies for tournaments, I often just paint new units for my existing forces in between just to keep things exciting. This mainly means that I rarely stay with an army long enough to learn all it’s ins and outs and become better with it. As time goes on with this process, all my armies slowly get bigger and bigger and I’m getting more options to make better army lists.
And that leads me to my last problem. Because of this process I’ve learned to enjoy learning how the armies work through actual gaming. There is a difference between looking at a unit entry on a rulebook page and understanding it to be a bit poo and actually playing with it and seeing how it can be used in actuality. With every victory or defeat I learn a little bit more of my units and lists and how they perform and what fun units I can add in to make it better. Sometimes those units will be fantastic, some may not be and I add it because it looks good but every game I learn a little bit more. So I’m enjoying the journey of the game, and maybe, just maybe the destination of that journey is exceptionalism. So hold on tightly to those champion pants Dan King, one day, probably far, far, in the future I may be coming to cut your knicker elastic!
LEVEL UP! Part 2.
So looking at what makes an exceptional player now I’ve got my own crippling inadequacies out of the way!
There are a huge amount of aspects to Kings of War and looking at any list of tournament players shows that there is a huge variation in any particular race. There are 26 (I think, I didn’t bother to count) to choose from and that no race is overwhelming chosen over the others indicates that they are pretty balanced between them. In essence this means that a good player can win with any race they choose as long as they’re good enough. The winner of the US masters won with the Herd, an army that many consider one of the weakest.
But again, what makes an exceptional player? I’ve noticed that there are several layers to the game and you can win or lose at any of them. Indeed you can quite happily be successful at any level but I’m looking at the exceptional.
Level 1! Point and click! This is easy mode and becomes terrifying in the hands of a good player. It basically involves taking the hardest units you can and shoving them down your opponents throat. While this has been mitigated somewhat with the huge re-balancing of 3rd edition, the Drakon riders, Twilight kin chariots and formations of 2nd ed still echo through eternity. Super hard units still exist but they are carefully watched by the rules committee and are addressed yearly in the Clash of Kings updates to keep the power levels balanced. Even so, taking a lot of fast, tough or huge units can be hard to deal with and can provide an easy win. A good player will always have ways to deal it but it becomes more of a challenge. A full cavalry army, multiple ice elemental hordes, flying armies, armies of def6 units, lots of flyers….. all can be a headache. Point them at the enemy and smash their face in.
Level 2! The toolbox! A good player will have the right tools for the job. Taking good units is one thing, but getting the best out of them is another. Using disposable units to deliver your attack, softening the enemy before you get them, making sure the right units are inspired or supported….. It’s a matter of choosing the right units to do what what you need them to do. In a way this level is about fine tuning your army to a level of finesse. Most tournament players exist at this level and at the higher end of the spectrum you learn that aside from just killing the enemy, you know that you need an army that can fulfil the scenario objectives in order to win. You learn that even seemingly rubbish units on paper can win you a game if used correctly. You learn that units might seem amazing but just aren’t worth their points.
Level 3! Never be where the enemy wants you to be. It’s a game of ranks and flanks and that means positioning your units to the optimal, making sure you get every angle and distance correct. At this level it’s less a fight and more of a dance. Shambling units and surge add extra angles that your opponent has to think about, enthral and wind blast can pull/push units out of position giving you even more to think about. Flyers/nimble/height all add dimensions to those angles and distances. It’s all about forcing your opponent into making choices he doesn’t want to make. The better you out manoeuvre an opponent the more of those bad choices he has to make. Looking at that Herd army list that won the US masters, it had a lot of speed and flyers including 3 beasts of nature. In the hands of an exceptional player that’s a lot of ways to get put in places you don’t want to be. A winning list doesn’t necessarily mean winning player. A lesser player might lose nerve and charge too quickly or tarry too long before striking but in this case clearly did the trick and he came away with the gold!
This is all my speculation, it might be genius insight and give you ideas on how to play better or it might be total hogwash. I think the only realistic response is to play some games….. Happy dancing!
Get older. Don't grow up. 